John Hodgman: A brief digression on matters of lost time
Perhaps the sweetest discourse on the subject of aliens & earth that you will ever hear — from a 2008 TED talk. (via BoingBoing)
posted by spock on Oct 26, 2008 - 50 comments

Before They Were UFOs, back when the only flying objects were arrows, birds, and clouds, how did people describe them? [more inside]
posted by not_on_display on Oct 21, 2008 - 52 comments

"I can clearly remember people shouting: 'What the hell is that?' I got to a console and people were loudly telling me to look to the east of Salisbury Plain. Twenty miles east of the eastern extremity was a series of returns, or radar blips, which were appearing in that position. There were five of them initially. Then six and then seven all following the same track." Wing Commander Alan Turner MBE was sworn to secrecy after he tracked a series of unidentified objects soaring over southern England at incredible speeds. This is Wing Commanders Turner's account of what he personally observed at RAF Sopley in the summer of l971.
posted by three blind mice on Sep 15, 2008 - 78 comments

With all the crystal skulls, nazca lines and such at the box office these days now might be the ideal time to reacquaint yourself with the theories of Erich von Däniken. What better way to do it than by watching William Shatners Mysteries of the Gods ( Pt. 1, Pt. 2, Pt. 3, Pt. 4, Pt. 5, Pt. 6, Pt. 7, Pt. 8, Pt. 9, Pt. 10)(MULTI LINK YOUTUBE SHATNERFEST)
posted by Artw on Jun 10, 2008 - 28 comments

The UK Ministry of Defence has just released previously classified documents detailing numerous UFO sightings and alien contacts from across the country. Report yours at UFO Watch.
posted by MrMustard on May 14, 2008 - 5 comments

Vatican's chief astronomer states that belief in alien life does not conradict faith in God. Fr. José Gabriel Funes, a Jesuit preist and chief astronomer for the Vatican, stated in an interview in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official newspaper, that, "Just as we consider earthly creatures as 'a brother,' and 'sister,' why should we not talk about an 'extraterrestrial brother'? It would still be part of creation." [more inside]
posted by Snyder on May 14, 2008 - 72 comments

From The Adventures of Twizzle to the reboot of Captain Scarlet - for nearly fifty years - Gerry Anderson made television shows, but is still best remembered for the classic 'Supermarionation' period were, as this documentary shows (1, 2, 3, 4) he really was making the 21st century. [more inside]
posted by fearfulsymmetry on May 9, 2008 - 17 comments

It's official. The aliens are coming. In 2017. Turns out they might like The Beatles after all. The UN is on the case. The Hindus are going to be especially upset.
posted by monospace on Feb 29, 2008 - 21 comments

Nine experienced cross-country skiers hurriedly left their tent on a Urals slope in the middle of the night at around -30 degrees Celsius for no obvious reason, casting aside skis, food, boots and most of their clothes. Soon they would be dead, some with injuries more suited to car crash victims, and apparently dosed with radiation. Their deaths are still unexplained, 49 years later. The Mystery of the Dyatlov Pass Accident. [more inside]
posted by Henry C. Mabuse on Feb 22, 2008 - 122 comments

Staging a UFO crash to attract Men in Black. [more inside]
posted by Effigy2000 on Oct 24, 2007 - 22 comments

Dennis Kucinich had a UFO encounter. [one link newsfilter]. "The smell of roses drew him out to my balcony where, when he looked up, he saw a gigantic triangular craft, silent, and observing him." I guess this sort of puts him in the company of other delusional nutjobs that have seen giant UFOs.
posted by well_balanced on Oct 23, 2007 - 101 comments

Denver International Airport is one of the strangest places in the US. Built in the middle of nowhere and hosting some of the longest runways in the world, DIA has attracted attention not only for it's bizarre layout but for the artwork and masonic tie-ins. The place has been getting some attention again locally.
posted by shockingbluamp on Sep 3, 2007 - 65 comments

"Alienshifter is the one who takes the Oath in order to uphold and defend Humanity and their Rights in any contact with Alien or Extraterrestrial beings in addition to represent the Earth in contact and communication with Star Visitors from all other Planets or in the Council of the Worlds and Federation of Planets." Alienshift is an eclectic conspiracy site, exploring such subjects as islamic ufology, the pole shift of 2012, Edgar Cayce, sufism, Akhenaton as well as the more expected fare, UFO videos, Nostradamus and the bible code. That is only the tip of the iceberg. Lots and lots of youtube videos grace the site of this New Hope for Humanity.
posted by Kattullus on Aug 5, 2007 - 14 comments

