OT How many of you believe in aliens?

[ThrowAway]

this all happened in a span of a couple of seconds. It was awesome. Although it wasnt an alien ufo it still um for lack of a better way of explaining it, thrilled me. I was totally sober and so was my friend, she looked because I looked at the same time. the plane was going the same direction as my car andit just happened to catch my attention at the right time with the right angle to see it all. I didnt mention that I was maybe 5 miles from macdill airforce base.

[abort]

So what kind of aircraft was this. did you ever find out?

[ThrowAway]

It was some kind of normal sesna prop plane looking airplane. It was the engine that was special. I think it was referred to as a pulse engine. the light being put off was just like a smaw machine but way more intense, it lit up everything in my field of vision.

[abort]

Pulse engine ..I'll talk with me brother about that one.

[drako]

http://www.esa.int/esaCP/SEM4SJZVNUF_in ... l#subhead3

[Machinesworking]

Isn't the whole obsession with North Americans and aliens merely a metaphor for their xenophobia?

Crop Circles.
Your population is retarded enough to think that aliens knocked down wheat in fields to make pretty patterns.
Admit it, there's no rational thing you can say to defend this.

[UKRuss]

Apollo 8 is a stunning journey. Jim Lovell is THE man! Fascinating stuff.

actually a few months ago I was at a conference and got to see Admiral Ken Mattingly speak. he was the guy that was exposed to measles and had to sit out the flight while his buddies went up. amazing stuff. he mentioned the movie a lot and said Gary Sinise downplayed his reaction about being told he couldn't go on the flight. Mattingly said he acted like a MAJOR drama queen cry baby for days on end. otherwise he said the movie was well done.

That was, of course, Apollo 13. The audio data from that flight is not, unsurprisingly, available. Nah, I mean Apollo 8, they went all the way to the moon but were never meant to land on it. So That means Lovell was the only astronaut to go to the moon twice....and not land on it. Gutted!

I can only imagine Mattingly's response, i think I would have been the same...to not have gone? Gutt3ed, totally gutted, but on the other hand...with thebay 13 turned out. Lucky too.

[UKRuss]

Isn't the whole obsession with North Americans and aliens merely a metaphor for their xenophobia?

Crop Circles.
Your population is retarded enough to think that aliens knocked down wheat in fields to make pretty patterns.
Admit it, there's no rational thing you can say to defend this.

Other than no-one in the UK actually believes that aliens made them.

I live down in Sussex, I know people who make them, and while they are idiots (quite creative)they are not aliens. Although one of them is from Kent so...you know.

[UKRuss]

It's one of those things I mean to do sometime, read up on the 'otherness' and allegorical nature of US sci fi, and also horror. The golden era horror from the States in the 60s and 70s, Romero stuff, Original chainsaw massacre, really reflective of the watergate, 'Nam era. I did start to read 'Planks of Reason' once...but like everything in life. I NEED 36 HOURS IN THE BLOODY DAY!

More power to you. Your proposition that the 60's & 70's were the golden era for horror & sci-fi in the states is interesting. For sheer volume of films, you may be right. Plus the subject matter was maturing. But we did have a wealth of sci-fi throughout the 1950's, much of which does illustrate your point about xenophobia, fear of communist takeover, etc. In fact, I would argue that it is in these films from the 50's that we witness these particular fears articulated more than in any other era.

In the 60's, & particularly the 70's, we began to see new horrors emerge: the fear of our own dissolution from within, brought about by our own children, our government, radical political movements, our bodies, & our very psyches. George Romero showed us a daughter killing & eating both her mother & father. The Exorcist scared us with a child misbehaving in a most remarkable way. Director David Cronenberg gave us his 'body horror' films with Shivers (aka They Came From Within), Rabid, & The Brood, then later one of his masterpieces: the remake of The Fly.

Psycho & a slew of other films in its wake, showed us that the boy or girl next door could murder us at the first opportunity. Add the rise of documented serial killers & mass murderers to the mix, & apparently no one is safe.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre & Deliverance articulated the urbanites fear of what later became known as the Backwoods Brutality films.

Interesting, many of these films are being remade in more recent times (1990's & 2000's). The USA is again mired in a war that is not supported by the majority of the people, scandals that make Watergate look fairly tame are rocking society, & people are seeing their futures becoming increasingly uncertain. In short, people are afraid.

edit: The thing about the mass appeal of ID4 is that it strikes a chord in the psyche of the majority of the US public. A malignant enemy, seemingly unbeatable but one man, one american hero, can save the world. And at the end of the film the whole world cheers in appreciation of being freed!

It appeals to the masses, for a reason. It wasn't a big film in Iran I suspect...

ID4 was an embarrassment. A big budget Ed Wood Jr. film! ~My apologies to Ed Wood, I really enjoy his films!

Defintely should have included the 50s of course, like i say, it's on my list to read up some more.

