A fun Popular Mechanics article from March 2009 on Flying Saucers.

Music Heard from the Sky

1942 Article on the 1892 Fowler Meteor and Burning Elm

Weird Meteor in Denver 1 Dec 1892

Book found at the used book store today

Ray Palmer: Real Person and Fictionally The Atom

From DC The New Atom #4 referring to the former character, Ray Palmer originally taken from the real life Ray Palmer.

Mysterious Hardin County "Flame"

A Page from "Saucer Country"

Very scary stuff:

Saucer Country No. 2, June 2012

Love this Looney Tunes page!

Bugs being "abducted" by Marvin the Martian.  

Delphi Oracle

Friedman Vs. Asimov (May 1975)

LETTERS

Flying Saucers Are REAL? 

"The Rocketing  Dutchman"   (F&SF-Feb.) was mislabelled "Science." It should have been labelled "fantasy." A scientific article would have resulted from the gathering, evaluation, and investigation of rele­vant data. It would not consist of biased pronouncements from on high based upon ignorance about UFO sightings, who sees them, who believes in them. The logic is faulty, the statistics misleading. Dr. Asimov is entitled to his personal opinions about UFOs; but, let's not present them as science. 

Since 1970 I have been the only space scientist known to be devoting full time to Ufology. I have lectured to hundreds of college and professional audiences in 44 states ("Flying Saucers ARE Real"). Dr, Asimov admits he receives no UFO journals, has read none of the major scientific publica­tions on UFOs, has investigated no sightings and belongs to no UFO organization. Yet he judges the Hill sighting as much more fictional than his stories ... without any knowledge. 

He implies that UFO enthusiasts are mystic cultists, intellectually feeble, unrespectable. A poll of scientists and engineers showed that a majority believe in UFOs. The 1973 Gallup Poll showed that a majority of Americans believe in UFOs and that the greater the education the more likely to believe. 

Dr. Asimov says that the only reason we believers think UFOs are ET spacecraft is that we can't find another  explanation. Hogwash I We who have studied the data have deduced this conclusion because the best reports indicate that some UFOs are manufac­tured. objects of definite size and shape behaving in ways that earthlings have so far been unable to duplicate. If they weren't made here they were made on some other planet _ It is not true that only a small minority of the sightings are neither mistakes nor hoaxes. In the largest scientific UFO study of the 2199 sightings, 2% were psychological aberrations, less than 5% were hoaxes, but 19.70/0 had to be listed as UNKNOWNS - completely separate from the 10.9% listed as "Insufficient Information". The better the quality of the sighting the more likely to be listed as an UNKNOWN. 

In addition to eyewitness testimony (would Dr. Asimov eliminate witness testimony from courts as well as from Ufology?) there are radar reports, animal responses, electromagnetic ef­fects, changes in soil and vegetation produced by UFOs. Comparisons of French sightings independent of US ones reveal identical characteristics. 

Asimov's discussion about life in outer space misses the boat entirely. One can guess any average distance between advanced civilizations when one has no data. An average distance certainly can't be assumed (as Dr. Asimov does) to be the distance to the nearest one. The average distance of the ten largest american cities from my house is 1750 miles. The nearest is 20 miles away. 

Published studies -- by engineers not sci-fi writers - have shown that trips to nearby stars are feasible with reasonable round trip times, without violating the laws of physics and using fission or fusion propulsion, systems on both of which I have worked, One need not go faster than the speed of light or violate relativity. At'99.99% c, a trip to earth from the vicinity of Zeta Reticuli (37 light years) would take only 6 months pilot time. 

It is totally unreasonable for Dr. Asimov to suggest a Black-white world in which Aliens are either here to have tea with earthlings or' would keep hidden. I have elsewhere suggested many reasons for visiting Earth. Is Dr. Asimov so naive as to believe that Aliens wouldn't know that Earth has no leader to be taken to and that every Air Force on Earth would love to grab a flying saucer for its weapons delivery capabilities? 

Stanton T. Friedman, Nuclear Physicist 

Dr. Asimov Replies 

Mr. Friedman's letter is the typical lucubration of the professional UFOl­ogist who makes a good living by lecturing to the naive. The worst thing that can happen to him is to have a real spaceship land - for then conventional scientists will take over. I dare say he doesn't worry about that much, however. 

-Isaac Asimov 

Venus, Mars Inhabited Meteor Expert Reasons

Painesville Telegraph
27 March 1930

Venus, Mars Inhabited Meteor Expert Reasons

Philadelphia, March 27 -

The theory that both Mars and Venus are inhabited has been advanced by Dr. Charles P. Oliver, professor of astronomy, University of Pennsylvania, director of the Flower Observatory and President of the American meteor Society.

He contends that while it is extremely probable that both planets are inhabited by animals, Venus is more likely to be the abode of higher forms of life than Mars.

Mars, according to the professor, does not have a temperature exceeding that of 60 degrees, even at midday of summer, and frequently the temperature drops below the freezing point at night.

"One can conclude then that life does exist on Mars," Dr. Oliver said, "but one can scarecely expect higher forms of life. Reptiles, fishes and birds would be likely, but higher animals unlikely."

On the other hand, Venus, receiving more light and heat from the sun than the earth, would be more likely to be the abode of higher forms of life.

Dr. Oliver said that while the spectroscope does not reveal the existence of any appreciable amount of water-vapor above the clouds of Venus, it is possible that the clouds of Venus are higher than those of the earth, and that oxygen and water-vapor exist at levels lower than those the spetroscope can investigate.

"If oxygen and water-vapor exist on Venus," Dr. Oliver said, "then Venus would be most favorable for life.  And if they do exist, then we could expect higher forms of life to flourish on Venus."

Delphi Oracle Article

Miscellaneous E-Clippings on

Alien Language in the Scientifiction Days

Today's C&EN

Nanotechnology.  Whoa.  Looky what we can do.  This was in this week's Chemical and Engineering Magazine.

Tomorrow is going to be pretty interesting.

A Nightmare

ugh.  I've been reading so much about flying saucers and abduction cases, that I had a nightmare about them.  woke me up way to early on a Saturday morning.

Looking up in the sky, they came through the clouds in their weird space ships.  I sketched this after I got up as close as I can recall in my dream.

I happened to be at a nursing home, of all places, and that's when the invaders made their cruel attack.  They came in droves, but only a few skulked through the doors.  This is the best I could do in sketching the building I was in.  I have no idea what it is, or where it is, except it may have been reminiscent of Waverly Hills, a place I have been to several times.  They each had ray guns, and I think the dream may have been somewhat influenced by Signs.  In any event, this is the best i could recall what they looked like in my sketch.

The oddest thing is that somehow I knew they did not know what a knife was (another element from Signs?) and so they had no idea what i was doing when I took a knife and cut three of their throats.  Their blood as red, but unlike ours it was a blacker red, and more syrupy.  But it was a gory mess, in any event.  But they did not have time to shoot their weird ray guns.  The awfulness woke me up, though, with a huge adrenaline rush.  No way to get back to sleep.

Spooky Trees and Other Things

Cape Town, Texas, 8 January 2012

I see more than one ...

possible snake?

And what if Leonardo DaVinci saw aliens?

Gleason and Those ETs

The legend is amazing.  Here is what i have collected in images, and will add more later.