You have to try this. This will confuse your mind and
you will keep trying over and over again to see if you can outsmart your
foot, but, you can't. It is pre-programmed in your brain!
1. While sitting at your desk in front of your computer, lift your right
foot off the floor and make clockwise circles.
2. Now, while doing this, draw the number '6' in the air with your right
hand. Your foot will change direction.
Thanks Mike!
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Saturday, November 7, 2009
Friday, November 6, 2009
Asteroid blast reveals holes in Earth's defences
As the US government ponders a strategy to deal with threatening asteroids, a dramatic explosion over Indonesia has underscored how blind we still are to hurtling space rocks.
On 8 October an asteroid detonated high in the atmosphere above South Sulawesi, Indonesia, releasing about as much energy as 50,000 tons of TNT, according to a NASA estimate released on Friday. That's about three times more powerful than the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima, making it one of the largest asteroid explosions ever observed.
However, the blast caused no damage on the ground because of the high altitude, 15 to 20 kilometres above Earth's surface, says astronomer Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Canada.
Brown and Elizabeth Silber, also of UWO, estimated the explosion energy from infrasound waves that rippled halfway around the world and were recorded by an international network of instruments that listens for nuclear explosions.
The explosion was heard by witnesses in Indonesia. Video images of the sky following the event show a dust trail characteristic of an exploding asteroid.
Sudden impact
The amount of energy released suggests the object was about 10 metres across, the researchers say. Such objects are thought to hit Earth about once per decade.
No telescope spotted the asteroid ahead of its impact. That is not surprising, given that only a tiny fraction of asteroids smaller than 100 metres across have been catalogued, says Tim Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yet objects as small as 20 or 30 metres across may be capable of doing damage on the ground, he says.
"If you want to find the smallest objects you have to build more, larger telescopes," says Spahr. "A survey that finds all of the 20-metre objects will cost probably multiple billions of dollars."
The US Office of Science and Technology Policy, which advises the White House, must develop a policy to address the asteroid hazard by October 2010 under a deadline imposed by 2008 legislation. It is likely to be influenced by a report from the National Research Council on the asteroid problem, which is expected by year's end.
source....
On 8 October an asteroid detonated high in the atmosphere above South Sulawesi, Indonesia, releasing about as much energy as 50,000 tons of TNT, according to a NASA estimate released on Friday. That's about three times more powerful than the atomic bomb that levelled Hiroshima, making it one of the largest asteroid explosions ever observed.
However, the blast caused no damage on the ground because of the high altitude, 15 to 20 kilometres above Earth's surface, says astronomer Peter Brown of the University of Western Ontario (UWO), Canada.
Brown and Elizabeth Silber, also of UWO, estimated the explosion energy from infrasound waves that rippled halfway around the world and were recorded by an international network of instruments that listens for nuclear explosions.
The explosion was heard by witnesses in Indonesia. Video images of the sky following the event show a dust trail characteristic of an exploding asteroid.
Sudden impact
The amount of energy released suggests the object was about 10 metres across, the researchers say. Such objects are thought to hit Earth about once per decade.
No telescope spotted the asteroid ahead of its impact. That is not surprising, given that only a tiny fraction of asteroids smaller than 100 metres across have been catalogued, says Tim Spahr, director of the Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Yet objects as small as 20 or 30 metres across may be capable of doing damage on the ground, he says.
"If you want to find the smallest objects you have to build more, larger telescopes," says Spahr. "A survey that finds all of the 20-metre objects will cost probably multiple billions of dollars."
The US Office of Science and Technology Policy, which advises the White House, must develop a policy to address the asteroid hazard by October 2010 under a deadline imposed by 2008 legislation. It is likely to be influenced by a report from the National Research Council on the asteroid problem, which is expected by year's end.
source....
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Some Fall Pics From Last Week
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Beautiful Universe Astronomy Quiz
Take the TierneyLab astronomy quiz, illustrated by images from an exhibit celebrating the 400th anniversary of Galileo's telescope. The quiz was created by Christopher De Pree, director of the Bradley Observatory at Agnes Scott College in Atlanta and co-author of "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Astronomy."
