http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071112/ts_nm/usa_ufos_dc
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7091922.stm
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21777913/

A group of former pilots and government officials has called on the US government to re-open an investigation into claims of UFO sightings.

()this panel of former military, government and aviation personnel from countries around the world has urged the US government to take such claims seriously.

The group say the apparent sightings of hovering orbs, glowing lights and high-speed spacecraft are a national security concern and should no longer be dismissed.

The panel has called on the US military to re-open an investigation dormant since 1969, called Project Blue Book, in which more than 12,500 UFO claims were investigated by the Air Force.

Among those on the panel is the former governor of Arizona, Fife Symington, and last month, the Democrat presidential candidate, Dennis Kucinich, said during a televised debate that he'd seen a UFO.

"We want the US government to stop perpetuating the myth that all UFOs can be explained away in down-to-earth, conventional terms
Fife Symington" Ex-Governor of Arizona.

That´s almost two governors on a row.

Sevral UFO related forums and websites are reproducing this news, why do you think that this military, pilots and even politicians continue with this?

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"The true sign of intelligence is not knowledge but imagination." - Albert Einstein

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/au..._einstein.html

CNN has been running with this too. "Special investigations" this. One of their talking heads is investigating that. A really bad interview of a CT author and some scientist.

And here my respect for CNN was on the rise.

What's next week? Bigfoot? Loch Ness? Invisible elves?

I sense multiple incompatible objectives there.

UFO sightings were investigated during the Cold War, when the U.S. felt itself threatened by hostile forces and wanted to know whether UFO sightings were anything to worry about. Now that the U.S. feels itself threatened by hostile forces again, the question to ask is whether the criteria for "national security threat" have changed and/or whether the properties of the sightings in question have changed. Just because the U.S. senses a terrorist threat again doesn't justify a chicken-little handwaving call to arms against something previously evaluated as of little actual threat.

Since small, unmanned aircraft are more viable weapons today than in 1960, we might be justified in greater vigilance against sightings that might be explained by that aircraft type. But as before, the question is not whether UFOs are suspected generally to be dangerous, but whether they fit specific and known modes of threat. If there are specific threat types that aren't being addressed, then I see the point. If there aren't, then it's just vague, unproductive alarmism.

One doesn't have to find the root cause of a sighting to be able to dismiss it as a potential threat. Yet that's what some of the panelists seem to be concerned about; they seem upset when objects that don't fit a threat criterion are dismissed as non-threats, even though they remain "unexplained." Eliminating threats and finding the source of all UFO reports are not identical (or even necessarily compatible) goals.

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"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

UFO sightings were investigated during the Cold War, when the U.S. felt itself threatened by hostile forces and wanted to know whether UFO sightings were anything to worry about. Now that the U.S. feels itself threatened by hostile forces again, the question to ask is whether the criteria for "national security threat" have changed and/or whether the properties of the sightings in question have changed. Just because the U.S. senses a terrorist threat again doesn't justify a chicken-little handwaving call to arms against something previously evaluated as of little actual threat.
I had read an article addressing this panel on Tuesday, and almost said something about it in the "they'll still believe" thread, but passed. It was Rueters' article, IIRC. The best line was at the end, quoted from the USAF's web-site, saying something along the lines of 'In the 40 years since Project Blue Book was terminated, absolutely no new evidence has surfaced to warrant the reopening of this investigation'. Short, sweet, and to the point.

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I'm like one of those idiot savants...well, except for the savant part.
"In order to increase awareness of the homeless, security have been given binoculars."

Exactly. If something was studied, it should stay studied until someone can make a case that further study is warranted. What's new in UFOs? Apparently nothing.

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"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

Oh well, at least it made for an interesting Larry King Live show.

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'Just be a good team player in life', Andrew Evans

I just thought it was because the media knows Coast to Coast is gaining popularity and they want to tap into that audience for ratingsRemember Larry King this summer with that large group of UFO people? Unbelievable.

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'Just be a good team player in life', Andrew Evans

I would put the pilots and the politicians into separate categories. Anything a politician says during a campaign season ought first to be considered attention-seeking. Content may be irrelevant.

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"Facts are stubborn things." --John Adams
Clavius Moon Base

And usually is.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

I haven't been paying attention--did Kucinich say anything that implied he thought the UFO he saw was of extraterrestrial origin, or did he just say he'd seen something in the sky he couldn't identify?

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

The Phoenix Lights! Keep studying this issue until it's a legitimate ET UFO.

Just kidding. This reminds me why I'm glad I don't work in an in-house quality control lab. There is pressure for you to keep testing until you get the one 'right' answer, and ignore the previous 6 'wrong' answers.

