Unky
Martian Baby
These are some of the things I observed at Robert and Ryan Wood's conference in Las Vegas last weekend.
Ryan Wood talked about his new book UFO's...Who Knows which is a compendium of quotes from famous people compiled over the last 60 years of the modern UFO era.
He also discussed a new Internet project called UFOdex.net that acts as a repository for UFO literature. It goes a step further than most tools of it's kind with the amibitous goal of including all book pages scanned and presented for the user via search routines while circumventing standard copyright laws and remaining consistent with fair use exemptions. This could be a very important and useful tool for anyone concerned about the problem of out-of-print UFO books and literature. I gave it a test-run and while it's still very much in the beta phase, it has a lot of potential.
Stephen Basset did his standard disclosure/exopolitics presentation. He grafted some of Grant Cameron's political research into his speech giving particular attention to the Democratic Party and the Rockefeller Initiative. He talked extensively about recent document declassification by various international governments and mentioned some other countries were involved in the process that I was unaware of such as Portugal and Uraguay. Stephen has this way of lifting people's spirits with his words, engendering a sense of hope, influencing people to believe that the idea of disclosure has merit and is just around the corner. This was apparent in the audiences reaction. My personal problem with his ideas and optimism is: I simply don't believe it. It would be nice to be proven wrong in this regard.
James Carrion was a real departure from the other speakers. He was given the awkward task of presenting a lecture called "an Introduction to Ufology" to a crowd of people that have obviously been studying the subject for years. He talked a lot about MUFON, STAR teams, etc. I found his perspective refreshing and somewhat independent. He was more than happy to admit he didn't really believe in a UFO connection to such things as crop circles, cattle mutilations, Roswell, Majestic-12, Area 51 and had no hope whatsoever for imminent disclosure. When asked by an audience member "what exactly do you believe?" he stated he thought the phenomenon was real as well as abductions because he's done field investigations and case studies himself. I detected the notion of government manipulation and contamination of the subject is something he finds deeply troubling.
Miichael Salla's presentation was first thing Saturday morning and I looked forward to missing it.
Peter Robbins (Left at Eastgate) did a short presentation on the 1978 UN discussion of the UFO phenomenon which he attended and showed some interesting black and white photos of people like Hynek and Vallée testifyiing to UN delegates. Peter lamented the only reason this event occurred was that Eric Gairy Prime Minister of Grenada had a personal interest in the subject and had been lobbying the UN.
I don't know much about Michael Schratt. I've seen him interviewed on television documentaries more than once. He did a long presentation discussing unusually evidential CE2 and CE3 cases spanning the last 100 years, some older. These were gleaned from the files of NICAP, APRO and CUFOS. He said he was given access to these files and spent three years combing them and aggregating case information. Many bizarre cases. Every shape and configuration of saucer and alien that can be imagined. If even a portion of these cases are real, cataloging all the different races visiting our skies would be a daunting task. He repeatedly made the interesting point that many of the witness descriptions of different UFO shapes indicated that some appeared to be constructed with rivets.
I spoke to Nick Redfern briefly about his contribution to the Mac Tonnies fairwell Paracast show 11/1. He did a presentation on the Kingman crash of 1953 citing some new witness information. He discussed Leonard Stringfield's research on the case and read part of a letter from Dick Hall with input from Don Berliner to Strignfield discussing evidence for the crash, possible retrieval, and strange military activity surrounding the event. Nick was careful to place the required disclaimers on controversial case evidence and witness testimony. He emphasized this point when referencing the testimony of Bill Uhouse and the Serpo papers. I found Nick to be an excellent speaker and very personable in the conversations I had with him. He seems like a good dude.
I had some nice conversation with James E. Clarkson. He is the retired cop that did a presentation on interviews and recordings he did with June Craine. She was the woman that worked at Wright Patterson AFB, retained a Q-clearance, and may have handled some UFO wreckage. James was nice fellow and seemed very genuine. He noted that he's become particularly interested in WP/Batelle connection.
One of the funniest things I saw was George Knapp in a pair of shorts and a golf shirt hiding in a dark corner behind a pair of sunglasses. I've met George several times over the years and he's always been in his KLAS-approved suit. His attempts to remain incognito were a humorous exercise in futility.
I bumped into Richard Dolan in a restaurant one floor down from the conference room. He cheerily joked about forum members giving him a hard time about attending the Camelot Conference which he clearly took it all in stride. He assured me that Gene and Dave should've received their books by now. He's a very easy going guy and a pleasure to talk to.
Of the 75-85 people that were in attendance each day, a good 80% were over the age of 60. A fact I found troubling, and served to crystallize concerns people have had over the last few years about how "Ufology is lacking young people". This didn't bode well for me being a younger face in the room and being unaccompanied. People seemed to be looking at me with suspicion as though I had some nefarious intent.
