http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-drone18mar18,1,7704475.story?page=1
I've blogged about this one before, a case that began on the Coast to Coast website, and its stock in ufology has declined since.
I don't really have much else to say, except that I am surprised I continue to be surprised.
Here's the PI's website on the investigation.
Following the relatively recent post on the pilots of the 1897 Airship Wave, Cabinet of Wonders once again reflects on Air Kraken Day (declared March 17 by the steampunk nexus Brass Goggles) by noting the fact and fiction accounts of strange non-avian creatures in the sky.
In the most recent essay, Cabinet of Wonders discusses recent sightings of jellyfish-like UFOs, while in the previous essay last March, historical and fictional cases get their due, including Arthur Conan Doyle's "The Horror of the Heights."
Other stories of air monsters don't have the popular exposure of those most famous "air monsters" (extraterrestrials and their flying saucers), but they do persist under the radar (so to speak). Thunderbirds are probably the most famous, but pterodactyls also get some attention. I was more familiar with the various hoaxed/art photos of late 19th century slain pterodactyls, kickstarted by an 1890 account of a dragon killed in Arizona. Over a century later, airplane passengers claim to have photographed dragons over Tibet.
But only recently learned that there are ties between the hunt for pterodactyls and creationism. Though it shouldn't have surprised me since I've seen creationists invoke the Loch Ness Monster and other sea serpents, and the Creation Museum is chock full of dinosaurs.
And lets not forget that in the early days of flying saucers, sky animals were suggested as a possible explanation. As were intelligent bees from Mars.
There are numerous articles today about how astrologer Louis de Wohl conned MI5 during WWII. The story isn't completely new, but the details are nice to know. Long story short, in return for a snappy uniform and a sense of importance, de Wohl convinced MI5 he understood Hitler's mind through his obsession with astrology.
Problem is, Hitler thought astrology was bunk. In fact, he thought a lot of occult things were bunk. But that hasn't stopped a pervasive meme from exploding in entertainment and popular lore that the Nazis and especially Hitler were "nuts on the subject" as the greatest offender, Raiders of the Lost Ark, put it. Yes, there were top Nazis that were obsessed with the occult, most importantly SS leader Himmler (who did involve the SS in archaeological looting, ancestor worship, and occult ideas).
But that's the thing. You get a group of people together, in government or out of it, and interest in these subjects will be held by some of them. The use of MI5 by de Wohl can perhaps be chalked up to low-cost hedging ones bets in wartime. But in addition to leaders or their families taking spiritual advice (Nancy Reagan's astrological advisor comes to mind) as I've talked about here before, other government projects and officials have spent time and/or money on telepathy, walking through walls, UFOs, and finding Noah's Ark. And that's the stuff they believed in, never mind using the subjects to cover up other activities.
