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About MeThe Scottish UFO Casebook
Category: UFOs Tags: Scotland UFOs-----
Flying Saucers have always been a slightly disreputable interest of mine1. Never quite believing, never quite disbelieving. A high – or low depending on outlook – point was in the 90s. The X-Files. The Alien Autopsy video. The hitherto secret F117 stealth aircraft revealed to the public. It’s when I finally got access to the internet, and to USENET and spend hours having my brain melted by alt.paranet.ufo amongst others.
In Scotland, the main connection to UFOs was a supposed Aurora base at RAF Machrihanish. And that took a couple of logical hops, starting with Area 51 and going through reverse-engineered alien technology via Bob Lazar. From there, the black-budget Aurora spyplane which may or may not exist, and may or may not be partially based on alien technology.
And if it does all that, it’s operated out of a remote area of Scotland.
The 90s were wild!
At the turn of the century, I even did the website for an investigation group. That was the era where I thought a UFO tourist guide for Scotland might be a fun idea, but that never went anywhere. But I started to accumulate a small database of sightings. Mostly culled from local newspapers, some from the website. But I never did anything with it.
Then a few years back, when the pandemic hit, I mostly put my existing projects on hold. I needed something entirely divorced from the usual worries and from the world. So I dug out an old project, the Scottish UFO Casebook. I’d planned, without the touristy part, to simply collect all the cases. The newspaper items were simply pasted as an info-dump. Not really a good idea, and lazy with it. I’d need to rewrite it from scratch.
I had the time.
But because of the pandemic, the National Archives waived the their usual fee. What would have been £3.50 per pdf was now free. The Ministry of Defence’s UFO files were now available to me. Around the same time the AFU – the Archives for the Unexplained came to my attention. They had scanned publications going back to the 1950s.
For my lockdown project, why didn’t I do all the Scottish cases?
And so that’s what my project became. I’ve written it all up, amassing >800 cases. Each one fully-referenced, with links. It might actually be useful to researchers!
It’s typeset, copyedited, and I’m now working on sundry details such as the cover. It should be on sale shortly as a print edition. But worry not! I’ll have a free version available here too, and then work on an epub version.
They said that UFOlogy was dead, around 2000.
They were wrong.
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Likewise, for William Gibson, so I’m in good company. ↩
Categories
Writing
Alan Grant • 16 Psyche • Proof Mode • I Am Freelance • The Circle is Complete! • Bit Patterns Redux • An Intrepid Update • Hammond’s Law • Edinburgh Book Festival • NaNoWriMo Crash and Burn • What is Science Fiction Anymore? • Blogging from Anywhere • NaNoWriMo has Stopped! • NaNoWriMo has Started! • NaNoWriMo • Why I Shouldn’t Skip PE •Moviemaking
Intrepid: Echoes • Intrepid Release Day • Where there’s a Sea… • The Stone unturned: Friday’s Shoot • The Stone Unturned • Come for the Cave, Stay for the Dead Whale • Where There’s a Sea • Lorraine Kelley Visits • And so it Begins •Intrepid
Bit Patterns Redux • Epistemology pt 3: How I founded a Star Trek Club • Intrepid Release Day • An Intrepid Update • Silicon Heaven • I’m Not in SciFi Now!!! • Where There’s a Sea • I’m Making a Movie! • I’m on Telly! • Holiday Coming Up •Whimsy
Windy OpSec • Wildly Improbable • Cyberpunk 2020 • User Interface • Lemmings Plushies • I Have a Bacon Number of 4! • Carl Sagan Sings! • So What Happens if I Say Yes? • Enchanted Picture • Twitter • Bob Exists • Currying Favour… • Convenience Reduction Measures • Buses • Music and Lyrics • Proof of Concept • Basic Assumption •Miscellaneous
A Long Overdue Update • Update from the Maemo • Overpackaged • Adventurous Scots • Light Aircraft Crash • A Wikipedia Upgrade • Too Tasty for Geeks • Microsoft Surface • Spooks Series 7: Episode 2 • The Satellite Dish • Cardiff • Deliveries • No More Intrepid Blog • Erk •Science Fiction
Alison Rowat and the Licensed Imagination • Bit Patterns Redux • An Intrepid Update • Hammond’s Law • Banks’ Law • Intrepid: Sisters • Arthur C Clarke • What is Science Fiction Anymore? •DMA Design
Public Appearances • Babbling On • Play Expo Blackpool • Grand Theft Auto Begins • Where Does the Time Go? • On No! • A Short Video History of DMA Design • • Newly Appeared Lemmings Graffiti • First Shots from GTA Drama • An Interview and a Repost • Lemmings Plushies • Bill Paxton Talks GTA Game Changer • Tweet from Brian Baglow (@flackboy) • Check This Disk! • The GTA Making-of Drama • Lemmings Merchandise is Go! • DMA Lives! • Project MyWorld • A Lemmings Conversion in 36 Hours • BBC Radio Scotland • You're definitely over the hill when... • Grand Theft Auto (via Gameswipe) • The Circle is Complete! • Epistemology pt 2: The Story of Hired Guns • Epistemology Pt.1: How I Co-Founded DMA Design • Lemmings II • DMA Design Office Tour • Kid Kirby • GTA Remembered •UFOs
Public Appearances • Rational Explanation Unlocked! • Seeing Shapes in the Cloud • The Scottish UFO Casebook • Naming those Pesky Flying UFO Objects • 
Post Tags
GTA
Bill Paxton Talks GTA Game Changer
Tweet from Brian Baglow (@flackboy)
You're definitely over the hill when...
Lemmings
Lemmings: Can You Dig It? Guardian Review
Lemmings: Can You Dig It? Released
A Short Video History of DMA Design
Newly Appeared Lemmings Graffiti
Hired Guns
A Short Video History of DMA Design
A Lemmings Conversion in 36 Hours