Was the Sandown Clown South African?

Although I've not had a chance to read this yet, I'm fascinated by the reputable scientific origins of hollow earth theories, how they've persisted in speculative lit (e.g. gideonreid.co.uk/the-mysterie...) & their resurgence in the popular imagination of those searching for aliens here on Earth.

In 1980 Lionel Davidson wrote about an exotic craft with "stretch mechanics" which morphed its shape while the occupant was inside & had a transparent hull so that what was ahead could be seen. Perfectly visualized in 1986 by Flight of the Navigator. 1/3 #ufosky

Cybermen vibes?

Scotland.

A small telepathic alien with a large head and eyes crash-lands in rural Africa, appearing, vanishing, then reappearing in the long grass of the bush in front of two boys. #ufosky

The day after the Ariel School sighting on 16 Sept, 1994, 'A Nuclear Free Pacific' (1988), a film about the dangers of nukes their testing and their damaging effects on people and the environment, was broadcast on local Zimbabwe television (ZBC TV 2). gideonreid.co.uk/demystifying...

“The aims of technology, which were clear enough a century and a half ago, have gradually disappeared from view…The further we ad­vance, the more the purpose of our techniques fades out of sight.” — Jacques Ellul, 1964

My latest piece in @skepticalinquirer.bsky.social: 'A Closer Look at Encounters and the Ariel School Sighting.' I unpack the 1994 Zimbabwe UFO claims, Netflix's spin, the facts they skipped—& the stigma holding back real inquiry. Worth the sub: skepticalinquirer.org/2025/10/a-cl... #UFO #Skepticism

Part 2 of a consideration of the science fiction influences on the 25 October 1974 alien abduction story of Carl Higdon. gideonreid.co.uk/science-fict...

Carl Higdon's Trip Up Above A comparison between a very American alien abduction report and an obscure French science fiction story rewritten for an English speaking audience. gideonreid.co.uk/carl-higdons...

'The Dutch Proverbs' by Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1559) has what looks like pies thrown up on a roof, so does Breaking Bad (famously). The proverb that connects them? "To have a roof tiled with tarts". (Is pizza pie is an American approximation?). It means "to be very wealthy."

I'd really like to know the end-of-world stats that tell of how many idle thoughts this pattern has absorbed.

Never understood how this cloud was mistaken for anything else.

The expressive singer made just three albums, including his 1995 debut, Brown Sugar, but retreated from the public after each. He had been battling cancer, according to a statement from his family. n.pr/438VrK8

Crash recovery — 24 July, 1837

The decades-old radical troupe Bread and Puppet, famed for its protest art including giant puppets, is touring again — mixing circus, politics and bread in a sharply polarized moment.

Help keep my blog running! If you've enjoyed my blog at gideonreid.co.uk or found it interesting and would like to see more, then please consider making a donation to support it at gideonreid.co.uk/support/ Thanks! #BlogSupport

Meanwhile in Alien Abduction news… www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Tons of good stuff in @knowrogan.bsky.social that regular listeners to Joe Rogan should hear. That said, he doesn't always talk to kooks. The ep. with Prof Brian Cox is full of enthusiasm & shows why the long format is so successful. Even if in the next ep. Joe casts doubt on the moon landing...

Ian McEwan's new book What We Can Know, sounds a little like the work of Olaf Stapledon. I wonder if he'd also compare it to the current political situation, like I do here: gideonreid.co.uk/maga-and-the...

"What are these self-propelled, luminous machines...what are they these mysterious and dazzling machines, with their "disc-shaped wings"..."jets of multicolored flames"...weather balloons? No!" — Pierre Devaux, 1950

Friday night preview! Expect what sounds like a full-throated defence of Jimmy Kimmel's 1st Amendment-protected comedy from Bill Maher, followed by five minutes of him telling us how Trump is wrong but "has a point," followed by why he deserves a medal for having dinner with him.

The conspiracy-addled fragility of this admin—which abdicated America's global leadership role—a new European confederacy, & their opposition to a Russia-aligned US were all predicted in Olaf Stapledon's sci-fi book "Last and First Men" 95 yrs ago. gideonreid.co.uk/maga-and-the...

Pareidolia.

