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.

STONEFIELD BEACH, Oregon – Vance Buehler was always afraid of what people would think when he told them about spotting UFO’s at Stonefield Beach and other Oregon coastal locations. “I’ve always sensed them (aliens) at a far distance, but never daring to speak of what I know inside.” Today marks the start of UFO “watcher” season along the central Oregon coast, with Buehler pointing to recent sightings of UFO’s “as time to look towards the heavens.”

November 19 is the unofficial start of Oregon’s UFO coastal watch season

Vance Buehler and other UFO “watchers” gathered at Stonefield Friday morning for what they’ve dubbed as “the start of UFO season along coastal Oregon.”

For the past nine years this annual event – that runs from Nov. 19 until after the Geminids meteor showers in early December – is “prime time” for the self-proclaimed “watchers” to just hang out and see what they can see. And, with the recent spotting of UFO’s down the coast in California and more recent encounters up the coast in Alaska, the group is most pleased with themselves and their quest to prove UFO’s are real.

When asked about the “watchers” most recent sighting, Buehler pulls out a silver, hard-bound log book and reads the following: “It was just before dawn Wednesday when we spotted a formation of low flying lights that buzzed by the coast. It’s the usual, dozens of lights. And, then afterwards we all felt a warm breeze off the ocean. It was sort of comforting on a cold and windy morning,” the UFO watcher explained.

Having a “close-encounter” is real for many

Buehler said he remembers feeling numb, as if his feelings were paralyzed when he had his first close encounter at the age of 24. Now, at age 78, Buehler thinks “it’s time.”

“It’s time for sure. This is not a nightmare beyond anything I’ve ever encountered. It’s a coming home of sorts. They (aliens) are coming home, and this is where we are right now in history,” says Buehler while peering out across the Pacific Ocean from his favorite vantage point at Stonefield.

Researchers from nearby Oregon State University in Corvallis have noted something very strange happening recently along the beaches here at Stonefield.

For the past few weeks this region of the central Oregon coast has been dubbed “death on the beach,” as tens of thousands of starfish washed-up dead. Then, sea lions started dying in massive numbers and they too washed up on the beaches. And, today, Nov. 19, there’s thousands of beached and dead jellyfish here at Stonefield and up and down the coast.

Buehler and his band of a dozen or more UFO “watchers” are not surprised.

“Look over at my grandson James who’s sitting right near a massive grouping of dead sea life. You never see such large groups like that. And, note the display along Stonefield, as if the aliens are saying ‘take notice,’ for something new is dawning in their relationship to humans,” added Buehler.

Heinlein predicted “first contact” in the early 21st century

In fact, the late great science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein is famous for saying “Earth is too small a basket for mankind to keep all its eggs in.”
Robert Heinlein has rock star status in the world of science fiction. In fact, Heinlein, Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clarke were once known as the “Big Three” of science fiction writing and predictions. All three of these top world authors said UFO’s “are real.”

Heinlein said “alien life has been here since the beginning of man’s existence on Earth, and that a visit to cyberspace “is like a visit to the collective consciousness of not only our world, but the aliens who made this cyberspace possible.”

Prior to his death on May 8, 1988, Heinlein was dubbed “the dean of all science fiction writers” because he was not only the most popular, influential and controversial authors of his genre – because he believed UFO’s and aliens were here walking the Earth – but because he set such a high standard for “science and engineering plausibility.”

Because Heinlein was so well respected, the U.S. House and Senate asked him to appear before a special “Joint Committee” investigating both UFO sightings and the author’s theory that aliens were living among Earthlings and doing both good and bad things for mankind.

However, just prior to this special session of Congress to hear what’s what from the world’s leading authority on extraterrestrial life, Heinlein was suddenly stricken in his sleep from reported “emphysema and heart failure.”

After his death, his wife Virginia Heinlein tried to jump start her late husband’s call to the world about UFO’s and alien life both happening now and real on the planet Earth, but with the experts death, so did the same interest that is today capturing the world’s attention when it comes to this recent rash of credible UFO sightings around the world.

At the same time, the mathematician and physicist Story Musgrave noted during his Space Shuttle flight at the age of 61 that looking down on the Earth from space it’s more than highly possible that other life exists out there.

Musgrave spent more than 1,281 hours in space and speaks about alien life not just as a leading scientist but someone who’s had that unique perspective to view our Earth and it’s place in the Galaxy from the Space Shuttle.

