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What the heck is that?

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23:43 / 14.11.07

I am not sure where to put this.

Can someone please tell me what this is?

What do you make of it?

Good Intentions

00:56 / 15.11.07

Possible physical explanation off the top of my head? Magnetisation of the film/ film writing head, the way your TV might get from a thunderstorm. I've no idea why it would wizz around like that. It seems more like a discolouration than anything else. Perhaps peculiar interference? Ultimately the video recoding is just strips of metal magnetised this way and that.

00:59 / 15.11.07

Hooloovoo. On holiday.

Other than that, I'm stumped and intrigued.

05:54 / 15.11.07

Although I generally don't like to play the skeptic, it looks alot like a blurry video of a dolfin swimming to me. Any 5 year old with a computer could work out the effect. The reason I say it looks like a dolfin is that I can almost make out fins when it turns around. Also, I think any metaphysical disturbance with that kind of cohesion and energy, would probably be really noticable if you got in contact with it.

07:51 / 15.11.07

It might be an insect crawling on the camera lens.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

10:10 / 15.11.07

I thought it moved like an insect. In any case, as SetFree points out, it would hardly be difficult to create such a simple effect.

11:22 / 15.11.07

Yeah, but would CNN, who I realize are not always accurate or non-biased in their news reporting, be fool enough to air such a story without considering that? Wouldn't they sooner pass it over? Exactly how slow does a news day have to be to start broadcasting digitally enhanced hoaxes on air with their stamp on it?

11:27 / 15.11.07

All I could see was a video "Man stunned by officers dies".

11:29 / 15.11.07

Aye, same here.

11:43 / 15.11.07

I reckon this'll be the same thing.

12:03 / 15.11.07

Thanks.

All the discussion here made me extremely curious.

12:58 / 15.11.07

Anyone know if someone left The Onion recently to work at CNN?

(whilst actually staying at The Onion in spirit)

13:23 / 15.11.07

I agree with Mordant and Mist. It's pretty obviously bug of some kind, all blurry from being too close to the lens. If you look carefully, you can sort of see the legs.

13:30 / 15.11.07

It's a bug. There was a recent case of something similar with a courthouse surveillance camera, and a Fortean Times dude investigated and managed to replicate the effect with a jar of ladybugs.

CNN has been getting more and more tabloidy recently. I'm not sure why, but it has.

13:56 / 15.11.07

I never thought much of CNN, but damn this is kinda rock bottom no?

Between the stupid transition of "from gas station camera to CNN's camera" (waw!), the testimonials and constant use of the word "ghost" it looked like the 6 'o clock news from the worst public channel from where I live.

I actually felt the owner of the shop was the journalist's brother or something, so it'd get a bit more movement on the shop and attract the tin foil folks.

14:03 / 15.11.07

Hmm, a bug? What kind of bug makes a blue haze and can stand the temperatures of Ohio in late fall? That link was from the day of the event. Also, is it possible to create the effect of transparency with a bug on a camera lens?

Regrettable Juvenilia

14:14 / 15.11.07

It's an alien, and a ghost, and also a fifth dimensional godform.

There, that's better, isn't it?

Our Lady Has Left the Building

14:40 / 15.11.07

Simpsons did it!

On Photoshop.

14:40 / 15.11.07

Maybe it's better for you, Petey.

Grant, is there a possible link to the case you are talking about with the ladybugs and Fortean Times reporter?

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

14:50 / 15.11.07

Also, is it possible to create the effect of transparency with a bug on a camera lens?

camera-savvy people can probably tell you more, but I'm guessing the camera isn't made to focus on stuff that's literally crawling on the lens, so it gets all blurry and has weird effects going on.

I know for a fact that taking pictures of bugs with an auto-focus camera is fucking hard. it always (for me) turns into a picture of the background with a barely distinguishable blurry spot. that's more to do with bugs being small (and not assumed by the auto-whatsis to be what I'm looking at) than too close, but I assume the same focusing problems are there.

I wouldn't say it was clear to me what it was, but there were definitely moments when it appeared to have wings as it was turning. I guess angels have wings...but what's an angel doing hovering around cars at the kwik-e-mart and showing up only on film but not to the people?

the video's probably more of a comment on CNN than on metaphysics or cryptozoology, but I'm no expert on either, or on photo/video effects. presumably someone who is will examine the film for evidence of photoshop or bug effects. random people watching a youtube video of a video probably aren't going to come to any formal conclusion.

OOH! What if it's a GHOST of a bug?

didn't think of that, did ya?

15:04 / 15.11.07

King, some interesting points. I don't know much about the technical aspects of photography, much less video. I don't get the blue haze either.

For what it's worth, I found the Santa Fe Courthouse surveillance footage, I think Grant was referring to.

15:11 / 15.11.07

Read more here (I think FT just reprinted this LiveScience article).

