While most scientists would welcome conclusive evidence of life on other planets, the scientific consensus maintains that it is unlikely that aliens have visited Earth, a Pittsburgh astronomer says. "If their technology is so advanced, why would aliens have to sneak around and keep their presence a secret?" asked John Radzilowicz, an astronomer at the Carnegie Science Center. "They could do anything they wanted with us ... And why would they be crashing their spaceships all the time?"A 22-year study by the Air Force of nearly 13,000 claimed sightings of UFOs ended with three no's:No unidentified flying object evaluated by the Air Force was ever found to threaten national security.No evidence submitted concerning UFOs represented evidence of technology or scientific principles beyond modern knowledge.No evidence indicated that any of the sightings was of an extraterrestrial vehicle.The Project Blue Book report, based on 12,618 UFO sightings reported between 1940 and 1969, remains the federal government's final word on the subject."Since the termination of Project Blue Book, nothing has occurred that would support a resumption of UFO investigations by the Air Force," according to a government fact sheet on the matter. Mr. Radzilowicz said UFO enthusiasts too often confuse the separate issues of the likelihood that life exists on other planets and that the Earth has been visited by aliens.

"Most astronomers think the chances of life existing elsewhere in the universe are very high," he said. "Some even believe it is likely intelligent life is out there. The physical and chemical laws that apply here appear to be the same everywhere.""It's a very different thing to believe aliens are visiting us," he said. "There is no conclusive evidence that they have tried to contact us and no evidence that they have visited us.""I, and many other scientists, would be jumping up and down [with joy] if we had confirmed evidence," he said.He scoffed at the notion of a conspiracy to keep secret proof of visits and abductions. "I don't see how the scientific community and the government could keep information known by thousands of people secret," he said. "They couldn't keep Watergate a secret and that was known only by a handful of people."He was referring to the Watergate scandal, which involved a small group of White House aides and campaign officials that began in June 1972 with a bungled burglary at the Democratic National Headquarters and ended with the resignation of President Richard Nixon.Mr. Radzilowicz estimated that about 90 percent of the many thousands of UFOs sightings have been explained. He said investigators commit a logical fallacy when they point to the unexplained 10 percent as evidence of UFOs.

View: Full Article | Source: Post Gazette

not likely at all...

Good coffee-clenched, morning read. This article makes me wonder, how much of that 90 percent is attributed to weather balloon or swamp gas as an explaination.

Also, because those 10 percent are not explained, why should we assume they are just like the others? Anyone who takes them being unexplained as evidence for aliens is being illogical. However, taking it as reason to assume it's just another weather balloon seems equally ridiculous to me.

Closed minds = limited knowledge.

i'm sure we've been visited..they checked things out then split ...

of course very often..they are observing...

they found out what a blood-thirty lot the human race is and if their technology is given to us, we may reach out to ther stars and take our blood-thirty deeds all around the universe.....the interdicted this planet and are observing us.

I think they sneak around, cause they have a prime directive and don't want to interfere with us. I often wonder if they are beings from the future and they are looking for DNA. Whatever they are doing I don't want to get in their way. They might even be us in a highly evolved state adapted for space travel.

those aren't very good reasons to state its not possible i mean, it makes more sense to me that if they were here they'd be sneaking around rather than "Hello, Earthlings!" ?? no??

and no matter how advanced a civilisation is, there's always accidents!

The simple fact that their technology for aeronautics and space travel, however they may do so, is not even a logical reason to conclude that alien lifeforms would not and/or do not visit our planet. Perhaps their technologies are lax in other fields of study, especially the field of the human species and those other lifeforms which inhabit our mother Earth.

Think of it from a scientific standpoint, which even the scientists don't seem to do... When you come across a thriving new lifeform, do you interfere and make your presence felt and contaminate their lifestyle, or do you study from a distance, trying to keep yourself out of their daily routines and goingst-ons as to get a better interpretation of the way they work? Keep in mind that, if extraterrestrials were to visit here, especially in the name of peace and science without the dire need of exposing themselves or having an impact on the Earth itself, they would be faced with figuring out the entire history of the planet and the many different aspects of the life which inhabit it. That is quite the scientific endeavor, even with the ability to travel through space. This research would result in the occassional "lab rat" which would be needed to further their studies, just like ours does.

I do believe that we have been visited and studied on many occassions and by many different alien races, but not to the sci-fi effect which pop culture and a lot of the crazy abductees would like us to believe. If they want to be invasive, they would be. If they wanted to impact our development and societies, they would. Who's to say that they haven't? Who's to say that they aren't right now? The simple fact is that if the universe and all of its undertakings are infinitely plausible, then so is the opportunity for other life to visit our planet. The only way for us to ever truly know is for them to make themselves known to the masses. If that never happens, then we will never know for sure and will be left to speculation and crackpot ideas of conspiracy and other untold beliefs.

