THE UFO CHRONICLES

Showing posts with label Seth Shostak. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Post Pentagon’s UFO Research Program Revelations – Skeptics Regroup

Now the counterpunch

Nearly two months after The New York Times dropped the bomb about the Pentagon’s UFO research program, the Skeptics have had a chance to catch their breath and regroup. To be sure, the Times piece caught everybody off guard, and clearly there’s a ton of reporting left to do. Unfortunately, the media clamor that followed the Times’ coup has tapered off, and the only thing we’ve learned about the Defense Department’s Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program since then comes courtesy of KLAS-TV investigative reporter George Knapp.

By Billy Cox
De Void
2-8-18

The Times’ primary source, the recently retired Army intelligence officer Luis Elizondo, stated in December the AATIP was operational from 2007-2012, but he added it was still being maintained in an unofficial capacity with an assist from the Navy and the CIA. Last week, in a little nugget that would appear to bear him out, Elizondo told Knapp the so-called “gimbal video” — the one that showed gun-cam footage of a Navy F-18 pursuing a UFO – was recorded in the skies above Florida in 2015. The original, carefully worded NYT story, which was accompanied by that video, mentioned an event off San Diego in 2004. Many readers, including yours truly, inferred the gimbal footage referenced that 14-year-old incident.

Is this a true unknown or the infrared profile of conventional airplane exhaust? Skeptics are making a case for the latter and challenging the credibility of the Navy pilots who chased this thing/CREDIT: U.S. Department of Defense

That begs the question: Why did it take us two months to learn the gimbal video was from 2015? The date, time and place of that encounter should’ve been included with the Times’ original reporting in December. The fact that it wasn’t suggests the reporters have fragmented information and are still piecing the scope of this thing together. And, in the absence of followups, the Skeptics are filling that space with counterarguments that aren’t implausible.

The most recent explanation for the gimbal video is a post by Committee for Skeptical Inquiry contributor Ian Williams Goddard. “By happenstance,” Goddard says in a YouTube explainer that went up last week, “the gimbal footage presents a fantastic confluence of visual confounders that produce a coherent illusion of a gravity-defying flying saucer.” Goddard reminds viewers that the F-18 video was obtained with infrared optics, which record only heat emissions, not the actual object itself. He goes to great lengths to illustrate how camera movement can account for what appears to be rotation by the F-18’s target. Goddard’s conclusion is that the Navy pilots were actually confused by the exhaust from a distant but conventional aircraft.

Without additional information from the To The Stars Academy, the investigative team that’s ostensibly calling the shots here, detractors are beginning to command the conversation. And you can always detect a Skeptical agenda by how quickly its advocates employ buzzwords that many serious researchers tend to avoid. Goddard informs us that “Rotating infrared signatures are not necessarily evidence of extraterrestrial technology,” and few would argue that. The E word is implicitly pejorative, since there’s no observational way to prove the origin of a UFO without “Gliese 581c” or “Trappist-1″ stamped on the fuselage.

Last week, on the SETI Institute’s “Skeptic Check” podcast, astronomer Seth Shostak and sidekick Molly Bentley empaneled the usual suspects to weigh in on the mystery. Shostak dusted off the familiar old trope – “The single video released does not provide conclusive proof of alien visitation” – and gave the mic to folks like astronomer and Center for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) consultant James McGaha.

McGaha, a pilot and retired USAF officer, attacked the credibility of the Navy pilots who shared their eyewitness accounts with the Times in December. McGaha asserted that only astronomers like, like, well, McGaha, are qualified to interpret weird images in the sky.

“Pilots are not trained observers, and police officers are not trained observers,” he told the podcast, “and they see things in the sky all the time that they don’t understand what they are, because they don’t know astronomy, atmospheric physics, and various other things that could possibly cause lights in the sky.”

Stephenville Empire Tribune UFO Headlines

Given the inherent inferiority of being a pilot without a degree in astronomy, it’s a little disingenuous for McGaha to take the word of a single helicopter pilot to discredit the dramatic 2008 Stephenville UFO incident, the subject of a 77-page report that supported multiple eyewitness testimonies with government radar records. Without revealing the helicopter pilot’s name (the pilot obviously had a degree in astronomy), McGaha said the only unusual thing happening in the sky over the Texas cowtown that night was an F-16 flare-drop exercise. Nothing to see here, folks.

