http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/13/2010-10-13_mystery_shiny_objects_floating_over_manhattan_spark_ufo_frenzy.html
"It's been hovering there for a while. I'm just kind of baffled," said Joseph Torres, 49, of Dyker Heights, Brooklyn, who spotted the object after leaving a movie. "How can it be ordinary? There is something going on." Come on, folks. Have we been fed so many UFO promotions that every time we see some little thing in the sky, we immediately jump to the conclusion that it's some mysterious phenomenon?
Then some people remembered an obscure prediction by retired Air Force officer Stanley A. Fulham, who predicted that huge ships would be seen hovering over cities worldwide on Oct. 13, and began tweeting this sighting widely. Obviously, balloons seen in the sky = a fleet of spaceships.
On one of the videos posted of the object, an observer can actually be heard saying repeatedly, "they're balloons." And balloons indeed they were, according to
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/10/14/2010-10-14_ufo_nyc_kids_say_no_mysterious_floating_orbs_were_escaped_balloons_from_teachers.html
"A Westchester elementary school believes the puzzling orbs floating over Chelsea were likely a bundle of balloons that escaped from an engagement party they held for a teacher... A parent was bringing about 40 iridescent pearl balloons to the school for language arts teacher Andrea Craparo when the wind spent a bunch away around 1 p.m."But some commentators, like this guy on extraordinaryintelligence.com, aren't buying the balloon explanation: "I was there. It was very unsettling to watch. There’s no rational explanation to that spectacle in the sky. They stood together, in the same relative position to each other – you could call it a formation – and in the same spot in the sky, with very minimal movement for a long time. Small bright perfectly formed dots, against a perfectly blue sky. Surreal."
And remember the First Rule of UFOlogy: any time you see something in the sky that you can't immediately identify, assume it's an alien spaceship until conclusively proven otherwise.
How can you be so blind? Heed the words of someone with extraordinary intelligence (dot com) when you hear them! Even the authorities cannot deny the truth!: "We re-ran radar to see if there was anything there that we can't account for but there is nothing in the area," said spokesman Jim Peters. "Nothing that we can account for would prompt this kind of response," he said.
ReplyDeleteRobert, as you know, it's difficult to get people to believe how hysterical other people can get about nothing; we don't want to believe that about ourselves. And radar manuals rarely have comprehensive sections on psychology.
Nice to see your new blog! Keep an eye on this guy, folks!
Kress del Rey
The school was some 15 miles to the north-northeast. The release of the dozens of balloons at Times square seems more likely as the source. They were only a mile or so north of the location where everyone saw the balloons and the winds that day were from the north - northwest (depending on altitude but it was consistent to 10K feet based on radiosonde data from Brookhaven, NY weather balloon at 8AM). The first reaction I had was "balloons" but it seems there are few UFO proponents out there still trying to sell the idea that it could not be balloons. You should check out the El Paso video too (it was a Golden knights nighttime parachute drop).
ReplyDeleteI will make sure I mention the new blog in the upcoming issue of SUNlite.
Tim, you could be right about Times Square vs. the school in Westchester. But if you look at this Spanish news story, posted to UFO Updates by Vicente-Juan Ballester Olmos, the Times Square ballons in this photo don't match the silvery appearance of the objects in the video I saw:
ReplyDeletehttp://translate.google.com/translate?hl=es&sl=es&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.elmundo.es%2Felmundo%2F2010%2F10%2F14%2Fmadrid%2F1287057665.html
But it really isn't necessary to identify the source of the balloons - that's an "extra credit" solution. Instead, the burden of proof is on the ET believers to prove that the objects cannot have been balloons, and it would take much more than just speculations by witnesses to establish that.
I agree about the color of the balloons but the videos are mostly just of dots. Some take on the yellowish color of the balloons at Times square and others do not. Of course, others could have simply released their own balloons as part of the celebration (Maybe some street vendors were selling mylar balloons to add to the festivities? who knows?). You are right. Identifying the source is not as important as recognizing they behaved like balloons in the air. Had they been moving against the wind, we coudl discount the balloon hypothesis. However, they moved with the wind and that should be enough. BTW, did you see the one FOX reporter, who went out that evening and had a cameraman zoom in on a bright star to see if it was a UFO too? It took no great scientist (just about every amateur astronomer who saw it laughed) to identify the planet Jupiter and its moons! I think Dr. Plait mentioned it in his blog.
ReplyDeleteYears ago in Hollywood, CA, a friend of mine and I used to attach thin plastic laundry bags to a thin balsa wood foundation, affix a small aluminum foil container of burning Sterno to the center of the frame and loose our "UFO" into the skies above the Sunset Strip. Caused quite a few "sightings."
ReplyDeletePost #2, Comment #6
ReplyDeleteAnd the crazy begins.
Now the founder of the far-out "Exopolitics" movement is claiming "Oct 13 2010 NYC UFO sightings confirm Exopolitics model" (i.e., secret contacts between the U.S. government and ETs).
ReplyDeletehttp://www.examiner.com/exopolitics-in-seattle/exopolitics-founder-oct-13-2010-nyc-ufo-sightings-confirm-exopolitics-model
Always good for a laugh!
"And remember the First Rule of UFOlogy: any time you see something in the sky that you can't immediately identify, assume it's an alien spaceship until conclusively proven otherwise."
ReplyDeleteThe Second Rule: Continue to deny the proof no matter how overwhelming it may be.
THE SKY IS FALLING, said Chicken O'Little!!! Peoples is the Silliest Critters!!! Get a Life, Take a Breath, Get New Glasses!!!
ReplyDelete