I wrote extensively in comments at WAPO on this subject hours ago.
I'm tired now.
The holy grail you seek for analysis and engineering the future is simple; Gravity is the magnetic force between atoms and on a larger more powerful scale, magnetism in aggregate form of massive countless atoms, the kind you feel.
I saw "White all around" distinctly along with others in the early evening in the fall of 1973 upon a clear sky. It was about the size of a quarter held at arms length, I dutifully set that scale to mind then so I would never forget. It was a very bright white sharp outlined round featureless vehicle that drifted very slowly across the cloudless sky from North to South. It was wonderful. Many years later I bought a book that indicated there was a spat of sightings near Rochester, north or near where I was in the Southern Tier of New York that year. It made no sound. It was beautiful. It was Angels. It was "White all Around".
They never attacked anyone, did they? They are no threat. Our world called them here with a hundred years plus of radio and Television transmissions full of hate, anger, and violence. Are you really surprised there has been no contact? I understand.
There will be no world war. Missiles and planes of war are rendered obsolete.
You just need to have faith that we are visited and meant no harm. They evade detection. They never attacked anyone.
Can our humanity ever accept peace?
35
There might be an intelligent presence in space and if there is, it is most likely wondering about the lack of the belief in reality here in the United States
15
Maybe the UFO’s put their kid in a time out in a primordial ocean billions of years ago with the punishment of figuring out how to evolve to get themselves home; they are checking in regularly on progress.
13
The nearest star, other than the sun, is 4.2 light years away. Traveling at a million miles an hour, it would take the aliens 2,700 years to get here. How do they do it?
They are in suspended animation, but an alarm goes off if the fruits or vegetables start to go bad. Or the butter.
From: Dear Babalu: Letters to an Advice Columnist
1
Why is it that when we see technology or other things we can’t explain, we go to the absurd....and given that alien technology would would be a smart phone for a caveman, that we can see it at all....the cloaking device failed? And it’s as likely it’s historians from the Earth’s future trying to make sense of MAGA, Trumpism, and Mitch’s denial if any actual action. Imagine looking back at the crazies in the past...well they would see us in the same light...killing our climate, mining plastics and throwing it away. They would give their eye teeth to have the riches we are squandering! They want to understand why were so stupid! Either that or they are alien probes asking much the same questions...are we interesting yet or still a danger? You got to know, there is a huge sign a few billions miles out saying something like, ‘Danger Will Robinson’ enter at your own peril!
10
UFO's have been recorded ever since mankind learned to write. This should be taken seriously and ooenly - and under international scope.
11
Why we're talking about UFOs is because the plain evidence could only be ignored and debunked for so long. The internet made that disinformation strategy near impossible. So now the disinformation strategy has adapted. They will release dribs and drabs as suits their agenda while the rest of us have to figure it out on our own. And therein is the key to our power. If you want to know some of what they aren't telling us check out the documentary "Close Encounters of the Fifth Kind" by Dr. Stephen Greer on Prime Video for a mind blowing alternative to the goverment propaganda on the subject.
18
I'm getting disheartened with all the reports of what people believe they or others have personally seen. But if the topic were ghosts rather than UFOs I suppose the numbers of such comments would be at least 10x what we have here! Neuroscientists have shown that when we "see" something, 90% of the input to our visual cortex is from other parts of our brain and only 10% from our retinas. Without that 90% we would only sense shifting blobs of light and unnamed colors. That's why we need objective, recorded data/images that can be studied in depth to replace these unidentified objects that our brains construct for us "on the fly(!)" and our memories rework every time we think of them. And to respond to a point that a number of the commenters have made, people with military experience, pilots, and those with high security clearances are no less dependent on the 90% internal sense-making and unreliable memories than are the rest of us.
11
This is not new. People in the know have dealt with this appropriately to the norms of our society in real-time.
The important item is to classify these events to prevent misunderstandings in conflicting air space. If taken for granted security also could be compromised.
The idea of UFOs is romantic. Let's not spend tax dollars on romance. We have never had more eyes in the sky than in the modern era (recent 9/11 and pandemic interludes aside.) That trend is only going to get stronger as drones and space junk proliferate. That said, this is the best video we have of these?
The undercurrent here is to undermine public confidence in government. That is the story.
This is hardly newsworthy.
5
Facts: They are here. They've been here for a long time. We don't know what they want. They don't seem to want to harm us unless we try to harm them. The governments of many countries have been aware of them for a long time and have been studying them. They don't have a need to introduce themselves to us. These things we know for sure. There's a lot more that we know to be probable.
10
It is hard to believe that life does not exist elsewhere in the huge universe. But it is equally hard to believe that such extraterrestrial life as does exist would bother to snoop on little us, if it is able to travel the incredible distances needed.
13
White oval shaped craft, rapid vertical acceleration, supersonic speeds, no wings, makes the sea beneath it churn in an unusual way; yea, no one has ever built anything like that. Elon Musk is playing with the Press.
2
my bafflement at the low level of science literacy evident in these reader comments is only outweighed by my incomprehension at the longstanding government program of secrecy and misdirection.
there are many similarities between election deniers and UAP deniers, but top of list has to be ulterior motive and a refusal to look at the evidence.
i was sorry to see the NY Times publish not one but two squibs by dr. adam frank that are transparent attempts to raise interest in his exoplanet research by scoffing at UAPs. score one for ulterior motive.
UAPs were known to WW II fighter pilots and two or three photos of them trailing aircraft of the era are on the internet. these "foo fighters" were flying before von braun got the V2 off the ground. they are not "human technology", period.
i am struck by how frequently the sightings are related to the oceans or large bodies of water such as the great lakes. also, by how the behavior of the objects does not seem technologically purposeful but resembles animal behavior wholly indifferent to humans. field biologists and ethologists should be looking at the evidence too, not just physicists.
the UAP report will conclude that lack of evidence is not evidence of a lack. i am skeptical still of the "alien hypothesis" because it is vastly improbable on the galactic scale.
but the evidence is indisputable. these things are real, and while this luminous wildlife displays no hostile intent, we still don't know what it is doing, or why.
19
I think this is great. Why should we be the only living organisms in this humongous universe? Investigate absolutely ----but we can handle the truth. Just tell us.
16
If you want real drama, focus on the invasions happening all around the world by SARS-Cov2. Just because people are tired of reality, that doesn't mean you should feed them nothing-burgers like this.
By the way, when people say they've "eliminated all the alternative explanations" except aliens, it means they've thought about the known unknowns but not the unknown unknowns. You cannot detect aliens by a method of elimination, as if it were a multiple-choice test.
4
Here's the simple answer: they are products of fear - specifically, fear of nuclear weapons, and their delivery from high-flying airplanes at first, and intercontinental ballistic missiles next.
Born of the atomic age, this wholly-invented product of the human mind can turn unusual sightings of birds, unusual airplanes, crashing space debris, parts of satellites, etc., into mysterious and profound threats.
We've never encountered even the most primitive forms of life within our own solar system. Given the vast, impenetrable distances between other extraterrestrial bodies, the odds we'll ever encounter "intelligent" life from another planet are infinitesimally small. That doesn't stop the most rational, intelligent people - even ones you may know, even you - from allowing dread to overwhelm common sense.
They're all in your mind.
3
The one upside of contact with ETs or, dare I say it, alien invasion, is the possible suspension of human parochial concerns.
And Hollywood has repeatedly given us the roadmap; plucky disparate humans set aside their petty disputes over their gods and tribes, banding together to defeat the true enemy.
On the other hand, as recently outlined by Nicholas Kristof, many Israelis and Palestinians are so entrenched in their vicious squabbling that I wouldn't be surprised if they continued to bomb each other while Mars attacks.
5
Ah, human nature. Anything we don't understand or can't explain must be harmful to us and so requires a military response and this then becomes secret. Note that the Dept. of Defense was tasked with looking into UFO's from the beginning and of course the general public then was denied for decades of what the DoD did and its findings on the subject. There is no reason to keep this secret especially when taxpayers paid for the work of the DoD. Why couldn't this have been assigned to working group of government and the scientific community experts who would look into this and regularly report back to the public about it.
12
I'm now old and never spoke of this but as the subject has been raised and my life determined, I'll share what I saw;
While attending college in the Southern Tier of New York, I of being lesser of maturity but loving life, spent much time in the College radio station as a progressive D.J. then as General manager at WVAT. Our mode of transmissions was by power lines in all the buildings on campus. Each building had a transmitter connected by dedicate phone lines to the station. It was an A.M. broadcast band signal.
On one early evening after coming back to the dorm from the dining hall, I sat on the central stairwell with others including my dearest love. Looking up the stairs talking that rounded the central elevator, there was a wall of windows at each level. I vividly recall looking up at my love and to her left saw a round white object drifting towards the south. I ran like the Dickens as my dad would say, out to the sidewalk in front of the building and stared into the cloudless early evening night in the fall of 1973 about 7PM. It was a featureless that glowed bright white round and sharply defined disc shape that made no noise and drifted slowly from north to south over Alfred NY with the college and University on either side of the valley. I was awe struck unalarmed gazing at the splendor knowing it was real, not a cloud or plane, or anything ever seen. It drifted from North to South and then out of sight to the South. I never mentioned it until now.
27
At the time, I set to mind an easy way to remember what I could. What I saw was bright White and round and it's size to the eye was like holding a quarter at arms length.
Later in the early eightees, I purchased a paperback on the subject and learned there had been other sightings at similar times around Rochester.
I never reported it. I saw it. It was peaceful. It was "White All Around".
8
I never reported it to any officials. I had no need to. Anyone who claims to see one is grilled and likely convinced it was something else. I felt no need to tell anyone. I was awe struck. It was peaceful, beautiful, and an experience never to be forgotten. Years later in the 1980's I purchased a paperback of the subject, and read accounts of similar sightings around Rochester at the time frame in which I saw what I saw. It was holy. It was peaceful. It was wonderful. It was angels. As eccentric as that sounds, it has always been my belief.
We are after all expecting Jesus.
I saw "White all Around".
UFOs are here and speaking with the advanced intelligence on this planet...Whales of course.
John Lilly
16
@william hard to argue.
3
To hunt a species to extinction is not logical.
3
The nuclear detonations were a massive electromagnetic pulse generator that might have attracted them.
The synchronized national power grid is an enormously powered 60 cycles per second transmitter.
7
This is my blog analyzing 3 cases of UFOs where the evidence is so strong that skeptics are forced to lie about the details of the incidents:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/5825ea50e4b02b1f5257a03d
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@saronne Thanks. Folks, follow this link, it's worth the read...
1
Uncomfortable Financial Objectives
5
The world is increasingly awash in electronic devices equipped with digital cameras that take crystal clear photographs . . . and, year after year, all we've got are these vague, mushy images that appear in this article? I'm with Times contributor Adam Frank (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/30/opinion/ufo-sightings-report.html?searchResultPosition=1) on this one. I don't think these images amount to anything . . . yet.
10
@Red O. Greene Right. For the same reason ghosts only seem to come out at night.
2
@Red O. Greene You try taking a picture of a fast-moving aerial object 5 to 7 miles away with your hand-held mobile phone and tell me what you get.
8
Psychoanalyst and father of archetypal psychology Carl Jung had something to say about the arising and rearising of such phenomena in the collective unconscience: he said that during times of extreme fracturing of psyches and societies, UFOs--that are often mandala-like in shape--represent a deep desire for Wholeness.
7
@Chellis Glendinning
Carl Jung never saw a UAP. I have along with 13 other witnesses, one, a doctor with the Providence Medical Group all of whom reported it to the National UFO Reporting Center.
Carl Jung took what information he heard during a time of high UAP sightings. Filed in the, "they have to be experiencing psychological phenomena and turmoil based on a blah blah blah profile" file and then presented it to the public. And many people take this for fact but do not believe the countless military observers of UAPs as fact.
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@Clearwater UAP sightings also do not equal anything factual beyond someone seeing something they couldn't identify. That is not a higher ground position in your argument.
2
@Dja
Tell yourself whatever you need to. I do not know exactly what I saw but I know I saw it and so did many other people. And it was, for all of us, something we have never seen before.
You weren't there. You do not know. It's really that simple.
