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Roswell UFO Festival
jmcharry writes "From the Washington Post: 'Attention, all aliens. Come on down. Because, seriously, this is your crowd. About 50,000 of your closest admirers are expected this weekend for the Roswell UFO Festival, celebrating the 60th anniversary of the nearby crash landing of a flying saucer — and, naturally, the ensuing government cover-up.'"
Sorry I will not be able to attend the Festival this year. I'll miss seeing all the other lifeforms again, maybe next time.
"The army's explanation of weather balloons in the Roswell, New Mexico incident 60 years ago has been dealt a serious public relations blow. Late Army Lt. Walter Haut had signed a sealed affidavit prior to his death last year asserting that he had witnessed the wreckage of an egg-shaped craft and its extraterrestrial crew while working at the Roswell Army Air Field. An article at News.com.au reviews how Haut had worked as public relations officer for the Roswell base and was involved in the original weather balloon explanation of events at the time. This recent evidence would seem to confirm speculation that egg-shaped saucers are notoriously difficult to fly safely at low altitude."
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http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21994224-2,0
I just post it...
Well, I guess it's a form of socializing and these people get off on it...
Btw, Area 51 has been closed for some time due to hazmat risks, the business is now moved to a more desolate place.
If you mod me down, I *will* introduce you to my sister!
If I were an alien, landing in the midst of 50,000 "worshippers" in a town of 45,000 people in SE New Mexico would NOT be my first choice. Actually, that goes for just about everyone, alien to the planet or not. Unless, of course, my menu normally consisted of nutjobs in RVs and on motorcycles.
They've come in under radar... from Mexico
That aliens read the Washington Post and speak English?
Clicked pie.
--Ivan
The Cloud City Music Festival
I read on the Internet (so it must be true) that 50% of the Americans believe that there are aliens on the earth, I wonder why so many Americans?
In France, from my informal questions hardly no-one believes in aliens living on the earth, of course on the other hand we have our own myths, for example the Graphological analysis (believing that you can know someone by looking how his writing look) which is very widespread: you almost always have to do one to get a high-paying job..
Seriously - if you're in the general area (as much as THAT can be said in New Mexico), go to Roswell. My wife and I stopped by during the 50th anniversary and had a blast. It's a cute town, and when it's overrun by UFO nuts and X-Files fans, it's just plain silly.
>> "What would the robut do? Frame someone!"
Jerry Pournelle commented on Roswell recently: http://www.jerrypournelle.com/mail/mail473.html#Ro swell.
Pournelle says that because he was involved with the USAF Project 75 technology survey, he would have had access to any information that could have helped with defense planning. He originally suspected that the USAF had dropped a nuke that didn't exploded ("laid an egg" as he puts it) near Roswell.
N/A
Someone hook up the generator. Carl Sagan just hit 50,000 rpm in his grave.
r ld
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Demon-Haunted_Wo
Wasn't there a ton of UFO sightings when the USAF was testing the F-117? As top secret that stealth aircraft was, the US Gov. eventually announced it.
And, whenever the US Gov. really wants to keep a secret - they can't - can you say Abu Ghraib or bombing in Cambodia, and wiretapping US citizens and violating the Fourth Amendment?
Sorry, I think between incompetence in Gov. and just decent people in the World (I guess I'm getting soft in my old age), any secrets won't stay secret very long.
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
please tag this topic with "religion" lol
Ok.. Let me, just for a sec, take the conspiracy theory just a tad further...
Let's say the government has something REALLY big to hide.. What could be one of its approach.. Well : Take an insignificant incident and PRETEND it's a cover up (that is, give obviously phony explanations, use wandering and puzzled looks during media conferences, have people sign funny papers, etc..).. For the 60 years to come, people are going to be going CRAZY about *this* particular cover-up (which may incidentally - should the double cover up theory be true - not even be one, but rather an elaborate hoax).
Now *THAT* is conspiracy !
--Ivan
(PS : I'm not actually buying this - and believe it or not, I'm going with the weather balloon gone awry explanation)..
Unfortunately, the Wikipedia article doesn't have what he said about the UFO thing.
