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Protopterygotes / Sky Rods / Sky Fish

Only seven frames are shown, so the complete sequence is about a quarter second, and the bird seems to flap its wings about once, probably about right. Difficult to tell with the 'insect', though.

BTW, the page says it's a swallow, not a sparrow! I'm not much of a bird-watcher, but I believe sparrows eat seeds, while swallows do eat insects, which makes it plausible the bird was chasing some kind of insect.
 
Originally posted by rynner


BTW, the page says it's a swallow, not a sparrow! I'm not much of a bird-watcher, but I believe sparrows eat seeds, while swallows do eat insects, which makes it plausible the bird was chasing some kind of insect.

Sparrows definitely do eat insects, watch them when flying ants are swarming.
 
re:TVgeek

that's really something..I had'nt heard of this for some reason..now I'm scratching my head again..rods..it just might be something there! please keep us updated on this..the FBI is really investigating this? weird stuff:confused:
 
Did I see one last night?

Is this what rods look like?
 
I WONDER...?

tang-malow said:
has anyone ever considered the possibilitys of sky fish and fairy sightings being linked??? im sure if i saw one of these things in a forrest or something id be convinced i saw a fairy
I have twice seen parrot size translucent-white thingies swooping around overhead. Once in my semi-dark bedroom and once in a dark Medicine House. I did think they were probably faries, although before that it had not occured to me that faries might be anything but fictional. I quessed they were faries because both times I saw them I was with a woman who was strong in the practice of a pagan tradition that believes in faries, and because the tribe who's Medicine House I was in also includes faries in their tradition.

I wonder now if what I saw were these rod things. Maybe it was a coincidence that I saw them when I was with her. And I was especially sensitive then. (I had some abilities then that aren't active now, like seeing auras etcetera.)

I wonder if anyone has done any serious tests with different types of cameras and viewing equipment? If they are proven not to be camera artefacts, what a fascinating mystery it is!
 
Rense has a further write up and a link to a Quicktime version
of the video.

http://www.rense.com/general31/nyalb.htm

Here is a snip of the strange part:
---------------------------------
...agents had invited the photographer outside the station, and that the agents had then "taken" the "original" tape from the photographer, who had it on his person at the time of the meeting with the FBI personnel. When NUFORC suggested that such an act, in the absence of a court warrant, might be illegal, Mr. Bazile averred that he agreed with that assessment.
-------------------------------
This is, of course, a news employee exaggerating the story
all out of proportion. (I wonder if he does this often?)

The actual event is later described by the news director as
a much more civilized exchange. Probably closer to what really happened. But still -- other than personal curiosity,
why are the FBI so interested?

TVgeek
 
He also stated that the object is on the other side of the clouds, which provides some perspective as to the size of the object, and its velocity, which Mr. Huff concludes is considerable. We extend our gratitude to Mr. Huff for sharing his analysis with NUFORC and Jeff Rense.
It's not at all obvious from the stills or Mr Huff's enhancements that the object is beyond the cloud.

Certainly similar objects videoed elsewhere give the impression of being nearby and quite small. Is Mr. H wrong, or is there some disinformation going on - hint it's a UFO (in the alien space-craft sense) so that it's lumped in with all sorts of other loonery, thereby distracting speculation on what they really are...

I reckon that if they're not insects (known or unknown) and/or camera artifacts, they could be top secret surveillance devices - miniature spy planes.
 
According to Timesunion the footage was also shown to police and airport officials. It seems the police may have called in the FBI.

The airport folk didn't recognise it (surprise, surprise!) but said that nothing had shown up on radar...

So either this was a stealth UFO which nevertheless chose to remain visible, or it was something much smaller and closer.
 
rynner said:
It's not at all obvious from the stills or Mr Huff's enhancements that the object is beyond the cloud.

I agree -- it looks to be a contrast issue when it is in front
of the clouds -- nothing more. It actually seems to be a standard
photo of a "rod".

The interesting thing to me is the time of year --
we are in a very unseasonably cold weather pattern in the US Midwest -- all our cold air works eastward. There are NO insects
in the air (and there haven't been for several weeks) -- so
if rods appear in cold weather/wintertime videos as well...
there goes the insect argument (which I still think
explains most "rod" appearances!)

Another thing, if it WAS above cloud-height,
how honkin' big would it have to be -- especially to be showing "wings" the way it does!?!

Well, have at it... ;)
TVgeek
 
It be one big Momma!!!

I still can't believe I missed that report (I usual keep up with stuff) glad for this ft mb!! The regular media here didnt show this or I was real busy durning "this one incident"..anyway as I say cool stuff..a real head scratcher..
 
ufo flies again

The flying rod in this film is almost certainly a scanned insect on videotape and I am surprised that it gets shown everywhere.

Just because it is cold doesn't rule out insects that might have flown out of a building into the outside world- say, for instance a warm airport terminal...
It also doesn't rule out tiny insect-like observation devices sent here by eccentric aliens with an unlimited budget I suppose.
Most of the public is ignorant of the likely explanation of these video artefacts- ah, well, let them have their fun.
Sceptics get scoffed at even when their explanation is almost certainly correct.
steve b
 
Re: ufo flies again

Eburacum45 said:
The flying rod in this film is almost certainly a scanned insect on videotape and I am surprised that it gets shown everywhere.

I agree, I just wonder wy the FBI is involved? Heard an interview with the cameraman on radio last night. He said he was given lie detector test, questioned intensely, etc. etc. I'm a professional cameraman and , personally, the guy must not be much of a shooter if he can't tell a bug close to the lens from an object thousands of feet in the air moving at thousands of miles an hour.
Oh well, still puzzled as to why the FBI would even bother looking into it.

sureshot
 
It was shown on some of the news channels here yesterday and as you say, it was obviously an insect, the two sets of wings and long body being an anomaly of video.
 
