What do you think? Are UFOs real or are they something else (like made by the government.)

He usually appears around the time of UFO sightings

The Grinning Man is a name given to a mysterious creature that has been reported in various areas over the last century.

He is believed to either be an alien or some other type of unknown creature.  If nothing else, he is very creepy and all the witness accounts describe him as being very strange.  Everyone who has seen him will never forget him or what he looks like.  Nobody knows if there is just one Grinning Man or many, or if the whole thing is just an urban legend.

One account of the Grinning Man happened in October 1966.  Two boys in NJ were walking along Fourth Street, and when they reached a corner parallel to the NJ Turnpike, one of the boys, James Yanchitis, could see a strange figure standing on the other side of a fence.  He nudged his friend, Marvin Munoz, who then noticed the man too.  They both describe the man as being “a really big man with a big old grin”.  Allegedly, another resident in the neighborhood claimed to have been “chased by a tall green man” down that very same street. 

John A. Keel, a well-known paranormal investigator and author of “The Mothman Prophecies”, visited the boys a few days later to speak to them about their incident.  He interviewed each boy separately and they both gave the same exact story.  The man, they claimed was more than six feet tall and was dressed in a green coverall costume.  The costume even appeared to be shimmering in the street lights.  There was a black belt around his waist.  Neither boy noticed any hair, nose, or ears on the man, just two, beady eyes and a really big grin.

There were other, similar reports of such a strange man in other parts of the country, including on in Parkersburg, WV, which is about 40 miles away from where the mothman sightings took place.  In Nov. 1966, Woodrow Derenberger was driving home in his truck when he heard a crash.  Out of nowhere, a vehicle came zooming up behind him and quickly passed him up.  After passing him up, the vehicle slowed down and stopped, blocking the road.  The witness noticed that it was the strangest vehicle he had ever seen, and described it as looking like a “kerosene lamp chimney”.  It apparently was flaring at each end, and the ends were narrow.  The vehicle had a large bulge in the center.

All of a sudden, a strange, tall man stepped out.  He was described as being “really tall and tanned”.  Derenberger claimed that the man had a “gleaming green” outfit on, similar to what the boys in NJ noted.  The Grinning Man alleged communicated with Derenberger telepathically and asked him strange questions about UFO sightings in the area.  The entity then, telepathically, revealed his name to be “Indrid Cold”. 

There have been other reports of a strange, grinning man, including on in Point Pleasant, WV, where the mothman sightings took place.  Nobody knows for sure who—-or what—-this strange man was, or why he was here.  Of course, he could just be an urban legend.  Or, he could’ve just been an ordinary, albeit strange man.  There haven’t been any more reported sightings of him as of late.  Whenever he had been around in the past, there were usually UFO sightings or crypto sightings such as Mothman.  He couldn’t be associated with the Men in Black, since he supposedly wears a shimmering green outfit.

A suspected UFO recorded on video over Lebanon, Mo., was uploaded to YouTube last month and stirred up the UFO community. The shaky night-vision video was captured about 4:50 a.m. on May 26.

According to the videographer, Jim Barnhill, the craft flew three or four miles above Lebanon, and featured four very bright lights, three of which appeared to strobe. This is what seemed strange, according to him: “I have never seen an aircraft lights look like this so I stayed with the object. Typically aircraft lights flash/strobe on then turn off and back on, then off again doing this in a pattern,” Barnhill can be heard saying on video.

Believing he’d recorded an unknown — possibly extraterrestrial — craft, Barnhill analyzed still frames and announced, “Once you blow this video up you can see that the object is connected by some sort of dense frame structure connecting to the four light corners. It also appears to connect through the middle of the craft from the front light to the back light.”

But is this really that mysterious? Here’s what we know from examining the video: the ‘UFO’ has blinking strobe lights that are characteristic of known aircraft; seems to be flying at an altitude used by known aircraft (and not, for example, 100 feet off the ground); was flying at a speed characteristic of known aircraft (and didn’t, for example, suddenly zoom away at an impossible speed); and was in a flight pattern characteristic of known aircraft (and didn’t, for example, suddenly stop or move vertically in the sky).

