Here’s the most I’ll say about this one: I was fairly unimpressed with what appeared to be an object visibly wobbling as though appended from a string. So far as the “extreme acceleration manoeuvre” the witness describes, it looks more like the object was being passed in front of the tree in the background, as the cameraman conveniently dawdles long enough for the object to remain concealed there before panning to the right of the tree, as though the craft had simply vanished (in fact, between 4:03 and 4:06 in the video above, one is almost given the impression that the object is still visible, dangling directly in front of the tree, though the extremely poor quality of the video, as well as the jerky camerawork, makes this virtually impossible to discern).

Glancing at a few of the comments YouTube users were leaving, my opinion on the matter appears to be part of a greater consensus:

“Nobody would start recording before running back to film, and if they did; they sure the hell would not keep the camera pointed forward the whole time. It’s easy to see that this was done for dramatic effect. You can also see the object wobbling, they did a poor job constructing it.”

“It acted like one of those ‘contactees’ UFO’s. It moved like the wind was tugging the string it was dangling from.”

“4:03 fake.”

These days, it’s easier than ever before to create deceptively simple ruses for the sake of entertainment, or sometimes for the sake of trying to skew facts and conceal inconvenient truths. For instance, during the recent oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a big stir was made about what appeared to be Photoshopped images released by BP depicting various stages of the cleanup process (BP later acknowledged that they had in fact doctored the images). Similar occurrences “crop” up (yes, the pun was intended that time) with UFOs, again thanks to the availability of video and photo-editing software.

But in a way, I’m almost glad to see that we’ll occasionally still be treated to charmingly simplistic fakes, the likes of our recent “Norwegian UFO.” There’s something strangely comforting–perhaps nostalgic–about viewing UFO videos and images that, by comparison, would make Billy Meier’s saucer photos look like incontrovertible evidence of an extraterrestrial presence. Much in the same spirit of the famous “Contactee” era photos, these folks represent a lasting faction of those who are willing to put a little sweat into constructing simplistic hoaxes and pull the wool over people’s eyes; but in this case, it doesn’t look like anybody is really being fooled. However badly these sorts of hoaxes may be executed, in the long run, the more of them we continue to see, the easier it should be in the future to discern “the real thing,” if and when that ever arrives.

There’s simply nothing on all of Mars quite like it: Orcus Patera, a long, elliptical Martian depression situated between two sibling volcanoes, Elysium Mons and Olympus Mons, is a nearly 235-mile-long anomaly. Especially on its furthest side (far right in the image above), a rim protrudes from the depression, rising nearly to an elevation 6000 feet above the surrounding plains. According to the European Space Agency (ESA), the use of “patera” in the strange crater’s name denotes a complex or irregularly shaped formation. “However, despite its name and the fact that it is positioned near volcanoes, the actual origin of Orcus Patera remains unclear,” the agency states at their website.

There has apparently been a good bit of speculation as to what might have caused the appearance of this strange anomaly, and Friday, the latest answer ESA officials provided only lends itself to more controversy:

The most likely explanation is that it was made in an oblique impact, when a small body struck the surface at a very shallow angle, perhaps less than five degrees from the horizontal.

This mention of a “small body” seemed to fuel imaginative speculation as to what sort of an object might have been the culprit. Lewis Page, writing for The Register this morning, said “Plainly, we’re talking here about an alien spaceship, its propulsion crippled, attempting a very-high-velocity glide landing through the evanescent Martian atmosphere–and cocking it up.” But if this were the case, could there still be debris located nearby? “There has to be a sporting chance,” Page continued, ruminating over whether “the alien ship yet lies preserved within its eternium-powered force bubbles, sealed within the now-cooled lake of molten rock it created as it crashed.”

So far as an actual solution to Orcus Patera’s strange shape, it seems we may be dealing with an area of the Maritan surface where an object (more likely a meteorite) entered the planet’s atmosphere at an angle that allowed it to glance the surface, possibly scraping by only to ricochet back into space again. Thus, the long lasting “alien skid mark” remains, decorating Mars with yet another strange, yet curiously wonderful natural landmark.

