
Churchill's views on the possibility of life on other planets - sjcsjc
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-38985425
======
5_minutes
Let's also not forget that that Churchill had to beg the Americans for quite
some time to come and help him out. And they didn't. He even attacked and sank
a French naval fleet, just to proof he was serious, to them.

And that in the meantime, the Nazis were very much into the occult business.

I'm just saying that one shouldn't be surprised that Churchil was looking at
all possible options out there.

Here is the intro video, that gets you up to speed:
[https://youtube.com/watch?v=p_37IU4n834](https://youtube.com/watch?v=p_37IU4n834)

~~~
aaron-lebo
You referring to when he had the French Vichy fleet sunk? Was that aimed at
the US?

Churchill's fun. Probably saved the West by rallying the Brits, foresaw the
Cold War. On the other hand incredibly bumbling at Gallipoli and completely
wrong about Gandhi.

Back on the topic of aliens, Reagan has one of the more interesting
references:

 _I occasionally think how quickly our differences worldwide would vanish if
we were facing an alien threat from outside this world. And yet, I ask you, is
not an alien force already among us? What could be more alien to the universal
aspirations of our peoples than war and the threat of war?_

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag44dRO8LEA](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ag44dRO8LEA)

[http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/reagan-and-
gorbache...](http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/reagan-and-gorbachev-
agreed-pause-cold-war-case-alien-invasion-180957402/)

~~~
5_minutes
Yes that's correct. According to the documentary, "Secrets of the Dead:
Churchill's Deadly Decision", as a last desperate attempt to get some support
from the Americans. Who had been promising reinforcements for quite some time,
but eventually did very little until the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.

Churchill's fun. And Reagan is also just fun.

Even for his quotes, which are called "Reaganisms".

~~~
dingaling
It wasn't quite as 'desperate' and unique an action against the Vichy as is
often portrayed, bearing in mind that two years later British forces invaded
Vichy-ruled Madagascar with no-holds-barred battles against the French forces
there.

[https://www.combinedops.com/MADAGASCAR.htm](https://www.combinedops.com/MADAGASCAR.htm)

There were also extensive operations by the British against the Vichy in Syria
and Lebanon, and there again both sides were ruthless.

------
atmosx
Churchill is a figure that always puzzled me. The image I have of him was that
of a non-intelectual politician who had very deep understanding of human
nature and lack of charisma. Some of his quotes are incredibly catchy (e.g. "I
will be sober tomorrow, but you'll still be ugly", " best argument against
democracy is a 5-min conversation with your average citizen", etc.) ... He
managed to win a war, sit at the same table with Stalin and Roosevelt at the
end of WW2 and after all that he managed to lose 2 IIRC elections!!! How is
this possible? I don't known.

He is by far and large the most famous British figure of his era, but he came
in power mostly because of the situation not because voters.

I wonder how others see him...

~~~
digi_owl
The guy was a throwback to Victorian Britain basically.

He was still fighting for the empire when the public was tired of everything
but friends and family.

And frankly i am not sure how much "he" won it and how much he basically
survived it.

~~~
flukus
> And frankly i am not sure how much "he" won it and how much he basically
> survived it.

He was very active in creating a military build up long before the war
started, Britain could have fallen had it not been for his planning.

~~~
digi_owl
Frankly they were on the brink of falling even with said buildup.

Except that Hitler got vindictive and impatient, first he redirected the
Luftwaffe to bomb cities, giving the RAF time to recover and reorganize, and
then Barbarossa started.

~~~
atmosx
The WWII is kinda complex... Don't you think that saying that Hitler didn't
win the war because of one decision a bit stretched?

------
Cyphase
FTA: "Dr Livio told BBC News that there were no firm plans to publish the
article because of issues surrounding the copyright."

 _facepalm_

------
sethbannon
If you like far-sighted Churchill reading, I highly recommend reading his 1931
essay "Fifty Years Hence". He predicts cultured meat, cellphones, genetically
modified food, among other things.

[http://rolandanderson.se/Winston_Churchill/Fifty_Years_Hence...](http://rolandanderson.se/Winston_Churchill/Fifty_Years_Hence.php)

------
osullivj
Churchill College, Cambridge University is Britain's monument to Churchill,
and houses his archives. Churchill himself turned the first spade in the early
60s. 70% Churchill undergrads are science and maths. The man himself wanted it
to be the UK's answer to MIT. Disclosure: I was a Churchill undergrad 86-89.

------
wimagguc
Can't help but wonder if we knew more about Roosevelt by now with another US
president.

(Referring here to the Clintons' openness to the subject:

[1] Bill Clinton "Wouldn't Be Surprised" If Aliens Existed:
[http://time.com/48132/bill-clinton-wouldnt-be-surprised-
if-a...](http://time.com/48132/bill-clinton-wouldnt-be-surprised-if-aliens-
existed/), and

[2] Hillary Clinton (jokingly) pledges UFO probe:
[http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/04/politics/hillary-
clinton-a...](http://edition.cnn.com/2016/01/04/politics/hillary-clinton-
area-51-aliens/)

------
chubs
Can't we simply extrapolate how many livable planets there are? There are
10^24 planets in the observable universe. Figure out the percentage chance of
any one planet being livable and multiply it out. Eg how far you have to be
from the sun, correct size for gravity, likelihood of any planet having water,
and so on.

I read once that it worked out to be 1 in 10^70 planets would be inhabitable
after calculating all the known criteria for a livable planet though. If
that's accurate, it begs the question, why are _we_ here? A combination of the
anthropic principle and multiverses and quantum probabilities?

It's easy to go down a rabbithole on this one :)

~~~
CharlesW
> _Can 't we simply extrapolate how many livable planets there are?_

Yes, and beyond that you can ultimately estimate how many civilizations there
are Out There that might have the capacity to contact us, commonly referred to
as the Drake equation.[1]

As Wikipedia notes, YMMV based on assumptions. :^)

[1]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drake_equation)

~~~
chubs
That's fantastic! Thanks for the link. Learn something new every day.

~~~
antisthenes
To add to that, along with my comment in the thread:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Filter)

