THE ANOMALIST IS A WEEKDAY REVIEW OF WORLD NEWS ON MAVERICK SCIENCE, UNEXPLAINED MYSTERIES, UNORTHODOX THEORIES, STRANGE TALENTS, AND UNEXPECTED DISCOVERIES.


Web Anomalist.com


NOTICE: News stories appear in new browser windows. Stories are not archived; links may expire without notice. As an Amazon Associate, we earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. Thank you for your support of this website.

CONTACT: Please email your news tips to the News Editor.

RECOMMENDED SITES:
Archives for the Unexplained
Art Bell Radio Archives
Séance Science
Connecting with Coincidence
Open Sciences
Skeptiko
Beachcombing's Bizarre History Blog
The Fairyist
ShukerNature
CryptoZoo News
Ancient Origins
Atlas Obscura
Historic Mysteries
Magonia
Science Frontiers
FOTOCAT
NYUFO
Project 1947
The Books of Charles Fort
International Cryptozoology Museum
The Condon Report
The Roots of Consciousness
Fortean Times
Reality Carnival
Society for Scientific Exploration
Blue Book Archive
The Parapsychological Association
Mind Hacks
Daily Grail
National UFO Reporting Center
Ufo news app
Ufo sightings app
Anomaly Archives
Library of Exploratory Science
National Aviation Reporting Center on Anomalous Phenomena
Anomalist Books
Zetetic Scholar
What's Up With UFOs?
Geister News
OMNI Magazine


Anomalist Books


The Anomalist



April 24

A long-awaited Freedom of Information Act response demonstrates a UAPTF "scope and structure far more intricate than previously disclosed," says John Greenewald, who distills a wider scope of activity and structured oversight, incidentally strengthening the position of former UAPTF Director Jay Stratton. Greenewald similarly finds more than we knew in a more recent program, as Lake Erie, Saudi Arabia, and Dugway: Army Records Trace UAP Surveillance Footprint. Here the Army's contributions to AARO and its FY2024 UAP Report are the topic. But greater transparency is needed, per Christopher Mellon on UFOs, Secrecy, and What the Public Still Doesn't Know. Mellon's interview with Chris Cuomo is more forceful as it's hard to imagine anyone more qualified than he to make these assertions. One point Mellon is adamant about is that government can very well keep secrets, for decades if necessary. And in Europe, Martin Chlebovský announces the establishment of "Team Glow" to Advance UFO Research in the Czech Republic. Chlebovský outlines a structured program, benefiting from previous excellent work, for this independent organization to improve data collection and analysis, and collaborate with other groups internationally. (WM)

A funeral director out of Yorkshire, England, has a TikTok channel where he describes strange experiences he's had throughout his career. Rather than be put off by the strangeness, Jacob Walsh feels reassured by what seem to be signs from the recently departed. We could be forgiven for questioning Survival: Re-Appraising the Evidence for Life After Death. On April 13, 2025, this five hour online event sought to answer the question of whether consciousness continues after death. World renowned leaders in the field were brought together to review the latest research and examine the common assumptions about this subject. The recording comes with timestamps so you don't have to listen to the full five hours—you can choose your "cutting-edge insights into what might lie beyond the final frontier." (CM

UFOs in film news today. Sorry we're apparently too late for Greene County, NY, locals to act upon this, but Sunny Hernandez' article gives all of us some insights into iconic filmmaker Steven Spielberg's much-awaited "UFO-sci-fi film." We get a working title, professional actors list, and info on the scriptwriter. Also of note is the news that Apple Officially Lands UFO-Disclosure Project From Joseph Kosinski And Jerry Bruckheimer. "[T]he untitled thriller will explore disclosure around UAPs (formerly known as UFOs)," says this IMDb notice. In addition to the Big Names in the article's title, we find that "David Grusch will serve as a consultant and associate producer on the project." And in what seems a claim that's a rehash of the admitted Corey Goode hoax, Martin Willis affords a new whistleblower air time to make his case versus a UFO documentarian in Jason Sands & Darcy Weir Interview. Turns out that the original tiff between Sands and Weir was a misunderstanding. But there are still murky, long-term, frightening tinges to Sands' story. (WM)

