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Post by swamprat on Feb 5, 2020 23:36:24 GMT
A Ted Talk Wanted: The Science of UFOs NOTE FROM TED: We’ve flagged this talk, which was filmed at a TEDx event, because it appears to fall outside TEDx’s content guidelines. Claims made in this talk only represent the speaker’s personal understanding of UFOs which are not corroborated by scientific evidence. TEDx events are independently organized by volunteers. The guidelines we give organizers are described in more detail here: storage.ted.com/tedx/manuals/t...
If any UFOs proved to be extra-terrestrial it would be one of the most important events in human history. Yet there has long been a taboo in modern society on taking UFOs seriously, which has blocked any systematic science to try to determine what they are. Skeptics will say that is because UFOs do not exist, but the US Navy has recently confirmed that they do, and is making an official policy change to reflect this fact, from ignoring its pilots’ UFO encounters to requiring them to file reports. Yet even with the Navy’s revelation, the UFO taboo remains so strong that the scientific community continues to show no interest in whether or not UFOs are ETs. In this talk Alexander Wendt argues that the UFO taboo is incoherent and unjustified, and proposes a crowd-funded science of UFOs as a way of beginning to learn more about these elusive phenomena. Alexander Wendt received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Minnesota in 1989. He subsequently taught at Yale, Dartmouth, and the University of Chicago before moving to The Ohio State University in 2004. His research interests center on international relations, where he is one of the most cited scholars in the field, and the philosophy of social science. He is the author of two books, Social Theory of International Politics (Cambridge, 1999), which won the “Best Book of the Decade” award from the International Studies Association in 2006; and Quantum Mind and Social Science (Cambridge, 2015), which hasn’t won anything yet. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.
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Post by HAL on Feb 6, 2020 18:39:24 GMT
Thanks for the heads-up Swamp'.
I'm a big fan of TED talks, and will certainly watch that one when I find it.
HAL.
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drwu
Full Member
Posts: 209
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Post by drwu on Feb 6, 2020 21:38:26 GMT
I watched that 12 minute excerpt...nothing new there....he's just making the case for science to start taking the ufo enigma seriously...and people like DR Vallee and others have been saying this for over 30 years.
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Post by swamprat on Feb 8, 2020 16:15:04 GMT
DeVoid No science, please, we’re TEDx By Billy Cox Saturday, Feb 8, 2020 8:10 AM
The most disturbing thing about what happened to Alexander Wendt’s TEDx video this week is that the curators of the TED Talks brand aren’t stupid. Dial up any of the presentations in their voluminous online collection and you’re going to learn something, from international trailblazers like Jane Goodall and Bill Gates, or up-and-coming unknowns with big and provocative ideas.
But after TEDx “flagged” Wendt’s 12-minute lecture “Wanted: A Science of UFOs” even as it reluctantly, belatedly, posted the clip Tuesday on YouTube, you have to wonder if, like SETI’s Seth Shostak, these normally judicious arbiters of what progress is and is not haven’t disqualified themselves from the most astonishing conversation of our age. “Claims made in this talk,” they warned in the video cutlines, “only represent the speaker’s personal understanding of UFOs which are not corroborated by scientific evidence.”
Did you get that? The judges just pleaded guilty. I’m smelling a trend.
A quick scan of the YouTube comment thread shows an overwhelming majority of readers are wondering if TEDx is becoming obsolete. Not that popular opinion expressed by largely anonymous writers couldn’t be dismissed as cheap-shot brain farts from the hoi polloi. But what everyone’s picking up on here is that TEDx’s haughty disclaimer was forecast years ago by the condemned man himself, Wendt, and fellow academician Raymond Duvall. They laid it all out in the journal Political Theory, in a groundbreaking article called “Sovereignty and the UFO.”
Wendt, a political science professor at Ohio State, and Duvall, same field at the University of Minnesota, berated the science establishment for subjecting the UFO issue to a research embargo.
