Readers will have noticed that I have been busy going through digitised issues of the Flying Saucer Review; NICAP’s the UFO Investigator; the MUFON Journal, and the APRO Bulletin, in order to document Australian material in these overseas periodicals. Having Excel spreadsheet indexes of this material, makes it so much easier, when I am answering email from people, asking me about Australian sightings.
My latest small project was examining online resources, which contain files relating to the former USAF Project Blue Book, and checking these for Australian material. In all, I found 20 Australian sightings in these Blue Book files.
The best reference source I found, was Fold3. However, simply typing in such keywords as ‘Australia;’ Tasmania (as many Americans refer to Tasmania as if it were a separate country to Australia, whereas it is one Australian state); New Guinea etc., may not have revealed the full extent of Australian material. There may be additional sightings listed in other ways. I also found that you need to look at each page listed, as, for example, there were three reports for Melbourne, Victoria, dated 1 January, 14 January and 15 January 1954, all contained in the file dated 1 January 1954, Melbourne. In addition, I found pages about non Australian sightings, attached as part of an Australian sighting file.
All in all, I found a total of 104 pages for the 20 sightings. Many of these sightings had Project Blue Book evaluations, e.g. Condamine, Queensland, dated 2 February 1951 was said to be a meteor; while the 20 August 1963 Turner River Station, Western Australia was listed as a satellite observation.
One example will illustrate the path these sightings took. On 12 June 1961 there was an observation by two residents of the Azerita Plantation, Papua New Guinea, at 0400hrs local time. Over a fifteen minute period the observers saw a shiny object which approached from the North East. It was shaped like the hollow in a New Moon, and could have been delta winged. Its estimated height was 15,000 feet. It kept moving back and forth, to and from the North East. Eventually, it returned back the way it had come and was lost to view.
The report was made to the Australian government Department of External Territories; who passed it to the Australian Department of Defence. From here, it was sent to the Head of the Australian Joint Services Staff in Washington; then to the US Department of the Air Force, in Washington, then onto the Foreign Technology Division, USAF at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, and Project Blue Book.
The Blue Book case index card stated that the cause of the sighting was ‘Probably atmospheric refraction in pre-dawn hours of planet or star.’ Ultimately, though it was listed as ‘insufficient information.’
If you’d like to read more about the early interaction between the RAAF and USAF as regards UAP reports then click here and here.
Finally, something interesting. Open access at Molecular Biology and Evolution:
A major topic of interest in human prehistory is how the large-scale genetic structure of modern populations outside of Africa was established. Demographic models have been developed that capture the relationships among small numbers of populations or within particular geographical regions, but constructing a phylogenetic tree with gene flow events for a wide diversity of non-Africans remains a difficult problem. Here, we report a model that provides a good statistical fit to allele-frequency correlation patterns among East Asians, Australasians, Native Americans, and ancient western and northern Eurasians, together with archaic human groups. The model features a primary eastern/western bifurcation dating to at least 45,000 years ago, with Australasians nested inside the eastern clade, and a parsimonious set of admixture events. While our results still represent a simplified picture, they provide a useful summary of deep Eurasian population history that can serve as a null model for future studies and a baseline for further discoveries. … In our model, K14 fits well as unadmixed (aside from archaic introgression), but MA1 receives, in addition to its archaic admixture, a component of eastern Eurasian ancestry. The latter gene flow explains the preliminary residual f4 (MA1, K14; Ami, Ust’-Ishim), which is of a similar form to several other relatively poorly fitting statistics from our initial graph, for example f 4 (MA1, K14; Ami, New Guinea) = 2.00 (fitted 0.08; Z = 2.68) and f 4 (MA1, Ust’-Ishim; Ami, New Guinea) = 1.73 (fitted 0.08; Z = 2.49). We added this admixture into our model with its best-fitting source position (near the root of the East Asian lineage) and mixture proportion (17.4% East Asian-related ancestry, 95% CI 7.7–27.4%). … We note that a recent study (Lazaridis et al., 2016) found a cline of MA1-relatedness among a large number of present-day eastern Eurasian populations and argued for admixture from west to east instead; while the present analysis supports the other direction, an important subject for future work will be to reconcile these results.
More than 500 people living on Kadovar Island, East Sepik Province of Papua New Guinea have been evacuated following the first eruption of Kadovar volcano in known history. This volcano, dormant until yesterday, is part of the Schouten Islands, and lies off the coast of New Guinea, about 25 km (15 miles) N of the mouth of the Sepik River. The latest activity at this volcano was a period of heightened thermal phenomena in 1976. The Aviation Color Code for the volcano was raised to Orange. 50 – 60 percent of the island is already covered in lava.
