ABOUT A ALIENS AND A RECENT NASA PUBLICATION

Two unusual and relevant events took place near the end of this month of May, 2014.

One of them is the availability through internet to obtain a free copy of the NASA publication entitled ARCHEOLOGY, ANTHROPOLOGY, AND INTERSTELLAR COMMUNICATION – Edited by Douglas A. Vakoch.  

The credits of this publication belong to the Office of Communications Publick Outreach Division - History Program Office - Washington, DC2014- The NASA History SeriesNASA SP-2013-4413

Douglas A. Vakoch, Ph.D., is Director of Interstellar Message Composition at the SETI Institute, as well as Professor in the Department of Clinical Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies. He serves as chair of both the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) Study Group on Interstellar Message Construction and the IAA Study Group on Active SETI: Scientific, Technical, Societal, and Legal Dimensions.

This is a book of a total of 300 pages, with 252 of text. The others are dedicated to the Index, references and introduction of the authors of each of the 15 Chapters, an Introduction and an Epilogue.

Dr. Vakoch points out to the fact that increasingly, what begun as a matter and concern for Astronomers (namely SETI – the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) has come along the time as a multidisciplinary task where Anthropology, Archeology, Psychology, Biology and other disciplines have their place.

Within the particular scope of this book, Dr. Vakoch explains in the Introduction under the sub-title of Reconstructing Distant Civilizations and Encountering Alien Cultures that:

“As we search for analogies to contact at inter­stellar distances, archaeology provides some intriguing parallels, given that its practitioners—like successful SETI scientists—are charged with recon­structing long-lost civilizations from potentially fragmentary evidence………………The analogy is an apt one for contact between Earth and the extraterrestrial civilizations being sought by SETI, because if we do detect information-rich signals, they may come from civilizations long since dead.” (Pages XVII y XVIII).

But this book will probably become a paradigm about how much we can trust the press and how lightly and sensationalistic it could come to be.

Because of all the pages written in the book, only one paragraph –which is just an expression, a way to say something in English— written on one Chapter, was used by some media, but mostly by biased web pages and the choir of their believers, to say that in this book NASA was recognizing the presence of the so-called Ancient Astronauts.

Dr. William H. Edmonson is the author of Chapter 15, and the paragraph that appears on pages 241 to 242.

He is Honorary Senior Research Fellow at the University of Birmingham. His research interests include topics in linguistics, human-computer interaction, ubiquitous computing, and novel SETI search strategies and methods of data analysis. At the University of Birmingham he has been actively involved in the Artificial Intelligence and Cognitive Science Group, the Advanced Interaction Group, the Natural Language Processing Group, and the Linguistics Group. As former Admissions Tutor for Computer Science at the University of Birmingham, Edmondson was responsible for undergraduate admissions for one of the leading programs in computer science in the United Kingdom.

And here is the paragraph:

“Consider again, therefore, the desirability of establishing symbolic/linguistic communication with ETI. It is helpful to review some parallels from human existence that pose problems for us today. One of these is “rock art,” which consists of patterns or shapes cut into rock many thousands of years ago. Such ancient stone carvings can be found in many countries, .…..We can say little, if anything, about what these patterns signify, why they were cut into rocks, or who created them. For all intents and purposes, they might have been made by aliens. Unless we find a readable exegesis of them produced at the time they were made, we will never be able to say with certainty what the patterns mean.”

That phrase that I underlined is the one and only mention of aliens in this context, and it is the equivalent to say for instance: “for all intents and purposes, they might have been made by my uncle”. Because the real fact is that so far, we don’t know who did them or what they mean. And that is all!

Enough about this book whose reading we sincerely recommend.

Lic. Milton W. Hourcade 

FOTOCAT UPDATE: an excellent analysis

We are already used to the excellent work of photography analysis done by our distinguished colleague from Spain, Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos.

His latest update includes the comment on a recent book written in Spanish.

The reading of this material is a must.

See it at:

 http://fotocat.blogspot.com.es/2014_03_02_archive.html

“Intelligenze Oltre La Terra” (Intelligences Beyond Earth): a must read book

It is not surprising that a man with a solid scientific Uformation and experience but also with a correctly open mind, (and when I say correctly, I mean, a mind that do not accepts anything as possible, but only what is reasonably possibly), astrophysicist Dr. Massimo Teodorani, have been capable of writing this book.

The book is composed of an Introduction, followed by 12 chapters and a bibliography.

