Scotland: Aliens' Official Favorite Destination

scubacuda writes: "This Reuters article says that Scotland has the highest concentration of UFO sightings--300 per year, the most per square kilometer and per head of population of anywhere in the world. That means 0.004 UFOs for every square kilometer of Scotland -- a rate four times as high as in France or Italy, earth's other UFO hotspots. (In comparison, only 2,000 UFOs are spotted every year in the United States represent, making just 0.0002 sightings per square kilometer. Bonnybridge--30 miles west of Edinburgh--seems to be the Scotland equivalent of Roswell, New Mexico). UFO nuts explain it in terms of aliens being attracted to remote areas. But can anyone say *autosuggestion*?"

Nutball to Land ratio

[Anonymous Coward]

So... Scotland has relatively few nutballs but it's quite small hence a high nutball/per km ratio whilst the US is many, many times bigger than Scotland yet the nutball/per km ratio is just half that of Scotland (0.0002), so in conclusion, the US much have a ridiculously high level of nutballs and slack jawed yokels to maintain such a high ratio in a huge country.

Forget Scotland... what does this really indicate? Don't travel out into the country side too far.

Oh dear

[Rogerborg]

I live not far from Bonnybridge. I wouldn't call it the arsehole of the universe, because arseholes have a use. Bonnybridge is a classic oversized-small-town, i.e. crammed full of disillusioned young people with nothing to do. UFO spotting is pretty much the only thing to do there of an evening that doesn't involve pointy implements or GTA (the Live Action version).

Note the military airlanes, note the undulating foggy roads, note that UFO sighting go up after firework displays. It's pretty much a local game now, with people playing along and making up more and more outrageous claims. And note also the ulterior commercial motive: a (dear god) theme park [dunoon-observer.co.uk].

I'm picturing the pitch now: "Come to Bonnybridge, home of surly teenagers and desparate hollow eyed single mothers. Taste the delights of warm Irn Bru [irn-bru.co.uk] and soggy chippies [bway.net]. A free stabbing with every ticket!"

Shudder. Nothing to see here. Move along. For your own good, move along.

Re:A book recommendation for the submitter:

[Tablizer]

(* "The Demon-Haunted World" by Carl Sagan does an excellent job of debunking *)

Sagan is not a very good debunker of this subject. For example, he says things in that book like, "if they are so advanced, why is their medical equipment so thick and bulky?"

That alone is not enough to dismiss equipment. Perhaps it contains 100,000 different medical functions in it. If it is equal in bulkiness, but does 99,000 more things then our current stuff, that is hardly primitive. IOW, he is being superficial. (I am not necessarily saying that the evidence for alien medical equipment is strong, I am only saying that his debunking is sloppy.)

Further, extreme claims do indeed require extreme evidence. However, most rational "fans" of the field say that they simply think that it deserves more study and respect. Deserving more study is NOT the same as a "fantastic claim". Deserving investigation status has a much lower threshold than conclusions (such as ET or whatever). The "extreme claims" mantra has been abused too much.

About 200 years ago, rank and file scientists rejected the notion that "rocks fall from the sky". They called "falling rock" witnesses superstitious, drunk, etc. IOW, the rank and file have been wrong about similar things. Even a 0.0001 chance that it may be happening again is important enough to look into.

The evidence from perfectly sober, professional people like pilots and police officers is enough witness power to convict a million OJ's for a million years. Yet skeptics instantly reject it as "media-induced hallucinations". Oddly enough, the more knowledgeable ufo skeptics seem to think that most criminal witness testimony is bogus for similar reasons. Let them all of jail!

Even if it was "media-induced hallucinations", shouldn't that phenomena itself be closely looked into? Letting pilots and cops hallucinate without finding out why is not a good thing. Either way you look at it, the mystery is far from solved.

Roswell that Ends Well

[Zancarius]

This is actually quite a funny topic today considering I don't really live all that far away from Roswell (at least, in New Mexico's terms -- to us, 100+ miles "really isn't that far"). The reason for my humor: UFO sightings -- last I checked -- have actually dropped in this State of the Union. I'm not sure if it's because Scotch sales have dropped over the last few years or because we have so many DWI's that the possible "sightings" are really just police checkpoints =D

Aside from that, I would definitely have to agree with some of the other /.ers that it is kinda funny how UFO sightings are common only in remote regions of the country. Then again, New Mexico has seen some of the government's strangest experiments anyway, so the local sightings might not be sightings at all =) Let's see ... Trinity Site ... F-117s ... God knows what else.

...still, that doesn't explain Scotland unless the aliens have a bizarre taste for bagpipes.

It's the Zygons!

[Anonymous Coward]

Someone call Dr. Who! Season 13, episode 1, "The Doctor tangles with alien race the Zygons and solves the mystery of the Loch Ness Monster." from http://www.tvchronicles.com/episodeguides/drwhotom baker.htm

Re:A book recommendation for the submitter:

[Dark Paladin]

The battle against human stupidity is never ending.

