“Whoa, it splashed!"
May 16, 2021 1:25 PM Subscribe
Another US military UFO video clip surfaces. In 2019 sailors recorded an unidentified object flying around the littoral combat ship USS Omaha before vanishing into the sea.
The video and related notes were first shared by Jeremy Corbell.
This story appeared as the Pentagon gets ready to publish a report on UFOs this summer. (Previously)
The video and related notes were first shared by Jeremy Corbell.
This story appeared as the Pentagon gets ready to publish a report on UFOs this summer. (Previously)
I want to believe that these aren't aliens, because aliens loitering, observing around military assets is an incredibly bad fucking sign
Not sure why the text keeps staying small on this comment?
posted by Slackermagee at 1:41 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
Not sure why the text keeps staying small on this comment?
posted by Slackermagee at 1:41 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
I'd like to believe, but that would involve not having just spent twenty seconds watching a bright light source go over the horizon. My only question is whether this Zeta Reticulan is Iridium or Starlink.
posted by phooky at 1:43 PM on May 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by phooky at 1:43 PM on May 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
I really am kind of surprised none of these UAVs have been fired upon by the Navy (as far as we know, of course)
posted by Thorzdad at 1:44 PM on May 16, 2021
posted by Thorzdad at 1:44 PM on May 16, 2021
So instead of a tic tac now we have a milk dud.
posted by Splunge at 1:45 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Splunge at 1:45 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
Was the camera facing due west?
posted by chavenet at 1:53 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by chavenet at 1:53 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
Also, hoping that if it's aliens, Russia and the US have been very plainly communicating that the Dead Hand systems of both countries still exist and still work so we can avoid a Dr. Strangelove storyline.
posted by Slackermagee at 1:58 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Slackermagee at 1:58 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
All that's missing is a Leonard Nimoy voice over.
posted by Beholder at 2:03 PM on May 16, 2021 [11 favorites]
posted by Beholder at 2:03 PM on May 16, 2021 [11 favorites]
As usual, crypid footage coming from a source with very obvious reasons to peddle fakes.
posted by StarkRoads at 2:23 PM on May 16, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by StarkRoads at 2:23 PM on May 16, 2021 [6 favorites]
I want to believe that these aren't aliens, because aliens loitering, observing around military assets is an incredibly bad fucking sign
Proximity doesn't dictate intent. For all we know this happens everyday and just isn't documented well, or with instruments on par with military gear.
I personally track on some of the themes interpreting these events very much in the same way that Barbara Ehrenreich of Nickel and Dimed fame brings forth in her book "Living with a Wild God." Towards the end of that book she posits that is possible that these events may be s viewing something's wake in our view of time and space. It might not even be aware it is creating a wake in our world, or if it does, may just be fucking with us.
I'm very curious to see what gets released later this summer, and if any detailed analysis will be paired with it, or if the military will just go "We don't even fucking know, man" and dump raw data at us without context or any kind of analysis.
Can someone with any technical knowledge explain why this footage is always so gummy and fuzzy? Like, it's always shitty and hard to tell whats going on (to this layperson). Why, once this is detected, can't clear recording instruments be brought to bear down on these events?
posted by furnace.heart at 2:25 PM on May 16, 2021 [6 favorites]
Proximity doesn't dictate intent. For all we know this happens everyday and just isn't documented well, or with instruments on par with military gear.
I personally track on some of the themes interpreting these events very much in the same way that Barbara Ehrenreich of Nickel and Dimed fame brings forth in her book "Living with a Wild God." Towards the end of that book she posits that is possible that these events may be s viewing something's wake in our view of time and space. It might not even be aware it is creating a wake in our world, or if it does, may just be fucking with us.
I'm very curious to see what gets released later this summer, and if any detailed analysis will be paired with it, or if the military will just go "We don't even fucking know, man" and dump raw data at us without context or any kind of analysis.
Can someone with any technical knowledge explain why this footage is always so gummy and fuzzy? Like, it's always shitty and hard to tell whats going on (to this layperson). Why, once this is detected, can't clear recording instruments be brought to bear down on these events?
posted by furnace.heart at 2:25 PM on May 16, 2021 [6 favorites]
I WANT TO BELIEVE
I DON'T WANT TO FIND OUT
posted by slimepuppy at 2:26 PM on May 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
I DON'T WANT TO FIND OUT
posted by slimepuppy at 2:26 PM on May 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
That footage looks like it was taken by a cutting edge CCD camera ... in the mid 80s. The damn thing isn't even pixel calibrated. It's embarrassing. So, no. Without provenance, it's just more internet garbage.
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:27 PM on May 16, 2021 [19 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 2:27 PM on May 16, 2021 [19 favorites]
As someone who doesn't follow UFO stuff at all, and has so foundation to base anything on:
* If it's some sort of alien thing, that's super interesting. Unlikely, but cool.
* If it's not, that means it's made by humans. Likely, and not cool.
* Because if the US military didn't do it
* Then it's another country's military.
posted by jragon at 2:30 PM on May 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
* If it's some sort of alien thing, that's super interesting. Unlikely, but cool.
* If it's not, that means it's made by humans. Likely, and not cool.
* Because if the US military didn't do it
* Then it's another country's military.
posted by jragon at 2:30 PM on May 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
Or, more likely by several million times, it's a camera artifact.
posted by rodlymight at 2:35 PM on May 16, 2021 [17 favorites]
posted by rodlymight at 2:35 PM on May 16, 2021 [17 favorites]
Ensign Mulder why aren't you deploying aircraft, why aren't you sea whizzing that thing into scrape, why....a jelly donut!
posted by clavdivs at 2:35 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by clavdivs at 2:35 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
If the government is telling you they are UFOs, I think there is good reason to believe they are neither aircraft of an enemy nation nor aliens from outer space.
If they're flying and not identified, they are by definition UFOs.
posted by acb at 2:44 PM on May 16, 2021 [9 favorites]
If they're flying and not identified, they are by definition UFOs.
posted by acb at 2:44 PM on May 16, 2021 [9 favorites]
Can someone with any technical knowledge explain why this footage is always so gummy and fuzzy?
Because if the picture were clear, we'd be able to identify the flying object.
(Too obvious?)
posted by Sys Rq at 2:46 PM on May 16, 2021 [37 favorites]
Because if the picture were clear, we'd be able to identify the flying object.
(Too obvious?)
posted by Sys Rq at 2:46 PM on May 16, 2021 [37 favorites]
Or, more likely by several million times, it's a camera artifact.
Except, radar and other sensing tech don’t get a lock on camera artifacts. That requires a solid object reflecting back the radar or generating a heat signature.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:52 PM on May 16, 2021 [9 favorites]
Except, radar and other sensing tech don’t get a lock on camera artifacts. That requires a solid object reflecting back the radar or generating a heat signature.
posted by Thorzdad at 2:52 PM on May 16, 2021 [9 favorites]
Furnace Heart > I used to be quite au fait with the 'strange phenomena' scene in the UK (I co-authored a Fortean Times book and edited a couple of others, and spent several happy weeks staring at echo sounders on Loch Ness), and eventually came to the conclusion that given our current understanding of the nature of everything, what people are experiencing are either signs of beings or objects that exist in dimensional space in a way different to us, or explicable phenomena witnessed by individuals who do not recognise them, or hoaxes, or carbon monoxide poisoning.
