Professor Michael Sword's UFO Files.

a reply to: karl 12

Just noticed this.

.... and if there WAS anything to this, you'd think that we'd get a glimpse of who's behind it once in a while.......

Oh my god is this a subtle hint that the Michelin Men are behind it all

What the hell is that all about LOL!

a reply to: mirageman

Perhaps this?

Link - Michelin Man Encounters

?????

- AB

originally posted by: In4ormant
a reply to: Tangerine

shouldnt something TRULY tangible be testable? I know it's a stretch

Yes, it should be. What did you have in mind? Anything specific?

a reply to: Tangerine


Right off hand I wonder why no one has used flir/thermal cameras pointing up. Why not a group staggered over a large area of supposed ufo traffic "hotbed" and lets see what we get. Even something with an unconventional thrust system would generate heat and disturbance with wind resistance alone.

a reply to: In4ormant

Peter Davenport has long promoted the idea of using passive radar. It isn't reliant on transponders to recognise aircraft, but would be able to register any aircraft, at any speed, that travelled through its airspace. This is through the 'reflections' they make as they disturb commercial radio and TV signals. It's not a bad idea is it? Realistically though, no sovereign state would allow the unsupervised tracking of *all* aircraft in its skies.

You can read about it here (NICAP pdf) in an article by Davenport from 2005.

FLIR/Thermal cameras have been used by civilian skywatchers and pilots without a lot of success - even at the peak of sighting reports (pre-1970s) they weren't as common as commercial jets. There are a handful of videos that seem to show interesting aircraft with triangular light configurations. I'll come back and add one if it's still available...it was in an old thread by Zorgon iirc.

a reply to: mirageman

Yeah, French and British UFO/weird zines reported a rash of sightings reports that described human-shaped beings in suits that looked like the 'Michelin man.' There are some interesting articles that discuss the sightings in cultural terms where people were seeing European cultural icons as part of some post-War angst.

originally posted by: In4ormant
a reply to: Tangerine


Right off hand I wonder why no one has used flir/thermal cameras pointing up. Why not a group staggered over a large area of supposed ufo traffic "hotbed" and lets see what we get. Even something with an unconventional thrust system would generate heat and disturbance with wind resistance alone.

That seems like a good idea, but even if it captures images, what will it prove? It won't prove the origin of the images it captures. We already know that unidentified flying objects exist.

originally posted by: In4ormant
a reply to: Tangerine


Right off hand I wonder why no one has used flir/thermal cameras pointing up. Why not a group staggered over a large area of supposed ufo traffic "hotbed" and lets see what we get. Even something with an unconventional thrust system would generate heat and disturbance with wind resistance alone.

Few groups have bothered to run actual experiments unfortunately. There was a very interesting bit of work done with a magnetometer in Michigan for example.

What we need are remote sensor platforms like the ones Bigelow proposed. If anything else, they'd make dandy meteor cameras, and matching uncorrelated radar targets to visual data could be used to fight smugglers or whatever. A lot of what we want can be done with off the shelf components these days...

originally posted by: mirageman

Oh my god is this a subtle hint that the Michelin Men are behind it all

What the hell is that all about LOL!

Hi mate, seems there´s been quite a few 'Bibendum-like' UFO occupants reported over the years - it won´t let me link it but if you type "Openminds The Michelin Men encounters on Reunion Island" into Google then there´s quite a good article.

Plaine des Caffres, La Réunion, July 31st, 1968:







Link

As well as the 1968 sightings, there was a similar case there in 1975:

Petite-Ile, La Réunion, February 14, 1975

And a similar case from France in 1954:

OCTOBER 16 1954, MAUBEUGE, NORD

And Spain in 1976:

MARCH 14, 1976, LIRIA, VALENCIA, SPAIN

a reply to: AboveBoard

a reply to: karl 12

a reply to: Kandinsky

Thanks guys. You know you've refreshed my memory a bit and I do vaguely recall reading this many years ago. And it sort of makes sense in a way as the Michelin Man would look similar to an Astronaut. Although they look very similar to "Robbie the Robot" as well.

Probably worth some more investigation if I wasn't so 'tyred' at the moment.

originally posted by: Tangerine

I'm not sure what you mean by cynics. If you mean debunkers, I agree with you.

Yes I'm probably having difficulty with the actual definition of the term (seems to be a big problem in the U.F.O subject altogether) -didn't really want to use the term 'debunker' as some people see that as a positive label - maybe pelicanist or pseudo-sceptic would have done.

Granted there are huge differences but here's the best description of a UFO cynic I've come across (astronomer Allan Hendry on the methods of investigation used by Philip Klass).

Hendry objected strongly to Klass's modus operandi, which Hendry argued was based on suppressed and distorted evidence, unscientific reasoning, ad hominem attacks, smear campaigns, character assassination, scientific bait and switch tactics, and seemingly refusing to evaluate evidence that conflicted with his preconceptions.

This is all part of the Klass method of, as Hendry puts it,"using a truncated version of the information available to him and shaping it to his own ends." There is no way of winning an argument with him because, even when presented with documented evidence of the incorrectness of his position, Klass seldom concedes he is wrong. Instead he holds fiercely to a position even when it is demonstrably at variance with the facts.

And a great definition of a sincere sceptic from astrophysicist Bernard Haisch.

Skeptic - One who practices the method of suspended judgment, engages in rational and dispassionate reasoning as exemplified by the scientific method, shows willingness to consider alternative explanations without prejudice based on prior beliefs, and who seeks out evidence and carefully scrutinizes its validity.

