Get in the Halloween spirit with some scary, creepy, and fascinating science.

This brings a whole new meaning to getting ratted out.

In a recent and unexpected twist, Luis Elizondo, the former head of the Pentagon’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), found himself at the center of controversy after showcasing a photo he believed depicted a massive ‘UFO mothership’ over Romania. However, within days of presenting it to an audience at a private event in Philadelphia, Elizondo issued a public apology when it was revealed the image was actually fake. Elizondo has been a prominent advocate for transparency around government-held UFO information, often criticizing official handling and alleged cover-ups in the field. In a recent private ticketed event, former DoD counterintelligence agent Luis Elizondo showed this photo of a “UFO” from Romania in 2022. As a former US Army counterintelligence specialist, he has gained a substantial following, with many hoping his insights might finally shed light on the UAP mystery. During the Philadelphia event, he presented a series of images, one of which appeared to show an enormous craft partially hidden within the clouds. Almost immediately after the photo leaked online, speculation swept across social media, with UFO enthusiasts debating its legitimacy. However, John Greenewald Jr., a well-known government transparency advocate and founder of The Black Vault, quickly stepped in to conduct a reverse image search on Google. His findings? The mysterious ‘mothership’ was, in fact, a chandelier reflected in a window. Soon after, Elizondo addressed the incident in a post on X (formerly Twitter), taking full accountability for the misstep. “As you all know, I am always happy to be my own worst critic,” he wrote. “A photo provided to me by a friend in Government a couple of years ago was presented by me… Looks like we can put this one to bed, as our friends on Twitter solved this one, major bravo to you!” He continued, thanking the online community for catching the error, underscoring the need for vigilance, and admitting the image was not scrutinized as thoroughly as it should have been. “As folks at the show will attest, this is precisely why I showed the first few slides at the beginning with an example of a fake UAP,” he added. As you all know, I am always happy to be my own worst critic. A photo that was provided to me by a friend in Government a couple of years ago was presented by me two days ago at our engagement in Philadelphia. Looks like we can put this one bed, as our friends in Twitter… — Lue Elizondo (@LueElizondo) October 30, 2024 How many other instances like this might slip by without scrutiny, fueling public fascination with UFOs yet muddying the waters of genuine disclosure? Incidents like this one not only provide fodder for skeptics, but also raise serious questions about standards of evidence in the UFO community, a field already fraught with claims that can be difficult to verify. So, was this simply an honest mistake? Or does it point to deeper issues around the credibility and rigor of disclosure efforts? And with Elizondo noting that the photo was given to him by a government “source,” some may wonder whether there’s more at play here—perhaps even a calculated attempt to discredit a prominent figure in the movement. What are your thoughts? Is this just a stumble in the pursuit of transparency, or could it hint at a larger struggle within the world of UFO research? The post Luis Elizondo Apologizes for Presenting Fake ‘UFO Mothership’ Image at Private Event appeared first on Anomalien.com.

While CBS’s Stephen Colbert’s colleague Tony Dokoupil was never explicitly mentioned, he loomed over Colbert’s Wednesday interview with Ta-Nehisi Coates as the duo discussed reaction to his anti-Israel book on The Late Show. Coates, for his part, was unrepentant as he defended the decision to leave out any mention of terrorism when discussing the current situation in the West Bank. With the context of Dokoupil calling Coates a “radical,” Colbert asked, “You went yourself to go over there and you saw what you saw and you write it in this book, and it's quite harrowing and it's heartbreaking, at times enraging, but regardless of what someone's critique might be of your journalism, this is really a journal of what you experienced over there. Do you have any surprise about being perceived as writing something radical? Because the facts of what you are seeing are not in dispute, it's why didn't you balance it?”     Coates replied that he wasn’t “the implicit thesis of that essay is that an entire group of people, that being Palestinians, have been pushed out of frame, that they don't exist as narrators of their own stories. If that is true, and if it's true of most major media, as I contend, then it makes sense that people in major media would not be happy about that. So no, I wasn't surprised.” At that point, Ed Sullivan Theater’s fire alarms should’ve gone off from the burning strawman. One of the critiques Dokoupil and others made is exactly the opposite, by omitting the fact that the Palestinians have said no to peace time and time again, instead choosing violence, Coates turns them into robots who have no control over their future. Still, Colbert asked, “You talk about the power of writing, you talk about the importance of journalism and you also talk about how the mainstream media misuses that power in your opinion on how they tell this story. Why do you think that is being misused? Why do you think they don't tell the story that you saw?”     Coates responded by analogizing the West Bank to segregation, “I think it’s extremely, extremely, extremely difficult to orient yourself to two things. The first is that there is segregation there, and the second is that the group of people who are doing it are the descendants in collective of one of the greatest crimes ever committed in human history. We would like to believe that when people do harmful or hurtful things, they are just mean people doing harmful and hurtful things. It's much more disturbing to orient yourself around the idea that victims are actually victimizing. That's, I think, tough — that's a very generous — that's the most generous interpretation.” Colbert then finally brought up the obvious, “You've been criticized because, for quote, ‘Not showing the whole picture,’ you don't talk about Hamas, you don't mention Hamas, you don’t talk about the massacre and the horrors of October 7th or the violence against Israelis or their fear about the existence of their own state. Why did you decide to write this book this way?”     Coates self-righteously replied that context doesn’t matter, “First of all, this is not—this is a 250-page book. It's not a history of Israel/Palestine. It is a writer seeking to answer a question, and that is how did he get it wrong, how were his views so different from what he actually saw, and so a large part of that… was because the very people who were communicating to me what the situation was there—I lost trust in them, and so when you lose trust in the media that actually trains you, you have to find your own way, you have to find your own method, and the thing that I was not seeing was the Palestinian perspective, and I made a very, very conscious choice to center that.” He then tried to turn the tables on his critics, “We are always leaving something out. Some of the very people and outlets that criticize me, I would be very interested in how many Palestinian writers they've published and how many Palestinian journalists they've had on their air, whatever the media outlet is. It's not as if they are giving a complete picture either. No one can. We make choices. I can defend, you know, what mine were. I don't know that they can defend theirs.” Coates probably doesn’t want to play that game because one of CBS’s producers was recently exposed for wondering if Jews are even humans. Coates can claim he isn’t writing a historical narrative, but wars and conflicts are informed by history, which didn’t start when Coates took his field trip to the West Bank, and it didn’t start in 1967 either. Here is a transcript for the October 30-taped show: CBS The Late Show with Stephen Colbert 10/31/2024 12:28 AM ET STEPHEN COLBERT: Let's talk about the thing that's gotten the most attention here is that, you know, speaking of the stories that we tell ourselves, we in America, those of us who don't have a chance to go to Israel or the Palestinian areas around Israel, we don't know firsthand, we have stories told to us about what's happening there. Some stories are meaningful to us, some of them aren't, some stories are shocking and heartbreaking to us, some stories aren't.  