this is actually something that a lot of people want to talk about um you know what does it always come down to uh for like for the big big male struggle you know there's money sex um and I guess you could say like anger or something like that but yeah in those toxic relationships you know uh with we'll start with business because you you highlighted that one um what what were some of the things that really set you off about a characteristic and yeah I'll tell you this for myself they always they're they kind of align they're they're very transparent through everything you know whether that's relationships or business or business relationships or intimate relationships what were some of those things that kind of like the red flags that that set you off there I was when I was in China many years ago I went to see this fortune teller and um he told me my fortune which was loosely translated by the girl I was with that was something like you are a little famous now and you'll be more famous later you will be a good friend but a terrible husband and do not do business with your best friends almost words of the Chinese guy and he was pretty much right I was a bad husband I'm definitely a good friend and I've certainly had some bad experiences doing business with friends and I'm a little bit more famous now as we can tell by the old what's going on here um so well what I learned was that I always watch people's actions never listen to their words I think that's that's the primary thing so there's a lot of there's a lot of really good bullshit artists out there there's a lot of people who are very good at convincing themselves it's not so much I don't yeah totally they don't even mean to do wrong you know people are just very good at deleting themselves so I typically now in terms of all the business because I do do a lot of business with friends it's the nature of this business sure the people that I work with I live with I travel with all the time they have they're very close friends of mine and I've had a lot of guys come through this business who were great seduces exceptional ladies men um and just not very reliable people um so yeah I think it's really important to watch what watch people's actions so if someone like ignore everything that they say same goes with women like women will tell you all sorts of funny stuff um and if you listen carefully to it and only focus on the words you'll miss what they're actually trying to tell you you know the old we're not having sex tonight sentence you know if I go home with you I'm not going to sleep with you yeah that kind of thing that sounds logical and that sounds right but really she probably doesn't mean that there's that's otherwise she wouldn't come home with you but yeah I think that's what I've really looked at and I and the other thing is I look at um because now that I'm in a position where I'm a little bit famous you know weird niche I get a lot of people coming to me all the time wanting to do things for me or help me or be involved oh man yeah um which is nice yeah it's nice to have fans I wish they were hot chicks instead of like you know yeah yeah I'm like it's kind of like being a rock star but not quite as good um no offense to any of the guys that came and talked to me it's not your fault you're not a hot chick it's my fault for being not being a rock star um so yeah the other thing is I look very carefully at how do people treat other people not just the person that they're trying to impress so it's very easy to be sycophantic and and appear to be awesome in front of somebody but I really watch people carefully in terms of how do they treat a waiter um how do they treat someone how would they treat someone that they perceive they have power over is something that I'm really interested in yeah because that's where I notice nasty things coming out when someone you know treats the treats the hired help badly I'm like I don't really want to deal with that person yeah I don't want people who decide that some people are worth more than others based on what job they have or how much money they have or what race they are or whatever


Imagine a world where fossil fuels no longer drive everything. Could we just keep electrifying everything we use and keep on living the same way as back in 2023? Just with more? Better? Faster? Cleaner? Everything? How are you getting to work? What type of work are you doing? What's changed the most? What's the same? Let's get into it. This is the LowTech Podcast. Hello and welcome to the third episode of our new season. I'm Scott Johnson of the Low Technology Institute. Your host for podcast number 73 on December 22nd, 2023, coming to you from the LowTech recording booth. Thank you for joining us today. We're jumping right into our DeLorean time machine and heading to Cooksville in the year 2100 where we'll spend the rest of our season. Today we're starting with the thing that has changed the most in the last 80 years and that of course is energy. You can still follow us on Twitter, X or whatever it is. Our handle is at low underscore techno. Like us on Facebook. Like us on Instagram. Subscribe to us on YouTube. And check out our website lowtechinstitute.org where you can find both of our podcasts as well as information about joining and supporting the Institute and its research. Also some podcast distributors put ads on podcasts unless you hear me doing the ad. Someone else is making money on that advertising. And while all of our podcast videos and other information are given freely, they do take resources to make, believe it or not. If you're in a position to help support this work and be part of this community, please consider becoming a monthly supporter for as little as $3 a month through our Patreon page, patreon.com slash lowtechinstitute. Another way to support us is to donate your used car. Get out of the fossil fuel game, right? Anyone in the US can contact us.  If you're interested in helping us in this way, get in touch with us at infoatlowtechinstitute.org. If you'd like to sponsor an episode directly, please get in touch again through our website or email. How we use energy today in 2100 is drastically different than a century ago. Spoiler alert, back then fossil fuels ran everything, especially out here in the country where we live in Cooksville. From motors on lawn care equipment to chainsaws, farm equipment and generators, cooking food, heating, cooling houses, getting from place to place, every single thing was dependent on fossil fuels. Even when we used electric appliances and motors, a lot of that power was coming from fossil fuel generation. Together, natural gas and coal provided about 70% of electric generation in Wisconsin right now. That world is gone, but we still have to deal with the remaining infrastructure and we have to rethink how we use power today. So we'll go into specific technologies later on, but the first thing we have to cover is how our entire outlook had to change. This mindset shift can be summed up in five key adaptations. Our use, convert legacy systems, replace defunct systems, use power directly, and stack and close loop systems. And while today in 2100 these are all self-explanatory, I think a little dive in each one of these will be helpful for you visitors from the past. So the first thing that you owe dinosaur from 80 years ago will notice is how much energy or how much less energy we use. This is what we mean by reduced use. Back in 2020 the US produced about 100 quadrillion BTUs of energy and you could divide that energy into about one quarter for transport, one quarter for industrial uses, a tenth for residential, a tenth for commercial, and then an entire quarter for energy lost in the production and transmission of that power. Today we use less than 25 quadrillion BTUs across the US and although each sector that uses power has seen reductions, transportation, commercial use, and production and transmission losses have been cut the most dramatically. Even industrial and residential energy use have been adapted to function with renewable on-site energy and this doesn't mean that everything runs on wind or solar as the term renewable energy used to mean. Today we consider any energy source that is quickly regenerate itself quickly to be renewable. The second adaptation was converting legacy systems. In some cases fossil fuel machines could be converted to run with new energy sources. The easiest examples were those where engines could be replaced by electric motors or compressed air motors or even direct drive from wind or water turbines. In other cases like gas stoves, fuel sources like methane from biodigesters could be used. Even a limited number of diesel engines have been kept running using pure biodiesel made from algae and other sources but these are kind of old school curiosities. This is no real replacement for gasoline was available. We come to strategy number three which is the outright replacement of antiquated systems. One of the most popular and innovative directions we've taken is adopting pedal power and so this doesn't mean just bicycles for a short or even medium distance transportation. A whole series of petty machines as a peddling machine has been invented such as the pedicultivator for agricultural work and the pedibaro for moving loads basically a wheelbarrow on a bike. Another change is getting rid of the middle man that is trying to reduce how much fuel we need by using a direct drive power instead of storing energy in one form for example electrons in a battery or combustion power in methane. We use the source of the energy directly. This can be as simple as a solar oven for cooking or a windmill to pump in pressurized household water. It can be a throwback to historical machines like water wheels to drive mills for sawing or grinding grain but many systems use self-regulating direct drive power like fans running DC motors connected to a small solar panel to cool greenhouses or to pump air through earth tubes. As the sunnier it is the faster the fan runs and no electronic regulating system is necessary. The fifth adaptation is probably the one least understandable to someone from 80 years ago. As energy from the old way of doing things was drawing down and we started having to figure out how to live with less energy people started competing to see how many stacks and closed loops they could create. These are kind of related ideas but they're slightly different. Stacking is using an already running or existing process and then adding on to it.  