Image courtesy of ESA archives.

Seems like all we’ve been hearing about is this “thing” that showed up in photographs taken by a motion activated game camera last week in Texas. Now, after an official investigation, the cause of the object has been proven to be a technical glitch with the camera; this according to Fletcher L. Gray, Texas MUFON chief investigator:

“For some unknown reason, the camera shutter was remaining open, and (as) the infrared strobe fired it would catch a bank of lights. The strobe has 14 LED-type bulbs across and with five bulbs vertical, with a total of 70 LED bulbs. If you look at the photo of what was called a “UFO,” you will count 14 lights that matches the 14 bulbs in the camera.”

This not only seems logical, but familiar as well. In fact, days ago this had already been proposed by folks on various hunting forums, although no one (to my recollection) had gone into detail about the internal mechanics of the camera make and model, or the fact that the LEDs might have been self-contained within the camera. Since the camera itself had been producing the anomaly, this would also explain the “drift” I mentioned the other day.

Looks like whitetail deer in the Texas area won’t have to worry about aliens abducting them, and can feed easily again (at least until hunting season arrives).

Image by Windell Oksay via Flickr.

Below is a closeup of the object in question:

…And finally, the image below shows the same landscape during daylight hours for comparison:

Along with the photos sent, the individual also shared some basic information about the circumstances:

I have viewed this in zoom, negative and to be truthful, it sort of makes me wonder about what is really out there. I first thought they were Canada Geese night flying, but when I measured the distance between the light area’s, they are too identical to be Geese or any other sort of bird. I also noted that the object is “Between” the two sets of utility wires, eliminating the chance of a reflection off the wires. I am sending copies of the originals and the camera info and other pertinent information is still there. Please have your experts look at them and see if they can come up with an explanation.

I had initially been hopeful that an anomaly similar to the alleged UFO photographed recently in Texas–which, at present, remains unidentified–might have appeared. However, once I took a look at the images above, I wrote back to the gentleman in a correspondence earlier today about my take on the more recent “anomaly”:

This appears to be a moth or insect whose flight pattern and proximity to the lens, combined with the shutter speed on the camera being used, resulted in an image that displays several of the insect’s wingbeats cycling over the duration of its flight the instant the photograph was taken. There are a variety of websites that refer to this sort of anomaly as a “rod” (I’ve also heard the term “skyfish,” as these were once believed by some to be biological life forms that were presently unknown to science).

In fact, the Wikipedia article on Rods has a very detailed photograph, obtained using a long exposure, depicting moths swarming around an outdoor light, that details the same sort of thing. The photographer got back in touch with me after I forwarded this information along, and somewhat relieved, told me he’d just as soon prefer not to have any “anomalies” hovering around his trail cam airspace, though he joked that “bugs and bats are ok.” Truth be known, this is a very simple identification error, and even though most conventional photography can capture things the eyes can see also, the manner in which those things are represented on film might still cause even the best trained eye to wonder occasionally.

With hunting season only weeks away, I can’t help but wonder what other anomalies might show up in trail camera snapshots this year. Do you have an odd photograph taken by a motion camera that you can’t explain? If so, email them to us at info@gralienreport.com. Who knows… maybe you’ll be the next to capture images of a trail-cam UFO!

If you visit any bookstore and browse the metaphysical/new age section, you’ll likely find several titles dealing with “doomsday prophecies” associated with the year 2012, as well as a few that pair this more loosely alongside cultural trends that include UFOs, meditation, and a variety of other speculative sciences. No matter which angle you may choose to approach this from, it appears the end of the world has become a rather fab trend, of sorts.

Some might argue we’ve been living in “the last days” since time began, and somehow Earth has only managed to extend its lease long enough to get us to this point; hence, we’re long overdue on our metaphysical mortgages, and things are bound to turn sour before too much longer. Whether or not this is actually the case, authors certainly aren’t the only ones who’ve noticed the trend, and see that the popularity associated with a cataclysmic demise of life as we know it as something worth tapping into. New York Magazine recently featured an article about the growing number of films, particularly upcoming titles yet to be released, that will be dealing with thematic images of a world in it’s death throes. “Hollywood is assuming that we’ve subconsciously accepted the world is ending,” the article reads, “and are interested in having that general anxiety represented, in entertaining fashion, on the big screen.”

