Dozens in Texas town report seeing UFO

reply to post by stellawayten


Thanks for the reply. So it was headed east and towards the east there is a nuclear power plant.

My two sightings were eons ago (1970,1983) and once I got access to a computer it's one of the things I researched. Both my sightings were in remote areas (southwest West Virginia/eastern Kentucky) and the only thing I could link the two to was coal. Coal would seem to be a primitive source of energy to a craft you would think.

The same thing goes for the Chicago sighting. If I'm not mistaken it was headed towards the direction of a nuclear power plant. I'm not sure about the O'Hare one - but I bet if we figured out what direction it took off in and look at the path it traveled, it too was headed towards an energy source or just coming from one.



[edit on 15-1-2008 by Myrtales Instinct]

Originally posted by disownedsky

Originally posted by NewWorldOver

Seriously: the nonsense is over. People know what they are seeing and when we read the reports, we know that they did not see regular airplanes etc.

I disagree,and for two reasons:

1. The AP report is worse than useless for determining what people actually saw. Critical details are left out. As someone who's been in the fray of some widely reported science/technology stories, I'm not at all surprised if the media gets nearly everything wrong.
   
2. All the studies agree that people do NOT know what they see, by and large. About 80% of all UFO reports are misperceptions. People are no well-equipped perceptually to estimate the size and distance of objects in the sky. In many cases, it simply isn't possible. Here on ATS, we have people constantly putting forth very common objects such as aircraft landing lights as UFOs.
   

Until we have the facts, and someone carefully sorts though the witness statements and puts together a coherent timeline, we can't say whether what these people saw was a misperception or not. We may never know.

I can see the possibility of one or two people seeing some airplane lights in the sky from a similar viewing point, and mistaking them for something special. However...an entire community? Or at least several people within a community all seeing something noteworthy, probably from very different locations and perspectives on the object, and they all say it's not an airplane. IMO that's pretty convincing. I'm in the Dulles flight path and jets fly over all day and night and I barely notice them. So, in order for me to stop and study something in the sky, it would first have to get my attention, and then have to differ greatly from the activity I'm accustomed to. I'd say from my experience, a mile long, multi lighted, low altitude, fast moving, relatively silent object would get me to take notice and pay REAL close attention to what I was looking at. I agree that under normal conditions the human ability to accurately recall things is a little lame. But....under the right conditions, those which would be induced by such an unfamiliar and threatening object, I'd say the human mind is better than the fastest super computer. The instincts of fear and survivial tend to unlock some rather super human potential within all of us.

reply to post by TheAvenger


I'm not sure. I will ask around and try to find out.

Originally posted by ngchunter

Originally posted by Ectoterrestrial
reply to post by ngchunter

 

No offense, NGCHunter, but the Ponzo illusion probably doesn't apply to this case. I find it odd that you are using weakly linked phenomena to question the observations of something you weren't even present to analyze. Sounds like arbitrary negation of other's perceptions. Not particularly scientific.

How do you know it doesn't apply? .. From there, you still must have a way to infer the object's distance to be able to calculate its size, but to suggest that a lay witness could perform such a calculation in their head without knowing the true angular size is just plain silly.

I didn't say I know it doesn't apply. I said your attempt to apply it in this context is probably not useful. You are attempting to invalidate the eye witness accounts without
1) speaking to them
2) analyzing the actual information they present

How do you know that they didn't have
1) Motion as a frame of reference, where parallax feeds into people's assumption of size.
or
2) More than a single horizon line to observe from

Both of which would invalidate the use of the Ponzo illusion.

In end, the ONLY analysis that will matter will be from those who bother to go down there, treat the observers with respect, LISTEN to them, and find out what happened, instead of dismissing them as 'laypeople'.

I bet you and I agree that whoever goes down there and tries to sift through the information they have, and THEN applies your sound reasoning, will be at a great advantage. Once they are there, they might agree that people didn't have a good measure of size. I'll take that into consideration.

But I want to know more before I dismiss the story and try to push this out of my mind or anyone else's.

[edit on 15-1-2008 by Ectoterrestrial]

Does anyone know the timeline of the reports of sightings? Did the reports come clustered together, near the same time and same location?

I did not find any mention of this in the articles I read.

The sightings are not the amazing things anymore. The fact that MSM is reporting these sightings on a regular basis has now become the amazing thing. We need to see this on a regular basis. Keep it in the publics faces

[edit on 15-1-2008 by Watcher777]

not sure if it's been mentioned but I found it odd that the article starts off talking about the clear, starry night skies and a few people talk about the lights on this thing and then the military guy goes on to say it was two airplanes with sunlight reflections creating an illusion.

an illusion of a craft at night? that's a copperfieldian illusion.

the local paper is empiretribune.com

I haven't read it so not sure what info it has. I would be willing to investigate for people around here. Not sure what I should do but if yall have suggestions let me know. I have tons of free time so I can drive around. Or if someone wants to come here and investigate I could be a guide. I have lived here practically my whole life.

Originally posted by Ectoterrestrial

Originally posted by ngchunter

Originally posted by Ectoterrestrial
reply to post by ngchunter

 

No offense, NGCHunter, but the Ponzo illusion probably doesn't apply to this case. I find it odd that you are using weakly linked phenomena to question the observations of something you weren't even present to analyze. Sounds like arbitrary negation of other's perceptions. Not particularly scientific.

