"UFOs: not alien" says the UK MOD

[Mid]

Had a look around the forum and couldn't find any threads on this so I thought I'd post about it here. Apparently the UK undertook a super secret investigation into UFOs in 2000, which has just become less than super secret thanks to the freedom of information act and is reported here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4981720.stm

Conclusions are:

The 400-page report puts it like this: "No evidence exists to suggest that the phenomena seen are hostile or under any type of control, other than that of natural physical forces."
It adds: "There is no evidence that 'solid' objects exist which could cause a collision hazard."

Hardly a shocker. Slightly more interesting is:

Evidence suggests that meteors and their well-known effects and, possibly some other less-known effects are responsible for some unidentified aerial phenomena," concludes the report.

"Considerable evidence exists to support the thesis that the events are almost certainly attributable to physical, electrical and magnetic phenomena in the atmosphere, mesosphere and ionosphere.

"They appear to originate due to more than one set of weather and electrically-charged conditions and are observed so infrequently as to make them unique to the majority of observers."

They generally conclude that people belief in these things after seeing them due to electromagnetic effect on the brain. I'm somewhat sceptical about this, but don't really know that much about it, anyone want to comment?

[CFLarsen]

If the gubmint is silent, it's because they are covering it up.

If the gubmint isn't silent, it's because they are covering it up.

[pmckean]

I read lots on this topic during the 80s and 90s - especially the books by Timothy Good, who seems pretty rational and thorough... despite his belief in a worldwide collusion between Aliens and Governments!

I must have read dozens of texts on this, until I was heartily sick of the whole thing. Despite the cast iron beliefs of some folks, there has never been any cast-iron evidence of alien visits to earth. Nothing. Ever. Each and every account of UFO contact is underwhelming and evidence-free. Blurry photographs, dodgy testimony, bad science. It's all rubbish.

Roswell? Weather balloon. Rendlesham Forest? Satellite burning up in orbit. Whitley Streiber? Serious hallucinogens.

The way I see it, we're all equipped with camera phones, now. There should be an explosion of filmed/photographed UFO encounters on a quality continuum from awful to startlingly clear. If an alien encounter occurs with a group of people, now, we should get multiple filmed accounts from a variety of angles.

Where are they?

[geni]

Mildly depressing:

http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?sortBy=1&threadID=1688&start=0&tstart=0&edition=1&ttl=20060508150501&#paginator

[brettDbass]

From geni's link..
UFOs DO exist and they have been visiting this little planet for over thousands of years and they are not going to stop just because some ignorant people say so. One day people will discover how life was actually placed on the earth and then they are in for a shock, these are all facts, not fiction.

May, Edinburgh
Visiting for "Over thousands of years", huh? I do like people with a thorough grasp on the specifics of their theories.

[wipeout]

Oh look, the related BBC news report uses the Mexican UFO footage for much of the UFO clips. :deadp

It's never going to go away, is it? :brk:

[wipeout]

The way I see it, we're all equipped with camera phones, now. There should be an explosion of filmed/photographed UFO encounters on a quality continuum from awful to startlingly clear. If an alien encounter occurs with a group of people, now, we should get multiple filmed accounts from a variety of angles.

Where are they?

Yeah, and there's people like astronomers and bird-watchers with all those telescopes, binoculars and cameras but they never seen to notice UFOs for some reason either.

[Ersby]

http://go.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=12090335

A Ministry of Defense (MOD) spokesman said the full report, "Unidentified Aerial Phenomena in the UK Air Defense Region," would be published on its Web site on May 15.
:)

[Astrophotographer]

Yeah, and there's people like astronomers and bird-watchers with all those telescopes, binoculars and cameras but they never seen to notice UFOs for some reason either.


I keep waiting to see my first UFO. Over thirty years now observing the night sky and I still haven't seen one. Meanwhile, plenty of folks just glance up at any time and see these things. Makes you wonder doesn't it?

Of course, UFOlogists are happy to some extent about this report. Why? Because a government has admitted that UFOs exist. Silly UFOlogists, UFO reports are what they are stating exists. They are not saying that there are unidentified craft producing them.

I guess UFOlogists are hoping that all sorts of scientific research is going to result because of this. Next year marks the 60th anniversary of Roswell and Arnold. Things haven't changed much since those days. Do they really think scientists are going to waste their valuable time on such a fruitless endeavor?

[cloudshipsrule]

We don't have mounds of photographic evidence because the UFO's cloaking device is automatically activated as soon as it senses a camera's shutter-release button (Whether it's a camera phone or DSLR, an electronic shutter or mechanical shutter, etc.....)

You have to remember how advanced those alien bastards are!

[JimTheBrit]

Ack. There's that trailer again.

From this page (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm#) (halfway down, "Your video Readers sent in footage of UFOs")

"James Burbidge sent in this video clip of a UFO, taken from a helicopter over New York."

