I complain to damn much about everything, so I've decided to try to not complain in my blog entries. Well, not complain as much. Like I said in my last post, I guess I am turning back into the unpleasant old curmudgeon that I used to be.
Anyhow, I read on CNN today...after reading about Benazir Bhutto's assassination, which came as a terrible and saddening shock to me and could thrust Pakistan back another 100 years politically...about the asteroid heading for Mars.
There is a 1 in 75 chance that the asteroid will hit Mars. And thankfully it is Mars and not Earth, which is a planet close to all of our hearts and our current optimal choice for a galactic residence. Astronomers are all excited about seeing an impact like this (maybe if it happens, perhaps) since they have not really seen one before. Sure the Shoemaker-Levy comet impact on Jupiter was cool, but that is a gas giant. There would be no crater left behind to look at and study.
Mars is awful close to us, and there are observatory satellites in orbit spying on our little red neighbor, so scientists and the general public alike are in a good position to see the impact and study how it affects the Martian environment. It has been said that the Tunguska blast in Siberian Russia around 100 years ago was an asteroid about this size. That blast flattened trees for 25 miles in every direction. If a similar event happened, say over New York, that could be very unpleasant indeed. By the asteroid hitting Mars, astronomers should get a pretty good idea of how a similar impact would affect our planet and what might be the best way to avert such an event.
Scientists are putting a lot of effort and money into looking for potential space-borne threats to our little planet. This, in my opinion, is a good idea. We can recover from certain threats, like wars and global warming and all that. These are things that we have brought upon ourselves, and we should be able to get ourselves out of these messes in relatively short order. A comet or asteroid...well, that is pretty much game over. Like in the movie Deep Impact, there would obviously be sort of a feeling of dreaded, depressing doom that there is not one thing that we can do to stop our eventual destruction. That would be a bummer of a feeling. I think if I was faced with this kind of situation, I would go out and buy a really expensive BMW because one of my goals is to have one before I pass from this earth, and with the Earth no more somehow I don't think bill collectors will be hounding me for the payments.
I remember back in high school I did an oral report in history class about UFOs and how they relate to conspiracy theories. It was a convenient subject, being that I live so close to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base...our area is rife with stories and theories about UFOs. "Hangar 18" on base being where they perhaps took the alien bodies and pieces of spacecraft after maybe crashing in Roswell and taken to "Area 51", and the supposed "nuclear reactor" that was "built to provide power" perhaps but never actually saw even a single atom of uranium because it was maybe built as a convenient cover for the alien tomb or perhaps not. In my report, using the principles of physics and optics, I explained how light can be manipulated by natural phenomena to appear to be alien in nature. I showed several video demonstrations involving lasers and interference patterns that can cause the light waves to bend, spread and converge in interesting and unique patterns...sort of conveniently explaining away what some people can believe are UFOs as tricks of the light.
In the many years that I have lived here, I have seen lots of weird stuff around the base. Strange lights floating around, bizarre "aircraft" taking off and landing, that kind of thing. But for those of us that have lived here for a while, it is all rote. We see these weird things and it doesn't faze any of us. I remember driving home from work one day, and as I exited the highway to get to my street, there were four stealth bombers on maneuvers over the base. It was great to see these huge planes flying around so gracefully with each other, the pilots being quite adept at some slick handling. But, again, while many that don't live so near the base would find this to be extremely exciting...something that they would only see if they lived in a war zone or at an air show...for us it is something that we see almost every day. It is old hat, status quo, same old same old. Meh.
I am a huge sci-fi fan, especially Star Trek. I'd like to believe there are aliens, and that one day we will all live in relative harmony with each other. Even though I would like to believe there are aliens, I have never seen anything that would serve as confirmation...in my mind...that aliens really exist.
When it comes to UFOs and aliens, I think there are six types of people:
1. The Non-Believers: These people don't believe in aliens, UFOs or the possibility of life elsewhere. Period.
2. The Agnostics: These people don't know what to believe, having no compelling evidence either way, and don't really care.
3. The Doubting Thomases: These people doubt that aliens exist, but are open minded enough that if they have compelling evidence presented to them, they could believe.
4. The Blind Faithful: These people like to believe that life exists elsewhere, but have never experienced anything truly bizarre and unusual and are generally on the lookout for proof that aliens exist...or at least an alien society slightly less screwed up than our own.
5. The Believers: These people believe that life exists elsewhere, and that UFOs are real, and have had one or more unusual experiences that they consider to be proof of same, but are not wholly and completely fanatical about it.
6. The Zealots: These people believe that UFOs and aliens are real, they have been here and contacted humans or have claimed they have been abducted by aliens and want to make sure everyone knows about their alien anal probe down to the last detail.
