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Sci-Fi Government Politics

Canadian Ex-Minister Calls For Serious ET Study 479

Posted by Zonk from the just-your-average-day-in-canada dept.
Nom du Keyboard writes "A former Canadian Minister of Defense and Deputy Prime Minister wants Canada to hold public hearings on Exopolitics - relations with Extraterrestrials - to avoid the possibility of intergalactic war. Unfortunately he also proposes starting a 'Decade of Contact', which seems to mean spending a whole lot of public money on UFO education. Is he on the right track here, that we can't afford to ignore the rest of the Universe any longer?" From the article: "The United States military are preparing weapons which could be used against the aliens, and they could get us into an intergalactic war without us ever having any warning ... The Bush administration has finally agreed to let the military build a forward base on the moon, which will put them in a better position to keep track of the goings and comings of the visitors from space, and to shoot at them, if they so decide."
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Canadian Ex-Minister Calls For Serious ET Study More

Canadian Ex-Minister Calls For Serious ET Study

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  • "Intergalactic war", huh? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TripMaster Monkey ( 862126 ) * on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:27PM (#14115490)

    Wow... a new low. The aliens must be laughing themselves sick at our hubris. The possibility that our weapons might prove a threat to a culture capable of mere interstellar travel (let alone "intergalactic") is about the same as an ant colony against the U.S. Army.
    • I'm pretty sure that a six-stage nuclear device capable of a multi-gigaton blast is a serious threat to anything and everything.

      Having a vehicle that goes real fast (or folds space, or whatever) doesn't mean it will be durable. Those NASCAR cars are a great example of this concept; sure, they go fast, but they're made with fiberglass bodies that shatter upon touching anything at normal operating speeds.
      • I'm pretty sure that a six-stage nuclear device capable of a multi-gigaton blast is a serious threat to anything and everything.
        Without a way to deliver that to them I think the modern term for using such a weapon is "suicide bombing".
      • You don't think that a race that's figured out faster than light travel hasn't also figured out simple fission/fusion weapons that we figured out 70 years ago?
        • Forget fusion weapons. They'd not need more than a few stray rocks large enough to survive atmospheric friction. Boom, boom, boom. End of human civilization.

          If there was the slightest chance we were building up towards a war with an offworld power we'd need much more advanced technologies and we'd not be hearing about them in the open press. That should go without saying for all but the most deluded.

          I'm not sure which is crazier... the idea that we could use known technology to fight an alien power capable
      • I'm pretty sure that a six-stage nuclear device capable of a multi-gigaton blast is a serious threat to anything and everything.

        And I'm pretty sure an arsenal of anti-particles would be a fairly serious threat to a siz-stage nuclear device.

        I'm also pretty sure an energy shield an order of magntitude greater than the device would help dissipate any explosion

        Indeed I'm fairly sure a device to change the direction of said six-stage nuclear device capable of a multi-gigaton blast would render the weapon fai

      • Re:"Intergalactic war", huh? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by utnow ( 808790 ) <utnow@yahoo.com> on Friday November 25, 2005 @07:20PM (#14115788) Homepage
        If you've never read "Ender's Shadow" then I highly suggest it. The biggest problem in defending yourself against an enemy in space is that it can come from virtually any direction (on earth you have to defend yourself on a 2d surface... slighly more complicated with aircraft are involved but still essentially a 2d plane of attack). In space the planet is mearly a dot and an attack can from any angle.

        So if you intend to protect the planet, you have to protect the entire sphere. If you want to take the attack 'away from home' as would be advisable if using a huge nuke as you suggest, then you have to move the defence sphere outward. As you move it out, you increase the surface that you must protect exponentially. It's virtually impossible (virtually... don't hop down my back about a general statement) to defend yourself against a space offensive due to this feature of battle in space. The only way to win is to be on the attack.

        • Re:"Intergalactic war", huh? (Score:5, Insightful)

          by Guppy06 ( 410832 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @11:14PM (#14116746)
          You're assuming that maneuver technology will outstrip detection technology. Once you start talking about detection vs. interception, things can get easier or harder depending on the manuever and detection technologies in play. But assuming near-future technology, though you're playing with three-dimensional volumes, it is very, very hard to be undetected in space. Unlike the vagrancies of dealing with the atmosphere, you will stand out against a hard vacuum, something that's about as "black body" as you're going to get. You will reflect microwaves, you will give off heat, the only question is whether or not somebody is looking for you.