Since that, I have had little interest in the subject.
posted by Hogshead at 3:04 PM on May 16, 2021 [8 favorites]
Since that, I have had little interest in the subject.
posted by Hogshead at 3:04 PM on May 16, 2021 [8 favorites]
First of all, if there are aliens, then spending 99% of their time in the ocean is not a bad idea: unexplored territory, problematic pressure issues for humans and all that. Plus, if they're managing interstellar travel, establishing a base or whatever under the sea should be trivial.
So I'd like to imagine this is a bored and rebellious teenage alien who's stolen the family vehicle and is out for a joyride. It's having a blast but then panics when the Earthlings spot it. So it tries to zip back home, but due to inexperience in flying and aforementioned panic is having a seriously hard time figuring out how to achieve ocean re-entry.
Pretty sure this is the only explanation.
posted by jeremias at 3:14 PM on May 16, 2021 [8 favorites]
So I'd like to imagine this is a bored and rebellious teenage alien who's stolen the family vehicle and is out for a joyride. It's having a blast but then panics when the Earthlings spot it. So it tries to zip back home, but due to inexperience in flying and aforementioned panic is having a seriously hard time figuring out how to achieve ocean re-entry.
Pretty sure this is the only explanation.
posted by jeremias at 3:14 PM on May 16, 2021 [8 favorites]
jeremias: "Pretty sure this is the only explanation."
Alien Grafitti
posted by chavenet at 3:22 PM on May 16, 2021 [3 favorites]
Alien Grafitti
posted by chavenet at 3:22 PM on May 16, 2021 [3 favorites]
Future events such as these will affect you in the future.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 3:30 PM on May 16, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 3:30 PM on May 16, 2021 [7 favorites]
So I'd like to imagine this is a bored and rebellious teenage alien who's stolen the family vehicle and is out for a joyride.
It's actually an interesting theory, assuming these are aliens from another planet/galaxy/dimension. But there's at least two further theories, each with different implications. Either the aliens a) are simply making mistakes, they're "human" and aren't perfect, or b) they could prevent us seeing them, but they don't care, any more than we care if ants notice us when we look at them.
posted by zardoz at 3:43 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
It's actually an interesting theory, assuming these are aliens from another planet/galaxy/dimension. But there's at least two further theories, each with different implications. Either the aliens a) are simply making mistakes, they're "human" and aren't perfect, or b) they could prevent us seeing them, but they don't care, any more than we care if ants notice us when we look at them.
posted by zardoz at 3:43 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
It was a weather balloon splashing down, yeah?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:58 PM on May 16, 2021
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 3:58 PM on May 16, 2021
All UFO footage, military included, seems to have been taken by the lowest-quality camera equipment anyone can buy, operated by people suffering from Parkinson's during an earthquake.
If there really are aliens observing us, surely by now someone would have captured some remarkably clear footage of at least one of them. Everyone with a cell phone has a fairly high quality camera in their pocket. There are video surveillance cameras literally everywhere, and there are high resolution satellites orbiting the Earth 24x7. I should think that one of them would've caught some very clear and convincing photographic evidence by now.
Unless the aliens have developed technology that renders all photographic equipment incapable of operating at more than 10% efficiency.
posted by Quasimike at 4:23 PM on May 16, 2021 [15 favorites]
If there really are aliens observing us, surely by now someone would have captured some remarkably clear footage of at least one of them. Everyone with a cell phone has a fairly high quality camera in their pocket. There are video surveillance cameras literally everywhere, and there are high resolution satellites orbiting the Earth 24x7. I should think that one of them would've caught some very clear and convincing photographic evidence by now.
Unless the aliens have developed technology that renders all photographic equipment incapable of operating at more than 10% efficiency.
posted by Quasimike at 4:23 PM on May 16, 2021 [15 favorites]
Quasimike, that's exactly how supernatural creatures work. Anything unexpected vibrates at frequencies unable to be captured on camera. It's part of the metaphysical characteristics of fae/alien/ etc interacting with our reality. We need to develop cameras 1,000x better to overcome it, or use clarifying potions, which themselves are prone to interference with technology.
posted by Jacen at 4:30 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by Jacen at 4:30 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
It's a video of a bad screen with some false colour (IR) going on - most of the motion seems to be the camera tracking - my guess is it's the moon
posted by mbo at 4:39 PM on May 16, 2021
posted by mbo at 4:39 PM on May 16, 2021
FORD PREFECT:
...Teasers are usually rich kids with nothing to do. They cruise around looking for planets which haven’t made interstellar contact yet and buzz them.
ARTHUR DENT:
Ah. “Buzz them”?
FORD PREFECT:
Yeah. They find some isolated spot with very few people around, then land right by some poor unsuspecting soul, who no one’s ever going to believe, and then strut up and down in front of ‘em wearing silly antennae on their head and making “beep, beep” noises. Huh, rather childish really.
posted by deadbilly at 4:50 PM on May 16, 2021 [19 favorites]
...Teasers are usually rich kids with nothing to do. They cruise around looking for planets which haven’t made interstellar contact yet and buzz them.
ARTHUR DENT:
Ah. “Buzz them”?
FORD PREFECT:
Yeah. They find some isolated spot with very few people around, then land right by some poor unsuspecting soul, who no one’s ever going to believe, and then strut up and down in front of ‘em wearing silly antennae on their head and making “beep, beep” noises. Huh, rather childish really.
posted by deadbilly at 4:50 PM on May 16, 2021 [19 favorites]
It's interesting that now that we all have high definition cameras on us 24 X 7 nobody ever gets a clear shot of a UFO, Sasquatch, the Loch Ness Monster, etc.
posted by COD at 4:56 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
posted by COD at 4:56 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
As I keep having to point out, the military has a tradition of encouraging people to think "UFOs are aliens". So if it's happening again, the question really ought to be, "Who benefits?"
posted by happyroach at 4:59 PM on May 16, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by happyroach at 4:59 PM on May 16, 2021 [3 favorites]
First of all, if there are aliens, ... if they're managing interstellar travel, establishing a base or whatever under the sea should be trivial.
Thus I refute
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:00 PM on May 16, 2021 [4 favorites]
Thus I refute
posted by Greg_Ace at 5:00 PM on May 16, 2021 [4 favorites]
MetaFilter: explicable phenomena witnessed by individuals who do not recognise them, or hoaxes, or carbon monoxide poisoning.
posted by wenestvedt at 5:14 PM on May 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by wenestvedt at 5:14 PM on May 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
They just want to meet the whales
posted by polymodus at 5:25 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by polymodus at 5:25 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
Any middle school kid in America with a smart phone can shoot video that doesn't look like the fucking Patterson bigfoot film. If this is the best the US military can manage I want my god damn money back.
posted by Sing Or Swim at 5:56 PM on May 16, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by Sing Or Swim at 5:56 PM on May 16, 2021 [7 favorites]
First of all, if there are aliens, then spending 99% of their time in the ocean is not a bad idea: unexplored territory, problematic pressure issues for humans and all that. Plus, if they're managing interstellar travel, establishing a base or whatever under the sea should be trivial.
