"Big" NASA announcement?

[drone on]

I don't know how "big" the NASA announcement today is.  I was hoping for some long-overdue truth about structural artifacts found on various celestial bodies over the past 30 years or so, but it turns out to be some microbes that use arsenic to regenerate.  This is supposed to indicate life can form from not-so-usual compounds, and hence extraterrestrial life on hostile places in space is more likely.  Well, considering how NASA is a major participant in the biggest cover-up in history, these "scraps" they're throwing to the masses just seem like more insults to our intelligence.   

[mgriffin]

They didn't say it was a "big" announcement -- various bloggers said "OMFG, we heard NASA is going to announce they found life on Mars!!" and everybody built it up.

Finding a form of life with a fundamentally different biochemical basis does in fact indicate that life may be found in different environmental circumstances than previously thought possible. This means many off-Earth locales previously considered to have no possibility of supporting life, may actually be able to support life forms very different from what we had considered.

As for what you said about NASA and the biggest cover-up in history... I doubt I'm the only one reading this who has absolutely no idea what you're talking about.

[APK]

"NASA and the biggest cover-up in history"

yes, inquiring minds do want to know what this is.

[Numina]

I've begun to believe that NASA is trickling down information like this to ultimately reveal something really big. I'm NOT a conspiracy theorist, however I do happen to firmly believe we're not the only intelligent lifeforms in the universe and while I certainly have not seen any compelling proof I think NASA and the scientific community understand, and rightfully so, that they can't just come out and say "we've discovered life on another planet" or "we have been visited and are currently communicating with alien beings". The world would go nuts. I think some people could really go postal at the thought.

So, I think that there may be a plan to continue to inform the world of increasingly titillating information that may result in something spectacular... at least I hope so.

I've heard it suggested that perhaps it could be announced that these arsenic microbes may even be from another planet (perhaps coming from a meteorite from a piece of a previous planetary collision or some such thing).

Reardless, as boring as this last announcement may seem, it is interesting.

[APK]

I often think that institutions like NASA leak info like this so they are seen as possibly more important and relevant than they actually are ... so that more future funding can be secured. I'm skeptical that way.

[Numina]

Why would NASA not be important or relevant?

[APK]

I said more important and relevant than they actually are. Which is not to say they are not important and relevant.

[Antdude]

http://img254.imageshack.us/f/admiralackbartrap.jpg/ 

[Numina]

Around here, the way you wrote it makes it sound like they don't deserve it.

[mgriffin]

I'm glad I'm not the only one who was puzzled about the oblique reference to the "biggest cover-up in history," as if we were supposed to know what it was.

Maybe NASA was involved in concealing exactly which "seven herbs and spices" KFC uses?

[jkn]

Count me in on the "what big coverup"...  I'm not being an idiot, just curious what it is.

The one where we never landed on the moon?   

Roswell?

As far as forms of life different from our own - I think it's very likely that we'll one day discover forms of life we've never dreamed of living in places where our type of lifeform could never survive, for long at least.  ;-)

Finding the new lifeform seems very significant to me.

It didn't answer crop circles, but that's ok.

[Numina]

As far as forms of life different from our own - I think it's very likely that we'll one day discover forms of life we've never dreamed of living in places where our type of lifeform could never survive, for long at least.  ;-)

I'm pretty sure most conservatives, which live amongst us, don't have a heart.  I kid, I kid.

[drone on]

NASA is probably run by aliens.  I am dead serious, mostly. 

I think NASA has found something more significant than a "microbe".  Anomalous artifacts on the moon, the "face" on Mars, extensive footage of UFO's, Martian probes inexplicably losing contact.  No, I don't believe the moon landings were a hoax.  I consider myself a "realist," not a "conspiracy theorist."  NASA's actions over the years have been suspicious and non-sensical as are most other "coverups."  Stuff just doesn't add up or make sense. 

I agree with Numina.  Like I said, they're giving us "scraps" when they've got the 5-star dinner in a vault somewhere marked "top secret."  What's most disturbing is the amount of taxpayer money being used in the space programs and yet they're not sharing the wealth while millions on Earth starve and live in poverty.  NASA is also so wrapped up in contracts and big business that it's actually corporations controlling the information.  If you think NASA is all about honest science with no hidden agenda then believe what you want.

[mgriffin]

So... you figured if you just said "NASA participated in the biggest cover-up of all time" everyone would automatically fill in the blanks?  "Oh, he means because NASA is run by aliens."

Actually I think NASA is a peripheral government agency seeing its influence dwindle, and while I don't doubt they have some secrets, I don't think they're at the center of any major governmental coverup of the people... or they wouldn't be seeing their budget shrink and shrink and shrink.

That "face on Mars" thing seems really compelling until you see another image of the same rock formations from a different angle. To me, it's like seeing Satan's face in the clouds, or the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast.

[drone on]

I knew you'd bring up the Mars face and say it looks blurry, Mike.  So why did NASA spend so much time and energy "debunking" it if nothing was there? 

Same thing with the US military "debunking" Roswell.  First they said it was a downed UFO, then a weather balloon, then years later did an extensive "study" and came up with yet another nonsensical explanation. 

People who are pathological liars (like the US government and its various agencies) often don't make sense in their attempts to cover up the truth. 

Im not saying with 100% certainty UFO's crashed at Roswell or an alien monument exists on Mars.  But based on the evidence I've seen, the "official" explanations seem very flawed in their reasoning. 

[hdibrell]

To me, it's like seeing Satan's face in the clouds, or the Virgin Mary on a piece of toast.

I don't know, Mike. I once saw an alien's face on a tortilla. Or maybe it was Russell Simmons'. I'm not sure. I was doing my best Hunter Thompson impression at the time.

[hdibrell]

Seriously, though, I have to agree that if there was something there NASA wouldn't be fighting for their existence. As far as cover ups by the government, those happen all of the time whether there is something to cover up or not. I think there are questions that are unanswered and our government is usually pretty enept in its dealings with the public. I also think that if there is alien life out there, our government will be among the last to know about it.

[Numina]

Does anyone here believe in chemtrails?  I don't.

What about that airplane off the West Coast a few weeks ago?

[mgriffin]

I knew you'd bring up the Mars face and say it looks blurry, Mike.  So why did NASA spend so much time and energy "debunking" it if nothing was there? 

I didn't say it was blurry, I said it seemed really compelling and interesting, until you see the same bunch of rocks from another angle, in different light, in much higher resolution. If you're inclined to believe the original image is real, but the follow-up images aren't, that's fine. But why would NASA release the first image in the first place if they were going to cover it up? Why not just not release the original image in the first place?

[drone on]

Because the face photo was never "released" in any official capacity.  It was among hundreds of photos and NASA at that point didn't know what they had or if there was anything to it, until Richard Hoagland started studying it (he had access as he was a space science advisor for the media), and other photos of Cydonia region.  If there was nothing to these photos, and it was something akin to the face of Virgin Mary on a taco, I seriously doubt Hoagland and the scientists who worked with him on "The Monuments of Mars," who found geometric patterns relating to the "face" structure and other nearby structures (pyramids), would have bothered.  Hoagland was discredited and labeled a "crackpot" in an extesive debunking campaign after this book.  The biggest "hoax" was the photo NASA released after the last recent photos of the region were taken.  They could have taken a photo of anything that looked blurry and released it to the public and "most" people would buy it because it was released as "official" by NASA.  "See, it's just a blurry mass.  Case closed."  I didn't buy it.