You went yourself to go over there and you saw what you saw and you write it in this book, and it's quite harrowing and it's heartbreaking, at times enraging, but regardless of what someone's critique might be of your journalism, this is really a journal of what you experienced over there. Do you have any surprise about being perceived as writing something radical? Because the facts of what you are seeing are not in dispute, it's why didn't you balance it? TA-NEHISI COATES: Right. No, I'm not surprised because the thesis, the implicit thesis of that essay is that an entire group of people, that being Palestinians, have been pushed out of frame, that they don't exist as narrators of their own stories. If that is true, and if it's true of most major media, as I contend, then it makes sense that people in major media would not be happy about that. So no, I wasn't surprised. COLBERT: You talk about the power of writing, you talk about the importance of journalism and you also talk about how the mainstream media misuses that power in your opinion on how they tell this story. Why do you think that is being misused? Why do you think they don't tell the story that you saw? COATES: Just to be clear about what I saw. What I saw was roads that were segregated, roads that, on the West Bank, were set aside on the west bank for Palestinians and others that were set aside for Israelis. I saw different color license plates, one color license plate for Palestinians, another color for Israelis. I saw settlements where water was plentiful and then I saw areas where Palestinians lived where they didn't know when they were getting water and they were not. This obviously as an African American, this struck me in a particular kind of way and the only word I had for it was segregation. I think it’s extremely, extremely, extremely difficult to orient yourself to two things. The first is that there is segregation there, and the second is that the group of people who are doing it are the descendants in collective of one of the greatest crimes ever committed in human history. We would like to believe that when people do harmful or hurtful things, they are just mean people doing harmful and hurtful things. It's much more disturbing to orient yourself around the idea that victims are actually victimizing. That's, I think, tough — that's a very generous — that's the most generous interpretation. COLBERT: You start that chapter, you start this chapter with a powerful description with a visit to Yad Vashem, which is the Holocaust museum and memorial in Israel, but you've been criticized because, for quote, "Not showing the whole picture,” you don't talk about Hamas, you don't mention Hamas— COATES: Right. COLBERT: — you don’t talk about the massacre and the horrors of October 7th or the violence against Israelis or their fear about the existence of their own state. Why did you decide to write this book this way? COATES: Well, I'll say two things. First of all, this is not — this is a 250 page book. It's not a history of Israel/Palestine. It is a writer seeking to answer a question, and that is how did he get it wrong, how were his views so different from what he actually saw, and so a large part of that– COLBERT: The views you had before you went there personally? COATES: The views I had before and in large part that was because the very people who were communicating to me what the situation was there — I lost trust in them, and so when you lose trust in the media that actually trains you, you have to find your own way, you have to find your own method, and the thing that I was not seeing was the Palestinian perspective, and I made a very, very conscious choice to center that. We are always leaving something out. Some of the very people and outlets that criticize me, I would be very interested in how many Palestinian writers they've published and how many Palestinian journalists they've had on their air, whatever the media outlet is. It's not as if they are giving a complete picture either. No one can. We make choices. I can defend, you know, what mine were. I don't know that they can defend theirs.

There’s no doubt that the liberal mainstream media is relentless in its obedience to Kamala Harris — but one major leftist newspaper, the Washington Post, has faced swift ostracization for its refusal to endorse the vice president as president in 2024. “Presidential endorsements do nothing to tip the scales of an election. No undecided voters in Pennsylvania are going to say, ‘I’m going with Newspaper A’s endorsement.’ None. What presidential endorsements actually do is create a perception of bias. A perception of non-independence. Ending them is a principled decision, and it’s the right one,” Jeff Bezos wrote in an WaPo op-ed. While Stu Burguiere of “Stu Does America” believes Bezos op-ed is a “step in the right direction,” he notes that every other mainstream newspaper “basically endorses a Democrat or Kamala Harris.” It’s also quite clear, despite Bezos' non-endorsement of Kamala, that the Washington Post is a clearly partisan paper intent on showing Democrats and Kamala Harris in the best light. “I would prefer a movement away from this approach, at least by some of these more mainstream publications. Come out and just be nonpartisan and actually cover the news correctly. A solution to this though is not stop endorsing candidates but still be liberal on everything. That doesn’t solve any problem,” Burguiere explains. “In a way, it’s trying to make their left-wing activism a little more subtle, a little more stealth,” he adds. After the Washington Post’s non-endorsement, the newspaper’s very own Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Anne Telnaes created a cartoon of absolutely nothing, just a blacked out piece of paper, titling it “Democracy dies in darkness.” “They literally believe they are owed the endorsement of every single media organization in the United States or democracy is dead, and they will tell you it’s dead by some gray paint, something on a page,” Stu says. “Like, all right, stop being so self-important. You want to write a piece that says ‘I don’t agree with this decision, here’s why,’ that’s one thing. To act like democracy is dying in darkness because the Washington Post, one of the most liberal publications in the United States, didn’t explicitly say they want Kamala Harris to win is just dumb,” he adds. Want more from Stu?To enjoy more of Stu's lethal wit, wisdom, and mockery, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

