It turns out that the government had a secret program on Unidentified Flying Objects, and the New York Times just found out about it. It seems to have ended in 2012, but you never know about that black money!
There are a couple of videos in the article. This one is embeddable, the other one apparently not.
I’m not impressed by either; it seems odd they couldn’t bring the objects into focus, and the motion of the first suggests to me some sort of reflection, although I’d need to see more of the environment to call it that more positively.
But they’re probably not Venus, and it’s worth trying to figure out what they are if only to identify the circumstances that can convince pilots there’s something out there when there isn’t.
And much of the funding ($22 million over five years is not a lot) went to a friend of Harry Reid’s.
The truth is out there.
HinTN
Classic
Corner Stone
Sasquatch has his own personal jet. Obviously.
Splitting Image
I think I see it.
Ken
Settled.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Corner Stone: Everyone knows that.
Garbo
For those interested in detailed accounts of military and commercial pilot encounters with objects they saw in flight that they could not identify (as opposed to UFO sightings from the public) this book is a non-sensational source. Open minds have more fun!
UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record on Amazon
John Revolta
Flyin’ Saucer Rock and Roll!!
Mnemosyne
Weird how most of these incidents seem to take place in the western US where experimental aircraft get worked on.
I’m sure that’s just a coincidence, though.
Steve Holmes
I think it great that the flying saucers and alien abductors are scared of us now that we all have high res autofocusing cameras in our pockets.
efgoldman
What goes around comes around:
I always believed her; even if the specific events didn’t happen exactly as she said. It was a bad, bad workplace.
Omnes Omnibus
OT: I would like to note that I completed my holiday gift shopping in approximately 3 1/2 hours this afternoon. Yea me!
jl
Sometimes, for mysterious reasons, youtube decides I am interested in UFO clips. Maybe searches for clips from NASA or NOAA trigger them (edit: looking for theoretical physics lectures seems to trigger it too. Anyway, sometimes those things fill up the suggested for you box). So, I see these professedly ‘merely UFO-curious’ clips, and so far they have all been obvious optical anomalies, missile tracks, mirages, etc So, maybe the research would produce some useful knowledge in understanding optical illusions and anomalies. Kind of like tang coming out of the manned space flight programs.
And, who knows, something might turn up. Somewhat higher class than looking for rocks that look like toads from a certain angle in mars rover pix.
Mike J
Yeah man, you know people from outer space, people from outer space they come up to me. they don’t look like like Doctor Spock. they don’t look like Klingons, all that Star Trek jive. they look like Elvis. ELVIS!
Everybody in outer space looks like Elvis.cause Elvis is a perfect being. We are all moving in perfect peace and harmony towards Elvisness Soon all will become Elvis.Everything everywhere will be Elvis.Why do you think they call it evolution anyway?
It’s really Elvislution!
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
Ever notice how with the advent of GPS, the Bermuda Triangle has stopped swallowing boats and planes?
Then there’s ubiquitous camera phones, and how they’ve stopped the abducting and anal probing of swampy trailer park rednecks by the aliens….
Mnemosyne
@Ken:
Apropos of that, I just finished reading Ghostland: An American History in Haunted Places by Colin Dickey. It was really good — he actually takes no position on the existence of ghosts and instead talks about what our “haunted places” say about us and our relationship to American history. Some places are “haunted” by the Native Americans and slaves who were killed there, while other places that would seem to be much more likely haunting targets (like the location of the largest slave market in the US where hundreds of people died of neglect and abuse) have no ghost stories at all.
jl
I think listening to Forbidden Planet music makes watching those videos more fun, but I always forget to stream the music when I watch them.
Louis & Bebe Barron – Graveyard / A Night With Two Moons (Forbidden Planet)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WR-MkDKWWW0&list=PLRLCwrdOigtm7KXEfoL7zJCE3EyJ0_ijV
Mnemosyne
@Mike J:
Michael J. Fox has no Elvis in him.
