Could UFO's Exist: More Exciting News From Italy....

Recently it was reported from Italy that scientists had discovered that sub atomic particles called neutrinos can apparently move faster than the speed of light. UFO enthusiasts will no doubt be delighted. That surely proves that a more advanced civilisation in possession of this sort of technology must have been visiting earth, travelling in time and doing all sorts of other cosmically most upsetting things with Albert Einstein’s formerly well-ordered universe.  Well, it’s likely to mean no such thing. It’s probably what a science teacher of mine once referred to as “experimental error”, something with which my less than illustrious career in school science labs had an enduring acquaintance.

But what about UFOs - could they exist? Undoubtedly millions of people believe they do, in fact quite a few people are convinced they have been abducted by these visitors from outer space and been the subject of “experiments” (the sexual / reproductive nature of which probably speaks more to the states of mind of the “abductees” than the actual existence or otherwise of little green men). Given how many people are sure that they have suffered this indignity, it’s surprising there isn’t better evidence for these alien intruders.  At one point so many people thought they were being abducted there should have been a risk of UFO gridlock over the skies. If you suggest as much though, it’s all very easily explained - there is no proof because, of course, there is a government cover-up. Right.

Well, that’s quite a stretch isn’t it?  For starters, Governments are far too inefficient and clumsy to run long term successful cover ups.  But that’s not really the point. I don’t believe that aliens are visiting us. But, assuming I’m wrong, even if they were, I don’t believe we would know it. Here’s why.

The nearest star to our earth is Proxima Centauri and it is a red dwarf star about 4.2 light-years away. Given that it’s a red dwarf that makes it very unlikely any planets support life in its proximity. But let’s ignore that and pretend. If visitors from that system wanted to visit earth, then, flying straight across space as a crow would, so to speak, it would take 4.2 years to get here. That doesn’t sound too bad, however, that assumes they could fly at the speed of light.

Light speed is about 186 000 miles a second (or 700 million miles an hour), which means they are 25 754 400 000 000 miles away (25.75 trillion miles). To put that is some kind of perspective, if you were to fly to Proxima Centauri in a modern Dreamliner jet (max speed about 600 mph), the journey would take you just under 490 000 years. But let’s pretend they have a space ship travelling at 1 million miles an hour. Even at that speed its taking our little green men nearly 3000 years to get here and 6000 years to do a round trip. Not really worth setting out.

The problem is that, unless you can really travel at speeds approaching that of light, space travel is just about impossible. The distances are simply too great. 

To move space ships at such speeds is beyond the comprehension of our science, in fact according to Einstein, its impossible. But, science has been wrong before, and we have been pretending, so why stop now. Let’s assume they can travel at near light speed. If so, our visitors would have developed a level of technology so immeasurably more sophisticated than ours that it’s highly doubtful we would even know we were being watched or studied. They would justifiably consider us extremely primitive. It’s unlikely they would communicate with us, just as scientists don’t bother trying to communicate with things in a petri dish. 

Now consider the stories of slumbering mortals being abducted by these aliens so they can keep on conducting the same, crude experiments not unlike deranged Nazi doctors. No, not really very likely is it. Especially when you consider that such base scientific crudity is now less advanced than our own modern science, which can use a strand of hair to decode a human’s genome. Why would aliens repeatedly come from across space to try and do so?

Of course the above is even more highly unlikely because there are almost certainly no life- supporting star systems near to our own solar system. Our visitors would most likely have to come from much further afield, sustaining fragile lives across possibly hundreds of light years of empty, freezing space. The distances are beyond our simple comprehension and only the stuff of science fiction will see life travel across these near infinite blank inky voids.

The reality is, that there are almost certainly no visitors from outer space, certainly not that we would know about.

That’s not to say there isn’t life out there somewhere, but life forms are likely to be so far from each other in these infinite gulfs of distance, that contact between “civilizations” is going to be all but impossible. And perhaps that’s not such a bad thing, given how we treat each other here on earth. If I believed in any universal, all creating god, perhaps I might think that he, or she, had done that deliberately.

Let’s face it, neutrinos or not, we are utterly alone on our planet and in our “space”, and very likely to stay that way for a very, very long time ……………..

Why Do People Believe This Stuff?

Why do people like to believe weird stuff? What is it that seems to predispose people to want to believe things that, if we were to just pause for a little clear headed thought, most of us would accept make no sense at all.

Take the case of David Icke. He used to be a BBC Sports Reporter. Then in 1990, a “Psychic” in Brighton revealed to Dave that he had a far more significant, cosmic role – he had been sent to heal the earth. Well, I imagine that must have been a bit surprising. Presumably most of us would nod politely, mutter something like “Gee whizz, thanks very much” and try not to snigger. Not Mr Icke.

