Mankind has been spotting strange objects in the sky since biblical times, but it wasn't until the 1940s that terms such as "flying saucer" regularly appeared in the headlines. Footage of an alien autopsy near Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947 reached an estimated global audience of one billion before being exposed as a fake. The film of this story - Alien Autopsy, starring Ant and Dec - opened earlier this month. However, it would appear that public interest in UFOs has waned significantly since the 1970s film Close Encounters of the Third Kind suggested we are not alone. A forlorn statement on the website of the British UFO Research Association (Bufora) declares that they are scaling down their activities. "The halcyon days of ufology are over," explains chairman Robert Rosamond, bemoaning the effects of "dwindling subject material". A number of regional affiliates have closed down altogether, some of them blaming the end of The X-Files series for waning interest. It is a far cry from 1951, when the ministry of defence set up the flying saucer working party. Although the committee dismissed reports of alien sightings as "optical illusions and psychological delusions", its findings were not made public until 50 years later, fuelling suspicions of a cover-up. Public paranoia was not helped by the fact that most UFO sightings have occurred near RAF bases, with the result that the MoD has been reluctant to release too many details. Today, however, rational explanations appear to exist for most UFO sightings.

Last October, drivers on the M25 pulled over to stare at what turned out to be Thai lanterns. In December 2004, Southern Electric was moved to persuade its customers that a huge flash of light was due to a power surge and not any extraterrestrial interference. Even the infamous Rendlesham Forest incident in December 1980 was later blamed on a prank-loving American airman. Kites, soap bubbles, feathers, weather balloons, parachutes and tumbleweeds have all been mistaken for alien visitors. UFO enthusiasts have also suffered by association with their fringe, loony element. The Flying Saucer Review - which bizarrely claims to have Prince Philip among its subscribers - has an online article suggesting HIV was brought to earth by aliens. A documentary in 2004 reported that flying saucers were actually created by Nazi scientists and sold to the American military.

View: Full Article | Source: The Guardian

People used to be very interested in UFO's. Then came the internet where they could look up all the info they wanted. The down side is thta all the UFO's tended to look like little dots of light or totally fake. The worst thing is that rather you have the best proof or not, any government is going to call it swamp gas and deny that such things exist. After a while, believing gets old.

There really hasn't been anything new when it comes to UFos. I mean theres been new siting and things like always, but everyone is just getting bored with it.

Don't actually understand why the Guardian finds it so amusing the Prince Phillip is claimed to have a subscription to UFO magazine. His interest is well documented and a very strange tale from the 1950s came from it ,involving one of the Royal Equerrys and a meeting with a rather weird stranger in Chelsea London.