Thursday, March 28, 2024
PDFs: Jim Melesciuc's "Orbiter" UFO newsletter (USA, 1980s-1990s)
PDFs: "Ohio UFO Notebook" (1992-2005) co-founded by Bill Jones, "a virtual encyclopedia of UFO information"
Wednesday, March 27, 2024
"First peer-reviewed" UFO journal - UPIAR now online (1976-1984)
UPIAR and an associated newsletter (URIP) were published from 1976 to 1984.
Edoardo Russo has described UPIAR as "the first peer-reviewed UFO periodical".
It was later followed by some similar publications, several of which I have previously uploaded - including the Journal of Transient Aerial Phenomena, and the European Journal of UFO and Abduction Studies.
Edoardo helpfully provided the following background on UPIAR:"It was the initiative of CNIFAA (Comitato Nazionale Indipendente per lo studio dei Fenomeni Aerei Anomali), an Italian association based in Bologna. Its editors were Renzo Cabassi, Roberto Farabone, Francesco Izzo, with an international advisors board. After four yearly volumes, a quicker supplement was tried, UPIAR Research in Progress (URIP) under the editorship of Spanish ufologist Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos (1981-1984). A publishing house was created as a Cooperative society, whose members were all ufologists. It's still existing as a UFO publishing house for the Italian Center for UFO Studies (CISU)".
The international advisory board mentioned by Edoardo included J Allen Hynek, Richard Haines, Bruce Maccabee, David Jacobs and others.
All four volumes of UPIAR are now online.
The first two issues of four issues of the associated newsletter, URIP, are also now online. I hope to sort out the other two issues shortly.
Thursday, March 21, 2024
More French UFO material : 24 issues of the AESV "En Direct" newsletter + 5 more AESV Bulletins
I have added this material to a folder for French UFO magazines / newsletters.
(I had previously uploaded many issues of the AESV Bulletin, and OVNI-Presence, with Yves Bosson's permission, thanks to scans by Pierre Lagrange and Patrice Seray).
Saturday, March 9, 2024
PDFs: 90 issues of skeptical "Phactum" newsletter - Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking
For ease of reference, the skeptical material currently in my online archive is listed below (this material being in addition, of course, to the hundreds of ufological / Fortean newsletters and magazines from other viewpoints that I have uploaded to that archive in recent years thanks to the help of well over 100 UFO groups / researchers around the world and, of course, thanks to permission from the relevant individuals):
(1) "Skeptic UFO Newsletter" by Philip Klass
(2) John Rimmer's "Magonia"
(3) Ian Mrzyglod's "Probe"
(5) "Tampa Bay Skeptics Report"
(6) "North Texas Skeptic"
(7) "South Shore Skeptic"
(8) "Arizona Skeptic"
(9) "Phoenix Skeptics News"
(10) "Georgia Skeptics" newsletter
(11) "Bay Area Skeptics Information Sheet"
(12) "Cincinnati Skeptic"
(13) "REALL News" (Rational Examination Association of Lincoln Land)
(14) "Skeptical Eye" (National Capital Area Skeptics, NCAS)
(15) "Shadow of a Doubt" (National Capital Area Skeptics, NCAS)
(16) "The Skeptic" (UK)
(17) "Phactum" (Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking)
(18) The book "Flying Saucerers" by David Clarke and Andy Roberts ("A social history of Ufology")
(19) The book "The UFOs That Never Were" by Jenny Randles, Andy Roberts and David Clarke (in my view arguably the best UFO book in the last 50 years...)
(20) a PDF archive of about 10,000 pages of Tweets by skeptics Mick West and Charlie Wiser
Tuesday, February 27, 2024
Searchable PDFs: 300+ issues of Saucer Smear (Jim Moseley's "social history of ufology ... a gold mine rich in saucer lore, fact and fantasy, feud and folly")
"Saucer Smear" was a long-running newsletter published by Jim Moseley. It has been described as "unmatched as a running, 'as it happens' social history of ufology ... a gold mine rich in saucer lore, fact and fantasy, feud and folly" (by Karl Pflock, in an introduction to a book that he co-authored with Jim Moseley, "Shockingly Close to the Truth").
James Moseley's sense of humour renders it difficult to give a brief summary of some basic details such as the number of issues of "Saucer Smear" or the date it commenced publication. Moseley's "Nexus" was published in 1954-1955 and the numbering of issues continued with his next publication, "Saucer News", which ended with Vol 17 No 1. Moseley then took a break for about 6 years and when he recommenced publication of a UFO newsletter in 1976 he began with Volume 23 "in a bow of sorts to consistency (and confusion), and assuming one volume per year", stating that "I'm not at liberty to reveal why the first issue in the volume was numbered 16". He then went through a period of changing the title of the newsletter with almost every issue (from "Saucers News" to "Saucer Muse" to "Saucer Zoos" to "Saucer Grus" to "Saucer Clues", etc etc etc etc) before settling on "Saucer Smear" in 1980. The second issue of in this new series implied that the name change was due to Gray Barker having insisted that he owned the rights to the name "Saucer News", but in an interview at the link below James Moseley suggests that this was a joke and the two of them having a bit of fun.
