Good one, Michael3000!
I don't think this is an intentional hoax. IMO the perpetrators are simply self-deluded -- but I don't doubt their sincerity.
Simple methods have been suggested (a couple of years ago when I first heard about these "rods") which would very quickly determine if there was anything to investigate here that couldn't easily be explained by technical/video/optical/electronic explanation:
- go "rod fishing with both a video camera (which is how these guys claim to capture these images) and simultaneously with an emulsion film camera (e.g. 16mm) and capture the same image. If a "rod" appears on both types of cameras, then there is something to investigate.
- sound propogation: something flying by at these claimed high speeds would normally make quite a loud wizzing sound (like a bullet, for example). But sounds are never recorded.
From the CSICOP web site ( http://www.csicop.org/si/2000-03/psychic-vibrations.html):
But you've got to give credit to Jose Escamilla of Roswell, New Mexico, who seems to have worked out a whole new angle in the crowded field of paranormal claims. They're called "Roswell Rods," and they allegedly zip through the air, never seeming to stop or slow down. Supposedly first discovered at Roswell, the Rods have now been seen almost everywhere that anyone has bothered to look for them. Seldom seen visually, the best way to spot them is to take a video or movie camera and point it at the sky. Sooner or later some little dark spot will be seen to zip across at high angular velocity, and when it does you will have a Rod sighting. "Rods have never been slow," Escamilla explains. "These things travel at extremely high velocities and can barely be seen as they pass by. We have never seen a Rod hover or fly slowly as reports of cigar UFOs suggest. Most footage of Rods lasts from one to five frames in duration. What we consider to be the slowest Rods we have ever seen on video last a full ten frames before flying off screen. These ten frames equal one-third of a second." I attended his lecture and video presentation. Some of his "rods" were obviously insects zipping across the field at a high angular rate. Others appear to have "appendages" in stop-frame video, apparently birds' wings blurred in zipping across the frame. Escamilla is convinced he's onto something really big here. His Web site, www.roswellrods.com, claims to have had more than 7 million visitors in the past three years, and he says he's now aggressively pursuing movie and television deals.===========================
For interesting Watchtower Society literature quotes, complete with references but without any editorial, check out: http://Quotes.JehovahsWitnesses.com