Where is UFOlogy at in 2015?

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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby elfismiles » Fri Jul 25, 2014 3:28 pm

Interview with UFO researcher and author Jacques Vallée
Posted by: Open Minds July 24, 2014

Jacques Vallée has held many titles over the years; astronomer, computer scientist, venture capitalist, author, and more. He has researched UFOs for decades and has written several books on the topic. The lead character on the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind was inspired by Vallée. We recently received this interview from Nagib Kary who runs the French UFO website Ovnis-Direct.com. Kary and several associates asked questions of Vallée in February and recently translated the interview into English. Kary has graciously asked Open Minds to re-post their insightful interview.

http://www.openminds.tv/interview-ufo-r ... llee/29118
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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby elfismiles » Mon Jul 28, 2014 6:30 pm

Monday, July 28, 2014
The CAIPAN GEIPAN UAP UFO Workshop of July 2014 photo review

Tom Tulien kindly allowed me to use some of the photos he took during the 2 day July 2014 CAIPAN GEIPAN UAP UFO workshop held at CNES headquarters in Paris France. See my earlier post for an outline of the workshop presentations - an important development in developing a viable UAP UFO science. Photos are copyright Thomas Tulien

Tom Tulien's research into the extraordinary 1968 Minot B52 UFO encounter is a well documented example of a latent and almost lost scientific opportunity for acquiring striking data.

The July 2014 CAIPAN workshop at CNES headquarters in Paris

Dr. Richard Haines of NARCAP presenting his paper

"Useful Research Methods for Aircrew and Air Traffic Controller UAP Sightings"

Dr. Jacques Vallee presenting his paper

"Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP): a strategy for research"

which focused on strategic uses of diverse data bases and

a coordinated effort to combine these data bases

Eduardo Russo addressing UAS/UFO cataloguing activities

Philippe Ailleris describing UAP/UFO field studies

Nico Conti's listing of instrumented field studies of UAP/UFOs

Erling Strand presents a survey of 30 years of research of

the fascinating Hessdalen light phenomena

Sergey Chernouss describes the Russian auroral display network

Jeremie Vaubaillon discusses the data from the French sky monitoring network

Raymond Piccoli presents data from the lightning laboratory

Xavier Passot head of GEIPAN and the roundtable discussion

with Ron Westrum, Jacques Arnould, Bertrand Meheust and Jacques Vallee

http://theozfiles.blogspot.com.au/2014/ ... op-of.html
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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby justdrew » Tue Jul 29, 2014 12:48 am

some fairly rich dude was as of a year or two ago building a network of automated skywatching stations, with wide field and zoom cameras. anyone heard what's up with that project?
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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby elfismiles » Tue Jul 29, 2014 4:28 pm

justdrew » 29 Jul 2014 04:48 wrote:some fairly rich dude was as of a year or two ago building a network of automated skywatching stations, with wide field and zoom cameras. anyone heard what's up with that project?


My memory aint what it used to be ... got any refs to refresh this addled brain? :starz:
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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby Cosmic Cowbell » Wed Jul 30, 2014 8:32 am

The UFOTOG project been dead for a few years...

Monday, 10 September 2012
Douglas Trumbull's response concerning UFOTOG

Note that the UFOTOG project is effectively shelved until such time as sufficient funding can be found for it. I'm sure this news will come as a disappointment to all. BUT - if anyone out there thinks they may be able to significantly financially support Mr Trumbull's project then I'm sure he'd like to hear from you!


Trumbulls letter on this at site.

http://ufoscrutiny.blogspot.com/2012/09 ... fotog.html

But....remember Trumbull's film work on "Close Encounters of the Third Kind ". He is now promoting the techniques he developed originally for the project to the rest of the film industry.