Thursday, February 22, 2024
100+ issues of James Moseley's "Nexus" + "Saucer News" newsletters (thanks to UFO researchers in Sweden, Ukraine, USA and UK plus the University of Wyoming)
Complete sets of James Moseley's "Nexus" and "Saucer News" are now online, thanks to an effort involving UFO researchers in Sweden, Ukraine, USA and UK (plus the University of Wyoming).
Most of the issues were scanned by the AFU in Sweden. Barry Greenwood (the veteran UFO researcher in the USA) and Igor Kalytyuk (in Ukraine) helped fill in some gaps. Better copies of a handful of issues were obtained from an archive of the University of Wyoming.
Jim Moseley has been called "the Court Jester of UFOlogy". George P Hansen has commented that Moseley "perpetrated some amusing hoaxes, exposed others, mocked and antagonized UFOlogy’s 'establishment'...".
I have now uploaded searchable scans of:
(1) All 11 issues of "Nexus".
(2) All 64 issues of "Saucer News" newsletters
(3) 33 issues of short bulletins related to "Saucer News", i.e. the Non-Scheduled Newsletter and the Interim Speed Bulletins. (Issues numbered 30 and 31 are not currently available and may not have existed)
(I'm still trying to resolve copyright / permission issues so that I can upload a set of searchable scans of Jim Moseley's "Saucer Smear". I hope to clarify that position within the next few days).
Wednesday, February 21, 2024
Searchable PDFs : 161,000 pages of Italian UFO research discussion newsgroup (it.discussions.ufo, 1997-2006)
Edoardo Russo, the veteran Italian UFO researcher, kindly provided me with an archive of emails to that newsgroup, in mbx format.
To make the material easier to digest (particularly by non-Italian speakers, such as myself), I have converted the mbx archive to searchable PDFs.
The relevant archive totals over 161,000 pages.
If anyone has any other mbx archives of UFO newsgroups/emails, I can now probably also convert those to similar searchable PDFs...
Tuesday, February 20, 2024
More UFO PDFs from Israel, UK and USA ("ICFUFOR", "Trans-UFO" and Dale Rettig's "IAPA Newsletter")
I have now uploaded PDF versions of:
(1) "Trans-UFO" (UK) Eileen Fletcher's newsletter "Trans-UFO" included translations from various foreign UFO publications, mainly from Sweden (often from the AFU, which has helpfully scanned "Trans-UFO" and hosts these scans), Denmark, Argentina and Poland.
(2) "ICFUFOR" (Israel) : I have uploaded searchable PDFs of 16 issues of the "ICFUFOR" newsletter of the Israeli Center for UFO Research. These are numbered issues 35 to 50, so presumably there remain at least a further 34 issues to be located.
(3) "IAPA Newsletter" (USA) is, I think, now in the public domain due to non-registration of copyright of a pre-1964 publication. It was published by the "Illinois-International Aerial Phenomena Agency" and edited by Dale Rettig. I am currently missing the first issue.
Sunday, February 18, 2024
"For Your Eyes Only" uploaded and more UFO newspaper clippings added to huge collection (gaps filled in APCIC collection)
One of the issues of Todd Zechel's "For Your Eyes Only" was in John Schuessler's file on Todd Zechel, scanned by MUFON as part of the large Pandora UFO digitisation project led by James Carrion nearly 20 years ago and uploaded by James Carrion more recently. Barry Greenwood (the veteran researcher in the USA) has kindly scanned the other two issues.
Incidentally, Barry Greenwood, has helpfully provided several missing issues of the APCIC newspaper UFO clipping service (Vol 1 No 12, Vol 2 No 1 and an undated special issue). APCIC operated one of the two longest running UFO newsclipping services. There are now a total of 168 issues APCIC in my archive (with thanks to Ron and Richard Smotek for their permission and to Mikhail Gershtein for previously providing scans of most issues).
Combined with the issues of the other long running UFO clipping service (the "UFO Newsclipping Service", which I have previously uploaded with permission from Rod Dyke), there is now a huge archive of UFO newsclippings online (without even mentioning the thousands of other UFO newspaper clippings I have uploaded so far or the tens of thousands of other that should follow soon).
More Cryptozoology PDFs: "Biofortean Notes" + "North American BioFortean Review" (Chad Arment, -2024)
(My current uploads are missing Issue 10 of Chad's "North American BioFortean Review". It is also missing from the relevant part of Chad's own website. I've mentioned this to Chad, but I'm not sure he will be able to supply a copy as he has previously mentioned Issue 10 was lost in a computer crash. If anyone has a copy and sends it to me, I will of course promptly add it to the online archive).
These publications by Chad Arment join various other cryptozoological publications in my online archive, including the following:
(1) the ISC's "Cryptozoology" journal and the ISC Newsletters (following indications by the former president of ISC and another former director that they had no objection to the upload),
(2) over 150 issues of Rip Hepple's Loch Ness "Nessletters" (with his permission),
(3) Mark A Hall's "Wonders" (with the blessing of Loren Coleman, who had been given the "sign off" by the late Mark A Hall),
(4) the first 45 issues of the UK's "Animals and Men" (with permission from Jon Downes of The Centre for Fortean Zoology ),
(5) Ron Schaffner's "Creature Chronicles" (with the agreement of Blake Mathys, a researcher given permission by Ron Schaffner to make "Creature Chronicles" available online)
(6) "Flying Snake" (with permission from Richard Muirhead)
(7) "Exotic Zoology"(with permission from Matt Bille).