Take the Quiz....
Take the Quiz....
New Tuscobia State Trail bridge makes traveling safer, more direct
One of the most popular recreation trails in northern Wisconsin became a little safer and “more direct” last week. Sawyer County, the Department of Natural Resources and people from Winter and Radisson cut the ribbon to officially open a new bridge over Kings Creek.
The event took place Wednesday, Oct. 28, at 2 p.m. at the site 3 miles east of Radisson, one week after construction on the bridge was completed. The 80’ by 14’ span replaced a badly deteriorating structure that was recently removed.
“This was one of those projects that had been on the books for seven years,” said Trail Manager-Ranger, Kathy Oginski. “We are happy we found the budget and got approvals to move forward.”
The span was built by Decker Contractors for $135,000 with funding coming from the Federal Recreational Trails program and the Wisconsin Stewardship account.
Trail users will no longer have to be diverted around a piece of private property. That “detour” took recreation users on a portion of Railroad Street, crossed King Creek over a non-conforming semi-trailer bed and around a farm field, then back to the trail off of Endicott Road. The bridge gives people a direct, scenic and safer route.
Oginski explained that before the trail was purchased by the state from the Omaha Railroad in the 1960’s, a parcel had been sold by the railroad to a private interest. In 2003 the state acquired the property and a direct link was reestablished to the trail, she said.
The 74-mile Tuscobia Trail is one of the longest rail trails in the state, running from Park Falls to the Wild Rivers State Trail just north of Rice Lake. The trail passes through part of the Flambeau River State Forest and the rugged wilderness of Wisconsin's Blue Hills. The trail connects seven small communities in Barron, Washburn, Sawyer and Price counties, each providing year-round accommodations and services.
The trail offers opportunities for ATVs, snowmobiling, horseback riding, off-road bicycling and walking. The western end of the trail is part of the Ice Age National Scenic Trail.
source....
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Sylvan Lake mystery remains unsolved
There seems to be more questions than answers to the mysteries surrounding Sylvan Lake.
And last month’s retrieval by the Washington County Water Recovery dive team of a large rock with a hole drilled through it and a three-eighths inch faded yellow nylon rope attached did nothing to solve what is still considered an open case by a lake expert who has followed the story.
The boulder, estimated to weigh 40 pounds or more, was the only thing found during a dive training session Sept. 10.
The water recovery unit was part of a response team on July 27 when a Sylvan Lake resident reported that something may have crashed into the lake. The eyewitness saw a rogue wave with air bubbles emanating from concentric circles.
That summer day the water recovery unit deployed its side-scan sonar to help determine if something was in the lake and recorded information of an object the size of a dryer or wash machine in deep waters. Nothing of the like was found in any of the dives.
Sheriff Bill Hutton said last week authorities still have no idea what caused the incident that dozens of rescue personnel, including those from Forest Lake, responded to in July. He is confident that it wasn’t a meteor, nor anything that could have fallen from an airplane.
How long the rock may have been in the lake is also unknown.
“We cannot make any conclusionary statements,” Hutton said.
Unexplainable?
The mystery has deepened with the investigation by a UFO hunter from Nebraska who visited the area last summer, as well as a water specialist familiar with Forest Lake.
Steve McComas, of Blue Water Science in St. Paul, opened a case file at the urging of Joe Soucheray who hosts “Garage Logic” on KSTP AM1500 after he became interested in the Sylvan Lake story. McComas, the radio show’s designated “Lake Detective,” agreed to look into the matter. He issued a full report in August.
McComas said his theory is that the splash was caused by something falling off or from an aircraft.
Hutton said the sheriff’s office checked with the FAA and Department of Homeland Security, but found no leads of any aviation incidents that would have been the culprit behind this mystery.
The discovery of this rock, most likely a homemade anchor, does not answer anything. McComas said during Soucheray’s radio show on Oct. 2 that McComas’ theory has not been disproved. The lake detective won’t admit to being stumped until something definitive turns up, McComas said.