It isn't really a scientific approach to the issue, but something that I have been thinking about...at least inasmuch of trying to write an amusing blog entry. I like to think that I am in category 4. Nothing strange has ever happened to me, at least that I would consider to be alien contact, but I would like to think that we are not alone. I would certainly think that no sufficiently advanced civilization outside of our solar system would actually give a damn about us; in fact I would go as far to say that if there were alien societies elsewhere, they would probably want to stay as far away from us as possible.
One of my favorite all-time flicks is Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In one scene you see the inside of what is supposed to be Indianapolis ATC (air traffic control), with a controller (played by the always great Carl Weathers) managing a few flights. All of the sudden, radar indicates a signature with no transponder ID heading straight into the flight path of two commercial aircraft. The object is described in detail by the pilot, and the object does a close fly-by of the leading aircraft. The event is witnessed by the pilots of a second, trailing aircraft. Afterward, a seemingly important, Isaac Asimov-looking gentleman asks the controller to contact the pilots of both aircraft and ask if they want to report a UFO. The pilots eventually respond with what seems like a lot of trepidation that they would not like to file any reports of any kind.
I have to wonder how many unusual events like this go unreported by pilots. Certainly strange events like this have happened, and there have been reports few and far between. I think it may be taboo in the realm of airline pilots to talk about incidents like this. Is it because of the possibility that they may be made out to be freaks? Could their reports of strange incidents like this be construed as mental instability that could put their certification at risk? Since this is a pretty high-level connection to the government, how much does the government know about incidents of an alien nature? How much has been covered up? Somehow, I don't think we will ever know the truth...some people wouldn't be able to handle it.
I certainly hope that I now don't seem like a wacko or a freak to anyone that reads this diatribe, but I find all aspects of the UFO phenomenon, from the truth to the lies, the conspiracies, the zealots that preach of alien encounters and bizarre medical experiments, infinitely interesting.
Really, I'm just all about the BMW.
Anyhow, I read on CNN today...after reading about Benazir Bhutto's assassination, which came as a terrible and saddening shock to me and could thrust Pakistan back another 100 years politically...about the asteroid heading for Mars.
There is a 1 in 75 chance that the asteroid will hit Mars. And thankfully it is Mars and not Earth, which is a planet close to all of our hearts and our current optimal choice for a galactic residence. Astronomers are all excited about seeing an impact like this (maybe if it happens, perhaps) since they have not really seen one before. Sure the Shoemaker-Levy comet impact on Jupiter was cool, but that is a gas giant. There would be no crater left behind to look at and study.
Mars is awful close to us, and there are observatory satellites in orbit spying on our little red neighbor, so scientists and the general public alike are in a good position to see the impact and study how it affects the Martian environment. It has been said that the Tunguska blast in Siberian Russia around 100 years ago was an asteroid about this size. That blast flattened trees for 25 miles in every direction. If a similar event happened, say over New York, that could be very unpleasant indeed. By the asteroid hitting Mars, astronomers should get a pretty good idea of how a similar impact would affect our planet and what might be the best way to avert such an event.
Scientists are putting a lot of effort and money into looking for potential space-borne threats to our little planet. This, in my opinion, is a good idea. We can recover from certain threats, like wars and global warming and all that. These are things that we have brought upon ourselves, and we should be able to get ourselves out of these messes in relatively short order. A comet or asteroid...well, that is pretty much game over. Like in the movie Deep Impact, there would obviously be sort of a feeling of dreaded, depressing doom that there is not one thing that we can do to stop our eventual destruction. That would be a bummer of a feeling. I think if I was faced with this kind of situation, I would go out and buy a really expensive BMW because one of my goals is to have one before I pass from this earth, and with the Earth no more somehow I don't think bill collectors will be hounding me for the payments.
I remember back in high school I did an oral report in history class about UFOs and how they relate to conspiracy theories. It was a convenient subject, being that I live so close to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base...our area is rife with stories and theories about UFOs. "Hangar 18" on base being where they perhaps took the alien bodies and pieces of spacecraft after maybe crashing in Roswell and taken to "Area 51", and the supposed "nuclear reactor" that was "built to provide power" perhaps but never actually saw even a single atom of uranium because it was maybe built as a convenient cover for the alien tomb or perhaps not. In my report, using the principles of physics and optics, I explained how light can be manipulated by natural phenomena to appear to be alien in nature. I showed several video demonstrations involving lasers and interference patterns that can cause the light waves to bend, spread and converge in interesting and unique patterns...sort of conveniently explaining away what some people can believe are UFOs as tricks of the light.