Barnhill rejects the most logical explanation — that it’s an airplane — because of what he says is an unusual light pattern. To his credit, he made an effort to record the lights of other commercial aircraft for comparison, and found them different. He uploaded three videos to YouTube (username RaleighUFO) with the captions, “This clip is an example of what a commercial plane looks like….”

The problem is that there are more than 80,000 flights per day over the United States, and hundreds of different types of aircraft, including private jets, passenger planes, military aircraft and cargo jets. Just because the flashing light pattern he spotted does not match any of the three specific planes he compared his unknown craft against does not prove that it is not a known plane; it merely means he didn’t videotape the same type of plane.

If Barnhill wants to pursue this line of investigation, he will need to log dozens more airplane light patterns for comparison. However, there may be an easier way to do it: if it was indeed a plane, then it was probably a regularly scheduled flight and, given the time of morning, perhaps a red-eye. He should record the same part of the sky at approximately the same time every morning for a week to see if the craft reappears. If the same type of plane with an identical light pattern shows up, then it’s almost certainly a commercial flight. (Of course it also could have been a one-time military flyover that won’t return, but at least it’s a start.)

Night-vision cameras are notorious for creating poor and misleading images — especially when the cameraman doesn’t stabilize the image with a tripod for a clear view. There’s also the fact that Barnhill was outside, looking at the sky through night-vision goggles at nearly 5 o’clock in the morning. Most often, when someone is stargazing at that hour with that gear, they’re searching for UFOs. And sometimes if you look hard enough for something you’ll find it — even if it’s not there.

A glowing orb hovering over the skies of Apple Valley, California on Monday split up into three distinct orbs comprising the now familiar triangle UFO shape in an extended video of the sighting posted to YouTube.

What is it?

The video has narrative commentary by a man and woman who are clearly excited and puzzled by the incident, which last for nearly 10 minutes.

As the clip begins, a single, orange, glowing orb can be seen hovering in the black, nighttime sky some distance away over nearby rooftops. As the video plays out, the orb splits into three distinct, circular objects which maintain relative distance from each other.

No sound can be heard from the UFO and its lights do not resemble those of any known aircraft displaying navigational beacons.

The objects don’t appear to be helicopters, Chinese lanterns or skydivers as they maintain a consistent altitude throughout the video. They cannot be any kind of fixed wing aircraft as they basically hover in one area of the sky.

This sighting is unusual because of its length, its non-resemblance to conventional aircraft, the silence of any engines and the consternation of the witnesses recording the event.

Anyone here have any stories they would like to share, OR want me to look up for them?

I’ve been away from this Blog and I’m sorry about that to all my readers. I started working on my other Blog called the The Geek Feed (http://thegeekfeed.tumblr.com). I’m just trying to get back into the swing of things here lol.

So please let me know if there is anything I can look up or for you to share.?

Many UFO followers will have been fascinated by a video currently on display via Google, which reveals unusual objects caught on video. Not just one or two, but hundreds, in all shapes and sizes.

You can view the video on the following link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9080369676973948865&q=ufo and we feel sure you will find it impressive, if you haven’t already seen it. Some of the footage has been made public before, but it is still interesting to see it again.

Apart from the unusual images, it is also interesting to hear the conversations between the space crews and NASA.

On one occasion the space crew observe some strange glittering lights and ask NASA what they think of them, The reply takes an unusually long time to arrive and doesn’t really sound very convincing. NASA seem to suggest that the glittering lights are reflections from the clouds, but this is not likely as they seem to be moving at much the same speed as the craft they are orbitting in (not clouds, which would appear stationary from that distance).

It must be said that many of the objects seen could easily be old satellites or space debris, there is probably a lot in orbit by now. But some of the images reveal objects that change direction, and whilst some objects would bounce off the Earth’s atmosphere, at least one seemed to move in a way that defied the law of science.

Could it be that there really are that many UFOs in orbit around our planet, as some have suggested? And if they do exist, why can’t we see them so easily from the ground?

http://www.facebook.com/fightthefuture1

Does anyone have questions or stories they out like to tell me?