How do you know it doesn't apply? It was in the sky and you're trying to put some kind of weight on a person's wild ass guess as to the object's size? The fact is that the ponzo illusion shows how completely useless nake eye measurements of an object's size are unless you have a constant point of reference of known angular size. Even the most ardent but intelligent ufologists will tell you that if you experience a sighting, measure the angular size of the object with your fist. THAT is the only way to get a real measurement of the object'ss size. From there, you still must have a way to infer the object's distance to be able to calculate its size, but to suggest that a lay witness could perform such a calculation in their head without knowing the true angular size is just plain silly.

I didn't say I know it doesn't apply. I said your attempt to apply it in this context is probably not useful. You are attempting to invalidate the eye witness accounts without
1) speaking to them
2) analyzing the actual information they present

How do you know that they didn't have
1) Motion as a frame of reference
or
2) More than a single horizon line to observe from

Both of which would invalidate the use of the Ponzo illusion.

In end, the ONLY analysis that will matter will be from those who bother to go down there, treat the observers with respect, LISTEN to them, and find out what happened, instead of dismissing them as 'laypeople'.

[edit on 15-1-2008 by Ectoterrestrial]

The Ponzo illusion is illustrative of an inherent human deficiency in the ability to objectively interpret the size of objects in the sky. The human mind interprets the sky as a badly flattened dome rather than a true dome shape, distoring the perception of an object's size on the horizon (appearing "low") as opposed to high above. Show me a report of one of them using their finger, fist, or fists to guage the size of the object and I'll refrain from calling them "lay" because that's what would separate an expert witness from a novice. What they think they saw, at least size-wise, is not as important as what techniques they did or did not apply to measure what they were seeing. Motion is not a useful frame of reference unless you know how distant the object is. The direction of motion is also important. Your defense of their wild claims about the object's size is not warranted unless they did something to actually measure the size of the object, whether it be with their hand to determine the angular size while estimating distance, or if they used landmarks and measured the distance between them. I have yet to see anything to indicate that they employed any technique at all to verify what they thought they were seeing, and I refuse to run under the assumption that they did unless I hear otherwise. It's very rare for a witness to take any steps at all to measure an object, and while I appreciate the panic that must occur during such an event, my emotions about it will not determine how much I trust the person's blind estimations.

[edit on 15-1-2008 by ngchunter]

Originally posted by Watcher777
The sightings are not the amazing things anymore. The fact that MSM is reporting these sightings on a regular basis has the now become the amazing thing. We need to see this on a regular basis. Keep it in the publics faces

Yes, but why a week delay getting the information out to the world? This I don't follow, plus there were sightings on multiple days I believe. The major sighting was on the 8th, today is the 15th.

reply to post by TheAvenger


The local papers first report was the 10th. It may have taken this long for the national media to pick it up. i don't know much about msm so not sure how long it would take them to pick it up.

reply to post by ngchunter


I guess you and I fundamentally disagree about the value of lay witnesses, even though I tend to agree with you about their technical accuracy. I know all about how they can derail, say, an FAA investigation. And yet, people can catch a ball when it is thrown towards them, and don't spend all day flinching at jets flying over head. I'll just concede that we disagree here to prevent derailing the thread.

I want to hear more from the witnesses before I apply Occam's Razor, so that I don't miss and slice the wrong thing.

[edit on 15-1-2008 by Ectoterrestrial]

I was just reading the local paper site and found this quote...

“This time it came from the west traveling east towards Glen Rose,” Allen said. “And it was about two or three miles south of 67, and two military jets, possibly F16s, were in pursuit.”

reply to post by TheAvenger


Your right, they did take almost a week. I read it first on the internet yesterday. So is msm looking to the internet for their news stories now? Are they finally getting in tune with what people are interested in?

I'm quite amazed at how many sources are picking up on this story.

Now if a bunch of UFO buffs get into that town and see something again...

Originally posted by Crakeur
not sure if it's been mentioned but I found it odd that the article starts off talking about the clear, starry night skies and a few people talk about the lights on this thing and then the military guy goes on to say it was two airplanes with sunlight reflections creating an illusion.

an illusion of a craft at night? that's a copperfieldian illusion.

Crakeur,

It was the light from the military flares, swap gas, and Chinese Lanterns contributing to the sunlight effect.

If they make up enough non-sense and create enough rumors, everything eventually conflicts and people will short out and give up.

What's even more funny is the official quotes:

UFO's in Texas

While federal officials insist there's a logical explanation, locals swear that it was larger, quieter, faster and lower to the ground than an airplane. They also said the object's lights changed configuration, unlike those of a plane. People in several towns who reported seeing it over several weeks have offered similar descriptions of the object.

So much for logical

[edit on 15-1-2008 by Realtruth]

Originally posted by stellawayten
reply to post by TheAvenger

 

The local papers first report was the 10th. It may have taken this long for the national media to pick it up. i don't know much about msm so not sure how long it would take them to pick it up.

Yes, I have logged into the local paper and am reading their Archive now. the sighting seems to have begun on the 8th at about 6:15 PM.


Stephenville Empire-Tribune

Stevenville Empire-Tribune

Stevenville Empire-Tribune

Stevenville Empire-Tribune


[edit on 1/15/2008 by TheAvenger]

reply to post by stellawayten


Now that's a great find! Because the person had never seen this type of craft they assume it's being chased, when it very well could have been - being escorted.Lol

thanks, stellaway10 - maybe snoop around or keep your ears open for possible pictures. CNN is showing a picture with the story and it shows a metallic object but I'm not sure what I'm seeing.

Man i hope someone caught somehting . I have a hard time beliving anywhere in the US people dont have cameras video and internet .

Good thread thanks for passing it on .

I was just saying on another thread that this is a college town and surely one of the kids saw it and took pics. I would check myspace pages of tarleton students.