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CIA on UFO Sightings: 'It Was Us'

mrflash818 sends word that the CIA has taken the blame for a majority of early UFO sightings. In a tweet, the agency said, "It was us," and linked to a document summarizing their use of U-2 spy planes from 1954-1974 (PDF). "High-altitude testing of the U-2led to an unexpected side effect — a tremendous increase in reports of unidentified flying objects," the CIA wrote in the document, which it wrote in 1998. "In the mid-1950s, most commercial airliners flew at altitudes between 10,000 and 20,000 feet and [many] military aircraftoperated at altitudes below 40,000 feet. Consequently, once U-2s started flying at altitudes above 60,000 feet, air-traffic controllers began receiving increasing numbers of UFO reports." [T]he CIA cross-referenced UFO sightings to U-2 flight logs. "This enabled the investigators to eliminate the majority of the UFO reports," the CIA wrote, "although they could not reveal to the letter writers the true cause of the UFO sightings."

197 comments

  1. Oh yeah? by halivar · · Score: 5, Funny

    If I was a Sleestak alien overlord, that's exactly what I would say.

    1. Re:Oh yeah? by g0bshiTe · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Sleestak were indigenous to earth you insensitive clod!

      --
      I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    2. Re:Oh yeah? by K.+S.+Kyosuke · · Score: 1

      If I was a Sleestak alien overlord, that's exactly what I would say.

      You would say "Oh, yeah?"? Oddly, that actually makes sense.

      --
      Ezekiel 23:20
    3. Re:Oh yeah? by davester666 · · Score: 1

      Of course they couldn't tell the people writing in that they saw an airplane. The USSR had absolutely no clue that the US was designing spy planes and would have totally started trying to find out more details about these so-called "airplanes" had they known, and by not telling the writers, it delayed the USSR's theft of the details of America's secret airplanes by approximately ZERO days.

      --
      Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
  2. I'm not saying it was aliens... by ColdWetDog · · Score: 4, Insightful

    But it was aliens.

    (BTW, what happened to the other half?

    --
    Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    1. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      But it was aliens.

      (BTW, what happened to the other half?

      Ask their overlord , Im not saying it was aliens but it was that crazy Alien with the weird hair on H2.

    2. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      Russian spy planes. What do you think the CIA was looking for?

    3. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by bondsbw · · Score: 5, Funny

      )

      There it is.

      --
      All my liberal friends think I'm a conservative, all my conservative friends think I'm a liberal.
    4. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Weather Balloons - Swamp Gas - Reflections of the Sun against ice particles in clouds - The planet Venus, Mars, Jupiter - Sputnik II - The Jupiter II - The USS Enterprise - that just about covers it...

    5. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny
    6. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Weather Balloons - Swamp Gas - Reflections of the Sun against ice particles in clouds - The planet Venus, Mars, Jupiter - Sputnik II - The Jupiter II - The USS Enterprise - that just about covers it...

      "just about covers it" you say.. I wonder what the rest were? Especially the silent ones flying in formation with large panels on their bottoms flashing bright primary colors that I saw go right over my head at night at perhaps 50 feet off the ground in the direction of Mt. Rainier, which about 10 minutes later were followed by two Air Force jets at slow speed but higher up. Then a while later what sounded like helicopters with strong search lights flew around over the forest to the side of the house where I was staying flashing the search beams around in the trees as they also slowly followed the same path towards Rainier.

      When one of them was directly above me I felt a deep thrumming vibration throughout my body, strong enough to almost be audible, which then quickly faded as it drifted past me. There were no other sounds coming from them. This was back in the 90's.

      * Say what you will, but at the very least there is tech flying/floating around this world that no Government is yet admitting to having.

    7. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      BTW, what happened to the other half?

      Shrooms, peyote, acid, etc.

    8. Re: I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Prototype hexacopter drones

    9. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Weather Balloons - Swamp Gas - Reflections of the Sun against ice particles in clouds - The planet Venus, Mars, Jupiter - Sputnik II - The Jupiter II - The USS Enterprise - that just about covers it...

      None of them are UFOs. At best weather balloons could be considered to be flying objects, but the rest of them aren't flying.
      I guess one can be nice and call the orbiting objects for "falling" just to keep the acronym intact.

    10. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Paradise+Pete · · Score: 1

      I see what you did there.

    11. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Billy+the+Mountain · · Score: 1

      Maybe the aliens were heading up to Mt. Rainier to do some UFO skiing.

      --
      That was the turning point of my life--I went from negative zero to positive zero.
    12. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Drugs maybe?

    13. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by AK+Marc · · Score: 2

      Say what you will, but at the very least there is tech flying/floating around this world that no Government is yet admitting to having.

      Since about 1917, that has been true every day. Though more so since the 1950's.

    14. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      NFOMAUFOs (Non-Flying Objects Misidentified As Unidentified Flying Objects)?

    15. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Russian spy planes. What do you think the CIA was looking for?

      Marilyn Monroe's undergarments.

    16. Re: I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Early reports were during the revolutionary war, but European reports go back earlier. Glad to see the CIA was there protecting and torturing the locals.

    17. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by k6mfw · · Score: 1

      But it was aliens.

      H1B visa issues?

      Other than that, this U2/UFO thing has been kicking around for years. When first reading the headline, I'm thinking why did the CIA have say "it was us" (like why ruin a good story with facts)?

      --
      mfwright@batnet.com
    18. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2

      I saw something in the early 80s. I'm not trying to ascribe them to an extraterrestrial origin but they were peculiar.

      What I saw wasn't a group of U2 planes in formation. I suppose it could have been A-12 Avenger IIs, but there's no evidence that they ever fielded airworthy aircraft. So, they're still unknown to me and thus it's accurate to call them UFOs.

      What's funny to me is that even though I didn't know it at the time, they were moving away from an area with a nuclear research facility that employs a fair number of people in the area. I was a kid, I didn't know anything about the lab or what they did there so the significance of their path didn't occur to me until I was an adult.

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    19. Re: I'm not saying it was aliens... by Lord+Kano · · Score: 2

      I'd like to see the CIA claim credit for the "Flying earthenware vessel" spotted over Edo Japan in 1180 AD.

      I guess they were doing really early recon for WWII. Just to make sure the Japanese weren't hiding anything...

      LK

      --
      "Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
    20. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I saw the same thing happen in NY back in the early to mid 90s to a T

    21. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by hawk · · Score: 1

      > I wonder what the rest were? Especially the silent ones flying in formation with large panels on their
      >bottoms flashing bright primary colors that I saw go right over my head at night at perhaps 50 feet off the
      >ground in the direction of Mt. Rainier,

      lysergic acid diethylamide :)

      hawk

    22. Re:I'm not saying it was aliens... by dl_sledding · · Score: 1

      Hey, wait... The USS Enterprise is indeed a flying craft:

      Starship Enterprise

      Even if you leave out the SF stuff, the shuttle OV-101 was named after the USS Enterprise of Star Trek fame... so it indeed IS a true flying object, as it passes through the atmosphere.

  3. Hmm... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

    That makes sense. Doesn't explain the Men in Black.

    1. Re:Hmm... by Marxist+Hacker+42 · · Score: 1

      CIA agents wearing black suits? What do you THINK their uniform is?

      --
      SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
    2. Re:Hmm... by bloodhawk · · Score: 1

      Especially the 3rd one, it was just aweful.

    3. Re:Hmm... by __aaclcg7560 · · Score: 1

      And the silver ray-gun that looks like a dildo with a handle? That's not CIA-issued.

      (If that went over your head, check out this and that.)

    4. Re:Hmm... by binarylarry · · Score: 1

      The second one was awful, 3 was decent.

      --
      Mod me down, my New Earth Global Warmingist friends!
  4. So the CIA = Aliens? by pigoon · · Score: 1

    It's best to get in front of these PR issues...

    1. Re:So the CIA = Aliens? by zlives · · Score: 5, Funny

      that would explain the anal probes

    2. Re:So the CIA = Aliens? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      that would explain the anal probes

      Actually the dude who offered you the shrooms or peyote at the campfire is a far more plausible explanation.

    3. Re:So the CIA = Aliens? by davydagger · · Score: 2

      on a serious note, the dates also line up with MK ULTRA. so sadly yes. "Alien abductions" in the 50s and 60s, assuming they where not made up, had a chance of actually being CIA performing MK ultra.

    4. Re:So the CIA = Aliens? by zentigger · · Score: 1

      Ahh, that makes sense, this is about the Catholic Intelligence Agency!

      Prieeeests iiiiin spaaaaaace...

      --

      the above is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect that of the little voices in my head

  5. Skeptical by BarbaraHudson · · Score: 1

    I'm skeptical about aliens in UFOs, but I'm also skeptical that U2 aircraft were responsible.

    --
    "Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.
    1. Re:Skeptical by confused+one · · Score: 3, Interesting

      U2 aircraft are responsible for some. F-117 stealth fighters were responsible for quite a few too -- they were operational for over a decade before it was publically acknowledged they existed.

    2. Re:Skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm skeptical about aliens in UFOs, but I'm also skeptical that U2 aircraft were responsible.

      It's the Slashdot Law - any newsworthy assertion made by a government of a major economy, or by the Fortune 500 CEO should be regarded as a cover-up or false flag.

    3. Re:Skeptical by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Interesting

      As someone who once worked for Project Senior Trend, the sibling post has it dead-on.

      It was much preferable for the USAF to have folks think that ET stopped by, than to let them realize that what they were really seeing were F-117s flying overhead (mind you, nearly all sorties were done at night, but things happen, and dawn/dusk is kind of an awkward time, at least visually.) In profile (side or front/rear), the jet has a saucer-like shape, and definitely something that doesn't look like an ordinary civilian or military aircraft. Funny enough, the Soviets were more than happy to foster and even encourage alien conspiracy theories, if only to keep their own population from thinking that they saw some secret military project flying overhead.

