5 ms·

Pilot had been reporting things like that for years but nobody would believe them because they weren't "trained observers", until a pilot caught it on film in t

Pilot had been reporting things like that for years but nobody would believe them because they weren't "trained observers", until a pilot caught it on film in the 80's. Same with sailors, who've been repairing rogue waves for centuries, but it wasn't until it was recorded scientifically on an oil rig that scientists took it seriously. Still an awesome picture.

soupfordummies 1y ago
I saw something weird on a red-eye recently that maybe someone can explain: We were going over a pretty rural area. I saw what looked like the fan of headlights but in these large marbleized shapes like large lightning-crackles. They just sort of moved across the ground and then fizzled out. The movement patterns would be kind of like clouds dissipating but it definitely looked like lights? Very weird.
- bufbupa 1y ago
  Something like ball lightning? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning
zamadatix 1y ago
As Adam Savage famously said (though I'm sure he was far from the first): "Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down." The quote is a bit of an oversimplification, i.e. "writing it down" isn't all there is to the scientific method, but the core idea something wasn't science until the scientific method was applied is both a tautology and a good thing.
dkga 1y ago
In 1995 or 1997, can't remember which, I flew from Belo Horizonte to Miami (if the former) or NYC (latter). When we were flying over what I think is the Caribbean, I recall seeing "upward lightnings". They were absolutely majestic. I was absolutely awaken. I don't remember much else as I was a kid but seeing this text made me come back to this beautiful memory.
- jacquesm 1y ago
  Upward lightnings happen frequently enough, there is a guy called Tom Warner that has done pretty extensive research into this including high speed photography.
  - sharpshadow 1y ago
    Here is his website[0] very cool stuff indeed. 0. https://ztresearch.blog/2014/07/03/unique-image-showing-lightning-leader-development-in-a-possible-potential-well/ https://ztresearch.blog/2014/07/03/unique-image-showing-ligh...
  - dylan604 1y ago
    I was shooting time lapse during a thunder storm and caught a ground to sky lightning bolt. I assumed that if I had an image of one that it must be a fairly common kind of thing, because I know I don't have that kind of luck. Then again, I also had a time lapse of the Milky Way that someone point out something I had caught being a meteor coming straight at camera recognizable by the ionized trail it left behind which took minutes to dissipate. It definitely helps to have a shutter open. You'll miss 100% of the shots you don't take (to borrow a sports phrase).
N2yhWNXQN3k9 1y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper-atmospheric_lightning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper-atmospheric_lightning
- wfme 1y ago
  > In ensuing decades, high altitude electrical discharges were reported by aircraft pilots and discounted by meteorologists until the first direct visual evidence was documented in 1989. From your link.
  - N2yhWNXQN3k9 1y ago
    [flagged]
    - wfme 1y ago
      It was in response to your original, unedited comment: "Pretty well understood" or something to that effect. My point is that discounting historical accounts with a link to current information is neither particularly useful nor interesting. IMO it is much more interesting to understand how our understanding has changed over time.
      - N2yhWNXQN3k9 1y ago
        The link also contains information of the history of the current understanding? And is a direct summary of current understanding? I guess that contains your constraints for an interesting article (as it includes historical and current references that cover said history). So, what am I missing? Also, I didn't edit the main premise of the comment, as it still contains the phrase "Pretty well understood today", unedited, but whatever. EDIT: I have now removed that phrase as my comment was flagged. I mean, "fuck off" to whoever did that. My original comment had "Pretty well understood today" with the wikpedia link. Stupid shit, imo Community here continually becomes less "don't be a dick" from 2009 and more "fuck you, toe the line"
        1y ago
roughly 1y ago
My favorite variant of that kind of story: https://blog.nature.org/2018/01/12/australian-firehawk-raptors-intentionally-spread-wildfires/ https://blog.nature.org/2018/01/12/australian-firehawk-rapto...
zoeysmithe 1y ago
Classism in higher education, science, etc is sadly all too common. Even those in the 'correct' class have uphill battles as science very much is vulnerable to ego, politics, etc and reform can be difficult, or in some cases impossible, regardless of merit. It makes you wonder what obvious thing is being ignored right now due to these politics. I would not be 100% surprised if people in the future accepted things like 'ghost experiences' as normal things. There's just way too many stories and experiences to entirely write it off, but who knows. I feel like hand wavey excuses like third-man, carbon monoxide suddenly everywhere, thought experiments about brains releasing chemicals, calling everything a hallucination, intuition impossible to know conventionally just called luck, etc is the system trying hard to deny this.
- stavros 1y ago
  If people in the "correct" class are having trouble, that means it's not entirely classism. Only the additional trouble the people in the "wrong" class have is because of classism.
- graemep 1y ago
  > I would not be 100% surprised if people in the future accepted things like 'ghost experiences' as normal things. Even if the experiences becomes accepted (although i think it unlikely) but not necessarily as really being what people who believe in ghosts think them to be. it is quite common for things to turn out to be real observations but not to be what the observers thought they were (e.g. flying saucers).
  - foobarian 1y ago
    If militaries around the world are not using it, it is probably not real. See also telekinesis or ESP experiments the US Army performed [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project_(U.S._Army_unit) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project_(U.S._Army_un...
- tim333 1y ago
  Dunno if it's classism so much that if you look at reports of odd waves or lights it's going to be really hard to filter the signal from the noise of people saying odd stuff. Photos are much better.
jfjfitttjtmt 1y ago
I feel you are undermining the Science! Just because some common folks think they seen something, it does not mean it exists! It was probanly gas leak explosion, or something!
moi2388 1y ago
You have a small typo: repairing instead of reporting

soupfordummies 1y ago

I saw something weird on a red-eye recently that maybe someone can explain: We were going over a pretty rural area. I saw what looked like the fan of headlights but in these large marbleized shapes like large lightning-crackles. They just sort of moved across the ground and then fizzled out. The movement patterns would be kind of like clouds dissipating but it definitely looked like lights? Very weird.

