Folks are hype about the U.S. Space Force's Guardians, but consider how the UK's SAS wants to be ahead of the curve. Isobel Dickinson provides just enough details to pique curiosity about how their elites are prepared to go full XCOM in real life. But why all the prep when nobody's answered Fermi's immortal question? Dig this new discovery in space, courtesy of George Knapp where a FM SIgnal Coming From Jupiter's Moon Ganymede and clears up the signal's provenance. One thing's for certain, if we're going to be invaded by Venusians they had better have microscopes considering how tiny they might be. Which ably segues us into Nick Redfern's own question, "Is There Life On Venus? Just Maybe There Is!" Many folks have pondered the topic long before the detection of phosphines, and Nick provides a handy reference for the next time you get into an argument with a greyface. (CS)

It's amazing what folks can do with code nowadays, and Paul Seaburn marvels with the rest of us that programmers can get their computers stoned. Rather than ingesting 'shrooms, smoking DMT, nor dropping acid, Michael Schartner and his hacker friends coded up their electronic equivalents with astonishing results. Sadly humans aren't as smart as those programmers nor their artificial intelligences. Dig this wild story from Nicoletta Lanese concerning 'Magic Mushrooms' Grow In Man's Blood After Injection With Shroom Tea. Rather than making the poor soul permanently trip, nor become a myconid, something far worse happened to this sap. Regarding those who weren't as lucky, the redoubtable Nick Redfern considers A Controversial Death — Psychedelics To Death. While LSD didn't kill Frank Olson, the impact of his... well, impact... and the MKUltra study opened a whole other can of worms still making waves in the 21st century. (CS)

The mystery of migrating birds, and the senses available to them to facilitate their travel, are slowly coming into focus for biologists, and they're winding up being far stranger than expected. Scientists have directly observed it in the lab and, maybe, this will open the doors to a whole new spooky field of inquiry. Don't get lost yet, as Glasgow Boy shares Further Thoughts On The John McLean Sighting. Glasgow Boy collapses the wave function of McLean's sighting, thereby removing the noise from the Nessie signal long sought by cryptozoologists everywhere. (CS)

A look at some of the wilder stories in ufology starts with host Jim Harold welcoming Paul Blake Smith, whose answer is YES to the title question. Smith's recent President Eisenhower's Close Encounters contends that Ike had a meeting with aliens in February of 1954. Smith has assembled a medley of ideas from sources of varying stamp, known Eisenhower behaviors, and different world events to support this idea. We next go Down the Rabbit Hole of a British Politician's Bizarre Alien Claims with Brent Swancer. Brent relates the strange alien experiences recounted by Whitby, North Yorkshire Town Council member Simon Parkes. Brent's The Bizarre Mystery of the Guardian UFO covers the alleged Carp, Ontario, UFO landing and some of its complicated aftermath. More unsettling is the mystery posed in Nick Redfern's question: UFO Researcher Morris Jessup: Murdered For What He Knew? Bound up or not with the uber-controversial "Philadelphia Experiment," Jessup's death and the events leading up to it raise questions. (WM)

Environmental conservation groups have been clandestinely reintroducing the threatened Eurasian lynx to the mountains of Europe since its extinction there in the 19th century. Despite decades of sightings and documented encounters with it throughout the German and Belgian countryside, French wildlife officials deny the lynx has returned. Even so in 2014 a lynx spotted slinking just outside the walls of the magic kingdom in the Parisian suburbs sowed public fear and discord far away from the Alps or the Ardennes. Persistence and survival is the forte of the feral phantom feline, as profiled in Unfurgettable: Why the Beast Of Cumbria Just Won't Go Away. There has been a rash of big cat reports in the Lake District of the UK of late, and The Guardian helps you make heads and tails of the common cryptid. (MS)

Paco Calvo at the University of Murcia’s minimal intelligence lab in Spain and Vicente Raja at the Rotman Institute of Philosophy in London, Canada, conducted an experiment to test whether french bean plants could show goal-directed behaviors consistent with anticipation and fine-scaled tweaking of their movements. They did. Admittedly the result doesn't prove intent but "if plants really do possess intent, it would make sense," says Calvo. An in-depth examination of the controversial issue of sentient vegetation appears in the latest issue of EdgeScience, available as a free pdf from the Society for Scientific Exploration. The entire issue is devoted to the article "Sentient Plants: A Product of Nature or Human Imagination?" by journalist Krissy Eliot. (PH)

