Canada's lead UFO reporter Daniel Otis has a breakdown of Canadian governmental "interest" in UFOs for the last few years that is informative and full of references. It appears that not only does Canada want its southern neighbor to take the lead in UFO investigating, but that the Canadian governmental apparatus would just as soon not follow that lead. Intriguingly, Australian researcher Keith Basterfield has an article on The Canadian Government's Interest in UAP between 2021 and 2024. "[O]r lack of interest in the subject of UAP," says Keith, whose article is a good complement to that of Otis. It emphasizes the role that Canadian Member of Parliament Larry Maguire is championing in trying to increase transparency from, and indeed interest in UFOs within, the Government of Canada. As to Canadian citizens themselves, a Curious Cluster of UFOs Spotted Over Canadian City has at least one British Columbia family intrigued. Bobby Vandenhoorn's video snippets show why. (WM)

A tourist is claiming to have encountered a living Tasmanian tiger and has uploaded a series of photographs to the internet to prove it. Wildlife biologist Forrest Gallant is highly skeptical but admits the photos are very compelling. Speaking of being skeptical, Is Mountain Monsters Real? The Debate Explained. It seems the witty banter and general ease of the dialogue has some people's spidey senses tingling. And in spite of the show's hosts insisting it really is just an example of how sympatico the cast is with one another, some viewers aren't buying it. Their issue with the program is they “have never actually found any real evidence of a cryptid. However, the same could be said for any cryptozoology or ghost hunter TV show.” That's food for thought for all of us. (CM)

Andrew May reviews Gary Lachman's 2016 volume Beyond the Robot: The Life and Work of Colin Wilson, which he finds to be a "fascinating and information-packed read." Andrew is particularly interested in the book's "fortean point of view." As to Charles Fort himself, Jason Colavito calls him "America's greatest crank" in his review of Think to New Worlds: The Cultural History of Charles Fort and His Followers by Joshua Blu Buhs. Colavito describes this work as "a nuts-and-bolts account" of the Fortean Society between the 1930s and 1950s, but is disappointed at its "paucity of depth." (LP)

Plain-spoken Tennessee Representative Tim Burchett is set to introduce "The UAP Transparency Act" on Thursday, and the initiative is as straightforward as Burchett himself. Chris Eberhart has the story and a copy of the proposed Bill. One business organization says it's striving to foster "an environment of transparency, accessibility, and knowledge sharing" as Enigma Labs Launches State UFO Sighting Webpages. Roswell Daily Record's Toby Martinez and Maximo Veron cover this non-governmental effort. And another endeavor at making words more powerful comes from Gretchen Stahlman: An Analysis of the Scientific Literature on UAPs from 1967 to 2023. Not only are the findings in Luc Corabel's article intriguing; but many of the most recent scientific publications are referenced so that researchers have the opportunity to access them. And the conversation with Professor Stahlman portrays a hopeful outlook for an increasing academic response to the UFO conundrum. (WM)

Apparently nothing is free from regulations nowadays, and the paranormal is no exception. The Vatican now has specific guidelines to be used in the identification and acceptance of paranormal phenomena and potentially miraculous events. It's interesting to note that "Since the 1950s only six cases have been officially investigated by the Vatican.." And it's not as if the Vatican is without their own secrets: Cannes Film Festival to Debut Documentary Exposing Vatican’s Secret UFO Files. You may well wonder why the papacy cares the slightest bit about aliens. Turns out they believe extraterrestrial encounters are actually interactions with demons or other universes. Let's see if that fits with any of their new guidelines. (CM)

Anyone who's gone under the knife knows the doctor says they're going to put you to sleep, but it's a different kind of sleep one has every night. Science found out how anaesthesia works so quickly back in 1994, but as to why we remain asleep was elusive. Now Adam D. Hines has something to be excitatory about and may shed a little light on the mystery of consciousness. It's just getting deeper, writes Denyse O'Leary, as a team of scientists are arguing Consciousness Came Before Life. Wow. Okay. Here's where things get weird — it comes down the the collapse of quantum superpositions. If that's not weird enough, there's interest in finding meteorites to help explain this preposterous proposition. (CS)