In the many years that I have lived here, I have seen lots of weird stuff around the base. Strange lights floating around, bizarre "aircraft" taking off and landing, that kind of thing. But for those of us that have lived here for a while, it is all rote. We see these weird things and it doesn't faze any of us. I remember driving home from work one day, and as I exited the highway to get to my street, there were four stealth bombers on maneuvers over the base. It was great to see these huge planes flying around so gracefully with each other, the pilots being quite adept at some slick handling. But, again, while many that don't live so near the base would find this to be extremely exciting...something that they would only see if they lived in a war zone or at an air show...for us it is something that we see almost every day. It is old hat, status quo, same old same old. Meh.
I am a huge sci-fi fan, especially Star Trek. I'd like to believe there are aliens, and that one day we will all live in relative harmony with each other. Even though I would like to believe there are aliens, I have never seen anything that would serve as confirmation...in my mind...that aliens really exist.
When it comes to UFOs and aliens, I think there are six types of people:
1. The Non-Believers: These people don't believe in aliens, UFOs or the possibility of life elsewhere. Period.
2. The Agnostics: These people don't know what to believe, having no compelling evidence either way, and don't really care.
3. The Doubting Thomases: These people doubt that aliens exist, but are open minded enough that if they have compelling evidence presented to them, they could believe.
4. The Blind Faithful: These people like to believe that life exists elsewhere, but have never experienced anything truly bizarre and unusual and are generally on the lookout for proof that aliens exist...or at least an alien society slightly less screwed up than our own.
5. The Believers: These people believe that life exists elsewhere, and that UFOs are real, and have had one or more unusual experiences that they consider to be proof of same, but are not wholly and completely fanatical about it.
6. The Zealots: These people believe that UFOs and aliens are real, they have been here and contacted humans or have claimed they have been abducted by aliens and want to make sure everyone knows about their alien anal probe down to the last detail.
It isn't really a scientific approach to the issue, but something that I have been thinking about...at least inasmuch of trying to write an amusing blog entry. I like to think that I am in category 4. Nothing strange has ever happened to me, at least that I would consider to be alien contact, but I would like to think that we are not alone. I would certainly think that no sufficiently advanced civilization outside of our solar system would actually give a damn about us; in fact I would go as far to say that if there were alien societies elsewhere, they would probably want to stay as far away from us as possible.
One of my favorite all-time flicks is Close Encounters of the Third Kind. In one scene you see the inside of what is supposed to be Indianapolis ATC (air traffic control), with a controller (played by the always great Carl Weathers) managing a few flights. All of the sudden, radar indicates a signature with no transponder ID heading straight into the flight path of two commercial aircraft. The object is described in detail by the pilot, and the object does a close fly-by of the leading aircraft. The event is witnessed by the pilots of a second, trailing aircraft. Afterward, a seemingly important, Isaac Asimov-looking gentleman asks the controller to contact the pilots of both aircraft and ask if they want to report a UFO. The pilots eventually respond with what seems like a lot of trepidation that they would not like to file any reports of any kind.
I have to wonder how many unusual events like this go unreported by pilots. Certainly strange events like this have happened, and there have been reports few and far between. I think it may be taboo in the realm of airline pilots to talk about incidents like this. Is it because of the possibility that they may be made out to be freaks? Could their reports of strange incidents like this be construed as mental instability that could put their certification at risk? Since this is a pretty high-level connection to the government, how much does the government know about incidents of an alien nature? How much has been covered up? Somehow, I don't think we will ever know the truth...some people wouldn't be able to handle it.
I certainly hope that I now don't seem like a wacko or a freak to anyone that reads this diatribe, but I find all aspects of the UFO phenomenon, from the truth to the lies, the conspiracies, the zealots that preach of alien encounters and bizarre medical experiments, infinitely interesting.
Really, I'm just all about the BMW.
2 comments:
You can put me in another category entirely. I believe that some "alien encounters" are a bit of a spill-over from some phenomena that we cannot perceive correctly with our limited human senses and it is interpreted in various ways based on the zeitgeist and whatever is the prevailing interpretation of the time.
Mind you, I think sometimes it is a misinterpretation of mundane scenes (planes, weather balloons, etc.), but I think the more inexplicable ones are something else.
I believe that "ghosts" are similar interpretations of something else. My explanation has a basis in some rather complex notions about the nature of existence and a profound lack of faith in the ability of our senses to perceive all of reality. It also allows for the notion that people aren't imagining (or fabricating) the unusual things they experience which tends to be the view of most agnostics and cynical wags.
I had not even considered a category such as what you indicated, one which I think would be far more likely.
There are a lot of things that happen, I am sure, that are just within the range of our limited realm of perception. Our minds can play tricks on us, just as you said - it can be interpretation based on the prevailing wisdom of the time.
It can really be difficult to discern reality from what we want to believe. It is strange how some people that experience an event can be so convinced of their version of reality, while others are skeptical as to what happened or could really care less.
It is really all dependent on the person.
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