Another UFO reported over Shropshire
Friday 3rd September 2010, 7:00AM BST.
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Shropshire’s claim to the the UFO hotspot of the nation was given more weight today with another reported sighting in the skies over the county.
Strange lights in the sky are becoming commonplace in Shropshire and Stirchley, Telford, was the latest area to be added to the list.
- Add your UFO sightings and stories to the comment box below.
- Traditional complaints along the lines of “Why-oh-why does shropshirestar.com keep literally forcing me, practically at gunpoint, to read UFO stories?” to the usual address, thanks.
Shropshire Star reader Joshua Lester-Rigg said he witnessed “a huge fireball” crossing the sky and plumetting down to earth.
Joshua, from Stirchley, said: “I was in my back garden and was looking in the sky.
“I don’t know if what I saw was a UFO or a meteorite falling to the ground by Stirchley Fields and the Town Park.
“I only saw it for a split second but it was a huge, orange fireball and it was travelling at high speed diagonally towards the ground.
“The light appeared as bright as the moon’s.”
Joshua said he was wondering if any other readers saw what he did at about 9.15pm on Wednesday.
He said: “I wonder if anyone can tell me what it was I saw?”
Shropshire was known as a UFO hotspot as far back as 2008 when there had been more than 20 sightings in the county over the previous 40-odd years.
Joshua’s sighting is just the latest in a string in Shropshire which have left residents baffled.
Among the newest witnesses was the Shropshire Star’s very own video journalist James Shaw who saw – and filmed – an unidentified flying object over Shrewsbury on July 27.
Research, conducted by Virgin Media, saw the county achieve fourth place for the most UFO sightings behind West Yorkshire with 34 sightings, Nottinghamshire with 29, and Lancashire with 23.
The Virgin Media Files were compiled from data going back to 1961 and highlights 22 unexplained sightings in Shropshire alone.
They include a sighting on the A5 towards Telford, where a motorist saw 13 coloured lights in the sky which appeared to be circling an object about 100ft in size.
The research was carried out to mark a month-long Sci-Fi extravaganza on Virgin’s TV on demand service.
Nick Pope, the former head of the Government’s UFO project, said at the time: “While we currently have no explanation why certain places in the UK are alien hotspots, there are areas where mysterious objects are repeatedly witnessed, so people who want to alien-spot should definitely head to Shropshire.”
By Simon Hardy
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People should report more sightings like this. There is now an active UFO group for Shropshire based in Shrewsbury run by people like myself and others who research and investigate sightings etc. I witnessed the 1993 famous ‘Cosford Incident’ which to date still remains a big mystery.
I urge people who have sightings to report them and to look out for the UFO Forum Shrewsbury, its open to the public and everyone is welcome to come and share their views and stories with us.
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Why? It’s a Chinese Lantern. There has been a huge increase in Chinese Lantern’s recently, and I must admit when I first saw one, I thought I was onto a winner. Till I found out what it is.
Nothing strange or unidentifiable about this one…
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of course it was brett, 100 feet dia and flying at 600 mph, dam cleaver these chinese…….
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Hey Brett.get along to Specsavers mate and have an eye test.I have seen hundreds of these Chinese lanterns as have many other people in the sky and i have yet to see one that looks like this.The truth is we don’t know what these light phenomena are that people all over the world are seeing (similar to this)and that is where the name ufo comes from.I hope the Shropshire Star keeps publishing more stories like this to open up the closed minds of the sheeple !
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Hi Darren.I totally agree with you !
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Thanks Peter, some people clearly just cannot open their eyes up to this…
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how can i find this forum i witnessed a ufo event last night i have filled report with mufon and also sent it to west midlands upn investigator. Would like to find somewhere local i can report it though i have no footage so no point in sending to s star if you can post link on here or address please?
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“Why-oh-why does shropshirestar.com keep literally forcing me, practically at gunpoint, to read UFO stories?”
I think it’s because you’re all part of the same conspiracy……..
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Why-oh-why does a newspaper that im sure would like to be respected for the stories it publishes include that tag line with its article?
“Traditional complaints along the lines of “Why-oh-why does shropshirestar.com keep literally forcing me, practically at gunpoint, to read UFO stories?” to the usual address, thanks”
Sarcastic, childish response to comments regarding this kind of story.
