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Possible UFO sighting reported in the Journal of Scientific Exploration  (Source: China Daily)
Crazy talk from people wanting news headlines, or 100 percent honesty?

We're used to hearing random crackpots from around the world claim they have seen UFOs, but now politicians and former U.S. pilots want the U.S. federal government to reopen an investigation into flying phenomena that cannot be easily explained.  A panel of two dozen former pilots and government officials are meeting this week in Washington D.C. to discuss the UFOs they have allegedly seen over the past 30 years.

"Especially after the attacks of 9/11, it is no longer satisfactory to ignore radar returns ... which cannot be associated with performances of existing aircraft and helicopters," according to the group.

Most accounts of UFO encounters are not surprisingly dismissed by the government as silly made up fairy tales, but this group wants either the U.S. Air Force or NASA to resume UFO investigations. 

"It's a question of who you going to believe: your lying eyes or the government?" stated John Callahan, former Federal Aviation Administration investigator, who claims the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) tried to keep an unexplained flying craft seceret.

"We want the US government to stop perpetuating the myth that all UFOs can be explained away in down-to-earth, conventional terms," said Fife Symington, a former Air Force pilot and governor of Arizona who claims he saw a UFO 10 years ago.

If we're going to talk about flying objects, I think the U.S. government would be wise to make sure the public is aware of safety survey results that were previously kept secret to avoid upsetting air passengers.  Instead of letting politicians waste time talking about UFOs that may not exist, using funds to inform the public that flying on commercial airlines isn't as safe as they are led to believe would be a better idea.

All I know is that if I ever encounter any type of UFO, the first people I will call are Mulder and Scully.

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If it is a conspiracy...
By therealnickdanger on 11/20/07, Rating: 0
RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By sabre lime on 11/20/2007 9:59:07 AM , Rating: 1
Haven't you seen the movies? That's what the Men in Black are for. Keeping the secrets secret. Although I wouldn't mind one of those noisy cricket guns.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By NullSubroutine on 11/24/2007 8:44:06 AM , Rating: 2
You know that the real conspiracy theory behind the Men in Black is not that they are secret governement or rogue agents, but they are in fact aliens themselves horribly disguised as people. Kinda funny if you think about it, but thats the story.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By 16nm on 11/20/2007 10:15:47 AM , Rating: 2
I think it would be a positive thing for the public to know about the existence of aliens if true. I think it would light a fire under the idea of exploring our little galaxy and possibly beyond some day. I think it would help us to understand how insignificant our differences are and could possibly bring peace to our little planet (and start an intergalatic war as we surely would hate the aliens -LOL).


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By maven81 on 11/20/07, Rating: 0
RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By jajig on 11/23/2007 3:04:39 AM , Rating: 2
Alcohol filled hicks are used for narcotics.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By therealnickdanger on 11/20/2007 11:50:04 AM , Rating: 2
Ah yes, the "Star Trek ideal". I'm generally extremely optimistic, but I have very little faith that humanity would unify in the face of extra-terrestrials. Only if we were attacked by aliens, I suppose, but then we'd just go back to killing eachother if we won such a battle (highly unlikely).


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By Pythias on 11/20/2007 11:56:31 AM , Rating: 2
quote:
I have very little faith that humanity would unify in the face of extra-terrestrials. Only if we were attacked by aliens, I suppose


Wrong. We'd spend enternity arguing amongst ourselves over weather or not fight back. Half of us would want to know "what we did wrong".

By the time humanity actually actually decided to take any action, most of us would have already gone for a ride on the probulator .


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By vdig on 11/20/2007 12:26:43 PM , Rating: 2
I think I know what you are getting at.

Aliens strike major cities, killing millions, but politicians and their direct relatives are left unharmed. Having no real personal reason to forgo the red tape, the bickering will continue until we are already conquered. To add to that, the aliens will begin to use politics to make it seem that there is profit to be had to deceive the public.

The major mistake would be to destroy the politicians. Without red tape, we would unify in ways the U.N. could never dream about, while the deluded just sit in their own corner musing about what went right or wrong.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By maven81 on 11/20/2007 1:16:45 PM , Rating: 2
The problem with your hypothetical is that Politicians give orders to the military, and the military has been conditioned to only act on those orders... I suppose the military could do their own thing... but their only link to "the people" are those same politicians.
I'm not saying this is good, just that it's the way it is. I always find it amusing when in movies they show some NORAD-esque military bunker, where the officers are planning an attack on the aliens or whatever. In reality, all they do is gather information, then notify the government, which then gives the orders to the military.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By Ringold on 11/20/2007 1:32:58 PM , Rating: 2
While I think you're mostly right, I refer to MacArthur for America (and to a lesser degree some Admirals like Nimitz). Around the world, many countries have militaries that from time to time give signs of not being mindless followers of the government; MacArthur referred to Truman, for example, as a "temporary inhabitant of the White House". Turkey comes to mind as, at the moment, being most prominent.

