[HN Gopher] Famous Navy UFO video was camera glare, evidence sug...
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       Famous Navy UFO video was camera glare, evidence suggests
        
       Author : mromanuk
       Score  : 207 points
       Date   : 2022-03-16 18:31 UTC (4 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (petapixel.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (petapixel.com)
        
       | rhema wrote:
       | Well, the only reason they were scrambled to begin with is that
       | they had been tracking these objects for weeks using advanced
       | radar. As I understand it, the radar is based on multiple
       | resolutions. The active radar can point in the direction of
       | objects of interest and get very very precise measurements. It's
       | not just the video, its the radar data.
       | 
       | The thing that pushed me over the edge in believing these things
       | is the long podcast interview between Commander David Fravor and
       | Lex Fridman.
        
         | zardo wrote:
         | > its the radar data
         | 
         | Did the Navy release the radar data, or an analysis based on
         | it?
        
           | rhema wrote:
           | Not that I know of, so I take your point there. Here's a
           | related video with some radar data
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rh4QngYJG4I . In the
           | interview, Frevor does talk about the radar and
           | instrumentation on the plane, but it's been a while since I
           | listened to it.
        
       | avl999 wrote:
       | > But a new detailed analysis by self-described debunker,
       | skeptic, and UFO investigator Mick West
       | 
       | Ignored as soon as I read the name "Mick West". The guy's brand
       | is to be a debunker which in of itself is not bad but I am not
       | gonna trust a video game developer's (brand aligning)
       | explanations of this phenomenon compared to trained fighter
       | pilots and the US Navy/Pentagon who have found no explanation of
       | this phenomenon thus far.
        
         | nwallin wrote:
         | > the US Navy/Pentagon who have found no explanation of this
         | phenomenon thus far.
         | 
         | "Released no explanation to the public" != "have found no
         | explanation". The DoD is simply not in a habit of releasing
         | information to the public unless they're instructed to do so by
         | the executive branch.
        
           | avl999 wrote:
           | They did not have an explanation as of last spring when they
           | were forced to disclose everything they knew about the
           | phenomenon by an act of congress. There wasn't even a
           | redacted appendix.
        
       | ssully wrote:
       | Mick West has some interesting videos and does a good job
       | debunking a lot of crap, but to me he is on the complete opposite
       | spectrum of a UFO truther in that he doesn't seem to leave any
       | room for the possibility that he might be wrong.
       | 
       | With that said, I suggest reading this New Yorker piece [1] on
       | the subject. It's actually how I came to learn about Mick. He is
       | covered a bit in the story and gives decent counter points at
       | certain parts.
       | 
       | [1]: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/05/10/how-the-
       | pentag...
        
         | zionic wrote:
         | What? Mick west does a terrible job, all of his arguments that
         | I've seen are preposterous, and require ignoring tons of
         | evidence.
        
           | ssully wrote:
           | I think I could have gone harder on my second sentence. I do
           | think he has some good debunking video's, but I would agree
           | with you in that he does ignore a lot of evidence. When I say
           | he is on the opposite spectrum of a UFO truther, I mean that
           | I don't take him serious because his only goal seems to be to
           | get a debunk video out regardless of merit.
        
       | ynniv wrote:
       | What is the point of this story? Someone lacking context could
       | watch this and arrive at the conclusion that "the Navy video of a
       | UFO has a simple conventional explanation", which is how the
       | presenter delivers his arguments. He meticulously demonstrates
       | that the shape of the object which is the subject of the video is
       | an artifact of camera glare from overexposure. In case you are
       | not convinced, he breaks it down into four reasons, supporting
       | each of them with data based on a detailed understanding of the
       | system. If you are still not convinced that this shake is camera
       | glare by the end of the video, I would be surprised.
       | 
       | And yet, whether the shape of the subject is representative of
       | the object or an artifact of the camera is almost irrelevant to
       | whether or not this is a video that should be investigated. The
       | source of the glare is clearly not part of the camera or the
       | aircraft. We should not treat the silhouette of the object as
       | valuable data, but it says nothing of the actual object that is
       | being tracked. The presenter does not suggest this, and the post
       | spins the whole event as being "debunked". I don't know why
       | "debunking" things seems to have become a cottage industry, but
       | there was considerable effort put into analyzing and visually
       | modeling this thoroughly condescending presentation.
        
         | xmaayy wrote:
         | He literally says something to the effect of "I'm only saying
         | that the glare is obscuring the true shape of the object" in
         | the first minutes of the video.
        
           | tejohnso wrote:
           | Yet the title of the article says _the video_ was camera
           | glare. Which doesn 't even make sense. But what it suggests
           | is that the entire contents can be explained away as camera
           | glare. So blame the media in this case perhaps?
        
             | tptacek wrote:
             | There is no way to watch this video and come away with the
             | understanding that there was no object at all. It spends a
             | tedious several minutes demonstrating the connection
             | between glare and objects emitting light, and multiple
             | long, tedious disclaimers that it is not arguing that there
             | is no object at all in the video. You have to want it to be
             | saying something else to take away a different message.
        
               | ynniv wrote:
               | Of course you can, the submitted article does exactly
               | that. His emotions convey that he knows exactly what's
               | going on, and he states, repeatedly, that it is lens
               | flare. Rationally we can see that this is missing the
               | forest for the trees, but anyone who doesn't think as
               | critically will deduce that this is only a camera
               | artifact. He operates this way on purpose, so that people
               | who want to believe him have the proof they are looking
               | for, and everyone else will quibble about meaningless
               | details.
               | 
               |  _A new detailed analysis of the modern poster child for
               | UFO footage makes the case that the object in the video
               | is not anything other than glare on the Navy jet's gimbal
               | camera system._
               | 
               | Done. Pilots are idiots, and so are your open minded
               | friends. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
        
               | tptacek wrote:
               | He says literally the opposite thing, and at great,
               | tedious length.
        
           | [deleted]
        
       | toptal wrote:
       | Didn't they actually see the object on multiple radars using
       | multiple types of detection methods? Assuming that's true, the
       | camera glare story seems unlikely.
        
         | netsharc wrote:
         | The video states that there's something there, but its heat
         | signature is causing the glare (the video is in IR). Was the
         | object flying steadily and rotating weirdly throughout the
         | video? You can't see how the object is flying, the smooth
         | motion and weird rotation you perceive is the effect of the
         | glare!
        
       | Jerry2 wrote:
       | You can try the live simulation here:
       | https://www.metabunk.org/gimbal/ It's amazingly well done!
       | 
       | Quick inspection shows that it was done with tree.js. Neat!
        
       | orblivion wrote:
       | Maybe they're just gaslighting us to keep us a safe distance from
       | any certainty on this issue.
        
       | oblib wrote:
       | Interesting how so many are willing to accept "camera flare" as a
       | concrete explanation.
       | 
       | One thing that bothers me about this explanation is we know those
       | pilots had a lot of experience with those systems so I'd expect
       | they'd know "camera flare" when they saw it on those displays.
       | But it's clear from the audio they did not recognize it as that.
       | And there was more than one pilot seeing it, and from different
       | angles.
       | 
       | I'd like to hear what the pilots and ship crew members think
       | about this.
        
         | emkoemko wrote:
         | you say that but there is a fighter pilot on youtube trying to
         | debunk these videos but lacks any basic knowledge on how
         | cameras work, while saying things like you can't focus on
         | objects at different distances at the same time... he
         | demonstrates this by having a camera very close to a object
         | ahaha but never noticed he is in focus and so is his
         | background.... :( dose not know what focal length is.. or how
         | parallax works.
        
         | tsimionescu wrote:
         | The US Air force and Navy have a pretty bad track record of
         | incompetent pilots. They have a history of losing numerous
         | planes in training excercises, for example.
        
           | Workaccount2 wrote:
           | And Mick West is a VFX artist who has a hobby of making
           | debunking videos for youtube.
        
           | RobertMiller wrote:
           | > _They have a history of losing numerous planes in training
           | excercises_
           | 
           | There is a reason virtually every fighter jet ever made was
           | made with ejection seats or retrofitted with them later:
           | They're inherently risky aircraft, and almost impossible to
           | bail out of.
           | 
           | If you have some actual statistics that show that USN and
           | USAF pilots crash their jets at a greater rate than other
           | nations, I'd like to see it. The absolute number of crashes
           | tells nothing because some countries (Russia) barely fly
           | their jets at all.
        
           | ARandomerDude wrote:
           | Incredible speed + low altitude flying + statically unstable
           | aircraft + sensors + weapons + offense + defense +
           | communications + ...
           | 
           | Yeah. These guys must really suck.
        
           | tablespoon wrote:
           | > The US Air force and Navy have a pretty bad track record of
           | incompetent pilots. They have a history of losing numerous
           | planes in training excercises, for example.
           | 
           | Or flying planes planes for the military is just really hard,
           | and you're holding them to an unreasonable standard.
           | 
           | Even the best programmer writes software with bugs,
           | especially when they're not playing it safe and just writing
           | fizzbuzz over and over again.
        
