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Space Science

Case Closed On Jerusalem UFO Video 336

Posted by timothy from the no-border-incursion-after-all dept.
astroengine writes "Skepticism was high after videos surfaced earlier this year depicting a UFO over Jerusalem. However, ufologists defended the sighting, dismissing claims that it was a hoax. But a few days ago, the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), one of the oldest, largest, and most respected UFO investigation organizations in the world, announced their findings about the Jerusalem UFO. Yes, even MUFON has concluded it was a hoax."
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Case Closed On Jerusalem UFO Video More

Case Closed On Jerusalem UFO Video

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  • Carl Sagan (Score:5, Interesting)

    by errandum ( 2014454 ) on Thursday March 31, 2011 @06:46PM (#35684086)

    Everyone should read this book: A demon haunted world by Carl Sagan

    Every era has had their share of unexplained phenomena. Before UFO's there were demons, beasts, witches, etc. The current myth-of-the day is UFO's.

    (And I'm not saying they don't exist, just that there might be a simpler reason for all these sightings) :)

    • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

      by errandum ( 2014454 )

      *The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark by Carl Sagan, Ann Druyan

      That's the complete title

    • Re:Carl Sagan (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Culture20 ( 968837 ) on Thursday March 31, 2011 @07:35PM (#35684392)

      Every era has had their share of unexplained phenomena. Before UFO's there were demons, beasts, witches, etc. The current myth-of-the day is UFO's. (And I'm not saying they don't exist, just that there might be a simpler reason for all these sightings)

      So what you're saying is that fallen angels have adopted modern stories to continue their nightly activities? I wonder why they shifted from being succubuses to doing anal probes.

    • I was going to say the same thing. I'm reading it now and it's kinda hard to take any alien stuff seriously after he gets done making the comparisons between it and the things people described demons doing during the Inquisition.

    • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

      by blair1q ( 305137 )

      The current myth-of-the day is UFO's.

      UFOs were a lot bigger until about ten years ago.

      The current myth is that Terrorists are out to get you.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by blair1q ( 305137 )

        And Fox News is news.

      • UFOs were a lot bigger until about ten years ago.

        Of course they were. It was a combination of poorly thought-out cosmic legislation and cheap space-gas...

      • The current myth is that Terrorists are out to get you.

        So, wait a sec ... you're saying that the idea of terrorists who want to kill civilians is equally plausible as alien spacecraft kidnapping people?

        Are you sure you're living on the same planet as the rest of us?

      • The majority of the world population, by far, has seen a UFO. Contrary to popular ignorance, that doesn't mean its aliens.

        On my soapbox-

        I really, really, really, really, really, really, really, wish people would stop purposely conflating UFO to mean alien. The former is a fact, they absolutely do exist, while the later is extremely improbable. People who conflate the two sound like raving idiots. When these idiots then attack those who do believe in aliens, saying UFO to mean alien completely undermines the

    • There is, more likely than not, intelligent alien life out in the beyond-our-comprehension fucking massive universe. However, I seriously doubt they have visited Earth. More likely, UFO's are experimental aircraft from one of the world's governments, some anomaly such as ball-lightning, etc, or just a hoax.

    • Re: (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward

      You know that Carl Sagan wasn't an actual person, right?

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by bill_mcgonigle ( 4333 ) *

      Before UFO's there were demons, beasts, witches, etc. The current myth-of-the day is UFO's.

      Ah, I see what you did there. Demons and witches are imaginary, so UFO's must be too. Sagan was a smart guy, but I don't see why his application of pop-psychology to the matter has any weight.

      Here's a US Army Colonel who contradicts [aolnews.com] Sagan:

      The evidence he speaks of includes the hard data of sensor technology that has frequently confirmed the reality of physical craft and the high quality of extremely reliable eyewit

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by syousef ( 465911 )

        Sagan was a smart guy, but I don't see why his application of pop-psychology to the matter has any weight.

        Popular or not the pyschology is not only plausible, it's been demonstrated. Sagan doesn't just write pop psych nonsense - he gives plenty of very strong evidence of actual historical events including the Salem witch trials. Have you read the book? Or are you just talking smack?

        • Popular or not the pyschology is not only plausible, it's been demonstrated.

          Really, Sagan has proved the negative regarding UFO's?

          • Re:Carl Sagan (Score:5, Informative)

            by c6gunner ( 950153 ) on Thursday March 31, 2011 @10:19PM (#35685344) Homepage

            Really, Sagan has proved the negative regarding UFO's?

            Sagan has demonstrated a tendency amongst human beings to attribute unusual experiences to various shadowy and/or supernatural entities, which change over time, and for which there is never any actual evidence.

