US UFO Sightings Map

[Chu Gai]

See where all the activity is.

http://www.vox.com/2015/6/17/8791111/us-ufo-sighting-map

 

[herbu]

Pretty cool. Would love to see an overlay w/ a map of trailer parks.

 

[BoredSysAdmin]

All right, people, there were no aliens. The flash of light you saw in the sky was not a UFO. Swamp gas from a weather balloon was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the light from Venus.

 

[Big Jake]

After watching a few episodes of the MUFON FILES on tv, I don't think I'd say anything to anyone if I did see a UFO. Next thing ya know you'd get a visit from the MEN IN BLACK and they'd wipe your memory, or so many are claiming.

 

[walter duque]

This might sound a little crazy, but my wife and I seen 4 (and a few other people did too). Took pictures but nothing showed up on the pictures. One big long one in the middle and a few small ones on the side. They just vanished, like faded away. I am not crazy yet.

 

[Big Jake]

I could tell you about something I saw that would curl your toenails, but like I say, I'm afraid I'd have strange men in black suits show up on my doorstep.

As far as UFO stories, I don't doubt people's veracity at all. I think if someone believes that out of more galaxies than we can count in the universe, that we're the only life in it, is truly naive.

 

[Irvrobinson]

I don't believe any of these stories. None. I'm not even a SETI fan. I think the most likely scenario is that as far as civilizations capable of advanced technology development go, we're probably completely alone for a radius of thousands of light years. I wouldn't be surprised if we turned out to be alone in our galaxy. If you really believe in evolution, a technical civilization is incredibly improbable.

 

[lsiberian]

I actually worked for a UFO maker in college.

 

[rnatalli]

I don't believe any of these stories. None. I'm not even a SETI fan. I think the most likely scenario is that as far as civilizations capable of advanced technology development go, we're probably completely alone for a radius of thousands of light years. I wouldn't be surprised if we turned out to be alone in our galaxy. If you really believe in evolution, a technical civilization is incredibly improbable.

You touch on the Fermi Paradox:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

A lot of our SciFi is based on advanced, hostile aliens looking to wipe us out. Here's a horrifying thought, what if we're the first to manage interstellar travel. Somebody has to be first and it could be us.

 

[jliedeka]

I believe in UFOs, in the sense that I believe people legitimately see weird stuff in the sky. I don't automatically assume that those things have to be alien spacecraft. The ETH, extraterrestrial hypothesis, has actually fallen out of favor with most serious researchers. But that isn't what you see on TV.

Since the 1950s, people like Jacques Vallee were pointing out how much UFO and alien sighting resembled visits from the wee folk, angels, etc. More likely there's something happening that we are imposing some sort of cultural overlay on. In the 1950s, most aliens were Nordic types from the planet Venus. Since Whitley Strieber's book cover, every meets gray aliens from Zeta Reticuli.

Jim

 

[Bizarro_Stormy]

You touch on the Fermi Paradox:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fermi_paradox

The Fermi Paradox is very similar to the Drake Equation:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation

The Drake Equation states...

If a young Canadian actor can play the part of a paraplegic high school student on a Canadian teen drama, then can said young Canadian actor not also play the part of a rapper on the American music scene..?

The answer may surprise you...

or not...

 

[Big Jake]

I spent 8 years in the USAF, the first 4 years stationed at Nellis AFB, Las Vegas, NV, went twice to Groom Lake, aka: Area 51, to recover F-16 fighter air craft from our squadron that had experienced an IFE, (in flight emergency), usually a hard light, (a malfunction light that wouldn't reset). I was cleared for Krypto security, the highest clearance there is, they did a palm print, a voice print and a retinal scan for identification, and I was sworn to secrecy for life. I can this about that, Area 51 is a very interesting place.

I have also witnessed an event right here on my land, an event that would instantly make a believer out of any doubter.

It wasn't God... UFO are real... extraterrestrials are real. In fact, they have been here and among us for as long as man has inhabited this earth. WE may even be THEM. Believe we evolved, which is a theory, or believe we were created, or even believe we were brought here, planted here, by aliens. In any case, we don't know. We're still guessing how we got here.

 

[Irvrobinson]

Believe we evolved, which is a theory, or believe we were created, or even believe we were brought here, planted here, by aliens. In any case, we don't know. We're still guessing how we got here.

Some of us aren't guessing. You might want to investigate the meaning of the word "theory" in science. It's not what you're thinking.

UFO believers never cease to amaze me. Let's take abductions, which the cult thinks has been going on for... how many decades? What's up with that? How many humans does a super-intelligent species have to study, over and over again, in the same ways, for decades? It's not like these abductees are coming back taking about drug testing trials or some other repetitive lab exercise. No, these dumb old aliens are inserting ragged pieces of metal into people, doing a few sexual things, and in general acting like perverts. For decades. What's up with that?

I don't know what you saw, but the chance of there being a UFO conspiracy for going on 70 years now is pretty much zero. The NSA can't even keep its data gathering secret for a few years. There wouldn't be a Snowden for UFOs? BTW, your just hinting around at something is violating your clearance.

There's only one idea in your list that has objective evidence behind it. Guess which one. Even panspermia, which has a tip-toe of evidence based on supposed bacteria fossils from an asteroid, and just one, is a real stretch. The rest are almost certainly the human imagination at work.