This is stacking. More functionality is stacked on top of an already running system. Those loop systems on the other hand use the waste or the excess of one system to run another and then they make a circle. For example some of us heat here in Cooksville, heat our greenhouses with large compost piles. As we build up the piles garden hoses are circulated through the riding organic matter. A pump moves water from the 150 degree compost pile into the greenhouse where the hoses are buried in the beds and they help keep the beds warm through winter. Because heat is such a common byproduct of other systems we have many ways to capture heat off of machines, motors and others to heat spaces or water or even generate electricity. It wasn't just for mechanical applications. The idea of closing the loop on systems became popular as people tried to reduce the amount of resources to run anything. It also reduced the amount going into the waste stream. For example chickens have become ubiquitous and many people use closed loop feeding and waste management systems for their chickens. It's a little fancy term but it's really simple. Depending on their ecological zone anyone could do this. In Cooksville chickens are moved around to manage the vegetation growth in the summer while silage is collected to feed them through the winter. Their manure then goes back to fertilize the plants which they eat which then closes the loop. So as you can imagine as we shifted from a system dependent on fossil fuels to one that made careful use of renewable energy resources we had to redesign every system that we could rely on to power heat and cool our lives. These five adaptations which often overlap have helped us usher in a new way of life that is not wholly dependent on any one single source of energy as the danger of that was recognized after the shift away from fossil fuels but unfortunately as we'll discuss now we had to learn the same lesson about electricity. So electricity. If I were to ask even the most ardent supporters of fossil fuels back in 2023 they would recognize that in 50 years we probably would be using electricity more than coal natural gas or even gasoline. It would have been it would have seemed that the shift to electric everything was inevitable but by 2050 this dream had collapsed. Instead of using the transition to an all-electric world to weed out waste in the system people wanted to continue living in the same power hungry way that they had been when using fossil fuels. Unfortunately the electrical infrastructure was not able to cope with the strain. Think about it this way in order to electrify the entire power system in the US we would have to replace about 75% of our energy production that used to come from fossil fuels with new electric generation or to put it another way the US would have to figure out a way to produce three times more electricity than it already is doing in 2023. But what makes that even harder is that 60% of the electricity produced in 2023 is generated by fossil fuels so really in 2020 renewable energy and solar nuclear provided about 20% of all the power needed for the 100 quadrillion BTUs produced. It was unreasonable to think that those two sources could be scaled up to cover 100% of an all-electric future meaning if we kept power usage the same. The government did try though they dumped trillions of dollars into bringing renewable wind and solar from 12% of total power generation to nearly 75% by 2050. Looking back it was clear this was never going to happen. Similarly scaling nuclear generation from 8% of the energy market to 25% would have meant building 300 new reactors on top of the 93 existing ones and because of the widespread protest not to mention the engineering and supply change issues this didn't happen. By the middle of the century the country had come to grips with two realities. First people could not use 100% of the power they had been accustomed to using with fossil fuels. Second electricity alone could not even meet their now reduced energy appetite. While electricity is still invaluable for some systems electricity was de-emphasized as the primary power source for everything. Additionally the electrical grid underwent an overhaul during this time to create micro grids and use more power at the source of generation. In a sort of technical judo engineers went around the storage problem of the early 21st century by thinking out new ways to use electricity immediately and directly without resorting to chemical batteries. Even though the supply side of electricity wouldn't meet all of our needs we are still able to electrify most processes. Today things that use electricity are those that are best accomplished by moving electrons around. For example the typical residential kitchen has experienced fads of technological innovation including the electrification of cooking cooling and ingredient preparation and even though the induction cooktops that are 75% more efficient and were all the rave in the 2030s and 40s a solar oven is effective the efficiency is effectively irrelevant because sunlight is free. Cooking in the oven compartment of a masonry mass heater for another example taps into a heat that is already being generated. Another example of stacking and even though a small refrigerator with an exact temperature is very convenient large amounts of food can be stored in root cellars or Rubin coolers through the time of year that requires the most storage with almost no energy use. Electricity though does remain the best solution for some things. Electronic lighting is better just period better than flames for any reason other than romantic ones or making s'mores. Long distance communication is only possible through electric means. Many mobile power applications are easier through stored electricity whether it's a battery powered tool or a hydrogen fuel cell producing electricity to drive tram motors. Even though electricity remains indispensable for some applications it's no longer thought of as a primary solution for all of our energy needs. Nothing is the name of the game today is energy diversity which leads to a more robust and resilient way of living. Now let's talk about localized generation. Since its inception electricity has been almost always generated at large disempower plants and installations. Even though coal peaked around 100 years ago with almost 1500 plants that range from a few megawatts to a couple gigawatts. The natural gas boom of the early 2000s fueled electricity generation for the next few decades with 6 or 700 plants ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand megawatts of capacity. From the mid 1900s through the mid 2000s nuclear plants provided about 15 to 20 percent of the grid's power. But as natural gas was drawn down in the 2030s the debate raged about whether or not to maintain the almost 100 existing reactors through mid-century. Each reactor averaged about a thousand megawatts. Although a small number of radio isotope power stations are now used in extremely specialized environments and circumstances large centralized nuclear facilities are only in operation outside of a few cities like Chicago and New York. And even these have been converted to sodium cooled fasc reactors as you all imagine in order to run on existing stocks of spent fuel from the nuclear legacy of the previous century. From today's local a localist point of view one major problem with nuclear and fossil fuel facilities is that they require a steady influx of fuel from outside the surrounding area. This leaves communities vulnerable to supply chain disruptions. As the old model of central generating stations distributing power over great distances wasted approximately 15 percent of the power in generation mostly through heat losses and steam turbines and another 10 percent through transmission losses. This system was scrapped in favor of a point of use generation and micro grids as the name implies most electricity is now used where it's generated. So if a workshop needs power it can use solar panels and on-site storage which we'll discuss in a bit more detail later. The solar panels of today are pretty different from the legacy ones built last century. Instead of a flat panel mounted on a roof or a rack we use modular stacks of photovoltaic cells.  Circuits are built by connecting the bricks by stacking the bricks and setting patterns and creating parallel and series circuits so any voltage or amperage can be met. Because these bricks are about the same size as a standard construction red brick they can be put together in any shape and installed over any exterior south facing surface. They're even strong enough to bear some load. And because they're standardized they can be disassembled and used elsewhere. Like everything today they're built in specialized factories which we'll talk about more in a few weeks. But as much of our energy needs are stable we only need to make replacement units now. A few generations ago when this started coming online this production was much higher. But these small standardized bricks are so commonplace now. We've also created a huge variety of generators. Wind turbines are still popular in exposed locations but instead of the giant versions used in the early 2000s which required significant fossil fuel inputs to produce, transport and install. Today's turbines are numerous and they're small. They're made of uniform parts and the turbines can be easily repaired by a regular person. They're mounted on dedicated poles or even at the top of truncated pine trees. Vertical axis windmills are popular in more urban areas and water also provides a significant power but without large dams. The ecological problems that came with completely blocking a waterway pushed engineers to create less invasive although admittedly less energetic generating systems. One of them uses a sluice gate to draw water off a small percentage of a stream running down running it parallel to the waterway but with less slope gaining a few feet of height before dropping over a water wheel. A new type of vertical shaft turbine was created and is installed between bends in a river. Intake on the upper river side runs water through the turbine before beating deposited in the down river bend even simpler systems like fluted floating barrels that rotate in the stream and inverted turbines that are inserted in the water are used when only a little constant energy is needed. These systems draw a portion of the kinetic energy of rivers without stopping their flow or disrupting the local ecology. A final source of energy is thermocouples. A thermocouple depends on the C-beck effect which creates a small electric charge between two conductive materials held at different temperatures. In practice these are small squares of metal with electrical leads or wires that can be linked together to build up a charge when applied to a heat source. In places where excess heat is generated and not needed these thermocouple blocks can be attached to draw out the unwanted heat and convert it to electricity. This is a small trickle of energy that was formerly used by NASA on projects to provide energy to spacecraft in deep space. Using decaying nuclear reactions to provide the heat and electricity it provided electricity for decades with no moving parts. So we're trying to sip little bits of energy from all these different small sources and together that creates a lot of power. All right, let's talk about storage. So as the dream of an all electric future was collapsing engineers recognized that chemical batteries weren't needed to store electricity. Nobody needs electricity itself, except maybe Uncle Fester. What we need is a flow of electrons to do work for us. If we can get the work done directly then storage is not needed. Instead of banks of batteries to provide power every second of the day for any need that arises most electricity is used as it's generated or if it's stored it isn't held in batteries. Today most excess electricity is immediately converted into another type of energy and stored without batteries. The storage depends on the type of work. Before the US transitioned away from fossil fuels domestic energy use went towards space heating, hot water, cooling, lighting, laundry, cooking and everything else in descending order and that's in descending order. Most of these are now powered by systems that don't require electric storage. And we'll talk more about heating and cooling in another episode so we'll just put a pin in that for now. Water, for one example. Water's now heated by a solar system. Solar hot water systems by and large every house in Cooksville has one. They have a heated reservoir in their basement where hundreds of gallons are stored in