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How the E.U Plans to Combat Global Warming

Climate change and global warming - indeed, how to control them - are becoming more central to politics with every new development. Sustainable energy is the method of our times, and government’s across the globe are under pressure - from each other, from environmental groups, and from individuals - to implement genuine and successful ‘green’ policy.

The E.U is one of the biggest political organisations in the world. It comprises 27 member states and under its banner are close to 500 million people. The GDP that the E.U generates accounts for roughly 30% of the world.

In terms of the world’s environment, then, it is a chief player. What is the European Union doing to combat global warming and climate change? And are they committed to the cause?

The official E.U website has this to say on the matter:

“Sustainable Development stands for meeting the needs of present generations without jeopardizing the ability of futures generations to meet their own needs – in other words, a better quality of life for everyone, now and for generations to come. It offers a vision of progress that integrates immediate and longer-term objectives, local and global action, and regards social, economic and environmental issues as inseparable and interdependent components of human progress.

Sustainable development will not be brought about by policies only: it must be taken up by society at large as a principle guiding the many choices each citizen makes every day, as well as the big political and economic decisions that have. This requires profound changes in thinking, in economic and social structures and in consumption and production patterns.”

What is clear, then, is that the E.U see promotion of the message as central; a sustainable future is only possible with a growing conciousness and willingness on the part of the public to accept and encourage environmental policy and legislation.

If the E.U can get its citizens to accept the challenge, though, what policy can be expected from the organizations governments?

The ‘E.U Sustainable Development Strategy (SDS)’ was established to answer exactly that question. In its own words, the SDS will “gradually change our current unsustainable consumption and production patterns and move towards a better integrated approach to policy-making…[it will] reaffirm the need for global solidarity and recognizes the importance of strengthening our work with partners outside the EU, including those rapidly developing countries which will have a significant impact on global sustainable development.”

So the E.U - acknowledging its role within the world’s sphere - champions the importance of climate change as a global issue, and believes that it should be treated as such. Its method for achieving that aim is to work closely and extensively with the world’s other governmental bodies.

The SDS has 7 key areas of interest:

Climate change and clean energy

Sustainable transport

Sustainable consumption & production

Conservation and management of natural resources

Public Health

Social inclusion, demography and migration

Global poverty and sustainable development challenges

Central, then, is the simultaneous need for a maintenance of current ecosystems - to conserve and manage the continent’s current resources - combined with a development of a sustainable infrastructure for the future; investment in clean fuels, plus solar energy, wind energy and biogas.

Indeed, the E.U - through its 7 SDS points - recognises that environmental issues affect everything in our lives, because we are part of the environment, and so everything we do is affecting it also. As such, the E.U beleives that ‘Changing Behaviour’ is imperative in the fight against climate change:

“A host of cultural, economic, social and psychological factors affect the way we behave, often locking us into unsustainable consumption habits. Even those who say they will buy organic food for environmental reasons and the good of their own health may change their minds if products outstrip their budget.”

The overall challenge, then, for the European Union - along with the rest of the world’s nations - is to educate the next generation on the pitfalls of our own.

That way, the E.U can guarantee that it does not return in the future to the issues that have caused the problem in the first instance.

Chris Woolfrey is the Global Warming expert at EcoSwitch The environmental social network.

The Solar Decathlon - Giving Solar Power a Makeover

In the Autumn of next year, the third ‘Solar Decathlon’ will take place in Washington, D.C.

When it is under way, the experts and spectators alike will see some of the best examples in the world of the relationship between design and solar power.

Comprising 20 teams - each representing universities or colleges - entrants are expected to build a house that is solar powered, and is judged on aesthetics and design.

The official Solar Decathlon website has this to say:

“Teams of college students design a solar house, knowing from the outset that it must be powered entirely by the sun. In a quest to stretch every last watt of electricity that’s generated by the solar panels on their roofs, the students absorb the lesson that energy is a precious commodity. They strive to innovate, using high-tech materials and design elements in ingenious ways. Along the way, the students learn how to raise funds and communicate about team activities. They collect supplies and talk to contractors. They build their solar houses, learning as they go.”

