Is that really Venus?

Interesting to note that the official policy is to "ignore radar
returns that don't comply with the operational characteristics" of
conventional fixed wing aircraft or helicopters.

Controller 1: Anything exciting happen on your shift?

Controller 2: Naw, just 150 or so of those radar returns we're
supposed to ignore because the government says they don't exist.

Controller 1: Is that all? Sounds like you had a quiet shift.

Some of his political detractors probably assert that Dennis Kucinich
routinely sees things that don't exist. (Ronald Reagan, of couse *did*
see one.)

:-)

Item:

WASHINGTON (Nov. 12) - Democratic U.S. presidential hopeful Dennis
Kucinich may have been ridiculed for saying he had seen a UFO, but for
some former military pilots and other observers, unidentified flying
objects are no laughing matter.

An international panel of two dozen former pilots and government
officials called on the U.S. government on Monday to reopen its
generation-old UFO investigation as a matter of safety and security
given continuing reports about flying discs, glowing spheres and other
strange sightings.


"Especially after the attacks of 9/11, it is no longer satisfactory to
ignore radar returns ... which cannot be associated with performances
of existing aircraft and helicopters," they said in a statement
released at a news conference.

The panelists from seven countries, including former senior military
officers, said they had each seen a UFO or conducted an official
investigation into UFO phenomena.

The subject of UFOs grabbed the spotlight in the U.S. presidential
race last month when Kucinich, a member of Congress from Ohio, said
during a televised debate with other Democratic candidates that he had
seen one.

Former presidents Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter are both reported to
have claimed UFO sightings.

Most turn out to be misidentified aircraft, satellites or meteors. A
panelist who once worked for Britain's Ministry of Defense said 5
percent of incidents cannot be explained.

But the sightings are often dismissed by authorities without proper
investigations, UFO activists say.

"It's a question of who you going to believe: your lying eyes or the
government?" remarked John Callahan, a former Federal Aviation
Administration investigator, who said the CIA in 1987 tried to hush up
the sighting of a huge lighted ball four times the size of a jumbo jet
in Alaska.

The panel, organized by a group dedicated to winning credibility for
the study of UFOs, urged Washington to resume UFO investigations
through the U.S. Air Force or NASA.

"It would certainly, I think, take a lot of angst out of this issue,"
said former Arizona Gov. Fife Symington, who said he was among
hundreds who saw a delta-shaped craft with enormous lights silently
traverse the sky near Phoenix in 1997.

The Air Force investigated 12,618 UFO reports from 1947 to 1969 in
what was known as Project Blue Book. Investigators concluded that the
incidents posed no threat and there was no evidence of space aliens or
a super technology in operation.

"Since the termination of Project Blue Book, nothing has occurred that
would support a resumption of UFO investigations," the Air Force said
on its Web site.

On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 08:54:19 -0800, Chuck Gould
wrote:

Is that really Venus?

UFO's may confound celestial navigators?

Both of them? :-)

There's a plausible explanation of course why some of these reports
have been hushed up or glossed over. There's a good chance that at
least a few of them have been sightings of secret projects of one sort
or another.

There's also an excellent chance that some of them have been large
meteors. I've seen a few spectacular displays while on the water at
night and they really get your attention. One was so bright that it
lit up the entire sky and was visible through the mainsail while
streaking from horizon to horizon in a few seconds. It left a glowing
trail behind it that stayed visible for a short while after it was
gone.

We were all momentarily speechless, not because of supernatural forces
but because it was just awesome.

"Wayne.B" wrote in message


One was so bright that it
lit up the entire sky and was visible through the mainsail while
streaking from horizon to horizon in a few seconds. It left a glowing
trail behind it that stayed visible for a short while after it was
gone.

We were all momentarily speechless, not because of supernatural forces
but because it was just awesome.


Saw one like that myself a few months back 'round midnight when I went
out in the backyard for a smoke. All I could think was "holy shyt".

db

On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:20:22 -0500, D-unit penned the following well
considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

|
|"Wayne.B" wrote in message
|
|
| One was so bright that it
| lit up the entire sky and was visible through the mainsail while
| streaking from horizon to horizon in a few seconds. It left a glowing
| trail behind it that stayed visible for a short while after it was
| gone.
|
| We were all momentarily speechless, not because of supernatural forces
| but because it was just awesome.
|
|
|Saw one like that myself a few months back 'round midnight when I went
|out in the backyard for a smoke. All I could think was "holy shyt".

Medicinal purposes?

