Rotterdam man keeps an eye peeled for UFOs Wednesday, July 9, 2008 By Elysia Nest (Contact) Gazette Reporter
The sky is so much more than a sea of serene celestial bodies for Rotterdam resident James G. Bouck Jr. The recently retired state auditor admits he keeps at least one eye focused upward at all times, as he never knows when something out of the ordinary will wander into view. The 58-year-old husband and father of four, after all, is more than an admirer of all things cosmic. He has a strong hunch that we’re not alone. “The thought of all those stars being out there and nobody using them but us has always been mind-boggling to me,” said the Schenectady County native, who serves as state director for the Mutual UFO Network, a worldwide organization of volunteer UFO enthusiasts, researchers and field investigators. “The way I look at it, when God created the solar system and the many universes, why would he go through the trouble of creating those universes and go through the trouble of creating all those stars and planets if he was just going to settle on Earth alone? He’d sort of be limiting his own powers. I think there has to be life on other planets,” said Bouck. He estimates about 100 such sightings are reported statewide each year. When a report is made to MUFON, it is funneled directly to Bouck and is then sent to a section director for further investigation. The group’s goal is not necessarily to prove that UFOs are extraterrestrial, but to try to determine just what is out there. Most sightings can be explained as a constellation, weather balloons, certain cloud formations, an airplane whizzing by or a shooting star or meteor streaking across the night, explained Bouck. On rare occasions, however, the phenomenon can’t be explained away that easily, even by experts sporting the most sophisticated tracking tools and uncommonly keen eyesight. Bouck takes his work seriously, and though he’ll laugh with you, he doesn’t necessarily appreciate jokes about little green men and aluminum hats. His job as a ufologist is serious business; he is on a constant mission to help people make sense of the most mind-boggling experiences of their lives. His passion for scrutinizing the sky can be traced back to his youth. “I started with this interest in my junior high school years, and I finally saw my first UFO just five years ago. I was sitting in my backyard and thought I saw something unusual in the sky,” he said. “I had no camera or binoculars to verify what it could be. So I always sat out there with them every time since. In a few weeks, I thought I saw it again and looked through the binoculars. I quickly took some pictures and it was an exact craft that a witness I had been working with had been able to see many times and had videotaped in Saratoga and Ticonderoga. “We had that videotape analyzed, and the object has officially been declared unidentified.” The same object has been reported as recently as last month.
What are those things? One man keeps his eye on sky for UFOs; investigates sightings BY ELYSIA NEST Gazette Reporter
The sky is so much more than a sea of serene celestial bodies for Rotterdam resident James G. Bouck, Jr. The recently retired state auditor admits he keeps at least one eye focused upward at all times, as he never knows when something out of the ordinary will wander into view. The 58-year-old husband and father of four, after all, is more than an admirer of all things cosmic. He has a strong hunch that we’re not alone. “The thought of all those stars being out there and nobody using them but us has always been mind-boggling to me,” said the Schenectady County native, who serves as state director for the Mutual UFO Network, a worldwide organization of volunteer UFO enthusiasts, researchers and field investigators. “The way I look at it, when God created the solar system and the many universes, why would he go through the trouble of creating those universes and go through the trouble of creating all those stars and planets if he was just going to settle on Earth alone? He’d sort of be limiting his own powers. I think there has to be life on other planets,” said Bouck. He estimates about 100 such sightings are reported statewide each year. When a report is made to MUFON, it is funneled directly to Bouck and is then sent to a section director for further investigation. The group’s goal is not necessarily to prove that UFOs are extraterrestrial, but to try to determine just what is out there. Most sightings can be explained as a constellation, weather balloons, certain cloud formations, an airplane whizzing by or a shooting star or meteor streaking across the night, explained Bouck. On rare occasions, however, the phenomenon can’t be explained away that easily, even by experts sporting the most sophisticated tracking tools and uncommonly keen eyesight. Bouck takes his work seriously, and though he’ll laugh with you, he doesn’t necessarily appreciate jokes about little green men and aluminum hats. His job as a ufologist is serious business; he is on a constant mission to help people make sense of the most mind-boggling experiences of their lives. His passion for scrutinizing the sky can be traced back to his youth. “I started with this interest in my junior high school years, and I finally saw my first UFO just fi ve years ago. I was sitting in my backyard and thought I saw something unusual in the sky,” he said. “I had no camera or binoculars to verify what it could be. So I always sat out there with them every time since. In a few weeks, I thought I saw it again and looked through the binoculars. I quickly took some pictures and it was an exact craft that a witness I had been working with had been able to see many times and had videotaped in Saratoga and Ticonderoga. “We had that videotape analyzed, and the object has officially been declared unidentified.” The same object has been reported as recently as last month. Bouck said he enjoys being “on call” 