/because somebody had to start it

It's very simple. People looked to the skies because they were looking to the future. They saw what they wanted to see. The power of suggestion, and overactive imagination lead to a lot of UFO sightings during the space race. But now people no longer look to the future, so they're not going to see "UFOs" anymore.

We're heading back to people seeing demons and angels (but mostly demons, and mostly in the US).

I find your lack of faith disturbing.

X-Files has been off the air for a while...this is not surprising.

Just based on pure probability, the chances there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe are pretty high. What UFO enthusiasts fail to acknowledge is how monumentally difficult it will ever be to locate, much less contact such intelligent life. And it isn't like the rules are different for the aliens. Considering how relatively primitive we are, the chances that they will find us are probably very slim.

Perhaps UFO technology has advanced beyond the "blinky lights everywhere on my ship" stage, hmmmm? HMMMM?

If only the religious would realize the same thing.

Well, I'll be damned.

It was a streetlight after all.

"I flew 200,000 light years to visit your planet, just to make circles in your crops."

VIGILO
CONFIDO

Even the Jehovah's Witnesses stop coming around after a couple of decades if I don't engage with them.

Close2TheEdge: Just based on pure probability, the chances there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe are pretty high. What UFO enthusiasts fail to acknowledge is how monumentally difficult it will ever be to locate, much less contact such intelligent life. And it isn't like the rules are different for the aliens. Considering how relatively primitive we are, the chances that they will find us are probably very slim.

And as any Algonquian Indian would probably assure you, if you could find one, it would probably be a fine thing if they couldn't find us out here on the unfashionable western spiral arm of the galaxy.

poe_zlaw: If only the religious would realize the same thing.

Yes, but we're supposed to coexist and be "respectful" of each other's beliefs. Even though, believing in religion is just as fantastical as believing aliens abduct people for anal probing.

People are giving up after, what? The rather miniscule search period of forty or sixty years? Isn't that kind of like looking about for the girl that schlicked to Tom Gordon for fifteen minutes and then farking off cause the game was on? Never give up hope.

/praying for alien abduction in five minutes
//screw this mudball
///gentle probing is okay, if that's the price to ride

If you were an advanced life form that could travel those distances, would you visit us?

UFOIA

Close2TheEdge: Just based on pure probability, the chances there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe are pretty high. What UFO enthusiasts fail to acknowledge is how monumentally difficult it will ever be to locate, much less contact such intelligent life

Yeah, what people often overlook is that the very thing that makes life likely, if not a mathematical certainty is also the thing that makes it extremely unlikely for us to find them, or vice versa. I mean, sure, if there was life on another planet within, say, a 50 LY radius, there'd be an at least measurable chance of some sort of contact - assuming that "life" was somewhere close to us on a development scale. But that chance is extremely remote. If there's life on another planet 50,000+ LY away, well, yeah, we're very unlikely to ever know about it. And that's assuming there's some in this galaxy.

Perhaps it is more dangerous for them to visit us now?

"They are made of meat?"

Link

It's also quite likely that such advanced aliens would have no qualms eating us, unless they are vegetarians, I don't know which possibility is scarier.

I_Am_Weasel: If you were an advanced life form that could travel those distances, would you visit us?

Yes. Just like I would go to Antarctica to visit penguins if I could.

smadge1: It's also quite likely that such advanced aliens would have no qualms eating us, unless they are vegetarians, I don't know which possibility is scarier.

In all likelihood, we would be poisonous to them even if they did eat meat. Different evolutionary backgrounds. Plus, we don't generally eat stuff that can fight back. Mainly, we go for the more docile species.

I'm not saying it wasn't mashed potatoes. But...




 
_{we er nert alern!}

smadge1: It's also quite likely that such advanced aliens would have no qualms eating us, unless they are vegetarians, I don't know which possibility is scarier.

Don't worry, they would probably be allergic to us.

Dahnkster: [youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com image 500x285]

I'm not saying it wasn't mashed potatoes. But...


[clydewoman.files.wordpress.com image 402x612]

[24.media.tumblr.com image 399x397] 
we er nert alern!

I feel like a chode saying this, but of all the memes on the internet this is one of the few that makes me feel kinda bad for the person involved. Seriously, who among us haven't taken an embarrassing picture?

