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.'"

Comments

Seriously, aliens, stay away.

[gardyloo]

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're Really Here!

[camperslo]

They've come in under radar... from Mexico

Re:UFO - Roswell? HAHA

[lena_10326]

Well, I guess it's a form of socializing and these people get off on it...

I spose you haven't heard. Earth Girls are Easy.

http://www.amazon.com/Earth-Girls-Easy-Geena-Davis /dp/B00005QCVN/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-5539242-8032110 ?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1183905454&sr=8-1

If you're in the area, go!

[dave-tx]

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.

Jerry Pournelle

[jenesais]

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.

Re:American only belief?

[Joe The Dragon]

It may have to do with all of the covering up that is being done.

Cover up?

[iknownuttin]

The U.S. government, of course, has issued its share of reports debunking UFOs. Here in Roswell, those reports are generally seen as desperate attempts to whitewash the truth.

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.

How about a double cover up ?

[ivan_w]

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)..

Re:American only belief?

[Colin Smith]

I read on the Internet (so it must be true) that 50% of the Americans believe that there are aliens on the earth, 50% voted for Bush, sounds plausible to me.

I wonder why so many Americans? It's all explained in full here:
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/credulous

Re:American only belief?

[kripkenstein]

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)

Why? Well, why do Americans like fast food or blockbuster movies? It's a cultural thing. UFOs are as much American as Bruce Willis action flicks or interest in people like Paris Hilton.

Why specifically are UFOs an American cultural thing? Well, for some reason in the US many conspiracy theories thrive (JFK assassination, etc.), perhaps because there have been plenty of actual conspiracies: Nixon, Iran-Contra, and so forth. (Or do all countries have conspiracies, but the US is better at finding them? Who knows.) The US has a thread of anti-establishment thought that is quite strong, this might also factor into it.

That, and sci-fi was very big in the US around the middle of the century; the Roswell incident - whatever happened there - was in the right place at the right time.

Why not link to slashdot ?

[aepervius]

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 ?

Re:Army Lt. Walter Haut

[tb3]

Here ya go, the real story. Project Mogul was an Air Force project to detect nuclear tests by listening for them in the high atmosphere. It had the highest security classification, and when one of the balloons, along with it's plastic and tinfoil acoustic detectors, crashed near Roswell, the CIA decided that the UFO story provided a good cover.

So, technically, it wasn't a weather balloon. Oh and the egg-shaped saucer? That was a different test version of the acoustic detector. They experimented with a number of different shapes.

Re:Army Lt. Walter Haut

[Bombula]

Well, it's a shame that Roswell gets all the attention because it turns out there is a logical explanation for what happened. In thousands of other UFO sightings, no such explanation is available. The most compelling one to me is the black triangle incident with the Belgian Air Force, where the government has come right out and said that they have no terrestrial explanation for what all of their radar installations and two F16s witnessed, and that really leaves very few alternative explanations.

It's a shame the subject of UFOs is ridiculed instead of taken seriously, and of course that is due in large part to the goofball social community surrounding unexplained phenomena. This Roswell celebration is, sadly, a prime example. If instead we had five million people march on Washington and demand the truth, we might get some real disclosure.

UFOs not an "American only belief"

[Jeremy_Bee]

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.

Other sightings

[Boronx]

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.