UFO ROUNDUP Volume 5 Number 40 October 5, 2000

“ANGEL HAIR” FALLS IN LIVONIA, MICHIGAN

On Thursday afternoon, September 28, 2000m a male jogger was out running in Livonia, Michigan, a suburb 15 miles (25 kilometers) west of Detroit, when he spied something weird on the grass.

“Yesterday I collected the largest amount of angel hair I have ever seen,” he reported, “I literally ran into it while out running. It was spread across the grass near a drainage ditch, under a tree that looked like a weeping willow. I had never seen the stuff before, in person, only photos and stories on the Internet.”

“”But I found it and collected all of it, and I have a large sample of it inside a Ziploc (plastic) bag. It feels like cat fur, but it has a static cling to it. All of the hairs cling to each other in the bag. There are no stray hairs floating around. When I put my hand down on the grass to pick some up, it just came up against my hand like static cling almost.”

“”I (had) decided to go out running and at first ran past it, then stopped and turned around to look more closely.”

“It was obvious it had blown from a northerly direction. It was only a small patch, about three feet (0.9 meters) wide. I picked it all up and stuck it in the pocket of my jogging sweatshirt, then ran up to the nearest grocery store to get a plastic bag to put it in.”

“I thought it would disintegrate like everyone says, but it didn’t. It’s still right there, in the Ziploc. Maybe because there’s so much of it, it all just stuck to each other. Weird!” (Many thanks to Christopher Montgomery of UFORCE for forwarding this report.)

VIRGIN MARY APPEARS IN PERTH AMBOY, NEW JERSEY

An apparition of the Virgin Mary, formerly known as Miriam bat-Joachim, was reported in Perth Amboy, New Jersey (population 55,000), located just west across the Arthur Kill from New York City’s borough of Staten Island.

“For days, hundreds of people have been gathering outside of Romona Collado’s two-story apartment” in Perth Amboy, N.J. “to pray to the Virgin Mary.”

“The people say they see the image in an upstairs window of Collado’s home.”

“The image appears to be God’s face, the Virgin Mary and an angel, said Felix Prats, Collado’s son-in-law. ‘You right outside to the window and you see it.'”

(Editor’s Comment: God’s face…hmmmm, truly a rare public appearance by the Almighty.)

“Several people filed into Collado’s home to reach out and touch the window, which appears to show changing colors when the light hits it.”

“‘I don’t know if it’s the Virgin or not, but it helps the faith. It gives inspiration,’ Rev. Michael Scott of St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church said.”

“Romona Collado said the image was a message from the Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, to repent and pray.”

“Prat said that Collado’s son, Ramon, was paralyzed in a fall from the window more than a year ago. Ramon Collado recently had a conversation with the Virgin Mary, he said.”

“She told him, ‘We got to be prepared ’cause she’s coming, and her son is coming,’ Prats said.” (See the Chicago Tribune for September 29, 2000, “Faithful pray near vision of Mary,” page 12.)

NEW UFO VIDEO REPORTED IN THE PHILIPPINES

Businessman Antonio Israel, 37, of Las Pitas in the Philippines has gone public with a video which shows “what he claims was an unidentified flying object (UFO) hovering over his neighborhood on Silver Street (in) Carmela Homes IV in Las Pitas” on Sunday, September 3, 2000.

“”Antonio Israel, 37, told The Star yesterday (Tuesday, September 19, 2000) that he was able to capture on video ‘small balls of light dancing frenetically in the evening sky.'”

“Israel said the 40-minute footage showed ‘at least three and up to 17 balls of light bouncing in the clear night sky’ and the ‘show’ gave his neighbors ‘a visual treat.'”

“Israel said he had just awakened in his small office in the rear of his home at around 7:30 p.m last Sept. 3 when he looked up in the sky ‘to gauge the weather’ and ‘two odd-looking stars or big red circles caught his attention.'”

“The ‘red balls of light, which at times turned to white and to yellow, moved around and hovered’ in the evening sky, he added.”

“Israel said he immediately grabbed his Handycam and ran out of the house to film the ‘event’ while his neighbors yelled excitedly while pointing at the UFOs.”

“The shouts of Israel’s neighbors could be heard in the background of the video footage as the sight of the UFOs made them gasp in awe and disbelief.”

“Israel told The Star that the UFOs were also seen by residents of nearby Batangays in Las Pitas and possibly people living in Parataque City.”

“To prove the film’s authenticity, Israel said he has shown it to investigators from the Philippines Atmospherical, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA), led by Elmer Escosia.”

