Derrick Pitts, Astronomer, Wants UFOs Studied With Science - Huffington Post

Nothing kills a career faster than being branded a kook, and in many circles, that's what you are when you admit you've seen a UFO.

The stakes are raised, of course, if we're talking about academic communities, and even more so among astronomers -- people who study the skies.

Many astronomers say there's nothing of any scientific merit that could result in the study of UFOs.

With the career suicide stakes for astronomers so high, some UFO researchers believe many of them are hesitant to step forward. Certainly, the Air Force's Project Bluebook -- the last officially announced government study of unidentified flying objects -- concluded that five percent of the cases investigated could not be immediately explained away.

Nevertheless, one nationally renowned astronomer, Derrick Pitts, tells The Huffington Post that it might be time for a thorough study of unexplained aerial phenomena.

(Courtesy of The Franklin Institute)

"If you say, 'Let's pursue an investigation of UFOs so we can identify where these alien spacecraft are coming from,' then people go, 'What? I'm not touching that with a 10-foot pole.' But if you say, 'Let's look at what the possibilities are that, at one time, there were environments where life possibly could have developed on Mars,' then everybody says, 'Oh, yeah, I want a piece of that,'" said Pitts, senior scientist and chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia.

Pitts, pictured at right, is also a NASA Solar System Ambassador. He told HuffPost about the idea that most serious astronomers give no credence to UFO reports.

"I can speculate about what many astronomers would say if you ask them that question. Many of them would say, 'I haven't seen anything, so I can't say that they exist. I can't say that this five percent are alien spacecraft.' But if you ask them in the same breath, 'Would you be willing to engage in a research project to figure out what these things are,' I don't know what that answer would be.

"I'd say, yeah, let's find out, let's take a look at it, because here we have a phenomenon that causes a tremendous amount of interest. Why not try to understand what it is?"

A careful look at historical records reveals how astronomers have, indeed, not only endorsed efforts to study the UFO phenomenon, but in many cases, have themselves seen unexplained objects for which they couldn't account.

In the late 1940s, astronomer -- and UFO skeptic -- J. Allen Hynek became the scientific consultant to Project Blue Book. During the nearly 20 years that Hynek was charged with explaining away UFO reports, he prepared a "Special Report On Conferences With Astronomers On Unidentified Aerial Objects."

Included in the study of 45 astronomers was a general feeling that "if they were promised complete anonymity and if they could report their sightings to a group of serious, respected scientists who would regard the problem as a scientific one, then they would be willing to cooperate to the very fullest extent."

Watch J. Allen Hynek discussing astronomers and UFOs

Hynek later went on to coin the phrase, "close encounters of the first, second and third kind," which described the various types of UFO reports made by people. As the director of the Center for UFO Studies, he was also the technical consultant -- with a cameo appearance -- in Steven Spielberg's 1977 film, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Also in 1977, astrophysicist Peter Sturrock created a survey based on responses of members of the American Astronomical Society concerning UFOs. One respondent wrote: "I find it tough to make a living as an astronomer these days. It would be professionally suicidal to devote significant time to UFOs. However, I am quite interested in your survey."

A year after Sturrock's survey, Hynek found himself addressing the United Nations, pictured below, on the topic of continuing global sightings of UFOs.

 

"If it were not worldwide, I should not be addressing ... these representatives from many parts of the world," Hynek told the UN Special Political Committee in 1978. "There exists a global phenomenon the scope and extent of which is not generally recognized. It is a phenomenon so strange and foreign to our daily terrestrial mode of thought that it is frequently met by ridicule and derision by persons and organizations unacquainted with the facts.

"Yet, the phenomenon persists; it has not faded away as many of us expected it would when, years ago, we regarded it as a passing fad or whimsy. Instead, it has touched on the lives of an increasing number of people around the world."

Joining Hynek at that milestone UN initiative to try and get the world body to create an internal UFO committee was astronomer Jacques Vallee, portrayed by Francois Truffaut in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

"We are beginning to pay the price for the negative and prejudiced attitude with which our scientific institutions have treated sincere witnesses of UFO phenomena," Vallee told the U.N. delegates in 1978. "Lack of serious, open-minded research in this field has encouraged these witnesses to think that science was incapable of dealing with the phenomena.

"This attitude has led many people to seek answers outside the rational pursuit of knowledge to which science is dedicated. Only an open exchange of information on the subject could now correct this dangerous trend."

 

Vallee, pictured above, closed his remarks at the United Nations, saying, "All the great nations of the world are represented on this committee. Let us keep in mind that the UFO phenomenon may represent an even greater reality. It is our choice to treat it as a threat or as an opportunity for human knowledge."

Watch Jacques Vallee discussing UFOs at the 2011 Global Competitiveness Forum in Saudi Arabia.

