Welcome to my website
David Clarke is Associate Professor in the Department of Media Arts and Communication at Sheffield Hallam University, UK. He teaches media law and his research specialism is contemporary legend. Previously he worked as a journalist for The Sheffield Star and Yorkshire Post and spent four years working as a Press Officer in local government. His PhD in Folklore and was completed at the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition, University of Sheffield, in 1999. From 2008-13 he acted as consultant and curator of the MoD UFO files project with The National Archives. His books include The Angel of Mons (2004) and How UFOs Conquered the World: the history of a modern myth (2015). In 2018 he co-founded the Centre for Contemporary Legend at Sheffield Hallam University. This blog covers his twin research interests in journalism and folklore. The views expressed in the contents are entirely his own.
Snopes.com – Rumour has it…- An error has occurred; the feed is probably down. Try again later.
- Magonia Blog
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- Mark Pilkington & John Lundberg – Folklore & Deception in the UFO Age
- Mirage Men in The Guardian August 18, 2014
- Mirage Men Double Disc DVD June 16, 2014
- UFOs and F-14s over Iran May 2, 2014
- We have lift off! March 27, 2014
- Mirage Men revealed by Greenwald? February 25, 2014
- Bob Sheaffer’s Bad UFOs
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- The Skeptic magazine
- Ooops! TWO errors in previous message! October 1, 2015
- October Spookiness! October 1, 2015
- Empirical Sex Talk on Dacryphilia, tonight October 1, 2015
- Little Atoms 393 – Timothy Snyder & Black Earth September 30, 2015
- Ash Pryce on "How to talk to the dead" @ Greenwich SitP, 7:30 pm, 7/10/15 September 30, 2015
- Charles Fort Institute Blog
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- Curt Collins on saucers in pop culture
- 40 years and the Cash-Landrum UFO Case December 11, 2020
- Flying Saucer Swindlers: Four Convictions November 6, 2020
- UAP Task Force: The Pentagon Responds to Questions September 2, 2020
- UFO Documents: Provenance and Credibility by Barry Greenwood June 28, 2020
- Pentagon Answers on Navy UAP Investigations May 18, 2020
- Andrew May’s Forteana blog
- Pseudoscience and Science Fiction October 9, 2016
- Astronomical debunking October 2, 2016
- Contradiction - the All-Video Murder Mystery September 25, 2016
- Sacred Porn September 18, 2016
- Astronomical computers (old ones) September 11, 2016
- Paul Kimball’s The Other Side of Truth: Don’t believe, don’t disbelieve. Think
- Synchronicity, Irish Style September 9, 2019
- Project Blue Book - A Review January 28, 2019
- Stan Friedman Retires March 13, 2018
- Halifax gets Haunted! September 29, 2017
- Haunted Extra, Vol. 1.01 - Queen's County Museum Revisited August 17, 2017
Tag Archives: MoD
Radar & UAPs – a new resource
For 2021 I have launched a new resource on my website that is dedicated to Radar, UAPs and other anomalies related to radar detection systems. The case studies range from anomalous ‘angels‘ detected by the earliest RDF sets in the … Continue reading
Black Projects, UFOs and the mysterious MO D-Notice
Has the Ministry of Defence ever suppressed media stories about Black Project aircraft operating secretly over the British Isles? For many years conspiracy-minded aviation writers and UFOlogists have claimed the government has, on occasions, used its contacts in the Press … Continue reading
Farewell to the ‘mystical astronaut’: Edgar Mitchell 1930-2016
Edgar Mitchell, the sixth man to walk on the moon who became a celebrity believer in the UFO myth, has died aged 85. The Guardian newspaper once described the retired NASA astronaut as being an unlikely name on the list … Continue reading
Eric Joyce MP: The MoD and those pesky UFOs
The MP for Falkirk, Eric Joyce, has claimed some UFOs logged by the Ministry of Defence were actually secret flights by experimental aircraft. Joyce was a major in the British Army and served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to Defence Minister … Continue reading
Haunting my bookshelves in 2012:
Here’s my choice of other key books that floated my folkloric boat during 2012: The Legend of Spring-heeled Jack: Victorian urban folklore and popular cultures, by Karl Bell (Boydell Press). As readers of my blog will know, the mysterious figure … Continue reading
Worryingly big sea monsters
Last week it was UFOlogy in a Field. This week it’s UFOlogy in a pond. No, I’m not talking about the ‘submarine saucer’ (Nessie), but a subject I’ve mentioned elsewhere in my blog on ‘Sea Monster Files.‘ Two years … Continue reading
The Inconvenient Truth is Out There…
The truth about the British Government’s interest in UFOs has been released by The National Archives. In what I believe to be the most important revelation so far in the British disclosure programme, the MoD’s Defence Intelligence Staff admit that … Continue reading
Churchill did not ‘order a UFO cover-up’
In Bad Science this week Ben Goldacre asked “Why don’t journalists link to primary sources?”. He opined that if readers were directed to the original sources of headlines like ‘wind farms blamed for the stranding of whales’ (Daily Telegraph), they … Continue reading
