Press Release: The Roswell Slides Research Group

The Roswell Slides Research Group is a very informal group of about 20 UFO researchers and skeptics formed to critically evaluate claims being made about the so-called Roswell Slides. Some very enterprising work has now been done by one member of the Roswell Slides Research Group ("Nab Lator"). He used commercial software, SmartDeblur (written by Vladimir Yuzhikov, making use of an image processing technique known as blind deconvolution"), to significantly clear up the blurred text. Other members of the Group offered some suggestions and helped narrow down the actual words. 

Following a bit of work by various members of the team over a period of a few hours, an item was posted on the Blue Blurry Lines blog setting out some of the initial results. (The words “MUMMIFIED BODY OF TWO YEAR OLD BOY" were clear, with 3 further lines of text seeming to say something like: 

"At the time of burial the body was clothed in a xxx-xxx cotton shirt. Burial wrappings consisted of these small cotton blankets. Loaned by Mr. Xxxxxx, San Francisco, California”) 

That post provoked yet further outrage from the promoters of the Roswell Slides. Their website quickly responded with allegations that the deblurring work of the Roswell Slides Research Group was a fake - claiming, for example, that,  “The image they claim to have de-blured is its self [sic] a fake created by taking a low resolution copy of our scan and editing it in photoshop”. 

Again within hours, instructions were posted online in the form of videos and step-by-step instructions which allowed anyone to duplicate the relevant deblurring using material on the website of the promoters of the slides. Various other researchers have now duplicated, and accepted, those results. Most members of the UFO community have now moved on to ask how the text was not clear to the promoters of the slides before a big show was held in Mexico and whether the actions of those few individuals will do lasting damage to the wider field of UFO research.

More details can be found on the website of the Roswell Slides Research Group at the first link below and in a post (which includes the relevant step-by-step instruction) on the AboveTopSecret.com discussion forum at the second link : 

http://www.roswellslides.com/

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread1066804/pg1

Illustration by Nippa Downey

How to Decipher the Roswell Slides Placard

How to Decipher the Roswell Slides Placard 

Jeff Ritzmann shows how he was able to achieve his own version of the placard using the file  at Slidebox Media, labeled "Real Placard" kindly provided by Adam Dew. Jeff says,

Jeff Ritzmann's oriignal Facebook post describing his results

Nab Lator sent me the Kernel file he used to sharpen the newest image (as well as the old one) complete with cropped file he used. The results I obtained using the same dataset are identical.So that's pretty much it. Results are confirmed as far as I'm concerned. Thanks to Nab. I'll leave it to him to post the kernel and have anyone else confirm. My results are solid here. We're out.Now all that's left is to effectively ignore anything further from the "Dream Team" or any others that lent their voices in support or complacency.

Update: Jeff Ritzmann's statement describing his work on the placard.

When I saw Nab Lator's first 'deblurred' image, I have to be honest and admit I was skeptical. No source image was posted, and no dataset was posted for others to independently confirm the work. It was only stated that a custom blur model had been employed in this deblurring, using the SmartDeblur program. Knowing that if in fact this was a deblur of the placard, independent confirmation had to be made, and made immediately.

Being outside the Roswell Slides Research Group, but also being a near 30 year working veteran within the digital imaging field I asked Nab Lator to send me his blur file and source image for me to try and duplicate, thereby confirming his results, independently and separate from any influence of the group.

I was unsure if Nab was going to share the files openly with me, a non-member of the RSRG, but he agreed to do so within minutes of my message.

After he saved and sent his blur model in the appropriate way for the program to utilize, I loaded his blur kernel (model) and ran that model on the source image provided. My results are below which were immediately posted to UFOUpdates. As far as I know, mine were the first independently confirmed, identical results made public.

Jeff Ritzmann

5/13./2015 

Slidebox Media: "Real Placard"

Jeff Ritzmann's sharpened version

See the update below for Jeff Ritzmann's statement describing his work on the placard.

The same source image was used in the video blow. Paul Kimball explains:

Tim Printy provides a demonstration of how easy it was to decipher the writing on the placard on the “Roswell slide." Note that there is no manipulation of the image going on here other than an enhancement of the original – which in this case is the “drum scan” provided by slides promoter Adam Dew on his own website.