That's too deep for oxygen breathing. We're going to need some rectal perfluorocarbons to get to the bottom of this.
posted by dephlogisticated at 5:56 PM on May 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
That's too deep for oxygen breathing. We're going to need some rectal perfluorocarbons to get to the bottom of this.
posted by dephlogisticated at 5:56 PM on May 16, 2021 [2 favorites]
I WANT MUCH BETTER EVIDENCE BEFORE I BELIEVE.
Like, seriously, I can't get excited over vague distant footage. I want footage of a spaceship landing and an alien coming out before I buy any of this BS.
I like the ultraterrestrial theory, myself. The aliens are already here, man....
But seriously, I don't get why after years of "denial" or "there's nothing there" or whatever, this is finally becoming A Thing We Need To Be Out About. What's that about? That's the real mystery here.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:57 PM on May 16, 2021 [7 favorites]
Like, seriously, I can't get excited over vague distant footage. I want footage of a spaceship landing and an alien coming out before I buy any of this BS.
I like the ultraterrestrial theory, myself. The aliens are already here, man....
But seriously, I don't get why after years of "denial" or "there's nothing there" or whatever, this is finally becoming A Thing We Need To Be Out About. What's that about? That's the real mystery here.
posted by jenfullmoon at 5:57 PM on May 16, 2021 [7 favorites]
So I'd like to imagine this is a bored and rebellious teenage alien who's stolen the family vehicle and is out for a joyride.
Sorta like Farmaggedon then?
posted by NoMich at 6:19 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
Sorta like Farmaggedon then?
posted by NoMich at 6:19 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
I don't get why after years of "denial" or "there's nothing there" or whatever, this is finally becoming A Thing We Need To Be Out About.
Literally, my immediate first thought was "what experimental weapons (ours or another country's) are they attempting to manufacture a cover story for?"
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:24 PM on May 16, 2021 [4 favorites]
Literally, my immediate first thought was "what experimental weapons (ours or another country's) are they attempting to manufacture a cover story for?"
posted by Greg_Ace at 6:24 PM on May 16, 2021 [4 favorites]
But seriously, I don't get why after years of "denial" or "there's nothing there" or whatever, this is finally becoming A Thing We Need To Be Out About. What's that about? That's the real mystery here.What's that about? That's the real mystery here.
Exactly. This is what I've been saying in every UFO Metafilter thread lately. Whether these videos are authentic or not, why are they getting so much press suddenly after all this time?
posted by Liquidwolf at 6:41 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
Exactly. This is what I've been saying in every UFO Metafilter thread lately. Whether these videos are authentic or not, why are they getting so much press suddenly after all this time?
posted by Liquidwolf at 6:41 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
Extinction tourism. Alien one-percenters on vacation, scouting locations for their new homes on Earth while alien real estate companies spread pandemics, fires, and other alien-made disasters in order to exterminate humans and Australian wildlife. Can't have those humans around, ruining property values.
posted by otherchaz at 7:10 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by otherchaz at 7:10 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
Quasimike: Everyone with a cell phone has a fairly high quality camera in their pocket. There are video surveillance cameras literally everywhere, and there are high resolution satellites orbiting the Earth 24x7. I should think that one of them would've caught some very clear and convincing photographic evidence by now.
I made a rebuttal to this idea on this very site not two weeks ago.
posted by zardoz at 7:13 PM on May 16, 2021 [7 favorites]
I made a rebuttal to this idea on this very site not two weeks ago.
posted by zardoz at 7:13 PM on May 16, 2021 [7 favorites]
"Whether these videos are authentic or not, why are they getting so much press suddenly after all this time?"
Honest opinion? Because the peasants are close to revolting and they're running out of ideas of how to keep us docile. They're trying to step up their "Bread and Circuses" entertainment and "Permanent Enemy" fears since "Terrorists" is starting to lose its sheen and effectiveness. They need things for us to fearful and be confused about to justify the obscene military and police budgets.
"We've always been at war withEastasia Alpha Centauri."
Think Watchmen but less creative because this is the American military/media we're talking about.
---
If they're real, it's certainly interesting, but we're dealing with so many very human, real-life problems that honestly whether we're about to be visited by aliens feels like a "who cares, can't this wait?" kind of thing. The aliens can have at us after we've either figured out how to finally all live and work together or brought ourselves to extinction, whichever comes first.
If it isn't aliens, it is just more proof that our national security is completely fucking compromised and other countries have left us in the dust due to our "American Exceptionalism" complacency.
posted by deadaluspark at 7:14 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
Honest opinion? Because the peasants are close to revolting and they're running out of ideas of how to keep us docile. They're trying to step up their "Bread and Circuses" entertainment and "Permanent Enemy" fears since "Terrorists" is starting to lose its sheen and effectiveness. They need things for us to fearful and be confused about to justify the obscene military and police budgets.
"We've always been at war with
Think Watchmen but less creative because this is the American military/media we're talking about.
---
If they're real, it's certainly interesting, but we're dealing with so many very human, real-life problems that honestly whether we're about to be visited by aliens feels like a "who cares, can't this wait?" kind of thing. The aliens can have at us after we've either figured out how to finally all live and work together or brought ourselves to extinction, whichever comes first.
If it isn't aliens, it is just more proof that our national security is completely fucking compromised and other countries have left us in the dust due to our "American Exceptionalism" complacency.
posted by deadaluspark at 7:14 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
Miller to Otto: aint no difference between a flying saucer and a time machine
posted by bartleby at 7:18 PM on May 16, 2021 [7 favorites]
posted by bartleby at 7:18 PM on May 16, 2021 [7 favorites]
"I made a rebuttal to this idea on this very site not two weeks ago."
posted by zardoz
I feel like a giant floating head might be biased about this issue because he sort of has skin in the game being a flying object.
posted by deadaluspark at 7:22 PM on May 16, 2021 [26 favorites]
posted by zardoz
I feel like a giant floating head might be biased about this issue because he sort of has skin in the game being a flying object.
posted by deadaluspark at 7:22 PM on May 16, 2021 [26 favorites]
Maybe there is a real reason for a Space Force after all.
posted by kimberussell at 7:27 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by kimberussell at 7:27 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
i'll let you know the REAL secret about aliens - WE'RE the aliens and all those odd, badly photographed saucers are what's left of earth's natives after we invaded their planet
posted by pyramid termite at 7:46 PM on May 16, 2021 [6 favorites]
posted by pyramid termite at 7:46 PM on May 16, 2021 [6 favorites]
"Whether these videos are authentic or not, why are they getting so much press suddenly after all this time?"
