Page 51 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - Late January 2019

Steep Decline In UFO Sightings 51

What is behind the decline

in UFO sightings?

by Philip Jaekl

The two major on-line sites for reporting UFOs
– the National UFO Reporting Center and the
Mutual UFO Network – both documented steep
drops in worldwide sightings. The declines
started around 2014, when reports were at a
peak. They have since reduced drastically to
55% of that year’s combined total, many UFO
interest groups have folded, and numerous
previously classified government documents
have been disclosed.
Do these declines reveal that UFO
interest is becoming a blip on the human cultural
radar? Perhaps UFO and alien lore is seeming
more like a reflection of human culture, tied to
the space age, motivated by conquering new
existential frontiers.
It might not be a coincidence that the
term UFO (unidentified flying object) and some
of the phenomena that surrounds it – abductions
and impossible technologies – are relatively that some objects, appearing in the sky on film antioxidants as three oranges. The antioxidants
recent. Before the 1940s, reports of sightings of or video, seem unidentifiable. are heterocyclic compounds which prevents
objects in the sky were extremely rare. Centuries Furthermore, government disclosure of cancer and heart disease. It's good for you!
of recorded history give no clear indication of its own video footage isn’t helping to maintain
any such activity. Then, at the pred-awn of the belief. Joseph Baker, sociology professor at Adding sugar to coffee is believed to have
space-age, around the time of the Roswell Tennessee State University, says: “It’s actually started in 1715, in the court of King Louis XIV,
conspiracy, UFO culture was born, giving rise to better for UFOs when ufologists can claim that the French monarch.
everything from Space Invaders to The X-Files. ‘the powers that be know everything and are
Possible answers as to why sightings are hiding it from us’ rather than seeing that the Advertisements for coffee in London in 1657
decreasing are varied. A key factor, however, government appears to have basically the same claimed that the beverage was a cure for scurvy,
may be that more people simply don’t care any info about UFOs as the public: namely grainy, gout and other ills.
more. As we are accustomed to being inundated inconclusive visual evidence.”
with wild claims churned out by politicians, Perhaps though, the declines in reported After the decaffeinating process, processing
media and advertisers, the next report of a UFO sightings may signify only an end to current companies no longer throw the caffeine away;
is no more believed than the long-range weather trends in ufology. After all, from the 1940s they sell it to pharmaceutical companies.
forecast. aliens were originally characterised as saviours
Before home video, photographs were who could help humans transcend the cold-war After they are roasted, and when the coffee
the staple of UFO evidence. Video evidence, paranoia of nuclear annihilation; especially beans begin to cool, they release about 700
during the height of the 1990s UFO mania, was marked at the time, after two world wars. But chemical substances that make up the vaporizing
regarded by many as even more substantial. after events like Watergate and the Vietnam war aromas.
Amateur footage of glowing objects in the sky, fuelled distrust in government, UFOs came to be
as mysterious as they seemed real, made the cut viewed more as a possible threat, and some An arabica coffee tree can produce up to 12
for appearing on television – they were meant to came to believe their existence was verified in pounds of coffee a year, depending on soil and
be taken seriously and they fed an audience secret military documents. climate.
hungry for amazement, helped by a healthy dose Sharon Hill, a researcher on the
of conspiracy theorizing. paranormal and pseudoscience, says: “The ideas Australians consume 60% more coffee than tea,
According to the cultural historian Stuart about UFOs and aliens continue to evolve as we a sixfold increase since 1940.
Walton, “Belief in UFOs is definitely in a state project our social and cultural ideas on them.
of decline, along with much else that could be Since we have no single easy explanation for all Beethoven who was a coffee lover, was so
classed as paranormal. Part of the reason is that these claims regarding the decline in sightings, particular about his coffee that he always
the technology for providing documentary the future vision of ufology seems rather open- counted 60 beans each cup when he prepared his
evidence of such matters is now widely ended. I don't think it's dead, just changing.”[] brew.
available to everybody with a smartphone, and
such purported evidence as there is on YouTube Facts About Coffee Before roasting, some green coffee beans are
looks extremely threadbare.” stored for years, and experts believe that certain
He adds: “It isn't so much that belief can beans improve with age, when stored properly.
exist without proof; it's that it must emphatically "Coffee should be black as hell, strong as death,
and as sweet as love" - Turkish Proverb
avoid proof to remain belief. We are in the Before the first French cafe in the late 1700's,
process, paradoxically, of proving a negative coffee was sold by street vendors in Europe, in
52% of Americans drink coffee.
hypothesis with UFOs: there never was any such the Arab fashion. The Arabs were the
thing.” forerunners of the sidewalk espresso carts of
A acre of coffee trees can produce up to 10,000
Indeed, indisputable evidence of today.
pounds of coffee cherries. That amounts to
intelligent life coming to Earth could be the
greatest news of all time. Yet, after thousands of approximately 2000 pounds of beans after Brazil accounts for almost 1/3 of the world's
anecdotal, photo, and video reports have accrued hulling or milling. coffee production, producing over 3-1/3 billion
over decades, what are we to conclude? With the pounds of coffee each year.
A scientific report form the University of
greatest balance of skepticism and “wanting to
California found that the steam rising from a cup
believe”, all that can confidently be asserted is I’ll take my coffee with double cream please!
of coffee contains the same amounts of