UFO Clearinghouse

San Diego Man Seeks to Spread the UFO 'Gospel'

2011-07-05T09:24:00.002-05:00

Add another one to our "to be played in the movie by Jeff Bridges" list.

Over twenty years after snapping a photo that appears to show a small fleet of unidentified objects, Mike Orrell continues to believe that this is the work of extraterrestrial life forms. At first I thought this was going to be a standard "I'm not sure what I saw, but I saw something and I believe we aren't alone in the universe" sort of UFO believer, but it turns out he has much more specific ideas about the life forms in question, their nature, and their intentions toward the human race:

He’s explored connections between the objects in his photo and relics from ancient cultures and believes there are higher levels of civilization out there. He thinks something cataclysmic will happen to our planet next year. And that UFOs will transport the worthy to safety.

“I’ve been given a great gift that I have been trying to share,” he said. “I believe I was chosen to spread the UFO gospel and to my dying day that’s what I’m going to do.”

I know what you're thinking: "This guy must have one very understanding girlfriend." Yes he does:

Spielvogel, his girlfriend, said Orrell has “a big heart” and is passionate about trying to help mankind. A lab assistant in a cancer-research facility, she thinks the stuff about the world ending next year “is pretty far out there,” but she also doesn’t think we’re alone.

“I believe the universe is so big there’s got to be other things besides us,” she said.

At the end of the article, it's time for the skeptic to chime in with the standard skeptic viewpoint, which I think in this case carries a lot of weight:

“It’s the manifestation of deliberate ignorance,” he said. “Our culture has developed to the point where we choose to believe what we want to believe.”

Given the strange image we are confronted with, I think it's very reasonable and understandable to speculate the possibility of extraterrestrial visitors. After all, these dots could be just about anything, and alien spacecraft fall under the "just about anything" category. However, given the flimsiness of the evidence, it seems that drawing any sort of conclusions is a matter of wishful thinking. Ideas aren't correct just because they're attractive or reassuring.

UFO Mothership Over London

2011-06-29T10:26:00.004-05:00

Life's Little Mysteries and Fox News, among others, point us to this video on YouTube of an alleged UFO mothership and several smaller craft circling around and ducking behind the clouds above the city of London. Life's Little Mysteries points how that this sort of video - which includes featureless, white shapes - would be easy for an amateur to fake.

Argentina UFO images captured with cell phone cam

2009-09-15T10:21:00.004-05:00

Via Inexplicata - A man in Argentina claims to have snapped these photos with a cell phone camera at the beach.

British National Archives release more UFO files

2009-08-18T12:59:00.002-05:00

Available online for thirty days only, newly-released files from the Ministry of Defense regarding UFO sightings and investigations. I've only started skimming, and it makes for very interesting reading. Also included with the files is a highlights guide and a video podcast.

Saucer craft transported down Dallas highway on flatbeds

2009-08-17T12:43:00.003-05:00

From UFO Examiner (link courtesey Coast to Coast AM) - This video shows a series of objects resembling saucer UFOs being transported down a Dallas highway with police escort. You know, the most dangerous part of an interstellar journey is the highway trip from the landing site.

UFO news videos on "Authentic UFO's" blog

2009-08-13T11:40:00.002-05:00

Hillel Abrahams sent me a link to his blog, Authentic UFO's, where he posts news reports and video clips pertaining to the UFO phenomenon.

Spaceship-like objects on Google Sky

2009-04-08T20:43:00.001-05:00

This video on YouTube shows objects that might look to a person with a fertile imagination like spaceships. A quick look at other video uploads from user "SpaceTomorrow" brings up this darling bit of interstellar rapture bible fan-fic, describing God's plan to wormhole the chosen ones off to heaven (represented as a spiral galaxy) or to another place (also a spiral galaxy, but I suppose a less heavenly one) while the Earth gets bashed by a comet.

MUFON UFO tracking map

2009-04-06T20:08:00.004-05:00

The Mutual UFO Network has a live internet feed of reported UFO sightings, including an interactive Google map. The interface is a little weird on my netbook (I have to click reload to close the event details box) but a fun, little tool nonetheless. All the little UFO icons scattered about the United States causes one to imagine an airspace teeming with extraterrestrial visitors.