Central Intelligence
Giant Space Brain

Please limit any further contact with the planet known as "Earth". We really don't want to encourage these creatures any more. These creatures have stopped seeing us as evil invaders and have begun to see us as creatures who will protect them from themselves. We liked it much better when they were in fear of us. This 'you've come to save us' BS is grating at best. So, let's all sit back and watch this place collapse in to war, pestilence, pollution and Kardashian reality TV vehicles.

Also, as their 'television' broadcasts begin to reach out outer planets, please resist the urge to adopt their language, period culture or their perception of 'God'. That way, if they ever get here, the language and culture problem will hopefully keep them away.

Look, we're dealing with the intergalactic equivalent of a McGlorx Restaurant. As of now, your required to request a visit pass prior to going to Earth and there will be no more 'probing' no matter how fun it may be for the Earthlings.

Sincerely
Giant Space Brain

PS: Thanks to the planet Rexa who pointed out I said "Your" when the correct version is "You're". You point has been made and you're planet has been vaporized.

Bhruic: Close2TheEdge: Just based on pure probability, the chances there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe are pretty high. What UFO enthusiasts fail to acknowledge is how monumentally difficult it will ever be to locate, much less contact such intelligent life

Yeah, what people often overlook is that the very thing that makes life likely, if not a mathematical certainty is also the thing that makes it extremely unlikely for us to find them, or vice versa. I mean, sure, if there was life on another planet within, say, a 50 LY radius, there'd be an at least measurable chance of some sort of contact - assuming that "life" was somewhere close to us on a development scale. But that chance is extremely remote. If there's life on another planet 50,000+ LY away, well, yeah, we're very unlikely to ever know about it. And that's assuming there's some in this galaxy.

I did the calculations about 20 years ago, and from the best estimates then available, the average distance between communicative intelligences was something like 266 light years. Now, there were a bunch of assumptions inherent in that, one of which was that I treated the galaxy as a squat cylinder with the stars evenly distributed within it. Still, I think it's within an order of magnitude of the correct number.

Consider that: It would still be something like another 160 years before the closest civilization with the capacity to hear us will be able to detect the first faint Morse peepings coming from Earth, and even then, they would have to have antennas and receivers of such great sensitivity as to boggle our current thinking on the subject. In reality, we didn't start putting out large amounts of detectable RF that easily passes through the ionosphere until the introduction of the cavity magnetron for radar in WWII, so it's more like in 200 years.

Obviously UFO's and alien encounters where just not real. People have seen over time how faked these stories were. You know, there are a hell of a lot more important issues facing our country right now. And I think TV is the first to pick up on this subtle shift. Social media is lagging.


You know what I 'm talking about. Sasquatchs. They are coming out of the woodwork.
Cable TV is picking up on it and trying to get some sound science in place to study 'Squatchs habitat, and diet etc...

Big break thru here. Wave of the future.

Dahnkster: [youoffendmeyouoffendmyfamily.com image 500x285]

I'm not saying it wasn't mashed potatoes. But...


[clydewoman.files.wordpress.com image 402x612]

[24.media.tumblr.com image 399x397] 
we er nert alern!

You smell like Reddit, and it smells bad.

The_Time_Master: Perhaps it is more dangerous for them to visit us now?

^ THIS ^

They've discovered that Human Stupidity may be contagious.

I actually worked with amateur astronomy and outreach for about 3.5 years, and I noticed that the interest died down markedly after 2008.

The usual questions were "what telescope should I buy to look for UFOs." I would usually recommend just their eyes and maybe a pair of binos if they actually saw something of interest (like planes). Most didn't understand why, even after presenting them the thought experiment of "look through a paper towel roll when there is a fly buzzing about your room, and count the number of times you see the fly. Then, do the same without the tube. Your field of vision is much wider, so you have a better chance of the fly crossing your vision."

But as time went by, those kinds of questions dried up.

Most of them seemed to be conservatives, so I wonder if the they started to focus their energy on Obamaspiracies.

Just what THEY want us to think! Any of you retards ever heard of a little thing called the end of the world? How about 12-21-12?

The Toltecs knew about Quezacotl.


The Mayans knew about Pedobear-too-oldle.

Great_Milenko: It's very simple. People looked to the skies because they were looking to the future. They saw what they wanted to see. The power of suggestion, and overactive imagination lead to a lot of UFO sightings during the space race. But now people no longer look to the future, so they're not going to see "UFOs" anymore.

We're heading back to people seeing demons and angels (but mostly demons, and mostly in the US).

Sounds like every religion doesn't it?