- Galahad96

I'm incredibly... how do you say it?... blood-thirty

mmm, yes... so thirty for blood that i'm thalivating

Quality post!

I don't believe Gene Roddenberry was a stupid man. If he were alive today, he could answer John Radzilowicz's question.

Regardless of what our opinions of aliens might be, we can't ignore the possibility that they "think" differently than we do. Who can say without a doubt that aliens do not have to conform to a non-intrusive policy -- one which may clearly state that "there can be no interference with the internal affairs of other civilizations."

A breech in that policy may have led to the formation of Project Blue Book -- a well-organized project that evaluated, corrected, and/or covered-up other breeches, if any.

As depicted by the image in Saruman's post, "blue" is the color of light most often seen by those who have experienced alien visitations and abductions.

Letting our guard down is a sure sign or ignorance... to our governments and aliens alike.

Your sarcasm would have been more impressive had you written it in Arabic.

Baby steps...

ok then, what about Fermi Paradox ?

The problem with the Fermi-Hart Paradox is that it assumes that examples of planetary life are common within the vast numbers of the universe. Given the numbers which are often assigned to these calculations of probability, yes, the sheer vastness of it all would make it seem relatively so. Unfortunately, these figures are very misleading. The numbers are so grand in scale that we dumb them down to be more comprehensible, therefore, we are given the impression that life must be common place. The numbers that would state otherwise are even larger. Remember that the scale of the universe is also unknown and only known to that which is visible. With that in mind, we see the numbers grow substantially towards either interpretation of them. Given again, both ideas, and the numbers to crunch, we see that it is a lot less commonplace for planets with life to exist.

So, we come once again to this paradox (which isn't actually a true paradox in the first place). Let's revisit it but not assume that life is in abundance throughout the universe. Given the sheer multitude of planets, stars, asteroids and numerous other heavenly bodies throught the universe, the possibilities for the appropriate mixture to form life are there... example, Earth. We've seen many different "cocktails" throughout our sky watching. Some are repeated, while others appear to be unique... again, Earth. We haven't even begun to unlock the universe. Honestly, we, as humans, cannot understand the numbers that are out there. If there is one "accident" like our planet, there must be others, commonplace or not. We cannot be the only planet in the universe with life. To say that these civilizations or creatures are intelligent like us, or to either other extreme, wild or wise, is definitely just a hypothesis on anyone's part, but again, it is possible, and that's where it all lies, in the possibility.

- Galahad

This paradox is probably popular among planets with intelligent life that does nothing but listen to radio transmissions. Those that send them are more likely to get a response or visit. A strong, repetative signal between 1420 MHz and 1640 MHz (the water hole) might get someone's attention. As far as we know, the rest of the galaxy may have deemed our little corner of the Milky Way as a deserted wasteland. Why would they visit such an area unless someone from here calls out to them?

I believe that it would be self-absorbed to think we are the only life form in this huge universe. I do not believe that aliens have visited us, watch us or even care about us. However, if I were an alien visiting another planet, I would be stealth about it. They could be as madly insane as ourselves.

yeah, or Hindi, or any of the nearly two dozen other languages spoken in India...

True, but that is somewhat beside my point. The most common language in Ras al-Khaimah, UAE (United Arab Emirates) is Arabic. I used it only as an example -- seeking the largest possible audience to critique his attempt at translation. Thanks for noticing the member from India.

Let us assume that just one other civilization in the galaxy develops the ability, and desire to colonize other star systems. Let us assume that it takes a thousand years for it to build and send a ship, and another thousand years to send the next one. Let us assume that the colony takes a thousand years to develop, and send it's first ship. Let us also assume that the level of technology remains at a static level.

Thus, every thousand years, we have a doubling of inhabited star-systems.

1,000 years: 2 systems
10,000 years: 1,024 systems
100,000 years: approx. one million systems
1 million years: approx. one billion systems
10 million years: more stars than there are in the galaxy.

The earth is over four billion years old.

So: where is everybody?

It amazes me that a scientist could really try to understand the motives, desires, and habits of an ET civilization and point to that as a basis for disbelief. And according to many people, the grays DO do what they want with people. It is very illogical and is of a typical skeptical answer that is called upon by even the most uneducated skeptics.

I wasn't aware they were crashing spaceships all the time. We walk all the time, yet still manage to trip over our own two feet. Accidents happen.

