For those of you who haven't a clue as to what a ROD is (besides for fishing) ... well here's the buzz (pun intended). It started around eight years ago, when someone took pictures of strange, mysterious flying objects at a cave in Mexico. People have made buckets of bucks ever since: selling videos, DVD's and asking for donations for more research and expeditions to study these "unearthly" RODS.
Anywhoo ... there are as many theories about RODS as there are pictures of them. From protopterygotes to extraterrestrial beings, dead spirits, to Elvis (just kidding), believers and skeptics banter among themselves about what rods are ... or are not.
When I first saw them on my computer screen, I thought "Geez, they look like those weird looking flying things I saw on that show, Strange Universe!" Since it has been a number of years since the show had been on the air, I got on the world wide web and did a search on RODS. (A few of the many web sites I found are listed at the end.)
NOTE:
I didn't get on TV, but my rods were on the cover of FANTHORPE'S: Quarterly Digest of the Paranormal. There was also a write-up about my web site in the magazine.
But thoughts of fame and fortune vanished when I studied ALL my pictures ....
There is one consistency about my images of RODS. All of them were take about an hour before sunset; into the sun, at about a 30 degree angle to the horizon; with a dark background. For a week I took pictures of the bugs every day, at different times, with different backgrounds and angles, but the only thing I got were blurs and dark streaks. Only when the sun was low on the horizon, and the insects were back lit, did images of RODS magically appear.
In the above photo you can see the insects are beginning to morph into the strange looking RODS I had captured. Especially look closely at the insectson the far right as it begins to have the telltale sign of the "classic" ROD shape. Final proof --at least to me-- that RODS are insects ... not new, ancient, or out of this world life-forms.
HAVE ALL RODS BEEN EXPLAINED? I can only say for certain what MY RODS ARE. What other people's RODS are, I'm not going to speculate ... but Spencer Allen send me this email, and photo of a "rod" he captured.
"I was out washing my car today, and I noticed that the sun was low in the sky and there were a few bugs about. Well, 5 minutes later I had my first rod picture - not as impressive as yours but enough to thoroughly convince myself."
SO ... if other people can get this ROD effect --then in my humble opinion- that makes all ROD pictures suspect when it comes to claiming they are unworldly or ... supernatural.
So, be wary before you donate your hard-earned dollar/yen/rial/franc/pound/lira to research and exploration of RODS. Take a hard look at these photographs. If they don't convince you, and you still want to toss your currency someplace, toss it to the "ShanCAN" (Shannon Wants A Canon) fund so I can buy one of those real expensive fancy SLR digital cameras to take ROD pictures with.
You can email me with your comments, but keep it civil, please. I'm estrogenally challenged and can go postal on a whim. In other words ... if you get nasty (which some have) ... I'll get nastier ... or just ignore you ... depending on my Estrogen levels, or lack thereof. ;) (In the subject line please indicate: Rods: Fact or Fiction)
Bug Me Here
NOTE: Unfortunately, I get hundreds of junk emails a day, so I've put a spamguard on my computer, which filters out 98% of the junk email that comes to me. Unfortunately, there are times that it has deleted emails that I didn't want deleted. (it has even deleted some emails I have sent to myself from a different location) So if you email me and never get a response. I'm probably not ignoring you ... 98% of the time it's Spamguard's fault. What about the other 2%? Well, 1.9% is of some unknown force in the universe sucking the emails out of this plane of existence and putting it in a parallel one. The last 0.1% is me ... well ... ignoring you, because I don't want to get into an argument with people who say they have an open mind, but really don't ... unless it conforms to THIER beliefs.
I had never seen such an ugly looking insect before (who needs aliens when we have these nasty looking beastie!) This strange looking bug attacks and kills other wasps by sucking out it's brains ... or at least that's what it looks like to me. Yuck! He tried to mess with me and now he's in a jar ...dead.
**THANKS TO Dr. Jackman at the Department of Entomology at Texas A&M University for identifying the "rods" as Tiphiidae (Tiphiid Wasps) - These wasps are often black, with yellow or red markings. They have stingers, which are used to attack ground-dwelling larvae of Scarab beetles or Tiger beetles. Tiphiid wasps obtain nectar from flowers ... or in my case honeydew off our pecan tree.
UFO'S: FACT OR FICTION
Strange things have been seen in my neck of the universe. Are they UFO's? I'll let you decide at:
UFO's: Fact Or Fiction?
SAVE THE HUBBLE TELESCOPE!
Our eye to the universe will go blind if we don't speak out! Go to savethehubble.org and let our voice be heard!!
ROD SITES...
As RODney says ... "I don't get no respect!"
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