To paraphrase from memory, Sagan said that he had the security clearances and access and he saw nothing about the Gov. covering up space aliens.
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
This my friend, might have something to do with it: 22 out of 400 senior Government, CIA & Military & NASA officials went public admitting UFO's and aliens are real.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vyVe-6YdUk
Also, France & Mexico governments are supposed to be releasing all the info they have on the subject soon, if they haven't already done so.
Adeptus
No trees were killed in the making of this post; however, many trillions of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.
How about you watch this? You know... the Internationally broadcast episode where 22 out of 400 Senior Military, Government & NASA officials admit publicly UFO's are real.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vyVe-6YdUk [youtube.com]
Adeptus
No trees were killed in the making of this post; however, many trillions of electrons were horribly inconvenienced.
maybe you should check it out on google earth. even on google earth there is a plane on the tarmac and visible markings all over the area. maybe they are bomb targets, but why would you need a bomb target at a non functioning base. and wouldn't the classic target symbol be good enough instead of crazy geometric shapes like triangles inside of circles. the "targets" are not necessarily a big deal (maybe) but the plane sitting on the tarmac says that someones home.
I was in the gym the other day, and the "Discovery Channel" had a show on about Mexican UFO sightings. Apparently, Mexico is the hot new location for "UFOlogists".
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
The big untold story is the implantation of microscopic mind control devices in ordinary aluminum foil. Remember, always buy the store brand.
Wait a minute, why did I just say that?
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
walter haut, and I'll repeat what I said there : a confession discussed in 2000, made in 2002 for a death in 2005 is a way wee bit exagerated for the term "deathbed". Furthermore There is no way the guy would want to attract glory after his death. No, he was clearly impartial. wait wasn't it the guy with the ufo museum ? And wasn't it the guy which pretended that the US army would be stupid enough to ask casket (kid sized) from a local mortician ? I am surprised that some people give credence to this. Finally I'll deathbed confess that I know where a lot of gold is. Since it will be on my deathbed that will make it automatically true.
Come on, next you will tell me silvia browne conatct the dead, Steorn has got free energy, and geller really bend spoon with his will. What next ? Homeopathy, the way hahneman described it, works perfectly ?
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
I've always thought it an interesting coincidence that the Roswell myth dates from about the same time that the Manhattan Project - which was an actual large-scale government cover-up - became public knowledge.
Not only that, but Alamogordo is less than a hundred miles from Roswell.
Roswell is one of the greatest misdirections ever pulled off by the government and no credible Ufologist pays it any attention.
Slashdotters love to pat themselves on the back by pointing out the all the inconsistencies in the Roswell story. Newsflash - ufologists have known about these for years, and Roswell itself is only considered a conspiracy by the New Agers and self-styled Agent Mulders of the world.
Want to poke holes in a REAL ufo mystery? Take a look at Tehran 1976 or Malmstrom AFB.
Stop widespread public panic? would the panic be anymore than the terrorism panic?
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
Leela: No, over here! (reads headline) Flying saucer captured!
Bender: That's no flying saucer! That's my ass!
Fry: My God! This means the flying saucer that crashed in Roswell... was us!
Farnsworth: And the alien they captured was... was...
Cut to aircraft hangar, where soldiers pry open a crate, revealing....
Zoidberg: Hello!
General: Eegh!
Zoidberg: So what are you guys doing tonight? I'm up for whatever.
>If the US recovered an alien spaceship and crew, there is no real compelling reason
>for it to be kept quiet, especially once the rumors get started.
Of course there is a good reason: Jews.
If aliens exist then their whole mythology about the chosen people goes down the drain...
Its all the jews fault.
Is the sound of 100,000 parents rejoicing that their children have finally left their basements.
Easy to say, I am an alien actually reading /. from another galaxy through an ip v256 subspace tunnel (we have a few secret gateways on your planet). I see no mention of travel expenses being reimboursed. I so, I might consider showing up. It just seems to me they want to make money off our poor alien backs so far...
Everything I write is lies, read between the lines.
