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COFFEE COUNTER
for week of
June 24th 2012
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Today In History
On this day in 1997, U.S. Air Force officials release a 231-page report dismissing long-standing claims of an alien spacecraft crash in Roswell, New Mexico, almost exactly 50 years earlier.
Public interest in Unidentified Flying Objects, or UFOs, began to flourish in the 1940s, when developments in space travel and the dawn of the atomic age caused many Americans to turn their attention to the skies. The town of Roswell, located near the Pecos River in southeastern New Mexico, became a magnet for UFO believers due to the strange events of early July 1947, when ranch foreman W.W. Brazel found a strange, shiny material scattered over some of his land. He turned the material over to the sheriff, who passed it on to authorities at the nearby Air Force base. On July 8, Air Force officials announced they had recovered the wreckage of a "flying disk." A local newspaper put the story on its front page, launching Roswell into the spotlight of the public's UFO fascination.
The Air Force soon took back their story, however, saying the debris had been merely a downed weather balloon. Aside from die-hard UFO believers, or "ufologists," public interest in the so-called "Roswell Incident" faded until the late 1970s, when claims surfaced that the military had invented the weather balloon story as a cover-up. Believers in this theory argued that officials had in fact retrieved several alien bodies from the crashed spacecraft, which were now stored in the mysterious Area 51 installation in Nevada. Seeking to dispel these suspicions, the Air Force issued a 1,000-page report in 1994 stating that the crashed object was actually a high-altitude weather balloon launched from a nearby missile test-site as part of a classified experiment aimed at monitoring the atmosphere in order to detect Soviet nuclear tests.
On July 24, 1997, barely a week before the extravagant 50th anniversary celebration of the incident, the Air Force released yet another report on the controversial subject. Titled "The Roswell Report, Case Closed," the document stated definitively that there was no Pentagon evidence that any kind of life form was found in the Roswell area in connection with the reported UFO sightings, and that the "bodies" recovered were not aliens but dummies used in parachute tests conducted in the region. Any hopes that this would put an end to the cover-up debate were in vain, as furious ufologists rushed to point out the report's inconsistencies. With conspiracy theories still alive and well on the Internet, Roswell continues to thrive as a tourist destination for UFO enthusiasts far and wide, hosting the annual UFO Encounter Festival each July and welcoming visitors year-round to its International UFO Museum and Research Center.
more~Quote Of The Day
"Criticizing another's garden doesn't keep the weeds out of your own."
Irish Proverb
Today's Trivia
Adolph HitlerAdolph Hitler played chess daily. He always played the white pieces, and insisted on being allowed to replace one of his bishops with a second queen.
Gustave EiffelGustave Eiffel, designer of the Eiffel Tower, enjoyed a successful career as an architect despite having dyslexia and a paralyzing fear of heights.
From Our Forums
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CLIFF'S FOTOFUN #91,
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WELCOME TO OUR Close-Up/Macro Challenge #13
here at the 
"A LIVE ONE"
"A Live One" - This will give a chance to all the nature watchers, and can include other interpretations.
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Welcome to our HDR Challenge #12
here at the Photography Cafe
"DOORS"
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Welcome to our Cafe Book Nook
here at the Photography Cafe
Photo Locations, Tutorials on Digital Techniques, Photo Techniques and Equipment.
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See who is appearing on Centre Stage this week
Philipo
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PHOTO OF THE MONTH
MAY 2012 Tower Headland
by Ian Clamp 
From Ian Clamp
"This is opposite the tower and is part of the newly built Blackpool sea defences which has completely transformed the town's promenade. This was the end of a beautiful but very cold day, I could see that lovely colour forming in the sky and set about composing my image ready for the right moment to take the shot. I liked the formation of the light stands and wanted to utilise the oversized pebbles as the foreground. I took it from quite low down but had to ensure that the railings did not coincide with the horizon which was set on the upper third of the frame.
