In our latest episode of “The Internet is the worst thing/best thing,” my Facebook feed shows a trending topic about the Chilean Navy releasing video of a “UFO” or “UAP,” as they describe it. The trend seems due, in no small part, to a Huffington Post article, which attempts to outline the facts of the situation and the Chilean government’s efforts to explain what they were seeing.
As to the point of the Internet being the worst thing: This HuffPo piece is all most people feel they need to see to draw their conclusions about the video. They then share and spread it on social media. The author does a fairly thorough job of covering what we know and what the Chilean government thought at the time. But she doesn’t draw very solid conclusions and does almost zero investigation into the matter herself (think of a long appeal to an authority). So, you know, case closed, right? For many people, this appears to be the case.
Well, here’s why the internet is also the best thing: If you are genuinely curious about what that UFO really is, you can find out for yourself!
We have plenty of helpful tools at our disposal, such as PlaneFinder and Google Earth. And, thanks to the video, we have a bunch of helpful information. Not only can we explain what we’re seeing (aerodynamic contrails and jet engines), but we can identify the airplane number and it’s flight path. We can also, then, understand why the Chileans couldn’t figure it out. Their eye-witness accounts were off by a decent amount to begin with, and they based their investigation around that info.
It’s also important to remember how we can know things only with varying degrees of certainty. In this case, of course, an airplane is the likeliest explanation for this UFO because there is plenty of evidence for it, and, uh, none for it being alien spacecraft.
My closing point is this: There’s a big internet out there full of awesome content. Use it and enjoy it!
— Mike Allen
(Editor’s Note: NonDoc provides Sundaze as a weekly space for poetry, short prose, visual art and other ideas pitched by creatives in Oklahoma and around the world. All submissions are encouraged, and new creatives are sought. Submit your work for publication by contacting Editorial@NonDoc.com.)
More Sundaze
Father Time bids farewell to 2016: ‘You’re fired’
Christmas: Santa saddled with great expectations
Holiday stress: One man’s ‘scientific’ analysis
Russian hackers: ‘No way they could hack the Gibson’
Sundaze: The bat logo and the palm tree
The Sundaze before Bedlam: Ode to Top Daug
Sundaze: Sledding toward more remakes and reboots
Sundaze: Comparison memes need ‘nuance and details’
Sundaze: Hillary emails and The Abyss of Vastness
Sundaze poem: The Autumn Solstice
Sundaze comic: ‘Just because it’s on the internet’
Sundaze poem: ‘All the men smile’
Sundaze: Terence Crutcher’s forest & ‘The rot in my yard’
Sundaze: Sign drama & an equation with consequence
Sundaze: ‘Syria is a far-off place’
Sundaze: ‘Time to study’ at the University of Oklahoma
Sundaze: Design conversations on Oklahoma new plate
Sundazed: Medical marijuana and the Drug War
Sundaze: Love is for the birds who need good vibes
Sundaze: Norman tacos are a big damn deal
Sundaze: The U.K., the EU and African ways of love
Sundaze from South Africa: ‘Dear President…’
Sundaze: Seeking truth along the road
American Ninja Distraction and the bears
Political suicide: Slippery slope to the six six feet
Sundaze: Oklahoma halved and a poem from India
100 percent chance of Purple Rain: A poem on Prince
Sundaze: A naked lunch in the political echo chamber
Milady of the Beer: ‘I’m superb at love and war’
To become a man: Buddy Hield meets Kobe Bryant
Sundaze: A future of pizza and/or war
Trumpdaze: An ‘Unstoppable force’
Saving daylight: ‘We do not listen’
‘Our city on the hill embraces the landfill’
Earthquakes and sins: ‘The freedom to breathe’
‘Excuses for slavery prick my hand’
Happy Valentine’s Day: Every comic begins with ‘C’
Flat Earthism: ‘Today will not be normal’
‘Our love died right on the table’
Deflated footballs and a requiem for Beirut
Sundaze: Darth Vader, David Bowie & Emily Dickinson
‘Did you wash your mouth with acid?’
‘Life’s got reckoning to do’