Not that I am defending the motives and beliefs of the "True Believers" that gather in Roswell for these kinds of things, but ... anyone familiar with the history of belief in UFO's, Flying Saucers and Alien saviours can tell you that UFO's are certainly not an "American Only" phenomenon.
If you check the data, only the belief in Alien Abductions and the whole "Grey aliens stole my baby" thing can truly be said to have originated in America or to be exclusive to American culture.
UFO *sightings* on the other hand, and the UFO phenomenon in general (regardless of whatever the cause turns out to be), are pretty much uniform over all cultures and take the same general form in each. Often a small amount of local cultural belief is overlaid on the data set, but the data itself is very homogeneous and consistent across cultures.
It would have been nice to know about this a few days ago; the festival started Thursday and today is the last day. I'm not exactly close but I'm not too far; a road trip would not have been out of the question. The Washington Post article makes it sound like the 50,000 are "expected" to show up -- making it seem as if this thing will go on for a few more days. But according to this article, it ends today.
UFOs in the Vedas were called "Vimana", which in Hindu is used now to refer to aerial aircrafts. The difference being that these were not really "UFOs" (Unidentified Flying Objects), but more like "flying saucers", which had all kinds of shapes like: triangles, saucer shapes, sigar shapes, huge bowls and shapes more resembling our aerodynamic crafts of today. Another exception also being that some of these ancient crafts could travel in space, in the air, in the water and below water too. They behaved much like present days observation of UFOs (which has been observed in the whole history of mankind).
Unfortunately, these crafts were used for warfare, and the civilizations possessing them fell back to a "stone age", much like we fear is possible if we dont evolve our spiritual values beyond our technological capabilities soon.
Check out for yourself what Wikipedia says about "Vimana"
Any UFO enthusiast should know the history between how Atlantis tried to subjugate and "conquer" the whole world. While the Vedic Rama-civilization, were also of such capabilities and having a war with Atlantis. Atlantis sunk below the ocean and disappeared completely as a civilization, while Rama remains in what is now known as the Vedic knowledge and the traditions in India and neighbouring countries.
Best part is that most of the manuscripts in Sanskrit is yet to be translated. Time for an open source effort to translate the remaining Vedic scrolls anyone? Any geek knows his salt should know his Sanskrit and Vedic knowledge!
Samarangana Sutradhara (Literally, "controller of the battlefield"), it is written:
"Strong and durable must the body of the Vimana be made, like a great flying bird of light material. Inside one must put the mercury engine with its iron heating apparatus underneath. By means of the power latent in the mercury which sets the driving whirlwind in motion, a man sitting inside may travel a great distance in the sky. The movements of the Vimana are such that it can vertically ascend, vertically descend, move slanting forwards and backwards. With the help of the machines human beings can fly in the air and heavenly beings can come down to earth."
Also in Mesapotanian sources you find such statements:
The Hakatha (Laws of the Babylonians) states quite unambiguously:
"The privilege of operating a flying machine is great. The knowledge of flight is among the most ancient of our inheritances. A gift from 'those from upon high'. We received it from them as a means of saving many lives."
According to the Dronaparva, part of the Mahabarata, and the Ramayana, one Vimana described was shaped like a sphere and born along at great speed on a mighty wind generated by mercury. It moved like a UFO, going up, down, backwards and forwards as the pilot desired. In another Indian source, the Samar, Vimanas were "iron machines, well-knit and smooth, with a charge of mercury that shot out of the back in the form of a roaring flame." Another work called the Samaranganasutradhara describes how the vehicles were constructed. It is possible that mercury did have something to do with the propulsion, or more possibly, with the guidance system. Curiously, Soviet scientists have discovered what they call "age-old instruments used in navigating cosmic vehicles" in caves in Turkestan and the Gobi Desert. The "devices" are hemispherical objects of glass or porcelain, ending in a cone with a drop of mercury inside.
Interesting read wether you believe it or not, it is still there!
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
First, the Government denies the existence of aliens in the United States.
Then, the Government says that there is a problem with aliens in the United States.
THEN, the Government continues to deny that there ever were aliens in the United States, but simultaneously continues to say that aliens are flooding into the country at a rate of millions per year.
I can see where those Roswell people may be more than a bit confused.....
