William G. Pullin

Greetings. The Bandwagon Effect. A ticket to ride the UFO train to herd mentality.  The bandwagon effect is a psychological phenomenon in which people do something primarily because other people are doing it, regardless of their own belief structures, which they may ignore, override, or abandon. This tendency of people to align their beliefs and behaviors with those of a larger group is commonly referred to as a herd mentality. Following others' actions or beliefs can occur because of the influence of information coming from others. A substantial majority of the bandwagon effect's influence comes from the desire to 'fit in' with peers; by making similar selections as other people, this is seen as a way to gain access to a particular social club or group. The phenomenon is observed in various fields, such as economics, political science, medicine, and psychology. In social psychology, people's tendency to align their belief structures and personal behaviors with a gr...

Greetings. Christopher Hitchens (April 13th of 1949 - December 15th of 2011) Christopher Eric Hitchens was a British and American author, critic, educator, journalist, and intellectual. During his long, storied, and accomplished career Hitchens wrote 18 books on faith, culture, politics and literature. Born and educated in Great Britain, Hitchens graduated in the 1970s from Oxford with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics. By the dawn of the 1980s Hitchens had emigrated to the United States and wrote extensively for The Nation and Vanity Fair, becoming known for his intelligent and thoughtful approach to various topics of importance. His epistemological razor, "What can be asserted without evidence can also be dismissed without evidence" is still held in high regard in the fields of law, science, and philosophy. Mr. Hitchens steadfastly defended the rights of free speech and of open inquiry, regardless of the particular topic or individual point of view being taken ...

Greetings. The age of the universe.  In classical cosmology, the age of the universe is defined as the length of time elapsed since the Big Bang, the explosion that birthed the universe as we know it. Astronomers have derived two different measurements of the age of the universe: 1. A measurement based on direct observations of an infant state of the universe, which indicate an age of approximately 13.787±0.020 billion years.  2. A measurement based on the observations of the local, modern universe, which suggest a younger age overall. The uncertainty of the first measurement mentioned has been narrowed down to about 20 million years, based on a number of studies that all have reached a scientific consensus showing similar mathematical figures for the universe's age. These studies include long term examinations of the microwave background radiation by the Planck spacecraft, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, and other space probes of note. Measurements of the cosmic bac...

Greetings. The question. Are we alone in the universe? That particular query has been on the minds of people for centuries, perhaps since the days of prehistoric humans.  Perhaps no other unanswered question has held such an intense fascination, or such historic ramifications for the human race. Although the vast majority of laypersons and the scientific community believes that extraterrestrial life exists somewhere out in the cosmos, we simply don't know beyond a shadow of a doubt. We just don't know. To a great extent the resulting discussions and considerations have centered around the commonality of potential homes for extraterrestrial life, exoplanets. Thanks to the efforts of astronomers around the world, and the wonderful technology available to them, we now know of thousands and thousands of exoplanets. While the majority of exoplanets have been determined to be gas giants, similar in composition and construction to the Solar System's Jupiter and Saturn, we do know ...

Greetings. The speed of light in a vacuum. 299,792,458 meters per second, or approximately 186,000 miles per second, or 671 million miles per hour. The speed limit of the universe, beyond which nothing with mass can travel.  Thanks to the herculean efforts of the late Nobel laureate Albert Einstein (March 14th of 1879 - April 18th of 1955) we know far more about how the fabric of the universe works, including the intimate relationship between space and time and gravity. According to Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity, which was published in his 1905 paper "On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies," 'c' is the upper limit for the speed at which normal energy and matter can travel through normal space. The theory posits the two following ideas:  1. The laws of physics are invariant (identical) in all inertial frames of reference (that is, frames of reference with no acceleration.) This is known as the principle of relativity.  2. The speed of light in vacuum is ...

Greetings. Money. Perhaps no other carnal motivation can be so influential on a field of study or entertainment industry as money. The goal of financial gain, the allure of the almighty dollar and its attached gems, prizes, and ancillary treasures. Although the lure of money has always been a part of our capitalistic society, it goes without saying that some spheres of activity are far more susceptible to money's pull, money's power, money's attraction.  The UFO subculture may be at the summit of that particular heap, completely at the mercy of the almighty dollar, with the field having willfully abandoned its integrity decades ago to chase the dollars down the UFO road to oblivion. In past decades, the UFO field had a strong representation of legitimate researchers and investigators, all working to solve the UFO problem, whereas nowadays the credibility of the majority of the people who have a level of notoriety in the field is firmly in question. Once upon a time, the UFO...

