2786: UFO Evidence - Revision history

DownGoer: xkcd is the preferred form (https://xkcd.com/about/)

2023-08-10T06:19:21Z

xkcd is the preferred form (https://xkcd.com/about/)

Xurkitree10: /* Explanation */

2023-08-04T04:21:57Z

‎Explanation

Solomon: added Category:Cats using HotCat

2023-08-01T01:42:50Z

added Category:Cats using HotCat

172.70.126.100: Undo revision 318357 by 172.69.214.158 (talk)

2023-07-24T02:34:45Z

Undo revision 318357 by 172.69.214.158 (talk)

Show changes

172.69.214.158 at 00:53, 24 July 2023

2023-07-24T00:53:20Z

Show changes

162.158.146.143: /* Explanation */

2023-06-12T19:28:25Z

‎Explanation

Tromag at 15:17, 12 June 2023

2023-06-12T15:17:04Z

Whalepilot: /* Explanation */ add links to related comics

2023-06-09T02:17:03Z

‎Explanation: add links to related comics

172.71.159.39: /* Explanation */ four periods for ellipsis at end of sentence

2023-06-08T17:56:41Z

‎Explanation: four periods for ellipsis at end of sentence

172.70.127.75: /* Explanation */

2023-06-08T15:57:54Z

‎Explanation

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 Cueball's point is apparently that he (like many scientists) is driven by curiosity, and willing to spend a great deal of time and energy to answer questions. His suggestion is that, if he was willing to put effort into investigating such an inconsequential and ridiculous question, based on incredibly flimsy evidence, it's implausible that he would simply ignore actual evidence about something as important as the existence of sentient alien life. The only reason why he (and most scientists) would reject such claims is a total lack of even faintly compelling evidence. If someone ever managed to present evidence of alien life that was even slightly plausible, many scientists would enthusiastically spend a great deal of time and effort trying to verify it, as in [[2359: Evidence of Alien Life]].
-This strip continues a common XKCD theme of mocking dubious claims, including [[Alien Observers|UFOs]], [[Health Drink|pseudoscience]], [[The Economic Argument|paranormal phenomena]], and [[Conspiracy Theories]], which are presented without plausible or verifiable evidence. [[Randall]]'s general attitude toward these claims is that, if any of these things were true, we would expect evidence for them by now. Complaints that there is evidence, and scientists won't look at it are utterly implausible, because such evidence would be of enormous interest to scientists, if it was even slightly convincing.
+This strip continues a common xkcd theme of mocking dubious claims, including [[Alien Observers|UFOs]], [[Health Drink|pseudoscience]], [[The Economic Argument|paranormal phenomena]], and [[Conspiracy Theories]], which are presented without plausible or verifiable evidence. [[Randall]]'s general attitude toward these claims is that, if any of these things were true, we would expect evidence for them by now. Complaints that there is evidence, and scientists won't look at it are utterly implausible, because such evidence would be of enormous interest to scientists, if it was even slightly convincing.
 The title text may refer to [https://phys.org/news/2015-01-aliens-tv.html the idea that aliens could be watching our old TV] (previously explored in [[1212: Interstellar Memes]]).  Because radio and television signals travel at light speed, aliens light years away could theoretically receive earth entertainment years after it was originally broadcast.  The idea that they are learning about us from ''Cats'', which is thought of as {{w|List of films considered the worst#Cats (2019)|one of our worst films of all time}}, is not the view of humanity either most people would want to present or most people would not want aliens to show extreme interest in. Especially since they might ask for the butthole cut....

← Older revision		Revision as of 04:21, 4 August 2023
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	==Explanation==		==Explanation==
−	~~{{incomplete\|Created by an ANATOMICALLY INCORRECT CAT WITH A NEED THAT WILL NOT BE SATISFIED. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}~~
−
	[[White Hat]] (presumably a [[wikipedia:Ufology\|ufologist]]) accuses [[Cueball]] of being unwilling to listen to his claims for extraterrestrial life. UFO stands for "unidentified flying object", but has become strongly associated with the belief that alien ships have visited or are visiting earth. People who believe this are likely to take the position that governments are systematically covering up evidence of alien contact, and the scientific community is either complicit or indifferent. Hence, White Hat accuses "you scientists" of refusing to even seriously consider evidence of his beliefs.		[[White Hat]] (presumably a [[wikipedia:Ufology\|ufologist]]) accuses [[Cueball]] of being unwilling to listen to his claims for extraterrestrial life. UFO stands for "unidentified flying object", but has become strongly associated with the belief that alien ships have visited or are visiting earth. People who believe this are likely to take the position that governments are systematically covering up evidence of alien contact, and the scientific community is either complicit or indifferent. Hence, White Hat accuses "you scientists" of refusing to even seriously consider evidence of his beliefs.

