Rare things that have been documented much better than UFOs

[Edward Current]

We often hear that there have been so many up-close encounters with UFOs, there must be something to "the phenomenon." The argument from incredulity is, there's no way that all of those experiencers could be mistaken/lying/delusional! I don't know if it's accurate, but I have seen this number stretched into millions of encounters:



In response, skeptics ask why there aren't any good, clear photos or videos from these encounters. I asked on this forum, what evidence would convince skeptics that aliens are here? In terms of photo/video documentation, the consensus was: multiple videos and angles, demonstrating some combination of extraordinary maneuvers and engineering that's discontinuous with any lineage of human technology, from reputable independent sources.

So, when people bring up the thousands (or millions) of encounters, lately I've been referencing the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor (Wikipedia article). Here was a once-in-a-century event that was captured by so many dashcams and other cameras, from so many angles, that scientists were able to calculate its trajectory through the atmosphere to high precision.

YouTube compilation of footage:


Then just the other day, the Chicago area had some tornadoes, which are rare enough — but several cameras captured footage of twin tornadoes, including the moment when they were simultaneously forming:

So I wondered, what are some other events that have been very well documented that are more rare than the thousands-to-millions of UFO encounters that weren't documented well?

 

[Duke]

We often hear that there have been so many up-close encounters with UFOs, there must be something to "the phenomenon." The argument from incredulity is, there's no way that all of those experiencers could be mistaken/lying/delusional! I don't know if it's accurate, but I have seen this number stretched into millions of encounters:



In response, skeptics ask why there aren't any good, clear photos or videos from these encounters. I asked on this forum, what evidence would convince skeptics that aliens are here? In terms of photo/video documentation, the consensus was: multiple videos and angles, demonstrating some combination of extraordinary maneuvers and engineering that's discontinuous with any lineage of human technology, from reputable independent sources.

So, when people bring up the thousands (or millions) of encounters, lately I've been referencing the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor (Wikipedia article). Here was a once-in-a-century event that was captured by so many dashcams and other cameras, from so many angles, that scientists were able to calculate its trajectory through the atmosphere to high precision.

YouTube compilation of footage:


Then just the other day, the Chicago area had some tornadoes, which are rare enough — but several cameras captured footage of twin tornadoes, including the moment when they were simultaneously forming:

So I wondered, what are some other events that have been very well documented that are more rare than the thousands-to-millions of UFO encounters that weren't documented well?

Lightning ground strikes?

 

[AmberRobot]

I wondered, what are some other events that have been very well documented that are more rare than the thousands-to-millions of UFO encounters that weren't documented well?

Comet impacts Jupiter.

Shoemaker-Levy 9 collided with Jupiter in July of 1994.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Shoemaker–Levy_9

 

[JMartJr]

Source: Me

Here's one that I was able to document. Of course, this (and Shoemaker-Levy 9 mentioned above) were predictable well in advance, you had plenty of time to get your best camera out, aim your best telescope, travel to a good vantage point... in fairness to UFOs and those who document them, that is an advantage they lack. Even lightning strikes, you know there's a storm on so be ready!

Another thought that occurs to me is shark attacks -- rarer then UFO reports, but maybe comparable with "real UFOs" once you weed out the planes and balloons and such, assuming real UFOs exist.

Shark attacks ARE occasionally videoed or photographed, a non-gory example here:

Source: https://www.eurosport.co.uk/surfing...r-mick-fanning-escapes_sto4826648/story.shtml

For those of you who are worried, Mr. Fanning was not seriously injured, luckily.

Interestingly, when looking for photos that could be shared here, I was struck by how common faked pics and vids of shark attacks are, so they have that in common with UFOs. And like UFO pics, the pictures tend to be from further away than you'd like, when looking for evidence of something, and are often poorly focused. But there ARE a few very clear pictures and videos of attacks as they happen, much better evidence than UFOs-as-spaceships have.

And, interestingly, at one point that "official story" was that shark attacks on living, uninjured humans probably did not happen. (Shark Attack: H. David Baldridge, a look at the US Navy shark attack files up to that point, and my introduction to things like control group and sample size!)

My impression is that barring other evidence, shark attack pictures and vids coupled with eyewitness accounts would probably be compelling proof that such attacks are real -- though the case might not be as strong as I'd have guessed -- but with sharks biting people we have a pretty large body of physical "trace evidence" in the form of injured and dead victims, teeth left in the wounds, etc., something which UFO proponents often claim but seldom produce. And which is too gory to illustrate here!