“The mystery is unsolved,” McComas said. “I would consider this case open,” he added.
Instead of a lost plane part, McComas said it is possible that blue ice — a mixture of human waste and liquid disinfectant formed by leaks in commercial aircraft lavatory tanks that freezes at high altitude — could be the cause of the incident.
Anchors away?
Linwood resident Frank Kvidera, 84, an experienced pilot with over 40 years of experience flying single engine planes, has his own theory. Maybe the rock was used to anchor a small aircraft and plummeted to the ground after take off? Kvidera read a similar story in an aviation magazine, but with the plane crashing into the water as well.
“There are questions,” he said, “and who’s gonna answer them?”
Eugene Huerstel has lived on Sylvan Lake for many, many years. Around 1967, he and a neighborhood boy went out in a row boat to the area where the rock was found. Huerstel recalls that his friend had drilled a hole through a big, heavy rock and knotted it with a nylon rope.
The two boys lost the boat anchor when the rope broke, Huerstel said. Perhaps that rock was the very same one recovered by the county sheriff’s office?
Huerstel said he believes the eyewitness, who lives doors from him, saw something in the water but it had not come from the sky.
His opinion is that it was a whirlwind, which is a column of air moving rapidly around and around in a cylindrical or funnel shape.
Huerstel was on his boat with KSTP Channel 5 during the September training session, nearly 60 yards from the dive team. He was one of those surprised when the water recovery unit came to the surface with a rock.
“I could tell if they did recover something, they didn’t want us to see,” Huerstel said.
Supposedly, a boat was spotted maneuvering in a grid pattern on the lake in the late hours of Aug. 16. Hutton told the Forest Lake Times he was unaware of any such late-night incident on the Sylvan Lake waters.
As for the county, Hutton said his office has no plans to continue the Sylvan Lake search.
McComas said there is a chance the rock was sunk in an effort to throw people off, thus putting the mystery to rest. It’s a long stretch, but he noted the sonar detected an image that was not found again during the dive exercise.
“It’s just a little suspicious,” McComas said.
source....
And last month’s retrieval by the Washington County Water Recovery dive team of a large rock with a hole drilled through it and a three-eighths inch faded yellow nylon rope attached did nothing to solve what is still considered an open case by a lake expert who has followed the story.
The boulder, estimated to weigh 40 pounds or more, was the only thing found during a dive training session Sept. 10.
The water recovery unit was part of a response team on July 27 when a Sylvan Lake resident reported that something may have crashed into the lake. The eyewitness saw a rogue wave with air bubbles emanating from concentric circles.
That summer day the water recovery unit deployed its side-scan sonar to help determine if something was in the lake and recorded information of an object the size of a dryer or wash machine in deep waters. Nothing of the like was found in any of the dives.
Sheriff Bill Hutton said last week authorities still have no idea what caused the incident that dozens of rescue personnel, including those from Forest Lake, responded to in July. He is confident that it wasn’t a meteor, nor anything that could have fallen from an airplane.
How long the rock may have been in the lake is also unknown.
“We cannot make any conclusionary statements,” Hutton said.
Unexplainable?
The mystery has deepened with the investigation by a UFO hunter from Nebraska who visited the area last summer, as well as a water specialist familiar with Forest Lake.
Steve McComas, of Blue Water Science in St. Paul, opened a case file at the urging of Joe Soucheray who hosts “Garage Logic” on KSTP AM1500 after he became interested in the Sylvan Lake story. McComas, the radio show’s designated “Lake Detective,” agreed to look into the matter. He issued a full report in August.
McComas said his theory is that the splash was caused by something falling off or from an aircraft.
Hutton said the sheriff’s office checked with the FAA and Department of Homeland Security, but found no leads of any aviation incidents that would have been the culprit behind this mystery.
The discovery of this rock, most likely a homemade anchor, does not answer anything. McComas said during Soucheray’s radio show on Oct. 2 that McComas’ theory has not been disproved. The lake detective won’t admit to being stumped until something definitive turns up, McComas said.
