Punyverse not so puny?

http://tinyurl.com/29l3ow

Hot on the heels of our earlier post, ‘Across the Punyverse’, comes the surprising news that SETI has also disagreed with NASA’s choice of song. Hi-ho, on one thing at least SETI and we agree: the Beatles suck.

Actually, it turns out that SETI (who – never let it be forgotten – keep insisting they have yet to discover any signs of intelligent life in the universe), are worried that the nasal honking of the Beatles could result in an alien attack. It seems SETI is a tad concerned that if we advertise we’re here, then, well, we’re asking for trouble.

So, SETI, what do you know that we don’t know? More importantly, what do you know that NASA doesn’t know? And if you know something that NASA needs to know, then, dear SETI, you really should be communicating with them. If there really are angry aliens out there and you are worried that the Beatles might disrupt their quiet evenings, you really should’ve said something before NASA tromped all over their beauty sleep.

If readers happen to peruse the article at the link above, they will discover that SETI is quite a-feared of alerting a potentially unfriendly ET species to our existence, and, more specifically, our location. Pretty strange thinking for a group of people that publicly and ostensibly really don’t think there’s anything out there at all. But now, thanks to NASA’s intergalactic faux pas, it turns out that SETI is plain pants-wetting terrified that there IS something out there, and that we might make it mad.

Mixed messages SETI! What do you know that we don’t know? What have you discovered? What don’t you tell us? Why won’t you tell ANYbody, including all those persons or institutions capable of transmitting crappy songs out into the void? (Yes, it turns out some dude with a great honking satellite dish in his backyard transmitted Bob Marley out there about 10 years ago. Jeez SETI, you coulda said something before that happened.)

If our music, our culture, and our pathetic selves are such a dangerous torment to the easily irritated ET, then hell, SETI, you’d best start popping all our satellites out of orbit right now. Because, as we noted in our earlier post, we beam ourselves and our soap operas out into space every second of every day. This big round blue ball of ours must be the noisiest and most irritating disturbance this side of the Crab Nebula.

But don’t worry SETI, we promise it’s safe for you to sleep at night. If the intergalactic noise police were really going to visit and politely ask us to shut up, they’d surely have done it before now. Probably during the 80s – that wretched and embarrassing hiccup in our cultural development…

The Paranormal At Penrith Draws Response From Believers

http://tinyurl.com/yttyuy

Here's something not many would know - that Sydney's south-west, northern beaches and the Penrith-Blue Mountains region are regarded as 'hot-spots' for UFO sightings.

Those who believe are already convinced, and their numbers might be boosted as a result of an exhibition featuring UFO inspired art at the Penrith Regional Art Gallery The Visitors - The Australian response to UFO's and Aliens. The collection was co-curated by Anne Loxley and Regina Walter who have tapped into not only a rich vein of belief in sightings of UFO's, but also in artistic expression and influence from sources other than just a few re-runs of the X Files.

The exhibition incorporates sculpture, painting (some in 3-D), video , print and installation works as well as an 'evidence room', which is a collation of newspaper, TV and radio reports on the top 30 UFO encounters in Australia with the expert assistance of leading Ufologist Bill Chalker. Some of the collected evidence dates back to the 19th century to present day, and includes a rather compelling front page reports in the Sydney Morning Herald July 20, 1957 with the headline "RAAF jets ready to investigate Katoomba's mystery lights."

Anne Loxely says the evidence room has been a major hook, with people staying for hours examining the detail, and returning for more. She says when planning the exhibition, a clear direction was given. "It was important for us not to appear as zealots, as there is a strong element of faith in this topic. The evidence is being scrutinised by 'straight', seemingly upstanding citizens, who will stay for hours and sometimes return for more."

Beyond the evidence there is the interpretation of the UFO experience of belief, including the works of Pope Alice, who Loxely informs 'believes she is an alien'. Indeed, the exhibition catalogue states she was born in Outer Space in 5252ABCD (but currently based in Brisbane). The artist's work includes alien figures interspersed more earth-bound idols, light, audio and images and with a strong influence from people from indigenous cultures. Other contributing artists are from across Australia.
Adam Norton is inspired by perhaps the best known UFO spot, Roswell, following reports that a flying saucer, and its occupants, was captured in 1947. Norton's Roswell Timeline links events from pre-history to the current day in a large, detailed, linear exhibit that is difficult to ignore.