      Other notable examples of military aircraft that would cause confusion and optical illusions? The SR-71/A-12 in its early days, the B-47 flying wing, and its grandkid, the B-2 bomber.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    4. Re:Skeptical by rmdingler · · Score: 2

      Indeed. Just as any random assertion posted nom de guerre is inferred to have been made by an accomplished expert in the field at hand.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    5. Re:Skeptical by Charliemopps · · Score: 4, Interesting

      ...and don't forget the SR-71...
      F-117 and U2 were practically average looking compared to that thing. My father was in the air-force and got to see one land before they were declassified. He said his first reaction was ALIENS! But changed his after it landed like any normal aircraft.

    6. Re:Skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      While you're correct to a degree, a strategy of making the populace freak out about aliens would be rather counter-productive. Take Area 51 for example - they've been testing planes there since just after the war, it was well-known to aerospace types, but the general population were pretty much in the dark about it and didn't care*.

      Then we get the 'aliens at Area 51' stories and every teenage boy on the planet knows about the base. This then attracts the curious and reporters & other types. With today's technology all it takes is one curious kid to get lucky with a few hundred $$$ worth of equipment and a multi-billion dollar secret is blown wide open.

      *If you tell someone (especially in the Cold War days) 'This is an air base. It's off-limits to civilians' most people would go 'Fair enough, I don't want to endanger my country or get into trouble'

      If you tell them there's aliens there their curiosity will explode and your security operation has just got a whole lot harder. Most of us wouldn't risk jail spying on the military but a lot of us would risk it to reveal the 'biggest secret' of all time.

    7. Re:Skeptical by Penguinisto · · Score: 2

      Then we get the 'aliens at Area 51' stories and every teenage boy on the planet knows about the base.

      They know about... that base.

      The USAF owns something like 1/3 of Nevada as test range. Area 51/Groom Lake is only a very, very small piece of it.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    8. Re:Skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yep most stories about Area 51 mention that fact - the nuclear test sites etc. Point is it still attracts unwanted attention and is a risky strategy.

      Here's the funny thing - while the Soviets secretly promoted UFO stories to cover up some of their own technologies, they used to tell the general population that aliens didn't exist and it was all CIA propaganda to hide covert tests. Furthermore the bigger UFO organisations tended to be run by either ex-military officers* or civilians with military links. The Soviets noticed that as well & spied on them.

      *for example Roscoe Hillenkoetter was a former director of the CIA. He also served on the board of NICAP, the biggest UFO organisation of the time. The UK is no different with the likes of Admiral Hill Norton having an apparent obsession with the subject.

    9. Re:Skeptical by Quasimodem · · Score: 2

      Well, you don't think they would deign to speak to ordinary low-income proles if they were not trying to manipulate them, do you?

    10. Re:Skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yeah, but while everyone and their uncle is trying to get in to / watch / whatever your "secret alien" base at area 51, you can use the the stupid amount of land you own elsewhere to run your tests on. I.E. it's a honeypot.

    11. Re:Skeptical by Beck_Neard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      The SR-71 - which moved about 3x as fast as almost all military aircraft at the time - was first tested around the early 1960's. Then there was suddenly a surge of sightings of triangle-shaped ufos blazing around at mach 3 speeds, which _obviously_ couldn't have been from a military jet because no military jet went that fast.

      --
      A fool and his hard drive are soon parted.
    12. Re:Skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The YB-49 popped up in the George Pal version of War of the Worlds, so it certainly wasn't very secret by 1953.

    13. Re:Skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Precisely. It attracts unwanted attention to Area 51. The surrounding areas? Not so much. So you let people spread the rumors and make up stories about Area 51 - hell, you even encourage some of it - and all eyes are in that one location. It's like an intelligence honeypot, a target that looks attractive but really has no value other than to appear important. People waste their time trying to investigate a completely worthless target and all you have to do is hire some mean looking guards with serious faces. Since you know where they are looking you also know where they are not looking.

    14. Re:Skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      We used to watch the SR-71 all the time at air shows. They just had covers over the cockpit windows when it was on the ground.

    15. Re:Skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Aurora also.

    16. Re:Skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      SR-71 looks like a normal airplane to me. What has me intrigued is why an air-force man reacted "ALIENS" if they officially do not exist.

    17. Re:Skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      My father was in the air-force and got to see one land before they were declassified.

      I seriously doubt that considering the RS/SR-71 project and the YF/A-12 were known about by the public back in 1964, two years before the SR-71 was rolled out. The only thing that was later "declassified" were its internal workings and instruments.

    18. Re:Skeptical by confused+one · · Score: 1

      The left hand knows not what the right hand is doing.

    19. Re: Skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If the government of our time wasn't hiding anything then why do the take of anything that has to do with scice fiction. Like Terra nova.earth .an it nothing to do with the ratings.Battlestar Galactica. Why do they make a statement like that now after all this time...with the universe as vast and huge surely there something out there besides us.....

    20. Re: Skeptical by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Terra nova.comments from b.b.

  6. What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    Yes military aircraft probably accounts for the majority of sightings, but not the ones that zip around faster than anything we have even today, stop on a dime and go another direction just as fast. Plus there's the book "The Day After Roswell" written by Colonel Philip J. Corso. That book convinced Canada's former Minister of National Defense (Paul Hellyer) to go public about American involvement with alien technology and beings. And there is also all of the people involved in "The Disclosure Project": government employees from around the world getting together to blow the whistle in a press conference. They assembled their evidence in a book that you can still buy today.

    Our very existence prooves that intelligent life happens and we can't be the only star with life of billions in our galaxy, which is just one of billions of galaxies in the universe. An alien civilization that is thousands or millions of years more technologically advanced and evolved has probably found a way to get here. Our physics today doesn't have an answer. Go back 200 years ago and tell people that we'd be driving horseless carriages, flying above the clouds anywhere in the world within a day, landing on the moon and returning, or communicating with people around the world instantaneously. They would have burned you at the stake like mainstream science does today (ending your career) when you talk about aliens.

    1. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What about it? It's bunkus.

    2. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Book summary from Amazon follows. U2 aircraft flying high in the sky doesn't debunk this book:

      "Backed by documents newly declassified through the Freedom of Information Act, Colonel Philip J. Corso (Ret.), a member of President Eisenhower’s National Security Council and former head of the Foreign Technology Desk in the US Army, has come forward to reveal his personal stewardship of alien artifacts from the Roswell crash. He tells us how he spearheaded the Army’s reverse-engineering project that led to today’s integrated circuit chips, fiber optics, lasers, and super-tenacity fibers, and “seeded” the Roswell alien technology to giants of American industry. Laying bare the US government’s shocking role in the Roswell incident—what was found, the cover-up, and how they used alien artifacts to change the course of twentieth-century history—The Day After Roswell is an extraordinary memoir that not only forces us to reconsider the past, but also our role in the universe."

    3. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by ColdWetDog · · Score: 2

      Book summary from Amazon follows. U2 aircraft flying high in the sky doesn't debunk this book:

      "Backed by documents newly declassified through the Freedom of Information Act, Colonel Philip J. Corso (Ret.), a member of President Eisenhower’s National Security Council and former head of the Foreign Technology Desk in the US Army, has come forward to reveal his personal stewardship of alien artifacts from the Roswell crash. He tells us how he spearheaded the Army’s reverse-engineering project that led to today’s integrated circuit chips, fiber optics, lasers, and super-tenacity fibers, and “seeded” the Roswell alien technology to giants of American industry. Laying bare the US government’s shocking role in the Roswell incident—what was found, the cover-up, and how they used alien artifacts to change the course of twentieth-century history—The Day After Roswell is an extraordinary memoir that not only forces us to reconsider the past, but also our role in the universe."

      Oh yeah? Where is the thingy that that was supposed to replace the compact disc?

      --
      Faster! Faster! Faster would be better!
    4. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by zlives · · Score: 1

      you mean hd-dvd?

    5. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by rmdingler · · Score: 1
      I enjoyed X-Files as much as the next bloke, but the reality is the size of the universe alone could preclude visits from other sentient life forms.

      Great filter dogma aside, there very well could be advanced, universe-exploring civilizations that are mathematically unlikely to visit earth.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    6. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 1

      It doesn't debunk this book either:

      http://www.amazon.com/Bible-En...

      The English Standard Version (ESV) Bible is an essentially literal Bible translation that combines word-for-word precision and accuracy with literary excellence, beauty, and depth of meaning.

      My father worked on developing the first lasers during his masters degree. I don't think he got any alien-inspired tips.

    7. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by xfade551 · · Score: 1

      Do you realize that 200 years ago was still 10 years after the first railway journey, 21 years after the first untethered flight of a hot air balloon, that weaponized rockets were in common use by British armed forces and others (later inspiring Jules Verne to write science fiction about going to the moon), and that early versions of electrical telegraphs were in testing?

    8. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I don't think the book said that the technology as we know it today was fed to industry. Many universities and fortune 500 companies were given ideas to develop and sometimes an artifact retrieved from a classified source to study and reverse engineer (such as materials). As far as the scientists were concerned, it could have come from the Soviets or Germans.

    9. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by X0563511 · · Score: 1

      If you really want to blow someone's mind, point out that fax machines existed in the 1800s.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    10. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Corso has a rather strange past and appears to be one of those ultra-right-wing types (like William Cooper and John Lear) who 'revealed' stories about UFOs that were clearly nonsense.

      I'd say the chances are good Corso was doing one final job for his bosses in order to muddy the weirdness waters even more - his Roswell book came out in 1997 when interest in UFOs was at an all-time high.

