So, WHO Was "Jack The Ripper"?

Back in the 1970s/early 1980s, I became acquainted with a number of, shall we say "titled gentlemen" via the AOP Bureau.

On one occasion, as I was in a rather crowded Bayswater sitting room, I was taking papers from a briefcase to hand around -briefing notes on recent UFO sightings. The book I had read on the train about Jack The Ripper fell out.

"Ho-ho -I've read that one!" exclaimed one man pointing at the book.  Another asked "Is it one of those silly 'a Royal dunnit' books?"  The first replied: "No. Oddly enough!"

A conversation followed and the first man was asked by another (an RAF man): "Old -------- had copies of The Yard file with him in his study.  Have you-?"  The first: "Oh absolutely.  No one named so far is in that file!"

It was mooted around that "The Yard File" would never be released.  I then asked "Why is that?"

Silence.

The RAF man then looked at me and clipped his lips together between finger and thumb.  I thought it a bit childish though I do recall laughing internally.  After all, here we were talking UFOs and all sorts of things I had to treat as confidential yet a murder case closed in 1892 (?) was considered beyond discussion.

Oddly, the last of the surviving Bayswater people, "Maxie" who was Viscount something or other but went by the name "Maxie" (as several people told me: "Oh, everyone knows Maxie!") passed away a few years ago but I did once ask him about that day.  "Well, those in the know know but it just simply is not the done thing to blab."

I was told, because Maxie was a big true crime buff with every book on the Ripper -including two in French and one in, I think, Spanish-  thoroughly thumbed through that "the name" had never been revealed or mentioned by anyone up to that point.

Even documents under the Official Secrets Act get released after a certain period -Top Secret ones from World War 2 and even the Cold War period.  So why is the file on a series of murders from 1888 still not open to public scrutiny?   After all, anyone named has been dead a long time now, as are any of their children or grandchildren.   There is, logically, no reason why the file should not be open to historians though I find it funny that a couple of people have suggested that the file was not released because "it went missing"!

This is how silly secrecy becomes.

If You INVITE People To The Party -They May Well Turn Up!

The following is a rather edited version of a chapter intended for From Beyond Time & Space?


Lunar halo seen from  Levi ski resort, in the Finnish lapland. The photos were taken by photographer Pauli Hänninen:

Beware Astrologers -Mercury Retrograde: What does the apparent rotation reversal of Mercury mean?

 Sean Martin, IBT https://uk.news.yahoo.com/mercury-retrograde-does-apparent-rotation-162954763.html#lrdsXG9

Mercury retrograde in astrologers', and not astronomers', terms is when the planet of Mercury appears to reverse its rotation. It was first thought this – now known to be impossible – feat happened when astronomers of old believed that the Earth, as is typical of human arrogance, was the centre of the universe.

Astronomers believed that the planet's rotation would stop and then reverse, but it has since been revealed that, due to its positioning in our solar system – the closest planet to the sun – it just slows down, and has the illusion of going backwards as it zooms passed Earth. It circles the sun a maximum of four times a year, compared to our measly one.

In astrological terms, Mercury is king. According to AstrologyZone.com: "Mercury rules all types of communication, including listening, speaking, learning, reading, editing, researching, negotiating, selling, and buying. Mercury also rules all formal contracts and agreements, as well as important documents such as book manuscripts or term papers, agreements, deeds, contracts, leases, wills, and so forth."

So, if you do believe in astrology, it means that when the planet is in retrograde, it is resting, and when Mercury rests and can't oversee the smooth ongoing of all that it is responsible for, carnage will occur... apparently. In fact, one is going on right now and will last from 17 September to 9 October.

However, as previously touched upon, this happens four times a year, and at one of these points your phone may have run out of battery or another coincidental mild inconvenience, but the pandemonium that is predicted is nothing short of make believe. Sorry to break it to you.

Dr. Rami Kaminski, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, told International Business Times's US edition: "I think that like most things it is a matter of context. If it adds something to those who believe in it, then it is a positive thing.

"As conscious beings we have a complex relationship with the time behind us and ahead of us. We rue the past and fear the future. So anything that gives us some reassurance (even a false one) about the future is potentially positive. So the believer him or herself is not a problem. It is those who exploit others who have this belief that are the problem, but that is another issue."

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Astrologers and psychics -two groups that are bound to get me very angry: particularly psychics and their deceit.  But, seriously, we are in the 21st Century -2015.  Astrology??

Cow-Size Pre-Reptile May Have Been First Animal to Walk on Four Legs

With all the talk about SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) we have to remember that scientists still do not know everything about Earth.

We are told "Man" -or, rather, "Humans"- originated in such-and-such a place and most of us are probably familiar with the illustrated Evolution of Man charts -that we have to keep adding to -recently Homo naledi http://terryhooper.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/new-species-of-human-discovered-in.html



Whether pre-human remains, remains of ancient civilisations (as in Amazonia) and contact between countries once deemed "impossible" before Columbus (??) things buried in the ground or even submerged underwater, stay there until, in many cases, they are stumbled upon.

How many now extinct newly discovered species have there been over the last twenty years?  Let's say "a bunch" for convenience.

And now this....but it is not the definite first quadruped.  Saying that means you look a bit daft when another is found.  Nothing should ever be taken for granted and I'm sure in coming years we'll get even more surprises and "firsts"!

 Connor Gaffey for Newsweek https://uk.news.yahoo.com/cow-size-pre-reptile-may-110829245.html#gnk6FJB

 
Scientists believe that a pre-reptile, which lived 260 million years ago, may have been the first animal to walk on four legs.

Analysis of fossils from the Bunostegos akokanensis, which were discovered in Niger between 2003 and 2006, show that its forelimbs were uniquely designed to allow the animal to stand upright in the manner of a cow.

The fossils belong to a group of pre-reptiles known as pareiasaurs—the first group of large land vertebrates which flourished during the Permian period, a geological period which lasted from 299 million to 251 million years ago. All of the known pareiasaurs were sprawlers, with limbs similar to modern lizards that would jut out from the sides of the body.

However, B. akokanensis had a number of distinct features which means it would have resembled "a cow-sized, plant-eating reptile with a knobby skull and bony armor down its back," according to Linda Tsuji from the Royal Ontario Museum, a co-author of the study published in the Journal of Vertebrate Paelontology.

The fossils, show that the humerus of B. akokanensis was straight, in contrast to the twisted humerus possessed by sprawlers. Its shoulder joint points directly downwards, suggesting a straight alignment of bones underneath.

The creature's elbow joint is a hinge joint—similar to the human knee, meaning it can only swing back and forth and precluding the sideways movement characteristic of spralwers. Finally, the fossil's ulna—a bone in its forearm—is longer than the humerus, which the researchers said is a common-trait in non-sprawling animals.

Researchers believe that the pre-reptile's upright posture could have helped it in finding food in its arid environs. Compared to sprawling, walking upright on four legs is associated with a more energy efficient posture and may have helped B. akokanensis conserve energy on long journeys between meals.