The American Spectator : Sightings

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Sightings

By Christopher Orlet on 4.21.11 @ 6:07AM

The hoax is out there.

I have never seen a UFO, but I do work with several people who have. And no I don't work for the Air Force, the FBI, or the Dennis Kucinich campaign. I toil at a dying newspaper where the dour employees are mostly sane, except when on deadline.

One of my colleagues -- we'll call her "Crazy Laura" -- saw a UFO about 15 years ago. After some coaxing ("You'll think I'm nuts…") she described the incident: "My dog was barking at something in the back yard. Outside, about 40 yards from my back door, I saw three white lights hovering noiselessly just above the ground. Suddenly -- whoosh! -- the lights shot away at the speed of light."

I was curious. "What size were the lights?"

Laura picked up something from my desk. "Like this."

"They were the size of a dirty pie plate? That must have been some tiny spaceship, piloted by --"

"I didn't see any little green men!" Laura snapped. "And since when are you an expert in the dimensions of extraterrestrial spacecraft?"

Undeterred, I decided to take an impromptu survey. It turned out about one in eight of my coworkers had seen UFOs. None, however, had been abducted and "probed" by aliens. Or would admit to it anyway.

Most of the reporters had interviewed people, mostly cops, who claimed to have seen UFOs. Ask the reporters if they believe the cops, and they say, "I believe they saw something. Course we live next to a Boeing plant, an airport and Scott Air Force Base, so who knows what's flying around out there."

The UFO spotters are in good company. At least two American presidents saw unidentified flying objects. Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter came from opposite sides of the political fence too. Other than the presidential campaign of 1980, their close encounters are probably the only things they had in common.

Not surprisingly, the (possibly apocryphal) story of the Great Communicator's sighting is more interesting. Carter could be spooked by a dog-paddling bunny rabbit, but Reagan ordered his pilot to chase a UFO all the way to Bakersfield: Recalled The Gipper:

I was in a plane… when I looked out the window and saw this white light. It was zigzagging around. I went up to the pilot and said, "Have you ever seen anything like that?" He was shocked and he said, "Nope." And I said to him: "Let's follow it!" We followed it for several minutes. It was a bright white light. We followed it to Bakersfield, and all of a sudden to our utter amazement it went straight up into the heavens. When I got off the plane I told Nancy all about it.

So not only did Reagan defeat the Evil Empire, he may have saved us from a Martian attack, too.

WHEN I WAS a kid, I was obsessed with paranormal phenomenon. The only reading material I owned, besides stacks of Mad magazines, were stranger than fiction books with titles like Chariots of the Gods, Limbo of the Lost, and others of that genre that overly mystified everything from Big Foot to the Loch Ness Monster.

Even today, I remain intrigued by stories about UFOs. So my ears pricked up when the FBI recently declassified documents about the legendary Roswell Incident. According to one memo sent to FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover in 1950, investigators had recovered three downed flying saucers and nine dead aliens. The aliens were humanlike, wore metallic suits, and were only three-foot tall.

The story went viral. At long last here was the smoking gun that proved what conspiracy theorists had long believed -- that there was indeed a government cover-up of a UFO crash near Roswell, N.M. in 1947.

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About the Author

Christopher Orlet writes every Thursday from St. Louis.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (60) | Leave a comment

Robert Pinkerton| 4.21.11 @ 6:29AM

Mr. Orlet, the contemporary equivalent of what had been your favorite reading matter whenb you were young, is to be found at http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net. This site, bilingual in English and Spanish, has it all: Kite-flying about UFOs and extraterrestrial sentients, conspiracy theories of every stripe, and all sorts of other treasures for the would-be author of fringe fiction.

JimH| 4.21.11 @ 6:38AM

Obama reminds me of a male version of the alien leader in V. Could be that is why he has trouble producing a birth certificate.

Walking Horse| 4.21.11 @ 8:33AM

Or perhaps the alien in Serling's "To Serve Man".

Dixie Pixie| 4.21.11 @ 10:22AM

As for actually running a government, the Obama administration is more like "Plan 9 from Outer Space".

dsayne| 4.21.11 @ 7:36AM

The Competent (INcompetent) Government theory is the best argument I've ever heard against UFOs.