Other exhibits are more 'down to earth' - or at least they may seem that way. As an eight-year old, artist James de Blass saw a UFO as an eight year old living in Tasmania, and has been influenced ever since as he produces paintings with a strong parallel universe theme. His father's actual interviews on the radio at the time are part of the evidence collection, and his mother attended the exhibition opening. It's the story from a family interested in science, but otherwise, curator Loxley describes as being not unusual, like many of the Visitors visitors. "We've had a phenomenal attendance at this exhibition. Scoffers have stayed away and more open minded have taken the opportunity to look at the evidence and interpretations of what is quite a full on subject. There is at times a real element of faith toward UFO's".

The exhibition runs from December 8, 2007 to February 17, 2008 at the Penrith Regional Art Gallery, 86 River Road Emu Plains. Ufologist Bill Chalker will give a tour, and close the exhibition on Sunday February 17 at 3 pm ($5 charge)

Apologetically Yours, signed....The Anecdote

Recently we read on the FQXi blog under the post entitled Are UFOs Foundational? (http://tinyurl.com/3auxze) that “if we [scientists] actually had scientific evidence of advanced alien life, or any alien life, we would all be jumping out of our skins”.

While digesting these eye-wateringly ignorant words we also stumbled across another statement stating that “anecdotal evidence is the least interesting kind of evidence in science, very close to being without value.”

And there you have it in all its magnificent glory, another argument by scientists as to why the UFO subject is a waste of their time - because it’s based mostly on anecdotal evidence. Poor little innocent anecdote - enemy of the objective, dispassionate observation of scientists. It carries no weapons, it doesn’t punch, abuse or maltreat anyone in any way, so why does science run shrieking in the opposite direction at the mere mention of the word? Why do scientists fear it so much? Is the dynamic construct of the simple anecdote too much for them to bear?

Maybe we have to be scientists to understand such things. Perhaps to offer anecdotal evidence for a scientist might be to admit the insufficiency of their knowledge. Could that be a tad too overwhelming for the scientific ego? But didn’t anyone ever tell scientists that science is anecdotal? After all, scientists observe an event then tell others about what they saw. Does that not qualify as an anecdote? Scientists didn’t wake up one day with the foundations of a scientific modality in their mind. They struggled with their mental limitations, entering deep discussions with other scientists, discussing the what-ifs and maybes of atoms, particles and electromagnetic spin and the like, all before they had their breakthroughs. Isn't the scientific world therefore brimming over with anecdotal reporting?

How can one deny the right of the anecdote to exist? Aren’t civilizations built on anecdotes? To deny anecdotal evidence is to stand in a pool of water looking for somewhere else to drink. It is to deny our life, our self. Anecdotes, or more simply, stories, are powerful tools that help us understand what our rigid linear minds cannot. They help us see what has existed right under our nose all along, whether it be how gravity works, how to send a man to the Moon, or whether extraterrestrial life exists.

If the demand for scientific evidence of the UFO subject was less critical of anecdotal evidence it might help us to understand what we obviously do not. Or is there more to it than that? Could it be that it is the power of the truth contained within the witness story that many fear after all…

Cosmic Top Secret Location

Lathrop, California

Across The Punyverse

http://www.nasa.gov/topics/universe/features/across_universe.html

At 4.00pm (US-EST) on February 4 2008, NASA, for reasons known only to its erudite self, beamed the Beatles song ‘Across the Universe’ to the North Star, Polaris. NASA told us (ie, the ignorant world) that it did this to celebrate its 50th anniversary of space exploration.

NASA, NASA, NASA…very heavy sigh. What indeed are you trying to tell us?

For the last 50 years you’ve studiously ‘explored’ space with all the resources available to you and never found any sign of life – that you have told us about anyway. And whenever a sign of any pesky extraterrestrial life does emerge you hurriedly funnel those impressive resources into debunking your own findings, just to make sure we don’t get too excited, or too used to the idea that we may have some ET relatives out there, somewhere.

So why, dear old NASA, would you now spend your money on emailing a crappy old Beatles song to Polaris, of all places? Do you know something we don’t know? Have you discovered life, and transistor radios, out there? It must be a curious kind of life you’ve found on Polaris (who, we would like to keep reminding you, you haven’t told us about yet), one that bypassed the beat of the 1960s and apparently requires the overly nasal tones of John Lennon to snap it up a bit.

Who chose you, NASA, as the arbiter of the message humanity might like to send into the void? We don’t recall being asked to participate in a poll, so we assume that you used some other egalitarian method that we must have missed out on. Or did you hold a meeting of your board of directors, catered of course, where you discussed at your leisure which golden oldie best represented our planet and the people on it.

