I just searched on the term “chemtrails” and I think the blinking font conspiracy theory websites already caused me to lose a couple billion neurons. Is this stuff just made up out of whole cloth by people who can’t get over the cancellation of The X-Files?
Stranger
A number of things: “I know a BIG secret that other people don’t know.”
“The Establishment is out to get me, and that’s why I can’t get a better job.”
“All that stuff they teach in school is bullshit, so I was right not to work on it.”
“All those so-called smart people aren’t really smarter than I am; they just don’t want to let me into their snooty club.”
“Any sort of bad news is an attempt by my enemies to thwart me.”
But I really think the one greatest factor is that it takes a person of more than usual sanity to say, “My first belief was wrong; I must reject it in favor of a new hypothesis.”
That’s my point. If someone posted they’d seen what I’d seen, skepticism would abound. In fact it took me about a 30 seconds to puzzle out what I had seen. This occurred in November on a clear day, and could see other contrails from other jets–that’s when I made the connection about the weird shadow I was seeing on the wing. I’ve flown dozens of times since then, but the circumstances never repeated themselves again…
I certainly think that. Your pictures show a phenomenon that is identical to pictures of contrails. What proof do you have that they have “chemicals” in them?
Because The Straight Dope’s mission is to fight ignorance. ‘Chemtrails’ are a fantasy cooked up by conspiracy theorists and/or people who don’t understand atmospheric/aviation phenomena, and so we try to explain what they’re actually seeing.
Not that it ever helps.
How do you tell the difference between a contrail and a chemtrail by looking at it?
Yes, I think exactly that - you don’t know the difference between a real phenomena called a “contrail” and fantasy with the all the validity of unicorns called a “chemtrail”.
I am a licensed pilot. I was based at Chicago Executive for two years. Based on that experience I think your interpretation of what you saw is faulty. There is no reason contrails can’t persist for hours. Traffic patterns can alter due to factors not apparent to someone standing on the ground - winds aloft, traffic patterns at other airports, in-flight emergencies on one airplane that shunts others to a holding pattern.
In other words, you saw normal contrails but fell prey to conspiracy theories that have come up with some sort of bizarre and fantastical explanation for very commonplace phenomena. I don’t know why people do that, perhaps soap operas and *Oprah *aren’t interesting enough anymore.
As for “not normal airplanes” - true enough, there are some unusual airplanes. I should know, I’ve flown several types registered under the “experimental” regulations. However, just because an airplane is unusual does not make it part of some sinister, secret, government black ops program. Please describe these “unusual aircraft” in more detail, I’d be fascinated to know more.
This is perhaps the working definition of “having nothing better to do”.
charlespearl has posted this rubbish to possibly 20 or more websites the last month or so. Since he returned to defend himself, I won’t ban him as a spammer. But, I think it’s a lost cause.
… never mind…
Operation TEH PWN II is a success!
charlespearl was never heard from again
Actually, you missed [del]the fire works[/del] feeble, pathetic bleatings.
Just to clarify, charlespearl came back last night and posted a bunch of nonsense. The posts were removed and he was banned.
That is not always true. Five years or so ago, on a clear Sunday morning, a friend pointed out to me contrails in a clear calm sky. They were pretty much in a grid, and I live more than 100 miles from any major airport.