I just lost a member of the community today. Apparently, the subject of UFOs came up during a wine tasting party and she was upset that I dismissed the subject in such a mocking manner. Here’s her note:
I believe in UFOs 100%. There’s more than just one website that offers historical documentation, videos, pictures that prove we are not alone in this universe. It’s a difficult and scary subject to explore for most and easier to disbelieve than to go beyond ones “comfort zone”. Sorry, your very nice but it was a real turn off to see the group organizer mock the subject and be so close minded. All the best.
I was going to reply to her note directly but since she believes 100%, it would be unlikely for her to consider any response. In fact, it’s a bit hypocritical for someone to say that they believe something 100% then call someone else “close minded.” Also, Nancy was there at the party and remembered our conversation. She did not consider my response as mocking.
However, I did take the time to flesh out three rational arguments that someone might find convincing.
- The universe is vast.
- We are an evolved product of the specific conditions present on Earth.
- Many of the observations ascribed to alien activity have mundane explanations.
Here is the note (that I didn’t send):
So you believe in UFOs 100%. So what? Tucson Atheists is not about UFOs, although I also run the Skeptics of Tucson that is concerned with such subjects. As far as believing in something 100% that is something that is not really possible and to accuse me of being “close minded” is quite ignorant and hypocritical.
Over the many years that I’ve been around, I’ve believed in many things. I read all the Van Daniken books about alien visitation along with other material but as I learned more and more about the physical world and the scientific method it became apparent that it is not possible. I also follow SETI and keep up with the search for inhabitable planets in distant solar systems.
There are trillions of stars but our nearest star is Proxima Centauri 4.24 light years distant from us and the nearest exoplanet that we’ve been able to find that may be able to support life is a 13 light years away.
For just a minute, let’s assume that there is a space faring alien civilization 10 light years away. How long would it take to get there? For comparison let’s look at our most recent visit to Pluto. Pluto is about 4 light hours from earth. We sent our fastest space ship to Pluto. It traveled 36,373 mph and took 9 years, 5 months, and 25 days to get there. In terms of spacial distances, Pluto is fairly close, only 4 light HOURS.
A light year is 8760 light hours or about 6 trillion miles. The New Horizons spacecraft traveling at over 36,000 miles per hour would take 19,000 years to travel ONE light year or 190,000 years to go 10 light years.
Also consider that we are a product of this planet. We evolved from conditions existing here and nowhere else. We can’t assume that visitors from the stars would have any resemblance to our forms. Space travelers would not know up from down and actually have little need for solid ground.
The most damning evidence that there are no alien UFOs is the fact that with all the pictures being snapped around the world with the ever available recording devices on millions, perhaps billions, of people, there is no overwhelming evidence. Sure, you might be able to misinterpret a smudge or a bright light now and again, but I’d expect more.
Science has been able to find alternate rational reasons for many of the so called UFO sightings. For example, there are mundane reasons that the Egyptians built their pyramids which included Pi out to many digits. They didn’t need help from space travelers. They simply used rolling wheels to make some of their measurements. A wheel that is one cubit across when rolled would produce a length exactly cubits.
Early on, I wanted to believe but I’ve given UFOs a lot of thought and now I consider their existence improbable.
Feel free to check my math. By the way, I know that these aren’t the only reasons to doubt the existence of UFOs but it’s a start.
EDT: By the way, I believe we may not be alone in the universe. Odds are pretty good that there are others. However, I don’t believe they’re regular visitors.
It’s been a week of driving for Nancy and me and our ’97 Thunderbird “Atheist Mobile.” Normally, our old cruiser sits in the driveway collecting dust and tree sap but we got a chance to clean it up, fuel it up, and drive it to and from Phoenix three times this week.
I made it! Sorta. This year I decided to take my Halloween adventures into the world of Arduino. I saw the “Talking Arduino Halloween Skeleton” on the Instructables.com website. Halloween is the best time of year for a retired engineer and tinkerer like me.
Naomi the talking witch started out as a standard Halloween hanging prop made in China. The original prop had a voice box and glowing eyes but the voice was hard to understand. I keep everything so perhaps the voice box will be used in a future project. I 
really wanted her face and hands but I ended up using everything except for the voicebox.
The project involved building an audio circuit board for the Arduino and making some special WAV files for her voice. The board went together rather quickly and worked well. My wife Nancy recorded the witch’s voice clips and did a great job. There were challenges. The witch’s face was a solid chunk of plastic and I wanted her jaw to move when she spoke. So I had to perform plastic surgery, for real! I used a hot knife which is a #ll Exacto blade mounted on the end of a soldering iron. This made the job easy. The hot blade works its way slowly through the 
plastic but doesn’t take a lot of force. 