I hate remakes for this reason that they remove all the social statement the originals had. The Chainsaw Massacre is the best example...the remake is utterly pointless.

Interesting stuff, fo sho.

[oblique strategies]

It's one of those things I mean to do sometime, read up on the 'otherness' and allegorical nature of US sci fi, and also horror. The golden era horror from the States in the 60s and 70s, Romero stuff, Original chainsaw massacre, really reflective of the watergate, 'Nam era. I did start to read 'Planks of Reason' once...but like everything in life. I NEED 36 HOURS IN THE BLOODY DAY!

More power to you. Your proposition that the 60's & 70's were the golden era for horror & sci-fi in the states is interesting. For sheer volume of films, you may be right. Plus the subject matter was maturing. But we did have a wealth of sci-fi throughout the 1950's, much of which does illustrate your point about xenophobia, fear of communist takeover, etc. In fact, I would argue that it is in these films from the 50's that we witness these particular fears articulated more than in any other era.

In the 60's, & particularly the 70's, we began to see new horrors emerge: the fear of our own dissolution from within, brought about by our own children, our government, radical political movements, our bodies, & our very psyches. George Romero showed us a daughter killing & eating both her mother & father. The Exorcist scared us with a child misbehaving in a most remarkable way. Director David Cronenberg gave us his 'body horror' films with Shivers (aka They Came From Within), Rabid, & The Brood, then later one of his masterpieces: the remake of The Fly.

Psycho & a slew of other films in its wake, showed us that the boy or girl next door could murder us at the first opportunity. Add the rise of documented serial killers & mass murderers to the mix, & apparently no one is safe.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre & Deliverance articulated the urbanites fear of what later became known as the Backwoods Brutality films.

Interesting, many of these films are being remade in more recent times (1990's & 2000's). The USA is again mired in a war that is not supported by the majority of the people, scandals that make Watergate look fairly tame are rocking society, & people are seeing their futures becoming increasingly uncertain. In short, people are afraid.

edit: The thing about the mass appeal of ID4 is that it strikes a chord in the psyche of the majority of the US public. A malignant enemy, seemingly unbeatable but one man, one american hero, can save the world. And at the end of the film the whole world cheers in appreciation of being freed!

It appeals to the masses, for a reason. It wasn't a big film in Iran I suspect...

ID4 was an embarrassment. A big budget Ed Wood Jr. film! ~My apologies to Ed Wood, I really enjoy his films!

Defintely should have included the 50s of course, like i say, it's on my list to read up some more.

I hate remakes for this reason that they remove all the social statement the originals had. The Chainsaw Massacre is the best example...the remake is utterly pointless.

Interesting stuff, fo sho.

Very few remakes have any real worth when compared to the originals. Here are some that really work:
The Thing (1982) John Carpenter
The Fly (1986) David Cronenberg
Nosferatu (1979) Werner Herzog

[Machinesworking]

Isn't the whole obsession with North Americans and aliens merely a metaphor for their xenophobia?

Crop Circles.
Your population is retarded enough to think that aliens knocked down wheat in fields to make pretty patterns.
Admit it, there's no rational thing you can say to defend this.

Other than no-one in the UK actually believes that aliens made them.

I live down in Sussex, I know people who make them, and while they are idiots (quite creative)they are not aliens. Although one of them is from Kent so...you know.

Bullshit, they now know that they were man made, but plenty of UK folk believed in that crap.

The US doesn't have the market cornered on gullibility, we just have a large investment in it.

[UKRuss]

True, there are fools everywhere.

I suppose my stand point, on a serious level, isn't that US citizens are more or less gullible but that there must be some very interesting socio political reasons through US history as to why these stories, films etc. evolve.

For example, the situation with alien abduction stories is not the same in Nigeria, or Outer Mongolia ( as far as I know)

It's interesting is all, whether you believe or not.

[8O]

About six months ago I was driving home with a friend talking with the windows down and the radio off. We were driving down a small road with a school to our right and a fairly large open field when I saw a plan which looked to a sesna prop plane about 150 ft up when I saw a huge flash of white light, it looked to me like the same light thats giving off from the electric arcs I see welding all the time. This light lit up everything, it was awe inspiring. then for a split second the plane stood still and then flew off at the speed of a shooting star with no sound. Months later after speaking with a couple of people I was informed that this type of engine was just declassified. I saw a pretty bad ass ufo.

I was driving home from work, one winter evening, when I saw two lights emanating from a strange object in front of me. My car began to lose power and eventually stopped. It was completely dark. Then strange circles of white light began to flash on and off. The next thing I knew it was fifteen minutes later and I was travelling down the road in a different part of the village. I am convinced I was selected by aliens earlier in the day and later rejected.

[freqn]

I believe in LFO zipping through our universe.

[abort]

hitler's Flying Saucers
A Guide to German Flying Discs
of the Second World War

http://missilegate.com/rfz/vril.htm