UFO Sceptic.Org

originally posted by: Tangerine

Skeptics are another matter. Skeptics simply want testable evidence. I think that's entirely reasonable, don't you?

Nothing wrong with that mate and I suppose if it wasn't for sincere sceptics we'd still be cowering in caves at thunder and lightning.

I suppose what gets me is when people presuppose things about the origin of UFOs and then use that assumption as an excuse to dismiss the whole subject altogether. A good example would be this case where an object was seemingly witnessed by many people 'sucking up water' from a lake -I've had many self proclaimed sceptics say to me that aliens would not fly across the galaxy to collect water so therefore the whole case must be false (does that sound like a genuinely scientific approach to you?).

Also came across this snippet regarding mainstream science and British chemist Erol Faruk's paper -'The Indisputable Scientific Evidence for a UFO Landing and Deposition (aka The Delphos Case) that was denied Publication by Scientific Journals' - seems you just can't win.


Careful what you ask for

originally posted by: mirageman

Thanks guys. You know you've refreshed my memory a bit and I do vaguely recall reading this many years ago. And it sort of makes sense in a way as the Michelin Man would look similar to an Astronaut. Although they look very similar to "Robbie the Robot" as well.

Certainly look a bit freaky those Michelin men!

Always thought this was an interesting 'UFO occupant / astronaut' report as well mate - it's from Bolton in 1926.

The figures were dressed in a style reminiscent of the famous Michelin Man. They wore bulky suits made from silver-grey rubber tubes, “transparent dome-like helmets” and black boots. The helmets were connected by tubes to small tanks strapped on their backs.

1926: Humanoid Hide and Seek

Also sounds quite a bit like this chap spotted in Belgium in 1973 (who was said to 'walk up the wall like a fly').

Link

originally posted by: mirageman

Probably worth some more investigation if I wasn't so 'tyred' at the moment.

originally posted by: 1ofthe9

I'd like to see him get together with Vallee. Jacques seemed pretty enthused about modern data analysis capabilities compared to what he was working with back in the 1970's. Sword's would know where to get the materials if he didn't already have them.

I'm sure he would mate and so would I -would be very nice to see a collaboration between the two (and some correlations in the database). Prof Swords does make a few light hearted points below about 'coincidences' found in UFO reports, the first one also involves pendulum motion and the second set involve two localised lightbeam cases days apart.

UFO report from Weir, Lancashire, England on 10th of December, 1982

As it grew nearer, the light resolved into two lights with a red rectangle between them. It's motion was peculiar. It would zig-zag but more than that it seemed to do so "in steps"--- sudden changes in direction, side-to-side and even backwards sometimes. Despite these motion peculiarities, the thing was ultimately to pass directly over their heads. It was always slow, and dead quiet. As it approached, the couple felt that they were seeing more of the object, from the "frontal" lights and red strip, to part of the arc of lights extending backwards, and finally to the whole object of two red strips connected by semi-circular bands of white lights [these were either lights packed very close together or an actual band of light..]

Object witnessed one year later in Ireland:

Several witnesses had reported odd lights in the sky. Two of those witnesses decided to drive home puzzling over what they'd seen [ten red lights "swarming like bees"]. But it wasn't a completely peaceful drive. As they proceeded down this country lane, their car was "buzzed" itself and followed by an odd object. This thing didn't stop stalking them until they reached a larger road. What was it like? A large object [twice the size of a helicopter], with two red rectangular lights connected by semicircles of closely packed white lights..

Coincidence Again, and Again, and....

Two UFO light beam cases days apart in Missouri.

]The thing emitted an intensely bright white lightbeam towards the roadbed. This beam was also extremely hot, and he felt the same way as if he were out on a summer's noon time in full blast of the Sun. As the beam manifested, the object changed colors. Its center became blue, and the red migrated to a ring around this core..

And

The apparent cause of this extraordinary behavior was a bright beam of light coming down into the road ahead. This beam was so bright [like the Sun] that it was hard to see anything else in its direction. Mrs. X followed the beam skyward to see a disk-shaped [almost like a pyramid] object, gray colored with a small dome atop, from which this beam emerged. Sometimes it seemed like there were particles of something suspended in this beam..

Link

originally posted by: 1ofthe9

I might have to get in touch with Professor Swords, see if I can't pin down something Keel and Sanderson investigated...

Good luck and keep us posted, my interest is definitely piqued -he's 'gone fishin' at the moment but hopefully he'll be back soon (digitizing his files) -did once read that Sanderson and Keel attempted to write a ''strictly reportorial' UFO book together but it didn't come off - big shame as would have dearly loved to read that one.

Link

Update and new home for the archives:

Not Quite Back Yet

" Also lovely piece on the Coyne incident at the link.

More updates on the archives:

JUST...ABOUT...THERE

JUST SOME PRACTICAL "BUSINESS"

Actually it occurred to me there was a parallel to the Weir case... The 1977 Canary Islands thing - it popped up in the midwest too according to Keel.

originally posted by: 1ofthe9

Actually it occurred to me there was a parallel to the Weir case... The 1977 Canary Islands thing - it popped up in the midwest too according to Keel.

Interesting stuff mate and would like to hear more about that - once made a thread about it here and V.J. Ballester-Olmos does make some interesting points about a mis-ident missile launch.



More from the Prof.

A Brief UFO Diversion

Cheers.

More from Prof Swords on the US Government, UFOs and intelligent motion (sourced by Easynow).

INTELLIGENT MOTIONS

Good file collection of the unknown!

a reply to: karl 12

Hey karl,

Thought I'd add this interesting news clipping ...

pbs.twimg.com...

Link - thebiggeststudy.blogspot.com...

Cheers