‘
Sigh. It won’t matter much, but the British government just released a report saying UFOs are misidentified mundane phenomena.
It won’t matter, because the usual suspects will just claim it’s a coverup, and more rational people will see this is just more of the same, which has not helped in the past. Governments have been making studies like for years, and getting the same results. Why bother? It would be far more interesting to spend that money on psychological research, trying to discover why some people see every plane, satellite, meteor, and radar blip as a ship carrying a transdimensional human from the future who wants to excoriate cow anuses and warn us about nuclear weapons.’
May 7th, 2006 at 1:21 pm
As expected, the mainstream media here in New Zealand are giving us such headlines as “British Government Confirms UFOs Are Real”.
It doesn’t matter that the actual articles are a bit more sensible, it’s the headlines that seem to enter the public psyche.
- Colin
May 7th, 2006 at 2:08 pm
I remember seeing a “documentary” recently on cable (it could have been the History Channel) about some sighting in Nova Scotia. The Canadian government investigated it and wrote up a report that had “UFO” in the title. To one witness, this was acknowledgement by the government that the sighting involved an extraterrestrial craft.
Perhaps a new term is in order: UFONPETO
(Unidentified Flying Object Not Presumed to be of Extra-Terrestrial Origin).
May 7th, 2006 at 2:19 pm
I would really love to say something nice about my fellow human beings, but many are moronic enough to conclude that something unexplained in the sky equals extraterrestrials.
May 7th, 2006 at 2:29 pm
Heh…I understand your point but to me it’s already obvious why people think they see aliens left and right. It’s for the same reason that people are religous…they want a guiding light through the darkness. They want a being more powerful than themselves to exist in order to show them the truest path in life. People create things like this because they are afraid of what they don’t understand and need something to explain it. No psychological study nessesary
May 7th, 2006 at 2:40 pm
Hey Thomas,
In 1992, a meteor streaked over the eastern United States, which a lot of people caught on video. Check these out and listen to what is said in the background of the Pittsburgh video.
May 7th, 2006 at 2:51 pm
Hi Tim, Shocking and sad, that woman will forever believe she saw aliens from space regardless of any other explanation presented to her.
Unless of course she was the smart one taunting another less educated person..
May 7th, 2006 at 2:52 pm
It’s all about the language (as Tim G realizes). Once you mention “UFO” we are talking flying saucers, not unexplained phenomena. It’s a connotation that isn’t going to go away soon. Governments need to use a different acronym (UAP-unexplained atmospheric phonomena?). Of course, that would make too much sense. Next.
May 7th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
I think Tom is right. That woman didn’t sound as if she was joking.
It’s really sad that people prefer to believe that they saw aliens rather than a really interesting (and real) phenomenon.
May 7th, 2006 at 5:23 pm
The way I see it is, there must be UFOs and “people” from other planets. How do you explain that there are some of us that ask questions and seek answers with proof, and there are those that believe in whatever they hear that sounds good or said with an anger or intensity that seems right to them? After all, where could all of the weirdos in this world come from but outer space?
( I used to believe I had a brother from outer space. Now he’s a well-known astronomer! Of course, that’s not proof he isn’t from “out there.” He may have become a star-gazer trying to find his home. I may never really know.)
May 7th, 2006 at 7:23 pm
I have memories of being followed by a bright light while walking through the woods near my childhood home. It followed me for several minutes. I knew it couldn’t be the moon or bright stars because it was cloudy when I went in the woods.
Well, surprise – I came to a clearing and looking up I saw the clouds were gone. It was the moon after all.
jbs
May 7th, 2006 at 7:54 pm
Ugh.. Freakin’ Oddballs.
May 7th, 2006 at 10:38 pm
I remember one night when I was in elementary school, my father, brother and I had just come out of the library, when we saw a strange object in the sky. It looked like a circle of rotating lights that was slowly moving towards us. It turned out to be one of those airplanes with scrolling advertising messages on its underside, which none of us had ever seen. But what I also remember about that night is that none of us thought we were seeing an alien spacecraft. We just stood there knowing that once the strange lights got close enough to us, we’d probably figure out what it was. I’ve got to give kudos to my Dad for his rational perspective that night.
J. D.
May 7th, 2006 at 11:04 pm
Jd,
I saw that one years ago one summer evening. It really looked just like one of those battery operated toys I had when I was a kid with the flashing lights.
When it got really close and flew overhead I could see it was an advertising plane.
If it had veered away I might have never been able to say what it was!
May 8th, 2006 at 1:08 am
I wanted to point out that the planet Venus is of extraterrestrial origin. (Ok that is a bit smart alec-y)
May 8th, 2006 at 7:44 am
Oh, and I suppose SHADO doesn’t stand for “Supreme Headquarters Alien Defence Organisation”. Harumph.
May 8th, 2006 at 7:59 am
UFO is what some Aliens call us,,,Ugly Food Objects,,,
Like, we need to be told by some “higher” power that nukes are BAD TOYS???
My elder brother built nuke missles years ago. When I asked him how he could justify working on such, he blithly stated, “,,,because I know people aren’t stupid enough to use them in an all out war,,,”
Looks like he was right,,so far.
Gary 7
May 8th, 2006 at 11:52 am
…some people see every plane, satellite, meteor, and radar blip as a ship carrying a transdimensional human from the future who wants to excoriate cow anuses and warn us about nuclear weapons.
That’s the best synopsis for all these beliefs that I’ve ever heard.
May 8th, 2006 at 9:50 pm
There are extraterrestrials who want to abrade the anuses (ani?) of cows? Or, perhaps they merely want to speak harshly of the north end of a southbound bovine. In any event, the things some of these “aliens” do to animals, both four-legged and two-legged, seems to be directly related to the wilder fantasies of those who sight these UFO occupants, fantasies with not a little bit of drooling exhibited by the tellers of these tales of alien encounters as their eyes glaze over in imagined extasy…