Also joining Shostak’s crew was Benjamin Radford, a CSI research fellow who suggested the AATIP was a “pork project” cooked up by former Sen. Harry Reid as a sop to hotelier/aerospace entrepreneur Robert Bigelow. According to the Times, the AATIP’s $22 million in expenditures included modifying some of Bigelow’s facilities in Las Vegas to accommodate “the storage of metal alloys and other materials … recovered from unidentified aerial phenomena.” Exactly why a billionaire would do this for a lousy $22M with government strings attached is a mystery, but at least part of Radford’s concerns about funneling taxpayer money to a wealthy constituent are worth consideration. Especially if we’re dealing with hyperexotic material.

UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record

Retired Johnson Space Center engineer Jim Oberg isn’t quite the unbiased observer he says he is when it comes to UFOs. In his thumbs-down critique of Leslie Kean’s 2010 book UFOs: Generals, Pilots and Government Officials Go On the Record, Oberg was canny enough to steer clear of problematic radar data that bolstered pilot reports; instead, he confined his remarks to the fallibility of human perception. (Kean, as most of you know, worked with the Times on the AATIP story).

When Oberg joined “Skeptic Check,” however, he raised a point that should concern us all when it comes to the clout of private-sector special interests, like Robert Bigelow.

“There’s a feeling that if the UFOs are real, and he does the study,” Oberg said, “that his company would be able to make use of any discoveries, any patents, any technologies that are found.”

In that event, we’d be talking serious national security implications, which makes this a conversation we need to have. This is the age of Martin Shkreli, not Jonas Salk. As for the Times reporting — guys, give us something, anything, radar records, more video, just one (1) of the alleged three dozen AATIP reports floating around somewhere out there. Let’s get this show on the road again. Soon.

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

SETI's Seth Shostak On The Pentagon UFO Program | VIDEO

Seth Shostak took to his FaceBook page to do a one man stand-up show, performing his shtick last Thursday (1-18-18) and taking questions in the aftermath. For those who presumed that the revelation of a 5 year secret UFO investigation

By Frank Warren
The UFO Chronicles
1-21-18

perpetrated by the Department of Defense, along with Navy pilots coming forward who engaged a UFO, supported by radar and FLIR video, would give Shostak pause re Ufology—it ain’t happenin’!

Shostak, in my view seemed only to have taken a cursory look at the reports surrounding the disclosure of the formerly secret UFO program. At one point he couldn’t recall what the acronym, AATIP (Advanced Aviation Threat Identification Program) meant—the very subject of what he was addressing! If a university student gave such a presentation, he would have been given a failing grade.

Ironically, Shostak spoke a bit about arguments from ignorance ….

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'Shostak Does What He Always Does' Re Clinton's Advocacy for UFO Transparency

On science and mortality

A few years ago, analysts with the National Bureau of Economic Research decided to try to quantify the headlock that “elite scientists” exert on their chosen disciplines. They wanted to know if Nobel laureate Max Planck’s lamentation on ego could be statistically proven: “A new scientific truth does not triumph by convincing its opponents and making them see the light, but rather because its opponents eventually die, and a new generation grows up that is familiar with it.”

By Billy Cox
De Void
4-2-16

Targeting the life sciences, NBER formed a database of 12,935 scientists whose publication performance, patents, funding levels and peer pedigrees – i.e., membership in the National Academies of Science or the Institute of Medicine – satisfied baseline criteria. From there, NBER whittled the field down to 452 names. All were considered the rock stars of their generation, circa 1975-2003. More significantly, every one died before they retired.

The results of the study – published in December under the headline “Does Science Advance One Funeral at a Time?” – showed how subsequent publication activity by the deceased stars’ colleagues tapered off precipitously, by 40 percent, following the deaths of the luminaries. Into that vacuum surged the work of non-collaborators. It went up 8 percent within a year. Within five years, papers by the non-collaborators “fully offset the productivity decline of collaborators.”

NBER summed up what had been happening this way: “The idiosyncratic stances of individual scientists can do much to alter, or at least delay, the course of scientific advance.” Conclusion: “While co-authors suffer after the passing of a superstar, it is not simply the case that star scientists in a competing lab assume leadership mantle. Rather, the boost comes largely from outsiders who appear to tackle the mainstream questions within the field but by leveraging newer ideas that arise in other domains.”

Uh-oh. Outsiders.

Which brings us to the latest paint-by-numbers whimsy from astronomer Seth Shostak, 72.