Those chapters deal with: 

The birth of life in the Universe

The search for extra solar planets

The conditions for habitability

The Drake’s formula

The kinds of technological civilizations

Project SETI: search for electromagnetic signals from other stars

Project SETT: search for technological marks from other stars

Project SETV at long range: search for intruders in the Solar system

Project SETV at short range: search for visits on Earth

Project NLSETI: the non-local communications

Hypothesis about intelligences from other universes and other dimensions

Intelligence in plasma?

Conclusive reflections.

Although there are certain graphics, equations and formulae, the book is of easy reading, very educative, and dealing with very important concepts that almost anyone can understand and absorb.

Precisely the clarity of concepts and the way they are presented is one of the best qualities of this book. 

I think it is a work that should be read by astronomers, investigators and students of UAP, and lay people seriously interested in the search for a non-human intelligence.

It is written in Italian, but in a near future there would be a translated edition into English.

I sincerely recommend it.

Milton W. Hourcade

*Intelligenze Oltre La Terra, Giochidimagia editore, Italia, 120 pgs., 2013.

UFO FOTOCAT BLOG – A must read for any serious Ufologist

We have received the last edition of the UFO Fotocat Blog, thanks to the permanent work of one of the most prominent Ufologists of Spain and the world: our dear friend and UAPSG Member, Mr. Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos.

In this issue, it is announced a new book “UFOs and Government: A historical Inquiry” by Michael Swords and Robert Powell with the important contributions of Clas Svahn (Sweden), Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos (Spain), Bill Chalker (Australia), Barry Greenwood (USA), Richard Thieme (USA), Jan Aldrich (USA), Steve Purcell (USA).

In a message to “UFO Updates” forum list, Jerome Clark has expressed his experienced opinion, as writer and critic, about this book as follows:

I hesitate not a moment to pronounce this among the most significant UFO books ever written. I'd place it in the top 10, at least of works written in English. It's a monument to sober, meticulous scholarship in a field where such is all too rare. It supersedes any number of books that promote speculation and conspiracy theory -or, at the other end, blanket denial- in place of the documentable evidence, which makes for a fascinating story in itself.

The blog also presents the interview that UAPSG-GEFAI have done to Ballester Olmos, a report on 2012 BUFORA Conference in England, news and comments on recent books and an analysis of the famous James P. Templeton photo of a little girl with a supposed “humanoid” figure behind her head.

All in all, we sincerely recommend the reading of the blog, and also the acquisition of  “UFOs and Government: A historical Inquiry”.

See it at:  http://fotocat.blogspot.com/

FOTOCAT: the work of a great Spaniard scholar

Let’s talk about FOTOCAT

an interview by Milton W. Hourcade

How and when did you get the idea?

When I was 17 years old I initiated my ufologic walking, it was1965. Since then, one long ufological life of 47 years has passed (1) during which I have fulfilled several stages, dedicated each one of them to a long duration project, as the study of the landing cases in Spain and Portugal (1974-1978 and 1985-1987), that generated 3 books (2), a stage centered in field investigation and in developing of investigation methodology (1979-1984), that contributed to 2 books as result of my work(3), the compilation and analysis of UFO cases with military witnesses in Spain (1988-1999), including my personal involvement in the beginning and pursuit - like informal adviser-- of the process of declassification of the UFO files of the Spanish Air Force (4), mainly.

When I finalized what I consider it was the first part of my work with the files of military sightings (since it is left many material to share and to reveal to the ufological community), I decided that it was time to change of registry and thought about approaching a subject that captivated me from my beginnings in ufology, the photographic images and films of UFOS. It was then the year 2001.

How many photographs did you begin with?

The initial idea was simply to organize and to catalogue several hundreds of photographs of UFO case that I had, in a special file. Although the photos never have been a fundamental reason for my interest, yes it is true that in the first three decades of my ufologic practice I tried to get copies of the original photographs of supposed UFOS, which were apparently extraordinary. Its attractiveness transcended my liking by the subject, it was an artistic, plastic attraction. In the same way as Kandinski, Picasso or others fascinated me, I was seduced by the images of presumed flying saucers. I kept them until they reached the point of a more than acceptable collection, but about which I did not do nothing else than to accumulate them.

Once the graphical material took form in a computerized inventory, I thought about the possibility of a long term project that would consist of a revision of world-wide UFO literature in several languages - specialized books and magazines-- to extract all the information on photographic sightings, creating an individual physical file that gathered all the published history about each case. The logistics until the present is that I have reread or consulted 225 books in English, French, Italian, German, Portuguese Spanish, etc., as well as I reviewed 50 collections of specialized magazines of EE.UU., France, Spain, England, Canada, Sweden, Russia, Australia, Italy, Chile and other countries, published since 1948. It is said easily, but it has been a tremendous work. And the knowledge yes occupies place, as a matter of fact I dedicate a complete room to these files.