“The mystery is unsolved,” McComas said. “I would consider this case open,” he added.
Instead of a lost plane part, McComas said it is possible that blue ice — a mixture of human waste and liquid disinfectant formed by leaks in commercial aircraft lavatory tanks that freezes at high altitude — could be the cause of the incident.
Anchors away?
Linwood resident Frank Kvidera, 84, an experienced pilot with over 40 years of experience flying single engine planes, has his own theory. Maybe the rock was used to anchor a small aircraft and plummeted to the ground after take off? Kvidera read a similar story in an aviation magazine, but with the plane crashing into the water as well.
“There are questions,” he said, “and who’s gonna answer them?”
Eugene Huerstel has lived on Sylvan Lake for many, many years. Around 1967, he and a neighborhood boy went out in a row boat to the area where the rock was found. Huerstel recalls that his friend had drilled a hole through a big, heavy rock and knotted it with a nylon rope.
The two boys lost the boat anchor when the rope broke, Huerstel said. Perhaps that rock was the very same one recovered by the county sheriff’s office?
Huerstel said he believes the eyewitness, who lives doors from him, saw something in the water but it had not come from the sky.
His opinion is that it was a whirlwind, which is a column of air moving rapidly around and around in a cylindrical or funnel shape.
Huerstel was on his boat with KSTP Channel 5 during the September training session, nearly 60 yards from the dive team. He was one of those surprised when the water recovery unit came to the surface with a rock.
“I could tell if they did recover something, they didn’t want us to see,” Huerstel said.
Supposedly, a boat was spotted maneuvering in a grid pattern on the lake in the late hours of Aug. 16. Hutton told the Forest Lake Times he was unaware of any such late-night incident on the Sylvan Lake waters.
As for the county, Hutton said his office has no plans to continue the Sylvan Lake search.
McComas said there is a chance the rock was sunk in an effort to throw people off, thus putting the mystery to rest. It’s a long stretch, but he noted the sonar detected an image that was not found again during the dive exercise.
“It’s just a little suspicious,” McComas said.
source....
Monday, November 2, 2009
The Hunter's Moon
The Hunter's Moon highlights the sky tonight. In most years the Harvest Moon comes in September, with the Hunter's Moon in October. But this year October's full Moon was closer to the fall equinox, so both the Harvest and Hunter's moons were pushed back a month.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Six questions that keep physicists up at night
It's not your average confession show: a panel of leading physicists spilling the beans about what keeps them tossing and turning in the wee hours.
That was the scene a few days ago in front of a packed auditorium at the Perimeter Institute, in Waterloo, Canada, when a panel of physicists was asked to respond to a single question: "What keeps you awake at night?"
The discussion was part of "Quantum to Cosmos", a 10-day physics extravaganza, which ends on Sunday.
While most panelists professed to sleep very soundly, here are six key conundrums that emerged during the session, which can be viewed here.
Why this universe?
In their pursuit of nature's fundamental laws, physicists have essentially been working under a long standing paradigm: demonstrating why the universe must be as we see it. But if other laws can be thought of, why can't the universes they describe exist in some other place? "Maybe we'll find there's no other alternative to the universe we know," says Sean Carroll of Caltech. "But I suspect that's not right." Carroll finds it easy to imagine that nature allows for different kinds of universes with different laws. "So in our universe, the question becomes why these laws and not some other laws?"
What is everything made of?
It's now clear that ordinary matter – atoms, stars and galaxies – accounts for a paltry 4 per cent of the universe's total energy budget. It's the other 96 per cent that keeps University of Michigan physicist Katherine Freese engaged. Freese is excited that one part of the problem, the nature of dark matter, may be nearing resolution. She points to new data from experiments like NASA's Fermi satellite that are consistent with the notion that dark matter particles in our own galaxy are annihilating with one another at a measurable rate, which in turn could reveal their properties. But the discovery of dark energy, which appears to be speeding up the expansion of the universe, has created a vast new set of puzzles for which there are no immediate answers in sight. This includes the nature of the dark energy itself and the question of why it has a value that is so extraordinarily small, allowing for the formation of galaxies, stars and the emergence of life.
