Welcome Thread - New Members Post Here

This thread is for any first time poster to (optionally) post an introductory "hi everyone" post, which will also get you "verified" (meaning you can post without anti-spam restrictions) once that post, and a few posts in another sub-forum, have been approved.

A few words on who you are and how you ended up here would be appreciated. Or just say hi

It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
Hello everybody. I just learned about meta bunk.org from watching a clip of Joe Rogan interviewing Nick West on chemtrails. I’m here to learn more about this and other topics.
 
hello, I'm jasmine, I stumbled on this forum by some youtube video mentioning it. and I was like: there's a site for dbunking nonesense on the internet and nobody told me..? so here I am ;)
 
Hi, I'm Maya, I'm one of those people who frequently has to debunk the things that my family ends up seeing on TV or Facebook.
I kept coming across Metabunk when researching, so I decided to sign up for an account.
 
Hi. Like your approach in trying to get to the truth of what is being posted as alien or unknown and wanted to keep updated on your findings. Been intrigued by the possibility of alien life or the whole meaning of our "reality." Ever since I was a kid and had a UFO club (with only one other member!) where we used a GI Joe space capsule as our token alien spacecraft centerpiece when we chanted for the aliens to appear. Yeah, we did that. :)
 
Hi I'm Dimitri, i took the last name of a guy that posted 9/11 conspiracies (just for privacy reasons).
I would very much like to debunk that guy and i'm looking forward to your comments.
 
I am everyone's researcher in my family and circle of friends, including many scientists, medical researchers, computer programmers, Makers, geeks, and nerds. Recently I've had more and more UAP questions than questions about cancer or Covid, debunking or questioning. So this is what brings me here. I have many questions about, the kinds of things that often fall on deaf ears of 'scientifically' minded people. I find too often that those who debunk need debunking as much if not more because it is easy to forget that you can still be biased. So, how do you mitigate bias?

Thank you for your time. I will post again soon after seeing what is being discussed here.
 
I am everyone's researcher in my family and circle of friends, including many scientists, medical researchers, computer programmers, Makers, geeks, and nerds. Recently I've had more and more UAP questions than questions about cancer or Covid, debunking or questioning. So this is what brings me here. I have many questions about, the kinds of things that often fall on deaf ears of 'scientifically' minded people. I find too often that those who debunk need debunking as much if not more because it is easy to forget that you can still be biased. So, how do you mitigate bias?

Thank you for your time. I will post again soon after seeing what is being discussed here.
Welcome!
Bias is all over the place.
I suppose the best approach is to stick to the facts and settled science and engineering principles.
You of course, need accurate observations about the "thing" in question.... to avoid GIGO - garbage in garbage out.

++++

With respect to explain the WTC collapses... NIST was the official voice. It does make one wonder how NIST arrived at their "theories"... what did they consider and discard? Why?
I find their explanations plausible but not necessarily THE explanation.
 
I find too often that those who debunk need debunking as much if not more because it is easy to forget that you can still be biased. So, how do you mitigate bias?
A good way to mitigate bias is to stick to evidence (and to not exclude any). That's why metabunk has been set up to discuss claims of evidence. We all have opinions about alien visitors, chem trails, or even moon landings, and discussing these topics in general leads nowhere quick. It's much more productive to analyse what a given piece of evidence means: and the outcome is often that a conviction (e.g. "that's an alien craft") is much more based on bias than it is on the strength of that evidence.

You probably going to feel welcome on most of our subforums if you're prepared to discuss (and quote!) evidence!
 
I am everyone's researcher in my family and circle of friends, including many scientists, medical researchers, computer programmers, Makers, geeks, and nerds. Recently I've had more and more UAP questions than questions about cancer or Covid, debunking or questioning. So this is what brings me here. I have many questions about, the kinds of things that often fall on deaf ears of 'scientifically' minded people. I find too often that those who debunk need debunking as much if not more because it is easy to forget that you can still be biased. So, how do you mitigate bias?

Thank you for your time. I will post again soon after seeing what is being discussed here.

i'm surely interested in what kinds of requests you are seeing these days. i'm not much of a UFO or 9/11 or Chemtrails or Truther or ... well much of what is posted here seems to be topics i'm pretty settled about. religion is a tough one for me. i have a background in that which makes me not really talk about it much with people i know, but i am interested in how people come to be such and how they've then questioned it and gotten away from it.

my own deaf ears are because i don't accept many of the premisses and i find much of the reasoning or arguments to be contradictory so in the end it isn't something that can be argued about so why waste my breath? instead i just point out that not everyone thinks as they do and that somehow we still have to figure out how to get along on some important things or the people's of the world will continue to be destructive instead of constructive. and if they haven't noticed the world is struggling enough as it is so do they think that partisan wars are a really good idea?
 
where we used a GI Joe space capsule as our token alien spacecraft centerpiece when we chanted for the aliens to appear. Yeah, we did that.
The G. I. Joe capsule was pretty bitching! I had a lot of G.I. Joe stuff, but never the space capsule. Welcome!
 