How many photos does the catalog currently have?

In addition to 200 folders that group the files of the cases, by country or date, the catalog (FOTOCAT) in itself is a table of Excel that has 28 columns of data; the 7 first contain control data and information for the author, followed by 17 columns of basic data about the observed phenomenon: date, hour, place, duration, geographic codes, name of the photographer, landing, aerial photograph, singular data, references and other information. At the time of printing, each record - there is a record for each event, concretely one for each series of photos, this means that a sighting can produce multiple records—is formatted in three pages in total. Finally, 3 other columns, which are not printed, gather some complementary data that is useful.

Complementing the file in paper they are the files of slides and that of digital images, this last one is still in process of chronological arrangement and to be ordered by country. Many thousands of original slides and digital are the graphic support of the catalog.

As of to date (2012 July), FOTOCAT has nothing less than 11,050 records or reports. The total number of photos could arrive at 50,000. The organization of the vast volume of visual information is in different phases, according to the country, since we have spent more time in one country than in other, but – along the time we hope to have a perfect systematization of the graphical information.

The catalog begins with the first known photo of a UFO (year 1762) and comes to an end --as a general rule—on December 31^st. 2005. Why such date?

At the end of that year I decided to make a cut as to the admission of new cases to the catalog, when I saw that in the twenty-first century, the vast majority of-many-pictures that were known (mostly via the Internet) were pure garbage: birds ---some of them frozen in flight using digital photography. I thought that if it has to be comprehensive it was necessary to set a date to cut it. However, there are some exceptions, due to several factors, such as Argentina, that ends on December 31, 2006 and Spain that ends on December 31, 2008. At the moment, there is no deadline for cases of ball lightning or military sightings or landings in Spain.

The FOTOCAT matrix creates more than 300,000 data (11,050 cases X 28 columns), a true mine of information that - when the project would be finished, will be sent over the Internet completely and obviously free. It is an example of public service, not only for the sake of its own definition, but also by the hundreds of contributors who sent regularly photo cases to this big to catalog that every day -as if it were a living creature-- is evolving and growing visibly.

Do you arrive to some conclusion from all these photos ?

I have dedicated over 10 years to this project and the findings verify the assessment of experts that the reliability of graphic documents of UFOs, as a rule, is not more valid than the testimony of eyewitnesses, due to the high margin of error, and specifically about the photos, due to hoaxes. But for the first time, the published works (see references as well as my book list starting in 2003) provide a big amount of fresh information, analytical data and research that no doubt will be of interest to the student of the UFO phenomenology.

There is a lot to be done, many critical periods to be analyzed, many countries to consider, many comparisons to be made between regions, years, types of cases, etc.. In spite of all that have been accomplished, it is little compared with what lies ahead. For sure in the coming years we will be able to isolate and draw some general and clever conclusions.

So far, this research process also involves the collaboration of technicians and specialists who analyze noticeable cases, classic or potentially valuable, and whose opinions are appearing on the blog FOTOCAT, solving or confirming sightings.

Is it there one or a group of photos of alleged "UFOs" which are really valid as graphic evidence of something strange in the skies?

It is evident that the global casuistry mix contains some examples of phenomena of difficult appraisal, which is a spur to further investigation of such kind of reports. The problem is that in some of the better unidentified cases (e.g. Cocoyoc, Mexico, 09/10/1990, or Alfena, Portugal, 11/03/1973), the shape and dynamic feature of the objects filmed are similar to hot air balloons; in other situations, such as the classic events of McMinnville, Ohio, 05/11/1950 or Great Falls, Montana, 08.15.1950, --to name a couple of them in the United States--, those are very controversial and very disputed cases for which reasonable alternative explanations have been given. What it seems clear is that the best photographic evidence is in the oldest events, just when film media (either photography or movie) were of lower quality.

At this moment I cannot pronounce myself for "best photos" because the pending task of analysis is still big.

How the catalog could be accessed?

The catalog itself is not publicly available yet, but the author provides regional listings annually to researchers who request them, which is very common. I invite any researcher that needs a list of cases of his country or of certain period, for his work in ufology, to get in contact with me so I can give what is needed: ballesterolmos@yahoo.es

Since October 2002 I edit a blog that (not) regularly gives accounts of the progress of the catalog, reports of work done, provides photographic reports, producing statistics from FOTOCAT, makes book reviews and serves to mention and thank the broad international support given to this project. In the world of ufology, this blog was the first and one of the few who is bilingual in English and Spanish. I suggest reading visiting this link: http://fotocat.blogspot.com/

Beyond the accumulation of photos with details of who, when and where they were taken, what other scope has FOTOCAT?

