William G. Pullin

Greetings. The UFO subculture has consistently claimed to want to get members of the scientific research community involved in investigating the UFO problem. Is this claim truthful? Let's take a look. The late Carl Sagan (1934-1996) held skeptical views on the possibility of alien visitation, opinions which were not popular with many, if not most persons in the UFO subculture. Mr. Sagan often inquired about tangible evidence of such alleged events, and was never provided with any. The possibility of extraterrestrial life was something that Mr. Sagan fully embraced, including the existence of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations in outer space, however he felt that the likelihood of extraterrestrials visiting the planet was vanishingly small. Even to this day, Mr. Sagan, and his opinions, are still the target of less than civil commentaries, even by some well-known UFO researchers.  Neil deGrasse Tyson, the director of the Hayden Planetarium in New York City, is one of the most w...

Greetings. The Cretaceous/Paleogene extinction event is perhaps the most well-known such catastrophic event in the long history of complex life on Earth. Whilst not the most destructive, that particular distinction being held by the End-Permian extinction event, colloquially known as "The Great Dying," the event that extinguished so many iconic forms at the end of the Cretaceous is the one that holds the fascination of humans worldwide.  While all the specific causes of the Cretaceous/Paleogene extinction event have not been firmly determined by paleontologists as of this writing, the Chicxulub impactor is certainly the prime candidate, or at the very least, was the final nail in the Triceratops' coffin, so to speak. The subsequent impact winter was a form of slow death for the survivors of the initial impact, providing a cold, dark, and barren landscape for the animals endlessly wandering the Earth's continents in a valiant and fruitless search for sustenance. With p...

Greetings. Conducting legitimate research and investigations costs money. That goes without saying. The publishing of books and the production of documentaries certainly can result in a level of financial gain, however, that can be a slippery slope to negotiate.  When moneys acquired from the sales of books, pamphlets, and documentaries are put back into the research effort, that is only a productive course of action. The real question is, "Does that always happen?" I won't profess to know the answer to that question, but it should be thought through and carefully considered. Today's UFO environment is inundated with merchandise; DVDs, bags, caps, mugs, books, papers, t-shirts, lanyards, stickers, and a whole slew of other such items. It can all be overwhelming to look at when browsing through the tables at a UFO themed event, with each and every table overflowing at seemingly every turn. Anyone who has attended a UFO event can testify to that reality. It seems unreas...

Greetings. Ammonoids are extinct spiral shelled cephalopods that existed in the world's seas and oceans for over 344 million years. They are more closely related to living coleoids; octopuses, squid, and cuttlefish, than they are to shelled nautiloids, including the living Nautilus. The earliest ammonoids appeared during the Devonian Period, with the last species vanishing during or soon after the Cretaceous/Paleogene extinction event. They are commonly referred to as ammonites, a name which is most frequently used for members of the order Ammonitida, the last group of ammonoids from the Jurassic Period until their unfortunate extinction. Ammonites are excellent index fossils, linking the rock layer which a particular genus or species is found to specific geologic periods of time. The name 'ammonite,' from which the scientific term is derived, was inspired by the spiral shape of their fossilized shells, which somewhat resembles tightly coiled rams' horns. Because ammoni...

Greetings. The United States had not landed anything, manned or unmanned, on the Moon since December of 1972. That all changed on February 22nd of this calendar year when the unmanned Odysseus moon lander touched down at 6:23pm Eastern Standard Time. When the lander commenced broadcasting signals back towards the Earth, the strength of the signal was immediately seen as somewhat less powerful than expected by the technicians in charge of the probe's operation and mission itinerary. When this particular bit of news became public knowledge, the conspiracy theorists immediately began their speculations. Some made statements alleging that the mission of the probe was to somehow "hide something" from the public, although what that something is was not elaborated on. Some made the wild claim of "aliens!" Such rhetoric is typical of the UFO subculture, particularly the "woo" crowd. As it turns out, mission technicians believe that one of the probe's landi...

