Nick Pope Retires to Tuscon

[RenaissanceLady]

I guess selling out your credentials to the highest bidder has some benefits. He and his new wife apparently just bought a "quaint hacienda" on the borders of Saguaro National Park.

Ex-MOD UFO hunter Nick Pope moves to Tucson - Tucson ufo | Examiner.com

 

[Gene Steinberg]

Aha, so he lives only two hours away from here.

 

[starise]

More power to him I say.

 

[Randall]

I guess selling out your credentials to the highest bidder has some benefits. He and his new wife apparently just bought a "quaint hacienda" on the borders of Saguaro National Park.

Ex-MOD UFO hunter Nick Pope moves to Tucson - Tucson ufo | Examiner.com

I think Dolan has blown the whole thing out of proportion. What did Nick say that isn't actually reasonable or true? And how is getting involved in a video game production the same thing as a sell-out? I think it's kinda cool that he has also contributed to ufology culture in that capacity. A sell out would be more like making a fake alien autopsy video or making a sensationalist reality TV series that is obviously trying to portray itself as a serious documentary. Nick is retired and probably living on a modest pension, a few book royalties and some intake from guest appearances. I hope he enjoys his retirement and also continues to contribute to serious ufology.

 

[RenaissanceLady]

Actually, I have a hard time with this:

One of the UK's top UFO experts has given his views on the likelihood of aliens suddenly appearing in our skies - and how the international community would respond.

Nick Pope, who has more than two decades under his belt at the Ministry of Defence, said mass summer events - like the Olympic Games in London - would be a prime time for crafts from otherworlds to present themselves to mankind.

He warned: 'With the summer of mass events we are all on high alert for terrorism. But we must also cast our eyes further afield and be prepared for even the most seemingly unfathomable.''

(snip)

Speaking about the cultural impact of aliens since the first widely-reported cases in the 1940s, he said: 'It is interesting to note that we are all in some ways equipped to deal with alien invasion - games such as Resistance: Burning Skies on PlayStation Vita help acclimatise people to the reality of extraterrestrial life - and in particular that they might be hostile.

'It is a widely held belief that classified information about weapons and tactics useful in combatting alien occupation are embedded into such gameplay.

Um, no. He never actually believed that aliens would land during the London Olympics and it's a pretty safe bet to say that playing games such as Resistance: Burning Skies will not help anyone in "combatting alien occupation." Halo didn't train me to be a military cyborg fighting evil alien entities; Castle Wolfenstein, which I used to play on my old C-64 as a kid, did not help me learn to fight Nazis; Being a level 18 (?) Paladin in D&D gave me absolutely no real life skills, except maybe the humility to admit that I was once a Paladin in D&D.

Once you're a sell-out, you'll always have the reputation of being a sell-out. Anything he says from this point forward will be tinged with the possibility that he's been paid to say it. It's not that many (or any) of us actually believed aliens would invade during the Olympics but it led some of us to wonder if he had some inoperable brain tumor or had otherwise found some really bad acid. If he had some genuine UFO experience while living merrily in Tuscon, who the heck would believe what he had to say? I think the vast majority of us would merely wonder how much Sony PlayStation offered him to be in the public again.

 

[Randall]

Actually, I have a hard time with this ...

Nick's opinion is as valid as anyone else's ( actually probably more valid ) and, while it may be true that he never actually believed aliens would appear, he also never said they would appear. He just said something along the lines of it being an opportunity for them to present themselves, which given all the live feeds makes a certain amount of sense because it would certainly be hard to cover up. Besides that, they're asking a UFO guy for his opinion during the Olympics, so what should we expect ... his opinion on the synchronized swimmers? But instead of going with that line of thought, Dolan takes Nick's concurrent involvement with a game project and blows it all out of proportion and Will from Planet Under Attack decides to run with it and tries to completely ruin Pope. Who is really exploiting who here? Of all the people in ufology to pick on and try to destroy, Nick is probably among the least deserving. If you want better examples, go back in the archives and check out the exposé on Imbrogno or Bill Knell or Ray Santilli or ... and the list goes on.