Corrections & Updates — The Red Thread Files

This project will get things wrong, and when it does, the fix is the job. This is the running log of what's been added, changed, and corrected — so the record of the record is public. Spotted an error or a stronger source? Write to [email protected].

August 2026

Recent sightings: a link to NUFORC, not a copy changed

Removed the reproduced "Recent reports (NUFORC)" layer from the globe — 358 sightings that had been mirrored from the National UFO Reporting Center's database. NUFORC's terms of use prohibit scraping or reproducing their data, and keeping a copy of it sat uneasily with this project's own source-respecting standards. Removing it was the right call on both counts.
The globe now links to NUFORC's own live database instead. Where that layer used to be, there's a direct link to NUFORC's always-current records, and The Line still points to their sighting-report form. The aim is to send people to the source, not to mirror it.
The globe's Historical cases and USO layers are original research, not NUFORC data, and are unchanged.

August 2026

The James Ryder record, tightened correction

Removed an unsupported death date. The file previously carried a 2023 end date with no basis. His death is now noted as reportedly May 28, 2018 and left unverified in the record rather than asserted as fact. correction
Corrected a "Congressional Record" overstatement. An earlier note implied his name entered the Congressional Record at the September 2025 House UAP hearing. It is not in the oral transcript; it traces to written testimony as characterized by UFO-community outlets. The record now says exactly that, and a duplicate entry was removed. correction
Kept the documented person separate from the disputed allegation. His real role - Vice President of the Lockheed Martin Space Systems Advanced Technology Center, confirmed by Lockheed's own 2009 press release - is labeled confirmed. The anonymous, secondhand claim that he proposed transferring purported crash-retrieval material (and that the CIA blocked it) remains disputed, with its origin - a 2021 book and unnamed sources - shown as reported, not fact.

August 2026

The Project Mogul web added

Added 11 sourced entries mapping the balloon-side explanation of Roswell: Maurice Ewing, Albert Crary, Albert Trakowski, Irving Newton, the NYU Balloon Project, Watson Laboratories, Alamogordo AAF, Fort Worth AAF, Athelstan Spilhaus, James Peoples, and Marcellus Duffy — anchored to the USAF Project Mogul report.
Corrected the date of Irving Newton's sworn statement to 1994 (July 21, 1994), per the USAF report, after an earlier draft dated it to 1995. correction
Kept the contested item honest: Newton's recollection that Maj. Marcel tried to read the target sticks as alien writing is recorded as a disputed, witness-vs-witness account, not settled fact.

August 2026

The Sheridan Cavitt file expanded

Enriched Cavitt's record with his 1994 signed, sworn statement to Col. Richard Weaver and the contested "Cavitt vs Cavitt" history — his story shifted between earlier interviews and 1994, and that inconsistency is now recorded as sourced, contested fact rather than smoothed over.
Added the core Mogul cluster (Project Mogul, Lewis Rickett, Charles B. Moore, Col. Weaver, and the 1994–97 USAF report), giving the skeptical/balloon side real presence opposite Jesse Marcel.
Kept Charles B. Moore (NYU engineer) and William L. Moore (the 1980 author) as separate people, a distinction that is easy to get wrong.

Summer 2026

Accuracy & navigation changed

Recategorized researchers who had been filed under Government into a dedicated Scientists & Researchers category, so people like Gary Nolan read correctly.
Added a browsable directory of every entry, with an individual, sourced page for each person, incident, program, and organization on the board.

Launch preparation, 2026

Getting ready to publish changed

Passes for mobile layout, readability, and the connections board's visual identity; a house-detective helper that offers a one-time tip on each view.
Standards made explicit in Sources & Methods: how each tie is tagged confirmed, reported, or disputed, and where a primary source exists you can open it.

This log embodies the correction commitment in the About page: contested claims are labeled contested, unsourced links are shown openly, and no link, quote, or document is included unless it is real and checkable. Corrections & contact: [email protected].