August 2010
Posted by Robert Beer on 9/9/2010 7:00:41 PM
Lights in the Sky.
At 10-30pm on the night of Saturday 22nd May I had taken my astronomical telescope out into the garden to look at Venus and the Moon, when Gill and I saw a very bright orange light moving swiftly and silently across the sky from south to north over Oxford city centre. It was very large and bright when it passed directly overhead and appeared to have a triangular shape, but it was moving too quickly to sight with the telescope. A few days later I found the website and noticed that someone else had reported a similar sighting, to which several other people have now added similar reports.
Then at 10-20pm on the night of Saturday the 31st July, Gill called me from upstairs saying that there were bright orange lights moving across the sky, so we both went outside and watched them moving swiftly from east to west. Gill saw about 15 of these lights, but I only managed to see the last seven of these. So a few days later I decided to report this sighting and then found another website which revealed that several other people had seen a similar grouping of orange lights in different parts of the country.
Two days later someone replied with a comment to my sighting, saying: "Sorry to be devil's advocate, but I have to disagree. This sounds exactly like Chinese lanterns. They can appear to pulse due to flickering and atmospherics."
So I checked again on the same website and noticed that several other people had added similar sightings for the 31st July, five of which seem to have appeared along the same diagonal line across southern England. So I replied to this comment saying:
"Granted, it could have been 15 Chinese lanterns that we saw gliding swiftly from west to east to the north of Iffley at 10-20pm on Sat 31st July. But when I later looked on www.ufoinfo.com a few days later I saw that there were reports of about 15 bright orange lights sighted in Milton Keynes area on Sat 31st at 10-25; and 15 were sighted from Bedford at 10-30pm. Then 10 were sighted in Watford at 11-00pm; and 14 were seen at approx 10-15pm at Wisbech in Cambridgeshire.
As the crow (or lantern) flies its around 50 miles from Oxford to Bedford via Milton Keynes, and assuming these were the same 15 objects they took 10 minutes to do this. So if they were lanterns they were traveling at around 300 mph, which is what I would estimate their speed to have been, and being as there was no ground wind that night, this seems unusual. Also all of the other ten witnesses above stated that these sightings were not UFO balloons or lanterns.
Strangely, I/we saw another 9 identical orange lights flying from west to east and to the south of Iffley at 12-20am (00:20) this Saturday 7th Aug. One of these lights remained stationary in the sky for several minutes while apparently waiting for two of the lights to catch up: then all three continued gliding along swiftly together.
Gill and I also saw the very bright orange light that traveled from south to north over Oxford at about 10pm on the night of Sat 22nd May, which was reported by several other people. Then last night (Sun 8th Aug) a friend phoned in saying that she saw two bright orange lights as she was driving with her daughter in Eynsham last night.
I know little about Chinese lanterns, as I have never seen them being launched. But I do observe the night sky whenever it is clear, and have done so for the past fifty years since I first took an interest in astronomy and telescope construction. I remain open minded about this, they could be lanterns, but the swift and silent motion of all these bright orange objects is what made me report them in the first place."
Then at 9-25pm on Friday 3rd September my friend Roy Sutherwood and I noticed another very bright orange light as we were walking back to my house, which appeared to have a diamond-shaped form as it passed directly overhead from west to east. Roy said he had actually launched Chinese lanterns himself on Salisbury Plain several years ago, but declared that this extremely bright orange light was definitely not a Chinese lantern. I still remain open-minded about this, and on my birthday two days later my daughter Rosia brought over two orange Chinese lanterns for me to try out. Soon I hope to launch them and decide for myself, so my belief remains suspended at present, but I feel these weekend sightings are worth writing about here.
Baby Jamie
On Friday evening, 27th August 2010, the UK's Channel 4 News program featured an article about boy and girl twins that were born prematurely at a hospital in Sydney, Australia, to Kate Ogg during the twenty-seventh week of her pregnancy. Both her daughter, Emily, and her son, Jamie, each weighed just two pounds and were taken straight into intensive care, where Jamie was found to be lifeless and not breathing. The doctor tried to resuscitate Jamie for twenty minutes before pronouncing him dead. He then brought Jamie's blanket-wrapped body to his mother and said, "I'm sorry, Jamie didn't make it, we lost him."
The doctor then gave Jamie's parents, Kate and Dave Ogg, some time and space to spend with Jamie's body to say goodbye. Kate unwrapped Jamie from his blanket and placed him on her naked body with his head over her heart, and told him he was called Jamie and that he had a little sister named Emily. They lay like that for two hours, then Jamie stirred and began gasping for breath and moving his arms and legs, then he opened his eyes. But when they called the doctor he said that Jamie couldn't possibly be alive, so Kate took a drop of breast milk on her finger and fed it to Jamie. The doctor kept shaking his head, and finally had to listen to Jamie's heart with a stethoscope before accepting the fact that Jamie was indeed alive.
Medical experts believe that Jamie was miraculously revived by the 'warmth' of his mother, whose body acted like an incubator, but others argue that skin-to-skin contact with the mother just after birth is more beneficial than placing a baby in an intensive care incubator. This theory is known as 'kangaroo care', so named after the way marsupials keep and protect their young in their pouches. Both Jamie and his sister are now five months old.
Midwife Marie Halliday described to Channel 4 News how she herself saw another premature baby revived in a similar manner to baby Jamie. She said:
"When I was a very young midwife we had a very sick premature baby - he was 28 weeks premature. He wasn't responding to 100 percent oxygen so it was medically decided to turn his ventilator off. I asked if I could cuddle this little baby, and they said 'fine, no problem'. So I cuddled him, and he responded and pinked up in a matter of about a minute. Everybody was very surprised. Once the initial shock wore off and I was frantically waving at my colleagues, we then brought the parents back in. It was quite amazing."
