Fake Stories on the Internet

March 28, 2010 By Stephen Ellis

Why do people do it? Why do people fake photographs, fake news stories and, intentionally, mislead the public?

Sometimes I think many people are just psychotic and trying to gain fifteen minutes of fame by alleging patently false things such as they were kidnapped by aliens. One woman in Madagascar even claimed that she was pregnant with an alien’s child. It’s absolutely “sick”.

Then, along come some people like me who are naive enough, even after a little research, to conclude that it’s true…when a little more research would have shown it as a scam.

In my February 28, 2010 article, I printed a story that was totally false: What I reported was the information that had been published, but the background story of its discovery was not true: I reprinted a picture of a cave drawing ostensibly recently discovered on a cave wall in the jungles of India by a team of archeologists. In my opinion, it showed a man in a space suit, a saucer-like object and a worm-hole.



Before I wrote about it, I confirmed it with the “Archeology Daly” newspaper on-line. Everything seemed to be in order…but it wasn’t!

A little more thorough research revealed that the drawing was found on a cave wall in the northwestern part of Australia in 1891 by a team of archeologists working for the Joseph Bradshaw Foundation and the Society for the Vela; both societies have impeccable reputations and have uncovered many ancient cave drawings.

The foolishness of it all is that, although the newly published photograph showed only about half of the full cave drawing, the truth would have had far greater impact and is far stranger than the fiction: According to the numerous reports I quoted, the drawing was about 3,000 years old. According to the Joseph Bradshaw Foundation, the drawing is more like 30,000 years old!

The portion of the cave drawing that is not shown (and not available to me yet although I have requested it) shows the same thing plus another extremely important symbol of two unusual spirals splitting off from each other. The importance of the spirals is that they are duplicates of spirals that can be found in the mountains of Peru at Nazca where theorists believe an ancient air strip was built.

The question is: Who is the real culprit? Me, for believing the report published in numerous on-line sites and writing an article about it…or the people who created the fantasy about it being recently discovered in the Hoshangabad District of Madhya Provence in India? (Why make-up such elaborate details?)

What the “sickos” are trying to convince us of is far less intriguing than the truth.

The truth is that the drawing was an Aboriginal cave drawing dating back thousands of years and is not the first Aboriginal drawing depicting things coming from the sky. There are many Aboriginal drawings that could be interpreted as alien visitations although none that I have seen are as definitive as this one. Aborigines legends often talk about visitors from the sky.

If these time-wasters who make-up these stories and doctor photographs would spend as much of their time researching the truth as they do falsifying stories and doctoring pictures, they might find everything they are really hoping to find. Truth is always more powerful than fiction.

Any comments? Write me at stebrel@aol.com

Another UFO crash

March 21, 2010 By Stephen Ellis

Much has been written about the alleged crash of a UFO near Rosewell, New Mexico, on July 8, 1947. In fact, the supposed UFO crash has (even today) been surrounded by a wall of secrecy; the US Air Force calling the object that crashed a “weather balloon”.

Far less has been said about the alleged crash of a UFO near Laredo, Texas on August 25, 1974 (actually the crash supposedly occurred in Mexico, 38 miles south of the Texas border).

The claims concerning the Laredo crash are much more supported by the evidence, and the photos leave a lot of unanswered questions: The story about the Laredo crash is that a UFO was being pursued by a US Fighter Jet when it went down. Although there are serious diplomatic questions and problems involving the US Fighter’s having crossed into Mexican air space while in pursuit, the testimony of the US pilot seems to bear out and support the below photograph of the crashed UFO.



Of course, the photo could have been photo-shopped although, in 1974, computer graphics were virtually unknown. The little work that was being done with photo-shopping was limited to the major motion picture studios and scientific research. But, the above photo could easily have been a photo taken of an artist’s rendering of the crash. It doesn’t seem likely, but in a day and age where people will fight to the death to prove that what they don’t really know is “true”, it is more difficult to ascertain what the “truth” really is. We do have the sworn statement of Col. Whitworth who piloted the fighter jet, but we don’t know how much this “eyewitness account” has been modified or altered to be “politically correct” by the US government.

Now let’s take a look at these two pictures ostensibly taken by the Mexican authorities investigating the crash. Both photos are claimed to be authentic pictures taken of bodies inside the crashed UFO.



Mexican authorities’ claim that the wreckage was so hot, it took two days before they could get close enough with their cameras to take the pictures. Obviously, the photos are of two separate and distinct bodies that have been badly burned. The larger image has been nick-named the “Tomato Man” because of the large bulbous head.

There are several more photographs of the US Air Force (ostensibly) loading the remains of the bodies and the wreckage into Air Force trucks and carting them away (to where?). Mexican authorizes claim that both bodies were about 4’ 6” in height with extremely short arms.

Are these what we call “aliens”? Or is this just another part of an elaborate hoax? You will have to decide for yourself.

The thing that disturbs me the most is that so little has been written or discussed about the Laredo crash where there is some evidence (real or created) that we have been visited by aliens, while the Rosewell, New Mexico incident (where there has been no evidence) is publicized around the world.

