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CIA declassifies hundreds of UFO documents

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Re: CIA declassifies hundreds of UFO documents

#111

Post by lectrick »

jimrandomh wrote: post #22

I'm surprised they're continuing the misdirection so many years later. "Unidentified flying object" means an aircraft, usually a military one (because civilian aircraft are easier to identify). A UFO over US soil would usually be a USAF plane, but the CIA ran (runs?) a reporting hotline because they might occasionally be foreign spy planes instead. But of course, the Soviets were very interested (or the US believed t…

http://www.foia.cia.gov/sites/default/files/document_convers...

Page 3, point 4:

"Sightings of unexplained objects at great altitudes and traveling at high speeds in the vicinity of major U.S. defense installations are of such nature that they are not attributable to natural phenomenon or known types of aerial vehicles."

Also note the National Security Council directive on the last page.

Re: CIA declassifies hundreds of UFO documents

#112

Post by CountSessine »

jimrandomh wrote: post #22

I'm surprised they're continuing the misdirection so many years later. "Unidentified flying object" means an aircraft, usually a military one (because civilian aircraft are easier to identify). A UFO over US soil would usually be a USAF plane, but the CIA ran (runs?) a reporting hotline because they might occasionally be foreign spy planes instead. But of course, the Soviets were very interested (or the US believed t…

The reason I'm unable to find that anecdote is because the search term "Area 51", combined with any other search terms, brings up an enormous a flood of incoherent crackpot ramblings

You might have more luck if you google "Groom Lake Air Force Base".

Re: CIA declassifies hundreds of UFO documents

#113

Post by marshray »

mattmcknight wrote: post #97
marshray wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not completely silly: a check number under 500 is still highly likely to be a newish account. The test is cheap and has low false positives, so the fact that the it is easily subverted only diminishes its effectiveness but doesn't make it useless.

But who's actually rejecting low number checks? It seems more common to see businesses reject accepting checks altogether.

Yeah, most businesses seem to use a check verification service these days.

Re: CIA declassifies hundreds of UFO documents

#114

Post by newman314 »

T-hawk wrote: post #86
azernik wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

This actually hit my previous company in a software context. We would number hotfixes sequentially. Customers would be notified when hotfixes were to be deployed to their sites. One savvy client noticed the hotfix numbering sequence and worked out both that we had a lot of hotfixes (tens per week) and that they didn't get them all right away (if you don't ask for it, it comes to you in the next quarterly trunk releas…

Why is it an issue for alerting about hotfixes? Wouldn't it make sense to get fixes out sooner rather than later? Or maybe I'm missing something here.

Re: CIA declassifies hundreds of UFO documents

#115

Post by Houshalter »

isaiahg wrote: post #72

At this point we're pretty settled that alien life probably exists in some form out there. Whether that alien life could evolve to create technology and build spacecraft is another thing. But the even bigger thing is when you take into account just how vast the distances involved are. It's just so unlikely that alien life could exist, develop technology, and then be in the same neighborhood as us.

Not really unlikely if you consider the vast scale of time as well. A few million years is enough to reach the end of the galaxy even at very very low percent of the speed of light. That's a long time in our terms, but a very short time given the age of the universe, or even our own planet.

Self replicating Von Neumann probes could handle the issue of exploring such a large number of solar systems by increasing their numbers exponentially. They could leave behind machines that could continuously monitor and survey planets for millions of years.

If aliens exist, then I would expect for them to have observed us like that. Unless they have no interest in the outside world at all, which seems unlikely.

Re: CIA declassifies hundreds of UFO documents

#117

Post by sandworm101 »

jimrandomh wrote: post #22

I'm surprised they're continuing the misdirection so many years later. "Unidentified flying object" means an aircraft, usually a military one (because civilian aircraft are easier to identify). A UFO over US soil would usually be a USAF plane, but the CIA ran (runs?) a reporting hotline because they might occasionally be foreign spy planes instead. But of course, the Soviets were very interested (or the US believed t…

>>> "Unidentified flying object" means an aircraft, usually a military one (because civilian aircraft are easier to identify).

There are only so many military aircraft and drones. They are relatively distinct. Add to those a handful of properly-black projects and there are perhaps a hundred types in service. Compare that to the thousands of civilian models out there, many of them very odd looking. Things like Rutan's VariEze get rather close to the flying-triangles. And some very unique objects, including random light patterns, also fly in the civilian world. So given the far greater number of civilian aircraft, outside of restricted airspace I'd say that most sightings are probably of strange but non-military flying vehicles.

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

http://www.hugeskyadvertising.com/Scrolling-LED-Flying-SIGN....

Re: CIA declassifies hundreds of UFO documents

#118

Post by noobermin »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #71
antidamage wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I doubt the CIA were gaming Google in the 60s. It's also beyond ridiculous to think that a superpower like the USSR couldn't completely evaluate any material that came their way. The fake aircraft seems more reasonable though: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamov_Ka-50#Development > The first two Ka-50 prototypes had false windows painted on them.[19] The "windows" evidently worked, as the first western reports of the…

don't overestimate Soviet competence. Soviet system was completely submersed in the sea of utter incompetence, with occasional pockets of competence here and there

I don't know, I can't speak for their military leaders, but I've read Soviet physics papers and they had (funded and educated) some solid scientists.

Re: CIA declassifies hundreds of UFO documents

#119

Post by BogusIKnow »

lazyant wrote: post #59
sanoli wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's probably a lot of this going. Comes to mind right now the way the Navy had about two seal teams in the beginning, and then decided to name the next one 'Team 6', to make it look like they had more. I've read about other examples, but can't remember right now.

Oracle release 2, there was no R1

I once wrote a paper at university about the psychology of version numbers.

Re: CIA declassifies hundreds of UFO documents

#120

Post by Laaw »

krapp wrote: post #105
Laaw wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would it create a panic and destroy a government's credibility? Obviously you don't make that announcement unless you have proof, but I've heard the "cause a panic" argument thousands of times, but never understood it. Why would it actually cause a panic, and what would this panic take the form of? Let me put it another way: we can imagine all kinds of horrible scenarios, but what evidence do we actually have tha…

I think there's a big difference between learning that they exist, and learning that they exist here. If some alien force with incomprehensible power and an unknown agenda, has been acting at will on Earth for who knows how long, then humans are not the dominant form of intelligent life on Earth, and have possibly never been in charge of their own destiny. What are we, then? Animals in a zoo? Specimens in a lab? Play…

Like I said, we can speculate over what might or might happen all day, but do we have any evidence?

Just seems like you're doomsday fantasizing...

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