Space aliens invade Canada
These extraterrestials are making frequent appearances at the Calgary, Canada home of Karen Henuset. As the aliens seem to vanish on cloudy days, a neighbor dismisses them as reflections. BB readers know better though. From WCAU:
"I looked out and I thought, 'Oh my gosh, I've lost my mind,'" resident Karen Henuset said of the first time she saw the specters. "So I asked our nanny to come and take a look at this, and the hair on her arms just stood straight up."Link (via Fortean Times)
It's as "clear as day. You see two eyes on each of them, they both have this little thing over their head. It's a little weird," said resident Reid Henuset.
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They come for the health care.
@1:
If that was the case, they should have picked a different city. The Calgary Health Region is pretty over worked and wait times can get really long.
I'd like to know how these 'aliens' are created. The link for the article has been boingboinged.
#2 posted by paul567
A play of light from a reflection, what else?
She should go with her first impulse.
Link is broken.
link
oikopleura or similar overlay?
http://seagrant.uaf.edu/news/02ASJ/images/larvacean1_large.jpg
Has anyone tried..standing in front of it?
I wonder exactly *what* is reflecting? I bet that guy from Numb3rs could come up with a reverse raytracing model for it from the photo :)
"a neighbor dismisses them as reflections"
I would too. That is sure what they look like and they don't show up on cloudy days could be a big clue.
Fixed the link. Thanks!!
I'm just distracted by the nanny's arm hair.
Excuse me this is "A directory of Wonderful things" not a directory of refractions on a wall that any thinking person could explain... ;)
OK. They are sorta cute..
Now if you excuse me I need to take a picture of a piece of toast with Elvis's likeness on it before my dog eats it. Oops too late...
two kermit dolls in a camera obscura
I'd like to know where exactly; I'd pop round and see for myself.
You may have noticed that the two pictures are different. In the left one, one of the left "alien" eye is drooping down to his chin!
Gosh, they haven't tried to make contact yet? This is what we get when there isn't a horrible Star Trek franchise series on air to teach us how to deal with alien life.
I've noticed this a lot. The vacuum or special gases in Insulated Glass Units that make up a lot of buildings bend the glass out of a perfectly flat plane. Crazy! Now I need to go make some art with that effect.
#9 - I think thats pretty obvious. Didn't Signs show us that aliens and water don't mix? They go away on cloudy days to avoid the rain.
keep an eye on Alys, I think she may be one of Them
I used to have similar things at my house growing up. The sun would reflect on our windows onto the neighbors house...light reflections, lame.
and since when is 4:30-6pm considered night?
#2 PAUL567
"I'd like to know how these 'aliens' are created."
GOD created them on the 8th day, but this was suppressed by the 1st Council of Nicaea in 325 AD.
Duh.
David Carroll, WTF?
Tak, Sis, Ark, etc. You have to do a shot now.
I remember this episode from The Brady Bunch. (Peter did it)
@2: give it a rest.
Yes the system is pretty over worked... but it's there when you need it.
In this case, the nice curved edges of the aliens spacesuits are the "reflected window" giveaway.
This mostly seems to happen with replacement storm windows, which can have thin sheets of glass and be cheaply manufactured. The glass ends up slightly concave (or convex), creating a lens with square edges.
If you know the approximate size of the aliens curves (looks like about 10cm to me) and the distance to the window (maybe 20-30 meters?), you can get a rough approximation of how badly the window is distorted by just taking the ratio. With those numbers, the deflection is only few millimeters.
Its jesus and mary. deal with it.
Mai etheric body. Let me sho u it.
they are here to give anal probes
That's not Mary, and I have the toast right here to prove it.
#28
I think Canadian health care already covers that.
#30
Actually it's Americans who are taking it up the a$$, healthcare-wise.
Huh, how weird is this. I live in Calgary, I'm a CBC junkie, and I never heard a peep about this. How is it that NBC got wind of it over a month ago? Maybe the US media is more receptive to BS and miracles?
