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Title: France Opens Secret UFO Files Covering 50 Years
Source:
AFP
URL Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2007032 ... p/sciencespaceufo_070322143210
Published: Mar 22, 2007
Author: AFP
Post Date: 2007-03-22 12:17:08 by Brian S
Keywords: None
Views: 300
Comments: 24
France became the first country to open its files on UFOs Thursday when the national space agency unveiled a website documenting more than 1,600 sightings spanning five decades. The online archives, which will be updated as new cases are reported, catalogues in minute detail cases ranging from the easily dismissed to a handful that continue to perplex even hard-nosed scientists. "It is a world first," said Jacques Patenet, the aeronautical engineer who heads the office for the study of "non-identified aerospatial phenomena." Known as OVNIs in French, UFOs have always generated intense interest along with countless conspiracy theories about secretive government cover-ups of findings deemed too sensitive or alarming for public consumption. "Cases such as the lady who reported seeing an object that looked like a flying roll of toilet paper" are clearly not worth investigating, said Patenet. But many others involving multiple sightings -- in at least one case involving thousands of people across France -- and evidence such as burn marks and radar trackings showing flight patterns or accelerations that defy the laws of physics are taken very seriously. A phalanx of beefy security guards formed a barrier in front of the space agency (CNES) headquarters where the announcement was made, "to screen out uninvited UFOlogists," an official explained. Of the 1,600 cases registered since 1954, nearly 25 percent are classified as "type D", meaning that "despite good or very good data and credible witnesses, we are confronted with something we can't explain," Patenet said. On January 8, 1981 outside the town of Trans-en-Provence in southern France, for example, a man working in a field reported hearing a strange whistling sound and seeing a saucer-like object about 2.5 meters (eight feet) in diameter land in his field about 50 meters (yards) away. A dull-zinc grey, the saucer took off, he told police, almost immediately, leaving burn marks. Investigators took photos, and then collected and analyzed samples, and to this day no satisfactory explanation has been made. The nearly 1,000 witness who said they saw flashing lights in the sky on November 5, 1990, by contrast, had simply seen a rocket fragment falling back into earth's atmosphere. Patenet's answer to questions about evidence of life beyond Earth was sure to inflame the suspicions of those convinced the government is holding back: "We do not have the least proof that extra-terrestrials are behind the unexplained phenomena." But then he added: "Nor do we have the least proof that they aren't." The CNES fields between 50 and 100 UFO reports ever year, usually written up by police. Of these, 10 percent are the object of on-site investigations, Patenet said. Other countries collect data more or less systematically about unidentified flying objects, notably in Britain and in the United States, where information can be requested on a case-by-case basis under the Freedom of Information Act. "But we decided to do it the other way around and made everything available to the public," Patenet said. The aim was to make it easier for scientists and other UFO buffs to access the data for research. The website itself -- which crashed host servers hours after it was unveiled due to heavy traffic -- is extremely well organized and complete, even including scanned copies of police reports. To visit the website: www.cnes-geipan.fr.
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#4. To: Brian S (#0)
"UFO's" started off as a stupid craze that just happened to coincide with the sci fci genre and the beginnings of space travel. Now- it is a government run psy-op and stupid distraction. There are no effing aliens. No little grey man sticking probes up poop shoots. No vistors from distant planets. I am always amused by people reporting seeing stange "lights" in the sky at night. Like aliens smart enough to travel faster than light- are going to need "lights" on their space craft for any reason whatsoever.
I am always amused by people reporting seeing stange "lights" in the sky at night. Like aliens smart enough to travel faster than light- are going to need "lights" on their space craft for any reason whatsoever. You are flat out wrong Burkeman.
Don't think so. Little green man don't exist for all intent and purpose, and what is more- even if man could travel to distant stars in a matter of days- we would still- never ever come into contact with another intelligent life form. It is mathematically impossible. I have little doubt that somewhere else- even in our galaxy- intelligent life exists- but the vastness (do you really have a concept of what we are talking about - 100 billion stars just in this galazy) and size of this space makes it all but impossible that two intelligent life forms- even with sophisticated and quick space travel would ever even bump into each other. Imagine a stretch of beach 40 feet long by 25 feet wide- now say there is about a million grains of sand in each cubic foot of this portion of beach. That is 100 billion stars. Now take every grain of sand out from this beach and then seperate each grain of sand from each other by anywhere between 1 to 10 miles. Now- imagine that on about 100 of these grains of sand there existed a little intelligent civilization of microbes. Now- imagine these microbes developed technology to travel to the other grains of sand miles away. What do you think the odds are that any of these intelligent microbes would ever even bump into each other? Hint- about 50 times less likely than me winning the lottery. And I am not even factoring into this time- that these civiliazations would even exist during the same time frames or levels of advancement.
You are most probably right about the "little green men." The chances of them bumping into each other in the Newtonian billiard ball universe you describe are remote indeed. However, we'ere learning that the universe operates at levels which bugger the mind. Physicist claim that they have teleported particle and that there are wave forms or particles that exceed the speed of light. Human intelligence has only been around on the order of hundreds of thousands of years. The past hundred years alone has given birth to a number of revolutions in the manner in which we perceive, understand and manipulate the world around us. What might another hundred years bring us? What knoledge might an intelligence cultivate in, say, a million years? There's a lot of stuff that we don't know, but we're off in the realm of the unknown - the many known unknowns and the world of the unknown unknowns that may be even more immense. But "little green men," "grays," "alien abduction," etc. I haven't seen a convincing shred of evidence for any of it, Dicovery Channel notwithstanding. I'm prone to agree with the Mexican Air Force Pilot whom I talked to who had the famous UFO's on his FLIR off the Yucatan. He said, "There are a lot of strange things up there which we see sometimes, but that doesn't mean that they come from outer space.
Psst. Over here...
#23. To: FormerLurker (#15)
YIKES!!!
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#5. To: Burkeman1 (#4)
"UFO's" started off as a stupid craze that just happened to coincide with the sci fci genre and the beginnings of space travel. Now- it is a government run psy-op and stupid distraction. There are no effing aliens. No little grey man sticking probes up poop shoots. No vistors from distant planets.
#6. To: FormerLurker (#5)
#10. To: Burkeman1 (#6)
#15. To: randge (#10)
But "little green men," "grays," "alien abduction," etc. I haven't seen a convincing shred of evidence for any of it, Dicovery Channel notwithstanding.
Replies to Comment # 15.
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