Monday, June 22, 2009
Canada and Uruguay Studies Compared
A report just translated by ufologist Scott Corales describes how the government of Uruguay has declassified all of its UFO files:
http://inexplicata.blogspot.com/2009/06/uruguay-air-force-declassifies-ufo.html
This no doubt will spur the “disclosure camp” to claim victory again as another country opens its UFO files to the public. But it may be more of an indication of a “it doesn’t matter” attitude on the part of the Uruguay government than a way to put pressure on the USA.
Nevertheless, there’s some interesting comparisons that can be made between the Uruguay stats and the Canadian UFO survey data.
First, over 30 years of the Uruguay official UFO report collection department being in operation, they have paper files (not computerized) on 2100 cases. Of these, 40 are apparently listed as unexplained. That’s just under two per cent.
Uruguay has about a tenth of the population of Canada, and extrapolating Canadian UFO data (8500 reports over 20 years) and adjusting for population, that small country has more UFO reports per capita than Canada.
As for the percentage of Unknowns, the cumulative value in Canada over 20 years was about 14 per cent, but the percentage of high quality unknowns (HQU’s) is somewhere around one per cent, very much in agreement with the Uruguay results.
Uruguay gets about 100 new reports per year, while last year in Canada, there were more than 1000 new reports. Right on track.
Monthly distribution of UFO reports in Uruguay differs from Canada. They report peaks in February, March, July and October. Since seasons are reversed there, the February-March peaks are equivalent to our summer highs. The July and October peaks in Uruguay are odd, but we have had years with Canadian peaks in March which could be the equivalent.
The Uruguay report also notes:
We don’t have stats on age distribution of Canadian cases, so the first comparison is lost. But our hourly distribution has a peak at 2200 or 2300 hrs. Is that “early evening?” Our stats also show a trend towards two versus one witness per case.
We can’t really compare the Uruguay shape data with ours, as “luminous spheres” could be starlike objects in some translations. More than 42 per cent of Canadian cases were starlike objects, but ten per cent were spherical objects.
Two per cent of Uruguay cases were “occupant” reports, whereas Canadian reports had only about four per cent that were Close Encounters of any kind.
Since classification standards certainly differ between Uruguay and Canada, we’re probably talking apples and oranges here. However, some stats are comparable, and that suggests that the UFO phenomenon does exhibit some characteristics that are consistent throughout the world.
The other difference: the official government/military position on UFOs. A Uruguay government official was quoted as noting:
Now what’’s the position of the Canadian government on UFOs? The American government?
http://inexplicata.blogspot.com/2009/06/uruguay-air-force-declassifies-ufo.html
This no doubt will spur the “disclosure camp” to claim victory again as another country opens its UFO files to the public. But it may be more of an indication of a “it doesn’t matter” attitude on the part of the Uruguay government than a way to put pressure on the USA.
Nevertheless, there’s some interesting comparisons that can be made between the Uruguay stats and the Canadian UFO survey data.
First, over 30 years of the Uruguay official UFO report collection department being in operation, they have paper files (not computerized) on 2100 cases. Of these, 40 are apparently listed as unexplained. That’s just under two per cent.
Uruguay has about a tenth of the population of Canada, and extrapolating Canadian UFO data (8500 reports over 20 years) and adjusting for population, that small country has more UFO reports per capita than Canada.
As for the percentage of Unknowns, the cumulative value in Canada over 20 years was about 14 per cent, but the percentage of high quality unknowns (HQU’s) is somewhere around one per cent, very much in agreement with the Uruguay results.
Uruguay gets about 100 new reports per year, while last year in Canada, there were more than 1000 new reports. Right on track.
Monthly distribution of UFO reports in Uruguay differs from Canada. They report peaks in February, March, July and October. Since seasons are reversed there, the February-March peaks are equivalent to our summer highs. The July and October peaks in Uruguay are odd, but we have had years with Canadian peaks in March which could be the equivalent.
The Uruguay report also notes:
Military statistics show that the customary profile of people reporting sightings involve young men up to 45 years of age. They also indicate that cases occur in the early hours of the evening, and usually involve a single witness. 49% of statistics are made up of reports of luminous spheres; barely 2% include occupant sightings.
We don’t have stats on age distribution of Canadian cases, so the first comparison is lost. But our hourly distribution has a peak at 2200 or 2300 hrs. Is that “early evening?” Our stats also show a trend towards two versus one witness per case.
We can’t really compare the Uruguay shape data with ours, as “luminous spheres” could be starlike objects in some translations. More than 42 per cent of Canadian cases were starlike objects, but ten per cent were spherical objects.
Two per cent of Uruguay cases were “occupant” reports, whereas Canadian reports had only about four per cent that were Close Encounters of any kind.
Since classification standards certainly differ between Uruguay and Canada, we’re probably talking apples and oranges here. However, some stats are comparable, and that suggests that the UFO phenomenon does exhibit some characteristics that are consistent throughout the world.
The other difference: the official government/military position on UFOs. A Uruguay government official was quoted as noting:
“The phenomenon exists. It could be a phenomenon that occurs in the lower sectors of the atmosphere, the landing of aircraft from a foreign air force, up to the extraterrestrial hypothesis. It could a monitoring probe from outer space, much in the same way that we send probes to explore distant worlds. The UFO phenomenon exists in the country… the Air Force does not dismiss an extraterrestrial hypothesis based on our scientific analysis.”
Now what’’s the position of the Canadian government on UFOs? The American government?
# posted by rutkows @ 7:39 AM 
