Sigh. You know a lot of hay will be made of this.
Money quote:
…many ufology experts feel that the field is not taken seriously by scientists…
No kidding.
“… and Admiral, it is very Chile in space.”
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February 9th, 2007 at 9:30 am
HA!
That quote needs to be reversed a little bit.
“…many scientists feel that the field is not taken seriously by ufology experts…”
February 9th, 2007 at 9:36 am
Good one, Joshua C.
I feel it should be edited thusly:
“…many ufology experts feel that the field is not taken seriously by anyone else…”
I’m not a scientist. I want to be included!
February 9th, 2007 at 9:49 am
Captain Bravo is their PR guy?? And they’re kvetching about not being taken seriously??
February 9th, 2007 at 9:55 am
“Advanced technology” is worthless. It’s the brains standing behind it that determine whether it churns out bunk or gold. I once managed to lead myself far down the garden path with nothing more than an IR spectrum (a twenty-five minute, second-year-undergraduate job on a run-down old machine), I hate to think what a UFOlogist could do to himself with sophisticated RADAR gear.
February 9th, 2007 at 10:15 am
“…many ufology experts feel that the field is not taken seriously by scientists…”
Well, DUH.
Last night, stargazing (and an unexpected planet gazing too), I saw what I knew to be a plane. With the lights configured in the manner I saw them, and with no sound yet audible from it, I could imagine someone would think it was a UFO. The anti-collison lights added to the effect.
February 9th, 2007 at 10:32 am
Naw, they just need to find tangible proof that there are ufo, then we’ll take them seriously.
… Wait, that’s where the conspiracy theories come in play, don’t they?
February 9th, 2007 at 10:37 am
Of course. They hid the aliens away and tried silencing everyone but WE STILL KNOW!
February 9th, 2007 at 10:39 am
I know where this will lead to…
“(Ed. Note: Have you seen a UFO in Chile? Ever been abducted by aliens? The Santiago Times wants to know. E-mail your story to editor@santiagotimes.cl and let the world know what you have seen.)”
February 9th, 2007 at 10:46 am
*vrrrooom*
“Whoa, what was that?!”
“ALIENS! Logically, of course.” … Oi…
February 9th, 2007 at 10:48 am
“We’ve learned all we can with the anal probe, what are we gonna try next?”
February 9th, 2007 at 10:50 am
Grand Lunar made me think of a question that I’ve been wanting to ask of sane people for a very long time now:
WHY do UFO’s require anti-collision lights?
You’ve heard the report numerous times:”it had red and blue lights on it”, or something similar. I can’t think of any reason why any kind of airborne craft would need glowing lights on it except for the purpose of anti-collison. I think this is funny considering that we, with our supposedly primitive technology, have the ability to fly aircraft without any kind of attached visual beacons. Plus with added stealth technology an aircraft can be made virtually invisible, at least to radar/heat detection, etc. I usually assume that UFO’s are trying not to attract attention to themselves, and I would also assume that an advanced civilization would have the ability to fly a craft like that without having to worry about it running into something, or vice-versa. I think you know where I’m going with this.
February 9th, 2007 at 10:50 am
I don’t see what the big deal is. Inevitably, an Alien will leave behind a candy wrapper or mostly-empty squeezebulb of beer, which ufologists will find and deliver to mainstream science. On that day the ufologists will be rewarded with Nobels and the opportunity to make smug I-told-you-so remarks.
So I say ufologists should just relax, and keep a close eye on the Aliens (especially those dirty Grays), watching and waiting for that day when they fail to perfectly police up all their trash.
February 9th, 2007 at 10:52 am
I hate to think what a UFOlogist could do to himself with sophisticated RADAR gear.
I’m pretty sure it would involve never having children, and an eventual bout of leukemia.
February 9th, 2007 at 11:01 am
Checking astronautix.com, the April 25 1977 incident would have taken place the same day (UT) as a Yantar spy satellite launch from Plesetsk, Russia into a 67° orbit that would have overflown Chile on its first and second passes.