"If their technology is so advanced, why would aliens have to sneak around and keep their presence a secret?"
Am I the only one that doesn't think this question makes sense? The first part of the statement doesn't correlate with the actual question.

I would have to agree with your statement Darkwind. It would, however, be nice to let us know who they are just curious.

We might have a few less missing children and mutilated cattle if we simply reinstated the sacrificial offerings of virgin females and slaughtered livestock. Maybe that's what the crop circles are telling us. "Sacrifice here and now or you lose more kids and cows." We didn't have all this crap before. I say tether a ram, lamb, or calf to the center of a crop circle and see what happens. Who knows? Maybe they have some strange religious beliefs that were once imposed upon ours.

hehehehe.....yeah man typo......just a typo..i am a careless typer....


Being in Ras Al Khaimah in UAE doesnt mean knowing Arabic..I ve been working in Suadi Arabia, and UAE for the past 7 years ahd the only arabic i have learnt other than the customary Assalamu aleykhum .....is maafi maloum arabi..meaning i dont know arabic...

as for indian languages..i speak hindi , tamil, malayalam, bengali, urdu.....and surprisngly..a little bit of Klingon too...hehehehe

How likely is it that Queen Elizabeth 1 believed that the Earth moved? Not likely at all. This is not because she was stupid or dogmatic. She was well educated for the time. This condition continued for Centuries among the educated classes, because they were unaware of the evidence. Incidentally, since Galileo had observed no parallax of the stars, he had not proved that the Earth moves. But along with Kepler and Newton, that became the favored hypothesis, finally proved by the space probe Aristarchus (or was it Hipparchus?) late in the last Century.

Hardly anyone knows of the best evidence concerning UFOs, which consists in encounters by citizens with landed UFOs with occupants outside, on the ground. See The Humanoids edited by Charles Bowen and published in 1969 (the hard back edition which has the extra chapters by Gordon Creighton). If you can find it! It is long out of print. But you can find the most important chapters if you Visit My Website. The actual book is better because it has all the numerous references that I have left out.

So you see, there is scientific proof that we are visited by hundreds of species of star-traveling humanoids (of all colors and sizes). If the scientists don't know this, that is proof of their ignorance. If they wanted to do a little research, they could find plenty of evidence. Their problem is that they don't believe in the possibility of levitation and apports. It runs counter to the religion of science, with its credo, which must be accepted by all who enter the brotherhood. It is a credo of reduction of everything to physics, and physics must reduce to cause and chance. Like every credo, it is wrong. Even most of the people on this forum believe that the UFO aliens simply have more advanced technology. This is proof of ignorance of space technology and the physics upon which it is based.

Our brothers, the star-traveling humanoids are not used to AA fire. And the grey species do not have violent thunderstorms on their homeworld. (Two theories for the crash at Roswell). They don't behave as we would because they are thousands or millions of years further along in their spiritual evolution. That is what is required to develop levitation and apportation to the interstellar level, not technology. Visit My Website.

If you want to know why they only land in almost uninhabited places, this is just further proof of their spiritual advancement. It is for our benefit that they avoid full contact. It would almost certainly destroy our brutal and primitive little culture, with our wars, murders, destruction of ecological systems, and lack of self-control over our population density. Human anthropologists have made the same discovery about contact between primitive and advanced cultures.

Christopher C. Humphrey, Ph. D.
aka Cebrakon
chris-humphrey@sbcglobal.net

It absolutely amazes me how people still seem to get pigeon-holed into their own tunnel vision as to what the "UFO" phenomenon is.

They're "star travelers", and "aliens".....etc...etc.....etc.......

We know more about the surface of the moon, Venus, and Mars than we do about our own planet.

75% of this world is covered in water. And the majority of that part of Earth hasn't even been explored yet.

So who's to say that the things we see don't come from the depths of the oceans???? How many years did it take before someone finally got
a glimpse of a giant squid on camera? And we KNEW the giant squid were around. If an unintelligent creature like the giant squid can evade
us at seemingly every turn, what makes you think that an actual intelligent creature couldn't?

And you know what cracks me up the most? The "scientists" who all claim that water is the source of life.....are the same ones who
would be the first to shoot down any notion that there is intelligent life in the oceans.

As human beings, we're remarkably shallow, and at the same time we're remarkably egocentric when it comes to talk of intelligent life
in the universe.

Water is the source of life, but you gotta breathe air in order to be intelligent. LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!

