Posted on 06/22/2009 4:35:39 PM PDT by JoeProBono
WITH HIS neatly clipped moustache and checked shirt buttoned up to his neck, 51-year-old Yalcin Yalman doesn’t look like a typical trendsetter.
But the images he has filmed since 2007 from the suburban Istanbul holiday village where he works as a night-watchman have helped turn UFO-spotting, once the object of scorn, into a popular pastime among educated Turks.
“For me it’s just a hobby, a way of passing the night,” Yalman shrugged outside an Istanbul conference centre where more than 1,000 people had paid 35 lira (€16), a handsome sum by local standards, to listen to him and ufologists from around the world reveal their latest findings.
Holding cups of watery coffee selling at an extortionate three lira, elegantly dressed Turkish ladies with word-perfect English peppered speakers from as far afield as Mexico with questions about 2012 and the end of the Mayan calendar.
Former head of the UK defence ministry’s UFO desk and a well-known ufologist, Nick Pope, one of the speakers at the conference, confessed himself amazed at the turnout.
“Ufology has a bit of an image problem back home – computer nerds, trainspotters, you know,” he said. “But that is not the sense I get here at all. And there seems to be an equal balance between men and women.”
Haktan Akdogan, the organiser of last weekend’s International UFO and New Age Congress, the fourth of its kind in Turkey, put growing domestic interest in UFO sightings down to the increasingly receptive Turkish media, “more sympathetic than the media in the West”.
But he described Yalman’s films of bright crescent-shaped objects hovering over the Marmara sea, some of them apparently with humanoid figures inside them, as “a turning point for Turkish UFO studies”.
“These are the most remarkable images taken in Turkish history,” he said, sitting in the central Istanbul office of the Sirius UFO Space Science Studies Centre, which he set up in 1997.
“The authorities can no longer turn a blind eye to this phenomenon.”....
“they make sure they’re busy giving Elvis a lift or something over there, when they are really needed over here.”
I guess that is the same as my thought - there’s never one around when you need one.
Turkish hash smoking will do that to you. Send that guy some Turkish toffee.
LOL ... Nope. I’m not going there.
Old Turkish Proverb: A knife wound heals; a wound caused by words does not.
Thanks.
UFO PING LIST B LIST PING
Wouldn’t suggest retiring back there.
A number of folks are convinced it’s going to be under water . . . along with a major chunk of South Texas.
When is the picture of Gort going to be posted?
Really? I think of them as the world’s nut detectors.
A number of folks are convinced it’s going to be under water . . . along with a major chunk of South Texas.”
Hey, the elevation of Woodville is about 240’! And it's about 70 mile North of salt water. Where I actually retired to is about 28’ elevation and 2 miles from salt water. Needless to say during Hurricane Ike, we quickly boogied out of the area. We returned to find no damage (Except for the loss of trees) even though the eye of the storm passed right over our house. Even with the very large storm surge and about a foot of rain our neighborhood did not have even one house flood. Waterfront houses, OTOH, were pretty much devastated.
Thanks for the pic!
FYI
THE BRAGG ROAD GHOST LIGHTS
The Ghost Road of Hardin County is situated in the heart of the Big Thicket region of deep East Texas. It begins at a bend on Farm-to-Market Road 787 that is 1.7 miles north of the intersection of FM 787-770, near Saratoga, Texas. Trees growing on both sides offer a natural canopy as drivers travel down the long dirt road.
Its original name is the Bragg Road, named after the town that was in that area at one time. The name Ghost Road was attached in this century after a number of tales that center around a ghostly light that is said to be seen on certain occasions at night.
The section of area was just part of the Big Thicket, thick with native and underbrush.
In 1902, Santa Fe Railroad hacked a survey line from Bragg to Saratoga, bought right-of-way and opened the Big Thicket forest with a railroad, and the Saratoga train began its daily trips to Beaumont, carrying people, cattle, oil and logs. When the area’s oil booms and virgin pine gave out, road crews pulled up the rails in 1934, the right-of-way was purchased by the county and the tram road became a county road.