“UFOs have never been systematically investigated by science or the state, because it is assumed to be known that none are extraterrestrial,” they wrote in 2008. “Yet in fact this is not known, which makes the UFO taboo puzzling given the ET possibility … The puzzle is explained by the functional imperatives of anthropocentric sovereignty, which cannot decide a UFO exception to anthropocentrism while preserving the ability to make such a decision. The UFO can be ‘known’ only by not asking what it is.”
Wendt’s TEDx lecture, which he delivered to its Columbus chapter in November, was a bare-bones version of that 12-year-old argument. But he opened it with something neither he nor Duvall had access to back then – Pentagon-certified videos of F-18 airmen chasing UFOs that had interrupted military training exercises, evidence that played a huge role in prompting the Navy last year to update its pilot reporting rules. After jabbing establishment science for its myopia and hypocrisy, Wendt went on to advocate a networked study of the phenomenon using ground-based automatic-surveillance stations doing round-the-clock all-sky surveys.
“The first responsibility of academics is to tell the truth. And the truth is, we have no idea what UFOs are, and no one in a position of power or authority is trying to find out. That should surprise and disturb us all,” he concluded. “And I think raises the question of whether the people should try to find out themselves first instead.”
Wendt says this week’s controversy goes back to last year, as he was planning to accept an invitation to weigh in on the “ancient aliens” fuss. New to the lecture scene, he consulted with an OSU media trainer for pointers. She happened to be a TEDx-Columbus member, and she was impressed enough by his arguments to encourage him to apply to discuss UFOs in the prestigious TED-sanctioned venue.
What Wendt didn’t anticipate on the front end was resistance by the local TEDx leadership to the material; after all, even the Defense Department now admits the challenge is real and problematic. “Originally, they were going to kill the talk altogether,” he says. But with his contact’s persistence, they relented and allowed him to proceed.
Weeks passed, and the lecture never popped up online. When Wendt asked what was up, she told him TEDx officials didn’t want to release it because it violated the guidelines.
“Science is a big part of the TED universe,” those guidelines state in part, “and it’s important that TEDx organizers sustain our reputation as a credible forum for sharing ideas that matter. It’s not always easy to distinguish between real science and pseudoscience, and purveyors of false wisdom typically share their theories with as much sincerity and earnestness as legitimate researchers.”
That’s a fair concern if you’re wide awake and paying attention to current events. But “real science” is informed, not dogmatic, and this unforced error makes you wonder if TEDx is even living in the 21st century. The Technology, Entertainment, Design speaker culture that originated in Silicon Valley in 1984 either doesn’t know, or doesn’t care, that a new group of serious investors, entrepreneurs and techies banding together to conduct UFO field research has its roots in, well, Silicon Valley.
“I think, if they watched the video, clearly they just didn’t get it, they couldn’t get through their own preconceptions about what’s real and what’s not, and I don’t understand their reasoning at all,” Wendt says. “My previous work would’ve predicted this. If there’s no science proving any of this, it’s because people like them won’t let us do the science. That’s really the irony of the whole thing, and all I’m saying is, let’s do the science.
“But I think the wind is changing. I really have a feeling that there’s a lot of stuff happening and the whole tide is turning. So this (TEDx disclaimer) is really a rear-guard action by advocates of the taboo, who will be the losers of history in the end, I think.”
More than 14,000 views in four days, a respectable debut. Wonder how many TEDsters were in on the decision to disavow Wendt’s video. Hm. Well, their decision just created legions of new critics questioning TEDx’s relevance. And that’s just one more damn thing I never thought I’d live to see.
devoid.blogs.heraldtribune.com/author/cox/
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Post by swamprat on Feb 8, 2020 18:01:07 GMT
Here is a scientist's response:
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Post by buzzbomb on Feb 11, 2020 22:06:12 GMT
WE posted the same shit. I'll delete mine.
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Post by swamprat on Feb 11, 2020 22:17:22 GMT
Sorry, Buzz! I didn't see it!