You've been seeing this shit slung around for the past four plus years because it's "evidence" that there are Big Coverups, that there are Big Conspiracies, that The Government Can Not Be Trusted, etc. UFOlogy was weird cryptic fun for a while, but it's now been weaponized in the service of yet more cryptofascist bullshit.
posted by phooky at 7:59 PM on May 16, 2021 [31 favorites]
You've been seeing this shit slung around for the past four plus years because it's "evidence" that there are Big Coverups, that there are Big Conspiracies, that The Government Can Not Be Trusted, etc. UFOlogy was weird cryptic fun for a while, but it's now been weaponized in the service of yet more cryptofascist bullshit.
posted by phooky at 7:59 PM on May 16, 2021 [31 favorites]
> You've been seeing this shit slung around for the past four plus years because it's "evidence" that there are Big Coverups, that there are Big Conspiracies, that The Government Can Not Be Trusted, etc. UFOlogy was weird cryptic fun for a while, but it's now been weaponized in the service of yet more cryptofascist bullshit.
Ugh, I hate how right you are. How depressing.
posted by Godspeed.You!Black.Emperor.Penguin at 8:23 PM on May 16, 2021 [6 favorites]
Ugh, I hate how right you are. How depressing.
posted by Godspeed.You!Black.Emperor.Penguin at 8:23 PM on May 16, 2021 [6 favorites]
we're dealing with so many very human, real-life problems that honestly whether we're about to be visited by aliens feels like a "who cares, can't this wait?" kind of thing.
Humanity: "Look, it's not you, it's us. We're just kind of going through a lot right now, and we're not ready to commit to living together."
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:26 PM on May 16, 2021 [4 favorites]
Humanity: "Look, it's not you, it's us. We're just kind of going through a lot right now, and we're not ready to commit to living together."
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:26 PM on May 16, 2021 [4 favorites]
Part of this UFO looks like a bug crawling around on the screen!
posted by chaz at 8:58 PM on May 16, 2021
posted by chaz at 8:58 PM on May 16, 2021
The movements of some of these UFOs - darting here and there, disappearing etc are remarkably similar to the movements of the laser dot when playing with the cat. True these aren't lasers and we aren't cats but for visual sightings the geometry looks to be the same - so long distance projections/mirages of some description.
(Which, as noted above, would not show up on radar as solid objects.)
posted by speug at 9:05 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
(Which, as noted above, would not show up on radar as solid objects.)
posted by speug at 9:05 PM on May 16, 2021 [1 favorite]
I long ago decided to bet on "the field"--all boring, natural possible explanations, including unenumerated ones--against the UFO/ET hypothesis. It's a good bet.
All UFO footage, military included, seems to have been taken by the lowest-quality camera equipment anyone can buy, operated by people suffering from Parkinson's during an earthquake.
Right. There should be sampling of these images covering the range of available quality. As the quality of technology improved, the average quality of the images should improve. So too as interested in them increased. That the quality has not changed tells us that this must be more related to the internal quality of the records than objective external events.
True things have this property of appearing more true, not less so, when you look closely. It's for example how you could be sure the Trump claims of voter fraud were false; the more focus they got (in courts, follow up work, etc.) the more laughable they became.
As I keep having to point out, the military has a tradition of encouraging people to think "UFOs are aliens". So if it's happening again, the question really ought to be, "Who benefits?"
This is another case of sampling bias. The military has a range of people with different levels of skepticism. Anyone with (for example) my level of skepticism wouldn't waste any time on something like this, putting in only enough energy to establish it's not an enemy threat before moving on to work more useful for either their mission or their career. The people who would talk about this self-select to be the people who are most credulous about this. And they are the ones who talk about it.
posted by mark k at 9:16 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
All UFO footage, military included, seems to have been taken by the lowest-quality camera equipment anyone can buy, operated by people suffering from Parkinson's during an earthquake.
Right. There should be sampling of these images covering the range of available quality. As the quality of technology improved, the average quality of the images should improve. So too as interested in them increased. That the quality has not changed tells us that this must be more related to the internal quality of the records than objective external events.
True things have this property of appearing more true, not less so, when you look closely. It's for example how you could be sure the Trump claims of voter fraud were false; the more focus they got (in courts, follow up work, etc.) the more laughable they became.
As I keep having to point out, the military has a tradition of encouraging people to think "UFOs are aliens". So if it's happening again, the question really ought to be, "Who benefits?"
This is another case of sampling bias. The military has a range of people with different levels of skepticism. Anyone with (for example) my level of skepticism wouldn't waste any time on something like this, putting in only enough energy to establish it's not an enemy threat before moving on to work more useful for either their mission or their career. The people who would talk about this self-select to be the people who are most credulous about this. And they are the ones who talk about it.
posted by mark k at 9:16 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
I don't believe UFOs are aliens precisely because the arrival of benevolent aliens feels like pretty much our last hope right about now.
And because the Voronezh UFO incident preceded the collapse of the Soviet Union by a couple of years:
posted by jamjam at 10:26 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
And because the Voronezh UFO incident preceded the collapse of the Soviet Union by a couple of years:
On 17 September 1989, TASS reported that a correspondent had spoken to "10 or 12 youths" who claimed to have seen a flying saucer. The original article quoted Dr. Silanov, of the Voronezh Geophysical Laboratory, as confirming the location of the landing using biolocation.[6] Silanov denied that he had ever made such a remark, or carried out such an experiment.[4] The report was the most publicized of a series of UFO claims made by official government media, and were promoted as part of the government's new "openness".[7][8] It was noted that, unlike in America, the reported beings were completely apolitical and did not even speak during their 'visit'.[9] In the immediate aftermath of the alleged incident, hundreds of UFOs began appearing, with a reporter from Komsomolskaya Pravda even claiming to have an exclusive interview with alien beings from Red Star.[10]A bunch of people seeing UFOs and seriously thinking they're aliens is a really bad sign for fading empires, folks.
To this end, the Soviet Scientific Commission ordered an official inquiry into the alleged incident. Though the area was found to have an above-average presence of the radioactive isotope cesium, the vice-rector of the University of Voronezh quickly dispensed with the idea that this was significant.[11]
In the immediate aftermath of the supposed event, only Sovietskaya Kultura and TASS attempted to pass the story off as non-fiction, with the official Communist newspaper defending its decision, saying: "[I]ts coverage was motivated by 'the golden rule of journalism: the reader must know everything."[4] The newspaper was repeatedly asked whether the report was in jest and were repeatedly assured it was not.[5][12]
posted by jamjam at 10:26 PM on May 16, 2021 [5 favorites]
As for the quality of the video, the linked 'shared first' article, which may or may not be accurate, says that the video is thermal imagining taken during a pitch black night, which explains the graininess. I can't even take a decent picture of the moon, which is big, bright, and still, with my cellphone so it's not as easy as all that.
posted by jabah at 12:54 AM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by jabah at 12:54 AM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
True things have this property of appearing more true, not less so, when you look closely.
I'm not sure if this is true.
posted by chaz at 1:23 AM on May 17, 2021 [5 favorites]
I'm not sure if this is true.
posted by chaz at 1:23 AM on May 17, 2021 [5 favorites]
...Teasers are usually rich kids with nothing to do. They cruise around looking for planets which haven’t made interstellar contact yet and buzz them.
