SUNlite Shedding some light on UFOlogy and UFOs Volume 3 Number 5 September-October 2011 Farewell to an era butions this month. They provide some interesting information for the readers of ecently, I visited the National Air and sad news until recently. Bob Girard of SUNlite. RSpace Museum near Dulles airport Arcturus books also passed away. Last- west of Washington D.C. There, they had ly, was the departure from this earth of TABLE OF CONTENTS the original shuttle Enterprise, which Budd Hopkins. He was respected by was used for aerial testing before the many in UFOlogy and UFO updates had Who’s blogging UFOs..................................2-3 first shuttle launch in 1981. It was well a long list of responses to the news. It is worth the visit and I highly recommend always disappointing to see anyone pass The Roswell Corner .......................................4 it to anyone visiting the area. I am sure away no matter how much your opinion Plenty of IFOS...............................................5-6 the shuttle created its share of UFO re- differs with theirs. Hopefully, those close ports over the years. Goodness knows to these people will have them live in Upcoming IFO events....................................6 how much mileage, UFO proponents got their memories for many years to come. The best photographic evidence for UFOs: from the various videos taken from the A status report............................................7-9 shuttle. I just hope NASA comes up with In the image above, you can see the stel- Akhenaten: The heretic pharoh as his- a suitable replacement in the future. lar work of “Psycho Clown” (aka “stray cat” tory’s first UFO fanatic by Martin S. in the JREF forum). His artwork explains Kottmeyer...................................10-12 While my comment about an end of an well the concept of Carl Sagan’s state- era applies to the Space Shuttle, it can ment about “Extraordinary claims require An artistic record of the great JREF UFO also apply to the unfortunate passing of extraordinary evidence”. His artwork evidence debate.....................................13-15 several persons associated with UFOl- made an on-going UFO evidence debate There be dragons!......................................15 ogy. Hillary Evans, a prominent British in that forum an enjoyable experience. UFOlogist, passed away. Magonia wrote As a result, I put together a brief synop- The Rashomon effect, UFO tales, a superb obit that should be read. Stu- sis of that debate along with the artwork and transmutation of memory art Millar, who wrote the newsletter “UFO to help illustrate some of the humor that by Peter W. Merlin.................16-18 Review” for several years died in an un- resulted. UFOs on the tube: UFOs on the record fortunate traffic accident some months .................................................................19-21 ago. Because Stuart had apparently re- As always, I want to thank Marty Kott- Buy it, borrow it, bin it.................................21 tired from UFOlogy, people missed the meyer and Peter Merlin for their contri- 1 Lance Moody alerted me in early May ing the shutdown. So far, we only have about UFOlogist Phil Imbrogno’s exag- Who’s blogging unconfirmed rumors. gerations of his educational resume’. Lance had pulled the loose thread on UFOs? Contrails being illuminated by the sun Phil’s claims and it was discovered that are being recorded on video and de- he was lying about his Massachusetts scribed as “flaming UFOs”. The plane Institute of Technology education. Once Hot topics and varied opinions can not be seen because of the resolution that occurred, the thread unravelled fur- of the camera and the angle at which it is ther when other stories that Mr. Imbrog- being recorded. In the Mexico video, the no told turned out to be highly plane is reflecting the sun’s exaggerated. When this news light preventing it from be- surfaced, Phil promptly “retired” ing identifiable. Again, peo- from UFOlogy. In late April, ple are making something Paul Kimball had announced mundane into something that Imbrogno was going to extraordinary. be part of his new “Beyond the best evidence” DVD project. Tim Hebert describes how That entry and any reference UFOs might possibly shut- to Imbrogno then disappeared down ten missiles at once. from Kimball’s blog about the Hebert is a former Strategic same time Moody e-mailed Air Command missile crew me about the problem with commander and can be Imbrogno. Moody had men- considered an expert on the tioned that he had told Kimball subject. His theory is that the about the issue. On July 11th, only way a single UFO could after the news became public, shut them all down would