This thread is for any first time poster to (optionally) post an introductory "hi everyone" post, which will also get you "verified" (meaning you can post without anti-spam restrictions) once that post, and a few posts in another sub-forum, have been approved.

A few words on who you are and how you ended up here would be appreciated. Or just say hi!
upload_2013-11-7_15-17-0.png

It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
Hello. I live in Cheyenne, WY and I retired from the US Army in 2009.
 
Hi all, I was drawn to this site when I typed in Google search: "120-mile shot of San Jacinto proves flat earth, debunked" and it brought me here to Metabunk! I like to seek the truth, I am a born-again Christian and believe what Jesus Himself states unequivocally, that He is the way, the truth, and the life. A number of flat earth believers have crossed my path in the past 2 years or so, so I'm just checking as much info as I can.
 
Hi all! My name is Maria and I am a writer, I opened forums for myself for a long time both for communication and for searching for new topics for my articles and stories. Communication about new things inspires me, great site ;)
 
Hi all

I'm here because a year or so ago I got really into alien stuff from tic tac etc. Then I got even more into Mick talking sense to people on twitter/YouTube and now I feel sane again.

Have been a long term skeptic, loved watching amazing Randi vids, Hitchens, Dawkins on religion, etc. So felt a bit silly after 'seeing the light' with the UFO stuff.

I'd get quite intense talking to mates at the pub about aliens, and now I get really intense talking about how the US gov might just be a bit thick.

So thanks Mick!

Anyway, happy to be here. Looks like i'm going to be losing a night reading through threads on here now.

x
 
Hi all - I live in Sydney Australia and just decided to join a forum. I have had a long interest in UFO/UAP's for many years. I am a scientist - in Biotechnology and Biochemistry and work in Industry. Im looking forward to having discussions on the UAP forums even though I'm not an Astrophysicist or engineer by any means and its 30 years since I did Physics at University :D but I still am interested in this phenomenon.
My husband is a scientist with a PhD in Chemistry/Biochemistry and not interested in UAP's, neither are most of my scientist friends in different fields - so I am hoping to chat to scientists with an interest in researching the topic further.
Thanks for listening
 
Greetings! After decades of covering real spaceflight activity, the recent NASA announcement of a very preliminary and essentially unfunded UAP review has captured my attention. Just finished binge watching every Mick YouTube video, and I'm quite impressed with his technical analysis of UAP videos. I thoroughly enjoyed his informative presentations and find his thoughts on the matter mirror my own. Looking forward to observing the continued unfolding of this current UFO flap!
 
I'm a retired aerospace engineer with 35+ years experience with industry, NASA, and DoD. My area of expertise was aircraft mishap investigation and aircrew emergency egress and crash survivability. I'm also an amateur military historian with articles published in various military/aviation magazines in the US and UK.
 
Hello I am a previous anti-Mick West type who was sold on the navy ufo videos and the nytimes article. I decided I really needed to hear what the best arguments were against the explanation being physics defying new tech or an alien craft. So I reluctantly watched Mick West's youtube page. Previously I had avoided any video with Mick's name in the title or description. All I wanted to hear was how Mick was wrong. After sitting and listening to his videos in full, my view was altered completely and he humbled me big time. I cannot even begin to express how much I appreciate the work done here. I am so happy to have my views, beliefs, and opinions challenged because it helps me learn. Thank you so much.
 
Hi I'm more about providing evidence of extraordinary intelligence in antiquity. Offworld intelligences visiting earth for me personally is a no brainer. I have personal experience with this. But since most want a "smoking gun" as proof. I can't provide anything except anecdotal remarks. But I can challenge your beliefs!
 
Hi all! :) I'm trying to find evidence for the reality of anomalous phenomena. I know it sounds strange, but this forum is one of the few places where it is possible to do so.
 
Hello everyone. I found this site through Mick's excellent book "Escaping the Rabbit Hole" which was an important part of my journey from credulous conspiracy theory believer to skeptic and conspiracy theory debunker.
 