Hardly a professional approach to dealing with complaints/comments
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What a load of tosh, until real evidence is revealed I refuse to believe these “lights in the skies” stories. There are a thousand and one things that it could have been, and if a red ball falling from the sky near the Town Park was a meteor, we would know about it. Do you realise how big an impact even a very small meteor would create after falling through the atmosphere?
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None whatsoever. Most meteors or ‘shooting stars’ are millimeters in size. Even the bright fireballs are often no bigger than a centimeter or two. And most don’t make it to the ground. Sorry Paul.
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all of you are in for a big shock, when a major airport has to close down because an unknown craft 100 feet long and covered in massive lights, cruses over. i think you lot are all going to need a lie down….im not jokin…..
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Can somebody call the nurse please! Has anyone got one of those nice jackets with the buckles at the back?
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Paul, that the whole point. These are Unidentified Flying Objects! When you say its tosh are you implying that these people really do know what they saw but the are just pretending that they couldn’t identify it?
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Another chinese latern someone spotted hoping to get their face on the news.
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This was most likely a Fireball, a bright meteor. It’s unlikely to have hit the ground as a meteorite, though it could easilyhave landed without anyone noticing a thing. It’s not unusual, there were showers of meteors coming across two weeks ago. I once stood on a hill in central Fance and counted twenty in the time it took to have a cup of coffee.
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Why did he say he seen the lights over “Shrewsbury” after returning from a “Shrowsbury Town” game ??
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flatroofstephen may be right, those showers we had a couple of weeks ago were immense…now don’t go harping on at me because I’m not into all this kind of stuff.
But after watching these showers while I was at a music festival out near church stretton with no sky glow you could pick up all the meteors in the sky. And for 3 nights I spotted approximately 50 each night.
As I said above I’m not a believer in all this stuff but after experiencing it firsthand it was truly amazing and words couldn’t explain what it was like.
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This Joshua describes exactly what it was he saw – a fireball. Probably one of the brighter Perseid meteors that have been happening in the past few weeks. As for the footage above, if it’s not a Chinese lantern it’s doing a very good impression of one. But I suspect the aliens/UFO people will find alternative explanations.
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Yep, chinese lantern. There was about 3 or 4 of these let off from Castlefields last night which floated over Shrewsbury Town Centre at around 9 o clock. I watched them from my patio and thought I must make a unique street side Blair Witch style commentry video of these tea lights encased in paper balloons but then realised I should maybe dedicate my recreational time to getting a life.
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Last night i got into bed around 12:45am
as i was watching my television…a huge white light came shooting down towards earth.
i have seen shooting stars and it was slower and alot bigger than any ive seen before.
i know for a certainty is wasnt anything man made. Just by the way it move.
To be completely honest i was waiting for a huge crash or shake. i thought it was a meteor but there was nothing.
i do beleive it was some sort of craft…asin ive never seen anything like this before and dont think i ever will again.
people who dont believe in aliens or UFO’s are very narrow minded to think in the space we have around us there is only us. ofcourse there is other life.
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There there love, those nasty lights won’t bother you anymore – time for a lie down I think!
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So aliens are travelling millions of miles across galaxies just to hover above Shropshire then disappear again? You think they’d go that few extra yards and actually land.
Isn’t it remarkable that even though nearly everyone carries a sophisticated camera attached to their phone, the advances in camera technology in the last few decades and a world covered in CCTV – all the UFO nuts are ever able to offer as ‘proof’ are a few blurry orange lights?
Forgive me if I don’t start stocking up on bottled water ready for the invasion! Perhaps give the X-files DVD a rest boys & girls.
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“Shropshire was known as a UFO hotspot as far back as 2008″ wow a hotspot for two whole years what a paranormal history we have! Another ridiculous article. I’ve given up buying the Shropshire Star these days as it is filled with nonsense written by amateurs. It appears looking at Facebook & Twitter each day & retelling those ‘stories’ passes as journalism if you work for this local paper. Taking quotes & photos from such websites is incredibly lazy. Time the Editor got a grip on his incompetent & self indulgent ‘reporters’!
