Strange sounds in the sky, or crop circles of a different kind?

The internet is all abuzz lately over these "strange sounds" that people are posting all over youtube.  Some say they might be angelic trumpets heralding the beginning of some sort of Apocalypse or possibly connected to the Mayan 2012 thingie, while others speculate alien origins or even government experimentation with secret weapons.  This guy has some pretty logical explanations -- most notably that the sounds are eerily similar to sci-fi movies -- but then blames a preacher without any proof.  There is a preacher who swears this is all a sign of the Apocalypse (with attendant biblical prooftext), and there is even a preacher who warns that listening to the sounds will cause demon possession (yikes!).  Anyone remember crop circles?

There are of course detractors who provide documented evidence that this is nothing new, and this link has probably the most plausible explanation yet -- clever viral marketing, possibly for an upcoming sci-fi movie sequel.  (This link corroborates that theory.)  It contains a nearly 15-minute video compilation of many clips from around the world, most of them clearly showing some urban or pastoral setting with clearly creepy, unnatural sounds emanating from unknown sources.

Note that the video also shows the approximate dates of these clips - most of them are around the second week of January, 2012.  So, before you accept any of the other-worldly explanations for these phenomena, ask yourself one thing:  what would possibly compel seemingly unconnected people all over the world to go outside and shoot video of nothing, all at once?  And then, what would compel these people to post these clips all at the same time?  Youtube is full of many others, some of which claim there are similar sounds that are barely audible (if at all).

Disregarding my suggestion that this most recent spate of videos is too coincidentally timed, let's look at this logically.  Some of the videos have almost no sound at all, so we can pretty much throw those out.  In the ones with something audible, many of them sound exactly alike -- this is a reason for debunking these on some sites, like this one.  So, that leaves us with a handful that don't apparently sound like all the others.  But, like with just about all inflammatory video clips, there is too much room for the power of suggestion.  Where is the video being shot?  How many neighbors have their stereos blasting some sci-fi sounds just for fun?  What industrial sounds could account for this?  We, the listeners, just don't have enough information to be able to judge if these sounds are real or fake.  Seems to me that they are all either a clever hoax, explainable coincidence, or could be the audible results of some government high-tech weapons experiments.

Most overlooked, though is this:  if this is real, and really is other-worldy, then why hasn't everyone heard it?  Why hasn't the mainstream media caught on and captured audio of their own?

Whatever the reason for these strange happenings, I can tell you one thing: it is not a sign of the Apocalypse or extraterrestrials.  And -- after having watched nearly an hour of these things -- I can also honestly say it doesn't cause demon possession.

Don't forget, folks, that many, many people made Apocalyptic predictions for 1988 and 2000 -- and one particular false prophet had visions for 2011.  Remember how those turned out?  I may be going out on a limb here, but I will boldly predict that 2012 will end with a similar whimper.

One thing does disturb me, though.  I've seen some of my Christian friends post that they're not worried because "God will take care of me."  It's that sort of head-in-the-sand thinking that actually perpetuates the nonsense.  Either you believe in the Apocalyptic hype and are doing whatever it takes to prepare for the coming disaster, or you don't believe in it for obvious reasons -- make a choice already!  (My mother covered her bases in 1999 by stockpiling water and canned goods.)

One thing is for certain, though -- as I've said before, there is a funny thing about doomsday prophets.  They're always wrong.

But, maybe I've found an explanation for all the noise:

Remember you saw that here first!