Canton: StoPPeRmobile: The facebook crownd hasn't aquired the tripod technology.

/tripods are watching

[upload.wikimedia.org image 200x211]

They have the technology.

/Tripodal death plants of doom... They are the next big thing.
//Hot.

Triffid, please!

Hot like a Hubig's Pie factory

Video of UFO over New Orleans was moving "fast as lightning." No word on if everybody was kung-fu fighting at the time

Maybe that video needed some really fast forwarding?

Lee Jackson Beauregard: The U stands for unidentified. If you know it's the Greys in their flying saucer, then you've identified the object, and it's not a farking UFO.

There's one in every thread on this topic.

Jaykzo: The universe is 14 billion years old...

There are hundreds of billions of galaxies...

Each galaxy contains ~100 billion stars....

~40% of stars have planets circling them.... willfully ignorant derp

You started out OK, but then you degenerated into wishful fantasy.

Now, you're most likely aware of the Drake Equation, which he came up with what, back in the 60s? Of course today we have a lot more data with regards to star formation, the approximate number of planets in our own galaxy as well as a much better estimate of how many there are in the universe. Sure, we know there are more stars with planets, but we ALSO know that the odds against a planet even coming up with an atmosphere of, say, Titan, are staggering and against an Earth like planet even more so.

One of the more recent sets of results looks like the following.

N = 7 × 0.4 × 10-11 × 10-9 × 0.1 × 304 = 8 x 10-20 (note that even this is probably inaccurate given that it's a number of years old as well as the fact that we're still learning) which suggests that there isn't any other intelligent life forms in our galaxy, and likely even in universe. However, like you I do hold out some hope / "faith" (for want of a better word) that life is in fact somewhere out there. If you consider that there are galaxies out there which likely began their formation billions of years before our own, sure there's a chance some of those would have intelligent life. BUT, those galaxies would also be several tens of billions of light years from Earth. Now consider the near unimaginable size of our universe, roughly estimated to be in the range of 93 billion light years across, with our own tiny little Virgo cluster this spec within a spec within a spec. This isn't "needle in a haystack", this is nearly atomically small bit of iron within a beach full of sand. So if there is intelligent life out there who have mastered FTL travel, and if they were at all interested in visiting our tiny blue dot, the odds against them ever finding us fall well into the range of near zero.

unchellmatt: Jaykzo: The universe is 14 billion years old...

There are hundreds of billions of galaxies...

Each galaxy contains ~100 billion stars....

~40% of stars have planets circling them.... willfully ignorant derp

You started out OK, but then you degenerated into wishful fantasy.

Now, you're most likely aware of the Drake Equation, which he came up with what, back in the 60s? Of course today we have a lot more data with regards to star formation, the approximate number of planets in our own galaxy as well as a much better estimate of how many there are in the universe. Sure, we know there are more stars with planets, but we ALSO know that the odds against a planet even coming up with an atmosphere of, say, Titan, are staggering and against an Earth like planet even more so.

One of the more recent sets of results looks like the following.

N = 7 × 0.4 × 10-11 × 10-9 × 0.1 × 304 = 8 x 10-20 (note that even this is probably inaccurate given that it's a number of years old as well as the fact that we're still learning) which suggests that there isn't any other intelligent life forms in our galaxy, and likely even in universe. However, like you I do hold out some hope / "faith" (for want of a better word) that life is in fact somewhere out there. If you consider that there are galaxies out there which likely began their formation billions of years before our own, sure there's a chance some of those would have intelligent life. BUT, those galaxies would also be several tens of billions of light years from Earth. Now consider the near unimaginable size of our universe, roughly estimated to be in the range of 93 billion light years across, with our own tiny little Virgo cluster this spec within a spec within a spec. This isn't "needle in a haystack", this is nearly atomically small bit of iron within a beach full of sand. So if there is intelligent life out there who have mastered FTL travel, and if they were at all interested in visiting our tiny blue dot, the odds against ...

yup, absolute wishful fantasy... its more like 56% have planetary bodies of some sort around them.

