http://main.aol.com/2012/04/03/ufo-encounter-pilot_n_1405945.html

Wow, a nice read!

Really makes you think about what other beings exist. But then the discussion dies as soon as simple calculations show that even at really high velocities it would take them several years/decades to reach here.

4/11/2012 4:44:47 AM

I, too, have seen objects that flew that I could not identify.

4/11/2012 7:02:14 AM

Quote :

""At about 9 o'clock, we were descending from a high altitude -- around 33,000 feet -- and I looked off to the right side of the airplane where I saw a solid red light at our 1:00 o'clock position and altitude," Jividen told The Huffington Post"

4/11/2012 8:12:50 AM

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning

4/11/2012 8:33:50 AM

i, too, believe

i have seen some strange things in the sky that were unidentifiable by me.

4/11/2012 9:33:04 AM

Quote :

"But then the discussion dies as soon as simple calculations show that even at really high velocities it would take them several years/decades to reach here."

I believe it was Arthur C. Clarke who said something along the lines of "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Take a look at the technology level humans were at 2000 years ago -- something as simple to us as a flashlight or a wristwatch would be deemed as magic or some kind of sorcery.

I don't think it is too absurd to think that any intelligent life out there in the universe could develop some kind of advanced technology that we can't even begin to imagine. There is a good chance that any intelligent life out there could be tens of thousands of years ahead of us in evolution and technology.

(also, swamp gas)

[Edited on April 11, 2012 at 10:10 AM. Reason : ]

4/11/2012 10:10:09 AM

exactly, in terms of being an intelligence race in respect to what we believe to be the age of our galaxy, we are still infants.

4/11/2012 10:13:26 AM

Humans have been around for only a tiny fraction of Earth's History, and we've only evolved beyond mammoth hunts and cave paintings in the past few thousand years. Its more about timing than anything else. If (when?) we discover alien life ( or they discover us), odds are we'll be at markedly different points on the evolutionary spectrum. Even a couple hundred years head start will make them seem like gods compared to us.

4/11/2012 10:15:19 AM

An interesting theory is that UFOs and Extra Terrestrials are inter-dimensional beings/travelers. Rather than inter-planetary.

4/11/2012 11:54:19 AM

Quote :

" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning "

Way to not read the the whole thing.

Also, I think effing jet fighter pilots would know about ball lightning.

Quote :

""After several minutes [the object] didn't change size, shape or intensity, which means that it not only accelerated in front of him and stopped at his 11:00 o'clock position, but it then maintained his forward velocity. We have to ask what kind of natural phenomenon can do that?""

More detail:

Quote :

"As he turned toward the object, Jividen says it turned toward his plane. "It suddenly flew from right to left, across the nose [of our plane], and just stopped at our 11:00 o'clock position. At that point, I started to speed up to see if I could close on the object, and as I [did that], it was pacing me in front. In other words, as I'd speed up, he'd speed up. "So, I decided to descend to place the object against a star field to make sure that it was actually solid, and then I climbed so that I could silhouette the object against the Gulf of Mexico." Jividen says the five-minute encounter came to an end when the reddish UFO flew away at a very high rate and disappeared over the horizon in the direction of New Orleans."

4/11/2012 11:59:10 AM

i've never heard of ball lightning. hm.

[Edited on April 11, 2012 at 12:13 PM. Reason : therefore, aliens]

4/11/2012 12:13:29 PM

therefore, you are not a jet fighter pilot.

but seriously, ball lightning that can copy your fighter jet moves?

ball lightning with a brain?

4/11/2012 12:16:18 PM

Just some jackass behind the pilot's seat with a laser pointer, reflecting it off the inside of the canopy!

4/11/2012 9:22:23 PM

4/11/2012 9:27:38 PM

when i was coming up, i read every damn UFO book available at the library

4/11/2012 9:30:41 PM

I recently saw three white lights in a triangle (pointing down) with a smaller solid green light below (no strobes). This was at NC 54 and I-40 near the Durham/Chapel Hill line. The object descended straight down with no lateral movement whatsoever and became one solid white light. I reported it and the sighting matched up to a number of similar reports within a 30 mile radius on other nights. This is what the MUFON investigator told me when they called. I am a scientist so keeping that in mind I can't draw any conclusions as to what it was. One thing I do know is it didn't resemble any kind of conventional aircraft.

4/11/2012 9:35:26 PM

I have never seen a UFO, but I really want to. I tend to believe in them as a possibility of other intelligent life and technology. A friend of mine, who I feel is credible and had no reason to lie, told me that he had seen a silver UFO back in college while he was at the beach.

4/11/2012 11:30:37 PM

Quote :

"I have never seen a UFO, but I really want to. I tend to believe in them as a possibility of other intelligent life and technology."