Probably the latest and best UFO case. JAL over Alaska.
Link

Wobambo

I feel like a chode saying this, but of all the memes on the internet this is one of the few that makes me feel kinda bad for the person involved. Seriously, who among us haven't taken an embarrassing picture?


Wasn't there a follow-up article about that girl on this very Fark? ISTR she turned out okay and is at least mildly amused with the weird Internet fame.

I_Am_Weasel: If you were an advanced life form that could travel those distances, would you visit us?

I like to go to the zoo every once in a while, so why not?

Nrokreffefp: You smell like Reddit, and it smells bad

That's your dead loved one's ass your smelling Corntrollio.

FTA: "Enthusiasts admit that a continued failure to provide proof and a decline in the number of "flying saucer" sightings suggests that aliens do not exist after all and could mean the end of "Ufology" - the study of UFOs - within the next decade."

and that's when they will invade.

FTA: "The reason why nothing is going on is because of the internet. If something happens now, the internet is there to help people get to the bottom of it and find an explanation."

He may have a point about it being because of the internet, but maybe it's not entirely for the reason he thinks. If I saw something, having "reported seeing a UFO" potentially come up in google searches of my name for the rest of my life would certainly make me think twice about reporting it.

Close2TheEdge: relatively primitive

You mean relativity primitive.

MayoSlather


poe_zlaw: If only the religious would realize the same thing.

Yes, but we're supposed to coexist and be "respectful" of each other's beliefs. Even though, believing in religion is just as fantastical as believing aliens abduct people for anal probing.

And if FARK proves anything it is that liberals are in fact the party of tolerance.

/ sarcasm

I think what's really killing UFO enthusiasm is the internet. Not that the internet has made people less credulous, but that it has put the credulous in touch with the incredulous sooner than ever. Someone posts a picture online, someone else is going to identify it before the idea that this is a remarkable discovery takes off.

apoptotic: FTA: "The reason why nothing is going on is because of the internet. If something happens now, the internet is there to help people get to the bottom of it and find an explanation."

He may have a point about it being because of the internet, but maybe it's not entirely for the reason he thinks. If I saw something, having "reported seeing a UFO" potentially come up in google searches of my name for the rest of my life would certainly make me think twice about reporting it.

No, it's the first thing.

Consider this: The mysteriously disappeared "Star Dust" aircraft was a staple of UFO mysteries back in the 60s and 70s. The last message is supposedly a mystery:

ETA SANTIAGO 17.45 HRS STENDEC

That last word, "STENDEC", is allegedly mysterious, but I'm betting it *SHOULD* read:

ETA SANTIAGO 17.45 HRS BT END AR


All you need to transform "STENDEC" into "BT END AR" is the addition of a single dash at the front, and "BT" is standard Morse-speak for "Break Text", a way of separating thoughts in Morse much like a period for the written word. If you were separating the ETA and then saying "OK, this is the end of my transmission, it's logical to put a "BT" right there. Also, "AR" is a standard prosign for "End of Message", and it's A (.-) and R (.-.) run together to form a single composite character (.-.-.), which is the same result as combining E (.) and C (-.-.)

Think of the operator, bouncing around on a plane flying in the Andes, trying to send Morse. I've made similar mistakes in dropping a dit or dah, and adding or missing spaces, while sending Morse while driving. Another factor could be propagation: I've had signals drop in and out where I *KNOW* a person sent something like "BT" but I didn't actually *HEAR* the leading dah because of fading. This is usually with weak signals, but it can also happen to relatively loud signals, especially if there is nearby interference.

Now, would you have gotten a professional and informed opinion of that back in the 1970s or 1980s (before we found Star Dust melting out of a glacier, where it apparently did a CFIT)? Almost certainly not. Even the Wikipedia page on it doesn't mention the possibility.

LOL at naysayers.

Go ahead and discount all the professionals at disclosure project.
The thousands of years of sightings.
The ability of an advanced civ to avoid having their pic taken.
That advanced civs have a VERY LIMITED ability to make contact due to the nature of first contact (Any contact beyond, hello, we're out here is pretty much ruinous).

Yep, nothing to see here. move on.

dittybopper

Bhruic: Close2TheEdge: Just based on pure probability, the chances there is intelligent life elsewhere in the universe are pretty high. What UFO enthusiasts fail to acknowledge is how monumentally difficult it will ever be to locate, much less contact such intelligent life

Yeah, what people often overlook is that the very thing that makes life likely, if not a mathematical certainty is also the thing that makes it extremely unlikely for us to find them, or vice versa. I mean, sure, if there was life on another planet within, say, a 50 LY radius, there'd be an at least measurable chance of some sort of contact - assuming that "life" was somewhere close to us on a development scale. But that chance is extremely remote. If there's life on another planet 50,000+ LY away, well, yeah, we're very unlikely to ever know about it. And that's assuming there's some in this galaxy.

