Suppose the security camera at the home of Vivian Gomez has a secret satellite transmission capability. You’ve heard about some televisions which spy on you. What if, unknown to Gomez, her home security camera is part of a NSA surveillance network.
So the Gomez security camera transmits to NSA a 10-second video of a drunk person after he has stumbled up to her front door. It is late at night. Gomez will not be checking the security camera footage until morning.
“Deepfakes” allow the use of existing audio and video to create high-quality representations of things that never happened. [1] NSA receives the Gomez transmission and millennials working the late shift decide to have some fun. They grew up on Harry Potter movies and as a joke decide to change the drunk man into Dobby the Elf. The high-powered computers available to them at NSA allow them to easily and quickly perform the manipulations, and they transmit the result back into the Gomez security camera. And thus is born the Colorado elf.
Just a theory, for those having reality meltdowns.
In the video clip hopefully viewable above, the newscasters both chuckle and imply the Colorado elf is very funny.
It is well known that we tend to laugh at what makes us uncomfortable. For what does it mean if the elf is real?
At this point Ersjdamoo is unable to disprove the reality of the elfin creature caught on security camera footage at the home of Vivian Gomez of La Junta, Colorado. At this point the elf is not disproved. For now, it is still unexplained.
Studying the video, a new thought came to mind: Is the elf drunk? It may be that the elf had a few drinks too many, stumbled up to the door of Gomez, found it locked, then reeled off elsewhere.
Anthropologist Magnus Skarphedinsson has spent decades collecting witness accounts in Iceland, and he’s convinced elves exist there. [1]
Elf sightings are on the rise, reported New Scientist on December 19, 2017. [2]
There must be some way we can blame Donald Trump for this. In yesterday’s blog entry, a coincidence of the 2016 creepy clown sightings and the election of Donald Trump was noticed. As usual, after publication Ersjdamoo had qualms. The creepy clowns and Trump’s election are only a coincidence, I wish to emphasize. “What new surprise might the Colorado Elf presage?” wondered Ersjdamoo yesterday. Hey, it might presage something good! Let’s not be too negative here.
Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?, asked the Roman author Juvenal. Who will guard the guards? The psychoanalyst uses her mind to analyze the mind of her patient. But who will analyze the mind of the psychoanalyst? Foreseeing the difficulty, the psychoanalyst herself has her mind analyzed. But who will analyze the mind of the analyst who analyzes her? Who will guard the guards?
Immanuel Kant pointed out this difficulty in his Critique of Pure Reason: The nature of reason gives rise to questions which pure reason proposes to itself. It is the cart leading the horse.
The Colorado elf is the perceived object, outside the inner domain of pure reason, which abides in itself. A tool, the camera, has however tended to verify the reality of the elf. Empiricism would involve bringing the elf into the laboratory for tests.
The screen door/storm door at the home of Vivian Gomez of La Junta, Colorado needed fixing: it would not lock. [1]
At some time during the night, an apparent “elf” walked up to the home of Gomez, opened the outer front door, then tried to open the main door, which was locked. At this point, sensors on Gomez’s porch cameras picked up movement and began recording. [1] This would explain why the video, now seen by over 10 million viewers, begins with what appears at first glance to show the shadow of a person holding open the screen door. It seems now rather that the camera kicked on as the “elf” gave up his/her attempted entry.
We see the “elf” walking away in a peculiar fashion, then after 10 seconds the porch camera automatically shuts off. [2]
Comparisons were soon made to “Dobby” from the Harry Potter movies, but Ersjdamoo notices a similarity to a common description of extra-terrestrial beings where they are short and abnormally (for a human) slender.
The Colorado Elf video has “gone viral.” So also did the 2016 “creepy clown” incidents go viral. A lot of nonsense became associated with the various “clown sightings” yet it was not all baloney: In Greenville County, South Carolina, in late August 2016, local police were taking the situation seriously. Several residents at an apartment complex “said that people in clown makeup had been terrorizing both children and adults.” [3]
The creepy clown incidents of 2016 presaged the surprise election of Donald Trump in November 2016. What new surprise might the Colorado Elf presage?