insulated tanks. Each sunny day the stored water is heated with panels full of tubes to absorb the sun's energy and some of the house excess electricity could also be routed to heating elements in these reservoirs to store surplus electricity as heated water. Houses in Cooksville are also on well water. Years ago these were driven by electric pumps and a few of the houses still have these electric pumps but most have converted to wind driven systems. Those even those with electric systems do have a few small dedicated solar blocks for running the pump during the day when needed. In both cases though the pumped water is stored in large tanks with a bladder of air which is compressed as the water is pumped in. Instead of needing a water tower to pressurize their system like most municipalities used to have the compression of the tank and the air in the tank takes care of that pressure need. This stores the day's solar and wind power as pumped water for the household. In a later episode we'll talk about how similar systems compress air for use in workshops. We also do some limited cold storage using electricity. Although we've largely gotten away from relying on freezers and refrigerators in most houses, most houses do have a small fridge for keeping leftovers and foods ready for immediate use, very small like dorm fridges you'd call them. We'll talk more about this when we get to discuss food but these hybrid coolers combine the compressor refrigerator of the early 2000s with the ice box of the 1900s. During the day a square tub of water or other material is frozen at the top of the unit using solar electricity. By the end of the day it's a big block of ice which thaws throughout the night keeping everything cool. But it's true for a few tasks, nothing beats a battery. In most houses lighting is on its own independent circuit where dedicated solar panel blocks recharge a battery that is just for lighting. It's designed so that a single day of sunny weather provides enough light for three or four nights. An emergency, in an emergency a breaker can be flipped and it can charge the lighting system from the micro grid or other sources if necessary. But even when we do use batteries, they're not made with rare or even not so rare earth metals like lithium and cobalt. We store electricity in three types of chemical systems but they're built similarly to the modular solar panel brick system. These batteries were manufactured under something called a unified battery system which we call the UBS. It mandated sizes and connections and other characteristics to make battery cells which are essentially like car batteries with easy plugs that can be linked together in a variety of ways to provide the right voltage and power need in each installation by having uniform materials. It makes a plug and play and swappable a daily occurrence.  It is not a problem. It isn't a huge installation nightmare like it might be back in 2023. I'm only saying that from personal experience. So let's take one quick step back though in case you don't happen to have a degree in electrochemical engineering. Batteries create energy when one metal loses electrons or is oxidized in other words to another metal which is absorbing electrons which is being reduced. This flow of electrons from one to the other can be routed through an LED light bulb to power a flashlight or your kid's favorite toy. The positive metal in this equation is called the cathode and the negative is called the anode. I can still hear my high school chemistry teacher Mrs. Lund reminding me to think positively about cats to remember which is the cathode and which is the anode. So when the first metal is fully oxidized the battery is dead. Rechargeable batteries reverse this process when they are plugged in. In this case the first metal reabsorbed the electrons as the second one loses them. The two metals are separated by a membrane and an electrolyte allows for the movement of charged particles called ions. And depending on the metals used in the electrolytes they degrade each other and each time it's charged and recharged there's some degradation that's why your laptop battery dies after a while. It can only charge and recharge so many times depending on the battery type. For small applications dry electrolytes are preferred so that battery acid doesn't spill out in your pocket if you put down your comms you'll put your comms in your pocket upside down. Our communicators or comms are short for the descendants of what you would call smartphones that's what we call them today comms. These dry cell batteries are closed systems which are difficult to repair and have a finite lifespan but they're swappable so we can just replace them. Stationary systems can use wet cell batteries with free flowing liquid electrolytes in a solution. Small to medium sized systems use nickel iron batteries. While these are practically antiques in terms of technology they are so simple to build and maintain as well as being reliable and robust they use nickel oxide hydroxide oxidizing to nickel hydroxide on the positive plate of course with iron reducing to iron hydroxide on the negative plate as if I didn't need to tell you all that everybody knows that. Because the former has low solubility it doesn't degrade into potassium hydroxide liquid electrolyte. If the battery is becoming overcharged they can off gas hydrogen which used to be seen as a danger but is now built into some batteries and this new type of battery that also produces hydrogen on purpose is called a battle iser but we'll talk about those when we discuss hydrogen in the next episode. Instead of large batteries systems that need a lot of electricity often use hydrogen fuel cells but again we'll discuss that next episode. When a large battery is called for it's almost always an iron flow battery. An iron flow battery needs iron, salt, water and a pump to store vast amounts of energy. Unlike traditional solid state batteries where the positively and negatively charged materials are separated on thin layers surrounded by an electrolyte flow, electrolyte flow batteries pump the electrolyte through the system to create the charge. It's kind of a backwards battery. The capacity of the previously described batteries are limited by their solid cathode and anode materials. Iron flow batteries, storage is only defined by the amount of electrolyte. So by pumping charged electrolyte through a system from one storage tank to another power can be generated as long as a charged electrolyte is available. The bigger the storage tank the more electricity can be stored. As the materials are essentially water, iron salts, rust and iron the systems are only limited by tank size so you can store a huge amount of electricity reasonably efficiently. So let's talk about how we use electricity and this will be a little short. So instead of using long distance transmission lines crisscrossing our country today we try and use electricity and really all energy is close to its generation as possible. Many systems aren't even grid connected. Most households for example have independent lighting systems like I mentioned with a small chemical battery that provides for the modest amount of energy needed by LED bulbs. Factories are required to generate their own operating power. Cooling systems use dedicated solar panels to power them during sunny days which are obviously the warmer ones. Few systems are dependent on the local microgrid although many of them can be connected if needed on a temporary basis. Each community has its own independent grid system. Cooksville for example connects all the houses and workshops and factories and other many outbuildings in the village altogether. A central control unit usually keeps the Cooksville grid isolated from its neighbors but in the event of a system breakdown here it could draw emergency power from the grids in Stoughton, Evansville or Edgerton and vice versa. External power is only used to drive essentials in times of emergency. Outlying farms run largely independently from day to day but could tap into the nearest microgrid if needed. Because municipalities use much less energy and are therefore largely independent, long distance centralized power production from solar farms or other large scale generation stations is available but only treated as a backup or an emergency use. The few remaining centralized power sources are used to drive especially power hunger uses like medical or excuse me, metal and chemical factories. We'll talk more about electricity as we discuss hydrogen next time too. The thing about electricity is that when it comes down to it people don't really need electrons moving from one place to another as I said before. Other forms of energy provide things we do need like heat or light. To use electricity in this way it has to be run through some sort of intermediary like a heater or a light bulb. This builds in a reasonable amount of inefficiency. For that reason electricity isn't as big a deal as somebody from 2023 might have originally thought for 2021, excuse me, 2100. Next episode we're gonna delve into an energy source that few people from 2023 would have expected to be one of our most important sources of power today namely hydrogen. It's like one famous airship disaster caused a century of stagnation and in hydrogen power study and adoption. But more on that later and just a note that episode probably won't be out until the new year because of the holidays kind of putting a cramp in our production schedule. So see you in January. That's it for this week. The low-tech podcast is put out by the Low Technology Institute. The show is hosted and produced by me, Scott Johnson. This episode was recorded in the low-tech recording booth in Cokesville, Wisconsin. Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes, Spotify, Google, Play YouTube and elsewhere. We hope you enjoyed this free podcast. If you'd like to join the community and help support the work we do please consider going to patreon.com slash lowtechinstitute and signing up. Thank you to our forester and land steward-level members, Marilyn Skirpon and the Hamvises for their support. The Low Technology Institute is a 501c3 research organization supported by members, grants and underwriting. You can find out more information about the Low Technology Institute membership and underwriting at lowtechinstitute.org. You can also find us on social media, of course. Reach me directly. I'm Scott at lowtechhorns, excuse me. I'm Scott at lowtechinstitute.org. Our intro music today was happy dance off the album Power Pop from Halizna. That song is in the public domain and this podcast is under the Creative Commons attribution and share lag license as always meaning you're free to use and share it as long as you give us credit. Okay, thanks. Take care and happy New Year.


This paper reviews the current state of research into adaptive solar control using thermotropic and organic thermochromic materials. These materials can be used in smart windows to reduce heat gain and glare while still allowing natural light to enter. Polymer blends, hydrogels, resins, and thermoplastic films with a reversible temperature dependent switching behavior have been described. Additionally, a comparison between traditional shadow systems and intrinsic solar energy reflection materials based on phase transition components has been made. Finally, extruded films and high thermally stable casting resins with thermotropic properties have been developed, which contribute significantly to this field. This article was authored by Olaf Molling, Ralph Ruhmann, and Arno Siebeth.


Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and is intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised. Interestingly or not, the case of Filiberto Caponi is one that divides the UFO community as to the authenticity of the claims, and it is also one of the most intriguing and fascinating on record. Several different encounters with an apparent alien entity would unfold around Filiberto Caponi beginning in the early summer of 1993. Not only would the witness manage to capture several photographs of the strange creature, but the case itself would also take several twists and turns during the many months that it would unfold over. Furthermore, even though many now view the case as nothing more than an elaborate hoax, when we examine the intricacies and timeline of the encounters, there is ample reason to believe that this perception is one purposely manufactured by the Italian military police who would often involve themselves in such cases. The incident will either prove to be one that opens up the inner world of the world's governments and their real stance on such matters, or it will be a cautionary tale to investigate such outlandish claims thoroughly and extensively when they happen, something which would appear many of the UFO investigative groups in the region failed to do. The encounter comes to us initially from the files of the Centro Naginol Euphologico or CUN and more recently by Timothy Good in his book Unearthly Disclosure, which I will link to in the show notes. Good would spend several years corresponding with Filiberto, both in person and through the mail, following a friend who lived in Italy, seeing a documentary on an Italian current affairs show and arranging a meeting between the two. It is a most fascinating case and one that continues to divide opinion in the UFO community as to its authenticity. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Welcome, Weirdos. I'm Darren Marlar and this is Weird Darkness. Here you'll find stories of the paranormal, supernatural, legends, lore, the strange and bizarre, crime, conspiracy, mysterious, macabre, unsolved and unexplained. Coming up in this episode, the Filiberto Caponi alien encounters, the story, the evidence and the theories to his veracity. The photos are intriguing. The tale is elaborate and intricate, but the conclusions range everywhere from it being a real incident to an ingenious fraud, to a clever conspiracy to cover up the real truth of what happened. If you're new here, welcome to the show. While you're listening, be sure to check out WeirdDarkness.com for merchandise, my newsletter, to enter contests, to connect with me on social media. Plus, you can visit the Hope in the Darkness page if you're struggling with depression or dark thoughts. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com.  In the small and quaint village of Ascoli Pisano province of Italy, near Portare di Arcata del Toronto, 23-year-old Filiberto Caponi was driving home from a nearby village at around 11.30 p.m. It was as he was about to park his vehicle in the garage at the side of the family home that he heard a very strange cry from somewhere in the surrounding countryside. Filiberto got out of the car, not particularly disturbed by the noise, as there was often strange sounds from the many wild animals, cats and dogs that roamed the area during the nocturnal hours. However, once he was outside, he could tell that this sound, whatever it was, was completely different from anything he had heard before. By the time he had parked the car and was in the process of closing the garage door, he could tell the sound was getting closer, and for the first time that evening, he began to feel a little unnerved. Although the area was dark, aside from the natural light of the night and the lights from the house, he could still see down the roadway, and while the sound continued, he could see nothing of consequence.  When he reached the corner of the pathway, which stood with the wall on my right in a house where the dim light of a streetlight created a dark corner, he noticed something strange on the ground. In front of him, a short distance away was a whitish, spherical shape, and what's more, it appeared that the strange sounds and calls were coming from this strange object. Filiberto began to wonder if the object was in fact a plastic bag that housed an abandoned or trapped animal. Cautiously, thinking what was inside the bag might bite him through fear if he simply reached out and touched it, he instead used his foot to give it a tap. As soon as he did so, though, the bag leaped into the air amid a terrifying scream. This caused Filiberto to back off somewhat, although he kept his eyes on this bizarre scene unfolding in front of him all the while. He would recall that the bizarre creature appeared to stretch itself like an elastic band from the balled-up position it was previously in. By the time the creature had hit the ground, it was running down the roadway as fast as it could and what Filiberto would describe at alarming speed. As it did so, however, he could see for the first time that the creature was distinctly humanoid with a head, small arms, and long legs. What's more, there appeared to be bandages hanging from its frame. He further noticed a strange brownish bundle on the creature's back which appeared to deflate. The creature also appeared to have stains and spotted marks on its scalp and across its body. Filiberto would later wonder whether these were scorch or burn marks. As Filiberto watched, it would run headlong into a brick wall at the end of the road. It took a moment to gather itself and then, using only its legs, it would jump over the wall, clearing it easily and disappeared into the woodland. Filiberto would find himself simply staring at the wall for several minutes following the incident, replaying the event over and over in his mind. When he did finally snap back to his senses, he would return to the garage and enter his car once again, deciding to drive around the village for a little while so as to clear his head. Although the music was playing on the vehicle's radio, Filiberto hardly noticed it.  He went over and over the possibilities to explain the strange creature. Might it have been a monkey possibly escaped from a laboratory or even a circus? Or might it have been a short human being possibly from the same place but who had somehow found himself hurt and in the middle of nowhere? He would continue driving around, paying little attention to the music as the songs changed, his mind full of tumbling thoughts concerning the strange sighting. After around 15 minutes and beginning to fear that the bizarre creature would jump out at him, he would make the decision to drive home once again. On his return journey to the family house, he recalled how scared the creature sounded, as if it was it who was frightened of him as much as he was of it. Upon arriving at the property and pulling the car once again into his garage, his mother, Domenica, greeted him at the door and could tell straight away that something had happened to her son. Filiberto would play down that something had occurred in an attempt to satisfy his mother's concerns. And while his father, sister and brother-in-law were seemingly convinced, his mother was not so. He would eventually relent and tell all of what he had seen. While his mother believed her son unreservedly, the others, most predominantly his father Luciano, who was convinced it was a trick of the light, would grab a torch and urge his son to take him to the spot where he had seen the strange entity. The pair would do so, and while he waited nervously a little way from the spot, his father made the discovery of what appeared to be a standard medical bandage on the ground where Filiberto saw the creature run into the wall. The bandage was soaked in a reddish substance which the pair both believed looked akin to blood. Now a little more convinced, Luciano believed this was the bandages his son had witnessed around the strange creature's legs. Deciding there was nothing more to achieve, the pair took the bandage and returned to the house. They planned to take it to the town the following morning and have it subject to analysis. They would however decide against bringing the bandage into the house in case there were any contaminating substances on it. Instead, Filiberto would place it underneath an old washing machine that rested against the wall of a neighboring house. The family would retire to bed. However, several hours later it would appear the strange creature was back. It was around 4 a.m. when an already wide awake Filiberto heard the same strange screaming sound coming from outside the house. He would immediately head for the front door calling out as he did so that the creature had come back. What's more, the closer he got to the door, he could hear the hurried footsteps on the cobbles outside the property. He flung open the door and stared outside into the darkness of the early morning hours. No creature stood, nothing even moved, just the usual and expected stillness of the night. He remained where he was on the doorstep for around 15 minutes, scanning the area intently over and over again. It was only when he had ventured several yards from the house and was stood in the middle of the street in his pajamas if he returned to the moment somewhat. At the same time, alerted by his son's calls, Luciano would watch the scene from the upstairs window of the property overlooking where Filiberto now stood. He too had heard the strange screaming noise. However, he too also had seen nothing out of the ordinary. Filiberto would return inside. However, instead of returning to bed, he would head for his parents' bedroom. Once there, he would take up a stakeout position at the window alongside his father. They would remain there for around 30 minutes before Luciano stated they should turn in for the night and then take the bandage for analysis as planned. Just as Filiberto was about to relent and head to his room though, the piercing, chilling, high-pitched screech cut through the night once more. This time Filiberto flung the window open immediately, looking out onto the scenery before the property. As he was focusing in, he saw the strange humanoid entity running across the road quick as lightning. He zeroed in on the moving creature as best he could, eventually losing sight of it as it disappeared underneath an archway ahead. Filiberto noticed that his father had also returned to the window. He too witnessed the creature and was now convinced of his son's claims. They stood for several moments to gather their thoughts, and given that they had each witnessed the creature running away from the house, they determined it was unlikely to return, at least before the morning. With everyone in the house now, fully awake and preoccupied with strange events, they would decide against returning to their respective beds. As they spoke between themselves until the morning hours, Filiberto's mother would state matter-of-factly that maybe the creature was coming back for its vantage. Little did they know at the time, upon waking the following morning, her words were seemingly more accurate than any of them could have imagined. Up next, the vanishing evidence and the second return of the alien creature. If you or someone you know is struggling with depression, dark thoughts or addiction, please visit the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. There, I've gathered numerous resources to find hope and solutions. For those suffering from thoughts of suicide or self-harm, there is the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, as well as the Crisis Text Line. Both have trained counselors at all hours to help those in need, and the page even includes text numbers for those in the U.S., Canada, United Kingdom and Ireland. Those struggling with depression can get help through the Seven Cups website and app, and there's information for anyone to read more about what depression truly is and how to identify it through our friends at ifred.org. There are resources for those who battle addictions, be it drugs or alcohol or self-destructive behavior, along with help for those related to addicts. The page has links to