I did the calculations about 20 years ago, and from the best estimates then available, the average distance between communicative intelligences was something like 266 light years. Now, there were a bunch of assumptions inherent in that, one of which was that I treated the galaxy as a squat cylinder with the stars evenly distributed within it. Still, I think it's within an order of magnitude of the correct number.

Consider that: It would still be something like another 160 years before the closest civilization with the capacity to hear us will be able to detect the first faint Morse peepings coming from Earth, and even then, they would have to have antennas and receivers of such great sensitivity as to boggle our current thinking on the subject. In reality, we didn't start putting out large amounts of detectable RF that easily passes through the ionosphere until the introduction of the cavity magnetron for radar in WWII, so it's more like in 200 years 

And the first images will be reruns of 'I Love Lucy', fat chance of them stopping by now.

WorkingInParadise: FTA: "Enthusiasts admit that a continued failure to provide proof and a decline in the number of "flying saucer" sightings suggests that aliens do not exist after all and could mean the end of "Ufology" - the study of UFOs - within the next decade."

and that's when they will invade.

I must sadly agree with you.

Is this what we've given the current generation? The American dream can't even support the wild delusions of a series attention seeking series of pathologically lying nutjobs?

In my day, when a screwball wanted to believe, a personal tour through ten top secret museums detailing the histories of every project X ever developed, complete with blueprints over time, progressive sketches of prototypes, personal interviews with the engineers responsible, video, audio and a complimentary ride in every final design wouldn't so much as waver the mental interconnection of a single neuron from knowing that the lizard men of the hollow earth had once again failed to deter our brave wingnut their mighty quest, their knowledge in their heart of hearts that behind every moon, every comet, every wayward hunk of carbonaceous chondrite lay untold fleets in wait, having bound across the stars in technological mockery of nature and all her earth-bound gods, waiting for dusk to fall so that they might swoop in, and with their hideous tools of alien science, their strange geometries of universal omnipotence and desires of omniscience, stuff all of it up their butt.

If these stalwart men and women of earth have lost their way, what chance do the rest of us, our pitiable lives of commonality and butts that remain unplugged save those they choose to play there?

You people disgust me.

I wanted to believe, but then a space alien lied to me and I don't believe anything anymore.

//got nothin'

dittybopper: . Even the Wikipedia page on it doesn't mention the possibility.

No longer true, as I've updated the Wiki page on it.

Photoshop is too good and too easy. Cameras are also so much better. That blurry light just isn't enough for people anymore.
Cropcircles have been provent false like bigfoot and the lochness monster. Mothman isn't hanging around anymore. Airplanes are doing pretty good despite all the gremlins running around.
We caught chupacabras and found it was what? coyote? wolf? dog? with a medical condition.

The internet has murdered urban legends.

Aliens exist. Yep. There is some bacteria in our neighborhood, I'm certain. You know, somewhere.
Alien organisms similar to fish, or possibly mammals, unlikely, but possible. We haven't been everywhere yet, you never know.
Sentient aliens... The odds are it'll take so long to find them, that only the people who believe enough to try for 100-10,000 years need apply. These guys have never been to earth.

And why no pics? Try taking a picture of a bird, in flight, at a distance, In focus. With a $1500 camera and LOTS of experience, its still VERY difficult.

Examine the footage smuggled out of nellis (at a nuclear test range.. no security there, huh?) And look how the craft responded to having its picture taken: IT KNEW. That was a multi million dollar auto tracking camera, and its still super blurry.

But yeah, people expect their Iphone is gonna snap some UFO shots..

Their message is simple: We're out here. Hello. Please Be nice, as we are being nice. And also, 'we dont like nukes'. Especially among a civ beginnning to start space exploration.

It would take a few hours to convince yourself of this, but a skeptic DOESENT want to believe. the mind is happy believing others are gullible. Like Buzz Aldrin, several presidents, congressmen.. Look who forwarded Roswell revealed, before they recalled the initial print.. Look at the interviews at roswell AFTER the FBI, NSA and CIA left.. these people were threatened hard, but twenty years later they finally started talking.


/still nothing to see here.