Was going to post this in non-fiction, but...

[fadedrose]

some person over there questioned whether my post mentioning a ufo author on CSpan2 "belonged in that forum," some weeks ago. Our forum seems to welcome anybody, posting fiction or non-fiction, and I hope it stays that friendly welcoming way.

Anyhow, Stanton Friedman was on Dylan Radigan just now, and tho they didn't mention his book, he seems to have a new one out that he held up, very discreetly, called, "Flying Saucers."

What was interesting was that he said that there were two other secret trips to the moon by the US, Apollos 18 and 19, I think he said, and they met with disastrous outcomes - didn't return. They showed some vague shots of hammers, astronauts in pain, dark figures, whatever.

Anyhow, I saw Stan Friedman in a Glassport, Pa., sometime in the 60's, where he was having a ufo meeting. We felt kinda funny going there, and were surprised to see others we knew whom we always suspected were sane. :)

Anyway, am going to actually pay for a book. - It was a pocketbook.

[PoliticAverse]

1. 'Secret trips'? It's a little hard to miss a Saturn V being launched... n/t

[dmallind]

2. secret rocket launches? Really?

with all the obssessive space fan-boys out there they not only managed to launch two secret missions, but somehow knew in advance which two would run into LGMs, and also managed to keep hundreds, likely thousands, of space-obssessed NASA employees silent for decades about the greatest discovery in human history since fire? But he knows about it??

Yep you're definitely in the right subforum.

[3waygeek]

3. Apollo 18 isn't all that secret anymore...

I've been seeing commercials for the film all weekend.

[PoliticAverse]

4. It's true!....

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0F6DU6gx7-w

[fadedrose]

5. Wowsers!

Long time ago, when I first got my pc, the firstest thing I wanted to learn about was ufo's and was sure the right info would be on the internet. Little did I know. So many web sites, so much bs, but some had a grain of truth.

One thing that bothers me is the ridicule heaped on anyone who saw a ufo, especially when these same ridiculators are members of a religion that would have you believe in more incredulous things than ufos ;) and will not allow anyone to be president unless he believes in the same things.

[dmallind]

7. It's not seeing UFOs that is laughable, to me at any rate

it's pretending that a species capable of interstellar flight would hang out in isolated parts of earth slashing up cows and anally probing farmers. And of course the shadowy-government conspiracy theories like the one posted above, that posit an entity collectively incapable of keeping their own extramarital affairs quiet can somehow, for decades, maintain the secrecy of thousands of people privy to the answer to the greatest mystery in human history, and only a few internet dweebs have worked it out.

You also conflate two very different things. The existence of extraterrestrial life, while unknown, is a near certainty to anyone who understands four basic ideas: 1) what factors are necessary to sustain life even as we know it 2) how many planets of the tiny number we have studied in detail show evidence of at least some of these factors 3) a rough estimate of the number of planets in the universe and 4) basic probability theory. None of those are beyond Freshman 101 in their respective disciplines. But it's a huge gap between there likely being some other kind of life somewhere, and thinking it's swinging by Montana flashing its lights at ranchers for no explained reason.

After all a UFO is by definition unidentified. Seeing something unidentified is a daily event. Something unidentifiABLE is much rarer but well-documented and unquestionable. It's people who invent identities for the unidentified who get the laughs.

But yes - zombie Jewish carpenters with the power of transubstantiation and dead-raising are a bit more incredible (outlandish claims are incredible, people who disbelieve them are incredulous) than big-eyed grays who buzz rural trailer parks for kicks.

[fadedrose]

6. Thanks for that link

If I weren't so busy reading fiction I would watch more TV and have seen it.

I used to think that someday we would know the truth, then gave up, but not in believing that there are extraterrestrials, just that I would ever know.

If we are getting closer to disclosure, this film if accurate would be a cool way to break the news gradually.

[SheilaT]

8. The idea that there really would have been

secret trips to the moon -- successfully kept secret all these years, no less -- is genuinely hilarious. I certainly look forward to seeing the movie, but anyone who takes that kind of thing seriously simply cannot distinguish fiction from reality.

Of course, I find that a surprising number of people do think that whatever they see in a movie must be true, and I've gotten into some very frustrating arguments from people over those kinds of things.