We all know the UFO Festival is coming, but with it just a week away also comes fresh news of the crash itself. Walter Haut, the former PR man at Roswell Army Airfield, filled out an affidavit in 1993 detailing his experience with the crash. But nine years later Haut secretly filled out another, much more detailed, affidavit that was to be sealed until after his death. One with much heavier implications. Seeing as how this information was first released in book form, are we looking at a postmortem fame grab or a genuinely guilty conscience?
posted by Roman Graves on Jul 2, 2007 - 13 comments

Surprisingly sensitive alien sex. Skip the first four unfortunate images to get to the good stuff: sweetly erotic alien sex porn. Going gray never looked so hot. [nsfw, duh] [via Nerve's Scanner]
posted by mediareport on Jun 27, 2007 - 105 comments

LOOK UP! (or down, if you happen to be reading from one of these. The annual "Amazing Roswell UFO Festival" happens this weekend, and it looks like people - er, visitors - are coming from all over! Who knew back in 1947 that this little incident would be the start of an entire sub-culture? Well, for me the fascination started with two of the the greatest UFO movies ever. For my grandparents, it started with one of the greatest radio broadcasts ever. But hey, there's no need to rely on fiction when we have one of the most insanely great UFO videos of all time provided by none other than the Mexican Government! Seen anything strange in the sky yourself lately? If so, you'd better report it here.
posted by janetplanet on Jun 26, 2007 - 18 comments

UFO-filter: Odd spine-y and asymmetrical craft spotted over Lake Tahoe, then two days later over Capitola, California.
posted by tomharpel on May 21, 2007 - 96 comments

France's Centre National d'Études Spatiales has unleashed its UFO archives on the internet. (And the internet has been unleashed on CNES' UFO archives). The CNES version of the now trendy UFO-archive-release stunt is a little flashier and a little more romantic than its brethren with a host of pictures, drawings, video and audio and a guaranteed 28% unexplained content. Even the explained phenomenon are interesting in their own way. The AP write-up cites a report where "Experts initially concluded that [a burning object dropping into a field] was part of the propulsion device of a recently launched satellite. Eventually they realized it was a piece of German World War II ordnance that spontaneously exploded four decades after the war." As the archives become more explorable, they promise to reveal strange things that may have visited us, or in the very least, the strange things we and our own habitat are capable of creating.
posted by pokermonk on Mar 23, 2007 - 4 comments

"I know that what I saw and what a lot of other people saw stood out very clearly, and it definitely was not an [Earth] aircraft." A United Airlines mechanic and other witnesses see a disc-shaped object over Concourse C at O'Hare Airport for nearly 20 minutes in afternoon daylight. At least one purported photo of the object has surfaced. NPR interviews the Chicago Tribune reporter who first wrote about the object. The FAA (which claimed to have no information on the incident before a FOIA request forced them to acknowlege it) theorizes the object was a "weather phenomenon" and is conducting no further investigation.
posted by Hat Maui on Feb 10, 2007 - 67 comments

Now that he's left the Ministry of Defense, he wants to warn us how very concerned he is about that huge triangular UFO police and military personnel (and hundreds of civilians) witnessed flying over RAF bases in Shropshire in 1993.
posted by Twang on Nov 11, 2006 - 75 comments

"This may very well be the single greatest biological discovery of our age" - rods, or skyfish, are the subject of a documentary by Jose Escamilla. While some are skeptical, Jose and others aren't dissuaded and Kozo Ichikawa claims to catch them bare-handed. Japanese TV reports, and USA's unit 13 investigates. Heres a guide to photographing them or filming, or buy an instructional video and rod-rod, known as a spoodle and try to catch some yourself.
posted by MetaMonkey on Oct 17, 2006 - 43 comments

Directory of UFO/aliens/crop circle videos. From the really lame fakes to the completely misinterpreted (watch the time counter) to the kind of neat to watch, but not exactly any sort of proof.
posted by Kickstart70 on Oct 14, 2006 - 19 comments

The UK has released the secret UFO files held by the Ministry of Defence under the Freedom of Information Act.

Their conclusion: Unidentified Aerial Phenomena exist but should no longer be monitored.

