At other times in biblical history, the cloud filled the room, etc. The Prophet had to bend down to get into the room.

I “think” someplace in the bible, it says something to the effect of Christ as “He who rides the clouds,” but I’ve been unable to find it.

Just ideas…I haven’t studied this or researched it at all.

MyOwnCave@aol.com

I mean, given that there are so many people and so much money to be made in the UFO business, couldn’t someone at least hire a good graphic artist instead of improvising such crappy images on the fly (pun intended…)?

_35 percent predict the military draft will be reinstated.

_35 percent predict a cure for cancer will be found.

_25 percent anticipate the second coming of Jesus Christ.

_19 percent think scientists are likely to find evidence of extraterrestrial life.

My question from this data regards how many of that 25% that claim the second coming will happen in 2007, are also part of that 19% that think scientists will reveal evidence for ET’s existence??? Somewhere in here is the impetus for those continuing beliefs in UFO’s, flying saucers, big-headed aliens, etc.

The concept of spirit beings flying about on saucer-like shaped clouds, dates back at least 5000 years. Over the millenia these notions have been reified and symbolized across the cultures and continents. We find them in petroglyphs, sandpaintings, friezes, et al. The lenticular cloud link seems the most consistent referential form. For example, a current channeller/spiritualist (MaFu) claims that her/his alien friends and associates ride in ships disguised as these clouds and land on top of Mt Shasta (a particularly popular ET visitation spot because of the frequency of lenticulars).

The Hopi elders profess relations with Kachina aliens who come from moderately deep-space star systems who ride upon ships shaped like these clouds. A couple of these elders were able to draw detailed star maps that astronomers from Colorado were able to identify from the use of the Cerre Tololo telescope looking southward towards regions of space over the South Pole axis. There is no known way the Hopi could have had such maps in their possession prior to the building of the telescope and its use, yet they did. Just one of those thangs (pure coincidence versus woowoo)? I would like to think that humans have an amazing capacity to conjure all manner of possible constructs in our minds, and sometimes these are found to be accurate, and most of time not so much; as with 25% of citizens claiming a second coming in 2007. Remember, that is one out of four people riding on that bus around us–eeeeeek.

“The only exception to the lack of interest shown by the authority was constituted by the Air Ministry. The Air Force research workers were in a perculiar position. They produced interesting new types of aircraft such as ‘Delta’(triangular) and ‘flying discs’.

The first of these ‘Flying Saucers’,as they were later called-circular in shape,with a diameter of some 45 yards-were built by the specialists Schriever, Habermohl and Miethe.

They were first airborne on the 14th February 1945 over Prague and reached in three minutes a height of nearly eight miles. They had a flying speed of 1250 m.p.h. which was doubled in subsequent tests. It is believed that after the war Habermohl fell into the hands of the
Russians. Miethe developed at a later date similar ‘flying saucers’ at the works a Messrs, A.W Rose and company for the United States.”

It is widely believe that the flying discs captured from the Nazi’s in 1945, were those mentioned above by Heisenburg. It is also believed that Heisenburg used this as part of his defence alibi with repect to Bohr?

Of course, Heisenburg may really have been overseeing two clandestine projects, one of which was the A bomb, and one of which was the delivery devise.

I take it that you do not share my view that we have been visited by alien craft. Like many academics, you probably have never been encouraged to Google the word UFO.

In my home town library, there are two whole bookshelves of books on UFOs. In the physics library at the nearby university there are only one or two books on the topic. Be that as it may, I think there are some points that you might find interesting. For instance, Paul Hill, the NASA engineer in his posthumously published book provides a list of highly repeating shapes of UFOs. Fourth on the list is a sphere.

It is curious that most orbiting objects in the heavens, excepting galaxies, are in the shape of a sphere.

In order for them to be intact objects, we must assume that these spheres, i.e. stars, planets and moons, must possess intrinsic gravitational potential energy. As such we must further assume that pressure at the center of these spheres is far greater than the pressure at or near the surface of these spheres. The formula for that pressure at the center is

If, say for the earth, the day side surface gravity is 0.06% = less than the night side surface gravity, then there would be a large net force between earth’s day side and night side hemispheres due to this do to this extreme pressure at the center of the earth.

The force of the night side hemisphere would be

and the force of the day side hemisphere against the night side hemisphere would be

The net force that would accelerate the earth towards the sun would be

which just happens to be equal to

I may be repeating myself. But I want to make sure that at least some one realizes that the above equality implies that Newtonian gravitational formula may only enjoy prediction because it is very close to equaling

.

This is great! Thanks for tracking down that quote!