be Kimball posted a blog entry, where he to located near the flight’s Launch con- did not name Imbrogno or Moody (sort reviewed. If UFOlogy can’t clean its own trol facility/Launch control center (LCF/ of like Harry Potter’s “he, who shall not be house, it will never impress scientists LCC). The Echo and the undocumented named...) but did comment on the news. outside UFOlogy. Oscar flight shutdowns supposedly in- He implied this was all a waste of time volved UFO sightings near a single silo and it made no difference as far as UFO- A video of a bright fireball in Brazil and not over the LCF/LCC. logical research is concerned. Kimball was characterized by some as a UFO. It also stated on the same date that he was looks spectacular but it behaves just like Hebert then wrote another entry regard- putting his “Other side of the truth” blog a meteor. It constantly amazes me how ing the Malmstrom Echo flight incident. on hiatus (possibly for a year) and wanted UFO proponents so often mistake events He concluded there was no UFO involve- to get out and enjoy life. When I e-mailed like this as something “exotic”. The first ment and that the case is closed. I won- Mr. Kimball about all of this, he chose not thing a UFOlogist should do is educate der if Robert Salas and Robert Hastings to publicly comment on the subject. themselves about things that do appear think that way? If Echo flight did not in- in the sky. Maybe they will then make volve UFOs, what does it say for the never I have a different opinion than Mr. Kim- fewer mistakes like this. documented Oscar flight event, which ball concerning how this affects UFOlogy. supposedly happened the same month? UFO researchers should be held to the Manuel Borraz sent me a link to a piece It gives one another reason to doubt that same standards as others in academia if he wrote about Project Bluebook’s the Oscar flight shut down even occurred UFOlogy is to be considered something Special Report No. 14. I discussed this or, if it occurred, it involved UFOs at all. worthy of being called a “science”. In a in last issue and I believe Manuel’s article field where credibility is of high impor- is something that also has to be consid- Last issue, I mentioned a listing of UFO tance, being as truthful as possible about ered when evaluating the results of the blogs that contained no skeptical links. these things is critical. How can UFOl- study. I was not quite accurate. There were sev- ogy gain respect as a science if it’s lead eral skeptical links after close inspection. I researchers are lying about their creden- Lee Speigal seems to have pulled the missed it and apologize to the authors for tials? This kind of thing is what causes thread on some of Robert Hastings the error (especially the one who alerted people to dismiss UFOlogy as a fringe claims. While his article was biased to- me to this mistake). subject. People can claim just about any- wards Hastings version of events, he thing and get away with it because there did contact Public Affairs officers Lt. Col. Magonia noted that MUFON’s journal is hardly any fact checking or follow-up. John Thomas, who explained some of continues to promote some outlandish Imbrogno was even able to publish ar- Hastings exaggerated claims about the stories. The source of these claims come ticles with the International UFO reporter, FE Warren AFB shutdown. I am still wait- from people like Linda Moulton Howe, which is supposed to be one of UFOlogy’s ing for better evidence of his “blimp-like” who has to be one of the most credu- leading journals where articles are peer UFO hovering over missile silos and caus- lous UFO personalities I have ever seen. 2 It is hard to believe that the UFO exam- Who’s blogging UFOs? (Cont’d) iner’s blog could come up with a more outrageous UFO report than the one She promotes just about any UFO related allows so many “fringe” UFOlogists to ap- that claimed a five-mile wide UFO was story no matter how unbelievable it is to pear at their meetings. How can they ex- over Kansas City, Missouri. The source outside readers. What shocked me was pect UFOlogy to be considered scientific of this UFO report is a MUFON investi- the claim supposedly made by Kathleen when you have people at their gatherings gator, who apparently saw this UFO for Marden, who is the niece of Betty Hill. She claiming to be human-alien hybrids? Rob- several seconds and then it simply dis- co-wrote the book with Stanton Friedman ert also indicates he is releasing a book appeared into thin air! The investigator called “Captured”. Now she has apparently called Psychic Vibrations, which looks in- then saw a commercial airplane acting, moved on to abduction stories.