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Tuesday 31 July 2018

The Red Paper: CANIDS


Paperback,
202 Pages
 A4
maps, illustrations and photographs
Price: £20.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days

The Red Paper: Canids Up-dated  edition includes section on sarcoptic mange in foxes and treatment plus a list of wildlife sanctuaries and rescue centres in the UK.

By the 1700s the British fox was on the verge of extinction and about to follow the bear and wolf having been hunted for sport for centuries. The answer was to import thousands of foxes per year for sport. But foxes kept dying out so jackals were tried. Some were caught, some escaped. Even wolves and coyote were released for hunting.

The summation of over 30 years research reveals the damnable lie of "pest control" hunting but also reveals the cruelty the animals were subject to and how private menageries as well as travelling shows helped provide the British and Irish countryside with some incredible events.

















The Girt Dog of Ennerdale -Mystery SOLVED

A4
Paperback
B&W

Over 200 years ago, in 1810, sheep were being killed in the Ennerdale area of Cumbria. The sheep were allegedly hardly eaten yet their blood had been drained and the killer responsible thwarted the efforts of organised hunts and terrified hounds.

What was the “Girt Dog” of Ennerdale? Many theories abound from a paranormal creature called a “Mauler” to an escaped hyena , Tiger or even a Thylacine. Perhaps an unknown species of native British big cat?
The truth of what the “Girt Dog” was lies within the original accounts of the time. Documents that modern writers appear to have never consulted.
Noted British naturalist Terry Hooper-Scharf assesses the evidence.

Why knock myself out

After two months of solid posting, posting to social media like Twitter, FB, Google+ and so on, not one single book sale.  Not a single comment.

I'll post what I have when I feel like it.

Book deletions will continue.

Why knock myself out when there is no support of any kind?

Sunday 29 July 2018

The King Arthur Conspiracy

3 Years After This White Killer Whale Vanished, A Scientist Made An Incr...

We Know WHO To Blame


When Nature Says "Thank You"....

I am sure there are a few people out there who will get a kick out of this.  

After a few very bad weeks and a month of painful gardening....Nature pays me back. 

Wreckage of the gazebo with plants, apple tree (potted) thrown over -as were the others- and my greenhouse with tomato crops re-inforced. However, there are 30-50 mph (40-60kph) winds forecast.
Growing your own food in a pesticide/chemical free garden can be fun. I can also be a tad depressing.

Wait for the weather to calm down and see what can be salvaged.





This proves my point

Yesterday morning I was told, by a person involved in Forteana, that there had been a lot of discussion amongst ufologists and cryptozoologists about my books. Apparently, my last two (Mysterious & Strange Beasts and UFO Contact?) were the focus of a lot of discussion.

It seems that I was "attacking" the subjects and identifying deliberate hoaxes and cases of a dubious nature.  That would bring their subjects into question.

My response was "Don't they have any investigations or research work to carry out?"

As I tried to relax in the evening I got a message from another man.  He was a full on ufologist and was alerting me to the same thing as the earlier contact.  Now, normally, I would think it was a put on job but the problem here is that these two men  hate each other with a vengeance.

Now, my response has to be this: I know which bodies have purchased copies of one of those titles. That is it. This discussion was amongst people who have not purchased copies and so have no idea what they contain. Guilty consciences somewhere?

So what was suggested for dealing with me? Popular was accusing me of being a government agent out to disrupt UFO research. Very unoriginal.  Also, I think that my finances show I am NOT being paid by anyone! This is the sort of silly nonsense I have heard since the 1980s -including the one about being flown to the Falklands/Malvinas in the 1980s by the Ministry of Defence to look into UFO sightings there. That little lie came from hoaxer Eric Morris.

There were suggestions of trolling, though it was noted I report these things and publicise who is carrying trolling out (you CANNOT remain anonymous online these days) and that could back-fire. Threats?  Oh yeah, that 'would' work!  In the end it was decided to do everything possible to discourage people from buying the books (that they themselves had not read).

As far as I am aware these were people all in the UK.

And all of this proves my point. There is no real or serious UFO or cryptozoological research going on in the UK.

Friday 27 July 2018

Giant in Afghanistan

This is the type of fantasy that people want to take seriously. Could they not find a crashed UFO with aliens?  Seriously, THIS is why Science never gets involved in real cases.

