NASA wants to believe ... that you can help it crack UFO mysteries NASA on Thursday released its final report on how to best study Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena (UAP) and the US space agency wants to hear more from the hoi polloi, or common folk. The report endorses "crowdsourcing" as a way to gather more data about puzzling sightings. "Engaging the public is also a critical aspect of …
Why is this suddenly making such a come-back? After years of debunked-by-billions-of-mobile-phones-with-cameras (XKCD), suddenly we're dragging this nonsense out again.
Is it the times? The knowledge that "crap, we really messed up and have no idea how to fix the planet" we're back to hoping for the aliens to save our bacon, because prayer to gods sure as hell (ha!) didn't work?
>>before the conspiracy theory nutcases are voted out in the next couple of elections.
Ah, the optimism of youth! The very idea that the crzies get voted out anywhere is flawed... never have I known crazies be voted out. Victims of internal strife maybe, but never, ever, voted out.
Trouble is that one man's crazy is another's prophet.
The US politicians who claim to pray to God the most, actually don't; they pray to the idols of money, power, and corporate greed. Can't fix a planet with that attitude -- instead of being good stewards of it like God intended, it's more like rape and pillage the planet for all its resources, then burn them.
(Remember, kids, "pillage then burn". Better return on investment than vice versa.)
activated by a combo of COVID vaccines and AM radio waves will create the largest command and control viral bot network the world has ever seen.
The aliens don't need to land - they will take us over from the inside out.
Someone please warn NASA. I can't because I'm already slipping away .....
Aliens visit earth frequently. But it's such a boring planet that it only gets included I'm those visit 10 Galaxies in 10days tours you get advertised in the Sirius-B Sunday Supplemenrs
So the aliens only have chance to get off the ship, laugh at some yokel and probe a cow before taking off to see the fire swamps of Golgafricham
To have world + dog at the ready to capture "stuff". Regarding the "everyone's got a camera phone" argument, just count the time it takes to pick up the phone, type in your security code, press the camera icon, point 'phone at the right bit of sky (just try that with an ordinary plane going overhead) and click.. Whatever it was would be half way to Mars by the time you're ready.
Everyone seems to agree that there is a something, so let's find out what the something is rather than adopting a denial posture.
Just my 2 cents.
My last few phones (various manufacturers) have all had the option to open the camera (current one is swipe the camera icon up on the lockscreen) and snap away without unlocking the phone, my current one will also let you view the pics you have taken (but only the ones you have just taken) in the photo gallery app but disables anything beyond view / delete options unless you unlock the phone
The problem with those who seem convinced that they are aliens is that only the poor-quality images remain unexplained. Could it be that they are unexplained due to their poor quality, rather than because they are unexplainable by Earthly standards? Seems likely to me.
Similar to photos of Bigfoot, Nessie, etc.
Since almost everyone does have a decent-quality camera on them most of the time now, it's strange how there are NO clear and unambiguous images of such things.
"Since almost everyone does have a decent-quality camera on them most of the time now, it's strange how there are NO clear and unambiguous images of such things."
Few people with phones/cameras actually know how to use them. Many have no concept of holding the phone in landscape mode at the appropriate time, let alone how to hold it steady and pan slowly so as not to induce nausea in their audience by waving it rapidly around. Now put one of those people in the "exciting" position of trying to photograph or video a tiny object in the sky, often under poor conditions and all you are going to get some shaky, out of focus crap video that could be Nessie piloting a flying saucer dropping poop-bombs on bigfoor and all we get to see is some fuzzy blur accompanied by sounds of "whoa, shit man, can you see that? This is gonna go viral!".
TL'DR, people wave camera phones around the same way they move their heads, but without the eyeball/brain self-correcting feed-back.
"Now put one of those people in the "exciting" position of trying to photograph or video a tiny object in the sky, often under poor conditions..."
Exactly this! You're not expecting to see anything unusual, so it takes a moment to realise that something's afoot. Then you have to stop being gobsmacked long enough to think of taking a pic video. Rummage in pocket/ bag for phone and get to the camera app - yes, I know, camera hotkeys etc. I disabled mine cos they kept sprouting the camera when I didn't want it. Then you have to point at the object and shoot. You can try the last bit using an aircraft at night as a substitute UFO - chances are all you'll get is a wobbly set of bright lights against a cloudscape, if that.
You could try a further experiment; secret your phone about your person in its usual place, then walk along a busy main road with a friend. At random, your friend is to point out a passing car and you have to get a good picture of it before it's out of sight. Tricky.
Naturally, this latter experiment is inappropriate for the dickheads who routinely walk along and even cross roads with their eyes glued to their phones because a) the UFO could land on their head and they still wouldn't notice, and b) I doubt they have any friends.
"In fact, there will be a job opening up at NASA to oversee UAP data collection. The space agency plans to appoint a Director of UAP Research"
Do keep up, El Reg; in the press conference, NASA said they'd appointed someone to lead this, but —in almost the same breath as talking about how open and transparent they are— they said they're not naming the person (or disclosing anything about budget). Later on they suggested that this was because of harassment and death threats.
It isn't clear whether the threats are from earth-bound whack-jobs or shy extra-terrestrials. Or perhaps they've simply appointed a shy extra-terrestrial.
Unidentified anomalous phenomenon is a much wider category than unidetified flying object -- not least because, strictly, a UAP doesn't necessarily have be flying or even capable of flight.The ambiguity reminds me of a very old joke from Punch magazine:
"Vicar, vicar, there's a horrible black mass in the church yard!"
"A horrible black mass of what?"
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