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- From: gribble@primenet.com (Mr. Fun)
- Newsgroups: sci.skeptic,alt.alien.visitors,alt.alien.research,alt.paranet.ufo
- Subject: Re: Hypothetical constructs are sneaky even to experienced SaucerZealots!
- Date: 8 Jun 1996 00:57:01 -0700
- Organization: Primenet Services for the Internet
- Lines: 55
- Message-ID: <31b922da.18426678@news.primenet.com>
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-
- rudiak@garnet.berkeley.edu wrote:
-
-
- snip (to bad brian can't learn to spell that word)
-
- >>> Your argument is basically a strawman, just like the "indestructible" material
- >>> you and Mr. Fun keep claiming the SZ's say it is. Actually none of the SZ's
- >>> have claimed the material was "indestructible." The descriptions were of
- >>> material that was extremely tough, or in Gen. Schulgen's memo four months later,
- >>> of "unusual structural stability."
- >>
- >>And "extremely tough" materials disintegrating on impact (or in an explosion)
- >>implies tremendous forces involved, right? How is this a straw man?
- >
- >Because you are stating that an explosion NECESSARILY would have killed or
- >disintegrated a crew, whereas I gave three crash scenarios that happen in human
- >air accidents where people aren't necessarily killed or bodies and craft are
- >recovered relatively intact.
- >
- >You and Mr. Fun are also claiming that witnesses said the materials were
- >"indestructible." Nobody has said the materials were "indestructible." It's
- >been stated that witnesses tried various physical tests, mostly in the field,
- >such as attempting to cut or mark material with knives; break, bend or tear the
- >materials by hand; or to burn them with matches or cigarette lighters. What was
- >unexpected was that the thin, lightweight, and fragile-looking materials didn't
- >respond like you would expect.
- >
-
- Snip
-
- You SZs always want to have it both ways. Try sticking to your premises or
- giving them up but please chose one or the other. The SZs whine over and over
- again how "it" simply *has* to have been a ET spacecraft because, in usual SZ
- logic, how else can you explain the fantastic properties of the found
- material. Material that just *couldn't* be from earth. But when rational
- people point out that if their claim is true, that this material is some
- "fantastic out of this world stuff" then how come the darn thing blew up into
- a million pieces??? When presented with that conundrum the SZs do their usual
- song and dance and in order to preserve their fantasy make it even more
- complex and convoluted and start talking about possible ejector seats, low
- power modes and on and on. Either the stuff was really indestructible out of
- this world stuff or it wasn't. Make up your minds for a change and stick with
- your story.
-
- Now just to end on a note of rationality, if you go back and read the comments
- of people who handled the stuff and who can reasonably be said to be making
- FIRST person commentary, it's pretty clear that this stuff wasn't really all
- that special, it just happened to be hard to cut on and it didn't burst into
- flame when you wiffed a match under it. It's often compared to plastic but
- with the observation that "we didn't have plastic back then". Well, maybe the
- hicks out in NM had no familiarity with plastic but it's possible that the
- military was using some forms of plastic or similar material. Bakelite comes
- to mind as a material that, on a cursory examination, might have the sort of
- properties that are described. It's damn hard and I don't think it ignites
- easily.
-