Obviously this means that the Posadists are wrong and highly technologically advanced civilisations have not necessarily reached Communism.
posted by acb at 2:03 AM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
Obviously this means that the Posadists are wrong and highly technologically advanced civilisations have not necessarily reached Communism.
posted by acb at 2:03 AM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
Analysis: Looks like IR video in "black hot" mode of a distant bright point source passing below the horizon, flickering momentarily as it is obscured, briefly revealed, then finally obscured again by distant swells (like a star flickering as it's blocked by the irregular limb of the moon).
posted by The Tensor at 3:51 AM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by The Tensor at 3:51 AM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
You've been seeing this shit slung around for the past four plus years because it's "evidence" that there are Big Coverups, that there are Big Conspiracies, that The Government Can Not Be Trusted, etc. UFOlogy was weird cryptic fun for a while, but it's now been weaponized in the service of yet more cryptofascist bullshit.
UFOlogy has always been cryptofascist. I don't think it's a coincidence that the X-Files emerged at roughly the same time as the Contract With America and Newt Gingrich. The Big Coverup is always about The Government teaming up with extraterrestrials to replace humans and using agencies like FEMA to do it. The new X-Files even had some Chris Carter-penned episodes featuring a very Alex Jones-like character as an ally.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:17 AM on May 17, 2021 [5 favorites]
UFOlogy has always been cryptofascist. I don't think it's a coincidence that the X-Files emerged at roughly the same time as the Contract With America and Newt Gingrich. The Big Coverup is always about The Government teaming up with extraterrestrials to replace humans and using agencies like FEMA to do it. The new X-Files even had some Chris Carter-penned episodes featuring a very Alex Jones-like character as an ally.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 5:17 AM on May 17, 2021 [5 favorites]
I'm not sure if this is true.
Look closely.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:29 AM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
Look closely.
posted by Literaryhero at 5:29 AM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
Is there any reason for aliens to drop by the Earth, yet avoid contact or even care if they're seen?
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:56 AM on May 17, 2021
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 5:56 AM on May 17, 2021
Yeah. I remember how bummed I was when I first realized that all that fun "chariot of the gods" stuff was just racist nonsense.
posted by phooky at 6:07 AM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by phooky at 6:07 AM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
Is there any reason for aliens to drop by the Earth, yet avoid contact or even care if they're seen?
Have you seen the price of cow rectums on Alpha Centauri recently?
posted by acb at 6:25 AM on May 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
Have you seen the price of cow rectums on Alpha Centauri recently?
posted by acb at 6:25 AM on May 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
Brandon Blatcher: "Is there any reason for aliens to drop by the Earth, yet avoid contact or even care if they're seen?"
Yes. They've studied us carefully.
posted by chavenet at 6:26 AM on May 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
Yes. They've studied us carefully.
posted by chavenet at 6:26 AM on May 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
Wouldn't the first electromagnetic transmissions any aliens would have received from Earth have been Hitler's speeches? As such, we can probably expect a relativistic projectile heading our way, just to be sure.
posted by acb at 6:30 AM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by acb at 6:30 AM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
Part of this UFO looks like a bug crawling around on the screen!
We used to have some old video cameras that had some kind of oil as part of the sensor, and sometimes we'd have to pause shooting until a bubble drifted out of the image.
As a military technology, it seems much more likely that it is a tech for confusing sensors, and causing false readings.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:01 AM on May 17, 2021
We used to have some old video cameras that had some kind of oil as part of the sensor, and sometimes we'd have to pause shooting until a bubble drifted out of the image.
As a military technology, it seems much more likely that it is a tech for confusing sensors, and causing false readings.
posted by StickyCarpet at 7:01 AM on May 17, 2021
Is there any reason for aliens to drop by the Earth, yet avoid contact or even care if they're seen?
Yes.
As a New Englander, I have always avoided contact wherever I go. I don't care if someone sees me on the subway or in line at the grocery store, I'm just not going to drop everything to listen to a complete stranger tell me all about how they're in town visiting a cousin and isn't Boston such a great city and next they're driving down to Plymouth and the Cape.
Some people might think it's rude that no one here is as "friendly" and "personable" as where they come from, but we value being able to go out in public without having to interact with anyone any more than what's necessary, and I'm sure the aliens do as well.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:06 AM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
Yes.
As a New Englander, I have always avoided contact wherever I go. I don't care if someone sees me on the subway or in line at the grocery store, I'm just not going to drop everything to listen to a complete stranger tell me all about how they're in town visiting a cousin and isn't Boston such a great city and next they're driving down to Plymouth and the Cape.
Some people might think it's rude that no one here is as "friendly" and "personable" as where they come from, but we value being able to go out in public without having to interact with anyone any more than what's necessary, and I'm sure the aliens do as well.
posted by RonButNotStupid at 7:06 AM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
I have trouble believing any recordings or videos of supposed aliens, ghosts, monsters, etc etc are real, given the ease with which recordings and images can be manipulated. Our own technology is right here, in front of us, ready for use, with people who are more than happy to tweak it for their own purposes. The presence
of aliens joyriding in our skies is unlikely, though not impossible; human motives and human gullibility, though, are very likely, and quite possible.
posted by Armed Only With Hubris at 7:44 AM on May 17, 2021
of aliens joyriding in our skies is unlikely, though not impossible; human motives and human gullibility, though, are very likely, and quite possible.
posted by Armed Only With Hubris at 7:44 AM on May 17, 2021
One theory is that it's adversaries of the US using drones:
We may not know the identities of all the mysterious craft that American military personnel and others have been seeing in the skies as of late, but I have seen more than enough to tell you that it is clear that a very terrestrial adversary is toying with us in our own backyard using relatively simple technologies—drones and balloons—and making off with what could be the biggest intelligence haul of a generation. While that may disappoint some who hope the origins of all these events are far more exotic in nature, the strategic implications of these bold operations, which have been happening for years, undeterred, are absolutely massive.posted by wuwei at 7:53 AM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
...
The gross inaction and the stigma surrounding unexplained aerial phenomena as a whole has led to what appears to be the paralyzation of the systems designed to protect us and our most critical military technologies, pointing to a massive failure in U.S. military intelligence. This is a blind spot we ourselves literally created out of cultural taboos and a military-industrial complex that is ill-suited to foresee and counter a lower-end threat that is very hard to defend against.
the New Yorker article from last month about all this is a good history of how we got here. Its answer to the question of why is all this coming out now is that a handful of motivated people inside the military thought that this stuff should be public and pushed hard for it. I think they got Congress briefed on it, and someone leaked the first two videos in 2017. That’s continued building pressure and this summer there is going to be an official report on it all which is why I think a bunch of articles and new evidence is coming out right now, I’m advance of the report. Nothing in that article made it seem like it was part of some grand plan to misdirect us, and the video seems to be consistent with specific sightings that date back from years before.