The UFO could have been an upper stage outgassing.
A lot of Russian launches overfly South America.
Labour Day 2004 there was a marvelous UFO that was actually a Centaur rocket outgassing.
February 9th, 2007 at 11:02 am
When I see one, I’ll believe. Until then, too much crap to sift through…
But seriously, it seems to me the feasibility of the ET hypothesis rests on two assumptions:
1) that intelligent life else exists elsewhere in sufficient quantity. An interesting debate, with many arguments pro and con. To me, the probability that we are the first, or that others would be at our stage of development is remote. More likely that (if they exist), they’re more advanced, on the order of millions of years. To me, the issue is how sparse they are. Maybe once technological intelligence gets a hold, it’s a huge survival advantage and tends to spread.
2). That near light speed or faster than light speed travel is possible and practical, so they could get here. This is a more difficult assumption to wrap my mind around. Our current physics says it isn’t, but our current physics doesn’t even know what gravity, inertia, motion, or space and time really are yet. What could a species whose physics is millions (rather than hundreds) of years old do?
If these two assumptions are true (a huge if), then there must be a complex galactic civilization already out there, with many species. We would probably have been visited already, possibly for a long time. So why don’t they make themselves known? Maybe because they don’t exist. But if they do, and you were in their shoes and you came upon a relatively backward world like ours with no central government, would you announce your existence? No, probably not. You’d make some observations, maybe take some samples, and leave.
February 9th, 2007 at 11:04 am
Well I could live with the never having children part.
That could earn them the Darwin Award.
Even though they did not die they did remove themselves out of the human gene pool.
February 9th, 2007 at 11:24 am
Arthur C. Clarke’s Four Rules of UFOs:
1) If you haven’t seen any you’re very unobservant
2) If you’ve seen as many as he has, you won’t believe in them
3) They have nothing to do with visitors from space
4) It is impossible to prove 3)
February 9th, 2007 at 12:06 pm
Dave,
You make good points. I’ll add that, unless humans learn to live rationally, we’ll blow ourselves and our planet to bits long before mastering faster-than-light travel.
Much of our troubles are a consequence of our ‘animal’ instincts of competition and domination. It seems to be an inherent trait of living things. Not sure if it would be different on another planet. If not then ET will never get far from home.
The other possibility is that they ARE smarter, in which case they are around already. Probably among us. Hey, don’t laugh at me, I read it in a serious paper, the Weekly World News.
February 9th, 2007 at 12:09 pm
@Eric Briggs:
Yep, outgassing upper stage “UFOs” are quite frequent over Chile. Here’s a Japanese one: http://www.eso.org/outreach/press-rel/pr-2006/pr-48-06.html
February 9th, 2007 at 12:32 pm
In August 1986 a Japanese rocket outgassed over the Eastern Seaboard after dusk during the Perseid Meteor Shower, a million people might have seen it. I was lucky enough to see it too.
February 9th, 2007 at 1:11 pm
“many ufology experts feel that the field is not taken seriously by scientists”
you’d think if they really wanted some recognition, they wouldve contacted the astronomers in la serena…. a major hub of earth’s observational astronomy community just a few hours north of santiago…. but (not surprisingly) i havent heard a peep out of anybody about this!
February 9th, 2007 at 1:12 pm
Eric Briggs Says: “A lot of Russian launches overfly South America.”
Actually, nearly every US launch from Vandenberg AFB overflies South America, or at least the eastern Pacific, during its ascent. Most of these are visible from Chile.
- Jack
February 9th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
Hooray, I just got my copy of Bad Astronomy (the book!) in the mail.
February 9th, 2007 at 3:48 pm
I was listening to C2C last night and George made a big deal of this (of course).
February 10th, 2007 at 2:20 am
There is a long tradition of ufo sightings, ufologists and ET-worshipping sects down there. I grew up hearing tales of Valdes’ abduction (yes, I’m chilean), which were quite simple, since he didn’t remember anything. I wonder if at the meeting he repeated the additions he made for TV talk shows in more recent years, about some message for mankind that Jesus gave him during the event. Then perhaps the field would be taken more seriously… it’s Jesus, man, we ought to pay attention!
