'Alien invasion' to launch in April - but ...

[William Seger]

... but 'UFOs' will be glowing drones piloted by hoaxers

Dozens of volunteers have signed up for what could be the biggest prank in history - aimed at causing an 'apocalypse' in the media

The plans have been drawn up carefully - on an April evening this year, swarms of glowing spacecraft will begin a flight through our atmosphere - and hover over locations around the world.

The goal is maximum panic - and to cause an ‘apocalypse’ in the media. But the pilots of the eerie craft are not little grey men from Alpha Centauri - but UFO fans using drone aircraft.

Dozens of volunteers around the world have signed up for what may be the biggest prank in history - using decades of knowledge of ‘UFO sightings’ to time the launch perfectly.

The ‘aliens’ will be strips of LED lights, on remote-controlled multi-rotor drone aircraft - launched at 8pm, so there are plenty of people to see the ‘invaders’, and held at a distance where it’s difficult to see what’s behind the glowing lights.

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/-alien-invasion--to-launch-in-april---but--ufos--will-be-glowing-drones-piloted-by-hoaxers-084204169.html#1dDDhaf

[Archae]

1. Sounds like a dumb idea to me.

I mean, they already spilled it to the media...

[William Seger]

2. Someone snitched to a UFO blog writer

The dumb part was planning it on a public forum without thinking that someone might do that. The fpvlab.com thread seems to be locked to unauthorized users now, but too late.

I have several "multi-rotor drone aircraft" myself, and they are a heck of a lot of fun. This hurts the hobby.

[William Seger]

3. On the other hand...

... if it gets more people thinking about how easy it is to misidentify ordinary things, or how effective simple hoaxes can be, maybe that's not so bad.

[Archae]

4. We didn't need drones or LED's.

We caused a UFO scare with 2 sticks of balsa, a candle and a big plastic bag from a dry cleaner.

[William Seger]

5. LOL, it seems it doesn't take much

... as long as people can't see sufficient details to identify something and have a predisposition to believe that strange visitors from another planet is a plausible explanation for anything that can't be identified.

One reason you can't "do science" with anecdotes is that there is usually no possible way to weed out simple misidentification, much less outright hoaxes.

[Archae]

6. I know, I had a "UFO experience" a few years ago.

I was riding my bicycle home, and on the way I saw a UFO, that the closer I got to it, it changed shape.

Turned out to be several orange balloons tied together and tethered to a car dealership parking lot.

[Springslips]

7. It might also teach people

How hard mass conspiracies are to keep secret when a scattering of remote control pranksters can't even keep quiet long enough to do the prank before it is leaked.

[Lordquinton]

8. Didn't this happen recently in Texas?

I saw a news story about a bunch of hovering lights in Houston or somewhere and immediately though of this.