How arrogant are we?

so...where is your proof ? I hope you don't relate to those lazy homemade videos of alien autopsy and even more ridiculous books on the subject...If there has been as many starship crashes as UFOlogists seem to report, why the hell don't we see ANY parts of them. Why all the pictures taken by so called "witnesses" are out of zoom or damaged ?

[b]It is so tiresome to keep hearing about how “if the government had something this big it could not have been kept secret.
It would seem painfully obvious that if we are talking about it and there are hundreds of books and movies about it, then it [b]hasn’t been kept secret.[/b]

I've personally seen a large triangular ufo up close so i have little doubt.... but we will never see the stars; this is like a prison planet..I dont think they want our brand of hate?...

It is so tiresome to keep hearing about how “if the government had something this big it could not have been kept secret.
It would seem painfully obvious that if we are talking about it and there are hundreds of books and movies about it, then it hasn’t been kept secret.

I agree, your hypothesis also seems to support what happened to the Russian Space probe Phobos II some years ago. The space probe disappeared after taking a snap shot of one of Mars' moons and then all contact was lost.

Damn, and all this time I thought it was due to some technical error. HOW STUPID OF ME...

ah, finally! someone that speaks my thoughts!
i have had an inkling for a time now that maybe some of these unidentified flying objects, don't necessarily all have to be from another planet..? jeez louise, there could be anything down there...a massive highly developed civilisation for all we know, or shall know for some time. they really need to start finding ways to properly and fully explore our own bloody planet, the most of this world is under water, and we're not even a part of it!
it would explain why ufo's are spotted frequently over/near large body-masses of water and such.

of course i'm not presenting this as fact, its an interesting possibility...

The study of Ufology is primarily the interviewing of witnesses to rare phenomena. All of the cases in The Humanoids were investigated by Ufologists who went out and interviewed the witnesses. Even then, they were not published until other events of a similar type occurred. The encounters in this book come from all over the world, over a 20 year period, 1947 to 1967. The remarkable and unexpected result was that all aliens seen on the ground were Humanoids. This is not what academic scientists expect. And thus the name of the book. It is impossible to imagine a giant conspiracy involving these witnesses, who are ordinary people.

Scientific proof is a matter of ruling out the alternatives. A landed craft is certainly not swamp gas, earth lights, Venus, the Moon, or military flares, etc.. Those night time sightings of mysterious lights in the sky usually have no scientific value unless one can rule out all those alternatives, even the unlikely or purely hypothetical kind. My proof is in The Humanoids. Go read it or quit complaining.

~~~Cebrakon

Is this the mission that you refer to?

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=6900467298590956161

This was 18 years ago, and the first time that I've seen it. Something about the shadow and object reminds me of the Space Odyssey movies.

Here's another:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_x68J3tZjY

not being visited ? might as well tell that to the scientists that think it is possible and the few countries that have come forward to admit what is being seen isn't natural or man made.

there is more 'proof' that something is in our skies that isn't natural or man made that moves with purpose than of God . yet where are the headlines denouncing the existence of God by these same people ?

to say there is nothing in our airspace of an extraterrestrial root is to be in denial.

Well made and interesting point Ripley.


Whats your take though on the $half million question...Why hav'nt they showed/announced themselves?

My guess is they maybe shy or anti-social or worse, they think of us no more than we do the ants crawling along the ground?

No quite the opposite imo. My impression was that they were more afraid of humans. Like the rules I was given was no talking with voice and no fast movements in their presence.. And they are the only rules I was told. So I think we are looked upon as somewhat beastly right now(not in a bad way though), like with short tempers that can change quickly. So its hard to trust a mind that can hate as fast as we tend to. So I really got the impression that they were very loving but are somewhat fearful because we do not give the same love as freely, like we tend to take it back when someone does something considered wrong to us. So its more like the father teaching his children to not bite, not like them just watching ants.

I think they might have sneaked/sneak around, due to irresponsible individuals not liking the feeling induced.
What if they showed, and say, a cover story it was a joke played as a canopy/balloons failed. Some might induce mass inflicted panic, while providing a general direction of de-generalization. Where chaos not only ensued, but was encouraged. And, furthermore, a focal would be provided to excuse in-excusable acts. Now, considered 'norm'.

Things would be described as totally "non-existent", so that those afflicted could continue to 'lead' others to eternal dismay. And, none would have to consequence actions, so long as other actions were surely to follow. Domino theory, applied, shouldn't correlate to founding in Human life. But, they may.

Some say there would be mass panic, should ever a confirmed sighting take place. I say, they'd file in in Formal Fashion, and face certain ends, to avoid any type of rationalization. A 'self-induced-mass-suicide', so to speak. Well excused, and quite possibly to take place...

I think they are just like human anthropologists, who never wish to "enlighten" or in any way change the culture they are studying. You can add ecological, geological and meteorological systems to all that. If they could predict an earthquake, they would not warn us or prevent it. That may seem cruel, but it would be worse to come out in the open and more or less take over our culture.

