Wednesday, August 27, 2008
UFO video investigation and analysis
I had a call from a woman yesterday who is the mother of a teenager who shot some footage of a UFO on August 2 near Powerview, MB. It's on Youtube (search: Sagkeeng UFO) and he had offered it to APTN and other TV stations but they were apparently not interested. Until I intervened.
The video and its story are interesting. The clip on Youtube shows a definitely spherical object that is not a lens reflection or artefact (for once). It is so bright that it even reflects on the water. In addition, there is a small light below it that shifts from the right of the main object to the left during the clip. The main object, however, seems to be Jupiter, although the witnesses (all eight of them) insist the object was in the W not the SW, and that Jupiter was off to the higher left out of the frame. This would make sense since that's where Jupiter is right now at the time the video was taken, about 11:30 pm.
The witnesses say that the UFO moved around swiftly then took off across the water. It was also in view only a few minutes.
All of this tends to rule out Jupiter, although I'd still like to get an accurate direction for the object on video, and have the witnesses point out Jupiter to me. What causes some concern is that some witnesses say that the UFO (or one like it) returns to the same spot and is seen every few nights or so. This sounds suspiciously like Jupiter again.
The video was shown at the end of the CKY TV newscast yesterday, and led to some discussion among the news anchors. This morning, I got an email from someone who was on vacation in Trail BC this summer and filmed a UFO too. Unfortunately, it's on a Super 8, not a digital image.
The video and its story are interesting. The clip on Youtube shows a definitely spherical object that is not a lens reflection or artefact (for once). It is so bright that it even reflects on the water. In addition, there is a small light below it that shifts from the right of the main object to the left during the clip. The main object, however, seems to be Jupiter, although the witnesses (all eight of them) insist the object was in the W not the SW, and that Jupiter was off to the higher left out of the frame. This would make sense since that's where Jupiter is right now at the time the video was taken, about 11:30 pm.
The witnesses say that the UFO moved around swiftly then took off across the water. It was also in view only a few minutes.
All of this tends to rule out Jupiter, although I'd still like to get an accurate direction for the object on video, and have the witnesses point out Jupiter to me. What causes some concern is that some witnesses say that the UFO (or one like it) returns to the same spot and is seen every few nights or so. This sounds suspiciously like Jupiter again.
The video was shown at the end of the CKY TV newscast yesterday, and led to some discussion among the news anchors. This morning, I got an email from someone who was on vacation in Trail BC this summer and filmed a UFO too. Unfortunately, it's on a Super 8, not a digital image.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Clearing up misunderstandings in ufology (revised 2008)
Just to clear up some small misunderstandings...
Ladies and gentlemen, it is time that I make a full confession. It seems that everyone in ufology has been sweating and fighting it out over some naughty things that I've done, so I'm going to come clean in the hope that everyone will make nice and be as One again. Here goes:
It was I who, in 1947, paid Kenneth Arnold to step forward from his Cessna 359 and speak of having seen flying dishes dancing across the skies above Mt. Rainier. It was I who, a short time later, took my slingshot and knocked several Army Air Force pilots out of the sky at 80,000 feet. It was I who ran about Washington in 1952 with 10,000 Marijuana cigarettes in my mouth, flashing bright flashlight beams into the night sky above the Capitol and making people think they were experiencing the Ultimate Saucer Wave. I was the one who co wrote Ruppelt's book with him, and later added the three debunking chapters. I threw one million frisbees with Christmas lights on them in Great Falls, Montana, and asked a man named Marietta (or was it Martinette?) to take pretty pictures of them and send them to the Air Force. I voted for Gabriel Green and ran his campaign for him. I am responsible for the Ubatuba magnesium, it was pure but I forgot to cover it up when it rained. I built the android you called "E. U. Condon" and programmed his actions from Day One of the Colorado Project to Day Last, including his bogus conclusions. I modified the infamous Lowe Memorandum to read "trick"; it was originally "truck." I thought I had convinced Carl Sagan to change his mind and start endorsing Kraft Margarine, but instead he turned against flying saucers. I re edited the O'Brien report, the Robertson Panel report, the Scientific Study of UFO's, and a little tract called "Saucers are from Satan" (now known as Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in The Sky). I invented the term "orthoteny." I kidnapped the Hills and drove them around Montreal in my Volvo, all the time poking them with safety pins and reading "The Friendly Stars" to them. I am Betty Andreasson. Furthermore, I am "Dan," and made whoopee with Linda on the beach while I was playing