At 10-30pm on the night of Saturday 22nd May I had taken my astronomical telescope out into the garden to look at Venus and the Moon, when Gill and I saw a very bright orange light moving swiftly and silently across the sky from south to north over Oxford city centre. It was very large and bright when it passed directly overhead and appeared to have a triangular shape, but it was moving too quickly to sight with the telescope. A few days later I found the
Then at 10-20pm on the night of Saturday the 31st July, Gill called me from upstairs saying that there were bright orange lights moving across the sky, so we both went outside and watched them moving swiftly from east to west. Gill saw about 15 of these lights, but I only managed to see the last seven of these. So a few days later I decided to report this sighting and then found another website which revealed that several other people had seen a similar grouping of orange lights in different parts of the country.
Two days later someone replied with a comment to my sighting, saying: "Sorry to be devil's advocate, but I have to disagree. This sounds exactly like Chinese lanterns. They can appear to pulse due to flickering and atmospherics."
So I checked again on the same website and noticed that several other people had added similar sightings for the 31st July, five of which seem to have appeared along the same diagonal line across southern England. So I replied to this comment saying:
"Granted, it could have been 15 Chinese lanterns that we saw gliding swiftly from west to east to the north of Iffley at 10-20pm on Sat 31st July. But when I later looked on www.ufoinfo.com a few days later I saw that there were reports of about 15 bright orange lights sighted in Milton Keynes area on Sat 31st at 10-25; and 15 were sighted from Bedford at 10-30pm. Then 10 were sighted in Watford at 11-00pm; and 14 were seen at approx 10-15pm at Wisbech in Cambridgeshire.
As the crow (or lantern) flies its around 50 miles from Oxford to Bedford via Milton Keynes, and assuming these were the same 15 objects they took 10 minutes to do this. So if they were lanterns they were traveling at around 300 mph, which is what I would estimate their speed to have been, and being as there was no ground wind that night, this seems unusual. Also all of the other ten witnesses above stated that these sightings were not UFO balloons or lanterns.
Strangely, I/we saw another 9 identical orange lights flying from west to east and to the south of Iffley at 12-20am (00:20) this Saturday 7th Aug. One of these lights remained stationary in the sky for several minutes while apparently waiting for two of the lights to catch up: then all three continued gliding along swiftly together.
Gill and I also saw the very bright orange light that traveled from south to north over Oxford at about 10pm on the night of Sat 22nd May, which was reported by several other people. Then last night (Sun 8th Aug) a friend phoned in saying that she saw two bright orange lights as she was driving with her daughter in Eynsham last night.
I know little about Chinese lanterns, as I have never seen them being launched. But I do observe the night sky whenever it is clear, and have done so for the past fifty years since I first took an interest in astronomy and telescope construction. I remain open minded about this, they could be lanterns, but the swift and silent motion of all these bright orange objects is what made me report them in the first place."
Then at 9-25pm on Friday 3rd September my friend Roy Sutherwood and I noticed another very bright orange light as we were walking back to my house, which appeared to have a diamond-shaped form as it passed directly overhead from west to east. Roy said he had actually launched Chinese lanterns himself on Salisbury Plain several years ago, but declared that this extremely bright orange light was definitely not a Chinese lantern. I still remain open-minded about this, and on my birthday two days later my daughter Rosia brought over two orange Chinese lanterns for me to try out. Soon I hope to launch them and decide for myself, so my belief remains suspended at present, but I feel these weekend sightings are worth writing about here.
Baby Jamie
On Friday evening, 27th August 2010, the UK's Channel 4 News program featured an article about boy and girl twins that were born prematurely at a hospital in Sydney, Australia, to Kate Ogg during the twenty-seventh week of her pregnancy. Both her daughter, Emily, and her son, Jamie, each weighed just two pounds and were taken straight into intensive care, where Jamie was found to be lifeless and not breathing. The doctor tried to resuscitate Jamie for twenty minutes before pronouncing him dead. He then brought Jamie's blanket-wrapped body to his mother and said, "I'm sorry, Jamie didn't make it, we lost him."
The doctor then gave Jamie's parents, Kate and Dave Ogg, some time and space to spend with Jamie's body to say goodbye. Kate unwrapped Jamie from his blanket and placed him on her naked body with his head over her heart, and told him he was called Jamie and that he had a little sister named Emily. They lay like that for two hours, then Jamie stirred and began gasping for breath and moving his arms and legs, then he opened his eyes. But when they called the doctor he said that Jamie couldn't possibly be alive, so Kate took a drop of breast milk on her finger and fed it to Jamie. The doctor kept shaking his head, and finally had to listen to Jamie's heart with a stethoscope before accepting the fact that Jamie was indeed alive.
Medical experts believe that Jamie was miraculously revived by the 'warmth' of his mother, whose body acted like an incubator, but others argue that skin-to-skin contact with the mother just after birth is more beneficial than placing a baby in an intensive care incubator. This theory is known as 'kangaroo care', so named after the way marsupials keep and protect their young in their pouches. Both Jamie and his sister are now five months old.
Midwife Marie Halliday described to Channel 4 News how she herself saw another premature baby revived in a similar manner to baby Jamie. She said:
"When I was a very young midwife we had a very sick premature baby - he was 28 weeks premature. He wasn't responding to 100 percent oxygen so it was medically decided to turn his ventilator off. I asked if I could cuddle this little baby, and they said 'fine, no problem'. So I cuddled him, and he responded and pinked up in a matter of about a minute. Everybody was very surprised. Once the initial shock wore off and I was frantically waving at my colleagues, we then brought the parents back in. It was quite amazing."
