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Friday, August 09, 2013

Unidentified Chinese lanterns in gold

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/content/en/mineweb-whats-new?oid=200423&sn=Detail

News-stands, billboards, flyposters, TV news...I could only guess at the details, but the images of flying saucers were far from alien. Britain, like the US, has enjoyed its own UFO crazes often enough. Science fiction was a fact of my childhood, Close Encounters, crop circles and all.
So Hong Kong's UFO fixation felt oddly familiar. Odd because it was so out of sync. Or rather, it put me out of step. Here was a mini-mania both recognizable yet utterly foreign at once. 
UFO sightings in the UK, as in the US and Europe, still make the news today of course. But instead of panic or fascination, the tone towards UFOs is now knowing, almost weary. Sightings are dismissed with a smile by TV anchors. They're just Chinese lanterns released from a party, or high-altitude balloons released by kids. Crop circles were a cider-fuelled hoax. And alien abductees simply give documentary-makers someone to mock.

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