UFOs: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
Summary
TLDRThe video script delves into the topic of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs), exploring the historical context, public perception, and government involvement in UFO research. It discusses how UFO sightings have been a part of human history, from ancient times to modern incidents like the 1947 Kenneth Arnold sighting. The script also critiques the US government's handling of UFO investigations, including Project Sign, Project Grudge, and Project Blue Book, highlighting the lack of transparency and potential cover-ups. It touches on the cultural impact of UFOs, the stigma faced by witnesses, and the recent shift towards more serious and scientific examination of UFO phenomena. The summary emphasizes the need for rigorous, evidence-based research to understand these mysterious sightings and to answer fundamental questions about our place in the universe.
Takeaways
- đ UFOs have been a subject of fascination and speculation for decades, with many high-profile individuals reporting sightings.
- đš The term 'flying saucer' was popularized after a 1947 sighting by private pilot Kenneth Arnold, whose description of the objects' flight was misinterpreted by the media.
- đ° The media has often approached UFOs with skepticism or sensationalism, contributing to the stigma around discussing them openly.
- đ The US government has a history of investigating UFOs, from Project Sign to Project Blue Book, often with a focus on national security rather than understanding the phenomena.
- đ€ Skeptics argue that many UFO sightings can be explained by natural or human-made phenomena, and that human perception and memory can be unreliable.
- đą There is a belief that the government is hiding information about UFOs, which has been fueled by instances of misinformation and cover-ups.
- đž The 1947 Roswell incident, long a subject of conspiracy theories, was later admitted by the government to be a cover-up of a secret military project involving high-altitude balloons.
- đ Recent mainstream attention to UFOs includes the revelation of the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) and public hearings by Congress.
- đŹ There is a growing movement towards a more scientific and evidence-based approach to studying UFOs, with organizations like NASA assembling teams of experts to analyze sightings.
- đ The AATIP program, while initially seeming promising, was criticized for its lack of substantial findings and for contracting research out to a private company with ties to a hotel magnate and space entrepreneur.
- đ Despite the mystery and controversy, there is an increasing recognition that sober, scientific inquiry is necessary to better understand unidentified aerial phenomena.
Q & A
What is the common definition of UFOs?
-UFOs are defined as Unidentified Flying Objects, which simply means any object that is unidentified in the sky. It does not necessarily imply extraterrestrial origin.
What term do some researchers prefer to use instead of UFOs?
-Some researchers prefer the term UAP, which stands for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, to avoid the connotations with extraterrestrial life.
What was the first modern public obsession with UFOs linked to?
-The first modern public obsession with UFOs was linked to a sighting by Private Pilot Kenneth Arnold in 1947, who reported seeing nine oddly-shaped objects flying near Mount Rainier in Washington.
What was the term 'Flying Saucer' first associated with?
-The term 'Flying Saucer' was first associated with Arnold's sighting, after he described the objects' flight as similar to a saucer tossed across water, which was then shorthanded by reporters.
How did the US government's Project Sign and Project Grudge initially address UFO sightings?
-Project Sign and Project Grudge evaluated UFO sightings and concluded that they did not find definitive evidence to prove or disprove the existence of unidentified aircraft and did not consider them a threat to US security.
What was the Condon Committee's conclusion regarding UFOs?
-The Condon Committee, a government-funded scientific investigation, concluded that nothing from the study of UFOs in the past 21 years had added to scientific knowledge and that further extensive study of UFOs was not justified.
Why did the US government initially mislead the public about the Roswell incident?
-The US government misled the public about the Roswell incident to conceal the true nature of the debris, which was from a top-secret Army Air Forces research project named Project Mogul.
What was the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP)?
-AATIP was a government program that investigated sightings of UFOs. It was revealed to have been studying reports and evidence of unidentified aerial phenomena, including videos captured by Navy pilots.
What is the significance of the term 'G-Rated' in the context of the pilot's response to the UFO sighting?
-The term 'G-Rated' refers to the pilot's choice of words in responding to the UFO sighting, implying that his language was suitable for all audiences, including children, as opposed to using more explicit or emotional language.
How did the government's handling of the Phoenix Lights incident affect public perception?
-The government's handling of the Phoenix Lights incident, which included a press conference with a mascot and no substantial answers, led to public disappointment and a lack of trust in the official explanation.
What was the outcome of the NASA panel's examination of the 'Go Fast' UFO video?