Kadovar started erupting around 12:00 local time Friday, January 5, 2018 (02:00 UTC), prompting authorities to send out boats to evacuate more than 500 people living on Kadovar Island. The boats were sent from Kopar, the nearest island, some 30-minutes boat ride from Kadovar.
According to Loop PNG, immediately after sending boats to Kadovar, Kopar councilor Tom Kelly said that thick clouds can be seen rising from the island. “The clouds are darker and increasing at an alarming rate,” Kelly said.
Places like Kairuru Island, Mt Uru in Yangoru and Woginara in the West coast of Wewak District are under thick clouds and dust, Loop PNG reported 00:53 UTC, January 6. Kairuru is not visible from Wewak and Mushu is covered by dust, it said.
Kadovar volcano eruption on January 6, 2017. Credit: Ricky Wobar, Samaritan Aviation
Kadovar volcano eruption on January 6, 2017. Credit: Ricky Wobar, Samaritan Aviation
In a Loop PNG article published 08:24 UTC, January 6, Ricky Wobar, Wewak District Administrator, said that the situation at Kadovar Island has worsened.
The statement was made after an overflight confirmed lava coming out of the once dormant volcano.
“At least 50 to 60 percent of the island is covered in lava,” he said.
Wobar said they saw no evidence of inhabitants on the island, adding that he hopes all of them have been evacuated. The National Disaster and Emergency Services were called in to respond at the earliest tomorrow.
According to Darwin VAAC, the volcanic emission was clearly visible on Himawari-8 imagery acquired 02:30 UTC today. The volcanic ash cloud was reaching an altitude of 2.1 km (7 000 feet) above sea level. The Aviation Color Code is at Orange.
Geological summary
The 2-km-wide (1.2 miles) island of Kadovar is the emergent summit of a Bismarck Sea stratovolcano of Holocene age. Kadovar is part of the Schouten Islands, and lies off the coast of New Guinea, about 25 km (15 miles) N of the mouth of the Sepik River. The village of Gewai is perched on the crater rim. A 365-m-high (1 200 feet) lava dome forming the high point of the andesitic volcano fills an arcuate landslide scarp that is open to the south, and submarine debris-avalanche deposits occur in that direction.
Thick lava flows with columnar jointing forms low cliffs along the coast. The youthful island lacks fringing or offshore reefs. No certain historical eruptions are known; the latest activity was a period of heightened thermal phenomena in 1976. (GVP)
Featured image: Kadovar volcano eruption on January 6, 2017. Credit: Ricky Wobar, Samaritan Aviation
A stone carved with symbols known as runes and dating to the Middle Ages has been discovered during an excavation ahead of a railway-construction project in Oslo, Norway.
The runes, which were found engraved on a whetstone (a stone used for sharpening knives), date to sometime around 1,000 years ago when the Vikings (also called the Norse) flourished in Norway. The runic writing system conveyed a language and could be used to record and convey information as well as cast spells. Each rune formed a letter or sign and a combination of runes could spell out a word. Who engraved the runes on this newly discovered stone is unknown.
Runic writing was used in Norway and other parts of Northern Europe during the Middle Ages, which lasted between roughly 500-1450. However, artifacts containing runes are rare, and archaeologists debate the number of people who could write them, the researchers said. Read more.
Explanation:A jewel of the southern sky, the Great Carina Nebula, also known as NGC 3372, is one of our galaxy’s largest star forming regions. Easily visible to the unaided eye it stands high above the signature hill of Lake Ballard, ephemeral salt lake of Western Australia, in this serene night skyscape from December 25, 2017. The Milky Way itself stretches beyond the southern horizon. Along the Milky Way, bright stars Alpha and Beta Centauri lie just above the hill’s right flank, with the Southern Cross and dark Coalsack Nebula above the hill top. Based on a 22 panel mosaic, the scene was cropped to reveal more closely the beauty of this region of the southern Milky Way. On that short summer night, a star tracking camera mount was used to record the mosaic images of the sky, but turned off to image the foreground in moonlight.
MIG – 21 The most widely produced supersonic jet fighter of all time, the MiG-21 or Fishbed is an incredibly prolific aircraft. Dated but nimble, it has allowed skilled pilots in past decades to defeat more advanced aircraft. Although no longer in production, more than 10 000 units were produced and continues to serve air forces in around 20 countries to this very day. Against well trained Israeli pilots and their Mirage IIIs and F-4s, the MiG-21 and its mediocre Arab pilots performed poorly with many shot down. In Vietnam however the aircraft showed its true capabilities, shooting down several American F-4s and F-105s, mostly in close range dogfights.
