[HN Gopher] US intelligence agencies have 180 days to share what...
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       US intelligence agencies have 180 days to share what they know
       about UFOs
        
       Author : sahin
       Score  : 107 points
       Date   : 2021-01-10 14:18 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (edition.cnn.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (edition.cnn.com)
        
       | wojciii wrote:
       | The Stargate is real!?
        
       | leosarev wrote:
       | That's part of US legal system which always amuses me. I think
       | it's forbidden to have a bill with different matters mixed by our
       | (Russian) parlament's bylaws, and I was pretty sure that's a
       | popular stipulation in many parlament systems
        
         | eatingCake wrote:
         | Who decides that they are "different matters"?
        
           | alisonkisk wrote:
           | The executive and then the courts, same people who decide
           | what every law means.
        
       | jacquesm wrote:
       | That's going to be a pretty short release then.
        
         | ineedasername wrote:
         | Especially because it has to be unclassified: "We see things
         | and sometimes we don't know what they are". And various other
         | more complicated ways of saying that.
        
       | Natsu wrote:
       | Given that UFO means _unidentified_ flying object, wouldn 't that
       | tend to look something like "X reported seeing XYZ, we don't know
       | what it was"?
        
         | pacamara619 wrote:
         | Yes! Precisely! Somehow people started associating UFOs with
         | flying saucers and aliens. How would they know it's aliens if
         | the U stands for unidentified?
        
           | zrm wrote:
           | > Somehow people started associating UFOs with flying saucers
           | and aliens.
           | 
           | I saw a video (that I can't currently find) of Feynman
           | explaining this once.
           | 
           | The US government had a classified program that suspended
           | 1940s saucer microphones from a balloon at a height in the
           | atmosphere that would allow them to listen for Soviet atomic
           | tests.
           | 
           | The balloon crashes and some reporters are out sniffing
           | around. Someone with loose lips lets slip that it was a
           | _flying saucer_. You can imagine what the artist 's rendition
           | based on that description looked like.
           | 
           | Then, since the program was classified, the official
           | explanation becomes that it was a weather balloon or
           | something, and a conspiracy theory is born.
        
             | apeace wrote:
             | Not sure where your source comes from, but the term came
             | into popular use in the year 1947.
             | 
             | It was most likely first used after Kenneth Arnold's famous
             | report where he described a "saucer-like" shape. That story
             | blew up, and people started reporting "flying saucers"
             | everywhere.
             | 
             | It even got into the heads of some government officials.
             | For example, the initial press release given _by the
             | airforce_ for the Roswell incident was that they had
             | captured a  "flying disc". They later made a correction
             | that it was a weather balloon, but you can see how the
             | government making such statements would cause confusion and
             | add to the mania.
             | 
             | On the Wikipedia page for the incident you can see the
             | original news articles:
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roswell_UFO_incident
        
               | notahacker wrote:
               | Arnold has suggested his original remarks to the press
               | referred to the _motion_ of a saucer skipping across
               | water rather than the shape too; his original report
               | showed a semicircular front and triangular tail
               | 
               | https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/06/th
               | e-m...
        
               | dogma1138 wrote:
               | Yep the shape was likely closer to a B2 as in a flying
               | wing than an actually flying saucer.
               | 
               | It's quite possible that what he saw was the YB-35 or a
               | similar experimental aircraft.
               | 
               | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-35
        
               | matthewdgreen wrote:
               | Except that according to his measurements, they were
               | moving at twice the speed of sound.
        
               | dogma1138 wrote:
               | His measurements could've been wrong, it's nearly
               | impossible to accurately measure distance and size in the
               | air, using a tachometer to estimate speed is rather
               | inaccurate under best conditions.
               | 
               | In 1947 your cockpit would likely not even have a true
               | airspeed indicator, there would be no ground speed
               | indicators, no radar nor any other electro optical
               | ranging devices.
               | 
               | The YB-49 was already jet powered
               | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northrop_YB-49
               | 
               | Whilst not supersonic it's quite possible that he
               | could've encountered one of these too or another flying
               | wing variant.
               | 
               | This quite frankly more plausible than aliens as an
               | explanation, the time frame of the sighting matches the
               | period during which the USAF was exploring a lot of
               | flying wing designs and that it was also the first time
               | that jet powered aircraft began to appear and when
               | turboprops were reaching nearly transonic speeded.
               | 
               | So overall it's very likely that what he saw was an
               | experimental aircraft that was much faster than any
               | aircraft that he encountered in the past and the
               | slightest of errors in the estimation of size and range
               | would have pushed any airspeed calculation into the
               | supersonic range.
        