April 23

What's up in UFO sightings includes Alec Fernandes' report and footage on a likely rocket launch over the Lone Star State. From 2025 Rocket Launch Schedule and specific videos, I'd guess this was the NROL-192 launch out of Vandenberg. But the background constellation in the video, at least, looks familiar to me. Sounds and Colours discusses a passel of different puzzlers in Argentina's UFO Highway: Why Route 368 in Capilla del Monte Draws Alien Believers Worldwide. From numerous reports of UFOs, weird beings, and "Sudden Tech Failures," scientific and "conspiracy" theories, and festivals, it seems the Argentine Republic is producing its own "Roswells." And Argentina has produced one of the 5 Most Intriguing UFO Videos of 2025. (WM)

Charlie Wood takes us on a deep-dive into the limits of the knowable. During the heady days of the Enlightenment, many scholars fully expected the universe to eventually be fully determinate and knowable. But with scientific advancement, there has been a significant retreat from this position. The fundamental indeterminacy implied by quantum theory threw a first spanner in the works. This was followed by a better understanding of the chaotic nature of many physical systems, a result of which is that small uncertainties can be amplified to affect the whole system. A third and perhaps more fundamental source of the fundamental unknowability of the universe is what has been termed "undecidability." The nub of this problem comes from recent elaborations of Gödel’s incompleteness theorem and related to this Turing’s "halting problem." Both demonstrate that there exist mathematical and computational problems that are undecidable. This may also be true for physical systems. Researchers have described physical systems for which their starting physical state is entirely determinate and known, but whose end state is undecidable. This is not due to quantum indeterminacy or a result of chaotic systems, but fundamental to the systems themselves. It is, however, also undecided as to the practical importance of these findings, as David Wolpert a researcher at the Santa Fe Institute puts it, “These are very important results. They are very, very profound...But they also ultimately have no implications for humans.”(JS)

Host of the Soft Robotics Podcast Marwa ElDiwiny converses with Jacques Vallée on more than his latest and last journal Forbidden Science 6: Scattered Castles, The Journals of Jacques Vallée 2020-2019. The dialogue is a retrospective beyond the entire series of Vallée's journals, which are published by Anomalist Books. We get Vallée's comments in addition to the usual questions he gets asked in interviews. Topics include the still-conservative attitude at the Sorbonne and most of French science on UFOs; why California is still "the place to go" to accomplish technological feats people elsewhere say is impossible; why Vallée so values going to the original sources, especially the living UFO witnesses; the limitations of computers even enhanced with artificial intelligence; what "D/disclosure" may really be like—not an "end," but just a "beginning"; the lost opportunity when funding for the "Capella" data warehouse was cut three years early; and the little-known history of the end of World War II. And to this last question, near the dialogue's conclusion about his personal regrets, we get a powerful impression of the very human nature of this great individual. (WM)

April 22

Kapil Kajal gives a good summary of the February 2023 firsthand eye- (and probably radar-) witness testimony of Alex Wiggins. Then we go deep into past US intelligence doings and the CEIV phenomenon with Tanner F. Boyle's The Cultural Cold War and Alien Abduction. Tanner artfully weaves a troubling story of governmental fiddling with human minds for its own goals, with abduction researchers unconsciously—or perhaps consciously—involved. Someone who observed military "information management/concealment/manipulation" is the subject of The Story of June Crain: An Atomic Age UFO Whistleblower. Outstanding UFO investigator and law enforcement veteran James Clarkson answers an excellent array of questions from host Ryan Sprague in a detailed interview. An undercurrent running throughout the interview is the level of secrecy during June's relevant experience and possible surveillance for years afterwards. And, whatever the actual cause may be, the impression of direct contact with a UFO can produce a profound experience, as a Hudson Valley Resident Claims Unexplained Flying Object "Communicated" With Them. A March 18th experience in an area with its own remarkable UFO-and-other paranormal history is profiled here. (WM)

