Defamatory and malicious statements made by Bernard Thouanel
Defamatory slander
February 3, 2006
We are gradually approaching the conclusion of an unflattering affair, and the best ultimate response will be to simply ignore the individuals involved.
It all began with a radio broadcast on a French Canadian station, where the host compared me to the leader of the Solar Temple cult—something utterly ridiculous. Later, the journalist went searching for an obscure individual, a French resident, who made insulting remarks about me, even mentioning the death of my son. In both cases, the best course is to completely ignore these two unfortunate figures. If this affair temporarily boosted the journalist’s audience, it’s unlikely to sustain that momentum given his style, which now combines boredom with vulgarity.
Thouanel’s statement. My request to Claude Poher and his response.
There remains a statement made on the air of this Canadian radio station during an episode dated January 10, 2006, by a certain Bernard Thouanel, an aeronautical journalist living in Los Angeles, who regularly appears on Canadian broadcasts. We will focus on one sentence:
- Jean-Pierre Petit passed off a delta plane accident as a work-related accident to claim a CNRS pension—Poher told me so.
I had difficulty reaching Claude Poher by email.
He immediately replied that he had never said anything of the sort.
This gives Bernard Thouanel’s remarks the character of defamatory slander.
The Canadian journalist has already discredited himself in the eyes of his listeners. The same will happen to Thouanel. My website reaches a sufficient audience that, within a few weeks, enough of his potential readers will have been informed. His name will then disappear from my site, and I don’t believe this statement will do much to improve the image he is trying to project.
Nevertheless, this statement remains in the Canadian radio broadcast dated January 10, 2006, and the recording is still downloadable. I asked Claude Poher, who is implicated, to listen to the broadcast and then send a message to the Canadian journalist—whose email I provided—to request that he publish a correction on his website stating that he never made such remarks. I also asked him to request that the journalist remove the January 10, 2006, broadcast from the download archive, since it features him and attributes to him statements he never made. While at it, he could have also sent a clarification letter to Thouanel. I received his reply on February 7, 2006. It will remain on my site for only a few weeks, along with all other material related to this affair. After that time, all these names will disappear definitively from my HTML pages.
Maurice Viton introduced me to Claude Poher in 1975. In the spring of 1976, we met in Evanston, Illinois, for an UFO conference organized by Allan Hynek under the CUFOS (Center for UFO Studies).
Here is Claude Poher’s response:
- I do not feel involved.
I believe he didn’t fully grasp that my request wasn’t for my own sake (I couldn’t care less about the remarks of people like Bourbeau and Thouanel) but for him. Personally, I would have immediately taken this step myself.
But I am Jean-Pierre Petit, not Claude Poher.
We will soon have the codes to open a website presenting three sections:
Ummmo Dossier
UFOs
Their implications in science and technology
Geopolitics
Christel Seval has already assured us of her collaboration, and we welcome it. He is someone who thinks clearly and writes with great clarity.
Before even opening the site, we are launching a call for the homepage design. Revisiting an idea initially developed by Nicolas Lecot (though he sold the work to a company), I suggest that someone map the Ummo world map onto a sphere, making sure the ratio of land area to ocean area matches the given figures. Then, add colors, perhaps some cloud formations, and animate it. A very elegant graphic object. Naturally, the name(s) of the creator(s) of this work would automatically appear on the homepage.
In passing, one particularly interesting research project would be to simulate the meteorology of this "exoplanet," using astronomical data, insolation levels, atmospheric composition, ocean depth, etc. The planet has low gravity and almost no topography. It’s highly likely that wind systems and precipitation patterns would differ entirely from Earth’s. At the very least, this could serve as an engaging exercise in "exometeorology." For the record, meteorological simulations have already been conducted using personal computers in a distributed computing setup.
Alain Delmon has rediscovered the Ummo map on the website
http://waam.free.fr/map/index.htm
Those familiar with the Ummo dossier by heart will be able to provide the ratio between Earth’s exposed land surface and ocean surface. All that remains is to project this onto a sphere and animate it. Ideally, we could couple this with a solid exometeorological model.
I can’t wait to see this planet rotating, say, at 300 pixels wide.
February 8, 2006: First realization by P. Francis, who mapped the "Ummo planet" map onto a sphere.
Realization: P. Francis
A video created by Samuel Buisseret
Graphic designers, to your computers. We may need to create pages on the site showcasing various realizations. Here, the side lighting is well chosen and the size is good. I don’t know if the land-to-ocean surface ratio is accurate, nor the axial tilt relative to the ecliptic. But these should be easy to correct. The planet has an atmosphere with oxygen, so eventually we should see a thin blue rim, like Earth’s. We’ll need to add oceans and continents. Very little topography. A few stars in the background.
There is a risk: if this planet and these Ummites truly exist, we might give them a case of homesickness.
There are countless fun projects to develop and showcase on the site: Ummo houses in their lush green environment, entering or exiting their dwellings (with a Roux-Combaluzier-style elevator sound). Ummites breaking open their crust with their Cosmo-Ikea furniture, then washing their hands in an ultrasonic device. Showers. The meditation bed under a transparent dome. An Ummite climbing onto his levitating bed (and nearly falling flat on his face...). A legged vehicle moving along non-slip tracks.
The spectacle of methane eruptions, with the combustion of spheres used to analyze these emissions.
The Ummite placing his poncho into a disintegrator upon returning home...