Still close in our collective memory are all of the UFO reports that emerged from China in 2010, making almost daily headlines as unexplained lights and objects were seen throughout the country, and in some cases, responsible for airports temporarily closing down until the UFOs left the area.

Wang Sichao, a planetary astronomer at the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the UFO reports "refer to events of credible facts backed by observation. But these facts cannot yet be explained by existing scientific knowledge or natural phenomena."

Wang has investigated UFO sightings in China for four decades and told the Beijing Review why there hasn't been much progress in available UFO information.

"The reason is that a UFO only appears randomly and often disappears rapidly in a few minutes. By the time large professional telescopes are started up, it has already disappeared. So, we can only rely on information from occasional sightings or encounters by observers," he explained.

Back in Philadelphia, Pitts suggests what needs to happen to ultimately lend more credibility to people who want to study UFOs and eventually solve the mystery, one way or another.

"There are two ways in which this can happen. The first way is if a UFO lands on the front lawn of the White House -- that would take care of all of that right away," Pitts said.

"Then, the other way is if some legitimate, recognized scientific institution engages in research about these particular objects. And something that would help it is if we change the name of what it is that's being investigated, because that immediately causes problems.

"If that helps to legitimize the research and makes it acceptable in a way that will bring the strength of others to bear on resolving the questions, then that's a good thing."

Giant Eyeball Found On Pompano Beach, Florida (PHOTOS) - Huffington Post

South Florida beaches are usually places where people find sea shells, tiny crawling creatures and a shark tooth here and there, but a man walking on Pompano Beach Wednesday came across something out of the ordinary.

A giant eyeball.

Large enough to fit into his cupped hands, the beach stroller made a few calls and eventually got in touch with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, who had an interest in his discovery, Carli Segelson, spokeswoman for the FWC told HuffPost Miami. (See photos below.)

"This is definitely an unusual situation, where an eye would be found independent of any other body part," she said.

Later in the day, an FWC employee came to pick up the blue-and-purple-colored eyeball and put it on ice. It will be shipped to the FWC's Fish and Wildlife Research Center in St. Petersburg, where staffers hope to make an identification.

"It will probably take a little while to identify the eye," Segelson said.

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Could it be a giant squid?

Could it be a big-eye thresher shark?

Could it be a marlin?

Could it be a sunfish?

Could it be a giant grouper?

Could it be a swordfish?

Could it be a blue fin tuna?

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Derrick Pitts, Astronomer, Wants UFOs Studied With Science - Huffington Post

Nothing kills a career faster than being branded a kook, and in many circles, that's what you are when you admit you've seen a UFO.

The stakes are raised, of course, if we're talking about academic communities, and even more so among astronomers -- people who study the skies.

Many astronomers say there's nothing of any scientific merit that could result in the study of UFOs.

With the career suicide stakes for astronomers so high, some UFO researchers believe many of them are hesitant to step forward. Certainly, the Air Force's Project Bluebook -- the last officially announced government study of unidentified flying objects -- concluded that five percent of the cases investigated could not be immediately explained away.

Nevertheless, one nationally renowned astronomer, Derrick Pitts, tells The Huffington Post that it might be time for a thorough study of unexplained aerial phenomena.

(Courtesy of The Franklin Institute)

"If you say, 'Let's pursue an investigation of UFOs so we can identify where these alien spacecraft are coming from,' then people go, 'What? I'm not touching that with a 10-foot pole.' But if you say, 'Let's look at what the possibilities are that, at one time, there were environments where life possibly could have developed on Mars,' then everybody says, 'Oh, yeah, I want a piece of that,'" said Pitts, senior scientist and chief astronomer at the Franklin Institute Science Museum in Philadelphia.

Pitts, pictured at right, is also a NASA Solar System Ambassador. He told HuffPost about the idea that most serious astronomers give no credence to UFO reports.

"I can speculate about what many astronomers would say if you ask them that question. Many of them would say, 'I haven't seen anything, so I can't say that they exist. I can't say that this five percent are alien spacecraft.' But if you ask them in the same breath, 'Would you be willing to engage in a research project to figure out what these things are,' I don't know what that answer would be.

"I'd say, yeah, let's find out, let's take a look at it, because here we have a phenomenon that causes a tremendous amount of interest. Why not try to understand what it is?"

A careful look at historical records reveals how astronomers have, indeed, not only endorsed efforts to study the UFO phenomenon, but in many cases, have themselves seen unexplained objects for which they couldn't account.

In the late 1940s, astronomer -- and UFO skeptic -- J. Allen Hynek became the scientific consultant to Project Blue Book. During the nearly 20 years that Hynek was charged with explaining away UFO reports, he prepared a "Special Report On Conferences With Astronomers On Unidentified Aerial Objects."

Included in the study of 45 astronomers was a general feeling that "if they were promised complete anonymity and if they could report their sightings to a group of serious, respected scientists who would regard the problem as a scientific one, then they would be willing to cooperate to the very fullest extent."