← Older revision		Revision as of 01:42, 1 August 2023
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	[[Category:Fiction]]		[[Category:Fiction]]
	[[Category:Aliens]]		[[Category:Aliens]]
		+	[[Category:Cats]]

@@ Line 20: / Line 20: @@
 The ''Cats'' movie was widely panned, in part because of the unappealing design of its CGI cat characters. On March 18, 2020, Twitter user @jackwaz claimed a friend of a friend had been hired as a VFX artist to "[https://www.avclub.com/world-unites-over-need-for-cats-producers-to-releaseth-1842396923 remove CGI buttholes]" from the digital cats, meaning that there was a version of the movie where the characters all had anatomically correct feline anuses depicted. This caused social media users to start petitioning for official confirmation of "the butthole cut," which Universal Studios has so far declined to acknowledge.
-Cueball's point is apparently that he (like many scientists) is driven by curiosity, and willing to spend a great deal of time and energy to answer questions. His suggestion is that, if he was willing to put effort into investigating such an inconsequential and ridiculous question, based on incredibly flimsy evidence, it's implausible that he would simply ignore actual evidence about something as important as the existence of sentient alien life. The only reason why most he (and most scientists) would reject such claims is a total lack of even faintly compelling evidence. If someone ever managed to present evidence of alien life that was even slightly plausible, many scientists would enthusiastically spend a great deal of time and effort trying to verify it, as in [[2359: Evidence of Alien Life]].
+Cueball's point is apparently that he (like many scientists) is driven by curiosity, and willing to spend a great deal of time and energy to answer questions. His suggestion is that, if he was willing to put effort into investigating such an inconsequential and ridiculous question, based on incredibly flimsy evidence, it's implausible that he would simply ignore actual evidence about something as important as the existence of sentient alien life. The only reason why he (and most scientists) would reject such claims is a total lack of even faintly compelling evidence. If someone ever managed to present evidence of alien life that was even slightly plausible, many scientists would enthusiastically spend a great deal of time and effort trying to verify it, as in [[2359: Evidence of Alien Life]].
 This strip continues a common XKCD theme of mocking dubious claims, including [[Alien Observers|UFOs]], [[Health Drink|pseudoscience]], [[The Economic Argument|paranormal phenomena]], and [[Conspiracy Theories]], which are presented without plausible or verifiable evidence. [[Randall]]'s general attitude toward these claims is that, if any of these things were true, we would expect evidence for them by now. Complaints that there is evidence, and scientists won't look at it are utterly implausible, because such evidence would be of enormous interest to scientists, if it was even slightly convincing.