“Escosia told The Star in a telephone interview they have already watched the footage. But he refused to comment on the authenticity until they have made a ‘thorough examination’ of the videotape.”

“Escosia said his (PAGASA) team had already talked with Israel and his neighbors who vouched that the film is genuine and that they had seen the UFO with their own eyes.”

“Escosia said they have not quite ‘thoroughly examined’ the footage because Israel refused to entrust the video to them for study.”

Israel declined “to give The Star a copy of the film but allowed the paper to take snapshots from the video footage.”

“Israel said his reason for keeping the videotape is to ensure ‘the safety and exclusivity’ and hope that a scientific Institution, either local or foreign, takes interest in the film so it can be studied further.”

“Israel said it was an experience in itself watching the UFOs and that it was also the experience of a lifetime for him and his neighbors.”

“‘I think those balls of light were really UFOs,’ he said, ‘Some people may dismiss our claims as the fruits of a fertile imagination, but my footage will prove them wrong.'” (See The Star of Manila for September 20, 2000, “Is the truth out there?” by Rainier Allan Ronda. Many thanks to Antonio Israel for forwarding me this newspaper article.)

SPHERICAL UFO SEEN BY THREE CHILDREN IN SPAIN

Three children from Castellon, a port city on Spain’s Mediterranean Sea coast, “sighted two U during the evening of” Thursday, September 21, 2000.

“The children “were identified as Serafina Andrew, Antonio Jose Alvarez and Gil Salvador.” They “were playing between the Calle Zaragoza and the Calle Amadeo Primero (streets–J.T.) when they witnessed the approach of a luminous sphere which flew over Ribalta Park.”

“According to their testimony, the sphere passed swiftly over the city. A few minutes later, the children were in Huerto Sogueros Plaza where they again saw the luminous object. ”

“The children explained the events to the Policia Armada (Military Police–J.T.) (Muchas gracias a Scott Corrales, autor de los libros Chupacabras and Other Mysteries y Forbidden Mexico, para eso articulo de diario. See the Spanish newspaper El Periodico for September 24, 2000, “Three children see two UFOs flying over the provincial capital.:)

MYSTERIOUS HOVERING LIGHTS SIGHTED IN PENNSYLVANIA

On Tuesday, September 19, 2000, between 4:30 and 4:45 a.m., a male motorist was driving to work on a rural road in Marysville, Pennsylvania (population 1,600) when he saw something strange from his car window.

The witness “commonly drives through this area on his way to work,” according to Pennsylvania ufologist Stan Gordon, “The location of the sighting was described as a valley with fields surrounded by mountains. From approximately one mile (1.6 kilometers) away, the driver observed ‘what looked like stadium lights’ over an open field. The observer knew no such lights are located in the area.”

“”As the witness continued to watch, at one point the car window was lowered, but no sound could be heard. What the observer described seeing were two very large round lights. These lights were white in color, non- blinking and were very brilliant.”

“”According to the witness, the luminous sources were extremely huge and were estimated as being as large as a football field.”

“At first it seemed as though there was one object, but it became apparent that there were two separate lights positioned side by side.”

“The lights were quite low in altitude, motionless over the field, and according to the observer, illumination from the lights ‘lit up the whole sky.'”

“The observer proceeded down the road for a distance, then returned several minutes later, but the lights could no longer be seen.”

Marysville, Pa. is a small town in the Appalachian Mountains located about 60 miles (96 kilometers) northeast of Pittsburgh. (Many thanks to Stan Gordon for this report.)

MYSTERIOUS BRIGHT FLASH LIGHTS UP USA’S SOUTHWEST

On Tuesday, September 26, 2000, at around 8 p.m., a mysterious green-and-orange flash lit up the night sky from Tucson, Arizona to San Diego, California. The bright flash was seen by hundreds of eyewitnesses.

“A green and orange flash people saw streak from the high desert (westward) to the Pacific Coast across the night sky was most likely a meteor, according to an astronomer.”

“The flash was seen in the clear Southern California sky about 8 p.m. Tuesday. It was visible more than 100 miles away, as far east as the Arizona (state) line as far south as the” USA-Mexico border.

“‘From the description I got, it sounds like a very bright meteor or a fireball, as we call it,’ said Patrick So, an astronomer at the Griffith Park Observatory in the hills just north of downtown'” Los Angeles. “He said it was most likely a fragment of an asteroid that broke up long ago.”

“Such objects give off a green glow as they burn up in the Earth’s atmosphere, he added.”

