They say that necessity is the mother of invention, but sometimes it seems that bizarre-looking science fiction ideals sometimes instill in the minds of engineers a desire to build foreign looking “space-age” aircraft, among other things. In keeping with man’s fascination with the classic saucer-shaped UFO design, Ananova reported today that China has designed and built a new flying saucer prototype, sporting a remote-controlled interface making it capable of hovering at up to 3200 feet:

New Chinese Flying Saucer Design

Designed by Harbin Smart Special Aerocraft Company, the craft (resembling an emergency flotation device with its cuddly, “rubber-ducky-like” yellow and red color scheme) was designed for aerial photography, geological surveys, controlling forest fires and creating emergency lighting for high-rise building rescues and other special operations.

This is merely one of two Chinese designs for conventional craft resembling UFOs which has been discussed in recent months on this blog. Click the link below to read about an earlier Chinese design, as well as a well-crafted American “flying bunt-pan”, that made recent news:

Home Grown Saucers: The Great Flying Bundt-pans of Tomorrow

When it comes to guessing about what might qualify for being called “paranormal Hollywood”, many things come to mind. For instance, the enigmatic phrase, “I warned him,” uttered by former “Joker” Jack Nicholson upon learning of Heath Ledger’s tragic and untimely death. Or maybe even the uber-eccentric weirdness commonly associated with guys like Tom Cruise and Gary Busey could qualify for being evidence that they’re actually aliens from another dimension. But when stewing over paranormal themes in Hollywood, I was a bit surprised to learn about Billy Bob Thornton’s ties to ghostly phenomenon.

Thornton, Hollywood’s reigning hillbilly king, is most often associated with his role in films like Monster’s Ball and Slingblade, or even his “ethereal ex” Angelina Jolie. Thornton is also known to be a good buddy of the legendy vampire and “King of the Country-Western Troubadors” Unknown Hinson. Of all these things that might be considered kinda spooky about the guy, I was still even more surprized to learn (partly due to his professed dislike for “old stuff”) that Thornton is living in a 1920s mansion that is purportedly haunted!  Read more of this entry…

Boy, it seems that there’s an awful lot going on in the news regarding UFOs lately! Just the other day, I ran into an older friend of mine, who told me it was strange how UFOs ”were big news back in the 1970s, but you don’t hear much about them today.”  I wanted to say, “what news have you been reading?” If anything, there is probably more UFO activity reported today than ever before in years past, and the readily accessible information, made available by a multitude of fine sources, has only conditioned us to being very used to their presence by now. They’re here to stay, and as you readers know, news about UFOs makes frequent appearances here at the Gralien Report.

This is why I am very proud to announce the next level of my own pursuit of the enduring UFO mystery: Nancy Birnes, editor-in-chief over at the very excellent and respected UFO Magazine, has given me a brand new column which we’ve decided to call Mirror Images. It will be featured in the print edition of the magazine, in addition to the blogs I’ve been writing for them over at their website for a while now. I invite everyone to drop by your local magazine and bookstores to it check out in months to come.

Also, I would like to give a VERY special thanks to my dear friend Lesley Gunter, as well as the indispensable Nancy and Bill Birnes. They, along with the rest of the UFO Magazine staff, work hard at making the most up-to-date UFO news available to us. They are certainly the leaders in the field, and without these folks, UFOs might never have reached the point of such massive appeal and fascination the public now has for them. 

With that said, here’s to the continued search for life elsewhere out there!

An interesting letter regarding the Edgar Mitchell “revelations” appeared recently over at the very talented Wm Michael Mott’s website, where he points out some interesting parallels between Mitchell’s past work and the timely release of the new X-Files movie in theatres today:

http://www.mottimorphic.com/Mitchell_1.html

I must admit that I was unaware of Mitchell’s association with the famous conspiracy program until recently myself, and although Mott references in his letter the same article from 1998 that I mentioned yesterday here at the Gralien Report, his interpretation of it nonetheless adds an interesting new set of possibilities to this growing media mess.

I think Michael would probably agree with me that the main reason this has gotten so much attention (in spite of those of us like Michael, you and I who are willing to look back a few years for the relevant details) has more to do with media sensationalism than anything.

Here’s to those “in the know”…