Aliens, UFOs, Close Encounters - Chance Or No-Chance?

I've been a sci-fi fan since before Star Trek's Captain Kirk split his first infinitive ("To boldly go ..") - but I have to doubt if we'll ever encounter any of his intelligent alien friends or even any unintelligent alien microbes.

Some will assert that UFOs are a fact - but this only seems to mean that objects have been seen flying that were not identified - hence, by definition, they are 'unidentified flying objects' - but that does not make them alien spacecraft - just unexplained observations. Unfortunately, UFO data is not very convincing of an alien connection - and if aliens are amongst us, they are keeping a very low profile.

One hears statements such as: "Given the billions of stars in the universe it is beyond reasonable doubt that some sort of life exists in outer space"...and..."There's no question but that we live in an inhabited universe, that has life all over it"

Unfortunately, the above type of statements tell us nothing - and until such time as genuinely solid evidence arises regarding UFOs, aliens, close encounters and/or alien abductions, we can really only weigh up the likelihood of extra terrestrial life based on the data that is available to us.

It's certainly possible to make a plausible-sounding case for extra terrestrial life. For a start, we know that life exists on earth and we infer that it once did not exist. So at some point in the 4 billion year history of the earth, life arose. If it arose via a natural mechanism, then we may infer that the same mechanism might occur on any earth-like planet anywhere in the universe. Thus, alien life may seem plausible, even probable.

The 'Drake Equation' (Frank Drake 1961) goes beyond this - it seeks to makes an estimate of actual number of potential planets in the universe with life. The calculation is based on various assumptions, the key one surely being that life is highly likely to exist on any given earth-like planet - and the equation then implies that that there could be millions of planets throughout the universe with life - many life forms would be intelligent - and many would be more technologically advanced than ourselves.

However, a problem with the key Drake assumption arises as a direct consequence of Darwin's Theory of Evolution. This theory asserts that the earth's organic complexity was produced gradually, over a period of several billion years, by the action of natural selection, causing gradual changes over many successive generations of self-replicating organisms.

However, consider this - the number of generations along any sequence of evolution must be finite - one cannot fit an infinite number of successive generations of self-replicators into the finite history of the earth, no matter how short each one may be. Hence, if traced backwards, every evolutionary sequence must lead to a very first member - a self-replicating molecular entity that arose spontaneously (without the aid of natural selection, since there were no generations prior to its existence) some 3000+ million years ago. Indeed, every evolutionary sequence would lead back to the very same first self-replicating molecular entity, the common ancestor to all subsequent life forms - unless more than one self-replicator arose independently.

So, for life to exist on any planet, anywhere in the universe, a self-replicating molecular entity would have to arise spontaneously, for Darwin-like evolution to then follow. There is no "mechanism" involved, that we may envisage having once operated on the earth, and being equally likely to operate on any earth-like planet elsewhere in the universe - since the occurrence of a fist self-replicator is an entirely random event.

My own estimates indicate that, even if we assume every single star in the universe has an earth-like planet in orbit, and even if the first self-replicator was far simpler than the simplest known cells, the probability of its spontaneous origin on any earth-like planet is mind-bogglingly small.

Given our lack of knowledge about a potential first self-replicator, my assumptions about it for the purpose of my calculation are, of necessity, arbitrary - but I suggest that no reasonably realistic alternatives would justify the Drake-like assumption that life is highly likely to exist on any earth-like planet.

Indeed, there may well be millions of planets throughout the universe possessing the essentials for life (water & even organic molecules) and yet which are totally dead - because the self-replicating molecular entity, essential for subsequent evolution, did not spontaneously arise on any of them. The number of planets supporting life may well be just one - this one.

However, on the plus side (!) - all those millions of planets will be unoccupied, unpolluted Edens, ideal for 'seeding' and for our future colonisation, allowing us to spread throughout the universe unopposed by aliens. Future interplanetary wars envisaged in alien movies such as "War of the Worlds", may well be between those who remain on the earth and the descendants of those who've made their home on other planets, subsequently seeking their independence from the 'home world' - not a bad story line for a sci-fi film!

(C) Copyright 2009 Andy Chains (andychains.com)

Andy Chains - Born 19 Mar 1952, Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England. BSc Physics (1st class) 1976. PGCE. MSc Scientific Computing. Longest continuous job - FE Teacher - Physics/Maths for 12 years.

My homepage ( [http://www.andychains.com] ) has lots of quality ebooks to read for free.

Flying Saucer and UFO Encounters

The UFO story originated not long after June 24, 1947, when many newspapers in the USA published the first sighting of the "flying saucer".