~~~Cebrakon

Yea i suppose Kaz, good point

Hypothetically speaking, me personally i be willing to bet that if they're up there they'd be looking down on us all saying to each other...

''What a crazy nut house down there...too many of them starting at the top.'' rofl!

I think water covers closer to 2/3rds of the earths surface. But I wouldn't call scientists arrogant for ruling out inteligent life under the ocean. It's simply a matter of no evidence, none what so ever. The search for extraterrestrial water is based on our current understanding of what carbon based life needs to survive. Since we haven't encountered any other kind of life, we cant really go searching for the key elements of their survival.

molz......cho eh chew!

I seem to remember there was a tribe discovered a few years ago that if my memeory serves me correctly was thought to never have encountered advanced civilization. These guys were in the dark ages. And the best minds of the time all thought that any interference by modern humans would ruin thier whole society so they worked to find ways to study them without direct contact.
You can theorize that maybe if they were here and they were sneaking around they would have solid motives for it. Its obvious that they are not hostile otherwise things would be a lot different. So only theory here they may think that with disclosure of their presence may come disclosure of other things they may think we cannot handle. Discretion might force them to study us from a distance to figure out if showing us would cause more harm than good.
But I don't believe that they are here anyways only in the possibility that they might one day come. I think its possible because i look at us and think, we're advanced and intellegent,and we would reach out if we knew for certain that we could travel across space and find other intellegent life. It is one of humanities greatest questions, asked since we had time to ask questions, are we alone?

According to Earth's past evolutionary timetable for Homo Sapiens, they will fashion their tools from
materials other than stone and bone in about one million years. In another 10 million years, they will
master mathematics. Is this reason enough to suspect extra-terrestrial visitation and intervention?

see thats the same as looking at the last 70 years or so and seeing the exponential growth of knowledge. Now is that just the nature of knowledge, that each discovery opens the door a little further till you just look in and grab what you want. Or was some addition help provided somehow.

Who's to say that the evolution of knowledge will always follow the same base? Just because we humans learned things in a certain pattern, does not mean that other civilizations around the universe, be them extra or inter terrestrial, followed the same path to where they are today. Their theories, be them what we deem as intelligent, could be completely askew from our own, yet they achieve the same results. Their physical companents could speed up or hinder those thought processes which enabled us to do so. We don't know. I find it ignorant to think that, just because we do it one way, they would have to do it that way too.

And, in my own ignorance, I definitely agree that if some other form of intelligent being had the technology to look into space, as we do, and they are not bound by certain restraints, then yes, they would try to explore the stars as we are attempting to do so. There are only a few factors which I believe would leave a civilization of intelligent beings out of the space race. Although I've listed them, I do believe them to have their own holes. If there is a free thinker amoung them, all hell will break loose and someone will take the technology to do so. LOL

1) Religion - Be it whatever it may be there, if their beliefs in religion or science or whatever lead them away from the skies and are very strong and powerful to them, then they will not venture fourth... there's always room for the rebels though. Someone could always break free from the herd.

2) Technology - The masses could be held at bay by technological means. A dome, a forcefield a shock collar... who knows? Their technological advancements could have taken them so far that simple space travel as we see it is mundane to them. They may have better things to do. LOL

3) Enlightenment - This one is often used as an attack on visitation believers. Why would they visit us if they are so advanced? Do they know this? Do they know that? Are they god? I'll leave that god comment in there but alone for this post. Perhaps they are just that much ahead of us... but that doesn't mean all intelligent species are. If we want to play the game where their knowledge evolved just as ours, then they had to have tried... we did.

These three categories can be explained and expanded upon easily. Take one category and think of another way it would affect their seeking other life on other planets. There's many twists, but I'm sure that they all fall under these three main categories... heck, just the first two. LOL. Have fun!

I think if anything, its more likely that what we see is our own government trying out its own toys. Scientists have been brainstorming for a long long time about new propulsion methods... Is it that crazy to assume that at least a few of their ideas were viable?

But the possibility that they developed along our lines is more likely than alternate developement. All the things that would be true here are more than likely true there wherever there is. Physics and such, laws of the universe etc.

Neither case seems to apply to chimpanzees. If we take ourselves out of the picture, how long would any other species or its offshoots take to reach our level of intelligence?