UFO ROUNDUP Volume 4 Number 18
Volume 4
Number 18
August 25, 1999
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
DAYLIGHT DISCS SPOTTED IN PENNSYLVANIA
On Monday, August 16, 1999, at 2:12 p.m., a boy living in Berks County, five miles (8 kilometers) from Reading, Pennsylvania (population 78,380) "ran into the house very excited and described a silver disk that he observed high in the sky."
According to Pennsylvania ufologist Stan Gordon, "The boy was outside watching some birds flying around when his attention was drawn to a silver, disk-shaped object above him and high in the sky. The young man stated that at the bottom of the disk he could see what looked like a figure U that was dark green in color."
"As the boy watched, suddenly the object zoomed off at a high rate of speed towards the south. The witness recalls a low rumble as the object sped out of sight in a matter of seconds."
Reading is approximately 65 miles (104 kilometers) northwest of Philadelphia.
Three hours later, at 5:45 p.m., in Butler County, Pennsylvania, near Pittsburgh, "a husband and wife (were) relaxing in a swimming pool when...the man noticed in the eastern sky a circular object that appeared to be a dull gray metallic color. The object was high in the sky and quite small when first observed," Gordon reported.
"During the next few minutes, the couple watched. The object moved west toward the direction over Butler (population 15,714). As the object got closer, it became larger, and some detail could be seen. The couple could see that there were actually two round or circular objects that appeared to be joined together side by side, but giving the impression that they were an individual object. The objects were 'like quarters (USA 25-cent coin--J.T.) on edge.' And they appeared thin with little depth."
"As the couple continued to watch, the objects suddenly stopped," Gordon added, "Then made a 90-degree turn towards the north and moved behind a tree, blocking the view of the observers."
The UFOs did not reenter the couple's field of vision. Both witnesses reported, "No sound was heard during the observation." (Many thanks to Stan Gordon for this news story.)
CROP CIRCLE REPORTED IN BRITISH COLUMBIA
On Saturday, August 7, 1999, Jeff Otto was driving on the Junction 37 Highway in northern British Columbia when he spotted an unusual crop circle on the right-hand side of the highway, close to Ealve Lake.
The area is 54 miles (90 kilometers) south of Dease Lake, B.C., and about 210 miles (336 kilometers) north of Vancouver, Canada's major port on the Pacific Ocean.
According to David Pengilly of UFO*BC and Paul Anderson of Circles Phenomenon Research- Canada, the crop circle was "a single circle in wild grass...approximately 100 feet (30 meters) in diameter.. The circle is reportedly flattened down among the standing plants." (Many thanks to Paul Anderson of Circles Phenomenon Research- Canada for this report.)
PHANTOM PANTHER ON THE PROWL IN MINNESOTA
The small town of Hugo, Minnesota (population 4,417) has been and continues to be the site of repeated sightings of a phantom panther, a full-grown panther or black leopard that has been seen, photographed and videotaped since June 11, 1999.
"The black feline roaming the fields and woods of Hugo eluded capture last weekend but was caught on film, leading officials to believe that the mysterious interloper is not just a big barn cat."
"'I am now convinced it is a black leopard,' said Wayne Eller, a conservation officer with the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR), who covers most of Washington County, including Hugo. 'There's no doubt in my mind,' Eller said, after seeing a dozen photos taken Saturday (August 14, 1999) by a Forest Lake Township man."
"Eller noted that the big cat was seen in daylight Saturday by four people, including Mark Richert, the second Washington County deputy to spot it. The first deputy saw the cat late on June 11 near a Hugo butcher shop, not far from last weekend's sightings."
"Eller and county deputies responded about 1 p.m. Saturday after David Johnson and his wife reported seeing and photographing the cat in a grass field on their land in Forest Lake Township, near Hugo's northern boundary."
"Deputies started patrolling area roads and Richert saw the cat loping along in a ditch. Then another resident spotted it and fired a gun to attract deputies as the car bolted into a swampy area near Henna Avenue and 170th Street near Hardwood Creek in Hugo."