-The NASA panel used trigonometry and an evidence-based approach to determine that the object in the 'Go Fast' video was not moving as fast as it appeared, suggesting that much of the observed motion was due to the motion of the sensing platform rather than the object itself.
Outlines
đ UFOs and Their Cultural Impact
This paragraph discusses the cultural significance of UFOs, mentioning their influence on album art, movies, and famous sightings by people like Hugh Jackman and Jimmy Carter. It highlights the skepticism surrounding UFO claims, with skeptics suggesting alternative explanations like space clouds or the planet Venus. The paragraph also touches on the various ways UFOs are discussed, from speculative theories to dismissive attitudes, and notes the increasing mainstream attention given to UFOs in recent years, including military reports and Congressional hearings.
đœ The History and Perception of UFOs
The second paragraph delves into the historical context of UFO sightings, starting from ancient times with Romans and Chinese to modern-day accounts. It covers the evolution of the term 'flying saucer' from Kenneth Arnold's 1947 sighting and how it fueled public imagination and media frenzy. The paragraph also addresses the pop culture phenomenon around UFOs, particularly in Roswell, New Mexico, and the government's role in either hiding or misrepresenting information about UFOs, with examples from past investigations like Project Sign, Project Grudge, and Project Blue Book.
đ Government Studies and Cover-ups
This paragraph focuses on the U.S. government's efforts to study and sometimes cover up UFO phenomena. It discusses the Condon Committee's study, which was criticized for its lack of objectivity and concluded that UFOs were not worth further study. The paragraph also highlights instances of government cover-ups, such as the Roswell incident and the CIA's misleading statements about reconnaissance flights mistaken for UFOs. It touches on the potential reasons for these cover-ups, including protecting national security and maintaining public trust.
đž The Phoenix Lights and ATIP Revelations
The fourth paragraph discusses the Phoenix Lights incident and the subsequent official explanations, which many people found unsatisfactory. It then transitions to the more recent revelations about the Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP), highlighting the public's excitement and the subsequent disappointment when it was discovered that much of the research was speculative and conducted by a private company with ties to Robert Bigelow, a hotel magnate with an interest in the paranormal.
đ Stigmatization and Scientific Inquiry into UFOs
This paragraph addresses the stigma associated with UFO sightings and the courage it takes for witnesses, like Navy pilots, to come forward. It emphasizes the need for a sober and scientific approach to studying UFOs and applauds recent efforts by NASA to assemble a team of experts to examine Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAPs). The paragraph also mentions how rigorous, evidence-based research can lead to more accurate conclusions about UFO sightings, as demonstrated by a NASA panel's analysis of a particular UFO video.
đŹ The Importance of Honest Inquiry and Science
The final paragraph stresses the importance of honest inquiry and the scientific method in understanding phenomena like UFOs. It acknowledges the challenge of navigating between skepticism and belief, and argues for a middle ground that values evidence and rigorous analysis. The paragraph humorously ends with the host, John Oliver, searching for his snake, which serves as a metaphor for the search for answers in the face of unknown phenomena.
Mindmap
Keywords
đĄUFOs
đĄProject Sign, Project Grudge, and Project Blue Book
đĄKenneth Arnold
đĄRoswell Incident
đĄPhoenix Lights
đĄAATIP (Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program)
đĄRobert Bigelow
đĄUAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena)
đĄNASA's UFO Research
đĄSkeptics
đĄStigma
Highlights
UFOs have been a subject of interest and speculation, with many high-profile individuals reporting sightings.
Jimmy Carter, the former U.S. President, claimed to have seen a UFO, which he insisted was not Venus or any known celestial body.
16% of Americans say they have personally witnessed something they believed to be a UFO.
UFO discussions often fall into two categories: wildly speculative or met with contempt.
Recent mainstream attention to UFOs includes a 2017 military report and a Congressional hearing after more than 50 years.
UFOs are defined as unidentified objects, and the term UAP (Unidentified Aerial Phenomena) is sometimes preferred to avoid alien connotations.
Ancient civilizations, including the Romans and Chinese, documented sightings of unexplained aerial phenomena.
The modern concept of UFOs took off in 1947 with pilot Kenneth Arnold's sighting and subsequent media coverage.
The US government has a history of unsatisfying and misleading investigations into UFOs, starting with Project Sign and Project Grudge.
Project Blue Book, a 17-year Air Force study, found no evidence that UFOs were extraterrestrial or a security threat.