Redshift
@jl:
Sadly, I can easily understand that connection. Theoretical physics -> crackpot “physics” theories -> UFO believers.
jl
The later Elvis stage costumes did have an alien space suit feel to them. Coincidence? I think not.
jl
@Redshift: Well, I am looking for real physics lectures, usually when I am stuck reading a real physics textbook or article. Or when I am having a hard time learning some damned ‘real physics math’ that I need to know.
Edit: though I did watch a sketchy documentary on pre-ice age civilizations, that got kooky at the end. That was a mistake, was flooded with lost pre ice age advanced civilization lectures, whihc became a nuisance.
Redshift
@Mnemosyne: Interesting. On a related note, from Catherynne Valente on Twitter:
woodrowfan
@Corner Stone: so you think it’s Israeli???
Another Scott
@jl: I saw a glory on a recent airplane trip. It was pretty neat, but not something that I could easily explain.
Cheers,
Scott.
woodrowfan
@Mnemosyne: You might like this book then, Tiya Miles, Tales from the Haunted South: Dark Tourism and Memories of Slavery from the Civil War Era. (University of North Carolina Press, 2015).
jl
@Another Scott: Nice pic, thanks. I guess I remember enough optics from college that I can easily spot something that is almost certainly a mirage or an optical anomaly, though most of the time, I have to go look up the name for it and relearn what the particular physics gimmick is that made the illusion.
Villago Delenda Est
The obvious Vichy Times political angle is “A crony of Harry Reid’s benefited!” to divert attention from the entire country being sold to corporate interests and the parasite overclass by the GOP tax monstrosity.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
I knew this would happen once Scully and Mulder were pushed out of the FBI
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: I seem to get lots of links to photography and cameras, not sure why. I did just look at one by a British photog who’s ditching full frame.
ETA: I use a crop-sensor mirrorless camera.
mike in dc
I assume it’s a mimic octopus.
Villago Delenda Est
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: And simultaneously revealed that we’re living in a country where cops can kill with impunity and no consequences.
PaulWartenberg
Who wants to read my X-FILES fanfic!
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA:
” photography and cameras, not sure why. ”
Internet marketers probably maintain a list of searches related to hobbies that are infested with crazed obsessives. Not that there is anything wrong with either of those.
Do a search on garden gnomes if you ever get tired of come ons for cameras.
Mnemosyne
@Villago Delenda Est:
It is kind of amazing that white Americans can simultaneously believe that blurry photos of UFOs are real but crystal-clear video of Black people being shot by cops is fake, or has another explanation.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
Looks like Kucinich spoke the truth, while Obama was covering up.(video)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: What a lame answer by that Obama fella, what ever happened to him?
Villago Delenda Est
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I think we can agree that Tim Russert did not depart this mortal plane a moment too soon.
Corner Stone
@woodrowfan: Are you kidding? They can’t make a jet that fits anyone over 5″10″.
jl
@?BillinGlendaleCA: When you run for president they’ll ask you about those infrared pix you take. Better start working on your answer. They’ll frame so you look like either a terrorist or nutcase, or…. maybe a space alien…. hmmmmmm…..!?
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@?BillinGlendaleCA: During the Indiana primary, a reporter actually asked him on camera if he would pledge to reveal as president the existence of alien life, and without missing a beat, in his deadpan comic delivery, he said, “it depends on whether the aliens are Democrats or Republicans”. ZING!
Gravenstone
One of my college physics professors suggested calling these things UOPs – Unidentified Optical Phenomenon. Because you don’t know what they are (U), you can visually see them (O) and they’re “something seemingly unusual” (P). Worked for me.
encephalopath
Yo… I can do that.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Villago Delenda Est:
Amazing how the number of verifiable claims of ugly police conduct exponentiated with the presidency of the black guy. I’m sure it had nothing to do with the distribution of a large number of phone cameras that double as video.
David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch
@PaulWartenberg:
Who wants to see video of Scully sexually harassing me, followed by her ripping off her tight cloths and jumping on top of me (video)
?BillinGlendaleCA
@jl: Before or after they ask about my past history of day drinking?
encephalopath
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes:
And the ability to live stream video to a cloud server.
