Image from:
http://www.saturdaynightuforia.com/html/pastpics27.html
Kevin Randle. at his blog [kevinrandle.blogpot.com], in an
aside, mentions the use of UAP, Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, as a substitute,
by some, for UFO, Unidentified Flying Object.
Bruce Duensing, before his untimely death, was an advocate
of the UAP epithet, and a few other UFO proponents like the term. I do not.
I do like, however, the “phenomena” designation, as what
we’ve all been discussing, over the years, are odd, bizarre phenomena which was
once held together under the rubric "flying saucer(s).”
A few notable ufologists – Jerry Clark, for one – tried to
disabuse UFO buffs of the “phenomena” mantra, pushing for “phenomenon” as the
correct term for what people were seeing or encountering and reporting as a flying
saucer episode.
But there are so many reported sightings or experiences with
“alien” [meaning strange, not extraterrestrial] things – some flying, some on
the ground or in waters – with not one singular attribute, except “alien, that
phenomenon is egregiously errant as a grammatical noun.
I, and others, have pushed, in the past, for a kind of
classification of what humans have witnessed over the years, and which are
lumped together under the UFO sobriquet; a classification meme not unlike
taxonomical groupings.
While UFO aficionados are, generally, fascinated by all
things called UFOs, I’m not inclined to spend inordinate amount(s) of time on
lights in the sky.
Robert Hastings UFOs scrutinizing nuclear sites are
interesting, to me, as such anomalous visitations of those sites seem, to me
(again) as possibly AI (artificial intelligent) craft, Von Neumann probes trying
to connect or communicate with machines that seem akin. That is, machines
[UFOs] probing Earth entities would likely see the technological underpinnings
of a nuclear facility as a kind of AI relation.
More intriguing, to me, are the reported encounters between
humans and bizarre creatures, sometimes debarking from UFOs. The witnessing is
either a valid observation, turning reality on its head, or a kind of madness
that hasn’t been defined by psychiatry.
Either way, the UFO phenomenon or alien phenomena, is
diverse and multitudinous, which disallows UAP because the things are not
always “aerial” but are phenomena. UFO is also derelict for the same reason:
the things reported are not always flying, and the truly odd reports deal with
beings and things not in the air but confronting humans, face-to-face often.
Moreover the “reports” indicate not a phenomenon but
phenomena, which should be classified in psychological-like terminology, from
witness perspectives, and imaginatively from observational details (as if the
things seen were actual or real and not hallucinated by witnesses).
UFO and UAP don’t exactly work, but UFO has become the coin
of the ufological and public realm, so resorting to UAP merely confuses the
issue further.
I’ll stick with UFO for now, or Alien Phenomena, if only the
word “alien” wasn’t besotted by association with extraterrestrial or
other-worldly visitors.
RR
And here's a photo I found at the Yahoo site -- in a compendium of old photos. (Click mouse over photo to read blurb and see larger image of photo.):
Does another dimension/world sometimes intrude our reality?
