Wendy Ann Connors (In Memoriam)

Should you find yourself cruising around the Internet, searching for sites regarding the UFO subject, and suddenly landing upon a page offering a wealth of mp3 audio recordings associated with a project once known as Faded Discs, you have found a treasure chest of golden history.  Precious little of this would have been available without the dedicated efforts of the late Wendy Ann Connors, former school teacher, respected UFO researcher and author.

Wendy, a fellow Air Force veteran whom I was proud to call a friend for too few years, died from a long illness a few years after retiring from UFO research. I had lost contact with her following her retirement, so knowledge of her passing many a moon ago(exact year unknown) did not catch up to me until recently. 

 Without wasting time digging through old files, I will work from memory here and recall that I first met Wendy online somewhere around 2000 after I discovered that she was working on an historic archival project involving primarily old audio regarding UFOs, in which these entries would be converted into a digital format before disappearing forever.  While accumulating old radio and TV programs, sighting witness interviews and all manner of UFO-related audio from veteran researchers and investigators (or their estates) in the form of wire or reel-to-reel recordings, audio cassettes or other media, Wendy often needed to clean, enhance and protect such media using special chemical solutions and great care in order to avoid damaging already sensitive materials destined by nature and age for disintegration.

I wanted her to know that ever since I was a teenager in the early sixties, with access to reel-to-reel and later cassette recorders, I had recorded a number of UFO-related presentations, investigators' guest appearances on TV shows, witness interviews by myself, etc., and wondered if she would like to add these to her expanding collection.  Wendy eagerly agreed and thus began our mutual relationship of appreciation and deep respect for the audio gems I and others donated and for the ones she continued to save and convert to digital format.

Actually, there are Web pages documenting Wendy's life and books, so there's little need to rehash what can easily be found merely by putting her name into a search engine (try Wendy Connors UFOs so you don't end up reading about all the other people with a similar name).

Wendy was a very kind and giving person, though I must admit that I did make some comment early on meant as a joke and she took it seriously, darned nearly ending our relationship immediately!  Beyond that, I learned a few things about her daily life in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  She enjoyed conversing with the locals, and was even caring part-time for a disabled young man whose family she knew.  As I recall, it wasn't uncommon for her to visit a local diner now and then and encounter famous actors such as Burl Ives, and my memory prompts me to suggest Sterling Hayden.

Many years before, she had corresponded a bit with famed radio commentator and UFO author Frank Edwards, but bemoaned the unfortunate fact that his letters to her had met a bitter end in a water damage incident.

One of Wendy's kindest times came when she and others chipped in and, without fanfare, bought a new badly needed computer for the great Richard Hall, former assistant director of the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and trusted UFO writer when his had either failed or hovered near its end.  Aside from this act of kindness, at some point I had mentioned problems with my own PC and she was "locked and loaded" to procure a replacement for mine, but I declined with a cascade of thank-you's.

Nor did I escape her other good deeds.  Wendy knew I had an old Pekingese at home, my last surviving pet after having a lifetime of dogs, cats, horses, hamsters, white mice, chameleons and all the beasts in the woods.  One day an envelope arrived in the mail and inside were a few dollars ("For the Peke," she wrote).  The peke aside, I know she was trying to reimburse me without saying so for postage costs involved in mailing recordings to her.  Unnecessary, but I was grateful.  I guess it almost goes without saying that, aside from a relationship with her significant male partner, she took in a stray cat which she adored.  Yes, Wendy loved animals (her presence with a horse in the accompanying photo was no accident!).

The most peculiar action Wendy took involved one of the recordings I submitted.  It so happened that I had been a guest on a number of radio and TV shows in my younger years and had audios of all but one, and was close to throwing them out when Wendy suggested I send them along and she would digitalize them for the collection.  Fortunately, save for one, none of them ended up online (I'm sure there is much of her work still not online for various reasons). However, there was a "final test" broadcast I had performed in 1967 after taking a college TV-radio course, a brief entry called "Mysterious World," and as was obvious in my other recordings I had a somewhat high-pitched voice.  I complained to Wendy that this was the bane of my existence when speaking publicly (as a kid, some called me "Squeaky").

