‘Ridicule factor’ fading, UFO buff says
Is the ridicule factor diminishing, as per the article below? Maybe. Certainly, it is as far as the public is concerned. But with the media? No way. Although the article here does give a welcome, balanced approach, most of the time it’s the same old thing - and particularly with mainstream TV: have someone give their views and then get the token skeptic along to say why they are wrong. To get real acceptance and banish the ridicule factor forever, we need hard proof of something. Then maybe the media will listen properly. But until then? No.
Whitehorse (Yukon) Daily Star
‘Ridicule factor’ fading, UFO buff says
By Chuck Tobin
Among the 26 people who attended a local UFO conference last Saturday night was a Wolf Creek resident who also saw two large orange balls floating over the area in February 2005.
A report of the sighting over the Mary Lake subdivision next door to Wolf Creek was filed with UFOBC by a couple who watched the unidentified flying objects together with the husband’s parents.
It was later learned that others also witnessed the UFO event. They included a couple of building contractors who were in the subdivision looking at a house project with some children in their company.
It’s reported the group actually took refuge under the house because the objects appeared so close there was a fear they would actually land on the roof.
The conference host was Martin Jasek, a former Yukon resident who helped found the Yukon UFO chapter in the 1990s. He said the Wolf Creek resident shared his story last weekend about seeing the orange objects the same night.
The numbers attending the conference were down from the 60 who showed up at the 2002 gathering and just a faction of the 300-plus for the inaugural millennium event in 2000.
Jasek, however, remains insistent that openly discussing and questioning the unexplained remains as important as ever. “I would like to see it accepted by the mainstream,†Jasek reiterated in an interview Monday. “I think it is all of our responsibility . . . to ask officials questions.
“So the next time there is an election, and somebody is knocking on your door asking for your support, ask them what they think about the UFO issue,†he said, matter-of-factly.
Jasek, a professional engineer who studies river flows in B.C., came to Whitehorse specifically to host the conference, which was to mark the 10th anniversary of what Jasek refers to as the giant UFO sighting. The event was witnessed by at least 31 Yukoners, from motorists travelling the highway near Fox Lake, to residents of Carmacks, Pelly Crossing and Mayo.
He said it was unfortunate the giant UFO anniversary of Dec. 11, 1996 doesn’t fit well with the approaching holiday season and the ongoing office Christmas parties, which he suspects are part of the reason for the lower numbers.
Jasek and conference co-ordinator Cher Davidson of Whitehorse travelled to Pelly Crossing last Sunday for a meeting sponsored by the Selkirk First Nation and organized by Jean Van Bibber.
Van Bibber, a candidate in October’s territorial election, was witness to the 1996 sighting, and was one of three attending the meeting.
Still, Jasek and Davidson are not deterred, and plan to host another conference in 2008 at a different time.
“I have always been interested in weird stuff but I really did not get involved until the millennium conference,†said Davidson, who has witnessed more than one inexplicable event.
One of the events involved a golden, V-shaped object in the sky over the area at the south end of Lake Laberge, she said.
Like Jasek, Davidson believes there is a need to maintain open discussions about UFOs, to advance the subject as something that needs to be talked about openly.
“I think the ridicule factor is slowly diminishing, but there is still a lot of it out there,†she said. “But we will take your calls seriously, and we will listen to them and offer such support that we are able to.â€
Jasek: “The more people talk about it, the more people will take it seriously.â€
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Dec 23 2006 
December 23rd, 2006 at 2:59 pm
Nick, this isn’t really a comment on this article, but I’ve been meaning to ask for a little while:
Do you know of any UFO related wikis? (I like to surf wikis when I am at work - good for short info candy bites.) I haven’t found any via a google search.
It would be useful to have one, I think - a good place for an outsider such as myself to get info on the UFOlogy community in a single place. There is a fair amount on wikipedia already, but there is definitely also a place for wikis on specific topics that can go into more detail than is appropriate for wikipedia. (e.g. check out http://www.thelemapedia.com for a Thelema wiki).
Cheers.
El Micko
December 26th, 2006 at 6:56 am
That’s a very good question. You’re right: most Wiki type things are set up in very similar fashion to Wikipedia, and don’t really stray too much from that format.
The Thelema link is a perfect case of taking it a step further.
I’m not really aware of any that kind of take things outside of standard Wiki areas re UFOs as such; but it may be something for us to think about having here - the set up of a comprehensive data-base of topic-oriented posts, with links etc that expands to (hopefully) encompass just about all that is available.