Hello people! I am an ex conspiracy theorist. I have been in the Conspiracy world for almost 12 yrs. It all started It all started when I saw a video by a conspiracy theorist on YouTube that exposed the flaws of the Old Testament. Then, I watched another video of his about conspiracy theories that are too bizarre and why he didn't believe them. Thus, my journey out of the rabbit hole of religion and conspiracy theories began. I found this forum and Mick's book. I also found other books, videos and forums exposing conspiracy theories and religion. So, I am learning new things ever since.
 
This thread is for any first time poster to (optionally) post an introductory "hi everyone" post, which will also get you "verified" (meaning you can post without anti-spam restrictions) once that post, and a few posts in another sub-forum, have been approved.

A few words on who you are and how you ended up here would be appreciated. Or just say hi!

It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
Hello everyone. Appreciate all of the work done here.

Scott
Retired firefighter/paramedic
 
Hi everyone!

Just after confirming my registration I read that this forum's purpose is verifying any extraordinary claim for its potential for being debunked. I'd like to know whether is that really its sole purpose.

I'm an Electronic Engineer hailing from Brasil. However, ever since my graduation in 1987 I never worked as an Engineer, as I wouldn't ever expect to get the whole day sat at the desk of an administrative office (which still is the ultimate fate of the vast majority of engineers in my country.) Furthermore, just half way of my graduation course I got very disappointed as it was increasingly too strongly rooted in Mathematics, besides its too practical a focus for what I initially thought an Engineering course to be concerning theoretical Physics. Later on, I unsuccessfulky tried to embark on a Physics course. Truth is I always abominated mathematics -- during my childhood I hid and destroyed three multiplication tables, to my Mamma's disgust -- but luckily my limited Maths knowledge isn't an obstacle to getting a basic acknowledgement of today's modern physics developments.

Thanks to the internet service at home since 2012, I managed to improve a lot my English language comprehension, an interest raised as a child while hearing my Dad speaking that language to me as well as submitting me to good English courses. I even worked for five years as Technical English translator for Xerox do Brasil but the company's implementation of translation bots in 1999 closed down the whole translation departmental division, alas.

But since 2013 I've been mostly on music social media -- firstly progarchives.com music forum; then progressiveears.org forum; now today Steve Hoffman music forum. Music has always been my longtime passion, especially Art Music.
Hopefully I finally retire in about six years (today that's my major goal.) Then immediately I'll go after my long time biggest dream of having some really great piano lessons in order to be forever playing (even if just more or less playing) my favourite classical piano pieces. There are actually SO many that I won't even know really where to start. Maybe is it a good pick by starting with Chopin?

Sorry for ending up boring you with a long post doing kind of my own bio instead of a brief introduction of myself. So finally getting to the point, what drove me to this forum is my increasing interest in the UFO Phenomenon (not phenomena though). In 2003 I witnessed a 20 mins. or so sequence of UFO sightings that literally changed radically my thoughts on this subject, it was even published on my county's official website back then. I'd like to know whether there's some thread where I can share and discuss my experience in detail. Thank you all!
 
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This thread is for any first time poster to (optionally) post an introductory "hi everyone" post, which will also get you "verified" (meaning you can post without anti-spam restrictions) once that post, and a few posts in another sub-forum, have been approved.

A few words on who you are and how you ended up here would be appreciated. Or just say hi!
upload_2013-11-7_15-17-0.png

It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
Just been kicked of a site after using Metabunk as a reference. Said to me MetaBunk was "alphabetti" I supposed she was referring to Google as in Alphabet Inc. Took great offence when I referred to Jim West as Jimbob and Wigington as Wigiwoker. Aid to me " Say hi to Mick West and his mates Ken Caldeira and Bill Gates for me. Ciao!! xx. Gave me a good laugh.
 
This thread is for any first time poster to (optionally) post an introductory "hi everyone" post, which will also get you "verified" (meaning you can post without anti-spam restrictions) once that post, and a few posts in another sub-forum, have been approved.

