Happy Atheist Forum

I saw something last night which has rocked my socks off. I've never actually seen anything i can't explain but last night.... I can't seem to accept what my brain is telling me what i saw actually was... There must be another explanation.

Anyways, I'll let you know what i saw once i have a few stories. I'll probably sound like a nutter, but i don't care. I know what i saw was real and i trust my eyes, my judgment and my ability to rationalise.

Anywhoo, what have you lot seen that has totally baffled you?

Sure, I've seen many unexplainable things.  As an Agnostic, I don't think that everything has to have an explaination or reson behind it...

That being said, here's a good example:
My grandmother passed away many years ago while I was living in Columbus, OH.
I was driving up to Cleveland for the funeral service and noticed the sky was a very odd shade of Green/Blue.  I'd never seen that color before, and haven't seen it since.  When I arrived at the viewing, my grandmother was wearing a dress in that exact shade.  Coincidence?  Probably.  But still freaky none the less...

Other unexplainable things:

"Friends" and "Seinfeld"
(and the list goes on!)

JoeActor

American Idol's nielsen ratings are beyond my understanding of the universe. How a show that redundant is so successful I will never understand. Same with CSI/Law and Order and their various incarnations. It's the exact same thing every week, but millions upon millions tune in religiously.

Other than that, I can't think of anything. Karadan, would you mind sharing your unexplained experience?

I've had a couple of deja vu's. The night that my mother died I had a preminition that something bad would happen to her. I also remember sharing a dream with my younger brother when I was 10 years old. And I've seen a UFO passing over our house.

As a teenager I once danced on a grave in Saint Augustine, FL. Both irreverent and completely retarted. I regret it now. The next night as I was lying in bed wide awake, I saw a bearded, white colored, severed head float right at me and disappear.

A UFO is probably explainable.

MyLeviathan, don't do drugs.

Countless prayers "answered" when I was a Christian (about as many as those that went unanswered). You could probably call these coincidences or whatever.

My dad voting not only democrat, but for Hilary Clinton. If that's not unexplainable, I don't know what is.

I can't really think of any "good" experiences, but unexplainable things happen. Usually I stand baffled for a minute or two and then get on with life. There probably is an explanation for a lot of them but, for me, it's more interesting to leave them unexplained than to rationalize them out. IMO, life is spicier when some things are left unexplained  

Have to agree and say that I think Will's experience is the most inexplicable thing. Ever.  ;)

Other than that, I have seen one or two things that I couldn't explain at the time, or others couldn't explain until further investigation. Most interesting was at a star party (that's an astronomy thing where amateur astronomers with big telescopes and no other hobbies get together and show people all kind of celestial sights) in Pittsburgh, PA. The same year that O.J. murdered two people, coincidentally, but I digress....

Star party, Pittsburgh. Around dusk, people gathering for the evening noticed a shiny object in the sky to the west. It was blinking and mving in an erratic pattern in a small spot in the sky....making turns too fast to be an aircraft. "Not even a military aircraft could make those sharp turns!" said one observer. No one could figure it out. And as it was making all these cool maneuvers, it was gaining altitude rapidly. Very cool. Most people thought it was something very close to us moving really fast. Interesting that they were CONVINCED that it was close by.

Anyhoo...I happened to be trying to nail it in my Celestron C-8 telescope, and boy did I ever! It was......
a weather balloon with its equipment package swinging wildly beneath it, setting sunlight glancing off of it, making it appear to be going even faster and more erratic than it was.

How mundane. It was a bitch to keep in my field of view, but I managed it. About 200 people were ready to call it a real UFO that evening. A couple were still not convinced that I saw the weather balloon in my scope, even after I watched the balloon gain its maximum altitude and burst like a Jiffy-Pop pan, sending the equipment package down. I lost sight of the package because it fell way too fast for tracking in a scope.

However, I knew that there were weather balloons being launched from near that area, and it wasn't the first time I had seen one. But just try to tell people that it was something easily explained when they want to believe it was something else. You know what happens then? They think you are part of the "cover-up". Jeez!

On to something I couldn't explain... triangular shaped lights moving slowly over my neighborhood, when I was 15 years old. Couldn't make heads or tails of the shape of the actual aircraft, but that triangle was something I had never seen before, and never since.

My guess is that it was.......something I simply was not familiar with. And since that time, my memory has been subjected to all kinds of suggestion and faults. So it'll never be explained to me, but it was probably just a plane. I can live with that.