We have to fight against:

• people who believe aliens are really kidnapping people in the countryside
  
• people who believe that herbal viagra will add 2 inches to your penis
  
• people who believe that 2000 jews called in sick to work at the world trade towers
  
• people who believe that Microsoft software is secure
  
• people who believe that 500,000 illegal movies are downloaded from the Internet every day and that it's cutting in profits
  
• people who believe Daikatana was a great game, and John Romero is just getting picked on because he's famous
  
• people who believe that women/children/ethnicgroupsotherthanyourown have no rights because God Said So
  
• people who believe that you have to protect children from porn by using filters that all too often block the good instead of just the bad
  
• people who believe that women are just "asking for it".
  
• people who believe that all anime is porn, all games are violent, and all computer geeks are lonely males who never get dates
  
• people who believe that the search for truth and the destruction of lies is a worthless pursuit
  

Sadly, the human condition where only 5% of the population actually examines evidence, weighs the options, and picks the most logical choice that is proven true by experimentation and analysis is going to continue for a long time. Mainly because most people are too fucking lazy to think for themselves.

Re:A book recommendation for the submitter:

[Dark Paladin]

I have no problem with any religion stating useful health beliefs (hell, those crazy Mormons I live with out here thought that smoking/drinking/eating read meat was bad for you 150 years before doctors figured out the same thing).

Carl Sagan's point (and well made) is that the message from "aliens" changes with the times. In the 50's "nukes bad", in the 80's "AIDS bad", these days the message is probably "genetic mutation bad".

It seems that aliens can only tell us things that we already have figured out are bad - instead of telling us this in a clear message well before its a problem. (Like a broadcast in the 1970's from Vega saying "CFCs...bad...". Something like that.

Re:A book recommendation for the submitter:

[Tablizer]

How long do all our scientists need to research UFOlogy (to the exclusion of other topics) before they can come to the conclusion that there's nothing to research, and can go back to other things? It's easy enough for someone to say, "Just a little longer, 'til we're REALLY sure," ad infinitum.

Well, most efforts have been half-ess and given to parties that wanted to get out of the limelight on it. Here are some exploration suggestions from my too-easy-to-slashdot "pro-explorationist" website:

1. Have a national hot-line and address (including web) to collect sighting information. Allow witnesses to leave anonymous reports if they desire. The information should be made public (minus addresses and phone), perhaps with a waiting period to avoid media influence. The government (if involved) should subcontract the data collection rather than be directly involved since they have bungled past UFO projects. Educational institutions and private parties could then use the sighting data for statistical analysis. Some preliminary studies suggest that UFOs are spotted mostly away from population centers and often near power lines. If true, this pattern may reveal something about the nature of UFOs (or the witnesses). There are many other such speculative patterns to investigate.

2. Allow unfiltered radar returns to be analyzed by experts or by automated custom detectors. As it stands now, radar data is highly filtered to follow the patterns and speeds of only "normal" sky objects. Note that this is not proposing building new radar installations, but rather tapping into and providing alternative processing to existing incoming signals.

3. Make it a federal crime to hide information that may help solve the mystery. There is some evidence that potential UFO data has been classified, hidden, or destroyed simply because those involved did not want to deal with controversy.

4. Set up arrays of detectors and cameras at known UFO "hot- spots". This includes magnetometers and spectrometers.

5. Perform thorough analyses on "landing site" soil and other alleged UFO artifacts. In past cases there was often insufficient follow-up. For example, one soil sample would not grow any plants. A chemical analysis revealed nothing unusual, however, the reason for lack of plant growth was never followed up on. The soil could have been separated via centrifuge to see which component denied growth, for example. Seeds could also have been exposed and then replanted to see if the denier substance stayed. These are just some possible further tests. There are often plenty of leads and open questions to be pursued in the UFO business if only one has the time and money.

6. Discourage ridicule and encourage open discussion. When Dr. Hynek was an acting consultant for project Bluebook, he stated that the only way he could get access to the "best data" was too hide his natural scientific curiosity, resist stating criticism, and say what the organization wanted to hear. He learned this by watching what happened to others who violated the rules of the game.

7. Cooperate with foreign organizations and governments.

8. Try to focus on cases with high credibility instead of cases that make great headlines. The Travis Walton case in Arizona is a good example: it made national headlines, but lacked proof and independent witnesses. Unfortunately, reporting headline-oriented stories are often the only way to fund other research. Perhaps if people recognize this "necessary evil", they won't be disillusioned as easily.

Even if you disagree with spending tax-money, at least if it was considered a "legitimate topic of study", research would be easier.

The truth about Scotland and most UFO sightings...

[Anonymous Coward]

here is a quote:
"... Aurora was being flown from a base in the Nevada desert to an atoll in the Pacific, then on to Scotland to refuel before returning to the US at night. Specially modified tanker aircraft are being used to top up Aurora's tanks with liquid methane fuel in mid-air... The US Air Force is using the remote RAF airbase at Machrihanish, Strathclyde, as a staging point... The mystery aircraft has been dropping in at night before streaking back to America across the North Pole at more than six times the speed of sound... An F-111 fighter bomber is scrambling as the black-painted aircraft lands, flying in close formation to confuse prying civilian radars."

here is the link:
http://www.fas.org/irp/mystery/aurora.htm