Entries Tagged as 'Weird Wired World'

U.S. Pilots Ordered to Shoot Down UFO

On a rare note, files just recently released to the British Archive confirm reports that American pilots were ordered to shoot down UFO’s spotted over the English countryside during the height of the cold war.

Yahoo! News: “One pilot said he was seconds away from firing 24 rockets at the object, which moved erratically and gave a radar reading like ‘a flying aircraft carrier.’

The pilot, Milton Torres, now 77 and living in Miami, said it spent periods motionless in the sky before reaching estimated speeds of more than 7,600 mph.

After the alert, a shadowy figure told Torres he must never talk about the incident and he duly kept silent for more than 30 years.

His story was among dozens of UFO sightings in defense ministry files released at the National Archives in London.
In a written account, Torres described how he scrambled his F-86 D Saber jet in calm weather from the Royal Air Force base at Manston, Kent in May 1957.

‘I was only a lieutenant and very much aware of the gravity of the situation. I felt very much like a one-legged man in an ass-kicking contest,’ he said.

‘The order came to fire a salvo of rockets at the UFO. The authentication was valid and I selected 24 rockets.
‘I had a lock-on that had the proportions of a flying aircraft carrier,’ he added. ‘The larger the airplane, the easier the lock-on. This blip almost locked itself.’

At the last moment, the object disappeared from the radar screen and the high-speed chase was called off.
He returned to base and was debriefed the next day by an unnamed man who ‘looked like a well-dressed IBM salesman.’

‘He threatened me with a national security breach if I breathed a word about it to anyone,’ he said.”

Bubble 2.0 About to Burst?

Those of us in the tech industry have been counting ourself lucky that the recessions really hasn’t hit the industry (Google and Apple both reported capital gains last quarter), but that isn’t so. Monster.com, famed job search site, is shuttering one of their newer acquisitions Ringo, a photo sharing/community site something like Flickr and MySpace meet YouTube.

The strange thing is there’s not a peep on the Ringo site about the closing of the service. You just get this email if you’ve signed up for service.

May 31, 2008

Dear Ringo member,

After much consideration we have decided to end the Ringo service.

As of June 30, 2008 the Ringo service is ending and you will no longer have access to your Ringo account.

How do I get my photos?

We created a new feature that will allow you to download your photos to your computer. Click here to download your photos.

You may also order a CD of your photos. Just sign in to your Ringo account, click on the “You” tab, click” Order prints” and then “Photo Disks”.

How do I get my videos?

Videos uploaded to Ringo were hosted for us by a partner. This partner has decided to end this service and after June 30 videos uploaded to Ringo will no longer be available.

Thank you for being part of the Ringo community.

The Ringo Team

Ringo was an awesome product. I’m sorry to see it go and sorry Monster couldn’t find a way to better monetize it. From what I’ve heard about the goings-on inside the Monster properties more effort needs to be spent on work and less on booze and partying.

I’ve a feeling we’re about to see the burst of the Bubble 2.0 and the closure of many more Web2 companies that are finding it hard to make money right now.

There are no aliens at Area 51. Well…actually sir…

In what looks like a weird chain of events straight out of Independence Day, conspiracy theorists are celebrating today after recently released documents appear to show proof that the CIA was troubled by the threat extra terrestrials could pose to national security.

Alien life - General - News - smh.com.au: “A raft of newly unclassified CIA documents reveal that the remote possibility of alien invasion elicited greater fear than a Soviet nuclear attack.
More interesting still, the CIA documents show that despite decades of repeated public denials, behind the scenes there raged a series of inter-agency feuds which implicated the highest levels of the US government.

The subject of UFOs and dabbling in psychological warfare techniques not only focused the attention of the US elite levels for 50 years but some of the greatest scientific and military minds of the era were involved in the effort.

A Herald investigation, to be published on Saturday, shows that throughout the 1950s, CIA files clearly document an explosion of activity by US intelligence and military bodies concerned with studying every possible implication for the US, and Western democracies, of UFOs.

The phenomenon, so adored by the cinematic world - from mind control and space travel to extra-terrestrial life - was reflected in the CIA’s fixations. Indeed, while highly educated CIA employees experimented by giving each other surprise LSD trips in 1953, there were others, in other parts of the agency, dealing with a huge flood of UFO reports.

Significantly, however, after a burst of intense scrutiny in the early ’50s, the available documents effectively go cold. Why?

The quintessential Kafkaesque explanation provided is that few files were kept because these would only confirm that the CIA was investigating UFOs. But the wildly eclectic UFO files in fact cover everything from “flying saucers over Belgian Congo uranium mines” to Nazi “flying saucers”.

When The New York Times reported in 1979 that the CIA had investigated UFOs,the news report is said to have so upset the then-CIA director Stansfield Turner that he reportedly asked his staff: “Are we in UFOs?”

The answer then was yes - since the late 1940s apparently.”

En Masse Bigfoot Sightings Spur Investigation

A rash of recent big foot sightings in rural India is prompting authorities to investigate. What makes these sightings different is almost all have been within the last month.

Discovery Channel: “The bizarre sightings have been made in the Garo hills area of Meghalaya state, close to the borders with Bangladesh and Bhutan, with villagers calling the mysterious creatures ‘Mande Burung’ or Jungle Man.

‘A team of wildlife officials and other experts will conduct a study to find out if there is any truth in the locals’ claims about these hairy giants,’ said Samphat Kumar, a district magistrate in the West Garo Hills district.

The creatures have apparently been talked about and occasionally spotted for years, but sightings have increased in the past month, prompting authorities to look into the matter.