The Condon Committee, a government-funded scientific investigation, was criticized for its lack of objectivity and concluded that UFO study was not justified.
Many UFO sightings can be explained by natural or man-made phenomena, such as drones or optical illusions caused by night vision technology.
The government has been accused of cover-ups, including the Roswell incident, which was later admitted to be a secret military project, not a weather balloon.
The Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program (AATIP) was revealed to have investigated UFOs, but its findings have been questioned for credibility.
Despite some disappointments in government research, there is a movement towards more rigorous, evidence-based examination of UFOs.
NASA assembled a team of experts to study UAPs, demonstrating a more scientific and sober approach to understanding UFO phenomena.
The importance of honest inquiry and the scientific method in addressing the big questions surrounding UFOs is emphasized.
Transcripts
our main story tonight concerns UFOs
they brought us great album art classic
movie moment and of course Hugh Jackman
I can't prove it yet but I'm close lots
of people have reported seeing UFOs from
keser to Russell Crow to even this guy I
was gathered in a in a schoolyard with
about 20 other men and we saw a bright
light uh appear in the distant uh
Western Sky eyes and it got uh closer
and closer and when it uh was just above
the Treetops it changed color and then
it stayed there for a while and then it
disappeared into the distance and none
of us could ever imagine what it was and
I still don't know what it was you know
between the fxy rambling story and the
goofball smile he kind of reminds you of
Joe Biden there doesn't he the only
thing Biden would have done different
was name each of the 20 men he saw the
UFO with there was corn poop floppy Jeff
wet dog Mexican Rick and a bunch of
other names my advisers told me to stop
saying out loud back in 2004 but the
point is Jimmy Carter saw a UFO and
while Skeptics pushed back saying that
it was probably a space cloud or Venus
and that no other object generates as
many UFO reports as the planet Venus
Carter doubled down saying we know what
Venus looks like it was not Venus and
he's right everyone knows what Venus
looks like not that of course because
that's Titan one of Saturn's moons it
doesn't look anything like the real
Venus which which that also isn't that's
Jupiter's moon iio I got you so good you
thought you were safe cuz we were
talking about space and you were
wrong the fact is though a lot of people
think they've seen something in the sky
in fact 16% of Americans say they
personally witnessed something they
thought was a UFO and right off the bat
let's acknowledge this could be a
difficult subject to talk about because
UFOs tend to get discussed in one of two
ways and the first is wildly speculative
like this this Renaissance painting of
bana and child seems perfectly normal
however closer inspection reveals a
strange craft hovering in the background
with an Earthbound Observer witnessing
the event look far be it from me to
quibble with the voice of Unsolved
Mysteries but that is a painting not a
photograph stuff in them can be real or
made up and given that that's a painting
of the Virgin Mary I'm guessing it's the
latter the second way UFOs tend to be
discussed is with borderline contempt
like in this 1973 news report
there were more reports today of
unidentified flying objects reports from
Minnesota Florida California Louisiana
and other places a man in Columbus Ohio
took these photographs of four strange
lights in the sky Wednesday night they
were seen by scores of people two women
in Texas said they saw an object with
the letters UFO painted on the
side I'm glad he's having such a good
time laughing at them and I'm guessing
it would stay funny right up until that
UFO opens up and an alien labeled alien
hits you with a death ray labeled death
ray but in recent years you might have
seen UFOs getting some more mainstream
attention starting with this report in
2017 these haunting images part of a
bombshell first admission by the
military of a government program
investigating sightings of
UFOs it's Rota this mysterious black
object spotted off the coast of San
Diego by Navy fighter pilots in 2004 my
gosh wow I don't know what's more
surprising there the UFO or the pilot
responding to it with my gosh in that
situation I would have gone with holy
living or Jesus back flipping
Christ but I guess credit to him for
keeping it G-rated there might be kids
watching this Navy footage that story
was the beginning of a Cascade of
Revelations including the dod revealing
that it had 11 reports of documented
instances in which Pilots reported near
misses with UFOs and a few years back
Congress even held its first public
hearing on UFOs in more than 50 years so
if the subject is this ubiquitous with
such major questions being asked now
might be a good time to and I cannot
believe I'm about to say this talk about
UFOs what we know what we don't know and
some of the problems with how we've gone
about trying to find out more and right
up front let me just say talking about
UFOs doesn't necessarily mean you're
talking about aliens UFOs are simply
objects that are unidentified that's it
many researchers actually prefer the
term UAP for unidentified anomal
phenomena possibly to avoid the whole