Unfortunately we cannot commend you on your selection. Would not a better choice have been Justin Timberlake’s ‘Bringing Sexy Back’? Or Britney Spears’ ‘Hit me baby one more time’? After all these are the sorts of things humanity thinks about ad infinitum -- sex and violence -- and as Justin and Britney are our current reigning deities we should share them with the rest of the universe, huh. It just seems that if you are going to waste electricity on the biggest pulse of information you’ve ever sent out there, wouldn’t we as a planet have been better served by sending out some useful information about ourselves, so our Polaris pals can decide whether they want to email us back? Or not.

Of course we have skirted the obvious – the fact that our transmissions are being beamed endlessly out into space every minute of every day, boinging from satellite to satellite and thence on to lord knows where. Our ET friends, even if they are as far away as Polaris, already know that John Lennon was a pale and myopic bipedal creature who never cut his hair, and that the population of planet Earth spends all its leisure time obsessing over who can dance and who cannot. One wonders what we could have to tell them that they don’t know already.

So, dear NASA, while your personal message to Polaris was clear and to the point (‘Yoo hoo, here we are! This is the kind of music our board of directors listens to!’), your message to us was somewhat confusing.

Stop playing with our minds – is there life out there or isn’t there? Indeed there seems to be, since you are sending them the hits of the 60s one painful tune at a time.

Jesus Doesn't Live In The Toaster & We're Not Nuts

Some may see little green aliens in their dreams and imagine every memory lapse is down to spending time aboard a UFO, but this is not as common in the UFO community as many think. While there are those who certainly fit the image of a wannabe, fantasy-prone personality or are just plain delusional, the reality is that there are no more escapees from reality in the UFO community than there are in the general population.

In fact, dare we say it, there may be more intelligent thinking people circulating in the UFO community than in our society at large. People with degrees in biology, psychology, engineering, microbiology, oceanography, medicine, astrophysics, archaeology, anthropology, education, just to name a few, are heavily peppered amongst the UFO community. In addition, those who lack formal education are successfully self-educated in many areas of life.

In his book, After Contact : The Human Response to Extraterrestrial Contact, Albert A Harrison PhD states that a study was undertaken on 102 Ufologists who were listed in the Encyclopedia of UFOs and it was found that roughly one third of the group held less than a bachelor’s degree, one third held a bachelor’s or master’s degree, and one third held a doctoral degree. Ufologists were highly educated relative to the general population. “Ufologists who believed in the extraterrestrial origin of UFOs were as likely to hold an advanced degree as those who were skeptical. Thus a weak intellect or lack of schooling does not seem to explain an advocacy for the extraterrestrial hypothesis.”

Furthermore, most who circulate within the UFO community have a strong orientation towards the social concerns of our time such as natural health, the environment, governmental management, social inequality, consumerism, and are quite critical of most large institutions in modern society. Typically they reject narrow analyses and despise media as business. In short they are critical thinkers. They may go a bit overboard sometimes but that enthusiasm is driven by their desire for truth and a better world. So if you imagine that people in the UFO community think Jesus lives in their toaster, think again. And if you plan to attend a UFO meeting anytime soon, plan on expecting the unexpected – you may be very surprised.

The New Church of Ufology

We are tired of being asked the question: 'Do you believe in UFOs?'

Do we believe in UFOs? No, we don't. Because UFOs aren't a faith, they're a reality. We don't require fervent belief and hope that UFOs exist -- they do. There are photographs, there is film footage, there are physical traces. Unlike the saints of old, UFOs don't need to manifest their likenesses in a piece of toast because they reveal their physical selves to people all the time, every single day.

UFOs are a reality, far more than God who, after all, has yet to appear at or hovering above a shopping mall and pose for a photograph. And if God did pose for a photograph, would the photographer have to run the gamut of disbelief, ridicule, shame and public humiliation that a person who snaps a photograph of a UFO must endure? Hardly, when the face of Jesus in an eggplant receives credible and global media coverage and draws pilgrims from far and wide.

So why must Ufology endure this constant criticism? What status quo does it threaten? Is Science in fact the religion that the New Church of Ufology threatens to topple?

Scientists react to UFOs with the same kind of witch-burning zeal as the Popes of old - and it isn't hard to imagine that the Whitecoats would love to round us up and burn us at the stake for our blaspheming and false idols. All hail the doctrine of evolution. All hail MAN, the greatest pinnacle of biology that any creature on any planet could hope to aspire to!

Or should it be all hail the NEW gods, the DNA-manipulating Greys, the stately perfection of Orthon.

How difficult then is our struggle, fighting against all the old gods of science. Darwin, the Zeus of Evolution, and Sagan, the Ares of our time, zealously guarding the sterile vacuum of space from our irrational imaginations. They rule from on-high, casting their thunderbolts of fear and doubt and confusion upon an unsuspecting world.

How can the tribe fight the gods? More importantly, how can Ufology fight these time-honoured tactics, and win?