Case Closed On Jerusalem UFO Video

astroengine writes "Skepticism was high after videos surfaced earlier this year depicting a UFO over Jerusalem. However, ufologists defended the sighting, dismissing claims that it was a hoax. But a few days ago, the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), one of the oldest, largest, and most respected UFO investigation organizations in the world, announced their findings about the Jerusalem UFO. Yes, even MUFON has concluded it was a hoax."

Comments

Carl Sagan

[errandum]

Everyone should read this book: A demon haunted world by Carl Sagan

Every era has had their share of unexplained phenomena. Before UFO's there were demons, beasts, witches, etc. The current myth-of-the day is UFO's.

(And I'm not saying they don't exist, just that there might be a simpler reason for all these sightings) :)

Re:Carl Sagan

[Culture20]

Every era has had their share of unexplained phenomena. Before UFO's there were demons, beasts, witches, etc. The current myth-of-the day is UFO's. (And I'm not saying they don't exist, just that there might be a simpler reason for all these sightings)

So what you're saying is that fallen angels have adopted modern stories to continue their nightly activities? I wonder why they shifted from being succubuses to doing anal probes.

Re:Carl Sagan

[Seumas]

Agreed. It is entirely reasonable to accept that there could be aliens. Though a stretch, I could even accept that they might know of our existence and even have been here at some point. What I can't tolerate are the idiots that try to convince the world of their existence and "research" them with a respect for the scientific process and logic that falls somewhere between the mix of paranormal investigators and pseudo-science Coast to Coast AM nutjobs. It's like idiots walking around with an EMF reader saying that there must be paranormal activity in your house, because of fluctuating EMF readings (what evidences has there ever been that one is directly related to the other, for example).

It's not the possibilities that offend me. It's the lack of logic and the embracing of the illogical, which does. They're not any different than nutjobs to employ "faith" as their form of reasoning in any named religion. Except, instead of pointing to a bible as their "evidence", they point to meaningless photos and videos and other unverifiable reports.

Re:Carl Sagan

[c6gunner]

Really, Sagan has proved the negative regarding UFO's?

Sagan has demonstrated a tendency amongst human beings to attribute unusual experiences to various shadowy and/or supernatural entities, which change over time, and for which there is never any actual evidence.

Do the words "burden of proof" mean anything to you? If you tell me that your car was stolen by a gang of roving leprechauns, and I point out that you live in a high-crime area where vehicle thefts occur by the dozen on a daily basis, I don't need to show that leprechauns didn't steal your car - you need to present some evidence that they did.

Re:Carl Sagan

[grcumb]

Te current myth oof the day is the gov can do good...

Exactly the opposite is true. You only need to spend some time in a place without effective government to realise that.

The (uniquely American) myth of the day is that there is no role for government in countless different areas that other societies have been fighting tooth and nail to get government to look at.

You want know what life is like when you government ceases to play a role in your life? Corruption is the first sign that things are going wrong. It becomes rampant because nobody's looking out for you, so you have to look out for yourself. People stop planning and start looking for the shortest distance between them and the next meal.

Then security starts to wane. Fewer police patrolling makes the streets less safe, so people -rightly- begin to trust one another less and less.

Then education goes into the shitter, because only the schools run by and for the wealthy are self-sustaining, and the others are staffed by teachers who have to take a second job to make ends meet, even if that means not showing up a day or two a week.

Then crime gets worse, because you get an entire generation of disaffected, unemployed, cynical and frustrated youth who stop giving a damn about you because you never gave a damn about them. They'll just as soon jack you up for your mobile as look at you.

And then it just goes spiraling down from there....

Think I'm making this up? Don't. I'm describing exactly what's happening in the developing country I'm living in. We at least have an excuse, because our government has extremely limited means. You folks in the developed world have no such luxury. So here's my advice: Stop bitching about whether government services are good, and start talking about how to make them better.

Re:Carl Sagan

[Rantastic]

>

Here's a US Army Colonel who contradicts Sagan:

The evidence he speaks of includes the hard data of sensor technology that has frequently confirmed the reality of physical craft and the high quality of extremely reliable eyewitnesses who are "neither misreporting facts nor delusional."

You're kidding right? If I claim I have evidence of a mountain of gold hidden under Yankee Stadium, including all manner of sensor data, are you going to take me at my word? People make claims like this all the time. Guess what? The evidence never turns up, or if it does, it is found to be mistaken or fake. Every time.

Personally, I doubt we are alone in the universe. However, there has never been any validated evidence of any visitation to Earth. What Sagan points out is that we have very good answers to the question "How can otherwise reasonable people be utterly convinced that they have been taken aboard an alien craft when there is a lack of any evidence to show it actually happened?"

Re:Carl Sagan

[hairyfeet]

Actually I figure if there are aliens it'll be more like a combination of Gorillas in the Mist and one of those African safari tours. Something like "And here with us today is Gee-tain, expert on the TeegeAck hairless monkeys, take it away Gee-tain"

Thanks GuFom, as we get closer you can see the hairless monkeys involved in one of their favorite activities, throwing shit at each other. While this looks amusing from this distance let me assure you the shit they throw is VERY dangerous, and in fact gets more dangerous not less as time goes on. You'd think they'd learn, but hey they're hairless monkeys right? /crowd laughs/ From my first expedition to the crazy planet they have gone from rocks and sticks to sharpened rocks ON sticks, to their current inclination to make primitive projectile weapons based on sticking explosives in tubes.