Cherry-picking, I think its' called.

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Olsen the moderator.

Who cares as long as it gets one kid to look up, think "Oooh, what's that?" and ask a teacher?

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I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

I care, because for every kid like that there's six more who say, "Nuh uh, there are too flying saucers, even the astronauts say so!"

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

I haven't been paying attention either, but this story keeps coming up so I looked for his comments here on the MSNBC site (see the bottom of page 21 and the top of 22). He definitely said it was just something unidentified, but Shirley McLaine, who originally told the story in her book, seems to imply the more woo-woo angle. No big surprise there.

Quite right. I'm sure, of course, that if you asked around here, you'd get a dozen or more UFO sightings, along with statements along the lines of, "It was probably a plane of some kind." I'd rather like to ask Kucinich what he thought it was, but UFO is so firmly equated with "alien spacecraft" in the public perception that probably no one ever will.

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Gillian

"Now everyone was giving her that kind of look UFOlogists get when they suddenly say, 'Hey, if you shade your eyes you can see it is just a flock of geese after all.'"

"You can't erase icing."

"I can't believe it doesn't work! I found it on the internet, man!"

The reason may be because the swamp gas explaination have not put the end about the observations.

The group say the apparent sightings of hovering orbs, glowing lights and high-speed spacecraft ...

And then that one kid will just point and laugh and get better grades.

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I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

...Whereupon the six kids will gang up and kick his butt. Never laught at the majority no matter how dumb they are, pity them instead. And do so silently, because they outnumber you.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

The end does not always justify the means.

Including, of course, a well-documented one by the BA himself.

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Relight the Firefly!

"It is quite clear that Occam's razor does not sharpen in your pyramid." (Nicolas)

"Still, a man hears what he wants to hear and disregards the rest." (Paul Simon)

You're right, I'll stop making jokes on this topic and simply say:
A UFO study would be like throwing your money into a black hole!

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I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

Well, that may be overkill. An accurate, objective study of any topic is rarely a waste. But asking the government to do it is foolish, as those who believe the government is already covering up aliens wiil automatically discount any findings. Better to get a completely neutral, impartial third-party organization to do the study. Then the results will be harder to dispute as biased.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

You know I really don't get it.

Why do nuts who already don't beleive the Government when they say things, want the Government to spend a whole heap of Taxpayers money on a study that when it says the same as the rest of them still won't be believed? That is insanity.

If these people want to have a study, they should fund it themselves or find sponsership for it from someone willing to throw the money away. While it isn't my tax money, I'm sure the US has far better things to waste money on. IOt's as bad at the 9/11 CTs who want the Government to pay for another investigation when they have already done several, none of which the CT's believed.

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Howling from the Shadows

It must be fun to lead a life completely unburdened by reality. --- JayUtah

You can't reason an irrational person out of an irrational belief. --- Noclevername

Apollo: The History and the Hoax
Enter the World of Athran

You said it yourself. It's because they're nuts. What they really want is for people to acknowledge them and verify their beliefs. They just aren't going to get that, because it's an emotional need for recognition, not a rational request for information.

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"If this were play'd upon a stage now, I could condemn it as an improbable fiction."
Shakespeare, Twelfth Night
"The Mayan symbol for "book" looks a lot like a triple hamburger, but I've never seen them claiming it as proof the Mayans had Big Macs." - KaiYeves
"Distance doesn’t matter much in space, where if you just start a thing off with the right kind of shove, sooner or later it will get where you want it to go." -Frederik Pohl, Mining the Oort

Once again, you said it better than I could, Noclevername.
Involving a black hole is always overkill. There are much easier ways to get rid of anything.

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I want to go back to the moon.
I don't care which rocket you use, whichever one you pick, I'll like it, I swear.
"If you think the LHC will create black holes, you might as well believe Hobbits are at the bottom of your garden."- Dr. Mike Inglis
Rovers forever! - ToSeek

But not nearly as fun.

That and some are so convinced there are ETs visiting us that if only the government would "seriously" do a study, then the truth would be revealed.

I think that's what it comes down to: If the government did a study that gave them the results they expect, they would like it. But another study that didn't demonstrate ET would just be declared a cover-up.

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I say there is an invisible elf in my backyard. How do you prove that I am wrong?

Disclaimer: Avatar is not an official NASA image and does not imply any specific interplanetary or interstellar capability.

The Leif Ericson Cruiser

And if the government declines to do it, it's a coverup.

It's win-win-win.

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And when they get to voting age, will outvote the skeptic 6-1 to elect some idiot who mirrors their views.

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