bufbupa 1y ago
Something like ball lightning? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning

zamadatix 1y ago

As Adam Savage famously said (though I'm sure he was far from the first): "Remember kids, the only difference between screwing around and science is writing it down." The quote is a bit of an oversimplification, i.e. "writing it down" isn't all there is to the scientific method, but the core idea something wasn't science until the scientific method was applied is both a tautology and a good thing.

dkga 1y ago

In 1995 or 1997, can't remember which, I flew from Belo Horizonte to Miami (if the former) or NYC (latter). When we were flying over what I think is the Caribbean, I recall seeing "upward lightnings". They were absolutely majestic. I was absolutely awaken. I don't remember much else as I was a kid but seeing this text made me come back to this beautiful memory.

jacquesm 1y ago
Upward lightnings happen frequently enough, there is a guy called Tom Warner that has done pretty extensive research into this including high speed photography.
- sharpshadow 1y ago
  Here is his website[0] very cool stuff indeed. 0. https://ztresearch.blog/2014/07/03/unique-image-showing-lightning-leader-development-in-a-possible-potential-well/ https://ztresearch.blog/2014/07/03/unique-image-showing-ligh...
- dylan604 1y ago
  I was shooting time lapse during a thunder storm and caught a ground to sky lightning bolt. I assumed that if I had an image of one that it must be a fairly common kind of thing, because I know I don't have that kind of luck. Then again, I also had a time lapse of the Milky Way that someone point out something I had caught being a meteor coming straight at camera recognizable by the ionized trail it left behind which took minutes to dissipate. It definitely helps to have a shutter open. You'll miss 100% of the shots you don't take (to borrow a sports phrase).

N2yhWNXQN3k9 1y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper-atmospheric_lightning https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Upper-atmospheric_lightning

wfme 1y ago
> In ensuing decades, high altitude electrical discharges were reported by aircraft pilots and discounted by meteorologists until the first direct visual evidence was documented in 1989. From your link.
- N2yhWNXQN3k9 1y ago
  [flagged]
  - wfme 1y ago
    It was in response to your original, unedited comment: "Pretty well understood" or something to that effect. My point is that discounting historical accounts with a link to current information is neither particularly useful nor interesting. IMO it is much more interesting to understand how our understanding has changed over time.
    - N2yhWNXQN3k9 1y ago
      The link also contains information of the history of the current understanding? And is a direct summary of current understanding? I guess that contains your constraints for an interesting article (as it includes historical and current references that cover said history). So, what am I missing? Also, I didn't edit the main premise of the comment, as it still contains the phrase "Pretty well understood today", unedited, but whatever. EDIT: I have now removed that phrase as my comment was flagged. I mean, "fuck off" to whoever did that. My original comment had "Pretty well understood today" with the wikpedia link. Stupid shit, imo Community here continually becomes less "don't be a dick" from 2009 and more "fuck you, toe the line"
      - 1y ago

roughly 1y ago

My favorite variant of that kind of story: https://blog.nature.org/2018/01/12/australian-firehawk-raptors-intentionally-spread-wildfires/ https://blog.nature.org/2018/01/12/australian-firehawk-rapto...

zoeysmithe 1y ago

Classism in higher education, science, etc is sadly all too common. Even those in the 'correct' class have uphill battles as science very much is vulnerable to ego, politics, etc and reform can be difficult, or in some cases impossible, regardless of merit. It makes you wonder what obvious thing is being ignored right now due to these politics. I would not be 100% surprised if people in the future accepted things like 'ghost experiences' as normal things. There's just way too many stories and experiences to entirely write it off, but who knows. I feel like hand wavey excuses like third-man, carbon monoxide suddenly everywhere, thought experiments about brains releasing chemicals, calling everything a hallucination, intuition impossible to know conventionally just called luck, etc is the system trying hard to deny this.

stavros 1y ago
If people in the "correct" class are having trouble, that means it's not entirely classism. Only the additional trouble the people in the "wrong" class have is because of classism.
graemep 1y ago
> I would not be 100% surprised if people in the future accepted things like 'ghost experiences' as normal things. Even if the experiences becomes accepted (although i think it unlikely) but not necessarily as really being what people who believe in ghosts think them to be. it is quite common for things to turn out to be real observations but not to be what the observers thought they were (e.g. flying saucers).
- foobarian 1y ago
  If militaries around the world are not using it, it is probably not real. See also telekinesis or ESP experiments the US Army performed [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project_(U.S._Army_unit) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargate_Project_(U.S._Army_un...
tim333 1y ago
Dunno if it's classism so much that if you look at reports of odd waves or lights it's going to be really hard to filter the signal from the noise of people saying odd stuff. Photos are much better.

jfjfitttjtmt 1y ago

I feel you are undermining the Science! Just because some common folks think they seen something, it does not mean it exists! It was probanly gas leak explosion, or something!

moi2388 1y ago

You have a small typo: repairing instead of reporting