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

I've seen just about everything commonly mistaken for UFO phenomena, but I've never seen anything extraterrestrial which wasn't either a natural phenomenon or an artifact of terrestrial aerospace technology, identifiable at least in principle.

On the other hand I've always had an interest in traditional phenomenology, which has often provided a basis for new scientific discovery over time, phenomenology of the kind pursued by people like Richard Shapiro, Rupert Gould or Ripley, or for that matter in the Guinness Book of Records.

Traditional phenomenology has been almost completely displaced by Ufology over the latter twentieth century.

Phenomenology includes, strangely enough, almost everything commonly mistaken for UFO activity, one way or another, but isn't limited to such effects and is predicated on discovery and description of the nature and mechanics of phenomena.

Fire was merely a phenomenon until early stone working hominids learned to produce it reliably about two million years ago. Electricity was merely a phenomenon, known for thousands of years until the 18th and 19th century researchers made a science and technology of it.