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UFOs In Texas Skies
Old 01-19-2008, 12:23 PM   #1
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UFOs In Texas Skies

I don't know about UFOs...never seen one...hope I never do. When I saw this article, Dozens in Texas town report seeing UFO - Space - MSNBC.com , I clicked on it expecting someone to be reporting on the balls of light outside of Marfa ( marfatx ), but not so.

The article stated that most UFOs are reported in TX, CO and CA. I thought it was odd that AZ and NM were not on the list...remember Roswell!...remember the big flap in Phoenix several years ago when almost everyone in town caught the UFOs on video/cameras several years ago.

I know a few true believers, and only one is too wierd to take seriously...think of the cropduster in Independence Day...that kind of wierd. The others are just normal people. I do this little "I don't know" dance every time there is a valid report (a bunch of unrelated people saw it, don't know what it was, and are a tad sheepish about talking about it).

Anyone want to kick this one around?
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Old 01-19-2008, 12:34 PM   #2
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Never seen one. But a couple of gulf coast guys claim they have. I think the story was on 20/20 several years ago. I personally think they are a couple of nuts.

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Old 01-19-2008, 01:53 PM   #3
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and i thought world travel might be fun. take me!
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Old 01-19-2008, 03:00 PM   #4
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When I was a child in the early 1950's, my parents, brother and I were traveling at night between a small town in East Texas and Shreveport, Louisiana, when our car was paralleled for a few minutes by a large object just above the pine forest treeline. (My mother said "cigar-shaped" but I frankly don't remember if I ever knew.) The object moved silently and kept changing colors. Wasn't a plane, wasn't a meteor ... don't know what it was, but I've always referred to it as "my UFO experience."
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Old 01-19-2008, 03:20 PM   #5
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I think the majority of people who report these things are honest, and are describing something they saw that they can't identify. I also most of these objects are natural, planes, satellites, flares, etc, but may appear in an unusual configuration and the average person can't identify it. However, there does appear to be a very small subset of sightings that are hard to explain, and there are still many things on this earth we don't understand.
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Old 01-19-2008, 03:45 PM   #6
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I remember as a kid snooping around the "grownups section" at the library and discovering all those amazing UFO books, scared myself silly and for years after was uncomfortable walking outdoors alone at night.

I have never seen a flying thing that I could not identify and I am convinced that everything that passes for a UFO sighting can be explained. Still, I would love to turn on the news some day and find that we have galactic neighbors. "They dropped by for a visit and a meet and greet with the President!?", that would certainly qualify as living in interesting times.

Like Bigfoot, show me the body and I might believe. Eye-witness accounts, fuzzy photos, and shaky videos are not very convincing.
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Old 01-19-2008, 04:06 PM   #7
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Saw one once back in the early 80's in Missouri. The black triangle type. Didn't even know there was a black triangle type until I saw it. Very large, could see the structure as it passed over head. Still don't have any idea what it was. Many other people saw it over North Missouri that night. I am still supprised that no one knows what they are. But I know for a fact that at least some of the things that people report are real based on my experiance.
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Old 01-19-2008, 04:24 PM   #8
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I couldn't trust someone who claims to have seen a UFO to lead a meeting, much less the country!
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Old 01-19-2008, 04:38 PM   #9
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I've seen several things that were at first glance UFOs, but then I figured out what they were.
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Old 01-19-2008, 04:54 PM   #10
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I was temporarily convinced I saw one while driving out of Ashland, Oregon. The two others in the car with me made our peace with god or whatever was relevant, expressed gratitude for our lives, and were extremely brave as we waited for whatever it was to swoop down and grab up our car. It moved closer, then zoomed far away, then close again, changing color from yellow to orange to white, faster than any earthly creation could. But as we drove back towards Ashland, it slowly became apparent it was some sort of huge industrial gas flare, that was somehow optically modified when we saw it on the horizon towards dusk.
After that it will be nearly impossible for me to believe someone who has seen one without physical corroborating evidence, because I was fooled so easily and completely.
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Old 01-19-2008, 04:56 PM   #11
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I was temporarily convinced I saw one while driving out of Ashland, Oregon. The two others in the car with me made our peace with god or whatever was relevant, expressed gratitude for our lives, and were extremely brave as we waited for whatever it was to swoop down and grab up our car. It moved closer, then zoomed far away, then close again, changing color from yellow to orange to white, faster than any earthly creation could. But as we drove back towards Ashland, it slowly became apparent it was some sort of huge industrial gas flare, that was somehow optically modified when we saw it on the horizon towards dusk.
After that it will be nearly impossible for me to believe someone who has seen one without physical corroborating evidence, because I was fooled so easily and completely.
Excellent you do not remember wahahaha

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No, really
Old 01-19-2008, 05:37 PM   #12
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No, really

I always thought flying saucers were in the semi-mythical realm, but then a couple months ago DH and I came across a documentary on PBS - the German and US militaries actually made a number of them during and after WWII with varying degrees of success. No kidding, there were pictures and footage of them flying around and everything. I wish I knew the name of the program, we turned it on in the middle of the show.