Perhaps the key phrase, then, is that “energy is a precious commodity”. What the Solar Decathlon competition tries to show is that sustainable and renewable energy is not just important, but necessary; with climate change on the rise, and fossil fuels declining, the message from the Solar Decathlon is one of duty, not preference.

Which is not to say that sustainable and renewable energy cannot be attractive and exciting, as the competition also shows.

Indeed the ultimate aim of the competition is to fuse the need for sustainable energy with the luxury of good design:

“The Solar Decathletes — tomorrow’s engineers, architects, researchers, and homeowners — are sharing with us a new vision for living under the sun. These solar homes are powerful, comfortable, and stylish. They are relaxed and elegant, wasting neither space nor energy.

Today’s solar houses connect with nature to take advantage of heat and light from the sun and cooling breezes and shading. But they crank this natural advantage way up by using the newest products and technologies on the market. The Solar Decathlon solar homes combine the best from the past and the present… and deliver the promise of a brighter future.”

So the Solar Decathlon is committed to a growing movement that dispels any beliefs on the incompatibility of good looks and sustainable power.

And - since its launch in 2002 - it has proved that point. With the stipulation that the entrants build the houses with only existing commercially available products, the Solar Decathlon commits to sustainable housing that is commercially viable.

Within a commercially anchored framework, then, the teams are judged in 10 contests throughout the competition.

They can be divided into two groups, detailing technology and everyday use.

Technology:

Architecture, Engineering, Communications, Appliances, Lighting, Hot Water, Energy Balance.

Everyday Use:

Market Viability, Comfort Zone, Getting Around.

So the Solar Decathlon brings public interest to the solar development issue; the same institutions that are developing the most high tech and specialist advances in sustainable energy are expected to use their knowledge for the benefit of public and commercial culture.

As the competition begins again next year, the commercial will once again -quite rightfully - take precedence over the specialist.

Chris Woolfrey is the solar power expert at EcoSwitch The environmental social network.

There’s Nothing Like Good Neighbours

And if the case of the recent discovery of the body of a 70-year-old man in his apartment in the town of Aix-les-Bains in southeastern France is anything to go by, he had anything but “good neighbours.”

While there’s nothing too unusual perhaps in the report of an elderly person’s death going unnoticed, especially when he or she lives alone, there must be more than a little cause for concern in cases such as this one.

That’s because investigators believe that the man’s body, found mummified in his apartment on the 14th floor of a social housing block of flats last week, had been there for anything up to three years.

Media reports confirm that the man did indeed live alone and had no close family in the region.

But where were the neighbours?

Well one of them - living on the same floor - told reporters that he apparently crossed the 70-year-old on the landing occasionally, and the last time the two had spoken was after his dog had died. That was FOUR years ago.

The caretaker of the building - yes unbelievably there is one - but obviously not taking a great deal “care” of its occupants, noticed just last week that the old man’s letter box was full to overflowing - clearly an astute woman - and alerted the authorities.

The police arrived, forced open the door and discovered the body. The official explanation of death was through “natural causes” and there won’t be any inquiry launched.

Perhaps though there should be one opened on the morality and intellect of the neighbours who you would think might just have noticed that something wasn’t quite right.

One of them, when questioned by reporters said,

“I didn’t know that someone had died in the building. There are 14 floors and people are moving in and out all the time.”

Not surprisingly perhaps, the neighbour - a woman - wanted to remain anonymous.

To put this sad story into context, there are a couple of other elements that need to be included.

A few years ago in Europe - August 2003 to be precise - there was a heat wave across much of the continent. In France alone around 15,000 people, mainly elderly, died as a consequence and there was a public outcry.

There have been subsequent calls each summer (and winter) from the authorities for people to keep a watchful but not-too-obtrusive eye on elderly neigbours.

There was even a half-hearted, but bungled attempt by the government to launch a “day of Solidarity” whereby people would give up one of the public holidays in May and instead work “free” with all money earned being put in a special fund to help the elderly.

Surprise, surprise (given the evidence of this case) the idea didn’t work for one reason or another and was finally shelved this year.

As long ago as 1999, the campaign to promote good neighbourliness was launched here in France. From humble beginnings with just 10,000 participants taking part in 80 buildings dotted around the capital, La F

How Could Parents Forget?