That this would occur now comes as no particular surprise. The NYM article lists the oil spill in the Gulf, as well as “racial and religious friction” among the reasons people’s outlook seems so bleak. Other factors worthy of consideration might include Iran’s insistence on developing a nuclear program, as well as the notion of countries like the U.S. and Israel having to take military action against them in order to prevent the outbreak of more conflict in the Middle East; all this on the heels of an already overdrawn conflict in Afghanistan. Or consider the growing rate of unemployment Americans presently struggle with, compounded by threats of a double-dip recession and a weakening dollar. With all the trouble people face today, some may find it hard to look to the future with a forecast of anything but the worst.

Since all this collective unrest seems to be lingering like storm clouds overhead, would it be surprising if the stranger elements of our existence began to manifest elsewhere, rather than merely in books, film, and entertainment mediums? Perhaps not. Troubling times have long been associated with strange phenomenon, whether the anomalies in question are representative of something yet to come (an omen, perhaps), or maybe resulting from the inner fears of groups of individuals that somehow become externalized. Carl Jung’s theories about UFO phenomenon culminated around this notion, suggesting that people’s concerns and fears resulting from Cold War sentiments might be somehow “projected,” resulting in the appearance of strange airborne objects that held an underlying archetypal significance:

One can hardly suppose that anything of such worldwide incidence as the UFO legend is purely fortuitous and of no importane whatever. The many thousands of individual testimonies must have an equally extensive causal basis. When an assertion of this kind is corroborated practically everywhere, we are driven to assume that a corresponding motive must be present everywhere, too. Though visionary rumours may be caused or accompanied by all manner of outward circumstances, they are based essentially on an omnipresent emotional foundation, in this case a psychological situation common to all mankind. The basis for his kind of rumour is an emotional tension having its cause in a situation of collective distress or danger, or in a vital psychic need. This condition undoubtedly exists today, in so far as the whole world is suffering under the strain of Russian policies and their still unpredictable consequences.

With the sort of knowledge we have today that pertains to various testing of secret government aircraft and the like, it’s safe to say that Jung’s fundamental thesis was incomplete; but perhaps it wasn’t completely inaccurate. Many would argue that the hard evidence and nuts-and-bolts elements that accompany many modern reports does, if nothing else, suggest there is a physical quality to many reported incidents involving UFOs (i.e. burn marks at an alleged landing site, etc). However, there are certainly circumstances, many of them having to do with death, dying, and the end of humanity as a species, that also bear archetypal significance.

One of the more physical aspects of the UFO phenomenon spanning the last several decades deals with the claims of UFO abductees. Many theories have been presented over the years as to what the underlying nature and causes of this phenomenon may be, ranging from the sudden recollection of psychologically-embedded birth-memories and endogenous mystical experiences, to the obvious inference that some people have actually been taken hostage by extraterrestrial beings. What is particularly interesting about the phenomenon is that, even with the prevalence of claims of the latter, these instances often bear strong similarity to mystical experiences and shamanic visions that are in no-way oriented with UFO literature.

Take for instance the case of Betty Andreasson, recounted in Ray Fowler’s book The Andreasson Affair, in which the witness claimed to have been abducted by alien beings who communicated telepathically with her. After taking her aboard a spacecraft where a physical examination took place, Andreasson was taken to a strange landscape with vivid red and green colors and odd, alien flora and fauna. She was finally brought before a large bird, which caught fire as she stood before it, nearly burning her alive. Once the flames had consumed the bird, from the ashes a gray “worm” emerged. While in the presence of all this, Andreasson was told a variety of things, including the profound love this entity, which she perceived essentially to be Jesus Christ, had for her. She was imparted with secret wisdom, along with the impression that a second coming or other world-changing event might occur in the near future.