The suspect accused of shooting an Orthodox Jewish man who was on his way to synagogue in Chicago last weekend is an illegal immigrant, Fox News reported.The shooting suspect — 22-year-old Sidi Mohamed Abdallahi — is a Mauritanian national who was released into the United States after being captured in Border Patrol’s San Diego Sector in March 2023, the cable network said, citing four law enforcement sources.A Jewish advocacy group said Chicago police indicated during a Monday meeting with the group that Abdallahi shouted 'Allahu Akbar' during a later shoot-out with cops, WMAQ-TV reported.Fox News noted that the Department of Homeland Security views illegal immigrants from Mauritania — a majority Muslim country in northwest Africa — as "special interest aliens" over security concerns and that they're supposed to receive additional DHS vetting.More from Fox News:Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had initially told Fox News Digital that it had no interaction with him. Law enforcement sources say that there is detainer request on Abdallahi — a request that he is transferred to ICE custody in the event of his release — but that 'sanctuary' policies in Cook County, Illinois, prohibit local authorities from cooperating with it.What's the background?Chicago police said Abdallahi was identified as the offender who shot a 39-year-old man in the 2600 block of West Farwell Avenue around 9:30 a.m. Saturday. NBC News reported that the victim is Jewish and was wearing a kippah — the Jewish skullcap — while on his way to services on the Jewish sabbath.A Jewish advocacy group said Chicago police indicated during a Monday meeting with the group that Abdallahi shouted "Allahu Akbar" during a later shoot-out with cops, WMAQ-TV reported.The station noted that the group — the Jewish United Fund — said police who met with its members indicated that Abdallahi shouted the well-known Muslim declaration while firing at officers, which led to a concern that hate played a role in the incident. However, WMAQ said police haven't confirmed those details to the station.Chicago Police Supt. Larry Snelling on Tuesday said there wasn't enough evidence to charge Abdallahi with a hate crime due to the suspect still being in the hospital in the wake of the shoot-out, the station said."We do investigations [that are] based on facts that we gather into evidence in order to present charges," Snelling said, according to WMAQ. "Until we have those facts, we will not announce charges. It's about what we can prove at the time based on the facts."The suspect shot the victim "in the shoulder without saying a word," Snelling said at a Monday news conference, according to NBC News, which added that the victim was treated in a hospital and discharged Saturday afternoon.Police said about 30 minutes after the first shooting, Abdallahi fired at responding officers and paramedics multiple times from various locations. Police said officers returned fire, striking the offender, who was placed into custody, taken to an area hospital, and charged. Police said a weapon was recovered at the scene. Police said no officers or fire department members were injured. The suspect was in critical condition, investigators told WGN-TV.You can view video here apparently showing part of the suspect's second wave of gunfire, and he hollers something at the 43-second mark after firing a shot. While that same moment is included in WLS-TV's video report at the 13-second mark, the station cuts the audio just before the suspect's outburst.'What will it take for you to acknowledge the Jewish community?'Abdallahi was charged with six counts of first-degree attempted murder, seven counts of aggravated discharge of a firearm upon a police officer/firefighter, and one count of aggravated battery/discharge of a firearm, all of which are felonies, police said.City Alderman Debra Silverstein — who attends the same synagogue as the Jewish man who was shot — said at the same news conference Monday that there's increased fear among local Jews, NBC News noted."A man wearing the kippah as he walked to synagogue was shot, and this has just escalated our anxieties," she said, according to the news network, which added that Silverstein in a later message to constituents wrote that she's "very disappointed" that hate crime charges had not been filed despite "evidence that seems to suggest an anti-Semitic motive for the shooting."Silverstein told CBS News she visited the victim Saturday night after his hospital release and noted that he's doing "OK."Rabbi Shlomo Soroka of Agudath Israel of Illinois told WMAQ-TV in regard to the lack of hate crime charges that "there’s no question that from an emotional standpoint, it’s disappointing. But I think it’s equally important to understand that whether or not there is a hate crime charge, that’s a technicality. That doesn’t change the reality of our experience.”Soroka added to WFLD-TV that the victim — described