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Post by buzzbomb on Feb 11, 2020 22:40:53 GMT
I have found the academics incredibly biased to the point of being utterly useless to participate in this conversation. Case in point: Some years ago, I was debating in a forum with a guy who was really into ancient astronaut stuff and Zecharia Sitchin in particular. He posted a pic of what he said was a space capsule with exhaust nozzles in the back and an astronaut in a ribbed suit in the little flight cabin up front. Here it is: So, like Sitchin, he was insisting this is proof. My problem was why are there these large nozzles on the back but no room for an engine? That simply isn't how it works. Large engines require large exhaust ports, small engines do not. So I got this bright idea: there was a science section of this forum where some real scientists and professors hang out and they were some pretty knowledgeable guys. So I posted the pic there and said something to the effect of: "I know this is not an ancient astronaut. But what do you suppose it could be?" The response I received from this very knowledgeable physics professor was along the lines of: "Please don't post this garbage in here. This is not for pseudoscience. This is for serious inquiries only." I was burned up when I read that. I just said that I KNOW it is not an ancient astronaut but what was the artist showing us? It was legitimate inquiry and NOTHING that could be termed in any wise "pseudoscience." I really respected that guy up to then because his knowledge of relativity was top-notch. Now I was pissed at his attitude. The next day, a lady who may or may not have been a scientist, responded by telling me to stand the photo on end with the cone pointing up and I immediately saw it: It was a bearded dwarfed entity of some sort in a conical hat or helmet. The exhaust ports where a folded or maybe even a pleated skirt. Perhaps a god of some sort. EUREKA! There it was! I told her she had made a terrific interp and that I fully agreed with it. So this lady, whom I don't think was a scientist, came up with a great answer to the question: "If it isn't a space capsule then what is it?" The physics professor, in spite of all his brains and all his learning, was a perfectly useless piece of shit. So you got a microcosm of the scientific academia in regards to UFOs and what not. They are not equipped to deal with it and that is scary because if it does turn out to be real, if their brains are incapacitated by stuffy-assed stupidity, who are we going to depend on for answers?
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Post by buzzbomb on Feb 11, 2020 22:42:09 GMT
Sorry, Buzz! I didn't see it! No, yours was earlier. I only posted mine today so no one responded and therefore no great loss to delete it.
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Post by mryelm on Feb 27, 2020 16:42:08 GMT
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>THIS IS A PARTIAL QUOTE<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<THIS IS A PARTIAL QUOTE<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< I have found the academics incredibly biased to the point of being utterly useless to participate in this conversation. Case in point: Some years ago, I was debating in a forum with a guy who was really into ancient astronaut stuff and Zecharia Sitchin in particular. He posted a pic of what he said was a space capsule with exhaust nozzles in the back and an astronaut in a ribbed suit in the little flight cabin up front. Here it is: So, like Sitchin, he was insisting this is proof. My problem was why are there these large nozzles on the back but no room for an engine? That simply isn't how it works. Large engines require large exhaust ports, small engines do not. So I got this bright idea: there was a science section of this forum where some real scientists and professors hang out and they were some pretty knowledgeable guys. So I posted the pic there and said something to the effect of: "I know this is not an ancient astronaut. But what do you suppose it could be?" The response I received from this very knowledgeable physics professor was along the lines of: "Please don't post this garbage in here. This is not for pseudoscience. This is for serious inquiries only." I was burned up when I read that. I just said that I KNOW it is not an ancient astronaut but what was the artist showing us? It was legitimate inquiry and NOTHING that could be termed in any wise "pseudoscience." I really respected that guy up to then because his knowledge of relativity was top-notch. Now I was pissed at his attitude. I agree with most of your statements buzzbomb. When writing or worse (for me) do live reporting* on something controversial like UFO's I always prepare. For instance before the event I grow several new layers of bullet resistant armored skin! Then for additional self defense I.....lol, no, I don't, but you get the pic? Debating a mainstream bigoted (biased against anything that deviates from the status quo)fellow or worse a professional 'mainstream' scientist is really like going into a firefight! Really its not funny at all, 'it' being the belittling comments from those hostile to anyone or anything UFO related. Also even if the person being interviewed is somewhat friendly it's obvious by their tone and mocking answers they are not taking what I say seriously. Sometimes even professional scientists are knowledge challenged about the subject they are vigorously debasing! They seem dedicated to do things that seek to hinder discovery etc. NOTES; * … "When writing or worse do live reporting" Like everyone else these days I am playing with reporting on all things UFO via posting on U Tube. Its a hobby first, and we will see where it goes. My first vid will be about a phenomenon that happens near here. Semi Famous its called the brown mountain lights, and has hundreds of vids posted on U tube. See youal' there?