Vivian Gomez is the lynchpin for getting to the bottom of the puzzle regarding the authenticity of creepy security video footage seeming to show an elf, opined Ersjdamoo in yesterday’s blog entry.
After publication came a worrying afterthought: Did I spell “lynchpin” wrong? Checking my dictionary it is found that “linchpin” is the preferred spelling but “lynchpin” is an accepted alternate spelling.
“Linchpin” means “anything serving to hold together the parts of a whole.” The term originates from a pin which kept the wheel on an axle. [1]
It was Vivian Gomez who, on June 6, 2019, first posted the strange video to Facebook. [2] Inside Edition managed to get an interview with Gomez, which may be still available at this link. [3] After viewing the Gomez interview, Ersjdamoo ascertains she is a credible witness. (That does not necessarily mean the “elf” is real.)
Vivian Gomez told Inside Edition “she’s still freaked out by the video.” She, it turns out, has a 9-year-old son. Commenting on the shadow on the right at the very start of the footage, Gomez speculated that may have been the “elf” opening the door. [3]
Snopes considers it is “most likely” that the “elf” is a “kid with underwear on their head.” [2] But the creature, whatever it is, has mighty skinny legs to be a human creature. Worth studying would be the legs and arms of Gomez’s son in comparison with those of the “elf”.
The “elf” suddenly disappears in the footage. Gomez says that’s because the security camera cuts off automatically every 10 seconds. [3]
In other little creature news, a “mini AOC” has taken the Internet by storm. She is one Ava Martinez, an 8 year-old who impersonates Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez [4], reminiscent of the Mini-Me character in the Austin Powers films. The elfin impersonator delivers some great lines, possibly written by her mother:
“Like, in July, the climate was 96 degrees and in February the climate was 36 degrees. OMG, like that’s a huge change in the climate.”
“I wanted to go to cosmetology school to study the stars and planets. Like, where do stars go during the daytime anyway?”
“I think cauliflower is the ship the Pilgrims came on. Am I the only one who thinks cauliflower is racist?”
“Amazon wanted to bring 30,000 jobs to New York. But I consulted my magic eight-ball and it says ‘Outlook not so good.'”
A strange video had gone viral, reported Anna Hopkins. Security camera footage shows a small figure with skinny legs and large ears walk down a driveway and do a dance. (Background: Elf Creature Spotted, Ersjdamoo’s Blog, June 10, 2019.)
Suspended judgment was urged by Ersjdamoo. [1]
Some things can be noticed if one carefully watches the video:
At the very start, notice the shadow on the right of what seems to be a man holding open a door, allowing the “elf” to scamper out.
If the “elf” is a child, he/she has awfully skinny legs.
If the video is CGI, notice how the “elf” casts a shadow.
Lynchpin for getting to the bottom of the affair is one Vivian Gomez, who says she saw the video on surveillance footage and is trying “to figure [it] out.” [2] In former times J. Allen Hynek or an associate would carefully interview a person such as Vivian Gomez and ascertain her credibility.
Inside Edition contacted a forensic video analyst, one Conor McCourt, to see what he could figure out. Rule out McCourt’s theory that security videos can cause a ghostly effect. This was not a camera glitch. There’s nothing to indicate the video is doctored, he added. In the end, McCourt suspends any conclusive judgment. [2]
Also in the world of strange science, something called “Chaos Theory” deserves to be mentioned. In the early 1960s, one Edward Lorenz studied weather forecasting using a computer. His model showed very small-scale events often had a huge effect on the weather. From Lorenz comes the term “butterfly effect,” as well as “strange attractor.” The strange attractor began to be noticed to affect all sorts of things: fluctuations in cotton prices, noise disruption on telephone lines, population fluctuations in ants, fluctuations of measles outbreaks, etc. Bottom line: the nature of the strange attractor makes it impossible to predict future outcomes. [3]
A strange video has gone viral, reports Anna Hopkins. Security camera footage shows a small figure with skinny legs and large ears walk down a driveway and do a dance. [1]
Where is Stanton Friedman now that we need him? The nuclear physicist and professional ufologist died recently, on May 13, 2019. [2]
One “Since DayOne” (pseudonym), in her YouTube video hopefully viewable above, doesn’t know what to make of it. She theorizes the “elf” might be somebody’s child performing a spoof. [3] But how can you fake such skinny legs? Notice also in the short video how the “elf” suddenly disappears.