alien connotation because while you can
believe aliens exist or not when it
comes to UFOs belief doesn't really come
into it whatever they are people are
seeing them that poster in mda's office
shouldn't have said I want to believe it
should have said believe schalie what
the is that
thing and the fact is UFO sightings long
predate any contemporary associations
with extraterrestrials for for as long
as people have been around they've been
seeing weird things they can't explain
ancient Roman and Chinese texts speak of
people seeing Fireballs Spears soldiers
ships and chariots floating above them
plus there were sightings near Rome in
218 BC and in Germany in 1561 and you're
probably thinking well that doesn't mean
much because everyone knows 16th century
Germany was suffering from a rapid
increase in population combined with an
increase in grain prices so a lot of
Germans were tripping balls due to
starvation everyone went through their
German confessional age Obsession in
their early teams it's not news but our
modern concern ception of flying
Sorcerers took off in 1947 when Private
Pilot Kenneth Arnold spotted nine
oddly-shaped objects while flying past
mount reer in Washington it wasn't until
1947 when a Private Pilot reported
seeing a group of pie plate likee
objects flying near Mount reneer that
the term Flying Saucer entered the
vocabulary and fueled the imaginations
of movie Producers now that is almost
right Arnolds didn't describe seeing
flying Sorcerers though what he actually
said was the objects flew like they take
a sorcer and throw it across the water
but reporters short-handed that to
Flying sorcer and the name stuck it's
one of those fascinating historical
Corrections like Viking helmets didn't
actually have horns Napoleon wasn't that
short and George Washington didn't
really exist he was just a reflection of
moonlight off Swamp gas that fooled
early Americans now Skeptics have
introduced various theories as to what
Arnold might have seen from water
droplets on his aircraft window to a
meteor breaking up to a flock of
pelicans and for the record uh marry
kill and obviously
deep
mouths we can't know for sure what
Arnold saw what we do know is that his
account and the news that broke shortly
afterward supposedly of a flying sorcer
crashing in Roswell New Mexico kicked
off a public Obsession and hundreds of
UFO sightings began pouring in just a
month after Arnold sighting a pole asked
respondents if they'd heard or read
about flying sources and 90% said yes it
reache a fever pitch the LA Times ran
the headline flying wats itss supplant
weather as number one topic anywhere
people meet discussions of UFO started
cropping up absolutely everywhere from
tabloid Outlets to even discussions with
network newsmen good evening tonight we
go after a fantastic story the story
that flying saucers from other worlds
are visiting our planet just as we are
exploring outer space with our own
rocket
satellites Our Guest is former Marine
aircore major Donald keyhole in his
campaign to prove that flying saucers
exist my name is Mike Wallace the
cigarette is
Parliament
wow I honestly can't think of anything
more 1950s than interrupting your news
report to introduce yourself and your
cigarette it's just not something you
could pull off today my name is Lester
Halt and The Vape is bubble gum
melon UFOs became a pop culture
phenomenon in fact Roswell has done a
lot to cash in on its associations with
UFOs it's home to a UFO Museum a UFO
Festival and alien themed street lights
it even has the world's only UFO themed
McDonald's which somehow has only three
and a half stars on Yell despite again
being a UFO themed McDonald's that is
madness I could get stabbed in that
McDonald's and my Yelp review would
still read got stabbed in a UFO four
stars Roswell has gone out of its way to
make itself a UFO Mecca and as this
coverage from the 90s shows a lot of
people make the pilgrimage here the
town's two UFO museums have become
magnets for the committed I have been
taken aboard
spacecraft by these two gentlemen you
have the Curious you think they're like
these guys behind you something like
that but I think they'd be just like
normal people the government hides
things from people government distrust
if they are real they're probably evil
religion it's just got to be there's got
to be something to it all part of this
allamerican mystery many and night have
looked up in the sky and said come and
get
me okay hard to pick a favorite person
there from the man looking for a word to
describe aliens and settling on
gentlemen to the guy at the end who
spent many a night staring at the sky
and saying come and get me that is a man
who has run the numbers and figured out
abduction is cheaper than divorce come
and get me or my wife uh not both of us
though that is a deal breaker but it's
worth addressing something that woman
said there the government hides things
from people because from the very
beginning of our modern obsession with
UFOs there's been a belief that our
government is keeping something from us
and that mistrust has been well earned
the history of the US government study
of UFOs is one ranging from the
unsatisfying to the actively misleading
and it began not long after that first
flying sourcer sighting just a year
later the Air Force formed something
called project sign which evaluated 243
sightings over the course of a year and
ultimately said it could find no
