UFO ROUNDUP Volume 5 Number 51
Volume 5
Number 51
December 21, 2000
Editor: Joseph Trainor
E-mail: Masinaigan@aol.com
STAR-LIKE UFOs HOVER OVER BOISE, IDAHO
On Sunday, December 17, 2000, at 6:45 p.m., Greg Murrell was at his home in Boise (population 135,000), the state capital of Idaho, when he decided to step outdoors for a moment.
"I walked out my front door to cool off. It was a very clear night, and I noticed how bright the stars were," Greg reported. "What I assume was the North Star was very bright and directly in front of me. About 15 degrees to the left and about at the same height (elevation) on the horizon, I noticed another fairly bright star. Also noticed it seemed to move. I stayed still, using one of my trees as a referenc point and confirmed that the light was moving. It had a reddish tint to it and was moving like if you pointed one of them laser pointers at a wall, and had shaky hands."
"I went inside and asked my girl friend to come look. She did and agreed with me that the thing was moving around but not in any particular direction. We went in the house, and I went out my back door."
"I was now facing south to southeast. I was looking around the sky and saw two additional similar objects. They looked like stars, but I noticed two of them moving erratically. Then a third would appear very quickly, then disappear. I again went and got my girl friend. She agreed they were moving and then went back in the house, a little rattled., and I stayed and watched. My 13-year-old daughter then came out, and I pointed to what I was watching. She saw the movement, as well."
"When I went back in, both girls said the color they saw was red, with occasionally blue. I never saw any blue, but I am relatively color blind." (Email Form Report)
TRIANGULAR UFO SIGHTED IN COLUMBIA, MISSOURI
On Monday, October 29, 2000, at about 10:30 p.m., Mrs. M and her daughter were driving through Columbia, Missouri (population 70,000) when they saw an unusual light in the sky.
""My daughter and I were driving west on Ash Street in Columbia at about 10:30 p.m.," Mrs. M reported. "She pointed up through the moon roof of the car, and we saw a triangular shaped UFO with a white light at each corner."
"We stopped the car and got out to see it better. The UFO was traveling in a straight line at about 70 miles per hour (112 kilometers per hour), about 1,500 feet up (450 meters) and making no noise."
"We recently watched a TV program that reported a triangle UFO over western Illinois by several police departments around the first of the year."
"We didn't know whether to call the police or what."
Columbia is on Interstate Highway I-70 approximately 31 miles (50 kilometers) north of Jefferson City, the state capital. (Email Form Report)
LARGE HOVERING UFO SEEN OVER NEW YORK CITY
On Thursday, December 14, 2000, at 7 p.m., the witness, who wishes to remain anonymous, was driving south on the West Side Highway, in New York City's Manhattan borough.
""I noticed it on the West Side Highway near 125th Street," he reported. "I was driving south and eventually got off in Midtown."
He described the condition of the sky as "low and thick overcast." He did not see the object itself, but "saw one big light in the middle and four smaller lights going into and out of the big light. It was dark and cloudy at 7 p.m. Five circular lights visible in the low overcast."
When he reached the Midtown North exit, he added, "It was still there" near 125th Street. (Email Form Report)
(Editor's Comment: Now what do the aliens want in Spanish Harlem?)
LARGE TRIANGULAR UFO FLIES OVER YUKON, OKLAHOMA
On Monday, December 4, 2000, at 7 p.m., Mrs. B. was entertaining a friend at her home in Yukon, Oklahoma (population 21,000). She reports, "That evening a friend of mine came over. She and I went for a walk. We left approximately at 7 p.m. and were walking back towards my house at 7:30 p.m. when she and I watched the large, black, solid, triangular-shaped craft that was silently hovering over Yukon. It was 40 degrees from (above) the horizon from where she and I was at. On the back end of the craft was a red light that was ricocheting from right to left."
"So we took off running towards my house, ran in and grabbed my binoculars to get a better look. We saw yellow, white, blue and green lights underneath of the craft, but I couldn't see how the lights were fixed (arrayed) because of tree distortion. Then it started heading east, and she and I jumped into my truck and drove to South West 29th (Street) and Czech Hall Road. It had disappeared from sight. It was the size of a city block, (town) square or larger. I have a sketch of what we saw that night."
Yukon is on Interstate Highway I-35 approximately 14 miles (23 kilometers) north of Oklahoma City. (Many thanks to ufologist Jim Hickman for this report.)
MYSTERIOUS WHITE ORB SEEN IN DUNDEE, SCOTLAND
On Thursday, December 14, 2000, at 11:45 p.m., Kevin Roy spotted a mysterious descending white object in Dundee, Tayside, Scotland, UK.
""It was a white light similar to a flare but too high for that and too low for a meteor," Kevin reported. "It was descending towards the ground at a steep angle. It blinked out after two or three seconds."
