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]

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.

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

http://www.realitytvworld.com/news/...ve-dueling-ufo-hunters-debuts-jan-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 don't have it, I never thought there would be a time in my life where I would want to watch 2 different things

 

[Ivan Seeking]

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.

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.

Maury Island’s UFO: 60 years later, the mystery lingers
By Amelia Heagerty
Jun 20 2007

Roswell, once just a military base in the New Mexican desert, is known today as the site of the United States’ most high-profile and controversial UFO sighting and crash. But few Islanders know that Maury Island was home to the first alleged UFO sighting in U.S. history, and it took place weeks before two crafts fell from the sky in Roswell.

Tomorrow marks the 60th anniversary of the Maury Island Incident, as it was later dubbed in books and newspaper articles. It took place in June 1947, two years after World War II ended. The nation was abuzz with paranoia and suspicion, and it was in this atmosphere that first one, then two, then hundreds of Americans reported seeing strange, unidentifiable, usually saucer-shaped, objects whizzing through the sky.

These were the incidents that triggered UFO hysteria, which gripped the nation for decades and spawned countless movies and books. But it all started with one close encounter. One X file. It all started with Maury Island.[continued]

http://www.vashonbeachcomber.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=90&cat=23&id=1009159&more=0
https://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?p=1361096#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]

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?

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.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

Oh yes, they also caught something that I had missed. It is claimed that the Maury Island UFO event occurred three days before the Kenneth Arnold siting, but the catch is that it was first reported three days AFTER Arnorld's report.

That changes things quite a bit! And to their discredit, the UFO Hunters brushed over this point very quickly, however, they did at least include the information.

 

[Ivan Seeking]

I watched what was I think the second or third episode on THC, and what a total load of donkey doo doo that was! What really got me was the radio frequency allegedly being emitted by the "implant" that was later removed. Using a freq scanner they detect radio waves in one location but never verified that this was detected only when the person with the "implant" was present - they never test to see if this is just background noise! Then, when they don't detect the RF later at another location and after the "implant" has been removed, rather than assuming they had detected background noise, or at least checking, they conclude that the emitter has been turned off [presumably by the aliens]!

These guys are either a bunch of nitwits and clowns, or con men, or both. They leap to completely unsupportable conclusions based on classic pseudoscience. Then they mix in just enough real testing to make it seem legit. I would bet that eventually the guy from MIT will quit out of disgust.

Oh yes, the gaussmeter test was also completely bogus. Of course they will detect a magnetic field after exposing iron to a very strong magnet. I've seen better scams at Amway meetings.