"'I thought we finally had it cornered in about a square-mile swampy area,' Eller said. But his plans began unravelling as several deputies were called away to a drowning at Big Carnelian Lake. He waited for an hour for a tracker with dogs...The tracker came without the dogs...So Eller asked the tracker and another DNR officer, both armed with guns and two-way radios, to walk through the swamp to flush out the cat. They beat the underbrush to drive the cat toward Eller and a deputy who waited with a shotgun and a high-powered rifle. The DNR officer heard what sounded like a large animal in the brush, but no cat appeared."
"'I really thought we had him. I'd like some closure, just for my peace of mind,' said Eller, who retires this month. 'I don't want anyone hurt. I'd like to catch it so people could let their kids play in the yard again.'"
"'The cat has not created a single problem with anyone we know of,' Eller said. 'A big predator will avoid fighting at all costs, because if it gets hurt, it cuts down its efficiency for escape and hunting.' He said the car has plenty of rabbits, gophers and small game for food."
"Beth Jo Schoeberl, a zoologist who works with leopards at the Minnesota Zoo, also urged caution. After seeing photocopies of David Johnson's pictures, she said, 'My best guess is that it's a juvenile leopard. It's not a jaguar, which is very stocky. I don't know of any black pumas.'"
"'I'd guess somebody had it as a pet or to breed it, and it escaped,' Schoeberl said, and if so, it could be more dangerous because it might not fear humans."
"'They are natural-born killing machines,' Schoeberl said. 'Anything that runs is fair game; it evokes a natural response to pounce on something that runs. Little kids or pets are possibly at risk.'"
Hugo, Minn. is located about 11 miles (17 kilometers) north of St. Paul, the state capital.
"Hugo Mayor Wally Stoltzman has advised residents to watch their children carefully and keep them in at night...Stoltzman said the calls about possible leopard sightings keep pouring in. 'It seems to go in seclusion for a while, and then all of a sudden, it pops up again,' he said. 'This car has nine lives.'" (See the Minneapolis, Minn. Star-Tribune for August 19, 1999, page B3, "Pictures of Hugo cat convince DNR officer it's a leopard.")
RESIDENTS SEE UFO FLEET NEAR AYELSHAM, KENT, UK
Between fifty and sixty residents of Ayelsham, Kent, UK, a small town near Dover about 80 miles (128 kilometers) southeast of London spotted "an armada" of bright silvery high-flying UFOs on Sunday, August 1, 1999.
One witness had a camcorder handy and shot several minutes of footage.
The video reportedly shows "many of these objects clearly visible" and "also shows an aircraft (anti-collision lights, etc.) passing underneath them, indicating that the objects were at a very high altitude."
"The eyewitnesses claim that all the participants in this 'armada' were multi-coloured and reflective."
"The videotape shows only silver-coloured objects in no discernible pattern, crossing from north to south in slow procession, although there were two other objects lagging behind and seemed to accelerate to catch up with the main group."
On Monday, August 2, 1999, the video was aired on a local TV news broadcast in Dover. The news team interviewed British ufologist Timothy J. Good."
A meteorologist interviewed for the broadcast reportedly explained that the UFOs may have been "helium-filled ballons let off from Maidstone (Kent)" in an event designed "to benefit cancer research." (Many thanks to Jerry Anderson for forwarding this report.)
(Editor's Comment: If the objects were ballons, then how could two of them suddenly speed up and catch up with the main group?)
"FERRIS WHEEL" UFO DAZZLES AUSTRALIANS
On Sunday, August 15, 1999, at 8:50 p.m., a giant, brightly-lit UFO, "shaped like a Ferris wheel," appeared over Marsden, Queensland, Australia, a town 38 kilometers (22 miles) south of Brisbane.
The UFO was sighted by four residents of Hickory Street in Marsden, who kept it in view for 40 minutes.
Witnesses estimated that the huge object "was 45 degrees above the horizon" and was "heading west towards Jimboomba."
They described the UFO as looking "like a Ferris wheel lying on its side, the size of a football field, white with more than 50 lights."