          Once you're spotted, it's nothing but your delta-v against his, a classic battle of maneuver that even ancient, primitive humans like Sun-Tzu could tell you about.

          Basically, the scenario you're talking about is similar to what happened in the US Civil War; with railroads, etc. allowing for rapid movement of forces, as fast or even faster than your scouts could report back enemy movements, battles tended to happen around fixed locations where the attacker wanted to go (otherwise something would have happened to the Army of Northern Virginia somewhere between Sharpsburg and Gettysburg). However, since then we've improved upon the hot air balloons used in the Civil War with radios, airplanes, and even satellites, all mitigating the advantages of hiding your movements behind terrain. Pearl Harbor happened only because nobody could see over the horizon at the time.

          There is no terrain in space. You might gain some sort of surprise coming in with the sun at your back, but first you have to get to the sun undetected.
    • That's probably important to talk about too.

      Like "How not to get exterminated by a vastly superior race should they vist us".

      Us waving our collective penises^Wweapons at a visitor could get us in some real shit.

    • That Movie (Score:5, Funny)

      by kai.chan ( 795863 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:42PM (#14115578)
      Did you not watch that movie?? The aliens would die from all the germs and bacteria that humans are immune to! Simply coughing and sneezing at them will be our ultimate weapon. There is absolutely nothing to worry about!
    • Have you not read the Arthur C. Clarke short story "rescue party"? It was his first story he sold, if I'm not mistaken. He had an amusing line once about (paraphrase), "People who say this is their favorite story of mine get a cooler and cooler reception as the years go on." :D

      All sci-fi geeks should read it [baen.com]. Considering it's around 60 years old, you have to forgive a bit of old technology, but the story holds up really well.

      It's a very interesting "what if" story about first contact.

      • Many of the top authors (Score:4, Interesting)

        by jd ( 1658 ) <<moc.oohay> <ta> <kapimi>> on Friday November 25, 2005 @09:34PM (#14116288) Homepage Journal
        Have had their own pet scenarios that they repeatedly use in their stories. With Asimov, it was linked minds and robotics. For Arthur C Clarke, it has generally been a mix of Earth blowing up and the consequences of humans mixing with other civilizations.


        Actually, this last one is significant even if there are no aliens within contactable distance of Earth. There are extremely few positive cases of advanced human societies mixing with less advanced societies. The response has ranged from "cargo cults" to extermination campaigns to the utter collapse of native culture, followed by extreme chemical dependencies and other addictions. More than a few of the troubles in the Middle East, for example, have been due to extreme, prolonged culture shock. Many of the islands visited by Captain Cook, described as paradise at the time, are now little more than brothels with an ocean-front view for the rich.


        So, whilst I don't regard the call for an Interstellar protocol to be particularly useful in and of itself, IF we take this opportunity to look at how to communicate with others without causing damage, I would consider it a worthy investment of time and effort. If it leads to the undoing of the mindless destruction inflicted in the past, so this world can be the richer for the cultures that still exist, then it will have paid for itself many times over.


        If all it does is deter people from questioning how they treat others, then we'll keep paying an absurdly high price from something only a tiny handful will ever get anything from.

    • It's theoretically possible that a culture capable of attaining interstellar/intergalactic travel may have been able to eliminate almost all forms of conflict. They may not see a need for weapons.

      However, such a culture could possibly be very physically delicate, so they would probably need to invest a lot of research into cosmic radiation shielding, which (when taken to extremes) could completely shield them from anything we could through at them. Even rocks.

    • Re:"Intergalactic war", huh? (Score:5, Funny)

      by HanzoSpam ( 713251 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @07:41PM (#14115893)
      The aliens must be laughing themselves sick at our hubris.

      If they laugh themselves sick, are they eligable for treatment in the Canadian free health-care system?

    • Re:"Intergalactic war", huh? (Score:4, Funny)

      by zephc ( 225327 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @07:52PM (#14115948)
      If they come, we'll just round up the aliens and throw 'em into a volcano. Yeah, that sounds plausible!

    • Re:"Intergalactic war", huh? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by Ex-MislTech ( 557759 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @08:02PM (#14115981)
      Trip I don't think I can agree with you enough .