Watch J. Allen Hynek discussing astronomers and UFOs

Hynek later went on to coin the phrase, "close encounters of the first, second and third kind," which described the various types of UFO reports made by people. As the director of the Center for UFO Studies, he was also the technical consultant -- with a cameo appearance -- in Steven Spielberg's 1977 film, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

Also in 1977, astrophysicist Peter Sturrock created a survey based on responses of members of the American Astronomical Society concerning UFOs. One respondent wrote: "I find it tough to make a living as an astronomer these days. It would be professionally suicidal to devote significant time to UFOs. However, I am quite interested in your survey."

A year after Sturrock's survey, Hynek found himself addressing the United Nations, pictured below, on the topic of continuing global sightings of UFOs.

 

"If it were not worldwide, I should not be addressing ... these representatives from many parts of the world," Hynek told the UN Special Political Committee in 1978. "There exists a global phenomenon the scope and extent of which is not generally recognized. It is a phenomenon so strange and foreign to our daily terrestrial mode of thought that it is frequently met by ridicule and derision by persons and organizations unacquainted with the facts.

"Yet, the phenomenon persists; it has not faded away as many of us expected it would when, years ago, we regarded it as a passing fad or whimsy. Instead, it has touched on the lives of an increasing number of people around the world."

Joining Hynek at that milestone UN initiative to try and get the world body to create an internal UFO committee was astronomer Jacques Vallee, portrayed by Francois Truffaut in "Close Encounters of the Third Kind."

"We are beginning to pay the price for the negative and prejudiced attitude with which our scientific institutions have treated sincere witnesses of UFO phenomena," Vallee told the U.N. delegates in 1978. "Lack of serious, open-minded research in this field has encouraged these witnesses to think that science was incapable of dealing with the phenomena.

"This attitude has led many people to seek answers outside the rational pursuit of knowledge to which science is dedicated. Only an open exchange of information on the subject could now correct this dangerous trend."

 

Vallee, pictured above, closed his remarks at the United Nations, saying, "All the great nations of the world are represented on this committee. Let us keep in mind that the UFO phenomenon may represent an even greater reality. It is our choice to treat it as a threat or as an opportunity for human knowledge."

Watch Jacques Vallee discussing UFOs at the 2011 Global Competitiveness Forum in Saudi Arabia.

Still close in our collective memory are all of the UFO reports that emerged from China in 2010, making almost daily headlines as unexplained lights and objects were seen throughout the country, and in some cases, responsible for airports temporarily closing down until the UFOs left the area.

Wang Sichao, a planetary astronomer at the Purple Mountain Observatory of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said that the UFO reports "refer to events of credible facts backed by observation. But these facts cannot yet be explained by existing scientific knowledge or natural phenomena."

Wang has investigated UFO sightings in China for four decades and told the Beijing Review why there hasn't been much progress in available UFO information.

"The reason is that a UFO only appears randomly and often disappears rapidly in a few minutes. By the time large professional telescopes are started up, it has already disappeared. So, we can only rely on information from occasional sightings or encounters by observers," he explained.

Back in Philadelphia, Pitts suggests what needs to happen to ultimately lend more credibility to people who want to study UFOs and eventually solve the mystery, one way or another.

"There are two ways in which this can happen. The first way is if a UFO lands on the front lawn of the White House -- that would take care of all of that right away," Pitts said.

"Then, the other way is if some legitimate, recognized scientific institution engages in research about these particular objects. And something that would help it is if we change the name of what it is that's being investigated, because that immediately causes problems.

"If that helps to legitimize the research and makes it acceptable in a way that will bring the strength of others to bear on resolving the questions, then that's a good thing."

Not Second Sight, But First Sight - Huffington Post

Clinical psychologist; research parapsychologist; author, First Sight: ESP and Parapsychology in Everyday Life

There is a new theory about your mind -- about where your decisions and experiences come from before you are aware of them. This theory has solid science behind it, and it suggests that there is a lot more going on in your mind than you realize.

Parts of this theory are familiar. Research has told us that brain events stand behind every thought we think and lead to them. And we have learned that many implicit psychological processes precede our experiences too, processes like subliminal sensations, stored memories and long-term values. These things aren't conscious in themselves, but the unconscious mind uses them to help lead to whatever we do become conscious of.

A difference about this theory, called "First Sight," is that it assumes that a much bigger domain of unconscious information stands behind experience. This includes things that are beyond the reach of our senses -- it includes the extrasensory. And it assumes that this reference to extrasensory information is not rare, but that it is continual.

First Sight brings in what is popularly called the "paranormal." It is different from previous ways of thinking about the paranormal in that it shows that our use of extrasensory information is actually normal and helpful, although unconscious. No "para" is needed anymore. This theory leads us to an expanded idea of our normal psychology.

