UFOs: close encounters of the statistical kind

{"text":[[{"start":11.98,"text":"Most Americans believe in aliens. "},{"start":14.572000000000001,"text":"Stories of mysterious craft hovering in the air or travelling at hypersonic speeds have fuelled interest in unidentified flying objects since the 1950s. "},{"start":22.852,"text":"The US government is the latest UFO enthusiast. "}],[{"start":26.61,"text":"This month, the US held its first congressional hearing on UFOs since the 1960s. "},{"start":32.289,"text":"Pentagon officials testified that they had received 400 sightings from military personnel, including a formerly-classified video in which a spherical object apparently zipped past a fighter jet. "}],[{"start":43.129999999999995,"text":"Some cultural critics see a postwar fascination with aliens as reflecting the fear of communism and aggressive foreign powers. "},{"start":50.13399999999999,"text":"Between 1947 and 1969, the Air Force collected 12,618 reports of sightings. "},{"start":57.089,"text":"More than 700 received an “unidentified” label. "},{"start":60.232,"text":"The project was then disbanded. "},{"start":62.398999999999994,"text":"The US military was cagey about publishing reports of unexplained aerial phenomena after that. "},{"start":67.74199999999999,"text":"Official investigations went unpublished until a report released last year. "}],[{"start":null,"text":"

"}],[{"start":72.97,"text":"Public reports collected by the US National UFO Reporting Center show that people are still spotting plenty of strange objects in the skies. "},{"start":80.774,"text":"Since it was created in 1974 there has never been a month without a sighting. "}],[{"start":86.32,"text":"Government efforts to encourage standardised reporting could spark an uptick. "},{"start":90.612,"text":"Real unregistered airborne objects pose risks to air traffic and national security, regardless of their origin. "},{"start":96.86699999999999,"text":"There are fears they could represent breakthrough technology developed by foreign adversaries. "}],[{"start":102.5,"text":"US officials are keen to avoid the word “extraterrestrial”. "},{"start":106.179,"text":"They often attribute UFO sightings to drones, military activity or airborne clutter, such as deflating weather balloons. "},{"start":113.222,"text":"The human mind is highly suggestible, though the scientifically-respectable infinite universe theory implies the existence of other life forms on other planets. "}],[{"start":122.24,"text":"As the latest government report admits, most UFO sightings remain impossible to identify. "},{"start":127.907,"text":"But if they proliferate, it may point to something other than little green men in flying saucers. "},{"start":132.82399999999998,"text":"The data may instead reflect rising paranoia. "},{"start":135.96699999999998,"text":"The US and its allies are once again trapped in a dangerous confrontation with Russia and China. "}],[{"start":142.26,"text":"The Lex team is interested in hearing more from readers. "},{"start":145.564,"text":"Please tell us what you think of UFO sightings in the comments section below "}],[{"start":149.45,"text":""}]],"url":"https://creatives.ftacademy.cn/album/72607-1653789738.mp3"}