Of Betty Andreasson’s strange encounter, Dr. Kenneth Ring noted in his article “Near-Death and UFO Encounters as Shamanic Initiations: Some Conceptual and Evolutionary Implications” that, “anyone who reads it cannot help but notice that it is chockfull of the symbolism of the (shamanic) initiation, a fact that several other commentators have pointed out and of which Betty herself seems aware.” Indeed, the giant flaming bird is an obvious match for the legendary phoenix, once commonly used in Christian iconography for the symbolism its death and re-birth presented.

Others who have described encounters with aliens sometimes recount being shown visions of end-of-the-world scenarios. Dominique Callimanopulos, describing an investigation he and UFO researcher John Mack undertook together at a primary school in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1994, shared the following story from a young girl called “Elsa” in his article “Exploring African and Other Alien Abductions“:

(The student) told us that she thought the beings wanted to tell us something about our future, about how “the world is going to end, maybe because we don’t look after our planet or the air.” She said she felt horrible inside when she got home that day. “Like all the trees will go down and there will be no air. People will be dying. Those thoughts came from the man–the man’s eyes.”

Is it possible that a correlation might exist between people’s experiences with the unexplained and a sense of future disaster or conflict? The few instances illustrated here hardly provide enough information for a clear, plausible theory in this regard, but they nonetheless express a serious notion which might illustrate how people’s general stress, tensions and fears might exist in tandem with manifestations of otherworldly phenomenon. Perhaps this even represents some of the more unique psychological functions of the mind, in the sense that some of the processes that dictate humankind’s behavioral coping mechanisms may still allude our understanding. If this is the case, arguably they will continue to do so for some time; let’s just hope the world doesn’t come to it’s untimely demise before we’re given a chance to solve the mystery.

Image by Desmond Kavanagh via Flicker.

I had a discussion about this with a forestry and natural resources major from Clemson, SC, only weeks ago, who asked me the question above. While we spoke, I admitted there have been some strange things captured by trail cameras, such as the infamous “Jacob’s Creature” photos. The official explanation for the creature in these images was said to be a mangy bear; though this doesn’t seem entirely likely based on what the photos and later analysis detail, it doesn’t rule out other possible explanations that may not warrant anything out of the ordinary. That’s why, of all things, the notion of strange aerial phenomenon being captured by a motion-sensitive camera seems even less likely than a flesh-and-blood critter wandering into view, just in time to say “cheese.” Still, stranger things have happened, as the video below shows us: what is the weird object hovering in the background of these Texas trail camera photos?

Writing for the LA Times‘ outdoor and adventure blog Outposts, writer Kelly Burgess included testimony from a Fort Worth, Texas resident named Lisa Brock-Piekarski, who noted that “There’s nothing back there but trees and sky. There’s no hills, no buildings, nothing back there. It’s all flat.” Nonetheless, the strange row of illuminations appeared in not just one, but several consecutive images taken throughout the evening, which appeared to show a large, airborne object in the distance.

What we do know about the camera is that it operates using infrared, rather than a flash, and is motion-activated, like the majority of cameras of this type used for hunting and wildlife observing. Brock-Piekarski told reporters they’ve captured falling stars, but nothing quite as uniform as the object in these photos. “Anytime there’s a meteor shower or anything, you can see it a lot better, but I’ve never seen anything like that.” Brock-Piekarski’s land is also in Archer City, which is just 20 miles south of Sheppard Air Force Base in nearby Wichita Falls. Local station KXAS-TV (who did the piece featured in the video above) contacted the base, but said officials “did not immediately return requests.”

When viewing the individual photographs (several were posted online here) one can see that the object in question moves slightly, drifting to the right over a period covering at least an hour just before dawn as the time stamp on the photos indicates. One of the earlier images bears a time stamp of 5:18 AM, whereas two later images took place consecutively at 6:06 AM and 6:07 AM. Photos taken as the camera was triggered by game in the area after sunrise, occurring several minutes before 7:00 AM, show a clear background; nothing but open sky is visible in the distance behind the location of the strange object from only an hour earlier.