Champion of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence via the exclusive mode of radiotelescopes, author of four books, plus 60-some peer-reviewed research papers, not to mention 300 or so popular articles ranging from astronomy to technology, Shostak is so inside-the-box he even co-authored a college-level textbook on astrobiology. Plus he’s made a multitude of appearances on documentaries and TV series. Smart guy, clearly. Elite. He was rewarded for those efforts in December when he received the Carl Sagan Prize for Science Popularization. And as a fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, he never misses a chance to remind Americans that UFOs are a waste of time. Thus:

Sensing a potential affront to mainstream groupthink with Hillary Clinton’s recent advocacy for transparent federal UFO documents, Shostak felt the need to translate her avowed interest into language Huffington Post readers could understand. From his opening sentence – “If you’re worried about little gray guys with no hair and amygdaloid eyes, Hillary Clinton wants to help” – it’s eminently clear that the senior astronomer with the SETI Institute has disqualified himself from any meaningful discussion on The Great Taboo.

Shostak does what he always does. He falls back on the veracity of the USAF’s dreadfully bollixed Project Blue Book, and he characterizes “those whose psyches are invested in the alien visitation story” as delusional thinkers. No allowance, of course, for people who make no such claims, people who think radar tracks of weird *&#! in the sky are interesting, and for people who wish that authority figures like Shostak would quit proselytizing and actually investigate events occurring in the 21st century. Or, failing that, at least quit misrepresenting things, like the British Ministry of Defence’s position on UFOs.

“The MOD said that after more than a half-century of taking hotline tips, they had learned nothing of either military or scientific value,” writes Shostak, who doesn’t even have to Google UFOs anymore because he’s riding Yuri Milner’s $100M SETI gravy train. “They also released tens of thousands of related government documents.”

Well, no, sorry man, you’re totally wrong on that first point. According to an MOD study declassified in 2006, referred to as Project Condign, the Brits are definitely interested in pursuing what it prefers to call Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. That’s the same term Clinton used last week in her Jimmy Kimmel interview. Struggling to make sense of the evidence they considered from 1997-2000, UK analysts agreed to describe UAP as “buoyant plasma formations.” Under the MoD’s definition, UAP is a meteorological phenomenon so bizarre, so intense, that it can subject observers to radiation exposure, hallucinations, “lost time” episodes, and even cause pilots to make evasive maneuvers.

“The relevance of plasma and magnetic fields to UAP was an unexpected feature of the study. It is recommended,” declared the authors, “that further investigation should be (undertaken) into the applicability of various characteristics in various novel military applications.”

Whoa, hey, crazy “weather,” huh? With defense implications to boot. Mmmm . . . smells like $$$. Still, 10 years after the declassification of Condign, and no followup to speak of. That could mean one of two things: 1) Classified research is ongoing or, more likely, 2) a more informed generation of scientists is waiting for speed bumps like Shostak to get out of the way so a less doctrinaire era of inquiry can begin.

Continue Reading ►

See Also:

Will Hillary Clinton Unmask Area 51

Hillary Clinton says She’ll Make UFO Files Public as President on Jimmy Kimmel Live | VIDEO

Hillary Clinton Gives Promise To Investigate UFOs

John Podesta: I've Convinced Hillary Clinton To Declassify UFO Files | VIDEO

Will 'UFO Baggage' Harm Hillary Clinton's Presidential Run? | VIDEO

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

The Search for Intelligent Alien Life | VIDEO

NEW YORK (FOX5NY) - Practically since humankind could look up at the sky, the question has been asked: Do we have company up there, in the cosmos?

"I'm quite sure we're not the only intelligent species in the universe," said Dr. Seth Shostak.

ARTHUR CHI'EN
www.fox5ny.com
2-22-16

For the last 25 years, Shostak and his team at the SETI Institute have been eavesdropping on space with their massive antennas in California. They are listening for signs that intelligent life exists or has existed.

"I find it hard to believe it hasn't, doesn't or won't," said Dr. Rebecca Oppenheimer.

Dr. Oppenheimer, Chairwoman of Astrophysics at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, and her team have been looking at images of planets for the same. Both Oppenheimer and Shostak agree, life must exist beyond Earth. In its simplest form, it could be as close as Mars or Europa, Jupiter's icy moon. [...]

