> The 100+ eyewitnesses may have seen a missile, or they may have seen
> something else -- people sometimes misinterpret what they see in the dark.
> But one thing I am certain they didn't see: hundreds of people converging
> on the crash site to cover it up.
Just my $.02: One of the primary elements of my work is trying to uncover
the "truth" from eyewitness accounts, usually of unexpected and
extraordinary, often violent events. From my experience (1) perception and
memory in such situations is extremely unreliable, even in disinterested
witnesses, (2) mutliple witnesses can influence each other's perceptions and
memories subtly but very strongly, (3) strongly-held "memories" "mutate"
significantly over time and (4) all of these factors seem to be even more
significant regarding events that happen at night. I can't offer systematic
documentation for these assertions, but most folks who do what I do for a
living will agree, I think.
Greg Burch <GBurch1@aol.com> <burchg@liddellsapp.com>
http://users.aol.com/gburch1 or http://members.aol.com/gburch1
[ Extropians and the law: http://users.aol.com/gburch1/exlaw.html ]
"So very difficult a matter is it to trace and find out the truth of anything
by history."
-- Plutarch, *Life of Pericles*.