Nowadays it can be pretty tricky to determine if an image is genuine or if it's been photoshopped. Add in the recent onslaught of AI imagery and you'd be excused for feeling like you just don't have a clue anymore. But long before technological advances with digital imagery, folks were monkeying with photographs in old- school ways. This report is a fairly comprehensive list of photos over the last century or so that were proven to be fake, yet also marvelous in the level of commitment they required. In 1976 a Swiss man named Billy Meier claimed to have made contact with aliens, producing a series of faked images featuring flying saucers superimposed over the Swiss landscape. The 1920s had the Cottingley fairies, photos that were intended as a practical joke that were unexpectedly taken seriously. The infamous surgeon's photo of the Loch Ness Monster, taken in 1934, turned out to be nothing more than a clay figurine,  although this fraud did nothing to cool monster hunting enthusiasts. Included in this list of fraudulent photographs is the Patterson-Gimlin image of Patty, perhaps the most conclusive bit of proof of the existence of Bigfoot. In spite of the controversy over the years, this photograph has not been proven to be faked, although that hasn't deterred critics from continuing to try. Moving on to more recent sketchy photographs,Security Guard Snaps Fantastic Photo of Ghost at Venezuelan Hospital? Perhaps. The image captured looks a great deal like something out of a movie, but given the age of the facility anything is possible. We're sitting firmly on the fence in this case. (CM)

Luis Cayetano mines Allan Hendry's remarkable 1979 work The UFO Handbook: A Guide to Investigation, Evaluating, and Reporting UFO Sightings. Cayetano approves of Hendry's skeptical approach to Close Encounters of the Third Kind and a "main sequence" "along which a great many UFOlogists seem to evolve in their attitudes" out of their frustrated efforts to comprehend the UFO phenomenon/a. Bryan Sentes discusses With Luis Cayetano at Vector of Knowledge: UFOs, UAP, Vallée, Kripal, Society, and Related Matters. This short summary leads us to the actual conversation at 3rd Chat with Bryan Sentes (Poet/English Professor) of Skunkworks Blog. Among the points made are early mistakes made by enthusiastic "17ers" coming into the field who lack sufficient grounding in the overall study, and how the anthropocentric view of "intelligence" on Earth limits views on what might be a "Non-Human-Intelligence" behind UFOs. Many will find this wide-ranging conversation (as with Cayetano's lead article) provocative, and some may become rather irked in spots, particularly towards the dialogue's conclusion. Ufology itself is a wide-ranging field, and in any event these posts are challenging, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. (WM)

April 21

The UFO Transparency hopes roller coaster car chugs up the incline once again—perhaps in a more leisurely/guarded pace than at times before, but at least upwards. Vetted's Patrick Scott Armstrong has the lineaments of the "Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets" investigation into UAP and Republican Representative Eric Burlison's related remarks. Armstrong voices cautious optimism, explains why, and notes the legitimate issue of "sources and methods" and the AARO-voiced solution to it. Christopher Sharp offers Representative Luna Announces House Oversight UFO Investigation, Leading to a Hearing In May. Sharp adds that the April 30/May 1st "Roundtable" component of the three-event probe "will be hosted by the UAP Disclosure Fund," plus that Representative Burlison said David Grusch "had provided House Oversight members with the names of 20 officials who are read-in to classified UAP programs." And Keith Basterfield expands upon the previous pieces with his Task Force on the Declassification of Federal Secrets - UAP. (WM)

There are biblical discoveries afoot: Discoveries of two arks that could not be more different. The Ark of the Covenant, purported to contain the Ten Commandments and possess inexplicable defensive powers, may have been found, according to documents disclosed by the CIA. The Agency has evidently known about its location for years, courtesy of a now defunct remote viewing program labelled Project Sun Streak. Then a 5,000-Year-Old Boat-Shaped Mound Could Be Noah's Ark, Some Archaeologists Suggest. Located in Turkey, the "unique rock formation" may actually be the petrified remains of the big boat that kept countless living creatures alive during the Great Flood. Located in Turkey, the remains' measurements very closely mirror those described in the Bible, making the site all the more intriguing, although still inconclusive. (CM)