Interesting side note: Randall Nickerson, the dude creating the Ariel School documentary due out someday has acted in a Trumbull film project.

http://library.creativecow.net/kaufman_ ... Trumbull/1
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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby operator kos » Fri Sep 12, 2014 2:38 pm

William Binney, the highest-ranking NSA whistle-blower to date:

“We selectively ignore basic facts. What I mean by a basic fact is something that’s just there that needs to be addressed, even if they can’t explain it they should have said “we can’t explain this but it’s there” so they at least recognize that this basic fact existed. My problem is, just like the UFO thing, unless they start addressing these kinds of things, peoples observations or basic measurements or factual evidence that simply exists, unless they start addressing them there’s always going to be questions, especially now with the government, how much trust do you have with this government? They’ve been spying, putting whistle blowers in jail, torturing, and giving immunity to people who commit these kinds of crimes, how much trust can you put in a government like that? When you selectively ignore these kids of things…..”


source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGUXFuD4UU0 10-13 minute mark

Not much, but interesting and deserving of a follow-up.
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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby seemslikeadream » Thu Oct 02, 2014 10:49 am

UFO Appears Above Hong Kong Pro-Democracy Protesters
Posted: 10/01/2014 11:51 am EDT Updated: 10/01/2014 6:59 pm EDT

Ongoing pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have drawn tens of thousands of citizens, taking to the streets, demonstrating their opposition to news that China will choose the candidates for the upcoming 2017 election.

During one of those protests, the crowd got a little something extra as a brightly lit object appeared in the sky above the throng, moving slowly at first and then, as the BBC caught it on camera, the UFO suddenly shot up in the air out of sight.

A television viewer in Scotland watched the demonstration news coverage and recorded the broadcast. When he saw the object in the sky, he later sent the video to a local news outlet, the Hamilton Advertiser, according to OpenMinds.TV.

Watch this video of the alleged UFO in the sky above Hong Kong:



The aerial object first appears on the left side of the screen, descends in front of a building, and moves to the right toward another tall building where it stops and hovers. Then, with an almost visible burst of energy, it suddenly launches straight up in the air.

Was this object truly extraordinary or does it have a more prosaic explanation?

"I don't think it's too far fetched to believe it is a drone. Maybe one that's closer to the camera than we think," said Ben Hansen, former lead investigator of the Syfy Channel's "Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files" TV series.

"The lighting set-up is a bit strange, but it could look like one solid light because of the distance," Hansen told HuffPost in an email. "When these things want to go straight up, they can cruise really fast. The way it sort of wobbled or floated as it settled by the building makes me think it could be a drone."

When the object first appeared on the left side of the video, it didn't seem to emerge from behind a building. Instead, as seen in the composite image below, it's in front of the building.

Image

Hansen's not the only visual analysis expert who thinks this object came from good old Earth.

"I agree with Ben. This video appears to me to be a drone, as well," said Marc Dantonio of FX Models. "The vertical acceleration illustrated is not at all unreasonable. Some of these can really punch out of sight fast. The green lights are actually a bit of a standard. Green usually means that the batteries are at full charge and have GPS satellite linkup."

When the object moves across the picture from left to right toward another skyscraper, it appears to be in front of that building (composite image below), before momentarily hovering and then rapidly shooting straight up in the air.

Image

Hansen and Dantonio could be on the mark with their drone explanation.

The BBC posted video taken by a drone on Saturday, showing the large number of protesters in Hong Kong's business district.

It may not be the same drone -- or even from the same day. And this isn't the first time that a drone has been mistaken for a UFO. To drive that point home even further -- adding the icing on the cake -- check out the following video shared with us by Alejandro Rojas of Open Minds Production. The aerial maneuvers that can be achieved by quadcopter drones are astonishing:
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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby conniption » Tue Oct 07, 2014 8:21 am

2014 10 03 Crestone UFO

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfe7qe3MwO0
Scott Stevens
Published on Oct 4, 2014
Another vantage point of the white discs seen over Colorado Friday 3 October 2014.
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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby elfismiles » Tue Oct 07, 2014 9:14 am

Ah, THAT Scott Stevens ... WeatherWars Weatherman dude.

