ITALIAN UFO NEWSFLASH
ISSUE NO. 365- 13 AUGUST 2002
by the Italian Center for UFO Studies
(Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici, CISU)
Contents:
- UFOs: as Silly Season News
- Italian Sightings In July
- The New Book by G. Stilo
UFOs AS SILLY SEASON NEWS
Summer, the time for UFOs, at least in the mass media. Especially, however, it is a time for the shameless recycling of old news “passed off” as new.
In fact, there has been a sudden increase in the number of UFO newsclippings culled from Italian newspapers and gathered for the Italian Center for UFO Studies by the specialized agency "L’Eco della Stampa" (Echos from the Press) from the just 22 items during the month of June (and a monthly average of 36 items for the first half of the year) to the good 75 items published in the month of July alone, with a trend that continues unchanged in the first week of August.
[www.arpnet.it/ufo/ecotot.htm; collaboration by Gian Paolo Grassino.]
But we’re not always talking about “new” headlines here: rather, according to an agency news release that was widely circulated on 28 July, 80% of Italians believe in UFOs (or even...they have “seen” aliens), according to what was reported by Air Press (which in reality limited itself to re-releasing, as a news piece, the survey by Cirm polling institute for the magazine "Quark" and already widely publicized last month), alongside the equally-sensational “news” which the Italian Air Force lumps together under the heading of reported sightings.
[Adn-Kronos, 28 July, reprinted in numerous newspapers on the following day; UFO-Italia, 29 July; collaboration by Gildo Personè]
And let’s not talk about television: the press offices of the national broadcasts have done promos on some new TV specials on UFOs, but these soon turned out to be mere reruns of old broadcasts (as in the case of "Stargate" on 4 August, on La7) or re-edited airing outtakes “from the vaults” (as with a
"Speciale Misteri") by Studio Aperto, which was dedicated to UFOs on 5 August, on Italy 1, and had clips of interviews of the day alternating
helter-skelter with other old interviews conducted ten years ago with the
same experts).
[Collaboration by Renzo Cabassi, Gian Paolo Grassino, Roberto Labanti, Gildo Personè, Paolo Toselli; UFO-Italia, 4 through 8 August]
ITALIAN SIGHTINGS IN JULY
Despite the increase in headlines in the mass media, there has been hardly any change in the number of actual observations of UFO phenomena during the first part of this summer, which refutes the other commonly-held notion that this hot season of the year is precisely when more UFOs are reportedly seen.
In a curiously opposite yet significant parallel with last year - when there occurred instead a veritable wave of sightings (www.arpnet.if/ufo/casi2001.htm)
unaccompanied by an increase in published news reports appearing in newspapers - so it was that in July, there was hardly any change in the number of cases
collected by the working group on case histories activated by the Italian Center for UFO Studies for the purpose of monitoring in real-time reports of UFOs
in Italy.
There were, in fact, 46 sightings catalogued for the previous month of July, compared with 43 cases in May and 41 in June (and as opposed to a mean 38 monthly reports during the first half of the year). From the standpoint of geographic distribution, the Veneto region “weights heavier,” such that, with 30 sightings, it has turned out to be the third most-visited region in this year, following Lombardy and Emilia-Romagna (each with 43 cases).
[www.arpnet.if/ufo/casi2002.htm; communication by Giorgio Abraini]
THE NEW BOOK BY G. STILO
A September release has been confirmed for the anticipated, new book by Giuseppe Stilo, dedicated to the worldwide (and Italian) sightings wave of
1952. Entitled "Ultimatum alla Terra" (“Ultimatum to Earth”) and published by UPIAR,
(www.arpnet.if/ufo/stilo52l.htm)
the volume picks up from the preceding "Scrutate i cieli" (“Watch the Skies”),
(www.arpnet.if/ufo/scrutate.htm)published in 2000 and dedicated to the prior, great wave of 1950. Its basis is formed on archive material collected by CISU "Operation Origins", an archives research project Stilo is coordinator of.
As with the first volume, this one also focuses its attention on the Italian scene, gathering an enormous (and heretofore partially unknown) amount of documentary material on that page of UFO history concerning our country. Suffice it to say that the number of Italian sightings presented (and analyzed)
in the book amounts to 218, compared with the 120 that had been previously catalogued. But the author did not stop at our national borders, and as he did for 1950 he also offers an expansive, international overview of that memorable year, shining the spotlight on some examinations of specific arguments, and featuring data and information never-before published in Italy.
The resulting volume totals as many as 520 pages and is sold on a pre-publication offer on the UPIAR Internet site (www.upiar.com). The discount offer will
conclude at the end of August.
[Communication by Gian Paolo Grassino]
Collaborators on this edition were:
Giorgio Abraini, Renzo Cabassi, Gian Paolo Grassino,
Roberto Labanti, Gildo Personè and Paolo Toselli.
- - -
This is the English translation of UFOTEL, a free
phone/Internet information service on UFOs edited
weekly by Edoardo Russo for the Italian Center for
UFO Studies (Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici),
available in Italian by calling +39-011-545294,
or by e-mail subscription, or on CISU website
at
http://www.arpnet.it/ufo/ultime.htm
UFOTEL is a supplement to "UFO - Rivista di
informazione ufologica", published by the Italian
Center for UFO Studies, registered at Tribunale
di Torino, No. 3670, on 19 June 1986.
Director: Giovanni Settimo.
Publisher: Cooperativa UPIAR, Corso Vittorio
Emanuele 108, 10121 Turin, Italy
Translated from Italian to English by:
Gary J. Presto, Freelance IT-EN Translator/Proofreader
1123 Revere Beach Pky., # 12
Revere, MA 02151 USA
Tel.: ++ 1.781.485.1683, Fax: ++ 1.781.485.1684
ICQ: 110502923, E-mail: gjpresto@mediaone.net
Webpage:
http://profiles.yahoo.com/italoman9
- - -
(c) 2002 by: CISU,
Corso Vittorio Emanuele 108, 10121 Torino, Italia
This newsletter (as a whole or in part) may be freely
copied, photocopied, reproduced, stored, distributed
and retrieved, at the only condition that Centro Italiano
Studi Ufologici is reported as the source.
You may get it directly via e-mail by subscribing
(just send a blank message to:
cisuflash-subscribe@yahoogroups.com)
The CISU is a no-profit association whose aims are:
- to promote the scientific study of UFO phenomena in Italy;
- to help circulate information about UFO phenomena and studies;
- to coordinate national activities of data collecting and studying.
You may reach Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici:
- by mail: CISU, Corso Vittorio Emanuele 108, 10121 Torino, Italia
- by phone: +39 (011) 30.78.63 (24 hours UFO Hotline)
- by fax: +39 (011) 54.50.33
- by Internet e-mail: cisu@ufo.it
- at the World Wide Web URL:
http://www.cisu.org