Continue Reading ►

See Also:

New Search Methods for Primitive and Intelligent Life Far from Earth | VIDEO

Scientists Searching for Extraterrestrial Life – A Brief History

Colonizing Mars is Key in Finding Extraterrestrial Life

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

SETI Targets Kepler-452b in Search for Alien Life

An artist's concept of the alien Kepler-452b in orbit around its star Kepler-452, which is located 1,400 light-years from Earth. NASA has billed the potentially habitable planet as Earth's bigger, older cousin.

By Nola Taylor Redd
SPACE.com
7-31-15

Scientists with the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute have already begun targeting Earth's "older cousin," Kepler 452b, the first near-Earth-size world found in the habitable zone of a sun-like star.

NASA announced the discovery of Kepler-452b last week, billing the planet as the closest thing yet to an Earth 2.0 beyond Earth's solar system. Researchers have used the Allen Telescope Array, a collection of 42 radio antennas in northern California, to study the planet for radio signals that could indicate the presence of intelligent extraterrestrial life. So far, the antennas haven't tuned into any broadcasts.

"That's no reason to get discouraged," Seth Shostak, senior astronomer with the SETI Institute, which is based in Mountain View, California, said . . ..

Continue Reading . . .

See Also:

New Planet Discovery in 'Habitable Zone' – Older Cousin to Earth

NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in So-called 'Goldilocks Zone'

'Habitable Zone' Redefined for Alien Planets — and Maybe Life | SPACE NEWS

Does Life Exist on Newly Discovered Earth-Like Planet?

Milky Way Teeming With Billions Of Earth-Like Planets

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

SETI's Seth Shostak Discusses New 'Earth-Like Planet' with Panel of Scientists | VIDEO

By SETI
YouTube
7-23-15

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Scientists Discover 12 New Potential Earth-Like Planets | VIDEO

New Planet Discovery in 'Habitable Zone' – Older Cousin to Earth

NASA Telescope Confirms Alien Planet in So-called 'Goldilocks Zone'

'Habitable Zone' Redefined for Alien Planets — and Maybe Life | SPACE NEWS

Does Life Exist on Newly Discovered Earth-Like Planet?

Milky Way Teeming With Billions Of Earth-Like Planets

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Search for Aliens May Put Mankind at Risk

By www.dailytimesgazette.com
4-2-15

"Some scientists fear that sending out signals to extraterrestrials could place mankind to a risk and this would outweigh the benefits of building communication with alien life. "

. . . The old stratagem of waiting to capture radio signals from aliens has failed many times over and Vakoch thinks that scientists would get replies if the signals are transmitted from Earth to give indications that we are in search for extraterrestrials. . . .

. . . The director of Center for SETI Research director Seth Shostak has suggested to the scientists to transmit the web contents into the deep space, with huge compilation of text, videos, sounds and pictures to provide the alien recipients an overview of human civilization.

Employing a radio transmitter would take around one month to send out the web contents into the cosmos. A better alternative scientists may opt for is using laser technology to transmit the web contents into the deep space and this will only take days to accomplish. . . .

Continue Reading . . .

See Also:

Alien Signal? Mysterious Fast Radio Bursts From Outside Galaxy

Serious Talk about Contacting Aliens Is Sparking a Fiery Debate

Hawking's Warning On Aliens is Discussed with Dr. Michio Kaku, Dr. Seth Shostak, David Brin and Dan Aykroyd

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Scientists Urged To Seek Contact with Aliens | VIDEO

Researchers are considering what the message from Earth should be. BBC World viewers write their own

By Pallab Ghosh
BBC News
2-12-15

Scientists at a US conference have said it is time to try actively to contact intelligent life on other worlds.

Researchers involved in the search for extra-terrestrial life are considering what the message from Earth should be.

The call was made by the Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence institute at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in San Jose.

But others argued that making our presence known might be dangerous.

Researchers at the Seti institute have been listening for signals from outer space for more than 30 years using radio telescope facilities in the US. So far there has been no sign of ET.

The organisation's director, Dr Seth Shostak, told attendees to the AAAS meeting that it was now time to step up the search.

Continue Reading . . .

See Also:

Should Humanity Try to Contact Intelligent Aliens? | VIDEO

Contact With Aliens? Think Before You Call

What Contingency Plans Does the U. S. Government Have for a "First Contact" Scenario?