With so much planet hunting and spotting going on, we are in a showdown to see whether the universe is perhaps chock-full of extraterrestrial life.

Distant starfolk is one thing. Having ET stopovers here on Earth, via UFOs, is another. And that was just the topic du jour here at the 38th Annual International UFO Symposium, subtitled An Estimate of the Situation: The ET Hypothesis, held August 10-12 and sponsored by the Denver-based Mutual UFO Network, Inc., or MUFON for short.

As a yearly affair, the symposium provides a platform for specialists and investigators that delve into UFOs, purported military cover-ups and denials, physical evidence surrounding UFOs, as well as those “high strangeness” encounters with alien visitors.

The MUFON summit brought together more than 500 people – a true gabfest for the flying saucer devotee.

Passion for the truth

James Carrion, MUFON’s International Director, said the organization is fervent about resolving the scientific enigma known as unidentified flying objects.

“To me, it’s all about the truth. I have a passion for the truth,” Carrion told SPACE.com.

Still, after decades of pursuing “the truth” behind UFOs, Carrion admitted that the quest is befuddling. “Why is it always within out of reach…kind of there, but it’s not there?”

A new MUFON initiative being implemented this year is outreach to engage mainstream scientists, Carrion said, to assist in taking a more detailed look at the data. An open letter to the professional scientific community is now being drafted, to be issued before year’s end, he said.

“We have to gain respectability here … so we’re trying to kick-start intellectual curiosity out there,” Carrion added. “We know that there are folks in academia who have an interest, but they don’t know what to do with it.”

The MUFON strategy initially centers on the hypothesis that UFOs are human-manufactured and then evaluate the data amassed to date against that premise, Carrion advised. “If this triggers your intellectual curiosity … help us out,” he said.

Carrion said that MUFON is also forming two research teams: One to dive into the history of “UFOlogy” and government archives, the other to probe into the abduction encounters.

“I’m a skeptical believer,” Carrion pointed out. “I’ve never seen a UFO. But I’ve read enough of our own evidence. There’s something real to this. To me, it’s an issue of what is it?”

Tell it like it is

For nuclear physicist Stanton Friedman, there is no doubt that some UFOs are alien spacecraft. Moreover, the subject of flying saucers, in his view, represents a “Cosmic Watergate” - a colossal government cover-up.

Friedman is a globe-trotting lecturer on UFOs and is the original civilian investigator of the celebrated UFO crash case in Roswell, New Mexico. That out-of-the-blue happening supposedly occurred some 60 years ago, in 1947, involving no less than two crashed saucers, strewn debris and recovered alien bodies, he reported at the MUFON meeting.

“I come on very, very strong. I’m not an apologist UFOlogist…I tell it like it is,” Friedman told SPACE.com. He senses that a “big sea change” is taking place on several fronts.

“My overall impression is that people are more ready to accept [UFO visitation] because the world has changed…space travel being an important part of that,” Friedman noted. “What I’m saying is that the notion that most people don’t believe in UFOs isn’t true.”

Also, the media is giving UFO sightings a much fairer shake than in the past, Friedman suggested, citing not only Roswell coverage, but the reporting of UFO sightings made at O’Hare Airport late last year and more revelation concerning the Phoenix lights saga of March 1997.

“I don’t look for advocacy…I want fairness,” Friedman added. “I feel the world is ready. I’m outspoken, yes. But I try to make it a rule: Fact in hand before mouth in gear.”

Mind-bending finding?

UFOs as visitors from afar would be a simple, easy-to-grasp explanation, suggested George Knapp, an investigative reporter for KLAS-TV in Las Vegas, Nevada. But he wonders if there isn’t a mind-bending finding waiting at the bottom of the UFO barrel.

“It seems to stay one or two steps ahead of what we can do…from airships to the saucers, to giant flying triangles…almost teasing, taunting, or inspiring,” Knapp told SPACE.com. Given cutting-edge physics, talk of the multi-verse and parallel universes, along with threshold biological and computer work, there are fundamental paradigm shifts ahead, he said.