The pig that's "warty" in this story is not an unattractive individual porker; it's an actual species and its depiction in an Indonesian scene challenges Eurocentric views of the beginnings of artistic expression. And the research team announcing this find expects "even more significant discoveries," per Katie Hunt. On the other hand, Jocelyne LeBlanc reports that The Stone Age May Have Lasted 20,000 Years Later Than Previously Thought in some parts of western Africa. Extrapolating "from discoveries in small parts of eastern and southern Africa" may be a flawed strategy. If that's not surprising, try Benjamin Plackett's answer to Why was Stonehenge Built? "Your guess is as good as anyone's," his scientist sources say, and when Plackett adds that "technically speaking, Stonehenge isn't even a henge," the ground starts falling away from under us. One historian feels the Stonehenge mystery has "a sort of magic in the not knowing," cueing up Nick Redfern's story about Ancient Stones: Mysterious Connections and Strange Creatures. At certain English megalithic sites you might confront some of the ancient builders themselves! (WM)

Those familiar with the story of the Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS) work for the Defense Intelligence Agency may not find the information "shocking." But MJ Banias ties together several solid recent studies with some anonymously-provided material to provide more insight into the whole matter. Embellishment of Skinwalker Ranch experiences by some BAASS employees and "contracts and internal emails detailing the tumultuous relationship between BAASS and the Mutual UFO Network" will likely draw attention. Keith Basterfield illuminates another Robert Bigelow initiative in The TRIAD Research Conference Foundation, and the Bigelow Foundation. This article backs Bigelow's comment in a video embedded in the Banias piece that "I probably spent more as an individual than anybody else in the United States has ever spent" on the ET presence. (WM)

A paranormal investigator in Wales was recently checking an abandoned asylum for spooks and caught something on camera while recording her investigation. She's calling it a trapped soul that needs to be freed. We're calling it a squatter who was getting himself out of the way. You can decide for yourself. Meanwhile, a Mystery ‘Hum’ Spreads From Horsham to Pulborough. Authorities suspect it's the result of heavy industry or construction, but that's little comfort for those afflicted with the endless drone. Silence really is golden, at least when it's in short supply. (CM)

Nick Redfern does a four-part series on the titular subject, beginning with a look back to hairy-scary ancient encounters with Bigfoot-like hominids. In Part 2 he takes a look at watery beasties, including not just Nessie, but also oddities from English waters, too. Part 3 recounts stories of weird winged wonders causing a flap, and finally in Part 4 he turns his attention to wallabies, coypus, and porcupines, all of which have startled UK residents from time-to-time. (LP)

The Scientific Director of the J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS) and leading ufologist David Marler have teamed up to assure the preservation and promote the utilization of the Center's case files. The two join host Martin Willis to discuss the genesis of this collaboration, its housing, and plans to assure not only the safety of the archives but their public use by researchers. Interesting UFO cases--many of them not known outside of the files--are highlighted. Tobias and Emily Wayland headline the new tv series 'UFO Witness' to Reopen Case Files of Dr. J. Allen Hynek. "UFO Witness" debuts Thursday on discovery+. Hynek's experience working as scientific resource for several military UFO programs changed him from debunker to the realization UFOs posed a real phenomenon that needed serious study, and founding of CUFOS after Project Blue Book ended. The series initially features the work of the late Jennie Zeidman, a pioneering female investigator and right-hand associate of Hynek. Billy Cox is Among the 3,432 Facebook friends rightfully mourning the passing of Angelia Joiner, another groundbreaking woman in the field. Billy discusses the life and final days of the person whose "reporting had made international headlines 12 Januarys ago" in the wake of the 2008 Stephenville, Texas, UFO events. Joiner's stand for UFO truth cost her her job; COVID-19 took her life, one day after her husband passed from the same horrible disease. (WM)

Cat coat genetics is a complex endeavor involving multiple alleles over various wild species and domestic breeds. The dilution of a darker-colored coat into a grayish-blue pigment, or "Maltesing," is a documented mutation amongst the lynx and bobcat, so it's no wonder that an early 20th century missionary tracked such a tiger nick-named Bluebeard through the wild mountains of China. Karl Shuker outlines the scattered human encounters with these elusive beauties through recent history. Meanwhile in mutation headlines, researchers have unveiled (kept secret until now out of concern for poaching) that Dwarf Giraffes Discovered in Namibia and Uganda — Nature’s Oxymorons? Give little Gimli and Nigel a break--their skeletal dysplasia leaves them practically defenseless! (MS)