US UFO files here and Russian spottings discussed here

Time to break out the foil hats!
posted by dogsbody on May 29, 2006 - 29 comments

Betty and Barney Hill's Bogus Journey: "This is one of the most well known and most historically important cases of alien abduction of all time, mainly because it's all baloney. However, it was well televised baloney, and that brought UFO abductions, and the little gray men that the Hills reported seeing, into the mainstream of popular culture."
posted by furiousxgeorge on Feb 13, 2006 - 44 comments

Nutjobs all over America have reported seeing aliens silently wafting over their trailerparks in big ass triangular spaceships. Could the truth to these sightings be a little closer to home?
posted by zeoslap on Feb 6, 2006 - 50 comments

Recent video of exploding UFO shot in Sonora, CA. I'm not a UFO nut, but this sighting's different. Thought y'all might enjoy it. Did I mention the UFO explodes? And it's definitely not a meteor.
posted by tritisan on Jan 21, 2006 - 63 comments

The "Battle of Los Angeles" occurred on February 24/25, 1942, when a large object was picked up on radar approximately 120 miles off the southern California coastline. Fearing another Japanese attack, a general blackout was called and fighter planes were dispatched to combat the unknown assailant.

Three hours later, the planes were recalled. Witnesses reported furious fighting but no sightings of downed planes were noted. The Navy claimed there were no enemy planes; the Army put out the story (embedded sound) that Japanese spy planes were indeed present. Subsequent investigations revealed that the invasion was most likely a weather balloon. Other opinions were also expressed.
posted by DeepFriedTwinkies on Jan 12, 2006 - 25 comments

What is it, Mulder? This website claims to feature many of the best UFO photographs ever taken. They are dated as far back as 1870 to present day. ET phone home!
posted by sjvilla79 on Jan 7, 2006 - 73 comments

KGB's secret UFO files finally made public Files comprising the famous Blue Folder have been declassified a while ago. The prominent Soviet cosmonaut Pavel Popovich got the folder from the KGB in 1991. These days Mr. Popovich holds the position of honorary president of the Academy of Informational and Applied Ufology. The folder contains numerous descriptions of UFO flights and reports on some (mostly failed) attempts taken by the military in order to catch the aliens.
posted by Postroad on Jan 2, 2006 - 101 comments

“Time is on the side of open disclosure that there are ethical Extraterrestrial civilizations visiting Earth. Our Canadian government needs to openly address these important issues of the possible deployment of weapons in outer war plans against ethical ET societies.”
via
posted by airguitar on Nov 29, 2005 - 15 comments

If you're looking for one of those famous, big-eyed alien abductors, try looking on the sides of milk cartons. The UFO cultural moment in America is long since over, having gone out with the Clintons and grunge rock in the 90s. An interesting take on how the internet effected UFO culture.
posted by elwoodwiles on Nov 20, 2005 - 40 comments

Philip Klass, dead at age 85. (Also at the NY Times.) Electrical engineer, aviation editor, and renowned UFO debunker, as well as CSICOP founder/fellow. Checking Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy blog, he left an interesting last message.
posted by ObscureReferenceMan on Aug 15, 2005 - 38 comments

Legend has it that Charles Dellschau (1830-1923) was the draftsman for the secret Sonora Aero Club, a collective of 60 or so mostly German immigrants who reportedly constructed dirigible like aircraft in California in the 1850's. One club member was said to have discovered suppe -- the magic antigravity fuel alleged to have lifted the craft. There were sightings of these 'airships', tenuously linked back to the club, up to the end of the 20th century.
Dellschau, described variously as butcher, inventor, civil war spy, scientist and America's first visionary artist, retired at age 70 in Texas and spent the last 2 decades of his life as a recluse, producing mixed media art works that record the craft and workings of the fabled Sonora Aero Club. They are accompanied by cryptic symbols, newsprint about aircraft and detailed notebooks and were salvaged from the garbage in 1967. His artworks were selling for $15,000 each 5 years ago. A would-be author and long-time sleuth believes he has unlocked the mysteries of Dellschau's cryptic accoutrements and may be publishing a book on the legends this year. via
posted by peacay on Jun 15, 2005 - 11 comments

U.F.O., R.I.P. The two lead actors in the cult 1970 TV series "UFO ", Ed Bishop and Michael Billington, have both died this week within days of each other.
posted by matteo on Jun 10, 2005 - 23 comments

Prophet Yahweh summons UFOs. (video) Prophet Yahweh has the uncanny ability to summon UFOs (unidentified flying objects, not space aliens) by praying. Press release. More news about this important news from important news sources.
posted by Baby_Balrog on Jun 1, 2005 - 46 comments

