My main problem with UFO pictures

[Loredoctor]

Why is it that despite 50-60 years of UFO photos no one has ever taken a picture up close? I'm sick of seeing UFO photos where the craft are supposedly flying over cities yet somehow it's only ever far away; where are the photos from people close up in the city? It's illogical.

[sgt.null]

you would think with all the cameras, video cameras, cell phones, etc we would have outstanding pics of ufos.

[Loredoctor]

And yet to this day all we have are distant images.

[sgt.null]

easier to fake distant images.

[drew]

Maybe all the Aliens flying the UFO's are just really REALLY small; so even though the picture is up close, it looks like it's far away.

[Prebe]

May I venture the guess that the UFO pictures, that exist, remain UFO pictures because the depict just that? I mean, if it was well defined it wouldn't be a UFO would it?

[Loredoctor]

May I venture the guess that the UFO pictures, that exist, remain UFO pictures because the depict just that? I mean, if it was well defined it wouldn't be a UFO would it?

True, but you know what I mean: that they represent alien spacecraft. I mean, the term has become largely synonymous with alien spacecraft.

[Prebe]

True, but you know what I mean: that they represent alien spacecraft.

Of course. Just messing with you man

[Loredoctor]

True, but you know what I mean: that they represent alien spacecraft.

Of course. Just messing with you man

Bastard!

[High Lord Tolkien]

Why would an alien spacecraft or probe look like anything that we would identify as such?

[matrixman]

I've heard it argued that the fuzziness of UFO pictures is due to the fact that the people taking such pics are usually in too much of a frantic, excited state to be able to calmly adjust their camera settings to get an optimal image. That does sound believable to me. Indeed, a crystal clear image might be looked upon as skeptically as a fuzzy one - if not more so. We would be asking ourselves, isn't it remarkable that whoever took this one sharp photo seems to have had the benefit of time to prepare his/her camera in advance, and the benefit of cooperative "aliens" who stayed in one spot. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that it's been the clearer pictures that have been most easily debunked. I agree, though, that it's almost as incredible that no one has been able to take a sharp photo of a "genuine" alien craft in all these years. Which brings up HLT's comment:

Why would an alien spacecraft or probe look like anything that we would identify as such?

Good point!

I believe in the sincerity of most UFO picture-takers, but, yes, it's frustrating that people will jump to the conclusion that some object must be "alien" just because it's unidentified.

[Prebe]

HLT: Good point indeed. The same goes for the aliens themselves. We might not now if it was an intelligent lifeform before it bit us in the butt!
For the same reason: What is "intelligence" and "lifeform" when it comes to aliens?

Does anyone here believe that we have allready been in contact with alien lifeforms?

[Marv]

Does anyone here believe that we have allready been in contact with alien lifeforms?

They're Made Out Of Meat
Imagine if you will ..the leader of the fifth invader force speaking to the commander in chief...

"They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"Meat. They're made out of meat."

"Meat?"

"There's no doubt about it. We picked several from different parts of the planet, took them aboard our recon vessels, probed them all the way through. They're completely meat."

"That's impossible. What about the radio signals? The messages to the stars?"

"They use the radio waves to talk, but the signals don't come from them. The signals come from machines."

"So who made the machines? That's who we want to contact."

"They made the machines. That's what I'm trying to tell you. Meat made the machines."

"That's ridiculous. How can meat make a machine? You're asking me to believe in sentient meat."

"I'm not asking you, I'm telling you. These creatures are the only sentient race in the sector and they're made out of meat."

"Maybe they're like the Orfolei. You know, a carbon-based intelligence that goes through a meat stage."

"Nope. They're born meat and they die meat. We studied them for several of their life spans, which didn't take too long. Do you have any idea the life span of meat?"

"Spare me. Okay, maybe they're only part meat. You know, like the Weddilei. A meat head with an electron plasma brain inside."

"Nope. We thought of that, since they do have meat heads like the Weddilei. But I told you, we probed them. They're meat all the way through."

"No brain?"

"Oh, there is a brain all right. It's just that the brain is made out of meat!"

"So... what does the thinking?"

"You're not understanding, are you? The brain does the thinking. The meat."

"Thinking meat! You're asking me to believe in thinking meat!"

"Yes, thinking meat! Conscious meat! Loving meat. Dreaming meat. The meat is the whole deal! Are you getting the picture?"

"Omigod. You're serious then. They're made out of meat."

"Finally, Yes. They are indeed made out meat. And they've been trying to get in touch with us for almost a hundred of their years."

"So what does the meat have in mind?"

"First it wants to talk to us. Then I imagine it wants to explore the universe, contact other sentients, swap ideas and information. The usual."

"We're supposed to talk to meat?"

"That's the idea. That's the message they're sending out by radio. 'Hello. Anyone out there? Anyone home?' That sort of thing."

"They actually do talk, then. They use words, ideas, concepts?"

"Oh, yes. Except they do it with meat."

"I thought you just told me they used radio."

"They do, but what do you think is on the radio? Meat sounds. You know how when you slap or flap meat it makes a noise? They talk by flapping their meat at each other. They can even sing by squirting air through their meat."

"Omigod. Singing meat. This is altogether too much. So what do you advise?"

"Officially or unofficially?"

"Both."

"Officially, we are required to contact, welcome, and log in any and all sentient races or multibeings in the quadrant, without prejudice, fear, or favor. Unofficially, I advise that we erase the records and forget the whole thing."

"I was hoping you would say that."

"It seems harsh, but there is a limit. Do we really want to make contact with meat?"

"I agree one hundred percent. What's there to say?" `Hello, meat. How's it going?' But will this work? How many planets are we dealing with here?"

"Just one. They can travel to other planets in special meat containers, but they can't live on them. And being meat, they only travel through C space. Which limits them to the speed of light and makes the possibility of their ever making contact pretty slim. Infinitesimal, in fact."

"So we just pretend there's no one home in the universe."

"That's it."

"Cruel. But you said it yourself, who wants to meet meat? And the ones who have been aboard our vessels, the ones you have probed? You're sure they won't remember?"

"They'll be considered crackpots if they do. We went into their heads and smoothed out their meat so that we're just a dream to them."

"A dream to meat! How strangely appropriate, that we should be meat's dream."

"And we can mark this sector unoccupied."

"Good. Agreed, officially and unofficially. Case closed. Any others? Anyone interesting on that side of the galaxy?"

"Yes, a rather shy but sweet hydrogen core cluster intelligence in a class nine star in G445 zone. Was in contact two galactic rotation ago, wants to be friendly again."

"They always come around."

"And why not? Imagine how unbearably, how unutterably cold the universe would be if one were all alone."

[Loredoctor]

Does anyone here believe that we have allready been in contact with alien lifeforms?

I don't.

[I'm Murrin]

What would be the odds of it, really? Where would they have come from? Where do they go after they visit? How come they never fly past one of our many telescopes?
I don't think we've been in contact with aliens. I doubt there's a single species in the universe that made it out of its own solar system, if they even got off the ground in the first place. Space is just too damned big.

[Loredoctor]

And if they have, where are they now? Why is it no one has commented about the contact. If there's one thing history has shown us, you can't keep secrets for long.

[Avatar]

Tazz.

--A