Unidentified Aerial Phenomena - Scientific Research -- Keith Basterfield Keith Basterfield ranks as one of the preeminent "sleuths" of arcane ufological information, and reports his latest findings. Utilizing two titles published by Anomalist Books--Reality Denied: Firsthand Experiences with Things that Can't Happen—But Did by John B. Alexander and Jacques Vallee's Forbidden Science 4: The Spring Hill Chronicles, The Journals of Jacques Vallee 1990-1999, Keith prises away interesting items about Robert Bigelow's interest "in a diverse range of paranormal related phenomena." Rich Reynolds complains about a couple of books he may find of less value, supporting his contention that Ufology Seems Fractured. (WM)

In this first of a three part report, writer John Carlson describes how he came to be pals with explorer and cryptid researcher Adam Davies and the ensuing life altering experience in searching for Bigfoot. Next we have The Missionary, the Former Slave, and the Sasquatch. Long before the famed Patterson Gimlin film launched Patty to fame, hairy hominids were making themselves a nuisance to 19th century European settlers, who convinced themselves they were having "bear" problems. Evidently in their homelands it was normal for bears to walk on their hind legs and carry corn with their front "arms." Alrighty then. Turns out denial isn't a new thing either. (CM)

The CIA collection of UFO documents we reported on September 3rd as now available to the public has been converted to a more usable format, owing to the work of The Black Vault master John Greenewald, Jr., says Samir Ferdowsi. Ferdowsi's article quotes from an email regarding Greenewald's process, but conveyed a wrong impression about the number of FOIAs necessary to obtain the CIA stuff. Greenewald corrects this misapprehension in his own entry UFOs: The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Collection: "The Black Vault has filed 10,000 FOIA requests TOTAL to amass the 2.2 MILLION pages in this entire archive. Not just for the below [CIA] documents," and that of the original CIA collection: "in mid 2020, this CD-ROM was purchased to have one particular data dump available for all users of The Black Vault." John then includes downloadable pdfs. For Jack Brewer's article on the 2,780 pages released in the summer, see CIA Serves Assist to Researchers Seeking Previously Processed UFO Docs, with its late July CIA response of archive availability surrounding a narrower Brewer FOIA request. (WM)

The history of flying saucers often mirrors cultural mores, and Curt Collins' article is an important reminder of the objectification of women so prominent in the early UFO years. It's perhaps worth pondering what progress has been made since, as well. Ufologist James Clarkson doubts further progress regarding The Mysterious UFO Crash at Elk River in 1979. Jim's diligent efforts did not turn up anything probative about the matter Note his salutary caution regarding what a "UFO" is or is not. Having reported that case, Brent Swancer turns to An Ex-Military Officer, UFO Conspiracies, and Alien Bio-Robots. This covers claims made in the late Philip J. Corso's book The Day After Roswell. Brent's comment that it "has generated some debate and doubt even within the ufology field" is an understatement. Brent closes out with The Strange Alien Abduction of Amy Rylance, an ill-known but completely mystifying 2001 set of events. (WM)

On December 28, 2020, a 29-foot cabin vessel left Bimini in the Bahamas and headed for Lake Worth, Florida. The ship and its 20 passengers never arrived at their destination, and that's just the beginning of the strangeness. Apparently only one passenger of the 20 left behind a family member who cared enough to report them missing. In fact, none of the names on the passenger list included details that would have assisted in contacting loved ones, and the purpose of the voyage was never written down. And then there's that whole Bermuda Triangle thing. While it seems these hapless people were sucked into a void, we also have the story of a man who seemed to originate from one. The Bizarre Case of a Man From Nowhere details the plight of a sixty-ish gentleman taken to a Boston Hospital in 1945 for treatment of shrapnel wounds. Little could be discerned regarding his identity, and he had no memory of how he ended up in the ambulance that brought him to hospital. The story becomes even odder at that point. (CM)

Chris Impey enumerates many arguments against UFOs-as-ET-productions. He doesn't demonstrate much reading in the subject, for instance alleging that "the Roswell Incident was soon explained as the crash landing of a military high-altitude balloon"--yep, nearly 50 years afterward. It's also not instantly apparent why many UFO reporters being "either dog walkers or smokers" has any probative value against the "alienness" of UFOs themselves. The implied connection with alcohol consumption is such an old and ridiculous canard that it's embarrassing to see it unearthed again. And cherry-picking one 1997 psychological study of young adults also does not do justice to the depth of that subject.(WM)