Looks like a balloon to me. :shrug:

conniption » 07 Oct 2014 12:21 wrote:2014 10 03 Crestone UFO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfe7qe3MwO0
Scott Stevens
Published on Oct 4, 2014
Another vantage point of the white discs seen over Colorado Friday 3 October 2014.
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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby elfismiles » Fri Oct 10, 2014 10:10 am

Isaac Koi is doing a series on hoax ufo videos...

http://www.isaackoi.com/ufo-videos.html
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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby elfismiles » Wed Oct 22, 2014 3:28 pm

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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby seemslikeadream » Fri Oct 24, 2014 3:44 pm

Hovering 'UFO' found in 16th Century painting in monastery
A strange disc pouring smoke and hovering over buildings has been found in a Romanian monastery wall painting thought to date from the 16th century

Rob WaughRob Waugh – Thu, Oct 23, 2014
Image
A strange disc is seen hovering over a monastery in Romania


A strange disc pouring smoke and hovering over buildings has been found in a monastery wall painting thought to date from the 16th century - and UFO researchers claim it is just one of many old paintings which seem to show evidence of visitors from another world.

The image is painted on the wall on a 14th century church in Sighisoara - thought to the birthplace of Vlad the Impaler, the historical figure on whom the Dracula legend is based.

The photograph was taken by a tourist, Catalina Borta, and sent to UFO experts at the Israeli Extraterrestrials and UFOs Research Organization (EURA).

The caption on the painting says, ‘Israel, put your hope in the Lord,’ and the image is thought to date from just after 1523, when the Bible was first translated into German.
UFO experts have drawn a comparison with other well-known paintings which seem to depict flying saucers, such as the 1710 painting Baptism of Christ by Aert de Gelder.

[Glow in the dark motorway built in Holland]
Nigel Watson, author of the Haynes UFO Investigations Manual says, 'Flying saucers, UFOs and other weird objects in the sky have been depicted throughout the history of humanity. '

'What appear to be UFOs and aliens appear in the cave paintings of ancient man, the reigious paintings of the Renaissance period and in the works of chroniclers and storytellers.'

'Some of the most striking UFO images appear in Renaissance art. As an example, a painting titled The Crucifixion depicts two spherical flying craft that plainly have a pilot inside them. It is of 1350 vintage and hangs over the altar in the Visoki Decani Monestry, Yugoslavia.'

'In the 15th Century, The Madonna with Saint Giovannio, the artist Domenico Ghirlandaio depicts a disc-like craft with rays shooting out of it over the left shoulder of Mary. A man with a dog behind Mary are shown looking at this aerial object.'

'The Baptism of Christ painted by Aert De Gelder in 1710 is a stunning vision of a circular craft beaming rays of light that illuminate Jesus and John the Baptist. It can be viewed at the Fitzwiliam Museum Cambridge.'

'An explanation for these Biblical paintings is that they are symbolic representations of angels and that the beams of light from them represent the Holy Spirit. These beams of light can also represent the miraculous impregnation of Mary that led to the birth of Jesus. Ironically, people today are literally seeing objects like this in the sky and associate their activities with the concept of ancient astronauts that it is speculated, we worshipped as Gods in the past.'


Certainly, symbolism and artistic license is at work but whether they are based on ‘real’ sightings or belief in UFOs from other realms, or not, they still give us a sense of wonder and have a powerful impact on our psyche.
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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Oct 28, 2014 11:31 am

The day UFOs stopped play
By Richard Padula
BBC World Service Sport
The Stadio Artemi Franchi in 1954, the year the UFOs were sighted
Image
Sixty years ago a football match ground to a halt when unidentified flying objects were spotted above a stadium in Florence. Did aliens come to earth? If not, what were they?

It was 27 October 1954, a typically crisp autumn day in Tuscany. The mighty Fiorentina club was playing against its local rival Pistoiese.

Ten-thousand fans were watching in the concrete bowl of the Stadio Artemi Franchi. But just after half-time the stadium fell eerily silent - then a roar went up from the crowd. The spectators were no longer watching the match, but were looking up at the sky, fingers pointing. The players stopped playing, the ball rolled to a stand-still.

One of the footballers on the pitch was Ardico Magnini - he was something of a legend at the club and had played for Italy at the 1954 World Cup.

"I remember everything from A to Z," he says. "It was something that looked like an egg that was moving slowly, slowly, slowly. Everyone was looking up and also there was some glitter coming down from the sky, silver glitter.

"We were astonished we had never seen anything like it before. We were absolutely shocked."

Players pointing up at the sky
Play was suspended because spectators saw something in the sky, according to the referee's match report.

Among the crowd was Gigi Boni, a lifelong Fiorentina fan. "I remember clearly seeing this incredible sight," he says. His description of multiple objects differs slightly from Magnini's.

