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

[electrosoccertux]

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:Is this really a good use of resources?

[MyLongNickName]

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?

Found on google maps

[Anonymous Coward]

a "gray" abducting camels [google.com]

Correction

[ravenspear]

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:Military projects

[eln]

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:How many people really believe in these things?

[bladesjester]

Disclaimer: I'm just continuing the logical argument and not expressing my own beliefs.

By the same token, you could consider our wildlife tagging and study methods to be half-assed. I mean, after all, we aren't undetectable to the animals in question. The people doing the studies just don't think the animals are intelligent enough to be phased by the actions being performed on them.

Who says we aren't experiencing the same thing from the animal's point of view?

Re:How many people really believe in these things?

[bladesjester]

Actually, proving something is possible is a large step on the way to proving something exists. That doesn't cause confusion unless you don't realize that the two are in fact, connected.

The words Necessary but not Sufficient come to mind.

ohh, look, I can be insightful too!

[c6gunner]

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.

Re:Nothing New - A Real Yahoo!

[Mr2cents]

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!

Re:Military projects

[eln]

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.

Re:Military projects

[Paladin144]

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.

Oh really? So I could walk into a nuclear power plant today, or 3 years ago, with no problem? Is that a fact? That means I should have no problem carrying out my devious plan to put LSD in the water supply because, as you say, water treatment facilities are "completely open." Somehow I suspect you'll stick with your theory even though part of it has been proven false.

Some other poster mentioned something about "conspiracy theorists" (a pejorative phrase akin to me call you a "boot-licking, fascist tool") working backwards from their preconceived notions in an attempt to prove their hypothesis. But isn't the reverse true as well? There are a lot of people who don't want to contend with the idea that the government either let 9/11 happen, or had a hand in creating it simply because the idea is so offensive to everything we hold dear. So people assume that the 9/11 Truthers are "crazies" and work backwards from that. Both sides are guilty of this action.

By the way, it's noteworthy to point out that the official story (the government's version of events on 9/11) is also a conspiracy theory in that it's unproven, and it involves a conspiracy -- 19 hijackers conspired to fly planes into buildings, presumably with Osama bin Laden playing the role of the maniacal genius mastermind hiding in a cave somewhere, pulling strings, and manipulating people in a brilliant plan to destroy the United States while setting up a pan-Islamic Caliphate. I wonder if Bin Laden laughs insanely while stroking a cat like Ernst Blofield.

Quite frankly, both the truthers' and the governments' versions of events sound like something Hollywood dreamed up.