The story told how nine very bright, disk-shaped objects were seen by Kenneth Arnold, a Boise, Idaho, businessman, while he was flying his private plane near Mount Rainier, in the state of Washington. Now supported by a journalistic license, reporters took Arnold's original description of the individual motion of each object, "like a saucer skipping across water," and rephrased it to: "flying saucer," referring to the objects themselves.

Many years have passed since Arnold's memorable sighting, and the phrase has become so common that an entry was made in Webster's Dictionary, and it is recognized today in most languages throughout the world.

For a while after the Arnold sighting, the term "flying saucer" was used to describe all disk-shaped objects that were seen flashing through the sky at fantastic speeds. Before long, reports were made of objects other than disks, and these were also called flying saucers. Today the words are popularly applied to anything seen in the sky that cannot be identified as a common, everyday object.

In other words, a flying saucer can be a formation of bright lights, a single light, a sphere, or some other shape; and it can be any color. Performance wise, flying saucers can hover, go fast or slow, go high or low, turn 90-degree corners, or even, apparently, disappear almost instantaneously.

Clearly the term "flying saucer" is open to interpretation when objects of every imaginable shape and performance are labeled as such. This is why the military preference is the more general, although less colorful, name: unidentified flying objects. UFO (pronounced Yoo-foe) for short.

Officially the military uses the term "flying saucer" on only two occasions. First in an explanatory sense, as when briefing people who are unacquainted with the term "UFO": "UFO, you know, flying saucers." And second in a derogatory sense, for purposes of ridicule, as when it is observed, "He says he saw a flying saucer."

This second form of usage is the exclusive property of those persons who positively know that all UFOs are nonsense. Fortunately, if only as a matter of courtesy, those in this category are reducing in number. One by one these people drop out, starting with the instant they see their first UFO!

Some weeks after the first UFO was seen on June 24, 1947, the Air Force established a project to investigate and analyze all UFO reports. When the project first began, opinions ranged from near panic, to total derision for anyone who dared to even mentioned the words "flying saucer."

This contemptuous attitude toward "flying saucer nuts" prevailed from mid-1949 to mid-1950. During that interval many of the people who were, or had been, associated with the project believed that the public was suffering from "war nerves."

Early in 1950 the project, for all practical purposes, was closed out; at least it rated only minimum effort. Those in power now reasoned that if you didn't mention the words "flying saucers" the people would forget them and the saucers would go away. But this reasoning was false, for instead of vanishing, the quality of the UFO reports improved.

From airline pilots, to military pilots, generals, scientists, and dozens of other people, reports continued of UFO sightings, now in more detail than previously. Radars, which were being built for air defense, began to pick up some very unusual targets, thus lending technical corroboration to the unsubstantiated claims of human observers.

As a result of the continuing accumulation of more impressive UFO reports, official interest stirred. Early in 1951 verbal orders came down from Major General Charles P. Cabell, then Director of Intelligence for Headquarters, U.S. Air Force, to make a study reviewing the UFO situation for Air Force Headquarters.

The study was headed up by "EJR", who possessed impeccable credentials, and supervised until late in 1953. EJR served as a B-29 bombardier and radar operator, during the Second World War. He restarted college after the war, and before long, gained his aeronautical engineering degree. To keep his reserve status while in school, he flew as a navigator in an Air Force Reserve Troop Carrier Wing.

While compiling the report, EJR and members of his staff traveled close to half a million miles. They investigated in depth dozens of UFO reports, and read and analyzed several thousand more. These included every report the Air Force had ever received.

There were ten regular staff on the investigation plus many paid consultants representing every field of science. All had Top Secret security clearances so that security was no block in our investigations. This organization was made up of a reporting network consisting of every Air Force base intelligence officer and every Air Force radar station in the world, together with the Ground Observer Corps of the Air Defense Command. Reports were collected on every conceivable type of UFO, by every conceivable type of person. What did these people actually see when they reported a UFO? Putting aside truly unidentifiable flying objects, for the present, this question has several answers.

Often it has been positively proved that people have reported balloons, airplanes, stars, and many other common objects as UFOs. The people who make such reports don't recognize these common objects because something in their surroundings temporarily assumes an unfamiliar appearance.

Unusual lighting conditions are a common cause of such illusions. A balloon will glow like a "ball of fire" just at sunset. Or an airplane that is not visible to the naked eye suddenly starts to reflect the sun's rays and appears to be a "silver ball". Pilots in F-94 jet interceptors chase Venus in the daytime and fight with balloons at night, and people in Los Angeles see weird lights.

So did the investigation prove that UFOs exist? The hassle over the word "proof" boils down to one question: What constitutes proof? Is a UFO required to land at the River Entrance to the Pentagon, in front of the offices of the Joint Chiefs of Staff? Or is it proof when a ground radar station detects a UFO, sends a jet to intercept it, the jet pilot sees it, and locks on with his radar, only to have the UFO streak away at a phenomenal speed? Is it proof when a jet pilot fires at a UFO and sticks to his story even under the threat of court-martial? Does this constitute proof?