Eddie| 4.23.11 @ 5:08AM

The crack about the competence of government officials reminds me of an old joke about a shrink who gets a call from a rather nutty sounding guy one day at his office.

"Hello?"

"Hello."

"Is this the crazy doctor?"

"Uh, yes."

"How much do you charge?"

"[Some ridiculously high figure] per session." [It was "Fifty dollars" back when I first heard this joke.]

"I'm not that crazy!"

SC Mike| 4.21.11 @ 8:00AM

When away from his day job at Aviation Week and Space Technology, the late Philip J. Klass was an avid UFO debunker, always eager to get to the bottom of the latest claim to find out what really happened.

Since Phil’s passing, Bob Sheaffer is the go-to guy; one of his websites is here: http://www.debunker.com/

Given today’s abundance of video recording devices, one might think there would be even more reports of UFOs. I’d like to think to think that there are not because more folks realize that just because they can’t identify something in the air does not mean that it’s extraterrestrial in origin. The truth however is probably that with today’s technology it’s easier to spot fraud.

JimH| 4.21.11 @ 8:46AM

Unless our soon to be alien overlords have improved their cloaking technology.

Freelancelot| 4.21.11 @ 8:40AM

I am a Constitutional Conservative and lover of laissez-faire free markets. I also accept the reality of UFOs. It's true that most cases of UFO sightings, so-called "abductions", etc can be explained by terrestrial or what we otherwise call "rational" means. Unfortunately for the self-proclaimed "debunkers", a small percentage of such experiences and sightings cannot be explained away. And this small percentage adds up to thousands and thousands of experiences and sightings, mostly reported by credible witnesses.

This kind of attempt at debunking is one of the fatal flaws of the Right. In their own way, debunkers are just as stupid as the Left wing moonbats. Debunker, be not pround.

LiveFreeOrDie| 4.21.11 @ 3:21PM

"...accept the reality of UFOs."

Here in the real world and not in the fantasy world of one's mind, something has to be proven to exist before it's "real". Not being able to explain something does not mean aliens exist. You would think the lack of a single scrap of physical evidence since the beginning of recorded history be a clue but ignorant people who want so badly to believe, will. The majority of these people are democrats. O.K. I made that last part up but it's probably true :)

I was assuming you weren't literally meaning UFO's, unidentified flying objects, which of course is a real TERM.

"...adds up to thousands and thousands of experiences and sightings, mostly reported by credible witnesses."

That's not the case. Thousands and thousands by credible witnesses is not true. The number of credible UFO sightings where the witnesses were in different places, didn't know each other, one was a police officer, etc. are quite rare. And of course since whatever they saw was never found or identified there's no conclusions to be made.

There's a million dollar prize offered to anyone who can prove or demonstrate anything outside the laws of physics. The actual wording is "...evidence of any paranormal, supernatural, or occult power or event." Here's a link:

http://www.randi.org/site/inde.....lenge.html

So far, nobody has collected or even come close. Including every "pychic" or charlatan you can think of.

David W| 4.21.11 @ 8:51AM

In the summer of 1977, 3 coworkers and I were driving from a job in Aurora, CO, back to our homes in the Texas Panhandle. As we were driving through the desolate Oklahoma Panhandle close to around midnight, two of us noticed something flying in the sky. Since it was dark we were unable to identify it. Thus it was an unidentified flying object (UFO). What was it? I would bet money it was either a slow flying single engine prop plane or maybe a helicopter. But we couldn't tell what it was. When I worked for a defense contractor I was on the company jet returning from Mexico. In the distance (after we had crossed the border) I could see some black, strangely shaped object. Again, I couldn't identify it (though, since the nearby airport was having an air show and the F-117 was scheduled to be there I think that was what it was).

In both cases they were real UFOs. In neither case were they machines from outer space. UFO just means you don't know what that flying thing is. Same as a USO - unidentified screaming object when you are out camping. Probably some 4-legged creature but you never know - Bigfoot mayhave stepped on a thorn!!

Dee See| 4.21.11 @ 8:52AM

The Orson Welles 'War of the Worlds' was totally
a Rockefeller Foundation psy. op. ---now ON RECORD.

Set up to study how the public reacts
to crisis, a prelude to crisis creation as a mode of
control.