I am the author of this theory, and while I have mainly had a career as a clinical and research psychologist, I have also had an abiding interest in ESP. My mother started it for me by having many experiences that suggested bursts of unusual knowledge. She would sometimes just know when something bad happened to one of our relatives in another state. Then a phone call or letter would usually come along and fill in the details. Once when the family was in deep trouble and she was exhausted from worry, she had an odd vision that reassured her. A man who looked like Santa in a business suit told her that the family would be alright and would be moving to a town that was two towns divided by a river with no water. A few weeks later, my dad got a good job in Las Vegas, N.M. -- a divided town that fit the description.

While my mother's experiences probably stimulated my interest in ESP, they also provoked my skepticism. I couldn't see around corners, and she generally couldn't either. I didn't know what to make of these aberrations. I believed that science should be able to sort it out.

Experiences like my mother's are not particularly rare. According to polls, most Americans believe that ESP is real, and most think that they have had at least one such experience. A number of laboratories around the world have been studying these things rigorously for over a century and much information has accumulated about them. This knowledge has remained mostly on the edge of science because it has been hard to square it with the rest of our understanding of human functioning.

I have been increasingly troubled by the gulf between our growing knowledge about ESP (and related ideas such as telepathy, precognition and psychokinesis, together referred to as "psi phenomena") and the rest of our understanding of how we tick. First Sight brings them together.

My major thesis is that psychic abilities such as ESP -- long considered to occur only in "gifted" individuals or on rare traumatic occasions -- are, in fact, ongoing subconscious processes that continuously influence all of us in making everyday decisions. As the model's name implies, these common abilities should not be regarded as an incidental "second sight" but as a critical "first sight," an immediate initial contact with information not otherwise presented to our known senses. And just as we are not typically aware of other subliminal or incidental stimuli that impinge upon us and influence us in myriad ways, so too we typically remain unaware of this extrasensory information and its influence. Subliminal primes lead us to experience related things more quickly and more emotionally than we otherwise would. Psi information does the same.

I develop this point of view in First Sight: ESP and Parapsychology in Everyday Life, published by Rowman & Littlefield. Predictions from the model are held up against our knowledge both in parapsychology and in mainstream research in cognitive psychology, social psychology, personality/clinical psychology and neuropsychology. The model organizes the parapsychological knowledge very well, and helps resolve several puzzling inconsistencies. It also shows that our unconscious use of non-local information is essentially continuous with how we use other kinds of implicit information. ESP, memory, subliminal perception, implicit physiological responses to emotional events and many other things all follow the same tacit rules. No need for "para."

The model tells what psi is for. It's for helping to implicitly guide us in forming each thought and decision. The theory spells out how and when non-local information can be expected to turn up in our experience and behavior and when it should not. The research facts fit these hypotheses well.

The model also tells us where psi fits into personal experience. When are we likely to experience it, and how might we develop this aspect of ourselves? Some of the things that make experiencing psi more likely include an openness to it as a source of information, an open and non-analytical state of mind, and a great need for the particular information. Remember the time my mother had an experience of a town that she didn't know of yet, but to which we would be moving? She believed that ESP was real, she was too exhausted at the moment to be analytical about her experience, and she really needed to know something reassuring and true. These are some of the crucial ingredients and they opened up a moment of expanded knowledge. First Sight is intended to help us learn more about this hidden side of our minds.

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Ke$ha's Ghost Sex Claim Arouses Skepticism From Paranormal Experts - Huffington Post

Ke$ha's recent claim that she had sex with a ghost before writing her latest single is arousing something from paranormal experts: skepticism.

The pop singer recently revealed to Ryan Seacrest that a randy romp with a male ghost helped give birth to her new song, "Supernatural."

"It's about experiences with the supernatural... but in a sexy way," she told Seacrest. "I had a couple of experiences with the supernatural. I don't know his name! He was a ghost! I'm very open to it."

There have been reports of people having sex with ghosts, according to paranormal researcher Eric Olsen, who co-hosts "America's Most Haunted," an online radio show.

"There is a tradition of entities known as 'succubus' and 'incubus,' which are malevolent spirits and their whole modus operandi is to seduce human victims and, in the process of consummating, steal or possess the victim's soul," Olsen told The Huffington Post.

Still, Olsen is skeptical about Ke$ha's alleged haunted humpings, which, if true, would make her a "spectrophiliac."

"There is a question as to what kind of visitation can you have while asleep," Olsen said, suggesting that the singer's otherworldly orgasms with some paranormal perv may just be part of a vivid dream.

"Unless you can observe them, you can't really differentiate between a vivid dream and an actual encounter," Olsen said.

Ghost researcher and HuffPost blogger Alexandra Holzer is also raising her eyebrows at Ke$ha's allegations of spirit sex, which, if true, would not be a hot and heated encounter.

"The people who report having sex with a ghost report feeling pressure on them and even penetration, but ghosts don't have warmth," Holzer told HuffPost. "When they're in the room, it's a very cold environment."

