Neener, neener!

How would you like to help the search for extraterrestrial intelligence? Now you can do it in the comfort of your own home. In fact, you can help the SETI project whether you're home or not. Your very own computer system can now swell with pride by being a part of the scientific search for "what's out there."

Just go to SETI@home Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence at Home and download the free application and screen saver. Check it out!


SETI@home "working" screen saver

:martian:

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Joe
My son found out about the SETI@Home project when it was in the planing stage a couple of years ago. Once this project was actually started he installed the screen saver on both our computers and we helped with this project for several months. I didn't understand all the technical information, but I thought their website was quite interesting. I haven't visited their site for quite a while and I'll check it out again. Thanks!

In your search for "Intelligent Life" have you seen this website yet?

Dreamland

If you are into this kind of thing, then you must know about Art Bell. Here's his website

My husband got me to listen to him and he is really quite interesting. I like how he actually looks at all the perspectives, sometimes plays devil's advocate, and lets his listeners make up their own minds.

Thanks Hissy, Lorie D. and Valanhb, for your input on this subject. Mind, I'd be thrilled if a flying saucer landed just outside my window and little green people emerged; but, personally, I'm quite skeptical of unidentified flying-object sightings and such like. I feel our first contact with extra-terrestrial "intelligent" life will come via remote analysis of signals, hence my enthusiasm for the SETI project. Nevertheless, I do enjoy reading about others' experiences regarding para-normal phenomena.



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Mike's father was one of the first pilots for Alaska Airlines. He used to tell stories about strange lights in the sky, not the Northern Lights either. He was flying along the DEW line and White Alice and would tell Mike later about objects that would pace along with the aircraft or objects that would appear next to his plane. The radar would only be picking up the plane and not the object.

Joe has passed on now, but he was a level-headed intelligent man who was a pilot over 30 years. He was not given to flights of fancy, he was as solid as a rock.

To be honest, I used to think that the whole extra terrestrial thing was a bunch of hooey. I guess I was pretty narrow minded to think that in this whole universe earth is the only place that supports life. I still think there are a lot of people out there who will read ET into anything and those people really make the whole idea look ridiculous.

Have any of you seen Richard Hoagland on any TV shows or read his books? He has some really interesting theories about the Egyptian culture and how they were able to accomplish so much. Amazing how the pyramids are in the exact formation as the belt of Orion and how the sphynx is so similar to the constallation Leo.

This may or may not be true. I have heard that whenever we elect a new president, his early security briefings include information about the UFO that is supposed to have crashed in the desert a long time ago, and about Area 51. Has anyone else heard anything similiar to this?

It's a fact, Valanhb, that many ancient cultures were astronomically inclined! Of course, Chariots of the Gods? made a mockery of things back in the early 1970s via its "ancient astronauts" assertions. (And, I was one of those who fell for it!) But even the most recent scientific studies of Mayan culture reveal a great appreciation of the cosmos on the part of that long-gone civilization.

Hissy, I'm fascinated by what Mike's father saw while a pilot! (I'd love to hear more.) Be assured I meant no disrespect when I stated I was skeptical of unidentified flying-object sightings. That was bad wording on my part. What I meant to say and should have said was I'm skeptical regarding the attribution of unidentified flying objects to extraterrestrial "intelligent" life.



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I've read the extensive documentation compiled by the U.S. Air Force pertaining to that late-1940s "unidentified flying object" landing near Roswell in New Mexico and subsequent speculation. I find the documentation quite convincing, thus I'm unable (at this time) to place any confidence in the assertions that alien space vehicles or extra-terrestrial life forms were involved.



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I think I'm in the skeptic camp, myself.

I firmly believe in UFO's the key word being "unidentified". Just because we don't know what it is, doesn't mean it's extra-terrestrial.

But I think I would have to actually meet an alien myself before I would believe in them.

I want to believe . . .