Tales of a ghostly light gathered steam in the 1940’s, ‘50s and ‘60s as more people traveled to the road.
Explanations on the Ghost Light (or Bragg Light as it was called originally by locals) are varied and descriptive. Some people believe the light is the reflection of car lights while scientists believe it is a gaseous substance. Of course the best explanations are left to the imagination.
One story about the light is that it is a mystical phenomenon that frequents areas where treasure is buried and that Spanish conquistadors are looking for the golden treasure.
Another story is that the light is a little bit of fire never extinguished after another famous historical spot in the county, the Kaiser Burnout, or it could be the ghost of a man shot during the Burnout.
Still another story is about a railroad man who was decapitated in a train wreck when the railroad was still in place. The light is the body of the man looking for his head which was never found. The light could also be the night hunter who got lost in the Big Thicket decades ago. The hunter still wanders, searching for a way out of the Thicket.
A story that really gives you chills, is the one about the husband looking for his bride. The story goes the couple was honeymooning at the Bragg Hotel, which used to be at the end of the road, and by mysterious circumstances the bride was murdered. The light is the groom who continues to search for his bride’s killer.
Whatever the light is, its presence, or the thought of its presence, has been powerful enough to generate enough interest to make sure the Ghost Road remains as it is, an important part of Hardin County history.
The road has an illusion of a forest - a closed canopy green tunnel of pines, oaks, sweet gums, hollies and other hardwoods, with an understory of wax myrtle, arrowwood viburnum, titi and buttonbush.
The “bar” ditches of the old tram support interesting aquatic vegetation, such as insectivorous bladderworts and floatinghears, In sunlit openings another insectivorous plant appears, the sundew and along the roadsides a seasonal variety of wildflowers appear, including the fall ladies’ tresses orchid.
The Big Thicket Association commissioned a survey of the vegetation on the road, which was conducted in November of 1995. Cores from several pines indicate an approximate age of 70 years diversity of plant life, with plants indicative of prairie, baygall, palmetto flat, and wetland savannah communities. This first survey listed 43 tree and shrubs, nine woody vines, 33 flowering plants and six ferns, with more to be surveyed during other seasons.
The importance of this road led many in the area to make sure no harm will be done to destroy the delicate balance of nature.
The Ghost Road Scenic Drive County Park was officially designated by Hardin County Commissioners Court on July 28, 1997. A development committee is working with commissioners to plan for “eco-tourism.”
The committee proposed to maintain the natural character of the road while ensuring that it is accessible for residents and for visitors. Future plans will be to eventually provide safe passage for larger vehicles, provide trail notes and picnic areas.
To reach the Ghost Road, take U.S. 69 at Kountze to FM 326, from there take the turn onto FM 770 which will take you directly to Saratoga. Go through Saratoga and at a right on FM 787 turn, the Ghost Road is not far off the beaten path.
For more information on the Ghost Road or the Big Thicket, contact the Big Thicket Association at P.O Box 198, Saratoga, Texas 77585.
This story reproduced with permission from webmaster@bigthicketdirectory.com
Visit the Texas Big Thicket Directory web-site at http://www.bigthicketdirectory.com/
E-mail Me At: w5www@yahoo.com
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Wow.
Supposedly, my birthplace near Lubbock is to remain dry! LOL.
IIRC,
has some of the ‘future’ maps from various sources, one of them Hopi.
The last time I was in Lubbock, in the ‘70’s, it was “Dry”. Had to drive to the next County to buy beer! LOL!
I checked out your link but couldn’t find the maps.
LOL.
Will see if I can find the map link.
Thx.
Here’s a better link . . . scroll down to the maps.
http://standeyo.com/NEWS/08_Prophecy/080221.A.Strom.html
Some interesting info in this file/book, too.
http://www.standeyo.com/Our_Books/PPusa/MAPS/PPusa.whats.new.html
Got it. Thanks!
THANKS.
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