Edited to add a bit I left out about comparison of UFO and shark attack image quality and the bit about shark attack being a doubted phenomenon at one time.)

 

[flarkey]

Golf hole in ones....?

https://www.hio.com/americanhno-blog/odds-of-making-a-hole-in-one

The odds of making a hole in one are 12,500 to 1. For professional golfers, the odds of making a hole in one drop to 2,500 to 1.

Content from External Source

Source: https://youtu.be/J4iwTw1Td88

 

[Ann K]

"Elves, sprites, and blue jets" ...OK, "transient luminous events".
(Three minute video).

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp-8xp_3hqU

Here's another one, ten minutes in length:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGPQ5kzJ9Tg

 

[Davey]

How about giant squids? If manned UFOs have been crashing here for centuries, we might expect to have a Wikipedia page for alien evidence as good as this:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_giant_squid_specimens_and_sightings

The story the article tells is that our view of giant squids got better as technology improved and evidence had time to accumulate. After centuries of stories, some good evidence (specimens!) flipped a myth to accepted fact. It can be done!

This is much unlike our encounters with aliens, who appear further away as our cameras get better (as explained by Mick West with his concept of the "LIZ").

Crucially, every discovery along the way contributed to a more coherent understanding of giant squids—the evidence "agrees" and "adds up." For example, the black-and-white photograph of tentacles from 1873 matches what we see in the HD videos of today. This is unlike the body of evidence for UFOs, where the old photographs look like hubcaps, and the new ones look like radar reflectors.

There is indeed a list of UFO sightings on Wikipedia, but unlike the squid one, it's more like 200 stories about 200 different things.

 

[Scaramanga]

We often hear that there have been so many up-close encounters with UFOs, there must be something to "the phenomenon." The argument from incredulity is, there's no way that all of those experiencers could be mistaken/lying/delusional! I don't know if it's accurate, but I have seen this number stretched into millions of encounters:

I've been on a Facebook UFO forum for years, and it never ceases to amaze me how many obvious birds, planes, stars, planets, even the Moon, get posted as 'UFOs'. Only last week I pointed out that someone's 'UFO' was almost certainly just a blurry pic of a white tailed eagle.

That forum has taught me that most people are utterly clueless about what they are seeing. The 'I Know What I Saw' meme is just nonsense. Heck, we even get people who mentally cannot grasp that an aircraft contrail going 'downwards' in the sky is not something 'falling from the sky' but a plane moving further away. That's how bad it is.

So my response to 'millions' of encounters is to simply requote an old meme....

"100,000 lemmings can't be wrong"

 

[captancourgette]

100,000 lemmings can't be wrong"

Sorry tangent, I'm just curious.
We know due to Disney etc their deaths were greatly exaggerated, but was it ever documented to happen in large numbers 'lemmings off cliffs'

 

[John J.]

Sorry tangent, I'm just curious.
We know due to Disney etc their deaths were greatly exaggerated, but was it ever documented to happen in large numbers 'lemmings off cliffs'

No, it's a myth, though they occasionally engage in group migrations in which some may attempt to swim bodies of water that are larger (or swifter-flowing) than they can cope with.
I heard or read that lemmings have very poor eyesight and sometimes do fall off ledges during their frenetic migrations- don't know if that's true.
Lemmings, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lemming

 

[John J.]

What about the Tacoma Narrows Bridge collapse of 1940?
If someone had described the footage to me, I probably wouldn't have believed them.


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mclp9QmCGs


Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tacoma_Narrows_Bridge_(1940)

 

[Ann K]

The 1954 collapse of a huge slab of rock at Niagara Falls' Prospect Point is another singular event that was filmed:

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SH8lsTO9Lsk

 

[AmberRobot]

The terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11th, 2001 was well Documented despite being unanticipated.

In contrast the attack on the Pentagon that same day was not as well documented and thus more open to conspiratorial thinking (e.g., plane versus missile).

 

[Scaramanga]

but was it ever documented to happen in large numbers 'lemmings off cliffs'

As far as I'm aware it is one of those extremely tenacious myths and there is zero factual basis for it. A bit like UFOs !

 

[LilWabbit]

A California condor takes flight in Big Sur:


Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Omkpr7n1jCU


The California condor is one of the rarest and most endangered birds in the world (also the largest north American land bird). In 1987 there were only 22 wild birds left, but conservation efforts have managed to increase the number to about 500 individuals today which is still remarkably rare. To spontaneously capture one feeding on the street at Big Sur nine years ago is truly rare. In 2016 there were 276 wild California condors. And yet the film quality and clip length renders the identification 100 % certain. As can be seen in the footage, there were plenty of others filming the event at the same time from various angles, and yet one needs no triangulation to confirm i's a California condor just with one clip of footage.