hookey from my day gig as chauffeur for the prime minister of Canada. I picked up Travis Walton and threw him against a tree in 1975, while shining a bright spotlight in his left ear. I was the one who provoked the evil Carrot Men in Pascagoula, Mississippi with a dead tunafish and an old pair of socks. The term "alien abduction" was created solely by me, and I want the damned royalties now. I originally sold nose implants at blue light specials at K-Marts throughout the country in 1979. I created Billy Meier out of parts from chicken giblets, and made him a Saucer Nut for Christ. I fathered both Bob Lazar and Phillip J. Klass; God forgive me. I own the model company that puts out the S-4 saucer model (so real that several USAF jets are scrambled each time one is thrown into the air). I invented the name "Hector Quintinalla" for a new Taco Bell product back in 1965. I gave the name "Area 51" to my living room, and "Hangar 18" to my bathroom; I have no idea how these names became public knowledge. (Don't even ask about "Dreamland.") "Aurora" is the name of my favourite kite, not a secret government plane. I am the one who folded the paper aeroplane that Jimmy Carter reported as a UFO and later denied. It was I who gave Von Daniken his ancient astronaut ideas during one of his indigestion attacks back in 1974, and he recently opened a roller coaster at his theme park in Switzerland, dedicated to me. I own Japan Airlines and all UFO reports made by that organization. I piloted several black helicopters in the hope of exposing the existence of white helicopters. I am the one who cored out Snippy's rectum, for later personal use. I am the one who negotiated the venerable Dr. J. Allen Hynek's (God rest his soul, he was a great man and probably the only sane one amongst us) contract to appear in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was I who crashed my car in Aztec, New Mexico, and made up the saucer story to escape a breathalyzer test. I am responsible for all anomalous falling frog reports. I created the radio telescope and SETI so that I could get MTV for free. I am the illegitimate great grandson of one Dr. Donald Menzel, and I believe. I am Dr. James Oberg's lesbian lover, and I can tell you that he believes, too (ooh, does he ever!). I wrote the book Flying Saucers? Maybe which was, of course, censored. I flung dinner plates and vomit bags out in front of the windows of Gemini's VII and XI so the astronauts wouldn't get bored. Commander X is my Uncle Robert. "Roswell," for all you Randle/Randles fans, is the name of the person who took my virginity. And finally, I am he who placed prairie squid in the atmosphere of mighty Jupiter, and later instructed America Online to spread the news that there was, indeed, life on that world so that you would all laugh and not see the terrible truth that those squid are even now lounging about in the great red spot.
My sincerest apologies for any misunderstandings that have transpired from this. You may now stop reading UFO newsgroups and listservs forever.
Praise "Bob" and the MJ 12 Boys' Choir.
(Originally posted on alt.paranet.ufo on Wed Apr 10 13:57:33 1996, with a tagline allegedly from "Roy Craig, Jr.". An addendum to this missive was recently found and is reproduced here for posterity:
Oh, I forgot to mention a few things...
Doug and Dave are my mother and father (respectively), and taught me how to make snow angels at an early age, but then we got carried away. You should see the frequent flier points I have from zipping around the world to make all the crop formations! (I really ought to fix the exhaust on my Lear jet. It keeps leaving all those Chemtrails up there.) I drove Bob Lazar in a blacked-out school bus into my own garage where I had been hitting together two rocks with pitchblende in them to make Element 115. It turns out it's only Element 114 1/2. Back in the 1960s, I played pool with Jackie Gleason and won; when he lost the bet I made him agree to buy my collection of UFO books. I made the face on Mars; it=s supposed to be a bust of my grandfather, but the last nuclear bomb I sent there with my slingshot messed up his nose. (Sorry, Hoagie.) When anyone files a FOIA request about UFOs, it gets put in a UPS truck and brought directly to me. I am paper training a new puppy. Flying Saucers May or May Not be Real, but Stanton Friedman definitely does not exist. My bunion ached so much several years ago, I paid Leir to dig it out for me. The corkscrew accidentally I stepped on when I was a kid looks different in the photos now, though. My name, translated into Portuguese, is "Chupacapra." I just happen to like fresh goat's milk. We had such wild parties at Harvard, John Mack and I both came home with the wrong underwear on several times. (It was the backwards earrings that were harder to explain.) I bagged eight deer when I was illegally jacklamping in Rendlesham Forest. Using parts I bought from Radio Shack, I made my own transmitter just like Art Bell, jammed his radio show every night and ran it myself, based entirely on things I found in the Weekly World News and on Fark.com. The character of weird guy driving the carny truck in Steven Spielberg's "Taken" is based on me. His lawyers have already been contacted. I shorted out Michael Persinger's helmet and now he hallucinates that he's explained all the UFO sightings. Yes, it=s true that Stonehenge