Here is an interesting video that comes to us by way of YouTube user ThirdPhaseOfMoon. Unfortunately, we don’t have very much information about the video other than it was supposedly shot somewhere along the California cost September 19th of this year. Making this video even harder to judge, the original soundtrack has been replaced with some eerie sounding drone type music. Despite these short comings the video is still extremely interesting (and I highly recommend watching at 1080p if your connection will allow it). The first thing that strikes me is that the objects, the cattle and the fore/backgrounds all seem to jiggle together when the camera shakes. This would indicate either an incredibly detailed CGI job or that everything that we are seeing was actually in front of the camera. The shakes themselves “feel” consistent with a someone trying to steadily hand hold a fully zoomed out camera. Again this could be CGI, but my gut just isn’t jumping up and down screaming fake. I would love to see more footage and have more info on the sighting, but for now I’ll leave it to you. UFO, CGI, or some other perfectly reasonable, non-extraordinary explanation?

In what can only be called a groundbreaking experiment, scientist at UC Berkley have managed to record video of what a person is seeing by using functional MRI. After showing subjects a set of baseline images and recording the corresponding brain activity, the researchers were able to create composite images that reflected, quite eerily, what the test subjects saw. As you can see from the video above, the images being produced are blurry, though I would imagine early photographs looked similar as the technique was being developed. Currently the researchers are only able to reproduce images that the subject is seeing, though they hope to be able to extend the technology to allow the viewing of dreams and possibly even memories.

While from a scientific standpoint this is amazing, I can’t help but feel a little creeped out by it on a personal level. This really is the stuff of science fiction (not the fun, happy utopia kind either) and while now researchers can only see what you are seeing using a huge machine where will the technology be in 10 or 20 years, especially if they are able to refine the technology to view memories and dreams? The US government already ignores the 4th Amendment wholesale, how long until they ignore the 5th? I can imagine there are some very excited people at Homeland Security imagining setting up scanning stations to pick out people thinking about committing a crime or act of terrorism.

Scientists use brain imaging to reveal the movies in our mind [via Engadget Alt]

image by Markusram  

In the past few months there has been quite a bit of controversy surrounding MUFON and a potential conflict of interest and/or interference from one of its largest benefactors. While all of the finger pointing hasn’t resulted in any tangible evidence of impropriety, the situation has brought forward some important questions about how and to whom UFO sightings should be reported. A little over two years ago, in a post about what to do after a UFO sighting, I wrote that reporting UFO sightings to an organization like MUFON or NUFORC was probably the best option. Now, in light of the MUFON controversy, I am not so sure that is the case.

The biggest problem with reporting a sighting to an organization like MUFON is that there is no way to know what agenda is driving the organization. Any group could easily be beholden to a corporate master intent on securing UFO technology for it’s own profit, or could even be a front for a disinformation campaign. Even well meaning groups are sometimes guilty of shutting out others in an attempt to be the first to a discovery. Ultimately, under close enough inspection, faults can be found with almost anyone or any group. With this unfortunate reality, how then can you ensure that your story finds its way to the right people?

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