From the BBC Online News Service

But wait

This is a conspiracy to raise money, after a month. How much do you suppose they will rake in

__________________
Van Rijn's original Invisible Elf was running for the North Carolina Senate, but dropped out of the contest after the paparazzi snapped him with a cute pixie just outside Disney World in Florida. Now he has settled down with her as they await their first child, writing his biography of life in Van Rijn's backyard, - Now you prove me wrong

I personally liked this paragraph best:

UFO, definitely!

__________________
[Foot mouth in put]
Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

And strangely, the site doesn't actually have a link to the 8 documents. Nor does having a brief look at the National Archives site.

And are we really expected to believe that in all that time there were only 208 sightings?

It's, (to use an English term) Bollocks.

__________________
* Never doubt there is Truth; just doubt that you have it!

And, let me guess, what disturbed them the most was that they could not explain why those Aliens wrote British Airways on their UFO?

__________________
"Who does not know anything, must believe everything."
Baroness Marie von Ebner-Eschenbach 1830-1916

Shhh, it's all a conspiracy! BA is obviously in on this.

Blue Collar Scientist has a link and some analysis.
http://bluecollarscientist.com/2008/...ies-ufo-files/

__________________
[Foot mouth in put]
Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

Not directly related but have you heard that the Vatican State stated yesterday that the existance of aliens would not be a problem for the Church because, after all, aliens are/were/would be/could be created by the same God ?

Add to this that Nasa today is going to make some sort of announcement concerning the Cassini mission and well it makes you think.

Personally, i think its just a coincedence but it sure make for an interesting time if... I wont say it.

Yes, I have.

Personally, I think that the Vatican's official astronomer is quite on top of things. He's certainly timed this with Cassini, in the hope we would find something.

__________________
[Foot mouth in put]
Si tacuisses, philosophus mansisses.

Sorry jokergirl, missed that one ! will check better next time.

You need to read the followup link by David Clarke. Clarke is very knowledgable on the UFO subject and has written a lot about it. He approaches it from a skeptical viewpoint, which prevents him from falling into the conspiracy trap most UFOlogists like to fall into when things don't go their way. Obviously, he feels there is little to these files.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7398784.stm

Re Cassini, without looking around isn't going to be set to crash?

It makes one think though, that if there were so little to them, after 20-30yrs, why then release them in a series of batches over the next few years?

At least Clarke points out that a hard core of 5-10% can not be explained and that the reports by RAF pilots and civil aircrew were "rarely" investigated further.

__________________
"Where the telescope ends, the microscope begins. Which of the two has the greater view?" - Hugo

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing had happened." - Churchill

Reading and interesting article somewhere when an English Electric Lightning came up unsuspected on a SR71 over the UK. Tried for a closer look but the 71 opened up and disappeared. Seeing as it was over friendly territory and all electronics were off (spotting the Lightening visually) I wonder how many military mentions are based around such incidents?

I'm so desperately tired of that 5-10%. It's always "cannot" be explained. It's never "isn't" explained. It's never "cannot be explained with available information." After all, if all you had from me was a vague description of some lights, and I couldn't tell you for sure what time it was, what direction it came from, and possibly even what day it was, would you be able to identify what I was talking about?

__________________
Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

Cassini is in orbit around Saturn.

Did you by chance mean the Phoenix mission, which is due to land on Mars this month?

If so, we all hope it doesn't crash.

__________________
"I'm as accurate as any psychic. And I'm a cartoon!" -- Squidward

"Arrrgh, the laws of physics be a harsh mistress!" -- Bender

Yeah, I know where it it is (not having a go BTW), just something I picked up on for end of life. Just the comment on cassini and NASA announcements above made me wonder if its time?

Ah, but how entertaining is that? It's more fun to say, "Cannot be explained!" as you strike some jarring chords in an off key. Unfortunately, there's enough people out there who truly believe that a lack of data constitutes as proof of something extraordinary.

__________________
I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.

"A long time ago, yet somehow in the future"

I listened to an interview with Nick Pope late last year or early this year on C to C.
He indicated that not all of the UFO events will be made public. Nick said that some events were to remain classified and if I remember correctly he wouldn't give a direct answer as to why. Art then asked him if there were any of the continued classified UFO incidents that he himself (Art) would find shocking should they be disclosed to him. Nick answered yes. I'm sorry I cannot give exact quotes. I just don't think it would be appropriate to guess. That was the gist of that conversation though--joe

I thought the Vatican made that statement many years ago.

What is it that NASA is supposed to announce about the Cassini mission, and why does it even rise to the level of coincidence?

Is this another one of those inscrutable "connect the dots" conspiracy theories?

__________________
Wanted: Diabolical Plan for World Domination.

Opsy. Ignore. Todays statement from NASA appears to be about Chandra and a supernova?

This appears to be nothing more than an attempt to avoid congestion on the website. If they released them all at once, for free, the site would be so slow as to be useless. There was a similar problem with the online release of the UK's 1901 census, which quickly froze because of all the interest in amateur geneaology.

I've read the Rendlesham documents- if they are all like that, the interesting stuff is buried beneath an avalanche of nonsense.

__________________
Orion's Arm . The Starlark . Voices: Future Tense . OA Flickr set