It does recommend being patient and nice tho. This is tough. I am tired of the anti science/ anti critical thinking. They just end with " do your own research!" Well that would work if you didn't get your info from echo chambers. Think people over about 15 need educating on how algorithms work
Welcome Thread - New Members Post Here
- Thread starter Mick West
- Start date
Mendel
Senior Member.
UFO-related: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/ufo-acronyms-what-is-the-liz.11742/ , feel free to ask or add.
If you have others that aren't UFO-related, that you think would be useful, I recommend starting a post titled "Acronyms" in the "Practical Debunking" forum.
Mendel
Senior Member.
John_Sheldon
Member
Hello & Welcome Randis!
TK85
New Member
The forum software told me this was the place to post so to escape the spam filter earlier, so here I am.
But while I'm typing this, I guess it's appropriate to make a summary of who am I and how/when I got involved with the UFO "phenomena" and related fringe topics: I'm in my late 40s, male, brazilian, started by consuming all Erich von Däniken books translated into pt-br (all of them pretty much at that time) that I could find from the late 80s to the early 90s. From there, and when I was approaching my 20s circa 94, got a tip from a cousin about Whitley Strieber's "Communion" book, bought it and was thoroughly impressed by it. But at the same time, some things I've read in the `about the author` blurb didn't gel to me: the guy was a career writer and had wrote the book that the movie "The Hunger" was adapted from? Wait, really?
And not long after, I bought a book about the swiss Mayer dude with lots of photos and fantastical claims by the book author.
It was at that point that I, a 20-something not particular bright or skilled male, realized it was all a ruse with the sole purpose of generating monetary gains as the goal.
And that's it pretty much it I guess. I stopped caring for the subject almost 30yrs ago, but still, here am I.
But while I'm typing this, I guess it's appropriate to make a summary of who am I and how/when I got involved with the UFO "phenomena" and related fringe topics: I'm in my late 40s, male, brazilian, started by consuming all Erich von Däniken books translated into pt-br (all of them pretty much at that time) that I could find from the late 80s to the early 90s. From there, and when I was approaching my 20s circa 94, got a tip from a cousin about Whitley Strieber's "Communion" book, bought it and was thoroughly impressed by it. But at the same time, some things I've read in the `about the author` blurb didn't gel to me: the guy was a career writer and had wrote the book that the movie "The Hunger" was adapted from? Wait, really?
And not long after, I bought a book about the swiss Mayer dude with lots of photos and fantastical claims by the book author.
It was at that point that I, a 20-something not particular bright or skilled male, realized it was all a ruse with the sole purpose of generating monetary gains as the goal.
And that's it pretty much it I guess. I stopped caring for the subject almost 30yrs ago, but still, here am I.
hello everyone
im here since quite a while but never really introduced myself
im from Switzerland, i have a bachelor in economics and a rather useless Executive MBA in int. management, ride harleys, dive with or without oxygen, jump out of airplanes and eventually learned to fly one myself, teached myself how to code during lockdown which eventually led to me having my own b2b software startup
i also have a deep interest in psychology and philosophy
i do believe in alien life but not (anymore) that they are or were here on earth. what really brought me here was when i realized how many documentaries over exaggerated ufo stories and intentionally left important details out in order to push a narrative. eventually i felt played and also dumb, which really made me diving deep into the debunking scene - so here i am.
im not a native english speaker so please forgive me if some of my sentences or wordings seem a little bit weird
im here since quite a while but never really introduced myself
im from Switzerland, i have a bachelor in economics and a rather useless Executive MBA in int. management, ride harleys, dive with or without oxygen, jump out of airplanes and eventually learned to fly one myself, teached myself how to code during lockdown which eventually led to me having my own b2b software startup
i also have a deep interest in psychology and philosophy
i do believe in alien life but not (anymore) that they are or were here on earth. what really brought me here was when i realized how many documentaries over exaggerated ufo stories and intentionally left important details out in order to push a narrative. eventually i felt played and also dumb, which really made me diving deep into the debunking scene - so here i am.
im not a native english speaker so please forgive me if some of my sentences or wordings seem a little bit weird
Terry L
New Member
Hello All, retired from the Air Force and civil aviation, do freelance writing now here in Florida. Always fascinated with UAPs but have never had a sighting. One claim to fame is I was stationed at RAF Bentwaters in the U.K., four years after the "Rendlesham Forrest Incident." I have to chuckle at some of the explanations I see on TV, because many are not true, such as the lighthouse being the source of the lights. Look forward to going through this site. .
