Originally posted by The GUT
She said that he said that He said...backstage at a Johnny Carson taping.
I wanna believe it, but...
Then there's Sagan's The Demon Haunted World
Originally posted by Aliensun
reply to post by Cosmic911
I suggest you read his approved biography,"Carl Sagan," by William Poundstone where it is revealed that in his early days before joining the so-called "Condon Report," he was virtually a fanatical UFO supporter. Then later he got into smoking weed and mellowed out, understanding what he could do to bring Americans and the world up to speed when looking out beyond their daily realities here on the surface. I frankly believe he has a bit of help in assuming that role.
It is highly suspected that he certainly believed that there was or had been life on Mars. Read between the lines in his "Cosmic Connection," knowing that he was a closet believer in UFOs.
Originally posted by Aliensun
Hynek was followed at the lecturn by Sagan that gave a strictly conventional scientific argument that became his trademark: "Yes, they are out there, but, no, they can't get here."
Prof Says Beings From Outer Space Have Visited Earth
Associated Press, November 26, 1962
LOS ANGELES. (AP) - Some of the best scientific minds in the country were stumped when a slender, dark-haired young man chalked on the blackboard this equation:
N equals R FP NE FL FI FC L.
The speaker was Dr. Carl Sagan, a 28 year-old assistant professor of astronomy at Harvard University.
His audience consisted of several hundred members of the American Rocket Society, gathered for his luncheon address.
The equation was his way of expressing the mathematical probability that intelligent beings from outer space have visited earth.
Sagan soberly explained that in his equation N Stands for the number of advanced technical civilizations in the universe possessing the capability of interstellar communication.
R is the mean rate of star formation averaged over the lifetime of the galaxy.
FP is the fraction of stars with planetary systems.
NE is the mean number of planets in each system with environments favorable for the origin of life.
FL is the fraction of such planets on which life does develop.
FI is the fraction of such inhabited planets on which intelligent life with manipulative abilities rises during the lifetime of the local sun.
FC is the fraction of planets populated by intelligent beings on which advanced technical civilizations rises.
And L is the lifetime of this technical civilization.
Sagan said information in his formula is based on current estimates by astronomers. In making calculations, he assigned each symbol an arbitrary numerical value.
As expressed in numbers, Sagan said, the formula means that at least 1 million of the 100 billion stars in our Milky Way galaxy have planets which have developed civilizations capable of travel between the stars.
"Let's say that each of these civilizations sends out one interstellar expedition per year," he said.
"That means that every star, such as our sun, would be visited at least once every million years. In some systems where these beings found life, they would make more frequent visits. There's a strong probability, then, that they have visited earth every few thousand years.
"It is not out of the question that artifacts of these visits still exist or even that some kind of base is maintained, possibly automatically, within the solar system, to provide continuity for successive expeditions.
"Because of weathering and the possibility of detection and interference by the inhabitants of earth it would be preferable not to erect such a base on the earth's surface. The moon seems one reasonable alternative."
"Forthcoming photographic reconnaissance of the moon from space vehicles - particularly of the back - might bear these possibilities in mind."
At a news conference Sagan predicted man himself would be capable of interstellar flight at close to the speed of light "within a century or two."
Asked if he believed in flying saucers, he said: "I do believe there are objects which have hot be identified."
link
Originally posted by Arbitrageur
Essentially he said that not all the UFOs we see are alien, which pretty much everyone including MUFON admits 95% of them aren't. The remaining 5% are unexplained/unknown.
."The opposite conclusion could have been drawn from The Condon Report's content, namely, that a phenomenon with such a high ratio of unexplained cases (about 30 percent) should arouse sufficient scientific curiosity to continue its study."
"From a scientific and engineering standpoint, it is unacceptable to simply ignore substantial numbers of unexplained observations... the only promising approach is a continuing moderate-level effort with emphasis on improved data collection by objective means... involving available remote sensing capabilities and certain software changes."
Ronald D Story - American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics UFO Subcommittee -New York: Doubleday, 1980
"There are unidentified flying objects. That is, there are a hard core of cases - perhaps 20 to 30 percent in different studies - for which there is no explanation... We can only imagine what purpose lies behind the activities of these quiet, harmlessly cruising objects that time and again approach the earth. The most likely explanation, it seems to me, is that they are simply watching what we are up to." (Redbook, vol. 143)
Dr. Margaret Mead, world-renowned Anthropologist
Originally posted by karl 12It depends on who you ask.
Originally posted by Arbitrageur
Essentially he said that not all the UFOs we see are alien, which pretty much everyone including MUFON admits 95% of them aren't. The remaining 5% are unexplained/unknown.
If we put aside the 'aliens' for a moment, isn't the unexplained rate for UFO reports more like twenty to thirty per-cent.. and that's not even taking into account where the government has just 'made the explanations up' (link).
As most of the public is now aware, personnel of MUFON (Mutual UFO Network) suspect or eliminate about 90+% of all reported cases as being misidentified aircraft/man-made objects, weather and other natural phenomena, celestial bodies observed under unusual atmospheric conditions, satellites, space junk, meteors and hoaxes.Probably the reason for the difference is their use of the word "suspect". In other words, they apparently suspect that a large portion of the unexplained sightings are probably explainable.
A groupie ... that explains why you only see one side 
But hey we all have our own Gods 