REPORT YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Scientist says We'll Find Life by 2034 | VIDEO

By SunriseOn7
YouTube
5-31-14

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"...We'll Find E.T. Within Two Dozen Years...," says Seth Shostak of SETI

'Just One Good Example' of UFO Evidence, asks SETI’s Seth Shostak

The Hunt for Alien Life is Discussed at Congressional Hearing | VIDEO

SHARE YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

'Just One Good Example' of UFO Evidence, asks SETI’s Seth Shostak

Careful what you ask for

By Billy Cox
De Void
7-23-14

Radioastronomer Seth Shostak, last making headlines in May alongside colleague Dan Wertheimer by appearing on Capitol Hill to appeal for congressional SETI funding, is one of the nicest, brightest and most approachable scientists you’ll ever want to meet. Even during disagreements over The Great Taboo, the SETI Institute’s senior astronomer is unfailingly cordial. So when British chemist Erol Faruk tuned into a podcast in which Shostak asked listeners to send him “just one good example” of UFO evidence, Faruk took him at his word

The results of Faruk’s quixotic quest for a fair hearing from Shostak and mainstream science have just been released in his self-published ebook on Amazon. It pretty much strips away the myth that institutional scholars would welcome Great Taboo data if Only They Had Decent Stuff To Study. Its title is a mouthful - The Indisputable Scientific Evidence for a UFO Landing and Deposition (aka The Delphos Case) that was denied Publication by Scientific Journals —but it’s a relatively succinct reiteration of the hallmark timidity that characterizes — or more aptly, impedes — America’s learning curve into terra incognita.

First, Erol Faruk has what exclusive groups like to call standing. He has a PhD in chemistry, worked research posts at Oxford and Nottingham universities, and became a development chemist at the corporation that became GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals. He has published peer-reviewed papers in arcane industry journals such as Helvetica Chimica Act, and The Journal of Antibiotics. He holds several formula patents. He speaks the language.

Years ago, Faruk got interested in the 1971 Delphos, Kan., UFO case. No need to rehash the whole thing here, you can read all about it online, but what sucked him in was the ring of glowing soil it left behind. The family took pictures moments after the UFO took off, local media and law enforcement converged on the scene, and the ring scars lingered long afterwards. Fungal growth was the chief suspect at the top of the conventional explanations list, but it couldn’t account for the temporary blindness alleged by one witness, nor the numbing sensation reported by another who touched the glowing earth when it was still fresh.

Faruk, years later, subjected several grams of affected soil to chemical analysis and discovered some puzzling behaviors in the sample compounds, including an apparent paradox in water soluble and water repellent properties. Most intriguing to him was how, as he would later write, the UFO “appears to have contained within its periphery an aqueous solution of an unstable compound whose likely sole function would be light emission.” Many UFOs are reported to glow. Maybe these trace effects held implications above and beyond this single event.

Faruk’s research was published in the Journal of UFO Studies in 1989. Analytical chemist Phyllis Budinger later weighed in with her own study. Budinger interpreted some of Faruk's findings differently, but she also discovered complexities that he had missed. JUFOS published Budinger's work in 2002.

Their combined efforts vanished with little comment. Faruk figured maybe that was because they were circulated in narrow-niche publications, and that it needed more eyes. So he decided to approach mainstream science journals, starting with Nature, the bible, in 2012. Maybe the exercise was doomed from the beginning, given the title of his paper — “The search for signs of extraterrestrial intelligence on earth; strong chemical and physical evidence for the existence of an unconventional luminescent aircraft (commonly called a UFO) observed by multiple witnesses at a farm in Delphos, Kansas, USA.” Ugh, that acronym again. But this is where things get interesting.

After being initially rejected outright since his work had been previously published, Faruk explained how the paper could be reworked to satisfy Nature’s exemptions to that rule. But the Nature editor declined to even run it past journal referees. He said he was “unable to conclude that the work provides the sort of firm advance in general understanding that would warrant publication.”
(De Void will interject at this point that De Void would have run with the editors’ names. Faruk stated in an email “I didn't wish to put any names on journal editors, since this isn't a personal issue. Each of the editors have to watch their own backs anyway, and aren't likely to risk their own careers by publishing material their bosses might not be happy about.” De Void would argue the unnamed editors could earn brownie points among fraternal colleagues by being recognized for standing firm against The Great Taboo, but whatever ...)

