Any UFO interest?

[nicebloke]

I just read about 20 books including Left at East Gate, all of Timothy Good's books and am waiting on a some Budd Hopkins. I love Stanton Friedman too and Jim Marrs and I got a subscription to Coast to Coast

Can't get enough of it.

[Gurtie]

never read any, fascinating subject though!  I just looked up Timothy Good and a lot of his stuff looks pretty out there - is it a scientific assessment or does he have a bias himself?

[grnidone]

The universe is way way too large NOT to have ET's...

IMHO

[Brad]

UFO stories make me wonder about human psychology: before aircraft, people used to get lost (have lost time periods) in "fairy mounds" which reminds me of the alien abduction stories reported today.

I haven't really read about it much.

(I used to watch X-Files tho.)

[Gurtie]

yeah Brad, but I suspect you didn't watch it for the storylines? 

[Brad]

yeah Brad, but I suspect you didn't watch it for the storylines? 

Well, true, I was, er, fascinated with Agent Scully.  Hey, at least I'm consistent!

Sorta back on topic:  There is a sub-variant of the UFO/flying saucer theories that flying saucers were actually invented by the Nazis and that prototypes were captured by the Allies and flown around the US causing citizens to call the police with sightings.

[nicebloke]

Timothy Good is one of the UK's most respected researchers, apart from Nick Pope perhaps. He tries to stick to known facts and testimony and avoids speculation.

For science based arguments Stanton Friedman is excellent - and he has many great essays on his site.

http://www.stantonfriedman.com/index.php?ptp=articles&fdt=2006.11.10

His book 'Flying Saucers and Science' is brilliant and funny.

[grnidone]

I always thought UFO visiting Earth stuff was a bunch of bunk until I saw a report about a British military police officer who saw one on the ground. 

I remember believing him because he was the British version of a 'Good Ol' Boy'...very honest, very conservative, not the type to believe in metaphysical crap.  He was the kind of guy who liked to fish and hunt and be loyal to God and his country.  As a military police officer, he was trained in how to observe things and take descriptive notes.  His notes were very specific; I remember him saying the surface was some sort of black metallic material that wasn't metal, but was 'smooth like glass'.  He took a rubbing of the markings he found on the object and they were unidentifiable.

He was a huge bear of a man, not one to be afraid of anything, and I remember when he was looking at his notes talking about this thing, he was sweating profusely and shaking.  This man was clearly scared...and not making it up.

[4Eyes]

The pyschology of belief is fascinating subject, and it is easy to dismiss a lot of the evidence as 'unreliable' without being in any doubt that the person really does believe that they saw what the claim to have.

However, there are clearly some observations of 'objects' in the sky that are impossible to dismiss - objects seen by many people from different locations - stuff that showed up on radar etc etc

I have no difficulty accepting that there are UFOs out there - in the literal sense, and with the emphasis on the 'U' for 'unidentified' - I have problems when people start making that jump to 'knowing' that they are the result of extraterrestrial activity. We need to keep an open mind on that one.

[nicebloke]

'The Disclosure Project' was quite famous, with military people testifying, but I understand the guy that put it together is now not completely respected all by his peers, which is often the case in this 'field' it would seem.

There was another quite recent news conference in the US that did a similar thing - lots of military people coming forward to give their stories.

[mick g]

I always have an open mind on most things but when both the British and US army discontinue the units monitoring UFO's granted due to cost and cut backs and say that nothing has ever been found or spotted then one starts to wonder is it the imagination of some people running wild

I though Paul the movie was very funny though

[rcjordan]

Earth hosting the only intelligent lifeforms in the universe??  pffftt! The odds would be off the charts on that.  That said, I can't say that 'they' are likely to be humanoid nor travel in (what are now somewhat conventional) space vehicles. And what about time considerations?  As eons go, the entire span of our existence passes in an instant. The same goes for 'them.'

<added>
I read last week that part of SETI was shutting down due to lack of funding.

[nicebloke]

>SETI was shutting down

Great news. They fit into the dictionary definition of a cult.

Also known as Silly Effort To Investigate

[Brad]

I have a hard time knowing how to deal with both UFO sightings and ghost hauntings too.  With UFO's, especially those backed by radar, I suspect something was actually there to be seen but just 'unidentified'.  Same with some hauntings - some people are experiencing something strange that we can't quite see, feel, touch or measure right now.  Beyond that I can't say.

I've often wondered if UFO sightings and hauntings are not really aliens or ghosts, but are events where the separation of two layers of the Multiverse have gotten thin, or bleed over.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse
Also: http://www.louisville.com/content/cosmologist-discuss-%E2%80%98multiverse%E2%80%99-colleges

I used to think Heinlein and Moorcock  were just making up the idea of a multiverse.  Didn't know it might be a theoretical possibility.

And my brain hurts.

[4Eyes]

I share the view that any 'aliens' more advanced than us are quite likely to see us as food, or at least a resource to be exploited.

Whoever decided to send that 'pioneer plaque' into space wants a good kicking IMO - a map of how to get here, and a representation of two naked humans -- WTF were they thinking??