A few words on who you are and how you ended up here would be appreciated. Or just say hi!
upload_2013-11-7_15-17-0.png

It's highly recommended that you first read the Posting Guidelines:
https://www.metabunk.org/threads/posting-guidelines.2064/
Hello there Mick , As my metabunk name indicates I'm interested in all sorts of flying monkeys including flying shells . How did I become interested ? and why ? A lot of reasons really . The major ones : A few years before I decided to study the cultural content of the famous movie "Close Encounter of the third kind" and stumbled on ufology thanks to internet . I wasn't aware of ufology . I thought that Spielberg had invented a modern tale from Sci-fi. Born in the 70' I have lived a life focused on literature rather than on TV and a rather isolated life. Discovering ufology I was deeply amazed that our times have been able to give birth to what I first understood as an impressive contemporary mythology , something close to cults at first look .
But diving into it I was also interested by the fact that so called "experiencers" "abductees" and "contactees" shared stories resembling my own dreams I was myself exploring since age 6 or so , as a game and an intimate movie theatre . The only thing was that in my dreams there were no extraterrestrial beings ... Looking further into all this stuff I was really astonished to find a neurologist involved in ET "abductions" not as a healer but as a promoter of the idea anything of this was actually real .... John E Mack ... I was shocked ! But it's not this amazing as I personally know neurologists and psychiatrists being themselves prone to show their own strange behaviours and thoughts in their very specific educated manner . What they accept to address , being aware they are human to begin with , people like you and me , extreme normality being seen by them as another type of disorder . Deep reasons for me to be interested in all this is my real life experiences with insanity and how insanity may be preyed on by all sorts of people trying to suck you in their schemes , as I saw someone of my family being targeted by a cult because my relative was ageing to the point he wasn't able to be rational enough to understand what was happening . I have encountered abusers of different kind myself , and I've seen friends involved in dangerous cults by their own parents . The link with ufology is the presence of people resembling charlatans and people preying on other people's minds among the crowd of fascinated dreamers and people having had experiences of all kind . Then I have been struck by the expansion of fake news and lies and plot theories and I felt how dangerous it was . I became anxious about this and I searched for people able to understand this phenomenon in order to better understand it and to be reassured : what you understand becomes less frightening isn't it . Looking for answers and for specialists able to study all this in a proper manner I was algorithmically funnelled towards your Youtube channel and towards other people studying Fake news , cults , flying monkeys and so on , some of them scholars , some of them journalists , some of them debunkers , philosophes and scientists . I have an academic background in literature and I was aways interested in science . I became a contemporary artist and I'm working on different matters like globalization , WW2 , archeology , fairytales ( including sci-fi ) , poetry , langage , ethnology , semiology , everything useful to my works , my own live and my own fantasies , my familial history ... Close Encounter of the 3d kind was a nice object of study linked to US Art History and US culture. I'm doing such kind of research like a student would in order to increase my understanding and prepare a mandatory talk . What began as a research about a movie increased to extraordinary proportions . I was able to debunk one or another case myself : a 2008 UFO footage from Kumburgaz and Varginhia devilish alleged ET . I don't know yet if Metabunk already found answers about them , so I will look into it right after this introducing message . The first one probably showed the construction of a wind turbine and the second might be about indigenous tribe , but the problem with debunking from a laptop is that it's not always easy to find scientific precisions and someone able to ascertain what is to be found by non specialists . I couldn't engage with Turkish people as I don't know the langage but I have proofs anyway . And concerning Varginhia I would have to contact an ethnologist specialised in Amazonian Native tribes . Conclusion : I find your contributions excellent . It has been a while that I'm concerned by misuse of popularised science and by the way fairytales and science are mixed in our minds. I was educated in a cartesian medical surrounding . I like fairytales being fairytales , reality being steady and science being science . And I really like fairytales , but not interfering with solid reality. NB: I have read the guidelines before I wrote this introducing message : wise guidelines .
 
Hi. Dear Mick. I must say, your work and approach is quite amazing. I forwarded our name to the Danish Radio/Podcast show "Flyvende tallerken (Flying Saucer)". I'm sure I was not the only one :cool:

For years I worried about when all the conspiracy "stuff" would hit Denmark. Worry no more, I do. I have followed the UFO stories since the 80s in books and magazines. Then the internet came and I listened to Art Bell Coast to Coast about timetravellers and AREA 51. Around 2000 I discovered to my surprise, that some people actually believe it's all true and real. I just took it as pure entertainment and viewed it as a kind of sciencefiction/reality genre. And now I see the news and how completely misunderstood information is repeated over and over until it's the new truth. Like "the Pentagon videos showing this and that", when in reality it shows a dot on a screen and some data around the edge. So I really think your work is important. You said it, as I did years ago: The reason UFO pictures and videos are so poor quality and often just a white dot is, if we could zoom in se what is is, it would not be a mysteriously moving object defying known physics, but a plane, balloon, planet, star, something out of focus etc... they will always be that way.

I hope to contribute here - and learn more about talking to people about science.