Anyhow, Faruk shopped it to the Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, which informed him “the subject matter is not within the [journal’s] publication scope.” When Faruk reminded the editor a UFO-related paper had been published in its ostensibly unsullied pages seven years earlier, the editor retorted that was under another regime. “As I am Editor of JBIS,” he assured Faruk, “it is not my policy to promote the publication of UFO report papers.” The same editor admitted he hadn’t even read Faruk’s paper, “although I am sure it is a good read.” And oh, btw, “This is not to say it isn’t a worthwhile ‘phenomenon’ to study, I just don’t believe JBIS should be the home of such studies, where a higher standard of scientific rigor is required.”

Ouch. And without even reading it. Faruk would later discover JBIS had run yet another UFO article — alien abductions, actually — in 2010. JBIS declined to respond to Faruk's subsequent appeals for additional discourse.

Enter Seth Shostak’s encouraging podcast solicitation for UFO evidence. So Faruk forwarded his material to the guy. “I’m not a chemist, so can’t really speak to how unusual this ring was,” Shostak wrote back. “... And beyond that, the SETI Institute doesn’t investigate UFO sightings (we don’t have the staff ... we’re a very small group.”)

Oy vay!

Continue Reading . . .

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"The Science Behind UFOs" – Stanton Friedman Lambastes Phil Plait & Astronomy Magazine in Open Letter!

Evidence of Mass UFO Sighting Uncovered; Biedny Account Confirmed

SHARE YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

Should Humanity Try to Contact Intelligent Aliens? | VIDEO

By Leonard David
Space.com
7-7-14

Astronomers have detected nearly 2,000 alien planets to date. As that number continues to rise, so too does the prospect of finding intelligent extraterrestrial life.

In terms of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), it may no longer be a matter of answering the "are we alone" question, some scientists say. Rather, just how crowded is the universe?

And if ET is out there, it may be possible to reach out with direct "radio waving" to potentially habitable exoplanets. This form of cosmic cryptography, called "Active SETI," involves no longer merely listening for a signal but purposefully broadcasting to, and perhaps establishing contact with, other starfolk.

Active SETI sounds like science fiction, but some astronomers are discussing it seriously today. The idea is, as it has been in the past, a controversial, hot-button issue, with some researchers wary of sending signals out to touch base with intelligent aliens.

Work in progress

"It’s a subject of discussion, I’ll put it that way," said Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute in Mountain View, Calif. There have been many workshops and symposia over the years to discuss Active SETI, he said, and because it has a highly emotional component, "it’s like a third rail in a way," he said.

Shostak told Space.com that he feels the topic is not something to worry too much about.

"But there may not be that perception in the broader public … that we have discussed this to death. They haven’t seen these discussions nor participated in them," he said.

But exoplanet detections are making news around the world, Shostak said. "That’s putting the whole question of life in space in front of the public in a way that perhaps wasn’t true 20 years ago." . . .

Continue Reading . . .

See Also:

Colonizing Mars is Key in Finding Extraterrestrial Life

Aliens Are Out There, Astronomers Tell Congress | VIDEO

Hunt for Alien Spacecraft Begins, NASA Scientist Gets Funding

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"Werthimer's Catchphrases on UFOs Were Right Out of the Discount Bin"

Seth Shostak & Dan Werthimer at Congressional Hearing 5-21-14

They're not all dingbats

By Billy Cox
De Void
4-10-14

For the most part, largely because they had to, SETI astronomers Seth Shostak and Dan Werthimer managed to keep straight faces on May 21 as they made a pitch for federal funding before the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee. After all, Congress hasn't dropped a dime on the radiotelescopic search for ET since 1995. And in more than 50 years of scanning the stars for evidence of an intelligent signal, radioastronomy has nothing to show for it but theories. But not to worry - the two attempted to reassure the pols how, given the confirmation of exoplanets in exponential numbers, the targeting era has barely begun. If only they had more money . . .

With several clearly outmatched House reps spewing baffling nonsequiturs and another asking Shostak if he'd ever seen "Ancient Aliens" on the History Channel, you could almost see the thought-balloon storm clouds raining over the heads of the distinguished guests. But Shostak and Werthimer soldiered on, reciting the familiar litany, the way they always do, when queried about The Great Taboo. Werthimer's catchphrases on UFOs were right out of the discount bin: "nothing to do with extraterrestrials," "people's imaginations," "deliberate hoaxes," "making money," etc.