Actually, I don't think we're the only lifeforms in the universe. I think other life will be very far away from us, though. My S/O says that it won't be like Star Trek, with all planets having "Humanoid" life. Other forms of life will be very different from anything we know now. I think I agree with him (shh, don't let him know )

As for the whole Roswell soituation, I am also in the skeptic camp. I would have to see it for myself, to really believe.

Indeed, I'm with you all the way on this one. Science fiction in written form is much more flexible than its video counterpart. I don't recall many science-fiction films or videos — involving extra-terrestrial life forms — which didn't depict aliens as having heads and arms, standing upright, speaking English, et cetera.

Since childhood I've believed alien life forms would be quite different from anything those of us who aren't astronomers or science-fiction writers could readily imagine. Yes, I think there is ample indirect evidence to demonstrate sentient life exists elsewhere in the universe.

Most public libraries of any size in the U.S.A. have a "government documents" section; and via that section you can access the U.S. Air Force documents pertaining to the much-discussed Roswell scenario. I've read them all; and I'm quite convinced no alien spacecraft landed nor were aliens found.

Those who claim there's a cover-up conspiracy in place regarding the Roswell scenario have so far been unable to produce convincing evidence of a visit by aliens. I recommend the 70-minute film Forgotten Silver (directed by Peter Jackson and Costa Botes, New Zealand, 1997) — a "mockumentary" send-up which indirectly illustrates the viability of creating fact from fiction.

:martian:

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Several years ago I saw something really interesting on TV but I was never completely sure what to think of it. It was a video tape of what was supposed to be the autopsy of one of the aliens that was killed in the Roswell crash. The tape that was shown did seem to be really old, it was going in and out of focus and it really did look like doctors doing an autopsy.

The program that presented this tape on TV also had some experts give their opinion of it:

One of these was the Kodac(sp?) Company. A representative was asked to verify the age of the tape, he said the tape was extremely old and it probably was from the year it was said to be.

They asked the people who create special effects for monster movies for their opinion. These people said that we do have the technology to create the effects shown in the autopsy tape, but just barely. They said the effects seen would be extremely expensive and difficult to create, and the autopsy tape was so short it wouldn't be worth the effort. These people felt the autopsy tape was authentic.

...These are the only expert opinions I can remember.

I saw the Alien autopsy show, too. The people they interviewed claimed it could not be faked. Do we really know who those people were? Are they who they claim to be? From what I remember, the tape was in really good condition for being so old, and considering it was taped in a lab. Or someone said it was.

Mr. Cat, I am with you on the Roswell scene, even though I haven't read all the documentation. It is just too hard to believe that someone didn't tell their friends or families, and news leaked out that way. I really think our first contact would be through the SETI program, or maybe with some sort of satellite like we send out.

The other thing about "humanoids" that bothers me, is why humanoids? Why not martianoids or vulcanoids? In most of sci-fi, humans are regarded as among the least developed and civilized of lifeforms. So why is everyone else a humanoid? That term is used by all civilizations, as if humans discovered everyone else.

I don't know if this is true or not and it seemes kind of far-fetched. I watched another program about Roswell where they interviewed people who claimed to have lived there at the time of the crash. These people all said that our government had threatened the lives of anyone who talked about what really happened. Quite a few years had gone by and these people no longer felt they were in danger. According to this other program, this is why the news never leaked out.

Also according to the Alien Autopsy program, the man who had the tape kept it secretly locked up somewhere, and no one knew it existed for many years because he felt his life was in danger if people knew about it.

I don't necessarily believe in all these Roswell stories, I am just talking about the different things I have seen on TV.

I've seen those programs as well. It's entirely within the realm of possibility that it's all true: the extra-terrestrial spacecraft landing, the aliens being aboard, the neighbors told to keep quiet, et cetera.

But for me, at this point in time, the documentation provided by the U.S. Air Force is more convincing — to me at any rate. Mind, I'd love it if an extra-terrerstrial spacecraft landed nearby!



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