ALIEN LIFE...Serious & Scientific
Suddenly, everyone is talking about aliens. After decades on the cultural margins, the question of life in the Universe beyond Earth is having its day in the sun. The next big multibillion-dollar space telescope (the successor to the James Webb) will be tuned to search for signatures of alien life on alien planets and NASA has a robust, well-funded program in astrobiology. Meanwhile, from breathless newspaper articles about unexplained navy pilot sightings to United States congressional testimony with wild claims of government programs hiding crashed saucers, UFOs and UAPs (unidentified anomalous phenomena) seem to be making their own journey from the fringes.
What are we to make of these twin movements, the scientific search for life on one hand, and the endlessly murky waters of UFO/UAP claims on the other? Looking at history shows that these two very different approaches to the question of extraterrestrial life are, in fact, linked, but not in a good way. For decades, scientists wanting to think seriously about life in the Universe faced what’s been called the ‘giggle factor’, which was directly related to UFOs and their culture. More than once, the giggle factor came close to killing off the field known as SETI (the search for extraterrestrial intelligence). Now, with new discoveries and new technologies making astrobiology a mainstream frontier of astrophysics, understanding this history has become important for anyone trying to understand what comes next. But for me, as a researcher in the field of technosignatures (signs of advanced alien tech) – the new face of SETI – getting past the giggle factor poses an existential challenge. Read more at Alien life is no joke
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PENTAGON & UFOs
Congress held a historic hearing on UFOs last July. The hearing, which featured testimony from two former Navy fighter pilots and a former senior intelligence officer, garnered a notable amount of attention and interest not seen on Capitol Hill in years.
In one remarkable exchange, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) described how his office received a “protected disclosure” from Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, regarding a January 2023 UFO incident over the Gulf of Mexico. After being stonewalled by the Air Force, he delivered a tense, on-base reminder to the military about “how authorities flow in the United States of America.” The Air Force relented, permitting Gaetz to review sensor data gathered during the encounter.
According to Gaetz, fighter pilots tracked four unknown objects flying in a “clear diamond formation.” Notably, the incident occurred on a training range typically conspicuously free of any airborne clutter.
Still, imagery indicated that one of the objects demonstrated capabilities that Gaetz, who has served on the House Armed Services Committee for nearly a decade, was “not able to attach to any human capability, either from the United States or from any of our adversaries.” Read more at The Pentagon is lying about UFOs
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'BIGFOOT' Defense Didn't Work
A man who claimed he killed his friend because he believed the victim was summoning Bigfoot was convicted of murder.
Larry Doil Sanders was found guilty by an Oklahoma judge on April 17, according to reports from The Oklahoman, The Ada News, and KXII.
Jimmy Knighten was strangled to death in July 2022 while out fishing with Sanders, the outlets reported. After waiving a right to a jury trial, Sanders’ attorney reportedly claimed that his client had acted in self-defense.
The Oklahoman reported that Sanders claimed during testimony that while out noodling with Knighten, he had seen three sasquatch-looking figures by the river.
Witnesses for the prosecution testified that Sanders had said he believed Knighten was trying to kill him and send his body down the river as a sacrifice to Bigfoot, reported The Oklahoman. Read more at Okla. Fisherman Who Thought Friend Was Trying to Feed Him to Bigfoot Convicted of Murder
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