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This is a definite Chinese Lantern and the flame just went out ….why oh why do people keep reporting obvious CL …believe me IF you EVER see a REAL UFO you will know it…apart from that the local group should just go and play bowling because thats the only thing that is round for them all lol.
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Hi,I live in Hadnall and around 9/9.15 on Wednesday night I saw a bright orange round object in the sky, I was looking north towards Wem. I didnt think too much of it at the time, but then it just totally disappeared.
It was larger, and much brighter than anything else in the sky at the time, and for it to just dissappear is very strange.
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Did anyone see the 4 strange lights in the sky last night about 9.10. Me and my boyfriend were in the garden watching the space station pass by, when I looked to the south and saw these strange lights in the sky, I showed my boyfriend who was amazed, they stayed in the sky and headed in a fornation south then they just disappeared. It was like magic.
We shall be in the garden again tonight to see if they come back!
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We are in kent
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hello people with these bad comments saying i want to be on the news is not true i just said if you weren’t so narrow minded John and read it properly it say i saw something don’t know what something i saw and i didn’t say it hit the ground i said it was coming to ground kinda similar to what Laura commented and you people who say it was an alien a ufo is an UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT (UFO) something what dosent look like an everyday thing that you see in sky like a plane or helicopter so being so narrow educate yourself on the what the word UFO mean.
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Hey Josh, maybe if it’s aliens they might have access to state-of-the-art technology such as full-stops, commas and apostrophes.
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A UFO is any aerial phenomena that is classed as an unidentified flying object in the sky !
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which is pretty much what i said but easier to understand for some people
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whats with ! putting that i reported it not anyone else
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Last night i was walking home, and suddenley, i shot up in the air, and found myself in some form of spacecraft. I was greeted by the captain of the ship who told me that he was going to take over the earth, “Tidy” I said, “any chance you could pop me back home before you do?” he did, ive got nothing against other life forms, all for it. great taxi service aswell!
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Has anyone started messing with their mashed potato yet?
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They peel them with their metal knives, boil them for twenty of their minutes, then they smash them up into little bits (fall around laughing)
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There are a lot of chinese lanterns being let off in shrewsbury at the moment but they are easy to tell in the sky now and are obvious.
Can i just add here that chinese lanterns move with the wind and not against it. A lot of sightings of orange spheres are moving in directions against the wind etc which rules out lanterns.
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Not true – wind direction can vary at various altitudes.
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yes i know that but we are taking about lanterns here they do not go higher than 2000 feet altitude.
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100 feet, 1000 feet or 10,000 feet it doesn’t matter. Wind speed & direction can vary at any height & speed usually increases with altitude so a fast moving light at altitude isn’t a surprise. The facts are all across the internet on scientific sites – perhaps you should be looking at those rather than the conspiracy theory websites!
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i’m hardley a conspiracy theorist and far from it, and yes wind speed and direction are different at different heights but we are talking chinese paper lanterns here which are very easy to spot and identify. Maybe we should ask the people who keep letting them off in castlefields….
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@ Darren
If Chinese lanterns are easy to spot in the sky then I would imagine a large spacecraft would be easier.
I do agree however that Chinese lanterns are tacky and common – perhaps just slightly less common than someone who watches Jeremy Kyle or pierces their babies ears.
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People are letting off chinese lanterns by the hundreds across the country. They look as if they are travelling very fast and yes they do disappear when the light goes out!!!
I am an amateur astronomer and even I have to check these things out with ny telescope and big binoculars. They normally come in fours or fives travelling with the wind direction.
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Surely if anything is moving above ground level and cannot be readily ascertained as to its origin, it is an UNIDENTIFIED FLYING OBJECT, isn’t the clue in the title?
It doesn’t mean that there are little green men out there, or silver robots that fire lasers if they are threatened, it just means that nobody has been able to prove what they’ve seen.
For all you Ufologists out there can I suggest you visit http://www.ebay.co.uk and in the search box insert ‘get a life’.
NaNu-NaNu
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Yup!
I’ve met more than my fair share of local UFO chasers including some who have been in the national press and they are without doubt the saddest ‘no marks’ you could ever imagine!
