Aliens spoof becomes case for X-Files


By Euan Duguid

A SMALL Scottish theatre group has been hit by stage fright of a different kind after its latest production came under intense scrutiny — from the US government and military!
The website of amateur group No Mean Company, who perform at Cumbernauld Theatre, has been the subject of Mulder and Scully-style surveillance after displaying details about their spoof play, which depicts an alien invasion.
The group performed May The Farce Be With You last weekend, but were astonished to discover that their home page, www.nomeanco.co.uk had received more than 500 hits from American intelligence.
Maximum interest
Company Director Linda Howitt explained, “We decided to do the play last August and to ensure maximum interest we flagged it up on our site and created links to UFO sites.
“The basic narrative centred around aliens who come down to take over the earth, but all the superheroes who would naturally save the day happened to be on a health farm!
“There were a few outrageous characters, including Electro Man, Super Brain and Wizard Woman, who stepped in to rid the Earth of invaders after a brief period of alien domination.”
Despite the wacky storyline, Linda, who also runs a greetings card business, described how she was taken aback to discover interest from Uncle Sam.
She said, “On the server that holds our web page you can access statistics of people who have visited and where the visits have come from.
“When we posted information last year there were five hits from the US government in the first few weeks.
“The monitoring seemed to increase when I updated the site and we’ve now received 53 hits from the US military and 491 from the US government.”

Linda keeps an eye out for any extra terrestrial visitors.


Linda could only speculate about why the space parody had become a real-life X-File.
“Cumbernauld is fairly close to Bonnybridge which has had more UFO sightings in recent years than Roswell in New Mexico, the UFO capital of the world,” she said.
“However, I suspect it may be the links to the UFO sites that have generated the interest from across the water.”
Mark Birdsall, intelligence expert and editor of Eye Spy magazine, explained that American intelligence interest in Scotland is not unusual.
Ideal explanation
He explained, “Clearly, with the volume of hits, the Americans are taking this website seriously.
“The thing with UFOs is they are the ideal explanation for governments to conceal operations like rocket tests and unmanned probes. Far better the public think it’s a flying saucer rather than a top-secret test.
“The Americans will probably be keeping their eyes on the website for message boards and any new reports of UFO sightings.
“They will want to see how the public react and perceive this information.
“Scotland is of huge interest to the Americans and the US military will be curious about Cumbernauld because of its close proximity to Bonnybridge — they want to get to the bottom of what’s going on there.”


http://www.sundaypost.com/news5.htm




oh and i stay about 6 miles from Cumbernauld

Seems to me to be more of an over reaction to normal net traffic, as well as a gross misinterpretation to what that traffic represents. Firstly, the US government is the biggest employer in the country and encompasses everything from the Dept. of Agriculture to the Weather service, all computer IP addresses bearing the .gov suffix. Not bad mouthing government employees, mind you, but I'm sure there are plenty who spend a lot of their time surfing the net from work, just as a lot of us do. Secondly, the military also employees a large number of civilians who have computer access. Again, you would have the same scenario, bored people with lots of free time surfing the net. Thirdly, and most importantly, if there was a legitimate reason for the US government and or military to conduct 'surveillance' on a specific web site, how incredibly stupid would it be for them to do it using such an easily discernible IP? Not being very covert, are they? Sounds to me like someone is trolling for publicity making outrageous and ridiculous claims.

Magikman

I agree with Magik on this. No rocket science needed to figure this one out, just good ol' common sense.

QUOTE

Clearly, with the volume of hits, the Americans are taking this website seriously.

sure we are

Hehe, that's right, it's all in your head. Mercury is bad? Nah that is pure tripe cooked up by the Lizard people under the Boston Airport...Illuminati and Mason symbolism...nah that is New Age art...everything is okay, no need to panic just keep drinking the tap water. Water is good for you.
P.S. How does she know that hits are from US Intelligence? If they were monitoring something wouldn't they hide it a little better?

QUOTE (BuhiBuhi-Kun @ Jun 21 2003, 04:33 PM)

How does she know that hits are from US Intelligence?  If they were monitoring something wouldn't they hide it a little better?

That is what Magik was talking about in his third-and most important-point.