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flimp
New Member
6 Posts |
 Posted - 07/10/2010 : 07:19:17
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Howdy,
My highly trustworthy friend (with a skeptical mind) was telling me of a UFO experience he had when driving back from Wales with his family. All of them saw it and his dad even stopped the car on the motorway to get out and have a look.
Usually people just describe what they saw as a slow moving orange light (chinese lantern) or something else which isn't too interesting, but what they saw was pendulating and oscillating with bright white lights, basically some sort of ship where the parts are bright white, interchangeable, and constantly moving. He also said it appeared to be enormous, far too big to be easily explained, but it may have just appeared that way.
I'm just wondering if anybody has any good explanations for this as both he and I are skeptic and find this incredibly intriguing and would love to hear some logical explanations but can find nothing on the net.
http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/41590/U_F_O_Orbs_leaving_the_mothership_in_Japan_03_2010/
I imagine it would look something like the object in this intriguing but probably cgi'd vid.
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 07/10/2010 : 07:34:18 [Permalink]
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Hi flimp and welcdome to SFN!
This is a fairly common sort of sighting and it's usually atributed to to ball lightening.
This stuff comes in all sorts of sizes, shapes and antics. It's very interesting.
Again, welcome!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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flimp
New Member
6 Posts |
Posted - 07/10/2010 : 09:01:31 [Permalink]
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Hi filthy and thanks.
I guess i didn't make it clear how long they were looking at this thing, apparently it was in sight for a good hour or so.
Ball lightning is obviously quick and doesn't pendulate or oscillate in any way so it doesn't fit the bill at all. |
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On fire for Christ
SFN Regular
Norway
1273 Posts |
Posted - 07/10/2010 : 11:22:37 [Permalink]
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Ball lightning in itself is a very interesting phenomena since no one knows exactly what it is, or has a decent explanation of it's properties or behaviour, as wikipedia states: | The presumption of its existence is based on reported public sightings. |
Which seems to be at odds with the scientific process. why assume a bright ball object is a ball of lightning if we only have guesses as to what ball lightning is and it's existence is not even proven? It seems that "Ball lightning" has become the catch-all term for "unexplained orb of light", and therefore offers no explanation for the sightings at all.
I've not seen any footage like this before, so I don't know how common it could possibly be. I've seen "orbs" before, but those happen in the dark in closed spaces (and are obviously dust). One of these clearly moves behind the cloud, some move INTO the cloud, so I think it's possible to judge the distance and size of the objects. Very good clip! (if real)
Personally I agree it's some kind of electrical phenomena, the 2 smaller lights orbiting the larger one at the beginning indicate some kind of force binding the objects, giving they are going in and around a cumulus cloud, it seems likely the force is electro-static.
As for your friend's sighting, I have no idea, what time of day was it, how fast was it moving, how high in the sky was it, what were the weather conditions like etc would help. |
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| Edited by - On fire for Christ on 07/10/2010 13:39:49 |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 07/10/2010 : 13:07:28 [Permalink]
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Welcome to the SFN, flimp.
I'm not sure I see the logical progression from | ...what they saw was pendulating and oscillating with bright white lights |
to| basically some sort of ship where the parts are bright white, interchangeable, and constantly moving. |
What about an oscillating bright light would indicate that it's a ship with "interchangeable" parts? Lots of light sources flicker or oscillate, so that really doesn't give us a whole lot to go on.
| He also said it appeared to be enormous, far too big to be easily explained, but it may have just appeared that way. |
Yeah, both size and distance are extremely difficult to judge with the naked eye when looking at an open sky since there are no other visual cues one can use for comparison purposes. Even trained pilots can make large errors when estimating the speed or size of an object if they misjudge its distance.
| I imagine it would look something like the object in this intriguing but probably cgi'd vid. |
Well, I'd caution against letting your imagination run too wild. Retellings and reenactments of events are usually more dramatic than the original experience. And remember, your friend is reporting a subjective experience. How he perceived the object behaved isn't necessarily how it actually behaved. Not that he is fabricating any portion of his story, just that our senses can play tricks on us. Stationary objects can be mistakenly believed to be moving due to a moving background (clouds, birds) or the witnesses own subtle eye movements, for example.
| I'm just wondering if anybody has any good explanations for this as both he and I are skeptic and find this incredibly intriguing and would love to hear some logical explanations but can find nothing on the net. |
Honestly, it's probably impossible to say what your friend's family saw that day without some kind of visual documentation, and even then it might be inconclusive. It could be any number of natural or man-made phenomena. As skeptics, however, we must resist the temptation to ascribe an unevidenced explanation to an unexplained phenomenon.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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ThorGoLucky
Snuggle Wolf
USA
1487 Posts |
Posted - 07/10/2010 : 17:41:34 [Permalink]
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The problem with the ball lightening explanation is that it's attributed to hallucination triggered by magnetic fields, so it seems unlikely that they were all having the same hallucination.
http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/id/59431/title/Some_ball_lightning_reports_may_be_hallucinations
Me thinks a man-make object, perhaps a model craft. Like what H. Humbert said, perceived distances to objects in the sky can be way off without any reference points; and once you get the idea in your head that it's far away, it can be difficult to acknowledge that it's actually close. Model crafts can look weird and do amazing things, especially if intended to do so.