The feed is also on RSS here.

Morristown, NJ UFOs explained

2009-04-06T08:32:00.003-05:00

Newsweek's Lab Notes blog writes about the hoaxers who caused the mysterious red lights pictured above to fly over New Jersey in January.

They cooked up a spaceship hoax “to show everyone how unreliable eyewitness accounts are, along with investigators of UFOs.” They used five feet of fishing line to tie flares to each of five three-foot helium balloons and launched them from a field on Jan. 5, 2009. “Once all five balloons were ready for takeoff (with our fingers on the verge of frost bite),” they write, “we struck the 15-minute flares and released them into the sky in increments of fifteen seconds,” filming the UFOs as they floated away.

The blog post includes video of a news story from January, as well as a link to segments on Google Video showing exactly how they did it.

Update from New Jersey Star-Ledger: Morris County prosecutor filing disorderly person charges against these two men.

Top UFO hotspots in the U.S.

2009-02-20T10:06:00.002-06:00

Popular Mechanics has posted a helpful map showing counties with the greatest number of UFO reports (1947-2005) along with air traffic control boundaries and grey spots that mark "special use airspace". The accompanying article includes tips on how to report a UFO as well as things to consider before you make such a report ("Is it Venus?").

Video of British UFO

2009-02-19T08:19:00.002-06:00

The Sun reports on a UFO spotted by holidaymakers on the British coastline. The full article, including video, is available on their website.

Strange glow over Minnesota

2009-02-17T08:15:00.004-06:00

Astronomy Picture of the Day calls our attention to this strange, orange glow photographed by a passenger on an airplane landing in Minneapolis, MN. The photographer's hypothesis is sunset-illuminated raindrops. What do you think?

Wichita UFO report with photo

2009-02-10T10:38:00.002-06:00

From the Kansas City Star: This image was capture by an amateur photographer who observed a craft flying over Wichita, Kansas, which he described as producing a hum like that of a jet but, "It didn't sound like one of these jets that I hear all the time.... It was much quieter, much quieter."

DaVinci and UFOs

2009-02-09T08:20:00.002-06:00

UFO Examiner posts a highly speculative piece about the possible influence of UFOs upon the work of Leonardo daVinci and other Renaissance thinking fellows. It is already known that a mysterious, alien figure commissioned da Vinci to paint not one but seven Mona Lisas.

British military fails to shoot down UFOs

2009-01-29T09:39:00.004-06:00

Expert: "I do believe we will bring one down."

Artist's rendering of successful shoot-down of a UFO by the RAF

From The Sun, UK:

Nick Pope — who worked on the Ministry of Defence's UFO desk for three years — revealed the rules of engagement for the first time.

He claimed RAF pilots had fired at UFOs on several occasions — but failed to bring them down.

He added: "We know of cases where the order has been given to shoot down — with little effect to the UFO."

Mr Pope said the rules of engagement were drawn up after dozens of close encounters with suspect craft in British airspace.

. . .
He added: "I do believe we will bring one down. We're developing increasingly sophisticated weapons."

Possible UFO hit-and-run at British wind farm

2009-01-13T13:22:00.003-06:00

The above is an artist's rendering of the incident as it may have occurred.

From the Daily Telegraph (UK):

One of the turbine's 65-foot blades came off and another was damaged at the site, on the same night that local residents reported seeing orange-yellow spheres in the sky, which some described as trailing octopus-like "tentacles".

Ecotricity, the company that owns the wind farm near Louth, has yet to find an explanation for the damage.

But managers are believed to be concerned UFO enthusiasts will scour the site for debris, so have decided to restrict access.

(Link)

Incredible, flying Christmas tree caught on video over Sacramento, CA

2008-11-26T06:00:00.001-06:00

ABC affiliate News10 in Sacramento had their chopper in the air to cover high school football and ended up capturing something far more interesting. (Yes, I suppose if high school football is your basis for comparison, accidentally leaving on the lens cap would yield hair-raising footage.) If you click to watch the video to the right of the story, you'll see a dazzling object that looks like something from Clark Griswald's front yard holiday display whizzing through the air as the news chopper pursues.