    11. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by russbutton · · Score: 1

      My most likely alien scenario is that part of natural evolution is that organic sentients, like humans, evolve technical civilizations that eventually create mechanical sentients. The mechanicals don't require air, water, etc to survive, and may well prefer "living" off-planet. They'd also have a much longer life-span, so to speak, and receive all the energy they require from the light-energy - photo-voltaics or such. Given this, there could well be whole mechanical civilizations existing between the stars or wherever. The Universe is a Big Place. The interests of organics like us would be of no interest to them. And of course mechanicals would rapidly evolve to become an intelligence we couldn't begin to fathom.

      We haven't seen aliens because we're just the ants on this one little world.

    12. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by Beck_Neard · · Score: 1

      To add to that, physics has been telling us about the speed of light limit for over 150 years now. Maxwell's equations (published in 1861), contained them implicitly, and for a few years nobody really noticed (or tried to offer alternative explanations like the aether). In 1905 (110 years ago), Einstein finally formalized the concept. In those 150 years no experiment or even speculative theory has hinted to us that FTL is even remotely possible. Everything tells us its flat-out impossible. Stuff like wormholes _may_ be possible but they introduce a whole bunch of new unsolved problems. And none of the proposed ideas like wormholes or warp drives are based on any kind of experiment; they are just based on extrapolating theories beyond their domain of applicability. They probably represent our ignorance more than anything.

      But try convincing the 'believers' that aliens don't have FTL.

      --
      A fool and his hard drive are soon parted.
    13. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by hey! · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Yes military aircraft probably accounts for the majority of sightings, but not the ones that zip around faster than anything we have even today, stop on a dime and go another direction just as fast..

      I've seen objects like this, multiple times, but I've always been able to explain in mundane terms after watching closely -- I'm the kind of guy who keeps binoculars in the car just in case the night skies are clear. I'd *love* to see an alien spaceship, but being a habitual sky watcher things that occasional sky watcher might take as a spacecraft look like ordinary phenomena to me.

      And it's not because I only see what I'm told could be real. Decades ago I experienced something which science said was impossible: meteors shooting overhead with a rocket-like sound. The reason this is impossible is that meteors are fifty or a hundred miles up -- sound could not travel fast enough through the atmosphere. But I knew what I saw and heard, and in 2001 scientists actually observed this phenomenon, electrophonic meteors.

      --
      Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
    14. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Who said the aliens travel here faster than light? A civilization thousands or millions of years more advanced than we are may have physics that we haven't even thought of yet.

    15. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Yes military aircraft probably accounts for the majority of sightings, but not the ones that zip around faster than anything we have even today, stop on a dime and go another direction just as fast.

      I've seen several of those items. They shimmer in the sky like something that's rotating or wobbling. They stop and change directions on a dime. They zip around crazy fast.

      Or it would seem that way, if I didn't immediately recognize them as birds. They look like they're moving faster than they are because size and speed at a distance are hard. They look like they stop on a dime because they're too far to see their circular flight patterns. They look like they're rotating or wobbling because they're flapping their wings, causing visual intensity and size changes from my perspective. The first time I realized a birds I was watching in the distance looked exactly like the daytime "UFO" footage I'd seen on TLC documentaries was a forehead smack moment. And that's during the day, at night there's all sorts of ways you can screw up perception since you're lacking even more visual context.

      Have you never remembered an event completely incorrectly? Had it stuck in your memory clear as day, then had direct contradictory evidence that called the recollection into question? It's easy to misremember something, like a light in the sky that you can't identify, and make it far more interesting in your retelling than it actually was.

      So yeah, I'm going to keep taking all of this with enough salt to give me heart problems, thanks.

    16. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by gtall · · Score: 1

      There's an easy answer to that book: the author was an alien and sent here just to gin up that sort of misinformation. Let's hear what that expert of all things alien has to say about it:

      Interviewer: So, Giorgio, what do you have to say about these stories that the aliens landed in N. Mexico at Roswell?

      Giorgio A. Tsoukalos: Well, the aliens are known sneaks and liars, I wouldn't put it past them to plant these stories and then claim the aliens did it.

      Interviewer: But....but if the aliens planted the stories, then the aliens are here among us, yes?

      Giorgio: Don't be so sure, they could be only acting like they are here among us to fool us into accepting their kind.

      Interviewer: Ummm....you mean cats are involved?

      Giorgio: You didn't hear this from me, but have you ever met a cat who wasn't from an alien world? The feigned inability to open food cans so we'll do it for them, the total disregard for clear directions we give them, letting mice loose in the house so we'll think cats are worthwhile for us to provide a warm house and sanitary needs? C'mon, we're enslaved and they didn't have to fire a shot.

      Interviewer: I can SEE the Light!!!

      Giorgio: Thank you, thank you, my hair glows in the dark.

    17. Re:What about "The Day After Roswell" book? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      How good are these theories about the broad structure of the universe anyway? Isn't 90+% missing according to the theories?

  7. What's the real story? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Whenever the CIA admits to something, I wonder, what's the bigger lie they're trying to cover up? Or, am I just being paranoid? Could somebody please send water to 37.2350 N, 115.8111 W, I'm really thirsty, thanks!

    1. Re:What's the real story? by Narcocide · · Score: 1

      Yes, you are being paranoid, but Paranoia grants a 10% bonus to chance to detect stealthed enemies...

    2. Re:What's the real story? by kelemvor4 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Whenever the CIA admits to something, I wonder, what's the bigger lie they're trying to cover up? Or, am I just being paranoid?

      Citizens of other countries might think you're being paranoid. To Americans, it's obvious that you are right.

      However in this case it might not be so much of a "cover up" as it is an effort to get everyone's mind off of torture.

    3. Re:What's the real story? by rmdingler · · Score: 1

      Yes, you are being paranoid, but Paranoia grants a 10% bonus to chance to detect stealthed enemies...

      ...and a 60% bonus chance of suffering from irritable bowel.

      --
      Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

      Ernest Hemingway

    4. Re: What's the real story? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      1957 construction starts here N 36.121070 , W -114.958306 and heads north for 4 miles. Entry via Nellis for scientists flown from Boise, Idaho, Phoenix, Arizona and North Las Vegas Air Terminal, Las Vegas. Good luck getting in!!

    5. Re:What's the real story? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This story has been well-known for decades. Ben Rich mentions pretty much the same thing in his book about the Skunk Works.

    6. Re:What's the real story? by Government+Drone · · Score: 1

      ...and a 60% bonus chance of suffering from irritable bowel.

      That's because they're causing it!

  8. It's what they want. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Look it, they want us to believe it was them. But the truth is aliens did come.

    BUT the CIA was behind the Kennedy assassination with Marilyn Monroe's help.

    Also, Marilyn was also the architect behind the fake Moon landing.

    You all should know too, that Eric Snowden is actually working for the CIA - well, a splinter group. See, the NSA pissed off some bigshot at the CIA so the CIA had Snowden take them out - although the FBI is behind the CIA splinter group due to Obama being the anti-Christ.

    It all makes perfect sense.

    Now, with the U2 siightings. See, Bono caused it. I mean really, he is obviously an Alien. And what better cover than an obnoxious Irishmen - let alone a rock star.

    Gotta get to Costco and get my aluminum foil to make new hats because Bono has been stealing all of my songs and passing them off as his - with some changes of course. "Pride, in the name of love" was originally, "Fuck, I stubbed my toe." -

    1. Re:It's what they want. by g0bshiTe · · Score: 1

      Stop clapping you fucking evil bastard!

      --
      I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
    2. Re:It's what they want. by Mike+Van+Pelt · · Score: 2

      Tin foil. TIN. Aluminum foil is worse than useless. There's a reason actual tin foil is hard to find. (And you won't find it at Costco.)

    3. Re: It's what they want. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Eric Snowden? Really, you fucking idiot?

  9. Holy shit UFOs are real Aliens?!? by TheCarp · · Score: 1, Interesting

    I have always thought it was bunk until now.

    This right here though is kind of hard to ignore, since we know the CIA has never told the truth to the American people about anything unless congress speciifcally drags it out of them or there is a leak....so....I think its safe to assume that none of these incidents were them, and in fact, they can't rule any out....and even the fact that they are commenting on this strongly implies a coverup.

    --
    "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
    1. Re:Holy shit UFOs are real Aliens?!? by Jeremi · · Score: 1

      This right here though is kind of hard to ignore, since we know the CIA has never told the truth to the American people about anything unless congress speciifcally drags it out of them or there is a leak....so....I think its safe to assume that none of these incidents were them, and in fact, they can't rule any out....and even the fact that they are commenting on this strongly implies a coverup.

      You realize, of course, that for anyone following your logic, the CIA can get them to believe whatever the CIA wants them to believe, simply by stating the opposite.

      If you really don't trust the CIA to tell the truth (and I don't blame you for that), the rational response is to ignore anything the CIA says, since there is no way to tell whether it's true or not. Always believing the opposite of what they say is just as bad as always believing what they say.

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    2. Re:Holy shit UFOs are real Aliens?!? by TheCarp · · Score: 1

      > You realize, of course, that for anyone following your logic, the CIA can get

      You realize, of course, that ..... It's a joke son, youre supposed to laugh.

      > You realize, of course, that for anyone following your logic, the CIA can get

      I prefer making fun of it and attacking their credibility humorously.

      --
      "I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
  10. That's not all.. by gurps_npc · · Score: 3, Funny

    Wait till they declassify the Elvis sighting reports... It was really President JFK, disguised by plastic surgery after he secretly resigned !

    --
    excitingthingstodo.blogspot.com
  11. The "majority" is only 51%! by cornicefire · · Score: 2

    What about the other 49%? Are they real aliens? Or just NSA? Or some other TLA?

