The Ohio State University professor Alexander Wendt updates and perhaps strengthens a case he made in 2008. (See Sovereignty and the UFO, a research article co-authored with Raymond Duvall of the University of Minnesota.) Buoyed by the release of three F/A-18 videoed encounters with UFOs–the GIMBAL and GO FAST “talkies” being a part of the TEDx presentation–Wendt makes a case for taking seriously what Billy Cox literally calls “the Great Taboo.” In No Science, Please, We’re TEDx Cox himself comments upon perhaps the most surprising part of the talk. This is the TEDx folks flagging the presentation since “Claims made in this talk only represent the speaker’s personal understanding of UFOs which are not corroborated by scientific evidence.” Cox notes Wendt’s observation that this “rear-guard action by advocates of the taboo” was basically predicted by his 2008 collaborative paper. Miguel (“Red Pill Junkie”) Romero weighs in on the action in Ideas Worth Slandering: TED Flags the UFO Topic. He contrasts the current “semi-censorship” with the treatment accorded author Ben Mezrich’s 2016 talk about the very controversial 37th Parallel “UFO Highway.” Romero also questions if Wendt might be supporting “a certain ‘academy of arts and sciences’ founded by a certain rockstar?” More likely Wendt could have in mind UFODATA–UFO Detection and Tracking. Wendt sits upon this initiative’s Board, along with J. Allen Hynek Center for UFO Studies scientific director and president Mark Rodeghier, Philippe Ailleris, Leslie Kean, and Christopher Mellon. (WM)

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