When she returned a digitized copy of my old college broadcast program I immediately noticed that Wendy had slowed my voice a bit to make it sound a little deeper in bass -- and of course this is the one now available online, mixed in with all the other audios from her collection.  To me it sounds weird, but I appreciated the effort!

Wendy's original and driving intention was for her entire Faded Discs collection to be donated to the National Archives, but while still working busily on the conversion of old recordings she became quite ill, soon discovering that she had pancreatic cancer.  This is one of the few malignancies from which there generally is no long-term reprieve, and ultimately after maintaining as normal a life as she could, she passed away.  Her work and library were reportedly transferred to one of her supporters and project benefactors and, as mentioned here, a significant amount of historic recorded material is now available for free online.

In fact, after completing her work Wendy released a statement online, asserting that she was donating all of her recordings to the public domain, with the expressed wish that they may be used, but not be sold for profit.

A substantial portion of UFO audio history from around the world is now rescued and digitized for posterity thanks to Wendy's foresight and determination, and it was one of my few pleasures in life to know and work with this remarkable woman.  I trust that a few of the photos she sent to me will paint her picture a little better than I have here, showing her at work on the Faded Discs project with the tools of her trade.

The preservation of a significant portion of UFO history will endure for the ages, thanks in large part to the wise and wonderful lady from Albuquerque.  Thanks Wendy.  -- Robert Barrow

Never-minders of the Fourth Estate

While major TV networks such as ABC and NBC declined to carry President Trump's brief speech last Thursday (July 16) evening, one prime example of journalistic neglect became clear.  As the mainstream media class jabbered on and on about Trump merely digging up facts already known regarding alleged fraud in voting and foreign efforts to influence election outcomes, pretty much nobody in the well-heeled, self-serving media bothered to abandon an ingrained agenda to bring front and center the really crucial issue Trump went out of his way to emphasize:  That select personnel from the FBI, CIA and other U.S. intelligence agencies under Joe Biden's presidency (many still employed by the government) made a conscious effort to deny Donald Trump important information about hacking and other criminality involved in attempting to keep Trump from the White House.  

Worse, this all-out effort to deny Trump the highest Office in the land at almost any cost was seemingly orchestrated significantly by the very people and agencies responsible for keeping a sitting President and those who succeed him informed of essential intelligence matters.  In short, Biden's administration appears very much behind this effort, with the determined and hammering assistance of a complicit national media.

If those leaders whom we elect to keep us free are purposefully denied access to vital national intelligence information, whose country does this become?  When the "free press" conducts a pre-arranged campaign in conjunction with rogue intelligence officers to injure a presidential candidate's chances severely -- extending its dishonest reach far into a presidency already in play -- what kind of government/media relationship should we expect?

So yes, the bloated national media allegedly did that at which it excels, in this instance avoiding the most important revelation to emerge from Trump's speech.  They would rather harp on his claims about stolen or unfair elections and assure their audience that he has no proof, when of course they are not about to indict themselves as willing participants in fudging or denying altogether intelligence facts to which Trump was wrongfully denied.

From all of this are we to whisper the word, treason?  Subversion?  Prison?  Punishment potentially involving government agents should follow as this story unravels, thanks mostly to whistle blowers and independent journalists still entitled to reference themselves as reputable reporters.

Yippee!  A new drug! This pill, Lipfendra, is said to remove "bad" cholesterol without the troublesome side-effects associated with statin drugs. No, I'm not a physician, but they should proclaim me one just because I'm old and not dead yet, having outlived several doctors.  Anyway, you may already know that I, based upon reading the literature and paying special attention to renegade physicians who don't necessarily cater to the American Medical Association and its cohorts, am very suspicious of the statin drugs I used to take myself to treat "bad" cholesterol.

There exist doctors who believe statins will turn out to be one of the worst drugs ever.  For one thing, they apparently prolong one's life by only a few weeks or months at best.  For another, our brains require large amounts of cholesterol, and to force statin drugs (and we will suggest at this early stage, Lipfendra) to remove cholesterol would obviously deprive the brain of this valuable nutrient -- and could therefore lead to dementia because brain tissue becomes starved for its proper cholesterol balance.