FOTOCAT itself could be an ultimate end in itself-and is the largest global database on this category of sightings, but I see it as a database for the generation of thematic, regional or year, of which have already been published several, a study of UFO photographs taken in Argentina in 1965 (5), a collection of cases of the global wave of 1954 (6), catalog and photographic analysis of reports generated in France (7), spheroids photographed from the air (8), catalog and analysis of UFO events and phenomena Hessdalen in Norway (9), and several others in various stages of preparation, some of them in collaboration with leading international researchers.

Also during these years, in the blog of the FOTOCAT project has been published brief studies on the casuistry of countries (Finland, Australia) on "repeaters" in photography, IFOs vs. UFOs, distribution of reports by decades, and many other topics related to the UFO phenomenon as a global one in relation to the pictures taken.

Would you like to add any other details or comments?

FOTOCAT is a project that requires enormous amounts of energy, dedication and work. Therefore my research over the years has gone also in another direction, as could be predicted by someone who knows me well, and I have written several essays on casuistry, research and history . I want to highlight a review of the process of declassification of UFO files worldwide (10) and my recent contribution to a collective work on a book about which Jerome Clark just say this: : I hesitate not a moment to pronounce this among the most significant UFO books ever written… (11).

The work that lies ahead for FOTOCAT is immense, the search in books and magazines for photographic cases seeking to add to the list, mail with national scholars to exchange information and establish the sample reports for countries, reporting topics (UFOs in Antarctica, 1947, Chile, ball lightning, the Belgian wave, Great Britain, etc..). The collaboration of researchers is much appreciated, and the role they can play in expanding the catalog can be special, so I end this interview by welcoming any collaboration with this project.

REFERENCES

(1) My bibliography 1965-2011 can be read here: http://www.ikaros.org.es/bibliog1.pdf

(2) A Catalogue of 200 Type-I UFO Events in Spain and Portugal, Center for UFO Studies (Evanston, Illinois), 1976.OVNIS: el fenómeno aterrizaje, Plaza y Janes, SA (Barcelona), 1978. Enciclopedia de los encuentros cercanos con OVNIs (with Juan A. Fernandez), Plaza y Janes, SA (Barcelona), 1987. The three books were prefaced by Dr. Jacques Vallee.

(3) Los OVNIS y la ciencia (with Miguel Guasp), Plaza y Janes, S. A. (Barcelona), 1981 (foreword by Dr. Richard Haines).Investigación OVNI, Plaza y Janes, Inc. (Barcelona), 1984 (foreword by Dr. J. Allen Hynek).

(4)Expedientes insólitos, Temas de hoy (Madrid), 1995 (foreword by Javier Sierra and epilogue by Dr. Jacques Vallee).

(These books are out of print but can be found at the flea market and Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/7glwc9x)

(5) "Argentina, The Year 1965 in Photos"
http://www.ikaros.org.es/fotocat/argentina1965en.pdf
"Argentina, El año1965 in fotos"
http://www.ikaros.org.es/fotocat/argentina1965es.pdf

(6) "The Year 1954 in Photos (Expanded)"
http://www.box.net/shared/y1mufymo8w

“El año 1954 en fotos (Versión Ampliada)”,

http://www.box.net/shared/bg8v8enkso

(7) "An Approach to UFO Pictures in France",
http://www.ikaros.org.es/fotocat/approach.pdf

(8) "Spheres in UAP Airborne Imagery" (with Martin Shough)
http://www.ikaros.org.es/fotocat/spheres.pdf

(9) Norway in UFO Photographs: The First Catalogue (with Ole Jonny Brænne) http://www.upiar.com/index.cfm?artID=174

(10) "State-of-the-Art in UFO Disclosure Worldwide" http://tinyurl.com/3b3qh5q

(11) UFOs and Government (with M. Swords, R. Powell, C. Svahn, B. Chalker, B. Greenwood, R. Thieme, J. Aldrich and S. Purcell), Anomalist Books, 2012. (This book is available on the website of the publisher: http://www.anomalistbooks.com/book.cfm?id=64 and Amazon: http://tinyurl.com/7vn2r9u or Barnes and Noble: http://tinyurl.com/cr4rp6s