Austin Popper
Emperor of Antarctica
- Joined
- Aug 13, 2017
- Messages
- 1,504
- Location
- Colorado, where the gold is still elusive
Some things in this thread are bordering on what has become a pet peeve of mine. Too many people new to the UFO field seem to have the attitude that the people investigating cases like this were morons, or at the very least incompetent doofuses. Some of the people I've seen posting silly assumptions about famous old cases couldn't carry John Fuller's notebook, or Allen Hynek's pipe.
The real story of the early investigators is quite an interesting one. Many bright, well educated people (including a lot of professionals in various relevant fields) invented ufology by adapting investigative and analytical techniques used by those in law enforcement, anthropology, physical sciences, history and journalism. Many of them had the means and the contacts to do an excellent and thorough job of it even though it was essentially a hobby. They made dozens of phone calls when it was not cheap to do that, went and interviewed witnesses, examined sites, and consulted various experts in many fields. They did the legwork that so many "investigators" on the internet assume never was done. They weeded out thousands of hoaxes and honest mistakes as they went. Read some books before making silly pronouncements, armchair experts! Seriously, reading the detailed accounts of such investigations is fascinating. Those books are full of interesting details that never make it into the three-paragraph brain-fart blog entries most people seem to think ufology is about.
One of the most egregious examples of the kind of crap I'm talking about was making the rounds several years ago, when some arrogant twit decided that Lonnie Zamorra was a poor witness because he wore glasses. Morons. Some people still claim he saw some non-existent prototype for the lunar landers, a "theory" that's laughable for a good dozen reasons. Some of those reasons are so obvious it's beyond funny.
The idea that the MoD, Kodak, and whoever else was involved in the Templeton case lacked the means to extract whatever details exist in that photo, or weren't smart enough to think of doing it, is just lame. Military photo analysis was quite sophisticated decades before Photoshop was invented.
I'm sure it won't be long before some future generation assumes we all lived in caves before computers and the internet liberated us from our primitive state. /rant
The real story of the early investigators is quite an interesting one. Many bright, well educated people (including a lot of professionals in various relevant fields) invented ufology by adapting investigative and analytical techniques used by those in law enforcement, anthropology, physical sciences, history and journalism. Many of them had the means and the contacts to do an excellent and thorough job of it even though it was essentially a hobby. They made dozens of phone calls when it was not cheap to do that, went and interviewed witnesses, examined sites, and consulted various experts in many fields. They did the legwork that so many "investigators" on the internet assume never was done. They weeded out thousands of hoaxes and honest mistakes as they went. Read some books before making silly pronouncements, armchair experts! Seriously, reading the detailed accounts of such investigations is fascinating. Those books are full of interesting details that never make it into the three-paragraph brain-fart blog entries most people seem to think ufology is about.
One of the most egregious examples of the kind of crap I'm talking about was making the rounds several years ago, when some arrogant twit decided that Lonnie Zamorra was a poor witness because he wore glasses. Morons. Some people still claim he saw some non-existent prototype for the lunar landers, a "theory" that's laughable for a good dozen reasons. Some of those reasons are so obvious it's beyond funny.
The idea that the MoD, Kodak, and whoever else was involved in the Templeton case lacked the means to extract whatever details exist in that photo, or weren't smart enough to think of doing it, is just lame. Military photo analysis was quite sophisticated decades before Photoshop was invented.
I'm sure it won't be long before some future generation assumes we all lived in caves before computers and the internet liberated us from our primitive state. /rant