"Its heading would have taken it into the Sidlaw Hills. It speed would have been consistent with a meteor but there was no dip or arc in the flight path, which was straight all the way down. Too low to be a plane. No noise from the object at a distance of approximately three miles (5 kilometers). The object was approximately two to three inches (5 to 7.5 centimeters) in size at this distance. No tail or tracers behind it, just the white orb." (Email Form Report)
SPORADIC UFO SIGHTINGS CONTINUE IN ITALY
Sporadic UFO sightings continue to be reported in Italy, especially on the island of Sardinia.
On Saturday, November 11, 2000, at 6:30 p.m., witnesses in Calca, a town near Pisa, "spotted a silvery globe in the sky which emitted intermittent flashes of bright white light. The object moved away to the northeast behind the summit of a mountain."
On Thursday, December 7, 2000, at 3:30 a.m., three automobile salesmen in Sorso, on the northern coast of the island of Sardinia, "observed in the sky, in a west- southwest direction, a 'ball' of a bright yellow color, with a very intense molten luminosity like a 'little sun.'"
Upon closer observation, "the salesmen noticed that the object was actually a round disc with a small triangular cupola on the top. It flew away at an extreme velocity in the direction (north) of the coast."
On Saturday, December 9, 2000, at Susa, a town near Torino (Turin) in northern Italy, at 7 p.m., "a local man witnessed a star-like luminous object spiralling towards the ground, then levelled off and then departed at low altitude and silently to the southwest. The witness added that the object's shape was 'similar to that of the (USA's) F117 Stealth fighter.' but with flashing lights." (Grazie a Edoardo Russo e Antonio Cuccu di Centro Italiano di Studi Ufologici per questi rapporti.)
MYSTERY BEAST KILLS TEN SHEEP IN BELGIUM
"Farmers in northern Belgium are hunting for a mysterious beast, thought to be a wolf, which has killed ten sheep in the past few weeks."
"If the animal turns out to be a wild wolf, and not a cross between a domestic dog and a wolf, it would be a" historic find "as wild wolves are extinct in northwester Europe."
"The closest countries with wild wolf populations are Poland and Slovakia, although there is thought to be a small group in northern France."
"'It could be it has escaped from a zoo or was voluntarily released by owners,' Hughes Fanel, a director of the Flanders Bird Protection League, an animal welfare group, which is coordinating the search for 'the mysterious predator.'"
"'We have been authorized to hunt and capture it,' Fanel told Reuters." (Many thanks to Steve Wilson for this news story.)
GALILEO DISCOVERS AN OCEAN ON GANYMEDE
"Scientists are reporting that a third moon of Jupiter, Ganymede, may also have an ocean sloshing beneath its frozen exterior."
"NASA's Galileo spacecraft has detected undulations in Ganymede's magnetic field. Planetary scientists had previously found indications of under- ice oceans on Europa and Callisto."
"'It looks pretty persuasive to me,' said Dr. Margaret Kivelson, a professor of space physics at the University of California at Los Angeles."
Dr. Kivelson presented her Ganymede findings on Sunday, December 16, 2000 at the meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.
"'I think it's an exciting result,' said Dr. Robert Papparlardo of Brown University" in Providence, R.I. "'It makes sense, if Callisto has really retained a liquid water layer over the age of the solar system, that Ganymede should, too.'"
"In recent years, planetary scientists have found much evidence of an under-ice ocean on Europa, including its fractured surface and areas which look as if water had erupted from below the surface. In 1998, Kivelson and her colleagues offered additional evidence by looking at how the direction and strength of Jupiter's magnetic field shifted somewhat each time the Galileo spacecraft, in orbit around Jupiter, passed over Europa."
The Jovian moon, researchers noted, "was generating electrical currents as it swept through Jupiter's powerful field, the way an electric motor generates electricity. The new electrical currents, in turn, generate additional magnetic fields that alter Jupiter's field."
"For electrical current to flow on Europa, some part of Europa must conduct electricity, and ice is not a good conductor. But salty liquid water is, and the magnetic field fluctuations therefore pointed to an ocean five to 10 miles (8 to 16 kilometers) below the surface. To their surprise, the researchers also found swings in the magnetic field around Callisto, smaller and farther away from Jupiter than Europa."
"The new findings, based on data from two visits by Galileo to Ganymede in 1996 and in May (2000), found similar magnetic fluctuations. At 3,270 miles (5,232 kilometers) in diameter, Ganymede is the largest moon in the solar system, larger than the planet Mercury and three-quarters the diameter of Mars."
"Photos of Ganymede's surface have shown channels of smooth ice that might have flowed out of 'ice volcanoes' billions of years ago and patches of relatively flat terrain that might have been formed by ancient flooding. Kivelson's findings are the first evidence that liquid water might still exist on Ganymede, although it would now be tens of miles beneath the surface."
"The data indicates either a thin ocean,--half a mile deep--within 20 miles (48 kilometers) of the surface or a thicker ocean deeper down."
"'It's all consistent with what we know about Ganymede's structure,' she said." (See the Duluth, Minn. News-Tribune for December 17, 2000, "Third moon of Jupiter may have an ocean under its ice," page 16A.)
