
2 Navy Airmen and an Object That ‘Accelerated Like Nothing I’ve Ever Seen’ - eref
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/unidentified-flying-object-navy.html
======
phkahler
The key question here is not if these stories are true, or what the objects
may be. The question is... Why does the government want to bring UFOs to the
fore at this time?

~~~
Johnny555
I was wondering that too -- also in the news recently, the "interstellar
object" that for some reason has attracted enough attention to scan it for
"alien life", whatever that means.

[https://www.space.com/39100-interstellar-object-oumuamua-
ali...](https://www.space.com/39100-interstellar-object-oumuamua-alien-life-
search.html)

Is this leading up to some big news story to deflect news from something else?

~~~
sitkack
Look over there, Chrome Space Puppies!

[https://harvardgazette.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/jeff-
koon...](https://harvardgazette.files.wordpress.com/2017/02/jeff-koons-
balloon-dog-yellow_605.jpg?w=605&h=403)

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jrs235
This is [also] a [multiple] dupe from a few days ago. An established
discussion has already taken place or is in progress.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15941580](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=15941580)

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bkohlmann
CDR Fravor was a simulator instructor of mine when I went through training a
decade ago. He was also featured in the PBS Special “Carrier” a few years ago.

Somehow ends up in the limelight over and over! His callsign is most certainly
NSFW.

~~~
dba7dba
He did look very familiar. Now I know why. I remember him saying near end of
the series that he was retiring instead of having to take assignment that
would have him pilot desks.

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emmelaich
I can give my own example of an utterly astonishing gob-smacking sight which
turned out to have a fairly simple explanation. I invite people to speculate
on what it was...

About 7am I was travelling in a ferry on Sydney Harbour about 400m east of the
bridge. I saw a giant (50m diameter?) golden glowing ball hover on the other
(west) side of the bridge. It was definitely not _on_ the bridge. It
maintained its position for over 30 seconds.

Then it changed and the actuality was revealed.

~~~
mehrdadn
Reflection of some light source in the window?

~~~
emmelaich
Very warm. But why didn't it (appear to) move in relation to other things. It
should have since I was moving south around 20km/h.

    
    
            ||
        me  brdge  giantball
        |   ||
        v   ||

~~~
emmelaich
Ok here it is since I have to go ...

It was the reflection of the sun in an airplane's cockpit window. The airplane
was actually maybe five kilometres away but the extreme brightness played with
my sense of distance. The window must have been flat for the reflection to be
so bright.

It didn't appear to move because its speed north relative to the bridge
matched my speed south -- i.e. the line between me and the airplane crossed
(just west of) the bridge at the same point for a long time. The point of
reflection must've been tiny. But it was right on me. I suspect no-one else in
the ferry saw what I saw. And it must be extraordinarily rare for the
circumstances to be maintained for so long. The illusion disappeared after the
ferry and airplane made their turns.

~~~
emmelaich
The bigger point here is that if you have people self select and report visual
illusions it would be amazing if you _didn 't_ hear about something
inexplicable.

So all this stuff about UFO sightings means about zero.

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neo4sure
Nice distraction. When so many other frightening issues are all around us.

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gilrain
This recounts an event that happened in 2004, FYI.

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senectus1
wow.. someone on here is a hardcore ufoite...