Next time they stage a congressional SETI hearing, let's hear a little more from Rep. Donna Edwards, D-MD (Credit: spacenews.com)

But then there was Maryland congresswoman Donna Edwards, a former Lockheed employee at Goddard Space Flight Center and self-confessed "Contact" movie fan who didn’t have to pretend she was new to the SETI spiel. In fact, she actually provided a moment of clarity. "What's intriguing about this conversation," Edwards said, "is the idea that - and it's a little bit of hubris, right? - somehow we're waiting to find them as opposed to them finding us. And maybe that's just the nature of homo sapiens because that's kinda what we do." It was a brief interjection, one that quickly dissipated into the sort of stale discourse Edwards had apparently heard before. "OK, I'm done," she said as her allotted time in the one-whole-hour-long hearing expired. "I think I'll just go back to watching my movies."

Edwards, of course, had touched upon something essential. Because even as Shostak and Werthimer decried the history of stubborn anthropocentrism resisting every scientific discovery that dares to sweep humanity farther and farther from the center of the universe, their own conceits were on display. Both rejected the possibility that some technologically advanced off-world civilization might initiate its own modes of exploration that fall outside the inflexible boundaries of radiotelescopes. In fact, Edwards’ reasoning was something that MUFON research director Robert Powell hung on the line last month as well — and in a science journal to boot. But only because he knew the rules of the game. “I don’t think it would’ve gotten accepted,” he says, “if I’d used the word ‘UFO.’”

In a new e-zine, The Journal of Astrobiology, Powell addressed the same exoplanet explosion currently fueling the funding ambitions of the SETI fraternity. But unlike the Werthimer/Shostak paradigm that short-sells the technological prowess of hypothesized ET civilizations by assuming we’re all on equal footing, Powell’s essay, “Something Intelligent This Way Comes,” gives whatever’s out there a lot more credit. He acknowledges that extrasolar planetary scientists may have even employed the same methods planet-hunters use today — and discovered our atmospheric isotopes hundreds or thousands or millions of years ago.

“It would be close minded of us to assume that such a civilization is not capable of rapid interstellar travel,” he writes. “Yes, the laws of physics are real boundaries. What has changed and will continue to change is not the laws of physics but our knowledge and understanding of those laws.”

For now, to our own disadvantage, we are unable to conceive of an intelligence above and beyond our own frame of reference, with its convoluted hierarchies and linear thinking and organizational logic thousands of years in the making. Powell concludes with a series of questions that only the products of such evolutionary forces could ask:

“So why haven’t these civilizations contacted us? As Enrico Fermi once asked, where are they? Why have they not sent us a radio signal across the cosmos? Surely they know the value of making contact with us, but no one has landed on the White House lawn or the door step of the Kremlin. We feel certain that if they are out there, they would want to let us know about themselves. After all, ‘It’s all about us.’”

Oh, and here’s an irony. Lately, one of the major analytical tools Powell and others employ to study UFOs — a certain class of radar records — is being yanked from the public domain by the FAA and the military. Disappointing news from an administration initially advertised as the transparency presidency. More on that next time.

Continue Reading . . .

See Also:

Has Kepler Found Ideal SETI-target Planets?

SETI Funding Falls Short; Search for ET is on Hold

SETI: " . . . Mystery Signal Has Been Picked Up By a Giant Radio-Telescope in Puerto Rico"

"...We'll Find E.T. Within Two Dozen Years...," says Seth Shostak of SETI

SHARE YOUR UFO EXPERIENCE

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Tuesday, February 13, 2018

Post Pentagon’s UFO Research Program Revelations – Skeptics Regroup

Monday, January 22, 2018

SETI's Seth Shostak On The Pentagon UFO Program | VIDEO

Monday, April 04, 2016

'Shostak Does What He Always Does' Re Clinton's Advocacy for UFO Transparency

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

The Search for Intelligent Alien Life | VIDEO

Tuesday, August 04, 2015

SETI Targets Kepler-452b in Search for Alien Life

Tuesday, July 28, 2015

SETI's Seth Shostak Discusses New 'Earth-Like Planet' with Panel of Scientists | VIDEO

Friday, April 03, 2015

Search for Aliens May Put Mankind at Risk

Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Scientists Urged To Seek Contact with Aliens | VIDEO

Saturday, August 30, 2014

Scientist says We'll Find Life by 2034 | VIDEO

Monday, July 28, 2014

'Just One Good Example' of UFO Evidence, asks SETI’s Seth Shostak

Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Should Humanity Try to Contact Intelligent Aliens? | VIDEO

Thursday, June 12, 2014

"Werthimer's Catchphrases on UFOs Were Right Out of the Discount Bin"