STRANGE MUMMY DISCOVERED IN PAKISTAN
"Archaeologists knew they had a major discovery on their hands when they came across a magnificent gold-encrusted sarcophagus."
"The remains found in the town of Kharan in Pakistan were adorned with a magnificent gold crown engraved with seven cypress trees. Other gold ornaments located in the coffin proved beyond doubt that the mummy was of royal blood. But was it male or female?"
"At first, the researchers concluded that the body was a prince of the Sixth Century B.C. Achaemenian dynasty, which ruled an immense Middle Eastern empire."
"But when they set out to reconstruct the mummy, an exquisitely beautiful feminine face emerged. Finally, linguists settled the issue by deciphering an inscription on the coffin, which read, "I, daughter of Xerxes the great king, I am Ruduamna.'"
"Tests also disclosed that the princess had four broken vertebrae in her spine, indicating that she probably died in a fall."
"The mummy's sex may no longer be in dispute, but an international controversy has erupted over who owns her. Though she was found in Pakistan, both Iran and Afghanistan have laid claim to her."
"The Iranians insist that she was smuggled out of their country and are interrogating suspects"
"The Afghanis insist she was looted from their territory during their lengthy was (1980 to 1989--J.T.) with the Russians."
"But the Pakistanis are standing firm. 'No other country can claim her,' said archaeologist Ahmed Dani." (See the tabloid Sun for December 26, 2000, "Mummy or daddy?" page 16.)
ROUNDUP CORRIGENDA:
UFO eyewitness Timothy Dust sent us some corrections to the recent story about the UFO seen in Fountain City, Wisconsin. (See UFO Roundup, Volume 5, number 49, "Major UFO flap breaks out in Wisconsin," page 3.)
"The (town's) population is 975, not 400. And the UFO we sighted was off to the north, not in the southwest, and it danced around the sky like a leaf in the wind or a boat on the water for approximately 40 to 45 minutes, going up and down, left and right and then taking off as if going away and then returning to the original spot, and then dropping into the treeline as if it were hiding, still going back and forth as it dropped out of sight into an adjacent valley."
"It never reappeared."
"The Pleiades star cluster was directly behind me during the sighting. The weather was clear, except for the area above the treeline where the 'orb' was located. There were some clouds above the 'orb.' The 'orb' was above a ridgeline that was only approximately one-quarter of a mile, not two miles as was stated in the article."
from the UFO Files...
CHRISTMAS DOUBLE FEATURE
For the year 2000 Christmas edition, UFO Roundup presents two true accounts of the paranormal Enjoy the holiday season!
1925: AN UNUSUAL PHENOMENON IN HARTVILLE, MISSOURI
"Two days before Christmas 1925 (December 23, 1925--J.T.) four of us were sitting in plain view of Little Creek cemetery, and there appeared a pillar of fire about ten feet (3 meters) high with a flaming star at the top of it."
"It occurred at 4:15 p.m., and it was there at the same time three days later (December 26--J.T.). It appeared four times. I have lived here fourteen years and have lived in sight of other cemeteries, but that is the first ghost I ever saw. I am 75 years old, and I have been a preacher 55 years A ,an went to the cemetery to watch for it and be there when it came; said he would throw his coat over it. Well, it came, but he ran like a turkey. Yours in Jesus' name...A. J. Graves, Hartville, Mo." (See the Springfield, Mo. News and Leader for February 7, 1936. Also the book Ozark Superstitions by Vance Randolph, Columbia University Press, New York, N.Y., 1947, page 235.)
1975: ALIEN FOOTPRINTS?
"When Donna and Bill Wentworth moved to a house in rural Nobles County" just west of Worthington in the southwestern corner of Minnesota, "they noticed something strange."
There "was a visual happening in winter, with snow on the ground. There were footprints in the snow, and they came to the back porch. They were neither Donna's nor Bill's. There were definite tracks, though, as of someone who had walked up to the back door and never left. The size of the prints was normal, a medium size. If they were made by an overshoe (rubber boot--J.T.) the soles were worn smooth," i.e. there was no discernible tread pattern in the footprint.
"There was no snow inside (the house) on the floors, melted or otherwise. There was just the one short path, starting in the middle of the backyard and continuing to the back door. And no backtracking in the same prints as to make them confusing."
"No one had gone in. The Wentworths weren't even using that door at the time; it was secured and weatherproofed for winter." (See the book Ghostly Tales of Southwest Minnesota by Ruth D. Hein, Quixote Press, Sioux City, Iowa, 1991, pages 141 and 142.)
MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM UFO ROUNDUP
While many of us are getting together with our families and friends this weekend, we should take a moment to remember those gallant men and women who are on active duty serving in the various armed forces all around the world. No matter the uniform you wear nor the flag you salute nor the nation you proudly servee, whether you're at a radar screen aboard ship or fueling an aircraft on the flight line or standing guard at a sentry post-- if you're on active duty during the holidays, then on behalf of all UFO Roundup readers, let me wish you "Merry Christmas!"
We'll be back next week with more UFO and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by "the paper that goes home--UFO Roundup." See you then.