Notice too Hollywood again took up the alien
trip in the late 70's with Lucas, and more telling,
Spielberg's 'Close Encounters'. Utterly set up
and scripted for the agenda masters.

This was brought in directly after the globalist
TREASON coup viz a viz Nixon/MAO.

Spieleberg is still fronting for 'the agenda' as
evidenced by his own 'War of the Worlds'
and the predictive programming for EUGENICS
in A.I. and Minority Report.

Still, it seems the genral public isn' quite so spellbound as they'd thought.

Buzz now has it that they're going to move to
pushing 'time travel' and channeling.

Expect 'the Big Boys' to start funding those
claiming they've broken the time barrier and
maybe they'll even try conjuring Buddha
or Christ.

The scientific dictatorship really is a fraud.

A well funded fraud.

Ryan| 4.21.11 @ 10:07AM

I was hoping you would chime in.

"On Record?" Where?

You know, you don't have any credibility here. Sources would improve that. We're NOT taking your word for it.

Dustoff| 4.21.11 @ 11:02AM

My God, your a nut. Change your med's quick!

Bydand76| 4.21.11 @ 12:28PM

You owe me 47 seconds!

Drunken Sailor| 4.21.11 @ 1:35PM

Finally!!! A post of yours using complete sentences that I can follow. Congratulations, your meds seem to be working but you might want to up the dosage a little.

Walking Horse| 4.21.11 @ 9:01AM

Another argument about why alien visitation is a hoax or delusion follows. From the viewpoint of a race capable of interstellar travel, this locale is, to put it gently, primitive. Empirical evidence to this point abounds these days. A race interested in coming here and observing our continued attempts at self-destruction would be indulging in a particularly tawdry form of slumming, or racial voyeurism. It is hard to imagine such a race would waste time on this insignificant dirt-ball.

Walking Horse| 4.21.11 @ 9:04AM

Imagine the embarrassment should a saucer actually land in DC today, when the little green men emerge, they ask, "Take us to your leader", and you ...

Harry the Horrible| 4.21.11 @ 9:21AM

Hmmmm.
Don't believe in "highly competent government officials?" Watch a bit of war porn over at weaselzippers.us. They may not be "officials" but there are some awfully competent folks fighting for us.
So, maybe, if we keep it below the "elected or appointed" range, there might some people in the Federal government capable of keeping secrets...

Neah.

Ken (Old Texican)| 4.21.11 @ 9:29AM

Hey Christopher. Guys.
Check out muons on your search engines. It seems those little devils are very very very fast.

Hmmmmm, maybe someone "out there" invented a muon drive.

Dixie Pixie| 4.21.11 @ 10:39AM

Ken....I think you meant to write "Tachyon Drive" as tachyons are defined as particles that only exist with velocities greater then the speed of light.
A muon drive is simply a linear particle accelerator with a selective intake filter and is limited to sub-light speeds.

Ken (Old Texican)| 4.21.11 @ 3:38PM

Hi Dixie.
Well the article I read was definitely muons. Something about time dilation. Evidently those little suckers can cross the universe instantly according to our "time-sense".

What ever they are called...God invented and uses them to attend our dinner table when we give thanks to Him.

Dixie Pixie| 4.21.11 @ 7:27PM

Greetings Ken
If you can find the article, I and a few of the TAS readership would like to read it.
I am unsure how a muon relates to a Space-Time Drive system.
After all, a muon has a rest lifetime of 2.22 ms so a muon moving just under light-speed it is not going very far!

The only relevant article relating muons and Space-Time I could find was a Wiki Article on Time Dilation, see below::::
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time_dilation

Dixie Pixie| 4.21.11 @ 7:33PM

Note....Do not try to use Microsoft Symbol in posting to the TAS website.
The muon lifetime of 2.22 us turned into 2.22 ms
Sorry for the error.

Vern Crisler| 4.21.11 @ 9:47AM

I'd say stick with the X-Files tv show. More entertaining....

Raoul Ortega| 4.21.11 @ 6:22PM

Just as long as you realize that it's not a documentary.

Ed| 4.21.11 @ 10:07AM

Many serious military and civillian pilots have seen UFO's, but what are they? The USAF and intelligence agencies have a lot of classified aircraft, and they are often unmanned. Just look at all of the drones out there that are unclassified. Some existing drones can hover or float in the air, and others can accelerate to hypersonic speeds, and others are very small.