Maybe another version would be helpful. 
RSRG member Lance Moody, with audio as he explains the process:

Using these techniques, the process can be duplicated. The placard can be read, and this is not a fantasy or fabrication. 

MUMMIFIED BODY OF TWO YEAR OLD BOY

At the time of burial the body was clothed in a xxx-xxx cotton

shirt. Burial wrappings consisted of these small cotton blankets.

Loaned by the Mr. Xxxxxx, San Francisco, California

As we said before, the mystery of the placard is solved, and so is the nature of the body in the case.

A boy, from Earth. 

Mesa Verde Notes September 1938 Volume VIII, Number 1.

---

Link to the deblur model created by Nab Lator.
The Roswell Slides Research Group

The Placard of the Roswell Slides: The Final Curtain

Special Rush report from The Roswell Slides Research Group


The Roswell Slides second biggest mystery was the content of the placard on the alleged alien body.

Several statements were made about it, some contradictory:

The Roswell Slides and the Truth by Anthony Bragalia

This ‘placard’ is not very evident in the video grab image. However, it has been enlarged by experts and the writing, in red ink, is handwritten, not typed, as would be found in a biological display in a museum.

http://kevinrandle.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-roswell-slides-update-by-tony.html

Tom Carey was interviewed about the Roswell Slides on the March 22, 2015 episode of Jaime Maussan’s Contacto on Tercer Milenio TV. Carey said that experts have been able to read some words on the placard on the case and that, “debunkers will be disappointed.”

The Conspiracy Show With Richard Syrett Apr 12, 2015

Tom Carey and Don Schmitt were interviewed, of the show's expert presentations, Schmitt said: 

This will be part of the event, part of the program in May, that all of these analytical reports, all of the analyses, all of the main experts as well as the photographic experts who examined- there’s a placard, very fuzzy, that can not be legibly read by the naked eye, yet we’ve had everyone from Dr. David Rudiak, to Studio MacBeth, even the Photo Interpretation Department of the Pentagon, as well as Adobe have all told us that it’s beyond the pale, that it cannot be read, it is totally up to interpretation. 

So, we truly feel we have performed due diligence; we have done everything we can to substantiate and prove what is contained within these slides, whether it is something of a human malady or something truly extraordinary. https://youtu.be/fQyAVrFnTos?t=1h24m2s

During BeWitness, it was announced that despite the work of a number of experts, the placard could absolutely not be read. 

In the second slide the placard was visible, and the writing was evident, if unclear.

News coverage, claiming the placard could not be read,

"We couldn't make anything clearly out of the placard... several others, who did not have much luck." - Adam Dew

"Nobody could read anything decisively in the placard, unfortunately. I am sure people will make attempts to do this going forward...." - Adam Dew

He was right, and most of the placard has now been read.

A member of The Roswell Slides Research Team used a newly acquired source image of the placard seen in front of the body. By manipulating the commercial software, SmartDeblur, he managed to significantly clear up the blurred text. Other members offered suggestions and helped narrow down the actual words.

Nab Lator deblurred the placard image.

Chris Isbert created an animated GIF to display the text.
http://s263.photobucket.com/user/europa73/media/macmini_1_zpsib9x40yc.gif.html

The first line was the most clearly resolved:

MUMMIFIED BODY OF TWO YEAR OLD BOY

There is little doubt that this is the true and correct text. The other 3 lines of the text are somewhat hard to read, some words more clear than others. The original results yielded:

MUMMIFIED BODY OF TWO YEAR OLD BOY

At the time of burial the body was clothed in a xxx-xxx cotton

shirt. Burial wrappings consisted of these small cotton blankets.

Loaned by the Mr. Xxxxxx, San Francisco, California

The entire effort only took hours, quite a difference from the claimed “years” of research that the Slides promoters camp claimed. Because the Slide hucksters haven’t released proper high resolution scans of the slides, our work was made more difficult. We could probably get clearer results from better images.

The mystery of the placard is solved, and so is the nature of the body in the case.

A boy, from Earth. 

The question then, becomes, how was this not discovered by the experts examining the case in the years of investigation?

Subsequent information filled in the missing placard letters. 