Stonefield and other UFO sites call out to those who want to believe

While this remote state park that’s simply called “Stonefield” by UFO fans is one place in Oregon that UFO’s are spotted as common as local seagulls, there’s hundreds of other locations throughout the state and the Pacific Northwest for UFO watchers to check out.

Stonefield sits along the Pacific Ocean and near the coastal rainforest is where, say local UFO experts, “aliens will show themselves.”

Over the years, and especially during the Fall season of late November, Stonefield is the place to “hang out” for college students from nearby Eugene and Corvallis who attend the University of Oregon and Oregon State University.

“We believe, sure. But we want to confirm all this UFO stuff, so we stop at Stonefield for a laugh and hopefully something more,” said one student.

At the same time, the Geminids is one of the best meteor showers of the year in early December.

Buehler said “it never seems to disappoint observers who like to camp out at Stonefield with their telescopes to watch both the Geminids and various UFO’s that seem to streak by on a regular basis.”

In fact, the best time to have a “close encounter” with known UFO visitors is “when the Geminids arrives,” explains a local UFO hunter who asked not to be identified. “They are not usually seen with the naked eye. Yet, when one really looks, they’re there as clear as day.”

The “Geminids” reference by Oregon coast UFO experts is the annual meteor shower that seems to arrive each fall and winter season with bright colored lights in the sky that this UFO hunter dubs as the “alien’s rainbow.”

At the same time, more and more visitors to the central Oregon coast – from Eugene and surrounding areas – are querying locals on the coast about UFO sightings.

“It’s strange but one would expect a tourist to ask about the best seafood place, or where to walk the beach without paying a park fee. But, lately with the rash of UFO sightings in Oregon and just about everywhere else, they want to know where such and such is because of these UFO’s,” says Yachats local Derek Leonard while shaking his head in almost disbelief.

Leonard and other Yachats residents have even thought about marketing coastal “UFO sightings.”

“Well they do a bang-up business over in Roswell, don’t they,” quipped Leonard. “I’m sure we can get our chamber of commerce to gin something up.”

UFO sightings increasing worldwide but still no proof

There have been tens of thousands of various systematic studies of unidentified flying objects (UFOs) over the years. For example, the Air Force “Project Blue Book” studies began in 1952 and ended in 1969 with nearly 13,000 UFO reports collected and analyzed.

The conclusion is there’s “no evidence” of “unidentified” extraterrestrial vehicles. Instead, the Air Force report pointed to “natural phenomena,” such as clouds and weather balloons as the cause for these UFO sightings.

Moreover, NASA’s “Spaceguard” program has an annual funding in the billions to spot and catalog threatening asteroids that may hit the planet and to check out possible UFO’s. The European Space Agency also spends billions searching the skies for dangers from outer space.

Oregon is a state of UFO believers because sightings are a common occurrence

Here in Oregon, there’s such people as Paul Slovic who’s considered a pioneer in something called “risk-perception research.” Slovic is a professor of psychology at the University of Oregon.

One of Slavic’s is “catastrophic potential” that could come from killer asteroids or aliens from outer space. Since the 1970’s, Slovic and his research team have queried people about what risks there are in life. Not surprising, the risk of being hit by space debris or being taken up in a flying saucer is on people’s minds.

In addition, the Oregon coast has long been associated with UFO encounters due to such things as the geologic oddity of rock formations along the coast that some say are makers for UFO visits.

Also, reports from numerous UFO watch groups say “UFO sightings are increasing in the U.S. and worldwide. In addition, close encounter reports “are now as common as local weather reports.”

Various UFO surveys in both the U.S. and Europe this year, point to more than half the people polled as believing in them. “With record numbers of unexplained objects being spotted in the skies over Britain this past Saturday night. There’s a huge majority of us reckon alien life exists somewhere in the universe, even if it has yet to touch down on Earth,” states recent media reports out of England.

While local Oregon coast parks service volunteer Peter Kinney thinks such talk is “poppy-cock,” the senior citizen also notes “there’s always been something strange about Stonefield.”

In fact, Stonefield is perhaps the most secluded and exclusive of the central Oregon coast parks.

There are formally declassified documents at a nearby Newport historic museum points to a period during World War II and then in the late 1950’s when “the U.S. government installed numerous secret look out facilities in the area around Cape Perpetua.”

What’s interesting to local UFO hunters is that one of these “stone” lookout bunkers still sits near the top of Cape Perpetua that looks right down on Stonefield Beach.

When describing Stonefield Beach, locals have lots to say.

