http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-10853905

I'd draw the casual reader's attention to the line that shows that UK UFO sightings peaked in 1996 while the X-Files was being shown, and ask that they draw their own conclusions.

 

Yes and I have to admit I'm one of them. I was about 12 the summer three or four of us including my grandma watched lights in the sky do things that seemed impossible to us. And no I don't know what I saw. I just know it was so different to unexplainable I'll never forget it.

But that proves nothing and I have to admit that since we've also spent untold billions trying to find any other form of life in our universe the idea that they would already be here and governments know it is pretty problematic from a logic point of view.

There is something on the other side, however that seems very problematic to me and that is if what people are seeing since the Voyage of Columbus until this very day (because surely there will be a sighting or abduction somewhere today) are not aliens then what the hell are they?

Also I fear that the more complex and weirder physics gets the more through science we open doors to possibilities never considered. What if the physicists are right and there are things like multiverses, or parallel universes, or universes functioning on completely different forces than ours?

The further their theories take them into those realms it would seem the more possibilities there are for visitors from other universes.

But again I can't even support myself on this one its just on the strange days that I wonder.

PS Another one that bothers me are the sightings radioed in by passenger jet pilots. I don't know what to think about that. If they're not real should those guys be flying planes?

 

On multiverses I think it works pretty much like the timetravel paradox. If time travel were possible (or travel between the myriad multiverses) then at some point in the future (or in one of the alternate universes) someone would have worked out how and we'd be swamped with tourists by now. We're no, so it must be impossible.;-)

Why do you talk about sightings only happening since the voyage of Columbus, by the way? Is that a coloquiallism for "Since time imemorial" that doesn't really work this side of the pond or is there evidence that there have been more sightings on your side of the Atlantic?

And I have no idea what each individual case is or might be, but I suggested some of the more common misidentified phenomena in my earlier post.

There was a spate of UFO sightings in China recently, including the report of the closing of an airport due to UFOs. Turns out the Chinese were test firing a missile. The UFOlogists claim that it must have been a UFO because the Chinese Army would surely just admit it was a missile if that's all it was.

Yeah, becasue the Chinese Army are well known for their open door policies and lack of secrecy, and this plays in to the misinformation angle that Kimi mentioned above.

 

First allow me to confess what I really do know. The addition of video tapes of wrestling matches that I was actively coaching proved to me I could see things that were not there or swear things did happen that didn't. It was a very important addition to my not trusting what I thought I saw.

But then if I admit that there is no real possibility and this is a waste of time and effort them I'm presented with the paradox of why the fuck the history channel is showing me this stuff. It pisses me off. History should be about facts as best they can be discerned with a constant eye towards revision as more evidence becomes available.

So what the fuck are they showing me UFO's Ancient Aliens and how the stories in the bible somehow turn out to be proven true?

 

Awesome Thread! I`m currently watching Taken,and just watched The Fourth Kind and I still believe just what I believed before........We do not know shit.

I find it hard to believe our tax payer supported government would hide anything from us,so Aliens must not have gotten caught if they have been here.

I did get really stoned on peyote one night and asked the open night sky to beam me up,but I woke up in the same desert I passed out in.

Anyhow,to stay on topic,anything is possible! Perhaps we shall know more further down the line..........

 

The simple answer to why History are showing UFO "Documentaries" is answered by the fact that you are watching them. They are a commercial TV channel. If Medievel European History doesn't draw in the punters then they've got to hook them somehow and aliens and UFOs will do that (and sell advertising time).

The same is true of the bible investigations (and I've seen some and they are thin, to say the least) but that's a whole other thread. Possibly several. And they'll never die!

 

You people wouldn't know the truth if you saw it. You're blinded and deafened by your relinace on the authorities to tell you their truth. You'll realise only when it's too late. Fools.

 

He probably blamed it on muslims throwing them at first...

 

But once again Trumpet this is freshly driving me nuts. Last night while the History channels are running UFO shit and ancient Aliens the National Geographic channel spent an hour using allegedly scientific methodology to prove what several people witnessed in Phoenix Arizona back in 1997 (that's enough to piss me off right there) cannot be explained by any knowledge or technology we have available today.

And Ok there are the same fatal flaws. Almost all the evidence in this case is eyewitness testimony and while their is a video tape of the incident just lights in the sky don't prove anything.

But then if that is the case I contend neither the History Channels nor National Geographic have a right to be showing me this stuff without directly violating their stated missions which is to expand knowledge and understanding with facts, not wacko idle speculation.

