Area 51

This one really winds me up, but is one so-called "mystery" which isn't going to die anytime soon. Even if the US Government opted for a "no secrets" policy where everything they do is revealed to the public you'd still get people insisting they're covering up something at Area 51. Part of the problem is that it's now entered popular culture in many science fiction shows and movies.

It's not such a huge mystery: yes, this place exists. What are they doing there? Well, does it always have to be something alien-related? Maybe they just stare at goats ...

No harm in harboring slight suspicions about possible intrigue or conspiracy regarding secret investigations and research. Why spoil the mystery? Draw the line instead at Nessie or Sasquash - and aliens.  (13 June, 2008)UPDATE: Photographer Trevor Paglen’s extreme-long-lens pictures of alleged secret military installations in Nevada are blurry enough to seem no better than abstractions. See: http://www.wired.com/culture/art/magazine/15-07/pl_artHowever, there are his tiny images in nearly 200 photographs of also alleged secret spy-satellites that are supposed to not exist either.Paglen’s The Other Night Sky photo exhibit is on display at the Berkeley Art Museum, University of California, through September 14th.http://www.wired.com/culture/art/news/2008/06/secre t_satellites?npu=1&mbid;=yhpWonder what Jaime, Imorovan, numbah, irish, GTH, Ridge or the rest make of this.

Every explanation of Area 51 somehow comes up short.

It is logical to believe that the government operates certain facilities for investigations of a nature that need to be kept secret. And so, area 51 is a suspect of such activities. It's location and some past mysterious events inthe area, tend to imply or suggest certain activities that have to do with aliens. But, unless it becomes of public knowledge, it remains simple speculation and good source of books and movies which, by the way, make millions of dollars.

Area 51 does not exist according to the Government, so let's trust them at their word. :-)

This is the place that Elvis comes up with new crop circle designs.

I've been there a few times. Their cafeteria sucks.

Right between Area 50 and 52!

UPDATE TO STARK: I am sorry to say that the link you provided did not work for me so I was unable to read page 6 of the CIA memo. To comment about documents, the prime directive is to determine if they are genuine and then to place them into the context within which they were made. More than a few documents have cropped up forgeries, and others, even if authentic, are false by being ripped out of the context in which they were made. Both lead to false results and conclusions. Science requires identification and verification of the truth of any such source of written instruments. In the 2004 election we had the false documents aimed at Bush that a blogger ferreted out as a recent example. ORIGINAL COMMENT:It doesn't exist. This is some UFO nut-job lingo for a top-secret air base where the Skunk-Works tests its planes.

Mystery? I fly out of here all the time! (numbah has said too much)

whatever it was it's not a secret anymore!

Probally just a secret military base, or testing ground for stealth fighter jets and other new military hardware.

My friends dad worked there for a while and said that it is really a cover up place where they dump toxic waist that they don't know what to do with. They cover it up so much because if the environmental freaks ever found out they would have a heyday. He didn't have security access to some parts, but from what he understood they were labs trying to find new ways of destroying the waste. It is sort of funny that the most secret place in the U.S.A. is a dirty landfill.

Somebody needs to lay off of the X-Files reruns.

Really cool place - NOT for UFOs and aliens - but for the beauty of the desert and the secret aircraft that's tested there. The area around the base is spooky - just for the desolation and silence. But give me a break on all that UFO crap.

Not mush of a mystery. Probably a not-so-secret testing site for experimental aircraft (what better place to test stealth technology than in a clear desert night?