The New Yorker's Credulous Article on Pentagon UFOs - Part 2

(Continued from Part 1.)

Having given us a crash course in UFO history,  author Lewis-Kraus returns to his Hagiography of Leslie Kean:

Once it was clear that U.F.O.s were going to be her life’s work, Kean resolved to ally herself with the research tradition that Hynek had pioneered. Ufologists liked to dwell on certain historic encounters, like Roswell, where any solid evidence that might once have existed had become hopelessly entangled with mythology. Kean chose to focus on “the really good cases” that had been reported since the close of Blue Book, including those that involved professional observers, such as pilots, and ideally multiple witnesses; those that had been substantiated with photos or radar tracks; and especially those in which experts had eliminated other interpretations.

The first such "really good" case mentioned is the famous Rendlesham case in Suffolk, UK, December 1980  (which the late James Moseley always referred to as "Rendle-sham"). 

The details of the incident as it is described in Kean’s book are sensational, to say the least. Another witness, Sergeant James Penniston, said that he got close enough to a silent triangular craft to feel its electric charge and to note the hieroglyphic-like designs etched into its surface.

The claims associated with Rendle-sham may well be "sensational," but the facts dedidedly less so. I have already described some of the many absurdities claimed about this case. As for Penniston, he claims that he touched the landed UFO, and received a message from it in the form of a "binary code," which he subsequently wrote down. However, he did not tell anyone about it for thirty years. (Highly-publicized UFO cases, like fine wines, often improve with age.)  Penniston now says that the binary data from the Rendle-sham UFO was sent by Time Travelers. Remember, this is a "really good case," unlike all those flakey ones.

 

Part of Penniston's telepathically-received  'UFO Binary Code,' miraculously turning up in his notebook thirty years after the fact. It reveals the UFO to have been sent by Time Travelers from the year 8100.

 

Later on, Lewis-Kraus tells us,

One dogged British researcher has convincingly shown that the Rendlesham case, or Britain’s Roswell, probably consisted of a concatenation of a meteor, a lighthouse perceived through woods and fog, and the uncanny sounds made by a muntjac deer. Eyewitness reports are subject to considerable embroidery over time, and strings of improbable coincidences can easily be rendered into an occult pattern by a human mind prone to misapprehension and eager for meaning. The researcher had exhaustively demystified the case, and I was perturbed to learn that Kean seemed unfazed by his verdict. When I asked her about it, she did little more than shrug, as though to suggest that such fluky accounts violated Occam’s razor. 

He doesn't want to tell us the British researcher's name - it is Ian Ridpath. Nor does he give us the URL that "exhaustively demystified the case" - it is here. Mustn't give skepticism too much of a boost. Or upset Leslie! So much for "journalistic objectivity!" Obviously wavering in The Faith, at least a little, he asked Leslie about it.

Even if Rendlesham was “complex,” she said, it was still “one of the top ten U.F.O. encounters of all time.” And, besides, there were always other cases. Hynek, in “The UFO Experience,” had contended that U.F.O. sightings represented a phenomenon that had to be taken in aggregate—hundreds upon hundreds of incredible stories told by credible people.

So even if the Rendle-sham case has a logical explanation, it is nonetheless a "top ten" UFO case, a Golden Oldie, so that counts for something, I guess. And here she repeats Hynek's "bundle of sticks" analogy, which I heard him make many times: any one stick might be broken, but taken together they are too strong to break. To which the obvious reply is: If each case is a zero, the sum of any number of zeroes is zero.

 

For another "really good" case,

Kean selected an incident that occurred in Kecksburg, Pennsylvania, a rural hamlet southeast of Pittsburgh, on December 9, 1965, in which an object the size of a Volkswagen Beetle allegedly hurtled from the sky. According to multiple witnesses, the acorn-shaped bulk had been removed from the woods on a flatbed truck as service members guarded the area with guns. 

Allegedly. The problem is, we know exactly what people saw in the sky near Kecksburg, and indeed across the entire region. It was the Great Lakes Fireball of December 9, 1965, well documented in Sky and Telescope magazine (February, 1966) and other astronomical publications. This has been pointed out repeatedly by skeptics for decades, but somehow the word doesn't seem to have reached Kean. She lives in a bubble of overwhelmingly pro-UFO information, and apparently thinks that there is nothing of value outside it. As for the claims about soldiers in the woods recovering a crashed UFO, as I said about Rendle-sham, highly-publicized UFO cases, like fine wines, often improve with age. 

from Chamberlain, Von Del, 1968: Meteorites of Michigan, Geological Survey Bulletin 5, East Lansing, Michigan: Michigan Department of Conservation, Geological Survey Division, pp. 1-5.