How does complexity happen?
From the unpredictable behaviour of financial markets to the rise of life from inert matter, Leo Kadananoff, physicist and applied mathematician at the University of Chicago, finds the most engaging questions deal with the rise of complex systems. Kadanoff worries that particle physicists and cosmologists are missing an important trick if they only focus on the very small and the very large. "We still don't know how ordinary window glass works and keeps it shape," says Kadanoff. "The investigation of familiar things is just as important in the search for understanding." Life itself, he says, will only be truly understood by decoding how simple constituents with simple interactions can lead to complex phenomena.
Will string theory ever be proved correct?
Cambridge physicist David Tong is passionate about the mathematical beauty of string theory – the idea that the fundamental particles we observe are not point-like dots, but rather tiny strings. But he admits it once brought him to a philosophical crisis when he realised he might live his entire life not knowing whether it actually constitutes a description of all reality. Even experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider and the Planck satellite, while well positioned to reveal new physics, are unlikely to say anything definitive about strings. Tong finds solace in knowing that the methods of string theory can be brought to bear on less fundamental problems, such as the behaviour of quarks and exotic metals. "It is a useful theory," he says, "so I'm trying to concentrate on that."
What is the singularity?
For cosmologist and Perimeter Institute director Neil Turok, the biggest mystery is the one that started it all, the big bang. Conventional theory points back to an infinitely hot and dense state at the beginning of the universe, where the known laws of physics break down. "We don't know how to describe it," says Turok. "How can anyone claim to have a theory of everything without that?" Turok is hopeful that string theory and a related development known as the "holographic principle", which shows that a singularity in three dimensions can be translated into a mathematically more manageable entity in two dimensions (which may imply that the third dimension and gravity itself are illusory). "These tools are giving us new ways of thinking about the problem, which are deeply satisfying in a mathematical sense," he says.
What is reality really?
The material world may, at some level, lie beyond comprehension, but Anton Zeilinger, professor of physics at the University of Vienna, is profoundly hopeful that physicists have merely scratched the surface of something much bigger. Zeilinger specialises in quantum experiments that demonstrate the apparent influence of observers in the shaping of reality. "Maybe the real breakthrough will come when we start to realise the connections between reality, knowledge and our actions," he says. The concept is mind-bending, but it is well established in practice. Zeilinger and others have shown that particles that are widely separated can somehow have quantum states that are linked, so that observing one affects the outcome of the other. No one has yet fathomed how the universe seems to know when it is being watched.
source....
That was the scene a few days ago in front of a packed auditorium at the Perimeter Institute, in Waterloo, Canada, when a panel of physicists was asked to respond to a single question: "What keeps you awake at night?"
The discussion was part of "Quantum to Cosmos", a 10-day physics extravaganza, which ends on Sunday.
While most panelists professed to sleep very soundly, here are six key conundrums that emerged during the session, which can be viewed here.
Why this universe?
In their pursuit of nature's fundamental laws, physicists have essentially been working under a long standing paradigm: demonstrating why the universe must be as we see it. But if other laws can be thought of, why can't the universes they describe exist in some other place? "Maybe we'll find there's no other alternative to the universe we know," says Sean Carroll of Caltech. "But I suspect that's not right." Carroll finds it easy to imagine that nature allows for different kinds of universes with different laws. "So in our universe, the question becomes why these laws and not some other laws?"
What is everything made of?
It's now clear that ordinary matter – atoms, stars and galaxies – accounts for a paltry 4 per cent of the universe's total energy budget. It's the other 96 per cent that keeps University of Michigan physicist Katherine Freese engaged. Freese is excited that one part of the problem, the nature of dark matter, may be nearing resolution. She points to new data from experiments like NASA's Fermi satellite that are consistent with the notion that dark matter particles in our own galaxy are annihilating with one another at a measurable rate, which in turn could reveal their properties. But the discovery of dark energy, which appears to be speeding up the expansion of the universe, has created a vast new set of puzzles for which there are no immediate answers in sight. This includes the nature of the dark energy itself and the question of why it has a value that is so extraordinarily small, allowing for the formation of galaxies, stars and the emergence of life.
