Yesterday I posted my summary of the most fascinating ‘hidden history‘ stories of 2008. Today, we’re talking UFOs, aliens and the like. Once again, these aren’t necessarily the biggest news items – just those that I think were important contributors to the scene or fascinating in their own right:
- The Stephenville, Texas UFO sighting ruled the year in terms of both media attention, and mystery. MUFON’s report (PDF file) offered evidence that a very large and unknown craft was in the skies over Texas. Perhaps even more mysterious though was the USAF’s ambivalence and double-talk regarding the incident and the presence of their own jets in the area at the time.
- British pop star Robbie Williams brought lots of attention to ufology in 2008, by becoming a ufologist himself. Not necessarily good publicity, with many of the British tabloids painting him as descending into a form of madness. But in Robbie’s favour, he seems to be genuinely interested in the topic, while not taking himself too seriously. In other words: our kind of guy.
- While the tabloids dumped on Robbie, and the ‘skeptics’ demolished straw men, two excellent reports were released…and of course, completely and utterly ignored: “Norway in UFO Photographs – The First Catalogue” elaborated on the strange lights observed and photographed in the Hessdalen region, while the excellent Channel Islands Report showed how ufology *can* be regarded as a science, exploring all the possible rational explanations for one of the more interesting sightings in recent years – but came up empty.
- Some decent UFO news that was treated with a level of seriousness by the media though was the release of the ‘British X-Files’ – part one and part two.
- British ‘UFO Hacker’ Gary McKinnon’s bad news continued…and continued.
- The Phoenix Lander made it to Mars, and provided one of the greatest images I’ve seen in the process. It got even better once the entire image was released.
- Droning. On and on.
- The Tunguska Event celebrated its 100th anniversary. Thankfully, no candles/trees were blown out this time.
- More and more exoplanets were imaged by researchers. Chances, of anything…
All in all, a fascinating year of developments. But still no green men landing on the White House lawn…