is actually a huge vagina. The aliens made it as a reminder that Earthlings have, after all, really been screwed by the Cosmic Federation. It's only a matter of time before someone figures out that the Pyramids are actually giant bustiers in honor of Madonna. Every word of the Urantia Book is true. Anything written by Robert Sheaffer is false. Rap music is the intergalactic standard of excellence in spiritual enlightenment. The government is in fact using the HAARP program to modify the world=s weather, to make real the phrase "when Hell freezes over..." Maitreya is my uncle on my mother's side. While you were standing outside looking up at Hale-Bopp, I picked your pockets and took your credit cards. I was the "deformed human" those girls saw at Varginha. I got a different chiropractor and look much better now. The British royalty are not green, scaly reptiles. They are Anglicans. I get headaches whenever Steven Greer tries to "vector me in." I wish he'd stop it, already; why can't he just leave me and my blimps alone? I deliberately hire incompetent photo lab technicians at Wal-Mart so that there are fuzzy smudges on all the prints they develop; that's why there are "rods" even in photos of your cousin's bar mitzvah. I like to test my remote-control model airplane kits at Gulf Breeze. Joe Firmage quit his Silicon Valley job because I told him money can’t buy happiness. He now just rents it. In 1970, a few of us held a 12th birthday party for Michael Jackson in Dulce, New Mexico. Hence: MJ-12. The invitations got mixed up with some other documents and letters I sent out. (Hey, I thought his singing was cute back then. Everybody now: “A B C, it’s easy as 1 2 3...”). Ryan Wood was definitely not on my invitation list. I trained a team of ultralight pilots to fly over Belgium, Ohio and Phoenix at night. I hired a goon named Luigi to break the kneecaps of the people who have been hanging onto the original APRO files, and now have them myself. Unfortunately for you, I’m not going to let you see them, either. Donald Keyhoe believed everything I told him, especially when I was wearing a four-star general costume that I rented for our lunches together. The alien autopsy film is real, and explains once and for all why no one ever found the body of Jimmy Hoffa. I used a large box of K’Nex to build a robot that does nothing else but receive people’s emails and post them to UFO Updates. I call it “Errol Bruce-Knapp.” Aliens do not like strawberry ice cream. It makes them break out in hives. I invited Joe Simonton into my trailer and cooked him my special pancakes for breakfast one morning. He had never tasted tofu before. Phil Corso really did see the bodies and saw the experimental time machine, but I went back in time and moved everything again so his story doesn’t check out anymore.
Oh, yeah, a few more things…
I was smoking my Meershaum pipe blowing smoke rings near Chicago’s O’Hare airport and made the hole in the cloud that everyone saw and thought was caused by a UFO. I was test-flying my new saucer-shaped toy helicopter (that I bought at a shopping mall kiosk) over Stephenville, Texas, and it got away from me in a high wind. The Condign Report concluded that UFOs were balls of plasma because of a typo; the study’s authors actually meant asthma because the UFO witnesses were often hyperventilating. The Pope really does think that aliens are on other planets in the galaxy; at least that’s what he told me while having lunch with me last week. He should know; you know that tall hat he wears? It’s actually the shape of his alien cranium because he’s from the planet Zandar. Antonio Villas-Boas really did have sex with an alien. She was my fifth ex-wife, and let me tell you, the things she could do with those extra tentacles…
NASA is right; there is water on Mars—of a sort. I let my dog out for a tinkle when we stopped there on my way to Jupiter a few weeks ago. It was me who looked in Stan Romanek’s window. I really am 16 feet tall and am a bit pale because I don’t get out in the Sun much. I coached Bill Nye the Science Guy on what to say before he went on Larry King Live on CNN. How was I to know he was actually going to listen to me? Penn and Teller are both aliens, of course. (And don’t get me started about that Nick Pope character—those Brits are all reptilians, if you ask me.) Dennis Kucinich really saw a UFO and knows the truth about alien visitation. The aliens knew he’d never get the nomination, anyway. The Bigfoot in the freezer in Georgia that turned out to be a rubber gorilla suit is a Bigfoot after all. They just get a bit rubbery in texture if they get freezer burn. I was responsible for every one of the saucer sightings that made Paul Kimball’s list of the Top Ten UFO cases. I’ll be more careful from now on. Steven Spielberg almost had it right in his mostly factual Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. The skulls are busts of me that a 3rd-year fine arts student made as part of her college portfolio. Edgar Mitchell has inside knowledge that aliens exist and that NASA knows all about it. How else do you think we have the technology today to get the Caramilk inside the Caramilk Bar? The video of the alien spaceship over Haiti isn’t a fake. I cloned the palm trees to look like they were identical. Zecharia Sitchin is right; the Bible is wrong. And the baby cloned by the Raelians is a copy of me.