It’s a question that has preoccupied many here in France over the past month, and sadly made the headlines far too often. It’s also one to which it’s difficult to provide an answer.

Over the past four weeks there have been three separate incidents of young children or babies - being left alone in locked cars. In two of the cases, the infants died, in the third a passerby was able to intervene, break a window and save the child from probable death.

Yannis

On July 15, two-and-a-half-year-old Yannis died in the town of Pont-de-Ch

Edgar Mitchell’s Roswell Revelations and Pentagon Briefing

When former Astronaut Edgar Mitchell recently told the world that he had been briefed on Aliens and UFOs by the U.S. Government, the media reacted by treating his comments with disdain. Their own bias against any acknowledgement that Aliens might be visiting our world and unwillingness to accept the word of a national hero that UFOs are intelligently controlled spacecrafts from another world may have caused them to miss the historical significance of what he said.

Mitchell, a former Navy Officer and Astronaut that walked on the Moon, grew up in Roswell, New Mexico. Over the past several years he has indicated that he was living in the town when the 1947 UFO crash occurred and knew what happened based on conversations with first hand witnesses. He has also said that several other people with intimate knowledge about the UFO crash have taken him into their confidence. Mitchell gave this statement to Robert Collins:

“I grew up in the Roswell area. I was almost 17 and senior in high school when it happened. Family members were ranchers and cattle people. We knew all the ranchers and towns people in the area, including where the UFO impacted. In spite of official denials and threats about talking, the local lore told the story.”

“After my space flight, and being a local boy, people involved, not only the locals, trusted me with their stories, because they were getting older and wanted the truth out, but were afraid to say it publicly; so considered me a trustworthy source to carry their story onward. Been telling it all that way, if anyone bothered to ask my opinion, since the Pentagon incident 11 years ago. Only now, suddenly, it got international media attention.”

The Pentagon incident that Edgar Mitchell is talking about occurred after he requested and received permission to meet with the Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during April of 1997. Mitchell wanted to brief them on what he knew or had heard about the Roswell UFO Crash. After the briefing, Mitchell says he was told by a Navy Admiral that what he knew about the crash was correct. He recently commented on that meeting:

“ I did take my story to the Pentagon — not NASA, but the Pentagon — and asked for a meeting with the Intelligence Committee of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and got it. And told them my story and what I know and eventually had that confirmed by the admiral that I spoke with, that indeed what I was saying was true.”

When a Vice Admiral found out about the Mitchell briefing at the Pentagon, he wanted to attend. The Vice Admiral was refused access and told that he didn’t have a “need to know.” This interesting side story provides proof that the UFO secret is one available only to an elite group of Military Leaders within the U.S. Government. It also lends credence to the idea that the President and most elected officials probably do not have access to one of our nation’s biggest secrets.

When Harry Truman signed the National Security Act in 1947, it allowed for the restriction of certain information from the President and other members of the U.S. Government. The idea was to safeguard national secrets and provide sitting presidents and other elected officials with plausible deniability. I doubt that Truman envisioned a time when members of the government would routinely lie to and deceive those they were constitutionally obligated to serve.

It’s easy for mainstream news company reporters to label Edgar Mitchell as a new age Kool-aide drinker because of his interest in exploring the Mind Sciences from a more eclectic point of view. However, I don’t see them attacking other Astronauts for their beliefs or actions. Many of the original Mercury, Gemini and Apollo Crew Members were notorious drinkers and philanderers. Some Space Shuttle Astronauts flew training missions while drunk, while others have publicly exposed themselves or lobbied for the rights of earthworms. Despite behavior that ranges from criminal to comical, those Astronauts continue to represent NASA on TV and in print interviews.

It’s easy for members of the Press to set themselves up as societal filters set in place to decide what people should be told. It’s harder to accept and report on the kind of truths that are not easily covered in thirty second television news reports or short paragraphs in increasingly abbreviated versions of news publications. As the line from the film City of Angels proclaims, “Some things are true whether you believe them or not.”