Got an opinion? Write me at Stebrel@aol.com

Phony Pictures

March 14, 2010 By Stephen Ellis


Last week, I posted a photo of what a group identified as a photo of a living gorilla-type animal ostensibly taken on the surface of the planet Mars by the NASA Rover. In my opinion that photo was as legitimate as a three-dollar bill. The previous week, I posted a photo of a 3,000 year old cave drawing in India. To me that was a legitimate, primitive drawing of a man in a space suit, a UFO and a worm hole. Whether it was something the artist actually saw or something he/she imagined, we will never know. It is, however, strongly indicative that we may have been visited before.

No UFO photos have been posted recently because there are so many of them that I wanted to wait until I could get something “special”. This week, it popped-up. I can’t attest to the veracity of the photo, but it is absolutely amazing. You can see it at http://www.ufocasebook.com/2010/buenosaires122609.html

One of the major problems with UFOs is that they are most often seen at night, and night photography is difficult, at best. The few that have been caught on camera during the daylight are usually blurred because the object is moving at rapid speeds. This particular photo is being touted as the best UFO photo in history.

At first glance, the UFO could be some sort of a toy thrown up into the air, although two things make that seem unlikely: If it was a toy…it was thrown exceptionally high. If was something that was projected into the air by some sort of mechanism, it would not have the speed to be so blurry. Even take-offs of the space shuttle are clear in photographs.

The photo was supposedly taken on December 26, 2009 in the Province of Buenos Aires, Argentina. The reason the picture was taken is reasonable: A man was taking a picture of a house he is building in the countryside near Buenos Aires and (he claims) he did not even see the object until he downloaded the photo from his camera. The setting is reasonable: Notice the outdoor hand pump to get water. Apparently, there is no indoor plumbing there.

It does not seem reasonable that someone building a house of concrete blocks with no indoor plumbing and no visible reinforcement steel is going to be the kind of person who would be technically knowledgeable enough to falsify a photograph of a UFO or photo shop the photo.

It is possible that this is a genuine photo of a UFO, but inasmuch as I’m not certain, I have to question its authenticity. This highlights one of the biggest problems when dealing with UFO photos and claims.

There are more than a hundred thousand photographs of UFOs. Without exception, those that I have seen are blurry and difficult to make out details. Put this together with the fact that people who falsify photos of UFOs are really hurting the very thing they are trying to promote.

Granted that, these days, you can do almost anything with a photo shop on your computer and by reprinting the “edited” photo, it becomes almost impossible to discern whether or not the original photo has been altered. There is testimony of an alleged photo expert accompanying the picture attesting that it has not been photo shopped. But I wonder if even the experts can tell.

I think we have to rely more on common sense: If the photographer is someone knowledgeable about high-tech and computers, then it becomes more reasonable to assume the photo has been “doctored”. If the photographer is someone who builds a house without steel reinforcement and indoor plumbing, it becomes more reasonable to assume that this is not a person who knows how to photo shop a picture.

Still, if it were not for the mean spirited pranksters who use significant effort to make their phony pictures look genuine, we wouldn’t have this problem: we could assume that a photo of something is genuine and examine the picture in order to (hopefully) learn something from it.

With the recent spate of UFO sightings and photographs, it appears that something may be developing in the UFO world. Let’s all try to keep our photos and reports of sightings honest so that we can all learn something.

Stephen Ellis stebrel@aol.com

Life on Mars?

This is the second week in a row in which I am starting my blog with a photo.

Ostensibly (or at least it is claimed) that this photo was taken by the NASA Rover on the surface of Mars. The photo, with an accompanying article, appeared in the Strickler Sports Blog “Phantoms and Monsters”. Lon Stricker will sometimes post some pretty far-out stories, but Lon, himself, is a pretty cool guy and if something is a phony, he will call it a phony. He didn‘t call this a phony…but neither did he say that it was real.

The NASA Rover has been sending back a lot of photos from the surface of Mars. But the Rover has been mired down in some loose sand since the end of January of this year and has, effectively become, a platform and not a rover. NASA is hopeful that after the Martian winter is through, they will again be able to get the Rover going.

Now about this photo. To me, there is no question, whatsoever, that it is showing an animal of some sort. Big question is whether or not this is a NASA photo. With photo shops that now allow you to do just about anything with a photo, it’s easier than ever to create a fake picture…and it’s harder than ever to try and prove it has been “doctored”.

Although I am probably in a minority, I firmly believe there is life (of some sort) on Mars. We have found that there is water beneath Mars’ desolate crust, so the possibility of some sort of life living on or beneath the surface (I believe) is probable.

Maybe some sort of insect life or something that can live beneath the surface of the planet. But…a gorilla?

The perspective of this photo is unclear, but to my best estimation, if that is a genuinely unretouched photo, that gorilla would have to be far larger than any gorillas here on Earth. My guess would be two to three times the size of the largest known.

Every photo of Mars I have seen taken by the Rover has been in living color. Why is this one in black and white?

Far more important: Don’t you think that if the NASA Rover took a picture of a live animal…any live animal…on Mars that it would have been headlines around the world? Don’t even think of the conspiracy buffs saying that NASA would attempt a cover-up. Some stories are much too big to hide…and this certainly would have been one of them.

So, I come to the conclusion that the photo is a fraud…and this saddens me.

Millions and millions of people around the world would like to know if life exists outside of the Earth. We’ve spent billions and billions of our tax dollars trying to explore the surface of our Moon and of Mars. It would not only be meaningful, it might open the doors to new and different kinds of scientific thought.
It takes a sick and a perverted mind to think you can put one over on people everywhere.

If you agree or disagree, let me know. Stebrel@aol.com