Finally, I should point out that not everything you see is an illusion. It only looks that way.
Thank you for this opportunity to clear a few things up.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is time that I make a full confession. It seems that everyone in ufology has been sweating and fighting it out over some naughty things that I've done, so I'm going to come clean in the hope that everyone will make nice and be as One again. Here goes:
It was I who, in 1947, paid Kenneth Arnold to step forward from his Cessna 359 and speak of having seen flying dishes dancing across the skies above Mt. Rainier. It was I who, a short time later, took my slingshot and knocked several Army Air Force pilots out of the sky at 80,000 feet. It was I who ran about Washington in 1952 with 10,000 Marijuana cigarettes in my mouth, flashing bright flashlight beams into the night sky above the Capitol and making people think they were experiencing the Ultimate Saucer Wave. I was the one who co wrote Ruppelt's book with him, and later added the three debunking chapters. I threw one million frisbees with Christmas lights on them in Great Falls, Montana, and asked a man named Marietta (or was it Martinette?) to take pretty pictures of them and send them to the Air Force. I voted for Gabriel Green and ran his campaign for him. I am responsible for the Ubatuba magnesium, it was pure but I forgot to cover it up when it rained. I built the android you called "E. U. Condon" and programmed his actions from Day One of the Colorado Project to Day Last, including his bogus conclusions. I modified the infamous Lowe Memorandum to read "trick"; it was originally "truck." I thought I had convinced Carl Sagan to change his mind and start endorsing Kraft Margarine, but instead he turned against flying saucers. I re edited the O'Brien report, the Robertson Panel report, the Scientific Study of UFO's, and a little tract called "Saucers are from Satan" (now known as Flying Saucers: A Modern Myth of Things Seen in The Sky). I invented the term "orthoteny." I kidnapped the Hills and drove them around Montreal in my Volvo, all the time poking them with safety pins and reading "The Friendly Stars" to them. I am Betty Andreasson. Furthermore, I am "Dan," and made whoopee with Linda on the beach while I was playing hookey from my day gig as chauffeur for the prime minister of Canada. I picked up Travis Walton and threw him against a tree in 1975, while shining a bright spotlight in his left ear. I was the one who provoked the evil Carrot Men in Pascagoula, Mississippi with a dead tunafish and an old pair of socks. The term "alien abduction" was created solely by me, and I want the damned royalties now. I originally sold nose implants at blue light specials at K-Marts throughout the country in 1979. I created Billy Meier out of parts from chicken giblets, and made him a Saucer Nut for Christ. I fathered both Bob Lazar and Phillip J. Klass; God forgive me. I own the model company that puts out the S-4 saucer model (so real that several USAF jets are scrambled each time one is thrown into the air). I invented the name "Hector Quintinalla" for a new Taco Bell product back in 1965. I gave the name "Area 51" to my living room, and "Hangar 18" to my bathroom; I have no idea how these names became public knowledge. (Don't even ask about "Dreamland.") "Aurora" is the name of my favourite kite, not a secret government plane. I am the one who folded the paper aeroplane that Jimmy Carter reported as a UFO and later denied. It was I who gave Von Daniken his ancient astronaut ideas during one of his indigestion attacks back in 1974, and he recently opened a roller coaster at his theme park in Switzerland, dedicated to me. I own Japan Airlines and all UFO reports made by that organization. I piloted several black helicopters in the hope of exposing the existence of white helicopters. I am the one who cored out Snippy's rectum, for later personal use. I am the one who negotiated the venerable Dr. J. Allen Hynek's (God rest his soul, he was a great man and probably the only sane one amongst us) contract to appear in Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It was I who crashed my car in Aztec, New Mexico, and made up the saucer story to escape a breathalyzer test. I am responsible for all anomalous falling frog reports. I created the radio telescope and SETI so that I could get MTV for free. I am the illegitimate great grandson of one Dr. Donald Menzel, and I believe. I am Dr. James Oberg's lesbian lover, and I can tell you that he believes, too (ooh, does he ever!). I wrote the book Flying Saucers? Maybe which was, of course, censored. I flung dinner plates and vomit bags out in front of the windows of Gemini's VII and XI so the astronauts wouldn't get bored. Commander X is my Uncle Robert. "Roswell," for all you Randle/Randles fans, is the name of the person who took my virginity. And finally, I am he who placed prairie squid in the atmosphere of mighty Jupiter, and later instructed America Online to spread the news that there was, indeed, life on that world so that you would all laugh and not see the terrible truth that those squid are even now lounging about in the great red spot.
