Another UFO thread - Media Coverage

Hey guys. I think I'm going to start getting a reputation for bring a UFO fanatic because of posting this, but I just had to. I'm really curious as to what your thoughts are regarding the content of the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87PRVP4EQAo

I for one am a bit surprised that I haven't heard more of this. So many sightings! Looking forward to the discussions.

if one wants to speculate, the best guesses are to take what is already known and imagine what the next generation would be like...

for example.... you take a zeppelin (known).... stealth bomber (known)... lightweight rigid composite materials...(known eg carbon fibre)... lighter than air material (known areo foam gel)... lighter than air gasses (hydrogen for example).... autonomous unmanned drones (known xb37) now combine all those things together and it is feasible to build a stealth blimp like craft with a rigid skin that is capable of staying aloft and floating like a zeppelin, but having a rigid body would also be capable of high speeds... you design the aircraft so you can expel hydrogen and ignite the hydrogen outside the craft and ride the shock wave from the gas explosion and it would accelerate to high speeds nearly instantly... make it triangular shaped for aerodynamics...
and you got a plausible, build-able useful spy/attack drone that easily fits the description of many recent UFO sightings....
My guess is Lockheed sskunkworks black project... Stealth blimp, UAV.
I want one.

I think the universe is too large to just have one inhabited planet.

...... or just a hundred.

I think the surest sign that the life out there is intelligent is that they won't talk to us.

There are several references in the Book, that hint towards extra terrestrial life...

What occupied the space before He said "Let there be light"?
mention of Angels.
A passage where "others not of this flock" is made...
So I guess the first question I'd ask if we ever do make contact with extra terrestrials is this:
"Do you believe in God?"
Can you even begin to grasp the ramifications if the answer comes back "YES"?

Could be that the fact that a big majority of people on this planet still believe in a God that is preventing them from making proper contact. Or maybe they are waiting for us to get to space faring before formally introducing themselves.

Could be that their concept of God is the very tech they are using wasn't theirs to begin with, but is from an exctinct space faring race dating several tens of thousands of years ago.

Or as the "caller" suggests, they are extra-dimensional beings.

Weather balloon FTW!

one thing is for sure... there is no logical or scientific explanation for people to evolve a need to believe in a Deity, yet the numbers would suggest an evolutionary advantage for those that do...... go figure...

Do I believe in aliens? Yes, in an apparently infinite universe it's unthinkable that we're on the only planet with life.

Do I believe in UFOs? Well given they're just something you don't recognise in the air it's a bit like believing in the postman - unnecessary and doesn't make your parcels turn up faster!

Do I believe UFOs are alien spacecraft? No, I strongly suspect that this is a bit of misinformation fed by various government bodies so that anyone commenting on the funny lights in the sky is regarded as a crackpot, thereby avoiding hordes of people turning up with 1000mm lenses to photograph the latest super-secret experimental aircraft which are undoubtedly responsible for the sightings!

Don, there is an extremely good reason for people to evolve the mental equipment which almost inevitably leads to a belief in god. We are hard wired to instinctively see pattern and 'agency' in stuff. This is expedient for survival, for example allowing us to see animal tracks and instinctively know a potential predator or prey animal made them, but as cultures get more complex, leads to things like astrology and superstitions, because the desire to see pattern is so irresistable.

Matt, I agree - in all probability there must be 'life out there in space' and also that it's very doubtful that other sentient life forms have made it across the vast expanses of space to earth. If they did, I am sure it wouldn't be like the classic ufo sighting!

Personally I believe most sightings are mundane objects which, unable to make out what they are straight away, the brain starts misinterpreting. This is similar to the hard wired instinct to see pattern I mentioned above. It probably explains ghost sightings too. And I have experienced it first hand, so I know how the brain can build a 3d surround-sound horror show from a few mis-cues!

The evidence for life in this galaxy implies the possibility of life occuring in every galaxy, and there are billions of them. There might well be other occurances of life in our galaxy, but time and distance militates against much contact.

I like the peppercorn analogy. The nearest star to our own is a mere four light years away, but that's really quite a long way. Reduce the Earth down to the size of a peppercorn, and the sun to about the size of a small pumpkin (eight inches) and the next pumpkin would be four thousand miles away - like from London to Miami. If Proxima Centauri had habitable planets then you could imagine one peppercorn in Trafalgar Square and another somewhere in Disneyworld ...

Great material for fiction, of course.

It's called faith

given the time it takes for radio wave to travel.... let us say for argument sake that intelligent life out there detected us by picking up radio waves... they start picking up radio and electrical noise we generated in the 1920's, they recognize the noise as being of intelligent design and so they beam some radio noise back at us hoping to communicate... we don't answer.. they build a ship and start to travel towards us.. by this time they are picking up both radio and television. As the years go on and thier travels get them closer to us, they are no longer picking up the first episodes of shows like "I love Lucy", they are now receiving the transmissions from "Happy Days" and they keep travelling towards us, now they are picking up the first episodes we transmitted of Jerry Springer... Suddenly they conclude there IS NO INTELLIGENT LIFE ON EARTH, turn around and go home.
Thanks a lot Jerry Springer.

Just watched the clips. Interesting footage of meteorite showers, laser displays, CLOUDS, and CGI hoaxes there! The apocalyptic message reminds of that stupid viral video allegedly showing one of the horsemen of the apocalypse in Tahrir square! (It's actually lens flare lol)

That's another interesting one. I have friends who are completely convinced of the existence of ghosts and won't even countenance ideas such as infrasound (has been shown to be very capable of making people feel as though they're not alone), or indeed other environmental factors. I know I've felt very uneasy before now, then felt it lift when the song playing faintly on the radio changed. Evidently sound just at the edge of hearing was causing it.

They've told me all sorts of tales of "haunted" roads. Now, even before hearing these stories I already knew that those sections made me very alert. I know my subconscious is incredibly good at hazard perception on the road and sets off major alarm bells if something doesn't feel right, even if I can't immediately think why. Could it be that roads I perceive as potentially dangerous/tricky trigger others to think they've seen spectral figures? Also, are tales of headless horsemen now turning into headless bikers?

Back to the UFOs, I've had experiences which a more excitable person would probably have put down to aliens. I remember seeing heavy RAF transports taking off at night once. There was no sound until the aircraft were level with me, just lights which appeared to be hovering in the air and moving unfeasibly slowly.