Study of Butterffly Flight
The insects moved effortlessly through the different mechanisms "much like a horse might switch between walking, trotting and galloping depending on what it wanted to do," Dr Thomas said yesterday.

"We are now moving in the direction where we will soon be able to build 10-centimetre-wingspan aircraft, either radio controlled or autonomous. If you fitted a camera on them they could be sent into small spaces such as caves to see what was going on," he said.
 
Thats an interesting comment by Dr. Thomas.
For a craft like he proposes, isn't the only
viable source of power at that size and
weight a solar cell?

Obviously a cave would defeat that purpose!

Wouldn't a watch battery even be too heavy?

Or am I still confused by the bee/wingsize debate?

Great concept, though!

TVgeek
 
I saw an article in a Bravo tv programme on Sunday which featured these rods, and pretty amazing though the footage was, there was no mention of them being "alien craft" or UFOs. Indeed, the unknown insect theory was very much adhered to, even in the debunking with the theory about the frame speed being the cause and that these were just normal insects.
I was quite convinced by the explanation, but two things bug me about this subject (no pun intended).

1 - If these films are of common-or-garden insects why are they all white/transluscent? Most insects I've seen are usually darkly coloured.
2 - In the Albany video, the object does seem to disappear behind a cloud. If this is an insect, then it should be visible in front of the cloud. Unless the video is a fake. But then surely upon the introduction of the FBI into the case, the cameraman would have relented, realising how deep he'd got himself through his prank. As far as we know, this hasn't happened.
 
For what it is worth...

The other morning, I was watching an episode of NOVA, a well-respected science-series shown on American Public Broadcasting. This episode dealt with pilotless aircraft, and a good portion of what I saw (I missed the first half hour or so!) dealt with potential military applications (for example, PREDATOR was discussed). At any rate, discussion turned to tiny flyers being used to snoop inside buildings, etc, and to discussions of what would be required for such surveillance devices. General consensus was that mimicking insects was the way to go, although power sources remained a real problem.

A scientist then demonstrated a prototype -- to be clear, the program suggested the powersource problem made a practical working version many years away -- and it was VERY "rodlike"... long body, multiple "wings" along the body, which from the side appeared to move "out of synch" in a very sine-wave like motion. Having read about rods here and elsewhere, I found myself brought up short - the similarities were amazing... although, of course, this little prototype was not nearly as fast, as manuverable, etc, as rods, by any means. Still, the design similarity...and the context (discussions of the perfect stealthy surveillance platform) ... were really intriguing.

Not running too far with this one - I don't buy the idea that some terrestrial power has actually perfected little flying snoopers and has deployed them almost everywhere! *S* - but it still makes one think...

Shadow
 
Very cool connection, Shadow. Maybe rods are "snoopers" for people from the future! You know--reality TV from the past.

Methinks it's time for a drink.
 
HMMmmm

yeah it could be that they can't send people into the past , but these Rod like things," if kept at a certain speed" are sent to the past.. then they bring back "the info" and are watched
 
Rods Debunk.

Shutter speeds and DV recording.

Rods are almost definately normal insects caught on digital equipment at low shutter speeds. They seem to have suddenly appeared around 1994 around the time of affordable digital cameras.

See this link.
 
A-ha!

Well, that's convinced me of the normal insect theory...

Good link JMcKeith!!

It's a bit clearer on those pictures that the area where the body of the insect is, is actually darker answering one of my earlier points.

I'm still intruiged by the Albany film though, which to me seems a bit less clear cut.
 
I think I've had a 'rod' encounter.

It was about 3 years ago and I was at a friend's house. I'd seen what I think was a UFO just two months previously and had gone into the back garden to look at the sky and get some air.

I get 'floaters' in my eyes and I spotted a tiny horizontal line in my line of vision and just assumed it was a new 'floater' that had appeared. It became apparent after focusing on it that it was
actually in the air in front of my face. It was about 1-1.5 cm long and was absolutely ram-rod straight and seemed to be aware of my presence. As I moved my head it followed and was directly in my eye-line as I watched it. It had no wings though - it was just a 'line'. I watched it and I THINK it watched me until I went back into the house!

I had no idea as to what it could have been until I saw this thread. I think it MAY have been a tiny 'rod'. It wasn't any disecrnible colour - I could just see a darkish line.

It was insect-like in it's hovering motion and size but I got the distinct impression it was aware of me and was 'interested' in me for some reason.
 
Many flying insects are rod-like (Dragonflies, damselflies), and their wing movements are very fast. (There are some pretty banded multi-cloured ones around here in summer.)

I wonder how many many rod videos are just of real insects?
 
I'd be very itersested if someone would do an experiment using a digital camera with variable shutter speeds. (I'd do it myself but I don't have one!) From my link above the best shutter speeds
seem to be 1/60 and 1/100.
At higher shutter speeds(1/500 and above) the bees looked just like bees. But at lower shutter speeds...especially 1/60,1/100,......the bees looked VERY MUCH like rods shots by Jose, John Bro, Michael Merchant, and others. This astounded me, and has caused me to be inclined to believe that much of the footage that folks have been thinking are rods,..ie.a whole new life form,etc.,...may just well be insects misidentified as rods due to the distortion caused by DV technology with fast moving objects at slower shutter speeds. There's much to be looked into here, as I can't explain technically how this happens, but I have some compelling evidence with my footage,...and it can be repeated over and over to anyone wanting to investigate this.
 
It was definately NOT a dragonfly or damsel fly!! This was a very straight line, quite close to my face

I think I'd know if it was a dragon fly they are HUGE buggers! And they make a racket!
 
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