 

[Adam]

How many humans does a super-intelligent species have to study, over and over again, in the same ways, for decades?

Unfortunately, that's probably the same thing that rats are wondering. If there are aliens, there's no reason to think that the ones in the labs are any smarter or more ethical than humans are. "But, they'd have to be super smart to travel to Earth." No...just some of them would have to be. Well, smart when it comes to building the technology to make the trip. After all, most people driving a car would have zero idea of how to build one.

-----

Btw, I'm neither a believer nor a disbeliever. I don't think about it much. I figure that the government has all sorts of stuff that would seem completely out of place to most people because it doesn't look like a typical aircraft. That, and a lot of stuff is so high up that people can't see it well enough to recognize it. I'm with Jim - UFOs are absolutely real...because that just stands for an unidentified flying object. I've seen some UFOs. Well, UFOs to me because I didn't know what they were. I figure that if I'm looking at it in the sky as I'm sitting in traffic, it probably isn't an alien or maybe (just maybe) I'd see some other aircraft flying around. You know, like the Air Force.

 

[Irvrobinson]

Unfortunately, that's probably the same thing that rats are wondering. If there are aliens, there's no reason to think that the ones in the labs are any smarter or more ethical than humans are. "But, they'd have to be super smart to travel to Earth." No...just some of them would have to be. Well, smart when it comes to building the technology to make the trip. After all, most people driving a car would have zero idea of how to build one.

Like I said, abductees aren't coming back with stories that sound like repetitive drug trials like rats go through. It's just the same old sexual crap over and over again. I also like how all of the UFOs look so different, like they're all home-built kit cars. That couldn't be because every so-called witness sees something different in their imagination. No, that couldn't be it.

 

[Adam]

Like I said, abductees aren't coming back with stories that sound like repetitive drug trials like rats go through.

Rat testing is not limited to repetitive drug trials. Not just rats, either. Name an animal. Heck, the stuff that humans have done to other humans in labs makes the abductee stories sound like a trip to Disney.

Again, though, I wasn't arguing that the stories are true. Just saying that studies being conducted for decades isn't out of the realm of possibility in my mind, or in human history.

I think the best evidence that I've never been abducted is my post count in the Boring Thread.

 

[Irvrobinson]

I think the best evidence that I've never been abducted is my post count in the Boring Thread.

And here I thought that might be some objective evidence of abduction.

 

[Adam]

And here I thought that might be some objective evidence of abduction.

Well played, sir.

 

[Swerd]

Nothing better than a UFO debate . It beats the boring thread.

Thanks for the links to the Fermi Paradox and the Drake Equation. They were fun to read, but they point out the difficult nature of the paradox. Good science cannot deny the possibility of life beyond our planet, and at the same time, good science has ZERO credible direct evidence for its existence. In the complete absence of any evidence, there is only speculation.

I think I'm with Adam, who says, "I'm neither a believer nor a disbeliever."

Unfortunately, that's probably the same thing that rats are wondering. If there are aliens, there's no reason to think that the ones in the labs are any smarter or more ethical than humans are.

The only trouble with the lab rat analogy, is that lab rats are killed and dissected to analyze their tissues after the experiment. So, if we are like lab rats to the aliens in lab coats, why do so many of us lab rats return to tell abduction and anal probe stories ?

UFO believers never cease to amaze me. Let's take abductions, which the cult thinks has been going on for... how many decades? What's up with that? How many humans does a super-intelligent species have to study, over and over again, in the same ways, for decades? It's not like these abductees are coming back taking about drug testing trials or some other repetitive lab exercise. No, these dumb old aliens are inserting ragged pieces of metal into people, doing a few sexual things, and in general acting like perverts. For decades. What's up with that?

I conclude that the aliens aren't scientifically interested in us any more. They are merely intergalactic perverts.

I don't know what you saw, but the chance of there being a UFO conspiracy for going on 70 years now is pretty much zero. The NSA can't even keep its data gathering secret for a few years. There wouldn't be a Snowden for UFOs? BTW, your just hinting around at something is violating your clearance.

LOL, good one . Of course, the counter argument to your idea is that the best cover story for a secret is the one that no one takes seriously and everyone laughs at.

Many years ago, I worked indirectly for the NSA while I was in the Navy. I was also cleared for what was then referred to as TOP SECRET - IF YOU TALK WE'LL TORTURE YOUR GRANDMOTHER. When I got out and was formally debriefed (degaussed), they never said how long I had to stay silent. But I was prevented from travel to certain trouble-spot foreign countries for 5 years. So it was easy to assume that 5 years was the standard shelf life on those secrets.

 

[Big Jake]

Some of us aren't guessing. You might want to investigate the meaning of the word "theory" in science. It's not what you're thinking.

Hmmm... ok... I didn't know that scientific theory was any different than other kind of theory. Dictionary.com doesn't make any distinction that there's different kinds of theories either.

theory
[thee-uh-ree, theer-ee]

• Examples
• Word Origin

noun, plural theories.

contemplation or speculation:
the theory that there is life on other planets.

guess or conjecture:
My theory is that he never stops to think words have consequences.

Idioms
in theory, ideally; hypothetically:
In theory, mapping the human genome may lead to thousands of cures.

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/theory?s=t

In essence, a theory is an educated guess or speculation.