    1. Re:The "majority" is only 51%! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The other 49% prefer to be called DREAMers.

    2. Re:The "majority" is only 51%! by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      Secret projects they can't tell us about yet. Duh.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  12. Did these fly from Area 51? by grimJester · · Score: 2

    If so, it's pretty funny that the UFOs actually were based at Area 51 :)

    1. Re:Did these fly from Area 51? by ZombieBraintrust · · Score: 1

      Area 51 is US Air Force Base. So yes. Secret planes were flying too and from that base. Since the planes were sercret. They were literally UFO's to people not in on the sercret.

    2. Re:Did these fly from Area 51? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly, UFO means "Unidentified Flying Object". If something is in the sky and you can't figure out what it is, then it is a UFO by definition. It is people's tendencies or desires to associate the term with extraterrestrial crafts that creates a lot of the problems since reports like this probably are using the definition literally. Also, people like to think they know more than they do, so if they can't figure out what they are looking at then it must not be "from around here" with alien technology being the go-to diagnosis.

    3. Re:Did these fly from Area 51? by petermgreen · · Score: 1

      Also people subconsciously process the images from their eyes and this processing can sometimes mislead the conscious brain. In particular we take the 2D images from our eyes and process them into a 3D scene. Unfortunately a 2D image does not directly tell us the size of or distance to an object, merely the angle the object takes up in the view. This angle is roughly proportional to size/distance.

      The brain uses several cues to try and resolve this ambiguity.
      1: binocular vision, this works great at short distances but it quickly falls off in effectiveness as the distance between the eyes becomes negligable compared to the distance to the object.
      2: position in the scene, if the object is on a surface then the brain can use it's mental model of the surface to resolve the distance to the object and hence work out the size. but this doesn't apply to a flying object
      3: occlusion, if one object can be seen to be behind another that gives an obvious cue about thier respective distance. Unlikely to apply to flying objects though since the only thing occluded is likely to be clouds and the average person has no mental feel for the distance to those.
      4: expected size of the object, this is about the only one left for flying objects.

      So if people expect flying saucers to be huge they will see them as huge, even if in reality they are just someone playing a prank with an RC model.

      --
      note: i'm known as plugwash most places but i screwd up registering that here somehow in the past and now can't register
  13. What about UFOs in US Airspace? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I thought that the CIA didn't have authority to spy in the US (at least in the 70s, 80s and 90s). So does that mean they confessed to spying on US Citizens before they were legally permitted?

    1. Re:What about UFOs in US Airspace? by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      Take a moment to think. Where would you conduct test flights? Over foreign soil where you not only won't have the aid of the local authorities in your "there is nothing to see here" coverup when the crate croaks and goes down prematurely but won't even get your ass expensive toy back to find out just WHY it broke apart in mid air?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:What about UFOs in US Airspace? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, most of the U2 and SR-71 flights took off from the US then flew to where they were doing reconnaissance, then flew back, so overflights of the US on the way to and from the targets was common. For the longest time the US government didn't trust other governments (excepts for the UK to some degree) so wouldn't base their most secret planes anywhere but at bases on US soil. The same also applied for these spy planes' follow-on.

    3. Re:What about UFOs in US Airspace? by ZombieBraintrust · · Score: 1

      Flying planes is not the same thing as performing a search on a US citizen. These were not drones looking in peoples windows. I suspect thier primary mission was looking for Russian planes in American airspace.

    4. Re:What about UFOs in US Airspace? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, most of the U2 and SR-71 flights took off from the US then flew to where they were doing reconnaissance, then flew back, so overflights of the US on the way to and from the targets was common. For the longest time the US government didn't trust other governments (excepts for the UK to some degree) so wouldn't base their most secret planes anywhere but at bases on US soil. The same also applied for these spy planes' follow-on.

      Just a point, the SR-71s operated from Mildenhall (look it up) for well over a decade.

    5. Re:What about UFOs in US Airspace? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just a point, the SR-71s operated from Mildenhall (look it up) for well over a decade.

      That is why I made the reference to "except for the UK to some degree".

    6. Re:What about UFOs in US Airspace? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I forgot to add that the follow-on to the SR-71 has never been based outside the continental US.

    7. Re:What about UFOs in US Airspace? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Just a point, the SR-71s operated from Mildenhall (look it up) for well over a decade.

      That is why I made the reference to "except for the UK to some degree".

      Ah, I thought you were just talking about the US Government not trusting the UK Government (they really dont for various reasons see Philby et al.).
      Fun fact, as a member of the public you could get almost right up to the hangers which housed the SR-71s..there was a path which ran right by them, so, you're right inasmuch as I think the US Government trusted the British people more than it trusted our rulers..and far be it from me to disagree with them on this matter.

      Other fun fact regarding US 'Black' projects in the UK, look up Machrihanish ..sometime back in the late '90s I saw something heading in the direction of that field, the only aircraft profile I've seen which looks in any way similar is what they've tagged as being the f-19. Months later, down in London, I ran into someone I knew who was soon-to-be-ex RAF, over several pints he muttered dark and terrible things..secret US aircraft being delivered in crates by Starlifter at night to an RAF base, assembled in the HAS by US personnel (after all RAF aircraft and personnel booted out), flown in the middle of the night with no RAF personnel on duty, crated up again on return, loaded into Starlifter then off, last thing he muttered, visit Machrihanish sometime..
      great stuff.

  14. Why is a spy plane more like a UFO? by jfengel · · Score: 1

    What I'm not getting: OK, so there's a new kind of plane up there, flying especially high. Does it look that much more like a UFO than other planes? Up that high, isn't it just a speck? People are calling in to report, "Look, I saw a speck in the sky, it must be aliens"?

    1. Re:Why is a spy plane more like a UFO? by ledow · · Score: 1

      People are stupid. And the planes have to get up there somehow. And, shockingly, most UFO reports (in the proper sense of the term, not "aliens") are near military bases and airports.

      No doubt there are a million UFO reports because people were drunk, don't recognise Venus or there was a shiny bit on their windscreen.

      You can't explain away everything but this just confirms what we already know - experimental aircraft are often the cause and CANNOT be confirmed until declassified. And, by definition, they will move in ways that are different to every known aircraft, especially while undergoing testing.

    2. Re:Why is a spy plane more like a UFO? by ceoyoyo · · Score: 2

      People call in to report that they saw Venus and it must be aliens.

      The credible reports come from radar and pilots who report seeing things that move "impossibly" fast and high. Or from people who report seeing things flying that don't appear on radar. During the cold war people who saw something funny in the sky would call the air force to report it because it could be a soviet bomber! So when they got the answer "nope, there's nothing there".

    3. Re:Why is a spy plane more like a UFO? by Livius · · Score: 1

      At an unusual altitude, the distance will make the movements seem less natural, and your conscious and subconscious will argue over what you're really looking at.

    4. Re:Why is a spy plane more like a UFO? by X0563511 · · Score: 2

      Is it an object? Is it unidentified? Is it flying? Then it is by definition a UFO.

      That's literally all the criteria involved.

      --
      For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
    5. Re:Why is a spy plane more like a UFO? by jfengel · · Score: 1

      OK, that makes sense. Thanks.

    6. Re:Why is a spy plane more like a UFO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most of the pilots reporting aren't military pilots though and are therefore unqualified to make a determination of "impossibly" fast and high. Governments around the world have top secret projects that they are working on all of the time.

  15. Where are the anal probe results? by uCallHimDrJ0NES · · Score: 3, Funny

    I am submitting a FOIA request to get that anal probe data.

    --
    Cloudiot: A person who does not see offsite storage as a way to lose control over access to his or her own data.
    1. Re:Where are the anal probe results? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      I am submitting a FOIA request to get that anal probe data.

      it`ll be filled under Enhanced Interrogation

    2. Re:Where are the anal probe results? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am submitting a FOIA request to get that anal probe data.

      They can give you that data, but it can only be delivered via anal probe.

    3. Re:Where are the anal probe results? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am submitting a FOIA request to get that anal probe...

      You don't need an FOIA for that.

      --sf

    4. Re:Where are the anal probe results? by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 1

      Well, it's probably cheaper than going to the doctor.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    5. Re:Where are the anal probe results? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I thought it would be in "101 Creative Ways to Use Hummus".

    6. Re:Where are the anal probe results? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think you meant UFIA request.

    7. Re:Where are the anal probe results? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      they won't release it and will deny the data's existence. but it does exist. dig deep.

      look at this ebook for clues.. fake alien abduction scenarios were perpetuated by the DOD.

      http://www.oregonstatehospital.net/d/The-Matrix-Deciphered_Robert-Duncan_Nov-2010_276p.pdf

      obamasweapon.com/ has more clues.

    8. Re:Where are the anal probe results? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am submitting a FOIA request to get that anal probe data.

      Be careful, they might tell you to stick it up your ass!!!

  16. Most of the UFO sightings are bonkers, but ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If I was a Sleestak alien overlord, that's exactly what I would say.

    I know what CIA are trying to do ... they are trying very hard to discredit ALL the UFO sighting reports

    Even if most of the UFO sightings are bonkers, some of the sightings just can't be explained away with whatever CIA did, nor the U-2 spy planes

    1. Re:Most of the UFO sightings are bonkers, but ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      some of the sightings just can't be explained away

      I'll take it that you've got the data handy on these incidents? Please share with the rest of us.

    2. Re:Most of the UFO sightings are bonkers, but ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      some of the sightings just can't be explained away

      I'll take it that you've got the data handy on these incidents? Please share with the rest of us.

      Project Blue Book has the complete investigation notes of UFO sightings up to the 1970s or 1980s.