For more, visit http://www.ufoguy.com

Author: Bill Knell is a popular paranormal author, speaker and consultant. Author’s Website: UFOguy.com Terms To Use Article: Permission is granted to use this article for free online or in print with inclusion of the author

French Power EDF Ready to Take Over British Energy

After the nuclear power company British Energy announced that it was thinking about takeover approaches earlier this year, and then subsequently held talks and meetings with EDF of France, E.ON and RWE of Germany, and Iberdrola of Spain. It is the French energy power house that has emerged as the only formal bidder for the takeover and is now only days away from clinching the £12 billion deal.

EDF has been one of the leading contenders to buy British Energy since the British Government effectively put the power company up for sale by announcing it wanted to sell its 35% stake in the nuclear operator.

According to the BBC, EDF is now prepared to pay as much as 775p per share, after British Energy released that none of the potential deals took into account the soaring wholesale electricity costs and the prospective role of its sites and the allotted plans that were in development in conjunction to Britain’s nuclear power supply.

Shares in British Energy, which is capable of producing around one-sixth of the UK’s energy needs, rose to almost 6% following the report as the renewed speculation and prospect of an imminent deal excited the investors considerably. British Energy’s eight nuclear power stations are Dungeness B in Kent, Hartlepool, Heysham 1 and 2 in Lancashire, Hinkley Point B in Somerset, Hunterston B in Ayrshire, Sizewell B in Suffolk and Torness in East Lothian. The group, which has around 6,000 staff, also owns a coal-fired power station at Eggborough, East Yorkshire.

EDF executives now hope to be able to announce a deal imminently. Centrica, the British power company, is also involved in some negotiations with EDF, they are seeking to secure a deal that would see it acquire 25% of British Energy.

The decisive takeover price for British Energy is still under last-minute discussions, but could go above the 750p share mark, valuing it at between £11bn and £12bn. That would secure the Government as much as £4bn. However, the net cash has already been marked for the decommission costs that are connected with dismantling nuclear power stations, nearing the end of their lives.

Despite Centrica refusing to comment on its involvement in the deal, it is understood that its executives whom are also working very busily with EDF. The British company’s involvement in the deal would appease critics of the sale of the UK’s only major nuclear operator to a French company.

Since Gordon Brown committed the UK to developing a brand new generation of nuclear power plants, Malcolm Wicks, the Energy minister, has commented that while the Government is not opposed to British Energy being taken over by a foreign buyer, they are alert to the sensitivities of such an issue.

The Government will also have to consider how a deal with the French power house EDF would affect other potential operators in view of a monopolising of nuclear power by the French company, given that British Energy’s existing sites are likely to be the favoured locations for future constructions.

Ryan Whatley is the solar power expert at EcoSwitch The environmental social network.

The Needles UFO Crash: What Really Happened?

On May 14, 2008, an oval object with a turquoise glow fell out of the sky around three o’clock in the morning and crashed west of the Colorado River near Needles, California. The crash was almost immediately followed by the appearance of unmarked vehicles with government license plates manned by non-uniformed personnel, a small fleet of transport aircrafts and helicopters including a sky crane which later removed the object. Like many incidents of this kind, this one quickly became a non-event. So what really happened?

It’s important to understand that the object in question has been seen in the Needles area before and elsewhere as well. An object described as oval shaped with a turquoise glow was spotted by a motorist traveling just west of Needles on I-40 on April 17, 2002 at around three thirty in the morning. During that incident the object hovered above the road in mid-air. Another sighting occurred in 1997 near Columbus, Ohio. A photographer was filming clouds when a glowing object described as turquoise in color appeared on several of the frames that were photographed. The object wasn’t seen through the camera lens at the time the photos were taken.

Needles, California, is located in the Mojave Valley and is a part of San Bernardino County. It’s just across the bridge from Arizona and near the Nevada border as well. Historic Route 66 and I-40 run through the town with a population of between 5000 and 6000 people. Originally named for a group of pointed rocks on the Arizona side of the Colorado River, Needles was founded in 1883 and has been an important stopping place for people traveling east to west into California ever since. It’s also the kind of place where the crash of something strange might go unnoticed if it occurred outside of town. Fortunately, this crash had witnesses.