Country of origin Soviet Union. The Mikoyan design bureau Entered service 1972 Crew 1 Pilot Maximum speed 1,351 mph Service ceiling 42,640 ft Range 910 miles Armament 1 x 23 mm Cannon (200 rounds) Missiles Air to air missiles, Air to surface missiles Bombs. 1,100lbs of general-purpose, fragmentation, chemical and cluster.
THE BATTLE OF THE RIVER PLATE: 1939 On August 21st 1939 the Graf Spee slipped her moorings at Wilhelmshafen and proceeded deep into the Atlantic Ocean. Her mission was that in the event of war she was to act as a commerce raider on transports carrying vital supplies to any enemy belligerent hostile to Germany.
We are all familiar with the stunning lenticular clouds that form over a mountain as the air is diverted upwards over it and its moisture condenses into relatively stationary clouds as the air current passes through, reevaporating as the air drops on the other side like the one in this past post available at http://tinyurl.com/kbl22df. The principle remains the same when air passes over a ridge and forms a long line of cloud through the same process.
This image was taken by NASA’s EO1 satellite over the Sichuan Basin in China, where lines of parallel forest covered ridges 1,000 metres high, within a lower area surrounded by high peaks, produce the effect. The valleys between the ridges are used for agriculture.
I work as a cleaner, I went outside at 22.50 to dispose of rubbish bags into a bin and noticed 3 green lights at around a 30 degree angle north-west of my position. Distance and height were too difficult to estimate from my position but after checking on google maps there are mostly only fields in that direction. from Mufon report 81450
Long Description of Sighting Report I work as a cleaner, I went outside at 22.50 to dispose of rubbish bags into a bin and noticed 3 green lights at around a 30 degree angle north-west of my position. Distance and height were too difficult to estimate from my position but after checking on google maps there are mostly only fields in that direction. The postcode I observed from was PO13 0HR. The lights were evenly spaced in a large triangle formation with one more forward than the others when I first noticed them. They then all turned purple and started to move. You can observe in the video how them moved. I had full zoom using a phone camera so quality isn’t great but they were all bright purple in colour and didn’t change again. They seemed to move in a random manor, moving side to side and up and down very quickly and turning very sharply. They would pass each other to swap sides, sometimes coming back to form triangles for a few seconds before moving again. Several times it looked as though one moved into another and became one light before breaking apart again. They disappeared below the houses several times so that I couldn’t see from my position what they were doing until the final time when I waited several minutes before giving up that they wouldn’t appear again so whatever it was possibly landed because they didn’t appear above the houses again. I went back inside the building onto the second level to view from a higher angle and could see one light again just above the house but it quickly disappeared downwards and that was the last I saw of them. They never went higher than the initial height I observed them at. There were no other aircraft I noticed in the area although there is a small airfield behind my position. The weather was dry (although rain earlier in the day), the sky seemed clear, stars were visible overhead but none visible at the angle/height of these lights, presumably because of light pollution. When I left where I was 30 minutes later, the sky around the area where the lights were was a hazy red colour. The rest of the sky in the surrounding area was black but this area specifically was a different colour. I thought this might be some kind of heavy light pollution in that direction but according to google maps there are mostly just fields there, nothing that would give off unusual light pollution.
Wildlife Wednesday: Vampire Parasites of the Chesapeake
This grass shrimp, which marine biologists caught off our docks earlier this winter, is infected with a parasite called a bopyrid isopod. You can see it as the dark oval bulge just behind the shrimp’s head. A bopyrid parasite attaches to the shrimp’s gills and feeds off its hemolymph (the shrimp’s “blood”), sometimes causing the shrimp to die of starvation. Bopyrid parasites are also able to castrate female grass shrimp. Creepy or cool? (Photo: Carolyn Tepolt/Smithsonian Environmental Research Center)
Archaeologists have started an underwater detection project after villagers in eastern China’s Jiangxi Province found the head of a Buddha statue emerging from the surface of a local reservoir.
The head of a Buddha statue emerges in a local reservoir in eastern China’s Jiangxi Province Credit: WeChat]
The head was spotted at Hongmen Reservoir, Nancheng County in the city of Fuzhou, at the end of last year when a hydropower gate renovation project lowered water levels in the reservoir by more than 10 meters.
Hongmen Reservoir, also known as Zuixian Lake, was built in 1958. Spanning Nancheng and Lichuan counties, the reservoir has a water storage volume of 1.2 billion cubic meters.
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