“Trucker Tom Lawson was driving along Interstate (Highway) 8 near Gila Bend, Arizona (population 2,000),” about 215 miles (344 kilometers) west of Tucson when “he saw ‘a green light with kind of an orange tail going from the southwest sky.'”

“‘It just kind of faded out as it got to the West Coast,’ he said.” (See the Ashland, Wis. Press for September 27, 2000. Many thanks to Louise A. Lowry for alerting me to this news story.)

TRIANGULAR UFOs TRACK A CHEMTRAIL IN OREGON

On Thursday, September 28, 2000, at about 6:30 p.m., ufologist James Gilliland and several companions were in the Columbia River valley near The Dalles, Oregon (population 12,000) when they saw “a very large jet (that) had just passed over, laying down a very thick chemtrail.”

“The three triangular craft seemed to be following the same (flight) pattern” as the jet “from the north to the south towards the Columbia River. The UFOs “floated along very slow and were two to three times larger than the jet..”

“We have prayed for divine intervention with the chemtrails. Could this be it?” (Many thanks to James Gilliland for this report.)

(Editor’s Comment: Don’t bet the rent money on that assumption, Jim. Back in 1536, the people of Tumbez in Peru thought Francisco Pizarro had come to save them from the tyranny of the cruel Inca usurper Atahuallpa. They were wrong.)

POPE NAMES NEW SAINTS FOR THE USA AND CHINA

Pope John Paul II canonized a number of new saints in the Roman Catholic Church last week, including the second female saint burn in the USA.

“Mother Katherine Mary Drexel, founder of the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, was canonized Sunday,” October 1, 2000, “at the Vatican. She becomes the Roman Catholic Church’s second U.S.-born saint.”

The first, “Elizabeth Ann Seton, who also founded an order in the early 1899s, was canonized in 1975.”

Mother Drexel, “who died in 1955 at the age of 96, devoted her life and her Philadelphia family’s $20 million fortune to missionary work among American Indians and African-American poor. She also founded Xavier University of Louisiana, the nation’s only predominantly black Catholic university. She was sponsored for canonization in 1964 after a boy was healed from deafness in one ear when his parents prayed in Drexel’s name.”

Also, “Pope John Paul II, in one of the most politically delicate acts of his pontificate, canonized 120 Catholics who died under Chinese religious persecution” between 1810 and 1930.

“Among the 120 were 87 Chinese Catholics; the rest were foreign missionaries,” including several Italians who were killed in the I Ho Chuan (Boxer) revolution of 1900.

The government of China denounced the canonization, “proclaimed its ‘utmost indignation’ at the pope and called them ‘evil-doing sinners’ guilty of rape and plunder.'” (See USA Today for October 2, 2000, “United States gets its second Catholic saint,” page 3A, and “Canonization and its timing anger Beijing,” page 12A.)

(Editor’s Comment: Beijing showed its devotion to religious liberty last week by cracking down–again–on the banned Falun Gong sect, which believes in and seeks contact with. UFOs More than 350 members of Falun Gong were kicked, beaten and arrested when they rallied in Tianenmen Square in Beijing.)

PORTUGUESE UFOLOGIST SAYS THE 1954 ALMASEDA CASE IS “A HOAX”

Portuguese ufologist Joaqium Fernandes says the UFO landing at Almaseda in eastern Portugal in September 1954 “was a hoax.”

The newspaper Diario de Lisboa for September 28, 1954 reported that Cesar Cardoso and two other motorists witnessed the landing of a silver saucer on a grassy hilltop in Almaseda. (For more details, see UFO Roundup, volume 5, number 39 for September 28, 2000, “1954: Saucers lands in eastern Portugal.”)

Fernandes, author of Extraterrestrial Imagery in the Portuguese Press, reported, “The letter received by Diario de Lisboa was written by Cesar Cardoso’s nephew, Francisco Antonio Freiere. He confirmed the hoax in an interview published in Diaro de Lisboa on 1 October 1954.”

Freiere, he added, “used to read about UFOs in the newspapers. He may have gathered the elements for his story from the first news of the French UFO flap in September (1954).”

“He regarded himself as a young enthusiast for UFOs, which he believed were ‘radio-guided probes.’ His main motivation was to call the press’s attention to ‘the lack of a road to Almaseda.’ In fact, several reporters went there, and his objective was certainly achieved.” (Obrigado a Joaqium Fernandes por esos articulos do diario.)

(Editor’s Comment: The Almaseda case appears in several UFO books. Apparently, the initial news of the “landing” circled the world, but the followup stories in Diario de Lisboa never made it past Portugal’s border. I am reminded of that quotation by Samuel Langhorne Clemens, aka Mark Twain…”A lie can run halfway across the world before the truth has even got its boots on.”)