'The World as it Will Be' - Emile Souvestre, 1846

The conspiracy-addled fragility of this admin—which abdicated America's global leadership role—a new European confederacy, & their opposition to a Russia-aligned US were all predicted in Olaf Stapledon's sci-fi book "Last and First Men" 95 yrs ago. gideonreid.co.uk/maga-and-the...

When PC Alan Godfrey underwent hypnosis a year after his encounter with a UFO in Todmorden, he described a craft with carpet inside it. But, had he recalled that detail from a recently published science fiction story about an alien abduction? For more read the essay linked below: #ufosky #uap

The lights seen in the Zimbabwe sky in the days before the Ariel School encounter sparked a UFO flap, but they were explained and reported before the BBC's Tim Leach visited the school chasing a story about an alien mothership coming to Earth. 🔗 gideonreid.co.uk/russian-rock... #ufosky #uap

"Couldn't we feasibly use that same technology to shoot food at hungry people?" #GazaStarving #PalestineGenocide

Budd Hopkins hated the cover of Strieber's 'Communion', calling it "pinheaded" because the head size was all wrong. People think they've seen that face before, but it's likely because Ted Seth Jacobs based it's proportions and gaze on Margaret Keane's famous paintings of young women. #ufosky #uap

A decade before the term 'Ontological Shock' was coined, a forgotten children's story crafted the template of shamanic initiation later echoed in alien abduction narratives and foreshadowed the current UAP discussions of ancient non-human intelligences living beneath the oceans. #ufosky #uap

New Essay! The Mysteries of Under Plum Lake —Lionel Davidson, Alien Contact and the Philosophy of Anomalous Experience gideonreid.co.uk/the-mysterie... #ufo #uap #aliens #folklore #myth #sciencefiction

“the best of America was too weak to withstand the worst” gideonreid.co.uk/maga-and-the... #sciencefiction #myth #folkore

New Essay! An examination of how critics were wrong to dismiss the near future predictions in the early chapters of Stapledon's masterpiece. gideonreid.co.uk/maga-and-the...

Margaret Keane, who died on this day in 2023 at the age of 94, was a fascinating person and artist whose work, I believe, was even more inspirational than is commonly understood. gideonreid.co.uk/category/the...

Looking for a publisher who might be interested in a long (short book length) essay about hollow earth theories, occult ideas, transhumanism, anomalous experience, and science fiction prophecy, including commentary on the current moment in UFOlogy. #ufosky #folklore

1887, 80+ years before the Betz Sphere (a ball check valve) made ripples in UFOlogy, there was a story about a shiny steel-blue sphere that fell out of the sky in a brilliant white flash of light, inscribed with pictures, a 4-pointed star & strange lettering—much like today's "Buga Sphere". #ufosky

Dear everyone,

Haven't opened the shed for a while...

Satellite timelapse showing that Elizondo's "Four Corners UFO" could not have been photographed in 2021, as he claimed. January 2017 is the nearest match. #ufosky youtube.com/shorts/xZ5zO...

Pilots in Colorado would be familiar with central pivot irrigation circles since they have existed in the area for over 50 years. #ufosky

Video timelapse of "true colour" Sentinel 2 satellite images, starting 19 Jan 2017 (which best fits Elizondo's "Four Corners" UAP photo—despite his claim that the "UFO" photo was taken in 2021). Expand to see image capture dates in the top right-hand corner. #ufosky

The Abduction of Margaret Keane — an essay. gideonreid.co.uk/the-abductio...

I saw this a while back but didn't make a note of which science fiction pulp it's from, or who the artist is. Anyone know?

Stuff like this makes transitioning to @bsky.app challenging. My post here got 2 likes and zero reposts. While the same post on Twitter (X) got 11,000 likes, 1.4k retweets, and had over 500,000 impressions. It's not like I have a massive following on either platform so why such a huge difference?

Bill Maher has always & forever will be a clown. "You don't know him like I do!" "he's a great listener, & he LAUGHS!" "He signed a list of insults he said about me...isn't that COOL?" "I should be a HERO for going to see him!" Nonsense brilliantly skewered in My Dinner With Adolf by Larry David.

The media is normalising Putin. After Fox News broadcast Putin's Easter Mass for 30 minutes the BBC now (without irony) gives prominence to his remarks about the death of the Pope, remembering him as a "defender of the highest values of humanism and justice." Remember #RussiainvadedUkraine