I can't recall anything that I have seen that is unexplainable.  There are times I have wished that I could see a ghost or UFO, or have some psychic experience, but so far it has all been fantasy.

I lived in a haunted house.

No, seriously.

I recently decided to chronicle all my unexplainable experiences. It's somewhat of a lengthy story. So, for the sake of brevity, here's a link to the story: The Thing Behind the Door (http://www.helium.com/items/1043875-following-fabricatedsix-years-lived).

(I apologize for the Lovecraftian title. It just seems fitting.)

Thanks for the posts guys and gals.

Well, i've always tried to rationalise everything i see and if i come across something i don't understand, i ask questions until i find an answer. Last night however, i saw an object move across the sky like nothing else i've ever seen before. I'm sure it is explanable in realistic terms (i'm not about to proclaim it is from outer space) but its uniqueness has really startled me.

I live in a small village just off Dartmoor in Devon, UK. We have the luxury of having the best night skies. Whenever it is clear the Milky way almost looks like a cloud. Anyway, i spend a lot of time on my roof terrace star gazing (usually when i am having a cigarette). Last night i came outside and the first thing i noticed was a bright star in the sky. At first i was startled at how bright Venus seemed to be but as i looked closer i realised it wasn't venus because it was moving. It slowly - almost languidly - floated directly above me at a uniform speed from NW to SE. Its brightness intensified at its apogee, then waned as it went away although the light itself was never broken. There was entirely no sound. It probably took about 4 minutes to cross the sky from horizon to horizon. When viewed on the horizon the object was way brighter than any other star in the sky but when overhead was far brighter. It seemed far closer than any passenger aircraft would ever go and it didn't have any flashing lights. At a guess, i'd say it was 1 - 2 thousand feet up. When directly overhead i'm sure i could almost make out a shape whereas earlier it has just looked like a bright point of light.

I've seen many satellites. They are easy to spot and they have familiar characteristics. This bright object displayed none of these. I'm a rational person with a love for science. This is the first time i've ever seen something which has truly confused me. I really cannot explain it. Unfortunately i don't really have the vocabulary to accurately explain exactly what i saw and the emotions i felt whilst witnessing something so inexplicable first-hand. I just hope people take my word for it - that yesterday there was something very odd, flying in the night sky at 10:42pm over Chagford, Devon, UK.

Quote from: "curiosityandthecat"I recently decided to chronicle all my unexplainable experiences. It's somewhat of a lengthy story. So, for the sake of brevity, here's a link to the story: The Thing Behind the Door (http://www.helium.com/items/1043875-following-fabricatedsix-years-lived).

Good ghost story.  Pretty intense.  Interesting that it was so vivid, and it wasn't just a ghostly image seen briefly in the distance.  Were their any known stories to tie the experience with, like someone dying while trapped in the bathroom?  Maybe it was hallucinations caused by too many hours of playing Doom.  

When I was a young kid, there was a natural spring in the neighborhood; and by the spring there were the remains of a spring house (a house used for collecting water from the spring) dating from the Civil War period.  I used to hang out there looking for frogs and stuff, and one time a couple adults were there setting up photographic equipment.  When I asked what they were doing, they showed me a book about Virginia ghosts, and in the book there was a story about a ghost that appears by the spring house at night.  Supposedly, a crime of passion occurred there back around the Civil War, and the ghost of the guy who was killed haunted the spring house.  I was too young to be allowed to go there at night, so I never had the opportunity to see the ghost.  Soon after meeting the photographers, a road was built right over the spring, and I used to wonder if the ghost would appear at night in the middle of the road.

Well I haven't ever seen anything inexplicable, but since I tend towards pareidolia I have seen some very awesome things others might miss.  My favorite was the time in my old house when the curtains said "HI".  Quite literally.   A small spot of sunlight had come through a hole on the side of the aluminum windows and lay on the curtain pattern (brown with a series of dashes) so that the pattern they created actually highlighted an "H" shape and an "I" shape out of the dashes and lines.  Quite startling and very clear.  I didn't get a photo unfortunately.  The second time I've seen words in light patterns was at my new home.  We have a door with frosted leaded glass and the light was coming through it so that it hit the wall.  My daughter who is young and sees alphabet letters in everything said it reminded her of a kid's doodle.  We sat around looking for words in the doodle.  I could make out a few with my hypersensitive psychocreative apophenic powers of perception   , seeing the words "cell", "see" and "ice" as the patterns moved across the wall. I took a few photos, but there weren't really clear enough to get anything but the barest traces of the lovely window scribble.  I would imagine we could catch the lightshow same time next year and get better pics since all the angles would be the same, but you'd have to have the same hyperactive pattern matching craziness we do to get the effect.  Those are just a few really, as I tend live in a world of letters and faces and hands and remarkable clouds when I'm in the mood, but I have my big toe firmly placed in reality at all times, so I know it's just my imagination and I don't usually discuss that subject with others since I'm afraid they would be very unkind about it.