    3. Re:Most of the UFO sightings are bonkers, but ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I know what CIA are trying to do ... they are trying very hard to discredit ALL the UFO sighting reports

      No, just the crazy ones who claim that it's aliens.

      Even if most of the UFO sightings are bonkers, some of the sightings just can't be explained away with whatever CIA did, nor the U-2 spy planes

      Such as? I think there are easy, sane explanations for all UFO sightings.

    4. Re:Most of the UFO sightings are bonkers, but ... by gomiam · · Score: 1

      There probably are. Unfortunately, in many cases there is no available information to make an informed decision (which, by the way, means saying it was aliens is unfounded).

    5. Re:Most of the UFO sightings are bonkers, but ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Exactly. Too many people forget what the "U" in "UFO" stands for.

    6. Re: Most of the UFO sightings are bonkers, but ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hmmm. It's an extreme probability that the CIA's U2 planes were being piloted by aliens.

    7. Re: Most of the UFO sightings are bonkers, but ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ugly Fuckin Orangutan.

  17. Well... by Holistic+Missile · · Score: 3, Funny

    I guess this identification chart is now obsolete:

    http://xmb.stuffucanuse.com/xm...

    --
    When you're dead, you don't know you're dead. It only affects the people around you. Same thing when you're stupid.
  18. Way to kill a perfectly good conspiracy story by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    That's not fair, ok? Taking away our toy after we spent so many years explaining how THEY keep us in the dark and how THEY cover up everything, then come out with a perfectly reasonable explanation. But it's all just a plot! Plans within plans within plans. They just SAY that it was their now-no-longer-secret planes to make us think that they did hide something, that they had some good reason for it and now we're supposed to believe them telling us the truth just because it is rationally sane and makes perfect sense? PAH! Since when did this have any room in conspiracy!

    The truth is out there. Far, far out there. And I'm NOT paranoid! Because if you are, THEY will notice it!

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  19. hmmm...no. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Interesting

    This is such horseshit. Regardless of what you think of UFOs, of the hundreds of thousands of UFO sightings, many reported by military people, law enforcement and people trained to observe aircraft, hardly any of them resembled anything like a U2 spyplane.

    Last time I checked, a U2 spyplane was not really capable of hovering motionless and then accelerating to the horizon in a moment. Nor were they gigantic triangular craft.

    I don't think for a second that there are aliens from Ork involved with the UFO sightings that have been common for the last five millennia, but I doubt more than a handful were people who were seeing U2 spyplanes. Who knows fuck-all about what those UFOs really were or whether they were inside or outside the observers heads? But at the moment, I'm not prepared to believe a goddamn thing the CIA says about anything. In my opinion, they're a bigger threat to people's safety and sanity than practically any outside threat, including North Korea, Iran, Russia or Israel (who are all plenty bad),

    Now, if you want to tell me that the abductions people have been reporting for the past 40 years are the CIA, I may buy that, because they are some sadistic motherfuckers who love putting things up peoples' asses, as we have learned from recent government leaks. Yeah, anal probes, mutilations, etc, that sounds just like the CIA's speed.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
    1. Re:hmmm...no. by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Last time I checked, a U2 spyplane was not really capable of hovering motionless and then accelerating to the horizon in a moment. Nor were they gigantic triangular craft.

      Last time I checked, people were incredibly bad at objectively reporting what they see, and other people were incredibly bad at relating what the first people said they saw, and then other people get what they heard from the second people confused with something they saw on TV, and then yet more people read books by Erich Von Daniken

      What I find weird is that the kajillion-fold increase in personal video recording devices over the past few decades seems to have scared away all the UFOs. Why, a week hardly went by in the 1980s without a flap, but now...

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    2. Re:hmmm...no. by pr0fessor · · Score: 1

      You have a point.... People manage to catch all the stupid accidents, cute pets, and any other silly thing that happens and post it on youtube, by now someone should have some great footage of bigfoot or UFOs.

    3. Re:hmmm...no. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What I find weird is that the kajillion-fold increase in personal video recording devices over the past few decades seems to have scared away all the UFOs.

      Have you ever tried to record an aircraft from your cell phone? It really doesn't work.

      By your logic, if cell phone recording was the only way to establish something's reality, commercial aircraft don't exist either.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    4. Re:hmmm...no. by wonkey_monkey · · Score: 2

      Have you ever tried to record an aircraft from your cell phone? It really doesn't work.

      What, are planes completely invisible on cell phone cameras? Did not know that. You can still capture something. An F-117 (not a big aircraft, really) at 10000 feet would (rough calc) cover 15 pixels on my 5mp non-zoom cell phone camera - possibly enough to identify shape. Certainly it would be enough to capture position and motion relative to landmarks and other useful information that could be used to clarify a UFO sighting.

      Also I didn't specify cell phone* - I just said video recording device. 10x zoom and up is more or less a basic feature of digital cameras these days. And a cell phone should be just fine for a lot of sightings - at least, if they really happened the way they end up being described. If something is so large and close that it can be reliably described as a "gigantic triangular craft" - good description of an F-117 rather than a U-2, by the way - and not a small triangular craft close-up, then that suggests something you might easily capture on a cellphone.

      Poor video evidence is better than none - and at the very least, video taken by multiple people from multiple angles would have great corroborative power for a sighting.

      By your logic, if cell phone recording was the only way to establish something's reality...

      By your logic, all I need to do is add my own invented clause to the phrase "by your logic", and show that any point you're trying to make is also ridiculous!

      I never said cell phone recording is the only way to establish something's reality. My point was that despite the existence of cell phones, we don't seem to have any more video evidence from UFO sightings than we did 20 years ago.

      --
      systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
    5. Re:hmmm...no. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      Did not know that. You can still capture something. An F-117 (not a big aircraft, really) at 10000 feet would (rough calc) cover 15 pixels on my 5mp non-zoom cell phone camera - possibly enough to identify shape.

      Give it a try. It's not the size, it's the lack of contrast looking into a daytime sky.

      By your logic, all I need to do is add my own invented clause to the phrase "by your logic", and show that any point you're trying to make is also ridiculous!

      Well, your argument did amount to, "If those UFO sightings by pilots, police, air traffic controllers, physicians, etc were really real, why don't they have selfies with them? Boom!"

      It wasn't my phrase that made the point you were making sound ridiculous. I can't take the credit.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    6. Re:hmmm...no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ' seems to have scared away all the UFOs' - and all the secret planes mistaken for UFOs. I mean there's no actual genuine footage of Aurora or whatever else is flying around, so by that logic secret planes don't exist. Or are you telling me that projects involving thousands of staff (engineers, factory workers, designers etc.) where 300ft long craft are flown through our skies can still be done these days in absolute secrecy?

      If your definition of scepticism is 'It's not on youtube therefore doesn't exist' then the government's job must be easier than I thought.

    7. Re:hmmm...no. by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 1

      What I find weird is that the kajillion-fold increase in personal video recording devices over the past few decades seems to have scared away all the UFOs. Why, a week hardly went by in the 1980s without a flap, but now...

      Yeah, except... Take a look at the number of "real ghost-hunters" reality TV shows, for example, to see how a "kajillion-fold increase in personal video recording devices" has clearly contributed to people claiming to find all sorts of recorded "evidence" of weird crap. It's broadcast on TV every freakin' day, and clearly somebody must think some aspect of it is legit, or there wouldn't be so many shows about it.

      Interest in UFOs was a particular kind of fad. Everything from the clear increases in human technology (making many UFOs more likely to be human origin, even to the average person) to various conspiracy theories to the X-Files has probably changed the way people pay attention to odd objects in the sky these days.

      But, if anything, the interest in various kinds of cheap recording technology has led to even more wacky made-up supernatural crap, so much these days that there are entire reality TV genres devoted to it. Just because UFOs aren't of as much interest in the past few years doesn't mean there isn't stuff out there. (And actually, poke around on the internet -- you'll clearly find loads of people out there with new UFO reports all the time.)

    8. Re:hmmm...no. by Jeremi · · Score: 1

      clearly somebody must think some aspect of it is legit, or there wouldn't be so many shows about it.

      TV shows are selected based on legitimacy. They're selected based on whether or not they are likely to get people to watch advertisements.

      --


      I don't care if it's 90,000 hectares. That lake was not my doing.
    9. Re:hmmm...no. by AthanasiusKircher · · Score: 1

      TV shows are selected based on legitimacy. They're selected based on whether or not they are likely to get people to watch advertisements.

      I'm assuming you meant "aren't" in that first sentence, and in that case, obviously you're right. Most TV is obviously fiction, for example.

      On the other hand, reality TV trades on the illusion of realism -- and if no one thought the people in those shows were actually in scary situations, potentially involving supernatural phenomena, then no one would watch them... And they wouldn't be able to sell advertising.

      I personally love a good ghost story, like I love a good fantasy or sci-fi story, but I'm able to enjoy the unrealistic aspects of such stories because I know they are fiction, and I accept that this is some sort of alternative world where weird things are possible. But I can't stand to watch "documentaries" or "reality" shows about ghosts because it's so obvious that they're complete BS. If you can't get past that and allow the possibility of belief (I.e. legitimacy), why would you watch?

    10. Re:hmmm...no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Last time I checked, a U2 spyplane was not really capable of hovering motionless and then accelerating to the horizon in a moment.

      I have sighted two UFOs. Neither one could possibly have been a U-2 or a stealth fighter or an SR-71.

      1)
      In the 1970s afriend and I were driving along the Interstate at night and we both saw a spherical red-lit object
      hovering over a ridge. We stopped the car and got out of the car to watch the object. There was another ridge behind
      the first ridge and we could discern that the UFO was in front of the second ridge. The UFO did not move for at least 30 seconds
      and then it accelerated out of sight at tremendous speed. The speed was similar to what a tracer bullet looks like at night as it passes by your position
      from left to right. I don't know what it was, but it sure wasn't a U-2 or SR-71 or any other aircraft I know about.