My sincerest apologies for any misunderstandings that have transpired from this. You may now stop reading UFO newsgroups and listservs forever.
Praise "Bob" and the MJ 12 Boys' Choir.
(Originally posted on alt.paranet.ufo on Wed Apr 10 13:57:33 1996, with a tagline allegedly from "Roy Craig, Jr."
Oh, I forgot to mention a few things...
Doug and Dave are my mother and father (respectively), and taught me how to make snow angels at an early age, but then we got carried away. You should see the frequent flier points I have from zipping around the world to make all the crop formations! (I really ought to fix the exhaust on my Lear jet. It keeps leaving all those Chemtrails up there.) I drove Bob Lazar in a blacked-out school bus into my own garage where I had been hitting together two rocks with pitchblende in them to make Element 115. It turns out it's only Element 114 1/2. Back in the 1960s, I played pool with Jackie Gleason and won; when he lost the bet I made him agree to buy my collection of UFO books. I made the face on Mars; it=s supposed to be a bust of my grandfather, but the last nuclear bomb I sent there with my slingshot messed up his nose. (Sorry, Hoagie.) When anyone files a FOIA request about UFOs, it gets put in a UPS truck and brought directly to me. I am paper training a new puppy. Flying Saucers May or May Not be Real, but Stanton Friedman definitely does not exist. My bunion ached so much several years ago, I paid Leir to dig it out for me. The corkscrew accidentally I stepped on when I was a kid looks different in the photos now, though. My name, translated into Portuguese, is "Chupacapra." I just happen to like fresh goat's milk. We had such wild parties at Harvard, John Mack and I both came home with the wrong underwear on several times. (It was the backwards earrings that were harder to explain.) I bagged eight deer when I was illegally jacklamping in Rendlesham Forest. Using parts I bought from Radio Shack, I made my own transmitter just like Art Bell, jammed his radio show every night and ran it myself, based entirely on things I found in the Weekly World News and on Fark.com. The character of weird guy driving the carny truck in Steven Spielberg's "Taken" is based on me. His lawyers have already been contacted. I shorted out Michael Persinger's helmet and now he hallucinates that he's explained all the UFO sightings. Yes, it=s true that Stonehenge is actually a huge vagina. The aliens made it as a reminder that Earthlings have, after all, really been screwed by the Cosmic Federation. It's only a matter of time before someone figures out that the Pyramids are actually giant bustiers in honor of Madonna. Every word of the Urantia Book is true. Anything written by Robert Sheaffer is false. Rap music is the intergalactic standard of excellence in spiritual enlightenment. The government is in fact using the HAARP program to modify the world=s weather, to make real the phrase "when Hell freezes over..." Maitreya is my uncle on my mother's side. While you were standing outside looking up at Hale-Bopp, I picked your pockets and took your credit cards. I was the "deformed human" those girls saw at Varginha. I got a different chiropractor and look much better now. The British royalty are not green, scaly reptiles. They are Anglicans. I get headaches whenever Steven Greer tries to "vector me in." I wish he'd stop it, already; why can't he just leave me and my blimps alone? I deliberately hire incompetent photo lab technicians at Wal-Mart so that there are fuzzy smudges on all the prints they develop; that's why there are "rods" even in photos of your cousin's bar mitzvah. I like to test my remote-control model airplane kits at Gulf Breeze. Joe Firmage quit his Silicon Valley job because I told him money can’t buy happiness. He now just rents it. In 1970, a few of us held a 12th birthday party for Michael Jackson in Dulce, New Mexico. Hence: MJ-12. The invitations got mixed up with some other documents and letters I sent out. (Hey, I thought his singing was cute back then. Everybody now: “A B C, it’s easy as 1 2 3...”). Ryan Wood was definitely not on my invitation list. I trained a team of ultralight pilots to fly over Belgium, Ohio and Phoenix at night. I hired a goon named Luigi to break the kneecaps of the people who have been hanging onto the original APRO files, and now have them myself. Unfortunately for you, I’m not going to let you see them, either. Donald Keyhoe believed everything I told him, especially when I was wearing a four-star general costume that I rented for our lunches together. The alien autopsy film is real, and explains once and for all why no one ever found the body of Jimmy Hoffa. I used a large box of K’Nex to build a robot that does nothing else but receive people’s emails and post them to UFO Updates. I call it “Errol Bruce-Knapp.” Aliens do not like strawberry ice cream. It makes them break out in hives. I invited Joe Simonton into my trailer and cooked him my special pancakes for breakfast one morning. He had never tasted tofu before. Phil Corso really did see the bodies and saw the experimental time machine, but I went back in time and moved everything again so his story doesn’t check out anymore.