How does complexity happen?
From the unpredictable behaviour of financial markets to the rise of life from inert matter, Leo Kadananoff, physicist and applied mathematician at the University of Chicago, finds the most engaging questions deal with the rise of complex systems. Kadanoff worries that particle physicists and cosmologists are missing an important trick if they only focus on the very small and the very large. "We still don't know how ordinary window glass works and keeps it shape," says Kadanoff. "The investigation of familiar things is just as important in the search for understanding." Life itself, he says, will only be truly understood by decoding how simple constituents with simple interactions can lead to complex phenomena.
Will string theory ever be proved correct?
Cambridge physicist David Tong is passionate about the mathematical beauty of string theory – the idea that the fundamental particles we observe are not point-like dots, but rather tiny strings. But he admits it once brought him to a philosophical crisis when he realised he might live his entire life not knowing whether it actually constitutes a description of all reality. Even experiments such as the Large Hadron Collider and the Planck satellite, while well positioned to reveal new physics, are unlikely to say anything definitive about strings. Tong finds solace in knowing that the methods of string theory can be brought to bear on less fundamental problems, such as the behaviour of quarks and exotic metals. "It is a useful theory," he says, "so I'm trying to concentrate on that."
What is the singularity?
For cosmologist and Perimeter Institute director Neil Turok, the biggest mystery is the one that started it all, the big bang. Conventional theory points back to an infinitely hot and dense state at the beginning of the universe, where the known laws of physics break down. "We don't know how to describe it," says Turok. "How can anyone claim to have a theory of everything without that?" Turok is hopeful that string theory and a related development known as the "holographic principle", which shows that a singularity in three dimensions can be translated into a mathematically more manageable entity in two dimensions (which may imply that the third dimension and gravity itself are illusory). "These tools are giving us new ways of thinking about the problem, which are deeply satisfying in a mathematical sense," he says.
What is reality really?
The material world may, at some level, lie beyond comprehension, but Anton Zeilinger, professor of physics at the University of Vienna, is profoundly hopeful that physicists have merely scratched the surface of something much bigger. Zeilinger specialises in quantum experiments that demonstrate the apparent influence of observers in the shaping of reality. "Maybe the real breakthrough will come when we start to realise the connections between reality, knowledge and our actions," he says. The concept is mind-bending, but it is well established in practice. Zeilinger and others have shown that particles that are widely separated can somehow have quantum states that are linked, so that observing one affects the outcome of the other. No one has yet fathomed how the universe seems to know when it is being watched.
source....
Sunday, November 1, 2009
the start of a new year
Although November is the eleventh month of the year, its name means ninth month because in the earliest Roman calendar the year began with March. To the ancient Celts, however, November 1 was the start of a new year, which was celebrated with a festival known as Samhain.
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
- Quads, hailing from Grand Marsh Observatory atop Elk Castle Hill
Declassified UFO files reveal Canada feared alien arrival
Few know that the Canadian government chose to release its UFO files in 2005 and 2007. Over 9500 files were released with no public consultation or notification. Amidst these thousands of highly tedious sighting reports and rambling administrative memoranda, the Canadian government hid sensitive documents that clearly demonstrate officials took the UFO matter very seriously. Measures were discussed to play-down reports of UFOs by using similar tactics employed by the United States Air Force. The ultimate indictment - a Canadian Director of Scientific Intelligence suggested that Canada put in place a plan in the event of a landing of a UFO.
In making available 9500 files on its web site entitled ‘Canada’s UFOs - Search for the Unknown’, the Canadian government has opened an international controversy on unidentified flying objects.