WilliamInWien| 4.21.11 @ 10:27AM

The only time I do not mind waiting in line at the supermarket is when one of those "magazines/newspapers" has a featured article on a UFO or how a person was abducted and, in many cases, molested, by aliens. Usually I can get the gist of the story and return the printed matter back to its place before it is my turn to check out. On the other hand, I am not so egotistical to think that we here on earth are the only "intelligent" life forms to be found in the universe. There are times when I think that Dennis Kucinich may well be an "alien".

Motorcycle Accident Lawyer| 4.21.11 @ 10:42AM

Believing in UFO's gives hope to explain why are we here. Our time as humans is equivalent to just one tiny granule of sand on planet Earth. Are we really the only intelligent life in the entire universe?

Too Many Tims| 4.21.11 @ 10:57AM

I was lucky enough to see ball lightning one night, and I have to thank UFO debunkers for their work -because I had read about the phenomena I recognized it immediatelly and enjoyed the light show rather than getting spooked.

Dustoff| 4.21.11 @ 11:05AM

I ask.... why are these men (UFO) short in height?
If there is no gravity in space, shouldn't they be much taller?

Bill Diebold| 4.21.11 @ 1:39PM

...The answer to their short stature is simple, when they aren't out exploring other galaxies and lifeforms they're weekend jockeys to pick up some extra space bucks... If you don't believe in aliens one only has to look at the typical liberal dimocrap...pelosi an earthling??, yea and conservative too...

The Bruce| 4.21.11 @ 1:45PM

I think the reason they're short in height is that Hollywood simply deemed it so.

Renaissance Nerd| 4.21.11 @ 11:19AM

I too have seen a UFO. I couldn't identify it, therefore it was unidentified. I was in Chile at the time, and what I thought was a green star shot across the sky, hovered over Lago Llanquihue for a few moments, then shot straight up and disappeared. Don't know what it was, and I have no reason to believe it was an alien craft. From my perspective it didn't look like it behaved like a conventional airplane, but perspective can fool you easily.

I wouldn't have any problem believing that aliens visit the Earth if I ever saw some actual evidence, but despite my own brush with a UFO I remain skeptical. It would require no revolution in my thinking to believe that there are people on other planets, nor that it's possible to travel between stars. I have nothing invested in the universal theory crowd who are WAY premature in declaring their speculations gospel. I'm willing to remain agnostic and wait for evidence to accumulate in this as in many other matters. If my green star was a plane, fine; if some experimental missile, no worries. It it was Verkan Vall streaking across our Fourth Level skies on his way back to the First Level, I'm still content. I don't see why it's so important to disprove things that can't be disproved, when all of science spends so much time defending arguments that can't be disproved...or proved for that matter. The advantage to the UFOlolgists is that if a Nordic ship from Vega landed on the White House lawn then they would have evidence. Much of current science has no means of establishing evidence short of a time machine. I'll stick to the Scottish Enlightenment's Common Sense and not wait for time to not exist so a time machine can take a ride into the past. Same thing with multiple universes and dark matter. Scientists who claim the UFO crowd are crazy would have a lot more credibility if they didn't demand that we all believe so many goofball theories without evidence. Selective skepticism is another word for religious bigotry. Turn scientific skepticism onto implausible scientific theories and I would rejoice, but I would still not swallow the pill that scientists are superhumans who have no lust for power, craving for recognition and immortality, and greed for wealth, and are never, EVER willing to fudge the numbers to gain those things.

It's much less of a stretch to believe that interstellar/interdimensional ships filled with short grays, tall grays, reptilians, nordics, chupacabras etc, are rolling around the Earth kidnapping people for kicks.

Big Leo| 4.21.11 @ 11:54AM

Almost fifty years ago, in a small Eastern town, three young science nerds (two of which became PhD level research scientists) built several fire balloons that were disc shaped and had low voltage flashing lights on them and launched them over the town one night when the wind would carry them slowly across town and into the forest. Then they called the police. A splendid time was had by all.