As far as I can tell it seems like there’s real evidence of something flying around in ways we can’t explain, folks seem to agree that it’s more than some fault of a camera, and no one know what it is. Exciting, but certainly there’s no real evidence it’s aliens yet.
posted by macrael at 8:23 AM on May 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
As far as I can tell it seems like there’s real evidence of something flying around in ways we can’t explain, folks seem to agree that it’s more than some fault of a camera, and no one know what it is. Exciting, but certainly there’s no real evidence it’s aliens yet.
posted by macrael at 8:23 AM on May 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
It's almost certainly cheap drones, if it's anything. You can get pretty sophisticated consumer drones for not much money on Amazon. Imagine if you had the backing of a state or corporate bank account and you wanted to get up close and personal information on American airbases or warships or what-not.
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:14 AM on May 17, 2021
posted by Ray Walston, Luck Dragon at 11:14 AM on May 17, 2021
I really don’t know how to see coverage like this (“Whoa it splashed!) and see it as anything other than people with very little knowledge thinking very thinly about a topic simply because it’s fun.
This object did not splash. It didn’t move suspiciously at all. It’s just a distant heat signature moving slowly. A drone or helicopter or something moving over the horizon.
There’s nothing whatsoever alien about it.
The most horrid example recently was the 60 Minutes piece, which insinuates that the Navy has videos of alien craft - except all the videos have been debunked (one by something so simple as 9th grade trig) and the program refuses to even bring up the arguments debunking them.
People with a platform need to revving people’s engines with this sort of nothingness — because it will create profound disappointment when nothing happens, disappointment that then leads to conspiratorial thinking. We’ve see in recent years where conspiratorial thinking leads us, and it’s ugly.
posted by lewedswiver at 11:33 AM on May 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
This object did not splash. It didn’t move suspiciously at all. It’s just a distant heat signature moving slowly. A drone or helicopter or something moving over the horizon.
There’s nothing whatsoever alien about it.
The most horrid example recently was the 60 Minutes piece, which insinuates that the Navy has videos of alien craft - except all the videos have been debunked (one by something so simple as 9th grade trig) and the program refuses to even bring up the arguments debunking them.
People with a platform need to revving people’s engines with this sort of nothingness — because it will create profound disappointment when nothing happens, disappointment that then leads to conspiratorial thinking. We’ve see in recent years where conspiratorial thinking leads us, and it’s ugly.
posted by lewedswiver at 11:33 AM on May 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
I'm hoping that all of this OMG UFO stuff coming out of the US military right now is some reverse-psychology thing where they know it's drones and maybe even a fair bit about their capabilities and how they're controlled but are playing up their ignorance of them so that whoever is sending them will think they have some ace up their sleeve when they really don't. Not a fan of American military hegemony but I only see worse alternatives out there.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:36 PM on May 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 12:36 PM on May 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
people with very little knowledge thinking very thinly about a topic simply because it’s fun
The thing that always confuses me is when people are talking about "sudden acceleration and hundreds of Gs" and "right-angle turns", but when I look at the video I see nothing of the kind, then slow realize they're misinterpreting what are OBVIOUSLY camera movements. They're crystal clear in this video because the surface of the ocean is visible, but still I see comments online about the sudden acceleration. Like, have you never seen footage taken with a camera before?
posted by The Tensor at 1:21 PM on May 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
The thing that always confuses me is when people are talking about "sudden acceleration and hundreds of Gs" and "right-angle turns", but when I look at the video I see nothing of the kind, then slow realize they're misinterpreting what are OBVIOUSLY camera movements. They're crystal clear in this video because the surface of the ocean is visible, but still I see comments online about the sudden acceleration. Like, have you never seen footage taken with a camera before?
posted by The Tensor at 1:21 PM on May 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
I don’t think there’s any reverse psychology thing happening. Instead, it’s very simple—
1) A looney tunes billionaire gets the attention of a US senator who represents him (of course he does, he’s a billionaire) about his pet cause
2) He gets the Senator to spend a few pennies on a research team, a team that probably has very few resources
3) The very existence of the team increases scrutiny and attention on what would otherwise be ignored (a distant heat signature on an IR camera, misunderstood through parallax). The research team, led by a non-scientist, identifies most things sent their way as terrestrial, but a few things they can’t obviously explain. After all, their leader was a non-scientist and they didn’t have many resources, and the very fact that a UFO hunting entity exists in the Pentagon gives the whole topic internal legitimacy.
4) the head of the research team gets seduced by the romantic thrill of UFOs (who wouldn’t) but when he can’t make headway, he quits and goes public
5) the media eats up the guy’s publicity tour. Aliens can totally sell ads.
That’s that…
posted by lewedswiver at 1:26 PM on May 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
1) A looney tunes billionaire gets the attention of a US senator who represents him (of course he does, he’s a billionaire) about his pet cause
2) He gets the Senator to spend a few pennies on a research team, a team that probably has very few resources
3) The very existence of the team increases scrutiny and attention on what would otherwise be ignored (a distant heat signature on an IR camera, misunderstood through parallax). The research team, led by a non-scientist, identifies most things sent their way as terrestrial, but a few things they can’t obviously explain. After all, their leader was a non-scientist and they didn’t have many resources, and the very fact that a UFO hunting entity exists in the Pentagon gives the whole topic internal legitimacy.
4) the head of the research team gets seduced by the romantic thrill of UFOs (who wouldn’t) but when he can’t make headway, he quits and goes public
5) the media eats up the guy’s publicity tour. Aliens can totally sell ads.
That’s that…
posted by lewedswiver at 1:26 PM on May 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
Here's an explanation for another part of how this happens:
- The US military is composed of a bunch of kids.
- Sometimes those kids are overwhelmed in stressful situations by the amount of technologically-augmented sensory information they're required to process and get confused about what they're seeing.
- Sometimes their confusion gets recorded, passed around, and eventually leaked.
- The US military is embarrassed their supposedly highly-trained personnel (ESPECIALLY the pilots) have made such rudimentary errors in situations where human lives and billions of dollars of hardware are at stake.
- The US military publishes a face-saving "investigation" that concludes, "No, yeah, that stationary object in the sky is INEXPLICABLE. Good work, everybody!"
The lack of common features (other than low image quality) between the UFO videos makes me suspect that these are a variety of unrelated things being lumped together. So whether your explanation is "aliens" or "adversarial drones" or "CIA psyop", all of these make the mistake of trying to come up with a unifying explanation for what in the end looks like a junk-drawer of videos that couldn't be neatly sorted elsewhere.
posted by Pyry at 1:42 PM on May 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by Pyry at 1:42 PM on May 17, 2021 [2 favorites]
Being the sci-fi dreamer that I am, I would very very very much like to have any confirmation of extraterrestrial life, of any kind, before I die. I'm guessing I'm not alone in having that wish on my bucket list. In isolation, it's a pretty harmless and fun mind pearl.
However, in the context of, well, the state of the world right now, it's probably also a fairly broad psychological beachhead for anyone looking to land their propaganda transport boats. But maybe so is assessing everything as potential agenda camouflage for something nefarious.