         | gcthomas wrote:
         | I'd be wary of taking a pilot's subjective impressions as
         | superior to a technical analysis of the optical system.
         | 
         | Pilots may be competent users of these systems, but they are
         | not experts at anything beyond flying their missions, in
         | general. Experience as users is not the same as expertise under
         | unusual conditions.
        
         | zionic wrote:
         | https://youtu.be/ro29w4ESw44
         | 
         | Has an actual fighter pilot's reaction.
        
           | Workaccount2 wrote:
           | Actual video from the pilot
           | 
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyw4JA00AMc
        
           | oblib wrote:
           | That was pretty painful to watch with the fast forward going
           | on for so long. I didn't try to take that in.
           | 
           | Seems to me like our gov's own investigation would've found
           | gimbal glare to be the culprit if that were the case. But
           | they didn't. What they said is:
           | 
           | "Of the 144 reports we are dealing with here, we have no
           | clear indications that there is any non-terrestrial
           | explanation for them -- but we will go wherever the data
           | takes us..."
           | 
           | And:
           | 
           | "We absolutely do believe what we're seeing are not simply
           | sensor artifacts."
           | 
           | [https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/25/politics/ufo-report-
           | pentagon-...]
        
         | thjkgfgrrioppo wrote:
         | Believe the experts!
         | 
         | Some people want real proof, not having to rely on believing
         | experts.
         | 
         | I guess it is a chasm across society. Some people want to be
         | able to believe.
        
       | Johnny555 wrote:
       | Isn't he only debunking the image that appeared on the video as
       | being glare as opposed to the actual object? So the object is
       | real, but what appeared in the video is glare, not an actual
       | representation of the object?
       | 
       |  _West contends that what is being seen in the video is actually
       | infrared glare that hides a hot object behind it and only rotates
       | in the way it does because the camera rotates when tracking the
       | target from left to right._
        
         | notfbi wrote:
         | UFO-ers were using things like the rotation speed as definitive
         | evidence of some like other-worldly advanced technology.
         | Demonstrating that it was the glare/gimble brings it back into
         | the realm of just a normal far-away plane. It also casts doubt
         | on the expertise of the pilots/military who didn't realize what
         | happened.
        
         | nwallin wrote:
         | Correct.
         | 
         | IR video tends to bloom. If the object is hot enough, (for
         | instance, a jet engine exhaust, a burning vehicle, a refinery
         | flare...) you'll have a blob of smudge around/behind it on the
         | video. The video is contending that the rotation of what is
         | seen on the video isn't the object itself rotating. Instead,
         | the blob is elongated as a result of glare/lens
         | flare/diffraction gradient, and this elongation is aligned with
         | the rotational axis of the gimbal. As the gimbal nears gimbal
         | lock, it is forced to rapidly rotate to continue tracking the
         | object. This rapid rotation of the gimbal causes the glare to
         | rapidly rotate.
         | 
         | I do have a background in IR video, gimbals, and translating
         | between gimbal telemetry and real life coordinates and the
         | explanation in the video looks good to me.
        
         | stouset wrote:
         | Yes, that is correct. There was still an unidentified flying
         | object, but the remaining aspects of its behavior do not
         | require invoking advanced unknown technology to explain.
        
       | lamontcg wrote:
       | > Evidence Suggests Famous Navy UFO Video Was Camera Glare
        
       | Vixel wrote:
       | The narrator sounds like an alien. That analysis is what they
       | WANT us to think.
        
       | progre wrote:
       | Direct link to the source
       | 
       | https://youtu.be/qsEjV8DdSbs
        
       | darkhorn wrote:
       | Could it be a ball lightning?
       | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ball_lightning
        
       | phendrenad2 wrote:
       | Nitpick: This isn't "evidence", this is "analysis". The title of
       | the video itself is "Gimbal UFO - A New Analysis". A photography
       | magazine can't be expected to understand the difference though, I
       | guess.
        
       | SubiculumCode wrote:
       | From the first I thought it looked like a bug smashed on the
       | gimble lens because of how it orated relative to the horizon.
       | Fascinating explanation why it could be glare from an actual
       | object.
        
       | Maursault wrote:
       | Why, at the time, were Navy pilots behaving so incredulously, and
       | why did they not pull up along-side the UFO and simply eyeball
       | its identification? And why did they _let it get away?_ What is
       | it that Navy pilots are supposed to be doing when they 're
       | inscrutably _not pursuing_ possible unidentified threats?
        
       | deutschew wrote:
       | It is bewildering that they expect people to actually believe
       | intelligent people to discount the IR footage from the F-18 just
       | based on this article that reads like the "it was a weather
       | balloon" trope we often get whenever we ask questions.
       | 
       | edit: holy crap, there are actually lot of people on HN buying
       | it!
        
         | MauranKilom wrote:
         | Do you have some factual counterpoint to the analysis, or just
         | "the conclusions sounds like something I don't want to hear"?
        
       | mikeInAlaska wrote:
       | Listen to the Navy pilot himself
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB8zcAttP1E
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | mzvkxlcvd wrote:
       | disinfo
        
       | imwillofficial wrote:
       | Camera glare is often known to disable ships and cause small
       | fleets to mobilize to investigate
        
       | NyxWulf wrote:
       | So the anomaly that the carrier group tracked, then scrambled
       | fighter jets for. The object that four different pilots saw
       | visually, and was confirmed on multiple different sensors. That
       | was camera glare?
       | 
       | The video is only one piece of the evidence. The pilots are
       | trained, and other sensor systems confirmed what the camera was
       | showing. This analysis is pretty flimsy.
        
         | tshaddox wrote:
         | > the gimbal UFO video almost certainly shows a glare that
         | hides the actual object
         | 
         | This is in the first 15 seconds of the YouTube video.
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | tptacek wrote:
         | I don't know much about this whole story (I'm not a UFO person)
         | and am learning most of what I know about it from this video
         | and this thread, but: the people saying that this video depicts
         | an actual object rotating in the sky appear to be making the
         | extraordinary claim here: the connection between the rotation
         | and the camera system seems compelling. The horizon is moving
         | as the camera/plane moves; the object is not moving. You can't
         | refute that with "these are highly trained fighter pilots": the
         | horizon is moving with the camera, the object isn't. Training's
         | got nothing to do with it. The shape we're looking at is, in
         | part, an artifact of the camera, unless the aliens are somehow
         | reprogramming the camera to fuck with us.
        
         | user-the-name wrote:
        
         | cma wrote:
         | > The pilots are trained
         | 
         | Fraver (not sure he was one of the ones in this incident) has a
         | history of UFO pranks, shutting down engines and gliding over
         | campfires then lighting up after burners when right over them,
         | explicitly to give a UFO experience, and someone found a
         | contemporaneous report of him doing it, so it wasn't just a
         | story.
        
           | Teever wrote:
           | Source?
        
             | ceejayoz wrote:
             | He told the story to Joe Rogan:
             | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PRM8AMrqqsc (at 3:57)
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | cma wrote:
             | What ceejayoz linked below
        
             | tunap wrote:
             | Jets do this regularly over the Colorado River and various,
             | otherwise desolate gathering places around AZ. I've
             | witnessed such shenanigans a dozen or so times over the
             | last 3 decades. One jet distracts onlookers while another
             | sneaks up to buzz low over the deck(or, perhaps it's just
             | incidental to their training Ops, IDK). These maneuvers are
             | tests of skill, technology & amusement.
        
           | MarkMarine wrote:
           | As a former member of USMC Aviation, it's valid to point out
           | that skilled navy pilots can have some of the same range of
           | differences in belief, action and motivation that the general
           | populace does. I flew with a pilot on a transport helicopter
           | that was blasting Eye of the Tiger and taking every turn at
           | maximum bank, constantly looking for AA to get to fire at us
           | so he could call in F-18s and watch the fireworks. Some of
           | them are cranks.
           | 
           | BUT... I don't think any US military pilot expects their
           | cockpit recordings or FLIR video to be public at some later
           | time, I'm not sure what the motivation would be to lie about
           | this stuff. The harm to you as a respected pilot would be
           | fairly severe, and you'd have to get your co-pilot to go
           | along with it.
           | 
           | "Three may keep a secret if two of them are dead." - Benjamin
           | Franklin
        
           | outworlder wrote:
           | > shutting down engines and gliding over campfires then
           | lighting up after burners when right over them
           | 
           | I find it very, very, very hard to believe that a fighter
           | pilot would _shut down_ his engines in flight, at night, even
           | more so if it's for a stunt.
           | 
           | Slightly more believable if he went to idle, and then full
           | military power. Slightly.
        
             | justsomehnguy wrote:
             | There is enough videos of F-18s doing 'push the throttle
             | and bank' in a _level flight_ on YouTube. It 's fast, but
             | it's not instantenious. And as an arm-chair pilot I can say
             | what a multiton plane doesn't stay at the altitude with the
             | engines at idle.
             | 
             | Also the last weekend I caught an 40" bass.
        