 

[jarlrmai]

On the bird thing, tiny waders sometimes end up way off course in the UK so there might be only one of these birds in the country and they are found, identified and photographed, they are often small and non-descript, dedicated ornithologists are the only ones who might recognise them.

See for instance this long toed stint

The long-toed stint is a diminutive wading bird which breeds in the Siberian uplands. It migrates south in the autumn to spend winter in southern Asia and Australia, so it was a long way from where it should be

https://community.rspb.org.uk/place...and-the-long-toed-stint---a-warden-s-eye-view

On the other side there are only so many habitats that they will go to and a lot of these are well known reserves and of course there could be other birds that we don't even know are here.

 

[LilWabbit]

On the other side there are only so many habitats that they will go to and a lot of these are well known reserves

Skinwalker Ranch is also a well-known habitat for ghosts, other rare anomalies and film-makers literally on a stake-out to capture them, and yet we have far better spontaneous footage of Californian condors or other rare birds.

 

[Ann K]

To spontaneously capture one feeding on the street at Big Sur nine years ago is truly rare. In 2016 there were 276 wild California condors. And yet the film quality and clip length renders the identification 100 % certain

The video allows more than just the identification of the species; it would appear that the individual bird was noted. A comment was left on the video:

 

[PublicStranger]

The recent Las Vegas meteor that was claimed by a family to have been a UFO that crashed landed in their garden was seen on multiple videos, dashcams and door cameras. Even the visiting police officer managed to capture it on his bodycam before visiting the family in question for the supposed alien visitation.

 

[tobigtofool]

Anti gravity spy plane prototype that was built using alien technology was seen and photographed 10 years go in Amarillo.

 

[Eburacum]

The 'anti-gravity ... using alien technology' part of that identification is sheer bunkum, even if the photo is genuine.

 

[PublicStranger]

Anti gravity spy plane prototype that was built using alien technology was seen and photographed 10 years go in Amarillo.

You can literally see the exhaust fumes. Doubt these aliens are very advanced if they are still using crude oil

 

[Bob Jase]

You can literally see the exhaust fumes. Doubt these aliens are very advanced if they are still using crude oil

HAH! its actually quantum oil!

 

[JMartJr]

Anti gravity spy plane prototype...

Since that's just a plane leaving a contrail, it's not really an example of a rare thing being documented...

 

[tobigtofool]

Since that's just a plane leaving a contrail, it's not really an example of a rare thing being documented...

Hey folks, I was adding humor to my post, but thanks everyone for clarifying, lets actually talk about what the reason of my post actually was:

We are looking at a triangle flying in the air from 10+ years ago, and nobody knows what it is.

The thread is about rare things caught on tape

Well that triangle right there not only is one, but could also even be the result of many UFO sightings!

So it's a double whammy.

A rare thing caught on tape. And well known UFO conspiracy.

Is there any evidence whatsoever about a secret triangle spy plane that is not the stealth bomber, or has that been kept secret for 10+ years?

Only in conspiracy circles...

 

[Duke]

Is there any evidence whatsoever about a secret triangle spy plane that is not the stealth bomber, or has that been kept secret for 10+ years?

Only in conspiracy circles...

When it comes to phantom aircraft that are the product of 'bleeding-edge' technologies and supposedly exist only in the shadows, the so-called RQ-180 is unrivaled in our time.

Content from External Source

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...s-the-centerpiece-of-a-warfighting-revolution

 

[Edward Current]

Here's one from the other day — 3 whales doing a seemingly coordinated jump:


Source: https://www.cnn.com/videos/us/2023/07/28/triple-whale-breach-synchronized-jump-cprog-orig.cnn


This wasn't captured from multiple angles, and the people filming were expecting to see whales...but still it's pretty rare if not unique footage.

 

[JMartJr]

Here's one from the other day — 3 whales doing a seemingly coordinated jump:

3 foxes yawning simultaneously. Take that, whales.

 

[Henkka]

Many of these are either extremely visible like the Russian meteor, or anticipated like the Niagara falls collapse. The 9/11 example goes against the point, as the truly unanticipated initial strike on WTC 1 was not well documented. In the middle of a city of 8 million people, afaik a single camera accidentally captured the plane hitting WTC 1. I think another camera captured the fireball, but not the plane. Obviously the second strike was well documented, since people were filming WTC 1 burning.

