Friday, June 12, 2015

The Smoking Gun: RIP to the Roswell Slides

I'm trying to get out of the Roswell Slides business, but as long as the promoters keep pushing the false claims and making accusations there's some unfinished business.




Most of it is silly, but there are a few points to clear up.

The placard was handwritten in cursive script, how can it deblur into text? 

Tom Carey on the placard from the March 22, 2015 Contacto show with Jaime Maussan: 
“It’s handwritten, it's not typed like it would be in a museum; you know, a museum would have a professional display placard identifying what it is that’s there in the background behind it. This is hand written as though it was written- with just- put together fairly quickly, perhaps for a limited viewing. It's not in the museum, it’s in a indoor location- where we don't know, but it's obviously to us, for a limited viewing, that’s temporary construction.And on the plaque, there is writing, and we have been actively researching, trying to quote unquote “read” what's on the placard for three years and we’ve only recently come into contact with some experts in this sort of thing. We tried reading it on her own, we’ve used several outside people, some of whom, one of whom had done some work on the famous Ramey memo from General Ramey in 1947 and we are now able to read a few of the words, based on what the experts are telling us, and the debunkers who have been debunking this are going to be disappointed, I can tell you that."

Well, that's a curious claim, but let's focus on the "handwriting" for now.

Dr. David Rudiak was one of the experts recruited by Carey and Schmitt to decipher the placard. After Nab Lator deblurred the placard and the RSRG published the results, Rudiak was one of many who was able to duplicate the process:
  "...the motion blur, which was 'boomerang-shaped', jerked horizontally right then diagonally upward to the right (or vice versa). This probably resulted in the printed text having a hand-written script-like appearance.
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11558306&postID=8159526343263081173 
Dr. David Rudiak on SmartDeblur of the placard

Why did previous attempts fail but the RSRG and others succeed? 

David Rudiak (in the same statement from above) explains:  
I think the failure to deblur the image previously had nothing to do with the scans provided and had everything to do with the blur being complex in nature (both simple focus and two directions of motion blur), which most deblurring software cannot handle (at least the deblurring software I tried). E.g., to handle motion blur, most packages require you hand-set the direction of blur, which wasn't known here, plus having two directions to deal with. 
It might have helped had we been provided the high resolution scans of the entire slide, which showed the nature of the motion blur.”
https://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=11558306&postID=8159526343263081173 
A demonstration by Fin Handley of the "handwriting" to text.

The New News: Laying the story to rest

Below are two stories by RSRG team member S. Miles Lewis, first an excellent history of the whole Slides story (well, except for the missing pieces that still remain hidden).

The (NOT) Roswell Slides Saga…


And finally, the Smoking Gun



The second story is new and important. It covers the recent discovery of an independent photo of the child mummy, one photographed in 1956 at the Montezuma Castle museum in Arizona.
Believe it or not, it's another slide.

Breaking News on the (NOT) Roswell “Alien” Slides


Wait, what about all the claims of anomalies in the body in the photos?

First, I'd note that the people making these claims have not examined the body, not even the slides themselves, only digital copies. The best evidence presented for the case that the photos depict an alien, are the same pictures that include details of the museum where it was displayed, and the label that was placed on the body by people who actually saw and handled the body.  They can be considered the real experts, and they were confident enough put their testimony in writing:
"MUMMIFIED BODY OF TWO YEAR OLD BOY"




Sunday, May 31, 2015

SOM1-01 is back from the dead on Hangar 1





Well, here it is ..finally.. the episode I've been telling all my friends about. THIS Friday, on Hangar 1: The UFO Files, see "The Smoking Gun." Yeah, yeah, I was going to wait to post this clip until we broke through 1,000 visitors to this page, but ..well, forget that! This episode is my favorite of the whole season. Just wait until you hear Clifford Stone's testimony. Yikes! Please share this video and get folks to watch.
Posted by Dwight Equitz on Hangar 1 on Monday, May 25, 2015



The episode featured the  Strategic Operating Manual, better known as SOM 1-01. If that sounds familiar, you may have read my article about it when it was used as the basis for the fabricated Mandate 0463 document in the very first episode of Hangar 1. 