9
As a song title says, “I know there’s something going on.” I think it’s better to try to know and understand what, rather than living in fear, guesswork and innuendo. It’s not politics, it’s life.
12
Look what I found in the New Yorker article: "new research has brought [faster-than-light travel] marginally closer to being achievable in practice." If true, it would be much more interesting than anything else therein or in this Times story. At least, though, it reminds us that there is no law or anything else that requires journalists to, you know, actually learn the truth.
1
@Charles Packer You're just being argumentative to the point of being unreasonable. Nothing in that article should lead anyone to conclude faster than light travel is possible outside of an extremely small, extremely limited experiment. That article doesn't make the author, you know, ignorant of the "truth".
4
Because humans are the dominant species on Earth, many are blinded by egocentrism (and fear) that prevents folks from believing that there is any life beyond Earth that is more intelligent than humans.
8
Today almost everybody has a smart phone capable of taking high definition video. Where are the high def videos of aliens and their space ships?
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@TD
In fact there are many available to see online from credible observers. But you are commenting in the NYT obviously without doing your due diligence and yet still commenting that none exist.
You have not done your job but are rendering a question/statement about others who have done their job.
9
@Clearwater Can you attach some links? I'd love to see it. But I've been looking for 20 minutes, with different search terms, and still can't find any HD footage.
9
@Clearwater I did a long google search (10+ pages deep) Outside of the blurry videos shown on the news (and which are unexplained) there are hundreds of links available. Like this: https://www.gettyimages.com/photos/ufo
2
Fellow readers: read up on the 1980 UK Rendlesham case, the 1997 Pheonix Lights, the many incursions of UFOs over US nuclear facilities. Read up on the long history of close encounters and “abductions.” Then ask yourself if it’s plausible that every one of those people are deluded, or fabricators. Only when you understand the scope and scale of the “phenomenon” over the past 70 years will you begin to see the outlines: the Earth has been, and is being visited by non-human intelligences. Enough denial already.
8
@Jeffrey Smith Quantity does not equal quality. When The War of the Worlds radio program was broadcast in 1938, millions of people were absolutely certain we were being invaded.
I fully believe alien visitors are a possibility, but how can we still not have definitive evidence beyond nebulous sighting claims? I'll believe it when it's been proven as fact -- which has yet to happen.
3
They are already here and among us
4
As a distraction, diverting attention from Republican state voter suppression laws and their national refusal to negotiate in good faith and enact necessary legislation. Mitch McConnell is reveling in foolish talk about extra-terrestrials.
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I'm sure others have reminded people of several historic truths. And I choose the word "truth" consciously.
In early summer of '47 a sober, never prone to lying and successful business man with his own airplane, Kenneth Arnold saw 9 flying disc shaped craft skipping and gliding in formation at what he estimate was at times 1100mph across the skies both under him and over him near Mt. Rainier, Wa.
Gordon Cooper, the beloved Mercury astronaut and Gemini program coordinator had two encounters, one in which he filmed, saucer shaped vehicles who had as he described, "performance we didn't and couldn't have had then, nor the Russians or anyone else".
In 1966 along the Malmstrom AFB nuclear missile range in Montana, a huge glowing reddish saucer shaped disc hovered over a topside nuclear missile installation so the topside guards called immediately down to missile control getting a Capt. Salas on the phone to report it. Within moments a string of 10 to 20 of our nuclear missiles went "offline". Inoperable. The missiles are not connected electronically to each other. The official report later filed by a General states that a UFO appeared to render our missiles ineffective.
The Military, CIA, along with carefully chosen civilian yet government connected scientists like the Dr. Condon worked hard to feed a story to media and public that only nuts and kooks have seen "flying saucers".
Like Trump, it's what you do when you can't control something. You lie.
12
The UFOs reported in the 1890s looked and behaved like advanced balloons. In one report the occupants waved at the observers a on the ground and were annoyed when their anchor line got caught in a chimney. (This was shown to be a hoax, but there were other similar sightings that were not.)
During WWII fighter pilots reported "foo fighters" that outpaced their propeller-driven airplanes.
Now we have hypersonic UFOs that play tag with our most advanced aircraft.
I don't know what these sightings are, nor do I have the technical expertise to assess the possibility that radar or cameras have malfunctioned. But I do find it interesting that, historically speaking, UFOs have tended to resemble the best current technology but with better performance. Why is it that UFO tech seems to keep pace with but just somewhat better than, our own?
13
@Gary - you raise an interesting point that has a plausible explanation: we only explain things, we can only understand things, in terms that are familiar to us.
the UAPs will appear to outperform our current technology because our current technology is the only context we have for explanation or description. balloons in the 19th century, aircraft in the 20th.
people assume that these are metallic vessels zipping around with alien passengers inside because that is how we get from LA to tokyo. we say alien spacecraft because we watch science fiction movies. and so on.
many visual reports call them metallic, because they seem to have a metallic appearance. but many things can create that appearance and it may only be an epiphenomenon.
what strikes me is that the most sober and carefully observed reports over the past seven decades -- i mean those by the military, pilots, air traffic controllers, radar operators and so forth -- often come down to the same statement:
"like nothing i have ever seen before."
and they do not say that hysterically or metaphorically. it's a factual judgment. and we should take that phrase seriously as the starting point for our inquiry.
10
My father, a decorated and partially disabled WWII vet who worked as a supervisor for the Massachusetts Highway Department, laughed at those who believed in UFO's. Then, one morning in early 1971, he came home and told us that he and two of his workers had seen one.
My father looked out his office window and saw what looked like an airplane, lights on, in a combat-like dive in the night sky, so he got in his vehicle and followed it. Upon catching up to it as it slowed, his pickup, a car and the snowplow his workers were in all lost their power and stalled on a secondary state road. He immediately noticed a large, silent object with multicolored lights about 200 feet away. This lasted about three minutes after which the object disappeared. My father got out of his vehicle, but all of the others were afraid to do so.
He mentioned his workers were afraid to even talk about it. Several months later, age 17, I was at his state garage and asked those workers. They gave me the same response, a look of fear in their eyes.
My father called Otis Air Force Base and actually got a duty officer. The officer said there was no such thing as UFO's. My father said he was a level-headed combat vet, not prone to delusions, and ended the conversation. He always believed something was going on after what he saw that night.
23
A bunch of grainy, poorly illuminated, out-of-focus images and videos can't convince anyone of anything.
How come whenever these phenomena occur, especially the one they said occurred over the Atlantic Coast daily for something like 6 months, never seem to occur when someone with a good high resolution camera is around? How come it's always around military activities? Don't commercial pilots also see these phenomena?
It could be anything; it could be nothing. A few high-resolution, well-illuminated images or videos could easily settle the question. Let's see what comes out with the report.
12
I wouldn’t get too bent out of shape about these craft being some form of advanced technology developed by our Earthly adversaries. For, if they exist, they have been visiting us for decades, maybe centuries or millennia. Certainly, the Chinese and Russians did not have ultrasonic drones in the 1950s.
And if they are non-terrestrial and hostile, they are the slowest moving invasion force imaginable. More likely, they are curious, waiting for us to get our collective act together. Why attempt contact when the odds are that we’d lob a missile at them? I sure wouldn’t want to be the first one out of the ship! You’d hardly say, “we come in peace,” before someone threw down on you with an AR-15.
14
@DaWill "And if they are non-terrestrial and hostile, they are the slowest moving invasion force imaginable."
Unless they have, like the body snatchers, morphed into corporate-beholden politicians. That takeover is almost complete.
4
I wish that the great John Keel was still alive to read this.
2
If there are more stars and solar systems in the universe than all the sands on all the beaches of the world. Why would extraterrestrials pick this grain of sand to explore? They wouldn’t, it’s our ego-centricity that fosters the concept that we are that interesting.
11
@David J
Why do some women or men who can have any spouse in the world choose mates that make us wonder? Why presume that ETs would not find us fascinating? Some closeted intellectuals may find a simple beach as engaging as a philosophical treatise. Some pointed head intellectuals may prefer a milkmaid to a Harvard graduate.
2
@David J Humans study everything under the sun; there are probably plenty of aliens who would do the same.
4
If they happen to come here, they are probably looking for food.
4
Hilariously, the UFO thing also gets politicized. Watching those videos about UFO and commented by “experts” this particular video talked about Iranians and UFOs. It stated that in several occasions Iranian pilots were followed by the “objects” What it is hilarious here is that two of the jets were destroyed by a UFO attack. In the other hand UFO in the western world are friendly to pilots and people, some of them abducted by aliens and taking for UFO rides. According to “legends” in the USA at the famous Area 51 there are “alien spaceship” “alien remains” some even claim some aliens alive and well sharing their technology with the USA... isn’t amazing?
1
@BrokenEnglish. It would be hilarious if the reports of the craft weren't exclusive to the US or to the 21st century for that matter. The recently released documentary The Phenomenon is compelling. And what's hilarious is it's made me realize we may think we know everything, but we don't!
1
@BrokenEnglish.
Yes, I'm one of the aliens, "alive and well sharing their technology with the USA..." Amazing indeed!
3
Modern history of UFO sightings did not start in 1947 with Kenneth Arnold. Do better research.
9
U.S. fighter pilots in WWII saw them. In the European theater they called them Foo Fighters. They were also seen by German and Japanese pilots.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foo_fighter
3
Remind me of the movie “ Mars Attacks “ hilarious ,
2
@Thérèsenyc1 Current state of government affairs, they would win.
I would like clarification about these recent sightings. Were they only picked up on screens and with tech, or were they also simultaneously directly viewed by the eye. If several technologies and the visual were all capturing something that would pretty much rule out technological glitches or bugs in the display system.
5
@Steven Skaggs according to what the pilots said they were picked up by radar, by weapons locking systems, and the eyes of the pilots. I'm not saying they were aliens, but they were UFOs and they were there.
4
Wondering why our extraterrestrial friends haven’t made contact? Watch fifteen minutes of world news.
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@Colonel Belvedere Why haven’t our extraterrestrial friends not made contact? They probably had an interest in doing so, but after watching the goings on on this planet, have decided to stay away until we become more civilized. The episode with Trump probably didn’t help.
12
@Colonel Belvedere And what if they did?
People, please stop saying the aliens are shy. If intelligent life was capable of traversing the galaxy to reach us, they would be smart enough to know that humans are a nuisance and just gas us. One of my favorite quotes from the Mothman Prophecies: “why don’t they explain themselves to us?”
“Have you ever tried to explain yourself to a cockroach?”
29
We are focused on the possibility of UFO’s being alien spacecraft because we have essentially become like pre-Galilean Europe: we believe we are the center of the universe. Our narcissistic view maintains that, out of a universe of unknown size, with billions upon billions of other galaxies, some “aliens” have just happened to find our needle-in-a-haystack planet (and on top of that, pester only the U.S, not any other country) and come to explore it, even though we must be light years behind them. Geesh.
9
I wonder if China and Russia are explaining their UFO sightings on US secret technology .
11
The NYT should point out here that while the oral testimony may seem quite compelling, its been demonstrated quite convincingly that the videos, by themselves, do not necessarily show anything unusual and some clearly have mundane explanations. Just search Mick West on Youtube - but he is not the only one.
The awareness that the videos likely do not represent anything special is growing rapidly and ultimately this represents its own mystery. Is this really the best footage available and if not, why wasn't more convincing stuff released? The triangle bokeh UFO is a joke!
9
@Marcus
"Is this really the best footage available and if not, why wasn't more convincing stuff released? The triangle bokeh UFO is a joke!"
I fully agree, and I am not amused. Instead I am alarmed. This is the same equipment they use to strike targets in warfare?
3
They hypersonic objects most likely are using antimatter propulsion. Then again, does it really matter.
4
@David J "antimatter propulsion" ??? :-D
Get ready for many new flying saucer movies and reruns of others. I guess westerns are out of style. It might just save the studios and get us out of our Covid funk.
3
Anything is now OK to read, discuss and ponder as long as it distracts us from our biggest problem, racist capitalism.
22
You’ve earned this month’s Warren Oates quote: “Lighten up, Francis.”
2
Why is there additional classified information?
Someone ask the president.
It’s we who should know the truth.
6
The pilots have said that these hypersonic vehicles are there everyday. Are these the real “scouts.” Why aren’t we taking a closer look? To say they are not extraterrestrials is inconclusive without any close encounters.
