IBM Targets UFOs, Ghosts, and Goblins With Search Tool

coondoggie writes "IBM wants to help you find out if UFOs are real. Well, sort of. With UFO sightings seemingly on the rise, Big Blue is teaming with The Anomalies Network to offer UFO Crawler, a new search engine specifically tuned to search for information about the paranormal, unexplained or just plain bizarre. The search tool employs IBM's OmniFind Yahoo! Edition enterprise search software and the UFO Crawler should help users precisely target and gather information from relevant sources, including thousands of documents and files collected in the vast Anomalies Network archive, as well as multiple global resources across the Web on topics such as such as ghosts, conspiracy theories and extraterrestrials."

Military projects

Presumably the most stealthy plane form is a saucer. The idea of many is that these flying saucer sightings are nothing but X-projects. I don't see why this isn't likely to be the case.

Re:Military projects

Wow man, it's a good thing you aren't one of those "crazies" that you talk about or you would have posted some bizarre rant about one world government and interdimensional beings instead of this well-thought-out rational discourse.

Re:Military projects

Conspiracy theories don't work like that. Conspiracy theories employ a sort of reverse Occam's Razor: do not accept the simplest logical explanation if a needlessly complicated conspiracy can be made to fit the same facts.

Re:Military projects

The problem with conspiracy theorists is they insist on sticking to their theory even when several aspects of it are empirically shown to be false. The 9/11 conspiracy theories are a great example of this.

For example: you say the hijackers were uneducated, but that's demonstrably false. Mohammed Atta, for example, had a Master's degree.

Also, the Boeing 747 [wikipedia.org] is quite a bit larger than the Boeing 757. [wikipedia.org]

As for the Pentagon hit, there was tons of debris [abovetopsecret.com], and they DID hit plenty of other things on the way in, including several fences, cars, and a generator.

As for the crack about the "most secure nation on Earth," maybe you missed all the news stories for years after 9/11 about how most of our highest value targets (power plants, water treatment, etc, etc) are still completely open and vulnerable to attack.

So in this case, it's not a conspiracy that can be made to fit the facts, it's a conspiracy that will fit the "facts" that were made up to fit the theory.

ohh, look, I can be insightful too!

Presumably the Flying Spaghetti Monster's appendages are saucer shaped. The idea of many is that these flying saucers are nothing but the ends of his noodly appendages. I don't see why this isn't likely to be the case.

Nothing New - A Real Yahoo!

The search tool employs IBM's OmniFind Yahoo! Edition enterprise search software

Nothing new here, you always had to be a real "YAHOO!" to believe in UFO's anyway.

Re:Nothing New - A Real Yahoo!

Want a a business plan?

1. Attract gullible people around paranormal search engine.
2. Use advertisement space to sell magnetic healing jewlery, talismans, tin-foil hats and other crap.
3. Profit!

Correction

UFOs exist, that is a fact. A UFO is by definition an unidentified flying object. Hundreds of cases of aerial objects that can't be immediately identified have been reliably documented (and by qualified observers).

What you choose to "believe" or not believe is what UFOs represent. If your position is that it would be irrational to assume these represent alien spacecraft, then the correct statement would be "you always had to be a real "YAHOO!" to believe UFOs were alien spacecraft."

Re:Nothing New - A Real Yahoo!

Maybe we could use it to find Duke Nukem Forever

While...

While I understand that this is probably good for pageviews and thus revenue, do we really have to encourage these people?

Don't click the link!

That's what they want you to do!

Is this really a good use of resources?

Sure, it might be interesting. But why isn't IBM devoting resources to actual space research? Or even something more earth based?

Re:Is this really a good use of resources?

It is called capitalism. IBM has a service for "tuned" search engines. Some organization was willing to pay IBM to tune it for paranormal searches. IBM took their cash.

I;'d argue it is a wonderful allocation of resources. Idiots gave their money away. Intelligent people will then get to use it for something more purposeful. What is wrong with that?

Mulder would have been happy....

I'm sitting here on the couch watching X Files thinking that this may have made Mulder and Scully's job a bit easier...

How many people really believe in these things?