If you missed it, or need a refresher, here it is:




Wednesday, May 27, 2015

Roswell Slides aftermath: Odds and Ends


This piece is odds and ends, mostly some housecleaning from the Roswell Slides affair. Anyone following the story knows that Jaime Maussan is holding on the claim that the child mummy is really an alien from Roswell. He's even put out a bounty for other photos of it, or the body itself. Maussan's not the only one holding on to this sunken ship, either. To follow the aftermath of this fiasco, stay tuned to the blog of José Antonio Caravaca.

Hopefully, the events will be examined, and some lasting lessons will be learned about objectivity, transparency and accountability.

Interviews

There were several early radio and podcast interviews with members of the Roswell Slides Research  Group and others interested in the case. Here are the earliest ones, while the dust was still settling.

The first and best was "The Roswell Slides Explained" on Greg Bishop's Radio Misterioso
"In an exclusive interview, my guests Curt Collins, Paul Kimball, and Lance Moody described the events and cooperation that led to this revelation. The 'Roswell Slides Research Group(RSRG) used freely available image-enhancing software to decode a blurred placard..." Red Pill Junkie also joined the conversation. http://radiomisterioso.com/audio/Roswell_Slides.mp3



The Gralien Report from May 5, 2015. Micah Hanks presents: 
"A friend of the program, researcher and filmmaker Paul Kimball, was one of the operative members of the Roswell Slides Research Group, who helped determine the origins of the mummy depicted in the images. Paul joins us in hour two of the program to discuss the need for better judgement and discernment in the field of UFO studies."



Podcast UFO by Martin Willis: "This show is dedicated to the recent Roswell Kodachrome 'Alien' Slide release, starting out with a pre-recorded Philip Mantle of UFO Today, Curt Collins of Blue Blurry Lines comes up before hour two to speak for the 'Roswell Slide' Research Group. In the bonus hour hear what Kevin Randle has to share of the latest events including his talk with Don Schmitt."



Articles

Roswell Alien Slides placard deciphered, says it is a mummy by Alejandro Rojas
Alejandro's story is unique in that he knows all the key players, and personally verified the deblurring of the placard.

The Roswell Slides: Chronicle of a Mummy Foretold by Red Pill Junkie
This is an excellent article written from the perspective of a member of the BeWitness audience.

What Can We Learn From The Roswell Slides? by Adam Gorightly
An examination of the of the mess and the mess it left.

The (NOT) Roswell Slides Saga… by Stephen Miles Lewis
A collection of resources so fine, that I refer you to it instead of continuing this list!



Thanks to all that helped, including

It was great to see the UFO community dig in and take part in trying to get the facts on the Slides story. A few thank yous to some not previously mentioned:

Philip Mantle for collecting a list of statements from experts on mummies.
Shepherd Johnson for his work on the Mesa Verde museum and with the Eisenhower Presidential Library.
Cristian ContiniHeywoodFloyd and many others for their independent verification of the placard.
Frank Warren at UFO Chronicles for his diligence in pursuing the truth on this story.
Roberto Labanti, Harry A. Newton, Mortem Foray, Dr. David Clarke, Stan Ho, Scott Brando, and many, many more who've offered information, support and encouragement.


What's next for the RSRG?

Some people have suggested the RSRG become a UFO truth squad, but I'm not so sure about that. The way the RSRG folks were brought together was more luck than science. We happened to have some very bright and talented people, and sought outside expertise whenever we needed it. The "Slides" case was unique in many ways, chiefly in that the key evidence ultimately provided exactly the information to conclusively provide the solution. It's almost like something out of an old Batman comic, with the Joker passing out clues.

Can we do it again? Probably not, but I think the model is a good one for co-operative research. We banded together as volunteers sharing a common interest and goal, which was to find out the truth behind the Roswell Slides. The group itself was private, but within it, information was openly shared, and there was the freedom within the group to explore and develop ideas. It produced good results and as soon as we verified material it was shared publicly.

Could someone else do it? I hope so, but I caution that it can't be forced, or it could wind up a committee, and bureaucracy tends to kill the creativity and sense of fun that fueled our energy. In the meantime, the key players are still doing good work on their own. Should the need arise again, and if it sounds like fun, then we'll be there.