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Post by mryelm on Feb 27, 2020 17:04:03 GMT
I have found the academics incredibly biased to the point of being utterly useless to participate in this conversation. Case in point: Some years ago, I was debating in a forum with a guy who was really into ancient astronaut stuff and Zecharia Sitchin in particular. He posted a pic of what he said was a space capsule with exhaust nozzles in the back and an astronaut in a ribbed suit in the little flight cabin up front. Here it is: (DELETED FOR SIZE...MINE) So, like Sitchin, he was insisting this is proof. My problem was why are there these large nozzles on the back but no room for an engine? That simply isn't how it works. Large engines require large exhaust ports, small engines do not. So I got this bright idea: there was a science section of this forum where some real scientists and professors hang out and they were some pretty knowledgeable guys. So I posted the pic there and said something to the effect of: "I know this is not an ancient astronaut. But what do you suppose it could be?" The response I received from this very knowledgeable physics professor was along the lines of: "Please don't post this garbage in here. This is not for pseudoscience. This is for serious inquiries only." I was burned up when I read that. I just said that I KNOW it is not an ancient astronaut but what was the artist showing us? It was legitimate inquiry and NOTHING that could be termed in any wise "pseudoscience." I really respected that guy up to then because his knowledge of relativity was top-notch. Now I was pissed at his attitude. THE ABOVE POST IS A PARTIAL QUOTE>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>THIS IS A PARTIAL QUOTE<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<THIS IS A PARTIAL QUOTE<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< I agree with most of your statements buzzbomb. When writing or worse (for me) do live reporting* on something controversial to the mases like UFO's I always prepare. For instance before the event I grow several new layers of bullet resistant armored skin! Then for additional self defense I.....lol, no, I don't, but you get the pic? Debating a mainstream bigoted (biased against anything that deviates from the status quo)fellow or worse a professional 'mainstream' scientist is really like going into a firefight! Really its not funny at all, 'it' being the belittling comments from those hostile to anyone or anything UFO related. Also even if the person being interviewed is somewhat friendly it's obvious by their tone and mocking answers they are not taking what I say seriously. Sometimes even professional scientists are knowledge challenged about the subject they are vigorously debasing! They seem dedicated to do things that seek to hinder discovery etc. NOTES; * … "When writing or worse do live reporting" Like everyone else these days I do 'reporting' by interviewing people using a friend as to shoot the vid while I interrogate ..ah' interview the subject. My first vid will be about a phenomenon that happens about 20 miles from here. Semi Famous its called the brown mountain lights, and has hundreds of vids posted on U tube. Below is a bing Img of nice forestry service sign (lol)….. seems the Brown mountain lights are camera shy I couldn't find any online that looked like the ones I saw. Not even the extensive phots in the bing img's file look like what I have viewed at brown mountain, hence the disappointing pic! See youal' there?
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Post by nyx on Feb 27, 2020 19:55:29 GMT
The great taboo?
Why is everyone so afraid of E.T.s ?
The countries of the UK and U.S. claim UFOs are completely harmless.
In fact the U.S. has issued a statement to the effect that if you see a UFO do not contact us, but contact your local police or Bigelow Aerospace.
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