Same here, I've never seen one but would like to. I think most accounts are either lies or mistakes but I think there are some that are real, or at least are likely to be a true UFO.

4/11/2012 11:34:13 PM

Quote :

""After several minutes [the object] didn't change size, shape or intensity, which means that it not only accelerated in front of him and stopped at his 11:00 o'clock position, but it then maintained his forward velocity. We have to ask what kind of natural phenomenon can do that?"

I was diving to the beach one night down highway 70. Just like the guy from the quote... there was a light in the sky that didn't change size, shape or intensity. I'd stop at a stoplight and it would stop. I'd speed up to 60mph and it was still the same distance away, like it was matching my speed. It must have been accelerating in front of me when I accelerated and slowing down when I caught a red light. I was super excited about it until my wife told me that it was just the moon.

4/12/2012 8:00:28 AM

these are pretty cool

4/25/2012 12:58:57 PM

^^lol

4/25/2012 1:47:36 PM

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2170831/Roswell-UFO-landing-CIA-agent-Chase-Brandon-speaks-65th-anniversary.html

Quote :

"'It was a craft that did not come from this planet': CIA agent speaks out on 65th anniversary of Roswell 'UFO' landings A long-serving CIA agent has spoken out on the 65th anniversary of the Roswell Incident to reveal a hidden CIA file on the 'UFO' that was supposedly found at the site - and says, 'It really happened.' Conspiracy theorists believe that alien bodies from the crashed 'disc' were autopsied - and that modern technologies have been built on discoveries from inside the craft. Chase Brandon, an agent who served 25 years with the agency, said that the information is concealed in a hidden vault within the agency's Langley headquarters. 'It was in a vaulted area - there was one box that really caught my eye. It had one word on it: Roswell. I rummaged inside it, put the box on the shelf and said, "My God, it really happened.""

Quote :

"THE TRUTH IS OUT THERE? OTHER ROSWELL STAFF WHO CLAIM THERE WAS A 'COVER-UP' Lieutenant Walter Haut was the public relations officer at the base in 1947, and was the man who issued the original and subsequent press releases after the crash on the orders of the base commander, Colonel William Blanchard. Haut died in 2006, but left a sworn affidavit to be opened only after his death. The text asserts that the weather balloon claim was a cover story, and that the real object had been recovered by the military and stored in a hangar. He described seeing not just the craft, but alien bodies. Haut's affidavit talks about a high-level meeting he attended with base commander Col William Blanchard and the Commander of the Eighth Army Air Force, Gen Roger Ramey. Haut states that at this meeting, pieces of wreckage were handed around for participants to touch, with nobody able to identify the material. He says the press release was issued because locals were already aware of the crash site, but in fact there had been a second crash site, where more debris from the craft had fallen. Haut also spoke about a clean-up operation, where for months afterwards military personnel scoured both crash sites searching for all remaining pieces of debris, removing them and erasing all signs that anything unusual had occurred."

Quote :

"The bureau has made thousands of files available in a new online resource called The Vault. Among them is a memo to the director from Guy Hottel, the special agent in charge of the Washington field office in 1950. In the memo, whose subject line is 'Flying Saucers', Agent Hottel reveals that an Air Force investigator had stated that 'three so-called flying saucers had been recovered in New Mexico'. The investigator gave the information to a special agent, he said. The FBI has censored both the agent and the investigator's identity. Agent Hottel went on to write: 'They were described as being circular in shape with raised centers, approximately 50 feet in diameter. 'Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall,' he stated. The bodies were 'dressed in a metallic cloth of a very fine texture. Each body was bandaged in a manner similar to the blackout suits used by speed flyers and test pilots.'"

I don't know what to believe.

7/9/2012 8:49:45 PM

I guess it depends on ones motivations, which we should be critical about when hearing things like this.

The most credible confession is always a deathbed confession





[Edited on July 9, 2012 at 11:00 PM. Reason : .]

7/9/2012 10:58:03 PM

Quote :

"then the discussion dies as soon as simple calculations show that even at really high velocities it would take them several years/decades to reach here."

meh, I'm not so sure that faster-than-light travel is impossible. sure, that's the current understanding, but before Einstein people would have laughed at the idea that a set of twins could have an age-difference of 15 years. it is entirely possible that some means of circumventing the light-speed limit could be devised, like wormholes or some similar shit.

one should be open-minded, I think. everyone who ever lived has lived in the modern age, and we're as much a product of our society as the ancient Greeks, the Medieval English, or the Mayans.

7/9/2012 11:40:20 PM

I feel like it is impossible for there not to be other living things somewhere.

It almost seems ridiculous to me that people don't believe. It's quite possible that they don't know about us or that they just don't care but they are out there.

