On June 29 and 30, more than ten researchers from around the world will convene for the 2013 Symposium on Official and Scientific Investigations of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena at the Greensboro War Memorial Auditorium in Greensboro, North Carolina. The event’s host and organizer, Kent Senter, has researched UFOs for nearly thirty years, and is one of the founding members of the Mutual UFO Network’s (MUFON) North Carolina chapter.

Kent Senter (Credit: cufornc)

The event’s website explains that Senter is battling an incurable cancer, so “he has decided to host this unique conference to help increase awareness of the need for scientific research and alleviate the taboo associated with this topic.”

As the News & Record points out, “The lineup of speakers includes high-level officials — a former NASA senior scientist. A retired Belgian major general. An Iranian Air Force fighter pilot.”

For the full list of speakers, and for all the event’s details, visit cufornc.com.

Nuclear physicist and UFO researcher Stanton Friedman was a guest on MSNBC‘s Dylan Ratigan show last week to lend his opinion regarding the upcoming movie Apollo 18 and the conspiracies associated with the mission that was allegedly scrapped by NASA.

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The Joy Behar Show on CNN’s HLN hosted a panel of guests last night to discuss UFOs and the existence of extraterrestrials. This panel included journalist Leslie Kean, former Ministry of Defence UFO researcher Nick Pope, filmmaker James Fox, and former Arizona governor Fife Symington.

The History channel is airing a two-hour special tonight titled “Secret Access: UFOs On The Record,” based on Leslie Kean’s New York Times bestseller UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On The Record. Kean explained to the Huffington Post, “The theme of the program is that UFOs exist, but there’s a small percentage of sightings that are significant and haven’t been explained.”

“Secret Access: UFOs On The Record” (which can already be preordered on DVD in the History channel’s online store) will be followed by a new episode of Ancient Aliens that will explore the connection between extraterrestrials and rituals performed by humans.

While the UFO subject being addressed in television specials and news programs isn’t a new occurrence, the attitude of the media seems to have shifted, and the topic is, for the most part, taken more seriously by the mainstream media.

Astronomer Derrick Pitts (credit: Franklin Insitute)

The book is UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go On the Record by journalist Leslie Kean. This book hit shelves in August of 2010 and quickly became a New York Times bestseller. As Kean’s website describes, the book’s content comes from “highly credible aviation witnesses and official investigators – including five generals and a former U.S. governor – who reveal the facts about UFOs in riveting, personal accounts . . .”

Cover of Kean's book (credit: Crown)

In his Philly Post article, Volk (who recently released his own book that explores UFOs and other paranormal phenomena) points out that “what Pitts endorses is the ‘unidentified’ aspect of an unidentified flying object.” This refers to a point that is mentioned on Kean’s website and in her book:

“We know that of all UFO sightings reported, 95 percent can be explained as ordinary phenomena. However, within that remaining 5 percent, spectacular well-documented UFO events have been officially investigated by government agencies around the world, yet no conventional explanations were found.”

Pitts’s new outlook on the UFO phenomenon is refreshing, and one that more scientists will hopefully embrace. He is unconcerned with the possibility of being tainted for his endorsement of a UFO book, and stresses, “The scientific viewpoint is to admit when we don’t know something and look for answers.”

Pitts’s endorsement of Kean’s book will be in the paperback edition that hits shelves in August of this year.

A lot has happened in the last year. We couldn’t include everything, because we were trying to keep the video to less than 15 minutes, but we packed in a lot. It is another demonstration of how active this field is on a regular basis.

Note: One book that is not in the video which I have written about quite a bit, and thoroughly enjoyed is A.D.: After Disclosure. In the frenzy to get everything ready for the conference somehow I left it out. However, there are other books I left out also. If you feel there is a story or book that I left out that you think needs attention, feel free to comment below so others can be aware.