These past few years sometimes make me feel like my brain hamster has collapsed in its rapidly spinning wheel, having succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning.
posted by Godspeed.You!Black.Emperor.Penguin at 1:46 PM on May 17, 2021
However, in the context of, well, the state of the world right now, it's probably also a fairly broad psychological beachhead for anyone looking to land their propaganda transport boats. But maybe so is assessing everything as potential agenda camouflage for something nefarious.
These past few years sometimes make me feel like my brain hamster has collapsed in its rapidly spinning wheel, having succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning.
posted by Godspeed.You!Black.Emperor.Penguin at 1:46 PM on May 17, 2021
Aliens in the universe = quite likely statistically
Aliens regularly visiting earth, esp. within the parameters given in various accounts = beyond doubtful
I would say wait until they show up in a way that’s meaningful, otherwise ignore completely. Also the sources that amplify this stuff often tie it into conspiracy theories and paranormal speculations along the lines of “there so much out there beyond what science can explain”. I’d add “yet”. I could be wrong, but for example I recently asserted to a more credulous friend: “I don’t think a human being has ever lived who can guess what card I’m holding.” That’s my starting point.
posted by freecellwizard at 2:41 PM on May 17, 2021
Aliens regularly visiting earth, esp. within the parameters given in various accounts = beyond doubtful
I would say wait until they show up in a way that’s meaningful, otherwise ignore completely. Also the sources that amplify this stuff often tie it into conspiracy theories and paranormal speculations along the lines of “there so much out there beyond what science can explain”. I’d add “yet”. I could be wrong, but for example I recently asserted to a more credulous friend: “I don’t think a human being has ever lived who can guess what card I’m holding.” That’s my starting point.
posted by freecellwizard at 2:41 PM on May 17, 2021
UFOlogy was weird cryptic fun for a while, but it's now been weaponized in the service of yet more cryptofascist bullshit.
This seems off to me, unless I'm misreading you. If you mean that the extreme right contains some UFO fans, then yes, that's true, and has been true since the 1940s.
At the same time, at the risk of saying #notallUFOologists.... not all UFO fans are cryptofascists. Last I saw (and I might have missed stuff, not traveling for the past 1.3 years due to COVID) UFO culture was pretty wide-ranging. There are UFO figures and tropes all over hippie spaces and NewAge domains... and yeah, the NewAge contains some hard right madness as well, but isn't entirely that. UFOs are staples of the counterculture.
Or are you saying that now that the right is out of power, with Biden in the White House and the Dems running (just barely) both houses of Congress, that charging the government with hiding The UFO Truth means criticizing *this* administration in particular? That UFOlogy is now something akin to anti-government conspiracy theories during the Clinton and Obama administrations?
posted by doctornemo at 3:56 PM on May 17, 2021
This seems off to me, unless I'm misreading you. If you mean that the extreme right contains some UFO fans, then yes, that's true, and has been true since the 1940s.
At the same time, at the risk of saying #notallUFOologists.... not all UFO fans are cryptofascists. Last I saw (and I might have missed stuff, not traveling for the past 1.3 years due to COVID) UFO culture was pretty wide-ranging. There are UFO figures and tropes all over hippie spaces and NewAge domains... and yeah, the NewAge contains some hard right madness as well, but isn't entirely that. UFOs are staples of the counterculture.
Or are you saying that now that the right is out of power, with Biden in the White House and the Dems running (just barely) both houses of Congress, that charging the government with hiding The UFO Truth means criticizing *this* administration in particular? That UFOlogy is now something akin to anti-government conspiracy theories during the Clinton and Obama administrations?
posted by doctornemo at 3:56 PM on May 17, 2021
Watch a Navy Pilot Explain His Encounter With a UFO
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:01 PM on May 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:01 PM on May 17, 2021 [4 favorites]
Virginia Beach Is Apparently a UFO Sighting Hotspot
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:43 PM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:43 PM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
>Is there any reason for aliens to drop by the Earth, yet avoid contact or even care if they're seen?
Remember those zoos where you'd drive through fenced-in game parks and watch the wildlife in their natural environment from the safety of your car? Where if you got too close to the baboons they'd likely mangle your car antenna?
We are their Safari and they'd have to be idiots to want to get any closer.
posted by Fupped Duck at 6:43 PM on May 17, 2021
Remember those zoos where you'd drive through fenced-in game parks and watch the wildlife in their natural environment from the safety of your car? Where if you got too close to the baboons they'd likely mangle your car antenna?
We are their Safari and they'd have to be idiots to want to get any closer.
posted by Fupped Duck at 6:43 PM on May 17, 2021
"Earth: We'll Mangle Your Antenna!" ┌∩┐(ಠ_ಠ)┌∩┐
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:59 PM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:59 PM on May 17, 2021 [3 favorites]
Somebody perfected the Swedish Stirling engine submarine tech and is launching drones from subs we can't find to taunt us. Is it the Russians? The Chinese? Captain Nemo?
Or is it aliens after all?
posted by eagles123 at 8:15 PM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
Or is it aliens after all?
posted by eagles123 at 8:15 PM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
We know next to nothing about other dimensions, wormholes, or if there is a way to warp through spacetime using technology that may be only a few decades or centuries out of reach.
It's entirely possible that we know far less than even the limited amount we think we know. When it comes to the Universe and beyond, anything is possible and things could change in a single day.
That said, I've yet to see a video that is persuasive that anything is going on.
posted by chaz at 11:26 PM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
It's entirely possible that we know far less than even the limited amount we think we know. When it comes to the Universe and beyond, anything is possible and things could change in a single day.
That said, I've yet to see a video that is persuasive that anything is going on.
posted by chaz at 11:26 PM on May 17, 2021 [1 favorite]
Is it the Russians? The Chinese? Captain Nemo?
Hagbard Celine and his band of Discordian pranksters.
posted by acb at 5:08 AM on May 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
Hagbard Celine and his band of Discordian pranksters.
posted by acb at 5:08 AM on May 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
Extinction tourism. Alien one-percenters on vacationUgh, just what we wanted, rich aliens going back to Zeta Reticuli and ostentatiously telling their rich alien friends over cocktails how mind-expanding, life-affirming and “spiritual” it was seeing first hand how us dirty, primitive Earth creatures live when really they spent the whole time inside an all-expenses resort compound at the bottom of the ocean.
posted by gelfin at 8:51 AM on May 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
Obama Says Government Doesn't Have Alien Specimens, But UFOs Are Real
Obama fidgeted in his seat. “When it comes to aliens, there are some things I just can’t tell you on air,” Obama said. “The truth is that when I came into office I asked ‘Is there a lab somewhere where we’re keeping the alien specimens and spaceships?’ They did a little bit of research and the answer was ‘No.’”
“But what is true is that there is footage and records of objects in the sky that we don’t know exactly what they are. How they move, their trajectory," Obama continued. "They did not have an easily explainable pattern. So I think that people still take that seriously and try to figure out what that is. But I have nothing to report to you today.”
