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UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation

bbc.co.uk

131–140 of 289 posts

Re: UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation

#131

Since we don't usually get UFO threads on Hacker News, I may as well brush the dust off my tinfoil hat... What's always puzzled me about UFO sightings is the preponderance of "bright lights" being what people report seeing. If some extraterrestrial being came to visit, why make itself known? And in such an obviously unnatural way, too? One immediate counterargument I can think of is that it's good camouflage. Who nee…

[deleted]

Re: UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation

#132
post #33

Transcribing the interesting bits from 18:15 Man A (ATC?): There's nothing showing on either primary or secondary Woman A: Ok, it was moving so fast. [Inaudible] Man A: Alongside you? Woman A: Yes, it was rapidly [inaudible] bright light and then it just disappeared at a very high speed. I am still wondering. Didn't think it was likely collision course. Wondering what sort it could be. Man B: Meteor or another object…

It was either Swamp Gas or Weather balloons. Everyone knows that.

Re: UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation

#133
post #22

Since we don't usually get UFO threads on Hacker News, I may as well brush the dust off my tinfoil hat... What's always puzzled me about UFO sightings is the preponderance of "bright lights" being what people report seeing. If some extraterrestrial being came to visit, why make itself known? And in such an obviously unnatural way, too? One immediate counterargument I can think of is that it's good camouflage. Who nee…

Even if we assume that "UFO" means "space alien", it doesn't seem puzzling to me. Answer 1: selection bias. Obviously the only ones that people see at night are those which have lights. We aren't going to hear about the ones that people don't see because they're dark. Answer 2: alien apathy. You've flown a million light years to spy on some great apes who aren't even sure you exist. Who cares if a few of them get fla…

>Answer 2: alien apathy. You've flown a million light years to spy on some great apes who aren't even sure you exist. Who cares if a few of them get flashed with bright lights, while you're looking around? They don't even have flying saucers yet, so it's not like they could chase you.

I just read your reply and so I deleted mine which was similar, but a bit stronger; its not like we could possibly hurt them.

Re: UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation

#135
post #66
post #33

Transcribing the interesting bits from 18:15 Man A (ATC?): There's nothing showing on either primary or secondary Woman A: Ok, it was moving so fast. [Inaudible] Man A: Alongside you? Woman A: Yes, it was rapidly [inaudible] bright light and then it just disappeared at a very high speed. I am still wondering. Didn't think it was likely collision course. Wondering what sort it could be. Man B: Meteor or another object…

I know meteors seems to be a common theory, but do they normally travel that fast?

They enter at orbital velocity or higher, so yes. Mach 20 or 30 would be on the low end. Of course depending on their shape and mass they lose a lot of it on the way down...

Re: UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation

#136
post #20

Since we don't usually get UFO threads on Hacker News, I may as well brush the dust off my tinfoil hat... What's always puzzled me about UFO sightings is the preponderance of "bright lights" being what people report seeing. If some extraterrestrial being came to visit, why make itself known? And in such an obviously unnatural way, too? One immediate counterargument I can think of is that it's good camouflage. Who nee…

I don't personally give much thought to what ants think as I tromp around the lawn. I tend to think a species advanced enough to get here may find us similarly unimportant.

That's a familiar argument, but I just realized that it mistakes scale for evolution. I imagine that if there are aliens, they are closer to the scale of a human than an ant.

Re: UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation

#137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> one would assume some species capable of this technology would also have cultural norms about not interfering with less developed groups I would assume nothing of the sort. It's not as if humans even really conform to that norm. It's a pretty recent trend, at best. With aliens of unknown evolution/history, all bets are off.

Very faint point which I predicted the keen HN audience would be quick to contend. My reasoning to assume so is a wholly intuitive instinct that all ultra-high technology societies converge in their moral and ethical norms to a common limit. That to have survived the gamble of existence long enough to reach such a point, this civilization almost certainly needed to adopt a set of values wherein the "Prime Directive"…

fair not faint as I hope most readers surmised -- for some reason I did not realize this error until it was too late to edit

Re: UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation

#138

Since we don't usually get UFO threads on Hacker News, I may as well brush the dust off my tinfoil hat... What's always puzzled me about UFO sightings is the preponderance of "bright lights" being what people report seeing. If some extraterrestrial being came to visit, why make itself known? And in such an obviously unnatural way, too? One immediate counterargument I can think of is that it's good camouflage. Who nee…

Was it Douglas Adam's theory that said UFO sightings were the equivalent to space teenagers just screwing around with the primitive life forms?

My question, is why do they only buzz the trailer parks and the 'very highly educated folks'?

Re: UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation

#139
post #20

Since we don't usually get UFO threads on Hacker News, I may as well brush the dust off my tinfoil hat... What's always puzzled me about UFO sightings is the preponderance of "bright lights" being what people report seeing. If some extraterrestrial being came to visit, why make itself known? And in such an obviously unnatural way, too? One immediate counterargument I can think of is that it's good camouflage. Who nee…

I don't personally give much thought to what ants think as I tromp around the lawn. I tend to think a species advanced enough to get here may find us similarly unimportant.

But wouldn't an intelligent species capable of inter-galactic travel have some of the Federation style rules to obey? Don't interfere with a less intelligent civilization for fear of disruption or whatever?

I'm not sure they would consider "us" unimportant. There's clearly some sort of "intelligence" with all of the radio energy emanating from this rock. If they sat back and observed for quite a bit of time, they would at some point be curious and want to study. Hence the probing. What's this hole for, let's find out. Plus, you'd want to dissect a couple of specimens to study it. After that, you start messing with the subject to see how it behaves/reacts.

Re: UFOs spotted off Irish coast under investigation

#140

Perhaps it'd be more interesting for both casual observers and conspiracy theorists alike to assume modern UFOs are not extraterrestrial spacecraft, but clandestine earthly government aircraft. Maybe they turn on the bright lights to pretend to be aliens, to throw off the scent.

this is probably pretty close to the truth: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuSLYh6ypiw
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