It turns out that that is enough. The trick is that the first several inches of pull are done with the jack over the stake and the remaining extraction is done with the stake in front of the jack. I was able to pull 3 stakes completely out without digging in less than 45 minutes. The fourth one I pulled with the jack after the motorcycle lifted failed. It is the mangled one in the picture. (
Hopefully, this is the last time I’ll mention pulling stakes in this blog but I hope maybe a couple are interested in some of the details.
from the hardware store, some chain, a small bolt, a couple of washers, and a nut to fit the bolt. I made a small chain loop around the bar under the lift pad on the car lift using the bolt, washers, and nut. The chain hook was placed over the stake and the chain loop was placed in the open hook. The jack is positioned on top of the stake at first. Once the jack reaches its lift limit, the jack is lowered and re-positioned behind the stake. Upon reaching the lift limit the second time; the stake should be easily pulled out of the ground by hand.
There is a 
After getting close several times, 
internet! There is power for 12 hours in the day and water enough to drink and shower occasionally (limited to three minutes of tepid water—quite invigorating). The food was good and plentiful and prepared for the campers by a small catering staff. The weather was generally nice but we did have one wet day that started with fog and drizzle but it was only for the one day and the sky cleared up in time for our nighttime stargazing activities which included making an LED constellation, a star treasure hunt, and building a using a simple astrolabe.
On the list were things like something blue, a rock, a leaf, a feather, etc. I know a feather was on the list because one of the campers chased me down and took my hat.
I unloaded, set up, and tested the track. Then it went back into the storage box to await its time in the spotlight at the end of the program on Friday. That is when the campers who chose to build Pinewood racers would compete in front of the whole camp. 
Everything worked! The six campers that built cars each raced six times. The oldest boy in the competition became the race official and lined up the cars on the track behind the starting gate. He made sure the rotation was proper during the next race. I operated the computer and tallied the scores. After each race, the kids retrieved their cars and they 
were lined up for the next race. It went quick. Each race only takes a couple of seconds. After six races the numbers were in. The computer sorted out the scores and one car came out on top with 6 first place wins. That car belonged to the youngest and littlest Camp Quest camper. Everyone cheered as Gloria was crowned the 2015 Camp Quest Pinewood champion! Congratulations Gloria and congratulations Camp Quest AZ for another successful year.
This is the penultimate chapter on the Pinewood Derby track a friend and I built at Edwards AFB when we had kids in Cub Scouts thirty years ago. After getting all the pieces collected, the first step was to test it out. It is 32 feet long. The best place to set it up was on my back porch. After all this time and mileage, it still worked! It had some dings but the electronics still functioned and the cars stayed on track. In the picture you can see the middle four lanes occupied by my son’s three cars and my 54 year old version. Everything worked but it needed to be “freshened” up a bit and the joints needed work. Working with filler and sandpaper I filled the nicks and smoothed out the all-important rail edges. This is the part of working with wood that I hate but it had to be done.
Also, I’m a bit older bending over is not my favorite thing either but it had to be done…no wait, perhaps not.
put it on tables. This made the painting and sanding easier. The smoothed out track was then painted flat 
black then I needed to fix an old problem. After the car crosses the finish line, it needs to be stopped. The suggested method is to raise the rail at the end so that the car is lifted off its wheel and rides on the rails. The problem is that most of the cars are slick on the bottom. They have a good deal of speed and frequently don’t stop within the 2 feet provided. The previous solution was to put a section of pipe insulation on the end for the cars to bounce off of. That works but sometimes the cars bounce back and off their rail and collide with other cars on the track. The new solution was to coat the rail after the finish line with rubberized paint. The 
foam barricade at the end is still there but hopefully the cars won’t be bouncing off of it. I’ll tell you if it worked when I return from 
camp.
didn’t want to arrive at the camp with new damage. I needed 
a shipping/storage crate. The track pieces needed protection and combined into one package. It would be heavy and it would still be hauled in the back of a truck. My truck has a six foot bed which is 2+ feet too short for the track sections. The packed track would have to be tilted. Also, the access to the summer camp facilities is via a 
few miles of dirt road and I would need a dust cover. OK, still with me? The next step would be to build the crate. Then the crate needed a cover and wheels.
protection too. Luckily, I didn’t have to build something this time. An under bed storage container from Walmart was all I needed and luckily the packed electronics fit handily in the crate and under the dust cover.
one is a bit of a surprise and it would spoil it if I attached the picture to this blog. In order to see the 6th car, you’ll have to wait until I 
return from camp unless you’re at camp.
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