Diamond-shaped objects over Austin, TX

2008-11-24T13:10:00.003-06:00

The Austin Planetarium is looking into frequent, recent UFO sightings captured on video by local man Carl Lancaster. The Fox 7 news story is available on YouTube, made available by UFO Blog with the uncut UFO footage added to the end of the video.

In other UFO news, British paper The Sunday Mercury reports that a police helicopter had a rather harrowing encounter with a UFO over Birmingham.

Strange aurora over Saturn's north pole

2008-11-19T09:58:00.004-06:00

The Cassini spacecraft - while intrepidly carrying out its mission of pointing a camera at Saturn and its moons from as many angles as possible, like a college-aged drinking enthusiast hosing himself down with a can of Axe body spray before hitting the bars - has found what the Astronomy Picture of the Day blog calls "aurora unlike any other seen previously in our Solar System."
It's fascinating how in this image the aurora in question appears to form a dome over the already mysterious hexagonal cloud formation at Saturn's increasingly mysterious north pole. Insane speculation being par for the course in Ufology, I can't help but imagine all this hubub being caused by some powerful, alien technology beneath those clouds.

Best Pics from UK UFO Archive

2008-10-22T08:50:00.002-05:00

Britain's Telegraph.co.uk culled the archive of close encounters released by the Ministry of Defense for the most compelling illustrations and eyewitness testimonies.

Most Americans think we aren't alone in the universe

2008-07-16T08:08:00.004-05:00

From Scripps News:

Most Americans say it is very likely or somewhat likely that humans are not alone in the universe and that intelligent life exists on other planets.

Only a third of adults, however, believe it's either very likely or somewhat likely that intelligent aliens from space have visited our planet, according to a survey of 1,003 adults conducted by Scripps Howard News Service and Ohio University.

Backyard UFO

2008-05-25T11:46:00.003-05:00

I had gotten bored with this blog and hadn't posted for a while. UFOs just didn't seem all that interesting to me anymore... until I started seeing objects like the one pictured above in my backyard.

The Spider-man is always hungry

2008-03-18T10:54:00.002-05:00

The video for "Lullabye" by The Cure bears notable resemblance to common alien abduction scenarios. This brings up all sorts of questions. Just what do we know about Spider-man? Is he extraterrestrial in origin? Does he mean us harm?

PEI UFO

2008-03-07T08:37:00.003-06:00

CBC News/Canada - The Ufology Research Centre in Winnipeg has been unable to identify this smoky spiral seen over Prince Edward Island on Boxing Day. (The story includes video.)

Other Headlines:

Gold Coast News/Australia - Experts baffled by orange UFO (No pictures. Damn.)

American Chronicle/America - Did you know that some people believe that the United Nations had a secret meeting regarding UFOs in February of this year?

Jim Sparks: Alleged abductee

2008-03-06T21:28:00.000-06:00

Jim Sparks has a very detailed story of being abducted by aliens frequently throughout this adult life. I was listening to Mysterious Universe while cleaning my bathroom a couple of months ago, when I heard him relate some of his experiences and promote his book.

Sparks was also on Coast to Coast AM in 2006, and the C2C website has illustrations of his experience, such as the image above, wherein the greys attempt to extract semen from the prone abductee.

Will we find ETs within the lifetime of our civilization?

2008-03-05T12:53:00.000-06:00

From the New York Times, an article about the progress that has been made - and hasn't been made - toward refining the variables in the Drake Equation. The Drake Equation was created in 1961 in an attempt to get some idea of what chance we have of contacting intelligent life from other worlds.

This articles links to an interactive Drake eqution at MSNBC's website. They don't actually write the Drake Equation out for you after you plug in the numbers, but I suppose it's all just multiplying fractions.

Venusian spacecraft hoax, 1952

2008-03-04T09:53:00.000-06:00

The Museum of Hoaxes has a fun slideshow that takes readers through the history of photographic hoaxes. Above is an image of a Venusian spacecraft, which George Adamski purported to have taken in 1952, having made contact travellers from our sister planet:

Adamski worked as a soft-drinks salesman, and skeptics have noted a suggestive
similarity between the scoutcraft and the top of a particular brand of soft-drinks cooler.