The first witness to the May 14, 2008 incident was a person we’ll call Bob. He lives on a houseboat in Topock, Arizona, a town that is little more than a Marina and a couple of stores near Golden Shores. Bob reported seeing a glowing turquoise-blue-green object high in the sky and headed in his direction around three o‘clock in the morning. He was sitting on the upper deck of his houseboat at the time. As it passed, he said that it looked as though the thing was on fire. He saw the object hit the ground somewhere west of the Colorado River on the California side. It bounced once and he recalled hearing a noise like a thump.

Thinking that some kind of plane had crashed, Bob tried using his satellite phone to call 911. His phone would not connect. After the crash, Bob heard the sound of helicopters approaching and reported seeing five of them flying in formation less than twenty minutes after the object hit the ground. One of them circled his houseboat before rejoining the others. Another was a sky crane that retrieved the oval-shaped object while it was still glowing with some kind of cables or a net and flew away with it. The crash occurred between Topock and Needles, west of the Colorado River and south of Needles.

Frank Costigan lives three miles east of the Colorado River and became the second witness to the May 14, 2008 incident. He got up around three in the morning to let his cat out. While standing in his backyard, Frank noticed a large glowing object streaking across the sky. It flashed a number of colors including turquoise, blue and green. The object was headed towards the ground and he expected to hear some sort of impact noise. Costigan later offered this statement:

“I thought I might hear something when it hit the ground because if it was as close as I thought it was and as big as it was, I thought I would hear something. But I did not hear anything. And it went out of my view before it hit the ground… It went behind a hill, and I waited to see if I could hear it crash because as big as it was, it was bound to make noise.”

Costigan reported that the object was bright enough to illuminate the ground. He said that it came out of the northeast, headed southwest at a tremendous speed, slowed down and speeded up again before moving out of his sight. Frank is a retired Superintendent of Operations and Police Chief. He worked at Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) from 1978 until 1985 and at Ontario (California) International Airport from 1985 to 1986. He occasionally does special reports and news investigations for KTOX, an AM radio station in Needles, California. Frank later told David Hayes, the station owner, about the bizarre object he saw earlier that morning. Hayes surprised Costigan with his own strange story.

While driving on I-40 on his way to work that morning, Hayes saw a small convoy of darkly-painted vehicles exiting the highway. The vehicles had black and white government license plates. The lead truck looked a bit like a very large SUV with a dome on top, a truck bed and appeared to have four wheel drive. The vehicle may have been carrying a remote controlled drone. Hayes said that he could see a triangular object that sat on top of several small humps in the truck bed and that it reminded him of the look of a stealth bomber.

A dark green van followed behind the first vehicle and a longer van followed the green one. Hayes told Costigan that he could see men inside the trucks. They did not have military uniforms on, but after he made eye contact with the driver of the third vehicle, it followed him to the radio station. One of the trucks returned later that day and briefly parked outside the KTOX building. It seemed to be involved in some sort of surveillance of the radio station.

Hayes and Costigan reported the strange events that occurred on May 14, 2008 during regular programming at KTOX for days and asked for any other witnesses to come forward. That‘s how they obtained the story from Bob and he wasn‘t the only person to call in. Someone known to them from nearby Laughlin, Nevada, phoned to report that Janet planes where taking off and landing at the Laughlin Airport all night on the date that the crash occurred. Because the airport and control tower were closed at the time, Laughlin Airport personnel cannot confirm the presence of the Janet planes on the night in question.

Janet planes are the nickname some have given to the aircrafts that fly workers in and out of Area 51. A small terminal exists at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas for the mysterious airline operated by EE&G (a U.S. Government contractor). Large and smaller passenger jets and a few prop planes ferry workers to Groom Lake in Area 51 and the Tonopah Test Range, but there is no reason to expect that such aircraft would land in Laughlin. Because the airport and control tower were closed at the time, Laughlin Airport personnel cannot confirm the presence of the Janet planes on the night in question.

Strange things continued to happen in the Needles area after the crash. No one seems able to locate Bob and many believe he has left the area. Toni Sagan, a member of the River Valley Democratic Club in the area, was questioned by a stranger at a club meeting after she appeared on the radio station to talk about the 2008 presidential race. The man wanted to know if she heard any off-air conversations between David Hayes and a witness to the crash he had on the phone. Toni said that she had never seen the man before and that he seemed out of place in terms of the way he dressed as compared to most people that live in the area.