1740: GIGANTIC SPHERICAL UFO ORBITS VENUS

On October 23, 1740, just before sunrise, James Short, an amateur astronomer and maker of fine telescopes for the Royal Navy, opened his upstairs window and blew out the room’s candle lantern. Short, also a Fellow of the Royal Society, looked up in satisfaction at the clear dark sky. The planet Venus gleamed like a pearl among the stars.

But, even in his wildest dreams, Short was unprepared for what happened next.

“Directing a reflecting telescope of 16.5 inches focus ( with an apparatus to follow the diurnal motion) towards Venus, I observed a small star pretty nigh (near) her; upon which I took another telescope of the same focal distance, which magnified (images) about fifty or sixty times, and which was fitted with a micrometer in order to measure its distance from Venus, and found its distance to be about 10.2 degrees.”

In his report, Short continued, “Finding Venus very distinct, and consequently the air very clear, I put on a magnifying power of 240 times, and to my great surprise found this star put on the same phasis with Venus.”

(Editor’s Note: Simply put, sunlight hitting the object created the same type of illuminated crescent as it did on the planet Venus.)

“I tried another magnifying power of 140 times, and even then found the star under the same phasis. Its diameter seemed about a third (33 percent) or somewhat less, of the diameter of Venus; its light was not so bright or vivid, but exceeding sharp and well-defined. A line, passing through the centre of Venus and it, made an angle with the equator of about eighteen or twenty degrees.”

Amazingly, Short had discovered a gigantic sphere, with a diameter of hundreds of miles, in what seemed to be a geosynchronous orbit above 20 degrees North latitude on Venus..

“I saw it for the space of an hour several times that morning; but the light of the sun increasing, I lost it altogether about a quarter of an hour after eight (8:15 a.m.).”

“I have looked for it every clear morning since, but never had the good fortune to see it again. (Italian astronomer Giovanni Domenico) Cassini, in his (book) Astronomy, mentions much such another observation. I likewise observed two darkish spots upon the body of Venus, for the air was exceeding clear and serene.” (Most likely these were huge gaps in the clouds of Venus–J.T.)

Short’s observation wasn’t the only incidence of Earth-based astronomers seeing something unusual in orbit around Venus during the Eighteenth Century.

“In 1764, Rodkier, in Copenhagen (Denmark) saw such an appearance on two evenings with a (magnification) power of 38 on a 9.5 -foot (2.9 meter) refractor, on the latter occasion with a second telescope also.”

“…but it is more remarkable that on two evenings a week later, the same telescope told the same tale to four different observers, one of whom was Horrebow, the Professor of Astronomy, and who, we are assured, satisfied themselves by several experiments before the second observation that it was not a deception.”

“Before this month of March (1764) was ended, Montbarron at Auxerre (France), far removed from all possibility of communication, and with a very different kind of telescope, a gregorian reflector of 32 inches, which of course was fixed as to its optical axis, perceived on three separate evenings, at different position-angles, something which, though it had no distinguishable phasis, was evidently not a star, and which he never could find again.”

If the objects seen in 1740 and 1764 were merely asteroids drifting through the inner solar system, then they should have been still visible days or weeks later. That they were gone suggests a powered spacecraft moving out of Venusian orbit.

What if, during the mid-Eighteenth Century, our solar system was on the “cruise route” of a fleet of colossal “space liners?” (See the book Mysterious Universe–A Handbook of Astronomical Anomalies by William R. Corliss, The Sourcebook Project, Glen Arm, Maryland, 1979, pages 137 to 139. See also Nature, volume 14 for 1876, pages 193 to 195, “The Satellite of Venus” by T.W. Webb.)

And aboard the space liner Omortson, two alien stewards relax in the crew lounge, watching the latest news reports from the Internet.

“Hey, look! What passes for quasi-intelligent life down there is fighting over Jerusalem.”

“What–again!? How can you watch that crap?”

“But that’s what I love about Earth. It always offers the same dependable brand of violent slapstick low-brow comedy.”

We’ll be back in seven days with more UFO and paranormal news from around the planet Earth, brought to you by “the paper that goes home– UFO Roundup.” See you then.

UFO ROUNDUP: Copyright 2000 by Masinaigan Productions, all rights reserved. Readers may post news items from UFO Roundup on their websites or in newsgroups provided that they credit the newsletter and its editor by name and list the date of issue in which the item first appeared.