Quote from: "karadan"Thanks for the posts guys and gals.

Well, i've always tried to rationalise everything i see and if i come across something i don't understand, i ask questions until i find an answer. Last night however, i saw an object move across the sky like nothing else i've ever seen before. I'm sure it is explanable in realistic terms (i'm not about to proclaim it is from outer space) but its uniqueness has really startled me.
I live in a small village just off Dartmoor in Devon, UK. We have the luxury of having the best night skies. Whenever it is clear the Milky way almost looks like a cloud. Anyway, i spend a lot of time on my roof terrace star gazing (usually when i am having a cigarette). Last night i came outside and the first thing i noticed was a bright star in the sky. At first i was startled at how bright Venus seemed to be but as i looked closer i realised it wasn't venus because it was moving. It slowly - almost languidly - floated directly above me at a uniform speed from NW to SE. Its brightness intensified at its apogee, then waned as it went away although the light itself was never broken. There was entirely no sound. It probably took about 4 minutes to cross the sky from horizon to horizon. When viewed on the horizon the object was way brighter than any other star in the sky but when overhead was far brighter. It seemed far closer than any passenger aircraft would ever go and it didn't have any flashing lights. At a guess, i'd say it was 1 - 2 thousand feet up. When directly overhead i'm sure i could almost make out a shape whereas earlier it has just looked like a bright point of light.

I've seen many satellites. They are easy to spot and they have familiar characteristics. This bright object displayed none of these. I'm a rational person with a love for science. This is the first time i've ever seen something which has truly confused me. I really cannot explain it. Unfortunately i don't really have the vocabulary to accurately explain exactly what i saw and the emotions i felt whilst witnessing something so inexplicable first-hand. I just hope people take my word for it - that yesterday there was something very odd, flying in the night sky at 10:42pm over Chagford, Devon, UK.

Interesting sight. Can't say what it was, but I have to disagree with the statement in which you said, "I've seen many satellites. They are easy to spot and they have familiar characteristics. This bright object displayed none of these.

In fact, your description matches that of satellites extremely closely. Yes you've seen them before, and you haven't seen any that look like that particular one. I would say that over the past thirty-odd years that I've been an amateur astronomer, I've logged thousands of satellites (I have about two dozen notebooks' worth of detailed astronomical observations, including satellites, which I track via computer), and they can look very different.

That said, I'm not trying to say that what you saw had to be a satellite, but you probably shouldn't discount the possibility too quickly just because it doesn't look like ones you've seen before. When I first saw the International Space Station, I couldn't believe how much bigger it appeared and how amazingly "CLOSE" it looked. Keep in mind that when looking at flying objects, especially at night, that peoples' judgment of distance is horribly flawed. Even pilots and people with good eyesight, or people who are familiar with aviation, astronomy, etc., cannot accurately judge distance of objects very well, and are often mistaken by many miles when estimating distance to flying objects.

Meteors are good examples. People swear they see these objects as anywhere from a couple of hundred feet above them, to a thousand feet or so, when they are often more than 50 miles away.

So while very interesting of a sighting, it seems very much like things I've encountered dozens of times before. But again, not saying it had to be a satellite, it could be a lot of things, most of which are prosaic and not as much fun to wonder about.  

Quote from: "McQ"I'm not trying to say that what you saw had to be a satellite, but you probably shouldn't discount the possibility too quickly just because it doesn't look like ones you've seen before.

I was also thinking that it was possibly a satellite.

Since karadan did give a time and place as "10:42pm over Chagford, Devon, UK.", I think it might be possible to confirm if a satellite went over that area at that time.