Oh, yeah, a few more things…
I was smoking my Meershaum pipe blowing smoke rings near Chicago’s O’Hare airport and made the hole in the cloud that everyone saw and thought was caused by a UFO. I was test-flying my new saucer-shaped toy helicopter (that I bought at a shopping mall kiosk) over Stephenville, Texas, and it got away from me in a high wind. The Condign Report concluded that UFOs were balls of plasma because of a typo; the study’s authors actually meant asthma because the UFO witnesses were often hyperventilating. The Pope really does think that aliens are on other planets in the galaxy; at least that’s what he told me while having lunch with me last week. He should know; you know that tall hat he wears? It’s actually the shape of his alien cranium because he’s from the planet Zandar. Antonio Villas-Boas really did have sex with an alien. She was my fifth ex-wife, and let me tell you, the things she could do with those extra tentacles…
NASA is right; there is water on Mars—of a sort. I let my dog out for a tinkle when we stopped there on my way to Jupiter a few weeks ago. It was me who looked in Stan Romanek’s window. I really am 16 feet tall and am a bit pale because I don’t get out in the Sun much. I coached Bill Nye the Science Guy on what to say before he went on Larry King Live on CNN. How was I to know he was actually going to listen to me? Penn and Teller are both aliens, of course. (And don’t get me started about that Nick Pope character—those Brits are all reptilians, if you ask me.) Dennis Kucinich really saw a UFO and knows the truth about alien visitation. The aliens knew he’d never get the nomination, anyway. The Bigfoot in the freezer in Georgia that turned out to be a rubber gorilla suit is a Bigfoot after all. They just get a bit rubbery in texture if they get freezer burn. I was responsible for every one of the saucer sightings that made Paul Kimball’s list of the Top Ten UFO cases. I’ll be more careful from now on. Steven Spielberg almost had it right in his mostly factual Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull. The skulls are busts of me that a 3rd-year fine arts student made as part of her college portfolio. Edgar Mitchell has inside knowledge that aliens exist and that NASA knows all about it. How else do you think we have the technology today to get the Caramilk inside the Caramilk Bar? The video of the alien spaceship over Haiti isn’t a fake. I cloned the palm trees to look like they were identical. Zecharia Sitchin is right; the Bible is wrong. And the baby cloned by the Raelians is a copy of me.
Finally, I should point out that not everything you see is an illusion. It only looks that way.
Thank you for this opportunity to clear a few things up.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
UFO Hunter TV Show visits Minnesota
This past weekend, I drove down to Warren, Minnesota, with Guy Westcott, the original investigator of the Val Johnson incident in 1979. The UFO Hunters TV show was doing a segment on the case along with the Cash/Landrum case, where they had just been.
They had brought a large crew of about 10 up to Minnesota, complete with sound guy, still photographer, producer, two cameras, and various other assistants. They chose to film the interview with me (as UFO historian) on a railroad siding in a noisy sidestreet in Warren, MN. They had to keep stopping recording because of traffic.
I recounted the story as best I could (I mean, this was almost 30 years ago!) and suggested they interview Guy as well, but they said they were under a tight production schedule and couldn't fit him in.
After about an hour, they were done with me and I drove with Guy to the Marshall County Museum, where the "UFO Car" is on prominent display. We took a good look at it, noting all the damage from the UFO encounter: cracked windshield, bent antennas, broken headlight, etc.
My comments about the case are in a previous post.
Here are some photos from our trip to Warren, Minnesota:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
They had brought a large crew of about 10 up to Minnesota, complete with sound guy, still photographer, producer, two cameras, and various other assistants. They chose to film the interview with me (as UFO historian) on a railroad siding in a noisy sidestreet in Warren, MN. They had to keep stopping recording because of traffic.
I recounted the story as best I could (I mean, this was almost 30 years ago!) and suggested they interview Guy as well, but they said they were under a tight production schedule and couldn't fit him in.
After about an hour, they were done with me and I drove with Guy to the Marshall County Museum, where the "UFO Car" is on prominent display. We took a good look at it, noting all the damage from the UFO encounter: cracked windshield, bent antennas, broken headlight, etc.
My comments about the case are in a previous post.
Here are some photos from our trip to Warren, Minnesota:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Archived issues of The Swamp Gas Journal and the Val Johnson case
In 1978, when still part of the Winnipeg Science Fiction Society, I got into the "zine" bug and published the first issue of my ufozine, The Swamp Gas Journal. I kept on putting it out periodically until about 1997, making it the longest-running Canadian UFO publication at the time. (I put out a "special issue" in 2003.) With the advent of the Internet by the end of the 1990s, the time of the photocopied/Gestetnered paper issue of zines was essentially over. Many moved completely to online versions, and the SGJ was no exception. Zines were the forerunners of blogs, and served the same purpose as today, conveying individuals' personal opinions, views and creativity in ways that were impossible otherwise.