Some people call me the space cowboy. Yeah, some call me the ganster of love. Some people call me Maurice.
posted by thedailygrowl on Apr 28, 2005 - 16 comments

Introducing: Metal Rubber. "Twist it, stretch it double, fry it to 200°C, douse it with jet fuel—the stuff survives. After the torment, it snaps like rubber back to its original shape, all the while conducting electricity like solid metal." Sounds familiar, no? Here's the son of the Roswell air field's intel officer, describing the debris he says he saw in 1947: "It was possible to flex this stuff back and forth, even to wrinkle it, but you could not put a crease in it that would stay, nor could you dent it at all. I would almost have to describe it as a metal with plastic properties." The UFO freaks are already all over the "back engineering" of Roswell crash debris. Meanwhile, there's something unusual in the sky over Minnesota right now.
posted by CunningLinguist on Aug 20, 2004 - 49 comments

Secrets of the Third Reich...UFO's? "...As Sir Roy Feddon, Chief of the Technical Mission to Germany for the Ministry of Aircraft Production stated in 1945. "…I have seen enough of their designs and production plans to realise that if they (the Germans) had managed to prolong the war some months longer, we would have been confronted with a set of entirely new and deadly developments in air warfare.".....upright, vertical take-off aircraft.....a saucer-shaped craft with enclosed twin rotors.....Cruise missiles....the V-2....[predecessor of the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles]....a rocket-powered fighter, the ME 163...These then, were some of the known German advances. However there were also hints of darker technologies not fully understood." Woo woo! So begins the four part "Secrets of the Third Reich" - where does fact merge into fiction? It's such a great read that it almost doesn't matter. A version with pictures lives here (go to menu, "Book 4"). Then, there's The Hunt For Zero Point We have met the aliens, and they are us ?
posted by troutfishing on May 12, 2004 - 10 comments

Will humanity come together to overcome our space enemies? Or is this a publicity stunt for Signs 2:Electric Boogaloo? Or is it nothing at all? Still, what the heck is Mexico doing telling everyone about this? I mean seriously now:

“Hundreds of videos (of UFOs) exist, but none had the backing of the armed forces of any country.... The armed forces don't perpetuate frauds.” Mr. Maussan said Secretary of Defence Gen. Ricardo Vega Garcia gave him the video April 22.
posted by loquax on May 11, 2004 - 40 comments

Is the Earth Hollow? Does this explain why people are abducted by UFOs? Is this too outlandish to be possible, or is it the truth?
posted by banished on Dec 9, 2002 - 17 comments

There's something out there
Target Body: J002E3 Spacecraft (UNCONFIRMED)
Observer Location: Los Angeles, CA
Coordinates: 118°14'27.6''W, 34°03'15.1''N

Since September 5th, the Minor Planet Mailing List (MPML) has been abuzz with speculation about an unidentified 16th- magnitude object. During the next 10 days the object will be moving rapidly across Aries and then Taurus, passing between the Pleiades and Hyades star clusters.
posted by riley370 on Sep 13, 2002 - 29 comments

Last week was a good week for aliens and a bad week for cows.

UFOs visited sacred sites and tourist attractions in Sri Lanka, Chile declared an official UFO tourism zone, and Scotland claims to have the most reported sightings each year.
much more inside...
posted by joemaller on Jun 25, 2002 - 5 comments

CIA's Role in the Study of UFOs Just brushing up for this Sunday's two hour series grand finale.
posted by Voyageman on May 16, 2002 - 1 comment

The real culprit behind the 9/11 attack.
posted by tiaka on Jan 23, 2002 - 25 comments

NASA proposes visit to Saturn's moons via blimp. Native Titans debunk UFO as weather balloon. More space balloons here. (via robotwisdom)
posted by skallas on Jul 1, 2001 - 1 comment

UFO spotted? This well may be the new Chinese stealth wave our CIA has been trying to blow away from our shores but to no avail. For the first time, China able to spy on us and to knock down surfers too.
posted by Postroad on May 10, 2001 - 6 comments

UFOs are sooo last century
posted by johnboy on Apr 22, 2001 - 2 comments

Did you hear about the UFO sightings in China? Apparently, there's been several sightings and many people have seen them. I'd like to see a photograph, but with today's digital techniques, I wouldn't believe a photo if I saw it.
posted by mathowie on Jan 3, 2000 - 0 comments