10/4 • UFOs and Nukes: The Malmstrom AFB Incident

Texts for Tues. Oct 4th

1. Robert Salas, Unidentified: The UFO Phenomenon, pp. 19-77

2. Robert Salas' testimony at the Citizens Hearing on UFO Disclosure

Highly Recommended

Documentary: UFOs and Nukes

First Assignment: Classifying UFO reports

Due Oct 6th

Choose a UFO contact case from ufoevidence.org, mufon.com, or some other source for ufo reports that you find interesting.

1. Write in your own words an account of the incident. 

2. Offer an account of the chain of evidence - that is, as much detail as you can find regarding the witnesses involved and how their reports were taken. 

3. Use Hynek’s classification system to rate the incident in terms of strangeness and probability. (see handout)

4. Come to class on prepared to share your report.

UFO image taken in Cockaponsett State Forest, CT 2005

Types of UFOs which reappear in Project Blue Book and elsewhere

Photo & Video footage of UFOS

Photographs of UFOs

The Gulf Breeze 1995 video

Mexican Air Force video of UFO (2004)

Space Shuttle STS75 "Tether Incident"

More interesting video footage of UFOS

Links to Hoaxed CGI UFO Videos

Audio transmission from STS29

Debunking Versus Being Skeptical

Debunking 

= Setting out to deny something by finding evidence to support the denial

= Fitting evidence to a pre-determined conclusion

Being Skeptical 

= Holding your beliefs open to being challenged, ultimately altered or destroyed completely if evidence comes to light which undermines their truth.

= Adopting beliefs which are based in evidence, even if this goes against everything you’ve ever trusted and believed in.

9/29 • The Extraterrestrial Hypothesis for Genuine UFOs & the Rendlesham Forest Case

Texts for this class:

1. Stanton Friedman, "The Case for the Extraterrestrial Origin of Flying Saucers"

2. Report on the Rendlesham Forest UFO case

3. VIDEO: Documentary on Rendlesham Forest UFO

Other Recommended Texts

Radar evidence in the Rendlesham Forest incident

Recent developments in the Rendlesham Forest case

JAL 1686 & 1976 F-4 Tehran Cases

The Battle of Los Angeles, February 1942

"Foo Fighters" during WWII

Ghost Rockets at the end of WWII

Ghost Rocket over Sweden

May 11, 1950 photos by the Trents

The 1952 UFO wave over Washington D.C.

Former CIA Director Roscoe Hillenkoetter, 1960:

“Behind the scenes, high-ranking Air Force officers are soberly concerned about UFOs. But through official secrecy and ridicule, many citizens are led to believe the unknown flying objects are nonsense.” 

General Arthur Exon, junior officer at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, where the Roswell debris was allegedly brought in 1947: “They knew they had something new in their hands.” 

9/27 Overview of UFO Reports and examination of a famous recent case: JAL 1628

Assignment for Tuesday, April 26th

1. Richard Dolan, "What we know about UFOs and Whether it Matters"

2. Video: Michio Kaku discussing two important recent UFO reports

3. Video: Testimony of FAA Division Chief who investigated JAL 1628.

Other materials

1. Comprehensive Report of JAL 1628 UFO incident

2. Official testimony of JAL 1628 pilot Captain Terauchi.

Drake's Equation

NASA's great exoplanet website

9/22 • Conventional Wisdom: Fermi's Paradox, Drake's Equation and the Search for Exoplanets

Readings for this class

1. Paul K. DiConstanzo, “ ‘Are We Alone?’ Your Guide To Humanity’s Place in the Universe (P. I)”

2. Ian O’Neill, “13 Ways to Hunt Intelligent Life”

3. Steven Greer, "Implications of Extraterrestrial Disclosure"

The Gemini Planet Imager’s first light image of Beta Pictoris b