So what was it? Some outdoor enthusiasts, posting anonymously on the site Texas Bowhunter Forums, have suggested everything from droplets of water gathered along a spider’s web, to a string of LED lights. Another item of speculation might involve the potential for mirages, perhaps due to city lights in the distance reflected off moisture pockets present in the atmosphere (this sounds very similar to the classic debunkings of the Project Bluebook era, but it can indeed occur). However, none of these suggestions would explain the peculiar way the object appears to “drift” over the course of the morning as the photos show. Until further information about the location and other contextual details emerge, the identity of this strange illumination over Texas will likely remain unidentified. However, if you have any information about this or other sightings of strange aerial phenomena in Archer City or other Texas locales, please email them to info@gralienreport.com.

After being brought up recently on Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report, a surge of interest in the 2006 incident prompted a brief interview with Hilkevitch, who recounted some of the pertinent details on camera. Below, you can hear his take on the story, which remains one of the most widely-documented UFO cases in recent years.

Some today, in spite of the vast amount of information technology is capable of providing, still find dissatisfaction with what appears to be a general lack of decent photographic evidence of UFOs. Along these lines, at AOL’s Politics Daily, writer and blogger David Corn recently did an interesting piece that dealt with the politics, so to speak, surrounding UFO photography. One might initially ask what is political (or even exopolitical) about photographs of strange objects in the skies–or as the scope of Corn’s column seeks to address, the lack thereof. However, Corn’s argument, along with other analysis of the debate, brings forth some interesting details nonetheless, spurring questions over whether the kinds of things that occur in the study of ufology are really always what they seem.

Corn, having worked as a Washington reporter for more than two decades, argues that a lack of available photographic evidence of UFOs, especially in our gadget-laced techno-society, has political ramifications. One thing, for instance, that he draws from his experience is summed up well in the statement, “nothing undermines conspiracy theorizing better than reporting” (which mirrors something similar I said on this blog only days ago, pertaining to the research Nick Redfern). “I came to the conclusion that the government is generally not capable of mounting extensive and complex, years-long conspiracies that transcend administrations,” Corn writes. “The bureaucrats are just not that good, and risk-averse political leaders often don’t have the guts to do so.”

I would agree with Corn here, also. In fact, it brings to mind a conversation I had with a former North Carolina Congressman a few weeks ago, who offered a similar theory. “Many people go into politics thinking there are conspiracies and secret plans being orchestrated,” he told me, “but after a while, when you see how unorganized it really is up there in Washington, I don’t think it would be possible for them to pull it off!” That said, it would also be silly to argue that secret affairs don’t occur at all. Consider the CIA’s secret operations between 1952-54 in Guatemala, where a democratically elected leftist government was overthrown by the CIA, due to fears fueled by Cold War sentiments that the country would become a “Soviet beachhead.” The U.S. State Department under John Foster Dulles, along with his brother Alan Dulles (then overseeing CIA operations) helped establish a military dictatorship in place of the Guatemala’s lawful government. “There are indeed secret programs,” Corn also admits, citing the Iran Contra, but dismissing the JFK assassination as the acts of a lone crazy gunman–a theory for which the arrival he admits occurred slowly over the years.

Perhaps the most ironic statement Corn makes has to do with a UFO sighting of his own, though he gives few details other than the fact that he “was about 12 at sleep-away summer camp in New Hampshire.” In spite of his failure to elaborate on the incident, he somewhat remorsefully adds that he wishes he could keep the views he held in his youth (perhaps thanks to the experience detailed here) “that UFOs carrying extra-terrestrial tourists were turning the Earth into a veritable celestial truck stop. But that brings me back to the question: Where are the photos?”

