home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: news.demon.co.uk!dispatch.news.demon.net!demon!news.sprintlink.net!news-dc-5.sprintlink.net!news.sprintlink.net!news-dc-2.sprintlink.net!news.ultranet.com!homer.alpha.net!uwm.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!newsfeed.internetmci.com!news.msfc.nasa.gov!pendragon!ames!waikato!midland.co.nz!usenet
- From: gblack@midland.co.nz (George Black)
- Newsgroups: alt.alien.visitors,alt.paranet.ufo,sci.skeptic,sci.physics
- Subject: Re: Dr. Paul Hill's repulsive force field
- Date: Sat, 22 Jun 96 22:10:54 GMT
- Organization: Midland Internet Limited, Network Services
- Lines: 60
- Message-ID: <4qhrc8$19k@midland.co.nz>
- References: <31B24188.2488@students.wisc.edu> <Pine.SOL.3.91c.960603101704.10864D-100000@cms5.cern.ch> <4ovc9h$efr@agate.berkeley.edu> <4pjri6$kse@thorn.cc.usm.edu> <4pk874$4fu@agate.berkeley.edu> <4q6llt$cbn@thorn.cc.usm.edu> <31C70FA0.B0D@students.wisc.edu> <4qe0d5$28s@midland.co.nz> <CHOLSCHR-2206961519380001@phr013.health-sciences.tcd.ie>
- NNTP-Posting-Host: gblack.midland.co.nz
- X-Newsreader: News Xpress Version 1.0 Beta #4
- Xref: news.demon.co.uk alt.alien.visitors:89031 alt.paranet.ufo:54172 sci.skeptic:73572 sci.physics:79439
-
-
-
- > I can't help but wonder if these professional observers came out solidly
- >in favour of meteorites in their 320 years of stargazing. As we all know,
- >people had been seeing rocks fall from the sky for centuries, but it took
- >two nineteenth centuary American professors to declare these reports true,
- >as opposed to being merely the delusional ramblings of superstitious
- >peasants.
-
- Yes, the numbers of things that we now know to be fact were often, in the
- centuries preceeding, believed to be signs of a God.
- You have the example of Halley with his computation of the orbit and the
- recognition of the comet that bears his name. So the idea of objects/stones in
- space was not unknown:))
-
- Even then, notable scientists thought it more
- >likely that they had made it up, than that God hurled stones at us. In the
- >eighteenth centuary Anton Lavoisier (?) declared that these charred stones
- >had merely been shallowly buried, and then uncovered by a blast of
- >lightning. He thought the whole idea utterly preposterous. Clearly,
- >scientists had great trouble accepting such a radical notion, not wanting
- >to accept the mere reports of ordinary mortals - (scientists, as we know,
- >are the only ones who can SEE properly). So, how about it? Did these
- >stargazers see these crashing stars? Or did they miss them? About how many
- >visible meteorites a year are there? How many did these sky watchers
- >report?
-
- And, in support, how many of these sightings in those days were put down to
- 'angelic visitations' or nowadays to their replacement 'UFO activity'
-
- > Then, of course, there is the whole 'sprite' phenomena. A sprite is a
- >meteorological phenomena consisting of a brief, but enormous, flash of
- >light in the upper atmosphere, (or something like that - I'm not a
- >meteorologist), which pilots had been reporting for years. The scientists
- >usually dismissed these claims with the same smirk that they reserve for
- >flat earthers. Astronauts in the shuttle reported the same, but from
- >above. Same response. Then some bright spark in Meteorology came up with a
- >theory as to how this might happen. Eventually, with photographs and a
- >theory, the phenomena was accepted. Another leap forward for scientific
- >progress....:)
-
- True. Scientific American had an article on them a little while ago. I contend
- that there are a great number of atmospheric effects that are still to be
- discovered (and classified).
-
-
- > I should point out that I am nearing the end of my Doctorate in
- >Cognitive Neuroscience, so my criticisms of science come from the inside.
-
- I sweep floors and make cups of tea :-))).
-
-
- I should then, perhaps, ask about the possibility that what is often observed
- is often an internal event :-)))
-
-
- George Black Hamilton New Zealand
- gblack@midland.co.nz
- 3:774/605.112
- If you think you have a problem
-