3
Oh my, my, my. Finally, here we are. Things are about to change.
4
UFO “flaps” always flare up in times of national uncertainty: Red-Scare 50s, Malaise Era, now.
What are these objects? I cannot say for earlier eras, but today’s sightings are vexing because the craft show up for military pilots.
So, as another respondent noted, what is the simplest explanation, using Occam’s Razor? Foreign drones probing our defenses, not aliens.
6
@Peak Oiler Generally speaking, Im a big fan of the Occams Razor thinking too, but foreign drones exhibiting, amongst other things!, vastly superior speed and movement, suggesting they have somehow (china, russia, the EU?) had a gigantic leap forward in tech? I think not.
Maybe the simplest (and best) explanation is ET tech.
8
@d "When you have discarded the impossible, whatever remains, as unlikely as it may be is perforce the truth" Conan Doyle
2
Moreover, God help us if it is ET. I'd rather face an adversary we know than one scouting us from the Stars.
We have no way of knowing if ET will be friendly. I do subscribe to Cixin Liu's "Dark Forest" hypothesis about SETI: the best thing we can do is listen. The worst? Proclaim our presence, loudly.
It may be the worst and final mistake our species makes to consider a more advanced civilization to be benevolent. Just ask the Aztecs.
The key is the word "unidentified" in UFO. If the phenomena are unidentified, then why do so many rush to attribute such sightings to LGM's?
2
@Bill: They believe because they want to believe. For other popular examples, reference most religions. For where it can lead, reference the Heaven’s Gate incident involving a joke by a radio guy about a UFO following the (real) comet Hale-Bopp, and three dozen cultists extremely hopeful about ascension.
5
What part of “unidentified” so they not understand? Everything was unidentified at some point
1
Has any other military reported sightings? What do the French and British know. We are the only country of interest these mysterious craft investigate?
When it comes to the government explaining UFOs, it’s like watching a B movie.
No one in command has every told a pilot to take a closer look that we know of.
It’s the classified report we’d like to see.
3
@David J
Hi David, check out GEiPAN it is a ufo research office of the CNES ( french nasa ) . Also lots of research in Africa ( as the most famous 1993 case ariel school landing in ruwa with 100 students kids meeting ET beings, you can see videos on youtube of those kids then and now taking about it ) the uk has had prime cases too. Its not just the US. Lots in Australia too and research too.
5
Well if Rubio is taking UFOs seriously, there is nothing more to be said.
16
the recent reports only fuel those who rely on the old faith trope. absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. not ruling it out, leaves the UFO snake oil experts plenty of room to sell their wares to gullible audiences
5
There are more stars in this known universe than sand on the earth. There are trillions of universes. Do the math. What makes you think we are the only one in this universe. The government knew about Extra-Terrestrial visitations from years ago. Their quest to learn and reverse engineer alien technology is first and foremost and the best-kept secret. Sightings increased dramatically when we tested and used the atom bomb. The splitting of the atom not only caused destruction here but also in other dimensions/universes. This caught their attention that man can cause major damage to everyone. The majority of the sightings are near nuclear silos, nuclear plants, nuclear warships, carriers, and submarines. Human beings with this kind of warp speed alien technology will use it for military purposes and try to conquer their fellow man and probably aliens as well if they get hold of the technology (think the destruction of the American Indians once the new world was discovered). Would you put a 3-year-old behind the wheel of a Ferrari? Besides the military using the "people will panic" excuse for not telling you the truth, religion also comes into play. Will you get depressed or barbaric to know that the words "In the beginning" may not be true? Rest assured there is a Superior Being that made all this happened but did you ever think that the Superior Being would put all its eggs in one basket? Would you?
8
I don't presume to think that I can think like the Superior Being. I don't presume human logic applies.
2
Scientists: Thus far there is insufficient evidence to confirm that UFOs are extraterrestrial aliens.
QAnon response: But you can’t prove that they aren’t extraterrestrials.
2
@Puny Earthling , Rep.Marjorie Green thinks they’re Jewish extraterrestrials. Of course, why didn’t I think of it. They do resemble yarmulkas..
11
There are lots of possible explanations for whatever the objects are. As much as I think they are autonomous drones from another planet, the far greater likelihood is that the objects are advanced technology from good old Earth.
Just because our government (which can never be trusted) says the objects are not advanced U.S. military equipment, does not mean they are not. It would not be the first time our government has kept military equipment secret. That the sightings made public are primarily in U.S. airspace makes it likely the machines are from this country.
However, there is no reason these devices cannot be Russian or Chinese in origin. American hubris drives one to assume the Russians or Chinese could not have developed such technology, but why not? They are just as smart as us and are good at keeping secrets.
And finally, no matter where these objects originate, why assume there are humans or other beings on board? It seems entirely plausible that these are autonomous drones. Just because “we” need to have a remote pilot controlling a drone does not mean it is the only option.
2
@Noley The government can NEVER be trusted?? Why would they be testing the 'secret' tech amongst navy training exercises, to the point where these pilots are saying they see them all the time, and in some cases have had near collisions? It dosen't make any sense. Suggesting its vastly superior Russian or Chinese tech makes even less sense.
Im finding the close minded scepticism baffling.
5
My guess is that some of these phenomena are projected holographic images as part of someone's program for sowing confusion in military situations which is why they are most seen around naval ships, planes and bases.
7
Spoofing radar is just as old as radar, that is, early WW II. First it was chaff, then active jamming. If anyone imagines that our country hasn’t gone beyond that stage in 80 years….
Current systems, even (gasp) those from Boeing, do much more than put a dot on a screen. To be at all useful, the avionics has to work over the signal to help the pilot, or the shipboard or ground operator so that we don’t shoot at each other, or birds. If an adversary knows how your system interprets radar returns or infrared images, then a countermeasure to confuse it can be implemented. Can anyone imagine that we don’t test countermeasures in training?
The bottom line is that pilots see these things quite a bit. They have no authorization to shoot at them, and there have been no requests to Congress for anti-UFO weaponry programs.
2
@Marat1784
1974 to 1977 I worked on electronic warfare systems on the F-111F. It had among others the ALQ-94 system (vastly outdated by the early 80s) that could transmit a ghost image back to a ground radar to convince it to fire a missile at the ghost 50 yards or more from where the plane actually was. Once while debriefing pilots about in air malfunctions I was able to see a computer printout of a training mission showing the actual vs. ghosted image being tracked.
2
Arthur C. Clarke said “Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.” The most difficult for any government—or any military for that matter—would be to admit its ignorance as well as its impotence when facing a recurrent unidentified phenomenon. As a matter of fact, the first thing that the UAP phenomenon teaches us is that, given our actual scientific knowledge and means, our capabilities to explain and understand what we are witnessing are limited. In other terms, that phenomenon cut us, a new sentient species on the cosmic block, down to size. After all, we are incapable of explaining what 95% of the universe is made of—which is normal considering that we came out of our caves, about 10,000 years ago only. So, let’s not jump to conclusion either way. Let’s keep on observing, hypothesizing, testing…etc. Let’s do science. Nothing can be ruled out indeed. Let’s keep an open mind. Some day we’ll get it. Perhaps.
22
@ Gus,
Clarke’s witty aphorism has been misused many times.
Clarke was a materialist, and understood that all phenomena have a natural explanation.
His science fiction writing should not be confused with his realistic science-based world view.
1
It would seem that an alien technology advanced enough to traverse millions of miles would also be able to elude our technology. Also, if they have been "studying" us since 1947, they're not too smart. A visit to a junior high lunchroom for five minutes would tell them everything they would want to learn of the human race!
7
@Ken 'They' are obviously not trying to elude our technology. Quite the opposite in fact.
2
Washington is devoting over half of our discretionary income on war, so the search for enemies to justify this absurd level of spending will soon go extraterrestrial.
9
@Ed Watters
And now we have (an internationally illegal) "Space Force!"
1
It’s so much fun to think about, but the probabilities are so low given the near infinite size of the universe. But by chance, if these objects are extraterrestrial....please, please take me with you!
8
I saw a UFO which was witnessed by someone else. It was about 4 am in January 1978 in Wellfleet MA. The object was about 20 feet away and hovering about 5 feet above Duck Creek. There were several unique things about the way it worked that amazed us. The quality of the light - very white and bright, it appeared to be in rotation but we could see 8 distinct light sources. When we tried to call the Coast Guard in Truro to report it we both received a wordless message that there was nothing to worry about and we should go back to bed. We eventually decided to return to our beds while the object remained outside hovering. In the morning we were unable to communicate or share our experience with each other or anyone else until about 10 years later when I met my friend at a party. We remembered the same details and had also shared the inability to talk about it until that moment.
11
@banba , no camera?
2
In 1978, cameras were not ubiquitous the way they are now. Hard to imagine, but true.
7
@Banba: I’d be concerned about getting wordless messages from the Coast Guard. The thing was just outside your bedroom window for hours, you had a working phone, no camera and went back to bed?
I think I might have at least tossed a shoe at it.
8
Naturally, all the images of UFOs are far away and fuzzy, as they always have been.
That points to them being some kind of optical phenomenon rather than solid objects.
Decades of study have produced not a shred of evidence that those that remained unidentified were aircraft.
16
“We” are not. You and others in DC are.
Maybe when we’re done with this crucial issue we can move on to leaser concerns like nuclear weapons or carbon.
19
When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
7
@johnlaw I like Sherlock Holmes too, and think there must surely be some there there.
1
@johnlaw
We are far from having eliminating the impossible.
3
Current comments by astrophysicists who are accorded special relevance in the search for extraterrestrial life make a strange very special point that the accumulated evidence by people trained in observing unusual phenomena who have observed strange flying objects performing in manners far beyond the abilities of current human technology must not assume they are possible indications of extraterrestrial life. I seriously wonder why these scientists demand such absolute negativity in that possibility since the unknown phenomena, on scientific standards, should permit a reasonable neutrality as to their cause. There is, of course, reasonable probability that unknown human technological advances may be responsible for these unknowns, but for a responsible scientific authority to forcibly attempt to deny the possibility of extraterrestrial presence strikes me that the scientists are unjustifiably forcibly over positive in their denials.
15
The evidence against extraterrestrial origins is monumental.
For example, such an origin would require faster than light travel at unimaginable distances.
None of the UFOs observed has shown anywhere near that kind of speed, or even a sonic boom that accompanies breaking the sound barrier, a mere 750 miles per hour.
6
@Jerry Engelbach
Back in the late1940's after I had gotten my discharge from the US Army Air Force after WWII, there was the same very strong resistance to presume the possibility of extraterrestrial presence, yet the reports have consistently kept coming in of the same spooky experiences. Undoubtedly there was massive fakery involved but nevertheless there persisted a steady few that remained believable and explainable and anybody who claims scientific veracity should admit that extraterrestrials are possible, though unlikely. To try to fit the unknown into the impossible is a failure that science continually must dispute.
3
@Jan Sand
I've read several of the responses by scientists to these reports and none of them have completely rejected the possibility of extra-terrestrial origin. What each of them said was that you have to be very careful not to jump to any one conclusion until more data is collected. Scientists are conservative people: they don't ascribe to beliefs of any kind until they have enough observations and measurements to reach a conclusion. That generally applies in spades when it comes to gods, demons and aliens.
7
The most likely explanation here is perfectly human technology being tested. The mythos around UFO’s is useful, it keeps next gen weaponry shrouded in mystery, keeps rivals on guard, and if the budget is threatened you can blame it on advanced Chinese drones and get another $100B to “keep up”.
20
It’s truly beyond my comprehension that we could have ET craft within our airspace. The evidence points towards that being a possibility though.
We humans are so relationship oriented that it’s hard to imagine that they would not want to make an introduction, but at the same time we have violent, irrational, and tribal tendencies so I’m not surprised that they are being very shy if they’re here.
We’d probably just use their technology for war if we got a hold of it.
I’m curious, and I think that discovery would be one of the greatest breakthroughs of mankind. The pentagon must have compelling evidence, if they are willing to put their reputation on the line, and risk panic among Americans.
16
The Drake Equation is an interesting thought experiment of the number of exoplanets that could support intelligent life in the trillions of galaxies we know exist within our observable universe. (And there is no reason to suggest they didn’t get a head start on us by a billion or two years.)
