Let's all take a deep breath...

Now exhale. I think there was probably a knee-jerk reaction to this news. I am able to bring up the story just fine. Here's the skinny on it:

“The sudden burst of radio energy lasted only 0.005 seconds,
and had spectral characteristics that suggested that it was from a distant galaxy,
probably billions of light-years from us." - Seth Shostak, Ph.D., SETI Institute

That's it. A 0.005 second signal. To most people it's so quick if it were a sound and not a radio signal, you wouldn't even realize you'd heard something. If it were a message, it would be longer, and almost certainly repeating. If it was intelligent in origin, then at best, it'd be some sort of "stellar ping" broadcast out to get a response, rather than a directed message towards Earth (or even our galaxy) specifically.

In all likelihood, this was almost certainly some sort of stellar explosion, galactic collision, or something else that could easily produce some radio -wave noise burst. The article didn't even say it had a pattern to it. Even if it were an alien species that produced the signal, keep in mind that the signal itself would be billions of years old.

Now think about the implications of aliens having to cross billions of light years of distance to reach us. If they had technology advanced enough to do that, then in a few billion years, they'd have already reached the technological point at which they could exceed the speed of their own initial signal.

And in the off chance that matter truly cannot go faster than the speed of light, and they decided to immediately give chase to destroy or subjugate the first life form to respond to the signal (because you sure as hell wouldn't allocate the resources to invade a place that didn't respond), our best relay technology is also radio waves, and it would be billions of years before they received our reply, and then another several billion years before their invasion force could reach us (since they couldn't travel faster than light either).

That's not to say I don't think there aren't some clever life forms out there somewhere, but this news isn't nearly as exciting or scary when the facts are examined logically.

Meanwhile, Seth Shostak of the SETI Institute, said he was hopeful that future technical advances will eventually point scientists in the right direction. ‘I'm cautiously optimistic we'll find something by the year 2025,’ Shostak said.”

This bit is quite interesting. Why giving the year (if any year) 2025 as some sort of a deadline? As if he knows when they'll find something. Fact is there have been hundreds of encounters all over the world already. This wholeSETI thing is one big joke and set up only to slowly convince the public on their existance.

Originally posted by TrueAmerican
Well, so much for that... The link at KTVU-TV displayed this:

Article Not Available
The story you are trying to view is no longer available through this Web site.

And the media blackout begins?

yea, you're right
I wonder who's family member got threatened
to get that taken off the news

Originally posted by MrAndy
Whoa wait a second, wasn't there a member on here a few days ago that said he picked up a single?

yes there was
I think it was member "hello123456" or something like that
he had the software and had spikes and he showed some
screenshots and sent his data to Berkley for analysis.
I don't remember seeing the thread after that. But I would
bet these 2 incidents are related in some way.

Originally posted by thelibra
In all likelihood, this was almost certainly some sort of stellar explosion, galactic collision, or something else that could easily produce some radio -wave noise burst.

oh great !!! here I am taking a shower & gettin my best clothes on
hoping et shows up for a beer and I find out it's only the stellar cops
showing up to investigate a cosmic interstellar rear-end collision.

Hey, I wonder do they have annoying accident chasing attorneys
outside our galaxy as well ??? It's a thought

So if a signal was found or has even been found do you think we would ever hear about it,i don't think we would because this article changed it's tune after a while as if they were told to do so.
We could have been sent numerous signals over many years but we're just never going to know whats out there if this keeps happening all the time.

Originally posted by rhynouk
So if a signal was found or has even been found do you think we would ever hear about it,i don't think we would because this article changed it's tune after a while as if they were told to do so.

Well that could also be the fact that misrepresenting the statement of a SETI scientist to implicate it meant intelligent alien signal would be a gross violation of that station's credibility in the eyes of the public. You can bet your bottom dollar that any credible non-Fox news station is going to double and triple-check their facts before claiming something so sensationalistic, and pull the story as soon as they find out it's not true.

Could they have been "ordered" to silence by "them"? Sure. Do I think they were? No.

SETI is composed mostly of university students, artists, and free-thinkers, all competing very hard to get some scope-time desperately searching for any concrete sign of intelligent life. If enough of them thought, for even a minute, that they'd found some sort of proof, it would be EVERYWHERE. These are the sort to distrust government as much as us, and they'd want to make sure everyone heard about it before the USG did.

Even with MSM suppression, government censorship, and threats to close SETI, the type of kids that work there would still find a way through pirate radio, podcasts, student television, and any other means, to make sure as many people heard about it as possible.

This reminds me so much of the famous WOW signals that happened in the mid 1970's. 1975/6 if memorty serves me right. That was never satisfactorily explained. So this event may turn out to be the same As to what this new signal could be, well it could be ET saying no more repeats of I Love Lucy pleasseeee !!

It would not suprise me since they took it down. They dont want the extra publicity if it
turns out to be nothing. They have recieved other transmissions in the past if I recall.
It's fun learning about our neighborhood and seeing whats out there.

well I might not be the smartest apple on the tree but
I don't think our gubment is stupid enough to make all
this equipment, point it at the stars, pay somebody to
monitor it and send off messages to other galaxies and
then NOT expect an answer. They know there's something
out there else we wouldn't have S-4 or area 51.

My question is, if the gubment has already made contact
with aliens and has the saucers to prove it AND have aliens
among us. WHY are they still listening to the stars when
the aliens can speak to them personally or are we just
listening for other civilizations we haven't met yet ???