Whatever They Saw, It's Not of this Erath*

I've mentioned Stephenville many times in this blog: it's the location of one of my fraternity chapters, it's the home of Hard Eight BBQ and Moo-La the Cow and close to the Dublin Dr Pepper plant, and it's been the subject of some very interesting travelogue posts on this blog. But it found itself home to an unusual news story this week as many of the locals have reported seeing a UFO:

In this farming community where nightfall usually brings clear, starry skies, residents are abuzz over reported sightings of what many believe is a UFO.

Several dozen people - including a pilot, county constable and business owners - insist they have seen a large silent object with bright lights flying low and fast. Some reported seeing fighter jets chasing it.

"People wonder what in the world it is because this is the Bible Belt, and everyone is afraid it's the end of times," said Steve Allen, a freight company owner and pilot who said the object he saw last week was a mile long and half a mile wide. "It was positively, absolutely nothing from these parts."

While federal officials insist there's a logical explanation, locals swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the object's lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane. People in several towns who reported seeing it over several weeks have offered similar descriptions of the object.

So was it really an identified flying object--in other words, an airplane? Nobody's really sure:

Maj. Karl Lewis, a spokesman for the 301st Fighter Wing at the Joint Reserve Base Naval Air Station in Fort Worth, said no F-16s or other aircraft from his base were in the area the night of Jan. 8, when most people reported the sighting.

Lewis said the object may have been an illusion caused by two commercial airplanes. Lights from the aircraft would seem unusually bright and may appear orange from the setting sun.

"I'm 90 percent sure this was an airliner," Lewis said. "With the sun's angle, it can play tricks on you."

Whatever it is, I'm sure it's the talk of the town at the Hard Eight and other local hangouts.

Have you ever seen a UFO? If so, did it remain unidentified, or did you eventually find out what it was?

*And no, the headline's not a typo. Stephenville is in Erath County. Heh.

Exercises for the lazy: Don't have enough peripherals on your computer? Here's a USB device that basically lets you play DDR with your fingers.

Technology 1, Finance 0: Some of the FBI's criminal surveillance wiretaps have been discontinued in various locations because the bureau didn't pay its phone bills on time.

He might be a "little terror," but not a terrorist: A would-be airline passenger was recently detained by the TSA for having the same name as someone on the no-fly list. What made this situation extraordinary--and ridiculous--was that this "person of interest" is five years old.