This is where Corn’s argument begins to falter somewhat. Nobody would argue (well, okay… maybe some would) that the photographic evidence of UFO activity is somewhat lacking (i.e. blurry images of strange objects–truly unidentified in the sense that they can hardly be recognized in the photos often presented as evidence). Some of the really good ones are likely fakes, too. That doesn’t mean, however, that a good number of photos depicting genuine unexplained aerial objects and/or activity don’t exist. They do indeed exist, but what we should keep in mind about these photos and videos is that they may not depict extraterrestrial aircraft, but a wide variety of other things ranging from classified government projects to atmospheric phenomena akin to ball lightning–both of which, though commonly reported as “UFOs,” are known without a doubt to exist. That said, for a huge collection of UFO photographs ranging from the best and most convincing, to the worst and most obvious hoaxes, you can visit this link:

Best UFO Pictures, 1870-2008

Indeed, you’ll see that the most recent years begin to fill up so quickly that individual pages cease to span several decades, and from 2004 through 2010, the pages feature individual galleries for those years. This might suggest one of two things: 1) As technology has made photography and video more widely available, more evidence of strange aerial activity is surfacing or 2) as technology has made digital manipulation more readily available, there are more hoaxes. In truth, both of these probably deserve some credit.

One final piece of the puzzle, however, might also have to do with knowing where to look; but this doesn’t pertain so much to knowing “where and when” so far as expecting the right location for a UFO to appear. Instead, I refer to a general knowing of where on the web to look for evidence as it gathers. The reason I bring this up has to do with another conversation I had a few years ago while working in the radio business, shared between a veteran reporter and myself. Somehow, the conversation had drifted to reports of UFOs, and the fellow told me, “back in the 1960s and 70s, you heard about UFOs all the time. Now you never hear about them at all, it seems.” To the contrary, there is actually probably more UFO reporting that goes on today, with the wide variety of 24-hour news resources available on television and the Internet. UFO stories, perhaps more prevalent than ever, now also have websites and television shows focused solely on covering that sort of material, with reporters, bloggers and researchers focused almost exclusively on providing material on the subject. Though major media outlets will occasionally feature the more significant UFO stories as “water cooler” material, the majority is sifted down to the sites and other mediums that welcome that sort of content. Since news has more places to go now, arguably in the world today you can count on what you’re hearing having more to do with where you’re getting your information.

So if there appears to be a lack of evidence of UFOs in photos and video, at least for some, could it be due to something as simple as knowing where to look? All debate over what, exactly, the photos may actually depict, perhaps photographs of strange UFO activity are so hard to find because, like so many things in this over-saturated media-driven world of today, they are hidden in plain site, with easy access to everyone.

UFO image courtesy of The UFO Casebook.

According to a statement by one airport staff member who remained unidentified, it was confirmed that the object “could not be seen with the naked eye. It had to be spotted with observation devices.”

Residents in nearby areas dispute this, claiming to have seen clearly an object over East China’s Zhejiang Province. Some reports describe a bright fireball moving quickly through the sky, while others refer to a large UFO “hovering” over the area. One UFO enthusiast described seeing a “bright (yellow) spot very high up in the sky around 8 pm.”

An article posted at the English People’s Daily, subsequently linked to the Drudge Report, appeared to have been removed from the site as of this morning. Other links at popular international news site remain, with varying accounts pointing to an official explanation being released later today.

Image by Navicore via Flickr.

With their eyes pinned on the skies, it could be argued that no one might be in a better position to see UFOs than astronomers. Years ago, a friend related to me that an associate of his, an astronomer who often operated with a large Clamshell observatory-style telescope, claimed that in all his years of watching the stars at night, he had never seen any evidence of unidentified aircraft drifting through Earth’s atmosphere. But what kinds of factors really might determine the likelihood of astronomers and hobbyist star gazers seeing a UFO… if they exist?

Over at the Daily Grail’s blog, Ufologist extraordinaire Chris Rutkowski, author of Abductions & Aliens – What’s Really Going On and A World of UFOs, has been speculating on whether there are simple explanations behind the age old criticism of UFOs and astronomers who report (or fail to report) seeing them.

“It’s true,” Chris writes. “Amateur astronomers watch the sky more than most people. Of course, there’s fewer of them than there are other people who might casually or accidentally watch the skies, so that’s why most UFO reports come from anyone other than amateur astronomers.”

The complete article can be viewed by clicking here.

Image courtesy of Clinton Steeds.