Honestly. I'm a skeptic of religion because it proclaims that some invisible "being" is responsible for our world. There's no physical evidence to back that up (I don't want to start a debate here though, this is just my opinion). For the EXACT SAME REASON I feel like UFO's, extraterrestrials, ghosts, poltergeists, etc. are all not real. Nothing to really back it up. Am I the only skeptic or do people actually believe in this ish?

Re:How many people really believe in these things?

I think the distinction is that while intelligent, civilization-forming extraterrestrial life may be not only real but abundant on cosmic scales, the likelihood that any intelligent lifeform smart enough to develop an economical method of traveling interstellar distances within a reasonable timeframe would have any desire to come to Earth is exceedingly low. And even if they did, it further stands to reason that they would either interfere with us outright, or be completely undetectable, that any experiments they performed would not be half-assed jobs that left people running around with partial memories chatting about it, and they would certainly not be allied with, much less occasionally overpowered by, the US government/military.

Re:How many people really believe in these things?

If it was shot down, it would also lose the F, and it would just be an O.

seriously?

IBM is actually seriously interested in this? Is there actually any money to be made? Its not April 1st is it?

ufologist

I'm a trained Ufologist and I'm thinking I would NEVER trust a search engine from IBM - that would be like giving me a UFO search engine written by the US gov't. I *KNOW* where the files I need to see are - they are in gov't bldgs at Area 51 and I don't need a search engine to tell me that.

wow, me too!

I'm a scientician with a BS in ufology! We should team up!

Found on google maps

a "gray" abducting camels [google.com]

UFO's, Ghosts . . . Meteor Freaks?

Hmmmmm, a searchable "Wall of Weird", cool.

Well, this accomplished one thing...

IBM is sure getting word of mouth advertising out of this for their 'tuned search engine' services.

Thank you everyone.

My faith in humanity is restored, temporarily.

For the first time in my life, I'm seeing a crowd that doesn't wonder if Egyptian hieroglyphs, crop circles, and the Xbox 360 all have the same origin. (link [cropcircleconnector.com])

Targeting Ghosts 'n Goblins?

Good luck, IBM. I don't think even Blue Gene could beat that video game.

Rob

or...

you could just go to a reputable source and do your own research:

http://www.bluebookarchive.org/ [bluebookarchive.org]

No zombies or esp, just government docs about ufo's.

Tom Caudron
http://tom.digitalelite.com/ [digitalelite.com]

We already KNOW there are UFOs

We've seen them:

• They are (U)nidentified;
• They are (O)bjects;
• They (F)ly.
  
  

Who wouldn't agree that people frequently see flying things that they can't identify? Only CRAZY people wouldn't agree.

Re:We already KNOW there are UFOs

> it's all fake and made up.

NASA begs to differ... [google.com]
and so do these government and military witnesses [google.com]

Google for:
- Evidence: The Case For NASA UFO's [amazon.com]
- The Disclosure Project [disclosureproject.org]

--
Why does C++ still suck with this 'short', 'long long', and 'double' garbage??

So, IBM can tell us...

...what the queers are doing to the soil?

I just saw something!

It was big, blue and incredibly lost.

Search to Try

"The Doctor"

Simpliest search engine yet...

Just about every result could be resolved with this [files.naiv.us].

Naive

The funny thing is, i see people here that laugh at the subject, when they are really the naive ones. I don't live in a box, or bubble. I welcome change, and i'm not afraid of it. Your bad jokes and unhealthy skepticism do not change the facts. These objects are real, and there needs to be a formal study and open discussion about it in the scientific community. It's not about little men from mars, and many people who lack research skills or the desire to solve the greatest mystery in the history of the human race love to categorize it as such. It's about solving the energy problems that are destroying this planet and thousands of lives each year. It's about learning the true history of this planet and of the nature of the human species. It's about turning the military industrial complex on end, and showing people that technology can also be used to further our species by revolutionizing the medical field and energy grid, instead of creating weapons for taking innocent lives and devising unjustifiable wars that only serve to make the government another dollar, and only serve to set our evolution back even more. You sit and watch CNN and debate over petty political problems, when disclosure of this information would solve many of these childish wars and scandals that you love to hear about on the nightly news. I won't touch on the Fisher Price physics that you learn in your public education systems, and the silly notions of comets with frosty tails and labeling stars as a nuclear furnaces. Wake up and smell the cardboard your life is conveniently packed and secured in. Or maybe you enjoy the security of what that cardboard keeps in, or Out of your life.

