Now you're starting to get it, although I wouldn't go so far as to call them retards. But being highly respected astronauts does kinda make them experts on everything else of course. :roll: Even still, what I saw was them speculating on the chances for life in the galaxy, same as I believe, not that they are here to save the enlightened few from the tyranny of co-workers that call you a nerd under their breath at the water cooler. I didn't watch long enough to see if they had UFO stories like the one that fooled John Glenn(?). I'll bet that was embarrasing!:grin:

I could only stomach about the first 5 minutes of this "documentary" what with the spooky space theme music, Ken Burns effect on still photos of gaseous nebulae, and the quick interview blurbs. C'mon people haven't you seen the same kind of "documentary" techniques for retarded ideas like Nostradamus and killer bees overtaking the world?

Much like the global warming models, the Drake equation is at best a very shallow attempt at quantifying the likelihood of intelligent life on other planets in our galaxy. Unfortunately, it is already being revised based on new things we're learning about extra solar planetary systems that factor in more dynamics that Drake never considered. But even still I have to say with the multitude of stars in our galaxy it seems likely there's life, even intelligent life out there! There I said it.

However, unless you like to believe in magic wands or leprechauns just because they sound pretty cool, we have nothing to indicate there's any practical means of travel at or beyond the speed of light. Sure maybe we just don't know enough yet but there isn't anything that even suggests the possibility of maybe transporting a particle let alone a living being safely, so that means you choose to believe in magic, just...because.

So given that universal limitation that puts any star beyond let's say 50 light years away at the point of being impractical for visitation. Not so many stars now huh? It's ok to consider the possibility that an advanced alien race found some way around it, or maybe they live indefinitely and can spend lots of time on a space ship, or whatever, but at the point you make the leap of logic to say "yes, there are aliens here" you might as well just decide to believe in the neighbourhood garden gnomes stealing one sock out of your drawer every wash cycle.

If you've been around in life long enough and paid attention you'd realize that all those spooky documentaries about the coming ice age, the Y2K disaster and the coming 2012 apocalypse are simply "what if" entertainment pieces thrown together by a production team looking to get the most "ooohs" and "ahhhhs" out of you to keep your attention long enough to watch the ads.

Yeah, astronauts really are the authority on UFOs.(?)

Ed Mitchell? He expressly says in the video you posted his only evidence of ETs was that he'd spoken to a couple of un-named* sources. 'Out of the Blue' has all the credibility of 'Loose Change'.

If that's your standard of evidence then you really ought to listen to Coast to Coast AM. On there you can nightly hear people claiming to be in contact with Nasa insiders, or FBI whistleblowers, or ex-CIA operatives, or 'Ascended Masters, the Greys...etc.

* surprise surprise.

One of the best means of "protecting" a situation, is to give factual information to discredited nutter outlets and false information to credible outlets....

So, I visited Youtube and typed in 'UFO con....'.

I selected a video that mentioned Ed Mitchell. In it he goes on about how we should join this 'galactic community' or some such....it's the standard spiel*.

If you're a masochist, here it is....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zu_7hd5B-dc&feature=fvsr

But the true gems are to be found in the comments. A selection...

Quality stuff.

* Let me say i've all the time in the world for pioneering astronauts. I used to be quite the M/G/Apollo buff. But that doesn't mean they get a free pass when they venture into woo-woo territory.

Indeed. The Apollo astronauts themselves all found life a bit difficult after the moon. Who wouldn't? I'd imagine once you've been there, done that, all else seems trivial.

There's a good read by Andrew Smith called 'Moondust'. It's a simple book where Smith - in around 1999/2000 - interviews the men who went to the moon .

It's quite a sad tale of alcoholism, mental breakdown, divorce, finding God and/or religious cults, and talented but obsessive behaviour such as Al Bean painting great pictures, but only of men on the moon. Worth a look.

Real space travel, astronomy and astrophysics are all interests of mine (when I can grasp the astrophysics bit), similarly science fiction can be great literature and great cinema.

Conspiracy theories/theorists and saying whatever it takes to earn either a few quid or a fortune I don't have time for, particularly when they prey on the easily led, which makes them dangerous in my opinion.

Good post.

Thats more evidence than there is for God or jesus.

That much is true...Apollo 8 went behind the moon on Christmas eve (first time humans behind a celestial body) and when they emerged, commander Frank Borman read a passage from the Bible and also said they had seen Santa Claus...Like they do on the news sometimes, you know when they say they've seen Santa Claus on the radar on Christmas day (in North America anyway) It was a nice moment...but nothing to do with UFOs :-P

Louis

Your point being?

Billions of people believe in something that has absolutley no historical ,scientific or eyewitness evidence. So based on that criteria UFO witnesses are just as credible.