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I'm not sure where to start... There was a point I wanted to make and then I spotted this: "A healthy skepticism about extraterrestrial space travelers leads p
by jm4 18y ago
I'm not sure where to start... There was a point I wanted to make and then I spotted this:
"A healthy skepticism about extraterrestrial space travelers leads people to disregard U.F.O. sightings without a moment’s thought. But in the United States, this translates into overdependence on radar data and indifference to all kinds of unidentified aircraft — a weakness that could be exploited by terrorists or anyone seeking to engage in espionage against the United States."
Terrorists from Mars! It could be the title of a really bad B movie... only the NY Times is telling us we should really be afraid. Ok, I know it's a stretch... The article doesn't specifically mention extra-terrestrial terrorists in UFOs. But how the hell do you get from UFO sightings to terrorism? sigh
What's the point of this post anyway? I got myself all worked up and now I'm wondering what the heck this has to do with HN? I guess UFOs are kind of geeky and interesting to hackers, but surely someone could have come up with something better than this.
- davidw 18y agoYou can play "six degrees of hacker news" with stories like this: UFO's are science fiction -> lots of hackers like to read science fiction -> it's hacker news! Using this technique, you can justify the presence of any article on this site.
- jm4 18y agoI agree completely. What self respecting hacker doesn't like the occasional UFO diversion? I just suspect that in this case I was lured in by a Reddit troll.
- Retric 18y agoAs I understand it the whole UFO idea was created by the Air force as counter intelligence to cover up spy plane missions. Basically, if people in the US started talking about UFO’s so would people in the USSR. So it acted like Radar jamming where people would see a fast moving speak in the sky and think Aliens not Air Force. I like to think of it as a great social hack much like the idea that Facebook could be worth 15billion.