When ya don't know, you look elsewhere

This is going to sound crazy; I'm sure to be marked a "troll" and all that, but the truth...just so you can hear it...is that *almost* all these anomalies are demons. Some are just the unknown, but most are much more.

Yeah, I know; I felt the same way when I heard the concept. Fairy tales, nonsense and bullshit. I've learned differently.

I think it was 1996-97 or so, my buddy and I were working late a Lee Lumber. I forget the task at hand, but we'd come downstairs to "the floor" where we could smoke, maybe we had eaten, I don't remember. But I DO remember the sound of a Christmas tree in a cardboard box, being pulled across a tiled floor with dirt on it. Very crisp sound; very genuine. Being the only ones there at 3AM, and being in a the large city of Chicago, we called the police. They brought dogs...I remember learning that night that a German Sheperd CAN, in fact, bite through a commercial-quality doorknob, 'cause he hung there by his tooth, and hole is probably still in that doorknob.

Hearing sounds like that isn't unusual; it happens, rarely. Eventually I forgot.

In 2005 I was guarding a bank building, a new one, here in Evansville. Several guys did it, but again, only two people in the building when I heard this noise in a stairwell. I considered steam pipes, thermal expansion, *everything* that could make that noise...the Christmas tree in a cardboard box...but what was making the noise was just above me, on the the other side of the concrete landing. Something made the noise. Repeatedly. And it would quit before I got to it, every time.

I talked to one of the guys there; most of us were ex-military and such- a good team. Jerry was a Navy surgeon, knew an astronaut...a joy to talk with. He's also a Chaplain now. When I told him about the anomaly, he told me, as if prescribing a way to get barnacles off my boat: "Oh, well the next time you see that, say this: 'In the name of Jesus Christ, I rebuke you!'. I didn't believe it, but it was worth a shot.

A week or so later I'm in the stairwell again and I hear the noise. I was nervous and trying to THINK the words to say, and the noise stopped. Hmm. Fluke?

Another week or so, in a similar situation, I remembered the words well enough to say'em. When I did, before the words could echo completely off the walls, the sound stopped. I got chills.

I got chills because, if this were some "natural" means, like steam, or heat-expansion or whatever, it would have stopped on that second, anyway. But there are 86,400 seconds per day; what are the chances of me doing this twice, at the same time? (86,400x86,400) 7,464,960,000 to 1.

I asked Jerry why this happened. How can *words* do anything about an anomaly? It turns out that just as angels are here, there are demons, too; neither side can break out into the open, or it violates the test. The "test" is why we know nothing about the day before our birthday- nothing to sway us toward, or away from God. It's gotta be fair. And using His name gets his immediate attention, which is why it's bad to use as an expletive.

Since then I've seen other demons, figuratively. Idea outside my character, suggestions of things to do, that aren't me. Sure, there's things I like, but there are things I'd NEVER consider, yet the idea pops into my head...very seductive. This is how we'er led into misery.

So throw your stones, call me an unenlighted bigot homophobe misanthrope...but these things are true. And they exist to distract your attention from the ONE THING THAT MATTERS in this life: finding your way to God. Ever notice how much time people spend chasing UFOs? Ghosts? The Bermuda Triangle? These distractions are called "the occult"- that which distracts from your intended fate.

Find your way home. That's why we're here. And I hope you do.

Sightings on the rise?

UFO sightings are not on the rise. If you have the opportunity to hang around the right circles, you'll notice that a _lot_ of persons believe they saw UFOs, ghosts and things like that. Sometimes they just want attention but often they really believe [amazon.ca] it. What has changed is that major news agencies repport those sighting. I think they figured that their credibility is not a stake anymore.

Alien Invasion Database, eh?

I wonder if that thing can figure out what was flying around over the desert in New Mexico: http://www.omninerd.com/2007/02/25/articles/71 [omninerd.com]

Finally...!

... a way to hone in on appropriate anal probing!