Oh, and don't forget, the public loved MacArthur, and he received, if I'm not mistaken, the largest ticker-tape parade ever upon his return from Korea after being relieved of command by Truman, the public turned sharply against Truman and Congress, in a bipartisan way, threw Truman under the bus. They were well aware of his disobedience.

When faced with a situation that endangers the country, if the top brass such as the Joint Chief's think a President is a babbling surrender-monkey idiot, their first obligation is to the nation. If most of them see that their duty is to the country rather than the letter of the law, which is the justification used by Lincoln and Roosevelt boosters to try to forgive and cover up their egregious constitutional violations, then it's settled just like that. So much for the President.

Congress would either have to rubber stamp it, beat the Marine Corp back with their cane's, or, most likely, run like hell to their summer homes and wait for the smoke to clear.

We've never faced such a situation exactly, but looking at places that have been pushed to extremes and our own history of ignoring the constitution when it doesn't suit us, I don't think one can so easily write it off.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By maven81 on 11/20/2007 1:56:38 PM , Rating: 2
You're absolutely right about that particular instance. Though I'm kind of glad he did not sway anyone else to his side as I think MacArthur was contemplating the use of nuclear weapons in Korea. But I would definitely love to think that the military would step in given the case of an unresponsive government.
Question is, do we still have generals today that are willing to take the initiative and ignore the top brass? I'm guessing a few, but not many.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By KristopherKubicki (blog) on 11/20/2007 6:53:40 PM , Rating: 3
There's an interesting plot arc in the Ghost in the Shell Second Gig that explores this. Very well written storyline if anyone is looking for something to watch over the holiday weekend.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By Ringold on 11/21/2007 12:56:05 AM , Rating: 2
Netflix lists it as "Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex: 2nd Gig", 7-disc series that look right?

That might be good around Christmas or New Years, thanks.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By Ringold on 11/20/2007 1:18:51 PM , Rating: 1
quote:
but I have very little faith that humanity would unify in the face of extra-terrestrials.


I've spent some time with a hot cup of earl grey and, thinking of some decent science fiction books with different visions for the future, I agree.

I'll never to live to see it, but I think the most likely outcome is a human empire extending beyond Earth, but factionalized along certain lines, probably by colony as long as we're still here in around the sun rather than whole planets and moons. Some type of US-affiliated alliance (US, Japan, South Korea, Australia, including whats left of Canada after it inevitably breaks its union), Chinese ones, Indian ones, European Union ones, an Arab-bloc group and, maybe, Africa will ultimately get some of its own, or maybe it just kisses up to the EU or China and tags along for the ride.

In the long run, like the vision layed out by the somewhat boring Rick Shelley, eventually these farflung places will arrange themselves differently after pondering "Why are we listening to Earth again?" But that's still not the happy-happy vision of Star Trek.

The difference in cultures, politics and social institutions is so huge that I find it unimaginable that the US would ever yield sovereignty to some global superstate dominated by the likes of China, Russia, Africa, etc. This won't happen just because of America; who honestly thinks that the Arab world is anywhere near ready to go from, so recently, bowing to the feet of Europe to being pushed around by a billion Chinese and Indians? They're not going to give up sovereignty before even getting to know her.

That's not to say NATO or the UN couldn't organize a massive military operation (something tells me if aliens can reach Earth at all we're screwed, we can barely tickle the Moon). We don't have to be one giant planetary socialist orgy to kick ass. The West did just fine in two world wars without hopping in the sack together.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By 16nm on 11/20/2007 1:28:38 PM , Rating: 2
Have you seen Mars Attacks? I think that's a pretty accurate portrail of what we can expect. LOL

quote:
Ah yes, the "Star Trek ideal".


Ah, Star Trek. I can admit to enjoying a few episodes of star trek, but not the original version with Spok, I liked the ones with the robot Data and the bald captain. Sorry, I don't keep up with actors names and lives. I think it was called Star Trek: Deep Space.

But I guess I was not really clear in my original post. I think if we suddenly learned that we absolutely were not alone in the universe, people's ideas and attitudes would change. I do not believe that we are at risk of war with aliens. Rather, I think the world's powers could unit for the common cause of deep space exploration. No matter how that could be possible (I'm guessing through the control of time).

quote:
I have very little faith that humanity would unify in the face of extra-terrestrials.


