This week on the UFO Updates list we had stories about UFO's crashing, a UFO sinking a ship and UFOs exploding in mid-air and how that explosion made a herd of cows go… blind.

The UpDates List is a valuable resource that keeps us informed about anything dealing with UFOs happening worldwide… but… it is up to the readers of these stories to make their own determination about what is fact or fantasy.

The easiest story to deal with is the UFO sinking a ship around Portsmouth, England. In this case, the UFO was an Unidentified Floating Object and it collided with a small fishing boat, creating such a large hole in the side that the boat sank in about 45 minutes. The crew of 3 men managed to get off a distress call before taking to a lifeboat. The Coast Guard subsequently rescued them. The UK Coast Guard offers as an educated guess that the UFO was probably just a floating cargo container.

The other stories are actually all different parts of the same story and it comes to us from Brazil. On Saturday, November 24, between 15 and 20 UFO tourists led by María Lucia Vidal de Souza of Proyecto Portal reported seeing a silent explosion of a UFO in the skies near the small city of Corguinho. Now to muddy the mix a little, Getulio Alves, a local farmer claims that a very bright explosion caused his cattle herd to go blind. Once again, Maria Lucia Vidal de Souza, from the Doorway Project which provides UFO information to tourists, is heading the investigation and states that they expect to find wreckage which will prove their story…..wait a second, did I read that right?… provides UFO information to tourists?

So, we have UFOs crashing and exploding in mid-air, the brightness causing complete herds of cattle to go blind. Call out the national guard! Call out the Army! Call out the Brazilian Boy Scouts! Or instead, call out a bona fide UFO Researcher A. J. Gevaerd, Editor of The Brazilian UFO Magazine and National Director for the Mutual UFO Network. A. J. politely informs us that the story of the UFO crash, explosion and subsequent blinding of a cattle herd is nothing more than an elaborate hoax.

Apparently Proyecto Portal in Brazil is nothing more than a UFO Cult, led by Urandir Fernandes Oliveira and his co-hoaxer in this little story is none other than Maria Lucia Vidal de Souza. Apparently Project Portal is some kind of tourist trap for those interested in UFOs and some 50,000 people have made their way there. Oliveira was caught many times using laser pointers and special type of lights to fool tourists and other people who go to his farm, near (guess where?)… Corguinho, (Location of the supposed crash and explosion.)

When A.J. went to the area and conducted his own investigation, he found that stories varied from person to person and there was no evidence of any crash taking place. Local police also confirm that there were no charred or burnt trees, no crash site and nothing to even show that some kind of explosion took place.

Oh, and remember our poor cattle? Well, it seems that our… herd… consisted of two calves and those calves sustained their injuries a week before this supposed explosion. Not only that but their blindness is a problem with only one of their eyes.

Now the difference in these stories is that one was simply an honest report of a situation taking place whereas the other was a hoax and subsequently shown to be a hoax by a reputable member of the UFO Community.

The good thing is that it once again shows that not all of us are willing to buy any story as being the truth and that our own self-policing system works… but that's just my take on it!.