Thursday 26 July 2018

The Red Paper: CANIDS



Paperback
A4 format
202 Pages
Contains maps, photos and illustrations –some never seen before
Price: £20.00 (excl. VAT)
Prints in 3-5 business days


The Red Paper: Canids  Up-dated edition includes section on sarcoptic mange in foxes and treatment plus a list of wildlife sanctuaries and rescue centres in the UK.
By the 1700s the British fox was on the verge of extinction and about to follow the bear and wolf having been hunted for sport for centuries.  The answer was to import thousands of foxes per year for sport. But foxes kept dying out so jackals were tried. Some were caught, some escaped.  Even wolves and coyote were released for hunting.

The summation of over 30 years research reveals the damnable lie of "pest control" hunting but also reveals the cruelty the animals were subject to and how private menageries as well as travelling shows helped provide the British and Irish countryside with some incredible events.


The Girt Dog of Ennerdale is also dealt with in detail.

Now This IS A Handful-and-a-half!

The printed versions of my work tend to get battered!  You see, even though some contain cases that it took 45+ years to get to the bottom of or involve over 50 years of UFO research (I started young but thinking of 50 years working on this is VERY scary!).

The slim black volume is the Spring-heeled Jack book while the light blue is, as you will see, Cruisers of the Clouds.  I have a funny story about that.

You see, when Cruisers of the Clouds was first published I got an email from a fella in the United States.  He offered to promote the book and guaranteed he could get promo interview slots on TV and radio.  He outlined, in detail, how he could push the book.

A few of the names seemed odd but he was very enthusiastic. "I never realised that hot air ballooning had that much of a following in the US" I wrote.  Within five minutes I got a reply:

"What do you mean 'hot air ballooning'?"

I asked him what he thought the book was about? Turns out he had just grabbed onto the title as it was his "area of interest".  You see, the gentleman concerned had, for some strange reason, believed that the title looked at early gay fliers.  I asked whether he still intended to promote the publication.  Never heard from him again!

Anyway, back to my books getting rough treatment.  It is because, unlike most writers, I never just say "There. Nothing more to learn!" and move on.  Research is an ongoing process.  Had I left the Beast of Gevaudan, beast of Faudiere and even the Girt Dog of Ennerdale where I concluded then I certainly would not have tracked down other cases.  Also, the forty plus years of working on fox research that resulted in The Red Paper also looked at wolf, jackal and other 'mystery' canid reports and I even delved off into the history of wolves in France. That provided a lot of back-up for the French "mystery beasts" work.


So I constantly refer back to things I have written as they have all the references, images, maps, etc..  Because if you think the photo below shows and handful-and-a-half of books -imagine what holding the research files would take (my back could never take the strain!).


Remember; these are not full of sensationalist claims (lies) or twisting the truth to spin a yarn and create even bigger fake mysteries.

Now, I need to get back to the next book as I am only on chapter two!

So, consider buying a book. Please.

It's THAT Time Again....

Now I know that, since 2011, I keep making these appeals but to be quite honest there are so many people viewing this blog and the AOP Face Book page that I decided "Why not?"

I cannot find every single news item  that appears across the world on, and let's just not concentrate on UFOs here, there are reports of sea 'monsters' (unless they have all died off) out there -pass on a url or even a news-link or just let me know.

If you have read this and visit this blog and are one of the 347, 022 viewers PLEASE help the blog out. News, reports -it all helps me put posts together and if everyone wants to keep seeing new posts on the AOP blog: this is how we can get  it done.

It's that or occasional posts when I find something by accident!

Over to you guys!