Further, there are thoughts among some medical personnel that cholesterol isn't even relevant or connected to arterial problems such as strokes or heart attacks.  A new study, I think from Australia (I have no Internet as I type this) took a close look at lacunar infarcts, in other words strokes suffered by men, and especially by women.  If I have this correct, the study found that cholesterol may have no effect and that the arteries which scientists believe constrict, cutting off blood supply, may instead expand somewhat due to inflammation, and thus become the impetus for a stroke, cardiac event or blockage at some level.  Experiments with, strangely enough, Viagra and similar substances to treat this phenomenon are underway and may shake up established medical science significantly.

UFO Update or something like that:  Release number four has been accomplished by the U.S. government and still we await the good stuff (for which we may wait forever).  Nevertheless, with all of this "truth" emerging from official channels, I suggest that it's high time Hollywood take a really close look at producing movies about the giants of private UFO research.  How about a major motion picture simply entitled "Coral and Jim" about Coral and Jim Lorenzen and their Aerial Phenomena Research Organization?  Intrigue?  Heck, they were even investigated by the FBI at one point (spoiler alert:  the Lorenzens were innocent).  How about Maj. Donald Keyhoe and his persistence as a pain in the ass to the U.S. government and to Al Chop's Pentagon press desk?  And if movie-dom wants to go off the tracks and trade the serious side of investigations for the crazy side, may I suggest a cinematic look at Buck Nelson, author of My Trip to Mars, the Moon and Venus?  No, I don't believe he made those journeys, but the title can hardly be beat.  Why embrace the nonsense of contactee George Adamski when you can destroy your reputation merely by giving ol' Buck's wild tale a curious squeeze?

No Bulls in the China Shop?  Everybody's favorite up front, yet notoriously secretive society of communist thugs -- yes, China -- is currently ripping young boys, girls, men and women away from their AI love partners, presumably because one cannot produce offspring to be ruled and used by communist masters by engaging in childless masturbation or emotionally romantic Internet coitus.  To put it simply, you can't fuck the AI partner of your dreams and make babies.  Good grief, it's no wonder that China still has no objections regarding pregnant women flown briefly to the USA to both birth and citizen-ize actual humans accompanied by temperatures of 98.6 F.  We suspect also, and indeed have read that young upscale Chinese women are in no hurry to become pregnant -- if ever -- because their blossoming careers come first, and they aren't about to accommodate Chinese commie monsters who expect barefoot-and-pregnant obedience.  We anticipate that rape in China and female kidnapping from neighboring countries purely for the production of children may become the Chinese communist party's choice of desperation, but don't expect to learn much more about that subject than you have about forced and deadly organ harvesting from prisoners, Uighurs and pretty much anybody following a religion.  President Xi is no less a murderous thug than the rest in his party and China is no friend of freedom.  Regrettably, a growing number of nations seem to be ignoring or overlooking the terror that is China in exchange for benefits which will serve only China in the long run.

Meat shortage in the USA:  There aren't as many cattle mooing in the pasture these days, yet the demand for beef products is higher than the cow that jumped over the moon.  May we suggest a time-tested solution, a lip-smacking option of necessity previously undertaken by American history's infamous patriots known as the "Donner Party?"  Yes, we're talking cannibalism, and if you can't afford hamburgers while the economy floats in a sea of uncertainty, the only place to look for a solution may be your own family! Understandably, nobody has the stomach for murdering the family dog or cat in exchange for a small meal.  But look at your fat-assed children, just sitting around with no obvious future and no reason for living, yet "so cute I could eat you up" is what you said when they were small.  Now they're teens and, love them though you do, you know darned well you could take plump little Jennifer and grossly overweight Juan and fill the freezer with the bounty of their (probably unwilling) sacrifice.  Of course, if not the kids, perhaps the in-laws.  Possible solutions in this realm appear endless.  NOTE:  Cannibalism is probably routine in Canada and the UK, but may still be illegal in some U.S. states and cities, though we're not quite sure about New York City, now under new leadership by the lunatic fringe, so be sure to consult local authorities before exercising your potential constitutional right to chow down on your family and friends as circumstances warrant.  Am I being serious here?  Hey, cannibalism is a very, very serious thing.  By the way, would you be having fries with that?