My alien war comment was a tongue-in-cheek one. I didn't intend for anyone to focus on it. I apologize. So, I didn't mean people comming together in the face of extra-terrestrials, but in the face of making space exploration possible. Because let's face it. Space exploration today is pretty much impossible. We can not even really explore our solar system, much less our galaxy. As long as we believe we are alone, we will never bother with space. And if we are alone then I think we should not waste our time in space. We have enough problems as it is, at least until the sun runs out of fuel.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By sj420 on 11/20/2007 3:32:41 PM , Rating: 1
People that don't support space-outerspace are the kind of people that will be falling in the coming years.

The world doesn't magically blow up 2012 like religious lunatics think. It simply changes. Things get faster and perspectives are changed.

The idiots that will be running around like chickens with their heads cut off will be the religious fools.

People that limit their ability to think, people that block their natural thought pattern like to believe movies, the government, and religion. As if they really cared about factual events. All they care about is bending words to fit their definition. They don't want to tell you the truth, if they told us the truth half the population would go insane and kill each other. Religious people scare me, they are like sedated insane asylum patients that were never taken back to the nut-house.

The reality is that much more exists beyond our dead little galaxy. Many more galaxies and universes lie in wait. Not many lightyears away a new universe is creating planets everyday, one even seems to be a water planet. You cannot say what, if alive, lives beyond our galaxy. You can only imagine, for we do not know yet. However I will not sit idly by and let some jackass say that NOTHING exists, or that they would DESTROY US first. Well, considering the fact that you paranoid earthlings just want to attack them when they are sighted, maybe they should come here and super-nova our planet. At least I won't have to deal with the large majority of the population that happens to be so moronic and brainwashed with religion that they can't be helped.

And religious nuts just want to sit on this crappy floating rock and kill each other over fictional issues with each other like God, Gold, and Glory. Humans cannot continue this process, as it is not truthful and right. It is corrupt and is destroying humanity.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By 16nm on 11/20/2007 8:22:58 PM , Rating: 2
quote:
The reality is that much more exists beyond our dead little galaxy. Many more galaxies and universes lie in wait.


Geez. So how many universes are there? This really underscores how little I know about space. Do all these universes share the same dimension? Can scientists prove this or is it theory? I am a bit skeptical.

And how do you know that our galaxy is dead? I don't know that it's not, but this seems like a pretty pessimistic view. The Milkyway may not be the largest galaxy in the universe but we are far from having the ability to even begin to think about exploring it. It's that vast.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By mars777 on 11/21/2007 10:06:16 AM , Rating: 2
Universe in a Nutshell

by Stephen William Hawking

Explains how universes could coexist in the same time dimension and could be connected by surfaces on the limit of space-time of each.

But we would be never able to cross the border and "look" outside because we should go to a finite negative time (before "Big Bang") or to a time past the time of our universe (at the border time is infinite (basically it doesn't flow) - so we should travel more than an infinite amount of time).

So the question "If the universe is infinite" is: It doesn't matter, you cannot reach the end no matter how fast or how much you travel. Remember that time is relative. Maybe you would be over the border to someone looking at you outside of the universe (if that would be possible) but you would still be in from your perspective - forever.

We can only assume that there are many Universes because the probability of creation of a universe that generated life forms (such one that expanded for 10+M year like ours) is very small.

The most of universes should create and collapse into itself or expand beyond possibility of creation of planets and galaxies. Our constantly expanding one is very rare as they say.

Assumptions of the existence of many of them is a pure probability speculation. There is still no evidence of that.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By 16nm on 11/21/2007 1:22:37 PM , Rating: 2
This proves nothing but is an interesting read:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiple_universes


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By Screwballl on 11/21/2007 1:54:47 PM , Rating: 2
I like Nemesis by Isaac Asimov where the space stations littering our own solar system are separated by originating country, continent, culture, race or religion. The religious types have their own, the Japanese, other oriental races, African based, North American whites, European, and so on until we have 10-20 different stations based on wherever the people choose to separate themselves. The people can travel between them much as we do among other countries but the trust is not always there among the visitors.