“Although we can’t figure out a way to get there…doesn’t mean they can’t figure out a way to get here,” Knapp said. Involved in UFO reporting for some two decades, Knapp said he’s committed to the journalistic credo that the public has a right to know.

“But you know what? Maybe not! It goes against everything in my professional life that I believe. What if it’s not something we should know? That the truth is so unsettling that our social institutions would, in fact, crumble,” Knapp confided.

Knapp underscored the prospect that perhaps we Earthlings live in the middle of some other kind of intelligence. Perhaps our planet is nothing more than a cosmic drive-in theater, he added, and UFOs skim in and out of our skies just to watch goofy movies.

“And if it’s something else - like they live here among us and everything we do is like being in a glass shower - people are going to go crazy. So maybe there is a reason for keeping this secret…and a need for government cover-up which I believe there is,” Knapp said.

Knapp’s on-air investigative work focuses primarily on government corruption and organized crime. But asked about the angle that his next investigative piece on the UFO phenomenon will take, he quickly responded. “Nothing I’m going to tell you about.”

Albert Bender

In 1953 a man by the name of Albert K. Bender was running an organization called the International Flying Saucer Bureau (IFSB) and editing a little publication called Space Review that was dedicated to news of flying saucers. The IFSB had a small membership despite its rather grandiose title, and Space Review reached at best, no more than a few hundred readers. But they were all deeply devoted to the idea that flying saucers were craft from outer space.

In common with other true believers, these saucer buffs were convinced that they were in possession of a great truth, while most of the rest of the world remained in darkness and ignorance. They felt very important, and thus it was with a sense of surprise, even shock, that they opened up the October 1953 issue of Space Review and found two unexpected announcements: “LATE BULLETIN”.

A source which the IFSB considers very reliable has informed us that the investigation of the flying saucer mystery and the solution is approaching its final stages. This same source to whom we had referred data, which had come into our possession, suggested that it was not the proper method and time to publish the data in Space Review.

The second and more shocking item read: STATEMENT OF IMPORTANCE: The mystery of the flying saucers is no longer a mystery. The source is already known, but any information about this is being withheld by order from a higher source. We would like to print the full story in Space Review, but because of the nature of the information we are very sorry that we have been advised in the negative.

The statement ended with the ominous sentence, “We advise those engaged in saucer work to please be very cautious.” Bender then suspended the publication of Space Review, and dissolved the IFSB. The tone of the announcements would have been familiar to anyone who had much experience with occult organizations. Occultists often claim they are in the possession of some great secret which, for equally secret reasons, they cannot reveal. Even the appeal, “please be very cautious” was not unique.

It made those engaged in “saucer work” feel more important. After all, who is going to bother to persecute you if you are just wasting your time? Shortly after Bender closed down his magazine and organization he gave an interview to a local paper [in] which he asserted that he had been visited by “three men wearing dark suits” who had ordered him “emphatically” to stop publishing material about flying saucers. Bender said that he had been “scared to death” and that he “actually couldn’t eat for a couple of days”.

Some of Bender’s former associates tried to press for a more satisfactory explanation, but to all questions he replied either cryptically or not at all. This state of affairs created considerable confusions among the flying saucer buffs. What were they to think about such a strange story? Some were openly skeptical of Bender’s tale. They said that his publication and organization were losing money and the tale of the three visitors who ordered him to stop publishing was just a face-saving gesture.

Yet, as the years went by the “Three Men In Black” began to sound more respectable and they took on a life of their own. Some of Bender’s friends first thought that the Men In Black were from the Air Force or the CIA, and indeed Bender’s original statements do seem to sound like [the men could have been] government agents. But after a while the Men In Black began to assume a more extraterrestrial, even supernatural air. Finally in 1963, a full decade after he first told of his mysterious visitors, Albert Bender elaborated further in a book called “Flying Saucers and the Three Men In Black”. It was a strange, confused and virtually unreadable book that revealed very little in the way of hard facts, but did significantly enhance the reputation of the Men In Black as extraterrestrials.