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Often, when a report comes in, he can get to the bottom of things just by studying a star map or consulting a sky-savvy friend. Other times, a call is so unusual and sounds so convincing, he is compelled to drive out and see for himself what all the commotion is about. That was the case with a Stillwater sighting that took place in the mid-1990s. LOCAL SIGHTINGS It was late at night and a woman called Bouck at home complaining that a dozen lights were hovering over her house. I got out there, and I said “Where are they?” he recalled. She said, “There! There! There!” Bouck saw some lights, and recognized Vega, one of the brightest stars, which was out that time of year. “I was ready to write it off, but there were so many witnesses,” he said. “I determined eight out of the 12 lights were stars,” he said. As for why a total of 12 lights were reported, Bouck said, “Some people just get caught up in the moment. They see a few and suddenly they see many more.” In a separate report last year, two children from Saratoga County saw an object above the trees that was disc-shaped and spinning with numerous blinking lights and colors. “The technology around us went crazy. The lights flickered and the Internet went out. We were frightened, and a little surprised. After we noticed it, we ran inside to notify our parents,” said the witnesses. “We lost sight of the flying object when it passed the trees on the other side of the house. Nothing I know can go as fast as this thing did. We have no pictures, but we believe in what we saw,” they said. Over the years, unidentifi ed fl ying objects have been described variously as rapidly moving or hovering; disk-shaped, cigarshaped or ball-shaped; moving noisily or silently; having a fi ery exhaust or no exhaust; and accompanied by flashing lights or uniformly glowing with a silvery cast. SO LITTLE PROOF Steven Russo, an astronomer at the Suits-Bueche Planetarium at the Schenectady Museum Planetarium, said during his 40 years gazing into the sky, he has spied a handful of unusual sights, and he makes no bones about the fact that he would love nothing more than to have an up-close and personal encounter with a space creature. But, he admits, the chances are quite unlikely. Even though tens of thousands of UFO reports are made annually, Russo said about 95 percent of all such reports throughout recent history have been dubbed IFOs, or identifi ed flying objects, noting that most all of the sightings are attributable to something utterly “earthly.” Additionally, he said: “There is not so much as an inkling of proof that flying saucers exist, and there is absolutely no proof that anyone has ever been whisked away by aliens, either.” Besides, he said, if a flying saucer and its other-worldly occupants were to reveal themselves to the common man, it would likely mean the end of existence as we know it. “I’m not sure if the general public would be able to handle it if a spacecraft landed here. There would be huge mental, social, religious and psychological implications. It would just be more than we could deal with,” he said. Still, Bouck remains committed. “It’s exciting for me to know that there is something out there and we are capturing it somehow on film, but I also have to consider that it’s a little scary since we don’t have answers to many of our questions,” said Bouck of the UFO he spotted recently in his yard and still watches for every day. “It’s like having a stalker or peeping Tom looking in at you, and you can’t catch him,” he said. Yet, Bouck says with continued vigilance, he believes he will one day see a return on his efforts. “That’s what keeps me going. I believe something will happen some day. One day, the number of witnesses and the credibility of witnesses will be so amazing, that nobody will be able to deny it,” he said. Anyone wishing to report a UFO sighting may contact Bouck via email at nitesiter@yahoo.com. Also, starting Sept. 26, Bouck will be begin teaching a non-credit course on UFO history at Hudson Valley Community College. Bouck scans the skies for UFOs. BARRY SLOAN/FOR THE DAILY GAZETTE Standing in his backyard in Rotterdam, James G. Bouck Jr., field investigator and state director for the Mutual UFO Network in New York, points to the spot in the sky where he said he saw a UFO in August 2003. Bouck is shown in his basement with what he calls a believable piece of photographic evidence of a UFO sighting. But he has many other examples of UFO photos that he said are obviously fabricated.
BARRY SLOAN/FOR THE DAILY GAZETTE James Bouck opens his field investigator kit, which includes a star map, a tape measure and jars for collecting soil samples, in his basement in Rotterdam.
Oh not to worry. These UFO's are probably just Suzie Savage flying about on her broom.
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
To answer MT: The universe is too huge to be so arrogant to think others couldn't exist. I'll put it this way, I want to believe and I wouldn't be surprised, but not until I see it for myself. To answer Kevin: Of course I believe in unending health care of government employees you silly goose, that I have seen for myself.
Of course there are UFO's----Unidentified Flying Objects......I see them everyday.....
Are there extraterrestrials?
terrestrial
Quoted Text
Main Entry: ter·res·tri·al Pronunciation: \tə-ˈres-t(r)ē-əl; -ˈres-chəl, -ˈresh-\ Function: adjective Etymology: Middle English, from Latin terrestris, from terra earth — more at terrace Date: 15th century 1 a: of or relating to the earth or its inhabitants b: mundane in scope or character : prosaic 2 a: of or relating to land as distinct from air or water b (1): living on or in or growing from land (2): of or relating to terrestrial organisms 3: belonging to the class of planets that are like the earth (as in density and silicate composition) — terrestrial noun — ter·res·tri·al·ly adverb
Then what is an alien?