[gfunkusarelius]

Ack. There's that trailer again.

From this page (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm#) (halfway down, "Your video Readers sent in footage of UFOs")

"James Burbidge sent in this video clip of a UFO, taken from a helicopter over New York."

i didnt see the video you were referring to, but i looked at the story about the report and the comments are depressingly lame and predictable. here's one of my favorites: "I would go along with his findings had my wife and I not seen the ufos up close (backyard close)ourselves. I don't buy his report. We are not alone in the universe."

and thats it. classic "hit and run." at least he didnt say "and i have proof" and then disappear, haha

[Astrophotographer]

We don't have mounds of photographic evidence because the UFO's cloaking device is automatically activated as soon as it senses a camera's shutter-release button (Whether it's a camera phone or DSLR, an electronic shutter or mechanical shutter, etc.....)

You have to remember how advanced those alien bastards are!


Yep. Of course, when someone is lucky enough to capture one of those, they look a lot like models on a string or the UFO is just moving too fast and they come out all blurry. Those aliens sure are tricky. Makes you wonder why they don't have the ability to cloak themselves both visually and electronically. If they can travel across the galaxy, you would think they could create both visual and electronic stealth!

[JimTheBrit]

i didnt see the video you were referring to [...]Ah, I thought it was a trailer or taster for a series but it looks as though it was just a channel promo.

BBC "evidences" clip (direct link to clip) (http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/avdb/news_web/video/9012da680040fe8/bb/09012da6800413a8_16x9_bb.asx)
Longer clips (http://www.youtube.com/results?search=ufo+wtc&search_type=search_videos&search=Search) on YouTube with accompanying distorted truths and manic ramblings.
Google video of clip as it was originally on the scifi.com site (http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-9074834330658963393&q=wtc+ufo)

[Patricio Elicer]

Ack. There's that trailer again.

From this page (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/default.stm#) (halfway down, "Your video Readers sent in footage of UFOs")

"James Burbidge sent in this video clip of a UFO, taken from a helicopter over New York."According to this (http://www.247news.net/2003/20030929-scifi.shtml) article, the video is a hoax produced by the SciFi Channel, acted by actress Barbara Sicuranza.

By the end of the page there's a link to the whole "confession" by Sicuranza's husband. what else have i got... ok, rather than going away my wife Barbara's ufo tv spot that was done for SCI-FI TV here is still pulling in comment and e-mails... the main reason being that the thing was shot using the world trade center in new york as a location... now we've gotten to a place in the culture wherein my denial of the 'reality' of the thing will undoubtedly convince various people of its viability but even though i personally wish that indeed it had been evil aliens who destroyed the trade center, the blame is unfortunately a lot closer to home and the now famous tv spot is just that: a tv spot with a fake photoshop (or whatever) ufo etc etc etc so once again the sci-fi tv spot with the ufo at the world trade center is not a 'real' film of a 'real' ufo, barbara is the person in the helicopter but she was just pointing at empty sky and the ufo images were put in later, neither she nor i have had any alien encounters, been abducted by space. or other aliens, and we are currently not hanging out with any space aliens and to the best of my knowledge have nevr met any creatures from outer space, have never been on a flying saucer etc etc etc


[edited to add quote from Sicuranza's husband]

[gfunkusarelius]

wow, that article was classic...its amazing that you can produce a promo for a tv station and air it as a promo and then have people try to make it real! i wonder how many people do that just for fun and how many actually convince themselves that it is real. seems so hopeless, haha

[Sir Arthur Mortal Coyle]

We don't have mounds of photographic evidence because the UFO's cloaking device is automatically activated as soon as it senses a camera's shutter-release button (Whether it's a camera phone or DSLR, an electronic shutter or mechanical shutter, etc.....)

You have to remember how advanced those alien bastards are!

Wise words

But don't forget this also works for ghosts, Monsters and Yeti saquatchy things. the only entity's that get caught on camera are Fairies, who cannot carry cloaking devices due to the fact that they don't work very well on cardboard.

[Correa Neto]

Fairies don't need cloaking devices because they are 2D beings...

[wipeout]

Makes you wonder why they don't have the ability to cloak themselves both visually and electronically. If they can travel across the galaxy, you would think they could create both visual and electronic stealth!

Hello again, Astrophotographer. Doctor Who famously has the TARDIS which got stuck as a 1960s UK police box as an example of what happens when alien stealth goes screwy. Maybe aliens should disguise their craft to look like airplanes and helicopters. As long as they acted like normal air-traffic, they could go about their alien business without anyone knowing. Really patient aliens could disguise their craft as a cloud. :D

Actually, its maybe surprising that more UFO believers don't accuse everyday vehicles and objects of being alien craft in disguise.