           | bostonsre wrote:
           | So your are saying the one with evidence was a prank because
           | he screwed around on a training mission?
        
             | stouset wrote:
             | The entire point of this a analysis is that the video
             | _isn't_ evidence of anything extraordinary.
             | 
             | Given other potentially questionable behavior around this
             | subject matter, yes, that absolutely calls their
             | credibility into question.
        
             | RobertMiller wrote:
             | _" Known prankster pulls another prank"_ vs _" Known
             | prankster says aliens are here and you should believe him
             | because he's a professional."_
             | 
             | Hmm.
        
               | bostonsre wrote:
               | Have you listened to the joe rogan episode where he talks
               | about it?
               | 
               | It seems a little ridiculous to compare the one where he
               | turned his engine off and on one time at night over a
               | couple campers to the episode where multiple pilots see
               | it, with multiple sensors seeing it from planes and from
               | ships. He engaged in horseplay once, therefor anything he
               | ever says should not be believed seems lame.
        
             | cma wrote:
             | He explicitly said he did those as UFO pranks.
        
         | a9h74j wrote:
         | > the carrier group tracked
         | 
         | Naive question: If a carrier group cannot, in essentially real-
         | time, document _three dimensional_ trajectories at this point
         | (four if you include speed), what possible defense can they
         | claim to have against evasive incoming missiles, etc.
        
           | chrisco255 wrote:
           | Carriers are most likely partly obsoleted by hypersonic
           | missiles that travel and maneuver at mach 20 (which Russia
           | and China have), in addition to 100 megaton nuclear torpedoes
           | that travel at 120mph (which Russia has).
           | 
           | https://www.navalnews.com/naval-news/2022/03/russias-new-
           | pos...
           | 
           | https://www.defensenews.com/naval/2019/10/14/will-ground-
           | bas...
        
             | smachiz wrote:
             | I mean... assuming the Russians have anything that works is
             | probably not a great assumption based on their performance
             | in Ukraine.
             | 
             | But I think they provide overlapping, but different, roles.
             | But missiles and torpedoes is why aircraft carriers travel
             | in carrier groups that have defensive capabilities against
             | torpedoes and missiles.
        
               | chrisco255 wrote:
               | Yes, Russia has the largest nuclear stockpile in the
               | world, they absolutely work and it's unwise to base your
               | opinions on their nuclear and tactical capabilities based
               | on their slow advance into Ukraine.
               | 
               | The Poseidon is a 100 megaton nuclear torpedo.
               | 
               | It doesn't need to get anywhere near a carrier group to
               | knock out the entire group. It is twice as powerful as
               | the largest nuke ever detonated (at 57megatons) and a
               | Russian sub can carry four of these torpedoes:
               | 
               | "All buildings in the village of Severny (both wooden and
               | brick), located 55 km (34 mi) from ground zero within the
               | Sukhoy Nos test range, were destroyed. In districts
               | hundreds of kilometers from ground zero wooden houses
               | were destroyed, stone ones lost their roofs, windows,
               | doors, and radio communications were interrupted for
               | almost one hour. One participant in the test saw a bright
               | flash through dark goggles and felt the effects of a
               | thermal pulse even at a distance of 270 kilometres (170
               | mi). The heat from the explosion could have caused third
               | degree burns 100 km (62 mi) away from ground zero. A
               | shock wave was observed in the air at Dikson settlement
               | 700 km (430 mi) away; windowpanes were partially broken
               | to distances of 900 kilometres (560 mi)."
               | 
               | https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsar_Bomba
        
               | smachiz wrote:
        
               | chrisco255 wrote:
               | I'm a tenth generation American. Pointing out facts is
               | called being a realist. And I'm not impressed with a
               | bunch of armchair generals that think that war with
               | Russia would be easy because their Tik Tok feed told them
               | so.
        
               | smachiz wrote:
        
               | VyperCard wrote:
               | If it exists. If it works. If if it
        
               | mcast wrote:
               | It wouldn't make much sense for Russia to show their
               | cards and use modern war tech on Ukraine, a country with
               | a (relatively) primitive military. They're barely even
               | using fighter jets.
        
               | RobertMiller wrote:
               | > _They're barely even using fighter jets._
               | 
               | Maybe because they've barely been training those pilots
               | and know the planes would likely be lost if used above
               | Ukraine? Pilots in the Russian Air Force have supposedly
               | been averaging less than 100 flight hours a year, which
               | is next to nothing.
        
               | justsomehnguy wrote:
               | With all their operations in (and supporting) Syria I
               | would doubt the number. It is not the amount of USAF
               | pilots, but should be more than that.
        
               | smachiz wrote:
               | If you think their strategy is to lull someone else into
               | attacking them, I guess?
               | 
               | Occam's razor is more likely - the west vastly
               | overestimated their capability practically the entirety
               | of the Cold War, and you're doing it again now.
        
               | water8 wrote:
               | Except for the fact that they are
               | 
               | https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2022/03/14/u
               | s/r...
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | s1artibartfast wrote:
             | Obsolete is a binary term, not scalar.
             | 
             | Carrier effectiveness and utility is diminished by some
             | weapon systems, but they are still effective for many roles
             | and purposes.
        
             | outworlder wrote:
             | > Carriers are most likely partly obsoleted by hypersonic
             | missiles that travel and maneuver at mach 20
             | 
             | That's assuming they can actually hit and inflict
             | sufficient damage.
             | 
             | Also, you need to re-read your own sources.
             | 
             | > 100 megaton nuclear torpedoes that travel at 120mph
             | (which Russia has).
             | 
             | The article is estimating that it's at most 2 megatons
             | (still a lot, but 50x smaller) and that it's NOT
             | supercavitating, so it would not travel at 120mph.
             | 
             | The other article does not support the conclusion that
             | carriers are obsolete, at all. It poses the question, but
             | does not answer it.
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | water8 wrote:
             | Why is china building carriers then? Hypersonic weapons
             | still need to know where to go. Theres a reason an ICBM
             | which flies upwards of mach 20 is ineffective against
             | carriers
        
               | chrisco255 wrote:
               | They are good at projecting power against lesser foes in
               | a sub-nuclear confrontation. I think if we went to all
               | out war against Russia and/or China our carriers would be
               | some of the first casualties.
        
               | [deleted]
        
             | thereddaikon wrote:
             | Its a common assumption made by layman that the existence
             | of a weapon that can kill a system means its now obsolete.
             | That is incorrect.
             | 
             | Systems do not become obsolete because they can be killed.
             | They become obsolete when they no longer serve utility.
             | Either something else does the job better, more efficiently
             | or effectively or the nature of war has changed to the
             | degree that its now irrelevant.
             | 
             | This mistake is most often made with Tanks and Carriers for
             | some reason. The existence of Javelin ATGMs does not mean
             | tanks are obsolete. And the existence of hypersonic AshMs
             | does not make carriers obsolete. Those weapons do not
             | replace the functionality of tanks and carriers.
             | 
             | Its like the common pop history myth that machineguns made
             | horse cavalry obsolete in the first world war. It did not.
             | Cavalry lasted through the war. Their tactics definitely
             | had to change and adapt. And they were certainly used far
             | more sparingly due to their low survivability but offensive
             | cavalry weren't rendered obsolete until tanks came around.
             | And horses in general weren't obsolete until armies became
             | fully mechanized and replaced them with trucks. Some armies
             | didn't manage that until after WW2.
             | 
             | Likewise the Battleship was not obsoleted because carrier
             | aircraft could kill it easily. It was obsoleted because
             | carrier aircraft and later smart weapons meant combat now
             | happened over the horizon and those big guns weren't
             | contributing to fleet actions anymore
             | 
             | Its been possible to kill a tank since literally the first
             | battle they were employed. Ballsy German artillerymen
             | learned that British tanks were not immune to a direct hit
             | from a field gun fired over open sights. And Carriers have
             | always been vulnerable to antiship weapons. Be it torpedoes
             | from a sub, dumb bombs from an aircraft or fancy high tech
             | missiles today.
        
               | marcusverus wrote:
               | I hope you'll excuse some pushback from another layperson
               | --isn't the situation with Aircraft Carriers
               | categorically different? In the examples you provided
               | above (Cavalry, Tanks, and Battleships), there has never
               | been a push-button solution to eliminating _every single
               | unit_ in the service of the enemy. Given the technology
               | mentioned by GP, the small number of Carriers in service
               | and the utter impossibility of hiding them, it would
               | appear that such a solution _does_ exist for Carriers.
               | 
               | So while it seems to be true that Aircraft Carriers are
               | not obsolete in peacetime or in a conflict with minor
               | powers, aren't they obsolete in the context for which
               | they were created--namely, war with another great power?
        
               | pavelrub wrote:
               | No. Because you have to consider:
               | 
               | 1. Current or future means of intercepting hypersonic
               | missiles.
               | 
               | 2. The ability to disable or reduce the enemy's ability
               | of launching hypersonic missiles, or of pinpointing and
               | accurately tracking the exact location of aircraft
               | carriers.
        
