Buzz Aldrin - Interesting choice of words...

Thanks to our friends at Open Minds I saw an article in the Alaska Dispatch about Buzz Aldrin visiting a university in Alaska. The only line of interest to me in the article was in connection with one of the questions allegedly asked by students:- "Did he see a UFO? Probably not."

Now this line is arguably easy to dismiss to most people (especially those with no interest in UFOs!). Except that:-

• first the headline of the article is the strangely worded "Astronaut Buzz Aldrin mum on whether he saw a UFO" (shouldn't it have been "Astronaut Buzz Aldrin keeps mum on whether he saw a UFO"?) A cynical attempt to get more web-clicks? Bit of a con if you ask me as there is almost nothing on the subject in the article except the above two sentences;

• Buzz Aldrin has been quite outspoken in the past about seeing 'UFOs' - why be reluctant to discuss them now? I suppose if I were in Mr Aldrin's shoes, I would be getting fed up with all the UFO questions but these were students asking in this case. They can be forgiven for asking such a question and be more deserving of a (perhaps less vague) response. Perhaps he had to be on his 'best behaviour' in order to 'inspire' the students; and

• there's the annoying misuse of the initials 'U.F.O.' The question - if indeed it is quoted verbatim, and is not just lazy reportage - should have been "Did he see aliens/alien craft?" Technically if Mr Aldrin had seen objects in space that neither he (nor anyone else) could identify then these would have been UFOs. If he was saying that 'he didn't see a UFO' does that mean he saw nothing at all, or that whatever he did see was clearly identifiable?

Of course, only those present in the room with him know what Buzz Aldrin did and didn't say on the day. For those of us who weren't there, we are reliant upon unexceptional journalism  to report the event - and as is almost always the case with the media - this means things are either inaccurately reported or taken out of context.

Or maybe I'm just being over-analytical and there was nothing of note to report anyway!

2012 - A retrospective

So - here's my short retrospective of 2012, mostly centred on the phenomenon of UFOs or UAP.

I really hadn't planned on starting 2013 with a post about my broadband problems but such is life.

At least I had planned on starting 2013 period.

The 2012 phenomenon

Many doom-mongers - and arguably those perhaps with a cabbage short of an allotment - didn't plan on starting 2013 at all because of ...yes you guessed it ... the supposed Mayan apocalypse.

No - the world didn't end on 21 December 2012 and there are likely to be many - bizarrely - crestfallen or hang-dog faced people out there who were disappointed that it didn't!
There wasn't even a world-wide spiritual awakening or 'rapture' as suggested by ranks of religious or new age nut-cases.

I remember that when the question about the world ending on 21 December 2012 did crop up at the BUFORA 50th anniversary conference, one of the BUFORA representatives said (and I'm paraphrasing) 'We'll get back to you on 22 December', which was a reasonable response in my view.

One thing is clear however. Hollywood did well out of it, as did many authors, cranks and posters on Youtube - and the net was flooded with nonsense on it for at least two years in the run-up to the infamous date.

But I digress, the following - with links to the relevant blog articles - are what I consider to be some of the key moments of 2012 followed by the damp squibs.

BUFORA's 50th Anniversary conference

The UFO panel at the National Atomic Testing Museum

The public release of the final set of (the UK's) M.O.D. files

Questions to the White House concerning the UFO phenomenon (the first petition being late 2011 running into 2012, the latter early 2012 - no link)

I mention these because - although both petitions 1 and 2 were unsuccessful - in that insufficient numbers of signatures were received to meet the required threshold (quickly raised incidentally from the original 5000 to 25000 shortly after launch and now again to 100,000 this year) - it was another milestone in engaging the U.S. Government on the subject. Continued pressure may force the U.S. Government to be more responsive - if not proactive - on this issue (but don't hold your breath) and that's provided 100,000 US citizens can be found to sign up...

And the damp squibs were:-

The 2012 Olympics alleged UFO sighting
Still a 'blimp' in my view

The Baltic undersea objects 
Concrete something-or-others. Who is not past caring?

The 'Anonymous to leak secret UFO data?' story
No such luck.

Life confirmed on Mars
Water? Is that the best NASA can do after the Moon Landings over forty years ago?
 

In addition, the downright embarassing were the alleged discovery of a faster-than-light particle (which proved not to be the case) and the dreadful TV debacle that was
Conspiracy Road Trip: UFOs.

Otherwise, a personal high for me in 2012 was having a brief email exchange with Douglas Trumbull - Hollywood visual effects expert - about his (still sadly shelved) UFOTOG project.

SO - All in all, 2012 was still a busy - and significant - year in terms of UFOs/UAP - and don't let the doubters or the media tell you otherwise. The UFO/UAP phenomenon is very much alive and kicking and has yet to be satisfactorily resolved!

I'm back!

After some months of frustration with my current BT service giving me a download speed as slow as 287kbs and upload 444kbs(!!!); learning more than I wanted (or cared to know) about BT's dynamic line management system and IP profiles; followed by having to admit defeat and upgrade to BT infinity (fibre optic), I am now connected with something like a decent broadband speed once again.

Even surfing the net was painfully slow compared to what I have now. Theoretically my current max download speed will be 160 times faster than what I've recently had to put up with.

And if it stays that way (the line is still in the process of settling down) blogging - and all my other net activity will be a pleasure once more.

As I have been away from my blog for some time, I plan to give a retrospective of 2012 in my next post which will follow shortly.