Miss J. Sharn, an eyewitness, said, "It was awesome--the size of a football field. It had two rows of lights turning in opposite directions. The object was laying on its side. It reminded me of Close Encounters, the movie, and do you know, not one of us was scared of it. Not at all. I was so excited. I ran over to my neighbour, who was outside, and asked him to look. 'Can you see what I see?' He looked and said, 'Shit!' and ran inside."
"My friends and I went over to the park to get a better look," she added. "It was so cold, but no one wanted to go inside to get our jackets.
(Editor's Note: Right now it's winter in Australia and the other countries of the southern hemisphere.)
We didn't want to miss a moment of it. We could see the reflection of the lights on the clouds, turning very fast. When the clouds moved, it disappeared." (Many thanks to Diane Harrison of the Australian UFO Research Network for this report.)
WORKMEN SEE LUMINOUS UFO IN SOUTHERN BRAZIL
On Saturday, August 21, 1999, at 12:58 a.m., Roberto Rabelo and three other municipal water department workers saw a highly luminous UFO hovering above the water treatment plant in the city of Cubatao, Sao Paulo state, Brazil.
While at the ETA water plant in Cubatao, Rabelo reported, "It was around 12:58 a.m., and I looked to the north and saw the OVNI (Portuguese acronym for UFO--J.T.) at low altitude. One of the (plant) operators said that it could be a short-circuit in an electrical tower. Then we climbed the tower and realized that the thing was not conventional."
"The OVNI was much higher. The OVNI had a red light on top and three other red lights below it in a triangular shape. The lights did not blink."
"Seconds later, between the red lights--a lot of flashes, hundreds of white flashes. Then they all disappeared. I estimated the OVNI to be larger than a futbol (soccer in the USA--J.T.) field."
Again the UFO appeared, Rabelo added, "just like the first time, but this time with the flashing lights turned off. From the OVNI, another object, like a yellow ball, came out, which flew off in the direction of the COSIPA," a local food- processing factory.
"For the third time, the OVNI appeared again, and this time we were able to see a dark 'shadow,' triangular in shape, behind the red lights. Finally the OVNI left in an easterly direction, passing over the COSIPA."
The four men had the UFO in view for approximately 20 minutes. (Muito obrigado a Thiago Luiz Ticchetti por eso caso.)
CASSINI COMPLETES RENDEZVOUS WITH EARTH
On Tuesday, August 17, 1999, the Cassini spacecraft flew past Earth at 8:28 p.m. Pacific Daylight Time, passing 727 miles (1,171 kilometers) above Pitcairn Island in the South Pacific.
The robot spacecraft was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, USA on October 15, 1997. With last week's flyby of Earth, Cassini concludes its "tour" of the inner planets. Its previous stop was Venus.
As it passed each of the inner planets, Cassini picked up a "gravity boost," adding to its speed and adjusting its trajectory for the long trip to Saturn.
According to the NASA news release, "Cassini's mission is to study Saturn, its moons, its elaborate rings, and its magnetic and radiation environments for four years. Cassini will also deliver the European Space Agency's (ESA) Huygens probe via parachute to the surface of Saturn's (largest) moon, Titan."
"The flyby gave Cassini a 5.5 kilometer-per- second (12,000 miles per hour) boost in speed, sending the spacecraft on toward the ringed planet almost one billion kilometers away."
During the flyby, nine of Cassini's 12 science systems were turned on and aimed at Earth and Luna, also known as the moon, to make observations.
Next stop for Cassini is Jupiter. Cassini will fly by the gas giant on December 30, 2000. "The giant planet's gravity will bend Cassini's flight path to put it on course for arrival into orbit around Saturn on July 1, 2004."
Cassini will attempt to drop the Huygens probe onto Titan on November 30, 2004." (Many thanks to Steve Wilson Sr. for the NASA news release.)
Y2K: SECRET NAVY STUDY PREDICTS WIDESPREAD POWER FAILURES
"A (U.S.) Navy report predicts 'probable' or 'likely' power failures in electrical and water systems for many cities because of the Year 2000 technology problem--an assessment more dire than any other made by the government."