This controversy is fueled by the clear admission that Canadian officials in the Ministry of National Defense regularly discussed tactics and policies on how to ‘play-down’ the UFO phenomenon as far back as 1950. It is even more instructive that Canada, in 2005 and 2007, chose to resurrect these controversial policy letters and hide them among thousands of mundane UFO sighting reports.
By hiding these files in plain sight, did the Canadian government attempt to deceive its citizens by proving it can be a master of misdirection, or was it a simple case of bureaucratic pragmatism?
Unlike the British Ministry of Defense and the French, Brazilian and Danish governments’ releases of their UFO files in 2007, 2008 and 2009 amidst widespread international press coverage, the Canadian government chose to make their UFO files release a virtual non-event.
As demonstrated by the total absence of media coverage or public consultation – Canadian officials were quite successful in concealing its UFO involvement. No one, outside of a handful of UFO research experts, was aware that Canada had even set up the archived UFO data base.
Released initially in August 2005, then more files in December 2007 – no international, national or local announcement, notification or press coverage accompanied Canada’s mass data-dump of UFO information.
Some highlights from the released files:
The Letters:
1. Canadian Officials Develop Policy Similar to The United States Air Force to "Play-Down" Reports of UFOs.
Canadian Joint Intelligence Committee Memorandum - G.S. Austin, Director of Air Intelligence August 4, 1950:
“The present USAF policy is to play down the subject, investigating only when considered necessary by the area commander without any special arrangements for reporting or investigation. It seems that a similar policy on our part would be wise and that it would be undesirable to produce a special questionnaire or make any arrangements for investigation since this would tend to give publicity to the matter. It is suggested therefore that sighting reports should not be solicited…”
2. Letter from the Minister of National Defense
In contrast, Ministers of National Defense sent contradictory letters to inquisitive Canadian citizens informing them that no department within the government had instructions or a desire to withhold information about objects that may be of extraterrestrial origin despite the fact the files were designated "restricted" or "secret" since the 1950s and, that Canadian policy was to "play-down" UFO reports. One ministerial letter states; “I can assure you that there is no department of the government that desires or has instructions to withhold information on objects that might be of extraterrestrial origin.” Minister of National Defense Douglas Harkness March 1962.
Clearly this statement of policy by a Minister of Defense is inconsistent with, and contradicts the practice of suppressing publicity on UFOs as suggested by the Director of Air Intelligence.
3. Official Plan - In The Event of a UFO Landing
No other letter, yet uncovered, more pointedly indicts the Canadian government as does the suggestion made by a sitting Director of Scientific Intelligence concerning the development of a plan in the event of a UFO landing on Canadian soil. He states to the Director of Air Intelligence, “You might also consider it advisable to add that should the Flying Saucer actually make a landing on Canadian territory, the nearest RCAF Command should be advised immediately by telegram… Maybe we had better talk over this when you have thought it over.” A.J.G. Langley, Defense Research Board Director of Scientific Intelligence - April 19, 1950.
It is worthy of note that Mr. Langley does not use the word “crash” but uses the word “landing” to describe a flying saucer’s controlled descent to alight on Canadian territory. To any trained observer or student of language this statement indicates Canadian officials seriously considered the possibility of a successful landing by a vehicle of unknown origin that might be under some type of intelligent control. One can only conclude that UFOs were of operative and imminent concern to Canadian officials.
Despite the less than fluid undertow of the media’s obsession with militarism and its incessant fixation on the global economic down-turn, the movement towards Disclosure of the UFO/ET reality is steadily accelerating. The recognition that governments have concealed and repressed open discourse on this matter is now a matter of record and is receiving unprecedented acknowledgment by more and more mainstream press.
The acknowledged prospect of newly established relationships with or diplomatic overtures to off-world civilizations willing to positively engage the human race would re-focus humanity’s gaze. To reject or suppress the portent of such a possibility is the height of human hubris that denies the expansive capacity of our species to look beyond who we are, towards what we can become.
source....
In making available 9500 files on its web site entitled ‘Canada’s UFOs - Search for the Unknown’, the Canadian government has opened an international controversy on unidentified flying objects.
