Sci Fi Channel puts its corporate muscle behind effort to investigate UFOs

Miami Herald ^ | Fri, Jun. 20, 2003 | David Bauder

[janetgreen]

Does Elvis like peanut butter and banana cat food? LOL!

I offered to grill a PB&B sandwich for him, but he declined, saying it was too fattening. The only thing he begs for is whipped cream. He won't leave me alone until I get a dish for him and squirt some WC on it! He looks at me like he's saying "thank you, thank you very much". LOL

[jpl]

Carter's UFO sighting has now become part of the mythology, and no one ever mentions Robert Sheaffer's debunking.

I don't think too many people ever seriously believed that Carter actually saw a "flying saucer". The important part of the story is that Carter himself believed he actually saw one. He believed it so much he filed an official report and later made the statement "If I become President, I'll make every piece of information this country has about UFO sightings available to the public and scientists. I am convinced that UFOs exist because I have seen one."

This isn't a myth, it's just a fact.

[retrokitten]

LOL!!! Ours think everything we open with a can opener is tuna and beg for it. It could be soup or spaghettios and they don't care. According to them we are eating thier tuna. My parents cat will only drink water out of a coffee mug. They are such silly creatures! LOL!

[labowski]

I *am* a skeptic. However, having said that I do believe it is a possiblity. One thing to consider is that we have made the jump from Wilbur and Orville Wright and Kittyhawk to men on the moon, machines on mars sending back images and data, space probes, breaking the sound barrier, etc. in less than a hundred years. Strom Thurmond was a hundred years old, that's one man's lifetime. The quantam leap in technology is to put it mildly *astonishing* Of course this does not mean aliens exist, but it is fascinating to say the least the rate at which we have progressed over the past hundred years.
At any rate, I saw Bob Lazaar interviewed again, I've seen him before, but this was a more in depth interview. I still can't figure out if he's a nut, he really did work there or a government agent.
Anyway, I find the topic quite interesting. I do concede that I believe most people who feel they've been abducted are imagining things and a lot of sightings are either mistaken man made objects or just purely made up, but there are enough credible incidents, witnessed by credible people to warrant speculation of the possiblity that it is a real phenomena.
I don't have a tin foil hat, but it is a lot more interesting than watching Dr. Phil, that's for sure.

[boris]

"Does Julian Barbour (The End of Time) believe time is a solid? It doesn't 'move' it's just there?"

Sort of. I read his book twice and sent him some questions he did not answer. I pointed out that his concept of the "arena" (all possible configurations of all particles in the Universe) may be static but something still selects which "slice" is "now" at any "instant"--kind of like an instruction pointer in a computer. A moving instruction pointer or "instant selector" is moving...implying time. In other words, how does one define sequential selection or motion without appealing to time (or 'meta time')?

And what is "sonoluminescence"?"

An exercise for the interested student. Type it into Google.

--Boris

[js1138]

...but there are enough credible incidents, witnessed by credible people to warrant speculation of the possiblity that it is a real phenomena.

I think it's clear that there are real phenomena. the question is whether there's enough evidence to require belief in alien spaceships. I don't think so, but I can't deny the possibility.

[dljordan]

You can bring out all the tin-foil hat alerts you want. The truth is, there are thousands of reports from all over the world by airline pilots, military personel, etc.. all noted for their flights of fancy. I'm a pilot and a licensed aircraft mechanic so I know a litlle bit about things that fly (no expert by a long shot). I personally have seen three objects that I just couldn't explain. The things HAD NO WINGS and were STANDING STILL. So call me crazy or a victim of mass hallucination if it makes you feel cozy.

[Sam Cree]

"A moving instruction pointer or "instant selector" is moving...implying time."

Clearly, I don't have any in depth understanding of this kind of stuff, but to my layman's mind, or from my vantage point, if time is static, then we, or something, appear to be moving.

[Sam Cree]

I was hoping someone would remember for me what the story may have been. But a quick Google search brings up quite a few renditions of the following story:

Ron and Nancy were expected at a casual dinner party with friends in Hollywood. Except for the Reagans, all the guests had arrived. Ron and Nancy showed up a half hour later quite upset. They stated that they had seen a UFO coming down the coast.

The second sighting occurred in 1974 while Reagan was still Governor. One week after the sighting, Reagan related the story to Norman C. Millar, then Washington Bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, later the editor of the Los Angeles Times. Reagan told Millar:

"I was in a plane last week when I looked out the window and saw this white light. It was zigzagging around. I went up to the pilot and said, ‘Have you seen anything like that before?’ He was shocked and said, ‘Nope.’ And I said to him: ‘Let’s follow it!’