This is relevant this week because I am traveling with Guy Westcott to Warren, Minnesota, next week to meet with a camera crew from UFO Hunters, the History Channel TV show, to talk about the Val Johnson close encounter case from 1979. Guy and I investigated the incident, and it represents a true challenge to investigators. The physical interaction of a UFO with a police car was investigated by the police force as a crime scene, and the evidence studied intensively.
My report on the case is detailed in a Swamp Gas Journal special issue here:
http://www.geocities.com/thecynicalview/sgj1no7.txt
Other issues of the Swamp Gas Journal that were digitally converted are here:
http://www.geocities.com/thecynicalview/sgj.htm
This is relevant this week because I am traveling with Guy Westcott to Warren, Minnesota, next week to meet with a camera crew from UFO Hunters, the History Channel TV show, to talk about the Val Johnson close encounter case from 1979. Guy and I investigated the incident, and it represents a true challenge to investigators. The physical interaction of a UFO with a police car was investigated by the police force as a crime scene, and the evidence studied intensively.
My report on the case is detailed in a Swamp Gas Journal special issue here:
http://www.geocities.com/thecynicalview/sgj1no7.txt
Other issues of the Swamp Gas Journal that were digitally converted are here:
http://www.geocities.com/thecynicalview/sgj.htm
Earlier version of this blog also available
Just in case anyone is interested, some entries in the first blog I started are available at my personal website on a buried page: http://www.geocities.com/thecynicalview/sgblog.htm
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Photos from the Weird Vacation
So, here's a few photos from the "Weird Vacation" through Wisconsin and Minnesota.
First, a sunset viewed from our wonderful room at our secret location on the south shore of Lake Superior. Ahhh.
And now the weird stuff. We successfully found the World's Largest Badger, in a small town east of Wasau, Wisconsin. It's guarding a strip club. Really. That's my gorgeous wife Donna getting up close and personal with it.
And in Fargo, North Dakota, we visited the Space Aliens Grill & Bar, where we ate great food and played "Whack-an-Alien."
We also visited Glensheen, a supposedly haunted castle north of Duluth, and traveled over several roads and bridges where according to "Weird Wisconsin," ghosts have been observed.
And now, back to normality.
Such as it is.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Weird vacation memories
Okay, we've mostly unpacked from our excursion to Wisconsin and back, and are now thinking back on our fond memories of our Weird Vacation.
Yes, we did get photos of the World's Largest Badger and Chet & Emil's Giant Chicken. We also ate at Paul Bunyan's Mess Hall, and dined very well at Vince Lombardi's Steak House. He spent time in the Houdini Museum in Appleton, and stopped in at the original Space Aliens Grill & Bar in Fargo.
As if that wasn't enough, we also visited perhaps a dozen or more bookstores and music stores (and antiques stores and knickknack stores) and bought far more than we should have.
I found about a half dozen UFO books I didn't have (remarkable if you know my collection). But this seemed to be the year of DVDs, particularly those with a UFO connection. I picked up the first season of The Greatest American Hero. (UFO Connection: Robert Culp calls the aliens who gave the supersuit to them the "green guys.") And the first two seasons of Green Acres. (UFO Connection: In the second season, Eb meets aliens from a flying saucer who impart the secret of life to him.)
Also, the first season of Sliders. (UFO Connection: Late in the season, the Sliders slip into an alternate San Francisco that has been overrun by Krangs from another planet.)
And many non-UFO DVDs, like the first season of Banacek (if you have to ask, don't) and the original Longest Yard with Burt Reynolds (superior to the Adam Sandler version). And the first season of the old Fu Manchu TV series. (Very cool)
One of the highlights of the trip was the Houdini museum in Appleton, Wisconsin. Among the displays, you could actually try out the wrist braces that he used to levitate tables and fool spiritualists into thinking that ghosts were moving the furniture. Awesome.
As for the Space Aliens Grill & Bar, this was the second I've been to, and Donna's third. (There are only six.) We took some pix which I'll put up when I have a chance. I highly recommend the pork bun. The arcade actually does have a game where you "Whack-an-alien" to get credits that you can exchange for UFO toys and souvenirs. I added greatly to my UFO/alien knickknack collection, unfortunately for my wallet. We now have an alien head cookie jar, matching salt-and-pepper shakers and a green alien M&M dispenser. That's in addition to pens, pencils, a UFO paddle-ball set, and a Space Aliens cap and mug. Oh, and while we were in a Goodwill store somewhere in the USA, I found a foot-tall stuffed K-9 from the Marvin the Martian theme.