The book also introduced into the lore “three beautiful women, dressed in tight white uniforms.” Like their male counterparts in black, the women in white had “glowing eyes”. But even before the publication of Bender’s book in 1963, the Men In Black (or MIBs as they were known to insiders) had already been reported to be visiting others besides Albert Bender. By now they have been reported so often that they have become an established part of the UFO history.

The Men In Black, naturally enough,wear black suits. They also usually wear sunglasses, presumably to disguise their “glowing eyes”. Most of them are reported to be short and delicately built with olive complexions and dark, straight hair. They are often described as “Gypsies” or “Orientals”. Most MIBs are reported to travel in groups of three and usually ride around in shiny, new, black cars, often Cadillac’s. These cars are even supposed to “smell new”. Sometimes the MIBs pose as investigators from the CIA or some other government agency. They may flash official- looking credentials, but these can never be checked out. Occasionally the MIBs display badges withstrange emblems on them, or have unrecognizable symbols painted on their cars.

The purpose of the visits seems to be to get people who have seen UFOs to stop talking about them, of somehow to confuse and frighten the witnesses. People who worry about MIBs tend to lump all sorts of mysterious visitors into the category, even if they don’t wear black, have no glowing eyes nor show any of the familiar MIB characteristics.

The primary qualification for the Men In Black is that they be of unknown origin, and that they appear to act oddly and vaguely menacing. Some of those who write about UFOs and other strange phenomena rather casually mention “countless” cases where people have been visited by Men In Black.

In reality these “countless cases” are difficult to pin down. In fact, there really seems to be a rather small number of MIB cases where there are any details available at all. The impression given by the writers is that the publicized cases represent only “the tip of the iceberg”.

Beyond these, say the writers, are many “more sensational” cases, the details of which cannot be revealed for a variety of reasons. In any event solid evidence for a vast number MIB cases is lacking. But we are, after all, dealing with beliefs as much as with reality, and ‘impression’ is an important one.

Robert Richardson - 1967

Robert Richardson, of Toledo, Ohio, informed the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO) in July 1967 that he had collided with a UFO while driving at night. Coming round a bend, he had been confronted by a strange object blocking the road. Unable to halt in time, he had hit it, though not very hard. Immediately on impact, the UFO vanished.

Police who accompanied Richardson to the scene could find only his own skid marks as evidence; but on a later visit, Richardson himself found a small lump of metal which might have come from the UFO.

Three days later, at 11 pm, two men in their twenties appeared at Richardson’s home and questioned him for about 10 minutes. They did not identify themselves, and Richardson - to his own subsequent surprise - did not ask who they were. They were not unfriendly, gave no warnings, and just asked questions. He noted that they left in a black 1953 Cadillac. The number, when checked, was found not yet to have been issued.

A week later, Richardson received a second visit, from two different men, who arrived in a current model Dodge. They wore black suits and were dark-complexioned. Although one spoke perfect English, the second had an accent, and Richardson felt there was something vaguely foreign about them. At first, they seemed to be trying to persuade him that he had not hit anything at all; but then they asked for the piece of metal. When he told them it had gone for analysis, they threatened him: “If you want your wife to stay as pretty as she is, then you’d better get the metal back”.

The existence of the metal was known only to Richardson and his wife, and to two senior members of APRO. Seemingly, the only way the strangers could have learned of its existence would be by tapping either his or APRO’s telephone. There was no clear connection between the two pairs of visitors; but what both had in common was access to information that was not freely and publicly available. Perhaps it is this that is the key to the MIB mystery.

Paul Miller

One inclement evening in November 1961, Paul Miller and three companions were returning home to Minot, North Dakota, after a hunting trip when what they could only describe as ‘a luminous silo’ landed in a nearby field. At first they thought it was a plane crashing, but had to revise their opinion when the ‘plane’ abruptly vanished.

As the hunters drove off, the object reappeared and two humanoids emerged from it. Miller panicked and fired at one of the creatures, apparently wounding it. The other hunters immediately fled. On their way back to Minot, all of them experienced a blackout and ‘lost’ three hours.

Terrified, they decided not to report the incident to anyone. Yet the next morning, when Miller reported to work (in an Air Force office), three men in black arrived. They said they were government officials - but showed no credentials - and remarked unpleasantly that they hoped Miller was ‘telling the truth’ about the UFO.