           | dheera wrote:
           | I dunno, the flying saucer / alien stuff is kind of fun to
           | watch people go nuts over and pretty harmless. I think a
           | Goodyear blimp was mistaken recently for aliens too:
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUjO03loz8M
        
           | apeace wrote:
           | I take the meaning to be "unidentified to the general public,
           | perhaps identified or speculated about in classified reports
           | that have not yet been shared with Congress".
        
           | polishdude20 wrote:
           | You can see how the title says UFO's. If it's a confirmed
           | alien from another planet, that's not a UFO anymore, it's an
           | IFO (identified)
        
         | cma wrote:
         | "Here are the classified flight characteristics of what we
         | believe to have been a Russian hypersonic weapon test but we
         | don't know that for certain; we're pretty sure the Chinese
         | weren't able to capture this data but we're going to hand it
         | over to them now at the behest of domestic conspiracy
         | theorists."
        
           | aurizon wrote:
           | Yes, The Russians test their research missiles off the US
           | coast, when they have huge, well controlled land and ocean
           | areas where they need not fear any US snapshots and US jet
           | chases...
        
         | m463 wrote:
         | People are expecting the opening of the alien archive,
         | including desiccated grey bodies, weapons that shoot blue blobs
         | of light and wormhole generators.
        
       | digitalsushi wrote:
       | I've always been very disappointed that evidence of UFOs has been
       | inversely proportional with our ability to record it.
        
       | aergaerg wrote:
       | Hunter Biden is a PEDOPHILE! - Arrest him now!
       | 
       | https://twitter.com/vakushevan/status/1348012249479307266
        
       | aurizon wrote:
       | Yes, ask ;- View;-, then verify - aye, there's the rub...
        
       | scotty79 wrote:
       | More footage of passing ducks and falling debris that they didn't
       | bother to identify and filed as Unidentified?
        
       | ineedasername wrote:
       | It's surreal that with everything going on in the US & the world,
       | _this_ is one of the priorities that made it into the bill.
        
         | jariel wrote:
         | Given who's in charge, it really isn't.
         | 
         | The President should have leaned into this harder. It could
         | have been a really nice distraction for all the nutty people to
         | get angry about that would have no effect on the country.
         | 
         | It's perfectly on brand for him.
         | 
         | He could have 'blamed the deep state' and frankly thrown in all
         | sorts of fantasies.
         | 
         | And then even if that playpen got knocked over, it wouldn't
         | matter.
         | 
         | And honestly: _who wouldn 't_ vote for someone who promised to
         | show you all those aliens that the government is hiding!
         | Seriously!
        
           | DennisAleynikov wrote:
           | agree on every step, just not the nutty association. ufos
           | should be a bipartisan issue not some insane vendetta trump
           | has against the "deep state"
           | 
           | promising it probably wouldnt have as wide of an appeal
           | outside of closeted posadism dreamers.
        
             | jariel wrote:
             | Of course 'it should be serious' ... but the reality is
             | that politics is 90% theatre, and the current President's
             | primary skill is this arena: 'The Apprentice' is work of
             | masterful reality TV fiction, that is passed of as
             | 'reality'.
             | 
             | Here is an angle that he could have taken:
             | 
             | "When I first became President they showed me some things.
             | 
             | Very, very interesting things.
             | 
             | Things you wouldn't believe.
             | 
             | Crazy things, that have been going on for the last 100
             | years.
             | 
             | UFOs. Secret Wars. Weapons. China. Russia.
             | 
             | ... and a lot more.
             | 
             | You wouldn't even believe me without the facts!
             | 
             | I said: 'The American people have a right to know!'
             | 
             | But they said: 'This is classified Mr. President, and it's
             | too sensitive for them'.
             | 
             |  _They_ have blocked me the whole time!
             | 
             |  _They_ are so afraid that you might find out the Truth!
             | 
             |  _They_ have been covering up for decades!
             | 
             | You, the American people, have a right to know!
             | 
             | But _they_ are going to do everything they can to stop me.
             | 
             | The bureaucrats. The hidden apparatus. The press. The
             | Agencies.
             | 
             | They don't believe you can handle the truth, but I DO!
             | 
             | I'm the President, but I can tell you that I'm putting my
             | life in danger by doing this.
             | 
             | They will stop at nothing to keep these secrets!
             | 
             | If you re-elect me, I'm going to declassify it.
             | 
             | All of it!
             | 
             | NO. MORE. SECRETS!
             | 
             | UFOs. The wars. The 'other species'. The other side of the
             | moon. The spacecraft - I'm telling you all of it!
             | 
             | You have a right to know!
             | 
             | It's time for Real Freedom, America!"
             | 
             | ...
             | 
             | So this is much better reality TV theatre because despite
             | the fact there's some legitimacy to information clearing,
             | it would be largely, politically benign.
             | 
             | But it plays right into a deeply held populist concern in
             | America and that is of course 'all those secrets' and it's
             | a non-partisan issue.
             | 
             | It also plays right into his 'Me vs. the Evil Bureaucracy'
             | populist narrative.
             | 
             | It's the 'ultimate conspiracy' with Libertarian shades that
             | even more serious, intellectual types can buy into on some
             | level - I mean really _who wouldn 't want to see all those
             | secrets_?
             | 
             | It's very tantalizing I think to everyone.
             | 
             | Most importantly - it's not hateful or divisive - a more
             | benign kind of snake oil.
             | 
             | Instead of 'Insurrection on Capitol Hill' - you get
             | 'Insurrection at Area 51' - which is a nice place to keep
             | the plebes occupied.
        