Perhaps that is why the staff at the Shropshire Star empathise with these losers – both are kind of similar really living in their own little bubbles and making up stories?
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Oh, you’re back, are you?
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I never went away…
It’s just there’s very little on this site worth commenting about!
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Oh, that’s never stopped you in the past.
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persona41, I do feel sorry for you, really. Do you honestly believe that in an infinite universe we are the only life form in existence?. We cannot discount the possibility of a superior life form somewhere out there, or have you perhaps been out there and proved that we are alone in our existence?. Maybe the Shropshire Star offends you so much because you don’t understand it. Stick with your Beano and Dandy type publications, you’ll be much happier.
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Colin – Did persona41 at any point state he didnt believe in the possibility of life elsewhere in the universe!?
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Life in another Galaxy in for form of bacteria or other micro-organism is pretty much a mathematical certainty. Are little green men going to all the trouble of defying the laws of physics & crossing the galaxy to spy on sleepy Shropshire? If they are why would they try so hard to avoid detection by keeping at altitude & flying at night – but then stick a big orange light on the bottom of the ship!? Yet despite all the super duper cameras in the world all we ever see is a blur.
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ok folks, .. NASA have been trying to find and to PROVE the existence of E.T. life, but missed out the reports in such quality journalism, including the esteemed ‘The Sun’ i guess its just part of what is called ‘silly season’ (do a Google search for that) similar reports have cropped up all at the same time, across several parts of the world. coincidence ? in the age of interconnected and global media corporations, and lazy journalists (most journalism is now done sat in an office with a web browser) and consider how some Youtube clips have spread over he internet like a virus, and you start to get the impression that not everything you read is true.. unless its about UFOs. just because YOU want to, or do believe, dont shut your mind to the opposing argument. or thats as bad and intolerant a mindeset as these religous nutters. i would LOVE undeniable tangible proof of ET .. but its not really there yet is it, a lot of evidence is out there, but internet culture and human psychology dictates the vast majority will be false. on this crowded planet many people are looking for recognition or to be noticed,, look at this vacuous celeb culture as proof. people just want to be famous, so albeit funny or clever elaborate hoaxes are blown up into Hysteria. i do believe the truth is out there, but just turn up your bull detectors eh folks ?
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On Saturday night I spent about a half hour watching a bright light over St Matthews Church in Donnington Wood. I thought is a UFO, is it a chinese lantern? No it was the police helicopter chasing some scally again!
Those are your UFO’s people!
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Re unusual sightings over Shropshire:
Driving home towards Newport I noticed an orange ball in the sky, it was stationary and I pointed it out to my friend who merely commented it was only the military up to no good again. She maybe right but this was well after midnight on friday night, then my husband was locking up his shed in the garden when he saw an orange ball going along on a straight trajectory northwards. Could be a chinese lantern, he remains unsure of this.
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The night sky is full of moving lights but the “UFO” reports come from people who rarely look up. If everyone in Shropshire spent an hour tonight looking at the sky, the reports of “UFOs” would be in the thousands. In reality, there aren’t many lights flitting about up there that cannot be explained.
There would be nothing wrong with me saying an orange ball was hovering in the sky at 10pm last night over Telford. The newspaper who prints my story of an orange ball, however, is going to look foolish, because the orange ball is the planet Jupiter.
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Well said Julian!
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Kelly, I believe he did, indirectly, unless of course he revels in calling himself a ” sad no mark loser”.
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don’t you just love the sceptics, full of it they are…
i’m kinda thinking that this thursday night will be a night to look up in the sky for an hour or three…
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Sceptics are full of what? The desire to see the slightest shred of hard evidence. I think we’d rather have that stance than the one that says ” I don’t know what it is, so it MUST be aliens “.
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Why, what’s happening Thursday? Are you letting off some more Chinese lanterns in the hope people will mistake them for aliens and not think you’re a fruitcake?
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maybe i will just light up a fruitcake and make it hover over your house…
another skeptic don’t you just love them lol!
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Unfortunately Darren I think you have the word “skeptic” confused with “realist”.
I would also like to add that ever since I was very young I have spent many hours staring up at the sky (my father is a keen amatuer astromoner, if there was a particularly good meteor shower/comet/planet close to the earth etc then we all went out into the garden to have a look!) and I have never seen anything I couldnt or he couldnt explain.