Ya gotta love the UFO phenomenon, don't ya?
Yes, we did get photos of the World's Largest Badger and Chet & Emil's Giant Chicken. We also ate at Paul Bunyan's Mess Hall, and dined very well at Vince Lombardi's Steak House. He spent time in the Houdini Museum in Appleton, and stopped in at the original Space Aliens Grill & Bar in Fargo.
As if that wasn't enough, we also visited perhaps a dozen or more bookstores and music stores (and antiques stores and knickknack stores) and bought far more than we should have.
I found about a half dozen UFO books I didn't have (remarkable if you know my collection). But this seemed to be the year of DVDs, particularly those with a UFO connection. I picked up the first season of The Greatest American Hero. (UFO Connection: Robert Culp calls the aliens who gave the supersuit to them the "green guys.") And the first two seasons of Green Acres. (UFO Connection: In the second season, Eb meets aliens from a flying saucer who impart the secret of life to him.)
Also, the first season of Sliders. (UFO Connection: Late in the season, the Sliders slip into an alternate San Francisco that has been overrun by Krangs from another planet.)
And many non-UFO DVDs, like the first season of Banacek (if you have to ask, don't) and the original Longest Yard with Burt Reynolds (superior to the Adam Sandler version). And the first season of the old Fu Manchu TV series. (Very cool)
One of the highlights of the trip was the Houdini museum in Appleton, Wisconsin. Among the displays, you could actually try out the wrist braces that he used to levitate tables and fool spiritualists into thinking that ghosts were moving the furniture. Awesome.
As for the Space Aliens Grill & Bar, this was the second I've been to, and Donna's third. (There are only six.) We took some pix which I'll put up when I have a chance. I highly recommend the pork bun. The arcade actually does have a game where you "Whack-an-alien" to get credits that you can exchange for UFO toys and souvenirs. I added greatly to my UFO/alien knickknack collection, unfortunately for my wallet. We now have an alien head cookie jar, matching salt-and-pepper shakers and a green alien M&M dispenser. That's in addition to pens, pencils, a UFO paddle-ball set, and a Space Aliens cap and mug. Oh, and while we were in a Goodwill store somewhere in the USA, I found a foot-tall stuffed K-9 from the Marvin the Martian theme.
Ya gotta love the UFO phenomenon, don't ya?
Friday, August 01, 2008
Water on Mars
So... NASA is excited that they finally found water on Mars. Not only are there nice photos of white chunks disappearing before their eyes (cameras) but the analyses show actual water too.
This isn't quite as Earth-shattering (or Mars-shattering) as one might think, as this is a long way from proving there's life there. Nevertheless, it's a giant step towards discovering extraterrestrial life in the universe, and one that formally begins the science of exobiology.
Add to this the discovery of a large liquid lake on Titan and we have all the makings of another round of speculation about the nature of life "out there." The lake is the size of Lake Ontario and is made of ethane, a basic fuel, and will be handy once we get diesel generators orbiting Saturn for a quick gas-up.
As for life there, the SF story "Slow Life" by Michael Swanwick (2003) is one story about encountering life under Titan's seas. The classic novel is Titan by Stephen Baxter, whose awful book about terrestrial military conspiracies with a subplot of ammonia beings on Titan was actually about the Red Chinese.
Then there's The Sirens of Titan, Vonnegut's classic novel about Salo, the robot from Tralfamadore whose ship breaks down and needs a replacement part so he seeds life on Earth in order to develop it. And John Varley's Titan, which is downright weird and nothing really to do with the moon itself.
This isn't quite as Earth-shattering (or Mars-shattering) as one might think, as this is a long way from proving there's life there. Nevertheless, it's a giant step towards discovering extraterrestrial life in the universe, and one that formally begins the science of exobiology.
Add to this the discovery of a large liquid lake on Titan and we have all the makings of another round of speculation about the nature of life "out there." The lake is the size of Lake Ontario and is made of ethane, a basic fuel, and will be handy once we get diesel generators orbiting Saturn for a quick gas-up.
As for life there, the SF story "Slow Life" by Michael Swanwick (2003) is one story about encountering life under Titan's seas. The classic novel is Titan by Stephen Baxter, whose awful book about terrestrial military conspiracies with a subplot of ammonia beings on Titan was actually about the Red Chinese.
Then there's The Sirens of Titan, Vonnegut's classic novel about Salo, the robot from Tralfamadore whose ship breaks down and needs a replacement part so he seeds life on Earth in order to develop it. And John Varley's Titan, which is downright weird and nothing really to do with the moon itself.
