Moontanman

You do realize that there are sighting that include multiple independent radars, multiple independent witnesses, photos, videos, physical effects, interactions with both civilian and military aircraft, active influence of nuclear missile silos, lights or hallucination do not even come close to covering them. Suggesting that UFOs are just what some folks claim... like gods and angels, is somewhat less than an accurate appraisal of the situation. Yet... I guess until one crashes into the white house no concrete evidence exists. In other words, until aliens decide to let us know we cannot know. These discussions are very frustrating, some people would not consider any data short of a alien spacecraft crashing into times square sufficient evidence while others seem to think any odd flashing light is an alien spacecraft. The reality is there is a huge volume of data that needs to be looked at in a way that manages to consider what we have and apply some sort of analysis that manages to ride the line somewhere between the extremes.

I do not suggest drawing a conclusion, I suggest not dismissing the data we have out of hand and further study. I honestly wonder what conclusive evidence would be, At one time there was no conclusive evidence that lighting wasn't caused by gods or that rocks fell from the sky. Did dismissing those things give us better understanding? This is true but it doesn't justify saying all sightings are probably those things either. I have seen this "explanation" used to dismiss sightings that were obviously not "Venus" in a temperature inversion as that very thing just because the people involved didn't know better. Neither relativity or the vast distances of space preclude interstellar travel.

As Mudinho did live there, and that was his typical behavior, then for the young women to have seen a space creature there would have to have been two such beings — the known one, Mudinho, and the hypothetical one, an alien — but as they reported only one skinny humanoid crouching in the mud, and not two, we are left with no rational support for there having been any beings present other than Mudinho. Today, the three women do still give interviews about their experience. There is one very important detail that has changed since their original story: Today, they say they knew Mudinho well, and had even given him cigarettes in the past; so of course they would not have mistaken him for an alien. However, in their original reports from 1996, they said they didn't know him, and took him for a devil when they saw him. It's one more example of stories changing and growing to fit a changing and growing narrative that gains mass traction in pop culture. Everyone wants to be in on it, and everyone wants to be seen as credible and correct. I agree with @Moontanman that there is a body of cases that do appear to represent truly anomalous and unexplained aerial events, and these may at some point turn out to be some fascinating atmospheric phenomenon that expands our view of things. They should not be dismissed, and should be studied. But these Stanton Friedman generated narratives are mostly self-promoting flapdoodle and just piss poor science. As Dunning notes: Friedman's whole career, in fact, consisted of compiling bits and pieces of poor-quality evidence, mainly unverified eyewitness testimony usually taken years or decades after an event; and then composing an original alien visitation story that incorporates all those bits and is presented as the factual account of what happened. He's best known as the original author of the Roswell mythology, in which he worked with a retired mortician named Glenn Dennis. In 1989 — more than four decades after the 1947 Roswell crash was alleged to have happened — Friedman carefully wove together a string of snippets of Dennis' assorted memories of having worked in that town, and created the story we know today of a spaceship crash and small alien bodies being recovered. It was published in 1991, the first time that story even existed. Friedman couldn't have cared less that the things Dennis thought he remembered actually took place over a span of twelve years and had nothing to do with each other; his goal was to craft an original UFO narrative. That was Friedman's thing. That was what he did professionally... I all fairness i have to say this sighting appears to be a retelling of an event that happened back in the late 50s or early 60s. I'd have to do some digging to be sure but I am pretty sure of it. I read about it in the late 60s when I was in highschool. This is an example of the inexplicability of some UFO sightings. Occurring in 1896 this report is simply outrageous! An alien craft 20 feet in diameter and 150 feet in length, three 7 foot tall aliens, attempting to abduct a man riding in a horse and buggy. It reads so matter of fact but it's more like a guy detailing his experiences while drinking shroom tea. https://www.recordnet.com/story/news/2015/03/27/fitzgerald-day-space-aliens-visited/34895899007/ The guy should have been writing novels, this is HG Wells type stuff! These "sightings" are not exactly a modern phenomena! https://www.ultius.com/ultius-blog/entry/short-essay-on-the-history-of-ufos-in-the-united-states.html

Probably true but is it better to allow foreign adversaries to fly balloons unimpeded over our territory or to shoot them down so that adersarry knows they cannot get away with it even if they try.