Also, @20: 4:30 is considered night from about November to February in Calgary.
caustics...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caustic_(optics)
purely and simply, they're caustics...
she's got some sort of bowl or other glass object in the window...
Glass candlesticks.
#32,
American News will cover *anything* so long as they don't have to cover, you know, actual news. Alien sighting in Canada? Sweet, we're on it! Informed reporting Chechnya, Tibet, etc? Anything but that!
And if a celebutard spots an alien, doubleplus good.
Two images of a similar effect are shown a little down the page at http://www.randi.org/jr/070403.html , it's further explained at http://www.randi.org/jr/071103.html
There also are 'magic mirrors' that project entire images, due to slight imperfections from a corresponding relief on their backside. http://www.grand-illusions.com/articles/magic_mirror/
Oh sure, there'd be people all over this if this was the Virgin Mary or Jesus. Hmmm...well, there ARE 2 in the picture....maybe they were aliens all along.
Anyway, great story, I'll have to save the link to send to others the next time Jesus or Mary show up.
Ask Will Robinson what they are.
There was a great episode of TNG where Geordi took a video recording, converted it to a holodeck program, and traced shadows by interpolating shape and size based on distance and comparative location. WHERE IS GEORDI WHEN YOU NEED HIM!?
But yeah, caustics.
The article doesn't mention whether they move as the sun moves, or if something obstructs them as they gradually slip off to the top or bottom, or whether they just fade away or simply vanish immediately, so it may not necessarily be a sun-reflection.
"two kermit dolls in a camera obscura"
Once again, Takuan nails it on the head.
I, however, would like to believe that these aliens are authentic and are really, really cute and friendly.
Now- back to watching "Aliens" for the umpteenth time...
they are only here to serve you
Rukasu, "lame"? Man, your life must be a non-stop hall of wonders if this is lame to you.
It's a streetlight!
Sorry, wrong site...
As Argon noted above, these reflections have already been subject of attention, but as "crosses of light". And were explained.
http://www.livescience.com/environment/060524_strange_lights.html
The first publicized image of the aliens in Canada (to the right) didn't make the relationship that clear, but the second one clearly shows those "crosses".
Curiously, another "alien reflection" has been publicized recently in the UK:
http://forgetomori.com/2008/fortean/beings-of-light/
It also follows the same principle.
What'd really be cool would be two aliens, the Virgin Mary, Elvis and the Loch Ness Monster on a wall.
So, they disappear when it's raining huh... Clearly they beings are rain spirits. In Canada, for some reason.
http://www.aboriginalarts.co.uk/other_art/wandjina/wandjina.htm
Jeez, it's just Cory and Alice visiting the folks. See, Poesy's in her 3-dimensional tungsten stroller until she learns to be a being of light like her mommy and daddy.
A@27, snarf!
License Farm, you know too much.
Caustics, refracted through a glass ornament or something. You can see a similar effect (much more complex) in the title sequence for My Stepmother is and Alien.
In this case, SO easy to find what's causing it.
Just find a place where your arm blocks the light, and then follow "up stream". Or, another way to do the same thing, go put your head where the "alien" image is, turn round to look outwards away from the wall, and where is the blinding light coming from? A glass bowl on the window sill? A building across the street?
Anyway - cute, and pretty.
Iz in ur gas m3t3r now lol
#43 - Takuan
Almost...almost got it. It's..."they are only here to serve you...on a platter".
It's a nice platter though...so, consider yourself lucky I guess.
http://www.lardlad.com/assets/wallpaper/thoh1152.jpg
are those tonberries from final fantasy?
This family needs to be careful, these things have been known to make some serious ehtereal love.
It's Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes. And they're hot. Touch 'em. Try it. You'll see, smokin'.
This is really cool, I did not see this up and personal but I am sure they came here to order a case of Crave Energy drink. I am sure of it.
Klaatu barada nikto
I'm reasonably sure the one on the left is Jimmy Hoffa !!!