Holzer said the singer has been known for her ability to get publicity and suggests it wouldn't shock her if Ke$ha created the story in order to scare up publicity for the new CD.

"In terms of PR, it's an interesting and smart move," Holzer said.

Los Angeles-based ghost hunter Jayni Hartman won't dismiss Ke$ha's claims as strictly for publicity, but said that erotic apparition encounters are rare.

"Connections between ghosts and humans are more likely to be emotional, like the woman I met who could actually feel the spirit of her dead husband spooning her in bed and even smelled his cologne," Hartman told HuffPost.

Jane Goodall 'Fascinated' By Bigfoot - Huffington Post

The most famous primatologist in the world is ape about Bigfoot.

Jane Goodall made her name studying chimpanzees in Africa and by discovering that they, like humans, use tools.

Since then, she has been working to preserve their decreasing numbers via the Jane Goodall Insititute. She also admitted to an interest in the mysterious creature known as Bigfoot, Sasquatch or the Yeti.

"I'm not going to flat-out deny its existence," Goodall said during an exclusive interview with The Huffington Post before a benefit dinner in La Jolla, Calif. "I'm fascinated and would actually love them to exist.

"Of course, it's strange that there has never been a single authentic hide or hair of the Bigfoot, but I've read all the accounts."

As a motor biker was driving through the Grand River area of Ohio in April 2012, an alleged Bigfoot ran across the road and was caught on videotape.

Depicted is an illustration of a creature reported to inhabit the Kemerovo region of Siberia. Scientists from the U.S., Russia and other countries have yet to find one of these creatures known as the Russian Snowman. In early October, researchers claimed to be 95 percent certain that the animal exists.

An alleged footprint of a Yeti, or Abominable Snowman, appears in snow near Mount Everest in 1951. Now, scientists are setting out to find evidence of a reported unknown, hairy, bipedal creature known as the Siberian Snowman.

Bigfoot or bear? Impression left on the driver's side window of a pickup truck owned by Jeffrey Gonzalez. The bizarre image was left by an alleged Bigfoot in California's Sierra National Forest over Memorial Day 2011. DNA samples of the impressions will eventually determine the identity of the animal responsible for them. (See next slide for a close-up of the paw-like impression.)

Close-up of the "paw" print image. The impression was reportedly left by Bigfoot on the window of a pickup truck in the California Sierra National Forest over Memorial Day weekend 2011.

Bigfoot or bear? Pictured is a second impression left on the rear side window of the same truck from the previous slides. According to forensic/law enforcement photographer Mickey Burrow, "What you're seeing is a swipe mark. It looks like a small hand, swiping to the left, leaving another impression, and there's hair within those areas -- you can see where the hair would be."

This footprint was found over Memorial Day weekend, 2011, near Fresno, Calif. by a group of campers who were on a Bigfoot-hunting expedition. The print, measuring approximately 12 inches, was found near a truck where possible DNA evidence was left behind by more than one Bigfoot creature.

A film still shows what former rodeo rider Roger Patterson said is the American version of the Abominable Snowman. He said pictures of the creature, estimated at 7 1/2 feet tall, were taken northeast of Eureka, Calif., in October 1967.

This footprint was found in 2008 in the Sierra National Forest near Fresno, Calif.

Thomas Byers snapped this photo of "Bigfoot" along Golden Valley Church Road in Rutherford County on March 22, 2011.

Bill Willard is the leader of a group searching for evidence of a Sasquatch or Bigfoot creature, spotted by, among others, his two sons in Spotsylvania County. He is shown on May 19 in Thornburg, Va., with a plaster cast he made from a suspicious footprint several years ago.

This still frame image from video provided by Bigfoot Global LLC shows what Whitton and Dyer claimed was a Bigfoot or Sasquatch creature in an undisclosed area of a northern Georgia forest in June 2008.

This October 2007 image was taken by an automated camera set up by a hunter in a Pennsylvania forest the previous month. Some said it was a Bigfoot creature; others believed it was just a sick bear.

A preserved skull and hand said to be that of a Yeti or Abominable Snowman is on display at Pangboche monastery, near Mount Everest.

Idaho State University professor Jeffrey Meldrum displays what he said is a cast of a Bigfoot footprint from eastern Washington in September 2006. Some scientists said the school should revoke Meldrum's tenure.

Joedy Cook, director of the Ohio Center for Bigfoot Studies, talks to a visitor to his booth on Oct. 15, 2005, at the Texas Bigfoot Conference in Jefferson, Texas. The event, hosted by the Texas Bigfoot Research Center, drew enthusiasts and researchers of the legendary creature.

Ken Gerhard of Houston, Texas, holds a duplicate plaster cast footprint Oct. 15, 2005, at the Texas Bigfoot Conference. The event, hosted by the Texas Bigfoot Research Center, drew enthusiasts and researchers of the legendary creature.