Also, I should note that I try to reserve this space for focused pieces, but post smaller bits and links on Facebook at the Blue Blurry Lines page. I'm fond of  Errol Bruce-Knapp's UFO UpDates group there as well. Twitter? Yes there's a bit of that, too: https://twitter.com/CurtCollins579


Friday, May 22, 2015

Nab Lator's Analysis of the “Roswell Slides” (FAQ)




I wanted to call attention to the fact that Nab Lator of the RSRG created an excellent
analysis of the “Roswell Slides,” that deals with the frequently asked questions and issues discussed in relation to them.

Analysis of the “Roswell Slides” (FAQ)

The section dealing with Prof. Miguel Botella, anthropologist, Director of the Physical Anthropology Lab, University of Granada, Spain is particularly interesting,  and it refutes the lingering claims by Jaime Maussan that the mummified child is an alien from a UFO crash at Roswell.




Thursday, May 21, 2015

The Roswell Slides: the Anthropologist from Canada



A lot of questions about the Roswell Slides fiasco remain, but no one is talking except Jaime Maussan. To get some answers of how it all came together, we have to start examining the statements made by the players before the event.

Tom Carey had been waiting for a "smoking gun" on the Roswell case for decades. Describing when he first saw the image in the slides, he said, "a chill ran down my spine...and he knew it was genuine. On March 1, 2015, Tercer Milenio TV aired the program "Contacto Con Jaime Maussan." In the second hour of the show,  Tom Carey joined the program via a Skype interview to promote BeWitness and talk about the Roswell Slides.


Tom Carey on the man from Toronto


Tom Carey on Contacto

"I contacted one of my fellow graduate students when I was in the University of Toronto years ago, and I confess he was, and remains, a friend of mine, but he will tell me the truth. I respect his opinion more than anyone on anything relating to Anthropology. He’s that bright of a fellow, he still is. So, I sent him a copy of this fuzzy image that’s going around I did not send him one of the originals. 
I sent him the one that’s going around that someone has enhanced up.  So, I had him look at it.


Leaked "enhanced up" image
By Narrenschiffer 


I didn’t tell him what it was, I told him, ‘look at this, and you tell me what you think it is. Well, most Anthropologists that we talked to, that will talk to us, most of them run away, as you know, they do not want to get involved in anything related to UFOs or Roswell, they run away as fast as they can, but we do have a number of them who did go on the record.
But, my friend up in Toronto, he looked at this, and he did ask me a few questions about it, when it was taken, where it was, which we don’t know exactly where it was taken. And he went a step further. Most of the Anthropologists will tell us what it is not. It’s not a non-human primate, it’s not a child, it’s not a human child, it’s not a deformed child, stuff like that. Well, my friend up in Toronto went a step further. His final conclusion was-  'I said, what is your final conclusion?' And he emailed me back, he said, “This critter (that’s what he called it) the critter, this being is not from this planet. That was his conclusion.” He wouldn’t tell me what it is, he just said, whatever it is, it’s not from this planet. So, I received this yesterday, and I thanked him for his honest opinion.”

It seems strange that Carey would send the leaked slide image for analysis, as it has been widely disparaged by the slides promoters. Jaime Maussan said of it, 

"It is a picture that they took and with which they wanted to base all the research. It is a figure that is not very clear , it’s something they stretched , then modified and adjusted . I say it is more like the canary Tweety from the cartoons, the one who is always against the cat and well ... it looks more like Tweety than reality."

We now know that the former Toronto classmate that Carey was describing is Richard Doble. As the only English speaking expert featured in BeWitness, a lot of attention was focused on Doble's opinion. So far, nothing has been presented to show if he was allowed to see the original images of the slides before offering his dramatic conclusions.

"It's nothing like us, we can see that his feet, his legs appear to be a reptile, could have evolved from something like a gecko..." Richard Doble

Richard Doble


Richard Doble presented video analysis of the alien in BeWitness.

Richard Doble's written report



Update: Richard Doble responds to exposure of the placard revealing the body to be a mummy. 

Jaime Maussan's interview with "anthropologist" Richard Doble