My camera (Canon 5D & 24-104L) was set at ISO500-1/320th sec-f9
Thank you very much for making this POTM
Ian Clamp".
CONGRATULATIONS Ian Clamp!Click on the photo to go to Ian Clamps's album and leave a comment.
And leave a post below and let him know what you thought of his photo.
We all love comments!
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The Judges of the Cafe Choice Award are pleased to announce the presentation of this highly rated award:
is awarded to memberTINAfor her image"White on White"
"Tina’s shot of a cat waiting to come in is very simple in appearance at first glance. Look closer and you’ll notice how the quality of the exposure which gives us so much detail in the white tones, is amazing. The faint reflection of the cat in the glass gives the image some depth and there’s a wealth of detail in the fur, the window blind and the masonry.
We have a perfect high key image with the blacks in the cat’s eyes and the framing of the window providing the contrast.
The judges, although not unanimous in their love for cats are unanimous that this is a top quality image and should be awarded Photography Café’s highest award.
Congratulations Tina!"* * * * * * *
Today's Chuckles
PasswordA computer system technician worked at a law firm. One day, in the process of reconfiguring a user's computer, he had to log a user off and then back on. He entered her username and then asked her password to log back on.
Her password was "genius".
Each time he tried it, he received a message that stated the username or password was incorrect. Knowing that the username was correct, he asked her how to spell her password.
She said, "G - E - N - I - O - U - S."
The Biggest SignThe shopkeeper was dismayed when a brand new business selling almost everything he sold opened up next door and erected a huge sign that read, "BEST DEALS."
He was horrified when another competitor opened up a shop to the right of his store, and announced its arrival with an even larger sign, that read, "LOWEST PRICES."
The old shopkeeper was panicked, until he finally got an idea. He put the biggest sign of all over his own shop. It read, "MAIN ENTRANCE."
Quick Quotes
"The most practical, beautiful, workable philosophy in the world won't work if you won't. "
~Zig Ziglar
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"Ideas can be life-changing. Sometimes all you need to open the door is just one more good idea. "
~Jim Rohn
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"Do not anticipate trouble or worry about what may never happen. Keep in the sunlight. "
~Benjamin Franklin
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More Chuckles
Management SpeakMANAGEMENT SPEAK: That's very interesting.
TRANSLATION: I disagree.
MANAGEMENT SPEAK: I don't totally disagree with you.
TRANSLATION: You may be right, but I don't care.
MANAGEMENT SPEAK: You have to show some flexibility.
TRANSLATION: You have to do it whether you want to or not.
MANAGEMENT SPEAK: We have an opportunity.
TRANSLATION: You have a problem.
MANAGEMENT SPEAK: You obviously put a lot of work into this.
TRANSLATION: This is awful.
MANAGEMENT SPEAK: In a perfect world.
TRANSLATION: Just get it working and get it out the door.
MANAGEMENT SPEAK: Help me to understand.
TRANSLATION: I don't know what you're talking about, and I don't think you do either.
MANAGEMENT SPEAK: You just don't understand our business.
TRANSLATION: We don't understand our business.
MANAGEMENT SPEAK: You need to see the big picture.
TRANSLATION: My boss thinks it's a good idea.
MANAGEMENT SPEAK: We're going to follow a strict methodology here.
TRANSLATION: We're going to do it my way.
MANAGEMENT SPEAK: I didn't understand the e-mail you said you sent. Can you give me
a quick summary?
TRANSLATION: I still can't figure out how to start the e-mail program.
MANAGEMENT SPEAK: Cost of ownership has become a significant issue in desktop computing.
TRANSLATION: We want all of the benefits and none of the costs.
MANAGEMENT SPEAK: We have to leverage our resources.
TRANSLATION: You're working weekends.
MANAGEMENT SPEAK: Wrong answer.
TRANSLATION: You didn't tell me what I wanted to hear.
A VERY BIG WELCOME TO ALL OUR NEW MEMBERS 