         | colordrops wrote:
         | It was also tracked on radar.
        
           | beebeepka wrote:
           | Weather balloon launched by swamp gas burp
        
         | Miner49er wrote:
         | Do you have links to reading more about this? The video saying
         | it was glare made it seem like the object was very far from the
         | jet, much farther then the naked eye could see. Was it closer
         | at some point?
        
         | nabla9 wrote:
         | That "four different pilots" stuff has not been confirmed as
         | far as I know. All people involved in these stories are
         | hustlers, including that one ex-pilot who peddles the story.
         | 
         | You must look at every statement they make separately. They
         | give one fact that can be verified and then they tie lies or
         | unverified stuff on that.
         | 
         | btw. Luis Elizondo is has not been charge of any UFO stuff.
         | https://theintercept.com/2019/06/01/ufo-unidentified-history...
        
           | TMWNN wrote:
           | >Luis Elizondo is has not been charge of any UFO stuff.
           | 
           | The late Senator Harry Reid of Nevada disagreed with you.
           | <https://www.gq-magazine.co.uk/politics/article/luis-
           | elizondo...>
        
           | bvbrandon wrote:
           | Curious to hear your thoughts on this
           | https://twitter.com/gadinbc/status/1386872125835812864?s=21
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | bostonsre wrote:
           | Have any of them made any money from this? What is the
           | hustle?
        
             | nabla9 wrote:
             | Oh yes.
             | 
             | To the Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences (media &
             | entertainment company) makes this stuff up and sells it.
             | 
             | https://tothestars.media/
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_the_Stars_(company)
        
               | bostonsre wrote:
               | The navy pilots are members of that organization?
        
           | TechBro8615 wrote:
           | > btw. Luis Elizondo is has not been charge of any UFO stuff
           | 
           | I have no conviction on the UFO phenomenon other than it
           | would be cool if aliens exist, and even cooler if they were
           | already on Earth. Still, I can't get enough of it - I
           | especially love thinking about the most epistemically
           | offensive conspiracy theories, like "the moon is a spaceship"
           | or "Antarctica is an alien base." I sometimes fall asleep to
           | _Ancient Aliens_.
           | 
           | But, fact is, the only government agents with any "authority"
           | in this "movement" - which became especially fervent around
           | the dissolution of Q-Anon, btw - are people who worked for
           | DIA in Information Operations. That is, their specialty is in
           | manipulating the public, not alien technology.
           | 
           | The "Lue anon" moniker about sums it up. My theory is the
           | recent reinvigoration of the UFO movement is an attempt by US
           | intel agencies to pre-emptively herd the most impressionable
           | people with their own controlled conspiracy, rather than
           | allow a hostile actor to manipulate them during the next
           | election.
           | 
           | Also, I predicted this 10 months ago, the last time
           | "disclosure" was imminent, in a comment [0] that I think has
           | aged well so far.
           | 
           | [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27339120
        
         | likeabbas wrote:
         | ^This is the key point. These objects have been tracked on
         | radar, FLIR, and multiple pilot witness testimony off both
         | coasts for decades now. Attempting to debunk a single one of
         | these three leaked videos is pointless because they do not show
         | the entire context of the events happening.
         | 
         | I implore everyone to watch these two interviews with
         | Christopher Melon, the former Deputy Secretary of Defense for
         | Intelligence. And to read the DNI report on UAPs It will change
         | your entire perception of these incidents and show you to view
         | them as true national security issues.
         | 
         | 1.
         | https://open.spotify.com/episode/2V0uWX1C4m8xEL0HHYqbnE?si=e...
         | 
         | 2. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdxcgS4spRM&t=1393s
         | 
         | 3.
         | https://www.dni.gov/files/ODNI/documents/assessments/Prelima...
         | 
         | There are unknown objects flying with impunity in our
         | restricted military airspace, some that exhibit characteristics
         | that nothing of human origin can accomplish. This should
         | terrify you.
         | 
         | Edit: Why the downvotes? Please explain to me your logic. I'm
         | just listing things that people with credibility in our
         | government said, including the Department of National
         | Intelligence.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | willidiots wrote:
         | The "saucer" shape and its rotation were IR glare, that's the
         | point of the video. He's very clear that he's NOT debunking the
         | existence of an object. The exhaust of a jet engine, or another
         | high-heat signature, could cause such glare.
         | 
         | AFAICT no pilots saw this shape with their naked eye. They were
         | miles away from the target and relying on what they saw via
         | their sensors.
        
           | subsubzero wrote:
           | So actually Commander Fravor saw the object with his own
           | eyes, he is one of the pilots who was sent in to engage the
           | craft after it appeared on radar from the carrier group, here
           | is a detailed video of him talking about the incident with
           | Lex Fridman(AI reasearcher - MIT) on his podcast -
           | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB8zcAttP1E
        
             | tptacek wrote:
             | I'm literally learning about this "gimball video" from this
             | video, so I don't have all the background, but the video
             | we're looking at wasn't taken by David Fravor; it was taken
             | by Chad Underwood? In the video we're looking at, we don't
             | so much have to guess how far away the object was; the
             | camera video itself indicates it. It's too far away to
             | discern shape and rotation accurately with a naked eye. The
             | video goes into detail about this, and the details aren't
             | complicated.
        
               | recuter wrote:
               | Spoken like a true none believer. I shun thee. Even the
               | pentagon said they can't explain the UFOs, clearly they
               | are preparing society for a big reveal. ;)
        
             | pgreenwood wrote:
             | David Fravor was talking about the Tic-Tac video which was
             | over ten years before the Gimbal video in the article.
        
         | mountainriver wrote:
         | Camera glare my friend, case closed
        
           | csa wrote:
           | > Camera glare my friend, case closed
           | 
           | I came here to say this.
           | 
           | There will be no further discussion.
        
         | zmgsabst wrote:
         | This analysis even admits that there's an object required for
         | the "glare" to exist.
         | 
         | This analysis doesn't reject an actual object being tracked: it
         | confirms it and describes it as one that causes IR glare!
        
           | NyxWulf wrote:
           | So the claim is...these highly trained pilots and the other
           | sensor systems didn't realize that objects cause IR glare,
           | but this guy did. Case closed.
        
             | thesuitonym wrote:
             | It's not the pilots job to theorize on whether the object
             | is glare or not, just to describe what he's seeing. This is
             | one plausible explanation, not THE explanation. There is
             | still a UFO there, the video is just saying it probably
             | doesn't look like what we see on screen.
             | 
             | If you're unwilling to even entertain that this might be a
             | possibility because you want to believe... I guess do what
             | you want.
        
             | sudosysgen wrote:
             | Yes. This happened multiple times. There was an incident
             | where the tree-blade bokeh of a NVD was mistaken for a UFO
             | once, for example.
        
             | stouset wrote:
             | I'm quite confident that most people here are going to find
             | a calm, measured, and thorough explanation of the observed
             | phenomenon more credible than a snarky and instinctive
             | dismissal that doesn't even bother to address a single one
             | of the clearly demonstrated points in the analysis.
        
             | tablespoon wrote:
             | > So the claim is...these highly trained pilots and the
             | other sensor systems didn't realize that objects cause IR
             | glare, but this guy did. Case closed.
             | 
             | And frankly the "this guy" appears to be someone with no
             | expertise and who is strongly biased towards particular
             | investigatory outcomes:
             | 
             | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mick_West:
             | 
             | > Mick West is a British science writer, skeptical
             | investigator, and retired video game programmer. He is the
             | creator of the websites Contrail Science and Metabunk, and
             | he investigates and debunks pseudoscientific claims and
             | conspiracy theories such as chemtrails and UFOs.
             | 
             | Not to say he isn't right in this case, but I'm equality
             | unenthusiastic about "skeptics" like that as I am about
             | conspiracy theorists.
             | 
             | Edit: on second thought, I'm somewhat _more_ unenthusiastic
             | "skeptics" like that. Conspiracy theorists can at least be
             | entertaining sometimes, while "skeptics" tend to just bore
             | you with self-assured arrogance while they take pot shots
             | at low-hanging fruit.
        
               | Talanes wrote:
               | > Not to say he isn't right in this case, but I'm
               | equality unenthusiastic about "skeptics" like that as I
               | am about conspiracy theorists.
               | 
               | Yeah, it can be interesting to hear a dubunking from
               | someone with an actual background in the field, but
               | someone who's whole schtick is debunking is just as
               | motivated to prove things wrong as the conspiracy
               | theorists are to prove things right.
        
               | d35007 wrote:
               | > Conspiracy theorists can at least be entertaining
               | sometimes, while "skeptics" tend to just bore you with
               | self-assured arrogance while they take pot shots at low-
               | hanging fruit.
               | 
               | I don't know about skeptics in general, but I found Mr.
               | West's video to be pretty entertaining. He built some
               | pretty impressive-looking simulations to support his
               | claims.
               | 
               | I think conspiracy theories can be interesting and
               | entertaining, but a lot of their theorists are kinda
               | pathetic.
        