My main interests is astronomy (cosmology), math, physics, biology, history, photography, movies and in general "how stuff works". And also how "people" works.

By the way, I am very proud of being from Denmark in a science perspective. We have had many great science contributions like Ørsted (electro magnetism), Steno (geology and age of planet), Rømer (Speed of light), Niels Bohr (quantum physics).

... can talk for hours, must sleep.

Attached is a measurement I did from a beach to a ship to confirm the earth curvature in a random direction.
https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1zeLg87-uGz5gNYDu3Y7xnOsRJXTKcnkq052yeyAgDUc/edit?usp=sharing
 

Attachments

  • Horizon hiding part of ship - calculation.pdf
    1.6 MB · Views: 113
Hi.
Found out about metabunk while reading the Amazon blurb for Escaping The Rabbit Hole.
What brought me to discover Mick's book? Specifically, I have a sister who is quite a long way to Wonderland and, though I don't see her often, I'm looking for a way to talk rationally and calmly with her about her beliefs. More generally, I occasionally come into contact with conspiracy theory proponents.
 
Greeting from Tucson AZ. Found my way here via Michael Shermer's Skeptics
site. Enjoyed the Gimbal debunk article.
Recently met someone who unbeknownst to me was an advocate of most conspiracy theories out there, she sent me to a couple of sites that quite frankly had some of the most deluded people one can imagine. I had no idea this level of conspiracy thought existed. I'm a semi-retired professional musician/composer, taught (adjunct) jazz guitar at the university & happy to be among the rational. Science has always been an interest, from grade school on.
Best~
Clancy
 
My uncle was in the Danish Navy and told me how instruments got fooled by weather and other things. But it is not that "black-and-white". You can have one person saying there is a ship on the radar (because the radar is telling you), and another saying, no look at the weather, the is a lot of fog and rain there, so wait and see. Then then "ship" disappears and weather clears up. So, was it a ghost ship, alien technology or weather. No one really knows. However, we know rain exists and ghost ships doesn't, so I will go for the weather explanation and move on. But the guy at the radar will still have his experience of a "ship" disappearing.

A navy ship was approaching a narrow bridge in a exercise. There was only room under the bridge for one ship at a time. It was heavy fog and the radar showed another ship on the other side of the bridge. The first ship moved slowly to the bridge, so did the other one, mirroring the movement. Then they stopped and the other ship did the same. Captain said "think I know what this is, move forward". The was no ship on the other side and the captain kind of took a change here. The assessment was: 1) Fog sometimes works as a mirror for radars 2) it is unlikely another ship will mirror your movements exactly. Was he absolutely 100% sure? No.
 
Greeting from Tucson AZ. Found my way here via Michael Shermer's Skeptics
site. Enjoyed the Gimbal debunk article.
Recently met someone who unbeknownst to me was an advocate of most conspiracy theories out there, she sent me to a couple of sites that quite frankly had some of the most deluded people one can imagine. I had no idea this level of conspiracy thought existed. I'm a semi-retired professional musician/composer, taught (adjunct) jazz guitar at the university & happy to be among the rational. Science has always been an interest, from grade school on.
Best~
Clancy
I am also a little surprised about what it has become. I have followed UFO stories since the 80's. But the whole conspiracy thing is worrying to me. Science is complex, math is not easy, scientist can be wrong. So there is a lot of room for speculations. I think UFO stories are great, but as entertainment. It also tells something about human behavior, society and media. Conspiracies and people getting into that is quite scary to me.
 
Oops, I still haven't made my "new member" post (I registered here in 2020). I'm sorry. About me: I am brazilian and I've always liked ufology, since my teen age. I was very curious about the subject. A few years ago, watching videos of "UFOS on the ISS", I looked up the source of the ISS live videos to try to check up it with my own eyes. Then I discovered the two NASA live streams on USTREAM. That was 8 years ago, and I fell in love with these broadcasts. Since then, I learned a lot about the ISS and about what I was seeing, and I saw that those videos from the past were just nonsense and misinterpretation (and in some cases, even bad faith). Two years ago I got tired of this and started making videos on YouTube explaining to the lay public what these "mysterious" images are all about. This led me to know the universe of ufology more closely and I ended up getting to know this community. I have a background in veterinary medicine, good visual memory and some ability to abstract and recognize patterns. I hope I can make some contribution to this community. I stream the ISS live feed daily on my YT channel, with tracker and some live telemetry data, be welcome to do a visit there. I do my videos in English in order to reach a wider audience. Note: English is not my native language, so I'm sorry if I make any mistakes in the language or interpretation.
 
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