Although a public shows that at least one military helicopter was in the area on the night of the crash, there are no police, emergency, military or government agencies willing to offer any comments on the incident. Noted journalist George Knapp and members of the Channel 8 (CBS Network TV Affiliate in Las Vegas) Investigative Team say they have contacted “police agencies in three states, the Laughlin Airport, the weather service, the FAA and several military bases” asking for any kind of statement about the incident. All of them claim they know nothing about the crash.

Based on the description of the object and the circumstances surrounding its retrieval, it is doubtful that the thing was a meteorite. It could have been space junk, but the fact that it changed speed and seemed under some kind of intelligent control makes that unlikely. It’s possible that the object could have been some type of experimental U.S. aircraft, but given the descriptions that have been offered, it seems to be a bit beyond what even the best secret aircraft prognosticators have predicted we currently have available.

Two possibilities remain that might explain what happened in the Needles area on May 14, 2008. One is that a UFO or spacecraft of unknown origin was tracked by government authorities to the point where it made contact with the earth. With retrieval teams standing by, the object was quickly removed from the area and any necessary clean-up was accomplished without much notice. The other is that a UFO or spacecraft of unknown origin was being test-flown by a human pilot from Area 51 and simply malfunctioned causing the subsequent actions.

Author: Bill Knell is a popular paranormal author, speaker and consultant. Author’s Website: UFOguy.com Terms To Use Article: Permission is granted to use this article for free online or in print with inclusion of the author

Universal Solar Power - ‘Solar Tres’ and Commercial Solar Thermal Energy

After the success of Solar One - the world’s first large-scale thermal solar power plant - and its update, Solar Two, Europe has now entered into the race for sustained solar power.

Solar Tres, located West of Ejica in the Andalusia district of Spain, has been modeled on the Solar One and Two projects, which were developed and updated in the Marstow Desert, California, in 1981 and 1995. Like its American predecessor, Solar Tres will produce energy through heliostats: large mirror assemblies that track and reflect the sun’s rays throughout the day. From there, it is bounced onto a central column, named the ‘Solar Power Tower’, which absorbs and stores the energy, to be converted into thermal power.

What marks Solar Tres above its prototypes is that it uses molten salt as its conducting fluid, so that the energy can be stored in molten form and converted at any time. It means that the new European Solar Power Tower can be operational 24 hours a day, allowing for greater energy storage and conversion, and it outstrips its US counterparts, which ran on oils, and so had a lower capacity for storage after conversion.

It also looks to expand on the size of Solar One and Two, with a heliostat field that is three times larger than Solar Two at its optimum. It means that Solar Tres has a potential capacity of 15MW, where Solar One and Two could reach a maximum of 10MW. Not only can it run more efficiently, then - working right round the clock - but its output is greater, allowing for sustainable energy that is produced more quickly and in abundance.

By all intents and purposes, it is a larger and more ambitious project. With the backing of the EU Commission, who have provided 5 million Euro through the EU 5th Frame program, it has the potential to move thermal solar power into the competitive energy markets.

After the relative success of the original US Power Tower Plants, the improvements to Solar Tres mean a bold step towards sustainable energy in the world at large. With a project of this scale, it signals a move from personal sustainability initiatives - the efforts made, from individuals to family units - to a potentially full-fledged commercial representation of universal solar power in the community.

It now means that two of the world’s major political powers - The US, and the EU - are committing themselves to the importance of sustainable energy. Whilst Solar One and Two are now closed, they represent important first examples of what Solar Tres can now make possible.

And that is not to say that the US have abandoned the pursuit; upon the closure of the original Solar One and Two site in 2001, they commenced production of Nevada Solar One, which became operational in 2007, and boasts a maximum production capacity of 75MW. With three major Solar Power Tower Plants built since 1995, moves to a genuine production of solar power are being implemented on both sides of the Atlantic. Sustainable energy is a real possibility. Let’s hope other nations follow suit.

Chris Woolfrey is the solar panels expert at www.EcoSwitch.com The environmental social network EcoSwitch

Apollo Astronaut Mitchell Says Aliens Exist and the Government Doesn’t Want You to Know About Them

Edgar Mitchell was one of the twelve Americans to walk on the surface of the moon. During a recent radio interview on the UK-based Kerrang! Broadcast, he told host Nick Margerrison, “I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we’ve been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real.” That statement shocked the host and began an amazing disclosure from a true American hero.

