Wierd Phenomena

[Pogle]

No, Warton build aircraft, weird and wonderful ones but not missiles.

I've worked at Warton, they don't build the missiles, but the aircraft do carry them.

[BrowneIssue]

On boxing day last year, a Chinese lantern flew over cheddar. It was orange, and was glowing from the candle inside it.

It looked really great on an ice cold day silently floating over the house.

Thank you. I saw scores of glowing orange things in groups of three, floating over Bognor Regis at Xmas in the night.

That matches what I saw very nicely.

(Sorry, I didn't phone the police, the RAF or the papers. I didn't panic, claim to have been abducted by aliens or a reincarnation of a South American space-faring Indian. I just thought "Interesting. How did they do that? And is it dangerous to light aircraft or likely to cause fires downwind like Luftwaffe incendiary bombs?". Am I normal?)

[FSM with Cheddar]

Maybe it was. In fact it was the one wierd experience that really made me a skeptic. I have never believed the little green men theories, although ball lightning intrigues me. Unfortunately it's one of those mysteries that seems to attract a lot of loonies, so a really good scientific explanation of the phenomenon and a good description of how it looks might help me to clarify what I think I saw.

Equally, if it's just a faulty memory, I find it interesting to know why the brain would act that way; what evolutionary purpose is served by a memory that isn't real?

I saw an interesting horizon program (probably 10 years ago or more) on ball lightning. They tried to replicate it, and managed to do it for a split second (I think).

Here is a link to the sort of think that few over cheddar: Linky.

Faulty memory is very interesting. I recently read "A mind of its own", which has quite a lot on false memories. It generally boils down to:
The deluded brain: It can't take in all the information, so it has to make a lot of it up. - We think we are seeing reality, when what we are actually seeing is our brains best guess.

The pigheadded brain: False memories are useful in keeping us feeling important and right. If we actually realised that we are not important and that our view is probably wrong, then suicide may become more desirable.

[Mich the Tester]

On boxing day last year, a Chinese lantern flew over cheddar. It was orange, and was glowing from the candle inside it.

It looked really great on an ice cold day silently floating over the house.

Loads of people starting writing into the local paper about seeing a UFO. The discussion went on for weeks about the silent power source etc etc. There were people saying that they used to be sceptic, but after seeing it themselves they now believe.

I wrote in, identifying what it really was, and asked people to return to their normal sceptic self.

Perhaps it was the same thing?

Maybe it was. In fact it was the one wierd experience that really made me a skeptic. I have never believed the little green men theories, although ball lightning intrigues me. Unfortunately it's one of those mysteries that seems to attract a lot of loonies, so a really good scientific explanation of the phenomenon and a good description of how it looks might help me to clarify what I think I saw.

Equally, if it's just a faulty memory, I find it interesting to know why the brain would act that way; what evolutionary purpose is served by a memory that isn't real?

[FSM with Cheddar]

On boxing day last year, a Chinese lantern flew over cheddar. It was orange, and was glowing from the candle inside it.

It looked really great on an ice cold day silently floating over the house.

Loads of people starting writing into the local paper about seeing a UFO. The discussion went on for weeks about the silent power source etc etc. There were people saying that they used to be sceptic, but after seeing it themselves they now believe.

I wrote in, identifying what it really was, and asked people to return to their normal sceptic self.

Perhaps it was the same thing?

[Mich the Tester]

No, Warton build aircraft, weird and wonderful ones but not missiles.

Then it was a very small aircraft. It was a little larger than a basketball. Anyway my uncle was an engineer at Warton. He talked about his work. Top secret, he said top secret!

[Churchill]

You mean it could have been a stray missile? Bloody close shave if it was.

No, Warton build aircraft, weird and wonderful ones but not missiles.

[Mich the Tester]

Bear in mind that Warton is just south of Blackpool...

You mean it could have been a stray missile? Bloody close shave if it was.

[Churchill]

Bear in mind that Warton is just south of Blackpool...

[Mich the Tester]

Sounds like a frisbee or possibly even a space hopper.

Hmmm, no, it flew straight toward the caravan from some distance; we were standing in the back. It then flew very low over the caravan. There was nobody in visible distance throwing Frisbees as it was pissing it down. Spacehoppers weren’t luminescent in those days.

[BrilloPad]

It was Zeity out for his morning ride.

[PRC1964]

Sounds like a frisbee or possibly even a space hopper.

[Mich the Tester]

When I was about 7 I saw a pinky-orange, round luminescent object flying through the sky toward my granny’s caravan and my mate (who was there too) said it was ball lightning. Was it ball lightning? Was it an alien spacecraft? Or does my memory deceive me and was it a dream? Was it a collective hallucination brought on by the immeasurable tedium of a rainy holiday in Morecambe Bay?


Bear in mind, I have no idea where my mate lives now so I can't ask him if he remembers.

Skeptics and believers welcome.