--

Grady-White Gulfstream, out of Oak Island, NC.

Homepage
http://pamandgene.idleplay.net/

Rec.boats at Lee Yeaton's Bayguide
http://www.thebayguide.com/rec.boats
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"Gene Kearns" wrote in message news
On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:20:22 -0500, D-unit penned the following well
considered thoughts to the readers of rec.boats:

|
|"Wayne.B" wrote in message
|
|
| One was so bright that it
| lit up the entire sky and was visible through the mainsail while
| streaking from horizon to horizon in a few seconds. It left a glowing
| trail behind it that stayed visible for a short while after it was
| gone.
|
| We were all momentarily speechless, not because of supernatural forces
| but because it was just awesome.
|
|
|Saw one like that myself a few months back 'round midnight when I went
|out in the backyard for a smoke. All I could think was "holy shyt".

Medicinal purposes?



Possibly back in "the day" but Im just hooked on nicotine now.

A most powerful drug it is. The wife and I tried Chantix in January
and had pretty good luck with it for several months. It works as
advertised.

db

"D-unit" cof42_AT_embarqmail.com wrote in message
...


Possibly back in "the day" but Im just hooked on nicotine now.

A most powerful drug it is. The wife and I tried Chantix in January
and had pretty good luck with it for several months. It works as
advertised.

db



My brother is trying Chantix. He took it for a couple of weeks or so then
stopped. Hasn't had a cigarette in two or three months now after smoking
for 30+ years.

Promising.

Eisboch

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...

I've seen a few spectacular displays while on the water at
night and they really get your attention. One was so bright that it
lit up the entire sky and was visible through the mainsail while
streaking from horizon to horizon in a few seconds. It left a glowing
trail behind it that stayed visible for a short while after it was
gone.



That was just Gene in his modified Cessna.

Eisboch

Eisboch wrote:
"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...

I've seen a few spectacular displays while on the water at
night and they really get your attention. One was so bright that it
lit up the entire sky and was visible through the mainsail while
streaking from horizon to horizon in a few seconds. It left a glowing
trail behind it that stayed visible for a short while after it was
gone.



That was just Gene in his modified Cessna.

Eisboch



In the 1960s, I was returning from Junction City, Kansas, with a buddy
whose dad was stationed in the Army near there. It was very late, maybe
2 am, when we both saw two very bright lights in the sky moving very
rapidly. We both immediate said, "UFOs!!!" For a few minutes we were
really scared, but they passed over the horizon.

In those days, I don't know about now, there were very few city or town
lights way out there in the middle of nowhere, so I doubt they were
reflected lights. They were going much too fast to be jets.

UFOs.

"HK" wrote in message
. ..


UFOs.

Time to re-tell my UFO tale. I'll try to keep it short.

While in the Navy, stationed on a DE homeported in Naples, Italy, we spent
an average of two weeks at sea, one in port, two weeks at sea, one in port,
etc. We patrolled the Med, mostly at 7 knots, towing a passive sonar array
tracking Soviet subs.

Needless to say, these patrols got pretty boring. One Sunday afternoon the
Captain called "Holiday Routine" which meant that anybody not standing a
watch could basically chill out, sun on the fantail, helicopter deck or
whatever.

A few of us had prepared for this on one patrol and brought some kites with
us. We flew them off the fantail and, at 7 kts, they soared perfectly.
After a while one of us got the bright idea of tying a small, red flashing
beacon light from a life vest to the kites. The kites carried them fine, and
we let all the line we had out and tied the end to the fantail rail and
eventually forgot about them.

Later that evening I reported for a watch in the radioshack only to find a
beehive of activity.
The Captain was sending out priority position and situation messages,
reporting that the "unidentified objects" continued to track behind the
ship's course and are undetectable on radar.

The guilty quickly beat feet to the fantail and cut the lines.

Eisboch

On Tue, 13 Nov 2007 15:30:39 -0500, "Eisboch"
wrote:



The guilty quickly beat feet to the fantail and cut the lines.

Kites could account for half of "UFO's."
Helium balloons with lights maybe another 30%.
Perhaps RC planes/choppers with lights another 10%.
Methane and other reflective anomalies maybe 5%.
So 95% is BS, and only 5% is real alien spaceships.
Maybe half the aliens are okay folks, and just curious about us.
The other half of the alien spaceships have death rays,
disintegrators, and that ray gun that shrinks sexual organs.
Most of them keep a low profile, because they don't like publicity.
I can live with those odds, and refuse to let it keep me from boating.

--Vic