[extropy-chat] FWD (UFO UpDate) Re: 1978 Italian Wave

[Terry W. Colvin]

An informal poll of Italians or non-Italians living in Italy in 1978 could
be interesting.  Amara, perhaps you can ask your Italian colleagues and
friends if they remember media accounts or anecdotal references?

Terry


From: Edoardo Russo <e.russo at cisu.org>
To: UFO UpDates - Toronto <ufoupdates at virtuallystrange.net>
Date: Mon, 24 Nov 2003 12:23:27 +0100
Subject: Re: 1978 Italian Wave 


>From: Richard Hall <hallrichard99 at hotmail.com>
>To: ufoupdates at virtuallystrange.net
>Date: Thu, 20 Nov 2003 17:47:25 +0000
>Subject: Re: 1978 Italian Wave

>>From: Edoardo Russo <e.russo at cisu.org>
>>To: UFO UpDates - Toronto <ufoupdates at virtuallystrange.net>
>>Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 18:11:58 +0100
>>Subject: 1978 Italian Wave [was: A 1957 Wave Comparison]

>>Quite an exceptional year, indeed, even though it seemed
>>limited to our country, as far as we've been able to ascertain:
>>there was no global wave in 1978, as opposed to (say) 1952, 1973
>>or 1954.

>Edoardo and List,

>Referring to my book, The UFO Evidence, Vol. II (pp. 348-358),
>you will find me stating that the 1978 wave was "perhaps the
>largest worldwide wave of all time." It was, indeed, global.

>I give many representative examples of cases in the U.S.,
>Argentina, the Middle East, Australia and New Zealand.

>Eddie Bullard also defines it as a "pandemic wave," both
>geographically widespread and long-lasting.

>It is true that more reports came out of Italy, but it was not
>confined to Italy.

>Since very few people apparently have read my book, a lot of my
>research findings are not being taken into account.

Hello Dick,

First of all, let me assure you that I'm not only one of those 
"few people" who did read your most valuable book, "The UFO 
Evidence - Vol. II", but also one of those fewer readers who 
used it as a research tool, since I dulye and carefully looked 
through its pages for (and photocopied for our files) all and 
any reference to either Italian reports or "special interest 
items" (eg. angel hair reports) which are the subject of one 
among CISU many research/catalogue projects (please see 
www.ufodatanet.org/udncgi/wgindex_i.idc for a detailed and 
updated list, in English).

Now to the specific point: as I wrote, the Italian Center for 
UFO Studies devoted its 13th annual congress to "The 1978 UFO 
wave, twenty years later" (Florence, 30 May 1998). My own paper 
was devoted to precisely the international scene, that year, 
with the aim of comparing the Italian wave with the rest of the 
world.

 From my own memory of that year (when I was already active
as an international relations officer for the journal "Clypeus"
and for the Italian Centro Ufologico Nazionale, CUN), I'd have
said a truly global wave had occurred, indeed.

But that sensation did evaporate as soon as I did my own 
homework in preparing some data tables for my paper.

I had already scanned the available literature (we'd long been 
keeping an open file on that year, also as of the international 
scene) and I also asked several national UFO organizations for 
their numbers of reported UFO sightings in 1977, 1978 and 1979, 
so to have a proper perspective of relative trends.

If you just have a look at the posters I presented at the congress
(which are available on the webpage:

http://www.cisu.org/1978wave.htm

you will appreciate the following:

- a most useful tool would have been an international catalogue, 
like UfoCat, but it was not updated as of 1978, in the version 
available at that time; (both your book and Larry Hatch's 
database are not general-sightings catalogues, but rather a 
selection of "best cases", whose dinamics may have a behaviour 
different from the raw reported sightings, as of numbers in 
time;) the only worldwide catalogue of 1978 sightings I was able 
to find is the one by Contact International (UK), but it was 
evidently unbalanced and incomplete (a few hundred cases in all, 
where Italy had less than 20 entrìes, out of the 1500+ we 
filed);

- I only found or got sistematically collected national data for 
UK, France, Norway, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland (in Europe), 
plus Mexico, Australia and two regional catalogues of Ontario 
and Tasmania;

- for some countries, those weren't ufologists' files but 
official (government) data: UK, France, Australia;

- a notable omission are the USA, but I wasn't able to find a 
comprehensive national database for that country (only few 
apparently incomplete catalogues); does one exist, and do you or 
anybody else know of one?

As of the conclusions, I will save List readers from the boring 
statistical tests results, but the tables and graphics are 
clear enough for all to see: with the exception of Italy (and 
possibly Mexico and the regional data from Ontario and Tasmania, 
but with differences totaling dozens of cases only, as opposed 
to the hundreds).

I had to change my mind and my paper plainly told there was no 
evidence of a global 1978 UFO wave, based upon the available 
data. I repeat it, now.

Of course, I am prepared to change that opinion, again, if 
anybody can show me new, different data.

BTW, I'm still eager to get national numbers for any country I 
missed. Any volunteer to share data?

Best regards


Edoardo Russo
Centro Italiano Studi Ufologici
CISU, Casella postale 82, 10100 Torino
tel 011.30.78.63 - fax 011.54.50.33
http://www.cisu.org


-- 
“Only a zit on the wart on the heinie of progress.” Copyright 1992, Frank Rice


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