Extraordinary claims. Ordinary investigations.

Retired lawyer of ‘Banco do Brasil’ and three times South-American underwater hunting champion, Amilar Vieira Filho (83), died [yesterday, June 11th] after being shot during an attempted robbery in the Permietral Avenue, downtwon Rio de Janeiro.

According to the police, he was driving home towards Niteroi. Vieira Filho was one of the founders of the Icaraí Underwater Hunting Club, in Nitereiu, and was member of the Icaraí Yacht Club. The lawyer also became known as one of the witnesses of the alleged sighting of a UFO in Brazil, in 1958, in the case that became known worldwide as the Trindade Island Case.
source: Tricampeão de caça submarina é morto no RJ [in Portuguese]

Last February I interviewed Amilar Vieira Filho, who graciously answered all my questions about the Trindade case. He was still os a very clear mind, and must have had long years ahead. Above, a photo from the times that he was president of the Underwater Hunting Club.

Vieira Filho joked that he was the last one standing, and he was in fact the last known witness alive. This tragic news is even more tragic because, in Brazil, we don’t have to imagine any terrible government conspiracy to silence him.

Such crimes are commonplace, Rio being a particularly dangerous area.

None of the other known witnesses have been murdered, but one is already too much.

by Edison Boaventura Júnior, President of GUG - Guarujá Ufological Group

Original case investigation files from SIOANI

In 1969 a group of high ranking officers of FAB – the Brazilian Air force – created in the 4th COMAR - Regional Air Command - , in the neighborhood of Cambuci, São Paulo, the first national and official group for Ufology research: the "SIOANI" - System of Investigation of Non-Identified Aerial Objects.

The main operational office of SIOANI functioned at Park Professor Oswaldo de Vincenzo n. 200, and it was headed administratively by Major-Brigadier José Vaz da Silva.

Many cases of landings, sightings of UFOs and even crew members as well as pictures of alleged flying saucers were investigated at that time by Major Gilberto Zani de Mello and by Lieutenant João Edney Carvalho Ribeiro, who were directly involved in most of the investigations.

Soon, in March of that same year, the first bulletin of SIOANI was published, with 22 pages. It was restricted to the members of SIOANI and outlined the statute and the guidelines of that group. According to the bulletin, the concept of the system was: "The combination of human and material resources, destined to the scientific investigation and research of the Non-Identified Aerial Objects phenomenon."

In the second SIOANI bulletin, with 30 pages, published in August, we can get a glimpse of complete descriptions of dozens of cases of several kinds of close encounters. In all, 58 cases were reported in Brazil, most of which had the innermost parts of São Paulo as stage.

It is known that in 1972, the activities of SIOANI ended, and much has been argued about the reasons for that. Some ufologists speculated that this happened because of a change in the country’s government. Others believed that the 4th COMAR lost interest in the continuity of the investigating group, and that the collected material was forwarded to the 4th Sub-Command in Brasília.

Some years ago, ufologists Claudeir Covo, president of INFA - National Institute of Investigation of Aerospatial Phenomena, together with Osmar de Freitas, president of GEONI - Group of Studies of Non-Identified Objects -, visited the 4th COMAR and were informed that all SIOANI material was indeed forwarded to the command in Brasília. But was this correct?

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The latest Indiana Jones flick mixes the Crystal Skulls with the Chronicles of Akakor (referred in the movie as “Akator”, probably due to copyright issues), and Philip Coppens has already published a nice article on the whole Akakor thing.

There’s one small detail though, revealed by the Brazilian anthropologist João Américo Peret (in Portuguese). According to Peret,

“The indians like to play a joke and may have played with Tatunca Nara, when they taught him some words from the local language. For instance, Akakor means dysentery. Mongulala means making sex. And Akahin means bathing in the river…”

I couldn’t verify Peret’s claims, as the language he refers to is not Tupi-Guarani, but Peret is indeed a widely recognized researcher and spent many years helping many Indians across the country.

The adventures of the man with a hat are pure entertainment, and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull sure delivers that (spoiler: aliens with crystal skeletons!), even though the Lost City of Dysentery is no match for the Temple of Doom.

Once upon a time, on a very distant communist kingdom, there were happy dolphins, jumping around on the Fushun aquarium. But one day, the beautiful aquatic mammals swallowed some plastic objects. And they became stuck on their stomachs.

The poor dolphins lost appetite and were very, very sad. Worried about them, the kind veterinarians tried to remove the objects using tools, but the creatures, scared, contracted their stomachs. They couldn’t remove the plastic objects. All hope was lost.

That was until Bao Xishun, the tallest man in the world, was called in. With an arm more than a meter in length, Xishun simply slipped it down the dolphins throats (or the equivalent dolphin organ). Problem solved. The little plastic pieces that remained were digested by the saved dolphins, and everyone lived happily ever after.

Amazingly, this tale (apart from my unfunny story-telling) actually happened, and there’s a video to prove it. Now, in a thousand years it may become a new fairy tale. [via core77]

” Manhattanhenge (sometimes referred to as Manhattan Solstice) is a semi-annual occurrence in which the setting sun aligns with the east-west streets of Manhattan’s main street grid. At sunset, a traveler along one of the north-south avenues on the West Side while looking east can observe the phenomenon indirectly, being struck by the reflected light of the many windows which are aligned with the grid. An observer on the East Side can look west and see the Sun shining down a canyon-like street.” [via Fogonazos]