Wayne | 4.21.11 @ 12:07PM

I saw a UFO hovering about 100 yards from me in the early 1990s in Wyoming. I have no problem with the idea that Earth is not the only place with intelligent life, and life on other planets may well be thousands or millions of years more advanced than us. But lets face it we are a hostile people.
In 1994, I am another person had the pleasure of talking with Barry Goldwater about this topic. He was still quite lucid and believed in UFO's not because of what he had seen, but because what his Air Force pilot friends had seen. He believed them. He was amazing open to the prospect of open contact. Goldwater had been my boyhood hero, and it was an hour and a half chat I will always cherish.

Who Knows?| 4.21.11 @ 12:42PM

ufo's---

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

Birthers essentially believe in UFO'S, because there is one---Obama---flying around in D.C., now.

Stoddard| 4.21.11 @ 12:50PM

About 15 years ago laying in a hammock, I spied a black boomerang-shaped object. Comparing it to a jetliner that was also in the sky, this vehicle was going almost twice as fast and was a much greater altitude.
UFO? Well, I couldn't identify it -- but it was most probably ours.

james wilson| 4.21.11 @ 1:27PM

If one wants to land in my backyard, I'll ask him to give me five minutes to pack, because I'm out of here.

Drunken Sailor| 4.21.11 @ 1:38PM

I was laying in a hammock in the back yard once and saw a UFO shaped like a Softball. Then it hit me.

Karl| 4.21.11 @ 1:53PM

I have a friend who wrote of going to a spot where people see lots of UFOs. Over the course of a long evening, he saw three flying saucers, two interstellar space liners, and one survey ship disguised as a 747, but not Unidentified Flying Objects.

LibertyAtStake| 4.21.11 @ 1:59PM

If we are being visited by little green extraterrestials, they are either too ethical to interfere with our progress, or our progress is too uninteresting to them to bother.

d(^_^)b
http://libertyatstake.blogspot.com/
"Because the Only Good Progressive is a Failed Progressive"

CalMark| 4.21.11 @ 2:17PM

Someone (I believe it was Rush Limbaugh) once said that it's amazing: now that everyone has a camera in his cell phone, nobody sees UFOs anymore.

LiveFreeOrDie| 4.21.11 @ 3:28PM

Best comment on the board!

Wayne | 4.21.11 @ 3:54PM

Except that its not true.

Ray| 4.21.11 @ 3:25PM

I am reminded of my Jr. High School days, when a "reputable scientist" showed us a film about cattle mutations and his "proof" of how this was being done by aliens, for "scientific research." During the question and answer period, I asked the gentleman: "if they're doing scientific research on the cattle as you claim, why wouldn't they take the whole carcass? When we dissect a frog, for example, we dissect the whole thing, not just a few small pieces. A scientist like yourself should understand that. So, why take only a few small pieces?" He never did answer that simple question.

Ray| 4.21.11 @ 3:27PM

I'm sorry, that should read "cattle mutilations."

Ken (Old Texican)| 4.21.11 @ 4:06PM

Well folks,
I've been a pilot for forty years. Quietly, (among only pilots), in the pilot's lounge, I have heard some fascinating stories.
I have gathered the following:
1. These suckers can only be "seen" with the ole' mark one eye-ball. (rather than radar and such).
2. These suckers are FAST...when they want to be.
3. The suckers can go fast then turn on a dime.
4. Most pilot sightings are above a cloud deck.
5. Pilots who report sightings lose their pilot license.
6. pilots keep their darned mouths shut. I just blew my annual physical due to "old age" so I don't care.
I have only two experiences with weird UFOs.
One time I was driving east over a ridge at moonrise. The darned moon appeared to cover half the horizon. That sliver of moon looked exactly like a "saucer" for a moment.

Another time, 3 in the morning I was flying north.
One light came down super fast and hit the ground. Another light turned UP...on a dime... and accelerated.
Don't ask me 'cause I don't know.

Raoul Ortega| 4.21.11 @ 6:26PM

Pilots are taught to assume that any object they see which looks like it's flying is really flying. This distorts their perceptions, because so-called UFOs are then assumed to be typical aircraft, and when they don't behave as expected, they they are assumed to be supernatural, and all other "natural" explanations are ignored.

For example, I heard of one case where a pilot reported white glowing disks zipping around below him. Turned out there was a thin cloud layer below him that wasn't cutting down on visibility, but was thick enough to be illuminated by a used-car dealers rotating search lights.

investorbs| 4.21.11 @ 5:26PM

So many theories, so little time...

