
2 Navy Airmen and an Object That ‘Accelerated Like Nothing I’ve Ever Seen’ - rbanffy
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/unidentified-flying-object-navy.html?src=twr&smid=tw-nytimes&smtyp=cur&mtrref=t.co&gwh=C0E7076E37291C75ECCB1B1E30B85A2C&gwt=pay
======
dang
Several related articles and outright dupes have been on the front page at the
same time. We don't need that, of course, so for now let's keep the discussion
concentrated at
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15940674](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15940674).
If someone has a better idea and we can do it in an orderly way, let us know.

~~~
lkrubner
You're linking to a different article. This article was about 2 airmen having
a specific encounter, the other article is about Congress and the funding of
the overall UFO program.

~~~
dang
The two articles form a single piece. One is a sidebar to the video at the top
of the other.

In such cases, rather than dedicating two front-page slots to it, we leave the
main piece up and link to the auxiliary one in the comments.

------
lkrubner
By the way, if you stop and think about it, you'll realize how much effort it
is to "stay in one place" if you have some kind of anti-gravity drive. For
instance, right now, I'm sitting at a Starbucks in New Jersey. From my point
of view, I have not moved during the last 8 seconds. And yet, planet Earth
just moved front-to-back over a point on its orbit around the Sun. And the Sun
is rotating through the galaxy at about 40 kilometers per second. So long as
you are constrained by gravity, you don't have to worry about this. But what
if you had an anti-gravity drive, such that you never experienced gravity? Can
you imagine the incredible effort it would take to remain in a "stationary
position" if that position was, from your no-gravity perspective, moving very
fast, in several dimensions? That's why this jumped out at me:

"The craft was jumping around erratically, staying over the wave disturbance
but not moving in any specific direction"

We should exactly expect a craft to be "jumping around erratically" if it has
an anti-gravity drive, yet is also trying to stay over "fixed position"
relative to another object that is rapidly spinning (the Earth).

And boiling or frothy water is, again, exactly what water should look like if
it is being effect by anti-gravity:

"The disturbance looked like frothy waves and foam, as if the water were
boiling."

If you could wave a magic wand and make all gravity on Earth stop, the ocean
would rapidly disappear into space, and as it did so it would look as if it
was boiling.

~~~
valuearb
If you had an antigravity drive, the only reason you would bounce around is if
it’s poorly calibrated.

And if you had one, why would you travel all the way to earth and not say
hello? Your power would be so immense you could wipe out life on this planet
if you chose. You have zero reason to hide.

~~~
lkrubner
_the only reason you would bounce around is if it’s poorly calibrated_

It's likely that there is no way to calibrate it correctly. If you don't have
the benefit of gravity to hold you at a specific point of space/time, then
where would you get the coordinates that would allow you to remain in a
specific spot, especially when that spot is moving rapidly, relative to a
previous spot in space/time?

~~~
jacobush
What the heck are you discussing?! If there was such a thing as an antigravity
device, there are so many unknowns, that to even pretend we can have the
slightest cue about if or how it could be calibrated, is just ... weird.

~~~
Mister_X
Back off, Man.

These are Experts here.

Show some respect.

~~~
jacobush
? :-)

------
jessaustin
See also:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15941390](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15941390)

Should HN just truncate query strings?

------
monk_e_boy
What do you think? Will we ever know the truth of this incident? Are there
more being covered up? Are aliens visiting Earth?

~~~
valuearb
No.

Faster than light travel is impossible.

Aliens are easy to detect if they are anywhere nearby.

~~~
ceejayoz
> Faster than light travel is impossible.

We just discovered our first extrasolar planets in 1992, so let's not pat
ourselves on the back for having 100% complete knowledge of everything
possible in the universe just yet.

> Aliens are easy to detect if they are anywhere nearby.

Oh, honestly. We can't even detect a stealth aircraft a couple hundred miles
away. Submarines can go undetected for months at a time. Asteroids are spotted
_after_ they pass between us and the moon.

I suspect alien stealth tech would be at _least_ as good as our own.

~~~
valuearb
The amount of energy required to operate a submarine or stealth fighter is
less than a trillionth trillionth the amount needed to propel a starship.
Asteroids don’t emit energy. That energy is easy to detect upon deceleration
into our solar system.

And the limit of speed of light is a basic cosmological principle. Faster than
light speed travel would violate all principles of our universe, it couldn’t
exist in it’s present form.

~~~
ceejayoz
> The amount of energy required to operate a submarine or stealth fighter is
> less than a trillionth trillionth the amount needed to propel a starship.

In a trillion trillion times the volume. You could also have a seemingly inert
asteroid that lobs out small probes as it passes through a system for fairly
minimal energy signature.

> And the limit of speed of light is a basic cosmological principle. Faster
> than light speed travel would violate all principles of our universe, it
> couldn’t exist in it’s present form.

Both relativity and quantum physics came about because we found stuff that
violated stuff we thought were principles of our universe.

Even our _current_ theory seems to permit workarounds like wormholes or
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcubierre_drive).

------
moneytide1
Does it make sense that this is now a headline even in hn? The current
commander-in-chief is a former "reality TV show star".

~~~
jessaustin
Every president from now on will also be a reality TV star. It is an
unbeatable strategy.

Trump will of course be reelected in 2020. In 2024 he'll be succeeded by
Martha Stewart.

~~~
DanBC
> In 2024 he'll be succeeded by Martha Stewart.

Paris Hilton for 2032.

~~~
lokimedes
It will go down in evolutionary biology that electing a dysfunctional leader
is a sign of surplus and superiority for any group. Assuming it survives the
resulting Armageddon...