            Do the words "burden of proof" mean anything to you? If you tell me that your car was stolen by a gang of roving leprechauns, and I point out that you live in a high-crime area where vehicle thefts occur by the dozen on a daily basis, I don't need to show that leprechauns didn't steal your car - you need to present some evidence that they did.

      • Re:Carl Sagan (Score:4, Informative)

        by Rantastic ( 583764 ) on Friday April 01, 2011 @12:18AM (#35685834) Journal

        >

        Here's a US Army Colonel who contradicts [aolnews.com] Sagan:

        The evidence he speaks of includes the hard data of sensor technology that has frequently confirmed the reality of physical craft and the high quality of extremely reliable eyewitnesses who are "neither misreporting facts nor delusional."

        You're kidding right? If I claim I have evidence of a mountain of gold hidden under Yankee Stadium, including all manner of sensor data, are you going to take me at my word? People make claims like this all the time. Guess what? The evidence never turns up, or if it does, it is found to be mistaken or fake. Every time.

        Personally, I doubt we are alone in the universe. However, there has never been any validated evidence of any visitation to Earth. What Sagan points out is that we have very good answers to the question "How can otherwise reasonable people be utterly convinced that they have been taken aboard an alien craft when there is a lack of any evidence to show it actually happened?"

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rcamans ( 252182 )

      Te current myth oof the day is the gov can do good...

      • Re:Carl Sagan (Score:5, Insightful)

        by grcumb ( 781340 ) on Thursday March 31, 2011 @10:21PM (#35685350) Homepage Journal

        Te current myth oof the day is the gov can do good...

        Exactly the opposite is true. You only need to spend some time in a place without effective government to realise that.

        The (uniquely American) myth of the day is that there is no role for government in countless different areas that other societies have been fighting tooth and nail to get government to look at.

        You want know what life is like when you government ceases to play a role in your life? Corruption is the first sign that things are going wrong. It becomes rampant because nobody's looking out for you, so you have to look out for yourself. People stop planning and start looking for the shortest distance between them and the next meal.

        Then security starts to wane. Fewer police patrolling makes the streets less safe, so people -rightly- begin to trust one another less and less.

        Then education goes into the shitter, because only the schools run by and for the wealthy are self-sustaining, and the others are staffed by teachers who have to take a second job to make ends meet, even if that means not showing up a day or two a week.

        Then crime gets worse, because you get an entire generation of disaffected, unemployed, cynical and frustrated youth who stop giving a damn about you because you never gave a damn about them. They'll just as soon jack you up for your mobile as look at you.

        And then it just goes spiraling down from there....

        Think I'm making this up? Don't. I'm describing exactly what's happening in the developing country I'm living in. We at least have an excuse, because our government has extremely limited means. You folks in the developed world have no such luxury. So here's my advice: Stop bitching about whether government services are good, and start talking about how to make them better.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by syousef ( 465911 )

      Everyone should read this book: A demon haunted world by Carl Sagan

      Every era has had their share of unexplained phenomena. Before UFO's there were demons, beasts, witches, etc. The current myth-of-the day is UFO's.

      (And I'm not saying they don't exist, just that there might be a simpler reason for all these sightings) :)

      Agreed!!!! One of my favourite books of all time. Should be required reading early in highschool.

    • Re:Carl Sagan (Score:4, Interesting)

      by Seumas ( 6865 ) on Thursday March 31, 2011 @08:07PM (#35684604)

      Agreed. It is entirely reasonable to accept that there could be aliens. Though a stretch, I could even accept that they might know of our existence and even have been here at some point. What I can't tolerate are the idiots that try to convince the world of their existence and "research" them with a respect for the scientific process and logic that falls somewhere between the mix of paranormal investigators and pseudo-science Coast to Coast AM nutjobs. It's like idiots walking around with an EMF reader saying that there must be paranormal activity in your house, because of fluctuating EMF readings (what evidences has there ever been that one is directly related to the other, for example).

      It's not the possibilities that offend me. It's the lack of logic and the embracing of the illogical, which does. They're not any different than nutjobs to employ "faith" as their form of reasoning in any named religion. Except, instead of pointing to a bible as their "evidence", they point to meaningless photos and videos and other unverifiable reports.

    • I have a problem with Carl Sagan. He delivers skepticism with dismissal and a know-it-all attitude, seemingly based on the assumption that popular science is a... a godsend.

      Real Scientists, like Real Programmers, have a very different approach to their philosophy. They don't madly hack and slash with Occam's Razor since OR also has the little talked about, additional qualifier of the need to provide a full explanation; not just the simplest one. E.g. I think that if Carl Sagan had his way with the Standard

      • I have a problem with Carl Sagan. He delivers skepticism with dismissal and a know-it-all attitude, seemingly based on the assumption that popular science is a... a godsend.

