So - no unearthly revelations at all
surrounding the 2012 Olympics. Hardly surprising.
It was a wonderful and superbly managed event
watched by billions (myself included for both the opening and closing
ceremonies) and at no point did E.T. make an appearance.
Yes there was that brief fuss about what was most likely a video of the Goodyear blimp or a nearby helicopter but nothing to make any hardened sceptic's jaw drop.
Now we can all move on safe in the knowledge that conspiracy theorists will have to claim another major event (sporting or otherwise) to be ripe for an E.T. hijack...
My wife is very into sports generally (I'm not bothered on the whole) so of course she's been excited about the 2012 Olympics. So - being the generous soul that I am - I decided to record the whole 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony for her, at the same time as watching it live with her last Friday.
My indifference about sport aside, I have to admit I was very impressed with the whole ceremony and how smoothly it ran and was also quite roused by the monumental and historical event unfolding before our eyes. It also gave me a great sense of respect for all those involved and pride in what they had achieved for Britain and for London.
But I digress, because a tiny part of me was hoping that something truly unusual might happen at this event which - as far as I'm concerned - never actually came to pass. Given that roughly a sixth of the planet's population was watching an event that celebrates human cohesion, good will and competitive spirit, one would have thought this might be a good time for E.T. to make an appearance.
You see, I hadn't failed to notice that there have been, in the past few months, a number of headline-grabbing articles about people placing wild 1000-1 bets on a 'UFO' or more specifically an alien spaceship appearing over the 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony. Unsurprisingly, Nick Pope has been asked about and has commented on the possibility of E.T. making an appearance at this event. One angry punter having made such a bet now wants his money back from William Hill for what he claims is a 'flying saucer' in the ceremony's video footage as below.
Even more bizarrely, claims have been made about the 2012 Olympics being a platform for the infamous 'Project Blue Beam' conspiracy which I won't elaborate on here (simply because I personally think it's a load of rubbish).
Now Goodyear are already saying that this is likely to be one of their unbranded blimps being used by an NBC camera crew (unbranded because they are not official sponsors of the games). If what they say is true, then the object in question is not a UFO.
My money's on it being an airship or blimp. To me it looks like the lit up cabin on the underside of the main structure of an airship and it's seems to be moving at the right speed. But - as with a lot of such sensationalised footage - it's really too blurry to be sure.
Anyway, there's still a fair bit of the Olympics to go - including the Closing Ceremony - so who knows what else might pop up?
I shall shortly be away to another part of the UK to see family over the Jubilee weekend so - despite having said earlier that I would return to more blogging after finishing my latest appointment - I will in fact not be able to blog until later next week. I will be in a more rural area than London though so shall be intently watching the skies...
So the absence of posts won't be for much longer. In the meantime, with my recent mixed success at gaining access to the Open Minds site I have managed to see some of their latest articles at the time of posting.
There seem to be plenty of eminent scientists out there who think they have a handle on what E.T. would do if ever in contact with little old Earth. Stephen Hawking for example suggests that we shouldn't assume a super advanced non-terrestrial species would be benevolent and equates the encounter between them and us as something akin to
"...when Christopher Columbus first landed in America, which didn't turn out
very well for the Native Americans."
On the other hand, SETI astronomer Jill Tarter suggests that if E.T. visited Earth, “that would
mean they would have technological capabilities sophisticated enough not
to need slaves, food, or other planets.” She then offers her theory
that “If aliens were to come here it would be simply to explore.”
Well my view on this is twofold:-
1. IF they exist - and that's a big 'if' - THEY ARE ALIENS who may, as the word 'Aliens' suggests, be so utterly different to us as to be incomprehensible in terms of their intentions or motives. There simply is no point speculating about what such visitors' intentions are until they are actually here; and
Allen Telescope Array, SETI
2. IF they exist - and assuming for the moment that just one non-terrestrial species out in space is at least as advanced as us technologically if not more so - then logically it follows that it is already too late for us to concern ourselves about whether we should even engage in 'first contact'. We have been broadcasting into space (first by radio and then latterly by other means) continuously for roughly the last ninety years. Any advanced non-terrestrials out there will pick up our transmissions in due course (assuming they don't perceive it as just 'noise').
Proponents of the E.T. hypothesis for UFOs will of course argue that they've already heard and are here...
The recent news about Will Smith and his son Jaden asking President Obama about the existence of E.T. - and the President's unsurprisingly neutral response - is certainly generating a lot of media interest. But then again this can't hurt in terms of boosting media attention to the upcoming Men In Black 3 movie.
Go to Open Minds (which only appears to be intermittently working for me at the moment so I can't include the direct link) and the BBC radio/vid feed here.
The Graham Norton Show on BBC One also had Will Smith as a guest last night where he talked about the same event. Access via BBC iPlayer.
Mr Smith is claiming he has privileged information from President Obama on the matter of extra terrestrials - but then he is a tease...