Kevin Randle's musings about a CEIII featuring a fly-eyed alien, "the exposure of Area 51," and Oumuamua begin a Ufological spirited commentary foursome. Kevin promises an upcoming interview with Dr. Avi Loeb, Oumuamua's biggest promoter as an "Arthur Clarkeian" Rendezvous with Rama probe. Nick Redfern challenges us with Why the Roswell Affair Wasn't Extraterrestrial -- Deal With it or Live in La La Land. Nick throws out and then tries to bind together some odd bits of information; his two books on the subject of course have much more material. Rich Reynolds is similarly worked up but on a different topic in Orbs? Who Cares? Rich doesn't want to include the phenomena in the "UFOs" category--and he's very likely correct. Lack of an agreed-upon, standardized definition stymies progress in the field. Rich articulates feelings about A Couple of Things.... more, including Oumuamua, Michael Masters' time-traveling UFO book, and defending Nick Pope against his detractors. (WM)

The topic of remote viewing is a familiar one. Studied for purposes of espionage, certain governments thought it would be a handy and cost effective method to spy on one another. As far back as 1952, the CIA was examining the phenomenon for its application as a tool of psychological warfare. But it wasn't just sneaky tactics being studied. The hope was to use Remote Viewing as a means of discovering answers to everything. As described in this next report, Remote Viewing: Some Seriously Weird Projects, the CIA dug deeper for answers to strange, long-standing questions. What they didn't expect (actually they probably did) was to uncover the presence of aliens, the truth about Dogman, and magical skills of the Loch Ness Monster. That's the kind of stuff that makes agencies go nuts--and then bury the findings. (CM)

Current UFO news includes the belated recognition by mainstream media sources that Something Unusual Happened in the recently-passed and signed Covid-19 relief and spending bill. As its title and first sentence indicate, this foreign perspective hasn't much background in the subject and its stated expectations of "all the information" are wildly unrealistic. CNN Producer Harmeet Kaur's US Intelligence Agencies Have 180 Days to Share What They Know about UFOs, Thanks to the Covid-19 Relief and Spending Bill has more information and a short video. Among recent aerial anomalies is Allyson Blair's FAA Notified after Large Blue UFO Seen above Oahu Appeared to Drop into Ocean. The December 29th sighting generated multiple videos and straightforward local coverage. As of Paul Seaburn's January 4th article on this matter, the FAA Can't Explain Blue UFO Falling Into the Ocean Near Oahu. Paul complains about the apparent lack of follow-up by authorities. Lastly, Peter Robbins shares the heartbreaking news that Angelia Joiner Has Died. The woman who bravely reported on the 2008 Stephenville Texas events passed away at age 59, one day after her husband, both victims of the COVID-19 virus. (WM)

Considering the ongoing COVID pandemic, if there's a zombie outbreak then humanity is really screwed. Zombie deniers refusing to wear chainmail, refusing to wash after any encounter, with some running towards a ravening horde while saying it's all a media conspiracy before being torn to shreds. EsoterX is a bit more learned than this humble news editor, and Mr. E gets into the weeds with the science concerning a zombie pandemic, but also the psychology of misinformation and lies which can motivate living hordes into accomplishing the unthinkable. (CS)

Praise be to Jemima Packington, and Tim Binnall, for lending insight on the forecast for 2021 which is already off to a rocky start. Get the lowdown on the royals, American politics, and where to invest your money in hopes of turning 2021 into your year. (CS)

Know what's fun? Telling a person how someone wrote "gullible" on the ceiling and watching them look up to see for themselves. While Claudia Aoraha is just sharing the news and the photos, one can smell the shenanigans since there's no toe-spread, the arches aren't flexing, and nor are there any hand marks where the entity crawled up nor a landing site where the purported barefoot entity landed on the car. Still it's a bit of fun. A little more serious is Nick Redfern's dive into the The Strange And Supernatural Creatures Of The United Kingdom which includes the unusual suspects of a hairy hominin, a weird hybrid predator 'round Rendlesham, and a beast with fiery red eyes. Sadly those are just tales, which leads us to another bald Briton who's keen to begin Elucidating The Two "Civil War Pterodactyl" Thunderbird Photographs. Many people claim to have seen them before the turn of the millennium, but sometime after 2000 the waters became muddied with the advent of professional-quality image editing software and fortean infotainment on cable TV. (CS)