help you find a therapist or counselor, to find help for those who have a family member with Alzheimer's or dementia, help for those in a crisis pregnancy, and more. These resources are always there when you or someone you love needs them on the Hope in the Darkness page at WeirdDarkness.com. When daylight arrived, Bilberto and his father went to retrieve the bandage from underneath the washing machine so they could take it for analysis as planned. However, they would find it had disappeared completely. It would have been impossible for a wild animal to simply drag the cloth away with them as it was secure underneath the appliance, which was of a considerable weight, heavy enough that it was an effort for either of them to shift it. Bilberto remembered his mother's words only hours earlier. Maybe the creature really was responsible for the missing bandage. Whoever or whatever was the culprit, the pair now had no proof of the incident. Because of this, they would make a decision to not speak of the incident outside of those in the house who had witnessed it. As the days went by, Bilberto in particular would become increasingly bothered by the events. He would spend hours searching out of the windows of the property night after night in the hope that he would see the strange creature once more. It became an obsession and quickly led to him becoming detached from the outside world, and he would describe feeling a terrible emptiness in the aftermath of the incident. Eventually, Bilberto obtained a Polaroid camera. If the creature did come back, he wanted to make sure he got proof of the encounter. More than that, he would actively set up stake-out-type missions waiting in various locations, camera at the ready, in an attempt to capture the strange creature on film. Then, a fortnight after the first incident, the creature was seemingly back in the vicinity of their home. In the early hours of May 23, the now familiar screeching sound rang out once again. To Bilberto, it was a call to action, making him reach for his camera and head straight for the front door. He stepped outside and could hear the creature moving clearly. However, he could not see it. He quickly scanned the surroundings before studying himself and aiming the Polaroid in the direction the sounds were coming from. Then, he noticed the creature in the shadow of a street lamp, meaning, although he could see it, he wouldn't be able to capture a clear picture of it. He didn't want the creature to notice him, so he remained where he was and waited. To his disbelief, the creature appeared not to pick up on his presence, and instead continued to walk to wherever it was heading. As it came more into the light, the Bilberto pressed down on the button and captured the first picture. When the flash went off, the creature stopped for a moment before then continuing on its way. As it was a Polaroid, the picture came out instantly and was visible in seconds. However, as soon as it began showing, he realized it was not clear. The Bilberto discarded it and made the decision to follow the creature in an effort to get a better picture. He made the decision in his mind that although the creature could see, as it had reacted to the flash of the camera, that it likely couldn't hear as it didn't seem to react to his footsteps. The Bilberto continued on in an effort to catch up with it. The young man continued to follow the creature. When he was within only several meters of it, it still had not turned around or noticed him approaching. This further convinced him that the creature was either very poor of hearing or completely deaf. The closer he got, however, the more nervous he became. Wanting to wait for exactly the right moment, he finally pushed the button once more, forcing the flash once again. At this, the creature began to turn around. The Bilberto caught the picture from the bottom of the camera and turned and ran in the opposite direction as fast as he could. As he raced to the house, he called out that he had managed to get the picture, which caused his family to wake up and view him returning to their home. On his way back, he scooped up the first picture he had discarded and made his way into the house to show his waiting family the proof of the strange creature they had sought. The family would examine the pictures with great interest, and while the first one was not at all clear, the second was of much better quality. One thing that the Bilberto would state to the rest of the family was the distinct feeling that whatever the strange creature was, they were not dealing with a dangerous entity. After several hours discussing the pictures and what the creature might be, the family would return to their beds. The Bilberto would place the pictures in a keepsake box by his bed. The following day, after informing Bilberto's elderly grandmother of the bizarre events of the last two weeks, he would return to his room to examine the pictures once more. However, when he did so, he immediately noticed that the lid on the wooden box that housed them was… curving. When he opened the box, a strange and intense aroma of burned plastic hit him straight away. He looked inside and noticed the picture appeared to have altered somewhat. When he lifted it out, he further realized the pictures were stuck together. Even more bizarre, the picture appeared raised as if it had transformed itself into a strange 3D image. He became immediately frightened and dropped the picture to the floor. He would gather the rest of the family to examine the photographs. When they finally managed to pull apart the two pictures, they could see that the second picture had also changed. They would examine the rest of the box's contents and discover that none of them were damaged in any way. Bilberto would recall that it appeared as though a beam or source of heat had somehow cut through the lid of the box and targeted these pictures intentionally. He and his father, as much as they couldn't explain it, began to wonder if the alteration might be nothing more than a chemical reaction. His mother and grandmother, however, began to question whether they were dealing with a supernatural situation, possibly an evil spirit. The family would discuss their next move, which would ultimately be to remain quiet and not speak of the encounter to anyone else, at least until experts had been called in. Bilberto would carefully place them in a clear plastic bag for storage. However, only two days later, while in the village, he would overhear two women speaking, which brought the incidents flooding back to his mind. He would overhear the two women, both of whom he knew, speaking of hearing strange screams in the middle of the night. What's more, it appeared that others around the village had also heard these strange screeches and, in turn, a number of theories and claims as to who or what was behind them were circulating. These ranged from the screams being the spirit of an elderly lady from the village who had recently died, to them being nothing more than the work of drunks or pranksters. Bilberto would join in the conversation, having to fight the urge to relay what he knew of the strange screams and what might be behind them. He managed to do so, though realizing that even though others had heard the screams, they had not witnessed the creature. It was around this time that Bilberto began buying as many magazines as he could on the paranormal and UFOs. He would take note of several organizations that looked at strange events and incidents, one of them being the National Euphology Center in Rome. He would make the decision that he must visit the NCU as soon as possible with a report on the incidents and the photographs for them to examine. Several days later, though, he would speak to a friend of the account. Around 10 days later at the end of May, Bilberto would visit a friend named Carlo on an unrelated matter. It wasn't long, however, before Bilberto told his friend everything that had happened over the previous weeks. Much to his surprise, Carlo would take Bilberto's story very seriously, admitting that he too had heard several rumors around the village of strange screams. However, he would state that until hearing his friend's story, he had dismissed the stories as nonsense. It was during this offloading of information by Bilberto that Carlo's brother walked into the room and from the look on his face, it was obvious to both men that he had heard their conversation in full. Even more bizarre was Carlo's brother's comments that he had heard several strange rumors from around the village himself. He would state that according to some people, an unknown family was hiding a deformed child. Furthermore, they would only let this child out at night. The three of them even spoke of a family that could be responsible for such an act. However, Bilberto insisted that the creature he had witnessed didn't move or act as a young child would. He began to regret telling his friend about the incident, especially when the two brothers asked if they could see the pictures in question. He declined, insisting that it was probably nothing and would leave hoping that they would let the matter rest. On his way home, however, when he stopped at a local cafe, he would overhear another bizarre and strange conversation. As Bilberto sat listening to a conversation between two local men, he learned that there was an abnormally high number of deaths among the local chickens. The man claimed that this was down to a beast that was roaming the area. One of the men even claimed that dozens of his own chickens had been killed already. Furthermore, a third local would overhear the conversation and volunteer that he too had lost 20 chickens in one night. He would, he claimed, find them one morning piled on top of each other with no traces of wounds or blood. As Bilberto listened to the bizarre conversation, he began to question whether the dead birds were the work of the strange creature he'd photographed several weeks earlier. He would ask himself whether the creature was some kind of vampire that required the blood of the birds to live. As he sat contemplating this new piece of information, he suddenly made the decision that he would have to examine one of the bodies of these dead birds. Armed with an excuse that the recently perished poultry could be of use for starving dogs, he approached the owner of their recently deceased birds and asked if he would disclose where he'd buried them. As strange as the man undoubtedly thought this was, he nevertheless revealed that they were in the ground surrounding the henhouse. Although the man expressed concern that the birds would not be appropriate for use to feed dogs, Bilberto made his way to the area unchallenged. Upon examining the land, however, he quickly realized he had no idea exactly where to dig and would have likely overturned the entire area in an effort to locate the carcasses. He did, though, notice that the only way into the henhouse was a small window above the ground, certainly enough to allow the creature he had witnessed to get access to the interior. He began to suspect that the beast behind the deaths of the birds was the same creature he had witnessed and photographed. When he spoke further to the owner, they claimed that some of the creatures were even found strangled, while some were missing altogether. All of these thoughts and possibilities would swirl around his mind. The following day, however, things would take on a more intense nature. Upon returning to the cafe, a strange quiet descended in the room. He had the feeling that something was amiss. When one of the locals stepped toward him and asked if he could speak with him outside, this feeling intensified. He would then inform him that he knew of the strange creature he had witnessed and that he had photographs of it to boot. Bilberto would deny this and claim that someone was having a joke with them. However, when he later met with Carlo and accused him outright of betraying his trust, he would eventually relent and admit that he had told a friend in confidence, a confidence they had obviously betrayed. From then on, Bilberto was stopped in the street regularly by people wanting to see the photographs and hear of the encounter. Eventually, he