"President Clinton's top Y2K adviser, John Koskinen, called the Navy's conclusions overly cautious, saying they assumed that major utilities would fail unless proved otherwise."
"The most recent version of the Navy study, updated about two weeks ago, predicted 'probable' or 'likely' partial failures in electric utilities that serve nearly 60 of roughly 400 Navy and Marine Corps facilities."
"The study predicted that partial electrical failures are 'likely,' for example, in Orlando, Fla.; Gulfport, Miss.;Fort Lauderdale, Fla. and nine other small to mid-size cities."
"It also predicted partial water system failures are probable in Dallas, Nashville, Houston, Baton Rouge, La., Montgomery, Ala., Tulsa, Okla. and 59 other cities."
"The study forecast partial natural gas failures as 'likely' in Albany, N.Y., Fort Worth, Texas, Pensacola, Fla., Charleston, S.C., Columbus, Ohio and Nashville, Tenn."
"The military report contrasts sharply with predictions from the White House, which weeks ago said in a report that national electrical failures are 'highly unlikely.' The White House report also said that disruptions in water service from the date rollover from 99 to 00 are 'increasingly unlikely.'"
"'The way they worked was, until you have information for contingency planning purposes, you ought to assume there was a problem,' said Koskinen, who vouched for the Navy report's authenticity."
"The Navy report was initially summarized on an Internet site run by Jim Lord, a Y2K author, who said he obtained it "from a confidential source of the highest reliability and integrity.'"
"'The military has to work from the worst case, but so do we,' Lord said. 'It's reprehensible for them to know this and keep it from us.'"
"Koskinen said the Navy wasn't witholding information, noting that it was available on a Defense Department website."
"However, the report was removed from the site about two weeks ago." Neither "Koskinen nor the department offered an explanation." (See the Minneapolis, Minn. Star-Tribune for August 20, 1999, page A10, "Many cities may experience Y2K-related failures, Navy predicts."
from the UFO Files...
1915: DINOSAURS' D-DAY
During the evening hours of July 30, 1915, Unterseeboot (German for submarine) U-28 was on a wartime patrol in the Atlantic Ocean when a lookout in the conning tower reported an Allied ship on the horizon.
Immediately the klaxon sounded. German sailors rushed to their battle stations. The boat's skipper, Kapitanleutnant Freiherr (Baron) von Forstner ordered, "Secure the hatch and dive."
"Dive! Dive!" the coxswain shouted.
"Fifteen degrees down rudder. Level off at twenty meters," Von Forstner said, throwing the periscope switch. Instantly the steel tube rose from its steel well.
What happened next qualifies as the strangest incident of World War One.
Holding the periscope handles, Von Forstner peered through the eyepiece. Outlined in the faint moonlight was the silhouette of a British freighter, the S.S. Iberian.
"Range one hundred meters. Prepare torpedo."
"Jawohl, Herr Kapitan," the coxswain replied, "Torpedo ready!"
Von Forstner snapped, "Fire!"
Writing in U-28's ship's log, the German captain reported, "There was a violent explosion, 25 seconds after the Iberian went under, and a few seconds later, a gigantic sea monster was hurled, writhing and struggling, around 30 meters (100 feet) into the air. The monster was around 20 meters (66 feet) long, shaped like a crocodile. His head was long and pointed; he had four legs terminating in big fins. He remained above water for around 5 seconds, so there was no time to photograph him. Three other officers saw him."
Incredibly, on the same night, July 30, 1915, elsewhere in the Atlantic, another German U-boat reported an encounter with a seagoing dinosaur.
Aboard the U-20, Kapitanleutnant Werner- Lowisch reported, "Saw a sea serpent at 10 p.m., without possibility of doubt. The creature had a longish head, scales like a crocodile's, and legs with proper feet. The mate saw him, but when the captain came up from below, the monster had vanished. The monster was about 27 meters (90 feet) long."
July 30, 1915: D-Day for dinosaurs!? (See the book Strange Mysteries of the Great War by Harold T. Wilkins, London, 1935.)
Join us next time for more UFO news from around the planet, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." Have a great week!
UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 1999 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO Roundup on their websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the item first appeared.