Police behave themselves even more after that technology appeared. That smart phone video just might be going somewhere they can’t access or delete even if they do seize or smash your phone.
But when they don’t behave, the video is more likely to survive now. They can’t get caught on camera stealing someones property and trying to destroy evidence.
WaterGirl
@Redshift: He really does! I loved that.
Omnes Omnibus
@jl: @?BillinGlendaleCA: “Is your history of day drinking the cause of your current obsession with infrared photography or are you an alien spy? Yes or no?”
WaterGirl
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch: I miss that little chuckle from Barack Obama when he has said something that amuses him!
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: Well done!
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Omnes Omnibus:
No.
or
Maybe, like President Obama I was born in the United States.
Omnes Omnibus
@WaterGirl: Am I ready to host Press the Meat?
ZyklonBeaArthur
The Trump machine purposely drops these conspiracy kernels—JFK, UFOs—to distract the press and it works every time. They’ll be staging Elvis sightings next.
Do you think the NYT ever feels ashamed to operate as mouthpiece of fascist demagogues? I like to fantasize the ghosts of dead US soldiers visit Judith Miller’s dreams—but I suspect the big bed of money and accolades she sleeps on deters any remorse or introspection.
Mnemosyne
Also speaking of flying saucers, we saw The Last Jedi last night and really enjoyed it, Rian Johnson solved a lot of the things that people hated about The Force Awakens, but now the fanboys are up in arms because there’s not enough fanservice. ?
gammyjill
https://a.disquscdn.com/get?url=https%3A%2F%2Fpbs.twimg.com%2Fmedia%2FC_hcz97WsAA0ENP.jpg&key=81bCvycLQBCGRy52dpJ1xw&w=800&h=507
Click to see Rosewell, NM 1947 – someone getting away from a UFO
Amir Khalid
@Mike J:
But do they look like young Elvis, or Vegas Elvis?
Amir Khalid
@ZyklonBeaArthur:
It’s been pointed to you that your nym is in appalling taste. Please change it.
Viva BrisVegas
@Mnemosyne:
I’ve often wondered why hospitals aren’t filled with “ghosts”. After all, they are places where hundreds or thousands of people have died in agony and/or misery. Yet it always seems to be some old mansion in an out of the way place where nobody much ever lived.
As for UFOs, nobody is traveling a couple of hundred light years to visit Earth, ever. But phenomena that appear and disappear on radar are worth investigating if only because wars have started over less.
M. Bouffant
@Gravenstone: Ain’t that the truth! Seems like virtually all U.F.”O”. sightings are of moving lights, not three-dimensional objects.
Ryan
Wouldn’t their cloaking devices throw off our observations?
mainmata
@Splitting Image: Well, we are talking about Nevada after all, right next to the state with the famous Roswell site and Nevada is the one in which multiple above ground nuclear bomb tests were conducted in the ’50s. Seems likely we’d likely see aliens for sure. /s
Ruckus
@Amir Khalid:
Wanna bet that’s why it was chosen? To piss off a segment of the population. Because I had no idea what it meant until it was pointed out, it was not bothersome to me. Until I knew. So this ass just becomes more repellent as more people know. Which is probably exactly what he/she wants.
I believe this does cross the ban line. Or should.
WaterGirl
@Omnes Omnibus: You have displayed too much talent in questioning to host Press the Meat. Dial it back a notch, or several notches, and you might have a shot. Don’t forget to grow the goatee.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Is it my imagination or does it look like that car Cole lost in that farm field.
chopper
@Mike J:
“hi my name is mojo nixon and this song is about fuckin’ the hell outta debbie gibson”
Quaker in a Basement
@WaterGirl: indeedy!
Ramalama
@jl: Maybe you should mix up your viewing on YouTube with something like this – early Elton John ..singing about flying saucers.
PaulWartenberg
@David ??Merry Christmas?? Koch:
STOP.
THAT
NEVER
HAPPENED.