 

Lewis-Kraus Continues,

Kean’s book, which was praised by the theoretical physicist Michio Kaku as “the gold standard for U.F.O. research,” and to which John Podesta had contributed a foreword, enhanced and expanded her influence. In June of 2011, Podesta invited Kean to make a confidential presentation at a think tank he founded, the Center for American Progress... In August, 2014, Kean visited the West Wing to meet again with Podesta, who was by then an adviser to President Obama. She had scaled down her request, proposing that a single individual in the Office of Science and Technology Policy be assigned to handle the issue. Nothing came of it.

What we are not told is that Michio Kaku is a UFO believer, who has warned about possible alien invasions and such. His book, Physics of the Impossible, deals with the supposed physics of "phasers, force fields, teleportation, and time travel." The great majority of Kaku's colleagues in physics would dismiss this as nonsense.

Now we come to - The Fly! Lewis-Kraus somewhat apologetically writes that Kean

had a cordial relationship with the Chilean government’s Comité de Estudios de Fenómenos Aéreos Anómalos (cefaa). She had begun breaking stories from its case files with an atypical recklessness. Kean’s work from this period, mostly published on the Huffington Post, shows signs of agitation and evangelism. In March of 2012, she wrote an article called “UFO Caught on Tape Over Santiago Air Base,” which referred to a video provided by cefaa. Kean described the video as showing “a dome-shaped, flat-bottomed object with no visible means of propulsion . . . flying at velocities too high to be man-made.” She asked, “Is this the case UFO skeptics have been dreading?”

However, the CEFAA video was widely panned - and not just by skeptics - as simply showing a fly buzzing around. (Note that the Huffington Post article, co-authored by Ralph Blumenthal, Kean's co-author of her New York Times articles about AATIP and Pentagon UFOs, was updated in 2017, undoubtedly to make it less embarrassing. I was not able to find the original article in the Internet Archive, or anywhere else.)  Lewis-Kraus does mention my debunking of the Chilean Fly UFO video, again without giving anyone the URL to enable them to check it themselves.

When Kean wrote about the cefaa video, debunkers leaped at the chance to point out that the object in the case they had been dreading was in all probability a housefly or a beetle buzzing around the camera lens. Robert Sheaffer, the proprietor of a blog called Bad UFOs, wrote in his column in the Skeptical Inquirer, “Indeed, the very fact that a video of a fly doing loops is being cited by some of the world’s top UFOlogists as among the best UFO images of all time reveals how utterly lightweight even the best UFO photos and videos are.” Kean consulted with four entomologists, who mostly declined to issue a categorical judgment on the matter, and urged patience with cefaa’s ongoing investigation.

Kean still has not admitted that she was fooled by a fly buzzing around. She posted some completely irrelevant pictures of beetles, then tried to pass the buck to certain "entomologists," as if even they could identify the species of an insect buzzing around and flying rapid loops in front of the camera.

(Continued in Part 3)

 

The New Yorker's Credulous Article on Pentagon UFOs - Part 1

On April 30 the normally serious New Yorker has dropped a very misleading article titled How the Pentagon Started Taking U.F.O.s Seriously. (UFO author Leslie Kean says that work on this story "has been underway for months," which is quite surprising!)

The article is illustrated by a "classic" UFO photo, described as "Four mysterious objects spotted in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1952." It is almost certainly just a reflection of lights in a window.

This article by Gideon Lewis-Kraus boldly begins, "On May 9, 2001, Steven M. Greer took the lectern at the National Press Club, in Washington, D.C., in pursuit of the truth about unidentified flying objects." In pursuit of the truth, no less! Because Lewis-Kraus had only a few months to research this article, he apparently had no opportunity to learn that serious UFOlogists, both skeptic and not, consider Greer to be a yarn-spinning money grubber whose credibility is zilch. Greer once even claimed to have an 'alien familiar' named Bijoux. 