"They were moving very fast and then they just stopped. It all lasted a couple of minutes. I would like to describe them as being like Cuban cigars. They just reminded me of Cuban cigars, in the way they looked."
Image
La Nazione had a photo of the UFO over Florence
La Nazione's headline reads: Glass fibres fall on Tuscan cities after globes and flying saucers pass by. Lower headline: The sighting over Florence (with a photograph, now lost, of the UFO).
Boni has spent many years reliving that day in his mind. "I think they were extra-terrestrial. That's what I believe, and there's no other explanation I can give myself."

Another of the players, Romolo Tuci, still sprightly in his 70s, agrees. "In those years everybody was talking about aliens, everybody was talking UFOs and we had the experience, we saw them, we saw them directly, for real."

The incident at the stadium cannot simply be interpreted as mass hysteria - there were numerous UFO sightings in many towns across Tuscany that day and over the days that followed. According to some eyewitness accounts a ray of white light was seen in the sky coming from Prato, north of Florence.

Another man who relishes the chance to speak about that day is Roberto Pinotti, the president of Italy's National UFO Centre. He has written many books about UFOs and his home in the centre of Florence is stuffed full of alien memorabilia, posters of old Italian B-movies, framed newspaper articles and black-and-white photographs of blurry flying saucers.

"The players and the public were stunned seeing these objects above the stadium," Pinotti says.

"At the time the newspapers spoke of aliens from Mars. Of course now we know that is not so - but we may conclude that it was an intelligent phenomenon, a technological phenomenon and a phenomenon that cannot be linked with anything we know on Earth."

He's also intrigued by the material that fell from the sky - what Magnini describes as silver glitter.
Image
Illustration showing flying saucers over Florence
"A wave of flying saucers over Italy," reported the Domenica del Corriere three years later. With thanks to the Fondazione Corriere della Sera for the use of material from their historic archives.
Artist's impression of UFOs over stadium
Image
A sketch of UFOs over the stadium by Silvio Neri
"It is a fact that at the same time the UFOs were seen over Florence there was a strange, sticky substance falling from above. In English we call this 'angel hair'," says Pinotti.

"The only problem is after a short period of time it disintegrates." As a 10-year-old-boy he witnessed this phenomenon himself. "I remember, in broad daylight, seeing the roofs of the houses in Florence covered in this white substance for one hour and, like snow, it just evaporated.

"No-one knows what this strange substance has to do with UFOs."

"Angel hair" - the fluff that fell from the sky
Image
Variously described by witnesses as similar to cotton wool or cobwebs, the substance was hard to collect because it disintegrated on contact - but some people were determined to find out what it was.

One of them was a journalist at the Florentine newspaper La Nazione, the late Giorgio Batini. In 2003 he told an Italian television programme, Voyager, how on that day he received hundreds of phone calls about the sightings. From the offices of La Nazione in the centre of town his own view of the sky was blocked by the Cathedral, so he went up to the top of the newspaper's building to see what everyone was talking about. The 81-year-old recalled seeing "shiny balls" moving fast towards the dome of the Cathedral.


The players and fans from that legendary game spoke to World Football on BBC World Service.

Listen via the iPlayer
Batini ventured out to investigate. He came across a wood outside the city that was covered in the white fluff. He gathered several samples by rolling them up on a matchstick, and took them to the Institute of Chemical Analysis at the University of Florence. When he got there he found that others had done the same.

The lab, led by respected scientist Prof Giovanni Canneri, subjected the material to spectrographic analysis and concluded that it contained the elements boron, silicon, calcium and magnesium, and that it was not radioactive. Unfortunately this did not provide any conclusive answers - and the material was destroyed in the process.

A sample of the mysterious "angel hair"
Image
A sample of the mysterious "angel hair" was photographed for the newspapers
Could it have come from a UFO? "It's an absolutely silly idea. Science totally rejects this idea," says US Air Force pilot-turned-astronomer James McGaha. From the Grasslands Observatory in South Eastern Arizona he has spent more than 40,000 hours staring at the night sky. Not to mention the additional hours he's spent in the cockpit of US fighter jets.