Wednesday 25 July 2018

And...Water On The Moon

Just to remind people:https://www.space.com/7328-official-water-moon.html

On Second Thought, the Moon's Water May Be Widespread and Immobile

A new analysis of data from two lunar missions finds evidence that the Moon’s water is widely distributed across the surface and is not confined to a particular region or type of terrain. The water appears to be present day and night, though it’s not necessarily easily accessible.
The findings could help researchers understand the origin of the Moon’s water and how easy it would be to use as a resource. If the Moon has enough water, and if it’s reasonably convenient to access, future explorers might be able to use it as drinking water or to convert it into hydrogen and oxygen for rocket fuel or oxygen to breathe.
“We find that it doesn’t matter what time of day or which latitude we look at, the signal indicating water always seems to be present,” said Joshua Bandfield, a senior research scientist with the Space Science Institute in Boulder, Colorado, and lead author of the new study published in Nature Geoscience. “The presence of water doesn’t appear to depend on the composition of the surface, and the water sticks around.”
image of the moon
If the Moon has enough water, and if it's reasonably convenient to access, future explorers might be able to use it as a resource.
Credits: NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center
The results contradict some earlier studies, which had suggested that more water was detected at the Moon’s polar latitudes and that the strength of the water signal waxes and wanes according to the lunar day (29.5 Earth days). Taking these together, some researchers proposed that water molecules can “hop” across the lunar surface until they enter cold traps in the dark reaches of craters near the north and south poles. In planetary science, a cold trap is a region that’s so cold, the water vapor and other volatiles which come into contact with the surface will remain stable for an extended period of time, perhaps up to several billion years. 
The debates continue because of the subtleties of how the detection has been achieved so far. The main evidence has come from remote-sensing instruments that measured the strength of sunlight reflected off the lunar surface. When water is present, instruments like these pick up a spectral fingerprint at wavelengths near 3 micrometers, which lies beyond visible light and in the realm of infrared radiation.
But the surface of the Moon also can get hot enough to “glow,” or emit its own light, in the infrared region of the spectrum. The challenge is to disentangle this mixture of reflected and emitted light. To tease the two apart, researchers need to have very accurate temperature information.
Bandfield and colleagues came up with a new way to incorporate temperature information, creating a detailed model from measurements made by the Diviner instrument on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO. The team applied this temperature model to data gathered earlier by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper, a visible and infrared spectrometer that NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, provided for India’s Chandrayaan-1 orbiter.
The new finding of widespread and relatively immobile water suggests that it may be present primarily as OH, a more reactive relative of H2O that is made of one oxygen atom and one hydrogen atom. OH, also called hydroxyl, doesn’t stay on its own for long, preferring to attack molecules or attach itself chemically to them. Hydroxyl would therefore have to be extracted from minerals in order to be used.
The research also suggests that any H2O present on the Moon isn’t loosely attached to the surface.
“By putting some limits on how mobile the water or the OH on the surface is, we can help constrain how much water could reach the cold traps in the polar regions,” said Michael Poston of the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio, Texas.
Sorting out what happens on the Moon could also help researchers understand the sources of water and its long-term storage on other rocky bodies throughout the solar system.
The researchers are still discussing what the findings tell them about the source of the Moon’s water. The results point toward OH and/or H2O being created by the solar wind hitting the lunar surface, though the team didn’t rule out that OH and/or H2O could come from the Moon itself, slowly released from deep inside minerals where it has been locked since the Moon was formed.
“Some of these scientific problems are very, very difficult, and it’s only by drawing on multiple resources from different missions that are we able to hone in on an answer,” said LRO project scientist John Keller of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland.
LRO is managed by NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, D.C. JPL designed, built and manages the Diviner instrument.
Read the paper in Nature Geoscience: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41561-018-0065-0
Last Updated: July 9, 2018
Editor: Karl Hille

Breaking News: Water HAS Been Found On Mars

I seem to recall having posted last year that more water would be found on other bodies in the solar system.  These were finds predicted decades ago and in many cases mocked.  Now Science is proving the old theories.

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/scientists-found-water-mars-fist-time-140732251.html
View photos
Liquid water has been discovered beneath the southern ice cap of Mars (Getty Images)
A 12-mile lake of liquid water has been discovered on Mars for the first time as scientists hunt for alien life on the planet.
The huge lake lies beneath the red planet‘s southern ice cap. It is the first time a large stable body of liquid water has been discovered on Mars.
The discovery, which has major implications for the chances of life surviving in Martian conditions, was made by an orbiting European probe using ground-penetrating radar.
Prof Roberto Orosei from the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics, who led the study, said: “This is the place on Mars where you have something that most resembles a habitat, a place where life could subsist.
“This kind of environment is not exactly your ideal vacation, or a place where fish would swim,” Orosei added.
“But there are terrestrial organisms that can survive and thrive, in fact, in similar environments. There are microorganisms on Earth that are capable of surviving even in ice.”
View photos
Narrow streaks on the slopes of Garni Crater are inferred to be formed by seasonal flow of water on surface of present-day Mars. (NASA)
View photos
The “Murray Ridge” portion of the western rim of Endeavour Crater on Mars (NASA)
In 2015, NASA reported that it had found the strongest evidence so far that there was water on Mars, but were not able to confirm its existence definitively.
NASA’s Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter detected mysterious streaks on the planet’s surface that appeared to ebb and flow over time, and scientists believed the movements of the flows could be attributed to the presence of water. 
John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington, said at the time: “Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected.
“This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water – albeit briny – is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”
NASA’s Mars probe began its mission in 2011 with the objective of discovering whether or not microbial life could ever have been supported there.
View photos
A self-portrait of NASA’s Curiosity rover taken on Sol 2082 (June 15, 2018). (NASA)
In June this year NASA’s curiosity rover found new evidence to suggest the planet could have supported ancient life.
Organic molecules were found in three billion-year-old sedentary rocks which, although not proving that life existed on Mars, are a good sign for future exploration missions.
“With these new findings, Mars is telling us to stay the course and keep searching for evidence of life,” said Thomas Zurbuchen, associate administrator for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters, in Washington.
“I’m confident that our ongoing and planned missions will unlock even more breathtaking discoveries on the Red Planet.”