-cvj

Arnold claims that the newspapers

“did not quote me properly.. When I told the press they misquoted me, and in the excitement of it all, one newpaper and another one got it so ensnarled up that nobody knew just exactly what they were talking about… These objects more or less fluttered like they were, oh, I’d say, boats on very rough water… And when I described how they flew, I said that they flew like they take a saucer and throw it across the water. Most of the newpapers misunderstood and misquoted that, too. They said that I said that they were saucer-like; I said that they flew in a saucer-like fashion.”

See the UFOs section in this essay: http://www.hedweb.com/markp/ufofilm.htm

He cites the AF story I’ve heard before at sf meetings as the origin of the saucer shape. (And then saucer-shaped UFOs became common illustrations in SF mags, furthering the shape as the default).

The “tea tray” version of twinkle is Lewis Carroll’s!

Sara T.

I mean, a saucer is fine, but a flying teacup would be a bit much, don’t you think?

Well, if the aiiens have a super well-developed technology, perhaps they’d have a super well-developed sense of humour too.

-cvj

Respect for Bertrand Russell?

Some desire for plausibility when they swoop down to kidnap rednecks on lonely roads? I mean, a saucer is fine, but a flying teacup would be a bit much, don’t you think?

The thing I found most fascinating about weather, was ball lightning. One of the books I picked up over the years was a book on lightning that referenced the extensive work by the brother of the famous author, Kurt Vonnegut. The last chapter in this book was on ball lightning, a phenomenon still a mystery.

Langmiur lab had a metal pole with a large metal ball on the very top of the mountain. This was connected through a Faraday cage to a resistor to ground. The resistance was something like 0.0000001 ohms, and scientists inside an underground Faraday cage (pictured here) would measure the voltage across that resistor when lightning struck and this way measure the amperage. A grad student there told me that when they first put up the pole, they had a smaller ball on top, and it leaked charge, the effect known as St Elmo’s fire, which reduced the likelihood it would be struck, and had to be replaced with a larger ball. The metal grid on the mountain top is the grounding system.

See here.

-cvj

And let’s see if I can create a link to one of the images directly:

Back to what I was about to say, I made a statement to the Police, trying as best to be accurate with relavent info, and found myself filtering out what I thought irrelevent?..I was told then that I would be contacted at a later date. Ok..so some time went past when I was asked to identify some photographs, these were gathered up from the statements made by a number of people who witnessed the event. When I arrived at the station, I was taken to a room, sat in front of a computer, and asked to look at the monitor as Photographs were put on screen.

I made a request that the images needed to be screened at a specific rate, really fast in fact. The officer asked why?..I stated that the event ocurred “really fast”, and therfore the persons needed to pass me eye’s feild of vision, at a comparable rate?

The officer then stated that could not be possible as certain criteria had to be adheered to. I complained that my likelyhood of recognising the culprits would be diminished because of the fact that, if the images were placed in front of my eye’s, at a longer period than the event_time, then my memory of that event would be comprimised, due to the fact that I would un-intentionally be “making_up” or “adding” information that was “non_factual” .

It is important that the time factor of events, are replayed at a constant rate. Constant to the “actual” event being inquired about, otherwise it is open to misgiuded interpretations.

So sorry for the long winded post, but it can be narrowed down to the fact that, any witness to a short_period event, must give accurate information gained during that event.

So the time, collective period, that goes into the consensus saucer shape, must be equivilent, fast enough, so that witnesses do not have to collectively “filled” some “time_gaps”, and the general make-up of the shape, must be reasoned to be very satisfactory, or ergonomical?

The specific time one observes something, bares witness to what is reasonable, to record an event acurately?

The early discovery of Saturn, and its ring, may have been the culprit here?

I believe there was an intense scientific speculation/ debate, as to the actual existence of the shape of Saturn in its early days of discovery?

As with Mars and its “Red_weed”, representative of a surface fauna when viewed from Earth gave rise to what could inhabit such a speculated environment, different from Earth’s “Green/Blue” glow, when viewed far from Earth?

I think it evolved collectively, from the feverish discovery of Saturns “speculative”, Geometric make-up?

Of course, the Brain in it’s everyday function, fills any voids left by reason, with what is apparent or appropriate?..something that can put thoughts away into stored memory, this action of course is open to dispute? when one tries to retrieve the memory and relay its stored fact to another Human?..when one Human (investigator) asks another if it witnessed an event, then the statement relayed, in a fraction of a second, can take on a momentum of its own!

A recent incident to myself, bares witness to something I found, that may have a baring for practical purpose.

Athough not involving aliens (but as will become clear, I have no proof that it was not ;)! )..it goes like this.

A short while ago I was attacked by three individuals, although I did not get a glimpse of one of them, as the attack happened really fast, and one of them remained behind me so I could not see them, I concluded there were three of them.

Incedent over,

-cvj