Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, aliens, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, EVPs, myths, ancient artifacts, religion, strange facts or just the plain unexplainable.

This week: Cryptozoology

The world is full of legendary creatures that many people have heard of – creatures like Bigfoot and Nessie. The world is also full of creatures that a lot of people have not heard of – the Goatman and the Loveland Frog. Today's Awesome or Off-Putting topic can definitely be filed in the latter category. It's a bunch of creatures known simply as Rods (AKA Skyfish), and they have been recorded by tons of people all over the world – even during the filming of Mel Gibson's Braveheart.

Why, we've even got video on the next page.

Rods are described by Wikipedia thusly:

"Rods gain their name from their rodlike shape. However, they have also been called "flying rods", "skyfish" and "solar entities". They appear to be anywhere from 5 inches to 1 meter in length, and it is proposed [that] they have a thin membrane across their axis that is used for propulsion through the air, in a manner similar to the way a cuttlefish uses its fins."

Rods are generally considered invisible to the naked eye, but can be seen by people who know what to look for as our accompanying video clip will show. They're also visible enough to be chased by birds, and more importantly, they're visible enough to be caught on loads of film clips.

The creatures are popular enough that a Japanese company actually sells traps for them – they call contraption a Spoodle. The Rod catching device comes with a decoy Skyfish and two sticks that you swing together (or something), and can be found for sale here, if you're interested.

Now before you go spending all your hard earned money, you should know a lot of people have claimed to debunk the Rod phenomenon. Wikipedia says some Hong Kong folk solved it:

"In the early autumn of 2005, news bulletins in China and Hong Kong reported on a story which debunked the flying rods. Surveillance cameras in a research facility in Jilin supposedly captured video footage of flying rods identical to those shown in Jose Escamilla's video. The curious research staff of the facility, being scientists, decided that they would attempt to catch one. Huge nets were set up and the same surveillance cameras captured rods flying into the trap. When the nets were inspected, the "rods" were no more than regular moths and other flying insects. Subsequent investigations proved that the appearance of flying rods on video was an optical illusion created by the slower recording speed of the camera (done to save video space). This is the empirical evidence, showing that the "rods" themselves can be captured, and that they do indeed prove to be ordinary animals."

So are Rods real? The people in this video sure think so:

Read More:

Skyfish and Solar Entities – About.com: