Alien Nation

The Flying Saucers are...Not Welcome in Florida!

Greg — Thu, 20 Nov 2008 12:28:09 +0000

A storm in a teacup saucer last week after high-profile ufologist Stanton Friedman gave a talk at The Brogan Museum in Florida to accompany their exhibit about Roswell. Dr Paul Cottle of Florida State University got himself in a tizzy and wrote a letter of complaint about the museum's invitation to a "well-known charlatan" (really, his description of Friedman) discussing "UFO pseudoscience".

Billy Cox of the always interesting newspaper column DeVoid explains how it all unfolded. Perhaps most notably, he quotes a wonderfully common sense reply to Cottle from Museum executive director Chucha Barber: “UFOs and dinosaurs attract people of all ages to, we hope, seek truth, learn more and perhaps be entertained while inspired.” However, that only served to stoke the fires, with Dr. Gregory Boebinger, director of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee joining the fray:

Is the Brogan planning to host future exhibits on palm reading and astrology? Surely when a science museum hosts often-debunked pseudoscience, it is not only using ‘a variety of entertaining experiences to attract audiences to science,’ as Ms. Barber contends, but also insidiously endorsing pseudoscience and attracting our children and the public away from science.

Mmmm, the skeptics and their "insidious pseudoscience" - such paranoia! Anyhow, the rest of Billy Cox's opinion piece is well worth a read, so check it out. Further reading on the matter can be found at Frank Warren's blog and also at A Different Perspective (Kevin Randle's blog). Like Randle, I don't necessarily agree with everything Stanton Friedman claims, but "I do have something against those who express uninformed opinions".

140 Years of UFO Sightings

Greg — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 06:05:30 +0000

Britain's Telegraph has a fun, multi-part picture gallery of "140 Years of UFO Sightings" (see parts one, two and three), which altogether comprise 84 photographs of supposed UFOs over the past 140 years. Now, it's quite clear that a number of them can be explained as clouds, photographic artifacts, birds and plain hoaxes. As I've consistently said, photos (and video) of UFOs mean nothing without some valid contextual information (multiple witnesses, onsite investigations, etc). But it's good fun all the same, in an X-Files kinda way.

Exoplanets Imaged

Greg — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:42:19 +0000

Exciting news in the astronomy world, with the release of the first optical images showing exoplanets orbiting a sun similar to our own (except 250 trillion kilometers away). Phil Plait has a good rundown at Bad Astronomy, and of course Space.com is covering the news as well.

Astronomy Via Computer

Greg — Fri, 14 Nov 2008 03:02:36 +0000

This week I've been buried deep in changing over to a new computer and operating system (courtesy of a debt-inducing but quite wonderful early Xmas present from my beautiful wife) and reorganising all my folders and files from over the years into something more comprehensible - hence the lack of regular updates this week! But while browsing around this morning, I came across the perfect post to find while setting up a new computer, and you'll probably find something of interest in it too:

At Cosmic Log (which is of course bookmarked as one of your favourite links, right?), Alan Boyle has posted a tremendous round-up of virtual telescope software and other related apps available to us average internetin' folks...pretty much all of them free of charge. From Microsoft's Worldwide Telescope (which doesn't run on my new system, unfortunately) to Google Sky, Celestia and Stellarium, Alan provides a bunch of shiny new toys for us space nuts to play with into the wee hours. Muchas Gracias!

Okay, back to sorting out my files and folders on my very sexy new iMac. (Yes Mr Jobs, I am open to payola...and a complementary copy of Final Cut Studio would help my plans for TDG's global takeover immensely...)

UFO Disclosure: Million Fax on Washington

Rick MG — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 01:23:00 +0000

Obama's election as U.S. President heralds change for many Americans, but will this include changing the veil of secrecy and disinformation on UFOs and extraterrestrial visitation with transparency? Between November 5th 2008 and January 20th 2009, you are invited to take part in the biggest global effort to convince the American government that the people are ready for the truth -- the Fax On Washington UFO disclosure campaign. It's the initiative of the Paradigm Research Group, established in 1996 by political activist and consultant Stephen Bassett.

Simply send a letter, fax and/or email to the senatorial office and transition headquarters of the President Elect Barack Obama calling (politely) for UFO disclosure. Letters, handwritten or typed, are preferred as all are opened and read. Most faxes are as well, but if you send an email you're rolling the dice and will most probably end up caught in a spam filter. Do not send your letters to the White House, only the senatorial office and transition headquarters:

The Honorable Barack Obama
President Elect of the United States
713 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

Fax: 202-228-4260

With John Podesta head of Obama's transitional government team, this is a golden opportunity to influence and inspire positive change. The goal of the campaign is not to convince the new government that UFOs are extraterrestrial. The goal, as John Podesta makes clear, is "to provide scientists with data that will assist in determining the real nature of this phenomenon." No more secrecy, no more lies, no more ridicule, just transparent, impartial scientific study, and honesty with the public.

Remember, the Government works for us, not the other way around. People have the power. By inundating Obama's office with letters calling for UFO disclosure, we can affect change through sheer numbers. The truth is out there, and we can handle it.

Important. Please notify Paradigm Research Group (PRG at paradigmresearchgroup dot org) when you send a letter/fax/email to the President Elect. This will help PRG to generate media interest in this effort.

UFOs Welcome at the White House Now?

Greg — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 01:23:04 +0000

As mentioned in Rick's news, the new-look White House (I keep picturing George Clinton getting his P-Funk paintbrushes ready) once again has an implicit link to the UFO mystery, with former White House Chief of Staff John Podesta serving as co-chairman for the Obama-Biden transition. Podesta - who once admitted to having a "shrine" to The X-Files in his WH office - has been actively involved in the UFO area for a number of years. In 2002, he lent his voice to the Sci Fi Channel's pursuit of government documents related to the 1965 'Kecksburg UFO' incident - although perhaps his primary motivation was his desire for openness of government (PDF document):

I’ve never been followed by a tractor beam; I’ve never been bathed in the glow of a white light coming from the sky; I certainly have never been taken; and while my obsession (which for some of you was well known while I was in the White House) with the X-Files earned me the title of First Fan, I think I always understood the difference between fact and fiction. So I guess you could call me a skeptic.

But I’m skeptical about many things, including the notion that government always knows best, and that the people can’t be trusted with the truth. That’s why I’ve dedicated three decades of my life, both in private practice on the Senate Judiciary Committee and in my work at the White House, to the fundamental principle of protecting openness in government.

...I think it’s time to open the books on questions that have remained in the dark; on the question of government investigations of UFOs. It’s time to find out what the truth really is that’s out there. We ought to do it because it’s right; we ought to do it because the American people quite frankly can handle the truth; and we ought to do it because it’s the law.

Some video of Podesta's speech at the National Press Club is available at YouTube.

UFOs and Radar Spoofing

Greg — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:13:15 +0000

Last week I posted news about the latest release of 'UFO files' from the British Ministry of Defence. In that post, I also embedded video of Dr David Clarke - a UFO researcher who has done a lot of work on getting these files released - discussing some of the cases. In regards to the "American fighter pilot who was ordered to shoot down a UFO over British airspace" in 1956 or 1957, Dr Clarke mentioned that one of three possibilities (along with a a 'real' UFO, or a Soviet aircraft) was that the case may be explained by "electronic warfare". He goes on to mention in particular the Palladium program, a 1960s CIA secret project aimed at spoofing 'phantom aircraft' on radar. This explanation has gone on to feature in a number of media stories (understandable, given it's in this AP story.

However, does the Palladium explanation hold water? UFO researcher Martin Shough commented about this on the UFO Updates mailing list, raising some fair arguments against it. Martin is one of the 'real' researchers in this field (as is David Clarke - they worked together on the recent Channel Islands UFO report), so his comments are worth reading (at the very least, it's an interesting historical rundown on a secret project). I've reproduced some of the pertinent points below (with permission):

Dave Clarke's statement is certainly true and the history [of Palladium] is well known, or should be. One serious problem with the idea in this case is the date. I looked into the CIA radar spoofing programme - called project Palladium - in as much detail as I could many years ago when we were in the last phase of re-researching the 1956 Lakenheath-Bentwaters case.

In 1962...a radar spoofing programme was developed to be operated in tandem with the agency's bi-static Soviet radar mapping programme. This mapping programme had begun in 1959 with Project Melody and progressed to using radar echoes bounced from the moon. Having charted the Soviet radar fence in detail and found it unexpectedly forbidding, the CIA, and through them particularly Strategic Air Command, now needed to know how to make spyplanes or bombers with radar cross-sections small enough to squeeze through. This was the beginning of 'stealth', and the CIA's radar spoofing was designed to provoke reactions from Soviet radars so that NSA COMINT intercept specialists could then decrypt their communications and estimate the minimum detectable cross-sections in various conditions. Wheelon dubbed this effort Project Palladium. You can read about Palladium here (PDF file) from the horse's mouth

Given the value of Soviet radar defences to Strategic Air Command offensive planners, and the involvement of both CIA and NSA, one might suppose that if an early prototype test of a Palladium-type operation had ever been contemplated in Europe in 1956 then forward-basing of the equipment at a SAC airfield where CIA and NSA had already established a secure presence would be natural. RAF Lakenheath was a SAC bomber base where in May 1956 the CIA had chosen to deploy one of the first U-2s.

On the other hand I don't think there's any reason to doubt CIA history which says that Palladium per se was started under Bud Wheelon, who was DDS&T from 1962.... There is no indication that Palladium was continuous with a long series of similar prototype developments going back to 1956 or 1957. The existence of such an early forerunner - especially one developed enough to see use overseas in the UK - seems to me both technically and historically very doubtful, and I'm not aware of any parallel efforts by other agencies at that time. But it probably can't be completely ruled out and it's right to at least consider it.

Further arguments raised by researchers against the "electronic warfare" explanation include (a) why get the airman to fire at the target, if it was just a test of spoofing capabilities, (b) if live weapons were to be fired, it would probably have been done in the restricted airspace of a military range, and (c) would it have even been possible to do the radar spoofing in this particular case. On the last point, once again Martin gives some details:

Deceiving a fixed ground radar in a carefully arranged situation is one thing. Doing the same thing (simultaneously) on the AI radars of two F-86Ds flying changing vectors at 32,000ft over the North Sea at speeds up to Mach 0.92 is in quite a different league and strains credulity.

I frankly doubt this is practicable, even today.

So, the Palladium explanation seems unlikely. Guess we're still stuck at 'UFO' though. My thanks to Martin Shough for allowing me to reprint his interesting and educational posts to UFO Updates.

Space Photo Extravaganzas

Greg — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 11:27:52 +0000

Air and Space Magazine have posted a wonderful feature on the 50 most memorable images from NASA's history. I never tire of taking in vistas of other worlds, the technological leaps made during the second half of the 20th century, and images of the courageous men and women who put it all on the line by venturing into space. Below is probably my favourite image, mainly because it was the first that really blew me away as a kid - like, "holy crap, that's a picture of the surface of another planet" (I was *just* too young to enjoy the Apollo successes).

And if that wasn't enough for you, make sure you head over to Boston.com's most excellent regular feature "The Big Picture", and take a look at "Enceladus Up Close" and "The Sun". Awe-some.

Astronomer Royal on UFOs

Greg — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 11:47:45 +0000

Britain's Astronomer Royal (and continuing his regal titles, also current President of the Royal Society) Martin Rees has commented on the recent release of the Ministry of Defence's UFO files:

I certainly don't believe that the declassification yesterday of Ministry of Defence files reporting encounters with unidentified flying objects in British airspace shows that we have found aliens. But I am open-minded about the possibility and would dearly like to know if they exist.

...[But] even if intelligence were widespread, we may never become aware of more than a small and atypical fraction of what is out there.

Some brains may package reality in a fashion that we cannot conceive. Others could be living contemplative lives, doing nothing to reveal their presence. Absence of evidence would not be evidence of absence. The only type of intelligence we could detect would be one that led to a technology we could recognise.

I've always found Lord Rees to be one of the more contemplative and open-minded scientists engaging with the public. He has written at length of the dangers facing the world - not least those due to advances in science itself (see this TED talk he gave). And though a non-believer in the concept of 'God', he still regularly attends church because he enjoys the ritual and sense of community, and the sharing of a sense of wonder about the Universe. Sounds like someone I could have a beer with. Or at least a cup of tea.

Death From the Skies

Greg — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:42:48 +0000

Phil 'Bad Astronomy' Plait has just had a new book published which looks well worth checking out: Death From the Skies! These Are the Ways the World Will End (Amazon US and UK). He's posted an excerpt from the Introduction at BA, and has also been doing some regular blog entries touching on the topics discussed in the book, such as this one on the odds of being killed by a meteorite.

I do have to say I found it quite humorous though, to see Phil Plait anthropomorphising the Universe in the very first lines of the book, considering his penchant for getting worked up when 'pseudoscientists' do similar things. What's that I see in your eye Phil...?

Update: Bonjour à Bad Astronomy. Riposte.