February 10th, 2007 at 5:27 am
You all are just being naive. Aliens are already here in our culture, just cloaked so we can’t see them. For instance, how many people in cloaks do you see on the street? None, right? See?! You can’t see cloaks!!!!
The Greighs (correct spelling) are the ones causing quantum entanglement, and giggling helplessly. They’d actually be snorting with laughter, but with their tiny nostrils this causes pressure buildup and their vision fluctuates, then they have to go lie down for a while.
Their communication waves around the Earth distort light and make us think there must be such a thing as “dark matter,” another endless source of amusement. They find the concept of “unseen density” to be incredibly ironic for our species, but I don’t understand why.
The fact that we still reproduce only within our own species kinda creeps them out, though – apparently we’re kinda the Ozarks of the galaxy. Several abductees are now stars of the immensely successful sitcom, “The Bellatrix Hillbillies” (loose translation) in their home system. The abductees that have been returned simply failed their screen tests. Misunderstandings about the nature of the microphones required means that every time the phrase “anal probe” is used, the Greighs have to go lie down again.
The truth is out there. Way.
February 10th, 2007 at 6:57 am
Why does UFO automatically mean alien spacecraft? I have seen quite a few UFOs but I have never seen an alien spacecraft.
February 10th, 2007 at 7:50 am
Talking about UFOs, whatever was the outcome of the ‘State Fair Angel’ sighting way back in November? I mean definately. Because it DID fall into the category of being a UFO. And when it, or, they are truly identified, can no longer be classed as un-identified.
And of course, all or any UFO does not necessarily mean it is an alien spaceship or probe, just not able to be seen as what it really is without more evidence.
That there are ’starry-eyed’ mystics and evidence deniers and others with religious agendas, who would rather believe anything that could be backed-up by some dogma or ancient text, written when philosophy = science = religion.
Ivan.
February 10th, 2007 at 8:08 am
Ooops, forgot to finish that last sentance… should have added… is unfortunate, because they really are wasting their time trying to defend the indefensable.
I think I know why the IDers, have a problem with Time. They just can’t seem to get their hourglasses to work reliably in Space. What with variable gravity having an effect on the ‘Sands of Time’. Think about it.
Ivan.
February 10th, 2007 at 8:18 am
With our own history for colonizing every available ecological niche and “removing” competing species, I doubt seriously we’d still be here if there was some techno. superior species around. We’d just be one of the “removed” species. Simple enough to do, with advanced genetic engineering techniques.
I believe it was Arthur Clark or Issac Asimov who calculated that even at sub light velocities, an expansive techno. species could completely colonize the galaxy in about 2 million years(exponential growth). If it’s NOT expansive, it would never have had the urge to make it into space in the first place, so we’d never see them here.
Since it takes a very specific combination of elements, cooked up in super novae, to provide the right mix for life to form and it’s been just barely long enough for that mix to result in us, I expect IF there are other techno species out there, they are at about the same place we are, however,,,if they’re anywhere close enough to come see us, they should also have left pleanty of electromagnetic waste from their early development for us to have found traces of them by now.
There’s almost as much evidence for ET as there is for god,,.,
Gary 7
February 10th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
While taking a break from campus turmoil in ’69 my wife and I were sitting in the gathering dark in the Sierras when we saw a UFO. A bright white head shedding smaller ‘craft’ and rising slowly through the trees. Knowing that there had to be an explanation, it none the less unnerved us.
The papers the next day mentioned that the coast of California was treated to a spectacular display of the second (or third) stage separation of a rocket fired from Vandenberg 400kms south, hence from our perspective it never got above the trees.
Had we been of that ilk it would have been a story of a definite spacecraft leaving planet earth, maybe even with abductees aboard. Gees, what a letdown.