You must decide for yourself.

How real are UFOs? What actually is a UFO? How credible is the evidence? "Project Blue Book" a fascinating and authoritative e-book about unidentified flying objects. (UFOs). Not merely an e-book; it is a report, and is the first time ever that anyone, either military or civilian, has assembled into one document the complete facts about this fascinating subject. Learn more at Secret UFO Reports

Is There Anybody Out There? - Alien Encounters

Personalised Calendars are one of the greatest underrated presents. No, really they are! When you open yours up, probably along with a selection box on Christmas morning, you might scratch your head, but by January the 3rd, you've already added so many important things to your 12 identical personalised calendars that you can barely contain your excitement.

Okay, that's silly. Maybe not 12, maybe 3, but still, personalised calendars are a popular gift for a reason. They're useful and unlike their tacky, plain, impersonal counterparts, personalised calendars are just that, they are personal. They speak directly to the person they're intended for and they say something meaningful. If, however, your gift recipient is a UFO chasing, Sci-fi loving, obsessive conspiracy theorist, a personalised calendar probably won't say anything meaningful to them. Apart from their name and of course 'keep looking, the truth is out there.'

Picking up an Alien Encounters personalised calendar for your mad Alien-fan friend, is a good idea for a few reasons. He or she cannot forget important dates this way (Birthdays, Anniversaries, Funerals) and he or she can also make a mark on the calendar whenever there's a new UFO sighting to see any possible patterns emerging!

UFOs and UAPs

The truth is out there and according to some theorists, as long ago as 467 BC, Chinese astronomers recorded some odd aerial phenomena. This nowadays would likely be referred to as 'UFOs'. These ancient astronomers would log the information on their personalised calendars (no, seriously!) and they wrote at length about the strange objects which they would see in the sky. One Chinese astronomer even described an object looked like a giant pearl. He went on to say that this opened up and shone a bright line of light down on to the earth.

UFO only really stands for Unidentified Flying Object, but because in recent years it has been used as a synonym for spacecrafts, the military tend to use UAP to describe the odd flying things they can't identify these days. UAP stands for Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, which means exactly the same as UFO, but it doesn't carry the same stigma.

Being that the main part of UFO is the word 'unidentified' most rationalists' say that Aliens are not out there and that really most UFOs could be anything from wayward children's balloons to gas pockets.

Swamp Ghosts and Space Crafts

Did you know, for example, that ghostly lights often hover over marsh and bog land in the night? These are called 'will-o'-the-wisp' and they're believed to be made of swamp gasses. The scientific explanation for the lights is that a combination of chemicals such as methane gases produced from rotting organic matter and hydrogen phosphate create the floating lights.

Italian chemists have actually replicated the process by adding chemicals to the gasses made from rotting meats and vegetation and proven how easily these ghostly lights can occur. So that might account for floating things which light up, but what about abductions?

Alien Abductions

People who are abducted by Aliens are named 'abductees' or 'experiencers' in UFO enthusiast circles. In the rest of the world, they're known as crackpots! However, some crackpots have made very strong cases over the years that support the existence of extra-terrestrials.

The first ever widely publicised Alien Abduction was of Betty and Barney Hill in 1961 and they claimed that they were able to communicate with the Aliens who abducted them. Betty famously said that she asked where the Alien examining her was from and that it showed her a map of the Zeta Reticuli star system which would take about 1 billion years to reach from planet earth.

Both Betty and Barney Hill were holding respectable jobs as a Social and Postal Worker. They were on local community boards such as the NAACP and the U.S Civil Rights Commission. They claimed to be abducted while driving home from a vacation and reported seeing lights in the sky followed by an odd flying object. They stopped the car to let the dog get some fresh air and to see if they could identify it.

Soon they were driving again and frightened because the car began to shake oddly, as if an electrical current were running through it. Both Barney and Betty then reported a period of lapsed consciousness before they remember driving again and getting home a full 7 hours later than they should have. Following the experience, Betty began to have bad dreams, which she regarded as flashbacks of an Alien examination, and soon the couple was famous.

If you decide to give your loved ones the Alien Encounters personalised calendars this year, they probably won't get famous as a result, but they can certainly be a little more 'out-there'...

Written by John Smith co-founder of GettingPersonal.co.uk

GettingPersonal.co.uk are one of the UK's leading on-line retailers of Gifts, personalised gifts, Christmas Gifts, Birthday Gifts, Wedding Gifts, Valentines Gifts, Mother's Day Gifts, Themed Gifts and Personalised Calendars. Their website is packed with over 1,500 gifts for any special occasion.

For more go to [http://www.gettingpersonal.co.uk]