Josh Gates, host of Syfy TV's "Destination: Truth," holds a plaster cast of what Malaysian ghost hunters said was a Bigfoot footprint in 2006.

Al Hodgson, a volunteer guide at the Willow Creek-China Flat Musuem in California, holds up a plaster cast of an alleged Bigfoot imprint in 2000. The museum houses a collection of research material donated by the estate of Bob Titmus, who spent his life trying to track the creature.

Costume maker Philip Morris, who does not believe the Bigfoot legend, claimed the Patterson-Gimlin film showed a person wearing a gorilla suit that he made.

Goodall is perhaps the most famous natural scientist to at least entertain the notion that the creatures exist. In 2002, she said during an interview with NPR that she was sure of it.

"I've talked to so many native Americans who all describe the same sounds, two who have seen them. I've probably got about, oh, 30 books that have come from different parts of the world, from China from, from all over the place, and there was a little tiny snippet in the newspaper just last week which says that British scientists have found what they believed to be a yeti hair and that the scientists in the Natural History Museum in London couldn't identify it as any known animal," she told interviewer Ira Flatow.

Goodall conceded there hasn't been the smoking gun that proves the existence of Sasquatch, and told Flatow, "of course, the big, the big criticism of all this is, 'Where is the body?' You know, why isn't there a body? I can't answer that, and maybe they don't exist, but I want them to."

While Goodall is interested in what other researchers are doing in regards to Bigfoot, protecting chimpanzees and other great apes keeps her too busy to comb the woods of North America searching herself.

"Chimpanzees are very endangered," she told HuffPost. "They only live in Africa and when I began in 1960, there were probably close to 2 million living in Africa. Today, it's less than 300,000 spread over 21 nations with the only significant numbers in the Congo."

Most people grasp the concept of ape extinction on an abstract basis, but Goodall said she believes that when they see live primates such as Crystal the capuchin monkey on the new NBC sitcom "Animal Practice," they inadvertantly assume the animals aren't endangered.

"I think people have been getting the wrong message through Hollywood and other such outfits for a very long time," she said. "People don't realize, first, the cruelty, to train the chimp for entertainment. You must take it away from its mother when it's very young, so the little thing never has the chance to learn how to be a chimp because they learn, just as we do.

"By the time they're 7 or 8 and too strong to be used as entertainment or pets, or whatever people have taken them for, by then, they don't know how to be a chimp so their future is pretty bleak."

Goodall can be seen Oct. 9 when Animal Planet airs "Jane's Journey," a 2010 documentary about her life and work.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of the story incorrectly referred to The Jane Goodall Insitute as The Jane Goodall Foundation.

Charles Halt, Former Air Force Colonel, Accuses U.S. Of UFO Cover-Up - Huffington Post

LAS VEGAS -- Former Air Force Col. Charles Halt accused the federal government of a UFO cover-up that involves a secret agency to deal with what might be extraterrestrial visitations.

"I'm firmly convinced there's an agency, and there is an effort to suppress," Halt told an audience of 200 people Saturday night at the Smithsonian-affiliated National Atomic Testing Museum.

Two former Air Force officers who were part of the infamous Project Blue Book -- the military's official UFO investigation in the 1950s and '60s -- and a former investigator with Britain's Ministry of Defense were among the panel of speakers for a program entitled "Military UFOs: Secrets Revealed."

Halt, pictured below, was the deputy base commander of the RAF Bentwaters military base in England and one of numerous eyewitnesses to several UFO-related events at Rendlesham Forest in December 1980. He believes the observed UFOs were either extraterrestrial or extradimensional in origin.

 

"I've heard many people say that it's time for the government to appoint an agency to investigate," Halt said.

"Folks, there is an agency, a very close-held, compartmentalized agency that's been investigating this for years, and there's a very active role played by many of our intelligence agencies that probably don't even know the details of what happens once they collect the data and forward it. It's kind of scary, isn't it?

"In the last couple of years, the British have released a ton of information, but has anybody ever seen what their conclusions were or heard anything about Bentwaters officially? When the documents were released, the timeframe when I was involved in the incident is missing -- it's gone missing. Nothing else is missing," he said.

Halt added that he's never been harassed over the reports he made about the Bentwaters UFO incidents.

"Probably for a couple of good reasons. Number one, my rank and some of the jobs I've held, but also very early on, I sat down and made a very detailed tape and made several copies of everything I know about it and they're secluded away. Maybe I'm paranoid. I don't know, but I think it was time well spent when I made the tapes."

While the lecture panel members didn't always see eye-to-eye on the details of specific UFO cases, one common thread ran through them.

 

"We share a couple of very important things: We've all been dedicated to serving our country and been very serious about it," said museum CEO and executive director Allan Palmer, who had a distinguished career as a decorated jet fighter pilot for both the Air Force and Navy.