Tuesday 24 July 2018

Project Cancelled

I have to announce without explanation that The Report on UFOs book has been cancelled.

New Projects Including The Report On UFOs

I see blogger lost the text with that last post. Nothing surprising there!

There are a number of cases that have become a part of the 'UFO phenomenon' that I was involved in at the fairly early stages but which have become 'UFO' incidents of, the Ufologists tell us, "national importance".  I dealt with the Llandrillo 'crash' in Some Things Strange & Sinister -this contained all the information that Margaret Fry and her followers decided to ignore because it simply did not fit into their world views.  Photographs of the shards of metal are also included in that book.

There were cases of "mysterious animal mutilations" that I, and the police, knew were far from mysterious. I will look at any evidence but if there is a solution (provable) then I will note it. I can only treat the evidence presented fairly and with an open mind and reach conclusions based on the evidence given.  What others decide after that is up to them.

In some cases the investigators have -and this is proven by correspondence they forwarded themselves- put on a 'cover-up' by the UK government twist.  They have also shown that they, as investigators, are far from deserving that title.  Report the facts and reach conclusions based on the facts -do not exaggerate, make-up details and fantasise.

Approximately 80% of what you read in books on UFOs, cryptozoology and so on is fake or exaggerated.

Always bear that in mind and, unless you just want to sit there and accept it, check the facts given.

The other project I am working on is to finally publish the huge Report On Unidentified Flying Objects (Grey Book) and I don't really expect people to go out and buy that in droves either:I am completing it for posterity.  I need to explain a few things in advance.

The Report was put together in 1979 and published and distributed amongst a very restricted group in 1980/1981.  Although I was aware of the Flying Saucer working Party and data from it (in fact I even wrote about the FSWP in 1982-1986) there would be no way that I could give full details at the time, nor of other official work though looking at Ministry of Defence UFO Report statistics was no problem and any information from advanced interceptor aircraft and equipment used would not be included.  Most of those involved knew of these cases and information so putting it into print would be a waste of time.

By 1983, when Grey Book was officially dissolved but continued as an ongoing project, I was the last member of the team.  Graham F. N. Knewstub had retired.  Frankly A. Davin-Wilson, Dave Cowdy (one of the founders in the 1950s of Manchester Flying Saucer Research) and two other members had died from heart attacks (there's one for the conspiracy theorists!) and all of the work fell to me and I had developed various unusual health problems that two doctors suggested might be the results of my going into "contaminated areas" after reported UFO landings.

The unofficial 'watchdog' over what I was doing was, and I have no problem naming him here for various reasons, Squadron Leader Colin Tarr. He knew The Report and on one occasion I tested him by asking what was on line 2 of page 33 or how did paragraph 3 of page 232 start -he even described photos and maps in The Report that was only supposed to have a very restricted distribution.  I later discussed Tarr with Lord Peter Hill Norton who drew a blank -as did Nick Pope. Interestingly, Tarr knew of AOP Bureau reports submitted to the MoD that Pope had never heard of.  Who was Colin Tarr?  I have my thoughts on that.

The deaths and Tarr mystery are not noted or added to The Report. The remit was pure and simple: look at all aspects of UFO reports -historical, contemporary as well as physiological, psychological and trace evidence. Animal disturbance cases/animal deaths.  Was there a pattern(s)?  Was there any way of concluding what UFOs were or where they came from -hostile, friendly or indifferent to humans?

