It’s been a pretty slow week in UFO land. Nothing much happening on any front. UFO Update (which the Odd Emperor skulks on) had this exchange about the SETI project. Only mildly interesting it’s a comment by Stuart Miller which I agree with.
Alfred Lehmberg however; does not agree and replies in his own indomitable way.
****
From: Alfred Lehmberg
To:
Date: Fri, 16 Sep 2005 08:29:39 -0500
Subject: Re: SETI Redux De Lux
>>From: Stuart Miller
>>To: UFO Updates
>>Date: Thu, 15 Sep 2005 21:26:18 +0100 (BST)
>>Subject: SETI Redux De Lux
>>I’ve been re-thinking my attitide towards SETI recently and
>>wonder if it’s time for a revision. Me’thinks it might be.
>>We knock Uncle Seth because he won’t acknowledge the evidence
>>that we profer and as far as he is concerned, there has been
>>absolutely no proof of ET visitation here on Earth. Why do we
>>blindly criticise him for that? How inane are we? Turkeys are not
>>usually in the habit of voting for Christmas and any such
>>philosophical wobbling on Seth’s part will possibly compromise
>>Paul Allen’s funding. You might well accuse him of scientific
>>dishonesty but even if that were true, he wouldn’t be alone. And
>>he has a point; namely we can’t produce the absolute proof he
>>asks for. We can show him a very strong possibility but we can’t
>>show him absolute proof.
No – he has the bully mainstream pulpit in the weaker
evidentiary position and he uses it to discount the stronger,
braver, more expansive, and finally, _richer_ evidentiary
position. Please pardon the hyperbole, but may the vermin of a
thousand camels infest his scrotal area.
>>Did you, btw, catch ‘that word’ in the above paragraph?
>>”Scientific”. There, I’ve said it. We drone on and on about how
>>science ignores us and there are plenty of folk on this List who
>>will retire happily to their graves in the knowledge that science
>>has at last turned its head in our direction, except that it has
>>with SETI and still we moan. Maybe it’s the wrong sort of
>>science? Maybe we’re only interested in science that agrees with
>>us before any investigation has begun?
Mainstream science is not remotely scientific with regard to
UFO. This is pointed out by many respected names past and
present. Moreover, few bemoan SETI *success* such as it is.
It’s the pandering after and celebration of the attentions of a
gutless, convenient, complacent, and corporate system chapping
folks nether regions, I suspect. The front man’s going to be
the front man for everything good and bad. Look at the idiot
prince GWB.
>>It might also be worth reminding the List, because it’s easy to
>>forget, that Seth and his colleagues are trying to do exactly
>>what we are trying to do. We have the same aims! Ergo it
>>naturally follows, as in any scientific discipline, that we
>>should therefore be at each others throats.
Then tell him to put his hands down, knock off the big arm
movements, or quit facilitating his senseless (_if_
‘believable’) ufological derision. Has he ever read Richard
Hall, Jerry Clark, or Peter Sturrock? I suspect not. We know
he’s read his Kal Korff… Moreover, bully pulpit or no, his is
the weaker dog in the fight. Maybe he shouldn’t arbitrarily run
with the big evidentiary dogs.
>>We could just try growing up a bit.
Or calling a spade a spade and giving as good as we get. Outrage
is not _necessarily_ immaturity, _me_’thinks.
>>Give Uncle Seth a cyber slap on the back and wish him well next
>>time you see him on the box instead of the usual booing and
>>hissing, and tell him to get the job done quickly. Who cares
>>which way we find out, as long we eventually do.
Well – considering his behavior, shtick, and track-record he’s
easy to boo and hiss at. Maybe he could try to be less boo-
hissable.
Concept disapproved at this station – resubmit in 30-days for
final disapproval.