While the observations surrounding KIC 8462852 fooled puny humans into believing they spotted a Big Dumb Object, Now a second paper concerning Project Hephaistos claims to have detected signatures associated with dyson spheres and other megastructures. Follow along with Darren Orf as he breaks down the current data into readable chunks. Exactly how many? Harry Baker at LiveScience spoils the details in his lede, Alien 'Dyson Sphere' megastructures could surround at least 7 stars in our galaxy. Plus Harry helps fill in the blanks Darren missed the first time around. As keen readers will notice, these observations were made by humans. No language learning models or artificial intelligences, which is kinda funny since we haven't found any intelligence out there and (despite mainstream media) we've yet to develop intelligences here, have a digital stake in this game. This may be a good thing as Michael Garret relates This Wild, Believable Theory Suggests AI Is Blocking Us From Alien Contact. FYI, Michael is the author of the paper, peer-reviewed no less (except by the troubled Elsevier), suggesting artificial intelligence is the Great Filter. (CS)

Humans have no proof there is extraterrestrial life, yet humans persist in the search. Why? It's a matter of faith, working on a supposition there should be life somewhere out there in the universe. Despite the search there have been so many false positives, making Ethan Seigel wonder if faith alone is enough for such pursuits. How strong is humanity's faith? Isobel Whitcomb has 32 Strange Places Scientists Are Looking For Aliens. Whether close to home, in our solar system, or further afield around other stars some of the SETI targets are surprising. (CS)

It's finally happened. Big cat DNA has been found on a sheep carcass in the UK. So all those melanistic cat sightings that have been dismissed over the years are about to be given the time and attention they deserve. Maybe. Meanwhile, a Sea Monster Returns to Nantucket Island. In 1937 that sea monster touched off many sightings but it turned out to be full of hot air. The balloon creature was the prank and brainchild of artist Tony Sarg. And now, on May 24, the Nantucket Historical Association opens the "Tony Sarg: Genius at Play" exhibit. "Rumor has it that Morton (the name that Sarg gave to his sea monster) will visit Nantucket again this summer," reports the newspaper. (CM)

More of the fully-human sideshow to the UFO-human connection. Springboarding from a John Greenewald article we highlighted previously, Matt Ford presents dramatic Lou Elizondo statements about possible retribution for his actions. Ford also calls in Ross Coulthart for his analysis. The "Chapters" list is quite interesting and its flavor more than "unflattering." And Matt Ford leaves no doubt that Elizondo (and Ford himself) are painting the Pentagon and the Intelligence Community in the darkest terms. Lawyer-journalist Coulthart makes a strong if lengthy case regarding willful military/intelligence illegalities, joining Ford's call for Congress to take strong action to investigate this matter, which seems much larger than the ufological example. Unsurprisingly, the "Establishment Media" comes in for scorn. Jason Colavito seizes upon the most serious allegation from the Matt Ford/Ross Coulthart conversation, as Lue Elizondo Claims UFO Whistleblowers Like Him Are Under Assassination Threat. Not sure this is one of Jason's better-argued posts. (WM)

Host Michael Ryan has been digging through old Royal Canadian Mounted Police files and finding little-known UFO cases deserving much more attention. In this instance Ryan updates a previous podcast concerning a November 25, 1970, multiple-independent-witness sighting in Nova Scotia. Charles Smith's father, Lawrence, and Lawrence's brother Eugene had a close encounter that featured physiological (sense of pressure) and electromagnetic (vehicle and 8-track tape player malfunctions) Close Encounter II effects. Charles amplifies on the harrowing experience his father and uncle had and his dad's avoidance of the encounter spot for years thereafter. Charles also remembers when Lawrence and another brother Melvin returned from a search for whatever plunged into the waters off Shag Harbour, three years before. Some very interesting additional details to a case that did generate RCMP (which operates rather as a Canadian FBI as well as policing unit) interest. UFO Talker commentator Christine Scott reviews Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies co-founder Robert Powell's new book UFOs: A Scientist Explains What We Know (And Don't Know). Christine notes the readability and common-sense aspect to the book, several chapters that cover lesser-known and fascinating subjects, and accords the work 5 out of 5 discs. (WM)

Billy Cox eviscerates a Sean Kirkpatrick "misstep" in a recent interview with the New York Post's Steven Greenstreet. As we've previously noted, the now-rapidly-UFO-skeptical Greenstreet came away from that dialogue with "this is all very confusing and I don't know who to believe." We'll see whether the mainstream media even notices Brandon Fugal's photographic evidence that the former AARO head did attend the “Confidential Briefing/Skinwalker Ranch" for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence,” though he says he doesn't recall the meeting. And then there is Kimberly Engels of the Society for UAP Studies Board of Advisors who has an unfortunate outcome from an April 18th interview to discuss in Meta, "Fact" Checking, and the Illusion of Objectivity. Whatever one makes of the abduction phenomenon, Dr. Engels' arguments and phenomenological approach makes sense to us. Again, the UFO-human connection is at least as much about the human component as it is about whatever UFOs are. (WM)