Mesa Verde Notes September 1938 Volume VIII, Number 1.

---

MUMMIFIED BODY OF TWO YEAR OLD BOY

At the time of burial the body was clothed in a slip-over cotton 

shirt. Burial wrappings consisted of three small cotton blankets. 

Loaned by Mr. S. L. Palmer, San Francisco, California.

The Roswell Slides Research Group

José Antonio Caravaca, Spain
Isaac Koi, UK
Nab Lator, France
Lance Moody, USA

Tim Printy, USA

Curt Collins, USA

Tim Hebert, USA

Paul Kimball, Canada

Gilles Fernandez, France

Trained Observer, USA

Chris Rutkowski, Canada

Roger Glassel, Sweden

S. Miles Lewis, USA

Thanks to our colleagues and associates, including Alejandro Espino (for the 
Israel Ampuero team, Spain), Philippe Hernandez, Jeff Ritzmann, Aaron J Gulyas, Irna France, Nick Redfern, Fin Handley and many, many more who provided help.

Unable to Deliver: The Roswell Slides

The big Be Witness show was held, but failed to deliver new and compelling evidence. The only thing of substance were the two slides themselves:

Don Schmitt and Tom Carey

Slide 11

Slide 9, the one opened for examination

Prior to the show, there were some strong claims about what the slides depicted.

Source

Source

In an interview leading up to the show, Schmitt was a bit more cautious.

Can we prove it’s an alien? Well, a picture unfortunately can’t do that. We don’t have the DNA, we don’t have a tissue sample. We can’t do that. But, for those who are open-minded, objective in their reasoning as to if they can accept that we are not alone, that we are being visited, there had to have been pictures taken, there had to have been people who were availed an opportunity to see what was recovered, and possibly at Roswell in 1947. And we’re not going to be the group of individuals who always live by the model anything but extraterrestrial, anything but ET.”

Not everything promised was delivered.

Despite prior indictions about concerns over his age and delicate health, it was not announced prior to the show that Dr. Edgar Mitchell would not appear. So too, was Carol Rosin absent, the person advertised as introducing him for a tribute. Paul Hellyer was presented as a substitute.

“debunkers will be disappointed"

Tom Carey was interviewed about the Roswell Slides on the March 22, 2015 episode of Jaime Maussan’s Contacto on Tercer Milenio TV. Carey said that experts have been able to read some words on the placard on the case and that, “debunkers will be disappointed.”

During BeWitness, it was announced that despite the work of a number of experts, the placard could absolutely not be read. Tom Carey was right, though, debunkers were disappointed. Most everyone else was, too.

They presented their case. but...

some people continue to believe the body was something from Earth.

Later, I'll be preparing a more detailed examination of what was presented, but most of the arguments for the slide were known well ahead of the show and discussed previously.  Please see

"Roswell Slides" or Fraud Prints? 

and 

Is This Mummy the Famous "Alien" in the Roswell Slides?

For further reading on the "Roswell Slides" story:

Tim Printy, SUNlite March/April 2015: The day that will change the world

SUNlite May/June 2015: The Debut of the Roswell Slides 

Tim Hebert, Current State of Affairs: Roswell Linked Kodak Slides

Jeff Ritzmann, The Birth of Anti-Evidence: The ‘Roswell Slides’

Paul Kimball, Bragalia on mummies and the "Roswell slides"

Gilles Fernandez, Roswell Slides Saga: Some Claims versus some Facts 

Roswell Slides Saga: "BeWitness" or The Day the Earth stood still... Part 1.

José Antonio Caravaca, Roswell Slides: The Moment of Truth 

BBL: Minor site update 4/28/15

Minor site update on Cash-Landrum documents and videos:

The section, "Resources: Articles and Documents" has been updated, mostly fixing some bad links and adding a link to where the APRO Bulletin articles can be found.
http://www.blueblurrylines.com/2013/07/resource-guide-for-cash-landrum-ufo-case.html

Also, the "Video" section has been updated to include the English language version of the Mysterious Worlds episode, UFO Secrets, aired in the USA in 2002. This features the last known filmed interviews of Betty Cash and Vickie Landrum. 
http://www.blueblurrylines.com/2012/07/cash-landrum-video-documentary.html