               | msla wrote:
               | > Conspiracy theorists can at least be entertaining
               | sometimes
               | 
               | Right up until they're sure that there's a child
               | molestation ring in the basement of a pizza parlor that
               | doesn't have a basement, and someone goes and shoots up
               | the place because the conspiracy theory was so damn
               | entertaining.
        
               | tablespoon wrote:
               | That's exactly why I said "sometimes." It might have been
               | more precise to mean occasionally, but the clear intended
               | meaning was that it was a minority of the time.
        
               | [deleted]
        
           | RobertMiller wrote:
        
           | bostonsre wrote:
           | This analysis is saying it's likely 10 miles away, that
           | doesn't track with the other evidence, does it?
        
             | stouset wrote:
             | What other evidence is this inconsistent with?
        
               | colordrops wrote:
               | RADAR and visual confirmation.
        
               | stouset wrote:
               | I'd be floored if the radar data didn't back this up. A
               | carrier group would have scrambled fighters well before
               | anything unidentified got within a hundred miles, much
               | less ten.
               | 
               | Visual confirmation I don't find remotely compelling.
               | Besides the notorious general unreliability of human
               | observers, humans simply cannot distinguish between
               | small, nearby objects traveling slowly and large, far
               | objects traveling quickly without additional contextual
               | clues (e.g., a tiny plane-shaped object in the sky is
               | probably the latter). Factor in that they were validating
               | their observations against a sensor displaying a
               | misleading image--in other words, providing incorrect
               | contextual clues--and I think it's not hard to call into
               | question the accuracy of any visual claims.
        
               | bostonsre wrote:
               | It was picked up on radar over several different days and
               | a training mission was scrubbed so that they could go
               | investigate what they saw on radar.
               | 
               | You don't think humans could get better at judging
               | distance of objects with practice? It seems like if any
               | humans on earth could reliably do it, it would be
               | seasoned fighter pilots that have thousands of hours of
               | experience doing that exact thing.
        
               | scoopertrooper wrote:
               | Got a source on that?
               | 
               | I feel like people just want to believe. But this is a
               | pretty satisfying explanation.
        
               | cronix wrote:
               | Here's a 60 Minutes piece discussing it:
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZBtMbBPzqHY
               | 
               | Here's a 4 hour interview with the pilot, David Fravor,
               | on Lex Fridman's show where he goes into much more detail
               | than you'll probably read elsewhere:
               | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB8zcAttP1E
               | 
               | This wasn't just a single radar. It was an AEGIS system
               | compromised of multiple ships with state of the art
               | radars, multiple plane radars, and visual confirmation by
               | several pilots. They were tracking it for multiple days.
        
               | thereddaikon wrote:
               | I didn't think the radar track was at the same time was
               | it? I thought the Tico's tracked it with the SPY-1 and
               | they sent F-18s to investigate who then tracked it with
               | the FLIR and visually.
               | 
               | Without a reference point you are unlikely to be able to
               | guess the distance of an aircraft, especially an unknown
               | one.
        
           | stouset wrote:
           | Exactly. Zero of the GPs objections are inconsistent with
           | this explanation. The carrier group tracked an unknown object
           | and scrambled fighters to investigate. The pilots may have
           | visually observed the object, but it would have been too far
           | away to really ascertain any visual detail. Instead they
           | relied on infrared sensors which... suffered from glare, and
           | so rendered incorrect visuals for the object. Its strange
           | shape and rotational behavior are now explained.
           | 
           | What remains is still an unidentified flying object, but one
           | whose behavior is reasonably mundane and doesn't require
           | advanced technology to explain.
        
             | adriand wrote:
             | We also need to be really honest about what we _want_ this
             | to be, and how that desire influences what we believe about
             | it. I personally _want_ this to be an alien spacecraft,
             | because that 's super interesting and exciting. I think the
             | same is true of lots of other people. Unfortunately, there
             | are much more mundane explanations which fit the evidence
             | much better.
        
               | birdyrooster wrote:
               | Why do you want it to be alien spacecraft? Are you some
               | sort of glutton for punishment?
        
               | mark-r wrote:
               | If there really are aliens out there, wouldn't you like
               | to have some proof of it?
        
               | JaimeThompson wrote:
               | Given how horribly interactions between more
               | technologically advanced and lesser technologically
               | advanced societies seem to harm the lesser ones I'm not
               | sure it would turn out well for humanity.
        
               | sterlind wrote:
               | if the aliens don't annihilate us, maybe they'd be
               | willing to teach us some physics?
        
             | shadowgovt wrote:
             | And in the realm of mundane objects that may create very
             | strange radar and visual patterns, we have our choice.
             | 
             | Space Data Corporation was operating as early as 1997.
             | Their product is radio communications provided by balloon.
             | IIUC, normally those balloons are tethered, but if a tether
             | snapped and one got away and was caught in a high-altitude
             | crosswind, you'd have a mostly-metal object catching
             | sunlight and throwing it in weird ways as it tumbled.
        
         | gfodor wrote:
         | The gimbal video is not a video of the object from the Nimitz
         | incident. There _is_ a video of that but it's less compelling
         | in terms of evidence, but also afaik not cleanly debunked. (I
         | think it's called FLIR?)
        
           | [deleted]
        
         | StanislavPetrov wrote:
         | >This analysis is pretty flimsy.
         | 
         | Flimsy is an extremely generous and flattering word if you know
         | anything about the details of this case or the testimony of the
         | Navy's top pilots who witnessed and tracked this object from
         | different vantage points both visually and with instruments.
        
       | jmyeet wrote:
       | I honestly don't know what to make of these observations other
       | than I'm utterly convinced they're not alien, super high tech or
       | break the laws of physics (eg inertia). There was no alien crash
       | in Roswell. I also file believe any government is competent
       | enough for the claimed cover up and associated psyops.
       | 
       | What I do find interesting is the overlap between people who buy
       | into various conspiracy theories and people who are religious,
       | were religious or would otherwise be likely to be religious.
       | 
       | There's some fascinating psychology here and I think it boils
       | down to a combination of wishful thinking and the comfort derived
       | from there being a Grand Plan rather than just a collection of
       | random stuff that just happens.
       | 
       | "Can't be explained" is typically "hasn't been explained yet".
       | Lack of an explanation is nothing more than that. Extraordinary
       | claims require extraordinary evidence.
       | 
       | I approach this from the other direction. Given the huge benefits
       | of a Dyson Swarm and the fact that it seems to require no exotic
       | materials and no more physics it looks increasingly likely that
       | we are very alone in the Milky Way and even if we aren't it
       | requires an awful lot of hubris to suggest a species would spend
       | the considerable effort and tens of thousands of years to come
       | here and hide.
       | 
       | Like this is Main Character Syndrome at its finest.
        
         | playcache wrote:
         | The problem with your comment is you just lumped together a
         | string of un-credible events and then summarise you're not
         | convinced. To be frank Roswell and psyops (whatever that is)
         | would not be enough to utterly convince me too. What I do find
         | very interesting though is credible recent eye witness
         | testimonies coming from US Navy pilots and the work at Harvard
         | University for the Galileo Project, along with the other many
         | recent activities around the study of UAPs (whatever they might
         | be).
         | 
         | The problem as I see it with this area is it's been far too
         | stigmatised, so no researchers would ever dare touch it for
         | fear of being labelled conspiracy theory believing nutcases.
         | That sentiment is now dying off thankfully and we can start to
         | find out what on earth is going on.
        
           | xdennis wrote:
           | I'm surprised you're more convinced by eye witness
           | testimonies. People are notoriously unreliable. If anything,
           | this glare is better proof of green men than just talk.
        
         | president wrote:
         | I think a lot of people just find the topic of conspiracy
         | theories interesting and entertaining. You don't need to hate
         | on them for what is essentially a hobby.
        
         | honkdaddy wrote:
         | The Dyson Swarm is more or less a science fiction concept. Is
         | its lack of existence really your reason for believing we're
         | alone in the universe?
         | 
         | You seem keen to make fun of dogmatic people but attaching a
         | hypothetical concept which is so trivial and fringe to your
         | mental model seems like pretty dogmatic behavior. If you'd
         | never heard of a Dyson Swarm, like the vast, vast majority of
         | people haven't, would your view of extraterrestrial life have
         | significantly changed?
        
         | user3939382 wrote:
         | > wishful thinking and the comfort derived from there being a
         | Grand Plan
         | 
         | You may not have meant this by your comment, but in general I
         | find a related analysis common among atheists, that religious
         | people believe what they do because it feels good. I find
         | that's often wrong, and when generally applied condescending,
         | as if atheists are simply more emotionally mature. On the
         | contrary many religious people will tell you they believe what
         | they do because it seems to them to be true.
         | 
         | > Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
         | 
         | One might consider the existence of the universe extraordinary
         | evidence (for the existence of God).
         | 
         | That said I think we can mostly agree that based on what we
         | know so far, "aliens" is a fairly implausible explanation for
         | any given unexplained phenomenon. Where ever you fall on that
         | debate, I don't think it has anything to do with religious
         | beliefs except as far as the biases of the people who conduct
         | these psychology studies goes.
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | water8 wrote:
           | There is a high correlation between atheists and arrogance
        
             | quesera wrote:
             | There's a high correlation between arrogance and _anyone_
             | who wants you to believe as they do.
             | 
             | This applies to all of the most visible proselytizers of
             | religion, politics, economics, operating systems, and text
             | editors, among others.
        
