UFO Hunters on The SciFi Channel and The History Channel

Ivan Seeking

This show premiers tonight at 10 PM. I expect it to be a bunch of hype, but we will see.
http://www.scifi.com/ufohunters/

I think it is the first regular series to address the subject of UFOs exclusively.

Evo

Nope The History Channel is also airing their series called UFO Hunters tonight at 10pm EST.

http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/h...an-30-6465.php

Ivan Seeking

Oh wow, I have seen both advertised but was thinking they were the same show!

My gosh, what am I going to do now? I'm all atwitter.

hypatia

Wow, is it a sweeps week? I wonder which one to watch?

Evo

Now I wish I had kept the other tv's, I could sit them side by side and watch both. Do you have TiVO?

Here is what the History Channel show will be on.

Six "doughnut-shaped aircraft" were spotted off the coast of Maury Island, WA one week before the reported UFO crash in Roswell, NM. Harold Dahl and his son witnessed the aircraft dancing in unknown form and one spewing white-hot fragments over the water and beach. The falling debris killed Dahl's dog. The military was informed and two Air Force intelligence officers arrived in Tacoma, conducted interviews and collected the remaining wreckage. The officers departed from McCord Field but their plane lost communication and crashed near the town of Kelso. Now our team has located the crash scene and together with an archeologist, will scour the debris field and analyze the evidence.

Sci-Fi channel -

The team looks into a sighting so large, it was seen in two states and a fireball that fell into New Jersey waters.

hypatia

I dont have it, I never thought there would be a time in my life where I would want to watch 2 different things

Ivan Seeking

I'm impressed so far. That is an interesting but somewhat obscure event. This was also three days BEFORE what is usually touted as the first UFO event in the modern [post WWII] US - the Kenneth Arnold siting.

It would be most interesting to know if Arnold knew about this event. There were no allusions made to this in the media hype surrounding Arnold's siting.

chroot

Hmm.. I may actually watch one of these.

- Warren

Ivan Seeking

We had a bit about this in the UFO News Thread. Unfortunately the link to the local news story about it does not appear to be good any longer.

http://www.vashonbeachcomber.com/por...1009159&more=0
http://www.physicsforums.com/showthr...96#post1361096

hypatia

I thought the UFO hunters show was fun, until the end. Notice that the lab guy poured a powder next to the slag, then ignited the powder, which flashed like gun powder. The slag briefly got hot, but it did not burn. I did not conclude any plane would crash, due to slag.

Ivan Seeking

Eh, I thought it was pretty bad; way too much hype and far too little substance. It was "Ghost Hunters" quality.

Did anyone watch the SciFi channel's show?

Evo

I went back and forth, The History Channel one had them beat hands down, but they both were disappointing.

SF

Shame on Discovery Channel/History Channel/etc for engaging in cheap disinformation.

In a few year they're going to merge in "9/11 INSIDE JOB KENNEDY NAZI UFOS REPTILIAN GREY ALIENS JEW CONSPIRACY NEW WORLD ORDER BILDERBERG ILLUMINATI CHEMTRAIL Channel".

Ivan Seeking

What disinformation did then present?

SF

I didn't watch this particular show, but from the other ones I've seen these so-called "intellectual" tv stations are acting as enablers for pseudoscience: ghosts, cryptozoology, etc.

They got friends of mine to believe in ghosts. 'nuff said.

Ivan Seeking

The existence of ghosts is a claim, not a pseudoscience. It is important to recognize the distinction between claims, which are nothing but a report of events according to alleged witnesses, and pseusoscience, which relates to improper or unreliable methods of investigation, and irrational or unsupportable interpretations of evidence. The claim that ghosts - a word associated with many claimed phenomena - are the souls of the dead is an unsupportable interpretation of anecdotal evidence, hence pseudoscienfic. On the other hand, if a person claims that an ordinary object inexplicably flew across the room, that is a claim and not pseudoscience.

When the Ghost Hunters interview witnesses, that is just collecting information. But when they run around with temperature probes and EM detectors as if they know what they're doing, it makes for good comedy!

But it takes quite a leap of faith to assume that these shows are on the level. And I agree that on the show Ghost Hunters, for example, they are engaging in classic pseudoscience! On the other hand, they do claim direct videographic evidence of phenomena that certainly appear to be inexplicable, so it appears that either they are lying, or not. Lying is not pseudoscience; lying is lying.

Ivan Seeking

Although IMO the show was mostly hype, I do have to give credit to the UFO Hunters [on TLC] for this: They collected suspected physical evidence for a claim and had it properly tested by qualifed professionals. The test results showed that the samples were easily explained as being natural - nothing more than little volcanic rocks - and they reported these results at the show's end. So, they at least gave the appearance of doing real science as a part of their effort.