        [emphasis added] Your comment begins by misunderstanding almost everything about Carl Sagan, and goes downhill from there.

      • Re:Not Carl Sagan (Score:4, Informative)

        by c6gunner ( 950153 ) on Thursday March 31, 2011 @10:29PM (#35685392) Homepage

        Carl Sagan and self-labeled "skeptics" are the Penn and Teller's Bullshit to everybody else's Mythbusters.

        The mythbusters are skeptics. Adam Savage has made numerous appearances at The Amazing Meeting - the foremost skeptical conference in the world. He's closely allied with the skeptical movement as a whole, and the show in general is a very simple application of skepticism to everyday claims. If you think that "self described skeptics" are philosophically separate from the Mythbusters, you don't understand skepticism. And - as your comment has amply demonstrated - you clearly don't understand Sagan.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Tablizer ( 95088 )

      Every era has had their share of unexplained phenomena. Before UFO's there were demons, beasts, witches, etc. The current myth-of-the day is UFO's.

      I'm not sure it's good science to lump a phenomena into such broad categories based on vague similarities. Perhaps UFO are a variety of different activities such that even if most are hoaxes or mistaken identity, a few might be something genuinely new.

      Most scientists used to dismiss the idea that "rocks fall from the sky" as merely folklore and drunk farmers.

      You

  • Awww....

  • "one of the oldest, largest, and most respected UFO investigation organizations in the world"

    World's tallest midget, and all that.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by uncanny ( 954868 )
      Well, it just says MOST respected, so sure, they are a bunch of losers, but they are the cream of the loser crop!

  • Slashdot (Score:5, Funny)

    by OverlordQ ( 264228 ) on Thursday March 31, 2011 @06:48PM (#35684100) Journal

    Where non-news confirmed to be non-news is news.

  • Typical (Score:4, Insightful)

    by geekoid ( 135745 ) <dadinportland@y[ ]o.com ['aho' in gap]> on Thursday March 31, 2011 @06:49PM (#35684116) Homepage Journal

    'UFO'* video appears.
    Some people offer rational explanation.
    People who believe it's a UFO say nu-uh.
    Rational people put forth rational explanation
    People who believe it's a UFO say nu-uh.
    People accept it's a hoax.
    At no point the people who believe in UFOs think that maybe if the last 100 sighting were incorrect, then may the idea we are being visited is wrong.

    *for the sake of this post UFO means alien visitation.

    • To be fair, my father served in the Airforce underneath a Colonel who was friendly with him. This Colonel said specifically he had knowledge of certain things like missile guidance systems, stealth, etc. that were taken from alien technology. Apparently this tech was taken from various accidents (not Roswell BTW). But then again, as a math grad student, I know logic enough to admit its a friend-of-a-friend type of thing. The funny thing is, my dad is a realist and does not fall for crap. Hes the first to ad

      • Re:Typical (Score:5, Insightful)

        by c6gunner ( 950153 ) on Thursday March 31, 2011 @10:42PM (#35685446) Homepage

        To be fair, my father served in the Airforce underneath a Colonel who was friendly with him. This Colonel said specifically he had knowledge of certain things like missile guidance systems, stealth, etc. that were taken from alien technology.

        As someone who served in the military for an extended period of time, one of the biggest disappointments for me was realizing that many officers are either retarded or fucking nuts. I know an airforce pilot who's convinced that there is alien architecture on Mars. I know a Military Intelligence officer who is convinced that the Earth is 6,000 years old. Most recently, I had an army Captain tell me that garlic cures cancer.

        I think part of growing up is realizing that people - even highly placed people with all sorts of qualifications - are generally full of shit. Most of the time it's simple ignorance rather than malicious lies, but it doesn't change the fact that authority figures are generally just as fallible as anyone else. THE most important thing I've learned in life is to evaluate every claim based on the evidence presented for it, rather than the credentials of the person who is vouching for it. Without that, we may as well be back in Galilean times, where reality is determined by church officials regardless of what data those uppity "scientists" present.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rcamans ( 252182 )

      Why would intelligent life visit earth? There's no intelligent life here for them to visit...

  • It's where the CIA boys put their effort after Project Blue Book.

    UFO's are not interplanetary extraterrestrials.

    They are supernatural manifestations associated with the metaphysical obsessions of the power-elite.

  • MUFON is not respected. (Score:3, Interesting)

    by unity100 ( 970058 ) on Thursday March 31, 2011 @06:58PM (#35684198) Homepage Journal
    A lot of shady dealings and ongoings go about in MUFON's affairs in local level. This has been the discussion of ufology circles in usa numerous times. MUFON has ceased being a reliable organization since a long while.

    i dont know where did the article pull that 'reliable' wordage from.