as an Orthodox Jew — took his "little girls with him" to synagogue "every single week." But for some reason, not this past Saturday."And this week, this particular week, he decided to go by himself, and his little girls weren’t with him," Soroka observed. "Can you imagine what would have happened if those little girls were with him?"Abraham Trachtman told WBBM-TV that there's a large Orthodox Jewish community in the area and that he also was headed to a local synagogue when he was told of the shooting: "A Jewish guy walking to synagogue, Saturday morning, Sabbath morning, it just, it doesn't make sense."Local Jewish leaders also noted to WFLD that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson hadn't acknowledged the shooting or their pain. However, Johnson's office on Tuesday issued the following statement:On behalf of the City of Chicago, our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the victim and his loved ones from this weekend’s shooting incident that took place in Rogers Park. This tragic event should have never happened, and we recognize the dedication of our first responders who put their lives on the line during this shooting. The Mayor’s Office is in close communication with the Chicago Police Department as the investigation continues. All Chicagoans deserve to feel safe and protected across the city. There is more work to be done, and we are committed to diligently improving community safety in every neighborhood.However, the Jewish United Fund told Johnson in response, "You failed to identify that the victim was a Jewish man, in a densely populated Jewish neighborhood, going to synagogue for Shabbat morning prayers. What will it take for you to acknowledge the Jewish community?"Like Blaze News? 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The AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D release date has just been officially announced, along with the price and specs of the new chip. This eight-core gaming CPU is set to be the first new Ryzen 9000X3D chip to be released, picking up from where the Ryzen 7 7800X3D left off, and AMD says it’s on average 20% faster than the new Intel Core Ultra 9 285K in games. If this new AMD chip delivers as promised, it’s very likely to be the best gaming CPU when it comes out. The new 9800X3D not only has a faster clock speed than the acclaimed Ryzen 7 7800X3D, but AMD has also changed the position of the 3D V-cache chip, meaning it can run cooler. Meanwhile, the move to the new AMD Zen 5 architecture looks set to improve its performance further. Continue reading AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D now official, here’s the release date, price, and specs MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Ryzen 7 7800X3D review, Best gaming CPU, Radeon RX 7800 XT review

Between No Man’s Sky, Star Citizen, EVE Online, Starfield, and smaller-budget efforts like FTL and the upcoming Jump Ship, there are a lot of ways to virtually explore the deepest recesses of the cosmos. The spectacular sequel to David Braben and Ian Bell’s 1984 PC classic, Elite Dangerous has presided over its particular corner of the genre galaxy since 2014. In the last decade, myriad updates, patches, and mechanical overhauls have reshaped the MMO and flight simulator, but now, inspired by feedback from players, Frontier is taking Elite Dangerous into a new era. Alongside the new Mandalay ship, the entire Powerplay system, which shapes who controls the universe and how it’s governed, is being upended and remade. Continue reading Huge Elite Dangerous update transforms the space MMO based on player feedback MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best space games, Elite Dangerous review, Elite: Dangerous system requirements

The Secretlab Titan Evo NanoGen Edition is a new option in the company's Titan Evo 2022 range, which gets you slightly softer padding for the seat and back, and includes the company's softer PlushCell armrest tops. A new leatherette finish is also included, which is a touch tougher than before, allowing Secretlab to offer an all-white version of this chair that it claims won't yellow with age. The result is a generally squishier, slightly more comfortable gaming chair, though it's not a night and day difference. With the Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 already our pick for the best gaming chair overall, it's no surprise the new NanoGen Edition is similarly impressive. For this review, we'll concentrate on the differences this version of the chair makes compared to the standard chair, so if you're looking for a fuller picture of its overall features, check out our Secretlab Titan Evo 2022 review. Continue reading Secretlab Titan Evo NanoGen edition review: A new squishy gaming chair option MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best graphics card, Best gaming PC, Best SSD for gaming

The Monster Hunter Wilds beta is finally upon us - PC players have been patiently awaiting their turn to try the new Capcom RPG after a PS5-only test ran earlier in the week. Now, you can finally download the MHW beta on Steam. There’s just one problem: if you try to play it at the time of writing, you’ll be hit with a message telling you the beta is “Unable to connect to server.” Fortunately, there's an easy fix. Continue reading Monster Hunter Wilds unable to connect to server error has a very simple ‘fix’ MORE FROM PCGAMESN: Best games like Monster Hunter, Monster Hunter Wilds system requirements, Monster Hunter Wilds release date