“It’s sort of prehistoric. There’s remains of whales, sea lions and the only place that I know of along the coast where you see dozens of wild rabbits that are huge in size,” says Kinney. “And, there are these people who camp out and burn fires amongst the Stonefield rock formations that’s creepy.”

At Stonefield, there are no popular beach spots or shops or restaurants.

“There’s just death on the beach and the place reeks to high heaven. It’s as if someone or something doesn’t want the locals or tourists to visit there,” says coastal resident Mackenzie Ryan.

Moreover, Ryan notes “these strange lights and an eerie glow that seems to light up everything around. You see the light on the drift wood that litters the Stonefield beach, and you see it in the sky over the mountains that sit right behind this beach spot. There’s no place like it.”

Along a grassy hill there sits — in the sea of rocks – what can only be described as mounds of formed and hardened sand. “We can’t explain it. It’s these small mounds and the crazy glow on everything at Stonefield that spooks us at this time of the year.”

Oregon coast served as story location for first X-Files episode

At the same time, there are more and more urban myths about the Oregon coast and UFO sightings. And, the popular TV show and movie series the “X-Files” hasn’t helped to squelch such rumors.

In fact, the X-Files is based on fact along with fiction. The X-Files pointed to crop circles as being commonly cited as “evidence of alien visits.” The program also noted that the discovery of life-supporting water in the form of ice on Mars is proof that alien life exists in our universe.

Moreover, in the pilot for the highly successful X-Files series, Dana Scully is assigned to work with Fox Mulder, who’s an FBI agent that specializes in the paranormal. Together, they travel to the central Oregon coast and Stonefield where Mulder believes several teenagers have been abducted by aliens.

While this sounds farfetched, locals say it actually happened, and will continue to happen now that Nov. 19 has arrived – via the official start of UFO watch season along the Oregon coast.

BRAY’S POINT, Ore. – They can’t be moved; even when yanked by a four-wheel drive truck pulling on heavy chains tied around these humming metal boxes that are still appearing as of Feb. 8 up and down West Coast beaches.

As of late afternoon Feb. 8, Bill Hanshumaker, a public marine specialist and (Ph.D) doctor of marine science at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in nearby Newport, told Huliq in an interview that, “I don’t know what they are.” In turn, Doctor Hanshumaker said he’s advised “surf monitoring” about these strange metal boxes that suddenly appeared along local beaches Feb. 6, and now seem to be multiplying like Star Trek “Tribbles.” The photograph that accompanies this report – taken during the afternoon of Feb. 8 near Bray’s Point — of yet another strange metal box stuck in the surf up is one of a possible group of a dozen or more that have been sited up and down West Coast beaches. Meanwhile, the British government also photographed similar huge metal boxes on beaches in Sri Lanka in the late 1990’s and in early 2004 and 2005. The discovery of the boxes is detailed in updated previously classified reports from the British government that document sightings of unidentified flying objects by both the military and the general public dating back to the 1950s.

UFO history filled with “mystery boxes”

Thus, within these British government UFO files, available via the Internet, are the Sri Lanka beach boxes that are similar in both size, coloring and shape; with locals all along Sri Lanka’s beaches – located in the blue waters of the Indian Ocean and the Bay of Bengal – stating in the recently released British UFO documents that “the strange metal boxes appeared suddenly, and after numerous reported UFO sightings.”

In turn, the metal boxes along Oregon, Washington State and Northern California beaches are now being photographed, documented and examined by local experts.

Also, due to recent storms out in the Pacific Ocean, the “boxes” are being more or less ignored; with passing comments in local coastal newspaper,” state Errol, a Bray’s Point local and a member of the Oregon UFO “watchers” group that gathers both here and at nearby Stonefield Beach to scan the sky for flying objects in much the same way bird lovers use binoculars for birth watching.

Science is slow in reacting to UFO related objects

Errol notes that it’s always a sort of “communication breakdown” that always seems to go the same way; be it a UFO sighting or even something like “these humming metal boxes.”

However, Errol said it’s a good thing “when something like this becomes interesting to the Oregon State University Research Agenda.” For instance, Doctor Hanshumaker works for this OSU research enterprise at the nearby Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon. Whenever there’s some dead sea life – such as a beach whale or other something along the lines of massive dead sea birds – the experts at the Hatfield are called in to investigate.

When asked if he’s ever heard of anything like these huge metal boxes, with no opening or seam, Doctor Hanshumaker would not comment or speculate on the record. Instead, this marine science expert has for photos of the boxes and size and coloring details.

