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Pseudo-UFOs on web forums and the mass-media:
Woo Woo effect - a UFO flies over president Obama and a huge crowd!
During a CNN news broadcast on January 20 2009, there was an outside footage about the inauguration of the new president of the United States, Barrack Obama.
Compressed web version of the video are on the CNN website at:
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2009/01/20/inaug.blitz.gergen.obrien.cnn?iref=videosearch
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/01/20/obama.inauguration/index.html#cnnSTCVideo
Then, several forums and sites of the "webufology" kind, the kind of ufology done by calling "UFO" all and anything from any image or video from the web, created a true Internet "buzz", then a media buzz: A UFO flew over president Obama in front of thousands of people!
And of course, there were claims of "scientific proof" that this UFO flew at speeds such as daring to suggest that it was a bird is ridiculous. So-called "UFO speed" figures circulated from one web forum to the other to UFO mailing lists and blogs, and then on websites of the sensationalist press, such as in this article of free Swiss tabloid newspaper "20 minutes":
Source: http://www.20min.ch/ro/news/monde/story/Un-ovni-present-lors-de-l-investiture-de-Barack-Obama--10905626
Not only is this "UFO" presented as factual and "crossing the sky of Washington", but also, it is said that for "other observers" it move too fast to be a bird and that "others finally rest on scientific proof to estimate the speed of the object and to conclude from this that the object flew at the speed of 2000 km/h."
I then started to search this "scientific prove" which must comprise the exploit to give the speed of an object said to be unknown, of an unknown size and at an unknown distance. I was not disappointed: silliness everywhere...
Speed is flatly said to be "Mach 30 at least" on this forum:
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message710190/pg6
On the same forum I read: "Again, what BIRD can fly at 800 MPH?????":
http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message710190/pg10
The heat comes quickly, since some participants tried to explain the obvious, that one cannot measure absolute speed of an unknown object of unknown size at an unknown distance:
"Hellooooo????? Did you look at the video???? 8 seconds into it from right to left behinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnd the monument.......!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
See: http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message710190/pg9
Looking for those "scientific proof" of a speed, I also found:
"I make an evaluation of the speed. It could have been some hundred miles per hour. I'm not an expert. But then again, find me a bird or an insect that can travel as fast as this thing on the video and then I'll believe it was an INSECT."
Cf. http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message710190/pg10
Then, somebody speaks about methodology but ends up saying that since speed is unknown he wants to use the rate of the change of size as a variable for an equation giving the speed but he must lunch now and would tell more about it later.
Another gentleman finally admits that it could have been a bird. Another one speaks of a speed "aprox 1,500 fps".
Finally, I find something that was quoted later by others:
"The field of view is easily a mile to mile and a half. It passes that field of view in approximately 1.5-2 seconds. That puts it's speed at roughly 1800-3600mph. depending on which parameters you choose to use."
I also find somebody who "calculates" the speed... based on the on speed:
Author Whitley Strieber, who claims to be an "abductee", gives the news:
http://www.unknowncountry.com/news/?id=7355
"During Obama's inauguration, CNN broadcast an image of a UFO—is this a portent for the future? Or is it a bird close to the camera...or a surveillance blimp in the distance? So far, nobody has come forward to explain it, and the speed with which it moves would seem to put to rest the possibility of it being a blimp."
On the French website "UFO USA" by Didier de Plaige, there are several idiocies fished among the comments of other forums for example, such as "the panorama extends on 1,5 to 2 kms. The UFO crosses this in 1,5 to 2 seconds. Its speed thus is between 1800-3600mph (2.900 - 5.800 km/h)."
On the web forum of the same website "UFO USA", stupidities of some participants abound, such as "a gray insect is impossible" (oh really?), fortunately, a good proportions of participants realized that it is a bird, and as regards "measurements" speed, one finds this gem:
"It would be necessary to measure the speed of the so-called "bird", but it seems to me that it goes much more quickly than a jet fighter, to give an estimate I would say between 2000 and 3000 klm/h."
Cf. http://icietmaintenant.fr/SMF/index.php?topic=6634.30
That's what the "20 minutes" tabloid article called "scientific proof" (?).
Perhaps it is time to give up the hope for "scientific proof" of any speed, impossible when neither size nor distance are known, is it time to stop reading the ufological stupidities on web forums included in the sensationalist press as "scientific proof", perhaps it is time to just watch the video, to show at which point this story of simple bird called "UFO" or "secret drone" or "insect" or even an "F-15 Eagle jet" is ridiculous:
(Click to open the video - 30 Mb.)
Why didn't people realize that it was only a bird, when you can even see its wings flapping?
Because they watched low-quality heavily compressed versions of the video, on which the flapping wings were not very visible anymore.
Because they watched low-quality heavily compressed versions of the video, on which a well-known video compression artifact could make believe that the bird flew behind the obelisk, therefore could not have been a bird, as it would have been much too large.
Because they are not qualified enough to realize that one cannot calculate the speed of an object of unknown nature, of unknown size, being at an unknown distance.
Because irresponsible people formulate their articles as if a high speed had been "proven scientifically" whereas it was not so, and that some their readers believed these irresponsible people, without checking.
Because some people, including ufologists, do not want to understand that when something allegedly big passes above a huge crowd, it is impossible that not one signle soul saw it.
Because some people, when an ordinary explanation is given, consider that it is inevitably false since ordinary explanations can only come from "vile debunkers", people who in their minds are any person giving an ordinary explanation and people who are in their minds necessarily always wrong.
Because when a ufologist gives a good explanation (a bird here), other ufologists have a knack for polemics and don't want to appear gullible, therefore propose other mundane explanations, just to be "in the game", to look smarter: insects, planes, drones...
Because people mistake unjustified opinions of any anonymous chap, such as "in my opinion it flew at Mach 30" for "scientific proof" by "experts."
Now, that's what is probably going to happen.
The sensationalist media who told stupidities,once again, won't rectify these stupidities. The articles will remain just as they are, and in 1 years, 10 years, 100 years, somebody will still tell that there was a UFO flying over the huge crowd at Obama's inauguration, it's proven, it was even recorded on video, and the experts computed that it flew at 1800 miles per ahour...
Other pseudo-UFOs here.
This page was last updated on January 31, 2009.