Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

UK UFO Sightings Declassified, Still No Intergalactic Relations

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the stupidity-is-universal dept.

schwit1 is just one of the massive flood of readers (and publications) writing to tell us about the recently declassified UK Ministry of Defense account of a supposed UFO sighting. Included are nineteen sightings between 1986 and 1992, with the most notable being a sighting in 1991 with a US Air Force pilot's first-hand account. Not that this lends an air of credibility to anything, just more papers with more words. "Almost 200 such files will be made available by the MoD over the next four years. [...] UFO expert and journalism lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University, Dr David Clarke, said the documents would shed new light on relatively little-known sightings. He said some conspiracy theorists would already have decided that the release of the papers was a 'whitewash.' He added: 'Because the subject is bedevilled by charlatans and lunatics, it is career suicide to have your name associated with UFOs, which is a real pity. The National Archives are doing a fantastic job here. Everyone brings their own interpretation. Now you can look at the actual primary material — the stuff coming into the MoD every day — and make your own mind up.'"

7 of 319 comments (clear)

  1. And before you U.S. UFO conspirists chime in... by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The U.S. government weren't trying to cover up aliens at places like Roswell, they were covering up their secret spy aircraft. Why do you think most of these "UFO cover-ups" involved strange craft spotted near isolated air force bases at the height of the Cold War? Project Blue Book wasn't about little green men, it was about making sure no one had gotten a good look at their latest prototype stealth planes and also checking to see if any hillbillies might have actually spotted any Soviet spy planes in the area.

    No alien civilization is expending the mammoth amount of resources needed to traverse the vast distances of interstellar space just to stick a probe up your ass. Deal with it.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:And before you U.S. UFO conspirists chime in... by Jonny_eh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's not impossible that we're being secretly monitored by aliens that don't want to be seen, yet are seen by drunks and paranoidians anyways. It's just that rational thinking people are skeptical. Extraordinary claims demand extraordinary evidence, and all that.

    2. Re:And before you U.S. UFO conspirists chime in... by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Yes, it's possible. It's also possible that unicorns are real, and are just really good at hiding.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  2. Cause & Effect by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    it is career suicide to have your name associated with UFOs

    Not career suicide, just a hilariously pointless hobby like squirrel eating ... or Warcraft.

    Something that's always bothered me about Alien sightings and 'abductions' is that the sightings really didn't kick off until 1897 which coincides closely with the release of the War of the Worlds. And, interestingly enough, alien abductions didn't really take off until the 1960s when movies about abductions had been in circulation since the 50s (as any devout MST3K fan knows).

    Aside from a few odd reportings (and maybe a few religions) the above holds true.

    We are human beings, we have awesome imaginations and a multitude of chemicals that effect them. I don't know what it's like to be coked out in an opium den or suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning but I think a lot of UFO stuff is pretty much a direct result of the human psyche, not extraterrestrials.

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Cause & Effect by PopeRatzo · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Something that's always bothered me about Alien sightings and 'abductions' is that the sightings really didn't kick off until 1897

      That's wrong. They were happening before 1897, but instead of "aliens" they were blamed on "angels" "demons" or simply "the gods".

      There are highly detailed accounts of "otherworldly" abductions going back to the Sumerians, who sort of invented language. That's a pretty long time ago.

      I'm not saying that there have ever been real "otherworldly" abductions alien or otherwise, but to say that they started in 1897 is just plain wrong.

      It's amazing that it's taken as obvious that there's no such thing as UFOs (which as many as 80% of Americans believe in) but you'll get modded as flamebait if you suggest that there's no such thing as God (in which about the same number of Americans believe).

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    2. Re:Cause & Effect by bogjobber · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I really recommend Carl Sagan's book The Demon-Haunted World. A decent amount of the book is focused on this phenomenon, with several scientific explanations for why people have abduction dreams. There are the obvious ones (a traumatic event that damages your mind, unconsciously covering up abuse, plain old lying) but the mind is capable of some crazy things.

      What many abduction believers are conscious of, but don't really take into account, is that normal people hallucinate all the time. Most people do it every day, although not very vividly. It can be triggered by anything, but it is especially common when you are waking or doing something monotonous and repetitive (such as driving while tired). Everything from tiny daydreams to full out trips are possible if your brain is in a certain state.

      Some people can have vivid hallucinations quite regularly without drugs or anything unusual in their body. When that happens their mind goes to extraordinary things (no one hallucinates about doing their laundry). Little kids see monsters. If you watch sci-fi movies, maybe you'll see aliens. If you spend your time at a hellfire and brimstone church maybe you'll see demons. How many times have you woken up from a dream and it took you a long time to realize that you were awake?

      The scientific method is the only way to examine these things in a neutral way. There's nothing wrong with believing that there might be UFO's. But until there is proof you can't claim that anything extraordinary like that exists. Right now there isn't even crappy evidence, let alone enough to prove something that incredible.

  3. Why don't we have more pictures of UFOs? by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 5, Insightful

    There are literally tens-of-millions (if not hundreds of millions) more cameras in the hands of the residents of the planet earth than there were even 15 years ago. Cameras in phones, cameras in purses, cameras in trunks of cars, cameras in PDAs, the list goes on. Most of the cameras also shoot video.

    As a consequence we have many more pictures of police misconduct and celebrity's privates than we ever have in the past, but we have no noticeable increases in the numbers of good UFO pictures (or good sasquatch pics for that matter).

    If the number of UFOs are constant, and there are many more cameras, why aren't we seeing many more pictures flooding the intertubes?