      2)
      In the early 1990s I was parked on the side of a road in northern Nevada during the middle of the day. The air was very clear as is often
      the case in the desert. In the sky you could clearly see a number of airliners flying in different directions. At a much higher altitude there
      was a contrail being made by something that was flying many times faster than the airliners. The contrail was of the "doughnuts on a rope"
      form, as is often mentioned in conjunction with an Aurora sighting. I had a high-power spotting scope, with which you
      could clearly distinguish the windows in the fuselage of an airliner flying past at c. 30,000 feet altitude. Whatever was making the
        "doughnuts on a rope" contrail was so much higher than the airliners that the scope could not resolve any sort of image of the aircraft.
      Again, I don't know what it was, but it was not an SR-71 or any "normal" military fighter aircraft. I'd estimate the speed of whatever the
      thing was to be ten times faster than the airliners, if not more. Within 30 seconds the contrail had reached the horizon, which was at least
      50 miles away from where I had first spotted the aircraft and its interesting contrail. Again, I don't know what it was, but I suspect it was
      some machine the US government was operating, based on various articles I have read in Aviation Week.

      Regarding whether the CIA bullshit should be believed, that to me is a laughable proposition. I have lived long enough to know that the US
      government will do whatever suits its needs and truth is one of the first casualties in such situations. Anyone who trusts the US
      government ( or most other governments for that matter ) is either a child, an idiot, or a damned fool.

    11. Re:hmmm...no. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      The UFO did not move for at least 30 seconds
      and then it accelerated out of sight at tremendous speed.

      This is an extremely common story, told by military, commercial pilots and other people who know a little about aviation.

      And yes, there are pictures. But of course, the pop skeptics are going to say they're just "swamp gas". I don't know what these things are, but I doubt there's any truth to the CIA's story of "U2 spyplanes".

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    12. Re:hmmm...no. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      But, if anything, the interest in various kinds of cheap recording technology has led to even more wacky made-up supernatural crap

      Don't make the mistake that pop skeptics make that "unidentified" means "supernatural". It just means we don't know. The problem with people who think it's real skepticism to think this way is that we end up with the swamp gas theory, which is plenty wacky itself.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    13. Re:hmmm...no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Those same ubiquitous devices seem to make people less aware of their surroundings then ever. We've seen the jump in pedestrians being struck by vehicles.

      I realize this isn't even worth saying, but I saw a flying saucer in 1999, it prompted me to always have a camera on hand. I don't know the crafts origin, but I've spent almost my whole life on air force bases, and it wasn't some kind of stealth plane

    14. Re:hmmm...no. by nedlohs · · Score: 1

      Because cell phones are the only "personal video recording devices" in existence, right?

      https://www.youtube.com/channe... would seem to indicate that getting videos of planes isn't exactly impossible.

    15. Re:hmmm...no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      An F-117 (not a big aircraft, really) at 10000 feet would (rough calc) cover 15 pixels on my 5mp non-zoom cell phone camera

      The only place you'd get within 10,000 feet of an F117 is on or next to the military facility housing it. The F-117 cruise altitude is similar to a commercial airliner: 30-45,000 feet, and to capture it in the background of a camera, it'd be at least ~5 miles away, or in other words, five times smaller than you're suggesting. Even directly overhead and looking straight up, which is presumably how you got to your 15px calculation, the plane would actually be 3x smaller than you suggest.

      3-5px with limited contrast is not exactly a great shot. When you add in your "video" qualifier, which on a 5MP cell phone would charitably happen at 1080p, you're actually talking about 2MP. That plane would indeed be essentially invisible: 1-2px.

    16. Re:hmmm...no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because cell phones are the only "personal video recording devices" in existence, right?

      https://www.youtube.com/channe... would seem to indicate that getting videos of planes isn't exactly impossible.

      My current collection of cameras;
      4x 35mm SLRs c/w various lenses
      1x35mm compact camera (5x optical zoom).
      1x Medium format TLR, fixed lens
      1x DSLR c/w various lenses
      1x 'bridge' digital camera (10x optical zoom)
      2x 'compact' digital cameras (3x optical zoom)
      (I've also various fixed focus digital cameras, a Bolex 16mm camera, but that hasn't been used for decades now..and a couple of camcorders of dubious usefulness - I'm not a big fan of domestic video gear, usually hire semi/pro gear when needed)

      What was the point of listing the above?, well, like most people I normally have at least one cell phone with me at any time (actually, two on most days, one is, shock horror, just a bloody phone(tm)..sans camera, etc. etc.), I might have a compact camera in my pocket, usually do, unlike most people I might also be carrying my bridge camera (in a protective bag), or my DSLR, all three devices (bridge,compact & DSLR) capable of taking high quality video as well as stills, but in most circumstances, even if carrying the other gear, it would be easier/faster for me to get my mobile phone out to take a picture/video, especially if it was of a rapidly evolving transient event (and, I'd regret doing so).
      So yes, mobile phones aren't the only game in town..but it's usually the easiest one to play.

      Now, apropos UFOs, with all that gear, and having taken photos commercially, freelance and for my own amusement for over 30 years (including those of mostly military aircraft in the air), I've only one image in my collection which has, for want of a better current explanation, a UFO on it.
      It was taken on a rather crappy cameraphone, I was out walking one day, reached a point where I thought 'Nice view, will send a copy of this to my friend in London as a further explanation as to why I got out..' hadn't my cameras with me (had been visiting my sister who stays about a mile from me across an bit of open countryside, as I was fixing her washing machine I had *that* toolkit with me rather than my usual camera bag) so took a picture with my Sony Ericsson v630i , then promptly forgot it for a couple of months. Fast forward to me transferring the images up to the computer, spot something on this one, zoom in, 'classic' dark disk with light top/bottom (think: inverse oreo..) and some sort of 'disturbance' surrounding it. Total area on image is 144 pixels.

      Please note: I say UFO, but as I never saw the thing that the picture shows actually in the sky, I have no proof that the 144 pixel blob is actually of something 'in the air', at this point (picture was taken in 2008) I'm still of the opinion that it is the CCD on the phone 'registering' some sort of 'event' (hello Mr stray cosmic HE particle/ray..) rather than a LGMmobile..or a spook'o'plane..or reichsuntertasse.. I do note that there are similar images to be found lurking on the internet, showing remarkably similar objects/artefacts, but until I see a similar object/artefact on an image taken with a 20 Megapixel+ CCD, I'll reserve final judgement.

    17. Re:hmmm...no. by AK+Marc · · Score: 1
      It doesn't matter how bad the recording would be, but there would be some. The end of film in the hand of consumers ended the era of UFO footage. Why is that?

      By your logic, if cell phone recording was the only way to establish something's reality, commercial aircraft don't exist either.

      Lots of aircraft crashes are caught on cell phone. I'm not going to bother to LMGTFY, because you are willfully ignorant. But there are thousands (if not millions) of clips of aircraft on YouTube. You assertion otherwise just shows insanity, not a reasonable argument.

    18. Re:hmmm...no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Last time I checked, a U2 spyplane was not really capable of hovering motionless and then accelerating to the horizon in a moment. Nor were they gigantic triangular craft.

      Last time I checked, people were incredibly bad at objectively reporting what they see, and other people were incredibly bad at relating what the first people said they saw,

      Apropos this, what would you say about several different households on the same street, standing at their doors, watching a large black triangular object hover directly over a house opposite them for something like 15 minutes?. All of them (9 individuals) reporting that it was large, silent, dark and triangular.
      The interesting thing about the location it was hovering over is that it is in the radar shadow of one hill, effectively cloaking it from the nearest civilian airport's primary radar to the east, in in the shadow of another set of hills effectively cloaking it from the view of the nearest Military radar installation to the south-east, needless to say, a stationary object at the height reported (less than 200ft) would disappear into the ground clutter, so I'm assuming the AWACS that usually loiter wouldn't have seen it either, so, not a random choice of a place to lurk..
      You may not believe or understand this, the way it was reported to me was..'pity you weren't here last weekend, you'd have loved it, we watched a big triangular UFO hover over the Munroe's house for a quarter of an hour..' The people who witnessed this weren't that interested. No-one went to the papers, no-one contacted the police.

      and then other people get what they heard from the second people confused with something they saw on TV, and then yet more people read books by Erich Von Daniken

      Von D? he's not been read for decades, surely? (hopefully?)
      As to this alleged all pervasive influence of TV..I may have missed them (as I'm not that interested), but how many reports of occupants looking like Ka D'argo, Rygel, Quark, Garak or even a bloody Borg have we had over the past couple of decades? There was a good argument that the Greys only appeared after 'Earth vs Flying Saucers'..that's fine until you start digging around good old fashioned books, and you then discover illustrations from medieval times of things which look a lot like Greys..and why have the little buggers been so pervasive?
      Whilst we're at it, how come, despite TV, the saucers haven't been crewed by 7of9, Chiana, Kes, T.Pols, Dax-either one, etc etc, isn't old Vilas-Boas still the only one who managed to properly 'Kirk' a CE III?
      This is the problem I have with the TV/Cinema influence theory, considering everything, for every facehugger occupant we should have a, umm, facesitter..

      What I find weird is that the kajillion-fold increase in personal video recording devices over the past few decades seems to have scared away all the UFOs. Why, a week hardly went by in the 1980s without a flap, but now...

      I think it was Vallee (I could be wrong) who noted that the apparent technology of UFOs 'tracked' ours, so if you take one view of the whole shebang, it isn't that surprising sightings have tailed off (i.e. it was all fine and dandy back in the day to '..find some isolated spot with very few people around, then land right by some poor unsuspecting soul whom no one's ever going to believe and them strut up and down in front of him wearing silly antennae on their head and making beep beep noises', but nowadays, when almost every 'poor unsuspecting soul' has a cameraphone?, and CCTV everywhere?, it's no surprise that apparently the rules of the game have changed.
      I read a lot of the UFO guff that was doing the rounds back in the 70's, I still find the blend of pseudo-everything they spouted back then fairly amusing (Whilst rummaging in the loft a while back, in one of the boxes of books I came across a Brinsley Le Poer Trench book - Secret of the Ages

    19. Re:hmmm...no. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      It doesn't matter how bad the recording would be, but there would be some. The end of film in the hand of consumers ended the era of UFO footage. Why is that?

      That's not what happened. There are just as many digital pictures of UFOs as there ever were of film. They're posted all the time. Seen all the time. But without any sort of explanation or understanding, there's just less reason. MUFON gets so many new reports with photographic evidence that there just seems to be some fatigue among people talking about it.

      We're not going to get any answers regarding the hundreds of thousands of UFO sightings that have occurred just since 2000 from having more pictures. But not having answers has not stopped the occurrences of sightings (with pictures).

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    20. Re:hmmm...no. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1

      If you think the "era of UFO footage" is over, I would suggest taking a look at just a small fraction of the sightings (with pictures) that have occurred in the past few weeks.

      You can just go down the line on MUFON's news site and see one sighting after another. Like I said, I don't believe there are extraterrestrials visiting Earth in flying saucers, but there has been a surprisingly consistent number of UFO sightings for a long long time, dating back to before there was "science fiction" talking about flying saucers.. Whatever your theory about them, there is no denying that people are seeing things they don't recognize flying around. And not just toothless Red State country bumpkins, either.

      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    21. Re:hmmm...no. by PopeRatzo · · Score: 1
      --
      You are welcome on my lawn.
    22. Re:hmmm...no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most likely candidate is a dust spot on the near element of the lens that got knocked off when you turned the camera off. You can get all sorts of interesting optical effects when something is that badly out of focus.

    23. Re:hmmm...no. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Most likely candidate is a dust spot on the near element of the lens that got knocked off when you turned the camera off. You can get all sorts of interesting optical effects when something is that badly out of focus.

      It is/was a crappy fixed focus 2.0 megapixel camera in a phone, sealed lens/camera unit with no moving parts, so I doubt it is dust on the rear element, but can't rule it out completely.
      I can't remember what the effective DOF was for the beastie, so whatever is captured could be closer to the lens than it appears.
      The camera on the phone wasn't really intended to take anything other than snaps.
      Dug out the original, have a look here, spot the bogey..

  20. Pay no attention... by Moof123 · · Score: 2

    Pay no attention to the torture, er I mean Enhance Interrogation Technique, er I mean EITs, yeah EIT's sounds better. Look UFO's!

    Never mind that we cruelly froze an innocent guy to death, UFO's!!!

    1. Re:Pay no attention... by Snufu · · Score: 1

      In the second part of the CIA report, they confirm all that torture recently attributed to the CIA actually was done by extra terrestrials.

    2. Re:Pay no attention... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pay no attention to the torture, er I mean Enhance Interrogation Technique, er I mean EITs, yeah EIT's sounds better. Look UFO's!

      Never mind that we cruelly froze an innocent guy to death, UFO's!!!

      This dog isn't going to wag itself ...

    3. Re:Pay no attention... by strikethree · · Score: 1

      Never mind that we cruelly froze an innocent guy to death...

      You would think that this is when they would have realized that they had overstepped their mandate.

      --
      "Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
  21. Future sightings by Livius · · Score: 1

    Once the CIA has everyone believing the UFO sightings were actually spy planes, they'll be ready to blame all the upcoming CIA drone sightings on extra-terrestrial vehicles.

  22. Trust the Government by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Oh yeah, I believe everything the government says, especially the CIA.

  23. It was us? by u-235-sentinel · · Score: 1

    Well.. Ummm... So the CIA is taking credit for a flying device which moves at MACH speeds and changes directions on a dime? Seriously?

    --
    Has Comcast disconnected your Internet account? Same here. You can read about it at http://comcastissue.blogspot.com
    1. Re:It was us? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well.. Ummm... So the CIA is taking credit for a flying device which moves at MACH speeds and changes directions on a dime? Seriously?

      No, they aren't taking credit for the imaginary sightings, only the actual ones.

    2. Re:It was us? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actual sightings by USAF officers include multi-mach multi-G maneuvers by UFOs, sorry kid, you must be new to this.

    3. Re:It was us? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actual sightings by USAF officers include multi-mach multi-G maneuvers by UFOs, sorry kid, you must be new to this.

      Yes, because flawed sightings or untrue testimony from a small number of witnesses are clearly much less likely than vehicles operating in ways that defy the laws of physics.

    4. Re:It was us? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Edgar Mitchell and Gordon Cooper both have/had a serious UFO obsession. So either:

      1) The CIA embarked on a campaign of bullshit aimed at convincing legendary astronauts to believe in aliens.

      or

      2) The CIA told said legendary astronauts to spend the twilight of their career promoting a hoax and thus ruin their personal legacies just to keep some stealth planes sort of secret from everyone apart from the Soviets/Chinese/Nato allies/Israelis.

      or

      3) Mitchell and Cooper were both nuts. In which case how did they qualify as astronauts in the first place?

      or

      4) Maybe we're not getting the whole story here?

    5. Re:It was us? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be fair if you could control gravity somehow (I know we can't but it isn't impossible, just not likely) the resulting craft would behave spookily like hypothetical UFOs even down to the odd electrical effects and light-bending that witnesses have reported.

    6. Re:It was us? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Edgar Mitchell and Gordon Cooper both have/had a serious UFO obsession. So either:

      1) The CIA embarked on a campaign of bullshit aimed at convincing legendary astronauts to believe in aliens.

      or

      2) The CIA told said legendary astronauts to spend the twilight of their career promoting a hoax and thus ruin their personal legacies just to keep some stealth planes sort of secret from everyone apart from the Soviets/Chinese/Nato allies/Israelis.

      or

      3) Mitchell and Cooper were both nuts. In which case how did they qualify as astronauts in the first place?

      or

      4) Maybe we're not getting the whole story here?

      Your option (3) Seems pretty likely. It is perfectly possible for fully functioning individuals to develop mental problems. In particular, Cooper went on to develop Parkinson's disease, which is highly correlated with dementia. Mitchel is on record as claiming he was remotely cured of cancer by a faith healer -- I just don't think he is that reliable a witness...

      It isn't to say these individuals didn't see - and misinterpret - classified military technology and misinterpret it, but Aliens don't seem to be that likely an explanation, given the myriad of more likely ones. "Nuts" is a thousand times more likely than "Aliens".

    7. Re:It was us? by amber_of_luxor · · Score: 1

      > Mitchell and Cooper were both nuts. In which case how did they qualify as astronauts in the first place?

      At least one report issued by Project Blue Book stated that there were cases that they could not explain. The majority of these cases appeared to have been close encounters of the third kind. Both Mitchell and Cooper were interested in those encounters.

      To get more information about those encounters, they had to be willing to talk with anybody, about any alleged event. Furthermore, in those discussions, they could have done "damage control", by suggesting avenues of exploration, that were far removed from the cause of the event, but whose research would have been of interest to the military.

      --
      Wind Beneath Thy Wings
    8. Re:It was us? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      So then the object I saw which passed a passenger jet as if it was standing still, then did a 45 degree change of flight was a U2 ?
      Darn U2 must be some fantastic machine!

    9. Re:It was us? by u-235-sentinel · · Score: 1

      Well.. Ummm... So the CIA is taking credit for a flying device which moves at MACH speeds and changes directions on a dime? Seriously?

      No, they aren't taking credit for the imaginary sightings, only the actual ones.

      Nice to know the CIA is responsible for the reports going back hundreds of years into the past. Truly remarkable those CIA guys....

      --
      Has Comcast disconnected your Internet account? Same here. You can read about it at http://comcastissue.blogspot.com
    10. Re:It was us? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actual sightings by USAF officers include multi-mach multi-G maneuvers by UFOs, sorry kid, you must be new to this.

      Yes, because flawed sightings or untrue testimony from a small number of witnesses are clearly much less likely than vehicles operating in ways that defy the laws of physics.

      If you see an object/light travelling betwixt stratus and cumulus cloud layers, covering approx 15 degrees of arc in something like 9 seconds which then abruptly changes course to a perpendicular one at a higher speed, can you somehow unsee it just because it doesn't fit the current model of how things work?
      I should point out, 'unseeing' things because they don't fit the facts isn't very scientific, though it's a game I've seen played in every scientific institution I've worked in.

      Assuming the basic honesty of the observers (none of them have anything to gain, and actually could have stood to lose quite a bit), what's the flawed part here, the observer, the light itself, or its anomalous to science/engineering behaviour?

      Let's remove the observer, if there was a flaw there, it was shared by three other people.
      So we're left with the light, and its behaviour.
      Lights in the sky are ok, many known things generate them, carry them, etc. so, as long as they obey the rules seeing a light in the sky isn't the flaw.
      That just leaves seeing it change course 90 degrees at a speed of something like 130 miles per hour, leading to a whole load of G. At 130mph, this light, by other reports, was idling.

      It's funny, but had the light not changed direction in this manner, you'd have no cause to have an issue with this report, you wouldn't question the honesty or capabilities of the observer to see what is actually there, a light in the sky, above some clouds, below others, travelling at an estimated 130mph..if it only hadn't changed course in the manner it did...