      I served in the US military on a weapons test platform built on a
      old DLG destroyer renamed a CG cruiser class, think vietnam era .

      The ship was nearly 25 yrs old and in bad shape .

      Needless to say we are not anywhere near a 100% target rate .

      Taking it a step further, if we have had more than one shuttle blow
      up just trying to fly we are in VERY sad shape if a alien race
      did decide to take us out .

      I think what you see in "War of the Worlds" would be a friggin joke compared to
      pinpoint strikes from space by a Instellar Battleship with multiple fusion reactors .

      Cloaking technology maybe ??? I think if they didn't want us to see them they
      could do that as well, even our gimp tech has stealth .

      We have a weak version of the cloak due to a US general wanting the predator tech .

      I think the might just bombard the earth with short lived radiation that affects certain
      DNA strands and leave the planet completely unscathed but devoid of humans .

      What they "could" do is so far and beyond what we can imagine, we would be stunned .

      Hell one guy in scooter could fly by and release a bio weapon and we wouldn't even know,
      imagine what their molecular biologists could design .

      Poof bye humans !

      We better hope that so called aliens that can wormhole across the universe are friendly or else
      we are so very very screwed .

      Ex-MislTech

    • The black government and real aliens (Score:4, Funny)

      by iendedi ( 687301 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @08:51PM (#14116165) Journal
      Wow... a new low. The aliens must be laughing themselves sick at our hubris. The possibility that our weapons might prove a threat to a culture capable of mere interstellar travel (let alone "intergalactic") is about the same as an ant colony against the U.S. Army.
      Well, maybe, except you should consider that the U.S. black government has significantly more science and technology than exists in the public eye. This is not tin-foil-hat material, it is real and significant. Complete unified field theories, gravo-magnetic energy, weaponry and propulsion and on and on... Don't believe me? You have that option, of course.

      As for aliens? Do some research on the net. It will become very clear that what we are likely dealing with is a previously emmigrated human species, having left about 10,000 years ago after creating a nuclear winter right here. They come back, and for them it's like planet of the apes - the primitive tribes (sub-humans) of their time have risen up, built an oil-based economy and are in the process of riding the same rail-road of destruction that they did. Sound spectacularly crazy? Heh... Reality has a funny way of doing that sometimes...

      Here is a decent place to start [peter-thomson.co.uk] to get a taste. From this neutral site, you can google around and go deep into tin-foil-hat territory, or alternatively, you can investigate the real evidence in a scientific manner. There is a lot of both on the net.

      I am actually pretty surprised that here on Slashdot, this article recieves such a mocking response. Skeptisism is good, but laughing is simply playing into the black propaganda to keep you from looking there. Looking there is good and healthy, it just may change the way you see things.
      • I forgot to mention the politics of this affair. They are interesting indeed. Please consider the following:

        If you accept the premise that aliens are, in fact, previously emmigrated human civilizations, then many interesting conclusions and questions can quickly be derived. Some of them I won't expand on in detail, but will leave to the reader to think about as an exercise.
        • The nature of the previous advanced civilization was likely not civilization on a massive scale such as exists today. In othe
      • "I am actually pretty surprised that here on Slashdot, this article recieves such a mocking response."

        Uh.. yeah.. well, just because I read on average something like 5 books a month, and just because they're mostly science fiction, doesn't mean I actually think there's any other intelligent life out there - except for the slight possibility of other human life out there.

        I am not an evolutionist. I believe the earth is only about 6,000 years old. Now, it's possible that people made space ships and travelled

        • Re:The black government and real aliens (Score:4, Funny)

          by DrEasy ( 559739 ) on Saturday November 26, 2005 @02:18AM (#14117540) Journal
          I am not an evolutionist. I believe the earth is only about 6,000 years old.
          It's really not my habit to disagree abrasively with anyone BUT: you are a smart person (I could tell by checking out your web site), as a Slashdot reader you are a geek and therefore probably have strong logical reasoning skills (and you program in Perl for cryin' out loud!), not to mention a good understanding of scientific facts. HOW could YOU of all people ever believe in such fairytales?

          There's nothing wrong with having religious beliefs, but it is important, in this day and age, to draw the line between mythology (which can be beautiful and moving, and has its place in every religion, but it is just that) and reality.