WHOOO-AAAH-OHHH! Thanks for the ear-worm, subby!
/it's on my MP3 player already, so no worries!

Personally, I'd have called that a video of a picture of three dots.

prjindigo: yup, absolute wishful fantasy... its more like 56% have planetary bodies of some sort around them.

And of that 56%, the vast majority are effectively lumps of rock/gas. But again, lets say for the sake of conversation that of that 56%, maybe (and I'm being amazingly generous) half of those have the potential to have life evolve. OK. Of those, what percentage survive long enough to have that life evolve into sentient species? The universe is an unfriendly place, so a good chunk of them go splat and never make it off their own planet, let alone out of their own solar system. Now take out the numbers of species that don't destroy themselves, because lets face it if we're not alone, we're also not likely to be the only self destructive species out there. THEN factor in the noted mind boggling distances as well as the sheer distances we're talking about. To paraphrase Douglas Adams, we're not talking about a walk to the chemist. Any "peep" humanity has sent out into interstellar space is what, 30 or so light years out? So any sentient species would have to detect a 30 light year signal out of 93 billion light years worth of universe.

Like I said, I'd like to think there is intelligent life out there besides us, and I think it highly likely. Do I think any have been here? Very, very much doubt it.

unchellmatt:

C'mon dude, the Drake equation, much like the Fermi Paradox, is pretty much bullshiat, with several variables that are completely unknowable. It's a thought experiment, not any kind of evidence.

Why was the video moving so fast?

While I think the reasons most UFO videos and pictures are blurry is a bit obvious, for those of you who have ever tried shooting something in the sky at night with little notice on even incredibly nice equipment, you might be shocked at how hard it is. I tested this with about $5k worth of equipment with an airplane just for the hell of it. Got very frustrated, given I've taken enough pictures and videos in my life to assume I can quickly get into good quality/focus.

If you have a few minutes to plan it's doable, but not much consumer equipment will do longer range, dark shooting at "hd quality."

/easier with manual focus, fyi, for those of you trying

Only 3 lights? Are you sure there weren't more?

REO-Weedwagon: It's tourists waddling towards Joe's Crab Shack.

The best place to go for authentic New Orleans seafood.

wraith95: unchellmatt:

C'mon dude, the Drake equation, much like the Fermi Paradox, is pretty much bullshiat, with several variables that are completely unknowable. It's a thought experiment, not any kind of evidence.

Well of course it isn't "fact", and is just a thought experiment, but so is the concept of extra terrestrial intelligence :D With no physical evidence to speak of and only hypothesis, that's about all we have to work with.

unchellmatt: wraith95: unchellmatt:

C'mon dude, the Drake equation, much like the Fermi Paradox, is pretty much bullshiat, with several variables that are completely unknowable. It's a thought experiment, not any kind of evidence.

Well of course it isn't "fact", and is just a thought experiment, but so is the concept of extra terrestrial intelligence :D With no physical evidence to speak of and only hypothesis, that's about all we have to work with.

Heh, I maybe overreacted a bit. I also think that it's extraordinarily unlikely we'll encounter other intelligent life anytime soon, but I've run into enough people that trot out Drake or Fermi like it's the final word that I groan every time it's mentioned.

Mikey1969: "When gamma rays are added, more definition can be seen."

Someone needs to take everything this guy says (the voiceover reporter, not the UFO witness) and make an autotune remix of it.


He's been trying to make sense of the incident ever since.
And he knows what an airplane looks like.
Now the image is blowing up online.
When gamma rays are added, more definition can be seen.
He's going public in the hopes that someone else can find logic.

Zombalupagus: Mikey1969: "When gamma rays are added, more definition can be seen."

Someone needs to take everything this guy says (the voiceover reporter, not the UFO witness) and make an autotune remix of it.


He's been trying to make sense of the incident ever since.
And he knows what an airplane looks like.
Now the image is blowing up online.
When gamma rays are added, more definition can be seen.
He's going public in the hopes that someone else can find logic.

THAT is some funny shiat... So awesome. I can hear it now.