7/10/2012 10:16:09 AM

Lets take something big....

7/10/2012 10:24:22 AM

Quote :

"I'll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... seems like an awful waste of space. Right? "

7/10/2012 11:16:50 AM

Never really saw anything definite that I would consider a UFO, but I also have to believe, until disproven otherwise, that other civilizations exist. Due to time, space and technology restrictions, we may unfortunately miss each other. Maybe that's a good thing (i.e. we miss out on a human eating civilization), or it could be a bad thing (i.e. we miss out on learning shit that someone else figured out millions of years ago).

A book that shaped my thinking on this subject is "If the Universe Is Teeming with Aliens... Where Is Everybody? Fifty Solutions to Fermi's Paradox and the Problem of Extraterrestrial Life" by
Stephen Webb.

7/10/2012 2:02:55 PM

Quote :

"The most credible confession is always a deathbed confession"

The mistake is thinking these people don't honestly believe what they're saying. Credibility isn't simply a factor of honesty.

Yes, it's pure hubris to assume we're alone in the Universe, but it's so freaking big and old that the aliens probably scanned our planet when there was no multi-cellular life and then kept on going. We've only been detectable from space for what, ~100 years tops?

Or they won't arrive until long after all the life has been eradicated on our planet.

7/11/2012 11:02:06 AM

Quote :

"I feel like it is impossible for there not to be other living things somewhere. It almost seems ridiculous to me that people don't believe. It's quite possible that they don't know about us or that they just don't care but they are out there."

or they're watching us through giant telescopes and saying to each other, "let's stay away from those idiots.. we'll wait for them to kill each other then we'll go take over the planet"

7/11/2012 11:21:56 AM

aliens are probably just scared of us, despite their necessarily superior technologies

kinda like how i am with hornets - if i see one, i stay the fuck away from it and it has no idea i even exist. but if i accidentally find myself close to one, i go into a panic and squash it ASAP.

[Edited on July 11, 2012 at 11:53 AM. Reason : .]

7/11/2012 11:52:25 AM

they should be scared of our germs

[Edited on July 11, 2012 at 11:56 AM. Reason : of the entire planet, not just those that affect humans]

7/11/2012 11:55:45 AM

If aliens ever take over the planet, at least we have an arsenal of nuclear weapons capable of completely destroying everything they could possibly want.

7/12/2012 2:23:56 AM

And if they want cockroaches?

7/12/2012 2:51:56 AM

Quote :

"If aliens ever take over the planet, at least we have an arsenal of nuclear weapons capable of completely destroying everything they could possibly want."

I'm not sure we have that many nukes. The earth is really big and even the strongest nuclear weapons are pretty small relative to it. A 1 megaton blast is estimated to only put 1psi at a distance of 7.2 miles so that's about the distance of immediate damage. Most nuclear weapons on the planet have a yield under 1 mt but we can just use that as a baseline. There are approximately 19000 warheads estimated (most in stockpiles and not in service). A 7.2 radius circle has an area of about 163 square miles. If the average blast is 1 MT (it isn't but we're being generous) then the total area immediately damaged (not even completely destroyed) if we detonated every single nuke including the ones not in service is around 5 million square kilometers. The land surface area of the earth is 149 million square kilometers and the total is over 500 million.

The spread of fallout would have the largest geographic effect but that's largely dependent on wind flow. I'm guessing we could fuck up maybe a 3rd of the planet (which of course could lead to even more deaths from starvation, etc) but I doubt it would make the planet uninhabitable and certainly not indefinitely.

We'll probably destroy the planet with gray goo or something before nukes.

7/12/2012 9:22:53 AM

Quote :

"I have never seen a UFO, but I really want to. I tend to believe in them as a possibility of other intelligent life and technology. A friend of mine, who I feel is credible and had no reason to lie, told me that he had seen a silver UFO back in college while he was at the beach."

that was actually me throwing a frisbee

7/12/2012 1:59:35 PM

once again there's a difference between lying and being mistaken. Humans are super susceptible to illusions, cognitive errors, and remembering things incorrectly. In addition to there also being a lot of liars.

7/12/2012 2:45:55 PM

Quote :

"If aliens ever take over the planet, at least we have an arsenal of nuclear weapons capable of completely destroying everything they could possibly want."

hopefully they don't want salt water

7/12/2012 4:12:11 PM

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/08/roswell-ufo-cia-agent-chase-brandon_n_1657077.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

randon served as an undercover, covert operations officer in the agency's Clandestine Service for 25 years, where he was assigned missions in international terrorism, counterinsurgency, global narcotics trafficking and weapons smuggling. He spent his final 10 years of CIA service on the director's staff as the agency's first official liaison to the entertainment and publication industries. It was during this time, in the mid-1990s, that he walked into a special section of CIA headquarters in Langley, Va., called the Historical Intelligence Collection.