"These are not flaky people, who've all held very responsible positions with high-level security clearances. They're not the kind of people who tend to imagine things or go off on a wild tangent on something. They're very professional, very business-like," Palmer told The Huffington Post.

Making a rare public appearance was retired Air Force Col. Bill Coleman, the former chief spokesman for Project Blue Book between 1961 and 1963.

The controversial study ended in 1969, concluding that there was nothing about UFOs which represented "technological developments or principles beyond the range of present-day scientific knowledge."

 

Coleman, at left, recounted his own riveting encounter with a UFO while he piloted a B-25 bomber in 1955. The unknown circular object descended from an estimated height of 20,000 feet, heading to the ground, when Coleman attempted to pursue it.

"We were moving at maximum continuous power for the B-25, about 300 miles an hour, and we got right down to the treetops and I closed in on it very rapidly. I said I was going to overtake it -- 'Hang on and put your seat belts on' -- and I made a hard 90-degree bank to try and pull up alongside of [the UFO] and it wasn't there.

"I zoomed up about 1,500 feet, and then I could see the object right on the deck over a freshly plowed field moving at a pretty good speed, and it [was trailing] two vortexes." When Coleman dove behind the trees to try and "head him off at the pass," the UFO was gone. He said it was a typically reported flying saucer.

Coleman concluded his part of the lecture by offering a possible reason why ETs may be hesitant to visit Earth:

"If an alien were to land here, our common cold could kill him. His common cold could wipe out the population of planet Earth. If they're smart enough to build a vehicle that could travel light-years of time, they'd be smart enough to know that our diseases could wipe out people."

During the time that Coleman was the Project Blue Book spokesman, the director of the Air Force study was Col. Bob Friend. He disagreed with the Air Force's negative conclusions about UFOs in 1969.

"My primary explanation for these things is that, yes, they're real, and I think it would be much better if the government or some other agency was to take on these things and to pursue the scientific aspects of it," Friend said.

 

At Saturday's lecture, Friend, at right, offered an olive branch to the many people who claim to have seen UFOs but have been reluctant to report them out of fear of not being taken seriously.

"UFO sightings are real, and you will not be ridiculed by any honest organization that investigates it. Just come forward, quote your case and allow people to investigate what they can to make some determination about what it is that you've seen. In the future, just remember that we're on your side."

Nick Pope, the civilian member of the UFO panel, acknowledged that many in the audience came to the lecture anticipating the revelation of mind-blowing UFO evidence.

"While I apologize to those people who might be expecting or hoping for a 'spaceship in a hangar' smoking gun, what you are getting is the real deal: an insight from people who have looked at this mysterious and infuriating subject for the government," said Pope, a former UFO investigator for the UK Ministry of Defense.

"The UFO subject is a field which does have its fair share of crackpots and charlatans and cultists. What you have this evening in a field like that is a panel of people who indisputably and genuinely have done this for the government and the military."

Pope recounted how the UK's former official committee, known as the Flying Saucer Working Party, concluded in 1951 that UFOs were just misidentifications, hoaxes and delusions, and that no further time or effort should be wasted on the subject.

"Unfortunately for them, in 1952, there was a wave of sightings throughout the UK, where most of the witnesses were Royal Air Force pilots, some of whom chased these things, and many radar operatives tracked them," Pope said.

As the Ministry of Defense continued investigating UFOs, Pope noted, they kept a close watch on the UFO "community." "We anonymously subscribed to their magazines: Subscription, please send to John Smith, P.O. Box 007, London -- that was us. And I even covertly slipped into the back of UFO conferences."

Pope concluded by saying that the Ministry of Defense always had one thing on its mind about UFOs: "Whatever the nonsense you see about this subject sometimes in the field, we never lost sight of the fact that, in all of these hundreds of thousands of sightings, the believers only had to be right once, and everything changes."

Watch this 1958 program of reporter Mike Wallace interviewing Marine Maj. Donald Keyhoe about UFOs. (Story continues below)

Another UFO lecture panelist, retired Army Col. John Alexander, was a former military insider who convened a special group in the 1980s called the Advanced Theoretical Physics Group, whose members were culled from the military services and the aerospace and intelligence communities. They concluded that while there had been numerous cases of credible UFO encounters, the group couldn't find any evidence of any actual government cover-up.

Alexander cited a variety of intriguing UFO cases involving pilots and told the audience that UFOs are "real and is a global phenomenon -- not something that just happens in the U.S.

"We need to make it permissible for scientists to discuss and research these topics. ... There are no simple answers, and not only do we not have the answers, we're not at the point of asking the right questions yet, and that's what we need to do."

The lecture included a spirited question-and-answer session in which the audience engaged the panel on a variety of UFO-related topics, trying to draw out more detailed revelations.

While no ET body or piece of alien spaceship was brought forward and presented to the audience, those who attended the presentation seemed to appreciate the participants' candor.

Still, the audience probably left with more questions than answers.

Check out these UFO items.