I'm not an amateur astronomer, but a quick Google search finds a number of satellite tracking programs.  A free Java tracking program from NASA (http://science.nasa.gov/Realtime/jtrack/3d/JTrack3d.html) that runs in your web browser shows an interesting 3D view of earth that you can drag around with 900 satellites in the image.  Unfortunately, it show the current time, and I don't see a way to change the satellite position time to a past time.  What is revealing about the 3D image is that there are satellites way out in geosynchronous orbit, and there are many satellites that hug the earth closely.  The close satellites visually would be moving pretty fast.

Satscape (http://www.satscape.co.uk/iweb/Satscape/Front_page.html) looks like it might be able to show satellite positions at a particular time.  Haven't tried it myself.

I got a 89 on my Thermo 2 test.

On a serious note, err yeah. Nothing really comes to mind real quick, so there probably wasn't anything I held too much faith in as being unexplainable. Odd ball things now and then though that I wonder WTF I was thinking.

A month back I saw a amazing shooting start though. Biggest one I ever saw. Kinda wish I had a moment this weekend to just watch the starts for a few hours at night. I'll try and save that thought for next week when the weather doesnt blow ass.

Hey yeah do starts really move when we see one? I know due to light being slow in the grand scheme of the universe a shooting start I saw may have been 30k years ago or more.  Do they in fact move as we see them (proportional speeds)? At those speeds, where does the normal force come from (being in a vacuum)?

crocofish, there is a website, heavens-above.com or heavensabove.com taht you can see when satellites are visible. I think you can also vew past days

hey tacoma
shooting stars are not stars at all
they are space rocks and/or dust that enter the earth's atmosfaire and burn out as they fall in great speed
there is an annoual meteor shower every august and its really spectacular to watch:)

Quote from: "tacoma_kyle"I got a 89 on my Thermo 2 test.

On a serious note, err yeah. Nothing really comes to mind real quick, so there probably wasn't anything I held too much faith in as being unexplainable. Odd ball things now and then though that I wonder WTF I was thinking.

A month back I saw a amazing shooting start though. Biggest one I ever saw. Kinda wish I had a moment this weekend to just watch the starts for a few hours at night. I'll try and save that thought for next week when the weather doesnt blow ass.

Hey yeah do starts really move when we see one? I know due to light being slow in the grand scheme of the universe a shooting start I saw may have been 30k years ago or more.  Do they in fact move as we see them (proportional speeds)? At those speeds, where does the normal force come from (being in a vacuum)?

Kyle, a shooting star is a meteor, a piece of rock, dust, crud, etc. that falls into the Earth's atmosphere. The light you see is from it burning up during entry in the atmosphere, because it is moving extremely fast. Friction just causes it to heat and burn up. These things range in size from grains of sand to melon sized, generally. Some are even bigger, rarely. Most often we see them when the Earth passes through a trail of them in space at certain times of year. The debris in space is left behind from comets most frequently, as they pass through their periodic orbits around the sun. As was already mentioned, you can see a good one in August, called the Perseid Meteor Shower.

So these meteor showers, as we call them, are caused by the Earth slamming into the debris trail left behind. If one of the meteors happens to survive entry through the atmosphere (or even part of it), and lands, it is called a meteorite.

Well, I am open to the suggestion that what i saw was a satellite but there are a number of questions i have about it.
The 'body' of the object seemed closer when it was directly above me. So close in fact, that i could almost make out a shape of its body/fusellage.
The light it emitted seemed omni-directional. All satellites i've ever seen seem to disappear at some point in their trajectory due to the angle of reflection changing as they orbit the earth. This object, however, stayed at least 5 times brighter than Venus for the duration of it's flight getting slightly more intense as it flew straight overhead. It just seemed too large to be a satellite. Had it been in orbit, this object would surely have had to be the size of a stadium to create such a presence in the sky. It's brightness rivaled that of the moon, albeit, over a much smaller surface area but far more intense (it created lens flares in my eyes).

Is there any such thing as an atmospheric satellite?  Something traveling in the mesosphere or stratosphere or something? Could it have been the international space station? Also, has anyone ever heard of aircraft which have very intense lights covering the entire fusellage? What would be the use for that?

Just trying to figure this out

I really like shooting stars (yes, technically these are meteors) - there's something just plain cool about them.  When I was a kid I used to go up to my grandma's place in Wisconsin (small cabin by a small lake).  On clear nights I'd go down and lay on my back on the pier and just stare at the sky.  You could glimpse a shooting star (some were really small and quick, but some were more spectacular) on a regular basis.  Just let your eyes get adjusted to the dark, watch the sky in general, and damned if you wouldn't pick one up every 5/10 minutes or so.

