It is no secret that the world of UFOlogy is plagued with stories that are...well, less than accurate. As investigators, we should indeed keep an open mind while receiving all reports, and doing an investigation, but there does come a time when you must verify the information you've been given.
MUFON is the world's number 1 scientific investigator of UFOs...not a spreader of fantastical stories. For some reason some people seem to think that if they spread some wild tale that could almost be believable they are helping the cause. Nothing could be further from the truth. Because of the massive disinformation campaign that has been in place for over 60 years some people are not aware of the good, factual cases. When hoaxes surface the common reaction amongst most folks is to think that perhaps all UFO reports could be just as easily explained away. It is just as important for us to weed out these cases, as it is to investigate the real cases. A level of credibility must be maintained if we are to be believed when we finally do have "a smoking gun". So how should an investigator go about this?
Of course the best starting point is the witness, as outlined last week. If your witness is verified then it is a good first step towards verifying their account. There are some good websites that can provide you with most of the information you need about your witness, however they usually are not free. I like using mylife.com, but intellius.com is pretty good as well.
This brings us to the other elements of any account that would naturally need to be verified as well. Obviously any photographs or videos presented in connection with a sighting would need to be verified extensively. Fortunately all digital photographs include EXIF data, which can be used to tell if a picture has been altered in any way. Google provides some excellent image analysis tools too, which can tell you if the image really came from somewhere else. Google Image Search is an extension for the Chrome Browser which will find every example of a picture that is on the internet just by right-clicking on the picture. Google Reverse Image Search is another similar tool, and both should be used to do a thorough search of an image.
Video is also so easy to manipulate these days (just browse Youtube if in doubt) that anyone can produce a video of something that looks like a UFO. Fortunately, these are just as easy to distinguish if one just takes the time to analyze each frame. Usually this will require the purchase of a higher-end video editing app or software, but again the price is well worth the tools you will acquire. I personally use the Adobe Creative Cloud, which has every app that anyone could ever use for any type of image processing. I find Adobe Premier to be very useful with video analysis, but I also use Final Cut Pro as well.
If you can verify the identity of the witness, and the photos and videos that they submit along with their account as being valid, then you are well on your way to establishing a good case.
Come back next week for more, and don't forget to share with all your friends!
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