We followed it for several minutes. It was a bright white light. We followed it to Bakersfield, and all of a sudden to our utter amazement it went straight up into the heavens. When we got off the plane, I told Nancy all about it.’

The pilot of Governor Reagan plane was Bull Paynter, and he backed up Reagan’s version of the incident with the UFO.

I was the pilot of the plane when we saw the UFO. Also, on board were Governor Reagan and a couple of his security people. We were flying a Cessna Citation. It was maybe nine or ten o’clock at night. We were near Bakersfield when Governor Reagan and the others called my attention to a big light flying a bit behind the plane.

It appeared to be several hundred yards away. It was a fairly steady light until it began to accelerate, then it appeared to elongate. The light took off. It went up at a 45-degree angle - at a high rate of speed. Everyone on the plane was surprised.

Governor Reagan expressed amazement. I told the others I didn’t know what it was. The UFO went from a normal cruise speed to a fantastic speed instantly. If you give an airplane power it will accelerate - but not like a hotrod, and that is what this was like.

We didn’t file a report on the object because for a long time they considered you a nut if you saw a UFO.

Paynter added the UFO incident didn’t stop there. He stated that he and Reagan had discussed their UFO sighting "from time to time" in the years following the incident.

Reagan, in his discussion of the sighting with Norman C. Millar added that he had told Nancy about the UFO he had seen, and they had done personal research on UFOs. This research had uncovered the facts that there were references to UFOs in Egyptian hieroglyphics. Reagan was telling his story in a very animated way. This led Millar to conclude that Reagan seriously believed in UFOs. He asked him, "Governor, are you telling me that you saw a UFO?"

Suddenly, according to Millar, Reagan realized that he was talking to a reporter. "This look crossed his face," recalled Millar, "and he said let’s just say that I’m an agnostic."

[boris]

"Clearly, I don't have any in depth understanding of this kind of stuff, but to my layman's mind, or from my vantage point, if time is static, then we, or something, appear to be moving."

Minkowski taught us that time is a coordinate axis, just like "X", "Y" and "Z". Coordinate axes do not "flow".

If one were born on a train (on an infinitely long and smooth track) and spent all his life there, and the train never stopped or slowed, by looking out of the window he would conclude that "X" (the coordinate axis X) flowed.

When Rudy Rucker (the mathematician and writer) met Kurt Gödel (a contemporary of Einstein and probably more intelligent), one of the questions he asked Gödel was: "What causes the illusion of the passage of time?"

Gödel answered obliquely, not directly addressing the question...but he did not say, "What kind of stupid ass question is that?!" In other words, he tacitly accepted Rucker's premise that the passage of time is an illusion...

--Boris

[Sam Cree]

Well, yeah, makes sense. I am understanding the analogy, if not the reality. The train itself is moving, not the axis.

One is as easy to accept as the other. Although I am not sure how these guys decided time was an axis.

[Quix]

I PLAN to do another rough transcribing of the SCIFI UFO program(s) tonight (Tues).

I do NOT plan to ping every one for every segment! Sorry about last week's brain-fade.

Please tune in, and comment as you see fit!

Blessings . . . prayers for FR and The Republic and certainly for The Kingdom.

[Sam Cree]

Thanks.

[janetgreen]

I'll be watching here in CA, Quix. Last week's episode was really good.

[Quix]

THANKS SAM, JANET,

AM CURIOUS . . . will anyway--but PLEASE--

HOW MANY OF YOU find the partial transcription I do

--probably 90+% of the major phrases/sentences???--

HOW MANY OF YOU FIND THAT

useful or worth reading to you?

I'm still planning to do it. But I am curious how many think the bother to read it is worthwhile.

I'd also love to know how many from the ping list will be watching while the program is on, tonight.

I'd love to have more comments, as well!

This may well be the last ping list ping for tonight. I may do one more.

Or, I may just ping Sam and Janet when the first section gets loaded to the thread.

If someone has a better suggestion, please offer it!

Blessings, Thanks,

[LanPB01]

I'd love to watch it, but I don't get Sci-Fi here. I don't think it's really necessary for you to attempt to transcribe the show; maybe just after it's over, everyone can offer their thoughts about the highlights and best portions of the show.

[LibKill]

I would appreciate it greatly if you would ping me to any given thread just once.

No offense, but if I have anything to contribute one ping will do.

[janetgreen]

I love your commentary, Quix, even though I'm an hour earlier than you. Looking forward to tonight's episode!

[weegee]

I figure they would have put their money into this search...

[demlosers]

Bump for later read. :)