Knowing Google's lust for data collection, the Soviet Union is still alive and well inside the psyche of Sergey Brin....
There are plenty of superstitions to go around, starting with the one that causes the most misery -- the belief in a sky-spook(s). I am only slightly amused when god-believers look down their noses at UFO-believers, astrologers, graphologists, fortune-tellers/seers, and other such that have no grounding in reality. Superstition appears to me to be the basic state of humanity.
Concealed Handgun License Courses in Plano, Texas
Well, here is some interesting video of UFO fleets over Peru and Mexico. Mass sighting mid-day. All I can say is they are unidentified, I'm not going to insist they're alien, but some of the vids I've seen before out on the net (rense/google video/youtube/etc) stuff doesn't look terrestrial or military to me.
... May 2007
:-)
UFO Fleet in Lima, Peru
Large Fleet of UFO's in the skies over Mexico City
UFO fleet over Guadalajara Mexico in 2004
Anyways, I dunno what those are. I think balloons is the wrong answer. But I've seen more video of these out there. I find it amusing/entertaining, and there are definitely some very good unexplained mysterious UFO cases out there. And I've have talked to people I trust who say they have been face to face with a real alien/ET/gray type before. So as far as I'm concerned the phenomenon is real. There are ETs here watching, interacting with a small number of humans. And then in the public it's a lot of muddy water, hoaxes, idiots, false sightings, military stuff, etc etc. It's really convoluted. But the truth is out there
...at this event will be the ones in the audience. Although in their case, I suspect "intraterrestrials," might be a more accurate term. ;-)
Make fun of these people all you want, but as far as I am concerned these people have a better chance of their wishes/beliefs to come true (meeting an alien) then a religious person has of hoping to talk to any of his divine entities (god, christ, angles, ...). To be really fair in this comparison, those waiting for aliens "have" a chance.
Yet another troll story. Clearly brain parasites, possibly of alien origin, have infected CmdrTaco's brain. I can see no other reasonable explanation for all the stories on Roswell and perpetual motion machines of late on Slashdot. I wish we could Digg this story down.
It doesn't belong under science. Not even close. Is there a pseudoscience category?
"You'll get nothing, and you'll like it!"
I have been to Roswell, NM and have seen all the exhibits. The stories are actually a brilliant idea hatched by a couple of local businessmen to resurrect a failing local economy. It has worked perfectly and continues to bring in more and more money to the Roswell economy. And yes I recommend going there and enjoying the sites. It was fun. It is also close to the Carlsbad Caverns which is well worth the trip.
Telecommuting! What about socialization?
I have no knowledge of the Belgium incident, but I do not ridicule UFO sightings. After all, a UFO is just something up in the sky that you can't identify. Happens all the time, and will continue to happen.
But things must happen all the time that we can't explain. That's because (wait for it) we are not omniscient.
The problem comes when people go from "can't fully explain it" to "space aliens". That's when things go loony. That's when people get dumb.
To buy into the "space aliens" theory requires a truly convincing piece of evidence, not just an inability to explain something. Let's have some appreciation for our own limitations.
UFOs, whatever their origin, are an air safety hazard.
There are literally thousands of credible, documented encounters between Civil/Military Aviation aircraft alone. See http://narcap.org/ headed by a retired NASA scientist who has scientifically categorized various air encounters, EM interferences, and near-collision events.
The recent hovering UFO incident over the busy and restricted airspace of O'Hare airport is yet another example. The airline employees who reported the incident did so because they felt a craft of some sort was in an area that was clearly posing a threat. One of the employees, not comprehending the origin or dynamics of the object fearfully thought it was a terrorist attack.
A MOD report released last year, although skeptical about little green men, acknowledged that UFOs appear to be a real phenomenon, likely natural and not yet understood. And it suggests that all pilots who encounter them stay away from them as they may be dangerous.
Through (effectively) a campaign of ridicule (as expressed here and in other media), a phenomenon deserving of serious scientific inquiry is not being studied because researchers are afraid of being discredited. There really should be a scientific body collecting, and analyzing UFO data.