  24. Here's what REALLY happened by judoguy · · Score: 1
    --
    Peace is easy to achieve, just surrender. Liberty is much harder get/keep.
  25. Given the CIA's tendencies.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I think this is actually evidence for the existence of aliens. Given how they can't stop lying.

  26. The real deal by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The USA ran a disinformation campaign around area 51 so as to obscure testing at area 51.
    MUFON, who handled a lot of UFO reporting, was often running local chapters using retired military officers or retired spooks or intelligence folks and a condition of the reporting was signing away your disclosure rights. So much for the conspiracy stuff.
    No real evidence of aliens but I personaly have seen a lot of strange stuff out there. Most likely plasmoids generated by ionized gas within geomagnetic fields and lit up by exited electrons. However some of these seem to exhibit a principle of awareness or response to mental phenomenon, at those megahertz can also provoke mental phenomenon. Perhaps a state between cosmic awareness and the physicla world that will never be fully explained but I think Russelian Physics comes the closest.

  27. This is .... by PPH · · Score: 1, Funny

    ... exactly the sort of denial I'd expect if the CIA was run by the lizard people.

    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  28. U2 doesn't seem very UFO-ish by Radical+Moderate · · Score: 1

    Sure, it flies high, but according to Wikipedia top speed is about 500 mph, and it's very unstable, it would definitely not be doing any fancy twists and turns. So you're talking about a tiny object flying fairly slow and straight at 70,000 feet. I don't see it attracting a lot of attention. The whole point of the plane was that the Soviets couldn't detect it(didn't work out so well, but most civilians aren't walking around with high-powered radar arrays)

    --
    Never let a lack of data get in the way of a good rant.
    1. Re:U2 doesn't seem very UFO-ish by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A plane is far away, high and in front of you, moving west-to-east. It banks, turning to an east-to-west heading. However, because of perspective and distance, as well as the lack of visual references (it being night and all) you cannot detect the bank or the turn, only the change in velocity. From your perspective, then, it looks like it's slowing in the sky, briefly stopping, and then heading back in the opposite direction, an insane and impossible maneuver. It gets even more interesting in the retelling, because humans are terrible at remembering things and eyewitness accounts are unreliable as hell.

  29. Camera phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Almost every single person now has a still+video camera on their person at all times.
    And yet, globally, there has been nothing really new, let alone groundbreaking, as far as...

    UFOs / aliens
    Bigfoot / Yeti / Abominable Snowmen
    the Lock Ness monster / other sea monsters
    ghosts
    etc

    There hasn't even been a spike in "disappearances" of people or content online.

    1. Re:Camera phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      the Lock Ness monster / other sea monsters

      Loch Ness, ya scunner...

    2. Re:Camera phones by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There hasn't even been a spike in "disappearances" of people or content online.

      I know it isn't what you were getting at, but here's a thing you may find amusing..in a country allegedly obsessed with surveillance.
      Missing Britons and this is from 2009.
      At this point I should punt you in the direction of the works of Robert Rankin..
      For the US, try here for a start.

  30. Unreliability of your perception of things you see by dpbsmith · · Score: 3, Interesting

    If you look at one of those Internet compilations of Photos you really need to look at to understand, it is very impressive just how confused you can be by chance juxtapositions of visual elements.

    #18 is particularly interesting. It's not a precise juxtaposition. The shadow looks like the shadow of a flag; it's not shaped like the rug. You can understand intellectually what's happening in about five seconds. And yet it takes a real effort of will to perceive the rug is lying on the sand. Relax for an instant and it once again looks as if it is levitating.

  31. Re:What about the power cosmic? by Layzej · · Score: 1

    convinced Canada's former Minister of National Defense (Paul Hellyer) to go public about American involvement with alien technology and beings.

    Paul Hellyer also believes that we could end our reliance on fossil fuels by harnessing the power cosmic, if only it weren't for those pesky bankers!

    The world could end its dependence on fossil fuels by harnessing "the energy that exists in everything within the cosmos."

    People could replace their car engines and furnaces with a little box that harnesses the "exotic energy" of the universe except the world's banking "cabal" prevents people from accessing the technology, Hellyer says. - http://www.ottawasun.com/2014/...

  32. Old News by calidoscope · · Score: 1

    This was made public a number of years ago.

    --
    A Shadeless room is a brighter room.
  33. Re:What about the power cosmic? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yes, I respect Paul Hellyer and think the Americans are withholding alien technology from the world. Why would they share it? It doesn't make sense from a military perspective, and it would destroy the petrodollar.

  34. Research reveals. by Anonanonaon · · Score: 1

    People who don't want to look, won't see.

    There are dozens of arguments which detail how people are poor observers, easily tricked, etc. -And this is true. But like neurons firing, when you get enough activity, a signal emerges and things tip.

    I can be fooled dozens of ways into thinking that there are dogs in the park. I can be accused of all sorts of bias problems, etc. But the frailty of human perceptive abilities doesn't mean that there are actually no dogs in the park.

    "Yes, but there is not enough evidence for the Spooky Shit."

    Except there is.

    Those who argue against the Spooky Shit out there existing have simply not bothered to read the reports or the history. There's more than enough signal to at least give pause to the truly open-minded skeptic.

    Read Richard Dolan's first book, "UFOs and the National Security State" -He sifted through thousands of incidents from the 1940's to the 1970's, selecting only those which involved multiple witnesses who were also aviation, military or police professionals required to document things in the course of their jobs. Even with those filters in place, he offers a couple hundred astonishing reports. -Along with admissions from senior Air Force staffers who tell us point blank that they were charged with lying to the public in order to quell concerns.

    The argument about cell phone camera proliferation proving a negative is lazy and ill-informed because, A) There are in fact hundreds of captures available for your viewing pleasure on YouTube, and B) most of those suck because photographing dots in the sky is hard and not worth much, and C) the really close encounters tend to mess with electronics, perceptions and time. If you can't keep your brain's bio-electrics running correctly, what chance does your smart phone have? -Let alone your car engine.

    Also worth reading is pretty much anything by John Keel. -Old school journalism at its finest. I especially found his collection of newspaper clippings from the 1800's fascinating. This shit has been going on forever. (And for the record, he doesn't think it's about space aliens. He thinks it's something which is native to Earth, and which has the characteristics of a malevolent trickster of sorts.)

    Crop circles, (though the genuine ones appear to have stopped now for a number of reasons), are also quite revealing. Check out the film, "Crop Circles; Quest for Truth" -It addresses all the usual skeptical brush-offs without particularly intending to. Magnetic seeds? Shit, dude! There are a variety of details which simply don't hold with assholes with ropes and planks. Not to mention the black helicopters and military clamp downs reported by witnesses.

    Cattle Mutilation is another fascinating subject which has only been 'debunked' in the most wishful sense. The arguments against it, even from the premier skeptical websites, are astonishingly infantile and easily disproved with the most cursory research and basic logic.

    So this is not a case of there not being ample proof; those who argue against are simply very ignorant or very willful in their denial. -And please note that when I say "Ignorant" I do not mean it as an insult. Ignorance is just a state of mind where the information has not yet been accessed. It's the *reason* for the ignorance which can sometimes be damning.

    Personally, I don't understand why people wouldn't explore this material thoroughly. I mean, we're talking about the possibility of some truly amazing shit happening on our planet, right here and now. -It's safe to say that everybody on Slashdot is a sci-fi fan, so why wouldn't the possibility of the real thing be considered at least somewhat interesting and worthy of more attention than a half-baked brush-off?

  35. Aliens & UFOs explained by astrophysicist by irwiss · · Score: 1

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?... Pretty much sums up all the bullshit you hear about aliens in UFOs

  36. compartmentalization by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    you little mind controlled slave

  37. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 1

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  38. Ceiling by DarthVain · · Score: 1

    WTF does the aircraft flight ceiling have to do with anything? 20,000, 40,000, or 60,0000... The article seems to indicate that the rise in UFO's was due to spyplanes that flew at 60,000 feet. Sorry, if a spy plane is flying at 60,000 feet you won't even see it, that is kind of the point (and the fact that they are harder to detect and intercept). The only time UFO sightings would even be possible, would be when they come in to land or take off. Which would make sense if the sighting were situated around a military base with an airfield.

    Besides if Aliens can figure out how to magically travel between the stars, I am pretty sure they can figure out a way not to be seen if they do not want to be.

  39. Mirage Men by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Mirage Men (miragemen.com) a doco released last year has interviews with ex-NSA and AFOSI agents who were doing this sort of thing in the 80's. NOt your average UFO doc, but then I am one of the people who made it so am biased.

  40. The CIA telling the truth. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That's believable

  41. some by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're covering for something here. What I saw wasn't remotely like anything I've ever seen conventionally.
    A bright yellow orb with a propulsion that sounded like tyres going through wet road and seemed to lift gracefully as if unaffected by gravity

  42. Kelly Johnson Sighting by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    The irony in the CIA's admission is that on 16 December 1953 Kelly Johnson -- the lead designer of the CIA's U2 spy plane -- his wife, and one of Johnson's test crews, who were flying a Lockhead WV2 aircraft in the same vicinity, spotted a UFO that hovered over the Santa Barbara Channel for 6 to 7 minutes.

    Johnson's conclusion after his sighting: "I am now more convinced than ever, that such devices exist, and I have some highly technical converts in this belief."

    The Air Force's conclusion? "Johnson, his wife, and the airplane crew had seen a lenticular cloud."

    "It's a question of who you going to believe: your lying eyes or the government?" -- John Callahan, former FAA investigator who briefed several CIA officials (among others) on the JAL 1628 incident over Anchorage Alaska in 1987.

  43. CIA by cwsumner · · Score: 1

    The CIA is lying, that is their job. 8-)