Hexacopter
http://vimeo.com/6194911
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flimp
New Member
6 Posts |
Posted - 07/10/2010 : 17:58:48 [Permalink]
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"Honestly, it's probably impossible to say what your friend's family saw that day without some kind of visual documentation, and even then it might be inconclusive. It could be any number of natural or man-made phenomena. As skeptics, however, we must resist the temptation to ascribe an unevidenced explanation to an unexplained phenomenon."
Which is exactly why I came here to see if there were any possible explanations. I'm a serious skeptic myself, only through my trusted relationship with this friend and his family have I even bothered to give his story any credence.
Apparently there were around 20 of these interchangeable lights on whatever this object was, i'm aware it is as likely to be a "ship" as it is an unexplained electrical occurrence.
I'm genuinely just looking for any instances of a similar occurrence and what the phenomenon turned out to be, if there's none to be offered that's fine, as i'm willing to stay in the dark as to what it was without taking the irrational leap to extraterrestrials. |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 07/11/2010 : 02:34:39 [Permalink]
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I wanna HexaKopter!
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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flimp
New Member
6 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2010 : 03:41:46 [Permalink]
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Wow that hexacopter thing is incredible!
He said there were around 20 of these interchangeable lights when I just asked him.
Also this happened at night if that makes any difference.
I can't find anything online that is even similar to what he explained, regardless of size.
Any other suggestions?
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2010 : 07:53:17 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by flimp
I'm genuinely just looking for any instances of a similar occurrence and what the phenomenon turned out to be, if there's none to be offered that's fine, as i'm willing to stay in the dark as to what it was without taking the irrational leap to extraterrestrials.
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Well, that's the proper attitude, but I can understand the desire for plausible answers. I'm personally stumped as to what your friend might have seen.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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flimp
New Member
6 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2010 : 18:08:39 [Permalink]
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I just mean he's a friend who doesn't talk shit, ever, and I know he doesn't believe shit, and even he doesn't think it was a ufo.
Literally just came here to find things that looked like what he described that were perfectly explainable. Fuck knows what i said to piss you off.
You're just an asshat.
Thanks to all those who have not been asshats.
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sailingsoul
SFN Addict
2830 Posts |
Posted - 07/11/2010 : 19:15:51 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by flimp
I just mean he's a friend who doesn't talk shit, ever, and I know he doesn't believe shit, and even he doesn't think it was a ufo.
Literally just came here to find things that looked like what he described that were perfectly explainable. Fuck knows what i said to piss you off.
You're just an asshat.
Thanks to all those who have not been asshats.
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I have reread your earlier posts and I didn't pick up on everything you posted. You are rightflimp, my reply was not called for. You never indicated that you thought it was anything more than a mystery that you were looking for input. I have deleted my reply and state to you, I'm sorry for posting it. Please accept my apology. SS
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There are only two types of religious people, the deceivers and the deceived. SS |
| Edited by - sailingsoul on 07/11/2010 19:17:28 |
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Dr. Mabuse
Septic Fiend
Sweden
9688 Posts |
Posted - 07/12/2010 : 02:20:52 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by flimp
He said there were around 20 of these interchangeable lights when I just asked him.
Also this happened at night if that makes any difference.
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I'm at a loss for explanation.
Seeing this thing during night makes it even harder to identify. The only thing I can think of would be distant city lights reflected in a mirage-kind of atmospheric phenomenon. Fluctuations in the atmosphere could make the reflections shift and cause the reflected lights to seem interchangable.
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Dr. Mabuse - "When the going gets tough, the tough get Duct-tape..."
Dr. Mabuse whisper.mp3
"Equivocation is not just a job, for a creationist it's a way of life..." Dr. Mabuse
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Send them unarmed civilians for target practice..
Collateralmurder. |
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astropin
SFN Regular
USA
970 Posts |
Posted - 07/12/2010 : 11:03:11 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by filthy
I wanna HexaKopter!
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By the looks of it it's about $2000 and you get to build it yourself for that price. |
I would rather face a cold reality than delude myself with comforting fantasies.
You are free to believe what you want to believe and I am free to ridicule you for it.
Atheism:
The result of an unbiased and rational search for the truth.
Infinitus est numerus stultorum |
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flimp
New Member
6 Posts |
Posted - 07/12/2010 : 16:38:36 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by sailingsoul
Originally posted by flimp
I just mean he's a friend who doesn't talk shit, ever, and I know he doesn't believe shit, and even he doesn't think it was a ufo.
Literally just came here to find things that looked like what he described that were perfectly explainable. Fuck knows what i said to piss you off.
You're just an asshat.
Thanks to all those who have not been asshats.
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I have reread your earlier posts and I didn't pick up on everything you posted. You are rightflimp, my reply was not called for. You never indicated that you thought it was anything more than a mystery that you were looking for input. I have deleted my reply and state to you, I'm sorry for posting it. Please accept my apology. SS
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Thanks sailingsoul i retract my asshat statement you're clearly a good guy |
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Hawks
SFN Regular
Canada
1383 Posts |
Posted - 07/12/2010 : 18:02:58 [Permalink]
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The "orbs" could be just about anything, including highly reflective miniature glider airplanes. |
METHINKS IT IS LIKE A WEASEL
It's a small, off-duty czechoslovakian traffic warden! |
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Looking for possible explanations