Born in Texas and brought up in New Mexico, he has three earned degrees including a Doctorate of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics from MIT, as well as at least four honorary Doctorate degrees from prestigious universities. Among his many awards are the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the United States Navy Distinguished Service Medal.

Mitchell began his Navy career in 1952 and completed flight training in 1954. During the 1950s, he flew A3 aircraft as part of the Heavy Attack Squadron Two and served as a Research Project Pilot with the Navy’s Air Development Squadron Five. In the early 1960s he was Chief of the Project Management Division of the Navy Field Office for a Manned Orbiting Laboratory. In 1965 he entered the U.S. Air Force Aerospace Research Pilot School in preparation for astronaut duties.

In 1966, Edgar Mitchell was chosen for the Astronaut Training Program by NASA. After serving as a member of the astronaut support crew for Apollo 9 and as backup lunar module pilot for Apollo 10, Mitchell, he was assigned as a lunar module pilot. In 1971, U.S. Navy Captain Mitchell was a part of the crew of Apollo 14 along with Admiral Alan Shepard and Colonel Stuart Roosa.

After the Apollo 13 disaster, the world had their eyes on the Apollo 14 Moon Mission. Mitchell maneuvered the lunar module Antares to a perfect landing on the hilly Fra Mauro region of the moon. Mitchell and Shepard deployed from the module, performed a number of experiments and collected over 100 pounds of moon rocks and set a record of staying thirty three hours on the lunar surface. They also hold the record for the longest moon walk on record at nine hours and seventeen minutes.

Nine days after his mission began, Edgar Mitchell made a triumphant return to Earth and helped reestablish the American Public and Government’s faith in NASA. He retired from NASA and the U.S. Navy in 1972. Since that time, Mitchell has been active as an author and speaker on many subjects including space exploration, the nature of consciousness and powers of the mind.

Now seventy-seven years old, the sixth man to walk on the surface of the moon told a stunned radio audience that Aliens from other worlds have contacted humans and that governments have purposely covered up what they have learned about these entities. Mitchell describes the beings as “little people who look strange to us.” He says that the traditional description of creatures with a small body frame, large eyes and over-sized head is accurate.

Speaking about the cover-up, Mitchell told radio host Nick Margerrison, “’It’s been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it’s leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it… I’ve been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes - we have been visited. Reading the papers recently, it’s been happening quite a bit.”

Responding to a question about disclosure by Margerrison, Mitchell said, “This is really starting to open up. I think we’re headed for real disclosure and some serious organisations are moving in that direction.” Well, all except for NASA. Despite what Mitchell did for them, a spokesperson for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration responded to his comments by saying, “NASA does not track UFOs.

NASA is not involved in any sort of cover up about alien life on this planet or anywhere in the universe. Dr Mitchell is a great American, but we do not share his opinion on this issue.”

It’s came as no surprise that what other government agencies have described as “the most deception organization in the United State Government” should turn on Mitchell as soon as he tried to tell the truth about UFOs and Aliens. They have repeatedly described Astronaut UFO sightings as cases of mistaken identity saying they were pieces of rockets, ice, dust particles and space junk. If the truth is out there, NASA isn’t going o be the government agency that will tell you about it! For more, visit http://newsletter.ufoguy.com

Bill Knell is a popular paranormal author, speaker and consultant. Author’s Website: UFOguy.com Terms To Use Article: Permission is granted to use this article for free online or in print with inclusion of the author

Indiana UFO Invasion

UFOs being chased by military jets has become a common theme in the USA other the past year. In all of these cases the jets almost immediately dropped flairs to cover up what was, obviously, a far more interesting mission. If any comments were forthcoming from the military, they merely stated that any military aircraft seen in the area were on training missions.

When most people think of UFOs being chased by jets, they think of the Stephenville and Erath County, Texas, events that took place in January of 2008. In that case, recently released FAA radar reports show that unidentified objects were tracked along with military jets and that at least one may have violated presidential airspace over the Bush Ranch in Crawford, Texas. However, incidents like that one have taken place on numerous occasions in Indiana as well.

