Best ufo photo ever taken?

[Magical Realist]

It does act like a balloon in the wind. 

Hey MR. To the best of your knowledge and without me resorting to Google, has there ever been a concerted or even funded effort to make a SETI-ish attempt at communicating with UFO's? Why aren't the scientists at SETI focusing on UFOs instead of galaxies light years away?

No government attempt to contact UFOs that they admit of at least. There IS an organization (CSETI) led by Steven Greer that aims at alien contact. Here's some info on that:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_for...telligence

Still, any ideas on why SETI isn't focused on UFO contact? If contact has already secretly been made with UFOs by gov't then what is  SETI's real purpose? Which leads me to this question: why hasn't SETI made contact with UFOs or have they?

Seti probably doesn't presume ufos are extraterrestrials. There are issues with an intelligent lifeform making the journey from a distant planet to earth. That's assuming they aren't much more advanced than we are. Seti operates on the assumption that planet based ET would more likely be sending out radio waves of some sort that we can detect with telescopes. I doubt that they are even interested in the ufo phenomenon. Generally most scientists see that a hogwash.

[Zinjanthropos]

Generally most scientists see that as hogwash.

Big problem. Is science throwing it in your face MR?

Unless a UFO lands on the White House lawn in broad daylight and aliens emerge in front of a national tv audience and witnesses with cameras, you're destined to forever defend a belief. Do ufologists have an active government lobby?

[Magical Realist]

Big problem. Is science throwing it in your face MR?

Scientists are only trying to protect their careers. Supporting research in ufos would be laughed out of the laboratory. It's a cultural issue.

Here's an organization seeking full disclosure of govt information concerning ufos. It is also led by Steven Greer:

https://www.disclosureproject.org/

[Zinjanthropos]

Scientists are only trying to protect their careers. Supporting research in ufos would be laughed out of the laboratory. 

Other than God showing up, the discovery of alien life has to be the greatest news imaginable. Why would gov't suppress it? You'd think a political party with first hand knowledge would use a "meet the aliens" platform in an election campaign.

[Syne]

Scientists are only trying to protect their careers. Supporting research in ufos would be laughed out of the laboratory. 

Other than God showing up, the discovery of alien life has to be the greatest news imaginable. Why would gov't suppress it? You'd think a political party with first hand knowledge would use a "meet the aliens" platform in an election campaign.

"People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it!" - Agent K

[Zinjanthropos]

Scientists are only trying to protect their careers. Supporting research in ufos would be laughed out of the laboratory. 

Other than God showing up, the discovery of alien life has to be the greatest news imaginable. Why would gov't suppress it? You'd think a political party with first hand knowledge would use a "meet the aliens" platform in an election campaign.

"People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it!" - Agent K

I'm getting the feeling that there really isn't a lot of true believers or those who go to great lengths to prove UFOs are alien occupied spacecraft. I'm thinking there is a much larger portion of the population that believes we need to search for extraterrestrial life, thus SETI. UFOs are just not important to the vast majority. Does this give ufology cult status?

[Magical Realist]

Scientists are only trying to protect their careers. Supporting research in ufos would be laughed out of the laboratory. 

Other than God showing up, the discovery of alien life has to be the greatest news imaginable. Why would gov't suppress it? You'd think a political party with first hand knowledge would use a "meet the aliens" platform in an election campaign.

"People are dumb, panicky, dangerous animals, and you know it!" - Agent K

I'm getting the feeling that there really isn't a lot of true believers or those who go to great lengths to prove UFOs are alien occupied spacecraft. I'm thinking there is a much larger portion of the population that believes we need to search for extraterrestrial life, thus SETI. UFOs are just not important to the vast majority. Does this give ufology cult status?

"Nearly half of Americans believe in aliens, and almost as many believe aliens are visiting earth, according to a new survey. However, less than 20% believe in alien abduction, and a bit less than that claim to have seen a UFO."---- https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/new...0624b0abe4

---

Other than God showing up, the discovery of alien life has to be the greatest news imaginable. Why would gov't suppress it? You'd think a political party with first hand knowledge would use a "meet the aliens" platform in an election campaign.

That's the paradoxical nature of the ufo phenomenon. UFOs act like they want to be seen, at least on certain occasions. They fly around lit up like carnival rides. Yet they never make official contact. Why this playing hard to get? The govt may not know any more than we know. But there are others who believe they do. Hence the disclosure project. It's hard to come clean about a phenomenon you don't understand the origin of.

[C C]

. . . The govt may not know any more than we know. But there are others who believe they do. Hence the disclosure project. It's hard to come clean about a phenomenon you don't understand the origin of.

(UK) My time as a UFO investigator for the government, by Nick Pope:

... While the MOD investigations were aimed at determining whether there was evidence of any threat, we were thinking more about Russians than Martians. The British government’s position was virtually identical to that of the US, where UFO sightings had been investigated by the United States Air Force (USAF) since 1947, in what later became known as Project Blue Book.

What it meant in practice to work on these real-life X-Files varied. [...] We would drop everything if a Member of Parliament asked about the subject – extensively briefing defence ministers so that they could respond in a polite, factual, but dismissive way. [...] The day-to-day business revolved around investigating the newly-reported sightings: interviewing witnesses, checking radar tapes, and analysing photos and videos if we were lucky enough to get them [...] It wasn’t quite as glamorous as sci-fi movies imply [...]

Although the MOD did not want to be perceived as hunting for extraterrestrials, that’s exactly what happened, thanks to pop culture. [...] While the MOD certainly downplayed the true extent of its interest and involvement in the subject, I’m afraid we don’t have any crashed UFOs hidden away somewhere.

That’s not to say that we didn’t have some fascinating cases in our files. Of around 12,000 sightings [...] approximately 5% remained unexplained. We were particularly interested when UFOs were seen by police officers, military personnel and pilots [...] More generally, whether we’re believers or sceptics about alien visitation, we should be curious about a mystery that has endured for nearly 70 years. Our desire to seek knowledge for knowledge’s sake makes us human.

[...] A new UFO project could be more focused than the previous one and might filter cases rather than investigating everything – quickly weeding out, for example, the hundreds of Chinese lantern sightings that bedeviled the MOD in the final years of the old UFO project.

In parallel with investigating the best new reports, classic cases such as Rendlesham Forest and Cosford could be reinvestigated, in the same way the police undertake cold case reviews. It should be possible to do all this from within existing resources because the MOD already has all the capabilities needed to investigate UFOs, whether military radar systems or imagery analysis expertise...

~

[Magical Realist]

That's about what I thought. It's not that the govt is covering up info they have about ufos. It's just that they can't figure out what they are. Jacques Vallee has been scrutinizing the phenomenon for 50 years and still can't say for sure what they are. That's what's so frustrating. The more you study ufos the more obscure they become.

[Zinjanthropos]

That's about what I thought. It's not that the govt is covering up info they have about ufos. It's just that they can't figure out what they are. Jacques Vallee has been scrutinizing the phenomenon for 50 years and still can't say for sure what they are. That's what's so frustrating. The more you study ufos the more obscure they become.

There was this kid back in elementary school, passionate about UFOs, who once told me they were God's way of picking up the souls of the dead and taking them to wherever and just so they didn't waste the trip, drop off new souls. Whether he heard that at church or made it up himself it was pretty clever and made perfect sense to him.