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

They're Really Here!

[camperslo]

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

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.

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?

[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

[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.