Disclosure or Mis-closure?

New word for my personal dictionary:  Mis-closure.

So far, government releases of UFO files are interesting, often familiar, but as some old ladies asked in that old TV commercial, "Where's the beef?"

Decades of accumulated evidence of (as the late broadcaster Paul Harvey might have said) "what's its" have surely led us significantly beyond what has trickled out of official files so far this year.  Yes, only three collections have come to view in recent months, but despite what little patience I can muster I'm starting to get that familiar old feeling of -- the best is yet to come and did I miss it already?

If it's details we want, it's details for which we may go begging unsuccessfully.  You just know that the national security folk are cautiously if not eagerly hanging out in the background, making decisions about things which should not remain classified.

Simply considering the mountains of UFO evidence documented by private researchers and organizations over many years, I think most of us accept without question that military and government entities must surely be sitting on things of remarkable quality and scientific interest.  What of missing pilot F. Valentich whose microphone picked up scraping sounds as he encountered something over the ocean before disappearing?  What of the old Lake Superior case where radar showed a military aircraft and UFO merging, with no trace of the plane ever found (though claims of debris pop up now and then, apparently unconvincingly)?  Such bizarre beyond bizarre incidents are many, more than we know most likely.

Is there any power able to wrestle information from the "deep state" files we otherwise would never know about or have an opportunity to examine?

Trust in government isn't very high currently, and one wonders whether hopes of disclosure could deteriorate into mis-closure.  Worry not about finding a definition for mis-closure, because the primary word disclosure hasn't been clearly defined in the UFO arena, either.

Bits and Pieces for July 2026

It isn't lost on me that a significant portion of my readers would rather gargle with cat fur than listen to conservative radio, but when a mega-popular broadcaster such as Glenn Beck slowly starts picking up on the UFO subject in a serious manner, I believe heads turn.  Just before ending last Thursday's radio show, as live programs prepared to shut down for the Independence Day holiday, Beck briefly spoke with Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, she of the forces behind getting UFO information out per White House orders, and Luna is working amazingly hard and well to get all kinds of previously classified information on several issues out to the public.

As Beck prodded her for details regarding UFO investigations, Luna mentioned that a pronouncement of some sort will emerge in a few days.  When he attempted to get clarification regarding whether UFOs represent a spiritual or a defense issue, Luna hinted toward the latter option.

I was also intrigued for more reasons than one a couple weeks ago when a UFO disclosure forum was held in Washington at the Russell Office Building because I wondered how many young members of the media would even know that the late Senator Richard Russell experienced his own UFO sighting during an airplane flight decades ago -- and details were covered up for quite some time back then.  Details of his UFO incident can be found at nicap.org or at many other sites.

NASA has captured news cycles pretty effectively lately.  My only question is:  Okay, okay, NASA appears off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of deep space. . .but, uh, what about all of these UFO films we're seeing every few days?  I mean, are we the first at anything, really, and shouldn't we look critically upon flying unknown things high above before we sweep their existence aside as we somewhat cavalierly embrace the next moon shot?  The government and media attitude we currently sense requires only an elephant, a sofa and a room lacking essential notice.

Kathy Hochul emerges from her clueless closet:  As intense heat continued to grip the Northeastern U.S. last week, NY governor Kathy Hochul went public and asked New Yorkers to conserve electricity.  What a peculiar concern from a leader who, with the kind assistance of New York's Democratic legislature, believes the state can discard all traditional energy options except for electricity.  People blessed with normal thought patterns already realize this is absolutely unworkable at this time and far into the future.  If only she and they could comprehend evidence over leftist fantasies.

The world remains spellbound by the World Cup:  Why?  Cup of what?  While proponents believe international athletic competition is great for bringing the world together, others might look upon all of this as just another way of dumbing down the masses.  Then I read about college students who read at the level of ten-year-olds and wonder. . .