No one is saying a conclusion must be drawn but outright dismissal, which is what "no concrete evidence" really means, is not science or at least not how I was taught. Good point and justifiable as well but what about those reports that cannot be explained by conventional objects despite a huge amount of evidence? The fact that sighting was so easily explained doesn't have any bearing on the ones that are not. Yes, in fact up until recently that is exactly what was being said, for many decades anyone who wanted to investigate was written off as a crazy, careers were destroyed, people in places of trust were told not to report sightings for fear of being labeled as unstable. There is a reason why pilots who were thoughtless enough to say they had seen something extraordinary were often drummed out of the profession or given desk jobs. These things really happened, people were delegated to the crazy pile for just reporting. This was and is wrong, if you can explain them then fine explain them but to discourage people from even looking ito it was simply unconscionable. The US gov's so called investigations became nothing but an attempt to explain away any sighting by any means. This was why Dr. J. Allen Hynek, who started out working for the air force changed sides and became convinced there was something serious to be studied. BTW, I've seen Venus dance around the sky in an early morning temperature inversion, it was an astounding sight. But I was expecting Venus in that area of the sky and i was familiar with the local tendency for temperature inversions so I knew what it was immediately. Yes it looked very strange but that is no reason to explain away everything as a balloon or Venus in a temperature inversion. Quite often no such explanation exists for even something as mundane as a light in the sky. Very frustrating but no reason to dismiss it out of hand. And sometimes the sighting is so extraordinary that nothing can explain it and yet that is quite often dismissed just as confidently as something that can be explained. Just because something can be explained does not mean everything can. You do make good points and the film maker is in the business of making money off views but you cannot simply place all sightings in the same bag. Sometimes you have to do some independent study to see how accurate the film maker was being. Sometimes it turns out to be bs, sometimes is turns out to be lack of enough evidence to really say but more often than some want to think it turns out ot be inexplicable despite an embarrassing wealth of evidence. Those are called unexplained and the number of the unexplained only grows larger.

There is also the real possibility of a significant attack coming from a Drone or a balloon, I know it's considered a crazy idea but a 1 megaton nuke detonated from a balloon at 100,000 feet would do some real damage to our nation and be difficult to defend against and maybe even figure out where it came from. The cost of a few missiles seems a small price to pay to prevent this and maybe even be enough to make cheaper missiles to take down these objects.

No to be disrespectful... but no concrete evidence? What would constitute "concrete evidence"? I often wonder about this, it's like people refuse to consider a report unless they have a crashed object or a body. Does anyone really expect "concrete" evidence from an advanced alien spacecraft? There are pictures, radar conformations, physical traces on the ground of something unusual at the very least. Can we really expect "concrete" evidence to be left behind by anything so advanced? I know I know, what someone said happened isn't enough, but at what point do we stand back and realize that the shear number of sightings by relatively competent observers suggest something... if not extraordinary then at least highly unusual? Maybe it's like the bigfoot phenomena where prolonged study has at least pointed us in the direction that suggests black bears might be what is prompting a great many sightings. Did that real possibility come from simply dismissing the idea of bigfoot? No it came from investigating the sightings, not by dismissing them because we didn't have a bigfoot corpse.

I haven't seen that video but I have read of that report, it was pretty much poo pooed because it happened in a poor superstitious part of Brazil... evidently even UFOs can be racist. I thought the report was interesting, I'll try and watch it soon. Brazil and other parts of South America have long been known as hot spots of UFO activity but were pretty much ignored by mainstream media but lots of accounts have made it to UFO journals and other sources.

Finally!

A friend on "facebook" is sure the scenario from Independence Day is being played out and soon we'll be in a full scale alien invasion... an air force general who recently said at this point we can't rule out aliens isn't really helping.

NSFW? You mean like "The Loophole" ?

Nice, I always liked the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band version too.

They are just pissy about different things. Hey I'm lonely as well, send nudes.

Well technically he is an ape and so are you and me and all other humans.

And you fail to mention how the Israelis drove out the majority of the Palestinians, bulldozed their homes, killed them outright to make them leave and confined most of them to tiny areas they now occupy. As for where their missiles come from. I would imagine that they come from other countries who have a stake in harassing the Israelis. This is not a complex issue, yes the British tried to make an Israeli homeland but like lots of effort the British put into partitioning other peoples lands this effort resulted in lots of violence because the people who already lived there were not given the same rights the Israelis enjoyed. Just because god or the british told the jews they could have this land didn't justify the methods they used to eliminate the people who already lived there.

I guess if Israel has a God given right to the land they occupy and they have the right to round up the previous inhabitants and push them into what amounts to a concentration camp then by extension Native Americans, by the authority of the Great Spirit, should have the right to take back all our lands the Europeans took and round them up into concentration camps (reservations) and starve them out. Maybe Native Americans can get the support of Russia and China to help us enforce our claims? Israel is the bad guy in this and their claims are based on nothing but religion, the Palestinians have just as much right to exist on that land, I see no way to get around this logically. I can honestly say I have nothing against the Jewish people individually or as a people but they get no magical pass either. And the whataboutism of saying other countries have no room to talk is a very sad excuse.

So planet of the apes is coming?!

If the Israeli government is exempt for humor then this entire thread should be closed. I see no reason to exempt The Israeli government from political humor, they are no more exempt from humor than anyone else.

Wait! Boobs were flashed?

I thought mistermack's joke was quite spot on my funny bone. I don't have anything against jews but israeli policy has long been lampooned for being somewhat less than gentle to those who dare to disabree with them. I don't hate israel as many who simply criticize them are accused of doing but I see no reason to kiss their ass either.

I enjoyed her books of fiction... but the AAT has been shown to be false.

I can see a house being made up of living trees, I've seen trees grown into various shapes, some resembling houses and even partially functional, but moving objects? Maybe with a lot of genetic engineering.