          I sincerely hope I didn't hurt your feelings, but Slashdot is the one place I hoped not to have to read things like this.

          Guess I'm gonna get my first ever flamebait mod for this, but this is a cause worth some sacrifice...

    • Uh, yeah... Hellyer has wandered into the land of the rubber room and the tight long vests.

      Any civilization that could reach us wouldn't have to. It's not like we're a threat, or that we have anything they would need. Dead, terraform candidate planets would probably be a lot more attractive to them than this place. Why not just mine asteroids and build orbitals? Why send occupied craft at all? This crap is like religion--limited human minds conceiving of advanced intellects as being the same as us. Like the

  • Hmm... (Score:3, Funny)

    by MikeSty ( 890569 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:28PM (#14115492) Homepage
    Looks like Canada's finally doing something about illegal aliens.
  • He was minister 40 years ago. He could very well be a member of the Hells'eimers now...
    • the fact he was a minister 40 years ago just shows how age can affect judgment. not that politicians are bright to start with.

      this guy is a loony, someone put him in a bin (that's a hell of a better use of my money than spending it on alien stuff)

  • Money (Score:2, Insightful)

    by kryten_nl ( 863119 )
    Yes, this is a much better way of spending money, then seriously studying the DMCA before you copy it from the US.

  • meh (Score:5, Funny)

    by grumpygrodyguy ( 603716 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:31PM (#14115508)
    Any ET that Bush can shoot down isn't worth knowing anyway.
    • Exactly, an Intergalactic war that involves the aliens continuing to come here and get shot down by a pea shooter. They'd have to be greys(withoutmatter).

  • Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:31PM (#14115509)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • Don't worry, SG-1 will save us (Score:4, Funny)

    by MythosTraecer ( 141226 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:32PM (#14115514)
    Yes, the US government has been in a secret war with the G'ould for around 8 years now, but the SG-1 team is always around to keep the government honest. Well, at least until General O'Neill and Samantha Carter moved on to other jobs...

  • press release (Score:5, Informative)

    by BushCheney08 ( 917605 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:34PM (#14115520)
    Note that the source is PRWeb. This isn't news, it's a press release for those organizations listed at the bottom.

  • Yes, we canadians have a sence of humor... (Score:4, Funny)

    by fa1uzure ( 808743 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:34PM (#14115525)
    Im assuming this is a joke...

  • Christ... (Score:3, Funny)

    by gordgekko ( 574109 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:36PM (#14115535) Homepage
    Proving yet again that former Canadian ministers are no less looney than the former secretaries/administration officials of past American presidencies.

    Since my tax dollars are going to be wasted no matter what, I'd prefer they waste them on something more important -- such as money for Quebec ad agencies or corrupt government officials -- then holding parliamentary hearings on ET diplomacy.
  • This, and other shocking stories, in this week's edition of Duh Magazine.

  • Men in black (Score:5, Insightful)

    by LeninZhiv ( 464864 ) * on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:39PM (#14115559)
    "UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head."

    Mr. Hellyer went on to say, "I'm so concerned about what the
    consequences might be of starting an intergalactic war, that I just
    think I had to say something."

    Let me get this straight:

    Among the things this guy is persuaded of then is that aliens walk
    among us already, that the US government knows about it and has
    apparently enough alien technology in its possession to be able to
    wage war between galaxies (a pretty amazing feat for one little
    planet, wouldn't you say? Even with a base on our moon!), while still
    being able to keep the general population persuaded that we have not
    made contact.

    Wasn't Will Smith in that movie? And here I was under the impression that
    the US was no longer even capable of manned spaceflight (other than
    hitch-hiking with the Russians).

    All chuckling aside, even though according to his Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]
    biography the man has a long history of UFO advocacy, he's also 82
    years old and I am inclined to think that despite a distinguished
    career the question of senility has to be raised. Still, anyone
    should count themselves lucky to be giving public speaches at 82 in
    the first place.

    • Re:Men in black (Score:5, Funny)

      by BushCheney08 ( 917605 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @07:03PM (#14115714)
      ...(a pretty amazing feat for one little planet, wouldn't you say? Even with a base on our moon!)...