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welcome! interesting regarding the lighthouse claim. we have a discussion about this incident. feel free to participate and share your view or insights with us
Terry L
New Member
Thanks-will do!welcome! interesting regarding the lighthouse claim. we have a discussion about this incident. feel free to participate and share your view or insights with us
G'Day, I love how Mick debunks claims using common sense, logic and facts instead of the opposite things. I am a skeptic of unproven beliefs and claims not a denier of proven explanations and reasons. It amazes me how people will believe the least likely explanation for things they don't understand instead of the simple, logical answer.
Hello group! An old high school friend (a brilliant math guy) pulled me into UFO land and was surprised to find how conspiratorial his view was.
I listened to Mick's podcast some time ago and was struck by his patience and kindness. Great outlook! Anyway, recently retired from a career in aerospace engineering, especially examining data for consistency. I have discovered that there is definitely a tradecraft to going through each new sighting to eliminate real world explanations. I learned this during my career and am glad to see it here.
I listened to Mick's podcast some time ago and was struck by his patience and kindness. Great outlook! Anyway, recently retired from a career in aerospace engineering, especially examining data for consistency. I have discovered that there is definitely a tradecraft to going through each new sighting to eliminate real world explanations. I learned this during my career and am glad to see it here.
Druidgirl2
New Member
Hello everyone! Been following Metabunk for a while reading and listening I like your approach and today I decided to join. I live in Cleveland Ohio I'm in the medical field but dabble in science. A year ago I decided to go hard and started to study quantum theory and how it interfaces with our reality including the UFO phenomenon. So here I am thank you for having me
Cosmic Librarian
New Member
I am new here, but was on Twitter for many years and followed you. If you know the past and history, science is sometimes bunk, and bunk sometimes become science. We don't know...what we don't know.
One of the important lessons that I have learned in my life is that most, if not all people, are having, or have had really strange experiences at some point in their lives. Many people simply do not pay attention when these things happen, choose to ignore them, or shut down out of fear. Finding ways to pay attention, be aware, and become more conscious individuals can only benefit us and the world at large. I like to to provide tools, guidance, and information to assist people in becoming more conscious about themselves and reality, and to encourage them to explore that reality and be willing to ask questions that may not have easy answers. One thing that I have learned after all these years is that personal growth requires a certain amount of discomfort, physically, emotionally, or intellectually (or all three!) throughout one's life. To quote C. S. Lewis:
"And you cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad."
Cosmic Librarian
New Member
I've studied quantum mechanics too. (And I once got to hear Richard Feynman speak many years ago.)
Quirky Lantern
New Member
Greetings! I've followed Mick on Twitter X for a few years now and thought the time was right to join here.
Cards on the table: I believe life is incredibly rare in the cosmos, and claims that extraterrestrials are visiting the Earth are fairy stories for grown-ups.
Why grown-ups choose to believe these fairy stories is the thing that interests me!
Cards on the table: I believe life is incredibly rare in the cosmos, and claims that extraterrestrials are visiting the Earth are fairy stories for grown-ups.
Why grown-ups choose to believe these fairy stories is the thing that interests me!
DefinitelyHuman
New Member
Hi all! I love primary sources and always feel the need to really understand a topic before forming a strong opinion. I also enjoy a good rabbit hole and the recent development with the "UFO whistleblower" is one that has gripped me. I believe in extraterrestrial life, I just find it highly unlikely that it's come to visit us. But then I can't help but wonder/worry about who would create such an elaborate hoax and why. Either aliens are being kept hidden from us (unlikely) or someone out there has created an intricate lie about how aliens are being hidden from us (more likely). It's a case where, no matter the truth, there is some sort of conspiracy going on and I find that intriguing.
Wilts71
New Member
Hello, I've always been interested in the paranormal, but aside from a few relatively minor incidents, haven't experienced anything myself too out of the ordinary.
UAP is my main area of interest, more specifically experimenting with image enhancement and analysis techniques (which, although I enjoy doing and have produced some interesting results, certainly cannot be relied on as scientific evidence).
Of course, recent advancement in video and imaging technology means that finding anything of genuine interest is a task in itself, so prefer to gather my own material to dive into and spend time on.
I've been videoing the night-skies whenever conditions allow since February 2022. I started out with the low-end SiOnyx Aurora Sport camera, but quickly upgraded to the Pro and have been using that ever since. Despite the camera's limitations, reviewing several hundred hours of night sky footage has given me a good basis for eliminating the mundane and quickly spotting something anomalous (of which there really hasn't been too much- around half a dozen).
Although I do have some theories as to what these objects might be, my own endeavours to get concrete answers haven't really been too successful. I've been aware of Mick's work for a while now and thought I'd really like to know more about approaching investigations in a more methodical and scientific manner, and hopefully get some more eyes on some of my more interesting captures?