Our utmost condolences go out to surviving insect family members of Iran's dead and departed Supreme Bleeder -- um, Leader -- for whom the most notable religious crazies in the nation currently spend weeks in mourning.  May they one day be mourned also, if the decent Iranian/Persian people ever reclaim their once revered and productive country.  If only an atmospheric storm of rifles and ammo could saturate portions of Iran where sane folks could take up arms and wipe out the monstrous Islamic Insane-osaurs and Sharia-dactyls, the world would be a better place. Rest in pieces, Supreme dead savage dictator, and may you eternally enjoy sex with those afterlife virgin sewer rats misinterpreted as human females by your throwback religion.  Allah at bar, so drink up boys, drinks are on the house!

Alpha-Gal syndrome, caused by bites from the longhorn tick, appears to be spreading across the United States. After this particular tick bites cattle and certain other animals, it can then transmit an enzyme (?) or some substance during bites on humans, causing a life-long inability to tolerate eating red meat without becoming violently ill.  Though this must obviously be especially distressing to those who enjoy a good steak now and then, survivalists will be particularly distressed because when the worst at last arrives the reliability of cannibalism may no longer be an option.  Good grief, one can't depend upon anything anymore for proper nutrition in times of stress.

Earthquakes in Venezuela, gigantic digital chip factories and AI centers popping up all over the place, high heat and humidity accompanied by stepped up efforts at paving and blacktopping away the world's most beautiful and essential fields, forests, meadows and grasslands:  Are we crazy enough yet?  Folks who worry about their children's future sure have a funny way of expressing it by taking away from them everything real, natural and good, and when disaster strikes we respond by creating more disasters, if not disastrous opportunities.  Fortunately, TV sports events offer the perfect anesthestic even as the wound expands.

(Thank you I.C.E. for all you do.  The more that Democratic socialists despise your officers, the better.)

Inescapable

For those of us in summer's pathway the heat is definitely on and for many millions of overheated humans there is no solution but to bear it.  Thanks to socialist=communist policies in Western Europe air conditioners are condemned and confiscated from those least able to fight the buzzing swarms espousing climate change ultra-lunacy, often leaving the elderly and infirm only the option of heat-related deaths in their own homes.

Isn't it strange how so many things seem out of control, beyond our ability to influence the outcome?

Yes, the heat and humidity engulfing many nations currently comes to mind, but what of other matters, such as an increase in attacks on people by sea creatures?  Shark attacks, always reliable fodder for the news media, seem almost routine now, a dangerous rite of passage for the surfing community frequently on the menu for sharks hunting for chunk-style human body parts.

In the past several days tragic alligator encounters have almost matched shark activity, and the largest among alligators apparently have no trouble grabbing humans right off the river shores to administer their murderous deeds in the water where they feel most at home.

However, while some may find relief from the heat in novel ways, or quickly swim away from hungry sharks (though in need of a blood transfusion) or just barely avoid the snapping jaws of hidden alligators, there will soon arise an entity from which there is no escape anywhere on the planet. It's called quantum computing.

Forget the computers with which you grew up.  According to standard definitions, quantum computers use "quantum-mechanical phenomena like superposition and entanglement to perform calculations." The cherished belief among scientists holds that quantum computers will eventually solve problems that are impossible for classical computers.  Of course, we are already witnessing this outcome with AI facilities, with much more to come and all the more rapidly.

But like the alligator from which there is no escape, quantum computing will influence all of us.  Know-all, see-all computerization will finally sweep away all protective curtains in our online lives.  No more individual user names or secret passwords, no more safe bank statements in "the cloud," no more confidential anything online no matter where one puts the information or clicks/visits.  Quantum computers will literally rip the face off every cherished digital fragment you thought was secure -- or deleted -- forever.  How could things not end up like this?  Our thirst for the chip, multiplied by our enemies' thirst for the chip, obliterates the words, caution or reckless.  The live-or-die battle to be first on the quantum battlefield is now at the front of a very long war.

My question is, how will existing under the dominating influence of quantum computing be any better than living under the thumb of a communist dictatorship?  Will a near-sentient thing capable of manufacturing a thousand identical ink pens gaze upon human lives as a single device with no space for the concept of individuality?

The weather is hot, the gators are biting and the masters of quantum computers are eagerly tasting the future, even as those most affected lose themselves in a daily self-reward of nonchalance.