Think click-bait headlines, "fake news," and sensationalist journalism are a new phenomenon? Kevin Guhl gives a detailed and salutary account of dubious journalism in Pennsylvania’s Lancaster New Era newspaper during the late nineteenth century. Ghul conducts an examination of the provenance of various stories reported in the Lancaster New Era, including those of headless ghosts, the discovery of a mysteriously preserved human corpse in a ditch, the fortuitous discovery of geological gold deposits, the death of a (very much alive) one-eyed horse thief, the (alleged) attempted assassination of a military officer in his bedroom, and the sighting of a river monster in Bainbridge, PA. The reporting of such stories, it seems, fell short of usual journalistic standards with no effort made to establish the veracity of a story. In the intense battle to increase circulation, papers of the era were often involved in an inflationary battle to outdo one another in terms of hyperbole and outlandishness. The New Era was not alone, Ghul observes the term "yellow journalism" was coined to describe the sensationalist and suspect reporting of the New York World and the New York Journal in similar battles for readership. The reader may wonder at the credulity of an unsophisticated nineteenth century public? Or perhaps, a more thoughtful response may be to consider the seemingly exponential acceleration of this tendency with the advent of social media, in the competition for your attention it seems very much a case of plus ça change. (JS)

April 18

Return of the Tic Tacs The Micah Hanks Program
Micah Hanks covers "latest news about the USS Jackson UAP case," and "recent claims made public by the Skywatcher Team." Micah's discussion of the Headline "Tic Tac" case is outstanding. And his comments on the "Skywatcher" case are...interesting. For more on the 2023 "Tic Tac" sensation, Jeremy Corbell and George Knapp interview "an active-duty service member" in Firsthand Military Witness Goes Public on the USS Jackson case. Alex Wiggins is an impressive (and rather courageous) witness, and Marik von Rennenkampff adds a counterpoint to some Metabunk website analyses in the Hanks podcast. Such "Extraordinary claims" often seem to require, somewhere, formation of alternative explanations, considered in an open access paper Exploring Expert Figures in Alien-Related UFO Conspiracy Theories. It's an interesting paper, but the denial of the data for review smacks somewhat of "trust us; we are the experts." Or is that just my "conspiracy thinking"? And Chrissy Newton and Ted Peters, a theologian and UFO researcher, discuss Science, the Universe, and Non-Human Intelligence. There is something for everyone and every level of engagement with this subject, with some of the last discussions particularly challenging. But the humanity of the iconic expert Peters, and the breadth of interests and depth of understanding by one of the elite interviewers in our field, really shine. (WM)

Scientists have captured the first live footage of a Colossal Squid, a species initially discovered over a hundred years ago. As the squid was a juvenile, it was an additional first as most young Colossal specimens are found as prey in the stomachs of seabirds and whales. In other news, we bring you this podcast, Skeptic Check: Cryptids on Big Picture Science, an "immersive radio show and podcast that reveals the unexpected connections in science." Ironically enough, their tagline is "Don't settle for a science snapshot." This episode is all about why mythical creatures capture the public's imagination. (Because they're cool, that's why.) And as scientists discovered with the squid in the first story, "a tally of Earth’s species reveals that far more remain unidentified than are currently known." (CM)

Perhaps fittingly in the Mirror's "Weird News" section, Sarah Tulloch and Fran Bowden explore "10 of the most hair-raising reported UFO encounters" on the 45th anniversary of Strange Phenomena Investigations Scotland, that country's most aged UFO group. "The Alan Godfrey Incident" of November 1980 is joined by such "staples" as the December 1980 Rendlesham Forest Incident, the August 1990 Calvine photographs, and lesser-known wonders including the "Pentyrch Pyramid" of February 2016. Rivaling Roswell in his list of recurring UFO controversies, Kevin Randle feels compelled to straighten out thinking about the Kingman UFO Crash Again. Kevin takes much time explaining why he thinks the crash tale is a hoax, and David Rudiak adds why he's not so sure there isn't some "fire" beneath the "smoke." And Coast to Coast asks about the L.A. Marzulli Trailer: UFO Disclosure-What is the Truth?. (WM)


Copyright 1996-2025, The Anomalist