Other than that, I'm pretty interested in the roles psychology and Consciousness may have to play in peoples sighting and experiences. Although subjective, I do believe it's important to keep an open mind to these possibilities, though I suspect that might not be something we'll be getting into here?
Cheers for having me.
UAP is my main area of interest, more specifically experimenting with image enhancement and analysis techniques (which, although I enjoy doing and have produced some interesting results, certainly cannot be relied on as scientific evidence).
Of course, recent advancement in video and imaging technology means that finding anything of genuine interest is a task in itself, so prefer to gather my own material to dive into and spend time on.
I've been videoing the night-skies whenever conditions allow since February 2022. I started out with the low-end SiOnyx Aurora Sport camera, but quickly upgraded to the Pro and have been using that ever since. Despite the camera's limitations, reviewing several hundred hours of night sky footage has given me a good basis for eliminating the mundane and quickly spotting something anomalous (of which there really hasn't been too much- around half a dozen).
Although I do have some theories as to what these objects might be, my own endeavours to get concrete answers haven't really been too successful. I've been aware of Mick's work for a while now and thought I'd really like to know more about approaching investigations in a more methodical and scientific manner, and hopefully get some more eyes on some of my more interesting captures?
Other than that, I'm pretty interested in the roles psychology and Consciousness may have to play in peoples sighting and experiences. Although subjective, I do believe it's important to keep an open mind to these possibilities, though I suspect that might not be something we'll be getting into here?
Cheers for having me.
Mendel
Senior Member.
You'll probably be interested in this recent discussion: https://www.metabunk.org/threads/major-ufo-experiences-are-specific-to-the-observer.13027/
Welcome to Metabunk!
Ann K
Senior Member.
Or option 3: people are misreading or misunderstanding natural phenomena. I think there's enough of that around that the "lie" hypothesis is not commonly needed for a story to have legs.
JWrightBrain
Active Member
Bonjour. I fell upon this site because Mick mentioned it in a tweet about the "MH370" videos. I'm a graphic designer with photo manipulation experience and I'm VFX savvy. Very much a skeptic but I'm not against people asking the questions about aliens, ghosts or paranormal phenomenon. I'm just against jumping to conclusions without proper evidence or reason.
DefinitelyHuman
New Member
I think that's true for civilians seeing UFOs... But Grusch claiming there's a crash retrieval program for them, that the US has ET bodies in a refrigerator somewhere and that he has spoken to dozens of people who claim to work in this program, that can't just be a misunderstanding of a natural occurrence, someone has to be deceptive there somewhere. Either he's lying, these people lied to him or these people have been deceived by someone else. Or it's true, but... yeah
Hey everyone! I've been a regular lurker for a long, long while now and after laughing about what my fiancé and I saw the other day (I may do a Skydentify post on it since I'm not specifically sure which precise vehicle it was, but I have pics) on a road trip they encouraged me to just make an account.
Lifelong hard skeptic, with a neck sore from all my head shaking lately at what seems to be increasing nonsense every day; it's nice to have a place where rational, patient, data-driven ideation seems at the forefront. It's good to have a place where feelings aren't facts and people are reluctant to dive head-first to conclusions.
Lifelong hard skeptic, with a neck sore from all my head shaking lately at what seems to be increasing nonsense every day; it's nice to have a place where rational, patient, data-driven ideation seems at the forefront. It's good to have a place where feelings aren't facts and people are reluctant to dive head-first to conclusions.
TobyAM
New Member
Hello, I'm a new poster, but I've been referencing the site for a while.
I'm a big fan of the analysis done here, which is sometimes the best around.
I come here from the frame of reference that truly mind-melting UFOs exist, as I spent a few minutes with one at very close range in 2012 as it silently and slowly hovered over the ground on the other side of the road from me.
Thank you for the work you do advocating for the knowns in cases.
I hope in the near future we have evidence that shifts perspectives in the same way mine was when the "impossible" confronted me.
I'm also leaving this comment to get verified because I have some evidence pending approval in a thread.
I'm a big fan of the analysis done here, which is sometimes the best around.
I come here from the frame of reference that truly mind-melting UFOs exist, as I spent a few minutes with one at very close range in 2012 as it silently and slowly hovered over the ground on the other side of the road from me.
Thank you for the work you do advocating for the knowns in cases.
I hope in the near future we have evidence that shifts perspectives in the same way mine was when the "impossible" confronted me.
I'm also leaving this comment to get verified because I have some evidence pending approval in a thread.
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Wilts71
New Member
Very interesting! thank you for the heads-up!
Haliate2854
Member
just found this via Mick Wests "About" section, had no idea this was here, fantastic
hey!
hey!