Suspended judgment on the controversy is urged until more facts are available. Maybe “news” persons will get off their keisters and investigate.
J. Allen Hynek: Born in Chicago, 1910, coincident to Halley’s Comet. “I will die when Halley’s Comet returns,” believed the astronomer and sure enough, 76 years later, when Halley’s Comet returned in 1986, Hynek observed the periodic visitor in Arizona and died soon thereafter.
Mark Twain, also born under Halley’s Comet, predicted, “I came in with Halley’s Comet and I will go out with Halley’s Comet.” As with Hynek, so too was the foresight achieved when Twain died in 1910.
Honoring Hynek’s Rosicrucian beliefs, his mortal remains were not cremated until three days after he died.
Most of the above information comes from a biography published in 2017: The Close Encounters Man, by Mark O’Connell. Hynek is dubbed “the Close Encounters man” because he served as consultant for Steven Spielberg’s hit movie, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, as well as having a brief cameo in that film. The concept of “close encounters of the third kind” was originated by Hynek: (1) close encounters of the first kind involve seeing a UFO; (2) close encounters of the second kind involve not just witnessing the event but also tangible residue, such as radioactivity; (3) close encounters of the third kind involve actual encounters of some type with “humanoids”.
Hynek’s hero was Johannes Kepler. Hynek, like Kepler, walked a thin line. Kepler needed the data held by Tycho Brahe. Hynek needed the data held by the U.S. Air Force. “Why don’t you raise some hell about Project Blue Book?” some of Hynek’s friends complained. They didn’t understand that for Hynek to access the secret Air Force data he had to make nice with them. Kepler, who detested Tycho Brahe, was caught in a similar situation.
Among the strange UFO cases discussed by O’Connell in his book is the 1952 UFO flap over Washington, DC. Yes, that’s right: waves of UFO sightings over our nation’s capital! It began July 19, 1952 when air traffic controllers picked up radar of fast moving objects. The readings were confirmed by nearby Andrews Air Force Base. About a week later, it happened again. Jet planes were scrambled to chase the intruders, but when approached the UFOs took off “at incredible speed.” For some odd reason, Project Blue Book was not ordered to investigate.
Elsewhere in the United States around this time radar defenses did not sufficiently exist. Filling the radar gap were citizen volunteers: The Ground Observer Corps (GOC). They watched the skies, on the lookout for any incoming Soviet missiles. On August 5, 1953, one of these ground observers reported a sighting to the Filter Center in Rapid City. An alert was sent to Ellsworth Air Force Base. Multiple qualified witnesses observed the event. An F-84 closed in on the UFO, which then sped away “at a high rate of speed.”
Where was Project Blue Book (PBB)? It has since been found that PBB was being used by the Air Force to debunk UFO reports.
When PBB issued its final report around 1969, “Science had spoken,” it seemed. UFOs were poppycock. However PBB forgot to tell the UFOs their conclusion, and they kept appearing.
A favorite strategy of Project Blue Book (PBB) was to stamp “troublesome cases” with “Unexplained.” Later the troublesome cases were filed as “Explained” because, after all, they had been explained as unexplained!
Branching off from the Ground Observer Corps were citizen volunteers who continued to watch the skies even when the radar defenses had been fully established. To rely on the government to stand watch would be SNAFU (Situation Normal: All Fu**ed Up). Thus were born various citizen groups such as MUFON, APRO, and CUFO.
J. Allen Hynek walked a thin line, not just between the Air Force and PBB but also between closed-minded “scientists” and lunatics in contact with the Venusians. Was there some kind of real government investigation hiding behind Project Blue Book? Or was it all just SNAFU?
(The Close Encounters Man, by Mark O’Connell. New York: HarperCollins, 2017.)
