The Good, The Vague, and the Ho-Hum

It (almost) never ceases to amaze me how quickly a minor comment will snowball into something huge. For instance, this whole WikiLeaks / Assange UFO statement. What Julian Assange actually said was:

"Many weirdos email us about UFOs or how they discovered that they were the Anti-Christ whilst talking with their ex-wife at a garden party over a pot-plant," he wrote when asked if any of the documents he had received referred to extraterrestrial life.

"It is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs."

That's a fairly tame statement, one which says to me that the references are nothing more than off-the-cuff remarks or part of a general discussion. When you take into consideration the preface, "Many weirdos email us about UFOs...", it becomes more difficult to believe that any major or shocking information will be disclosed. Now, if Assange had worded it like this:

"Holy fucking shit, y'all! In yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs -- ZOMG!!!111"

Then yes, I might get the impression that some fairly interesting news regarding extraterrestrials (or whatever) would be forthcoming.

I'm not sure why so much crap is read into pretty vague and ho-hum statements, but somehow this next headline started gaining visibility in the last 2 days:

'Assange File Reveals Extraterrestrial Contact'

Woah. Where the fuck did that come from? At first I thought, "Hrm. Maybe Julian has made additional comments in recent days..."

Nope!

Apparently, that headline came purely from speculation based on the original (and only) Assange UFO statement, “It is worth noting that in yet-to-be-published parts of the cablegate archive there are indeed references to UFOs.”

It wouldn't be such a bad thing if people didn't get carried away or take those sorts of things at face value, but then again, we are talking about UFOlogy, here. Add to that the number of people (more than anyone should hope for) that still haven't got it through their heads that the 'U' in 'UFO' means 'Unidentified', not 'Extraterrestrial', and voilà - instant conspiracy.

If I strap a Barbie doll to a bottle rocket and launch it, someone viewing the sailing rocket with the naked eye from a mile or so away would probably not be able to make out that it's a friggin' Barbie doll straddling a firecracker. If the sighting is reported but its true nature never discovered, it would probably be classified as an Unidentified Flying Object.

Point being?

Point being that the term 'UFO' could be used to describe any number of airborne unknowns, most of which are likely terrestrial in origin.

Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the reference to UFOs in the unreleased WikiLeaks cables goes something like:

"Dude. I was so fucking baked at the UFO concert last night -- I hadn't seen them play since '77!"