When I mentioned it to the people I work with, my boss (retired Air Force) already knew all about them and pulled up a bunch of historical information online about two minutes later. For a long time, the info was classified, etc., similar to the stealth bomber. I don't know why the information hasn't gotten out that the saucers were real as well, I was really intrigued by the PBS show.
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Old 01-20-2008, 01:24 AM   #13
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Of the people I know who say they have seen UFOs, the ones that really interest me are the pilots. Any pilots out there?
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Old 01-20-2008, 04:49 AM   #14
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I'm with Asimov on this one. He believed in UFOs, with the emphasis on "Unidentified." There's no doubt that people see things, flying or not, al the time that they can't identify. With enough examination these would surely be explained as clouds, military aircraft, etc. It's when people claim to have identified what they are (e.g. some type of extraterrestrial craft) that things go off the rails.

The argument from logic:
1) If beings from other planets can really travel to the earth, then they have some very amazing technology well advancd of our own
2) They would either want to make contact with us or they would seek to avoid this contact.
3) If they wanted contact, they would be advanced enough to figure out how to do that in a deliberate way. Probably appearing to rural Amercians is not how they'd choose to make contact
4) If they wanted to avoid contact (or being noticed at all), their technical expertise would allow them to do this. They would not be blundering around being noticed (but somehow never noticed in such a way as to be well documented. Hmm)
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Old 01-20-2008, 05:32 AM   #15
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Yep, I am a private pilot. No mistake in what I saw. I understand that people won't believe. I didn't either before I saw for myself. The big question is what is it we are seeing? Not if we are seeing things. It seems to me that its fairly important to find out. Yet after all these years there are very few good photos and no physical evidence that I know of.


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Of the people I know who say they have seen UFOs, the ones that really interest me are the pilots. Any pilots out there?
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Old 01-20-2008, 05:41 AM   #16
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I'm with Asimov on this one. He believed in UFOs, with the emphasis on "Unidentified." There's no doubt that people see things, flying or not, al the time that they can't identify. With enough examination these would surely be explained as clouds, military aircraft, etc. It's when people claim to have identified what they are (e.g. some type of extraterrestrial craft) that things go off the rails.

The argument from logic:
1) If beings from other planets can really travel to the earth, then they have some very amazing technology well advancd of our own
2) They would either want to make contact with us or they would seek to avoid this contact.
3) If they wanted contact, they would be advanced enough to figure out how to do that in a deliberate way. Probably appearing to rural Amercians is not how they'd choose to make contact
4) If they wanted to avoid contact (or being noticed at all), their technical expertise would allow them to do this. They would not be blundering around being noticed (but somehow never noticed in such a way as to be well documented. Hmm)

It seems unlikely to me that UFO's are alien spacecraft. However it is not impossible. But I also agree with Asmov. What I saw was no cloud or swamp gas. It was a physical object. It could have been a military ship. Does the military have large flying black triangles? I sure hope they do.
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Old 01-20-2008, 05:46 AM   #17
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Of the people I know who say they have seen UFOs, the ones that really interest me are the pilots. Any pilots out there?
Not any more, but I did stay in a Holiday Inn was for 8 years in the military. None of the FO's I've seen were of the U variety.
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Old 01-20-2008, 09:38 AM   #18
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Probably appearing to rural Amercians is not how they'd choose to make contact
Yet, in almost every sci fi show and movie where an advanced civilization needs to examine or land on a backwater planet, they always pick a place where there arent a lot of people they'll have to avoid.

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They would not be blundering around being noticed
Eh, we've sent a couple of well meaning probes to other planets that we accidentally crashed into them. So it seems that no matter how advanced you get, mistakes happen.

That having been said, I doubt we've been visited. I'm sure theres other life out there with the technology for space travel, but I'm equally doubtful that they're mostly benevolent and well meaning and wishing to just observe us.

Something tells me that our "first contact" might result in a bunch of us working in the dilithium mines on Talus 4.
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Old 01-20-2008, 09:58 AM   #19
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Can you say "anal probe"?

I'm with Asimov on this one. Any visitor from outer space must have some incredible tech capabilities. The distances, even at light speed, are, well, distant...

It'd take a brazillion years to get here, and where would you park...
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Old 01-20-2008, 10:11 AM   #20
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Of the people I know who say they have seen UFOs, the ones that really interest me are the pilots. Any pilots out there?
For more than 20 years. I have seen things in the sky, mostly at night, I could not identify. Two turned out to be SA-2s! Someone else very close by identified them for us.

So as far as the outer space type, I don't think I ever saw anything close.... except for the occasional space shuttle, satellite, or space station that goes over head.
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