Do you believe there are Extraterrestrial beings ?

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I always say to scoffers at such- "there are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

I am not sure how to characterize my own position on it. Statistically speaking I think life elsewhere likely, but logistically speaking believe it would be very difficult for them to visit.

Anyway, I think when considering UFOs, more weight should be given to possibilities that are known rather then those only speculated. I don't have an suggested explanation for the Italian sightings in the video, but did want to point out some things about apparent aicraft anomalies.

Aircraft can appear to do odd things depending on their direction of flight in reference to you. While coming at you they can appear not to move, or move only very slowly. If they then make an abrubt turn they will appear to have suddenly accelerated dramatically.

The appearence of an aircraft can be deceptive as well. A light colored or metalic aircraft in particular will appear to grow or shrink in size and intensity depending on its position relative to the sun due to how this coloring greatly reflects the suns light. An aircraft can appear bright and large at a distance because it is at an angle that is reflecting the light and then appear to shrink and dim as it actually gets closer. Turns can also dramatically change its appearence.

The basic shape of an aircraft being cruciform also generates some shifting appearence as sometimes both fusilage and wings will reflect light together and sometimes only one or the other depending on its angle to the observer and the sun.

I have gotten to observe these phenomena often while tracking aircraft optically with telescopic cameras while simultaneously doing so electrically with radars or transponders. So you can observe what the aircraft appears to be doing optically while seeing what it is actually doing physically. Anomalies can also occur electrically, sometimes for the same reason (reflection, but of radar waves not light) and sometimes due to the effects caused by terrain or weather. They can also occur due very small defects in the antenna, undetectable to any standard evaluation. This can cause radar or other tracking operators to get distorted or strange returns or indications. Imrovements in the equipment have reduced this however.

All in all it just gives one possible explanation for sightings that do not appear to the observer to follow the typical or expected pattern of an aircraft.

Yup exactly.

As an avid plane spotter myself I spend available time "skyfishing". I can cross off a number of spectacular aerial objects in our very clear southern skies that include the following;
kid's helium balloons
high altitude military aircraft leaving trails
hot air balloons
flocks of birds flying on thermals
stars particularly the planet Venus
satellites
moon
comets (these are really spectacular)
meteors (really cool)
large commercial aircraft (2nd most common)
small commercial and private aircraft (most common)
nightclub spotlights (on a cloudy night)
car headlights (on a cloudy night)
I'm fairly confident of cataloging pretty much everything

My interest in skyfishing stems from experiences I had between the age of 8 to 11 living on the west coast of Australia where frequently I would witness small orb shaped lights over the coastline back in the 1970s almost on a nightly basis. I was so confused that I convinced myself it was naval aircraft but as I became older I realised that they were not. It was weird nobody else seemed to notice these lights but I tended to see them in early mornng (around 3am) as I had asthma and insomnia.

I found a video on youtube that is almost exactly what I used to see over the ocean...still freaks me out when I watch this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzRTQ8Yaipw

Hmm... my first impression is of some kind of firework or flare (on a parachute). Though I would expect red for a flare. Considering the stormy looking clouds a rare lightning effect came to mind (ie Ball Lightning) but that dropping a second glowing/burning part is odd. Obviously though that's just idle speculation and I don't know what it is.

Then again, perhaps a flare of a different type. One the military uses for anti-missle purposes. Planes release these to draw away SAMs. A training mission or accidental release at higher altitude might explain it.

Here's a vid of some low flying flare releases. They sometimes have irregular burns. I was stationed on that and other nearby ranges for a while. Not area 51 though!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OvZN-inNSio[/youtube]

Larger military aircraft such as the C5, C17, and B2 can appear very much unlike a normal aircraft under certain conditions such as fog, clouds, or extreme darkness.

I had a career in the Air Force and it was quite common for local folks to report UFO sightings when these aircraft were flying under the conditioned I mentioned.
Each of them can appear to be moving far too slow to be an aircraft. This is because they are powerful and generate an overkill of lift. They don't have to maintain as high an air speed to be stable in flight.

Also, the larger the craft, the more is the effect of their appearing to go slow.
If you could get four C17's to fly in diamond formation, then their lights at night would make it appear as one object almost hovering.

Life likely exists beyond earth.
That said, it's highly unlikely we have or will ever interact with it. It's possible that any life beyond earth is so bizarre as to be virtually incomprehensible to our minds.
When people talk about little grey hermaphrodites with laser guns visiting earth they're jibbering nonsense.

all I know is that what I saw in the summer of 2007 was no weather balloon.

The universe as we know so far contains around 10(24) detectable active stars, or
1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000


Two thirds of these stars or 67% have been around billions of years before life emerged on Earth.

Just one billion years ago the highest form of life on Earth was worms.

The nature of evolution is such that extraterrestrial life just one billion years older than us would represent a difference far greater than that observed between us and worms.


The emergence of life on Earth was not a random event at all, but the result of a physical process of molecular self-organization. Our planet has life in the extreme conditions of the coldest areas, as well as in under-sea volcanic plumes. There is life that requires no Oxygen, and life that requires no sunlight. Life is not as delicate as we were first suspected to believe.

To even entertain the thought that other intelligent life isn't out there is just foolish.

I believe that there may be life "out there" (maybe even in our own Sol system).

I also believe that there may be intelligent life on other worlds (maybe not in our own Sol system).

It is difficult to be certain when there is no empirical evidence to support those beliefs.

and/or arrogant.

Yep. And ignorant.

Absolutely, and those are the people that get the cold anal probe I bet.

And what are we to do when all our memories of them get erased by the flashy thing?

Empirical evidence is very important to me for certain mental processes, however, the lack of shouldn't limit all of the thinking processes.

That life self-assembles is empirical.
The fact that we haven't seen it is inconclusive.

As a small child I hadn't seen the existence of any other towns or landscapes.

some people don't want to entertain anything more complicated than our own little existence.

I simply can not completely rule out the possibility of intelligent extra-terrestrial life forms. It's just that until I meet one, I also can not say with any degree of certainty that they do exist.

It's like an inside-out "Schrödinger's Cat" situation, with the cat not knowing if the professor is alive or dead, and no way to find out before the vial breaks ...