definite and conclusive evidence to
prove or disprove the existence of
actual unidentified aircraft that effort
was then renamed project Grudge which
evaluated more sightings and concluded
they didn't threaten US security That
Was Then followed by a massive
investigation called Project Blue Book
which took 17 years and looked at more
than 12,000 sightings finding no
evidence that they were extraterrestrial
or a security threat and as you've
probably sensed because these were all
military investigations whether or not
these things posed a threat was the
primary concern but toward the end of
Project Blue Book the government also
funded a parallel scientific
investigation known as the Condon
committee led by physicist Edward Condon
but even while it was underway there
were signs that it wasn't exactly being
conducted in a spirit of free inquiry
Condon was a respected scientist but was
hardly impartial about UFOs before the
study even began he said in a speech
that the government should get out of
the UFO business there's nothing to it
he later wrote the authors of UFO books
should be horsewhipped I
mean he doesn't seem like the most
objective analyst there the scientific
method doesn't go one hypothesis to
horse whip anyone who disagrees with you
three conclusion you're thinking of
religion now
unsurprisingly condon's study concluded
that nothing has come from the study of
UFOs in the past 21 years that has added
to scientific knowledge and that further
extensive study of UFOs probably cannot
be justified and it's worth noting other
scientists at the time including Sean
pushed back on the tone of condon's
report but his attitude prevailed to the
point that by 1977 a survey of over a
thousand scientist found that a majority
thought UFOs were worthy of further
study but only two were willing to wave
anonymity to say so but it's not just
that the government hasn't covered
itself in glory when it comes to
studying UFOs it's also actively engaged
in cover-ups about them though not
necessarily in the ways or for the
reasons that the History Channel might
have you believe take the crash in
Roswell for years the government
maintained that what had crashed was
actually just a weather balloon which
many found suspicious and that fueled a
lot of rampant speculation to the point
where in the mid 1990s this New Mexico
Congressman started pressing for answers
and the inquiry yielded a surprising
admission from the government they they
had indeed lied about the object being a
weather balloon in order to conceal what
it actually was what was recovered near
Roswell New Mexico in July 1947 was
debris from formerly top secret army Air
Forces research project code named
Mogul project Mogul was so secret it had
the same security classification as the
project to build the atomic bomb these
high altitude Balloons with their
instrumentation were designed to detect
Soviet nuclear tests they were
tremendous in size as long as 650 ft and
in
1947 nothing else on Earth looked like
this right that does make more sense
although it is hard to take the
government's word for it given that they
just admitted they'd been lying for 50
years it's frankly no wonder people
still speculate about Roswell to this
day it's basically the boy who cried
wolf if the boy was the Pentagon the
wolf was a 600 foot spy balloon and the
moral of the story was we got up to a
lot of stupid during the Cold War
and that wasn't the only time the
government has done this a CIA study
found that over half of all UFO reports
from the late 1950s through the 1960s s
were accounted for by man reconnaissance
flights which led the Air Force to make
misleading and deceptive statements to
the public in order to allay public
fears and to protect an extraordinarily
sensitive National Security project and
on some level you can see why they did
that if someone sees your top secret
plane it's not like you can just say oh
that's not a UFO that's our top secret
plane no that's when you need to roll up
your sleeves and Gaslight the hell out
of them for Uncle
Sam and some have argued that even when
the government is not protecting its own
top secret projects it may have other
reasons for trying to shut inquiries
down you can cover up knowing something
or you can cover up not knowing
something and I think it's it's just as
likely that the Air Force is covering up
not knowing anything why would they do
that because they can't they can't
afford to look incompetent they can't
admit to the public that they don't know
what these things are in our sky that
John C Riley character makes a good
point there when you're in charge of
something you do have to project a
certain level of authority and control
it's the same reason I can't tell my
audience how I don't know where my snake
is it of cause a panic even though
there's no need for that because he's
not venomous I I assume the website I
bought him from wasn't in English but
it's a mood Point anyway because relax I
I I definitely know where my snake is
and I I know where my snake
is and there have been examples of
government officials downplaying UFO
sightings that they couldn't explain
take the case of the Phoenix Lights on
the evening of March 13th 1997 thousands
of people saw these bizarre lights in
the sky followed by a second set of
Lights a few hours later understandably
people freaked out and wanted some
answers now the state's Governor even
promised an inquiry and when he called a