"It was a vaulted area and not everybody could get in it," Brandon told The Huffington Post. "One day, I was looking around in there and reading some of the titles that were mostly hand-scribbled summations of what was in the boxes. And there was one box that really caught my eye. It had one word on it: Roswell.

"I took the box down, lifted the lid up, rummaged around inside it, put the box back on the shelf and said, 'My god, it really happened!'"

7/12/2012 7:03:53 PM

Why don't you quote the very next line?

Quote :

""Some written material and some photographs, and that's all I will ever say to anybody about the contents of that box," he said. "But it absolutely, for me, was the single validating moment that everything I had believed, and knew that so many other people believed had happened, truly was what occurred,""

Yep, I totally believe him.

7/12/2012 8:13:36 PM

Quote :

"'Each one was occupied by three bodies of human shape but only 3 feet tall,' he stated."

The 3-foot tall bodies described were likely chimps, flying in a high-altitude balloon craft.

They might have had an alien appearance due to decomposition-related bloating, and/or if their space suits failed at altitude, they could have become bloated in the head, eyes, and belly from rapid decompression. Decomposition would also lead to hair loss, and grey skin once out of the space suits. All these factors together would give them the archetypal alien appearance.

Oh, and it sounds like the red light was likely a distant meteor he was chasing. What the pilot describes sounds like he is experiencing illusions due to the speed and distance of the meteor. It would eventually disappear as it cooled down, or crossed the horizon or hit the ground.

It isn't that hard to think up plausible explanations for this crap, as opposed to, "this is weird, therefore aliens."

[Edited on July 12, 2012 at 11:45 PM. Reason : .]

7/12/2012 11:24:51 PM

Quote :

"Brandon is currently promoting his book, "The Cryptos Conundrum," a science fiction story about the history of Earth, contact with extraterrestrials and imagined cataclysmic events on our planet."

no ulterior motives in this guy coming forward

7/15/2012 7:54:32 PM

so Flying Objects, that have not been Identified by the local public...exist?

7/15/2012 8:28:34 PM

Quote :

" I feel like it is impossible for there not to be other living things somewhere. It almost seems ridiculous to me that people don't believe. It's quite possible that they don't know about us or that they just don't care but they are out there. "

There's a huge difference in believing there's life out there and believing its coming to visit us, flying through our night sky, abducting people, and killing cattle or whatnot.

I have no doubt there's intelligent life out there. I just don't think it's visiting Earth.

[Edited on July 15, 2012 at 10:52 PM. Reason : Aaa]

7/15/2012 10:50:00 PM

What happens when we discover life forms that aren't anywhere close to being as advanced as we are technology wise? What happens if we find planets with resources we want to bring back to earth that are also in demand by other life forms? What happens when we discover life elsewhere and how does that impact your religious beliefs?

7/15/2012 11:12:34 PM

Yes UFO exist. But, that's not what you are seeking the answer to. You are seeking what the Unidentified Flying Objects are...

7/15/2012 11:36:30 PM

Quote :

"What happens when we discover life forms that aren't anywhere close to being as advanced as we are technology wise? What happens if we find planets with resources we want to bring back to earth that are also in demand by other life forms? What happens when we discover life elsewhere and how does that impact your religious beliefs?"

It won't happen in our lifetimes, and space jesus. If evolution hasn't convinced people they're not specially created then alien life forms won't do shit.

7/16/2012 10:38:01 AM

^pretty sure God put that civilization there to test our faith...


Either that, or flat out denying it will be the likely scenario

7/16/2012 11:32:05 AM

Quote :

"What happens when we discover life forms that aren't anywhere close to being as advanced as we are technology wise? What happens if we find planets with resources we want to bring back to earth that are also in demand by other life forms? What happens when we discover life elsewhere and how does that impact your religious beliefs? "

The same thing will happen that always happened throughout our history. We will colonize, take their resources and occupy their habitat, then we will treat them like second rate citizens for a few generations, and then maybe issue an apology and give them an illusion of equal rights to make ourselves feel better.

7/16/2012 11:41:03 AM

Quote :

"If aliens ever take over the planet, at least we have an arsenal of nuclear weapons capable of completely destroying everything they could possibly want."

Even if the Earth was highly radioactive for 50,000 years that isn't even a blip on the radar for the age of the universe. The aliens could just come back in 50,000 years and take the Earth then. And who, knows, they may be immune to radiation. I think there are a few types of bacteria and stuff on Earth that are immune to radiation so maybe these aliens could have evolved from something like that.

7/16/2012 2:23:13 PM