Extraordinary claims. Ordinary investigations.

Mike Smith has already compiled a summary about the video, concluding that “it seems safe to conclude that this video shows something being officially tested at White Sands - maybe some sort of top-secret missile - but certainly something that was expected, something that eventually made its way to Maussan, who then began promoting it, perhaps a bit dishonestly, perhaps just prematurely, as the crash of an extraterrestrial craft”.

But there’s also the investigations of Chilean investigator Rodrigo Fuenzalida, published on La Nave de los Locos in January 2001, “Crónica de un misil anunciado“:

We started to conduct several analyses. The first of them was to watch it repeatedly and in slow motion the impact, after which we discovered that what looked like a compact bright structure was something completely different. It’s rear region showed movement similar to that of a flame. Also, a tenuous smoke trail could be seen. Everything seemed to suggest that what was allegedly a lenticular and luminous UFO was actually a big mass of flames, expelled by some kind of structure. After a compression of the image, we could see the body, that indicated more clearly the hypothesis considered from the beggining. Everything pointed to a military test.

… After presenting my hypothesis in TVN news … some members of AION associated with the army contacted me. We conducted a new analysis on air, this time inviting the defense analyst Roderick Bowen, who presented some diagrams and photos of missile tests that showed exactly the same effect. Mario Pizarro, AION member and Army instructor, identified the missile as an SEII, used during the Gulf War.

I couldn’t locate more information on the SEII missle, nor any video of a missile test where the rocket bounced. But it should be no surprise that missiles are capable of bouncing on the ground, given that some are designed to penetrate meters of solid concrete.

It’s just a shame countless hours have been wasted on this video just because its original source is a sensationalistic quack who wouldn’t clarify where and how he got it, as that would certainly reveal exactly what it was.

Quebec provincial police admitted Thursday that three of their officers disguised themselves as demonstrators during the protest at the North American leaders summit in Montebello, Que.
- Quebec police admit they went undercover at Montebello protest (CBC)

Just because you’re paranoid doesn’t mean they aren’t out to get you. And it turns out this is one bizarre incident where the Canadian police was caught red-handed with officers disguised among protesters.

Their official statement is that “at no time did the police of the Sûreté du Québec act as instigators or commit criminal acts”. But obviously holding a big rock in your hand while wearing a mask is a sort of instigation for violence.

More about it on [kind of paranoid] Prison Planet. Via Anomaly Television.

Priceless Uri quotes:

“You realize that when I talk on the mobile phone I keep it away from my head… because it radiates the brain” [see how he's telling the truth when he speaks with his lawyer on the phone].

“Let’s bend the mast now… maybe four hours, but it would bend”.

For more Uri Geller fun, watch his autobiographical, fully endorsed movie, Mindbender. It’s hilarious from beggining to end, but the best part is no doubt when he’s making out with a girl inside a car, and then lose control over his powers and goes flying on a tornado. If you don’t believe it, just go watch it.

[Hat tip to Science Humor]

The 35-year-old Barzolff is a professional animator who attended one of the most prestigious art schools in France and has a decade of experience with computer graphics and commercial animation.

It took Barzolff a total of 17 hours to make both the Haiti and Dominican Republic videos. He did it all by himself using a MacBook Pro and a suite of commercially available 3-D animation programs, including Vue 6. The videos are 100% computer-generated. …

To prove that he was truly behind the videos, Barzolff agreed to provide the L.A. Times with a new spacecraft video. Called “Proof,” the video depicts a small version of one of the spacecraft floating above a Paris street. As the camera pans over, the viewer sees two elderly women at a cafe. One of whom is holding a remote control device. Humorously, of course, this video makes use of computer graphics as well. …

Barzolff stressed the videos were not intended as a viral marketing ploy. His movie is still in the idea phase, and he created the hoax strictly as a “sociological experiment” — in
other words, just to see what would happen. What happened far exceeded his expectations. …

Barzolff called the results of his experiment “entertaining, thrilling, completely addictive, and a little scary.” The scary part, he said, was that in spite of the evidence, “many people refuse to believe it’s a hoax.”

LA Times: It came from outer space (reg required)

Read a the text of the article on UfoUpdates. It’s the same spaceship indeed, and a very humorous proof of authorship. The spaceship is actually extremely detailed, which couldn’t been seen very well on the original videos. If only he had taken the task of creating different palm trees…!

The CARET story has been keeping the internet abuzz, where you can read a lot of interesting discussion on the OpenMindForums or AboveTopSecret. It was originally sent to C2C and Earthfiles.

Now Carlos Relva, a fellow Brazilian of the Enigmas da Humanidade website just sent me this huge find: apparently on the “X-Men: Evolution” animated series there was a ship extremely similar to the CARET “drones”.

And the important thing is, the episode featuring that ship, as far as I could check, was aired in August 2, 2003 ”Target-X” was aired on September 13, 2003. The original “Chad” drone images were published in May, 2007.

Check below a short clip of the ship:

You can find more clips here (between 02:40 and 03:20), here (02:25~02:40) and here (right at the end).

Relva tells me he watched the episode and noted the similarity, but also says that he remember having read about that on some other place he can’t remember (can anyone find it?).

Regardless of who first discovered it (and as far as I know, it may have been Carlos Relva himself), it’s amazing to find such similarity.

It seems that this ship in X-Men was from the secret and rogue government group that created Wolverine, related to the “X-23″ character introduced in the episode, so it also fits. Could it be that the CARET drones are indeed a viral, but for X-Men, Wolverine or something?

Given that it was originally thought that they were a viral for the Transformers movie (or even for the Halo 3 game), and those weren’t confirmed — and so far, have been pretty much disconfirmed — we may also doubt again that it’s a viral for X-Men… whatever.

But at the very least, the hoaxers were inspired by this ship, from the concentric ring, to the spikes above it, even the arms, which in this “original” are folded down (more similar to the “Big Basin” drone).

You could already tell the hoaxers were geeks from the fact they tried to mix ufology with Sillicon Valley culture (PACL-PARC), but who would have thought they were fans of “X-Men: Evolution”?

UPDATE: I watched both episodes where the character “X-23″ is featured, and contrary to what I assumed first, the ship was featured on his second appearance, episode “Target-X”, aired September 13, 2003. Good thing is, I captured all the scenes with the ship:

The similarities to the CARET drones are obvious. A basic disc, or even ring, around which there are lower arms, and topped by spikes. Even the natural landscape background for the X-Men ship is similar to those where the CARET drones were featured.

Once again, considering the CARET hoaxers are very probably computer geeks, capable of creating quite nice computer models; and who also tried to mix ufology’s conspiracy theories with Silicon Valley culture, it just fits that they would be inspired on an nnovative design by an animated TV series like “X-Men: Evolution”.