Now for those with weak third stomachs I suggest turning away as we are gonna swing by one of their warmer regions so we can show you those monkeys engaged in their typical mating rituals. Notice how the male approaches the female in one of their primitive vehicles and waves green paper to entice the female. We still haven't figure out what the females do with the green papers, we think they line their nests with them. Notice how the vehicle with the flashing lights comes every so often to beat on one of the monkeys and drag him away, we believe this is the way the tribe singles out the inferior males. Moving right along we'll next go to one of their areas where a great tribal battle is occurring so you can see the incredible effort the monkeys expend fighting over females and resources...

So if there are any out there I'm sure they look forward to sitting down and talking to a hairless ape like we would look forward to walking up to a Silver-back and poking it with a stick. Any race with the capability to pop all over the known universe would have about as much in common with us as we have to Cro Mags, and with the abundance of resources interstellar travel would bring would have no reason to interact or even visit for anything more than what the English call "shits and giggles".

BTW did they even bother to explain HOW they did it? Because just screaming FAKE is about as completely pointless as screaming COVER UP in cases like this. I read TFA and didn't find squat about how videos taken at so many different elevations and angles was faked. Were they all in it together? Was there a third party creating a light show for the others to film? What? How about giving us a little more than "Shooped!" please?

Slashdot

[OverlordQ]

Where non-news confirmed to be non-news is news.

Re:Slashdot

[OverlordQ]

It was already debunked, this is just a debunking of the bunk of the debunking of the hoax.

Re:Slashdot

[syousef]

Where non-news confirmed to be non-news is news.

The news is: This UFO hoax is so lame even UFO nutters rejected it!

Typical

[geekoid]

'UFO'* video appears.
Some people offer rational explanation.
People who believe it's a UFO say nu-uh.
Rational people put forth rational explanation
People who believe it's a UFO say nu-uh.
People accept it's a hoax.
At no point the people who believe in UFOs think that maybe if the last 100 sighting were incorrect, then may the idea we are being visited is wrong.

*for the sake of this post UFO means alien visitation.

Re:Typical

[c6gunner]

To be fair, my father served in the Airforce underneath a Colonel who was friendly with him. This Colonel said specifically he had knowledge of certain things like missile guidance systems, stealth, etc. that were taken from alien technology.

As someone who served in the military for an extended period of time, one of the biggest disappointments for me was realizing that many officers are either retarded or fucking nuts. I know an airforce pilot who's convinced that there is alien architecture on Mars. I know a Military Intelligence officer who is convinced that the Earth is 6,000 years old. Most recently, I had an army Captain tell me that garlic cures cancer.

I think part of growing up is realizing that people - even highly placed people with all sorts of qualifications - are generally full of shit. Most of the time it's simple ignorance rather than malicious lies, but it doesn't change the fact that authority figures are generally just as fallible as anyone else. THE most important thing I've learned in life is to evaluate every claim based on the evidence presented for it, rather than the credentials of the person who is vouching for it. Without that, we may as well be back in Galilean times, where reality is determined by church officials regardless of what data those uppity "scientists" present.

Re:MUFON is not respected.

[hondo77]

Did you actually just use the word ufology with a straight face?

Re:Poor Article

[trytoguess]

The link on "Ian O'Neill" leads to the relevant reasons. In short:

1. For a bright object, it's not making on the reflective dome below it shine.

2. Even though several videos came out, considering the location (a popular tourist attraction), there should be even more videos and eyewitness accounts.

3. Two of the videos have evidence of tampering.

http://news.discovery.com/space/jerusalem-ufo-almost-certainly-a-hoax.html

Re:The day that we get proper footage...

[Quiet_Desperation]

That right there is the best evidence against.

We've seen a geometric explosion of people carrying camera equipped gadgets all day every day, and still we get points of light against a black background.

So many of the anecdotal accounts describe up close encounters, huge ships hovering 50 feet off the ground or drifting slowly about in no particular hurry to hide or escape detection, all sorts of details visible. Where the phonecam shots of those? Huh? Huh? Huh? Yeah, I thought so.

And, hey, although a hard core skeptic, I would *LOVE* a real photo of an alien ship. The world could do with the punch in the crotch of that magnitude.

Re:Not Carl Sagan

[c6gunner]

Carl Sagan and self-labeled "skeptics" are the Penn and Teller's Bullshit to everybody else's Mythbusters.

The mythbusters are skeptics. Adam Savage has made numerous appearances at The Amazing Meeting - the foremost skeptical conference in the world. He's closely allied with the skeptical movement as a whole, and the show in general is a very simple application of skepticism to everyday claims. If you think that "self described skeptics" are philosophically separate from the Mythbusters, you don't understand skepticism. And - as your comment has amply demonstrated - you clearly don't understand Sagan.

Re:MUFON is not respected.

[Omestes]

im not even talking about LSD being a product of cia.

Good thing, since it isn't.