The incidents of UFOs being reported in aviation is likely much smaller than the actual accounts for similar reasons.
It's unfortunate that the problems and circus around the Roswell story are being used to further discourage trained observers, and first responders from reporting more incidents that would ultimately benefit science and technology.
Anybody else remember when this got out? This video was broadcast live during a classroom discussion that included shuttle astronauts. It made the national news at the time and AFAIK is legit. I think NASA stopped doing live broadcasts of exernal video after this.
I'm pretty sure the panning and zooming were added by the Youtuber, but the actions of the UFO in the picture are exactly as I remember from the news clips.
Play Command HQ online
back in the 60s I was listening to live radio coverage of a gemini flight. The astronauts started excitedly talking about something they were seeing (implied UFO whatever, not space junk), then poof, the feed was cut, then later on they resumed and neither they nor the news ever referred to it again. Instant hushup. Pretty obvious, too. If it was junk, they would have talked about like "Nasa has figured out from trajectories the astronauts were seeing the blah blah satellite as it passed over...", but..nothing, like it never happened. I imagine google will find a reference to it, I am sure millions heard the broadcast, most of the missions back then pre empted all the channels on Tv and a lot of radio stations carried them live as well, because man-in-space was still a pretty big deal back then, exciting, etc. There might be some other slahdotters here who remember that.
Of course is a cover-up
:-D
Everybody knows the F.B.I is looking for the 3 survivors and some roswellian friends, they seem to have a special bond for tabasco sauce
If you happen to know their whereabouts or any tabasco related suspicious activity please contact the FBI special unit.
Back then, had condescending and smug Sagan said there WAS a cover-up at Roswell, he would have lost his security clearance, grants and had to go on the (pre-internet, fledgling = starvation time for 'nutcases') UFO circuit.
Literally and figuratively in his own 'Nuclear Winter' words, "BLOWN BACK TO ATOMS".
Aside from said much touted 'Security Clearance', he was, at-the-end-of-the-day, THE FCC (government approved) FUD talking head.
They lied. He died?
Fame made no difference - PARIS!
LOL.
Ok ok already - I laugh at my own joke.
RR
PS. Psst! PARIS is the alien!
OMG! It's full of nothing!
That has happened,the leaks occurred, it just gets ignored-on purpose. The disclosure project has hundreds of government insiders waiting for congressional immunity before they go on the record in public. If there's nothing there, why aren't they getting the immunity? They have a few dozen who have gone public anyway and they had a big news conference some years back at the national press club, then congress failed to act on it.
Are the same people who never looked into it aside from an occasional news story or blurb on the network TV news. Reading many of the comments on here it's obvious that it's easier for most people to ignore facts and just stick with what's comfortable to them. Ignorance is bliss.
'mmmmmmmmm.... forbidden donut'
You may have to consider the people writing/preserving the text were not necessarily the same people using- or making the apparatus. Much has been lost, indeed since most of the world described is totally gone - back to a stone age world.
Much of the Vedas were never actually written, but remembered in an oral tradition, passed down from generation to generation.
You may find similar things in the Bible. Start reading from Ezekiel 1, and see if you can find the sci-fi story that unfolds there. Of course, the description is almost unrecognizable, but if you have an open mind, you will find it there.
It makes me laugh when I hear about people dismissing alien abductions just because it is a "new" phenomena, when in fact, in every religion, in every ancient tradition, you will find the same mystical elements, the same descriptions. Crop-cirlces were believed to be faeries, or the devil bending the crop (there is an old picture of this). I believe there is some truth to these things, but you have to investigate it properly with an open mind to find the truth - and not what you want to find. This goes both for "believers" and "disbelievers".
http://www.debunkingskeptics.com/
For a recently recorded podcast with Dr. Edgar Mitchell, Apollo 14 astronaut and sixth man to walk on the moon, see here:
h e_art_of_being.html
http://www.electricpolitics.com/podcast/2007/07/t
Dr. Mitchell, who grew up on a ranch just outside Roswell, says in the interview that as an adult, and astronaut, he talked with many of the principals in the Roswell story, and that while he can't prove what they were saying he does believe it was a UFO, and that there was a coverup.