The sky up there in a place that is truly dark is awesome.  You could clearly make out the Milky Way, and you'd see satellites frequently as well (just small not-too-bright things that looked like faint stars, only they drifted across the sky in a stately pace until they suddenly "went out", I'm assuming when they crossed into the Earth's shadow).

I keep trying to drag my wife outside for one of the annual showers - she grew up in the city and claims she's never seen a shooting star, which I consider sad ;)  ).

Quote from: "karadan"Well, I am open to the suggestion that what i saw was a satellite but there are a number of questions i have about it.
The 'body' of the object seemed closer when it was directly above me. So close in fact, that i could almost make out a shape of its body/fusellage.

Curious. Are you saying that it appeared to change altitude, and got closer when it flew overhead? What was the shape of the fuselage?

Quote from: "karadan"The light it emitted seemed omni-directional.

Did the object itself seem to be glowing as a whole, or did it emit light or light beams from various points on its surface? If so, how many and in what directions relative to its path in the sky?

Quote from: "karadan"All satellites i've ever seen seem to disappear at some point in their trajectory due to the angle of reflection changing as they orbit the earth.

At some point, satellites do "disappear", due to the angle of the reflected light, which makes your object very unique in that it did not, ever disappear.  

Quote from: "karadan"This object, however, stayed at least 5 times brighter than Venus for the duration of it's flight getting slightly more intense as it flew straight overhead.

That's pretty darn bright! The changing intensity is common ,but that brightness is out of the ordinary for sure.

Quote from: "karadan"It just seemed too large to be a satellite. Had it been in orbit, this object would surely have had to be the size of a stadium to create such a presence in the sky. It's brightness rivaled that of the moon, albeit, over a much smaller surface area but far more intense (it created lens flares in my eyes).

Again, the apparent magnitude would indicate something other than a satellite, as none of the stuff in orbit approaches the brightness of the Moon. The apparent size can be deceiving though, as it is extremely difficult to judge altitude. That is hard to stress too much. We simply stink at judging apparent altitude. But since you could see the surface of the object, it would seem that it was close and not in orbit. You are correct that it would have to be massive to be in orbit and still be able to show a fuselage or surface. Even much bigger than a stadium, more than likely.

Quote from: "karadan"Is there any such thing as an atmospheric satellite?  Something traveling in the mesosphere or stratosphere or something?

In short, no.

Quote from: "karadan"Could it have been the international space station?

Not likely, if it was as bright as you say. Brighter than the Moon? Then not the ISS. No way. Not even with its headlights on (that's a joke).  ;)

Quote from: "karadan"Just trying to figure this out

Well, you have quite a mystery on your hands! My advice...keep a good camera or video camera handy, as well as a good set of binoculars (no cheap ones, good ones). It's amazing how the unexplained can become the explained with a nice set of binoculars. You've been very open about what it might be, and kudos for that. You may never be able to explain it, but you at least have a good story to tell the wee ones! By the way, did any of your neighbors see it?

'Unexplainable' is a word that makes no sense by my understanding of logic.  Something may be unexplained but everything that exists must conform to logic and, in principle, must be explainable.  We only have ignorance in our way of omniscience (and whatever physical laws might keep us in ignorance).

Quote from: "tacoma_kyle"I got a 89 on my Thermo 2 test.

Ha ha, I had a similar experience with Thermodynamics class.  I thought I had completely flunked the class, and when I got the report card, I got an A.    One of the mysteries of the unexplained (dramatic music).

Quote from: "Vichy"'Unexplainable' is a word that makes no sense by my understanding of logic.  Something may be unexplained but everything that exists must conform to logic and, in principle, must be explainable.  We only have ignorance in our way of omniscience (and whatever physical laws might keep us in ignorance).

Right, but the point of this whole thread is to discuss things that are unexplainable to us, ath the present time or in the past. Lots of things are unexplainable, in the meaning that certain people, or all people, for the time being, have no explanation for them. But as human history shows, we learn more and become able to explain more as we go along.

Quote from: "MariaEvri"crocofish, there is a website, heavens-above.com or heavensabove.com taht you can see when satellites are visible. I think you can also vew past days

Yes, I was able to look for the satellites in that area near the time karadan said that he saw something.  The results are quite interesting.  Use heavens-above.com; the non-hyphenated name is a domain squatter.