Then there is the Fermi paradox, that to put it simply, says, ‘ok where is everybody?’
Then there is Occam's razor, because sometimes the simplest explanation is the most likely.
And as has been said by many other’s in this posting, Carl Sagan’s comment about “extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof”, is relevant in this context.
But clearly something has changed in the acknowledgement by your government that “something” is a bit odd. But low resolution blobby images sadly don’t do it for me.
It would be dumb to think we are the only “intelligent” life in the universe, but we live on a small planet in a fairly ordinary galaxy, in a not particularly interesting part of the universe. So unless, Kubrick, Clarke, Spielberg, Douglas Adams, Asimov ... etc got it right, I really don’t think “anyone out there” is in the least bit interested in us.
Or maybe I’m totally wrong and the last word should be from that well know “believer” Fox Mulder:
“We must ask ourselves ... are they really a hoax? Are we truly alone? Or are we being lied to? Your own government lies as a matter of course, as a matter of policy ...”
21
It appears that there is no repetition of type of thing sighted and no recurrence either. Perhaps it is multiple alien species all of whom find us uniformly uninteresting enough to not investigate further.
13
Sorry to rain on your parade ETers, but for hundreds of years we humans have been reporting the sightings of ghosts, virgins, monsters, little green men, gods, strange flying things, beautiful fish women, etc. I myself once as a teenager at a troubled time, woke up suddenly in the middle of the night to see for a second or two what looked like a small old man or lady sitting on my younger brothers bed. I still remember it, couldn't explain it, but by now have learned that our complex brain can mess with us easily..
25
@JCA
Two experienced Navy pilots had their complex brains “messed with” at the same time? And the video is also a figment of their fevered imaginations?
Perhaps what they saw and recorded can be explained away. But to dismiss it and other sightings out of hand seems close-minded to me.
10
@JCA The problem with your position is that the equipment used by the military that has captured the images and videos is not subject to capturing things that are not there unlike our eyes and brains.
9
When I was a boy I met a figure that didn’t reflect any light. It touched me on the cheek. Decades later, my mother told me they had seen something they couldn’t explain also, a figure that didn’t reflect any light. “Your father switched the bedside light on,” she said, “and there it was, standing at the end of the bed. It touched your father.” They were both atheists, my father the most convinced I ever met.
A few years after the visit, about age fourteen, I discovered a small lump under my right cheek, but nothing to be concerned about. I surmise now that he injected something. In 2002 I noticed the lump growing and sought medical attention. The latest biopsy in 2014 indicated an infectious agent or exposure to beryllium.
I had it all confirmed in 1997 without understanding it at the time. I was in London and received a visit from our neighbours back home. They said the people who bought the house had moved out after six weeks. They said they saw a ghost. Of course there is no such thing as ghosts, and those people were of no significance. That was decades after my experience, but it must have been earlier on the figure’s world-line for it to make sense. So the civilisation—us perhaps—that produced that technology must have had an imprecise fix on us.
Eventually physics will discover the real cosmology, along with the potential for novel transportation. However, one of the novelties of such technology is that you can pass the plans backward, or cancel them.
11
While it’s fun to speculate on the idea of Aliens, due to the sheer vastness of space and distance between potentially inhabitable planets, it is unlikely any civilization will have a propulsion and support system capable of reaching Earth.
I will bet good money these are natural phenomenon or just eyes/sensors/radars playing tricks. We don’t have clear photos or videos of these because if they are crystal clear, it will show that.
There’s a guy called Mick West on YT that breaks down the recent UFO videos. Worth checking out for some clear explanations.
12
@G I agree that the videos are fairly easy to explain away, it's the 4 sets of eyes on the tic-tac that I find harder to work through. I'm a natural skeptic, but just dismissing their accounts (not saying you were) without attempting to rationalise what they saw feels like a missed opportunity...
3
This article really does not answer the question of why all the talk about alien visitations is happening now. While I firmly believe that extraterrestrial civilizations exist and and have visited Earth, I am highly skeptical of of this sudden lurch towards "transparency" by the Pentagon and the intelligence community. We are supposed to believe agencies that admit they have lied to the American people about this phenomena for decades? That lied about the existance of WMD in Iraq in order to manufacture consent for their desire for boots on the ground there? That basically have been actively manipulating public opinion towards its own ends since World War II?
I suspect we are hearing about this now because the military / intelligence community wants to manufacture consent for the militarization of space as part of its ratcheting up of tensions with China and Russia -- and for even larger defense appropriations, of course, because "full spectrum dominance" is quite expensive. It is being said that the Secretary of Defense's upcoming report will have few definitive conclusions other than ruling out that these phenomena are secret military projects of the United States. Given their history, even that "conclusion" by the intelligence community should be take with several tons of salt.
43
The simple fact that not one time has any of these craft ever landed and said "take me to your leader" shows that they're not really interested in us. They're either very shy or some undiscovered earth-based phenomenon. I tend to side with Arthur C. Clarke on this one when he said "either there is intelligent life somewhere else in the Universe or there isn't, and either thought is terrifying."
13
@Paul how do you know they did not meet leaders?
7
Artificial intelligence and nanotechnology are advancing so quickly here on Earth that it seems ever less practical or plausible that Earthlings will ever send organic life across the universe toward far horizons when the same or superior explorations will soon be done much more efficiently by electronic means.
Give those extraterrestrials a bit of credit. Odds are they've designed and miniaturized exploratory technology to perfectly mimic and inhabit existing electronic media of any kind anywhere on Earth, such that they're already here, with access to anything that carries an electronic signal.
Major enterprise (pun maybe intended) already has difficulty keeping up with human hackers. Any advanced civilization interested in tourism here will be vastly more covert in their investigations.
4
Personally, I find it very unsettling that the government of the, arguably, greatest nation the world has ever known having the best-funded military in the world and, presumably, ablest intelligence agencies going, is unable to explain what these phenomena are. Frankly that’s more frightening than the thought of little green men landing on The Mall.
5
Or they are just saying they don’t know...
There are obvious viable explanations without it being extraterrestrial. secret tech, optical illusions,...
In the thousands of years of human history we have not one hard piece of evidence. In recent history, not a single high res photo or video despite billions of smart phones.
4
I'd like to see high quality sharp color photos. If there are multiple radar images, I'd like to see them correlated and triangulated to get better distance and speed data.
We keep assuming that these fuzzy radar images are real, that they are like other radar signals that bounce off real things.
What's the possibility that this is a software hack, a way of spoofing the radar of military aircraft to create fake targets on their screens and divert the fighters from real targets?
That would bucket this phenomenon together with the possible microwave weapons that have made some of our diplomats sick in Cuba, Russia, and China.
12
@danarlington you may be right.
But what about those same pilots that detected the unidentified aircraft with their other sensors? You know, their eyes?
13
@ George,
So they claim.
Pilots are just human beings, subject to the same misinterpretations as anyone else.
The evidence is that the vast majority of UFOs were later explained, despite the uncertainty of the pilots.
3
An image is an array of numbers that purports to have some relationship to the number of photons arriving from certain directions, in a certain time interval, in a certain energy (or wavelength) range.
Start with the telescope that receives these photons. How was it aimed? By a person? By some automatic tracking device? Where was the telescope with respect to the ground? How fast was it moving relative to the ground? In what direction was it pointed? Where were the Sun and other bright sources with respect to the telescope?
What are the telescope’s stray light paths and opportunities for reflection between lens surfaces?
Next, the detector. What energy range is it sensitive to? What happens if a pixel is struck by more photons than it can record? Does that result in a spurious signal from adjacent pixels?
Once the pixel brightness values are retrieved from the detector and recorded as data, how are they converted into pictures? For starters, are these positive or negative images? How are contrast and brightness adjusted to make an appealing picture? Does the image processing algorithm include enhancement of edges or fine details?
If we insist on believing our eyes — not necessarily a good idea with completely new and strange phenomena — one simple way to make these videos more convincing, or at least more informative, would be to show them side-by-side with videos of familiar objects taken by the same instrument in the same conditions and processed in the same way.
11
@Steve Fentress
"If we insist on believing our eyes — not necessarily a good idea with completely new and strange phenomena — one simple way to make these videos more convincing, or at least more informative, would be to show them side-by-side with videos of familiar objects taken by the same instrument in the same conditions and processed in the same way."
Yes. If only.
1
I believe.
1
When we watch a "magician" do their act we may be amazed but we know that there is an explanation that doesn't involve magic. I submit that we should have the same attitude about these reports and videos. All of the videos that have been released have fairly mundane, though not always obvious, explanations. Mick West has proposed likely ones in a recent USA Today article and on his website, for those who are curious. If you take the time to study what he has found, it makes sense and leaves one puzzled as to why the media is not digging a little deeper before promoting the plausibility of some other-worldly or sci-fi-type explanation. (The image in this article is very likely the infrared signature of a distant jet and the sudden rotation it appears to perform in the associated video is an artifact of the camera's internal tracking system.) Granted, these UAP/UFO cases are said to have other sources of validation such as radar and pilot observations, but if the only evidence that has been made publicly available for analysis can be so readily shown to have very "worldly" causes, I don't expect the others to bear up either. They may be harder to explain or refute, however, since there is less objective evidence (like a video file) to examine. Remember, the behavioral scientists who study the veracity of eyewitness accounts have shown repeatedly how very unreliable they and the memory they depend on can be. They've also shown how persuasive they can be to other humans.
30
@BenI I'll second your recommendation of Mick West who has done some amazing work analyzing these recent sightings. He has a YouTube channel; go there and search for Mick West. Better yet, here's a link:
https://www.youtube.com/user/mickword/videos
6
Twisting every which way to provide an answer only emphasizes the underlying mystery of these phenomena, which all kinds of people have reported for many years.
5
Normally, I'd be completely onboard with this position and its the one I've held up until recently.
But watching the 60 mins segment and seeing our top pilots flying some of our most advanced planes say with complete sincerity that they are seeing, on a fairly regular basis, flying objects with incredible speed frequently corroborated by multiple pilots, radar and images in some cases makes me think there is more to it.
13
Perhaps E.T.I. will prevent us from exterminating ourselves in nuclear/biological warfare...
10
"There are more things in Heaven and earth Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy," Hamlet tells him. Indeed, Voltaire said it would be no more miraculous to be born twice than to be born once, Ditto to extra-terrestrial life. It would be very surprising if extra-terrestrial life did not exist. In any case, it would be somewhat comforting to discover intelligent life at least somewhere in the universe.
43
@ Frank,
Voltaire was being tongue-in-cheek.
Being born is not miraculous. It’s a natural event.
Being born twice is impossible.
3
@Jerry Engelbach
I guess what Voltaire meant was that the same way we came through the canal once we can do it again. There's nothing that we should ever say no to. The universe itself is either sin causa or caused by a deity who's sin causa. Conception is a natural event but where did the first humans come from? The great British bard wrote" "We are such stuff as dreams are made on and our little lives are rounded with a sleep."
2
One would think that with the apparent consistency with which Navy pilots are seeing these UFOs, they would equip a few of their jets with high-quality, high frame-rate cameras.
But no, we have to be subject to these grainy, low-res pictures in order to continue to fuel speculation.
63
agreed
11
@Santa: Obviously, Navy warships circulating in an area designated for lots of carrier flight training, close to our shores, must find no reason to take better pictures, attempt to communicate by radio with the intruders, fire missiles at them or, in one case, explore the area of the sea where one vanished. Clearly, possible extra-terrestrials with vastly superior technology present no threat to the United States of America.
Unless…..
4
@Santa High quality footage exists, but remains classified.
17
They are talking about UFO's because they will have to "explain away" the rapture.
3
@Trina
A very plausible explanation. One I have never heard before ...the time is near
3
The fact that the government is acknowledging these things exist, are real and that it doesn’t know what they are, is a development that could start a new epoch in human history.
The Government May backtrack into secrecy, cover up and dismissal, as it has done for over 70 years. Or it could continue with its limited disclosure. Limited, yes. It is safe to say the government knows more about these things than it is willing to admit, as we know from the classified portion of the forthcoming report, and from the heavily redacted portions too but it of FOIA documents that have been released. (See theblackvault.com).
