UPDATE: Frank Levine, the winner of this award, sent me a link to an updated story on the Roswell Rock meant to be a little more skeptical of the E.T. hypothesis. This after posting a weird, paranoid rant about my original writeup in the comments section. Personally, I don't think there's any more skepticism on display in the new article, but it does suggest that the most likely explanation for this rock is that it's a tacky trinket sold to gullible tourists. Read the updated article here.
And the award for most insipid writing of the week goes to "reporter" Frank Levine of the Roswell Daily Record for his story "Strange rock raises questions" in the July 8, 2008 edition. Congratulations, Frank. You're truly terrible at your job. According to his article, a strange red rock with mysterious carvings was unearthed in September 2004 by Roswell businessman Robert Ridge. Ridge took the rock to (who else?) UFO investigators, who were (of course) baffled. According to them, they had the rock tested and analyzed, and its properties stunned "experts". Levine clinched his win by not only neglecting to consult with these experts or any independent experts of his own (you know, reporting), but with this single quote: "If proven to be of extraterrestrial origin, [the rock] will mark the second time in less than a century that the Roswell area has received communications from outer space." Case closed on that one, I suppose. One of the UFO investigators, Chuck Zukowski, was amazed that the carvings on the rock could only have been made with modern tools. However, this information becomes far less amazing when one realizes that the Earth is full of rocks, modern tools, and people who use modern tools to carve rocks. Enjoy the rest of Frank Levine's incompetence here.