press conference to announce his
findings many got their hopes up which
is why it was so disappointing for them
when he did this I issued a call for an
investigation by the Arizona Department
of Public safety and I'm happy to report
we already are getting results we may
all look upon the guilty
party don't getting too close to me
please what are you doing you can't just
introduce a mascot anytime you don't
know what to say and I'll tell you why
it's lazy it's condescending to your
audience they're adults they don't need
a puppet show from you they've
come with real questions and they
deserve real AR I'm sorry we we we
we cut we cut this bit we cut we cut it
yeah I'm sorry
I'm sorry we yeah we I'm sorry I'm so
I'm sorry we we just didn't it didn't
seem right cons I'm sorry I said I'm
sorry I said I'm
sorry he's
fine and the thing
is that Governor later admitted that he
actually saw the lights too and didn't
know what they were he just didn't feel
like he could say that publicly I guess
he was much like me with my missing
snake he'd much rather people stop stop
asking questions about it so he just
made a joke out of something that deep
down he worried might actually be a
serious problem but again again I know
where my snake
is later on an official explanation for
those lights came from the Air National
Guard saying that the Phoenix Lights
were caused by military flares and while
that's not necessarily A satisfying
explanation believe me a lot of people
still don't buy it at least it's
preferable to having your Governor dunk
on you in a press conference for even
asking the question and that brings us
back to the more recent Revelations that
have generated so many headlines and
hearings because that video of Pilots
startled by what they were looking at
was part of a much larger series of
stories concerning a government program
called atip which was described in news
coverage at the time like this that
encounter documented by ATP the advanced
Aviation threat identification program a
shadowy office in the Pentagon it
examines so-called anomalous aerial
vehicles that is incredible you don't
expect to hear about a shadowy pentagon
UFO program on Prime Time news you
expect to hear it screamed at you on a
webcast in between ads for canned
rations and herbal
Viagra that initial coverage along with
the release of other startling videos
like this one understandably got a lot
of people extremely excited especially
with the Revelation that atp's existence
had been made public with the help of a
pentagon employee Luis elzando who later
said he' resigned from the program to
protest excessive secrecy and internal
opposition and for many it seemed like
finally after years of deadend bad Faith
government inquiries this could be a
genuine breakthrough but unfortunately
as people looked into that program they
found themselves coming away with more
questions than answers for instance well
elisondo maintains that he led this
program and has documents that seem to
support that claim the Pentagon insist
Alando actually had no assigned
responsibilities for ATP and even if you
don't trust the Pentagon which is a
general rule I definitely do not
reporters who dug into what a actually
did have often found themselves
underwhelmed because it turns out while
they did information on some UFO
sightings a lot of the research wasn't
done by the government it was contracted
out to a company owned by Robert Bigalow
a budget hotel mogul space entrepreneur
and Ronda santis donor who used to own a
property in Utah that is known as a
hotbed for paranormal activity that is
where a lot of the research for atip
took place Bigalow also once said that
aliens are already on earth right under
people's noses and founded the Bigalow
Institute for Consciousness studies
whose main goal is to determine whether
or not there is afterlife and this is
beside the point but it does say
something that for a guy who is willing
to throw millions of dollars at the
pursuit of aliens and the discovery of
an afterlife his worst financial
decision still might have been
supporting Ronda
santis now as for what bigelo's company
actually produced for a from what's been
made public so far it seems to be little
more than a series of 38 research papers
speculating on Technologies like
invisibility cloaking Stargates
anti-gravity and a never carried out
proposal to tunnel a hole through the
moon using nuclear explosions they also
compost a paper on traversible wormholes
that includes this actual illustration
which and this is crucial features a man
saying hello to a
dinosaur and look I'm not saying
scientists can't or shouldn't study
things like wormholes but it doesn't
look great when your research ends up
looking like a teenager's Rick and Morty
fan
art and I'll say if that is the kind of
work that program actually produced it's
really
disappointing because people deserve
serious answers to these legitimate
questions especially as it takes courage
to even ask them or talk about what you
might have seen Naval pilots who saw an
object in one of those atip videos
zipping and darting around them have
talked about how they were made fun of
after coming forward and that the stigma
attached to this subject is so strong
they considered not coming forward at
all you know I think that over beers
we've sort of said hey man if I saw this
so
I don't know that I would have come back
and said anything because it sounds so
