This is terrible...how am I going to explain those hynie probs now
The Great UFO Hoax of 2009
Sharon Begley
If you prefer to keep a little magic in your life—by which I mean believing in the possibility of UFOs—then read no further. For I am going to tell you about the latest UFO hoax.
You may remember the sightings of a UFO over Morristown, N.J., in January, which was blogged about and even captured on video that has been posted to YouTube as clips from TV broadcasts
It was all a hoax, as the perpetrators reveal in this month’s issue of eSkeptic.
Last November, write Joe Rudy, who describes himself as “an avid reader of Skeptic magazine” who teaches science and gives private music lessons, and Chris Russo, who works in sales and says he “intends to continue his quest to spread reason and truth, one pseudoscience at a time,” the two 20-somethings were sitting around discussing pseudoscience and the many people who believe one or another form of it. “We had always had a strong interest in why people were so easily fooled by such irrational superstitions as psychic ability, spiritual mediums, alien abductions, and the like,” they write. So they “set out on a mission to help people think rationally and question the credibility of so-called UFO ‘professionals.’”
They cooked up a spaceship hoax “to show everyone how unreliable eyewitness accounts are, along with investigators of UFOs.” They used 5 feet of fishing line to tie flares to each of five 3-foot helium balloons and launched them from a field on January 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.
Media coverage was extensive. A lot of it featured Paul Hurley, a pilot, and his family, who appeared of several news broadcasts describing the strange lights they saw in the sky. (For some reason, reporters find pilots’ UFO sightings especially believable.) Rudy and Russo repeated the performance four more time, gaining media coverage for each. Conspiracy websites and radio shows covered the sightings, but “the icing on the cake came when the popular History Channel show UFO Hunters featured the Morristown UFO as their main story one week,” the duo recall. “Bill Birnes, the lead investigator of the show and the publisher of UFO Magazine, declared definitively that the Morristown UFO could not have been flares or Chinese lanterns.”
This was the pair’s main quarry, exposing the foolishness of UFO “investigators.” They write, “are UFO investigators simply charlatans looking to make a quick buck off human gullibility? . . . If a respected UFO investigator can be easily manipulated and dead wrong on one UFO case, is it possible he’s wrong on most (or all) of them? Do the networks buy into this nonsense, or are they in it for the ratings?”
You can see their handiwork here and here. Nicely done, guys.
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid= ... 6156483716
http://video.google.ca/videoplay?docid= ... 8158148535
UFO's...the Great Hoax
- AARR
- Incognito and Irrelevant
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UFO's...the Great Hoax
PatC created a monster, 'cause nobody wants to see Don Simon no more they want AARR I'm chopped liver, well if you want AARR this is what I'll give ya, bad humor mixed with irrelevant info that'll make you roll your eyes quicker than a ~Z~ banhammer...
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- Railroadfan...fan
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Re: UFO's...the Great Hoax
Thanks for sharing Don.
That's truly an awesome idea...anyone up for replicating it at the next overnight meet? With the number of cameras brought to the railfan meets, there's no way anyone could dispute the reliability of our eyewitness testimonies...
That's truly an awesome idea...anyone up for replicating it at the next overnight meet? With the number of cameras brought to the railfan meets, there's no way anyone could dispute the reliability of our eyewitness testimonies...
~ Charles W.
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- Railroadfan...fan
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Re: UFO's...the Great Hoax
Don,
Thank you for describes interpreter about Joe and Chris explain about how UFO HOAX. That is making sense.
Big thanks
Thank you for describes interpreter about Joe and Chris explain about how UFO HOAX. That is making sense.
Big thanks
- TrainNut85
- Train Chaser
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Re: UFO's...the Great Hoax
Thats a good way to screw with people. Just goes to show UFOs don't exist.
Using that logic....
...someone should report "Global Warming" in New Jersey and guide Goofey Al's
investigators to the scene.
Climate Change (only warming) the new UFO.
investigators to the scene.
Climate Change (only warming) the new UFO.
5 years on college faculties
34 years working on railroads
RR is more fun
34 years working on railroads
RR is more fun
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- Railroadfan...fan
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Re: UFO's...the Great Hoax
Maybe, Darwin Award is an UFO!