In turn, Doctor Hanshumaker would not speculate about various rumors regarding the boxes; but said that an alert has gone out and the boxes are being investigated. Of course, Huliq will continue to monitor this breaking story that has local coastal residents and visitors scratching their heads about the boxes.

Bray’s Point monitored by the Hatfield

An hour’s drive from Corvallis, the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport is OSU’s coastal campus for research and investigation of marine biological and geochemical aspects of tidal, estuarine, and near shore ocean environments. According to it’s fact sheet, “research programs at HMSC advance scientific understanding of marine and coastal ecosystems, with an emphasis on collaboration across disciplinary and institutional affiliations of the more than 300 personnel onsite.”

In turn, marine science experts are tasked by both the state and federal government to monitor the Oregon coastal beaches even more so today after the Japan earthquake last March that sent Tsunami waves racing across the Pacific Ocean that slammed into the West Coast causing destruction and creating a massive amount of debris that seems to be growing daily as beach trekkers find “all sorts of things” along the coast.

While these strange metal boxes have been examined for any lettering or symbols that they may be from last year’s earthquake in Japan, Errol and other Bray’s Point locals say “all we know is there’s been a lot of action in the sky as of late with UFO sightings that seem to be increasing. The boxes were found the day after several sightings and bright lights over Bray’s Point. The boxes have no identification at all.”

Monitoring the coast comes under OSU

Earning $261.7 million in external research funding in FY 2011, Oregon State’s fact online fact sheet that describes its operations notes “it is one of only two land, sea, space and sun grant institutions in the U.S., and holds a top tier research designation from the Carnegie Foundation. Also, Nine of OSU’s academic programs have ranked among the top 10 nationally in the past three years. Faculty include 29 NSF Early Career Award recipients since 2000, two MacArthur Foundation Fellows and scientists who lead federal programs at NSF, NASA and NOAA. More than 35 present and past faculty have been elected as Fellows of AAAS, and five as members of NAS.”

In turn, the Hatfield Marine Science Center is home base for the Coastal Oregon Marine Experiment Station (COMES), the Cooperative Institute for Marine Resources Studies (CIMRS), and the Marine Mammal Institute, along with various other OSU and state/federal agency units

This handout image from NASA, one of the first images from the Curiosity rover which landed on Mars the evening …

A mysterious blotch that appeared along the horizon in a photo from the surface of Mars stirred speculation about what it might be, as two hours later it was gone.

One image from the Curiosity rover as it landed on the fourth planet from the sun showed a “faint but distinctive” image on the horizon, the Los Angeles Times reported. However, a subsequent batch of images sent from the unmanned rover two hours later showed no trace of the blotch.

One theory put forth by space enthusiasts in the L.A. Times story is that Curiosity had somehow snapped a photo of part of the spacecraft that escorted the rover through the Martian atmosphere crash-landing a distance away.

But to capture that image “would be an insane coincidence,” one engineer told the newspaper.

Others say more feasible possibilities would be simply dirt on the lens, or maybe a dust devil twisting far in the distance.

But as more images start to pour into NASA, more is being learned about the rover’s pinpoint landing.

In what some are dubbing the “crime scene” photo of the landing zone taken by another satellite, Curiosity is seen on the ground along with pieces of the spacecraft that broke apart as planned on the way to the surface. The photo reveals the heat shield that protected the rover as it entered the atmosphere and the parachute that helped ease the vehicle onto Mars. Also seen are parts of the “sky crane,” the spacecraft that carried the rover to the planet, the article noted.

Could the sky crane crashing be the blotch? From another L.A. Times story:

The crime scene photo showed that the sky crane had crash-landed, as designed, about 2,000 feet away—and in the same direction that Curiosity’s camera was pointed when it snapped the first photo showing the blotch. The new satellite photo also showed that the sky crane, when it crash-landed, kicked up a violent wave of dirt that had scarred the surface of Mars.

Curiosity mission manager Michael Watkins told the Times if it were the case, “it would be incredibly cool. … A crazy, serendipitous thing.”

Images from Mars have always fueled curiosity.

Remember what folks thought was a huge face on Mars? An image from Viking 1 in 1976 that appeared to show a rock formation with eyes, a nose and a mouth? Later high-resolution imaging and side-by-side analysis proved the “face” to be a mesa, like the flat-topped natural formations found in the southwestern U.S.

As the Curiosity rover readies to begin the scientific discovery part of the mission, maybe more interesting things will be revealed.

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.