This controversy is fueled by the clear admission that Canadian officials in the Ministry of National Defense regularly discussed tactics and policies on how to ‘play-down’ the UFO phenomenon as far back as 1950. It is even more instructive that Canada, in 2005 and 2007, chose to resurrect these controversial policy letters and hide them among thousands of mundane UFO sighting reports.
By hiding these files in plain sight, did the Canadian government attempt to deceive its citizens by proving it can be a master of misdirection, or was it a simple case of bureaucratic pragmatism?
Unlike the British Ministry of Defense and the French, Brazilian and Danish governments’ releases of their UFO files in 2007, 2008 and 2009 amidst widespread international press coverage, the Canadian government chose to make their UFO files release a virtual non-event.
As demonstrated by the total absence of media coverage or public consultation – Canadian officials were quite successful in concealing its UFO involvement. No one, outside of a handful of UFO research experts, was aware that Canada had even set up the archived UFO data base.
Released initially in August 2005, then more files in December 2007 – no international, national or local announcement, notification or press coverage accompanied Canada’s mass data-dump of UFO information.
Some highlights from the released files:
The Letters:
1. Canadian Officials Develop Policy Similar to The United States Air Force to "Play-Down" Reports of UFOs.
Canadian Joint Intelligence Committee Memorandum - G.S. Austin, Director of Air Intelligence August 4, 1950:
“The present USAF policy is to play down the subject, investigating only when considered necessary by the area commander without any special arrangements for reporting or investigation. It seems that a similar policy on our part would be wise and that it would be undesirable to produce a special questionnaire or make any arrangements for investigation since this would tend to give publicity to the matter. It is suggested therefore that sighting reports should not be solicited…”
2. Letter from the Minister of National Defense
In contrast, Ministers of National Defense sent contradictory letters to inquisitive Canadian citizens informing them that no department within the government had instructions or a desire to withhold information about objects that may be of extraterrestrial origin despite the fact the files were designated "restricted" or "secret" since the 1950s and, that Canadian policy was to "play-down" UFO reports. One ministerial letter states; “I can assure you that there is no department of the government that desires or has instructions to withhold information on objects that might be of extraterrestrial origin.” Minister of National Defense Douglas Harkness March 1962.
Clearly this statement of policy by a Minister of Defense is inconsistent with, and contradicts the practice of suppressing publicity on UFOs as suggested by the Director of Air Intelligence.
3. Official Plan - In The Event of a UFO Landing
No other letter, yet uncovered, more pointedly indicts the Canadian government as does the suggestion made by a sitting Director of Scientific Intelligence concerning the development of a plan in the event of a UFO landing on Canadian soil. He states to the Director of Air Intelligence, “You might also consider it advisable to add that should the Flying Saucer actually make a landing on Canadian territory, the nearest RCAF Command should be advised immediately by telegram… Maybe we had better talk over this when you have thought it over.” A.J.G. Langley, Defense Research Board Director of Scientific Intelligence - April 19, 1950.
It is worthy of note that Mr. Langley does not use the word “crash” but uses the word “landing” to describe a flying saucer’s controlled descent to alight on Canadian territory. To any trained observer or student of language this statement indicates Canadian officials seriously considered the possibility of a successful landing by a vehicle of unknown origin that might be under some type of intelligent control. One can only conclude that UFOs were of operative and imminent concern to Canadian officials.
Despite the less than fluid undertow of the media’s obsession with militarism and its incessant fixation on the global economic down-turn, the movement towards Disclosure of the UFO/ET reality is steadily accelerating. The recognition that governments have concealed and repressed open discourse on this matter is now a matter of record and is receiving unprecedented acknowledgment by more and more mainstream press.
The acknowledged prospect of newly established relationships with or diplomatic overtures to off-world civilizations willing to positively engage the human race would re-focus humanity’s gaze. To reject or suppress the portent of such a possibility is the height of human hubris that denies the expansive capacity of our species to look beyond who we are, towards what we can become.
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