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A comment on NASA clears the air: No evidence that UFOs are aliens. Parent comment

Re:NASA clears the air: No evidence that UFOs are aliens by kibwen on Saturday September 16, 2023 @10:23AM (#37535009)
> I think the capitalistic "greed" caused all those old reports, it was so popular at that time so people produced the content that was in demand.

Rather than greed, I think it was just a meme. People got it in their minds that aliens in flying saucers were scooting around abducting cows, so they were psychologically primed to perpetuate the idea.

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Re:NASA clears the air: No evidence that UFOs are aliens by wkat4242 on Saturday September 16, 2023 @10:28AM (#37535061)
Well how else are they supposed to make their hamburgers? They don't have cows up there.

Ps more seriously, I wonder where the whole flying saucer concept comes from. Was it the SR71 with its rounded shapes? Or does it predate that?

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Re:NASA clears the air: No evidence that UFOs are aliens by krapp on Saturday September 16, 2023 @10:49AM (#37535265)
>I wonder where the whole flying saucer concept comes from.

Kenneth Arnold, an Air Force pilot in 1947 who reported seeing craft shaped like "saucers" or "pie plates" flying past Mount Ranier[0]. He never called them "flying saucers" specifically but after the press picked up the story, the term and the concept became popular. After that, flying saucers became a trope in sci-fi movies.

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Arnold_UFO_sighting

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Re:NASA clears the air: No evidence that UFOs are aliens by NikkiA on Saturday September 16, 2023 @02:54PM (#37537534)
> an Air Force pilot in 1947

Nope, he was a private pilot.

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Re:NASA clears the air: No evidence that UFOs are aliens by krapp on Saturday September 16, 2023 @02:59PM (#37537576)
My mistake. He was a pilot.
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Re:NASA clears the air: No evidence that UFOs are aliens by monocasa on Saturday September 16, 2023 @10:54AM (#37535299)
It predates that. One of the first sightings to use the word saucer was in 1878.

https://web.archive.org/web/20120819213938/http://www.americ...

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