One local farmer, 40-year-old Wallen Sangma, said he had seen an entire family of the creatures.

‘The sight was frightening: two adults and two smaller ones, huge and bulky, furry,’ he told a reporter who visited the remote area on Thursday and Friday.

‘Their heads looked as if they were wearing caps, and their colour was blackish-brown,’ he said, adding the four ‘monsters’ were about 100 to 130 feet away from him as he looked for firewood in a forested area.

‘The four of them quietly vanished into the undergrowth,’ he said of the recent sighting.”

You’re Not Safe Anywhere Anymore I Guess

You think you live in the sleepy little corner of suburbia, far from the world of “tarrarist” plots, crime and then something happens to make it hit home that, “hey, you’re not safe.”

CBS2: “Authorities evacuated Modesto City-County Airport Tuesday morning after officials said the city’s Webmaster received nine e-mailed threats.

More than a dozen commercial flights were canceled. Employees and passengers were evacuated so that police and federal officials could sweep the airport with a bomb-sniffing dog.

No explosives were found. Authorities have not released details about any possible suspects.”

The airport in question is DIRECTLY across the street from where I work. The road we work on was closed for several hours keeping us locked down. Unfortunately our work ISP was doing work on the cable so we were also without internet access and telephones (VOIP) so it was hard to find out what was going on.

Video Games and Mainlining Heroin: Researchers Think They’re The Same

Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the arcade or dig out that PS2 researchers now believe video games are as addictive as narcotics.

Technology Review: Show a smoker a lighter, and he or she will get the urge for a cigarette. The same physiological responses that trigger a smoker’s craving may also be at work in the brains of people who spend a lot of time playing video games, researchers say. And that could add more fuel to the long and heated argument over whether video games are hazardously addictive.

In China, Hunt on for Loch Ness Monster Turns Up Giant Salmon

Sorry Dear, I won’t be home for dinner. I wonder what size tippet I’d use…hmmm…

Yahoo News!: “In 1980, Yuan was part of a team of 150 experts who launched the first scientific study of the lake’s environment and its flora and fauna.

It was then that he met Chinese Mongolians living in the area known as the Tuwa people and heard the ancient legend of the monsters in Kanasi. Few details were available; most of the villagers fell silent when pressed.

Five years later, still intrigued, Yuan headed another team to study environmental protection for the lake — and to search for the creatures of the Tuwa myth.

Within a day, he had his first sighting.

“They looked like tadpoles coming up for breath,” Yuan recalls. “Their eyes were huge. Their mouths were gaping.”

After weeks of study, Yuan and his team discovered dozens of huge red fish, each 30-50 feet long and weighing more than four tons, living in the lake.

In 1989, scientists concluded that the fish — a type of giant, freshwater salmon that thrives in frigid, deep, waters — were in all likelihood the monsters.

Despite that conviction, there remains a niggling doubt.

Yuan says the largest Taimen salmon scientists have captured is just 12 feet long and weighs 220 pounds. The biggest caught in Kanasi is 4 feet, 9 inches long, according to the documentary.”

Woman Struck By Lightning

Yes, only in the town I live in could/would this happen.

WZZM News: “A Modesto woman is in critical condition after being struck by lightning during an intense thunderstorm that passed through the area Tuesday evening.

Peggy Montijo, 53, was walking down the sidewalk on Peppermint Drive when she was hit. Neighbors saw it happen and offered aid immediately.

“I looked out my kitchen window and saw her laying on the ground,” said Rob Ettellett. “She started turning blue. We couldn’t wait any longer, so I gave her mouth to mouth.”

Another neighbor took Montijo out of the rain and into his house, where paramedics treated her. “All I could see was her hair sizzling, her face was purple and blood was coming out of her left eye,” said Dan Beauchene.

Montijo was taken to the intensive care unit at Memorial Medical Center where she remains in critical condition.

The lightning strike was part of a storm from the south that pelted Stanislaus County with heavy rain and lightning and caused power outages and downed trees. Authorities say lightning also hit several houses, though no serious damage was reported.”

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Bruce Lee Brings People Together

Yahoo! News: “The ethnically divided Bosnian city of Mostar has agreed to erect a new symbol of unity — a statue of kung fu legend Bruce Lee, worshipped by Muslims, Serbs and Croats.

A group of enthusiasts came up with the idea of honoring the childhood hero of the city’s ethnic groups in 2003, on the 30th anniversary of his death. They launched the project, found donors and waited a year for the city’s approval.

“We plan to erect the statue in November in the center of the city,” Veselin Gatalo, a member of the Urban Movement organization, told Reuters by telephone Monday.

“This will be a monument to universal justice that Mostar needs more than any other city I know.”

He said Mostar, scene of fighting between Muslims and Croats in 1993-1994, needed a symbol of justice, mastery and honesty — virtues upheld by the late Chinese-American actor.”

I wonder if Bruce Lee’s family can get tax exempt status as a religion now?

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Researcher Believes UFO’s Regularly Visit Earth

Yahoo! News: “Peter Davenport has received more phone calls than he cares to count that have an unusual opening: “Please believe me, I’m not crazy.”

For Davenport, director of the National UFO Reporting Center in Seattle, it’s part of the job.

Davenport spoke Sunday at the Little Green Men Festival in Hopkinsville with tales of what he believes are some of the more fascinating, provable cases reported. The festival, at the Hopkinsville-Christian County Conference and Convention Center, commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Aug. 21, 1955, report of an alien invasion at Kelly.”

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