would state that he no longer had the photographs as he sent them away for analysis and research. The following weeks would border on unbearable for Bilberto. Not only were people in his village aware of his account, but those in the surrounding villages and even larger towns knew of them too. He began to feel so cornered by this sudden interest that for a short period, he stopped leaving the house altogether. By mid-June, he would finally make the decision to contact the Daily National newspaper Ilmas Aguero to make a report of the sightings. Much to his surprise, news of them had already reached them and they informed him that a reporter was on his way to the region to cover the story. He would reply that it would be best to speak with him directly as he was the only witness to the events. An appointment was arranged and on the 28th of June, two weeks later, he and his mother would travel to the newspaper's main editorial offices. Although he took them with him, the reporter who they met had no idea that he had captured the pictures. Upon seeing them, his interest in the story and their accounts evidently increased, he admitted he had not thought much of the strange claims. But now, with the pictures in his hands, he believed the account was much more intriguing and credible. The pair would conduct an interview with the reporter, stressing to him that they had no idea what the creature was and wouldn't wish to hazard a guess. Several days later, the story appeared in print. In their July 1, 1993 edition, the Ilmas Aguero newspaper would publish their interview with Filiberto using the headline, I Have Seen E.T. Filiberto's account was relayed, along with black and white copies of the two photographs he had taken. The reproduction of the prints was not great quality and Filiberto would comment to author Timothy Good years later that even he struggled to make out what they were. Furthermore, every single word printed was of complete accuracy aside from one detail, which could force people to view Filiberto in a slightly different and less credible light. He had informed the newspaper that he returned home on the night of the first sighting. His mother had given him a glass of water as he looked shaken and upset. However, the newspaper had printed that this drink was a glass of mulled wine. A small detail, but the insinuation of alcohol being consumed, is a detail that skeptics would seize upon. As was perhaps expected, several UFO and paranormal organizations would contact Filiberto after his account appeared in print. One of them was the Italian Center for UFO Studies, CISU, who would request a report from as well as copies of the photographs. Although he would send them a lengthy report, he would decline to send the photographs as he had no negatives and didn't wish to lose the originals. While he awaited for a response to the report he submitted to the CISU, he was bombarded with letters and requests from all around the country. Many were of a friendly nature, welcoming the fact that someone was speaking of such strange things. Even so, the attention was once again putting a strain on Filiberto that he was not at all comfortable with. By this time, the story was getting out of hand, and it wouldn't stop. When we return, we look at reports of other sightings in the surrounding villages. In the near future, virtual reality games are indistinguishable from the real world. Players can take on the role of a star quarterback, or rule as the king of a virtual kingdom. 13-year-old Jake prefers to spend his free time building Zaloria, a virtual world he created from scratch, where he and his two best friends, Des and Kerry, spend their afternoons completing quests and collecting treasure. However, all in Zaloria is not what Jake expected. When Jake discovers that the world he built is growing and changing on its own, he and his friends uncover a secret that could change the world forever. Jake and his friends must fight for survival when his virtual world takes on a mind of its own. Game Alive, a science fiction adventure novel by Tripp Ellington, narrated by Darren Marlar. You're a free sample on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. By the end of June, Filiberto's account and pictures of the strange creatures and the subsequent other sightings were beginning to take on a life of their own. One particular afternoon during a meeting with Carlo and Professor Alfred F., who had also taken an interest in the case, he would disclose of two recent sightings in the nearby villages of Pescara and Salmonia. Descriptions of the creature were extremely similar to the one witnessed by Filiberto back in May. Perhaps even more bizarre, and the first reference to an actual UFO in relation to the strange sightings on the ground was an incident that occurred on the afternoon of June 15th. In a fire brigade helicopter piloted by Captain Vincenzo Di while flying over Pescara, five experienced firemen would report an unusual object approaching their position at an altitude of around 600 meters. At the very last minute, the strange craft changed its position, avoiding what had looked to be a certain collision. Only a week later, on the afternoon of June 20th, near Salmonia, Giuseppe Zatea would witness a strange creature in a wheat field. The Air Force veteran at first noticed a balloon-like object that appeared to land gently in the field. It appeared to have the shape of a doll. However, when he went to investigate it, he quickly realized that it was a living creature. He would estimate it to be around 80 centimeters tall, a similar size to the creature described by Filiberto, and appeared to be covered in a strange black plastic. He would further recall that while it remained completely silent, it looked at him in the face. Zatea said, no doubt it was alive. When he moved forward, the creature jumped into the air and disappeared into the distance. Although Filiberto had not witnessed the strange entity become airborne, the majority of the descriptions were eerily similar to the creature he had witnessed outside the family home several weeks previously. What's more, there were several other very similar reports that would come in on a regular basis in this particular region of Italy during the summer of 1993. Whether they were a case of copycat sightings, possibly a sign of public hysteria at the thought of alien creatures roaming the villages at night, or whether they are genuine sightings, remains open to debate. During this time, Filiberto would continue to educate himself on such matters as UFO and alien sightings and encounters. One late June night, though, he would see the creature once again. The evening had begun with a gathering at a village club in order to watch a film. Filiberto would spend the evening there with Carlo and several other friends. Following the end of the evening, the pair would leave the club together. Their journey home would prove to be one of the most eventful and unforgettable of their lives. As they were walking home, the now familiar, piercing and chilling scream, at least to Filiberto, broke the relative silence of the night. Filiberto noticed that his friend, who had obviously heard it too, was pointing toward a large gate, convinced that the noise had come from that area. The pair looked at each other and cautiously made their way toward the gate. There were others in the vicinity who would obviously also heard the scream. What's more, from what Filiberto could hear behind him, a couple could also see the strange creature. A man and his girlfriend were arguing with the girl pleading with her boyfriend not to approach the strange creature. Meanwhile, as the two men were approaching the gate, Carlo was becoming increasingly nervous, so nervous in fact that he wished to retreat. Filiberto, desperate for another witness, urged him to continue onward, but to no avail. As these events were taking place, the intense screaming noises continued, making all concerned extremely nervous. By this point, the girl's boyfriend had approached the gate where Filiberto was still stood. He immediately climbed up on it and began throwing stones and rocks in the direction of the screaming sounds to which Filiberto told him to cease. Within several seconds, however, the scream was dying down, indicating that the creature was moving away from them, disappearing once again into the night. The group would debate whether they should inform the police of the incident and would eventually decide against doing so before the CISU had completed their investigation. Over the following weeks, the Liberto would begin to relent on showing the photographs to interested parties, partly because many were beginning to suspect and some would even accuse him of having made up the entire account. Further stories appeared in the press, and further and increasing phone calls came to Filiberto's home, including one that inquires whether he had any visits from the men in black. This mysterious caller also urged Filiberto against making his story well known, lest he triggered some kind of intervention by the intelligence agencies of the United States. Even more unnerving for Filiberto was the advice not to attempt to capture the strange entity. He would claim that he had done so and had almost ended up blind as a result of the creature's defenses, which he didn't detail. He did though go on to describe burn marks all over his body, which Filiberto took to be a result of the alleged encounter. Most unnerving of all, however, was the warning to look out for dark cars, which would contain these mysterious men in black who were responsible for the disappearances of many people who had been in contact with aliens. Several days later, he would receive another phone call, this time from a mysterious group who claimed that they had all had their own encounters with these strange creatures, and what's more, all could demonstrate proof of such encounters with strange scars and markings on their bodies. It was also revealed to Filiberto that the mysterious caller who had warned him several days previously was also a part of this group. The intense scrutiny and interest in Filiberto and his claims continued, and numerous people ranging from those with an interest in UFOs to people looking for a chance for a miracle cure by witnessing the strange creature. In early August, however, almost three months after the initial encounter came perhaps the most intriguing incident of all. On the evening of August 10th, Filiberto was outside his home, watching the parisades meteor shower. He was alone and still entertaining his thoughts of seeing the creature once again. After being sat there for some time, he suddenly became aware of a strange presence watching him. Then the strange creature would appear in front of him as clear and as close as it had ever been, realizing that this might be his chance to both get a clear picture and even attempt to communicate with it, he carefully and slowly stepped forward. As he got closer, he began to take mental notes as to its appearance. He would recall that it had big, black, almond-shaped eyes. Furthermore, these appeared immobile in their sockets. This made them shine like plastic. He would further describe them much like other people as the magnified eyes of a fly. He noticed two small holes which he believed was its nose and every once in a while what appeared to be a mouth open, although he could see no teeth and only what appeared to be gums. Furthermore, he would also see how the arms were seemingly too short for its body and that its legs contained the strange bandages as he had seen back in May. The liberto would raise a hand and a greeting sign to the creature, however it either didn't notice the gesture or ignored it. Instead, it appeared preoccupied by its surroundings. Suddenly realizing that he didn't have his trusty Polaroid with him, he began to quietly back off before rushing back to the house. He quickly went to his room, grabbed the camera and rushed back to the spot where the creature had been only minutes before, hoping against hope that it was still there. He wasn't disappointed. Within a few moments of rushing toward the creature who still seemed content examining the houses and streetlights, he stopped