# Debunking rods **URL:** \ **Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\ **Created:** [September 18, 2000, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-rods/33594 "2000-09-18T14:22:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![JoeyBlades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@JoeyBlades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeyBlades)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 2:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-rods/33594/1 "2000-09-18T14:22:22Z")
[http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrodhoax.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mrodhoax.html) I saw a documentary-like show on PBS or Discovery or TLC or somewhere… anyway, on this show, a guy set up two cameras, side-by-side. One was a conventional video camera, the other a very high speed, film-based camera. They recorded exactly the same space. When all was done, one camera had recorded the mysterious rods - the other had recorded non mysterious flying insects in exactly the same locations and relative velocities. In fact, rods have never been filmed with true high spped photography - only with CCD-based cameras. For those wondering about what rods are supposed to be: [http://www.opendb.com/sol/seq.htm](http://www.opendb.com/sol/seq.htm) [http://www.angelfire.com/wa/UFO/page7.html](http://www.angelfire.com/wa/UFO/page7.html) For those wondering about what rods really are: [http://www.amsky.com/0300/rods/rods.html](http://www.amsky.com/0300/rods/rods.html) [http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/updates/1997/sep/m17-011.shtml](http://www.ufomind.com/ufo/updates/1997/sep/m17-011.shtml) ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 18, 2000, 2:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-rods/33594/2 "2000-09-18T14:32:47Z")
Also, some more links from a previous thread on the subject, [What do you make of the “rods” phenomenon?](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?threadid=28231) ---
**Author:** ![Dijon\_Warlock](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a9a28c/32.png) [@Dijon\_Warlock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dijon_Warlock)\ **Post date:** [September 19, 2000, 7:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-rods/33594/3 "2000-09-19T07:26:49Z")
In case anyone cares, [here](http://www.roswellrods.com) is the official site on ‘rods’. ---
**Author:** ![Kyberneticist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/dc4da7/32.png) [@Kyberneticist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyberneticist)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-rods/33594/4 "2000-09-20T00:51:10Z")
Thanks for that link, I find it amusing that they not once even consider insects. Even though they refer to rods flying around people, and have a series of images which any sane person would just say, “oh, it’s a bird chasing a bug.” [http://www.roswellrods.com/swrd1.html](http://www.roswellrods.com/swrd1.html) ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-rods/33594/5 "2000-09-20T03:04:36Z")
Shee-oot! This ain’t any fun! We can’t draw out even one Rods believer? I did notice that one of the sites **Joey Blades** linked referred to the Rods at one point as _alien_ life forms. **Kyberneticist** ’s link shows a stout rod in pursuit of a slimmer one. ---
**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-rods/33594/6 "2000-09-20T03:59:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Kyberneticist \* > \*\*Thanks for that link, I find it amusing that they not once even consider insects. Even though they refer to rods flying around people, and have a series of images which any sane person would just say, “oh, it’s a bird chasing a bug.” > [http://www.roswellrods.com/swrd1.html](http://www.roswellrods.com/swrd1.html) \*\* The bizarre ways that people misinterpret mundane things as “evidence” of their beliefs could qualify as mild cases of schizophrenic delusion. For example: -a slightly overexposed satellite photo of the north pole’s ice pack is given as “proof” of the hollow Earth’s inner sun shining through the “hole” at the pole. -an irregularly shaped depression in a Mesozoic rock is a “human footprint”. -similarly, an oval-shaped impression from a mollusk shell is a “sandalprint”. -Photographs and video footage of dimensionless dots (daytime) and moving points of light (nighttime) are “flying saucers”. {Who’s to say what they really were, but we’re supposed to accept zero-resolution photos as proof?} -A picture of a Manx cat is shown (yet again) as a “cat-rabbit hybrid”. -Irregularly shaped rock is Martian statue. -Irregularly shaped stain is face of the Virgin Mary (or Elvis). -Lump of floating matter spotted at distance of 1KM is Loch Ness Monster. I could go on and on. Either the people citing this “evidence” are hopelessly self-deluded, or are con artists counting on a plentiful supply of incredulous believers. ---
**Author:** ![JoeyBlades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@JoeyBlades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeyBlades)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 1:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-rods/33594/7 "2000-09-20T13:35:02Z")
> [@](#): > > The bizarre ways that people misinterpret mundane things as “evidence” of their beliefs could qualify as mild cases of schizophrenic delusion. I don’t know if Jose Escamilla really believes that rods are mysterious or if he merely believes that he can get rich making other people believe they are. I look at what he’s doing as simply an extension of the “National Enquirer” phenomenon where some people tend to believe what they see in print and other people make money from the believers… ---
**Author:** ![Groundskeeper\_Willie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/eb9ed0/32.png) [@Groundskeeper\_Willie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Groundskeeper_Willie)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-rods/33594/8 "2000-09-20T13:36:06Z")
Not the mention the most notorious case of recent years: an overexposed star in a CCD astro-photo of comet Hale-Bopp as a ‘mothership’ UFO. Directly leading to all those Heaven’s Gate brain donors who killed themselves to be able to visit the ‘mothership’. BTW, _anyone_ who has any knowledge of CCD astrophotography could instantly identify the ‘UFO’ as an overexposed star. Bill ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2000, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-rods/33594/9 "2000-09-20T14:04:27Z")
Well, I got a special discount deal on slivers of the True Cross… on sale at my website. $50 each, or, a special one-time only offer for SDMB members, three for $200. ---
**Author:** ![jab1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ee7513/32.png) [@jab1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jab1)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2000, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/debunking-rods/33594/10 "2000-09-21T19:17:20Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Groundskeeper Willie \* > \*\*those Heaven’s Gate brain donors who killed themselves to be able to visit the ‘mothership’. > > Bill \*\* In order to donate one’s organs, one’s organs must be healthy. I don’t think their brains would have qualified. Remember what happened in _Frankenstein_ (1931)?