Druidgirl2
New Member
That had to be exciting and fun! I understand he was a dynamic lecturer
lara
New Member
Hello all! I've referred to this site on and off for years but I decided it was finally time to actually make an account.
A little background on me - I have a Bachelor's degree in Astronomy and continue to work in the field and I'm often the first point of contact for questions from the general public. Especially those "what was that light in the sky I saw?" questions, hence part of the reason I've come to this site from time to time. Not necessarily for exact answers to the question I received, but tips and hints on how to go about identifying something (if there is enough info, which often there is not). But I do have to say that it is very satisfying when there IS enough info and I can track down the exact satellite or fireball meteor event that someone saw!
A little background on me - I have a Bachelor's degree in Astronomy and continue to work in the field and I'm often the first point of contact for questions from the general public. Especially those "what was that light in the sky I saw?" questions, hence part of the reason I've come to this site from time to time. Not necessarily for exact answers to the question I received, but tips and hints on how to go about identifying something (if there is enough info, which often there is not). But I do have to say that it is very satisfying when there IS enough info and I can track down the exact satellite or fireball meteor event that someone saw!
joltcollective
New Member
Hello Everyone, Greetings From Denver, Colorado.
I am Diana working as a Digital Marketing Expert at Denver SEO Company Jolt Collective. I love to explore new things. Can't wait to check it out and hopefully be a great contribution to the forum.
I am Diana working as a Digital Marketing Expert at Denver SEO Company Jolt Collective. I love to explore new things. Can't wait to check it out and hopefully be a great contribution to the forum.
RobJF
New Member
Hi people, I'm Rob, 69m, retired and living in Scotland. I have a friend who's anti-vax and lockdown despite being intelligent (senior academic) and generally left-leaning, and two nephews who seem to have fallen under the spell of Jordan Peterson, so I'm mainly looking for anything that might help me help them. Also generally interested in the meta level. Looking forward to interacting with you guys.
Greetings all. I'm here because I question everything, and trust only those who I feel are genuine, well researched, .. and logical, lol.
Currently I'm curious how many here have seen meteorites close enough to see a tail as well as hear them? This has happened to me twice in 71 years! And yes SWR got my attention after a trip my wife & I took in the summer of 2021 where we were within about 50 miles of the Unita Basin when my cell phone started "pressing it's own icons", to the point that I had to buy a new phone. (But I kept the old one and once in Arizona and all the way home to the East Coast .. it's been fine!?).
So yes, I'm old, weird, and curious,
.
Currently I'm curious how many here have seen meteorites close enough to see a tail as well as hear them? This has happened to me twice in 71 years! And yes SWR got my attention after a trip my wife & I took in the summer of 2021 where we were within about 50 miles of the Unita Basin when my cell phone started "pressing it's own icons", to the point that I had to buy a new phone. (But I kept the old one and once in Arizona and all the way home to the East Coast .. it's been fine!?).
So yes, I'm old, weird, and curious,
.
BartekSitek
New Member
Hey!
I've been interested in the unknown since i've been a child, and now it's also a big part of what I do for a living.
I'm a polish variety streamer who likes to investigate polish UFO cases with my viewers. I discovered Mike a while ago, and his meticulousness has been a big inspiration. I've got some interesting cases that havent really found a bigger audience, which I hope to share with you in time.
I've been interested in the unknown since i've been a child, and now it's also a big part of what I do for a living.
I'm a polish variety streamer who likes to investigate polish UFO cases with my viewers. I discovered Mike a while ago, and his meticulousness has been a big inspiration. I've got some interesting cases that havent really found a bigger audience, which I hope to share with you in time.
Mendel
Senior Member.
My tablet would record "phantom presses" when I had it hooked up to a charger that was too strong. Some kind of electromagnetic interference with the touchscreen, I suppose.
Welcome to Metabunk!
FatPhil
Senior Member.
I've seen capacitive touch screens misbehave horribly in all kinds of moist environments. Hot and humid - phantom presses; been doing something exertive - phantom presses; raining - phantom presses; old person with papery dry skin trying to use it - no presses at all no matter how firm the contact is. Personally, I'm still on a phone with a resistive touch screen (from 2009), as I'd rather know that there's a 1-1 correspondence between my inputs and what the OS receives than have some silly /Minority Report/ swiping-flicking-zooming UI. And you can use resistive ones even when wearing bikers or skiiing gloves. At Nokia I maintained the touch screen driver for the phone I still use, and the guys who had the job of maintaining the drivers for the phones that came after it would often ask me to look at their drivers, and it was obvious that capacitive touchscreens are almost impossible to calibrate such that they'll always do what you want. EM Interference could absolutely cause what you saw. I'd not be surprised if sunspots could as well!
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