The history of mankind is riddled with the weird and the wonderful; bizarre people, strange places and odd events. For centuries, we’ve told each other fantastic stories around campfires and in darkened rooms. Tales of ghosts, UFOs, and conspiracies, but are these stories exactly that: Stories? There’s only one way to find out! Join me as I dive down the rabbit hole and into… the Unexplained Files.
 
This week: Stan Meyer’s Water Powered Car

WTF?
 
Ohio, 1998. Viewers of TV station WSYX are about to be presented with a most unusual news item. A local inventor by the name of Stanley Meyer claims to have invented a car that can run on water. More than that he claims that any old water will do: rain water; well water; tap water. He went on to say, “If you don’t have water, go ahead and use snow. If you haven’t got snow, use ocean water,” because Stan was not short on confidence. Then we see it. A water-powered dune buggy which Stan reckons can get from LA to New York on 22 gallons. That’s gallons of water, folks.
 
How has he done this? Stan claims to have invented a water splitting device that separates water into hydrogen and oxygen, using the hydrogen gas to power the car, hydrogen being a better fuel than petrol. Better than that, he also invented a splitting device that can fit right onto an existing gasoline engine modifying it so it too can run on nothing but good ol’ H2O.
 
You’re Kidding, Right?
 
He’s smoking something, right? The idea of splitting water into its component parts is nothing new. As far back as 1800, William Nicholson and Anthony Carlisle did exactly that in the process known today as “electrolysis”. The thing with electrolysis is, it isn’t too efficient. The process requires three times more energy in, as is produced.
 
Enter Stan Meyer. See, Stan’s found a method of splitting the two elements 1700 times more efficiently than electrolysis.
 
Think about what that means for a moment. Engines that run on water instead of burning fossil fuels. No more air pollution, no more high energy bills, an end to oil spills. Why surely, Stan won loads of Nobel awards and the scientific community formed a massive queue and one by one dropped to their knees to fellate their new king?
 
Hold Your Horses!
 
Not quite. See, the scientific community has some laws that they get all pissy about, and our Stan has just violated one of them. Namely, The Law of Conservation of Energy, which states: “The total energy of an isolated system in a given frame of reference remains constant — it is said to be conserved over time.”
 
Essentially, it means that energy can’t be created or destroyed, only transformed from one form to another. So when the bartender in an old-timey Western slides a shot of whiskey across to the hero we see kinetic energy in action. But of course the beverage slows down, eventually coming to a stop, making it look like the kinetic energy is lost. But it is, in fact, being turned into thermal energy through friction, warming the bar, the bottom of the glass, and the air around it.
 
Because of the law that Stan’s device is in direct violation of, it’s tough to get a ‘real’ scientist to back the idea. Such devices are viewed as heresy, and putting your name anywhere near such a device threatens not only scientific reputations, but also future research grants.
 
Make Your Mind Up Time.
 
According to Stan Meyer, he was offered billions to shelve his idea and never talk about it again. By whom? Middle-Eastern oil companies, that’s who. The government were also interested and Stan even claimed to have received death threats. So where is Stan now? Well, were all still using petrol powered vehicles, so presumably Stan’s living on his own personal tropical island getting his ears massaged by beautiful women. No such luck.
 
Stan was at a restaurant in a business meeting with his brother and potential clients when he suddenly stood from the table clutching his throat. He staggered outside, where he died. Before he did die, he managed to utter the words “They poisoned me.” His death was officially ruled as a brain aneurism.
 
So is it all bunk? Was he conning us all? He certainly seems genuine in the interview videos I’ve seen. We may never know. Is it really possible Stan Meyer was murdered because of the threat he posed to big oil? Remember, we are talking about the same industry where General Motors, Standard Oil of California (now Chevron), and tyre company Firestone clubbed together and bought electric tramway systems in 45 US cities, and ripped them all up, so…
 
RATING: 1=Bollocks 2=Not convinced 3=Possibly… 4=Compelling stuff 5=Holyshittheskyisfalling
 
What do you think? Was Stan a fraud? Was he murdered by big oil? Comment below!

If you enjoyed this, feel free to share it with your friends! Use the buttons at the bottom of the page to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ for more!

The history of mankind is riddled with the weird and the wonderful; bizarre people, strange places and odd events. For centuries, we’ve told each other fantastic stories around campfires and in darkened rooms. Tales of ghosts, UFOs, and conspiracies, but are these stories exactly that: Stories? There’s only one way to find out! Join me as I dive down the rabbit hole and into… the Unexplained Files.
 
This week: The Japan Airlines Incident

WTF?
 
The skies over Alaska, November 1986: Captain Kenju Terauchi, an ex-fighter pilot with 29 years of experience, flies Japan Airlines flight 1628 heading for Tokyo. A journey like the hundreds he’s flown before, but it’s about to take a turn for the weird. What was supposed to be a routine journey becomes a flight he’ll never forget.
 
He’s heading for a refuelling stop in Anchorage, Alaska when he spots three fast moving objects below them. The largest of the three objects vaguely resembles a shelled walnut, but the striking thing about the object isn’t its shape: it’s the size. That’s because, according to Terauchi, it’s roughly the size of two American aircraft carriers.
 
When he realises the objects are matching their speed, the terrified pilot radios down to air traffic control and requests to change course, because fuck flying alongside a giant space walnut.
 
Terauchi’s request is granted. Shortly after, the ATC in anchorage grows concerned when connections are severed.
 
You’re Kidding, Right?
 
It’s a cargo flight, so no passengers are at risk, but the safety of the three-man crew has Anchorage worried. Imagine being told that a UFO is following a plane before you lose contact with said plane.
 
Now imagine looking at the radar and seeing the UFO. Because that’s exactly what happened.
 
After a terrifying few minutes the plane safely landed for refuelling and all three crew members were thankfully unharmed. But the pilot had one hell of a story to tell.
 
"The thing was flying as if there was no such thing as gravity. It sped up, then stopped, then flew at our speed, in our direction, so that to us it [appeared to be] standing still. The next instant it changed course. ... In other words, the flying object had overcome gravity."
 
He’s a mental, surely. Well, if he’s the only one on board who’s seeing this (which would be bad, seeing as he’s the one flying), then fair enough… but of course he’s not the only one seeing it, or you wouldn’t reading this. That’s right, all three crew members aboard the cargo flight saw something.
 
The co-pilot also reported that the object he saw wasn’t a light, but a solid object, as real as looking at another plane.
 
Hold Your Horses!
 
So everyone saw it? Not quite.
 
When they contacted Anchorage ATC to request a change in flight path, ATC asked a nearby plane to get a visual and see what the hell was going on. They only reported seeing JAL 1628. Also, in turning to change direction and avoid collision with the smaller objects, the giant walnut craft was not visible to first officer Tamefuji.
 
So had Terauchi been at the cargo of Beaujolais? You’d be forgiven for thinking so. Until you realised that during the incident Anchorage received a frantic message from Elmendorf Air Force Base because they had spotted the objects on radar too.
 
An FAA investigation followed. FAA Division Chief John Callahan played back the radar data and synched it with the audio from ATC. A day later, at FAA headquarters, Callahan briefed Donald Engen. Engen told him to keep schtum and set up a briefing for the following day. In attendance at the meeting were members of the FBI, CIA and President Reagan’s Scientific Study Team.
 
After thoroughly reviewing all of the evidence, the FBI and CIA dismissed the whole presentation as horseshit and that is where our story ends.
 
Just kidding.
 
After the video had finished, everyone in the room was sworn to secrecy. The CIA then took all of the data, files and videos that Callahan had assembled. Well, almost all of it, but more about that later…
 
Make Your Mind Up Time.
 
Just because he’s someone who flies a lot doesn’t mean he can’t misidentify something, he is only human after all. And false radar hits happen all the time, for all manner of reasons, from flocks of birds to weather phenomena. Having said that…
 
Here we’ve got a seasoned pilot with over 29 years of experience, his crew, and not one, but two ground based radar readings all saying that they saw something in the skies over Alaska. Let’s not forget how much shit this guy is letting himself in for by even reporting this. Pilots are actively dissuaded from reporting any airborne anomalies they encounter. Terauchi himself was given a desk job straight after the incident and wasn’t allowed to fly for years after. Perhaps this is the reason the other plane in the vicinity reported nothing?
 
By reporting it, Terauchi wasn’t just putting his reputation on the line. He was risking his career. Would someone really do that for fifteen minutes of fame that could possibly lead to a lifetime of ridicule?
 
After Callahan’s meeting in Washington and the suits nicked his data, they slipped up. They thought he had brought everything with him to that meeting. He had not. He had some of the evidence back at his office. They just asked for everything he had with him, so he gave it. Sensing the monumental scale of what he was witnessing, Callahan recorded his own video of the radar from Elmendorf. That video is still available online.
 
Did the pilot and crew of Japan Airlines 1628 witness an Unidentified Flying Object over Alaska in 1977? You bet your ass they did.
 
RATING: 1=Bollocks 2=Not convinced 3=Possibly… 4=Compelling stuff 5=Holyshittheskyisfalling
 
What do you think? Was it aliens? Secret governmental craft? Rogue walnut? If you enjoyed this, maybe your friends will too, so it would be great to share it and as always, follow me on Facebook, Twitter for more!

Want to read a random UFO story? Sure you do! Lucky dip... Click here!