Ryan Wood talked about his new book UFO's...Who Knows which is a compendium of quotes from famous people compiled over the last 60 years of the modern UFO era.
He also discussed a new Internet project called UFOdex.net that acts as a repository for UFO literature. It goes a step further than most tools of it's kind with the amibitous goal of including all book pages scanned and presented for the user via search routines while circumventing standard copyright laws and remaining consistent with fair use exemptions. This could be a very important and useful tool for anyone concerned about the problem of out-of-print UFO books and literature. I gave it a test-run and while it's still very much in the beta phase, it has a lot of potential.
Stephen Basset did his standard disclosure/exopolitics presentation. He grafted some of Grant Cameron's political research into his speech giving particular attention to the Democratic Party and the Rockefeller Initiative. He talked extensively about recent document declassification by various international governments and mentioned some other countries were involved in the process that I was unaware of such as Portugal and Uraguay. Stephen has this way of lifting people's spirits with his words, engendering a sense of hope, influencing people to believe that the idea of disclosure has merit and is just around the corner. This was apparent in the audiences reaction. My personal problem with his ideas and optimism is: I simply don't believe it. It would be nice to be proven wrong in this regard.
James Carrion was a real departure from the other speakers. He was given the awkward task of presenting a lecture called "an Introduction to Ufology" to a crowd of people that have obviously been studying the subject for years. He talked a lot about MUFON, STAR teams, etc. I found his perspective refreshing and somewhat independent. He was more than happy to admit he didn't really believe in a UFO connection to such things as crop circles, cattle mutilations, Roswell, Majestic-12, Area 51 and had no hope whatsoever for imminent disclosure. When asked by an audience member "what exactly do you believe?" he stated he thought the phenomenon was real as well as abductions because he's done field investigations and case studies himself. I detected the notion of government manipulation and contamination of the subject is something he finds deeply troubling.
Miichael Salla's presentation was first thing Saturday morning and I looked forward to missing it.
Peter Robbins (Left at Eastgate) did a short presentation on the 1978 UN discussion of the UFO phenomenon which he attended and showed some interesting black and white photos of people like Hynek and Vallée testifyiing to UN delegates. Peter lamented the only reason this event occurred was that Eric Gairy Prime Minister of Grenada had a personal interest in the subject and had been lobbying the UN.
I don't know much about Michael Schratt. I've seen him interviewed on television documentaries more than once. He did a long presentation discussing unusually evidential CE2 and CE3 cases spanning the last 100 years, some older. These were gleaned from the files of NICAP, APRO and CUFOS. He said he was given access to these files and spent three years combing them and aggregating case information. Many bizarre cases. Every shape and configuration of saucer and alien that can be imagined. If even a portion of these cases are real, cataloging all the different races visiting our skies would be a daunting task. He repeatedly made the interesting point that many of the witness descriptions of different UFO shapes indicated that some appeared to be constructed with rivets.
I spoke to Nick Redfern briefly about his contribution to the Mac Tonnies fairwell Paracast show 11/1. He did a presentation on the Kingman crash of 1953 citing some new witness information. He discussed Leonard Stringfield's research on the case and read part of a letter from Dick Hall with input from Don Berliner to Strignfield discussing evidence for the crash, possible retrieval, and strange military activity surrounding the event. Nick was careful to place the required disclaimers on controversial case evidence and witness testimony. He emphasized this point when referencing the testimony of Bill Uhouse and the Serpo papers. I found Nick to be an excellent speaker and very personable in the conversations I had with him. He seems like a good dude.
I had some nice conversation with James E. Clarkson. He is the retired cop that did a presentation on interviews and recordings he did with June Craine. She was the woman that worked at Wright Patterson AFB, retained a Q-clearance, and may have handled some UFO wreckage. James was nice fellow and seemed very genuine. He noted that he's become particularly interested in WP/Batelle connection.
One of the funniest things I saw was George Knapp in a pair of shorts and a golf shirt hiding in a dark corner behind a pair of sunglasses. I've met George several times over the years and he's always been in his KLAS-approved suit. His attempts to remain incognito were a humorous exercise in futility.
I bumped into Richard Dolan in a restaurant one floor down from the conference room. He cheerily joked about forum members giving him a hard time about attending the Camelot Conference which he clearly took it all in stride. He assured me that Gene and Dave should've received their books by now. He's a very easy going guy and a pleasure to talk to.
Of the 75-85 people that were in attendance each day, a good 80% were over the age of 60. A fact I found troubling, and served to crystallize concerns people have had over the last few years about how "Ufology is lacking young people". This didn't bode well for me being a younger face in the room and being unaccompanied. People seemed to be looking at me with suspicion as though I had some nefarious intent.
