The Fortean/paranormal/conspiracy thread

[Astro Hollywood]

Man, do I love the creepy gnome. My favourite Fortean stories are by far those weird one-off ones, as opposed to the big sweeping subgenres like UFOs or ghosts. It's also a great look into the cultural belief of other countries, when stuff like India's monkeyman and the Popabawa bat-rapist of Indonesia are believed in by so many people. One of my favourite youtube prank clips is a really fake looking skeleton riding a bike through the streets of Brazil, cackling and saying (through speakers) it was going to take everyone to hell, with everyone who sees it shitting themselves. If that happened in England, people would just idly throw cans of Redbull at it.

[Famous Mortimer]

Popabawa bat-rapist of Indonesia

Some metal band somewhere just got their new name.

[Pinc]

Anybody seen this?

A VIDEO has been released that claims to show aliens and their spacecraft with one UFO researcher calling it the "most important images of a UFO ever filmed".The vision was taken by 42-year-old night guard Yalcin Yalman in a compound in Turkey earlier this year, The Sun reports.

I only saw it mentioned in the Sun but my Dad said he heard it mentioned on the radio earlier today. Looks pretty fake to me, the close up shots of the craft at night at least, nothing else is seen in the night sky to give scale except for a few seconds when 'the moon' appears, though it looks to me like some other light source (a light bulb, a glass plane lit from behind, etc) shot in such a way as to look like the moon. The footage taken of the lights on the horizon during daylight look like they could be real, at one point a fisherman on the beach seems to take notice of them as well. I'd imagine they got some genuinely strange footage of lights in the sky and decided to splice in some shocking footage of the craft close up in the hope of attracting a bit of press broo-ha-ha.

[Loki]

Man, do I love the creepy gnome. My favourite Fortean stories are by far those weird one-off ones, as opposed to the big sweeping subgenres like UFOs or ghosts. It's also a great look into the cultural belief of other countries, when stuff like India's monkeyman and the Popabawa bat-rapist of Indonesia are believed in by so many people. One of my favourite youtube prank clips is a really fake looking skeleton riding a bike through the streets of Brazil, cackling and saying (through speakers) it was going to take everyone to hell, with everyone who sees it shitting themselves. If that happened in England, people would just idly throw cans of Redbull at it.

Cryptozoology is fascinating. The possibility always exists of finding a new species in those remote corners of the earth, and that plus the general superstition of most local population creates some great stories. 99% of it is going to turn out to be untrue, but then every once in a while one of them turns out to be right and reignites the whole field.

[Astro Hollywood]

The lights on the horizon are probably what all of the other lights in the sky The Sun have been whipping up a storm over in recent months are - Chinese lanterns. The last few issues of the Fortean Times have had some fascinating articles regarding the way the press came to the experts looking for answers, while running their "alien invasion!" headlines, and consistantly ignored everything that was said to explain what was being seen in favour of pumping out more IT'S ALIUMS! garbage. Although I shouldn't be surprised at another "The Sun ignores evidence and simple answers over hysteria" shocker.

[Ro_y Disco]

Anybody seen this?

A VIDEO has been released that claims to show aliens and their spacecraft with one UFO researcher calling it the "most important images of a UFO ever filmed".The vision was taken by 42-year-old night guard Yalcin Yalman in a compound in Turkey earlier this year, The Sun reports.

I only saw it mentioned in the Sun but my Dad said he heard it mentioned on the radio earlier today. Looks pretty fake to me, the close up shots of the craft at night at least, nothing else is seen in the night sky to give scale except for a few seconds when 'the moon' appears, though it looks to me like some other light source (a light bulb, a glass plane lit from behind, etc) shot in such a way as to look like the moon. The footage taken of the lights on the horizon during daylight look like they could be real, at one point a fisherman on the beach seems to take notice of them as well. I'd imagine they got some genuinely strange footage of lights in the sky and decided to splice in some shocking footage of the craft close up in the hope of attracting a bit of press broo-ha-ha.

I *think* this is the video you mentioned (not able to watch YouTube @ work, so can't be positive):

It should last just under 10 minutes if it's the right video.I wasn't overly impressed. Whatever it is seems large and an intersting shape, but there is nothing else visible to show it's size / prove it's in the sky. 'The moon' does add some cred, but it's out of foucs, so could really be anything.Also, I can't see any of alleged aliens in the craft, as the vid is just too blurry. IMO, it's no where near being the best UFO footage ever.For me, the most convincing footage is still the NASA tether incident, as the offical explanations just don't seem credible to me:

[Tequila_Boy]

I'm confused, what's happening in that video?

[Kenny McBride]

I saw a UFO once. There was a very bright light in the sky, completely stationary, like a star but about 4 or 5 times the size. If I remember right, it was white, then kinda blue-green, then white again. Suddenly it dropped almost to the horizon, stopped then shot off to the right at a ridiculous speed before vanishing. Each movement took only a split second, so it wasn't a shooting star, and the stop and the right angle move were certainly not natural.I have no idea what it was, but if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

[Ro_y Disco]

I'm confused, what's happening in that video?