             | bratwurst3000 wrote:
             | Same said about arrogance and theist. Most religions are
             | based on beeing something special and not a shitload of
             | atoms nobody will remember as time pase by
        
               | mardifoufs wrote:
               | I disagree. Religion usually involves deifying a entity
               | that you consider to be superior, _because_ it is not
               | human. As an example, the word Islam literally means
               | "submission" in reference to submitting to God. I'm not
               | sure how that's arrogant. If anything being just a
               | creature of god inherently means that we're nothing
               | special in the grand scheme of things.
        
         | ssklash wrote:
         | I think you hit on the key part of conspiracy thinking. It
         | doesn't seem like a coincidence that many of the most
         | conspiracy minded are also extremely religious, in the US
         | anyway. I don't know anything about conspiracy thinking in the
         | context of Islam or Hinduism, for example.
         | 
         | It seems like the tendency to accept a higher power in control
         | of your life and the world leads to believing in other earthly
         | powers being able to exert vast control over the world.
        
           | vmception wrote:
           | In France, it was also deeply religion people of Christian or
           | Muslim faith who felt is was their _duty_ to tell me about
           | the shadow groups controlling the world. The best part was
           | that _these_ shadow groups were all French, based in Paris.
        
             | ssklash wrote:
             | I think they must be wrong, since I have it on good
             | evidence from my deeply-religious and conspiracy-minded
             | family that the shadow groups are _US based_.
             | 
             | But seriously, I assume all these types of people have this
             | sort of localized, my-version-is-the-right-version
             | theories, since they do the exact same thing with their
             | religion.
        
         | jl6 wrote:
         | > Given the huge benefits of a Dyson Swarm and the fact that it
         | seems to require no exotic materials and no more physics it
         | looks increasingly likely that we are very alone in the Milky
         | Way
         | 
         | There's still a huge engineering gap between our current tech
         | and the theoretical possibility of a Dyson Swarm. I don't find
         | it _at all_ implausible that such a thing would need too much
         | energy, effort, collective will, or some other resource, to
         | make it practical. There could still be plenty of stealthy sub-
         | Dyson civilizations, or even supra-Dyson civilizations that
         | have found it in their interest not to be detectable.
        
         | staticman2 wrote:
         | "Given the huge benefits of a Dyson Swarm and the fact that it
         | seems to require no exotic materials and no more physics"
         | 
         | Since we haven't been able to build such a thing I think it's
         | fair to say it requires something or other that's exotic to us.
        
         | oldstrangers wrote:
         | You can't really extrapolate being alone in the universe from
         | "aliens aren't visiting us." The fact that we exist at all,
         | especially as a random occurrence of events, would suggest it's
         | not that bizarre of an event. If we were single celled
         | organisms having this conversation, then yeah, life outside of
         | earth would seem more unlikely.
         | 
         | But we have 4.543 billion years worth of evidence showing that
         | life REALLY likes to live. To get from a single celled organism
         | to me typing to you over the internet tells me there's probably
         | something universal to this process.
         | 
         | To me it's a lot more "Main Character Syndrome" to suggest we
         | are wholly unique and alone in the universe. We are the special
         | chosen species that made it out of an infinite number of
         | probabilities. Sounds insane.
        
           | tunap wrote:
           | AC Clarke posited perhaps extra-terrestrial life came, they
           | observed & they quarantined our corner of the galaxy to
           | inhibit the escape of slavery, murder & environmental
           | destruction.
        
           | DennisP wrote:
           | For all we know, it takes a whole universe banging molecules
           | together before metabolizing self-replicating life randomly
           | arises. If it has only emerged one time in the entire
           | universe, nothing would look different to us than it does
           | right now.
           | 
           | Or maybe it happens all the time. But with only one sample,
           | we have no data either way.
        
             | oldstrangers wrote:
             | > But with only one sample, we have no data either way.
             | 
             | Sure we do, that one instance of life pushes the needle in
             | favor of life. A fun exercise is to imagine or visualize
             | the concept of nothingness, as far as you can take it.
             | Eventually you realize even the "idea of nothingness"
             | negates the meaning of "nothingness." You reach a paradox
             | in awareness that you're incapable of resolving because to
             | do so would mean the idea didn't exist in the first place.
             | Applying it to life, the existence of life negates the
             | existence of no-life, and increases the probability in our
             | favor.
             | 
             | Functionally I think life is more commonplace than anyone
             | realizes, and we're probably just incapable of
             | understanding life outside of our perception of reality.
        
             | jmyeet wrote:
             | So we only have one data point of a planet producing what
             | will quite possibly be a spacefaring civilization or, in
             | the very least, one able to comprehend as such.
             | 
             | But if you accept that the Dyson Swarms are a likely
             | outcome then we have a while bunch of negative data points
             | in systems within even thousands of light years of us.
             | 
             | That then brings into focus the hypothesis about Dyson
             | Swarm. Such a thing can be built incrementally, requires no
             | material stronger than stainless steel and requires no
             | energy tech beyond solar power. It is a massive engineering
             | challenge to be sure but not requiring new physics is
             | significant.
        
           | bun_at_work wrote:
           | Of all the life we can see only one (or a few for the more
           | generous of you) species has what humans commonly call
           | intelligence.
           | 
           | Intelligence as we commonly refer to it is not a given in
           | evolution. Evolution seeks forward propagation of genetic
           | material, it doesn't seek an "intelligent" state.
           | 
           | It's reasonable to assume there is life elsewhere in the
           | universe. It's quite a bit more of a stretch to assume there
           | is _intelligent_ life elsewhere in the universe, aside from
           | the problem of defining what intelligence is.
        
             | potatoman22 wrote:
             | If we can't define intelligence well, why is it
             | unreasonable to assume there's intelligent life? Maybe most
             | life is intelligent, just not on Earth.
        
         | [deleted]
        
         | jklinger410 wrote:
         | The thing about conspiracy theories is that when people who
         | hold power over large groups of people actively mislead them
         | and deny them of a source of authority, those people grasp at
         | what pieces of information they do have in order to build a
         | narrative that isn't tainted by lies.
         | 
         | It is, and I cannot stress this enough, entirely unhelpful for
         | you to ascribe it to main character syndrome or compare it to
         | the belief in an omnipotent God.
         | 
         | If sources of truth in human societies like governments and
         | scientific institutions would stop lying or misleading people
         | nearly constantly then you could call conspiracy people
         | lunatics, or fringe. But you simply cannot.
         | 
         | Not only are people being lied to, but they are being actively
         | disinformed for "their own good." There are massive socializing
         | forces that have taken an active role in manipulating society
         | based around the idea that they know better.
         | 
         | And the ironic part is that, to a degree, they do know better.
         | People act stupid in groups and have important information
         | WITHHELD for various reasons that make it impossible to discern
         | the truth.
         | 
         | If you want to start minimizing the amount of bullshit beliefs
         | that people hold, supernatural or otherwise, you can start by
         | tearing down the systems that are used to create false
         | narratives which push people into those beliefs.
        
         | bratwurst3000 wrote:
         | Totaly true . Look at alex jones. He is a full blown crazy
         | person that believes in the supremacy of the christian race...
         | oh yes racism goes also realy well with religion
        
           | ARandomerDude wrote:
           | What? Christianity is not a race.
        
         | Banana699 wrote:
         | > Given the huge benefits of a Dyson Swarm and the fact that it
         | seems to require no exotic materials and no more physics
         | 
         | This doesn't account for the fact that you don't know what - if
         | any - benefits do exotic materials and funky physics might
         | bring if they exist and are feasible to exploit. The benefits
         | might be so much larger than Dyson Swarms, that it would be
         | wastful\unnecessary to use Dyson Swarms, except maybe as a
         | hobby or as a low tech fallback for civilizations like camping
         | enthusiasts and survivalists. Why bother with stars when you
         | have tech to live in the 21 dimensions that those born-
         | yesterday biologicals can't even sense yet ?
         | 
         | The Dyson 'Paradox' doesn't strike me as much of a paradox,
         | imagine if a group of ants looked at the sky and wondered why
         | aren't extraterrestials building tunnels inside the moon's
         | regolith like ants do on Earth. It's just assuming too much.
         | It's of course a valid scenario, it just isn't the only one.
        