Search Period Start:  12:00 Wednesday, 28 May, 2008
Search Period End:    01:00 Thursday, 29 May, 2008
Observer's Location:  Chagford, Devon, UK ( 50.6729°N, 3.8406°W)
Local Time:           British Summer Time (GMT + 1:00)
Limiting magnitude:  3.5
There were a number of satellites found for the above period, and the only one that fits the time of 10:42PM is:
           Start                  Max Altitude           End
Name Mag    Time      Alt.  Az.    Time      Alt.  Az.    Time      Alt.  Az
ISS  -2.1   22:37:13  10°   W      22:40:07  70°   N      22:43:00  10°   E
ISS is the International Space Station.
Magnitude -2.1 is fairly bright, easily visible with the naked eye, but not necessarily "lens flare" bright.  Perhaps there was a solar panel or similar reflective surface that was angled just right to reflect the sun to make it brighter.

It is interesting that it fits the time and place.  karadan said it moved NW to SE which might fit the W to E azimuth shown above.  karadan also said it took about 4 minutes to cross, and above it shows about 6 minutes.

Of course I might have the latitude/longitude wrong, so please double check the above numbers.

Right on crocofish.

And on the starts, god damn it. I feel like a god damned moron. No wonder nothin made since...cause it was just bull shit. I am ganna find and bitch out my 1st grade teacher.

I've seen plenty of things I couldn't explain but that doesn't render them unexplainable.

Quote from: "crocofish"

Quote from: "MariaEvri"crocofish, there is a website, heavens-above.com or heavensabove.com taht you can see when satellites are visible. I think you can also vew past days

Yes, I was able to look for the satellites in that area near the time karadan said that he saw something.  The results are quite interesting.  Use heavens-above.com; the non-hyphenated name is a domain squatter.

Code Select Expand

Search Period Start:  12:00 Wednesday, 28 May, 2008
Search Period End:    01:00 Thursday, 29 May, 2008
Observer's Location:  Chagford, Devon, UK ( 50.6729°N, 3.8406°W)
Local Time:           British Summer Time (GMT + 1:00)
Limiting magnitude:  3.5
There were a number of satellites found for the above period, and the only one that fits the time of 10:42PM is:

Code Select Expand

           Start                  Max Altitude           End
Name Mag    Time      Alt.  Az.    Time      Alt.  Az.    Time      Alt.  Az
ISS  -2.1   22:37:13  10°   W      22:40:07  70°   N      22:43:00  10°   E
ISS is the International Space Station.
Magnitude -2.1 is fairly bright, easily visible with the naked eye, but not necessarily "lens flare" bright.  Perhaps there was a solar panel or similar reflective surface that was angled just right to reflect the sun to make it brighter.

It is interesting that it fits the time and place.  karadan said it moved NW to SE which might fit the W to E azimuth shown above.  karadan also said it took about 4 minutes to cross, and above it shows about 6 minutes.

Of course I might have the latitude/longitude wrong, so please double check the above numbers.

That is fantastic! I also did a bit of digging (mainly using the brains of some of my friends - far superior to mine) and the unanimous explanation was that it was the ISS.

I am now happy that what i saw can be explained through rational means.

The optical illusion making it seem a lot closer than it was, was amazing. It seemed so real.

Thanks for all of the input. I can sleep happily now

QuoteRight, but the point of this whole thread is to discuss things that are unexplainable to us, ath the present time or in the past. Lots of things are unexplainable, in the meaning that certain people, or all people, for the time being, have no explanation for them. But as human history shows, we learn more and become able to explain more as we go along.

Well, sorry for throwing the textbook at you
I can't say as I have (that I can remember).

Coincidentally, today the Astronomy Picture of the Day (http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap080604.html) is time exposures of the ISS traversing the sky while being pursued by the Space Shuttle on May 31st.

There is something that I can't explain that happens to me almost every day.

I can be standing at the front door with my car keys in my hand and a second later I can't find my fucking keys!

They only turn up after about 20 minutes of intensive searching and even more intensive swearing.

Quote from: "Smarmy Of One"There is something that I can't explain that happens to me almost every day.

I can be standing at the front door with my car keys in my hand and a second later I can't find my fucking keys!

They only turn up after about 20 minutes of intensive searching and even more intensive swearing.

OTG!  Me too!  This is a bigger conspiracy than the underpants gnomes!