several meters from the creature, not daring to alarm it. He brought the camera up to a height and then pressed down on the button. The flash once more sent the creature high into the air before it vanished into the distance being swallowed up by the blackness of the night. He remained where he was, catching the photograph that dropped from the Polaroid. He began to wish he had managed to fire off more than the one picture, however when he saw the quality of the one he had taken, it more than made up for the lack of quantity. Not only was it clear and close up, but it showed clearly the details on its face and body. I'll place a link in the show notes where you can see this photo and others that were taken of the creature. He would keep the events to himself for just short of a week when the family was gathered for a meal to celebrate his brother-in-law's birthday. During the course of the evening, the liberto would show the picture much to the surprise and shock of all present. Although they would keep the most recent pictures to themselves, the requests for interviews and information would continue to come in. These would include requests for appearances on television. Despite this, though, the liberto was still waiting to hear back from the UFO group who were conducting their investigations on the case. This persistent waiting made the liberto contemplate going to the authorities to report the incident to them officially. However, remembering the warnings he had received, he felt sure they would confiscate the pictures and leave him with no proof whatsoever of the encounters. He would ultimately decide against it. However, he would resist the urge to do so. Not least, as he suspected, they would not only not believe his account, as it would turn out, events in the upcoming months would prove him correct. For several weeks after the August incident, things appeared to quiet down. Then, one evening in mid-September, another incident would unfold near the Caponi family home. The entire family was in bed when the screaming noise rang out, causing Filiberto and his father to simultaneously make their way to the windows overlooking the front of the property. By the time they focused in on the dark surroundings outside, they could see something moving in the bushes, but couldn't see the creature clearly. Just as Filiberto was about to retrieve his Polaroid camera, a trail of light illuminated the area where it appeared the creature was moving. So bright, it was almost like daylight. The light appeared to grow even brighter so that it temporarily blinded the father and son. When the light had gone, so too had the strange creature. This is an interesting detail in terms of close contact encounters with apparent extraterrestrial entities. Many accounts state that, particularly when approaching such an entity, a sudden, bright, blinding white light would often halt them. When this light was gone, much like the creature in front of the Caponi home would also no longer be there. Does this detail land a further notch of credibility to the Filiberto encounters? Several weeks later, in early October 1993, almost half a year after the initial incident, another encounter would unfold, and this encounter would feature another detail that shows up in many other close encounters. On the evening of October 9th, the Liberto would awaken suddenly for no apparent reason. However, try as he might, he could not return to sleep and was wide awake. He would get up and visit the bathroom before returning to his bedroom. On a whim, he would walk over to the window and looked out into the rainy night. To his shock, right there in front of the house was the strange creature once again. We should ask at this point, was Filiberto awoken by some strange calling, which many other people who claim close contact encounters say they are? Was it merely a coincidence? Might he have even heard the creature outside if only in his subconscious mind?  The Liberto would turn on his bedroom light in order to retrieve the camera. This would cause the creature to look directly up at him, but it remained where it was. He realized that he not only had to obtain another picture of the strange creature, he had to make sure that another person saw it also. Not wanting to call out and risk frightening it away and not having enough time to go to his father's room, he would decide to wake his elderly grandmother. He did so, even covering her mouth with his hand so she didn't scream out. When he took her to the window, she too saw the creature, which remained in the same spot as it had been when he had left the room moments earlier. Sure that his grandmother would be afraid, he was a little taken aback when she exclaimed, he's so small, he's a darling, what's he looking at? Although she was perfectly calm, his grandmother urged him not to go outside even to photograph the strange creature. However, the Liberto realized that he might not get another chance to obtain such a picture up close, though he brushed off her concerns. All the while, the creature would occasionally turn its head to look in their direction. The Liberto would insist that he take the picture and would request that she remain at the window and make sure that he was okay. He would then make his way carefully outside, eager not to scare the creature away. He once again got to within several meters of the strange creature before he took the photograph. This time, however, although the creature did turn its head to look at him upon seeing the flash, it remained where it was before turning its attention to the light once again. It was at this time that the Liberto would reach out his hand in an attempt to touch it. However, as he was doing so, he heard his grandmother's voice calling out to him not to touch it. This warning appeared to cause the creature to back off slightly. Even so, the Liberto would reach forward again. The creature remained where it was, as if allowing him to get closer. However, at the very last moment, just as he was about to make contact with its skin, it ran off into the distance. His grandmother would shout from the window that it had gone toward the archway nearby. Not wanting to give up the chase, he headed in that direction. He would explore the dark, tunnel-like area for almost an hour, but there was no sight of the creature. He would eventually return home, a little dejected, but still with another close-up photograph of the strange humanoid entity. Several nights later, during the early evening of October 13th, the Liberto's brother-in-law would witness a strange light in the skies overhead as he was driving home. He would dismiss it, even though he was intrigued by it. However, the following morning, the Liberto's wife would state that she had awoken in the middle of the night to find her husband standing at the side of the bed, almost in a trance. When he eventually spoke to her in the morning, he would recall that he awoke to a strange, bright light shining in from outside the room. He would get up to go to the window to see what the cause of the light was. He would trace it to a small ball just outside the window. Following this encounter and with a half a dozen photographs of the creature in his possession, some of which had never been seen before by anyone outside of the house, he would toy once again with the notion of making his encounters official and reporting them. The Liberto would set out to roam with his brother-in-law in order to arrange interviews with National Press, in particular the Italian National Press Agency, ANSA. Their photographic expert, Renato Bianchi, would state that he was genuinely shocked at the photographs, which appeared to be genuine. He would meet with the two men and state that he believed the agency would be extremely interested in running the story. He also stated that they would need access to the pictures at some point, as they needed to ensure they had the details correct. Once they ran with it, he would claim newspapers and television stations would pick it up around the country. Five days later, however, Bianchi would contact the men again. This time, he would state that the agency was not interested in the story as they didn't involve themselves in such cases. Bianchi himself, however, was still more than intrigued and would ultimately ask Filiberto to return to Rome several days later. This time, the photo expert had more ominous information to pass over. He would claim that after meeting with Filiberto and his brother-in-law, two strange men approached him out of nowhere, asking to tell them about the meeting. Following a brief exchange, the two men warned Bianchi to drop the matter and not to publish the account. Furthermore, when he returned to the offices, he was issued a similar warning from two longtime colleagues who would claim that they were part of a religious sect when he demanded to know who they were representing. Despite this, Bianchi still wished to publish the pictures. However, he would likely have to bypass the agency and approach the tabloids. He would suggest approaching his son, Alessandro, a former police officer and now well-connected photojournalist. Shortly after, he was on the phone. Up next, the phone call and more strange watchers. Are you a member of the Darkness Syndicate? The Darkness Syndicate is a private membership where you receive commercial-free episodes of the Weird Darkness podcast and radio show. 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Filiberto, Bianchi, and Alessandro, Bianchi's son, would agree during the phone call to exchange the photographs and that a contract would be signed that would protect all parties and allow Alessandro to have them published on Filiberto's behalf. However, as the phone call came to an end, two strange men burst into the room and began searching through paperwork and computer files. However, Bianchi tapped Filiberto's foot underneath the table and forming him that these two men were obviously there to listen to what they were saying. The pair then made polite conversation, immediately changing the subject before Filiberto got up to leave and join his family waiting in the underground car park of the offices. He was conscious that he had all the photographs in his pocket. However, when he and his sister who had accompanied him into the office reached the outside of the building, they noticed that one of the men was following them. What's more, he didn't pretend to not be doing so. The pair would enter a cafe in order to lose the man which they ultimately did. However, after eating lunch and walking back to the car, the entire family realized they were being followed once again. What followed was nothing short of a chase, with the men following their car on foot as it became trapped in the busy traffic of Rome. However, due to Filiberto's brother-in-law's intimate knowledge of the Rome road networks, he would ultimately lose them. They would return to their quiet village, the photographs still in their possession. However, all of them were shaken by the encounter, particularly Filiberto, who recalled his warnings from the mysterious collars several weeks earlier. Filiberto's encounter and the photographs would eventually appear in Vista Magazine in their October 28th edition. Almost immediately, the press would converge on their small village to speak with the family further. What's more, the Liberto would state that many different and often appearing to be rival UFO groups and organizations would also suddenly contact Filiberto. They would warn against speaking to the press and on occasion other UFO groups. Indeed, this apparent needless rivalry not only reduces the credibility to outsiders to the UFO community, but it further muddies the already cloudy waters. The National Ufology Center, CUN, also contacted Filiberto. They would send Gianfranco Lollino to examine the case and speak with the family. Like Bianchi, he too was completely baffled by the photographs, in particular the ones that had burned together of their own accord. A little more ominously, he would be warned by Lollino of the potential visits of the men in black and even of white helicopters flying at low altitude. This particularly unnerved Filiberto who had witnessed just such a white helicopter very