         | TremendousJudge wrote:
         | I mostly agree with your take, but I'll pick on this sentence:
         | 
         | > Given the huge benefits of a Dyson Swarm and the fact that it
         | seems to require no exotic materials and no more physics it
         | looks increasingly likely that we are very alone in the Milky
         | Way
         | 
         | The fact that we can come up with the idea of a Dyson Swarm
         | doesn't mean that not finding any in our observations results
         | in we "being alone in the galaxy". It's also Main Character
         | Syndrome, in a way.
         | 
         | Even discarding the idea of alien life being so different from
         | ours that we wouldn't recognize it even if we were looking
         | right at it, and assuming a "human like civilization", it's
         | perfectly possible for there being unknown physics to us that
         | make the idea of a Dyson Swarm unnecessary. Using our own
         | civilization as an example, in the 1950s and 60s we did all of
         | our data broadcasting over radio waves, and built huge powerful
         | antennas that screamed about our presence to the wider
         | universe. People then thought "well, if we're broadcasting all
         | this stuff, where are the alien broadcasts? why can't we hear
         | them? we must be alone in the galaxy". Fast-forward to now. Our
         | current tech allows pretty much all communications to be over
         | cables, and we're being much less wasteful with our emmiting;
         | our radio emissions are diminishing over time.
         | 
         | So, not a century has passed, and already newer technology has
         | proven our assumptions of alien life wrong. Why would it be any
         | different with Dyson Swarms? You can't know how more advanced
         | technology looks like, you can only extrapolate with what we
         | have now.
        
         | bostonsre wrote:
         | How are you utterly convinced when it can't be proven true or
         | false and don't have any other explanation for it? Why close
         | all those doors without sufficient evidence to close them?
         | 
         | We don't have extraordinary evidence therefore it's not
         | possible that it's anything weird doesn't seem very scientific.
        
           | stonemetal12 wrote:
           | >Why close all those doors without sufficient evidence to
           | close them?
           | 
           | Because there isn't sufficient evidence to open them in the
           | first place. Might as well claim it is unicorns and dragons,
           | you don't have any evidence it isn't.
        
             | StanislavPetrov wrote:
             | We have unexplained phenomena. We have eyewitness accounts
             | from the Navy's top pilots as well as instrument data and
             | IR footage. If we cannot explain this phenomena with what
             | we know, then we must consider the possibility its
             | something that we don't know. Simply putting your head in
             | the sand or attempting to debunk this documented phenomena
             | with patently absurd explanations like "a lens flare" or
             | "it was only Venus" isn't good enough for thoughtful
             | people.
        
               | zardo wrote:
               | We have what appears to be a shiny floating object. What
               | data do we have that can't be explained by a shiny
               | balloon?
        
               | nocturnial wrote:
               | I might be overly pedantic with this point but saying a
               | shiny balloon fits the limited data we have, doesn't mean
               | it _was_ a shiny balloon.
               | 
               | The thing that bothers me the most about this sort of
               | discussions is that it's all done on "paper"[1]. It would
               | be helpful to actually release a balloon, or whatever
               | object you think it was, and check if you can reproduce
               | the glare and other sensor data.
               | 
               | If it's very easy to reproduce then we can be more
               | confident in that explanation and probably nail down more
               | detailed characteristics of that object. Once we have
               | that we can look where this object could've come from.
               | For example, if it points to a balloon, did a
               | company/organization lose a balloon in that time frame?
               | Once we have all this info we would have an explanation
               | that's more robust than someone saying: "It might be
               | possible this and potentially that"
               | 
               | This requires money, time and the hardware. So I guess
               | it's unlikely that will ever happen.
               | 
               | [1] Not saying it's useless. Those calculations and/or
               | simulations are very useful to limit the types of objects
               | it could be.
        
               | kingofpandora wrote:
               | > Navy's top pilots
               | 
               | Relative to what? Other pilots who fly the same aircraft?
               | All fighter jet pilots in the Navy? All pilots of all
               | types of navy aircraft?
        
               | bostonsre wrote:
               | A squadron commander doesn't get into that position by
               | being incompetent. Fighter jets are incredibly complex
               | and demanding and there are lots of different aircraft to
               | pilot in the navy.
        
             | bostonsre wrote:
             | How are you supposed to discover something new about the
             | universe if all doors are closed from the start? How do you
             | go from zero evidence where something isn't worth being
             | investigated further because there isnt sufficient evidence
             | to there being sufficient evidence for it to be considered
             | acceptable to investigate? The seems like a feedback loop
             | that will result in nothing new ever being discovered
             | unless something magical drops all evidence in your lap.
        
         | nabla9 wrote:
         | To the Stars Academy of Arts & Sciences (media & entertainment
         | company) makes this stuff up and sells it.
         | 
         | https://tothestars.media/
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_the_Stars_(company)
        
         | jonnylynchy wrote:
         | Someone forgot to take their anti-cynicism medication this
         | morning.
        
         | mr_toad wrote:
         | > Given the huge benefits of a Dyson Swarm
         | 
         | Dyson Swarms are only plausible if your society is still stuck
         | in an exponential growth mode. It assumes technological
         | advancement, but stagnant sociological development, or perhaps
         | even worse; pathological development, like a hegemonising
         | swarm.
         | 
         | I think that many UFO theories make the same mistakes. They
         | assume high tech aliens with low tech motives.
        
       | belter wrote:
       | - David Fravor and is colleagues, are highly credible witnesses
       | of something they observed visually.
       | 
       | - This is certainly a very interesting interview:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIUBjvY4PnQ
       | 
       | - There are visual observations, and what are, ( by military
       | standards), flimsy short video images/video.
       | 
       | - This analysis partially explains one part of it, without
       | excluding the presence of an object.
       | 
       | - There is also Radar data, but it has not been published or time
       | correlated to the reported visual observations.
       | 
       | Observations:
       | 
       | - These Aliens only seem to want to goof around with folksy US
       | pilots.
       | 
       | - Pilots known to simulate UFO sightings, fans of UFO invasion
       | stories and stories of Russians shooting UFO's and getting shot
       | back. ( watch the interview...).
       | 
       | - These Aliens show up exclusively during their training time and
       | with sightings restricted to areas with US carrier groups
       | exercises.
       | 
       | Also...
       | 
       | - The Aliens don't show up with their "Tic Tac's" or seem to be
       | interested on the Ukraine conflict.
       | 
       | - They don't care about EU or Latin America citizens...
       | 
       | - Don't want to play around with the Russian or Chinese Air
       | Force.
       | 
       | - They don't show up in the data of any of the existing Military
       | satellites that exist, and are capable of reading a bus ticket on
       | the ground from 400 km.
       | 
       | - These Aliens don't show up in the observations of the thousands
       | of professional and amateur astronomers, that scan the sky a
       | total of thousands of hours every night, using some of the most
       | exquisite optical instruments available.
       | 
       | I would say: They either don't exist, or if they do, they are
       | pretty dumb and we have nothing to fear.
        
         | avl999 wrote:
         | These observations have also been made by military adjacent
         | organizations in UK, France and China. It is definitely not a
         | US pilot specific thing.
        
       | RobertMiller wrote:
       | Mick West debunked these to my satisfaction ages ago. The only
       | question I have left is whether the whole thing was a US Navy
       | psyop or whether the navy was just looking the other way and
       | playing coy when those pilots were creating a retirement career
       | in UFOlogy.
        
         | gfodor wrote:
         | The UAP report debunks the idea that all the evidence the
         | government has has been debunked. Time will tell but the report
         | reversed Project Blue Book, which ruled out non-human
         | technology.
        
         | nabla9 wrote:
         | People read "Navy confirms authenticity of the video" as "This
         | is important and Navy can't explain it." (if they try).
         | 
         | Only thing Navy does it confirms that the video is real. They
         | don't say that they have even tried to identify or that there
         | is any reason to identify. They have hundreds or thousands of
         | hours of video or radar images of drones etc. they don't care
         | to identify.
         | 
         | Navy does not engage with these hustlers from "To the stars
         | academy" at all. That's the only good response. To the Stars
         | Academy of Arts & Sciences (media & entertainment company)
         | makes this stuff up and sells it.
         | 
         | https://tothestars.media/
         | 
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_the_Stars_(company)
        
           | RobertMiller wrote:
           | > _People read "Navy confirms authenticity of the video" as
           | "This is important and Navy can't explain it."_
           | 
           | Precisely. There is a huge gap between what the Navy has
           | actually claimed about the videos and what people _think_ the
           | Navy has claimed. _' The video is authentic'_ is not the same
           | as _' the video shows what it's purported to show.'_
        
         | zionic wrote:
         | Mick West utterly failed to "debunk" these videos, and actual
         | fighter pilots have debunked his "debunk".
         | 
         | https://youtu.be/ro29w4ESw44
        
           | RobertMiller wrote:
           | Do you happen to have a copy of this supposed debunking
           | debunking that isn't given by Alvin the Chimpmunk? Wtf dude.
        
             | Workaccount2 wrote:
             | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tyw4JA00AMc
             | 
             | Here is the video on the actual fighter pilot's channel
        
           | emkoemko wrote:
           | are you kidding now? that pilot does not even know how
           | cameras work at all and your using him ???
           | 
           | this American pilot does not know how depth of field works...
           | can't even notice in his own video recordings, this beyond
           | funny. He thinks you can't have objects at different
           | distances in focus at the same time ahahaha, does not get how
           | parallax works... gave up after those dumb errors and smug
           | attitude as he was saying such dumb things, i bet he made
           | even more mistakes.
           | 
           | is he really a "fighter pilot" or they just not trained to
           | understand their gear?
        