Now from a religious perspective, who says that this planet is Gods only creation with life forms? Or maybe there are multiple "god brothers/sisters" with a different section of the universe and their own creations but we are created and here to believe in the one God that created us? It is very easy to combine religion and science if you take it in the right direction and not automatically discount that all religions are full of nutjobs (less than 5% of the religious are certifiable nutjobs compared to around 30% of non-religious). Religion is the number 1 factor in deciding almost anything in any country. The religious people that are a majority in this country voted GW in office twice. The conservative/religious elected a conservative leader in Canada. The religious groups thought Saddam was the answer to their problems almost 3 decades ago. The religious are trying to get Iran's "voted" dictator out of office and we see how that is going. Religion plays a large part in mans life even if you as one man chooses not to believe.

I always make this point: you can't make something from nothing, so something (God) had to create something else (the universe down to the subatomic particle). Who is to say that this universe does not also include different species or aliens around the universe. Science cannot prove it but it also cannot disprove it. There have been enough findings of planets far away that could have the possibility of sustaining life.
I just do not believe that there is nothing but planets out there, it is too big and expansive to discount the chance of at minimum 2 other life forms in our universe.


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By Bruce 1337 on 11/21/2007 5:07:53 AM , Rating: 3
quote:
Not many lightyears away a new universe is creating planets everyday


You mean galaxy, not universe. The nearest one is probably Canis Major dwarf galaxy at 25,000 light years. The closest one everybody's heard about is Andromeda, which is about 2.5 million light years away. There's just one universe as far as we know for sure.

Also, I know many religious people who believe life must exist beyond Earth. You seem to have this notion that everyone who believes in God/gods is a fundamentalist that automatically disregards science and thinks the Earth is 4,000 years old. Several of my science professors in college made a point of saying they believe that God and science can coexist. I seem to remember Stephen Hawking saying something along the same lines.

Also, our galaxy isn't dead by any means, and you can't supernova a planet.

My point is, you don't seem to know much about science or religion, so what exactly are you complaining about?


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By 91TTZ on 11/21/2007 7:13:35 AM , Rating: 2
You prefer to be left in the dark? Feel safer with your head in a hole? Did you evolve from an ostrich?


RE: If it is a conspiracy...
By Screwballl on 11/21/2007 1:30:36 PM , Rating: 2
Sector 7 does not agree nor disagree with the statements made here. Any artificial intelligence must be handled with the utmost care if they have or are ever encountered.
Remember, you are the chosen, not the chooser.


To serve mankind...
By ted61 on 11/20/2007 3:30:01 PM , Rating: 2
If that alien comes knocking on my door carrying a cookbook, he is getting shot!

I don't own a gun but I bet I can pick one up real quick in Oakland on the way home.

There is no way that I am going to accept a free ride from an alien without stopping by a street corner in oakland.




RE: To serve mankind...
By sj420 on 11/20/2007 3:37:39 PM , Rating: 1
You actually think earths weapons will do anything to them even if they wasted their time to go to YOUR door, of all people?

If anything they would already KNOW that you would want to get a gun to shoot them, and vaporize your home with your in it, if that was the case. If they can travel space I am sure they can read a simple neutron firing brain.

Besides if they were going to go to your house it would be while you were sleeping so that they can tractor beam you up, probe you and replace your brain with a cows.


RE: To serve mankind...
By ted61 on 11/21/2007 10:15:11 AM , Rating: 2
LOL, Them damn aliens.

I was referring to an old twilight zone episode called "To Serve Mankind". The aliens came to earth and told the people what a great place their planet was and would bring humans to their planet for a new life. One of the aliens dropped a book where the cover was tranlated "To serve mankind". Upon further review, the humans discovered it was a cook book.


First and Foremost
By Master Kenobi (blog) on 11/20/2007 7:12:45 AM , Rating: 1
The first thing you should do is call 911, that way the men in white coats will come get you. Second, shoot first ask questions later. Then "Loot loot loot!"




RE: First and Foremost
By NullSubroutine on 11/24/2007 8:50:41 AM , Rating: 2
Actually, when you call 911 we respond (at least here) simply because you call 911. Likely the police would show up and see there is no emergency and leave.

I have yet to take a civilian "UFO" 911 call, but I have had one deputy from a neighboring county call over routine line and ask if anyone else was seeing these 'funky red lights in the sky'.

I asked 'huh?' he was like 'well there were reports of "UFO's" a few weeks ago and I thought...' I responded, "anything you see in the sky and don't know what it is UFO, since that means unidentified flying object'. He kind of shut up, but I did talk with one of my officers who said the only red light he saw was the one coming from the water tower...meh.


"A politician stumbles over himself... Then they pick it out. They edit it. He runs the clip, and then he makes a funny face, and the whole audience has a Pavlovian response." -- Joe Scarborough on John Stewart over Jim Cramer











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