If you mean the second video, here's a brief explanation:

STS-75: The Tether IncidentOn Sunday, February 25, 1996, the Space Shuttle Columbia deployed an experimental tether into orbit. The experiment was called the Tethered Satellite System (TSS- 1R) and it's purpose of this was to attempt to generate electricity by utilizing Earth's magnetic field.Unfortunately the tether broke so the experiment was not a success, although approximately five hours of data were recorded.What really made "The Tether Incident" famous was the appearance of many unidentified flying objects (UFOs) clearly visible in the NASA footage. Conspiracy theorists rejected NASA's explanation of space debris and ice particles, while conspiracy debunkers pointed out that the UFO theory doesn't stack up. For example, if the UFOs were as big as the conspiracy theorists claim, they would have been clearly visible from the ground.

And, Kenny, unless I'm missing a very subtle joke, that's an amazing account. I can't think off the top of my head a logical explanation. The fact that it moved fast and 'intelligently' is the most interesting bit. The wacky colours, less convinving of it being extraterestrial.

[Loki]

I saw a UFO once. There was a very bright light in the sky, completely stationary, like a star but about 4 or 5 times the size. If I remember right, it was white, then kinda blue-green, then white again. Suddenly it dropped almost to the horizon, stopped then shot off to the right at a ridiculous speed before vanishing. Each movement took only a split second, so it wasn't a shooting star, and the stop and the right angle move were certainly not natural.I have no idea what it was, but if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Clearly, it was marsh gas igniting ;)This is the thing, we're not all stupid. The fast changes in motion of objects like the one you saw are a common element of sightings and basically rule out the normal debunk theories. Assuming it's not little green men, then it's a man-made craft, either manned or unmanned, and at that point it's just a question of who made it and why.

[Ro_y Disco]

I saw a UFO once. There was a very bright light in the sky, completely stationary, like a star but about 4 or 5 times the size. If I remember right, it was white, then kinda blue-green, then white again. Suddenly it dropped almost to the horizon, stopped then shot off to the right at a ridiculous speed before vanishing. Each movement took only a split second, so it wasn't a shooting star, and the stop and the right angle move were certainly not natural.I have no idea what it was, but if anyone has any ideas, let me know.

Clearly, it was marsh gas igniting ;)This is the thing, we're not all stupid. The fast changes in motion of objects like the one you saw are a common element of sightings and basically rule out the normal debunk theories. Assuming it's not little green men, then it's a man-made craft, either manned or unmanned, and at that point it's just a question of who made it and why.

It's a weather balloon! That's what a man in a black suit with no pupils told me last night. Then he shined a light in my face and then I forgot what happened...

[Astro Hollywood]

[Ro_y Disco]

lol That's brilliant (and scarily accurate)!! I hope to God there's a poster of that I can track down somewhere! Something that might interest some people, is that the MoD has started releasing previously classified UFO files as of Monday gone:http://ufos.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ (there's only 8 or so reports at the moment, but this will be constantly updated as more records are released)Also, as most people will know, France has been releasing their UFO files for around a year now:http://www.cnes-geipan.fr/ (all in French, obviously)

[Famous Mortimer]

Clearly, it was marsh gas igniting ;)This is the thing, we're not all stupid. The fast changes in motion of objects like the one you saw are a common element of sightings and basically rule out the normal debunk theories. Assuming it's not little green men, then it's a man-made craft, either manned or unmanned, and at that point it's just a question of who made it and why.

See, it's that logical leap that means things that genuinely defy explanation get thrown out along with the nonsense. Absence of one sort of explanation does not automatically mean another sort of explanation is accurate. The movement Kenny described might be from a man (or alien) made craft, or it might not. But it's not certain, just because the sight he saw was unusual. Do you know for certain that nothing naturally occuring could create a vision like Kenny saw in the sky? Are you that prepared, from the paragraph of evidence Kenny gave you, to rule out all the "normal debunk theories" and go straight to some unknown sort of man-made craft?I'm aware I sound like an apologist for the status quo (not the band Status Quo, they're rubbish). I'm not, I'm just a healthy skeptic about second-hand information "definitely" being anything, especially when it's a long way outside what we currently know about science. I don't think there's anything wrong with holding bizarre occurrences to a higher level of proof than normal ones. Like the Bigfoot thing that started this thread, that I said was bullshit and turned out, indeed, to be bullshit. Like virtually every single UFO sighting in the history of the human race. Someone going "oh, a light moving in a weird way, must be some craft created in secret by the Government" is just starting from square one when there's already been tons of research done on this topic. Edited October 23, 2008 by Famous Mortimer

[Au]

Bloody hell, it doesn't even have to be a secret government project - unmanned crafts are hardly top secret things. In fact, they've developed super-sonic drones that probably do quite closely resemble UFO's.

 

Anyway, I'm not usually one to pimp stuff from work (normally beause it's not particularly interesting) but I put a few videos up on one of our sites a year or so ago: http://www.ibwales.com/server.php?show=nav.6700

 

I'm sure if you stuck some lights on one of them they'd look a tad unusual to someone isn't aware of them.