However we slice it, this is major news. Because these things represent technology that is far beyond our current understanding of physics and thermodynamics. Stay tuned. It won’t be sudden and it won’t be cataclysmic, but we will learn more.
And it seems highly unlikely that the Russian or Chinese science programs have advanced this far beyond us. In fact, it seems impossible.
52
The Russian and Chinese advanced technology hypothesis is bunk, because these phenomena were reported way back,at least from the 1950s.
7
@Mr. Little
I question the evidence on which your last two sentences are based. I see many Chinese, and rarely Russian, scientists at the university here. They are eager to learn, and the students do not seem subject to the anti-scientific dumb-down nerd-calling attitude that is so pervasive in Western consumption youth culture. I see often both in the eyes of these students and in the eyes of the senior staff, a superior attitude with respect to the other group. There is little communication and even less rapport.
There is much lip-serving talk of not being racist (and being antifeminine) among the senior staff, who in their defense often seems to be overworked, overwhelmed, unrecognized, and underpaid, certainly compared to scientists doing similar work in industry.
I fear this all will not end well: given the importance of science and technology in society, also in competition with adversarial systems, it may be a grave error to underestimate Russian and Chinese science programs. Both the current gulf of ransom software and Trump's attack on democracy show that these countries hardly feel inhibited to act opportunistically if not aggressively in new areas that are opening up. Any smug superiority and complacency are out of place.
3
The ONLY thing I am sure of is that the government will give misinformation to distort the truth of what they actually know just as they have done for over 70 years. Period.
16
When I search my brain and, yes, my heart - I know life exists throughout the universe whether we choose to believe or not. The honest truth is we are not ready to meet with other intelligence, we are barbaric and should be utterly ashamed to host a greater species. Mankind chases war and technology for more war while letting our own children die of hunger and disease every day. I would be mortified and humiliated to have to explain that to a greater species. It wouldn’t be safe for them if we cant even make our planet safe for ourselves. We are garbage and I don’t blame them for trying to keep distance with humans. If they're here, its out of concern for our planet not our species.
87
@Cate you're probably right.
It just dawned on me that we may be the closest approximation to the Klingons from Star Trek. Barbaric, ruthless, without remorse. We treat each other like this every day. How would we treat an entirely different intelligent form of life?
20
Time to end the secrecy that has gone on far too long.
I'm convinced that these are real. Twice in my life I have seen unexplained aerial phenomena. I've spent my life in the aviation business and I know darn well what airplanes, helicopters, drones, and balloons look like. These were nothing of that kind.
I believe that it's very possible that these are extraterrestrial There are far too many very credible witnesses who have stated on record that they were involved in efforts to suppress the truth about these things either by outright threats or by ridicule.
Our species has come from horse and buggy to spaceflight in little more than a century. It's reasonable to assume that given the size of our galaxy our planet is well behind space faring civilizations.
And if they are real they are most definitely not a threat.
26
@Venus Transit and hopefully they have noticed our climate change problem and slowly sucking out the carbon di oxide from atmosphere!
4
I hope these UAPs are human-designed vehicles.
How depressing to think that a super intelligent species might be visiting our world (perhaps for decades) and they want nothing to do with us.
16
This is exciting as we finally learn the true origins of Donald Trump.
64
@Steve Don't give him that much credit. The beings that made these technologically advanced aircrafts are likely of much higher intelligence than us.
It’s all projection, whether astral or psychological.
Most reports are from the period after the War. If anybody was looking up in the sky and likely to spot something strange there, it might have been somebody like Benjamin Franklin or Galileo, or some of the wise Chinese or Greek ancients.
In the olden days, things were seen as supernatural or religious manifestations. More recently, as machines. What will our children see that we can’t imagine?
7
@Pottree: pretty much. In past centuries, flying/ascended humans had to have big bird wings. Then some sort of vessel, with, say, sails. After Mongolfier, some sort of balloon; then machines. Today, what we see in the movies determine what gets (most) reports: saucerish and thoroughly illuminated and big.
Already, children have no concept of images except as manipulations. Something very far away is a small pixel array, not a round and fuzzy dot. Everything is mutable.
A saucer could land in NY, perhaps ironically on Fifth Avenue, and nobody would think it worth comment.
1
I can't how naive most of you are. Marco and people saying that they want to know whether these "unidentified" objects are Chinese or Russians etc. Give me a break. For over 60 years when these "UFOs" is been seen all over the world, you are telling the US - the greatest Superpower in the World does know what these "UFOs" are? The "Deep state Military" and Corporate cabals know what "UFOs" are. They know most of the "UFOs are ET crafts. Not only does the US knows. we actually have down some of these ET crafts and reverse engineered them. So next you see a UFO craft, that craft can be an actual ET craft or the US reversed engineered craft. You can only tell the difference when you are up close - with the US crafts you see joints where components are joined together but with the real ET crafts, you can't see any joints on the crafts. So anytime, the US military says they don't these "UFOs" are. I just chuckled. They have been lying to us and hiding ET technologies that can save our world for more than 60 years now
8
@Joe So you have been up close to both of these crafts and seen the joints on one but not the other?
3
We are not alone, we've never been alone - Ancient Aliens
I believe!
9
An unidentified "flying" object doesn't seem that interesting. On the other hand, an unidentified "transported" object--some kind of vehicle that can instantaneously move from one location to another without following an obvious travel route--now that would be something to investigate. Aliens simply flying to Earth just seems so prosaic.
1
Ball lightning, weather balloons, swamp gas, or grandiose hoax... take your pick. For those who insist it's some kind of visitation by intelligent beings, it's more likely the sightings are of evasive, time traveling descendants from humanity's remote future than beings who've traveled millions of light years through interstellar space from the planet Vulcan. Either way they must all abide by the Prime Directive.
I don’t think anyone has said these contraptions were maned. They could be remotely guided.
We can't read all the news of this planet. In 1947 when the UFO incident occurred in Area 51 the immediate US govt reflex was denial, falsity, cover up the truth. We say the Russians, the Chinese never speak truthfully, but you have to include the US govt which also lied about UFO sightings ... and did so, lied for almost 70 years. And the US govt is still lying about the UFO sightings today. The US govt makes no excuse for lying. It simply lies and continues to lie. The US govt position to this day is other govts lie more, but this is not true. The US govt lies and has an administrative structure which demands that lies are always used. Either a matter is "secret, top-secret" or citizens have no right to know. No wonder conspiracy theories are pervasive in today's media. Let me simplify US govt lies: UFOs are real. They are vessels sent by an alien, technological advanced civilization. To conclude anything else just brings one back to US govt lies.
7
Maybe aliens really did help us build the pyramids. Whatever these things are, they seem to be centuries ahead technologically.
2
The Pyramids are lumps of stone in a pile , over a grave.
12
Care to comment on the precision needed to build one… consistently?
It’s a tall order even today with all the earth movers you could possibly rent from your neighborhood Home Depot…
1
@Ayzed "Millennia ahead of us", possibly more. A million years is but a blink of the eye in our universe.
3
Can't one of the UFOs simply swoop down over Mar Lago, pick up Trump in a millisecond, and dump him onto some tiny planet he could rule?
27
What did that tiny planet do to deserve THAT?
29
@Marat1784 Maybe a la The Little Prince, he can rule over Boabab trees on his own small rock, with nothing else to entertain his small mind.
2
I'm not into conspiracies at all but were I the head of a government would I release factual data on possible or probable encounters with extraterrestrial life or form? of course I would not. even with the most basic of events like this pandemic how many world leaders initially believed or disclosed proper info from the get go? even after it got serious how many played it down? now you are telling me that we will have a frank disclosure on ufo s?
14
As a professional astronomer and planetarium director I've taken hundreds of reports and investigated dozens. If you don't know what something is in the sky, you can't judge its distance. If you don't know distance you don't know speed. As estimate, "It must've gone 2,000 mph is absolutely meaningless." It takes minutes to report something strange in the sky but weeks or months to investigate and explain it. By then the media has moved on and rarely publishes the explanation. My favorite UFO is the one that chased a Mexican Air Force plane and was captured on radar and video. The pilots were excited - "It followed us!!" Can YOU explain it? We did - after weeks. Watch the video:
http://casa.colorado.edu/~dduncan/UFOs.pptx I've seen many strange things in the sky. None have shown evidence that they are from beyond earth.
17
In 1985, I was 18 and walking down a farm road in rural Pennsylvania--surrounded by large open fields and a symphony of insect noises. Suddenly, it went dead silent. I looked up and saw silver disk -- high enough to confirm it was pretty large, but close enough for me to see the surface had this brushed steel finish. It stayed there, perfectly still for a few moments, and then departed in a split second at a speed that was breathtaking. A moment later, the sounds of the field returned. I took a step forward and a deer burst out of the underbrush near me.
I know that I saw this. I can never forget it. I have no idea what it was, but it's hard to describe how the object and its behavior made me quite certain that it was something far beyond any technology I'd ever seen.
A decade later, I had job connected to cutting edge "pure research" (IRD) funded by the DOD. While marvelous, the what I witnessed that day in 1985 made our cutting edge technology look primitive.
The government's apparent disinterest in such things leads me to conclude that there is very good reason they'd prefer to keep us in the dark about whatever information they may have, and I'm not sure anyone is about to provide that explanation.
88
In 1974 on a very clear moonless Sept night I went to the window and saw something strange
Since I lived near a large airport I was used to seeing things in the air
This was silent and hovered without moving even slightly up or down
It looked like an upside down dish with opaque yellow windows and a pulsating light on the top
It came close to my window and hovered over the roof for several minutes silently revolving counter clockwise
I was enthralled and not frightened but could not take my eyes off it because my fear was it would be gone and I would not believe what I saw
It was a very starry night and in those days street lights were incandescent and there was darkness not like now
Suddenly it rose straight up very quickly and sped away diagonally hurtling into to the stars until the pulsating light was gone
It only took a few seconds
Next morning I reported it and was told other people also reported it and it was a weather balloon
I know what I saw was real and remember everything
I cannot imagine anything being able to do what it did
I did not imagine it was not drunk or on drugs was watching TV when I decided to open the window and saw it
Moving faster than fast silently revolving with yellow windows and a pulsing red light on top
What was it? Definitely not a balloon and when it departed in seconds disappearing into the stars red light gone I went to bed hoping they wouldn’t come back because there is nothing here for them
Still isn’t
13
I guess in regards to UFO's and alien abductions, Carl Sagan said it best.
"Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof"
9
recently a car possibly set a ground speed-record - this involved multiple opposite-direction runs and GPS - it was not officially verified and plans for a redo is underway - this is a vehicle built by us, driven by us, observed by us - with all this attention the record was not certifiable at a level far above every extra-terrestrial 'sighting' ever made - ipso facto 'woo-woo'
2
I can't imagine any beings with the technology to cross the universe and find other sentient beings such as ourselves, would come all that way for some fly-by pranks. Maybe they're just bored and amusing themselves on the way to someplace much more interesting, like parents driving cross country pointing out the deer and such.
13
Maybe visitors spotted in the skies are not from distant galaxies at all, but from Earth and its nearby colonies, traveling from the future to observe in wonder their forebears struggling to overcome suicidal tendencies. They are our grandchildren. Maybe they’re in search of genetic material they require for purposes we can’t yet imagine. Maybe some of their billionaires are selling rides to the past to other future rich people who want to gawk at us like freaks on a midway.
15
But of course, how could we be the only ones? Anything else is solipsism. I also believe that we are very likely many years behind them, both technologically and spiritually. Maybe we can learn something.
21
@Rebecca I don’t know about spiritually, but yes, certainly technologically.
With all out warts, I actually think humanity is better than ‘most’ of whomever are out there from a spiritual perspective. Like most sentient beings, we have the capacity to do both good and evil, and know the difference between the two. We’re given the choice. It’s a miracle we ponder on things at all and choose to do good, even when it’s difficult to do so. I think the worlds major religions are a testament to our spirituality.
2
Gee, wasn't it a Harvard Professor/Writer/Astronomer - Scientist who reported "They're here!" when evaluating an object that was moving against the solar system's general spiral movement, and was seen as a moving spot near our solar system's sun?
We are long past the argument about visiting moving objects in our solar system, in the Earth's atmosphere.