@@ Line 12: / Line 12: @@
 {{incomplete|Created by an ANATOMICALLY INCORRECT CAT WITH A NEED THAT WILL NOT BE SATISFIED. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}}
-[[White Hat]] (presumably a [[wikipedia:Ufology|ufologist]]) accuses [[Cueball]] of being unwilling to listen to his claims for extraterrestrial life. UFO stands for "unidentified flying object" but is used in common parlance to mean a spaceship carrying beings from another planet. The term "Unidentified Anomalous Phenomena" (''UAP'') has been more recently adopted in United States official investigations (that might wish not to be instantly associated with "little green men" and their "flying saucers") and was in the news during the weeks before this comic due to the coverage of official releases (and U.S. Senate hearings) regarding the official monitoring of observation reports. In these, various supposed sightings were given mundane explanations, while a few others were not but were generally considered insufficient proof of extraterrestrial visitations. A devout UFO-believer is likely to be somewhat disappointed by this, having more personal willingness to believe that the more ambiguous sightings are truly flying saucers. And possibly even that some or all of the 'explained' ones are being officially misinterpreted or misrepresented in a denialist manner for the government's/authorities' own purposes.
+[[White Hat]] (presumably a [[wikipedia:Ufology|ufologist]]) accuses [[Cueball]] of being unwilling to listen to his claims for extraterrestrial life. UFO stands for "unidentified flying object", but has become strongly associated with the belief that alien ships have visited or are visiting earth. People who believe this are likely to take the position that governments are systematically covering up evidence of alien contact, and the scientific community is either complicit or indifferent. Hence, White Hat accuses "you scientists" of refusing to even seriously consider evidence of his beliefs.
 Cueball counters this common pushback by admitting that he once spent an entire day trying to confirm the existence of a version of [[wikipedia:Cats_(2019_film)|the 2019 film adaptation of ''Cats'']] which allegedly gave the eponymous anthropomorphic felines anatomically-correct rear ends.
@@ Line 18: / Line 20: @@
 The ''Cats'' movie was widely panned, in part because of the unappealing design of its CGI cat characters. On March 18, 2020, Twitter user @jackwaz claimed a friend of a friend had been hired as a VFX artist to "[https://www.avclub.com/world-unites-over-need-for-cats-producers-to-releaseth-1842396923 remove CGI buttholes]" from the digital cats, meaning that there was a version of the movie where the characters all had anatomically correct feline anuses depicted. This caused social media users to start petitioning for official confirmation of "the butthole cut," which Universal Studios has so far declined to acknowledge.
-Cueball was apparently willing to lend enough credence to such an absurd and entirely inconsequential claim to spend time researching it. His suggestion is that if he was willing to invest that effort on the basis of such flimsy and meaningless evidence, the fact that he won't look in to White Hat's claims means that they must be even more worthless. The only reason why most scientists would reject such claims is a total lack of even faintly compelling evidence. As [[Cueball]] points out, if someone ever managed to present evidence of alien life that was even slightly plausible, many scientists would enthusiastically spend a great deal of time and effort trying to verify it, as in [[2359: Evidence of Alien Life]].
+Cueball's point is apparently that he (like many scientists) is driven by curiosity, and willing to spend a great deal of time and energy to answer questions. His suggestion is that, if he was willing to put effort into investigating such an inconsequential and ridiculous question, based on incredibly flimsy evidence, it's implausible that he would simply ignore actual evidence about something as important as the existence of sentient alien life. The only reason why most he (and most scientists) would reject such claims is a total lack of even faintly compelling evidence. If someone ever managed to present evidence of alien life that was even slightly plausible, many scientists would enthusiastically spend a great deal of time and effort trying to verify it, as in [[2359: Evidence of Alien Life]].
-The comic probably pertains to U.S. Air Force veteran and former {{w|National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency}} member [https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/lawmakers-react-to-whistleblowers-ufo-claims/ David Grusch], who is seeking whistleblower status for his claims that the U.S. government is hiding crashed alien spacecraft and corpses.[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36216745] It continues a common XKCD theme of mocking dubious claims, including [[Alien Observers|UFOs]], [[Health Drink|pseudoscience]], [[The Economic Argument|paranormal phenomena]], and [[Conspiracy Theories]], which are presented without plausible or verifiable evidence. [[Randall]]'s general attitude toward these claims is that, if any of these things were true, we would expect evidence for them by now. Complaints that there is evidence, and scientists won't look at it are utterly implausible, because such evidence would be of enormous interest to scientists, if it had even a hint of being plausible.
+This strip continues a common XKCD theme of mocking dubious claims, including [[Alien Observers|UFOs]], [[Health Drink|pseudoscience]], [[The Economic Argument|paranormal phenomena]], and [[Conspiracy Theories]], which are presented without plausible or verifiable evidence. [[Randall]]'s general attitude toward these claims is that, if any of these things were true, we would expect evidence for them by now. Complaints that there is evidence, and scientists won't look at it are utterly implausible, because such evidence would be of enormous interest to scientists, if it was even slightly convincing.
 The title text may refer to [https://phys.org/news/2015-01-aliens-tv.html the idea that aliens could be watching our old TV] (previously explored in [[1212: Interstellar Memes]]).  Because radio and television signals travel at light speed, aliens light years away could theoretically receive earth entertainment years after it was originally broadcast.  The idea that they are learning about us from ''Cats'', which is thought of as {{w|List of films considered the worst#Cats (2019)|one of our worst films of all time}}, is not the view of humanity either most people would want to present or most people would not want aliens to show extreme interest in. Especially since they might ask for the butthole cut....

@@ Line 22: / Line 22: @@
 The comic probably pertains to U.S. Air Force veteran and former {{w|National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency}} member [https://www.newsnationnow.com/space/ufo/lawmakers-react-to-whistleblowers-ufo-claims/ David Grusch], who is seeking whistleblower status for his claims that the U.S. government is hiding crashed alien spacecraft and corpses.[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36216745] It continues a common XKCD theme of mocking dubious claims, including [[Alien Observers|UFOs]], [[Health Drink|pseudoscience]], [[The Economic Argument|paranormal phenomena]], and [[Conspiracy Theories]], which are presented without plausible or verifiable evidence. [[Randall]]'s general attitude toward these claims is that, if any of these things were true, we would expect evidence for them by now. Complaints that there is evidence, and scientists won't look at it are utterly implausible, because such evidence would be of enormous interest to scientists, if it had even a hint of being plausible.
-The title text may refer to [https://phys.org/news/2015-01-aliens-tv.html the idea that aliens could be watching our old TV].  Because radio and television signals travel at light speed, aliens light years away could theoretically receive earth entertainment years after it was originally broadcast.  The idea that they are learning about us from ''Cats'', which is thought of as {{w|List of films considered the worst#Cats (2019)|one of our worst films of all time}}, is not the view of humanity either most people would want to present or most people would not want aliens to show extreme interest in. Especially since they might ask for the butthole cut...
+The title text may refer to [https://phys.org/news/2015-01-aliens-tv.html the idea that aliens could be watching our old TV].  Because radio and television signals travel at light speed, aliens light years away could theoretically receive earth entertainment years after it was originally broadcast.  The idea that they are learning about us from ''Cats'', which is thought of as {{w|List of films considered the worst#Cats (2019)|one of our worst films of all time}}, is not the view of humanity either most people would want to present or most people would not want aliens to show extreme interest in. Especially since they might ask for the butthole cut....
 ==Transcript==