Steven Greer offers the opportunity to spend six days with him mentally communicating with UFOs, for a mere $3,472. However, anyone displaying "negative attitudes toward these interstellar visitors will be asked to leave."

 After recounting the exploits of the mighty Dr. Greer, still in pursuit of the truth, we learn,

Among the other speakers was Clifford Stone, a retired Army sergeant, who purported to have visited crash sites and seen aliens, both dead and alive. Stone said that he had catalogued fifty-seven species, many of them humanoid. 

Again, in his rush to prepare the article Lewis-Kraus didn't have time to discover the fact that the wild tales of Clifford Stone are soundly rejected by most serious UFO researchers. 

The principal Hagiography in this piece is that of Leslie Kean. Lewis-Kraus portrays Kean as "stand[ing] apart from the ufological mainstream," which is pure bollocks. Kean is down in the UFOlogical mud, wrestling with the rest of us. She has a best-selling book from 2010, “UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record,” whose credibility, like that of most UFO books, is pretty bad. He tells us that Kean's apartment is "a tranquil space decorated with a Burmese Buddha and bowls of pearlescent seashells." 

Lewis-Kraus mentions only in passing that Kean's "latest project examines the controversial scholarship on the possibility of consciousness after death." Actually, it's much worse than that. Leslie Kean has gone full woo-woo on the subject of ghosts and spirit manifestations. She insists that she has "absolutely no doubt, not one iota," that a spirit manifested and touched her while she was attending a seance:

In May, 2019, I experienced a full form materialization in a seance with Stewart [Alexander]. His communicator Dr. Barnett, who normally speaks in independent voice, walked out of the cabinet, stood in front of me and touched my hair. He then placed both his large hands on top of my head, bouncing them up and down for about a minute and a half. (That’s a long time). These were solid “living” hands. He spoke in his recognizable voice. “I just wanted to let you know that I am a solid human being,” he said. He then returned to the cabinet and disappeared.

We read how Kean's intense interest in UFOs began in 1999 when she was sent a copy of a ninety-page French report referred to as "COMETA." (This account is also in her book.) Prepared by "a dozen retired French generals, scientists, and space experts," she "was certain, though, that anyone given access to the French report’s data and conclusions would understand why she had dropped everything else." (They didn't.) However, others, more experienced in the crazy world of UFOlogy, reached other conclusions. John Alexander, who was involved in Pentagon ESP experiments and is surely no skeptic, described the COMETA report as “an embarrassment… unsubstantiated data from questionable sources” in his book UFOs Myths, Conspiracies, and Realities (p. 218-20). No such doubts occurred to Ms. Kean. who seems quite certain  that the government is hiding something really big from us concerning UFOs, although she professes (a bit disingenuously) to be agnostic on the question of whether they are extraterrestrial.

 In this very long article, Lewis-Kraus tries to give us a summary of UFOlogy's Greatest Hits, its Golden Oldies such as the Airship sightings of 1896-97, Kenneth Arnold, the Washington, DC incidents of 1952, the Robertson Panel, J. Allen Hynek, the Condon Report, etc. etc. I guess the purpose of all this is to show that UFO sightings and UFO controversies have been around for a long time. 

 Continued in Part 2.

 

The Navy's Triangle Bokeh UFO Video shows Jupiter and Stars

In a post on April 10, I talked about the recently-leaked Navy video of supposed "triangle shaped" unidentified objects, taken on a Navy ship. (Since then, that story has exploded in the press.) I wrote that the triangular-shape of the objects was apparently due to Bokeh,  "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." On April 15, Mick West released this video, showing pretty conclusively that the shape of the objects in the video reflects not their actual shape, but instead the shape of the lens opening. Jessee3939 on Metabunk found that his night vision monocular indeed had a triangular-shaped iris inside it, and this device, too, produced trianular-shaped images of out-of-focus objects, just like in the Navy UAP video.

Night Vision device with a triangular iris. Out-of-focus objects look triangular.

On April 13, some dude calling himself Dylan the Villain posted the following on Twitter, identifying the objects seen at the start of the now-famous video as Jupiter, and several stars in Scorpius:

"Dylan the Villain" identifies the objects seen at the start of the video

Mick West took the matter further, identifying stars seen later in the video. On April 17, he posted on Twitter that

Those two "pyramids" that the "pyramid" UFO flies towards at the end of the video are Okab (the lower, brighter one) and Deneb al Okab Borealis (Epsilon Aquilae) above it. It all matches, angles, intensity, positions.

It's a plane, flying past some stars.

Mick West's identification of many of the stars seen in the Navy's now-famous Bokeh UFO Video

As a longtime amateur astronomer, to me all of the above looks absolutely correct (apart from the fact that nobody ever actually uses or even recognizes star names like "Okab" - let alone "Deneb al Okab Borealis" - but "Zeta Aquilae" will be easily understood). 

On April 19, West posted a short video in which the flashing object is stabilized (roughly) using two stars for reference. All of the objects are triangular-shaped, because of Bokeh. In it he demonstrates that  "the "UFO" moves and flashes in the way a plane does. (And at around 400-450 knots, if @33K ft)." The complete thread discussing this video on Metabunk is here. 

Meanwhile, Corbell is basking in the media's uncritical exploitation of this video for ratings and clicks, having been interviewed by numerous news organizations in the U.S., as well as in the UK and Australia. He appeared  on Fox News, saying that the film is "potentially the best the world has ever seen." Wow! Some out-of-focus stars and a planet. Nice work, Pentagon "experts"!

 

 

Gone With The Stars.........

UFO News has been dominated for the past three years by the antics of Tom DeLonge and his "To The Stars Academy of Arts and Sciences." They seemed to be on a roll, despite their history of providing clueless misinformation. They even produced two seasons of a popular TV series Unidentified, on the "History" Channel, which surely must have been quite profitable.

Earlier this year, I wrote how TTSA seemed to be "unraveling," losing most, perhaps all, of its best-known people, apart from DeLonge himself. Well, this afternoon I happened to be in Encinitas, so Istopped by their "Flagship Retail Store" to see what might be happening with To The Stars. Here is what I saw:

This used to be the "To The Stars Flagship Retail Store."

This photo was taken from the same spot in February of 2020.

How the Mighty have Fallen! I've not heard any official report on the future (if any) of To The Stars, and I suspect that those who "invested" in that scheme are simply out of luck.

Google Maps has this to say about that Flagship Retail Store:

New Navy UFO Photos - Party Balloons?

In addition to the newly-published "Pyramid Shaped UFO" Navy video discussed in the previous posting, two new Navy UFO photos have just been published. They are from the same source as the previously-published "ACORN" object. 

Reporter George Knapp, who has seems to turn up everywhere that UFO news is being reported, published an article in The Mystery Wire: "Mystery Objects Remain Unidentified. New photographs obtained by Mystery Wire show different shaped objects." 

Three Navy UAP Photos: The "“METAL BLIMP W/ PAYLOAD”, the “SPHERE”, and the "ACORN."

Knapp writes that on On March 4th, 2019, 

An F-18 weapons systems officer (WSO) seated behind the pilot used his iPhone to capture images of three different objects he encountered in the same airspace.

At 3:02 p.m. he photographed an odd shaped object. Another photo, taken close to the same time, was first posted to twitter on May 11, 2020, then again on social media 6 months later.

Other photos taken on the same day; March 4th, 2019 have never been made public until now.

The object the Navy calls the “Sphere” was photographed at 2:44 p.m.

The second one to be photographed was dubbed the “Acorn.” A similar, but different photograph of this same object was published online in December 2020.

Then, 12 minutes later, the WSO spotted a third object,  described as the “Metallic Blimp.” It appears to have various appendages.

Mystery Wire first learned of the photos exactly two years ago during a private briefing hosted by Robert Bigelow and several others in Las Vegas on Saturday, April 6, 2019.

(Make of that last sentence what you will!)

The "SPHERE" simply looks like an out-of-focus object. The iPhone had not yet achieved focus on the small object against a bright sky. Probably it is a balloon. As in the previous post, we are dealing here with "Bokeh,"  "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light."

The "“METAL BLIMP W/ PAYLOAD” looks very much like another toy or party balloon. UFO researcher Curt Collins compares it to a Shark balloon sold at party stores.

Curt Collins compared the "METAL BLIMP W/PAYLOAD to a Shark balloon sold at party stores.

I have already written about the previously-published "ACORN" object photo,  which bears a striking resemblance to a Batman party balloon.

Comparing two Batman party balloons to the "ACORN" object (center)

Jason McClellan on Rogue Planet TV had some interesting comments about these three photos. He ran them through software to enhance and enlarge them. The "SPHERE," he agrees, in an out-of-focus object, and no useful information can be obtained about it. He suggests that the "METAL BLIMP," when ehanced, "almost takes on a shark appearance." (I'm wondering if he'd already seen Curt Collins' comment above when he said that?)  He also notes, "you could even maybe make out a sort of cinching at the bottom," i.e. where the balloon's inflation valve was tied tightly at the bottom.

Jason McClelland's enhancement of the "METALLIC BLIMP" photo.

But as for the "ACORN" object - the most interesting result of the three, he says - when enhanced looks more like a solar balloon than a Batman balloon, "and it, too, looks like it's cinched at the bottom." This is a very plausible suggestion, I think.

Jason McClelland's enhancement of the "ACORN" object.

(Does anyone remember the "Smart DeBlur" software that was used to finally read the blurred plaque on the "Roswell Slides" back in 2015? I'm wondering if anyone has tried using that software to enhance these photos?)

 Provenance

Perhaps I should have explained more clearly in the previous posting that all four of these recently-published UFO cases - the three balloon-like photos, and the "pyramid shaped object" video - were presented, and later leaked, from classified Defense Department briefings, about which so much has been whispered. Paranormal filmmaker Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell is working with Knapp on this investigation. Corbell gives their origins as follows:

BRIEFING / EVENT SERIES #1

An event series described involves the USS Russell.

This UAP event series took place during July of 2019 - involving Strike Group 9 within the Warning areas off of San Diego.

The USS Russell observed and recorded multiple “pyramid” shaped craft (see below image and video).

BRIEFING / EVENT SERIES #3

An event series described involves an FA-18 pilot and a Weapon Systems Officer on March 4, 2019

Event series took place in the W-72 warning area off the coast of Oceana.

This series involved the WSO taking personal mobile phone images of UAPs out the cockpit.

The intelligence briefing clarifies that the WSO captured THREE different craft on the same sorti with the same cell phone.

The “ACORN” UAP (first made public on Twitter / May 11th 2020)

The “METAL BLIMP W/ PAYLOAD” UAP (first made public via Mystery Wire / April 6th 2021)

The “SPHERE” UAP (first made public via Mystery Wire / April 6th 2021)

So these photos, and that video, are the 'best of the best,' as far as Defense Department "experts" are concerned. I'm trying to imagine the dialogue that must have taken place at these briefings:

"And here we see an out-of-focus blur that looks like a sphere."

"Wow, I've never seen anything like that before!!"

It's obvious that none of these "experts" has any experience using cell phone cameras, telescopes, or night vision devices.

Balloon UFOs Over Brazil

Scott Brando of UFO of Interest illustrates how a famous "pyramid shaped" Brazilian UFO photo from 2015 has been shown to be a balloon. When photographed in the sky, it looks very much like these Navy Balloon/UFO photos. 

Pyramid-shaped UFO over Brazil - now identified.

The Navy's "UFO Repeaters"

"UFO Repeaters" - People who claim to sight and/or photograph UFOs on multiple occasions - rightly have a bad reputation among serious UFO investigators. Dr. J. Allen Hynek warned that being a "repeater" lowers a witness's credibility. George Adamski. Billy Meier. Steven Greer. Mr. and Mrs. Paul Trent. Etc. 

It should be noted that several of the recently released/leaked Navy UFO photos and videos are the product of "repeaters." Corbell wrote (above) that " the [Weapons Systems Officer] captured THREE different craft on the same sorti with the same cell phone." In other words, the "ACORN", the “METAL BLIMP W/ PAYLOAD”, and the “SPHERE” photos all came from the same individual - the very definition of a "UFO repeater." - using the same cell phone camera, and even on the same day. 

The same situation seems to prevail with the now-famous "Gimbal" and "Go Fast" UFO videos, first "leaked" by To The Stars, then later officially released. While no connection between the two videos has been officially acknowledged,  according to poster Blu3Skies on Reddit,

if you look to the right side of the sensor overlays you'll see a 4 digit code...  That is the laser PRF code set for laser guided munitions.... Gimbal video is PRF code 1688. It took place in 2015 off the East Coast. Go Fast video is PRF code 1688. Articles sight [sic] it as taking place off the East Coast. Gimbal and Go Fast are both pieces of the same video it appears. No discrepancies in location or time as of now, however, this begs the question whether TTSA is cutting and feeding these videos to us to keep funds rolling in OR the gov is cutting/splicing and releasing them to TTSA intentionally this way.

So it appears that the Gimbal video, and the Go Fast video, were taken by the same aircraft, by the same pilot, on the same mission, and less than 20 minutes apart. While this has not been absolutely confirmed yet, it certainly appears to be true. Mick West examines the "Go Fast" video on Metabunk. Comparing the two videos, he notes that "The display configuration is all essentially the same. The time code at the bottom is in seconds, with a difference of 991 seconds (16.5 minutes) between the end of GO FAST (4254) and the start of GIMBAL (5245)" Others have remarked that the pilot's voice on the two videos sounds like the same guy, especially when he says "dude!".

Mick West compares the data displayed for Go Fast (left), and Gimbal (right)

So while the press would have us believe that our Navy's fleet is being randomly beseiged by mysterious craft, it seems that certain individuals are responsible for most of UFO photos and videos. Four Navy UFO videos and three Navy UFO photos have thus far been published - five of the seven  come from just two "repeaters." They have gone above and beyond the call of duty to contribute to the Navy's UAP (UFO) investigations! 

New Navy Video - "Pyramid Shaped UFOs," or Camera Artifacts?

 

Paranormal filmmaker Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell is on a roll. On April 8, he published the latest U.S. Navy video supposedly showing triangle or pyramid-shaped craft, using a night vision device.   

Perhaps you saw all the publicity about how "Multiple Destroyers Were Swarmed By Mysterious 'Drones' Off California." This video was taken during that incident. (Corbell has been working with George Knapp on this incident; here is a video of them discussing it.)

Illustration from The Drive of supposed UFO swarm over Navy ship

Corbell wrote,

the US Navy photographed and filmed  "pyramid" shaped UFOs and advanced transmedium vehicles, here is that footage. ... What’s presented here is genuine UFO / UAP footage - evidence - with impressive provenance. These are images and video shot by our US Military - during a variety of UAP encounters. Incursions - by Advanced Transmedium Vehicles of unknown origin - interacting and observing our Navy’s warships and fleet deployments in a restricted airspace. The Night Vision and FLIR technologies represented in this content, in this case, is tied into some of the most sophisticated weapon systems known to humankind. The evidence here must be differentiated from other UAP documentation - due to the context of capture alone. Collectively, this data drop represents a small section within a large mosaic of UAP awareness by our DoD. And its presence in a classified series of intelligence briefings - clearly demonstrates how the UAP subject is being viewed, pursued and handled by the United States defense industry.

It is my hope that these materials will be representative of a unique moment in modern history [emphasis added]; a possible turning point towards the rational and transparent approach of investigating and exploring the mystery of the UFO Phenomenon.

Jeremy Kenyon Lockyer Corbell

 

Other UFOlogists were, of course, quick to jump on the bandwagon. Leslie Kean placed it on her Facebook page, and UFO-related  social media was soon filled with it (as well as with two other Navy photos that we will discuss later). At last Disclosure seemed to be occurring!

But others were much more circumspect . Charles Lamoureux, a UFOlogist who has a lot of experience using night vision devices, wrote on Facebook,

Hate to say it but Jeremy Korbell wherever he received this video was done by an amateur filming plane, stars out of focus with likely was Gen 3 or 4 night vision monocular ....nothing at all anomalous in this video...I'm just pointing out the video that is not a triangular object , it's out of focus video of passing plane ..if you know better let's hear it ..I've been skywatching for 10 to 12 years with night vision gear ..I know my stuff and also made a lot of mistakes ..which brings me back why I know this is bad video and should be corrected at the source... It's a man made craft and triangle is from out of focus artefact lens ..it was not pyramid shaped at all..just have to look at the stars as has the same shape..the end user recording did not have the unit in focus yet so it looked like a pyramid..

UFOlogist Christophe Spitzer wrote on Facebook, 

This looks like a cheap Gen1 NV monocular and the triangle is simply a known artefact generated by the lens diaphragm since you can see the stars become triangular at times. The flashing sequence just reminds me of strobe lights. Could be a chopper or an aircraft imo.