recently. Following the surge of publicity, the Liberto, his father and grandmother would appear on the Your Affairs television show on the evening of November 5th. The show was in-depth and featured all the details of the incident. The photographs would draw an audible response from the studio audience and the witnesses themselves would come across as genuine and of sound mind. The show itself, at least ratings-wise, was a phenomenal success and while there, as there always will be, a steady number of detractors and skeptics, many of the audience, both in the studio and at home, were more than impressed with the family and how they came across. However, following the appearance, the Liberto worried it was only a matter of time before he received a visit from the authorities, most likely the military police. As it happened, he couldn't have been more right. In mid-November, the military police would arrive at the Caponi House requesting to speak with the Liberto. When he reluctantly agreed, the police officer in question would produce a search warrant giving him permission to confiscate all the materials relating to the encounter involving the strange creature. Then came the kicker. According to the officer, the Liberto was accused of creating panic and spreading false rumors. Furthermore, if he were to continue with his claims, he would face serious consequences. Even more concerning, the charges were not brought against him by an individual but by the police themselves who did so after the Chief Magistrate was not convinced by the account. They would also disclose that he had been the subject of a six-month investigation before their visit this particular morning. We should perhaps pause here for a moment to contemplate this string of events. One of the charges the police brought would revolve around armed groups of people taking it upon themselves to take to the countryside in an attempt to locate and capture the strange creature. It is easy to see the responsibility of the police to stop this from happening. After all, there is a very real threat that such groups, armed to boot, would wound or even kill an innocent bystander. However, such measures can also be used to silence people. For example, it would appear apparent that there was enough evidence for an open, transparent investigation into Filiberto's claims. Might this have been what happened here? Was Filiberto essentially blackmailed into handing over the photographs to the police or else risk facing a trial in a possible jail sentence? Might that have even been the reason that he would also change his version of events, risking that all who had heard of his story, including those in his own village, of being nothing more than a hoaxer? Filiberto would state and sign his name to the statement that he had indeed seen the strange creature. However, he would state that he became increasingly frustrated at not being able to capture a picture of the entity. Therefore, using his skills as a sculptor would construct a clay puppet which he then photographed and passed off to the public as authentic pictures of an alien entity. Even more damning for Filiberto was the piece of clay the police had in their possession as proof of the puppet. For his part, Filiberto would claim to Timothy Good that as he didn't have a puppet, as he claimed he had only manufactured the story to save himself from police charges, he simply took the officer to his workshop and picked up the first piece of discarded clay he could find and claimed it was indeed part of the puppet. The police appeared satisfied with this but would state that he would still need to speak with the judge and pay a considerable fine. Furthermore, the police would make all attempts to stop any articles relating to the incident from being published, even sending a police helicopter to France to stop an upcoming article in Le Figaro. The day following the meeting with the police, newspapers nationwide would report the story that the whole incident was a hoax due to the lack of being able to obtain a photograph which in turn made Filiberto worry his story of seeing the creature was even less credible. However, despite several local residents taking exception to the hoax, generally speaking, most people around the country took even more interest in the case, with many even suspecting that the police had indeed applied pressure on Filiberto to alter his version of events. And what's more, at least according to the research of Timothy Good, it wasn't the first time the military police in Italy had taken such action when seven witnesses to a sighting of a silver humanoid entity in Naples would suddenly change their initial statements following a visit from the department following their advice that for their well-being they should forget all about it. What Filiberto claimed, surprised, shocked, and hurt him most was the fact that almost all members of the UFO investigative community, including the CUN, after warning him of the authorities and their tactics, as well as the backbiting warning of each other, suddenly turned against him, claiming he was an obvious hoaxer. It's an interesting charge against the country's UFO investigative groups from Filiberto, not least due to the apparent rivalry between them, at least according to their own claims. As he himself stated, of all the groups and organizations that should have come to his defense, it should have been those who investigated such encounters, especially following their very specific warnings of secretive departments and agents whose sole purpose was to shut down and cover over any mention of such encounters. Might someone from the military police have gotten to these UFO groups? Might they have decided to let one case go in order that they were relatively free to pursue other accounts? And if this was the case, should that not have alerted them to the potential authenticity of the Koboni case? Things were taken even further twist when a representative of the CUN was claimed to have been the person who advised the police that the Filiberto case was nothing more than a hoax. It would appear that even today there are many who cannot fully decide on the authenticity of the case nor the credibility of Filiberto. In his defense, however, even those who are skeptical of his claims are often equally damning of the shoddy investigation of the UFO groups in the region at the time. Of course, the possibility remains that the charges against Filiberto were accurate, as was his changed statement. However, even if we accept that he had manufactured the doll due to his inability to capture it on film, that still leaves several lingering questions. What happened to the strange, what was it and where did it come from? Was this creature an alien crew member who may have crashed to Earth? Was this alien alone and does that explain the apparent bandages and burn marks all over his body? Or might it have been something that itself escaped from alien captivity? And if that is the case, does that suggest an alien base on Earth that this creature escaped from? Perhaps even more intriguing is that the creature, whatever it might have been, escaped from a very terrestrial facility, one that is carrying out experiments of such a terrifying, unnatural and inhuman nature that any evidence of them must be destroyed. As always, these are wildly speculative possibilities. However, speculation is all that we have at the moment and through that continued speculation, we might one day get to the truth of this account and so many others that currently escape our collective understanding. It is most definitely an interesting case and one that deserves to be revisited by UFO and alien investigators. It also contains many elements and details that come up in other cases, right across the world and throughout the years. If we were to ever unlock this and other similar cases, we will likely find that the truth is far more outlandish and disturbing than many would ever wish to contemplate. Store for Weird Darkness t-shirts, hoodies, mugs, phone cases and more merchandise. Sign up for monthly contests. Find other podcasts that I host, like Retro Radio, Old Time Radio in the Dark, or Micro-Terrors, Scary Stories for Kids, and The Church of the Undead and more. WeirdDarkness.com is also where you can find the Hope in the Darkness page if you or someone you know is struggling with depression or dark thoughts. Also on the website, if you have a true paranormal or creepy tale to tell, you can click on Tell Your Story. You can find all of that and more at WeirdDarkness.com. All stories in Weird Darkness are purported to be true unless stated otherwise, and you can find source links or links to the authors in the show notes. The Caponi Alien Evidence, real, fake or an elaborate conspiracy, was written by Marcus Louth for UFO Insight. I've also linked to the book Unearthly Disclosure by Timothy Goode in the show notes, and I've linked to a page where you can see numerous photos of the creature in question. Weird Darkness is a registered trademark. Copyright, Weird Darkness. Now that we're coming out of the dark, I'll leave you with a little light. 1 Peter 4, verse 7, The end of all things is near. Therefore, be clear-minded and self-controlled so that you can pray. 2 And a final thought. Acknowledge the part of you that may not want to let go. Be honest with yourself. Let go when you are ready and the change will come about. Myra Lewin, I'm Darren Marlar. Thanks for joining me in the Weird Darkness. Who would request a report from? Who would request a report from, as well as copies of, the photographs? Who would request a report piloted by Captain Vincenzo? Staring up at the street light? Staring up at the street lamp, as it had several weeks, would state that he was genuinely shocked at the photographs? Okay, I know Harleys are cool, but do they have to be so loud? Each one might hear from the other. Hey, Weirdos, our August Weirdo Watch Party is Saturday August 5th, with a movie presented by a perfectly named horror host show, The Weirdness Really Bad Movie with Dave Binkley. Dave will be presenting 1962's Dreck of a film, The Magic Sword, starring Basil Rathbone. And trust me, Rathbone is the only good part about this movie. The Son of a Sorceress, armed with weapons and armor, assisted by six magically summoned knights, embarks on a quest to save a princess from a vengeful wizard. That's right, it's not just an awful movie, it's an awful historically incorrect period piece movie.  While they look that way at least, you've got dated special effects, terrible acting, and costumes that look like they were ripped right out of a Monty Python skit. The Weirdo Watch Party is always free to watch online with all of us, so grab your popcorn, candy, and soda, and jump into the fun and even get involved in the live chat as we watch the movie. It's The Magic Sword, presented by The Weirdness Really Bad Movie Show, Saturday August 5th, starting at 10pm Eastern, 9pm Central, 8pm Mountain, 7pm Pacific. See a trailer for the film and invite your friends to watch along with you on the Weirdo Watch Party page at WeirdDarkness.com. We'll see you on Saturday August 5th for the Weirdo Watch Party. Bonus points if you're wearing your Renaissance festival costume while watching. When Salem Roanoke took a job near his family's new home as a hired hand in the Texas Hill Country, he anticipated learning the rancher's trade, but a series of strange events, shocking murders, and unholy revelations divert him down another path. This terrifying trajectory puts him directly into the middle of a struggle between monsters, magic, and men. Armed and backed by a militia of ranchers, Salem attempts to combat the creeping tide of evil that threatens to engulf his new home and destroy the people most important to him. Will Salem manage to save his home or have his actions condemn everyone he hopes to save? The Witch Trials, a summer of wolves and season of the witch by SR Roanoke. Available in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook versions, look for The Witch Trials by SR Roanoke on Amazon or find it on the audiobooks page at WeirdDarkness.com. That's WeirdDarkness.com slash audiobooks. 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