Quote from: "karadan"That is fantastic! I also did a bit of digging (mainly using the brains of some of my friends - far superior to mine) and the unanimous explanation was that it was the ISS.

I am now happy that what i saw can be explained through rational means.

The optical illusion making it seem a lot closer than it was, was amazing. It seemed so real.

Thanks for all of the input. I can sleep happily now :D

You even had me convinced it wasn't the ISS!

Well done, McQ, He fell for it. Now we can get back to conquering Earth!

Muahahaha!

With a friend, one night, I saw what looked like a long, tubelike blue light come out of a palm tree.  We were in a park about midnight. The head of the palm tree was about 40 ft. off the ground. That's where the light came out of.  Right before the light came out, like a shower of sticky, misty stuff shot out of the head of the palm tree. Then the light came out.  It slowly moved to the ground and then hovered there, about 5 ft. off the ground. The light was about 10 to 15 ftl. long.  My friend and I got scared and ran back to my car.  As we were running back, I looked back and saw the light "following" us.  We jumped in the car, started up and drove off.  As we drove off, the light was about 10 ft from the car, still hovering off the ground.  I would describe the light as neon or fluorescent, blue.

I finally thought of something! I'm one of those people for which rain only happens when I forget my umbrella. The link is only correlative, but I was able to demonstrate the link over a three week period 4 years ago. Every time I didn't bring my umbrella, it rained. Every time I brought it, it didn't rain. The explanation is simple: it's coincidence. Still, it's odd.

To test it further, I just purchased an air conditioner. San Jose may never get hot again...

Quote from: "Willravel"American Idol's nielsen ratings are beyond my understanding of the universe. How a show that redundant is so successful I will never understand. Same with CSI/Law and Order and their various incarnations. It's the exact same thing every week, but millions upon millions tune in religiously.

I agree. But I like CSI anyway. Haha.

Quote from: "Chimera"

Quote from: "Willravel"American Idol's nielsen ratings are beyond my understanding of the universe. How a show that redundant is so successful I will never understand. Same with CSI/Law and Order and their various incarnations. It's the exact same thing every week, but millions upon millions tune in religiously.

I agree. But I like CSI anyway. Haha.

What I found funny is that whenever I hear bad things about America people always talk about American Idol.Hmm I think alot of other countries have forgotten we aren't the only ones with Idol.American Idol is awful I did watch the first season only because it was something new.But watching the start and seeing all those people making asses of themselves wasn't to bad.You have to admit Gil Grissom is pretty cool and after the show started alot more people became interested in working crime scenes.As for unknown things I have people tell me my house is haunted.Both my dogs will go to certain spots in the house and bark at the wall or ceiling.But my dogs also bark at the wind when it blows it hard.After my mom passed I kept smelling roses.But I know that probley had alot to do with me hoping and wishing for an afterlife.I've heard of alot of other people having "unknown/unexplainable things happen but I think if you really looked into these things you could find a cause or reason.

That thing under John McCain's chin is truly unexplainable.  Scary, even.

Economics textbooks.

Quote from: "karadan"I saw something last night which has rocked my socks off. I've never actually seen anything i can't explain but last night.... I can't seem to accept what my brain is telling me what i saw actually was... There must be another explanation.

Anyways, I'll let you know what i saw once i have a few stories. I'll probably sound like a nutter, but i don't care. I know what i saw was real and i trust my eyes, my judgment and my ability to rationalise.

Ah, the most dangerous words in the world: "I know what I saw was real."

Why do you trust your eyes? Why do you trust your judgment? Why do you trust your ability to rationalize?

You know for a fact that the human brain is capable of hallucination, lapses in judgment, and temporary irrationality. People even go crazy. Why are you so confident that your perceptions are above this?

If your leg felt broken, would you exhibit similar hubris and deny the very possibility you might've broken it? Would you say "I trust my leg?" Your eyes and your brain are simple, vulnerable organs, parts of your organic body just like your leg bones.

The unquestioning confidence that one's brain will never deceive or falter is the source of so much suffering in the world. How different would history be if Mohammed, Moses, Abraham, Joseph Smith (assuming they weren't just lying) had simply admitted "Maybe God's not talking to me, maybe I'm just going crazy." That's what I plan to do if I witness something inexplicable.

Quote from: "Jolly Sapper"Economics textbooks.

Actually, I'll call econ. books evidence of the antichrist.  Blarf.