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As of March 2006 ... Return to: *U* UFO Home The opinions given below are mine alone, having catalogued UFO sightings for two decades now. I respectfully disagree with some in UFO studies, and ask the same in return. This list cannot be comprehensive, hopefully I will hit the major bases. Click on any question below to jump to my personal answer. For questions not on the list, please email: Larry Hatch Q-1: What is a UFO? Q-2: Are UFOs for real? Q-3: When did all this start? Q-4: Why don't astronomers see UFOs? Q-5: Don't most scientists believe UFOs are bunk? Q-6: Doesn't a map like this show UFOs are a cultural artifact? Q-7: If alien craft are here, what are their purposes? Q-8: What do you think of UFO cults and contactees? Q-9: What do you think of Alien Abductions? Q-10: Please recommend some good books. Q-11: How should I report a UFO sighting? Q-12: I had a sighting in Frostbite Falls, MN in 1967. Can you look it up? Q-13: What about UFOnauts, space critters, live beings etc.? Q-14: How about Little Green Men? Q-15: Please recommend other UFO related websites. Q-16: Please recommend a good UFO forum online. Q-17: Whats that famous Russell quotation? - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-1: What is a UFO? A UFO is simply an Unidentified Flying Object. Most sensible researchers would eliminate sightings of likely mundane objects. Sure, a meteor without a license plate could technically be called a 'UFO', but dingbats split hairs like that. The most useful description is a flying object that defies classification after due diligence, to eliminate ordinary things. Balloons, kites, ordinary aircraft, stars, planets, even the Moon has been misidentified. Only the small remainder of cases should be called UFO, or perhaps TRUFO, once the eliminations are done. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-2: Are UFOs for real? UFO sightings are definitely for real. A much better question is whether or not any of them represent a genuine scientific anomaly. Any craft intelligently designed by someone not of our position in time and space would definitely qualify. Whether THAT may be true has been argued endlessly. I can't answer such a question. Those who say they can inspire the deepest doubts in my opinion, regardless of which side of the fence they are on. Are any of them for real? That is the 64-dollar question here. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-3: When did all this start? Good question. The so-called 'Modern Era' of UFOs began in June/July of 1947 with a series of well publicized sightings. The term 'Flying Saucers' was coined at that time. Given a variety of shapes and forms, the safer more accurate term UFO came into use later. Sightings that we would now call UFOs are found as far back as recorded history goes. Those accounts are as questionable as the modern ones, and of course impossible to verify now. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-4: Why don't astronomers see UFOs? Who said that they don't? This is a famous trick question. Almost invariably, somebody hasn't done their homework. Astronomers focus their telescopes on tiny segments of the stellar sphere. The Starship Enterprise could fly right over the observatory completely unnoticed. With 20 to 100 aspiring astronomers for every real job in astronomy, few are likely to tell the world that they saw a UFO. One can imagine the results. In spite of all this, Dr. Peter Sturrock made a fairly thick catalog of astronomer's UFO sightings and opinions: STURROCK, Dr.Peter A: REPORT/SURVEY of the AMERICAN ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY of the UFO PROBLEM Stanford, CA 1977. A less-than-honest critic is unlikely to refer to it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-5: Don't most scientist believe UFOs are bunk? First off, good scientists don't "believe' things. They will estimate rough probabilities instead. Belief is the province of religion. Its quite possible that the majority of scientists consider 'alien visitation' highly unlikely. Those who do consider such possibilities probably far outnumber those who will publicly say so, for obvious professional reasons. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-6: Doesn't a map like this show UFOs are a cultural phenomenon? Compare France to Germany! Ah yes! Others have pointed that out. Somebody at Cornell even put up a web page about it. While I can slowly read French, Spanish, English and maybe Portuguese and Italian, German absolutely stumps me. If I can't read a German sighting report, it doesn't get into the database or on the map. The same goes for places with little or no infrastructure, illiterate people, arcane languages etc. No useable reports means no dots on the map. Repeated explanations to Cornell never earned a response. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-7: If alien craft are here, what are their purposes? Another 64-dollar question. All I can do is suggest another question: Imagine our society, but thousands or millions of years in the future. What will we be doing? If our space probes found a planet much like ours is now, how would we study it? Would we interfere? Loudly announce our presence and screw up a pristine sample of an alien society? Or, would we hide, measure, record and observe? One thing I'm sure of: Our craft, probably robotic, would be sending an absolute river of information back to Earth. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-8: What do you think of UFO cults and contactees? Aside from some fairly obvious mental cases, I think these are largely crafted to separate the dimmer bulbs from their money. Cult / contactee messages from our 'space brothers' are usually trite warnings about nuclear weapons, overpopulation; predictable stuff really. I might start paying attention if they reveal something true, but otherwise unknowable. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-9: What do you think of Alien Abductions? That's different from contactees, though there may be some overlap. I don't have a good answer at all. Its possible that some human specimens are taken, see Q-7 above. What I cannot see are tens or hundreds of thousands of abductions every year as some people claim. That doesn't make sense to me. The logistics alone seem daunting, and I can't find any purpose for it. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-10: Please recommend some good UFO books. Try cherry-picking through this long list: *U* Database SOURCES Quality varies widely though. For a solid footing, I recommend the works of J.A. Hynek, Jacques Vallee, Peter Sturrock, Richard Hall, Raymond Fowler, Jerome Clark, Dr. Richard Haines, V.J. Ballester-Olmos and others. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-11: How should I report a UFO sighting? Please visit this web page: How to Report a UFO Sighting The page also has links to sites where you can look up some UFO sightings. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-12: I had a sighting in Frostbite Falls, MN in 1967. Can you look it up? Probably not, unless somebody reported it, and very likely not even then. Sightings have to get into the literature before *U* can record them. See the right-hand side of this same page: Look up UFO Sighting online - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-13: What about UFOnauts, space critters, live beings etc.? While science fiction, popular demand and the movie industry insist on living creatures, I find them unlikely. Fully robotic but highly intelligent and semi-autonomous 'beings' would make a lot more sense. Scientific cyborgs could eliminate the usual objections about life-support systems, time, distance, boredom and so on due to in-person alien visitation. Given a sufficiently advanced alien society, distinctions between man and machine could become highly blurred. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-14: How about Little Green Men? This database has thousands of 'entity' sightings listed, of various and often dubious merits. Having scoured the literature for two decades at least, *U* doesn't register a single Little Green Man (LGM). The origin of the term is arguably lost. Almost invariably, LGM is used as an inexpensive form of ridicule, or to change the subject without further discussion. The fastest and surest way to display abject ignorance of UFOs is to bring up Little Green Men. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-15: Please recommend other UFO related websites. There are two short pages of carefully chosen UFO related links on this site: UFO Links and More UFO links You can also look up special search phrases on this selective UFO Specific Search Engine - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-16: Please recommend a good UFO Forum online. UFO Updates is probably the best online discussion group open to the general public. Some of the biggest names in Ufology are subscribers. Read some postings before jumping in. To subscribe, email this address: UFO Updates Put 'Subscribe' in the Subject: line. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Q-17: What's that famous Russell Quote? Nobody really asked me that, but here it is anyway, in part: " .. the stupid are cocksure .. the intelligent are full of doubts." - Bertrand Russell - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - |