Branson Balloon Hoax

 

Idly looking through UFO: The Continuing Enigma, published by Reader's Digest, 1991. Among the contributors in this volume: Peter Brookesmith, Hilary Evans, Jenny Randles, John Rimmer, Dennis Stacy.

Page 55: Physical Fakes:

April Fool's Flying Saucer
"Early morning commuters driving on a freeway outside London, England, on March 30, 1989, soon after 5:00 a.m. could scarcely believe their eyes. Hovering above them was a glowing spacecraft. Extraterrestrials were also visible aboard the craft. Soon the police were inundated with calls from people saying what they sad seen.

This alien visitation proved no more sinister than British entrepreneur, and keen balloonist, Richard Branson, rehearsing a stunt for an April Fool's Day prank. The spacecraft was a saucer-shaped hot air balloon, 100 feet wide, complete withflahsing lights. The "aliens" were Branson and two co-pilots dressed as Martians."

Area 51 Loose Ends: Lazar Story: A Fraud for Bigelow Funding?

Glenn Campbell and his 1997 article on Bob Lazar, with new notes,  and his connections with Robert Bigelow. As I keep saying, I've been suspicious of Bigelow for some time. Very interesting reading. Area 51 Loose Ends: Lazar Story: A Fraud for Bigelow Funding?

Rights and Raelians: Court Rules Filmmakers Lied About Raelians

On Binnall of America, for my Trickster's Realm column:Rights and Raelians. A federal court recently ruled that two film makers intentionally lied in their documentary about the Raelians. I've been following this story for years, since 2005 when they started their campaign against the Raelians. Now, I'm not a particular fan of the Raelians but that is beside the point. UFO Land has ignored this story, mainly because the Raelians are an embarrassment, I suspect. But that fact doesn't change the religious and political fanaticism of Abdullah Hashem and his partner Joseph McGowen and their libel and slander.

All that's beside the point; Hashem's attack on the Raelians wasn't due to altruistic reasons, but a religious attack. He was deeply offended by the Raelians free spirited sexual views and their interpretations of God/god. That's all it was ever about. One religious fanatic's attack. Last week a court ruled in favor of the Raelians:

U.S. Federal Court Rules Filmmakers Lied About Raelians - PR Newswire - sacbee.com

LAS VEGAS, Sept. 23, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A California federal court has found that two vocal critics of the Raelian Movement (www.rael.org) fabricated stories about the organization. The court awarded undisclosed damages to the Raelians, including the return of film footage.

Abdullah Hashem and Joseph McGowen appeared on Fox News and other media outlets in 2005-2006, saying they saw people recruited through sex and that acts of pedophilia took place at a Raelian seminar in 2005.

Raelians have claimed for years that the two men lied about what they reported, and they have now been legally vindicated. On September 15, the federal court issued a final judgment against Hashem, who was also ordered to return all film footage taken at the seminar to the Raelian Movement. A copy of the ruling is available upon request under:

United States District Court for the Eastern District of California: International Raelian Movement v. Hashem (Case No. 2:08-cv-00687-GEB –DAD).

My original blog posts appeared on an old Angelfire blog I had that no longer exists but I did find a draft in my files from 2005:

Raelians Sue

Long time readers of the OrangeOrb know I'm no fan of the Raelians. Their emblem is offensive: a swastika. Oh, not a neo-Nazi white brotherhood kill the Jews and gays and blacks and everyone else un-tall, blond and blue eyed, but still. They've gone through a couple of changes with the design, making it New Agey, all lotus like and mingled with light and love and the ancient meaning of the swastika, but, still . . .

Read the rest at Binnall of America, and do yourself a favor and read the other great columns while you're visting the site.

e-book World

Well, I'm playing around with some e-book self-publishing stuff, it's fun and here you go. As you can see on the right in the menu, you can download a free PDF of my thoughts on "UFO Mary," and Richelle Hawks very kindly allowed me to use one of her articles as well.

I've also revised, slightly, the McMinnville "scrapbook" retitled McMinnville, Oregon UFO: Festivals and Hoaxes -- you can find it on my Lulu.com storefront as well.

http://stores.lulu.com/reganlee

On UFO Mystic: "Remembering Gray Barker"

Greg Bishop has a piece on Gray Barker,(They Knew Too Much About Flying Saucers,1956 and The Silver Bridge,etc. )and a cynical mood swing in Barker's life on the UFO stuff; he wrote a poem about UFO being "shit." A "bucket of shit" ---- (there are some days I feel the same way.) Barker was a fascinating character in UFOlogy; worth learning about if you aren't familiar with him and his works.


It may strike some as strange that I consider Barker worth looking into to, or that I "defend" him. He was a hoaxer, and worse, many say. He made up stuff, he embellished, he was lax. But as always, there's more to this than just simplistic accusations of "charlatan!"

More Trent Stuff

My recent on UFO Digest.

From 1954: Faking UFO photos

From 1954: How To Fake a Flying Saucer

An article from more than fifty years ago on how to fake flying saucer photos: “A Flying Saucer has been in my house . . .” by Vinicius Lima.