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I don't get what the motivation is for these news stories and the upcoming "report" that everyone is talking about. So far, all we got is grainy video and verb

I don't get what the motivation is for these news stories and the upcoming "report" that everyone is talking about. So far, all we got is grainy video and verbal accounts from military pilots using jargon-laden language that sounds authoritative released to the general public. The thing is, these pilots have instruments, jobs, and mindsets that are intended to handle known things. They are neither impartial nor critical observers. The key thing is we don't know yet what they saw, nor do they. We don't even know if these are "objects" or sensor/sensory "artifacts". Occam's Razor is intended to apply in EXACTLY situations like this. The good news is that if these phenomena are as common as people say, it should be possible to devise procedures, measurements, and analysis to start to rule out what these are not.

krapp 5y ago
The motivation is that this is a viral story, so it's guaranteed to get views. Bear in mind, every new story doesn't indicate a new sighting - these stories are mostly retreads of the same few incidents and a vague pins-and-twine narrative connecting other stories like the Pais patents to get some extra mileage out of it.
- crispyambulance 5y ago
  Yeah, there's been a lot of re-hashing and people are conflating the several different videos together along with the verbal descriptions by pilots and piecing together entirely made-up narratives. In particular, the Alizondo character keeps popping up as some kind of head of a government research project. He's been trotting this stuff around for years, but according to a 2019 story in The Intercept, the dude's employment story doesn't check out: https://theintercept.com/2019/06/01/ufo-unidentified-history-channel-luis-elizondo-pentagon/ https://theintercept.com/2019/06/01/ufo-unidentified-history... I suppose the news outlets are hungry for clicks now that Stable Genius isn't around to send them a zinger everyday.
stevenhuang 5y ago
Occam's razor breaks down precisely in the long tail. > The thing is, these pilots have instruments, jobs, and mindsets that are intended to handle known things. They are neither impartial nor critical observers. The key thing is we don't know yet what they saw, nor do they. We don't even know if these are "objects" or sensor/sensory "artifacts". There's a lot to unpack here. Yes, they are intended to handle known things. Drones, weather balloons, cloud formations, jet plumes. These are all known, and our observations do not match them. Impartial nor critical? I would suggest you watch the interviews with the pilots from the USS Nimitz incident. It's mentioned a major reason we don't hear a lot of these accounts is because of the stigma of reporting UFOs, which is why his copilots have been silent on the matter until now. Lastly they are real objects. Multiple eye witness accounts with multiple radar signatures, from carriers and jets.
- crispyambulance 5y ago
  > ...suggest you watch the interviews with the pilots from the USS Nimitz incident. I did and I am not convinced their observations reveal much about these phenomena. Military pilots are very capable people with good eyes, but they're trained and focused strictly on their very demanding job. They are not in the air to conduct general-purpose scientific observations, nor do they necessarily have the tools at their disposal to truly evaluate what they're seeing. > Drones, weather balloons, cloud formations, jet plumes. These are all known, and our observations do not match them. Do not match any? Or some? or one? There's multiple videos out there, very different from each other and each could have a different explanation. It really does come down to Occam's Razor.
  - behnamoh 5y ago
    Every time a person refuses comments made by another person in bullet points, I find it hard to believe they are in fact looking for the truth and are not biased. The person who commented on your comment clearly provided information about what you said, but you're just disagreeing with him.
    - crispyambulance 5y ago

krapp 5y ago

The motivation is that this is a viral story, so it's guaranteed to get views. Bear in mind, every new story doesn't indicate a new sighting - these stories are mostly retreads of the same few incidents and a vague pins-and-twine narrative connecting other stories like the Pais patents to get some extra mileage out of it.

crispyambulance 5y ago
Yeah, there's been a lot of re-hashing and people are conflating the several different videos together along with the verbal descriptions by pilots and piecing together entirely made-up narratives. In particular, the Alizondo character keeps popping up as some kind of head of a government research project. He's been trotting this stuff around for years, but according to a 2019 story in The Intercept, the dude's employment story doesn't check out: https://theintercept.com/2019/06/01/ufo-unidentified-history-channel-luis-elizondo-pentagon/ https://theintercept.com/2019/06/01/ufo-unidentified-history... I suppose the news outlets are hungry for clicks now that Stable Genius isn't around to send them a zinger everyday.

stevenhuang 5y ago

Occam's razor breaks down precisely in the long tail. > The thing is, these pilots have instruments, jobs, and mindsets that are intended to handle known things. They are neither impartial nor critical observers. The key thing is we don't know yet what they saw, nor do they. We don't even know if these are "objects" or sensor/sensory "artifacts". There's a lot to unpack here. Yes, they are intended to handle known things. Drones, weather balloons, cloud formations, jet plumes. These are all known, and our observations do not match them. Impartial nor critical? I would suggest you watch the interviews with the pilots from the USS Nimitz incident. It's mentioned a major reason we don't hear a lot of these accounts is because of the stigma of reporting UFOs, which is why his copilots have been silent on the matter until now. Lastly they are real objects. Multiple eye witness accounts with multiple radar signatures, from carriers and jets.

crispyambulance 5y ago
> ...suggest you watch the interviews with the pilots from the USS Nimitz incident. I did and I am not convinced their observations reveal much about these phenomena. Military pilots are very capable people with good eyes, but they're trained and focused strictly on their very demanding job. They are not in the air to conduct general-purpose scientific observations, nor do they necessarily have the tools at their disposal to truly evaluate what they're seeing. > Drones, weather balloons, cloud formations, jet plumes. These are all known, and our observations do not match them. Do not match any? Or some? or one? There's multiple videos out there, very different from each other and each could have a different explanation. It really does come down to Occam's Razor.
- behnamoh 5y ago
  Every time a person refuses comments made by another person in bullet points, I find it hard to believe they are in fact looking for the truth and are not biased. The person who commented on your comment clearly provided information about what you said, but you're just disagreeing with him.
  - crispyambulance 5y ago