The results were presented to members of the House of Lords UFO Group (privately) and discussed. Although the conclusions conflicted with certain members beliefs on the subject they were accepted and one member concluded that "This is the closest the Great Britain will come to Project Blue Book". I was told that, so long as names and other data of a sensitive nature was removed there was no reason why I should not offer copies to civilian "saucer groups".  

I approached Contact UK and was dismissed as "Being too nuts and bolts and not looking at the spiritual side of the subject" -which was a shock to someone who had known the group when it was a research and investigation body!  Another, very well known British Ufologist offered a copy of the report dismissed it as "Sounding all very James Bondish and silly"....I scratched my head on that one but moved on to BUFORA (British UFO Research Association) and was told that as I was not a BUFORA member and not publishing the report under BUFORA auspices it could not be accepted. In another response I got a furious rejection because I had not referred to the responder's own book!

I reported back to the Grey Book backers and presented the written responses I had received. Heads nodded and there were shrugs. There was a conversation about all of this and what it meant but by 1985 it was concluded that serious UFO research and investigation in the UK had been dropped for New Age beliefs and sensationalism.

The work I carried out and conclusions I drew were and are still provable. In fact, I predicted several peaks in UFO activity in 1981 that were accurate.  Again, I contacted UFO groups over this but was dismissed -those letters are still on file.

So what you would find in The Report if you got a copy are case reports/summaries and looking at contemporary data -some known to the public and some not known.  After all, the point was not to look at new books then being published announcing various "new theories" on UFOs: the point was to look at as many reports -historical right up to contemporary- as we could and there were thousands to sift through and categorise (which was my job).  No personal theories or opinions on ETH or anything else -just look at the facts and evidence.

And you will also find the theory on UNP, and this is probably why certain ufologists hated the very idea, because the problem would need further scientific and technical research which meant UFOs were taken out of their hands and Science would become involved. 

Do not expect sensationalism, claims of cover-ups by the Air Ministry/MoD because where ever possible the MoD cooperated. If you want to read about the best possible explanation for a large proportion of UFO reports then that is what you will get.

Facts, however, are not very "sexy" or sellable.

In case you missed this old post....

Grey Book And How It Got Its Name

I don't think I have shown these photos here before? Taken a few years ago now. I was once asked by, I think, John Hanson of the excellent UFO encyclopediaHaunted Skies, how the AOP Bureau's work got the title "Project Grey Book"?

Well, pretty mundane response really.  Anyone associated with the AOP B as an investigator was given a large grey note book so that case notes, ideas etc., could be recorded and referred to in later reports or if there was a query.  By 1980 there was only myself and Franklyn Davin~Wilson.  Following his death in 1983, I had to become the official sole investigator, though I had been acting as such since 1978.

Here is my Grey Book.



 A great many research theories, conversations with Ufologists and notes on investigations went into this.  The smaller pocket books were "confiscated" in 2006 but my main book I still have.


 above: work notes on Transient Lunar Phenomena and UFO waves.
below: notes on alleged abductions.



 Below: Theoretical work and planning for trace evidence


 Below: Black Triangle craft.  Occupied a year of investigation.



 Below: work on alleged symbols seen by abductees.  It was during this work that the British UFO Study Centre and its founder, Eric Morris came under scrutiny.  I had known Morris since 1976 and it came as a shock when, in the middle of the symbols study, he admitted the symbols he provided were faked by him ~as were abduction accounts he had submitted.





 Below: More theoretical work on the sudden appearance and disappearance of UFOs ~once called Mat and demat (Materialization and De~materialization).  I also looked at what I termed VanPoint or "Vanishing Point" noted in some UFO landing cases.



I still add to the old Grey Book.  Other than being nick~named "Quatermass" by some people I prefer the "Grey Bookers" and that made someone comment, jokingly (based on the USAF Project Blue Book), that we were "Project Grey Book"  and the name stuck early on.
There you go.

Monday 23 July 2018

Post Deletions

Interestingly  The U-Boat and the Sea Monster was first posted in November, 2011 qnd has received almost 2.5 thousand views.

Strange Creature Found In The Persian Gulf & Others was posted in 2013 and has received 3,029 views.

There are other posts with similarly high views.  These have now all been removed from the blog. The reason should really be obvious.  The posts were "tasters" for my books and to be honest as no sales have resulted I do not see why I should allow the work to be stolen and used by others (5 at the last count).

The cases can be found in my books with much more detail.

I try to make a living out of writing and freebies don't pay the bills.