Also featured in the slideshow: Ghosts, fairies, giant produce, and baby Hitler.

UFO over Portsmouth

2008-03-03T13:41:00.001-06:00

Weblog Cosmic Paradigm notes this UFO spotted over Portsmouth in Britain. Interestingly, the Ministry of Defense quote in this article is the same as in The Sun, pertaining to a different set of UFO snapshots from London:

"The MoD examines reports solely to establish whether UK airspace may have been compromised by hostile or unauthorised military activity.

"Unless there is evidence of a potential threat, there is no attempt to identify the nature of each sighting reported."

I would venture to guess there is a document somewhere in the Ministry of Defense where you can cut and paste this quote to respond to journalists' emails.

Thanks to Mysterious Universe, both for calling attention to these sightings on their website and for consistently bringing the weird in their weekly podcast.

Aliens have telepathic powers; you should construct a special hat

2008-02-29T09:57:00.000-06:00

According to stopabductions.com, one need fear no alien abduction when wearing a special, home-made helmet:

The very large brain of this alien gives it enormous telepathic/mind control powers. It comes to earth with no protection or weapons, relying solely on its telepathic ability to control and abduct humans. When humans wear a thought screen helmet the alien's telepathic ability is neutralized and it withdraws.

O'Hare 2006: A mass sighting awaits compelling video/photos

2008-02-28T13:23:00.001-06:00

On November 7th, 2006, numerous witnesses claim to have seen a UFO over O'Hare airport in Chicago. According to eyewitness accounts, the dark grey object hovered over the airport before flying away, punching a hole in the low clouds. The above image comes from ufosightings.ca, though reliable pictures of the object itself prove elusive.

Dan Aykroyd, SNL alum and UFO enthusiast, claims to have come into possession of compelling video of the incident, but we'll have to wait until he releases his documentary to see the exclusive footage.

Know Your Neighborhood: The 11 Planets

2008-02-27T20:28:00.003-06:00

Salon's Machinist blog notes an interesting mnemonic device for remembering the planets of our solar system, including the dwarf planets Ceres, Pluto, and Eris.

Cars and UFOs

2008-02-25T16:09:00.003-06:00

Driving.ca, a Canadian website dedicated to all things automotive, has a relatively informative and even-handed article about drivers' UFO experiences. The piece quotes generously from Bufo Calvin, education director for the Organization for Paranormal Understanding and Support (OPUS).

Finding Distant Plantetery Systems

2008-02-25T16:06:00.000-06:00

This image from the Astronomy Picture of the Day is an artist's illustration of what BLG-109 - a planetary system recently discovered using the technique of gravitational microlensing - might look like:

Recently a detailed analysis of microlensing system OGLE-2006-BLG-109 has related brightness variations to two planets that are similar to Jupiter and Saturn of our own Solar System. This discovery carries the tantalizing implication that interior planets, possibly including Earth-like planets, might also be common.

UFO briefs

2008-02-22T15:23:00.000-06:00

icseftonandwestlancs/Wales - Some old Welsh villagers recall the sighting of a giant, cigar-shaped UFO in 1977. It seems that no one took any photographs. Was it from another dimension? Wild speculation is important in any investigation.

Wakefield Express/UK - "Fighting crime and watching the sky for extra terrestrial visitors is all in a day's work for one Wakefield detective."

UFO Digest/Canada - "Aliens have secrets, yet their UFOs are as common as automobiles on earth." I hope you've been vaccinated against crazy. I could only choke down one page of this three-page editorial. It seems to fall under the UFOs as benevolent gods/angels category.

The classic case of Billy Meier

2008-02-21T15:21:00.000-06:00

Billy Meier has been communicating with aliens since he was a little, Swiss farm boy in 1942. He has produced thousands of photographs of his humanoid, extraterrestrial friends and their ships. These photos include the breathtaking example above, as well as the absolutely ludicrous image below.
Meier's American media representative, Michael Horn, appeared on Coast to Coast AM in January to speak with George Noory and someone (seemingly a true believer) has kindly posted this appearance on YouTube. The Coast to Coast AM website posted a number of photographs related to this case, including the chrome-plated IKEA birthday cake pictured above.

