British "X-files" Released to Public 231
Smivs writes "Britain's Ministry of Defence has just released files regarding investigations into UFO sightings between 1978 to 1987. Over the next three or four years, 160 files will be handed over to the
National Archives. The first group of eight files, one of which is more than 450 pages long,
is available today.
The Guardian newspaper details many of the events in question, some interesting and many just bizarre.
A similar release of UFO files by France's national space agency last year attracted more than 220,000 users on its first day, causing it to crash. To avoid such problems, the National Archives is using an external hosting company which can add extra capacity as needed to handle the web traffic."
UFO Expert (Score:5, Interesting)
He, and his colleagues, knew all along that this is what would happen. Apparently.
The interviewer tried to get him to say "the truth is out there" but he wouldn't bite!
Re:UFO Expert (Score:0, Interesting)
parent poster is right (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:parent poster is right (Score:4, Interesting)
in 50s and 60s, people who claimed that they saw ufos with a solid argument would get visited by intelligence agencies and told to shut up, and if they didnt comply either suddenly disappeared from public life, or extremely discredited to the extent that they would need to move and hide. if there isnt anything important about ufo things like skeptics like you argue, no intelligence agency would need to go that far.
nowadays in the last 3 years, we are seeing an increasing level of 'allowance' for ufo talks. first it started with main outlets like cnn showing ufo clips, whereas they never did before, and then started the government agencies - first mexican air force, then japanese government official drops a hint. then some documents are released in france, then in uk now.
can you see a pattern ?
Aliens visting us would change nothing... (Score:5, Interesting)
Maybe some of the religious monkey elders would get upset but that's about it. It's not like the monkeys are going to suddenly figure out how to turn sticks and branches into a car and drive out of the forest and start wearing suits and ties and drinking $4 lattes at Starbucks.
Flying Saucers as a Jungian archetype .. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:parent poster is right (Score:3, Interesting)
If we found out there were extraterrestrials there isn't going to be a 'freak out' or panic.
Anymore then there was a freak out and public panic when Native Americans were discovered.
There is no solid evidence. Think about it. Going public would be a great way to get billions and billions of dollars into a space race and a great excuse to militarize space. The military would have a base on Mars by now.
I believed when I was young (Score:5, Interesting)
As I matured it began to dawn on me. My experience, had it been real, would have been reported by somebody else. The memory was from my childhood, it could have been a dream before I understood the difference.
The more I tried to relive the memory, the more an unnerving recognition hit me. Shit, I had seen the spaceship from ET in my backyard! It had been a dream created by my overactive imagination.
I had wanted it to be true I swore that it was, because the memory backed me up, but my own memory betrayed me.
Looking back I see that misconceptions are common human fallicies, and that is why scientific data, which is checked and doubled checked by many people is so critical in the search for truth.
Re:Take off the tinfoil hat (Score:2, Interesting)
This book is a shockingly candid and measured look at the UFO evidence through the 1950's, doesn't engage in speculation and is very much worth a read.
Re:UFO Expert (Score:5, Interesting)
Since then I have been skeptical of so called OBE's and alien visitations/abductions.
Re:I had one (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I had one (Score:5, Interesting)
You don't get used to it, and it is really freaky.
I get them pretty often though. Normally once every 2-3 weeks, for as long as I can remember. What really helped me was learning the medical explanation. Once I knew that no ghosts or zombies were actually coming into my room to terrorize me, I was able to handle it much better.