      That's not a moon... : p

    • Re:Men in black (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Ceriel Nosforit ( 682174 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @07:24PM (#14115813)
      UFO means Unidentified Flying Object. We as geeks respect original definitions. Unidentified extraterrestrial spacecraft in flight are a subcategory of UFOs, if they exist.
      The existense of UFOs is not doubted, but claiming a UFO is extraterrestrial is unfounded.

      While at it, there's no reason to claim extraterrestrial life is intelligent either when we're yet to communicate with any.
      We have no reason to say that something intelligent necessarily is alive either. Our own development of AI should at the very least indicate this.
      We have no reason to beleive a hypothetic extraterrestrial intelligence has biological needs we can relate to, so we can't assume they would act like we do. For example, we have no reason to assume that if they had any interest in this planet we would be the center of their attention.

      Being a skeptic is all fine and dandy, but jumping to unfounded conclusions isn't, even when the jump is miniscule. There are lots of things we simply don't know yet, and we should absolutely not prentend we do.
  • That "forward base" on the moon bit is priceless, really... everything with the rest of the universe would be great if not for Bush! Why, if Kerry had won, there wouldn't be any risk of intergalactic war at all! But now, well... time to start stockpiling cans of chili and whatnot, I suppose. What's interesting isn't that a former Canadian defense minister said (or things) this, it's that there aren't 100 Canadian slashdot users screaming how not them this is. Well, it's early yet.
    • there aren't 100 Canadian slashdot users screaming how not them this is.

      And a 100 Canadian Slashdot users cried out as one -- and were suddenly silenced.

      Sound doesn't travel well on the Moon.

    • What's interesting isn't that a former Canadian defense minister said (or things) this, it's that there aren't 100 Canadian slashdot users screaming how not them this is. Well, it's early yet.

      Please. When Pat Buchannan flaps his lips, do you think it reflects badly on you? We're all grownups here. Screaming that 'it's not us!' just re-inforces that it is us! ;)

      • Please. When Pat Buchannan flaps his lips, do you think it reflects badly on you? We're all grownups here. Screaming that 'it's not us!' just re-inforces that it is us! ;)

        Judging by his attitude and comments, I'd suspect he agrees with Buchannan (or some other God-Only-Loves-America-Because-He-Drives-A-Ford Fundie). So, bad example.

      • When Pat Buchannan flaps his lips, do you think it reflects badly on you?

        Well, he's been doing it for so long, that I just assumed it was sort of a constant, like gravity. After a while you just stop feeling the way it weighs you down. It's the innovative, freshly new crazy stuff (like exo-diplomacy concerns within the retired Canadian government circles) that sort of stick out. That, and actual media coverage thereof!
  • Weapons in the hands of people who can use them without asking the people and who can not be held accountable for their actions is always a very bad idea. Does Weapons in Space have anything to do with any kind of alien threat? Could it be that the "war on aliens" is just a step further in the "war on freedom" eh, I mean "war on terrorism"? It may be a good idea to read up on this and related issues.. Oh, btw. Look forward to the fake alien invasion that is planned in a few years... (remember this out w

  • Our Lax Pot Laws at Work (Score:4, Funny)

    by Quirk ( 36086 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:41PM (#14115574) Homepage Journal
    Sounds like this guy retired from public life and took to the wicked weed we grow. Then too it's the tail end of mushroom season and maybe he stumbled upon one of the better patches of psilocybe magic mushrooms.

    I like to think our superior recreational drugs (with the sadly missed exception of peyote) and excellent beer are the drawing cards for aliens throughout the 'verse.

    It's good to know one of our retired politicians is projecting our world renowed good Canadian manners outward toward our interglactic neighbours.

  • But it sadly won't work.
    I'd much rather politicans spend time arguing over something like this that does not matter, then have them spend time figuring out new ways to tax us, to limit our freedoms, to wage war (OK, he's Canadian, maybe this one doesn't apply), and to spend our tax money.

    Oh, that Mr. Hellyer is a sly fellow indeed.
    Hopefully, we can get it going down here in the States.

