[Dion]

"UFO over the Rocky Mountains"

All it took was a $99 camera and a $4.88 light from Wal-Mart.

In the kitchen I found our 10-year-old with a cheap plastic digital camera and our 4-year-old with a circular LED light purchased from Wal-Mart for $4.88. The younger boy was reflecting the light off the kitchen window while the older boy shot a pixilated video clip. I have to admit: The reflection did look a little like a weird flying saucer, but the narration by my son sealed the deal.

"It's an alien!" he exclaimed in his most dramatic, breathless voice. "Oh my God, look at that!" (The video can be viewed below).

And then they posted their video on YouTube.

Within an hour, they had their first 100 hits. And then another hundred. And another. Before long, their 18-second clip with the take-notice headline "UFO Over the Rocky Mountains!" was the subject of an intense international debate.

My little 4-year-old and 10-year-old hoaxsters were thrilled. Adults from around the world were paying attention to them! They went to bed that night with dreams of Hollywood in their heads.

Their fake UFO video was so convincing that it was picked up by the Paranormal Network. Shortly after, another UFO site copy-and-pasted the video, and another, and then even a foreign-language site calling itself UFO Video Italia. Somebody else somehow stretched the 18-second clip into a two-minute epic, complete with ultra-slow-motion zooms and dramatic backing vocals that seemed to come from a strange marriage of Jerry Bruckheimer and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_12805296