crazy when I say it you understand that
reaction I do you've had some people
tell me you know when you say that you
can sound crazy and I'll be on I'm not a
UFO guy but from what I hear you guys
saying there's
something yes oh there's there's
definitely something that I don't know
who's building it who's got the
technology who's got the brains but
there's there's something out there that
was better better than our airplane yeah
there's something out there that's
better than our airplane it is chilling
to hear that from a Navy pilot and not
the usual place the executive boardroom
at Boe I've run the numbers guys and
pretty much everyone is doing it
better but there clearly should be room
for sober assessment of UFO sightings
and I will acknowledge that when you do
that the answers you get can sometimes
end up being less fun Skeptics in this
field urge people to keep several
killjoy points in mind when discussing
UFO sightings everyone is vulnerable to
misinterpretations uh human vision is
often unreliable human memory is
imperfect and people's prior beliefs
influence perception which is to say
what you think you saw might depend on
what you expected to see historians have
pointed out UFO sightings in the 50s and
60s in Germany very rarely had the sort
of alien extraterrestrial Bend instead
Germans saw things they couldn't explain
and assumed that they were American or
Russian technology on top of which a lot
of unexplained sightings can turn out to
have have rational explanations take
this striking video of floating pyramids
in the air above a Navy ship shot
through night vision goggles it
understandably got a lot of attention
when it was first released but in
Congressional testimony last year a Navy
official offered a pretty benol reason
for it the hypothesis is that those
are uh commercial drones that uh because
of the use of night vision goggles
appear like triangles is that the
operating assessment some type of uh of
drone uh some type of uh of unmanned
aerial system uh and it is simply that
that light source uh resolves itself
through the um through the night vision
goggles onto the SLR camera as a
triangle
oh I mean I would rather believe those
are triangle aliens who live on a
distant triangle planet and this is how
they communicate in their triangle
language but I guess an optical illusion
caused by night vision Tech can be
satisfying too even though it really
doesn't feel that way right now and the
good news is there does seem to be a
movement toward more careful
consideration of UFOs and it's
encouraging that NASA recently assembled
a small team made up of experts in
everything from science to Aerospace
safety to examine uaps and last summer
we got a glimpse of what it is like to
have them break down a UFO video
specifically this popular one which
appears to show a mysterious object
nicknamed go fast moving extremely
quickly the panel explained at length as
part of a 4-Hour press conference how
they figured out that the object
actually wasn't moving that fast at all
here is just a small sample so knowing
the Jet's altitude and the bearing uh to
the Target we can apply basic
trigonometry to figure out where that
object is in altitude space so it's the
ocean that looks like it's right behind
it is actually 4.2 miles away and this
is our first indication that some or
most of the motion that we observe the
apparent motion of the object uh isn't
in fact due to the rapid motion of the
sensing platform well that was boring as
I mean no one in their right mind
would want to go to a McDonald's themed
after that explanation at all but but
that is kind of the point here in that
again 4our video they set out what they
know the object speed and concede what
they don't know which is what the object
is and they make the argument that to
get a better understanding of UFOs a
rigorous evidence-based datadriven
science scien ific framework is
essential and they are right about that
it's both promising and long overdue to
see people approaching this issue
soberly scientifically and perhaps most
importantly
boringly and I know that is hard this is
an area where it is easy to fall into
one of two camps hardcore Skeptics who
roll their eyes at the whole subject and
true believers who are convinced
everything has a Fantastical explanation
that the government is keeping from us
you will see in comments below this
piece on YouTube those two groups
fighting it out over everything I've
said here and only agreeing on the fact
that I am a idiot which I am not
even denying but not for the reasons
that they will be arguing but there
needs to be room for honest inquiry
because science is all about collecting
small answers that eventually help us
address big questions like are we alone
in the universe what is that that I just
saw in the sky and for the final time
where actually is my snake I'm serious
can everyone please look under their
chairs cuz I genuinely do not know where
it is that is our show thank you so much
for watching this has been Last Week
Tonight I'm John Oliver And The Vape is
dragon fruit
banana good
night oh there it is there it is
there's my S I found it that's hold a
second yeah that's that's not actually
my snake that's a that's a different
snake my snake looks like that but
that's a different
snake this is this is someone else's
snake someone please come get your snake
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