I have however encounted many people who know little about astronomy who have freak outs when they see something they dont understand. For example when I was at Shell Island last year and could see chinese lanterns being set off near Harlech, one of our party was convinced she had seen the light “move across the sky”. Which it just did not do.
Another example was a few weeks ago when my friend saw a satellite travelling overhead that looked like it was travelling very fast so he was convinced it couldnt possibly be a satellite, as they tend to look like they are moving fairly slowly.
The point here is that when the mind can not explain something it tends to find some otherworldly explanation.
And because papers such as the Shropshire Star like printing people’s random sightings it plants the idea in many people’s minds that aliens flying around could be the cause of something they couldn’t at the time explain.
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Nope Colin, I don’t believe that I said anything of the sort???
And talking of sad ‘no-mark’ losers perhaps you should learn how to properly reply to a comment?
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Persona, are you really saying you never called UFO chasers sad no marks and then accused them of making up stories, thus distancing yourself from their beliefs ?. You should, instead of castigating me, try to remember what you wrote in your first post.
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ColinD. you said..
‘persona41, I do feel sorry for you, really. Do you honestly believe that in an infinite universe we are the only life form in existence?’
Which I did not say at any point in any of my posts and I challenge you to point out where I did???
I did however call UFO chasers sad “no marks” who make up stories however I fail to see how that is incompatible with my belief that there may be other forms of life in the universe?
So let me make it clear..
Although I believe in the possibility of other lifer-forms I am distancing myself from the sad ‘no marks’ who: believe in little green men in their flying saucers and run around the country chasing crop circles and chinese lanterns – From your comments I assume that you are one of these people!
Is that clear enough for you?
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Don’t you know that the international Space station was visible from 9ish pm wed. again at just before 10pm. Same times on Thurs and Friday.
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Bloody repeats…
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Tehehe good response!
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No persona, I am NOT a UFO chaser. I have never seen one but I am prepared to believe that they are out there. You state that you believe in the possibility of other life forms yet distance yourself from people who believe that these ET beings may possibly be intelligent enough to travel from A to B. “Little green men” and “flying saucers” are the comic book representations of what these beings and their transport may look like, not verified facts so yes, I agree that such a description is fanciful. We have put men on the moon and sent a probe to mars. If such accomplishments had been suggested 50 or 60 years ago the person who suggested them would have undoubtedly have been written of as a “sad no mark”. You know, we are not really a very intelligent species using only about 17% of our mental capabilities so any species who could utilize the equivalent of 30% of our capabilities would be far more advanced than we are, maybe capable of extensive space travel.
Anyway, being as you said there was very little on this site worth commenting on, I feel I have done you a service prompting all these posts from you. My existence is justified.
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No Comment!
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I FEEL SO ALONE.
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Real evidence has been revealed!
I don’t know about those people who think its Chinese lanterns or something else, but in the past 30 years I have seen three, and each time had one or more witness with me. Being an engineer I can tell what’s a Chinese lantern and what’s not. I saw three mechanical objects at different times and each of different shape. Considering the first about 30 years ago in the 1970s was very big, at least the size of a football field and maybe bigger, I know it wasn’t a Chinese lantern and considering the way it moved with no sound and its speed when it moved off, it wasn’t an air balloon or any plane we had available. They had only just landed on the moon and this was far advanced, so believe it, they exist. Don’t take my word of it; take the words of the former Apollo Astronaut Buzz Aldrin in his UFO DISCLOSURE! Or listen to what Astronaut Gordon Cooper has to say about it. If you can’t believe the astronauts then I guess you won’t believe it if one lands on your lawn, so it will be a waste of time you looking at the links I give to you. Also the ex defence minister of Canada made a disclosure at a meeting with concern to the US still trying to tell people that it doesn’t exist, when the other countries know they exist and are now speaking out about the subject.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhElE3JILAE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBIK9TvZJSg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvPR8T1o3Dc
If you have no intention to believe the words of astronauts and a defence minister, then you will never believe.
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JOSH.DARREN.AND MONKEY GET A LIFE YOU MUPPETS
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