PASADENA, Calif. — What if there really ARE little
green men out there in the vast universe who plan to plop their UFO in a
cornfield in Nebraska? That’s not just a question for science-fiction
writers and 10-year-old boys, but for real scientists with alphabets
after their names.
“It’s my day job, of course, to look for them,” says
Dr. Seth Shostek, senior astronomer with the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence (SETI.) “And I can assure you that I wouldn’t do that if I
didn’t think that there was a good chance for success because it is not
that lucrative,” he says.
Shostek and several other scientists are taking the
matter seriously when the National Geographic Channel presents “When
Aliens Attack,” premiering May 22.
“NASA has a Kepler satellite orbiting the Earth right
now. Within 600 days you will know what fraction of stars have planets
that are somewhat like the Earth. And the expectation is that the number
will come out to between 10 and 50 billion in our galaxy,” says
Shostek.
“If you don’t like our galaxy, there are 200 billion
other galaxies we can see, and there’s a vast amount of the universe we
cannot see. So it comes down to this: if you say, ‘No, I don’t think
that there are any aliens out there,’ then you believe in miracles.
Because that would be the miracle. The miracle is not that they would be
there. The miracle is that they didn’t exist. Whether they are here …
a third of the population believes they are here walking the streets
abducting you for experiments your mom wouldn’t approve of, very few
scientists believe that.”
So why are the aliens always on attack instead of
being ambassadors of goodwill? Shostek says it stands to reason, as Homo
sapiens has always reacted to strangers with aggression.
“If you look historically at what’s happened here on
Earth, the natives of the Americas did not meet your average Spaniard
selling fish on the street, they met the aggressive guys. So there’s a
very strong filter. If they come to town they’re probably aggressive.
That’s not a faulty assumption, I think.”
John Ringo, who has written five best sellers on the
topic of alien invasions, says that we should screw our courage to the
sticking point, just in case. “One of the aspects is even when people
come in peace and with the best of intentions, it has a tendency to
damage or destroy cultures. So being prepared for this type of thing,
there is no reason not to be prepared for a situation. Getting really
upset about it, despite the fact that I write in that field, I wouldn’t
suggest that you worry about the sky falling today.”
“It should be as statistical as human nature, for
example, that there’s going to be good guys and bad guys,” says Dr.
Travis Taylor, who’s with the U.S. Space and Missile Command Department
and has worked with the Department of Defense and NASA for 20 years.
“What we would hope is that the good guys show up
first, and that would be really nice. But the point of this wasn’t to
debate whether they are or they aren’t, it’s what happens if they did.
Do we have a plan? What type of plan should we put together, and how
would we defend the planet?” Taylor has also written the handbook for
harrying aliens, “An Introduction to Planetary Defense.”
“Being a scientist, looking up at the sky at night
and seeing all the stars and then realizing how many stars there are.
You know, in the universe there are so many stars that you can write the
number one and 22 zeros after it. That’s how many stars we think is in
the universe. And we know that planets form around those stars. And so a
lot of them are going to be Earth-like. Billions are going to be
Earth-like. So it would be a big waste, to paraphrase that Carl Sagan
movie, if there wasn’t other life out there,” says Taylor
Lt. Col. Brian De Toy, director of defense and
strategic studies program at West Point, doesn’t buy the premise. “I am a
skeptical believer in miracles. So a year ago right now I was in Iraq,
and I’m more worried about Iraq and Afghanistan right now and the aliens
that I’m dealing with there. And so right now, I’m pretty skeptical
about the others.”
Ringo is a believer. “I personally think that there
are probably more planets with life on them in this universe than all of
the losses on Wall Street. However, whether we will ever be able to
contact them, that is another question.”
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John Stamos has been accepting some unusual roles
lately in shows like “Law & Order: SVU.” “ER” and “Glee.” He says
there’s method in his madness. “I’ve been caught up the last few years
and really trying to please the audience, always. And I think some of my
most successful stuff was when I was taking chances and when I was
fearless. I felt that I had that more when I was younger.
“I remember leaving ‘Full House’ and I went right on
to Broadway. And I actually remember doing ‘Cabaret’ and people were
walking out of the theater because they wanted to see Uncle Jesse.
“And I remember talking to Sam Mendes about, ‘I’m
doing something wrong. I have to please these people.’ He said, ‘No,
you’re doing something right. I mean, if you’re really digging in
playing the truth of this character.'”
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The History Channel will actually get back to history
on May 30 when it commemorates the 150th anniversary of the Civil War
with a “Civil War Week” beginning with a special documentary by Tony and
Ridley Scott, “Gettysburg.” Also scheduled is a two-hour special, “Lee
& Grant,” which will examine the two opposing generals who
determined the fate of the war and the life of Americans afterward.
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Director Rob Marshall and Johnny Depp will be
reunited on a remake of the classic 1934 Warner Bros. film, “The Thin
Man.” The two just worked together on “Pirates of the Caribbean: On
Stranger Tides,” which opens Friday. Depp will also be one of the film’s
producers. The original movie earned the Academy Award and sprouted
five “Thin Man” sequels. William Powell and Myrna Loy played the
original Nick and Nora Charles, partners in life and on the case. No
word yet on who will play the impish Nora (but Sandra Bullock would be a
slick choice).
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