Greetings. Dimetrodon. An extinct genus of non-mammalian synapsid that lived during the Early Permian Period, approximately 295 to 272 million years ago. With the genus' species measuring between 1.7 and 4.6 meters in length as adults, and weighing between 28 and 250 kilograms, Dimetrodon's most prominent feature was the large neural spine sail formed by elongated spines extending from the animal's vertebrae. Named in 1878 by Edward Drinker Cope, Dimetrodon is often mistaken for a dinosaur or as a contemporary of dinosaurs in popular culture, but this belief is without merit, for the genus went extinct some 40 million years before the appearance of the first dinosaurs during the subsequent Triassic Period. Although reptilian in outward appearance and internal physiology, Dimetrodon was much more closely related to mammals than to reptiles, despite the fact that it is not a direct ancestor of modern-day mammals. Dimetrodon is classified as a non-mammalian synapsid, a group t...

Greetings. Why is a data-driven, skeptical, dispassionate approach to the UFO problem viewed in such a negative light by some in the UFO subculture?  Why does the application of the scientific method garner such consistent pushback from some in the UFO subculture? While there have been some historical examples of credentialed scientists taking a look at the UFO problem, such occurrences are relatively rare, and certainly not the norm. The UFO phenomenon and its attached subculture, have always been viewed in a negative light by the greater scientific research community. The fault for some of that reasoning lies squarely at the feet of the UFO subculture itself, with its tinfoil hat, costume wearing adherents, and its penchant for embracing the "woo" and other beliefs and mythologies that are "grounded" in faith and not supported by any irrefutable evidence whatsoever.  Has the situation changed to any substantial degree over the decades? I believe it has, but only b...

Greetings. Why be skeptical? Let me explain.  The scientific method is applied in the effort to examine a wide range of topics, problems, and unknowns. The collection of physical, tangible, falsifiable proof and evidence is an essential part of that endeavor, an absolutely essential aspect. When a topic or problem is examined despite a wanting of such evidence, any and all subsequent investigative efforts must be called into question, at the very least to keep the focus of the aforementioned examinations clear, honest, and transparent. Without physical evidence to follow, such efforts end up meandering in a barren desert of opinion and/or subjective belief structures, usually nonsensical and often biased strongly towards the woo. The so-called "Dave Scott Zone." The investigation of the UFO problem is a unique exception, one that is often overlooked by many within the confines of the field, including archivists, researchers, and field investigators. While many people have mai...

Greetings. The Internet has presented a platform for the public, at least those who are not residents of authoritarian dictatorships, to seek out, spread, and promote information, all at the push of a button. Unfortunately, despite what far too many people seem to think, not everything on the Internet is true. It should go without saying, but in today's society, where many believe that humans lived alongside non-avian dinosaurs, that the Earth is flat, that the Apollo Moon landings were faked, and that the Sun orbits the Earth, people have to be constantly reminded.  As it applies to the UFO problem, the spreading of false information and the prevalence of belief structures based on such erroneous content has resulted in an embarrassing and disconcerting situation. People believe things that are simply untrue, and worse yet, some who have public platforms on social media (X, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube, etc....) are using their podiums to make uninformed statements about historical c...

Greetings. Does extraterrestrial life exist? I believe so. Do advanced extraterrestrial civilizations exist? I believe so. Are those same extraterrestrial civilizations exploring outer space? I believe so. What would the discovery of an alien civilization look like? Let's speculate.  A crew of alien astronauts are surveying the area around their home solar system, taking careful note of every star, every planet, every moon, every asteroid, all in an effort to learn about their local surroundings. Some solar systems are void of life, but rich in natural resources, while other systems do have life forms on some of their planetary bodies. The explorers continue their extraterrestrial survey, pushing further out from their home planet.  Eventually our alien crew comes across a system that has multiple bodies harboring life forms, a couple of planets and several moons. One planet has a thriving ecosystem, but is not possessing of a highly advanced civilization. The other bodies har...