The Drake equation gives you the parameters to plug the numbers in to find out how many civilisations are possible.
Unfortunately we don't know what numbers to put in without more evidence.
So the answer is somewhere between 1 (us) and infinity. Doh!

But with realistic numbers we get the values of 2.31 (modern) and 10 (1961) for our galaxy.
Worse than a needle in a haystack. More like one particular piece of hay in the haystack.

It wasn't on the news but this footage was taken recently in London and the video has gone virual on Youtube, plenty of talk about it on the web.

Thanks to Dusky for pointing it out to me.

UFO Mothership & Fleet Over London UK 24th June 2011



http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/does-video-show-ufo-over-uk-144046138.html

Well, after looking very carefully at the object as it passed "behind" the clouds, all I can say is that if it's faked, it's a darned good job of it. I can probably reproduce a still image that could fake something like that, but never a video.

Maybe they are checking things out before they destroy the world in the Autumn...according to that mad preacher guy..

Very interesting video mind.

Maybe you're right Freddy 

It doesn't look like a fake to me either, was everyone in on it when he filmed it, I don't think so. 

There is something up there in the sky but what it is, hmm I wish we knew.

What?  world ending this year?  I thought next year.
Should I re-schedule everythng?

It's okay Dusky, he has a few lined up, you will be sure to catch at least one of the Apocalypses

My eye was being drawn, of all places, to the contents of the sign that was strapped to that light pole, which was never completely visible. I don't know why, but I'd really like to know what it said.

[edit] Never mind. I saw what the sign's contents were at time index 0:07 ("This is the life"). Must be some sort of advert. [/edit]

Another item that came to mind was that the camera was far more "jerky" than it should have been, IMHO.

And Duskie, why is it that, when we see "aliens" in our skies do we automatically think that the world is ending? Too many SciFi movies, perhaps?

This sort of thing can be done quite easily in 'video post' of MAX.

Having said that, it doesn't look faked to me.

Here is another video taken the same day but at a different location in London and by another person. 


 

In this one, at time index 1:00, it seems as if the objects are deforming the clouds as they exit them. The video quality is quite low, but only because it's in low resolution, and I had the video opened in full screen. However, if you watch the last two objects as they emerge from the clouds, it appears to take small bits of the cloud with them for a short distance. It's pretty intriguing, if you ask me.