(8) "Cryptozoology Newsletter" (with permission from Matt Bille)
(10) "Bigfoot Bulletin" (George Haas)
(11) Many more general Fortean magazines/newsletters containing further cryptozoological material (after getting permissions from relevant editors/publishers). See, in particular, material in the folder for magazines/newsletters from the USA.
Saturday, February 17, 2024
PDFs: 4 more sets of UFO newsletters (USA, 1960s-1990s) : "Washington Saucer Intelligence" (1960s), "Saucer Institute of Research" (1960s), "Uformant" (1980s), "Letters from Andromeda" (1990s)
I've now added the following 4 further sets of UFO newsletters/magazines from the USA to the relevant folder in my (free) online UFO/Fortean archive kindly hosted by the AFU in Sweden:
(1) Alex Collier's "Letters from Andromeda" (1990s) - expressed to be free from copyright
(2) Wayne Aho's "Washington Saucer Intelligence" (1950s)
(3) "Uformant" (1980s), published by CAUS
(4) "Saucer Institute of Research" annual report (1960s)
Friday, February 16, 2024
More PDFs : "Journal of UFO History" (USA, 2004-2007) : Richard Hall of NICAP
Unfortunately, the set on the NICAP website only goes up to Volume 2 Number 6.
I have a single issue after that (Volume 4 Number 4) and various other references to issues after the ones available on the NICAP website.
I've added the issues I've obtained so far to my online archive.
I've tried a few times during the last year to seek assistance from various UFO groups and researchers to fill in the gap after Volume 2 Number 6. Unfortunately, it seems no-one has electronic copies of this publication (which is a bit surprising as I think this publication was prepared, and circulated, as a PDF - so my request should not have involve any scanning effort).
Thursday, February 15, 2024
Todd Zechel's "Associated Investigators Reports" (AIR) uploaded
Todd Zechel is probably most famous within ufology for his work on Freedom Of Information requests, and related litigation, in the late 1970s.
Zechel was also involved in research into (and, according to several researchers, the hoaxer of) at least one alleged UFO crash, in addition to (contentious) allegations relating to the involvement of the CIA in ufology.
Bruce Maccabee wrote in 1998 that Todd Zechel had been "an important figure in UFO research" about 15 years before that and that Zechel's approach "was to do anything which would advance his agenda, even at the expense and I mean $$$, of other people". Comments about Zechel by some other researchers, e.g. Jerry Clark, have been even harsher. Zechel regularly featured in the ufological gossip reported in "Saucer Smear".
Zechel's "Associated Investigators Group" wrote several "Reports" and other items, which were sent to various UFO researchers.
I've uploaded the text of Associated Investigator's Report number 1 and a scanned copy of Report number "1 1/2", plus some further AIG material to a directory at the link below (together with the AIG's report on the MJ12 hoax and a long Freedom Of Information Act Request which is more like an article than a typical FOIA request...:
From a letter written by Todd Zechel, I think there may have been a Associated Investigator's Report Number 2.
Unfortunately, both Todd Zechel and Frank Riccardi have passed away - no one else appears to have published further information about that (potential?) book. I posted a query in a Yahoo Group associated with Frank Riccardi's "Eyepod" website in 2014, without any response.
Wednesday, February 14, 2024
New Atlantean Journal [1970s-1980s] (Joan Whritenour / O' Connell and Patrick O' Connell) - 33 PDFs now online
Joan O'Connell (formerly Joan Whritenour) and her husband Patrick O'Connell edited the "New Atlantean Journal" in the 1970s and 1980s. It related to "the mysteries of the Old Continent, UFOs, Psychic Phenomenon and other related topics".
The "Board of Consultants" of "New Atlantean Journal" included Gray Barker, Riley Crabb, George Fawcett, Ron Westrum, Dr Berhold E Schwarz, Brad Steiger, Kurt Glemser, Brinsley le Poer Trench and many other big names of ufology in that time period.
Michael Swords wrote a blog article in 2012 about this publication at the link below:
https://thebiggeststudy.blogspot.com/2012/09/men-in-black.html
Patrick O'Connell is still around. He is active on LinkedIn (see his profile at the link below). He now publishes a newsletter entitled "The MAG Commentary", with "Market Weekly Forecasts and Geopolitical Commentaries". His LinkedIn page includes a link to subscribe to that newsletter.
https://www.linkedin.com/in/azpat0/
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I mentioned online a week or two ago that I'd successfully developed some software using AI to collate and transcribe UFO podcasts, to f...
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Fellow British UFO researcher Steve Coop has kindly been helping me obtain permissions for uploading further material from various UK resear...
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I've previously archived entire copies of some defunct UFO discussions forums. I've been reluctant to download the entirety of some...