The history of mankind is riddled with the weird and the wonderful; bizarre people, strange places and odd events. For centuries, we’ve told each other fantastic stories around campfires and in darkened rooms. Tales of ghosts, UFOs, and conspiracies, but are these stories exactly that: Stories? There’s only one way to find out! Join me as I dive down the rabbit hole and into… the Unexplained Files.
 
This week: Operation Gladio

WTF?
 
2nd August 1980. Bologna, Italy. The waiting room at Bologna station is packed. It’s a hot day and the waiting room is one of the few areas with air conditioning, but the hundreds of passengers amassed there are about to have their thoughts of travel plans, dinner arrangements and daily worries scattered to the four winds, because in a moment, a huge explosion will rip through the station. It seems no one has noticed the unattended suitcase. Housed within it is death. Death in the form of a time bomb made with 23kg of explosives. It will leave 200 injured and eighty-five dead.
 
The explosion will destroy the majority of the main station building, hit the awaiting Ancona–Chiasso train at the first platform and collapse the roof of the waiting room on top of the awaiting passengers, greatly increasing the total number of fatalities. The blast will be heard for miles. In the years previous, Italy has been no stranger to such atrocities.
 
8 years earlier, 163 miles to the north east in Peteano, a car bomb attack had killed three Carabinieri (Italian military police), and this was on the back of a series of blasts in 1969 that killed 17 and left dozens injured in Milan.
 
It is another attack that will work in favour of the right-wing leadership, drawing the left-leaning public into the arms and protection of their government.
 
A smart-but-cynical government who are using a disaster for political gain? Not quite.
 
Because they planned it.
 
You’re Kidding, Right?
 
You heard me. Welcome to the terrifying world of False Flag terror. But more about that in a moment.
 
During the Cold War, the intelligence arms of NATO countries wanted to prepare for resistance in reaction to the Soviet Union’s Warsaw Pact with Eastern Bloc nations, so they left agents in territories as “Stay-Behind armies”. It was these so-called armies in charge of scaring the shit out of the citizenry, because a scared citizenry is a compliant citizenry.
 
The name “Gladio” refers to the Italian branch of the operation, but is now used as an informal name for all of them, because it wasn’t just Italy involved. There were branches of Gladio in Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal and Turkey. Parallel stay-behind operations also took place in non-NATO countries like Austria, Finland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.
 
So what’s all this ‘False Flag’ business? The term stems from naval roots where ships would fly the flag of a friendly nation before attacking their enemies, thus maintaining the element of surprise, as well as earning the reputation of being devious shits.
 
Hold Your Horses!
 
Surely this can’t be real… Can it?
 
First of all, there’s absolutely no way that a government would kill their own citizens for political gain, let alone outright admit to it. Apparently one of Winston Churchill’s favourite sayings was “Never let a good disaster go to waste”. It’s much more likely that the terrorists were busy doing their thing and the powers that be simply took advantage of the circumstances, after all, this isn’t House of Cards.
 
Even today, we see terror attacks and other atrocities such as mass shootings used to gain some sort of leverage, whether it’s stealthily nabbing the rights of the people, or swaying election results. It’s much more likely that those in charge are just taking old Winston’s advice. The other option is unthinkable. Isn’t it?
 
ISN’T IT?!
 
Make Your Mind Up Time.
 
Factions of government blowing their own people up is all well and good as the plotline for a Frederick Forsyth novel, but this is real life. Only problem with that is there’s a documentary on YouTube saying that it’s all true. Oh well, if it’s on YouTube! But wait! I’m not on about some foil-hat wearing conspiracy nut fan fiction. It’s a documentary with all of the main players, actually admitting their part in the dastardly scheme, made by a little organisation from the UK going by the name of the BBC for their Timewatch series. Catch it while you can, it’s powerful stuff. Naturally, the CIA are trying to distance themselves as much as possible from what went down, but the Italians are laying it all out, and it’s as shocking as it is captivating.
 
A quick read through Wikipedia and they seem to doing their best to be playing the incident down too. The only problem they‘ve got is in 1990, after Judge Felice Casson discovered Gladio while investigating right-wing terror, the Italian government admitted it to be true. Which makes Wikipedia’s stance a little unnerving.
 
Sorry Wikipedia, this happened.
 
RATING: 1=Bollocks 2=Not convinced 3=Possibly… 4=Compelling stuff 5=Holyshittheskyisfalling
 
Further Reading/Viewing: Those sources mentioned above would be a good start. The BBC doc is in three parts, and the false flag part is in the second 45-minute slot. But maybe check Wikipedia last.
 
What do you think? Do false flags still happen today? Comment below!

If you enjoyed this, maybe your friends will too, so it would be great to share it and as always, hit the links to follow me on Facebook and Twitter for more!

The history of mankind is riddled with the weird and the wonderful; bizarre people, strange places and odd events. For centuries, we’ve told each other fantastic stories around campfires and in darkened rooms. Tales of ghosts, UFOs, and conspiracies, but are these stories exactly that: Stories? There’s only one way to find out! Join me as I dive down the rabbit hole and into… the Unexplained Files.
 
This week: The Phoenix Lights

WTF?
 
Phoenix, Arizona. 13th March 1997. Across the city, hundreds of baffled residents gaze skyward as string of glowing orbs hover above the shimmering lights of Phoenix. It looks for all the world as though the orbs are attached to one huge craft. The lights appear one by one and hang over the city (fooling anyone watching that they’ve tuned in to War of the Worlds) before eerily blinking out. It’s one of the most famous UFO videos of all time. Even if you have a passing interest in the field of ufology, you’ve seen it. By the time the event was over, hundreds of witnesses had become thousands, and copious Phoenixonians(?!) who witnessed the event flooded the police with calls, because who the Christ are you supposed to call? In the days following, calls were made to nearby air bases, only for the air force to typically reply “Nope. Wasn’t us”.

So if not the air force, what the hell was over Phoenix that night?
 
You’re Kidding, Right?
 
A few months later the lights were back in the news, and the natives were restless. Arizona Governor Fife Symington held a press conference saying authorities were pleased to announce they’d caught the culprit. It would bring relief to large numbers, people genuinely shaken by what they'd seen. The town awaited with bated breath, only to see a dude appear dressed as an alien. Symington said the prank was designed to lighten the mood, but the nervy residents of Phoenix were far from impressed.
 
Then the Air Force changed their tune. They decided that actually, it was them. The official explanation was that the lights were military flares; similar to the ones you see cops using to light the roads after an accident in a movie, but these bad boys come with a cute little parachute. The military drops them to light areas at night for training exercises.
 
Flares? Weather balloons! Swamp gas! Yeah, right! How very convenient.
 
Well, actually, this idea was backed-up by a video analysis. Some clever shit took a film of the lights and superimposed it against a daylight video of the same backdrop. As the lights mysteriously blinked out one by one, it just so happened that the spot where they vanished was the same spot where the Estrella mountains stood in the daytime video. The flares were simply floating down behind the mountain. Pretty fucking conclusive, don’t you think?
 
Hold Your Horses!
 
For years after watching this video analysis, I was convinced that that was all there was to this story. The problem with that was I, like so many interested others, had only heard half of the story. The famous video may have been debunked, but what wasn’t so easily explained, was that dozens of witnesses actually reported a real live craft. A HUGE one. And not just on the horizon. This one drifted silently overhead. This was hours before the famous footage was shot. Reports were that this thing was so huge that as it passed overhead, both corners at the rear of the boomerang shape couldn’t be seen at the same time. It moved “too slowly” to stay airborne, and featured lights that shimmered in a colour witnesses found difficult to describe. Those that didn’t see the body of the craft were convinced that the triangular formation of lights was one object because as the lights passed overhead, it blocked out the stars.
 
Make Your Mind Up Time.
 
So what exactly were the Phoenix Lights? I’m going to stick my neck out here and say this: NOT flares. The first sighting actually came two years before the famous video was shot and was caught on tape by a local doctor. As for the famous video, something was in the sky that night. It was seen over Paulden in the north, moved over Phoenix, and was spotted as far away as and Tucson in the south, a distance of over 230 miles. I'm pretty sure that the flares didn't float down from Paulden to Tucson, then float all the way back up to Phoenix just to duck behind a fucking mountain. And if they did, those flares are way weirder than any giant aircraft I can imagine. Maybe they'll get their own blog post one day*.

*They won't.
 
When Governor Symington retired, he actually came out and said that on the night in question, he’d witnessed something with his own eyes. A former pilot himself, he and a crowd of other witnesses saw a huge object the size of an aircraft carrier. A flying, silent aircraft carrier. He claimed that he kept the sighting to himself at the time because he didn’t want to cause a panic - which makes sense when you look at the great Coronavirus/toilet paper crisis of 2020.
 
Phoenix itself is split since the incident, apparently if you ask a Pheonixite (?) it’s 50/50 whether they’ll say UFO or not. Maybe it was the military wanting to keep a shiny new top secret thing top secret; just testing the waters to see how the public would react upon seeing such an outlandish craft. Who knows how far advanced the toys they have are ahead of what we know about?

But I'll put money on this: it definitely wasn’t flares.
 
RATING: 1=Bollocks 2=Not convinced 3=Possibly… 4=Compelling stuff 5=Holyshittheskyisfalling
 
What do you think? Flares? UFO? Government experiment?

If you liked this, you'll love the story of the Shag Harbour UFO!