UFO museum to open in Russia

2008-02-20T10:30:00.000-06:00

Via Russia InfoCentre, which appears to be a website to encourage Russian tourism.

The Russian city of Togliatty has all chances to turn into the country’s main
centre of paranormal tourism. In the nearest future it is planned to open an UFO
museum here and to construct special tourist settlements where travellers could
spend nights awaiting for aliens.

It is unfortunate that the article completely fails to give specific context for the UFO photo that accompanies the text.

Indiana Jones, Area 51, Roswell, and Weedmaster P

2008-02-20T08:16:00.001-06:00

Today's Overcompensating comic strip is about all that good ol' Roswell hullabaloo.

Grantham, UK sighting has lifelike illustration

2008-02-19T16:43:00.001-06:00

From the Grantham Journal:

A UFO spotter is certain alien crafts are in the skies above Grantham- and fears they have sinister plans.
Allan Spick, 69, of Great Gonerby, has seen five UFO's in the past five years from the window of his home in Belvoir Gardens.
The most recent was in the early hours of Saturday, February 8.

Guy Named "Clowd Nyne" Spots Florida UFO

2008-02-18T15:17:00.001-06:00

Raw video from WFTV/Orlando - A camera crew spotted this UFO over Tampa on January 20th. The original WFTV story mentioned that the "fireballs" seemed to defy the laws of physics. The network now notes on their website that this has been identified as part of an air show during Tampa's annual Gasparilla Pirate Festival. I guess no one consulted a physicist (or a scientist of any sort, or a calendar) before the original story was reported.

Looking for Aliens in the Microscopic World

2008-02-15T17:17:00.000-06:00

In a noble attempt to catch up on the backlog of Scientific American magazines building up on my house, I came across an article from the December issue about searching for "alien" life here on Earth. The SciAm website has a slideshow with some beautiful and weird artist's conceptions of how these unusual microbes might look.
The idea is that if life is likely to come into existence given certain conditions, then it's possible it could have happened more than once on Earth. SciAm explores how there could be life that functions in biochemically different ways from our own:

Researchers have hypothesized that in alien organisms arsenic could successfully fill the biochemical role that phosphorus plays for known life-forms. Arsenic is poisonous to us because it mimics phosphorus so well; similarly, phosphorus would be poisonous to an arsenic-based organism.

Also interesting to consider is that if scientists were to discover a form of life on Earth that emerged independently from the rest of life as we know it, this would be a good indication in favor of the possibility of extraterrestrial life, as it would seem to be almost inevitable under certain circumstances.

Stephensville UFOs Story Continues

2008-02-14T17:01:00.000-06:00

KDFW/Dallas-Fort Worth continues coverage of the Stephensville UFO sightings. The number of witnesses coming forward, as well as the credibility of some of the individuals involved, have really kept this story going. Above is a still image of one of the purported UFOs. The link goes to a video that provides a pretty good summary of the situation so far in about five minutes.

I hope none of the witnesses takes the "dubious" tag on this post the wrong way. In UFO Clearinghouse parlance, dubious simply refers to the likelihood of the involvement of alien intelligence, not whether or not someone is honestly describing something mysterious they saw in the sky.

I think one of the most interesting things in this clip is when a representative of MUFON (the Mutual UFO Network) says that they've proven that there are UFOs and now they just need to find out what they are. This sounds a bit spooky at first until you think about the fact that what he's saying they've proven is that there are things in the sky that can't be identified. This doesn't sound all that weird, considering the cool puzzling stuff going on in the universe all the time. Though I think it still comes across that he really hopes it's aliens.

UFO lands, sits on top of a hill all day, no pictures

2008-02-13T19:58:00.000-06:00

Mysterious Universe links to this story from Inexplicata, describing an encounter in which a UFO landed in Mexico and then remained where it was for 30 hours while countless witnesses looked on. Despite the amount of time involved, this is the only picture accompanying this story:
Perhaps an inauspicious start for this blog.