1) The three-lights formation has been seen repeatedly both in the US and Europe. Those who like to keep abreast of secret military technology identify it as the TR-3B, an experimental aircraft with a new type of propulsion.
2) As for the ubiquitous flitting white lights, I've always wondered whether they might be explained by cryptozoology as a heretofore undiscovered life-form native to earth, that science has never studied because it has never hypothesized that such a thing might exist living in the upper atmosphere.
3) Regarding aliens from other planets, I really don't think so.
4) I'd as soon believe that there is an advanced race of man as the holdover of a prior great civilization from 10,000 years ago, that was mostly destroyed by some earth-wide catastrophe, but nonetheless managed to survive in a limited sense by going into hiding.

Wow, this has been fun, let's do it again real soon!

Stan in Sugar Land| 4.21.11 @ 5:32PM

Only one flying saucer story: Several years ago applied for a permit to drill a natural gas well near Farmington, NM. The location was the fabled site of a "flying saucer" crash. Moved the location 100' and drilled the well, no there was nothing there, just a marginal gas well.

Jack Olson| 4.21.11 @ 5:50PM

A few years ago, I saw a giant hamburger in the sky. It seemed to be about the size of a house and was hovering 2,000-3,000 feet in the air. When I drove a little closer, I saw people riding in the little basket hanging underneath it. I realized I was looking at a fancy hot air balloon.

It's hard to prove a negative. It is even impossible to prove that the earth isn't being visited by extraterrestrial spacecraft. I notice, though, that all of the sightings of them take place in rural areas. They are witnessed only by one person or a few people at a time, never by thousands at once. They never show up for the Rose Bowl or the Kentucky Derby, where tens of thousands of people could see them in the daylight and hundreds of cameras could photograph them simultaneously. If a German teenager could land a Cessna in Red Square, you'd think an extraterrestrial could do the same with a flying saucer but they never do.

Big Leo| 4.21.11 @ 6:17PM

Don't be silly. We all know who they are. They're our lizard overlords in the center of the hollow earth who have eaten our real leaders and disguised themselves as such. Queen Elizabeth is really a six hundred year old lizard.

Tell the truth. You've always suspect this.

skip| 4.21.11 @ 6:19PM

Having been born and raised on Lake Michigan I have seen, with my very own eyes, some very interesting things.

I have seen individual street and tower lights of cities across the lake.

I have counted the intervals of multiple light houses visible at the same time from harbors across the lake.

I have seen lighthouses easily hundreds of feet tall and along the shoreline.

I know the laws of physics limit the ability to see more than about 16 miles at the horizon due to the curvature of the earth, yet those cities and lighthouses were more than 4 times farther.

I know the height of the those lighthouses and have been inside them, and they aren't more than 30 feet tall.

The explanation is found in a phenomenon known as temperature inversion.

There isn't a shred of evidence of extraterrestrial life visiting this planet.

There are explanations.

For example how many people have ever heard of sprites?

Elves?

Blue Jets?

Klatu| 4.21.11 @ 8:07PM

I have the same interest and am convinced they are here but beyond that I have no idea what they are doing here. Proof positive came to me in the form of the "Black Box Secrets" episode of the UFO Files series on one of the major "cable" channels. Credible, qualified, and reluctant witnesses (commercial and military airline pilots, length of encounter 30-40 minutes each!), common incidents (location, description, timing), documented account (black box recordings, government records, military responses).

Now that I have this all settled in my mind, not sure what I am going to do about it. Likely nothing!

Dixie Pixie| 4.21.11 @ 9:00PM

I have always considered the best argument for intelligent life in outer space is they have the good sense not to come here.
Given the choice, most intelligent life on Earth would leave.

High Point| 4.21.11 @ 9:55PM

I suspect we will find Bigfoot before we find aliens (extraterrestrials).

Dixie Pixie| 4.21.11 @ 11:23PM

High Point....You may be right.
I have always suspected that the Neanderthals live among us as Trolls!
A few posters on TAS Online have proven me correct!

Dee See| 4.23.11 @ 10:32PM

Interesting to note, the flying saucer 'craze' though
undoubtedly dreamt up by London, first really
came into the intellectual open in pre-revolutionary Moscow and St. Petersburg.
(1900-1917)