Compensation for alien abduction

[jeffq]

Catch the latest in legal slime in "Abducted by aliens? Lawyer for hire", a news item from Reuters. German lawyer Jens Lorek actually has the gall (and the total lack of ethics) to take disturbed people's money so he can, without exception, fail to win compensation from the government for their imagined kidnapping. (Apparently Germany has some law requiring the taxpayers to pay kidnap victims, although what the government has to do with kidnapping in general is unclear to me, at least. If the government is doing or abetting the kidnapping, that would be a different story.)

He is quoted in the article as saying, "Nobody has laughed about it up until now." Why would he be embarrassed? He makes money even when he inevitably loses. I don't find it funny, either.

 

[Polaris]

Probably not by anybody most people would take seriously.

I only had one question, and it's probably academic. The explanation given for the balloon that crashed was that it was measuring atmospheric radiation from Soviet nuclear testing. Roswell happened in 1947, and the Soviets exploded their bomb in 1953 - which is usually noted as a big surprise to the US government to boot. Was the Roswell balloon also a time machine? What was the balloon really measuring? (I don't believe in the aliens, btw)

 

[Goshawk]

Well, generally speaking, you have to test your nuclear device before you can officially detonate it, like in front of God and everybody, to see if you've got the right idea, make sure it's going to work according to specs. The U.S. tested their device in July 1945.

Dunno where you're getting the 1953 date--the Soviets officially exploded their first nuclear device in 1949, and since by that time the U.S. had already officially exploded 8 devices, and thus presumably knew how long it took to perfect a nuke and how much testing it would require, it makes sense to me that in 1947 they'd be suspiciously sending up balloons to sniff around the Soviets, just to see what they were up to.

 

[Polaris]

Well, generally speaking, you have to test your nuclear device before you can officially detonate it, like in front of God and everybody, to see if you've got the right idea, make sure it's going to work according to specs. The U.S. tested their device in July 1945.

Dunno where you're getting the 1953 date--the Soviets officially exploded their first nuclear device in 1949, and since by that time the U.S. had already officially exploded 8 devices, and thus presumably knew how long it took to perfect a nuke and how much testing it would require, it makes sense to me that in 1947 they'd be suspiciously sending up balloons to sniff around the Soviets, just to see what they were up to.

Whoops, I was a bit off. I knew it was after 1947 anyway.

All right, I'll buy that explanation.