As usual, Mick West published an interesting analysis of it: "Is This Pyramid UFO just Bokeh?" In which I learned a new word: Bokeh,  "the way the lens renders out-of-focus points of light." He writes,

I suspect these are camera artifacts of mundane objects - specifically stars and a plane (the "flasher"). In the video there are two "pyramid" shapes on the left. The flasher moves towards them in exactly the same way planes move across the sky... the fact that other static lights seem to have the same shape is a big indicator it's just a camera artifact.

From the video, a "pyramid-shaped UFO."

West also wrote, "I timed the brightest flashes (red marks in the timeline above), and they match the anti-collision red flashes of a plane, every 1.5 seconds."

So the next time you hear about how the Pentagon's "experts" are baffled by some video or photo, remember that it's not difficult at all to "baffle" them. A camera artifact can do that easily.

Mike Rogers Says that he is "No Longer to be Considered a Witness to Travis Walton's Supposed UFO Abduction"

 On March 19, 2021, Michael H. Rogers posted the following image to his personal Facebook page:

What exactly does this mean? Mike Rogers was the guy driving the truck at the time Travis Walton reportedly ran out into the woods toward a UFO, and was abducted by aliens.

Now on Rogers' Facebook page, he refers to "Walton's supposed abduction," but is rather vague about exactly what that means. Several people, including myself, have asked Rogers to please clarify what he is saying. Jay Michael asked him, "Are you saying the event didn't happen, or you no longer want to be associated with it?", Rogers replied "I want nothing more to do with Big-T specifically. The event most definitely happened, from our perspective anyway." Whatever that means. 

Replying to a post saying, "It is unfortunate that after all of these years you have chosen to say that the abduction never happened," Rogers said "I am not saying it didn't, Chuck. We witnesses all took polygraph tests, remember. All I have said is 'supposed'. Like in Yippee Maybe. All I mean by supposed is like 'still steaming pasture pie' maybe." So maybe the abduction did happen, and maybe it didn't. And maybe it's a still-steaming pile of manure.

Later, Rogers writes, "I am sure I will loose (sic) a lot of friends over this, but I hope not. I have been waiting a very long time to say this...  I am very tired of holding this in."

In a reply to this same posting on the Facebook group Desert Hart Paranormal, Rogers says, "Travis tried to keep a new remake of the movie a secret from me. He has always had his big secrets that he has kept from me. It angered me. I tried over the last two weeks to reason with Big-T, but of no avail. I don't believe Travis is an honest person, and therefore I want nothing to do with him." This brings to mind what Steve Pierce, another member of the woodcutters' crew, said about Travis:

Travis is the most ignorant, stupid person I've ever met in my life. He ain't got enough sense, you know the book he wrote, he couldn't have wrote that book by himself. He ain't got enough common sense to write that book." (It was widely rumored that John G. Fuller, author of The Interrupted Journey and other rather sensationalist books, was Walton's ghost writer.) 

Pierce also says that he never liked Travis in the first place, and explains why..

Some are suggesting that this is just a spate involving money between former friends, in fact, in-laws (Travis Walton is (or was) married to Mike Rogers' sister. I hope this is not just another episode of Family Feud.).

However, Rogers' statement can be interpreted another way: He seems to be saying that he will no longer vouch for Travis' account of the event. Travis' story is either a "real" alien abduction, or else it is a hoax. There is no other reasonable possibility. Rogers was in a position to know with certainty whether or not it was a hoax. In fact, if Travis' story is a hoax, Rogers must have helped him plan it and pull it off.

On March 20, Travis Walton wrote on Rogers' Facebook Page "In his sudden attacks on me he wants attention and it's working." To which Rogers replied, "Travis Walton, You hope? But they are right, get off my page, or I will get even more truthful. All I tell is the truth about you, Big 'liar' T."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Update May 8, 2021:

Travis Walton:

I, Travis Walton, apologize to Mike Rogers (and any others who might have been offended by the exchange) for negative things I have said about him during the last few years.

I asked Rogers,

Does this mean that you are, once again, "considered a witness to Travis C. Walton's supposed abduction of November 5, 1975"?

He replied,

I always was Travis Walton's main witness, Robert the unrelenting skeptic. How could I not be? I was just trying to get his undivided attention, and it worked. 

OK!