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

17:13 / 15.11.07

you're right, why is it blue and not some other color (or just bug colored?) probably some light-bending science there, like why the sky is blue. only light which got bent sharply made it around the bug? or something. again probably a question for photography and/or optics people.

or maybe it was photoshopped and they picked blue. or maybe the ghost was blue because of some emotional quality, or...maybe it's a (ghost of a) camouflage kind of bug and it's trying to blend in with oily exhaust smoke? I thought it looked a bit like oily exhaust smoke when I first saw it.

ghosts are cool. but I like bugs too!

Kali, Queen of Kitteh

17:34 / 15.11.07

It would have to be a very large bug. The link I had on this phenomenon (gleaned from Fark) said that whatever it was, it hovered (or perched, as the gas station owner commented) on a car.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

18:19 / 15.11.07

No, it would have to be a very small bug seen up close, whereas the car would be far away. Like the headcrusher's fingertips and the crushee's head.

Having seen the vid I reckon you would really, really have to want to see a ghost/angel/fully contactable godform there rather than bug.

jentacular dreams

18:22 / 15.11.07

My bets on a very small one, very close up (maybe actually inside the camera). It does look like there are limbs almost visible (around the ten second mark on the youtube clip) but they amy be largely too small and close to pick up. Also its movement seems completely two dimensional with respect to the camera. As for the blue, well it wouldn't surprise me if the camera footage was automatically brightened so as to pick up licence plate numbers etc, so a could be an effect of that?

crosspost with Mordant

Less searchable M0rd4nt

18:58 / 15.11.07

I have found a whole blog of such supernatural wonders!

19:20 / 15.11.07

Okay, so there is a possibility of optical illusion.

Still...Why is it blue? Why is it transparent? why does it not move for a half an hour - what insect does that? What insects with the characteristics we are talking about are native to Ohio and can stand the temperatures from 0.6° to 3°? Which, was the range for that day in Parma, Ohio from 12:51am to 11:51pm.

It could be a bug, but just to make certain, what kind of bug would that be exactly that meets those qualifiers? I don't want to jump to conclusions, be they "rational" or "irrational" conclusions.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

19:49 / 15.11.07

I'm thinking that the blue is some artifact of the camera, or the digitisation. It could be that having something that close to the lens throws the camera for a loop; it doesn't "know" what it's looking at and throws up a blue blob. Some cameras enhance or correct for blur, and perhaps a side-effect of whatever algorithm is used to achieve this will cause an object on the lens to appear blue.

As for the temperature, it might be that the camera housing is warm, or at least sheltered enough to sustain a bug. Incidentally, the low temp. might explain the insect remaining still for longish periods--it might be cold, or sick, or old.

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

19:52 / 15.11.07

your questions seem valid, but I'm sure we could find answers. do bugs sleep/rest? was it crawling around on the camera to keep warm? again I suspect the blueness to be a refraction of light thing.

I don't know that there's much more to say right now. Someone who lived nearby could check the store out and get more details, or even test for spirits or something, were they so inclined. Or if you know someone who knows a lot about optics, or faking videos, or photography, you could ask them to take a look at the video (preferably one of higher quality than this.) Or maybe even an entomologist.

Otherwise I'd say that the only thing we can get out of this is more wondering about the reactions of people involved - why do some people assume an angel? why do some people assume a ghost from the ubiquitous "Indian burial ground"? why do some people assume a faked publicity stunt or bugs? why did CNN cover the story at all? etc.

My Mom Thinks I'm Cool

19:53 / 15.11.07

uhm, by "I'm sure we could find answers" I sort of meant that we could keep going back and forth postulating stuff without proving anything, not that your questions were bad ones.

20:00 / 15.11.07

If the insect were a "wingy" sort - like a lacewing, a gnat, or some such - that could account for both the transparency and the color, if there were a blue light nearby being refleected/refracted by the wings. Or maybe it's just a blue bug.

Pretty sure it's a bug, though.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

20:17 / 15.11.07

He's looking for Pac Man.

Phex: Dorset Doom

20:35 / 15.11.07

Also, pretty sure that 'testing for spirits' might not work too well, because if it ever did, just once even, that would constitute the single greatest advancement in all of human history ever.

Less searchable M0rd4nt

20:36 / 15.11.07

As to the question of why some people assume a fake or bugs, I'd point to a few elements that made me dubious.

Firstly, we see few details on the ghost. It looks pretty solid, so why is it relatively uniform in density and colour? There's little suggestion of features or limbs.

Secondly, there's the way it moves. The movement suggests a bug to me.

Thirdly it does not interact with any of the other objects in the car park. We don't see a reflection of the blue blob in car windscreens or paintwork. We don't see it disappear behind a petrol-pump or under a car. It is always superimposed on a view of the forecourt.

Fourthly, we see people coming and going on the footage but no-one appears to notice any presence. No-one reacts to the blob. At one point a man walks directly underneath it without so much as a shiver.

All these elements are more consistent with a bug or some other foriegn body on the lens of the camera than with anything else.

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