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[Music]

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ufo

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april fool's day jokes by charles lear

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happy april while april fool's day will

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have passed by the time this blog is

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posted

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the writer thought it would be fun to

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look at ufo-related april fool's jokes

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while hoaxes have long been obeying to

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ufo researchers

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hopefully researchers can put aside

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their disdain for such activity

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at least one day out of the year and get

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in touch with their sense of humor

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in fact some have argued that a sense of

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humor is essential

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when looking into the paranormal an

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april fool's joke that ended up embedded

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in the ufo mythos

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as evidence for existence of aliens

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involved a photo depicting what has

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become known as the silver man

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isaac coy real name withheld to protect

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his profession as a barrister

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discusses this photo at length on his

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website according to his

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male possessive pronoun used due to

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antecedent male seeming name

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research the photo first appeared in the

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german publication

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noi illustrate on or about april 1 1950

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with the title der mars mensch it was

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admitted to be a joke a short time later

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but that didn't prevent the photo from

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showing up in literature and on websites

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with the claim that it depicts a real

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alien

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for instance this description appeared

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in brazilian ufo mag number 18

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page 18 december 1991 a buff

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one of the most impressive photos of an

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alleged extraterrestrial creature

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recovered from crashed ufos for many

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years it was thought the photo

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originated from a crash in the usa

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but recently it was found it was

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captured in germany shortly before the

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second world war

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the officers who hold the being are

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high-ranking members of the ss

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the fbi got involved in 1967 when a

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resident

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name redacted sent a copy of the photo

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and asked for a comment

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a response with j edgar hoover's name

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stamped on it

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was sent with the assurance that the

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photograph you mentioned

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does not represent employees of this

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bureau virgin group founder richard

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branson

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is a big fan of april fools day and

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likes to pull a prank around that day

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every year

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these include announcing in 2015 that

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virgin usa would be relocating to

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branson missouri

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saying in 2011 that trained ferrets were

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used by virgin media to lay cable that

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would expand its rural service

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and claiming in 2010 to have bought

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pluto in order to restore it to its

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status as a full-fledged planet

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way back in 1989 at around 4 a.m on

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march 31st

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branson took off from a location in

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london in a hot air balloon made to look

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like a flying saucer

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with lights flashing it floated over the

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m25

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drivers on the road pulled over and got

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out of their cars to gawk at the craft

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police and media were shortly

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overwhelmed by ufo reports

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and the army was alerted the original

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plan was to land in hyde park

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but the wind blew the balloon off course

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and branson was forced to land in surrey

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field a football pitch

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instead as the balloon came down the

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police moved in

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according to branson in a blog he posted

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on world ufo day july 2nd

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2013 a single officer was sent to

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approach the craft

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as the officer closed in a door in the

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craft opened

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fog billowed out and a little person

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wearing an e.t

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mask emerged the officer turned around

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and ran in the opposite direction

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when the officers realized that the

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whole thing was a prank staged by

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branson

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they threatened to arrest him for

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wasting their time but then relaxed when

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they saw the humor of it

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the mayor of the jordanian town of

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jaffer failed to see the humor of a

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prank perpetrated by the jordanian

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newspaper al ghahad

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on april 1st 2010 the front page of the

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paper that day contained an article

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informing citizens that ufos piloted by

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creatures 3 meters

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10 feet tall had landed in the desert

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near jaffa

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according to the article the ufos caused

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communications failure

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as they lit up the town and caused

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townspeople to run scared into the

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streets

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the mayor of jaffa mohamed malayan spoke

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to the associated press about his

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reaction and the reactions of his

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constituents to the story

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according to him parents were frightened

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enough to keep their children home from

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school

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and he came close to evacuating jaffer's

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thirteen thousand residents

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he said he notified local security

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authorities who then

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dutifully searched for the aliens none

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were found

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bbc news reported that malayan was

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considering bringing a lawsuit against

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the paper

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alcohod managing editor musa bachume

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apologized for the story

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saying we meant to entertain not scare

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people

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the bbc article notes that while

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egyptians are known in the arab world as

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being

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big jokers able to easily laugh at just

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about anything

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the jordanians are considered more

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serious the u.s army corps of engineers

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got into the april fools spirit with an

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april 1 2018 posting on their baltimore

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district website

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the post is headlined corps of engineers

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pulls ufo out of dc waters

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near reagan national airport and shows a

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picture of a salvage vessel

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carrying a flying saucer the alien

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spacecraft

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was reported to have been recovered

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while clearing debris from the

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confluence of the anacostia and potomac

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rivers

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during a routine mission and was taken

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by air force personnel to joint base

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andrews in maryland

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at the very bottom of the post is this

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caution please note

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this is an april fool's day joke it was

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a good thing that this was added

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because in the united states while those

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in washington dc

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are known to be big jokers virginians

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living just across the potomac are

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considered

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[Music]