The Indiana incidents began on April 15, 2008, when a number of people living in the northern Indiana towns of Kokomo and Logansport reported seeing strange lights in their skies and the presence of military jets over the next two nights. They also heard what sounded like a huge explosion, followed by the appearance of a giant fireball and debris falling from the sky.

Some said the debris looked like ‘spider webs’ and resembled a phenomenon known as Angel Hair, a sometimes radioactive substance which has appeared after UFO sightings and landings throughout the years. Most of the material melted or vanished later in the day. The sightings and jet chases were reported over two nights. A military spokesperson later told concerned citizens that the jets were on training exercises and attributed the other events to the dropping of flares.

New sightings of UFOs being chased by military jets occurred recently near Lake Shafer and Peru, Indiana. The sightings began on July 23, 2008 in the Indiana beach area near Lake Shafer. One witness named Joe provided this report to me:

“We had seen some strange lights while we were leaving Indiana Beach on Lake Shaffer. It was on Wednesday, July 23,2008, at about 10:15. I taped some of the objects, but the only things you can see is when they would “flare up” and get really bright. When we first seen them, their was 3 of them and they were arranged in a triangle shape. Later 2 others joined them and they lined up in a straight line. Unfortunately, I never got video of them grouped together or of them darting around and zooming from the east to the west of us in a about 2 seconds. I did get some video of one of the objects directly above us and one to the east of us as they flared up.”

“None of these objects made any sounds. The only sound we heard was when a military jet flew over us and headed towards the objects. The objects disappeared and never returned after a short chase by the military jet. As we were driving home my sons mom called him to see if we had seen the strange lights in the sky. She lives in Rochester, Indiana which is about 40 miles from where we were at. She said she was on the lake on her boat and noticed the lights darting around and flaring up.”

The fact that the lights formed into triangles is significant. A number of UFO sightings have recently occurred in the USA, the UK and Canada involving strange lights that have formed into triangles. Some of these cases also involve military intervention by jets and helicopters. The Indiana sightings continued on July 24, 2008, as reported by a witness named Chris:

“It happened Thursday July 24th 2008… I live in Peru Indiana , my wife and a few people were sitting outside last night around 10:30 pm. My wife came in saying they saw a UFO. They said it looked like a ball of fire. Shortly after, I would say 10 or 15 minutes later, about 10 jets started flying around where it was seen. The jets started dropping flares. But the people that saw the ” ball of fire” said it didn’t look the same as what they saw about 10 minutes earlier. The witnesses were all females and kids and they were clearly shaken by what they saw. The jets continued to fly around the area for hours afterwards.”

While all this was going on, another report came in from a person named Diane. She was driving between Lafayette and Monticello, Indiana on July 24, 2008 and sent me this report:

“I heard a lot of noise that sounded like jet engines… They were really low. I stopped at a gas station to take a look and seen jets everywhere. It was between nine and ten at night and they were chasing this big bright light that glowed red and yellow. I guess all this was happening miles away from me in the sky but it looked closer. I was at a gas station and everyone was looking at all this. When I went inside the cashier said that he thought it was a UFO and everyone in there said the same thing… I stopped somewhere between Brookston and Monticello.”

In addition to the previous report which mentioned UFOs seen in the Rochester area, this one came in from Grant:

“I heard you on Coast to Coast and wanted to report a bright light I seen near Main Street and 31 on the 24th (7/24/08) in Rochester… The light looked like a spotlight they use for store openings and I saw jets around it at 11pm. My kid was with me and he got scared… I called my wife and asked if she seen it. We live near Fulton Avenue across town and she said the light was high in the sky above our house… She didn’t see the jets but heard them.”

Thank you to all those that provided reports about these significant events. If you saw something similar, please visit my website and file a report. I made several calls and sent emails to regional military commands to request an explanation or statement on these events, but have received none as of this writing. The Midwest has a long history of UFO sightings and this year seems to be a busy one.

For more including photos, visit http://newsletter.ufoguy.com

Bill Knell is a popular paranormal author, speaker and consultant. Author’s Website: UFOguy.com Terms To Use Article: Permission is granted to use this article for free online or in print with inclusion of the author

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