         | TooKool4This wrote:
         | Or if you follow Hanlon's razor, if the Navy is incredibly
         | (scarily) incompetent!
        
           | emkoemko wrote:
           | i think they are, there is a video of a "fighter pilot" who
           | does not understand basics of a cameras... he thinks you
           | can't focus on objects at different distances at the same
           | time.... how did he ever get to fly a jet? or parallax i mean
           | he should know how that works
        
           | radicaldreamer wrote:
           | That's a given (see all the ships crashing into other ships
           | in the South Pacific a couple of years ago -- and not
           | noticing for hours!)
        
           | RobertMiller wrote:
           | That is possible, but I think strains credibility. The GOFAST
           | video is egregious, I find it hard to believe nobody in the
           | US Navy was able to calculate the actual [mundane, very...
           | balloon-like] speed of that object using basic trigonometry.
           | I think it's more likely the Navy knew there was nothing
           | actually exotic in that video.
           | 
           | The Defense Department described the subject of GOFAST,
           | Gimble and FLIR videos as "UAV, Balloons, and other UAS". _'
           | Balloons'_; they know what it is. They're not even lying,
           | they're being coy or misleading.
        
       | alphabetting wrote:
       | Still convinced the intelligence and technology it would require
       | to get here would make us identifying aliens in our ozone
       | impossible. They'd only be seen if they wanted to be. First
       | contact could be seeing a von neumann probe or some other kind of
       | scout type aircraft in space but it wouldn't be like the videos.
        
       | throwaway984393 wrote:
       | Those crafty aliens.
        
       | billsmithwicks wrote:
       | I like Mick West, and even though camera glare isn't usually
       | picked up on radar by the navy, it's sufficient to fulfill
       | Occam's razor.
        
         | zionic wrote:
         | Mick West is a buffoon, and his "debunking" videos
         | intentionally mislead his audience. I say this because he has
         | had this explained to him again and again but he still ignores
         | evidence.
         | 
         | When you have infrared, multiple radar, and visual observations
         | simultaneously of an object and pretend all you have is a
         | grainy infrared video REPEATEDLY it goes beyond skepticism into
         | deceit.
        
           | MauranKilom wrote:
           | Nothing in this analysis or conclusion contradicts the radar
           | observations - how are they being "ignored"? And it is
           | unclear to me (as an uninitiated person) how "visual"
           | observations lend any more credence to the story when they
           | are just retellings of the exact same kind of footage, except
           | impossible to further analyze/corroborate.
        
           | tsimionescu wrote:
           | We have a grainy infrared video, and _claims_ of other
           | infrared, radar and visual observations. Claims are easy to
           | make and hard to analyze. Video is all we can analyze, and
           | the video is unconvincing. Why then should we believe the
           | claims?
        
             | user-the-name wrote:
        
       | tiahura wrote:
       | I find the "bump" aspect persuasive.
       | 
       | I'd like to see similar analysis of the East Coast cruise missile
       | ufo video.
        
       | deepnotderp wrote:
       | Lens glare tracked by radar.
       | 
       | That's a new one.
        
         | ChrisGranger wrote:
         | The claim isn't that there is no flying object. The glare
         | accounts for its appearance.
        
       | russdpale wrote:
       | Im pretty suspicious, why does an MIT AI researcher have a
       | youtube channel? Does he not get paid enough with his salary?
       | 
       | Also, this is a four hour video, what is the timestamp of the
       | comments you refer to?
        
         | anothernewdude wrote:
         | > Im pretty suspicious, why does an MIT AI researcher have a
         | youtube channel?
         | 
         | Are you serious?
        
         | nkassis wrote:
         | Some people have YouTube channels as hobbies ? I don't see the
         | issue.
        
         | darig wrote:
        
         | e40 wrote:
         | There's an index in the video notes.
        
         | vo2maxer wrote:
         | > Im pretty suspicious, why does an MIT AI researcher have a
         | youtube channel? Does he not get paid enough with his salary?
         | 
         | Could you please elaborate on why you think that an MIT
         | researcher having a YouTube channel where is had some very
         | interesting interviews somehow makes it suspicious?
        
         | drc500free wrote:
         | _removed needlessly snarky comment_
        
           | Banana699 wrote:
           | Those are 3 very, wildly, different men that you're
           | comparing.
        
         | dang wrote:
         | We detached this offtopic subthread from
         | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30703907.
        
         | qaq wrote:
         | This podcast generates millions it is one of the most popular
         | pop sci podcasts. David Favor is not a random pilot he was Top
         | Gun instructor at the time.
        
         | [deleted]
        
       | rpilot8 wrote:
       | Recently Jim Lacatski confirmed that Colm Kelleher ran the daily
       | operations of AAWSAP/AATIP. Colm was also the deputy
       | administrator of NIDS which started in 1995.
       | 
       | This along with the fact that Lue Elizondo used remote viewing to
       | "save soldiers" in Afghanistan are pretty shocking revelations.
       | 
       | AASWAP produced no results and shut down. Yet Elizondo talks
       | often about a 23-minute close video of a craft. And has allegedly
       | shown videos on his phone to people.
       | 
       | Only recently have people claimed the government has high quality
       | evidence, yet the evidence seems to be unclassified (but not
       | public).
       | 
       | If such evidence exists, it's almost hard to believe it's only
       | recently been discovered and it hasn't somehow leaked out. The
       | whole ordeal is highly suspicious.
        
         | voldacar wrote:
         | Elizondo is a very sus character. He talks and talks but has
         | produced nothing of any substance
        
       | bally0241 wrote:
       | I suppose the radar signature was camera "glare" too, smh. This
       | is pretty weak.
        
         | zionic wrote:
         | Exactly! The number of comments in this thread treating this
         | and mick west as credible is disturbing
        
         | netsharc wrote:
         | The video states that there's something there, but its heat
         | signature is causing the glare (the video is in IR). Was the
         | object flying steadily and rotating weirdly throughout the
         | video? You can't see how the object is flying, the smooth
         | motion and weird rotation you perceive is the effect of the
         | glare!
         | 
         | But nah, of course you know better!
        
         | ceejayoz wrote:
         | It's probably worth at least skimming the article prior to
         | dismissing it. He's not saying nothing's there.
         | 
         | > He says that his video does not address the object itself as
         | it's not clear what the object is and there is nothing to say
         | that it isn't special or exemplary in some way. He just argues
         | that his analysis shows that it isn't actually exhibiting any
         | incredible behavior and opens the door to other "mundane
         | possibilities" like a distance small jet just flying away and
         | the heat of the engines is what is creating a large glare on
         | the thermal camera.
         | 
         | He's saying the supposedly magical behavior is explicable.
         | Without that, it's a fairly boring "someone's probably flying a
         | drone near our ships" sort of incident.
        
       | oblib wrote:
       | Sitting here knowing we have a helicopter and a land rover on
       | Mars it doesn't feel like it's entirely impossible for an alien
       | craft to be here, looking at us.
       | 
       | I can't make the leap to believe without doubt there is, or even
       | to believe there probably is. But it is not impossible. We've
       | already proved it's not, and we're not really all that smart.
        
         | tsimionescu wrote:
         | Anyone on Mars would have very clearly seen the Rover landing
         | and known exactly what it was and where it was coming from.
         | They also didn't arrive in Mars from the opposite end of the
         | Galaxy, they arrived from the next planet over.
         | 
         | Most importantly, no one on Mars would think that the rover or
         | helicopter are defying theaws of physics, bending space time or
         | anything like that, which are real claims made by army
         | personnel about the objects seen in some of these videos.
        
         | ssully wrote:
         | Yup, that's kind of where I am at. I think I lean more towards
         | "this definitely isn't aliens", but if it's aliens then I
         | definitely think these are unmanned drones keeping an eye on
         | us.
        
         | stouset wrote:
         | Space is really big. The difference in effort between getting
         | an oversized RC car to Mars and getting a huge
         | supermaneuverable space-and-aircraft to the nearest habitable
         | planet is about the same as walking down tree driveway to get
         | your paper and... well, getting a huge supermaneuverable space-
         | and-aircraft to the nearest habitable planet.
         | 
         | Then doing it over and over just to play mind games with the
         | primitive apes on the planet while somehow evading anything
         | resembling a decent camera or photographer?
         | 
         | I'm not going to say it's strictly impossible. But it sure as
         | hell isn't plausible.
        
       | oyebenny wrote:
       | The title of this article sucks. Real bad.
        
       | lsllc wrote:
       | More specifically camera glare caused by swamp gas from a weather
       | balloon that was trapped in a thermal pocket and reflected the
       | light from Venus.
        
       | birdyrooster wrote:
       | Obviously it was glare, it looked like bokeh...
        
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