  • From: http://www.nowtoronto.com/issues/2005-10-06/news_ s tory8.php [nowtoronto.com]

    An outspoken man even while in office, Hellyer writes and lectures about his economic ideas. His knowledge of UFOs comes mostly second-hand, from books like The Day After Roswell - although, impressively, he had the cachet to look up the military men listed in the book to get the straight goods. He admits such matters didn't cross his mind when he was in office. "I was too busy trying to streamline the armed forces, improve morale and sa
  • But when the Mother Ship is orbiting your puny planet, you will see the error in your decadent ways.

    http://www.malcolm-x.org/docs/abt_noix.htm [malcolm-x.org]

  • The Bush administration has finally agreed to let the military build a forward base on the moon, which will put them in a better position to keep track of the goings and comings of the visitors from space, and to shoot at them, if they so decide.

    Excuse me, but it's about how far to the Moon?

    And it's about how much farther to anything else at all interesting, let alone the rest of the Universe?

    Hard to call that one much of a Forward Base.

  • When^H^H^H^Hif the $sys$alleged interstellar beings come here, they'll frankly reprimand us for spending too much money on contacting them and too little on solving local problems like war, world hunger, diseases, etc etc.

    Seriously, what's the point of contacting alien intelligence, if our very human nature is greedy, stupid, and self-destructive? I'm sure "they" are much better without knowing us.

    Now, speaking seriously, i think this guy read too much scientology/heaven's gate/raelian propaganda.
  • Here in Europe we send our wacko ex-politicians to serve on the EU commision. Neil Kinnock... Chris Patten.. Edith Cressant..Martin Bangemann

    Maybe you Canadians should come back to the bosom of the mother country and then you'd be able to do the same.

    Actually thinking about wierdo things that the EU spends vast amounts of money on, trying to make contact with aliens doesn't sound quite as crazy as it first appears.
  • "(Discussing our first contact with aliens) is a bit like iguanas on the
    Galapagos Islands sitting around trying to figure out how to treat the
    first human visitors. Should we offer them dead flies, or live flies?
    Shall we line up the flies in a row? How shall we defend ourselves?
    All of that is irrelevant."
                    -- Seth Shostak, astronomer with the SETI project

  • Who? (Score:2)

    by Kohath ( 38547 )
    Intergalactic aliens at war with the USA? Ok. I understand that.

    But who (or what) are these Canadians?
  • Just because you believe in something does NOT mean it's true

    Many people believe in an all powerful being responsible for the creation of the Universe. Some would consider THAT to be wacky belief as well.

    Note: Don't try to extrapolate the above statements that I am either A) An Atheist or B) a believer in visiting extraterrestrials or a skeptic of them

    But I AM open minded to other beliefs and don't engage in ad-hominem logical fallacies which what people on both sides who are'nt open minded engage in.
  • Those crazy Canadian hosers! They should blindly trust our administration. We have good secret inteligence which we can't release for security reasons that the aliens are working on weapons of planetary destruction and it is our duty to destroy them in just in case they maybe might do something against us. We must destroy them! Why do they hate us and distrust us? It must be hatred for our economy. So to protect us the administration is doing all it can to destroy that economy, but in the meantime we must d
  • Paul Hellyer was born in 1923 and has a history of jumping parties and even forming breakaway splinter parties when the mood took him.

    The "article" -- which as others have pointed out, is really a press release -- seems to deliberately muddle some mainstream speechs about the weaponization of space and the ballistic missile defense shield with some cockamamy stuff about aliens and moonbases.

    I bet the UFO nuts are delighted that the mainstream media bit on this one.
  • It's not really a Forward Base up there on the Moon. That's just the cover story. It's really the next secret CIA prison for terrorists.

    As quoted by Mr. R. U. Kidding, "Let's see those human rights pansies find this one. What do you mean Google has Moon maps already on line? [google.com]"

  • I think most of the people I know (who know of this former MP) feel that this former minister is a little nutty. The only people I know that don't seem to believe that his is off kilter also believe taht the world trade center towers were not attacked by planes, but by elite commando teams from the U.S. government. (Sadly, I am not joking about that... They really believe this...)

    I think that we should all sit down and watch Carl Sagan's COSMOS as a viable alternative to this former ministers suggestions.
  • Comment removed based on user account deletion

  • "Intergalactic War" might do us some good... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Ninwa ( 583633 ) <jbleau@gmail.com> on Friday November 25, 2005 @06:54PM (#14115649) Homepage Journal
    To be honest I thin this world could use a good "intergalactic war". At worse we all die. At best the World unites and countries gain a sense of brotherhood. Maybe I'm naive but I'd like to think humanity would put aside its differences if there was ever a threat to itself... other than itself.