How did they know about it? ‘We have a report,’ they said vaguely. ‘They seemed to know everthing about me; where I worked, my name, everthing else,’ Miller said. They also asked questions about his experiences as if they already knew the answers. Miller did not dare tell his story for several years.

Unnamed Investigator

UFO investigator Ramona Clark tells of an unnamed investigator who was confronted by three MIBs on 3 July 1969. “On the window of the car in which they were riding was the symbol connected with them and their visitations.

This symbol had a profound psychological impact upon this man. I have never encountered such absolute fear in a human being. The first meeting was followed by continual harassment. There were mysterious telephone calls, and the man’s house was searched. He began to hear voices and to see strange shapes. “Black Cadillac’s roamed the street in front of his home, and followed him everywhere he went.

Once he and his family were almost forced into an accident by an oncoming Cadillac. Nightmares concerning MIBs plagued his sleep. It became impossible for him to rest, his work suffered and he was scared of losing his job.” Was it all in his mind?

One is tempted to think so. But a friend confirmed that, while they talked, there was a strange-looking man walking back and forth in front of the house. The man was tall, seemed about 55 years old - and was dressed entirely in black.

Carlos de los Santos

UFO witness Carlos de los Santos was stopped on his way to a television interview by two large black limousines. One of the occupants - dressed in a black suit and ‘Scandinavian’ in appearance told him: “Look, boy, if you value your life and your family’s too, don’t talk any more about this sighting of yours.”

However, there is no reliable instance of such threats ever having been carried out, though a good many witnesses have gone ahead and defied their warnings. Indeed, sinister though the MIBs may be, they are notable for their lack of actual violence. The worst that can be said of them is that they frequently harass witnesses with untimely visits and telephone calls, or simply disturb them with their very presence

While, for the victim, it is just as well that the threats of violence are not followed through, this is for the investigator one more disconcerting aspect of the phenomenon - for violence, if it resulted in physical action, would at least help in establishing the reality of the phenomenon. Instead, it remains a fact that most of the evidence is purely hearsay in character and often not of the highest quality; cases as well-attested as that of Dr. Herbert Hopkins are unfortunately in the minority.

Image source - Istockphoto

In May 2007, a huge lake in Chile literally disappeared overnight. The only things left behind was a giant, 30 meter deep pit, icebergs, and dry soil!

All of the water and its contents were gone.  Despite the fact this strange incident took place more than two years ago, word is just now getting out about it.  As word is finally starting to spread across the internet, UFO enthusiasts and paranomalists are putting forth theories as to how something like this could have happened.

This wasn’t a small lake or pond, either—-it was approximately five miles long! Located in Patagonia, Chile, the last time geologists saw it was in March 2007 and nothing appeared strange or different about it at all.  What could have happened within just two short months?  How could a giant lake disappear out of nowhere?  In addition to the lake simply vanishing, a river that flowed from the lake was reduced to a very small stream.

When this story first broke, many people thought it was just a hoax, and indeed it does seem too bizarre to be true.  It is true, however, despite how baffling it is.  Apparently the icebergs were still left behind—-intact, despite the fact that the water was gone. Geologists also report huge cracks at the bottom of the pit.  Did the water somehow drain through the cracks?  Was there some sort of earthquake?  Why then were the icebergs fine?

One glacier specialist, Andres Rivera, explained to a Chilean newspaper that the lake itself did not even exist three decades ago.  So, is it possible that the landscape in that part of the world is reforming itself?  Geologists and glacier specialists are currently doing tests to see what they can find out about the bizarre landscape in that area. 

While some are holding out to see if there could be any scientific explanation about what happened, some media reports are trying to claim that the water was actually drained by UFO’s!  Is this just media sensationalism, or something more?  Whether there is a scientific explanation for what happened or paranormal, only time will tell. 

This isn’t the first time a lake disappeared out of nowhere.  There have been a few instances in the past where an earthquake caused water to drain.  The only problem with this theory in this case in point is that there had been no reports of any earthquakes in that particular area in spring of 2007.