What the New York Times UFO Report Actually Reveals

nymag.com ^ | December 26, 2017 9:26 pm | Jeff Wise

[BenLurkin]

The main source in the Times article was a former Pentagon employee named Luis Elizondo, who ran a small program called Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification from 2007 until.... 2012.... Elizondo’s account was vouched for by the man who’d arranged for its funding, former Senate majority leader Harry Reid, as well as by the billionaire donor who won the contract to manage the program, Robert Bigelow.

...

“The program produced documents that describe sightings of aircraft that seemed to move at very high velocities with no visible signs of propulsion, or that hovered with no apparent means of lift,” ... “The company modified buildings in Las Vegas for the storage of metal alloys and other materials that Mr. Elizondo and program contractors said had been recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena. In addition, researchers also studied people who said that they had experienced physical effects from encounters with the objects and examined them for physiological changes.”

The straightforward presentation of these assertions implies that the authors believe them to be true. But they beg for elaboration. Were the produced documents credible? In what way were the buildings modified, and why was it necessary to modify them in order to store this material? What does it mean for an object to be associated with a phenomenon? What were the claimed physical effects, and were any physiological changes found?

Making portentous assertions out of context is a powerful technique for creating a sense of mystery and drama. Leaving a question unanswered implies that it is unanswerable. Selectively omitting key details can make a mundane fact seem uncanny. These techniques are..... better suited to Ancient Aliens than the pages of the New York Times because the net effect is to cloud rather than illuminate key issues. In this case: What exactly did Elizondo’s team uncover?

[fella]

I for one welcome the opportunity to meld into the Borg.

[LesbianThespianGymnasticMidget]

Means the space whale is on a high fiber diet. ;-)

[JockoManning]

Pry them off and take some Q-tips to them and the board under them with alcohol or a wet-wipe.

[JockoManning]

That's how we primarily see it, too.

Thanks.

[woodbutcher1963]

You do not need a space shuttle to explore outer space. The space shuttle was a delta winged reentry vehicle. It was made to be a reusable vehicle for reentry into earths atmosphere. Most other planets do not have an atmosphere that requires anything other than reverse thrusters to slow your decent due to gravity.

[DungeonMaster]

Money laundering!!!

Breaking Bad

[Jamestown1630]

Maybe just a common sense refusal to fall for obvious fear-mongering and quasi-religious hysteria.

[JockoManning]

There's a lot of very religious hysteria in the new age section of the field.

Even the 'scientific' portion is quite religious in fervor, dogma, etc.

[piasa]

Maybe it was the aliens who punched Reid in the eye and told him to retire.

Maybe it got bumped while he was in bed with John Brennan. I hear he plays rough...

[piasa]

Aren’t th aircraft used in rendition flights based out of Nevada?

Maybe the building modifications are related to that. Prison bars are an alloy. Stage props could be made of anything.

Imagine the Dems coming up with their own torture program only the prisoners come away believing they were abducted by aliens... nobody would believe them if they were released later and complained to the ICC about “alien probes.”