"You know the whole UFO phenomenon is nothing but myth, magic and superstition, wrapped up in this idea that somehow aliens are coming here either to save us or destroy us," he says.

In McGaha's view, the whole spectacle, "angel hair" and all, was nothing more than migrating spiders.

"When I looked at this case originally I thought perhaps it was a fireball, a very bright meteor breaking up in the atmosphere. They can be cigar-shaped with pieces breaking off. But it became fairly apparent that this was actually caused by young spiders spinning webs, very, very thin webs.

"The spiders use these webs as sails and they link together and you get a big glob of this stuff in the sky and the spiders ride on this to move between locations. They just fly on the wind and these things have been recorded at 14,000 feet above the ground. So, when the sunlight glistens off this, you get all kinds of visual effects.

Continue reading the main story
Jump media playerMedia player helpOut of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
"As some of this stuff breaks off and falls to the ground, this all seems magical of course," says McGaha. "But I'm fairly confident that's what happened that day."

This theory is backed up by the fact that September and October are the months when spiders in the northern hemisphere migrate - and spectacular spider migrations still make headlines today. But it hasn't convinced everyone.

"Of course I know about the migrating spiders hypothesis - it's pure nonsense. It's an old story and also a stupid story," says Pinotti.

He disputes the spider theory because of the chemical analysis of the "angel hair" samples. Spider silk is a protein - an organic compound containing nitrogen, calcium, hydrogen and oxygen - not the elements reportedly found in the samples Batini and others brought to the university.

The witnesses reunite at Stadio Artemi Franchi: Ardico Magnini, Gigi Boni, Ronaldo Lomi and Romolo Tuci
Players Ardico Magnini, Ronaldo Lomi and Romolo Tuci with their fan Gigi Boni (second left), at the ground
Sixty years on, the chances of determining the cause of the incident are slim. "I wouldn't trust any reports of an old and strange event like this unless I'd seen the data," says science writer Philip Ball. He agrees that the elements said to have been observed in the "angel hair" don't seem to tally with the spider theory.

"Magnesium and calcium are fairly common elements in living bodies, boron and silicon much less so - but if these were the main elements that the white fluff contained, it doesn't sound to me as though they'd come from spiders," he says.

So it all remains a mystery. No matter what the scientists say, those who were there are convinced that what they saw was unlike anything on earth.

Romolo Tuci just feels lucky to have been there. His eyes dance excitedly as he remembers that curious day. "I was spell-bound and I was also so, so happy."

Video of spiders ballooning courtesy of Rob Ferber, Little Grove Farm

Additional research by Vibeke Venema

Listen again to the Mystery of the Fiorentina UFOs as featured on World Football on BBC World Service.
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They could still get him out of office.
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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby seemslikeadream » Tue Oct 28, 2014 11:31 am

The day UFOs stopped play
By Richard Padula
BBC World Service Sport
The Stadio Artemi Franchi in 1954, the year the UFOs were sighted
Image
Sixty years ago a football match ground to a halt when unidentified flying objects were spotted above a stadium in Florence. Did aliens come to earth? If not, what were they?

It was 27 October 1954, a typically crisp autumn day in Tuscany. The mighty Fiorentina club was playing against its local rival Pistoiese.

Ten-thousand fans were watching in the concrete bowl of the Stadio Artemi Franchi. But just after half-time the stadium fell eerily silent - then a roar went up from the crowd. The spectators were no longer watching the match, but were looking up at the sky, fingers pointing. The players stopped playing, the ball rolled to a stand-still.

One of the footballers on the pitch was Ardico Magnini - he was something of a legend at the club and had played for Italy at the 1954 World Cup.

"I remember everything from A to Z," he says. "It was something that looked like an egg that was moving slowly, slowly, slowly. Everyone was looking up and also there was some glitter coming down from the sky, silver glitter.

"We were astonished we had never seen anything like it before. We were absolutely shocked."

Players pointing up at the sky
Play was suspended because spectators saw something in the sky, according to the referee's match report.

Among the crowd was Gigi Boni, a lifelong Fiorentina fan. "I remember clearly seeing this incredible sight," he says. His description of multiple objects differs slightly from Magnini's.