               | lsllc wrote:
               | This:
               | 
               |  _" Insurrection at Area 51"_
               | 
               | Happened already, it was called "Storm Area 51" on Sept
               | 20, 2019.
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Storm_Area_51
        
       | brighton36 wrote:
       | There is no professional opinion on this matter. I find this so
       | entertaining.
        
         | ionwake wrote:
         | Because even 10 years ago there were hand held jet drones that
         | could do everything and more than any grainy UFO footage. All
         | UFO footage is merely tech that the authorities at the time
         | hadn't been able to label at the time.
        
           | egfx wrote:
           | How about 25 years ago of an object zipping across the night
           | sky at lightning speed and hopping around like a ping pong
           | ball? To me it wasn't a drone or anything real or tangible at
           | all. For me, it was most likely to be a projection that
           | looked like something solid in the sky.
        
             | alisonkisk wrote:
             | You have absolutely no way of knowing how far away it was
             | or how fast it was moving.
        
               | egfx wrote:
               | Exactly how far and how fast? No. Just like you can't
               | know exactly how far or how fast a plane or a bird is.
               | But I guarantee you that it didn't move like anything
               | else I've ever seen in the sky. As far as how it looked,
               | nondescript, like a star.
        
           | Supermancho wrote:
           | I don't talk about my singular UFO experience too often. Last
           | time was 2013, so I guess I'm due again.
           | 
           | It was spring break, 1996. I drove down from Sonoma State
           | University to Orange County. From there me, my best friend
           | from 1st grade, his highschool crush Angie (who awkwardly had
           | a crush on me) and her younger sister Psyge (damn hippies) go
           | to the grand canyon (another undocumented adventure). We are
           | on our way back and stop at a diner near Joshua Tree. We
           | drive under an hour from there and randomly pick a spot to
           | drive off the freeway (just past Wiley's Well Rest Area off
           | the 10fwy) and set up camp again. We have no drugs, no
           | alcohol, and have spent a number of days together in
           | campsites and hotels and are still in a rather good mood. It
           | gets dark and gets a little cold. We have a raging fire. We
           | are playing truth or dare. I pretend to throw an earring into
           | the fire (I had dropped it in a safe edge of the fire pit
           | where it wouldn't get hurt, with a bit of sleight of hand)
           | and we're all abuzz about how I just destroyed Angie's nice
           | earring and ruined the set. Then I look up. There are lights
           | on, what appears to be, the bottom of a craft. It's floating
           | toward us from far away, but something doesn't look right. We
           | think there's an airbase nearby because of all the
           | planes/helicopters flying over a ridge (across the highway
           | and in the distance over 20 miles away) during the daytime,
           | which is still visible by moonlight. This thing is heading
           | from another distant place, toward the ridge (and ostensibly
           | to the ocean). This is going to pass over us along it's path.
           | We can't tell what it is. We can't tell if it's a formation
           | of multiple things or 1 thing...it can't be one thing. This
           | thing might be big. Like a building, big. Nothing appears
           | that big unless you're really close. It must be really really
           | low to appear that big, or it would have to be unimaginably
           | massive. We tend the fire down and turn off the music blaring
           | from the car, for better vision and out of nervousness. It
           | flies near and then directly over us, blocking out the stars.
           | A couple city blocks worth of stars are eclipsed by this
           | silent black triangle. Even at a couple thousand feet, it's
           | unimaginably sized. The only thing comparably massive I have
           | seen is a cruise ship and this was bigger than The Angels
           | Baseball Stadium. Dead silently, it floats over the highway
           | and on toward the far ridge. Traditional craft (copters
           | and/or planes) come from the same direction the UFO came from
           | and along the same path toward the ridge and craft, then the
           | UFO's lights start to move and it's tilting and then folding
           | in a way that should not be possible, but it's just too far
           | to make out at this point. Then the lights and shadow
           | disappear behind the far ridge. Similar reports of what I saw
           | (although not identical) can be found:
           | 
           | http://www.ufoinfo.com/roundup/v01/rnd01_34.shtml
           | 
           | http://www.latest-ufo-sightings.net/2010/06/two-triangle-
           | ufo... <-- these are the lights I saw but MUCH MUCH MUCH
           | closer to the ground
           | 
           | Back in 2001 there were still sites listing the other
           | sightings of the same thing (and other unusual things) seen @
           | Joshua Tree around that time. Many of those accounts seem to
           | have been lost to web-rot, some are featured on various Alien
           | Encounters video trash.
           | 
           | Interestingly, a boeing employee posted (on some random site)
           | about stealth blimps that the US was developing, in secret,
           | in violation of a stealth-tech non-proliferation treaty. One
           | of the prototypes was a massive triangular blimp (there's a
           | site now: http://www.thestealthblimp.com/). This is likely
           | what my friends and I saw. I never once believed it to be
           | some sort of alien craft, but it did disturb me for awhile.
        