But I do agree that the lack of new UFO videos during the smartphone era is compelling evidence against the idea of these things flying around. If you believe in incidents like the Ariel school thing, even a single encounter like that during the smartphone era would easily prove aliens. There's two options:

1) The aliens are deliberately hiding their presence from humans
2) The aliens are not deliberately hiding their presence from humans

If 1), it begs the question for why there are UFO sightings at all. Clearly with such advanced technology, they could keep perfectly hidden from us at all times. They wouldn't randomly plop down right outside some school in Zimbabwe, in clear sight of the children there. And if 2), why aren't there clear videos? If they don't really care if they're spotted or not, they're just flying around minding their own business, I think we should have unambiguous evidence of them already.

 

[Mendel]

When it comes to phantom aircraft that are the product of 'bleeding-edge' technologies and supposedly exist only in the shadows, the so-called RQ-180 is unrivaled in our time.

Content from External Source

https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...s-the-centerpiece-of-a-warfighting-revolution

Only in conspiracy circles...

... does debunked bunk live on and on and on.

 

[FatPhil]

3 foxes yawning simultaneously. Take that, whales.

Do you want the full Elisabeth Bik, or it it enough to just say "shopped!"?

 

[JMartJr]

Do you want the full Elisabeth Bik, or it it enough to just say "shopped!"?

Quite possibly, which would give it a lot in common with many UFO pics, come to think of it.

I saved it from an Intertubes forum where MASSIVE bickering arose over whether it was genuine. Facts and opinions and off-color insults flew around like houseflies in a Leslie Keane video. The issue was never settled to everybody's satisfaction, and I'm content to leave it there rather than risk igniting such conflict here.

 

[Ann K]

I saved it from an Intertubes forum where MASSIVE bickering arose over whether it was genuine.

Look at the feet.

 

[jarlrmai]

Hmm the mouth positions are different which is harder to fake. If photoshopped it's more likely the photographer took a high FPS sequence of one fox yawning and then cloned the same subject into the same image, and then it might initially not have been an attempt to deceive it's a technique used a bit in wildlife, mostly with a bird in flight, for example an Osprey diving for a fish.

 

[FatPhil]

Look at the feet.

Indeed. And the pebbles next to the feet. And the slightly darker but diffuse patterns down the back. And the distinctive odd darker more detailed markings on the shoulder area. And the irregular gaps between the teeth.

I think there were more, but I'll stop there.

Oh, no I won't, how could I forget - And the halo of slight blur surrounding them to cover the use of the clone tool.

 

[FatPhil]

it's a technique used a bit in wildlife, mostly with a bird in flight, for example an Osprey diving for a fish.

Wow, that's just great - I love how, at least to me, that still connects so closely to Edward Muggeridge's historical horse. Perhaps technology hasn't changed as much as we think, because we're still trying to satisfy the same curiosities after all these decades.

 

[tobigtofool]

Only in conspiracy circles...

... does debunked bunk live on and on and on.

Looks like its very easy to keep secrets!

 

[JMartJr]

Hmm the mouth positions are different which is harder to fake. If photoshopped it's more likely the photographer took a high FPS sequence of one fox yawning and then cloned the same subject into the same image, and then it might initially not have been an attempt to deceive it's a technique used a bit in wildlife, mostly with a bird in flight, for example an Osprey diving for a fish.

Maybe I'll save that one for future use as an example of "8 ospreys diving for the same fish" on some other forum...

 

[Gary C]

Skinwalker Ranch is also a well-known habitat for ghosts, other rare anomalies and film-makers literally on a stake-out to capture them, and yet we have far better spontaneous footage of Californian condors or other rare birds.

I get more annoyed when the 'ghost hunters' on these shows use infrared and starlight scopes as if that somehow increases the validity of their footage. In reality neither technology provides the level of detail you would get with a modern low-light color video camera.

 

[FatPhil]

I get more annoyed when the 'ghost hunters' on these shows use infrared and starlight scopes as if that somehow increases the validity of their footage. In reality neither technology provides the level of detail you would get with a modern low-light color video camera.

Using tech the general public isn't familiar with helps them add a layer of "we're experts" to what they're doing, and a veneer of mystery to what is seen as it's often less interpretable (yay - more noise!). On top of that, because it's not cheap and common tech, it actively discourages attempts at replication. So you have to trust them and their interpretation of what they're seeing. Which is OK, as they've already persuaded you they're experts. It's theatre, that's all.