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:34 PM on May 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
Obama fidgeted in his seat. “When it comes to aliens, there are some things I just can’t tell you on air,” Obama said. “The truth is that when I came into office I asked ‘Is there a lab somewhere where we’re keeping the alien specimens and spaceships?’ They did a little bit of research and the answer was ‘No.’”
“But what is true is that there is footage and records of objects in the sky that we don’t know exactly what they are. How they move, their trajectory," Obama continued. "They did not have an easily explainable pattern. So I think that people still take that seriously and try to figure out what that is. But I have nothing to report to you today.”
posted by jenfullmoon at 3:34 PM on May 18, 2021 [4 favorites]
At the same time, at the risk of saying #notallUFOologists.... not all UFO fans are cryptofascists. Last I saw (and I might have missed stuff, not traveling for the past 1.3 years due to COVID) UFO culture was pretty wide-ranging. There are UFO figures and tropes all over hippie spaces and NewAge domains... and yeah, the NewAge contains some hard right madness as well, but isn't entirely that. UFOs are staples of the counterculture.
This brings to mind Paul Hellyer. In the 1960s, he was Canada's Minister of National Defence under Lester Pearson (he of YYZ-namesake and UN peacekeeping) in the 1960s.
I saw Hellyer speak when he was running the Canadian Action Party, a sort of nationalist social-democratic party (it had absorbed some social credit weirdos/cryptofascists as well), in the late 1990s. He didn't seem terribly off the rails at the time. Just sort of delivering a social-democratic message that leaned very, very heavily on monetary policy theory (which usually is an indicator that things are going sour in some way -- ever run into someone who really, really, really wants to talk to you about monetary policy in the pre-cryptocurrency era? They usually end up landing on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion at some point). At that point in the 90s, though, Hellyer just seemed a little zany to me, pushing back against neo-liberalism with monetary policy as the key lever, almost to the exclusion of everything else.
Anyway, Hellyer eventually walked away from that and went all-in on "IT'S BEEN UFOS ALL ALONG, PEOPLE!"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:02 PM on May 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
This brings to mind Paul Hellyer. In the 1960s, he was Canada's Minister of National Defence under Lester Pearson (he of YYZ-namesake and UN peacekeeping) in the 1960s.
I saw Hellyer speak when he was running the Canadian Action Party, a sort of nationalist social-democratic party (it had absorbed some social credit weirdos/cryptofascists as well), in the late 1990s. He didn't seem terribly off the rails at the time. Just sort of delivering a social-democratic message that leaned very, very heavily on monetary policy theory (which usually is an indicator that things are going sour in some way -- ever run into someone who really, really, really wants to talk to you about monetary policy in the pre-cryptocurrency era? They usually end up landing on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion at some point). At that point in the 90s, though, Hellyer just seemed a little zany to me, pushing back against neo-liberalism with monetary policy as the key lever, almost to the exclusion of everything else.
Anyway, Hellyer eventually walked away from that and went all-in on "IT'S BEEN UFOS ALL ALONG, PEOPLE!"
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 7:02 PM on May 18, 2021 [3 favorites]
Are cryptozoologists still OK though, or is it a case of Milkshake Sasquatch?
posted by acb at 6:24 AM on May 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by acb at 6:24 AM on May 19, 2021 [2 favorites]
People should settle down about the Obama interview. "There are some things I just can't tell you" is a polite GLOMAR response. Whatever he knows is likely classified beyond belief, and regardless of the answer—yes, we talk to E.T.s all the time, or no we don't—he can't say either way because he's still sworn to keep whatever secrets secret.
That was an entirely convincing debunking upthread about the heat source moving below the horizon line.
posted by emelenjr at 12:48 PM on May 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
That was an entirely convincing debunking upthread about the heat source moving below the horizon line.
posted by emelenjr at 12:48 PM on May 19, 2021 [1 favorite]
Aliens in the universe = quite likely statistically
Aliens regularly visiting earth, esp. within the parameters given in various accounts = beyond doubtful
The thing is, we have no way of telling what the statistical likelihood of life existing is, not with only one data point. A lot of the previous reasoning that extrasolar life must be common stemmed from the principle of mundanity: that most star systems must form in similar ways, and the sun is an average star, so therefore there must be a lot of star systems with planets like Earth.
But that simply isn't the case. We now know there's a wide variety of ways planetary systems can form and change, and a wider variety of near-Earths. Superjovians, Hot Jupiters, Super-Earths...ironically, that diversity probably decreases the chance of life arising, since there's so many more ways for star systems to be uninhabitable.
Likewise, evolution seems to be a lot more dicey and chance oriented than before- eukaryotic life itself seems to be a product of an unlikely chance.
Add that together and a good case could be made for intelligent life to be extremely rare. Maybe one in a hundred billion stars rare.
None of which has anything to do with the current UFO scam. Watch the same people who are convinced that the Pyramids had to be built with advanced technology, try to convince people they know how military sensor tech works.
posted by happyroach at 4:43 PM on May 21, 2021
Aliens regularly visiting earth, esp. within the parameters given in various accounts = beyond doubtful
The thing is, we have no way of telling what the statistical likelihood of life existing is, not with only one data point. A lot of the previous reasoning that extrasolar life must be common stemmed from the principle of mundanity: that most star systems must form in similar ways, and the sun is an average star, so therefore there must be a lot of star systems with planets like Earth.
But that simply isn't the case. We now know there's a wide variety of ways planetary systems can form and change, and a wider variety of near-Earths. Superjovians, Hot Jupiters, Super-Earths...ironically, that diversity probably decreases the chance of life arising, since there's so many more ways for star systems to be uninhabitable.
Likewise, evolution seems to be a lot more dicey and chance oriented than before- eukaryotic life itself seems to be a product of an unlikely chance.
Add that together and a good case could be made for intelligent life to be extremely rare. Maybe one in a hundred billion stars rare.
None of which has anything to do with the current UFO scam. Watch the same people who are convinced that the Pyramids had to be built with advanced technology, try to convince people they know how military sensor tech works.
posted by happyroach at 4:43 PM on May 21, 2021
Obama has always been really good at playing his cards very close - sure, the military and feds don’t have labs filled with recovered tech, THAT would be subject to FOIA requests, which corporations are NOT. Dig deeper on that point, and you’ll be closer to the objective truth behind the unexplained part of the UFO enigma. The big secret? They can’t begin to figure out the stuff they’ve recovered, not even a little, that is the threat to national security that keeps a lot of those folks up all night.
There is a good reason I withdrew from being a public player in that soiled sandbox: very little signal, endless heaps of noise. The most vocal clowns in the UFO “field” are worthless, while those with actual information and insights are sidelined.
posted by dbiedny at 12:05 PM on June 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
There is a good reason I withdrew from being a public player in that soiled sandbox: very little signal, endless heaps of noise. The most vocal clowns in the UFO “field” are worthless, while those with actual information and insights are sidelined.
posted by dbiedny at 12:05 PM on June 2, 2021 [1 favorite]
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posted by They sucked his brains out! at 1:33 PM on May 16, 2021