    Actually it goes without discussing that cia/nsa any other agency has started to infiltrate mufon looong looong ago as a policy - way too dangerous to be let loose.

    If you argue otherwise, i would like to remind you the black ops divide and conquer operation cia mounted to effect wikileaks breakaway :

    http://yro.slashdot.org/story/11/02/10/1243211/Secret-Plan-To-Kill-Wikileaks-With-FUD-Leaked [slashdot.org]

    things like these are commonplace in intelligence world since last 150 years.

    • Re:MUFON is not respected. (Score:5, Funny)

      by hondo77 ( 324058 ) on Thursday March 31, 2011 @07:02PM (#35684224) Homepage
      Did you actually just use the word ufology with a straight face?
      • yes i did. and the problem with that is ?

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by dave420 ( 699308 )
          It's a bullshit term, used to describe a wide-range of lunatic, misguided, or ignorant folks, with no agreed-upon meaning, who have so far managed to demonstrate absolutely nothing useful at all. If you don't realise that word is a joke, you're in too deep to be helped.

        • There can't be such a thing as ufology, since you can't actually study ufos: As soon as you have even so little as just enough information to group what you saw into any kind of categories, you've identified the objects, so they're no longer UFOs!

    • I am shocked, shocked I tell you, to find someone sticking Wikileaks and UFOs together without a hint of irony or humor.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dave420 ( 699308 )
      You're hilarious. Seriously. "Ufology" is a fucking joke. There has been absolutely no solid evidence for anything UFO-based, just conjecture backed by wishful thinking and a fanciful take on critical thinking. You provide a great example by posting a link about alleged CIA plan to destroy Wikileaks. That has nothing to do with MUFON. Nothing. Not one iota. Just because something somewhat similar has happened before does not mean claims it has happened again somehow have more credibility. That is n

      • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

        by unity100 ( 970058 )
        yees. there has been absolutely 'no solid evidence' for anything ufo-based. and those who came up with anything related to ufos, used to disappear in united states of a.

        maybe that was why there has been absolutely 'no solid evidence' for anything ufo based ?

        and, despite the fact that 5 major countries of the world has had released ufo files, with a lot of unexplained, official cases, the only one who still did not do so, and discouraging any talk related to ufos, is still united states of america ?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by dave420 ( 699308 )
          Thanks for proving my point. It's not up to the sceptics to demonstrate how the case files are not actual real UFOs, it's up to the believers to show how they are. So far that has not happened. Not even once. You are attempting to explain the unexplained without evidence. That's childish beyond belief. Carl Sagan's ghost would throttle you in your sleep for such specious reasoning. Your "logic" that because no one has said anything means that something is going unsaid is ridiculous. Extraordinary cl

          • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

            by unity100 ( 970058 )

            Thanks for proving my point. It's not up to the sceptics to demonstrate how the case files are not actual real UFOs, it's up to the believers to show how they are.

            we are not in a courtroom. this is not how science works and mankind gains new knowledge :

            if there is an unexplained phenomenon, interested researchers bring explanations and hypothesis for that phenomenon. when someone brings proof, the hypothesis moves forward.

            unexplained phenomenon means, unexplained phenomenon. that means, the skeptics did not provide anything to disprove the existence of that phenomenon in an acceptable manner either.

            • Re: (Score:3)

              by dave420 ( 699308 )
              Again, thanks for proving my point. Science does not work by simply accepting baseless conjecture as anything other than baseless conjecture. You wish to elevate your pet hypotheses to the level of substantiated fact, with no rationale. As I said, it's not up to the sceptics to prove anything, as until the believers prove anything, there is nothing to disprove. Science is scepticism.
        • You are confusing somebody's unexplained experience with being evidence of aliens buzzing the planet. The complete lack of any actual evidence is the problem, here. People discount the UFO nuts because the UFO nuts haven't yet come up with a single scrap of credible evidence, but do continue to put forth all sorts of plainly obvious hoaxes in order to keep silly people paying attention to them.

    • MUFON has ceased being a reliable organization since a long while.

      You mean, when they were founded?

  • I read TFA, hoping to find out why the videos were dismissed as a hoax. In traditional /. fashion, I didn't follow any links in the article itself. But TFA seems to be a guy saying, "I said it was a hoax, I gave reasons, and now MUFON says it's a hoax". I was at least hoping for reasoning as to why it is considered a hoax- I couldn't find it.

  • lol (Score:2)

    by Jeian ( 409916 )

    one of the oldest, largest, and _most respected_ UFO investigation organizations in the world ... and how respected is that, exactly?

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