"They were moving very fast and then they just stopped. It all lasted a couple of minutes. I would like to describe them as being like Cuban cigars. They just reminded me of Cuban cigars, in the way they looked."
Image
La Nazione had a photo of the UFO over Florence
La Nazione's headline reads: Glass fibres fall on Tuscan cities after globes and flying saucers pass by. Lower headline: The sighting over Florence (with a photograph, now lost, of the UFO).
Boni has spent many years reliving that day in his mind. "I think they were extra-terrestrial. That's what I believe, and there's no other explanation I can give myself."

Another of the players, Romolo Tuci, still sprightly in his 70s, agrees. "In those years everybody was talking about aliens, everybody was talking UFOs and we had the experience, we saw them, we saw them directly, for real."

The incident at the stadium cannot simply be interpreted as mass hysteria - there were numerous UFO sightings in many towns across Tuscany that day and over the days that followed. According to some eyewitness accounts a ray of white light was seen in the sky coming from Prato, north of Florence.

Another man who relishes the chance to speak about that day is Roberto Pinotti, the president of Italy's National UFO Centre. He has written many books about UFOs and his home in the centre of Florence is stuffed full of alien memorabilia, posters of old Italian B-movies, framed newspaper articles and black-and-white photographs of blurry flying saucers.

"The players and the public were stunned seeing these objects above the stadium," Pinotti says.

"At the time the newspapers spoke of aliens from Mars. Of course now we know that is not so - but we may conclude that it was an intelligent phenomenon, a technological phenomenon and a phenomenon that cannot be linked with anything we know on Earth."

He's also intrigued by the material that fell from the sky - what Magnini describes as silver glitter.
Image
Illustration showing flying saucers over Florence
"A wave of flying saucers over Italy," reported the Domenica del Corriere three years later. With thanks to the Fondazione Corriere della Sera for the use of material from their historic archives.
Artist's impression of UFOs over stadium
Image
A sketch of UFOs over the stadium by Silvio Neri
"It is a fact that at the same time the UFOs were seen over Florence there was a strange, sticky substance falling from above. In English we call this 'angel hair'," says Pinotti.

"The only problem is after a short period of time it disintegrates." As a 10-year-old-boy he witnessed this phenomenon himself. "I remember, in broad daylight, seeing the roofs of the houses in Florence covered in this white substance for one hour and, like snow, it just evaporated.

"No-one knows what this strange substance has to do with UFOs."

"Angel hair" - the fluff that fell from the sky
Image
Variously described by witnesses as similar to cotton wool or cobwebs, the substance was hard to collect because it disintegrated on contact - but some people were determined to find out what it was.

One of them was a journalist at the Florentine newspaper La Nazione, the late Giorgio Batini. In 2003 he told an Italian television programme, Voyager, how on that day he received hundreds of phone calls about the sightings. From the offices of La Nazione in the centre of town his own view of the sky was blocked by the Cathedral, so he went up to the top of the newspaper's building to see what everyone was talking about. The 81-year-old recalled seeing "shiny balls" moving fast towards the dome of the Cathedral.


The players and fans from that legendary game spoke to World Football on BBC World Service.

Listen via the iPlayer
Batini ventured out to investigate. He came across a wood outside the city that was covered in the white fluff. He gathered several samples by rolling them up on a matchstick, and took them to the Institute of Chemical Analysis at the University of Florence. When he got there he found that others had done the same.

The lab, led by respected scientist Prof Giovanni Canneri, subjected the material to spectrographic analysis and concluded that it contained the elements boron, silicon, calcium and magnesium, and that it was not radioactive. Unfortunately this did not provide any conclusive answers - and the material was destroyed in the process.

A sample of the mysterious "angel hair"
Image
A sample of the mysterious "angel hair" was photographed for the newspapers
Could it have come from a UFO? "It's an absolutely silly idea. Science totally rejects this idea," says US Air Force pilot-turned-astronomer James McGaha. From the Grasslands Observatory in South Eastern Arizona he has spent more than 40,000 hours staring at the night sky. Not to mention the additional hours he's spent in the cockpit of US fighter jets.

"You know the whole UFO phenomenon is nothing but myth, magic and superstition, wrapped up in this idea that somehow aliens are coming here either to save us or destroy us," he says.

In McGaha's view, the whole spectacle, "angel hair" and all, was nothing more than migrating spiders.