             | pashsdk27 wrote:
             | David Fravor on Lex Fridman's podcast mentions flying low
             | and scaring campers for fun. Your case sounds similar.
        
             | JKCalhoun wrote:
             | I would wonder why an alien visitor wouldn't have the sense
             | to turn the headlights off. ;-)
             | 
             | I would love to have seen what you saw though. Being so
             | close to a cluster of air bases though, it is very likely
             | you saw some kind of experiment.
        
             | m4rtink wrote:
             | Looks like some of the airship to orbit crafts proposed by
             | JP Aeropace:
             | 
             | https://rimstar.org/space/jp_aerospace_balloon_airship_to_o
             | r...
        
               | knz wrote:
               | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boeing_X-37
               | 
               | We know that they have similar technology in production
               | today (using more conventional technology but with the
               | same result).
               | 
               | It's also likely no coincidence that "Space Force" is a
               | thing now.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | jacknews wrote:
       | Or else!
        
       | heelix wrote:
       | I go camping near the Minnesota/Canada boarder, usually without
       | packing along any electronics or cell signal. (I have
       | occasionally carried a telescope in) I think it was Memorial
       | weekend, 2019, where I saw a string of unusual satellites. Not
       | something I'd ever seen before -- and we were all laughing that
       | here we were, seeing UFOs, and not a single one of us had a cell
       | phone. We found out when we were home that they were the Starlink
       | launch.
       | 
       | (found a video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jsAKSAbpU8 )
        
       | spoonjim wrote:
       | Now that it's cheaper than ever to make a FO I expect to hear of
       | a lot more UFOs.
        
       | sahin wrote:
       | Our universe is huge. We dont even a number to describe the
       | amount of planets out there.
       | 
       | If there is life on earth that come from a single cell organism,
       | there will be millions of life forms that evolve.
       | 
       | Aliens is not fact more like a belief. I grew up with x-files so
       | i want to believe.
       | 
       | If there are man made or alien made advanced crafts, governments
       | and secret agencies in government will have vastly intelligence
       | about them.
       | 
       | This is the interesting part and important part: if government
       | approves that there are objects that uses technology and physics
       | in different ways , this will challenge thousands of minds that
       | will lead to disruption in the tech and physics.
        
       | ficklepickle wrote:
       | Maybe somebody here can help me understand what I saw a couple of
       | years ago.
       | 
       | Basically, I saw what appeared to be two satellites on a
       | collision course. One was bright and travelling across my FOV
       | from left to right fairly slowly. Then another much dimmer and
       | faster light appeared in the right of my FOV and appeared to be
       | on a collision course.
       | 
       | At the moment of apparent collision (from my POV) they appeared
       | to very rapidly orbit around each other some number of times,
       | before continuing on their original course. I believe the dim one
       | was moving more slowly than before, but I am unsure.
       | 
       | This happened around July of 2018 I believe. From lat,lon of
       | about 49.25,-123.12 looking south at the night sky at about
       | 45deg.
       | 
       | My best guess is it was an optical illusion, the two satellites
       | were at different altitude and only appeared to be on a collision
       | course from my point of view. Some sort of lensing effect? I
       | don't know.
        
       | gandalfian wrote:
       | What about the identified flying objects?
        
         | wiz21c wrote:
         | rotfl!
        
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       (page generated 2021-01-10 23:03 UTC)