Quoted Text
Main Entry: 2alien Function: noun Date: 14th century 1: a person of another family, race, or nation 2: a foreign-born resident who has not been naturalized and is still a subject or citizen of a foreign country; broadly : a foreign-born citizen 3: extraterrestrial 4: exotic 1
So would the extraterrestrial be required to register and we all know they would get all those health bennies too.......but, probably more like a celebrity or politiican would.......
When we find out how they pimp their UFO,,,,then we can find out what to call them,,,,alien/extra terrestrial.......and we can then "become them".......
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
VIEWPOINT Story on UFO watcher raised some disturbing questions BY PETER HUSTON For The Sunday Gazette Peter Huston lives in Scotia. The Gazette encourages readers to submit material on local issues for the Sunday Opinion section.
July 10th’s Gazette reported on James G. Bouck, Jr., local UFO enthusiast. Although I’ve never met Bouck, 10 to 15 years ago, during my “hard-core skeptic” phase, the UFO scene interested me greatly. During that time, I wrote two books dealing in part with ufology, served as offi cer and newsletter contributor to the local skeptics group, and contributed to national media, including an article on UFO abductions for “Hustler” magazine. (“More anal probes!” they demanded.) I attended local and national conventions of UFO believers, and even interviewed the late Betty Hill, a charming yet eccentric woman and the world’s first UFO abductee to be taken seriously, as well as our most prominent local abductee, a sincere man with a history of mental illness and homelessness who considered his alleged UFO experiences a mark of distinction. Although burn-out eventually struck, it was a long, strange run. MOSTLY HARMLESS Today, I find UFO enthusiasts “mostly harmless.” Like many such things, however, there’s a depressing, ugly, icky undercurrent in the field if one looks deeply. Without question, I do not believe UFO sightings are evidence, much less proof, in any way of alien visitation. Instead I believe ufology is a movement fueled by a network of enthusiastic people who share ideas and reports, reports gathered with widely-varying degrees of professionalism and care, and then interpreted to fi t pre-conceived views and a desire to believe they are unveiling great cosmic mysteries. After 60 years plus of frenzied effort, ufologists still have not assembled enough evidence of anything to obtain a decent government grant, prepare a satisfying exhibit in a reputable museum or provide a single, solid chapter in a legitimate school science textbook. If one explores the history of modern UFO belief, there’s an evolution and shifting of claims rather than consistency. For instance, although most ufologists agree that modern UFO sightings began in 1947 when a small plane pilot witnessed “flying disks,” the concern of the time was if they were of Soviet or renegade Nazi origin. Ideas of space aliens pilots came years later. But today’s ufology involves much more than lights in the sky. Although the original proposition, occasional odd sightings in the sky hint at something of extraordinary importance, still remains unproven, ufology’s enthusiastic network has produced (equally unproven) claims of alien abductions, crashed saucers, crop circles, cattle mutilations, government conspiracies and more. The claims grow, the proof still eludes. Don’t get me wrong. Generally speaking, I don’t dislike ufologists. Even if at times their logic is a bit convoluted and the standards of evidence slipshod, they consider themselves serious amateur scientists. A surprising number are accomplished amateur astronomers. But there is a hard, ugly edge within ufology. My last real contact with organized ufology was spring 2000. Discovery channel filmmakers, wishing to hear my opinions, paid my way to attend a UFO convention in the Bronx. Aspects left me deeply concerned and disturbed. First, much programming involved reports by “UFO abduction survivors,” their therapists, UFO abduction support group organizers and abduction investigators. Abduction claims often involve hypnosis or other memory-altering techniques. There are some truly frightening people, licensed and unlicensed, practicing psychotherapy. They often do serious damage to fragile humans. Convincing people they are UFO abductees is harmful and increases social isolation. After all, how many really take a self-proclaimed UFO abductee seriously? Aside from Betty Hill, who was delightful, the ones I’ve met have been sad people. Bud Hopkins, prominent UFO investigator, author and artist by training, announced his latest “discovery.” People, he announced, should be alert to hidden signs of UFO abduction in themselves. They should also, he said, be alert to signs in their children. He sold a videotape describing the signs. Parents should not hand their children to amateur psychotherapists to treat unproven conditions such as abduction trauma from space aliens, yet, depressingly, some actually do. ALIEN IMPLANTS Also praised was the work of Roger Leir, a podiatrist who surgically removes what he claims are “alien implants” from patients. Remember, when someone wishes to cut you open with a scalpel to find something he deeply wishes to find, that no reputable person in his profession feels is really there, get a second opinion. Yet some people obviously don’t. Ufology can get scary and weird if you dig deeply. In conclusion, the Gazette article was balanced. Having never met Mr. Bouck, I cannot criticize him personally. The fact that he admits to having proved nothing after years of work, indicates to me that he is probably doing his UFO investigations more rationally and thoroughly than many. Yet ufology, after 60 years, still resembles an odd, quasi-religious social movement rather than a scientific endeavor. And although ufologists are “mostly harmless,” “mostly harmless” implies occasionally harmful.
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