Paranormal Activity in Arkansas?

photo courtesy Wiki Commons

"Two possibilities exist: Either we are alone in the Universe or we are not. Both are equally terrifying." - Arthur C. Clarke

On New Year's Eve, 2010, 5,000 red-winged blackbirds fell from the sky over Beebe, Arkansas, generating widespread media coverage. Theories range from fireworks, hail, thunderclaps, etc.

One of the theories, which most skeptics will brush off their shoulders, is that a high-flying spacecraft slammed into the flock.

Let's take a look at some eerie facts and questions:

1) The birds died of "acute physical trauma."

2) Their stomachs were empty and no poisons were found in the autopsies.

3) The weather was very, very strange for late December and there were no storms in the sky over Beebe.

4) There has been a major spike in mass sightings of UFOs lately in such places as China, Sweden, Israel, United States, Scotland, Chile, etc. - and that is to say, Unidentified Flying Objects, not flying saucers with little green men waving a peace sign.

5) On a poetic note, blackbirds are often seen as an omen of "death, havoc, destruction" (and it was the night before the new year).

6) The strike occurred at 11:00 pm, and blackbirds are not nocturnal. Why were they out flying around?

Even a grumpy skeptic like me has to wonder, if this wasn't some military test or operation that was muddied by the People in Charge with the not-really-possible theories (fireworks, hail, poisoning), then was the cause of these mass deaths, in fact, an alien spacecraft?

Alien existence has never been proven (or if it has, it has been kept from the masses). Many people, from whack-jobs, average citizens, and even highly regarded professionals have claimed to have witnessed UFOs, and some have sworn to have been kidnapped and experimented on aboard spacecraft. Many of these stories are strangely similar, some identical.

Either way, if you'd like to further investigate UFOs, aliens, and other paranormal phenomenon, we have a great section here at the Garland County Library in the 001.942 section in Non-Fiction (books, audio books, VHS tapes, and DVDs).

While I'm fairly certain like all strange phenomena, we'll never know the real truth behind the blackbird massacre, and most likely in 20 years it will be a mere footnote in UFO literature.

Unless it keeps happening.