James B. Meigs in his review (WSJ, Nov. 29) of Garrett Graff's book “UFO: The Inside Story of the US Government’s Search for Alien Life Here—and Out There,” appears to fall into the same mental traps as earlier reviewers of such fare- such as Kate Dorsch in her Physics Today review of a UFO book, e.g.
Physics Today Book Reviewer Kate Dorsch Is As Clueless About UFOs As Neil DeGrasse Tyson
Meigs shows, for example, he's not done adequate research in the topic, as when he writes:
"Almost always investigators have hesitated to say too much. For one thing, full disclosure might reveal military secrets unrelated to space aliens. The Roswell debris, for example, appears to have come from a classified project that used balloons to detect Soviet nuclear tests. "
Failing to process that this nonsense had already been skewered by physicist C.B. Moore of the New Mexico Institute of Science and Technology at the time. According to Prof. Moore,
"There were no such balloons in use back then, in 1947. The Skyhook series didn't even come onstream in New Mexico in 1947."
Moore ought to know as he was part of a high-altitude balloon project based out of White Sands, NM. Adding:
"No balloon in use back then could have produced such a large debris field, over such a large area and torn up the ground as well."
But he then compounds his UFO-UAP dereliction by doubling down on Mr. Graff's own false depiction of one time UFO skeptic (and astronomy popularizer) Dr. Carl Sagan, as when he blurts:
"Sagan, Mr. Graff writes, was “an outspoken skeptic on UFO visits to Earth even as he championed the scientific search for life beyond.” In both domains, Sagan insisted on the rigorous application of scientific reasoning. Today his oft-repeated phrase, “extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” is a yardstick too rarely applied in UFO investigations."
Please. Serious investigators and indeed those who have had their own papers published in peer-reviewed astronomy journals - have always applied it, like I have in my own UAP paper, e..g.
Transient Optical Phenomena of the Atmosphere - a Case Study
But we also are sensible enough to change when altering inputs or data arrive. Noting when Sagan did finally come around to accepting the validity in a one-on-one with Northwestern University astronomy, J.Allen Hynek, made known in a SETI post:
https://setiathome.berkeley.edu/forum_thread.php?id=76926
Excerpt: "The pillar of modern space science Dr. Carl Sagan revealed to Dr. J. Allen Hynek, that he knew UFOs were real but could not talk publicly about the matter and possibly risk the loss of academic funding."
Predictably, as with the case of the Project Mogul balloon myth, this is also off Meig's radar as it is author Garrett Graff's. But Meig doesn't stop with these egregious omissions, going on to target the evidence in leaked videos e.g.
captured in 2017 by U.S. Navy pilots - who as trained military ought to be able to tell an actual craft from a "stray balloon", or conventional craft, writing:
"The short clips seemed to show blurry objects hovering or racing through the skies. The media responded with breathless coverage, and Congress demanded briefings. A government-funded investigation into one of the Navy incidents concluded: “The Anomalous Aerial Vehicle (AAV) was no known aircraft or air vehicle currently in the inventory of the United States or any foreign nation.”
Neglecting again, that the evidence wasn't mere "ambiguous camera footage" but based on first hand observation by the Nimitz crew -pilots, commander. As they expressed on the 60 Minutes segment. As for Sagan, I showed earlier he had come round to accepting the "extraordinary evidence" was there, and this was decades before the Navy pilots' encounters and reports.
So what we have again is a book review that dodges the reality by covering it in bunkum and bland, middle mind tropes and memes. Or to quote astronomer Chris Impey: "This is still mostly an area where scientists fear to tread."
Or, as I've noted before, when faced with evidence of a much more advanced technology humans - like Meigs and Graff- are in much the same position as a Neandertal hunter trying to make sense of an F-117 Nighthawk. And as surely get it wrong - given the level of scientific maturity, openness and insight needed to make a correct interpretation is exactly what these hee-haws lack.
And as surely get it wrong - given the level of scientific maturity, openness and insight needed to make a correct interpretation is exactly what these hee-haws lack. Perhaps because they are wrapped into the 'human sovereignty' meme as exposed in a 2008 paper by Alexander Wendt and Raymond Duvall, e.g.
Sovereignty and the UFO - Alexander Wendt, Raymond Duvall, 2008
Therein they note the phenomenon of the UFO tends to be rejected as real - by government sources, as well as the military and the media - because it comes up against the human concept of state sovereignty. The basic takeaway: Humans, particularly in the top echelons of government, military, can't handle the concept of competition with any kind of more advanced exterior (to Earth) civilization. But is that any excuse to peddle twaddle and endless debunking bunkum? I think not.
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