h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Traveller in Time writing from an alien browser
"The washing powder does _not_ have a chemical reaction the suggested effect is called 'Fluorescence' and comes down at reflecting at half the irradiated frequency. "
Ultra violet light is invisible to the human eyes. When it hits some chemical compounds these 'slow' the waves down into the visible range.

In effect washing powder is indeed a great detector of Ultra Violet light. However, concider taking a Tube light, these do not only show the Ultra violet but also stray electrons and high electric field values "

Darn you beat me to it....

Oh welll then, Good entry, I enjoyed it. Though I believew in aliens I am a bit sceptical th the whole visiting earth thing though.

I read an interesting book once about UFO sightings in England (and other supner natuaral things) and in it the auther mentions that in Engand (not sure if she said in other countires as well) that the most commen areas of UFO sightings is in areas with rocks that have a high quartz crystal level in, and that it could be that every now and then the grob bleeds of energy which forms glowing balls of light, she mentions some house somewhere that is built from granite and has a high quartz crystal level where luminesent balls of energy some times form and float around before fading away.

Can't remember all thedetails, but still an interesting theroy I think.

Adib

yes lovely entry
u.f.os do exist on the laws which we yet have to discover

Yeah the article is really good.

well of course ufo's exist, any unidentifable object travelling through the sky is a ufo. Question is, is it extraterrestrial?

I believe in life from other planets, but I don't see how they got here or why. Unless they live in this star system then the odds for them coming here increase rather rapidly. Unless of course they come from a paradox or bubble universe and live in the same tanjent of spacetime as us and have found away to transverse over to this side, infact maybe it is there form of space travel and when we see some UFO's it is simply life in a bubble universe using some form of travel device to skip from one point to another.

Thats the thing with UFO's any thing is possible as we do not have an answer as yet.

Besides I love looking at the sky at night, all the stars, nebula (that you can't see with the naked eye) and stuff. UFO spotting is just another reason to look up at the sky at night and see the beauty of out universe.

Adib.

Shouldn't you take a towel as well?

Traveller in Time watching the day sky sitting on his
"And your electronic thumb ! "

Thank you all for making me chuckle with your comments. Science buffs are the first ones in with detail correction

Adib, I think you might be referring to research by Jenny Randles and also Paul Devereux. Many documented sightings of 'strange' lights do occur over sandstone and there is a blanket term given to this light phenomena - earthlights - as it is believed that the phenomena is caused by a piezo-electric effect. Again a really good theory but the processes are still not clearly understood. I know of Japanese scientists who have been researching plasma balls. How faults in the sandstone can create a pocket of light that is thrust upwards and floats on ionised air still needs proper explanation. Which reminds me of a conservation I had with Manchester university about whether this phenomenon was also connected with local earthquakes. I was informed that there was no connection and yet a group of lights appeared during the time of the Manchester seismic activity.

Oh hey thats the stuff, thanks. i read the book she wrote a few months back, but could not remember all the details.

There is still many things in the world that we do not understand or know about. We know more about space than we do about the bottems of our oceans.


Adib

My application to join the Hebden Bridge UFO Society appears to have disappeared into a black hole.
I attended a meeting once and consumed several pints of intoxicating Pendle Witch beer in a cosy room in a small pub atop a bleak Yorkshire hill under starlit skies.
There were 4 of us in attendance altogether. We sat in a group around a corner table. The committee of 2 wore discreet cardboard lapel badges signifying leadership or perhaps rank.
As I was the only one who had actually seen a UFO I expected my application for membership to be a mere formality. But it was not to be. Perhaps the club has now disbanded or gone over to crop circles?
I don't know. It seems that's how it is in the UFO world.

The mundane and ordinary can be real killers, but isnt it a matter of perspective.
I know a certain english/welshman living not far from devizes whose work has appeared in several crop circle books.
Whaat, am i really saying crop circles are made by people and not aliens - its a dreadful let down, but consider my friends perspective - he gets a great deal of pleasure from his work, he finds it spiritually rewarding as well; talking to him opens ones mind.
The fact that crop circles are man made does not diminish one iota their uniqueness and wonder, perhaps the real wonder is they were made by "unqualified" people.
Ufos, as a respondee said do not have to be "alien."
Travelling up to London on the 303 at about 8 one dark winters evening a triangular object crossed the sky at considerable speed, the leading edge had flames pouring out. Internet research revealed that a large number of sightings had occurred all over the world - reasonable explanations revealed themselves - still exciting and in fact rather reassuring.
I still "believe in flying saucers" because i can and want.

TallTony, how the effect works is actually rather simple and can be easily demonstrated on a small scale at home.

The effect has to do with breaking of bonds between molecules in a crystal lattice, generating light as the electrons fall back into their ground state orbitals.

A simple at home demonstration can be done with a pair of pliers and a chunk of rock candy, extra large sugar crystals. Simply crush the crystal in the dark with the pliers and it will produce a flash of blue light too faint to be seen in daylight, but readily noticeable in the dark. This is called 'triboluminescence'.

Similar effects are produced when seismic stresses are operating on the rocks, with related effects involving piezoelectric currents being developed, along with electrically charged gasses being expelled from the rocks amplifying and complicating the effect.

The effect has been reported by many observers over time and figures in the Chinese system for forecasting earthquakes. Goethe reported seeing the effect at night over a stone quarry.