While many have donned the tights since, for anyone who watched TV in the 1950′s, there is only one Superman, George Reeves. Never as squeaky clean as the Man of Steel, Reeves violent death on June 16, 1959 at the age of 45 left a continuing controversy. Ultimately ruled a suicide by the LAPD, several individuals over they years have claimed Reeves was murdered on the orders a former lover, yet no definitive evidence has ever been presented to support the theory. Regardless of how Mr. Reeves ultimately left this plane, it would seem that he is not quite ready to give up his Benedict Canyon home. Since the late 60′s there have been reports of ghostly happening at the residence. Multiple witnesses have reported hearing noises from the bedroom where Reeves died. When they go upstairs to investigate, the room was often found re-arranged. In one instance, renters reported that they heard noises coming from upstairs during a dinner party. When they went to investigate, Reeves’ former room was torn apart as if someone was looking for something. After cleaning up the room, the group returned downstairs to find their drinks had been moved from the coffee table to the kitchen. Other reports of paranormal activity at the home range from the smell of gunpowder filling the room to appearances by Reeves’ apparition in full Superman regalia.

Superman Haunts

It is no secret that Photoshop can be a giant pain for researchers investigating in UFOs, the paranormal or other Fortean interests. In the hands of a skilled user, there is no limit to what can be done to a photograph. Want a ghostly apparition to spook up a boring shot? No problem. Need some “evidence” to put the finishing touches on a UFO hoax? Sure, it will only take a minute. Fortunately, most “shopped” photos are obvious fakes, clear indications of their creator’s lack of skill. That’s a good thing too, a truly gifted Photoshop artist can create images that require advanced forensic analysis to reveal as hoaxes. Thanks to a group of students at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, that is all about to change.

The UIUC students have created a technology that allows anyone, regardless of skill, to insert objects into a photograph with stunning results. The inserted objects can even be easily animated, flawlessly interacting with their surroundings. The software that these student’s have developed is mind-blowing. Just take a look at their demonstration video.

The very first scene seems to foreshadow the quality of hoaxes that paranormal researchers will face once this technology comes to market. It is already difficult to identify good evidence, especially online. Once the general public is able create fake photos and videos of this quality, it will become near impossible to even begin judging any evidence without a full forensic analysis. As the line between what is real and fake blurs Fortean researchers will have to become even more and more suspicious of every shred of evidence they examine.

New software allows you to insert realistic interactive objects into existing photographs

Here is an interesting video that is making the rounds today. It is supposedly from a mobile phone shop in Leeds, Yorkshire in the UK. In the video we see what appears to be the apparition of a girl cross a doorway in the upper right portion of the screen. The poster claims that after researching the shop he found that it was built on the site of the “Yorkshire Orphan Asylum”. A quick Google search for that name doesn’t turn up anything other than stories about this clip. In addition to this inconsistency, we have a strange anomaly in the time code on the footage. The CCTV system seems to be taking 1 frame every 2 seconds, starting at 01:46:58. The next step is 01:47:00 but then it jumps to 01:47:01 then proceeds in 2 second increments until the end of the clip. To me this jump seems to indicate the footage has been tampered with, either with someone inserting the time code into the footage to make it appear more authentic (but messing up the intervals) or someone editing 1 frame/sec or faster footage to have it appear more “ghostly” or to remove telltale clues. Additionally we have quite a bit of lead-up footage, but only a single frame after the “spirit” leaves the view. Why not show more? This makes me wonder what the poster doesn’t want us to see. Presented with what we have here, I am inclined to say, for now, that this is a hoax unless more evidence is presented to prove otherwise. What do you think? Hoax? Ghost? Let me know in the comments.

Video: Ghost Caught On CCTV?