    Bah who am I kidding.
  • Clearly, it's the Chinese. And the idea of having US weapons in space certainly scares the bejeezus out of them, which is why they're pouring so much effort into their own "peaceful" spaceflight program.
  • Maybe we should call him Minister Moonbeam! [wikipedia.org]
  • Think about it - Cheney, Dubya, Kim Jong-Il, Fidel Castro, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Hillary Clinton. Do you really think they come from our planet? The aliens have already infiltrated and control political power across the globe.

    The first "intergalactic" war will actually be a civil war fought on our home planet. Look at the lengths they go to in trying to hide the cubic nature of time, making up elaborate spherical myths, and inventing fictional characters like Einstein. They want to keep you educated stupi

  • (sigh)

    I can only hope that this person won't be seriously seen in any way as representing the country I live in.

  • Last time I checked, the calendar said it was November 25, not April 1.

    wbs.
  • I wonder what spiked the sudden interest in extrarrestrial issues and politics? Is there something we don't know, or is it just pandering to those that believe in the possibility?
  • ...go and read the Cometa Report Part 1 [chaoticsoftware.com] and part 2. [ufoevidence.org] (two PDFs) in their entirety.

    Not preparing for this inevitable event is like not shoring up the levees or not building an underground bolt-hole when you live in Tornado Alley.

  • If "they" are out there at all, they would have to be looking pretty hard to see us. Our electromagnetic transmissions, which only started 100 years ago and so couldn't possibly have reached any habitable star systems yet, are excedingly weak compared to the glare of our own sun, so are very likely not going to be picked up by anything. We ought to, if we think we're ready (I'm not so sure about that myself), put a probe out as fast as we can, into deep interstellar space, with some sort of nuclear batter
  • .... just to make absolutely certain I wasn't reading BBSpot's "Slashdot Story Generator" by mistake.

  • Never... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Bun ( 34387 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @07:29PM (#14115831)
    ...have I been embarassed to be Canadian...until now.

  • Speculation on ET is absurd. (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Vellmont ( 569020 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @08:22PM (#14116057) Homepage
    You can't plan for something you know nothing about. Anyone speculating about whether ET will be war-like, peaceful, care about us, or not care about us is engaging in the art of "making shit up". Our basis for understanding intelligence is almost entirely based on ourselves and how we think, act, behave, and look at the world. Much of this is based on our underlying brain structure and not on culture. We all have emotions and much of our being is based on that.

    But yet when we even look at a Jellyfish it's extremely different from us (and even so, very similar in terms of underlying biology). Will ET have better technology (tools) than us? Well, based on our own experience with technology you'd think that anyone capable of solving the problem of inter-stellar travel certainly would have a far better understanding of physics than us. But I fear when I even say that I'm also probbably practicing the art of "making shit up".

    The point is that planning for any of this is just absurd, and that's ignoring the fact that we have no idea if there even IS intelligent life elsewhere, much less life that's interested in coming here. I don't believe this kind of question is one of science, but of philosophy. That doesn't mean it's not an interesting or important question, but just one we can't find an actual answer to. Devoting money to it makes about as much sense as to devoting money to trying to find god.

    I think a more sane approach would be trying to find out if there IS intelligence life elsewhere. That means putting more money into SETI searches for instance. I personally doubt whether UFOs (the alien spacecraft type) exist, but you'll never find them if you don't look. Because of this I think it's important for such a survey to have a dual purpose. Put money into mapping asteroids (and as a side effect maybe you can look for UFOs, or maybe other purely astronomical phenomenon).

  • Really and truly sad (Score:3, Insightful)

    by xihr ( 556141 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @08:23PM (#14116063) Homepage
    He also stated flat out that we are already being visited. This isn't prudency about considering how we might react and what we should do if we make contact; this is pure crackpottery.

  • Obligatory Calvin and Hobbes Quote (Score:5, Funny)

    by Databass ( 254179 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @08:34PM (#14116097)
    "Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us."
    The Indispensable Calvin and Hobbes

  • Senility? (Score:5, Informative)

    by geneing ( 756949 ) on Friday November 25, 2005 @09:16PM (#14116236)
    I checked wikipedia. The guy is 83 years oldhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Hellyer [wikipedia.org]. Maybe he is just not all here anymore...

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