France's UFO archives made available to public

The possibility of UFOs has fascinated me - particulalry claims involving extraterrestrial intelligence. Confirmation of such claims would be one of the most perspective-altering findings I can imagine, and the notion of other intelligent life "out there" has always carried a strange, even romantic, appeal.

In short, I wonder if there's somebody out there wondering if I'm here.

On that note, the French government reported that it's making it's UFO archives available to the public on the web. The French website http://www.cnes.fr is currently overwelmed with traffic and I can't get through to see, but it's a good first step in opening up material from official investigations to the public.

According to the article there are over 1600 cases and 6000 witness accounts included in the archive although "'Only 20 to 30' could be classified as "Objet Volant Non Identifie" — UFOs that appeared to be physical objects, leaving 'marks on the ground, radar images'."

Kudos to the French for making this move.