The existence of wild men or "savages" in China has long been accepted, in glaring contrast to the West where such reports are often ignored or result in shame and infamy. Encounters with these Bigfoot-like creatures have frequently resulted in specimens being shot and killed and their remains freely handed over to the Chinese government, unlike the West where if Bigfoot remains were recovered they would likely be immediately confiscated by the authorities.  Historically, reports of encounters in China with savages are numerous, and include such extravagant claims as inter-species sexual assault, and cooked wildman as a food option. This article is exceptionally long but if you look past the translation errors you'll find extraordinary contrast between the western Bigfoot culture and the Chinese acceptance of apelike creatures in the wild. (CM)

Occasionally it's worthwhile remembering that archaeological "anomalies" aren't always of the earth-shaking, paradigm-shifting kind. Catherine Shuttleworth relates a fascinating find that just may lead—perhaps more than figuratively—to what's been termed (well, by Zahi Hawass; not prone to minimization) "the most important discovery of the 21st century." From "dirt" archaeology (part of the tunnel's submerged in water) we go to "cutting edge" techniques as a "Bionic Eye" Discovers Plato's Final Resting Place. One of two high-tech initiatives to read Herculanean scrolls buried in 79CE has struck that paydirt of a sort. Kristin Houser explains both projects' methodologies and their potential paybacks in terms of knowledge about the Greek philosophical schools. And the Telegraph & Argus has more on a very strange seemingly out-of-place find as the LNER Wagon Mystery Prompts Train Ferries Memories. Some time ago we reviewed this discovery by archaeologists of an English railway wagon in Antwerp, Belgium. We get more insight into why what might be called today a "moving van" got to Belgium, but how it ended up exactly where it did is still unknown. (WM)

Kevin Randle gives kudos to veteran Pennsylvania ufologist/cryptozoologist Stan Gordon's website and presents his own "take" on a trio of reports from the "Keystone State." Tim Binnall has a video of a Peculiar Saucer-Shaped UFO Photographed Over Italian Town. An interesting shape and story, but we'll wait for the "Mediterranean UFO Centre" to pronounce upon this one. And for another European view—or overview in this instance—we go to UAP Check's Ufology in Ukraine: Interview with Igor Kalytyuk--Part 1. Part 1 gives Kalytyuk's own background and a sketch of the process he and others have developed to sift and analyze UFO reports. Part 2 deals more with Kalytyuk's opinions on the proper approach to research, individually and especially collegially. The Kalytyuk quotations beneath each part's heading are especially apt. (WM)

If you're looking for a spin on missing 411 cases that reads like a travelogue, you've come to the right place. This article is very strange insofar as it almost glosses over 400 unsolved missing persons cases connected to Mount Rainier. (Come for the wildlife. Stay...forever.) It then goes on to give some genuinely good advice about how to stay safe during mountain treks, but again misses the opportunity to discuss the high strangeness of the location. We think David Paulides, a former police officer and founder of the North American Bigfoot Search, would have much to say on this topic—mostly ominous. In 2011 Paulides launched a database tracking wildland disappearances that occurred under mysterious circumstances. Check out this old article for more information and then decide where you're going for that rugged outdoors experience: Why Hundreds of People Vanish Into the American Wilderness. (CM)

One of the most iconic UFO crash-cases is the 1965 Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, event, and there's no more iconic person to talk to about it than Stan Gordon. The Observer continues its delightful UFO Tourism series with Bernie O'Connor talking to Stan on his participation in the original crash event and since. Ron Struble, President and Chairman of the Festival, does an excellent job promoting the fun commemoration. Tim Binnall informs that South Carolina's Iconic 'UFO Welcome Center' Destroyed by Fire. A before-the-fire picture is available on Wikipedia. And we go far back in time to when In 1896, a Mysterious UFO Brought Northern California to a Mesmerized Halt. KQED [San Francisco] Staff Writer Rae Alexandra tells the story and sets it into its wider late-19th-century context. (WM)