The question is, are these "objects" powered by fusion, and why are they attracted to areas on the earth focused on developing space craft, and rockets, and have nuclear power - such as submarines, naval stations.
I'm guessing that these are "unmanned" units, exploring and searching for radioactive material - in the high mountains there is uranium, all over the planet.
I have no problem with dealing with their ability to achieve inconceivable speeds. They don't leave pollution so, I am guessing that the units are using the cleanest of all possible energy sources, fusion.
4
My father, no nut or fabricator, was a young sergeant on a USAF bomber based in Woodbridge airbase, England in 1952, part of Strategic Air Command.
One afternoon, he and about eight other crewmen, and another crew in another plane in the vicinity, all witnessed a shiny metal capsule shaped object, significantly larger than the average fighter plane, moving at amazing speeds towards them, away from them, around them, hovering suddenly, seemingly "aware" of and "curious" about them. It had no jet wash, no heat signature, no means of propulsion, no portals or windows. The object appeared solid, not a ball of light, and maneuvered so dramatically, and at such enormos speeds, that it would have destroyed any known airframe let alone humans inside of it. Ground radar also picked up blips that would appear and disappear and confounded the operators.
They debriefed their higher ups immediately upon landing. The officers took the report very seriously, and told them not to "go around telling everyone what you saw." It seemed to my father that it was more about not wanting the base to look ridiculous, rather than a personal threat to the crew.
(Woodbridge later became the site of one of the most famous UFO sightings in history, in the mid-70s.)
My 89 year old dad still considers this the most amazing thing he's ever witnessed, and a great mystery to him.
162
@Livonian
You refer later in your comment to the "BentWaters Incident". And as you know went on for three nights. Also known as the British Roswell. Multiple UAPs including one that touched down with service members walking around it, touching it and sketching it's shape and hieroglyphic type images on the side of the craft. Also other flying objects beaming intense laser like light directly onto the ground before the members.
When the acting Base Commander personally observed it and has a pocket tape recorder picking up all the direct communications with his crew you know it's real. He his alive today and still stands by his observations as do all the other Service persons involved.
7
I indulge in the whole UFO phenomena simply because I love aviation and space(in the industry), but my baseline is- if it's not traveling at tremendous speeds, turning on a dime, hovering silently and accelerating away instantaneously I'm not interested. A simple grainy video of a craft not performing outside of the known envelope is nothing to write home about.
However I have heard 2 second hand accounts from other aviators who have seen craft they simply cannot explain. One of which was an Air Force pilot in the Nam era, and his formations of aircraft would be surrounded by "Ufos" that darted around their aircraft effortlessly and had no signs of conventional propulsion. This was in the 60's mind you. Whatever they are, they are highly advanced and thus fascinating to contemplate. I would love to understand how they work as an airplane geek.
9
Everybody saw those in the 60s. If you didn’t, toy weren’t there.
3
Unidentified aerial phenomena has been around for generations. The major news now is, of course, established governmental institutions publicly taking this seriously. Why now? There's a part of me that thinks they know something we don't and they want to break it to us (ever) so gently.
15
I put UAPs in the same category as the existence of Bigfoot and visitations from beyond the grave. Why speculate? Let’s take a wait-and-see approach. I’d like to believe that there is intelligence out there (as opposed to here on earth), but agnosticism is my stance on many phenomena.
Also, why assume that if aliens exist they are here as a threat? Maybe they are totally benign, and only want to serve man!
Get it?
4
Accusing the press and the government as some are here, of hatching these stories as diversions is a little ironic since UFO enthusiasts, and open minded people in general have forever accused the government/mainline press of covering up, or simply not reporting these phenomena. With the kind of documentation being presented, plus (finally) the willingness of various government agencies to admit/publicize the existence of such, the hardened skeptics are going to have a pretty hard time explaining it all away this time around
2
Easy to discount, and even fun to pretend you’re a smart “debunker,” but some of these encounters are all too real.
Alien or foreign power, the technology displayed in the nimitz encounter makes our fighters look like paper airplanes.
4 people observed the object from 2 different cockpits; sensors on ship, planes and land detected it; and we have flir camera footage freely available of it. If it was a balloon it would not be able to outpace an F-18. A drone couldn’t stay airborne that long (unless someone has nuclear powered drones) or move as fast. If it was sensor “tricks” the 4 eyewitness accounts would have diverged. Nobody can say that the Nimitz craft was anything but an unidentifiable object, period.
40
Look at the video I posted. Did it fool you? It fooled all the Air Force people, pilots, and UFO believers until we explained it months later.
1
This report will of course only be about US information; worldwide there are over 20,000 sightings documented by photo, video or military radar evidence alone. American and Russian astronauts have gone on record publicly with their experiences.
Up until about 1967 it was official US government policy to document and investigate all UFO sightings, including scrambling jets to intercept them. That changed with the awareness that our technology couldn't combat whatever it was and that eventually a pursuing aircraft would be destroyed by a UFO in a populated area and the government would have no rational explanation for it.
This then led to a policy of discrediting all sightings, and to destroying the careers of law enforcement personnel who responded to calls about UFOs and became witnesses themselves who would not recant.
There is some reason the current government policy seems to be changing again, possibly with the fear that with private companies now involved in space flight there would be no government control over reports of such sightings and they are trying to get ahead of the narrative.
9
@slangpdx Can you name even one of the law enforcement personnel who had their careers destroyed? Of course, you can't--because nothing like this ever happened.
Project Blue Book and similar efforts were closed down because nobody ever found anything that was a threat to the security of the US or other countries. Nearly all the sightings turned out to be natural phenomena (often Venus, or meteors), weather balloons (yes, weather balloons) or other research balloons, and a huge number of outright hoaxes. Most of the rest remained unexplained for lack of sufficient evidence.
You're merely spinning a conspiracy theory, orders of magnitude bigger than QAnon.
3
@Robert What if you're wrong?
What if some of the sightings are in fact craft of extraterrestrial origin? Can you categorically prove they're not? I can't, nor can I prove they're right.
But given the age and size of just our galaxy, saying that we're alone would be akin to going to the beach, filling a glass with water from the shore, and then looking inside it and determining that because you haven't found any sea life in that glass, there is no life in that ocean.
In a hundred years, we've gone from driving around in carriages drawn by horses, to supersonic planes and spacecraft on mars.
Add another 1000 years and extrapolate. Would we not want to visit everywhere we could if technologically capable?
If we would, why wouldn't any other species? Why wouldn't you visit earth?
5
Do we really care about extra-terrestrials when we have so much on our plates right now? Aren't tons of planetary changes due to climate warming, economic changes due to the pandemic, and political changes due to the existential divisions in our global societies enough? Do we need ETs arriving in their speedy round vehicles (or whatever their intergalactic drives are) in 2021? Or are they just another nuisance in our lives on Earth?
5
@Nan Socolow
Maybe our planet could benefit from the technology they'd be willing to share. They're sure not burning oil to power their craft.
7
We can chew gum and walk at the same time, I hope.
2
The whole treatment of UFO observations in the media after 1947 is extremely puzzling. Whereas observations and written records of UFOs have been made during all history of mankind, it took the methods of mass manipulation to turn them into a taboo by invoking stigmatization.
The implicit message was: Stop free speech! Don't think for yourself! Don't listen to arguments! No detached discussion of issues! Submit!
UFOs are probably real. I wonder how so many people could take part in the cover-up, and especially their motivation for doing so. How has this been possible in a democracy?
Will damages be paid to those that suffered serious consequences (e.g. careerwise) because they honestly stated what they had seen?
5
As a kid in the 1960s, I read everything there was to be found about UFOs dating from the first sightings, and including everything mentioned in this article. Even debated their "real" existence in 7th grade. I'm a retired science teacher now. Sorry, folks. This is a program to explain puzzling phenomena, but as for aliens...nothing to see here.
1
@Science Teacher
Please do your best to explain why 4 US navy pilots have the same story of a roughly 5 min UFO sighting. This eyewitness account is backed up by radar, and gun cameras that confirm their story.
The government is telling you that these crafts can go from 80,000 ft to sea level in one second, and pull maneuvers that defy our knowledge of physics.
Even Obama is coming out and telling people about unexplained UFOs. What is unclassified is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the evidence that they have on these things.
At a certain point it’s more of a stretch to speculate that this is a big whoopsy daisy from the federal government, and they just accidentally implied that they’re seeing signs of ET technology, when it was a really just an error on the radar screen.
2
We are alone in the universe. This is it. This is all we've got to work with. We're it. We are all we have to blaze away going forward. We don't want to take responsibility. That is who we are. A species mainly water with a primitive sense of morality. What we have fostered is indifference. For being a being that usually exploits everything we touch. Everything in sight. If we found other beings, we would enslave them. No one wants to find us. No one is looking at us or building spaceships to come here. Come here for what. Usually, in most issues, the rich are out there carving niches and brands for the rich. What else is there. Why are you here. Maybe they don't want our stuff. Our junk. Our wars. Our poverty. Our sicknesses. Our inequality. Our abuses. Our poisonous environment. Our intransigence. Our hatreds. Our phobias. Our rituals. Our posing. Our lack of shelter for humans who are damaged and exhausted and have given up. Our racist punishments for men of color. Our smallness. Our dog-weary ideologies. Our systems that do not work. Our infrastructure that is rusted wreckage we cling to. The house is falling down, the plumbing leaks, the roof is next, There is a huge hole in the floor. There are real problems. The arrival of another species is a little ironic when we are killing most wild species on this planet and we will be one of them, and we know it. We will be the meat.
14
Poetic but non-scientific. With a galaxy full of stars and other bodies, statistics says otherwise…
That said, one of these decades/ centuries, maybe we will technologically advance enough to discover our galaxial neighbors or maybe they will just actually introduce themselves.
2
A topic that has support from both Democrats and Republicans? Now, that is a phenomenon!
64
Yes, we have too many problems to solve in our country, but let UFO's be, they're just entertainment..
2
I’ve been fascinated by UFO’s from the age of two, and read every book on the subject growing up. Like every other ‘believer’, I always thought back then that the most puzzling and inexplicable cases were probably evidence of extraterrestrial visitation. Today, although I still believe in the reality of the phenomenon, I no longer believe these craft are from another star system light years away in our universe. I think what we’re likely dealing with is some sort of interdimensional phenomenon. Whoever the pilots are, they are organic beings, like us, who need to use technology to cross dimensions from their parallel universe to ours (which may be only a few centimetres away). What people commonly report as ‘ghosts’ or ‘demons’ are another aspect of this interdimensional phenomenon, but represent another species who are non-organic in composition, and can somehow use their own biology to cross dimensions into our world.
Aside from that, I’m convinced the universe is filled with life, but actual extraterrestrial visition may be a very rare and fleeting event, if it happens at all (e.g. Oumuamua). An alien civilisation would have to overlap with us in both time and space, which is pretty unlikely. Civilisations only last for one millions years max, and whoever is out there would need to exist at the same time as us - as a star faring civilisation - and would need to find us among one trillion stars.
13
@Adam After researching Jacques Vallee and John A Keel and reading up on Skinwalker Ranch and Dulce, I'm inclined to agree with the "Ultraterrestrial" theory. Though most UFOs, ghosts, bigfoots, etc. are likely misidentification or hoaxes, there is something to the other dimension theory. It makes more sense then some ET flying light years away just to see us humans.
4
Why must they be aliens?
Planet Earth is the only place in the universe known to have sentient beings that have mastered some technology.
Anyone who thinks time travel will never be possible, but that postulating the future ability to zip through light-year distances is rational, has not given the matter sufficient thought. If visitors exist, they might be future Earthlings.
10
@acule My thoughts, as well.
Perhaps these unidentified flying objects are piloted by our many-great grandchildren, come back to study their ancestors' strange behavior and tell us to stop hating each other, as we're all far more closely related than we think!
2
@acule
That is a clever supposition.
2
The military has assumed a posture of indifference to UAP. This is a common response to a benign stimulus that cannot be controlled or understood. When pursuing reality may lead to something you do not want to know, you get avoidance and denial. Our military has certainly avoided the issue. Ridicule and derision are common responses to something that engenders deep discomfort. However, ridicule is not a valid persuasive argument, nor is obfuscation.