So the only other alternative is our supposedly fact and knowledge based media outlets have been corrupted and are now just feeding us the same bullshit as everyone else.

That's a more terrifying thought to me than aliens and UFO's.

 

It maybe that they are presenting facts (The fact that there's no explanation yet doesn't mean that it has to be aliens) but they way they present that fact as if it DOES mean it has to be aliens is a totally different proposition.

And I'm sorry, mate, but their publicly presented "mission statement" may be as you describe but corporate law means that they have an over-arching duty to their shareholders to return a profit. If the UFO/whacko theory documentaries that they are showing bring in the advertising revenue then that motive trumps any public duty. The highest purpose they serve is the bottom line.

 

Except it leaves the impression that the eyewitness testimony is valid and what ever they saw is not anything known to us; i.e. an actual unidentified flying object about a half mile wide and a mile long flew over Phoenix.

You know I can see that Trumpet but you know I just don't think your average UFO believer is your average National Geographic watcher nor should they be. And to be honest, completely honest with you, what I think I'm seeing is the abandonment of true scientific and natural discovery as well as true history which is so often much different than common understanding to something much more akin to preaching the party line (guess what the Bible turns out to be Historically and Scientifically correct) and misdirecting people from what they need to know to what might entertain them and keep them from thinking.

That's what I think I'm really seeing which is why I don't think anything as unproven, and as you point out logically unlikely should be washing over the few outlets we might have for actual knowledge and discovery.

I mean what is actually more important to us? Some unexplained incident in Phoenix 13 years ago or the biggest chunk of ice to break off the northern Ice cap since 1962. What do we need to know? The History of the United States as told through the eyes of the capitalists or the overall detailed history of all the factors that make the US what it is?

That just bothers me a little more all the time and I think this UFO and Alien visitation focus just highlights that to me more all the time.

PS I forgot one. Which is more important to our continued existence. Watching bullshit UFO stories or watching The World At War? That still pisses me off. The World At War should be required watching for every citizen of the world.

 

Stumbler,

It annoys me too, mate, but it's the way it is. Best way to get a fact based programme with no commercial interests guiding content? Win the lottery and buy the channel and never have shareholders and you can do whatever you want.

Until then, mate, we're stuck with it the way it is and they'll show whatever sells.

Until the revolution, that is.

 

There's never going to be a revolution Trumpet. I thought there was once back in the 1960's. In fact I thought we won. Then by the 80's all those fuckers were working on Wall Street, Reagan got elected, and we just went back into being kind of like in the 50's except with Disco Music instead of Rock and Roll.

Am I the last of the hold outs Trumpet. Am I the sagebrush equivalent of one of those Japanese soldiers they found still hiding in the jungle 40 years after the war had ended?

I'm going to have to break out Grandma's bong and lay a haze on this one Trumpet.

*cue Rainy Day Woman #12 and 35*

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAG63bhuMQM&feature=related

 

There's a few isolated rebels out there, mate, but we're outnumbered and lumped in with the crazies these days.

Doesn't mean you have to stop trying, even if you're never going to win.

 

Trumpet you may not appreciate this analogy but one time unknown to me the outfitter I was working for was watching me from about a mile away through binoculars when crossed a creek bottom and this bull elk jumped up on the top of the ridge and took off running. I threw my gun up and actually put the cross hairs on him but he was 500 yards away and I thought I didn't have a chance of hitting him so I didn't even shoot.

That night when I got back to camp empty handed the old outfitter just jumped all over me saying he knew I had an open shot at that bull and why the hell didn't I take it.

I told him I didn't think I had a chance of hitting him. He just about blew up. "You god damned sure don't have a chance if you don't take the shot, but as long as you put lead in the air there is always at least a chance."

Probably a bad analogy for me. I've been taking those million to one shots ever since in all kinds of different situations in life. And fuck if I never hit one I'd probably quit. But every now and then it works. Just enough to keep me trying.

 

I love carrot cake, just lose the stockings.

 

There was a bloke on a tropical beach after a storm. The beach was covered in starfish that had been washed up and were going to die. The bloke was going down the beach picking them up, on by one, and throwing them back in to the water.

A passer by said to him "You're wasting your time, mate. There must be thousands here. What does it matter if you save a few?"

And the man picked up another starfish and threw it back in to the water and said "It mattered to that one."

Goodnight, mate.

 

Good story and good night Trumpet.

And I guess I'd rather be a throw back.