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This cigar-shaped UFO was photographed by general aviation pilot David Hastings as he piloted a Cessna Skymaster plane over the Mojave Desert on Sept. 9, 1985. There has never been an indication of hoax in this case, which remains unexplained to this day.

An unidentified flying object was photographed by a government employee over the Holloman Air Development Center in New Mexico in 1964. Conspiracy theorists have claimed the photo is proof that the U.S. government has been in contact with aliens.

While descending an Austrian mountain in 1954, photographer Erich Kaiser captured an image of what he called mysterious silvery-white flying objects.

Mexican Air Force pilots filmed strange, brightly lit objects that moved quickly in the skies on March 5, 2004. Some scientists said the phenomenon could have been caused by gases in the atmosphere.

America's most infamous UFO case centers in Roswell, N.M. Some people claimed an alien spacecraft crashed there in 1947; the military said it was a weather balloon.

The Air Force issued "The Roswell Report" in 1997. Countering claims that aliens were recovered at the New Mexico site, the report said military officials picked up 200-pound dummies, above, that were used in an experiment.

Video grab close up. What looks like an alien creature with visible head, neck, arms and body standing in the Brazilian rainforest in Manaus, Brazil. In this Amaz-alien footage, a lone unidentified being appears to stand in the jungle of Brazil -- even arching its back -- just feet away from a bright flashing blue light. In what some allege as proof that Earth is being visited by aliens from another planet, the video was obtained by paranormal writer Mike Cohen who says the video was taken by two British tourists visiting the Manaus region of the Amazon jungle.

A large circle and geometric pattern local residents say were created by a UFO appeared in a rice field in Krasakan hamlet in Sleman, Yogyakarta, on the morning of Jan. 23, 2011.

Stan Romanek claimed that this still image from a three-minute video he shot in 2003 shows an alien looking into his home in Nebraska. In the film, a strange face appears to be popping up and down outside Romanek's window.

This eyewitness drawing of an alleged UFO sighting is in one of 19 once-secret files posted to the British National Archives website. The files cover sightings reported between 1986 and 1992. Although many of the reports were debunked, some remain unexplained.

An investigator in 1989 measures markings that some said were left behind by a UFO in Normandy, France. France began releasing its "X-Files" on UFO sightings in 2007.

President Jimmy Carter, shown here in 1971, reported that he saw a UFO above Leary, Ga., in 1969. He filed a report about the sighting to the International UFO Bureau in 1973.

Astronaut Gordon Cooper, who piloted Mercury and Gemini space missions in the 1960s, once said he saw a "typical saucer shape, double-cylindrical shape, metallic" UFO. He was also outspoken on the idea that some UFOs were interplanetary vehicles visiting Earth.

Ke$ha's Ghost Sex Claim Arouses Skepticism From Paranormal Experts - Huffington Post

Ke$ha's recent claim that she had sex with a ghost before writing her latest single is arousing something from paranormal experts: skepticism.

The pop singer recently revealed to Ryan Seacrest that a randy romp with a male ghost helped give birth to her new song, "Supernatural."

"It's about experiences with the supernatural... but in a sexy way," she told Seacrest. "I had a couple of experiences with the supernatural. I don't know his name! He was a ghost! I'm very open to it."

There have been reports of people having sex with ghosts, according to paranormal researcher Eric Olsen, who co-hosts "America's Most Haunted," an online radio show.

"There is a tradition of entities known as 'succubus' and 'incubus,' which are malevolent spirits and their whole modus operandi is to seduce human victims and, in the process of consummating, steal or possess the victim's soul," Olsen told The Huffington Post.

Still, Olsen is skeptical about Ke$ha's alleged haunted humpings, which, if true, would make her a "spectrophiliac."

"There is a question as to what kind of visitation can you have while asleep," Olsen said, suggesting that the singer's otherworldly orgasms with some paranormal perv may just be part of a vivid dream.

"Unless you can observe them, you can't really differentiate between a vivid dream and an actual encounter," Olsen said.

Ghost researcher and HuffPost blogger Alexandra Holzer is also raising her eyebrows at Ke$ha's allegations of spirit sex, which, if true, would not be a hot and heated encounter.

"The people who report having sex with a ghost report feeling pressure on them and even penetration, but ghosts don't have warmth," Holzer told HuffPost. "When they're in the room, it's a very cold environment."

Holzer said the singer has been known for her ability to get publicity and suggests it wouldn't shock her if Ke$ha created the story in order to scare up publicity for the new CD.

"In terms of PR, it's an interesting and smart move," Holzer said.

Los Angeles-based ghost hunter Jayni Hartman won't dismiss Ke$ha's claims as strictly for publicity, but said that erotic apparition encounters are rare.

"Connections between ghosts and humans are more likely to be emotional, like the woman I met who could actually feel the spirit of her dead husband spooning her in bed and even smelled his cologne," Hartman told HuffPost.