The incursions have been tolerated for sixty years because the CIA produced in effect an estimative probability that is 100% certain that UAP are not foreign adversaries or allies. Any suggestion to the contrary is specious. In an interview, Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-NM, acknowledged as much. Former CIA director John Brennan, as quoted, stated the public version of the estimate.
The incursions have been tolerated because there is nothing that can be done to stop them. They are tolerated with indifference because they have so far been relatively benign and cannot be controlled.
Because UAP are not foreign, by definition they are what everyone is bending over backwards and in contortions to avoid and deny; extraterrestrial. It is avoidance and denial of helplessness and fear. The same helpless fear described by Lt. Col. Alex Dietrich. Nothing on her pylons or in her magazines would have been of use.
Our government’s greatest fear is loss of the basis for all human governance; human primacy and human sovereignty.
25
@John I don't think that's the reason, John. My gut tells me that they are withholding information that could, if known, lead people to give up hope -- that the government has concluded that no good could come of telling us some terrible truth, much the way we try to hide the realities of life from our children.
1
@Tara Meserve
In fact the government has stopped hiding it. The question as the article asks is why now?
Not knowing the truth will not prevent its outcome. It is not right to withhold information of such magnitude from the public. We have a right to know and to collectively make decisions based on that reality.
We are not children and should not be governed by them or treated as such.
2
As Carl Sagan said many years ago, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."
Don't hold your breath for any such evidence in the forthcoming report!
56
Carl Sagan thought it would be a terrible waste of space in this vast universe if we were all alone. It doesn't make sense to me that we would be.
I've been interested since I was a kid six decades ago; read countless accounts, watched dozens of videos when the technology arrived. I came to believe we are being visited; no idea by whom, though I have some thoughts of why.
So now, after 70+ years of denial and coverup, the Pentagon begins to come clean with the public. It has to be more than pilots' complaints motivating them, or the increased number of civilian sightings. What's going on here?
I'd love to think they've received notice there's going to be a landing in full view and they're beginning to prepare us. I've always hoped I'd live long enough to see it.
Assuming, as I do, that some of these craft are steered by super intelligent beings, they likely monitor this "Paper of Record". I'd like them to know I'd consider it a personal favor if they could show themselves pretty soon; at my age it's not like I have years left to wait.
40
Color me skeptical, but not surprised. The Republicans are proposing a $2.3T boost to the Pentagon's budget, already the lucky winner of lavishly ridiculous spending and several unsuccessful audits, for an investigation into what they've denied was real pre-Roswell, while rejecting a real, concrete, (no pun), visibly crumbling infrastructure.
Meanwhile, GOP thinks President Biden's pending $2.3T infrastructure bill is too high, counteroffering with an $890B version. Sigh.
As an avid UAP/science fiction/truth lover, there's more I can say, but DB, a fellow commenter, stated the bottom line in a sensible, pragmatic way that any patriotic, reasonable Republican, (we've at least six), could understand: "...One would be surprised at how far beyond what is widely known actually exists that is part of the so-called "black budget." Aircraft that are being tested at miitary bases are generally what most of the U.F.O.s turn out to be. The technology is classified and, in most cases, won't become public, if at all, for a generation or more."
Should Senator Rubio and his distraction-loving colleagues, (terrified of their conspiracy theory constituents), focus on UAP, (and what little top secret information they're privy to), or investigating the attack on the Capitol by insurrectionists they lovingly refer to as "visitors" and America's impending infrastructure disaster? That's a tough one.
8
Politics aside, do you really believe that reports from the 1950s of flying saucers were mistaken military secret aircraft?
A new war on terror? But not "terrorists" this time - aliens. It will take a little while to convince the public that the industrial military machine really does need another tens of billions to fight this new "enemy" but the groundwork being done now, in answer to the question posed in the headline, is going well. One of the best by stealth marketing campaigns ever.
11
It's a very convenient time for a particular group of people to push this narrative. It's always been around, and it's always been dicey to attach much validity. But now, it does a great job of one thing, undermining confidence that our leaders have been truthful to us. It's part of a certain groups' desire to undermine truth, to undermine belief in institutions, to gaslight us til we cant see straight anymore. It's not a coincidence this is happening now. We should probably think harder about why this topic is being pushed NOW, given everything we have just lived through the past few years.
13
We all know UFOs are aliens, especially if the government report says different. And we know those aliens have been around for millennia, doing things. And that They're the Deep State. Everyone knows that. How else can you explain things?
Most likely this planet is an investment asset traded between various alien portfolios. Aliens own this planet and everyone on it.
12
So if that is true there must be an overseer. Who is the Overseer?
Didn’t anyone see the movie Contact?
These guys come to us through wormholes!
10
About ten years ago, a cylindrical craft approximately twenty-five ft. long appeared and hovered above my house in a remote part of the Catskills. It had no wings, markings and was silent. It was no higher than twenty feet directly above my roof. After hovering for about three minutes, it slowly made its way down the mountainside. I'm in my sixties, and I don't need a report from an agency that treats the population like panic-prone children telling me what might exist.
147
And we don’t need repeated sci-fi concoctions from a handle like “Telekinetic” trying to spoof us.
5
UFOs, like other such anomalous phenomena, are a line drawn in the sand between 'orthodox' (in-the-box) thinkers and their more imaginative (out-of-the-box) confreres. What a dull world one must live in if unable to even imagine the possibility...
13
Just give us CLEAR photos of the craft in our possession. We supposedly have nine of them according to Mr. Lazar. Give us photos we can SEE.
16
Playwrights Sanctuary is including rights of disclosure among topics to examine, process, study, explore in imaginative theatrical ways. Dr. Larry Myers (retired professor of 40 years) has examined the appearance of alleged UFO at Fatima. Growing up near Kecksburg, Pennsylvania., he was one of few allowed on property where alleged UFO crashed (his family knew farm owner years). He 's also visited other UFO alleged crash sites & met with debunkers participating in panels. This week in Nevada is an international UFO conference. Both religious figures & New Age lightworkers feel the upcoming disclosures will only be comprehended by the very knowledgeable.
1
there is a class of humans who truly want to believe that 'help'is on the way
4
I can answer the question in the headline.
It's because credulous major news organizations like the Times are giving the topic attention. These organizations are newly addicted to click revenue and don't mind indulging the most hoary nonsense or muddying their reputations in order to get their fix.
17
Now that Trump's out of office, the aliens are feeling okay about showing up and saying, "Take me to your leader."
181
@Gary
The aliens long ago concluded that among the most intelligent life forms on Earth are birds, bony fish,cephalopods and social insects.
And they have spoken to their leaders about what do about the human pestilence.
6
"We all" are not talking about this now.
Only some.
11
Follow the science.
10
@Legal Eagle
I fully agree.
What we're actually seemingly recognizing is not so much that there are little green men here to take us to Atlantis, but that there are simply unexplained objects flying around that are worth taking seriously, and scientifically. If for nothing other than our own national security.
5
I will point out that if something can travel the great distances involved, it seems likely that it is more in control of things than we are.
20
@Scott And because of that we should probably hope they never make it here.
2
The real concern, as I'm sure this expected report will reiterate, is not aliens from outer space, but rather from aircraft that have penetrated US airspace operated by earthly adversaries. Although most trained in science will instantly understand, eyewitness accounts are notoriously unreliable--and almost useless when it comes to actual scientific study. Whatever these phenomena are (and there may be many completely different causes), few in the Pentagon or in legitimate research labs around the world are worried about visitors from another planet. Their real goal is to find out what causes these "sightings" among pilots--for both national security purposes and for general aviation safety.
18
It’s all magical, kiddies! In the sense that stage magic requires misdirection.
The misdirection is essential right now because-
Congress is broken.
Covid continues to kill.
The economy is robust but half of us haven’t got $500 between us and being broke.
That we haven’t got a reliable foreign war to keep us united, and are shooting each other.
We only have two political parties, and one is trying to destroy our form of government.
And, it’s not taking any alien saucer folk to push our climate into a death spiral.
So look over here, kiddies, a new collection of previously-released, unclassified mysterious things.
While you’re getting excited about the show, remember that, even with ‘near daily’ Navy pilot encounters in a cordoned-off part of the ocean, near our shores, for years, our vigilant military did not care to launch any better attempts to intercept, document, or very oddly, shoot at the invaders. To the Navy, at least, nothing of importance was going on.
21
@Marat1784
I actually prefer a military that doesn't shoot at everything they don't understand.
10
If we sent autonomous drones to monitor another planet where life was developing, we would probably follow the "Star Trek" policy and avoid interaction with intelligent life. So hide the drones in the ocean where the primitive life wouldn't have a chance of seeing them until they are advanced enough to develop air travel and radar.
I think what the Navy pilots are seeing could possibly be alien autonomous drones which were sent into the ocean and occasionally take flight to monitor the Earth's atmosphere. They might not be monitoring humans at all; when they were sent here perhaps life hadn't yet even developed on Earth. It would be reasonable for a civilization to send drones to all reachable planets in a Goldilocks Zone. The civilization that sent them here may have died off by now.
The problem, of course, is the huge distances involved, even when removing biological lifeforms from the equation. But an alien civilization could possibly be a million years older than ours, no one can reasonably predict what our understanding of physics and the universe will be in a million years from now.
24
We were looking up when we should have been looking down.
Maybe they live under the ocean floor and always have.
We oozed out of the ocean onto land. Maybe they oozed into the ocean floor and evolved from there.
Maybe they are Earthlings too...
10
@ivanogre
Maybe H. P. Lovecraft was on to something after all.
4
I hope conspiracists return to their traditional obsession with UFOs. It would be better for all. I’ve dug very modestly into assessments of the Navy videos. One thing that is very clear is that pilots don’t understand their technology well, which is understandable. Top gunners don’t need to know how it works, but it means they don’t know how to interpret the extremity of the technology’s capability, which can lock on to a seagull skimming the water a mile away and make it appear like an object defying physics.
12
Why is it that every time a camera captures an image of a UFO, the quality of footage is grainy and blurred?
136
Tradition.
34
@pork chops - Indeed. There also never seems to be a case where a visual sighting (including those recorded on film and digital media) is accompanied by a radar return or other objective observation.
14
@pork chops
The object is moving too fast to fix for any digital representation.
12
History reveals other empirical stages to witnessing signs from the sky after each’s precipice point.
2
Spend federal money on public schools, on fighting global warming, supporting local businesses, etc. And for for heaven' sake (no pun intended), leave the existential fantasy to Hollywood screenplays.
26
Avail yourself of the archives of newspaper articles from the past about UFOs. You will see that everything happening today happened in the '40s and '50s in a big way. All over. White Sands missile range, Australia, everywhere. Take a look at the "airship" sightings of the 19th and early 20th centuries. This has been happening for a long time. Shun skeptics and debunkers who automatically discard ALL witness testimony. They are shown to be wrong every day, now. Those of us who have seen real UFOs, know they are deluded. The UFO reality will be acknowledged eventually. If the report isn't productive, more leaks will follow --or actions by the devices themselves. The only reason this is happening AGAIN, now as it did in '52 with the big press conference, is that the devices are becoming more active and a channel is being opened to the public by those who would follow the law.
Roscoe Hillenkoetter (head of CIA in '48), and Keyhoe wanted this to happen a long time ago, but they were silenced. The clock is ticking for narrow-minded skeptics and debunkers. It will come out eventually, perhaps even literally, in our skies for another mass sighting at some point in the future.
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@UFO Satan
Actually, the clock has been ticking for as long as the homo sapiens species has been around for its irrational and naive members. Skepticism by definition means 'not narrow mindedness'. Skeptics don't automatically jump to 'narrow' conclusions like UFOs or gods to explain phenomena. We simply demand scientific proof and reserve judgment till provided the same...
6
I've been a UFO nerd since seeing two with my parents one night in 1966, in NH, when I was a kid. That memory is burned into my brain, and I've told the story to many people over the years. No one has ever come up with an explanation for what we saw. So, yes, you can bet that UFO's do exist. But are they probes from another civilization, time machines, or some other phenomena? I'm hoping the government report sheds more light on this question, but I'm not counting on it!
40
It is a distraction. What is being distracted from?
5
@magicisnotreal This is what society has been distracted from.