Greetings. The question of whether or not we are alone in the vast expanse that is the known universe has been at the forefront of the human condition since we first descended from the trees of Africa all those uncounted thousands of years ago. Cavemen living in Europe likely spent time looking at the stars in the Pleistocene night sky, wondering and wondering.  Now the human race has arrived at 2024, with our technology and intelligence. But has anything changed, and what about them?  We have spent vast amounts of time and money on exploratory efforts to learn about the universe and its mysteries. We have landed on the Moon, sent unmanned probes to the outer planets, and even made it as far as escaping the heliosphere into interstellar space. All amazing accomplishments for a species of hominid from a rocky planet orbiting an ordinary main sequence star in the Milky Way Galaxy.  On the other side of the coin, we have spent vast amounts of time and money blowing members o...

Greetings. Dispassionate discussions about the UFO problem have become less and less commonplace, especially when involving people who embrace the 'woo,' the illogical, the ridiculous, the nonsensical. A case in point follows.... "When CSETI, CSETI Vancouver and all global CE-5 Groups are making contact and communicating with ETs!!"  The above comment was left behind by a Facebook page called "CSETI Vancouver" on a recent article I posted on my Facebook blog platform. My response read as follows, and I quote, "Provide physical, tangible, falsifiable proof or evidence to support your declaration." Not an unreasonable response, but one that kicked off a ridiculous series of comments that led to nowhere, except to the wacko, batshit crazy world of CE-5.  As the interaction continued, the comments coming from CSETI Vancouver continued to be emotional and subjective, complete with a plethora of rude rhetoric, embarrassing misspellings, and multiple excl...

Greetings. Derrel Sims, otherwise known in UFO circles as "The Alien Hunter."  Mr. Sims has consistently made claims of having recovered evidence of alien visitation, specifically in the form of implants left behind in the bodies of alleged abductees. Unfortunately, Mr. Sims has not provided any documents that demonstrate that any scientific examinations have actually been undertaken. None, and it doesn't seem to occur to anyone in the UFO subculture to ask for them. Why? I haven't the foggiest idea. Perhaps the UFO crowds are simply dense, or they just don't care, or they are willing to believe anything that comes out of any celebrity's mouth, or worse, all of the above. Talk is cheap, verifiable proof is necessary. If anyone is uncomfortable with that reasonable standard, then their intelligence and integrity should be questioned.  "●The lab should be a certified and licensed lab for the tests that are to be done. ●It must have performed those tests oft...

Greetings. The UFO subculture is populated with a slew of "investigative organizations," groups on social media that claim to conduct investigations, or simply use the title as a description of their group. Are any of these "investigative organizations" worthy of the title or description?  Let's take a look at the situation, as it was, and as it is now...  1975's "The Edge of Reality: A Progress Report on Unidentified Flying Objects," co-written by the late Dr. J. Allen Hynek and Jacques Vallee, contains a candid discussion about private UFO investigative organizations, with Hynek and Vallee making a series of straightforward comments about the efforts of amateur groups, specifically the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena (NICAP) and the Aerial Phenomena Research Organization (APRO.) Several points are made by the two gentlemen, all of which are worthy of consideration here:  1. Private organizations don't openly share inform...

Greetings. I make efforts to not focus on the Roswell case during the course of the calendar year, but I will make an exception here. Emotional factors demand it. It had been five years since I had last made the journey to Roswell, New Mexico, and it had been far too long. The town itself had not changed all that much, which I expected, but the changes within the hallowed halls of the International UFO Museum and Research Center were truly awe-inspiring. The UFO Museum looks far more professional than in years past, although I am still in some disagreement with the content and conclusions of some of the new displays. The UFO Museum's Library and Research Center seemed to have grown, and that is saying something considering that it is one of the largest such caches of information on the UFO problem currently in existence. As always, the staff at the UFO Museum was helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable, always ready to assist in any way possible. They are a credit to the town, the UFO...