"When I looked at this case originally I thought perhaps it was a fireball, a very bright meteor breaking up in the atmosphere. They can be cigar-shaped with pieces breaking off. But it became fairly apparent that this was actually caused by young spiders spinning webs, very, very thin webs.

"The spiders use these webs as sails and they link together and you get a big glob of this stuff in the sky and the spiders ride on this to move between locations. They just fly on the wind and these things have been recorded at 14,000 feet above the ground. So, when the sunlight glistens off this, you get all kinds of visual effects.

Continue reading the main story
Jump media playerMedia player helpOut of media player. Press enter to return or tab to continue.
"As some of this stuff breaks off and falls to the ground, this all seems magical of course," says McGaha. "But I'm fairly confident that's what happened that day."

This theory is backed up by the fact that September and October are the months when spiders in the northern hemisphere migrate - and spectacular spider migrations still make headlines today. But it hasn't convinced everyone.

"Of course I know about the migrating spiders hypothesis - it's pure nonsense. It's an old story and also a stupid story," says Pinotti.

He disputes the spider theory because of the chemical analysis of the "angel hair" samples. Spider silk is a protein - an organic compound containing nitrogen, calcium, hydrogen and oxygen - not the elements reportedly found in the samples Batini and others brought to the university.

The witnesses reunite at Stadio Artemi Franchi: Ardico Magnini, Gigi Boni, Ronaldo Lomi and Romolo Tuci
Players Ardico Magnini, Ronaldo Lomi and Romolo Tuci with their fan Gigi Boni (second left), at the ground
Sixty years on, the chances of determining the cause of the incident are slim. "I wouldn't trust any reports of an old and strange event like this unless I'd seen the data," says science writer Philip Ball. He agrees that the elements said to have been observed in the "angel hair" don't seem to tally with the spider theory.

"Magnesium and calcium are fairly common elements in living bodies, boron and silicon much less so - but if these were the main elements that the white fluff contained, it doesn't sound to me as though they'd come from spiders," he says.

So it all remains a mystery. No matter what the scientists say, those who were there are convinced that what they saw was unlike anything on earth.

Romolo Tuci just feels lucky to have been there. His eyes dance excitedly as he remembers that curious day. "I was spell-bound and I was also so, so happy."

Video of spiders ballooning courtesy of Rob Ferber, Little Grove Farm

Additional research by Vibeke Venema

Listen again to the Mystery of the Fiorentina UFOs as featured on World Football on BBC World Service.
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Re: Where is UFOlogy at in 2014?

Postby Luposapien » Tue Oct 28, 2014 1:38 pm

James McGaha wrote:"It's an absolutely silly idea. Science totally rejects this idea," says US Air Force pilot-turned-astronomer James McGaha. From the Grasslands Observatory in South Eastern Arizona he has spent more than 40,000 hours staring at the night sky. Not to mention the additional hours he's spent in the cockpit of US fighter jets.

"You know the whole UFO phenomenon is nothing but myth, magic and superstition, wrapped up in this idea that somehow aliens are coming here either to save us or destroy us," he says.

In McGaha's view, the whole spectacle, "angel hair" and all, was nothing more than migrating spiders.

"When I looked at this case originally I thought perhaps it was a fireball, a very bright meteor breaking up in the atmosphere. They can be cigar-shaped with pieces breaking off. But it became fairly apparent that this was actually caused by young spiders spinning webs, very, very thin webs.

"The spiders use these webs as sails and they link together and you get a big glob of this stuff in the sky and the spiders ride on this to move between locations. They just fly on the wind and these things have been recorded at 14,000 feet above the ground. So, when the sunlight glistens off this, you get all kinds of visual effects.


"As some of this stuff breaks off and falls to the ground, this all seems magical of course," says McGaha. "But I'm fairly confident that's what happened that day."


Thank you, Mr. McGaha, for taking up the weighty burden of Official Spokesman for All of Science. Science, apparently, being the process of authoritatively dismissing any first-hand accounts of the event, ignoring any inconvenient analysis by the local scientific establishment, and dogmatically insisting that second-hand speculation on what might have happened, despite clear evidence to the contrary, is the most likely explanation. Well played sir.
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