1
“Something we can’t explain” doesn’t mean “something that threatens our country”. Many things are unexplained and, frankly, not worth investigating (e.g. do you know where your family’s cat was at 2AM this morning?). Why are so many people apparently convinced that a lack of clear explanation indicates extraterrestrial intelligence or a foreign threat? Isn’t ‘a smudge on the window’ or ‘a reflected light’ or ‘a hoax’ a more plausible explanation?
UFOs, in a political sense, seem like an expression of Trumpism: some people are very willing to suspend common sense and doubt credible sources of information, and many politicians are unwilling to tell them they’re crazy!
2
Why poison this subject with politics? Are we so obsessed that we can’t move on to liberating or mind from this one dimensional thinking?
2
extraterrestrial entities that have monitored earth for any period of time surely would have noted by now that mankind has made a mess of a very good thing. They would certainly think twice about setting foot on this planet to do a meet & greet with us. The question is, would extraterrestrials observing the earth intervene on behalf of the planet’s ecosystem, saving our beautiful blue orb & her non-human living things - if they could do so without killing off the human race ?
6
@NoMoTang
A commander of a nuclear base has testified that following a number of his crews' sightings around the perimeter, the missiles in their silos were temporarily immobilized. He took it as a warning that we are not meant to use them. So there's an intervention of sorts.
13
All UFO reports are anecdotal and speculative. No one has ever confirmed such a thing. Photo images, radar images, gunsight images are all subject to misinterpretation, misidentification, and doctoring to be intentional misleading. The odds that there is other intelligent life in a universe with trillions of star systems is very high. The odds that they being spotted doing stealthy flybys of a tiny planet earth, well off the beaten path from anywhere, are vanishing small. Still, the human capacity for imagination is high as is the human capacity for self-deception. (See Religion, of any kind.)
16
@larry bennett
Before you dismiss the extraterrestrial origin of sightings by hallucinating, non-credible witnesses ( beyond presumptuous), I recommend you read the written and oral testimony of one hundred-twenty retired military officers with the highest security clearances possible. They were responsible for the security of nuclear missile sites in three different countries. All of them witnessed an unknown craft hover above and disarm all of the nuclear warheads by remote. It took weeks to get the warheads back on line. I think you can safely read into the message of these events.
Credible enough for you?
17
@Telekinetic Perhaps the "unknown craft" that disarmed the nukes was piloted by our many-great grandchildren, who came back to us from the future.
Perhaps they can keep us from blowing ourselves and our future into molten slag? Kids, we NEED YOU!! Please step in and restore a semblance of sanity to your ancestors.
3
That story is bunk. Check your sources. Our nukes were never offline like that.
4
As someone who's been fascinated with the subject of E.T. contact for over 15 years now, it'll be thrilling to see the government come clean on the subject. even if it's just a tiny confirmation of what those of us who have spent many years researching know for a fact. But I'm not holding my breath. They won't open that can of worms unless absolutely forced to.
14
Whatever the truth is, motivation behind these actions likely has more to do with distraction and manipulation than actually discovering it. It is not easy to move that tiny percent of voters needed to win with truth these days.
Follow the money instead and recognize the rabbit hole before falling in.
Harry Reid from Nevada? Take a trip on the Extraterrestial Hwy there and be shaken by bombs from who knows where near Rachel and area 51. Very eerie.
10
Project Blue Book was used as the source for the Condon Report, which was a scientific effort to catalogue and exam UFO incidents. The Condon Report, which was issued in 1968, was financed by the University of Colorado. Overall, the report concluded that the subject of UFO’s did not merit further study, since they did not exist. However, deep within the report, it was revealed that a quarter of the cases could not be explained.
One of the cases was at an Air Force base in New Mexico where the tower was buzzed by an object estimated to be going over 2000 mph.This was a speed that US fighter jets did not reach for at least another 15 years. The UFO was observed on ground and air radar. Additionally, it was spotted visually by multiple observers at different locations, on the ground, in the air and at the control tower.
Another case occurred in English when several UFO’s raced up and down the country at very high speed. While there were many radar and visual observations of these objects this incident was also ignored in the conclusion of the Condon Report.
As long as there is to be another UFO investigation, it would be a good idea to include the unexplained cases from the Air Force data of Project Bluebook. Maybe this time, the evidence will be based on the data and not on personal opinion.
25
@Tristan Ludlow
I'm sure you're familiar with the happenings at Rendelsham Forrest, a US military base in England. Hard to discount the reports from so many soldiers and officers.
11
The widespread belief in UFOs doesn't say anything about the presence of intelligence in space. It just shows how rare it is here on the earth.
Arthur C. Clarke
121
Why are we talking about UFOs? We hear talk of Trump being reinstated as president in August sometime. We heard talk of the election being a fraud with no evidence to support it. We hear talk the military should execute a coup. We saw the senate vote an investigation into an action that really happened on film on January 6th. UFO just means we haven't identified an object in the air. Frankly that is more reasonable than believing all the former mentioned subjects.
20
@Richard Oh I don't know. I need a break from the downfall of America now and then. It's happening whether I rage against it or not.
11
I had a friend who worked as a fireman on an Air Force base in the desert, and a long time ago he told us there are aircraft we would not believe. Get back to us when there are some decent photos and videos.
20
"I want to believe," FBI Agent Fox 'Spooky' Mulder.
1
Because they are coming to, hopefully, save us, and the government knows this, and is gradually preparing us for contact.
12
@Ponk I would remind you of the Twilight Zone episode "To Serve Man." Yes, the aliens helped us, but To Serve Man turned out to be a cookbook!
4
Having never seen anything of the nature of the description of a UFO I cannot submit any personal information, but it is quite fascinating to read of the very strong denials by officials who openly ridicule the experiences of trained military pilots who affirmed that something quite extraordinary is going on. I seriously wonder what these negative officials have at stake to demand that trained observers must confess they are incompetent.
22
@ Jan,
Most of those phenomena that have baffled the trained pilots were later explained as natural.
Pilots are only human.
1
If the UAPs belong to a foreign adversary, we're already done for, as we have nothing that is even in the same ballpark as their hypersonic vehicles with the ability to become invisible, crafts that can make right-angle turns at accelerations that would crush a human pilot into pulp. If they are extraterrestrial, the large variety of craft used leads one to believe there is more than one type of extraterrestrial species involved, a "galactic federation" (corny and derivative as that sounds, it's what the chief of the Israeli Space program said they were).
To listen to Sen. Rubio, we should suspect them of being hostile, especially as they gather around our Naval ships, but if they are members of an interstellar civilization capable of crossing the void between stars we have no idea of their power, but by just using the vehicles they have allowed us to see, they could destroy us in a heartbeat. So why are they making themselves visible now? And why is the government now agreeing to their existence, and what prevented it from doing so before? If it is true that we are being visited by extraterrestrials, my guess is that they are here to protect us from destroying ourselves, which is why they swarm military bases. They might intervene to prevent an imminent nuclear war. Also, they may be ready to announce themselves. Mankind should get ready for some BIG changes.
54
@DB I agree with you about the black world, but generally what technology is developed in the black is only about a few decades ahead of what exists in the white world (not a whole generation). For example, I’ve heard very tangentially through contacts I had whilst doing my PhD that the NSA already has a working quantum computer for decryption. That was about 8 years ago. Today, a general purpose quantum computer is on the horizon, and some research groups at the big tech companies are already claiming quantum supremacy.
What we’re seing with UFO’s isn’t something that is a few decades ahead. More like a few centuries ahead.
11
@Harold Katcher It will be fascinating to see racists attempt to justify their prejudices when confronted by sentient, intelligent beings that look nothing like us!
If we're truly fortunate, species and racist bigotry is in its last days.
10
“Clustering about our Navy Ship”
Sounds like the Navy is launching a swarm of drones to simulate an attack on the ship or the ship attacking an external target by drone swarm. The first would explain why they disappeared so quickly, our computer controlled Gatling guns work well, the second would be explained by the drones going into stealth mode. In scientific endeavors, the simplest explanation always trumps complexity.
2
In one of the videos that's been hyped, you can see the light pulsing in exactly the same cadence as required lights on airliners. Aliens outfitting their ships with compliant navigation lights? Or out of focus camera?
In another one you can see data indicating the range to the object and from that you can calculate size. It's a large bird several thousand feet high appearing to move fast due to the jet moving fast relative to the bird and the ground. Another one shows an object mysteriously vanishing into the ocean. Or just going over the horizon?
Wake me up when there is independent visual and radar imaging from multiple sources that can't be otherwise explained.
15
@Stan Frymann Unfortunately, the media hedges its bets when discussing the topic. Educate yourself. While skepticism is healthy, your precise request for visual and radar imaging has been acquired time and time again. Of the mentioned cases, the Nimitz incident absolutely did involve multiple radar systems, infrared footage and eyewitnesses. Aside from that, though, look at the Belgian Wave, 1952 DC incidents. In each of these cases, the following is undeniably true: radar data + eyewitness = military pursuit of objects. You have to understand that this data, which exists, is simply not routinely made public. However, at least in the Belgian incidents, their government was much more forthcoming, sharing more radar info, having military personnel confirming it and acknowledging attempts to intercept it. Fine, maybe human technology, but I offer a friendly heads up that insisting its birds or airliners explaining the whole phenomenon is going to be increasingly less tenable (in the public discourse, for anyone who's taken time to study the phenomenon, it's patently absurd).
34
@Stan Frymann You are absolutely correct that the video taken through night vision goggles is just an aeroplane that looks triangular because of the aperture diaphram. That’s quite embarassing (and I wish the media would stop posting it). The rest of the videos though genuinely depict craft of unknown origin based on radically different technology, I believe.
2
Here’s a good wake up call for you then: the 1986 Japan Airlines flight 1628 incident, which was fully recorded on radar by the FAA, and documented by the pilot’s notes, with audio recordings.
1
Area 51 - what are the chances we will finally know what is going on there? What about what was recovered in Roswell in 1947? There are agencies / people who know these things and much more. What kind of pressure is necessary for them to reveal what they know? My sense is that kind of pressure isn't present for the upcoming report. I hope I'm wrong.
3
There is absolutely no pressure to reveal classified US aircraft prototyping and testing. It is, and always has been, something of obvious military importance. There are always a few one-off, or prototype things being tested, as well as production craft with new hardware. Just because ET aficionados can plump up their mutual paranoia doesn’t mean we need to endanger national security to show them ‘everything’.
When the U2 and its successor were being developed and fielded, they were held undisclosed and unidentified for as long as possible. And yes, we had a couple of tries at making saucer-shaped flying things, and even some pieces based on over-enthusiastic Pentagon viewing of the first Star Wars fighters. An X-Wing? Looks good to me…
Also seldom mentioned is the fact that military exercises and training incorporate fabricated challenges, which is a good thing. That is, the unexpected is preparation for the unknown. This extends from pilots to human and automated radar ‘bogeys’, as it should.
My cat is well-aware that the little red laser dot does things no living prey could possibly do, but gets exercise anyway.
4
It’s a fly stuck to the camera lens. It came off during the fighters descent which made it look like tremendous acceleration. Shees guys.
15
@Mark And the fly showed-up on radar?
12
@Dave It was a BIG fly!
10
Look your local yokel weather radar can pick up raindrops, a fly has a larger radar reflectivity than a rain drop. so there use the science maaan
Faster than light travel doesn't pass the smell test.
4
Does our existence pass the smell test? That anything at all exists is incredible and should give us pose as to what is possible.
3
Navy pilots seeing something is one thing, but did NORAD, the people who watch the entire atmosphere for incoming threats, such as missiles or other objects descending from the upper atmosphere, see anything on or about the same time? If they confirm that an object appeared to pass through the outer atmosphere and down to the surface of the Earth at the same time, then we may have a situation. Not proof, but interstellar indigestion at the least.
16
Of course the aliens know how to avoid our pathetic attempts at detection, silly human.
6
@Kvetch Christopher Mellon has indicated that the Uncorrelated Tracks Database at NORAD may contain interesting information. If this is real, then NORAD is aware of it.
6
The great fear of the last 60 years was that NORAD would cause an ICBM launch mistakenly. And end civilization.
Smaller fears were related to other nuclear defenses.
Nothing was ever sent up.
Spurious radar signals thankfully were insufficient to have us launch.
3