For the past couple of days, the internet has been in a twitter over the news that a man in Denver planned to release a video documenting an actual alien. The man, Stan Tiger Romanek, had suspected that a peeping Tom was looking in on his young daughters, so he set up a camera to catch him. But instead of catching a peeping Tom, Romanek supposedly captured an “alien.”
Romanek did not appear at the news conference today, but Alejandro Rojas, education director of MUFON, the Mutual UFO Network, introduced the video and tried his level-best to convince the audience that Romanek did not stage the video. Rojas claims that “[Romanek and his daughters] don’t…have the ability or the motivation to fabricate a hoax.” In James Randi’s book Flim Flam, Randi lists 20 “hallmarks of paranormal chicanery” (37). Number 2 on Randi’s list:
“The subject (a child, peasant, or sweet little old lady) is said to be incapable of the techniques required; lack of sophistication precludes deception” (37).
Number 12:
“A subject’s ability to perform trickery is de-emphasized or ignored (39).
And finally, number 14:
“It is said that the subject cannot produce phenomena on command or on a regular basis, since such abilities are ephemeral and sporadic.”
Now, Mr. Romanek claims that he has been visited more than 100 times by aliens, but whatta ya wanna bet that he’ll never be visited when someone else is present? I also find it a little presumptuous that the so-called “experts” on alien visitation seem to think that Mr. Romanek is incapable of faking the video. First off, they didn’t actually release any of the footage of this video to the public, and only a select few journalists were invited to the press conference. Second, take a look at a screen capture from the video:
Scary, ain’t it?
I’m not a special effect genius, but that doesn’t exactly look like a difficult effect to produce. I’ve seen much more convincing, and scary, footage on YouTube that was also produced by “amateurs.” I’m always suspicious about any revelatory film that is in black and white or that is using the low-light infrared feature of consumer
video cameras. Trust me on this one; it’s shockingly easy to cover things up using black and white or infrared.
My Bullshit meter almost busted when I read this: “A documentary is in production that will include much more of the videotape and other evidence, [Rojas] says. It is due to be released later this year.” A documentary, huh? Kinda like “The Blair Witch Project” was a documentary? Or “Cloverfield”?
I’m not gonna lie–I take a great deal of joy in watching this kind of shit. But let’s think about something: The odds of life-forms from another planet having evolved into bipedal mammals that basically look like humans without hair, are infinitesimally small. The odds are so small in fact, that it’s almost idiotic to think that aliens, if there are any, will look anything like us. Also, if these creatures presumably possess the technology to travel through space-time, then why don’t they have some awesome type of imaging system that would allow them to look into Mr. Romanek’s house from the comfort of their Foo Fighter? Why do the advanced race of inerstellar beings have to resort to the shenanigans of George McFly?
I know, I know. I’m throwing a monkey wrench in all the fun with my irritatingly logical and reasonable questions. I’ll stop now.