Since his Brighton revelation he has applied himself to his new role with great enthusiasm and vigour. Apparently a great number of quite sensible people believe him too. He believes the Queen is an alien reptile, or at least descended from one. Well, perhaps he’s just a frustrated republican but I’m not so sure. He would have us believe we are all ruled by these secret reptilian humanoids that form a global brotherhood. I’m not sure if Mr Ahmadinejad is one of them but George W Bush is, along with a selection of other world leaders and a predictable cast of the likes of the Rockefellers, the Rothschild’s, the United Nations, the IMF - you can probably fill in the blanks. Its recycled conspiracy theory, writ large and aimed at the normal suspects and easy targets. The problem is it’s simply ridiculous if you think about it, but why do people believe it?

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Take Mormonism. The US Republican primaries are currently being run and the leading candidate to oppose President Obama (not sure if Mr Icke believes him to be an alien reptile but I expect it’s quite possible) is one Mitt Romney. He is a Mormon; in fact he was a Mormon Bishop. Mormonism was founded by a man called Joseph Smith (known more correctly now as Prophet Smith) in 1830, who believed God sent him visions (ok, not the first to suffer from that quaint delusion). Mormons are rather strange. They have to wear special underwear; worship an angel called Moroni and believe Jesus visited North America after his resurrection. They also believe a whole host of other weird things, most of which are contained in the “Book of Mormon”. This book is based upon some “gold plates” Prophet Smith found under a rock on a small hill in Ontario County, New York State in the late 1820s, so the tale goes (conveniently the plates are now “lost”).

It’s all a rather tangled story, however, for what it’s worth it’s a great example of people believing the completely implausible; These gold plates were supposedly written in an ancient Egyptian like language and Joseph Smith was only able to decipher them by burying his head in his hat, at the bottom of which he had placed a “magic” stone. Hmmm.

But it becomes even more incredulous. This was the second draft of the Gold Plates. Smith’s neighbour lost the first draft (he wanted to show it to his wife), which Smith had interpreted that time with the help of some holy spectacles given to him by Angel Moroni. If Moroni had access to spectacles, presumably he could have produced a copy of the gold plates in an easy to read format instead of putting Joseph through all this. However, titter ye not, for Mormons all this is a fundamental article of their faith. Several million people believe this totally and without question. They “know” it’s the Lord’s truth.

If Romney wins the election in 2012, then he will, amongst other things, have his finger on the proverbial nuclear button. Now, it may be that he’d be no more likely to push it than any of the other (admittedly rather worrying) candidates currently eying the presidency. However, unlike the others, he believes all this stuff along with millions of other Mormons. What if he decides to start getting revelations from God? We’ve just had one president who thought God told him to invade Iraq.

His election would also make a Mormon the most powerful man in the world – but would that be Mr Romney or the President of the Mormon Church, the most powerful figure in Mormonism.  For some, Romney’s election will be heralded as the much anticipated arrival of “The One mighty and strong” which is hardly a comforting thought. So, if you ever needed a reason to vote for Obama…

All well and good, you might think, clearly it’s ridiculous. But is it any more ridiculous than any other beliefs out there. And why are our modern day religious beliefs any more likely to be true than ancient ones. No one believes in the religions of the ancient world anymore. For instance, if you said in all seriousness that you worshiped the gods of ancient Egypt, people would be incredulous and quite rightly think you mad. The ancient Egyptians had a god (Osiris, aka the Risen Osiris) who was murdered but subsequently brought back to life for a brief time (heard that one before). Of course, no one has believed that particular religion for over 2000 years. Another took its place….

Why do people believe all this stuff?

FALL OF THE NEW ROMAN EMPIRE

 

“Arrivederci, Silvio”. Not since the barbarians invaded Rome has Italy looked in such a sorry state. Ditto the rest of Western Europe. Why are Europe’s states weighed down by such terrifying levels of debt?

How did it all come to this?

Lots of reasons, but ultimately it’s down to the politicians and governments (left and right), who have for too long pursued a form of fuzzy social democracy or “socialism-lite”.  Generous welfare states and unproductive state employers have developed and expanded over the past decades. Steadily declining productivity has been countered by pumping ever more easy money into these great increasingly sluggish and unreformed bureaucracies. Access to easy money (and debt) has been made possible thanks to the shared Euro and lenders inexplicably ignoring the reality that lending to lazy corrupt Greece is a bigger risk than lending to hard working Germans. There has been a calculated strategy behind this too – these state monoliths are cultivated as vast voter reservoirs whose enduring loyalty has been purchased with levels of earnings and benefits unaffordable in the long term.

In some euro countries, state employment (let make that dependency) is at the 50% mark. That is economically unsustainable unless you are an oil rich Saudi Arabia. In countries like Greece, it’s only the life support systems of foreign loans that gave the illusion of life to these vast state cadavers. Often private firms are scarcely better. Rotten to the core with corruption and graft, their only purpose now is to sustain their own existence.  It’s been a case of too many people, doing too little of value or point and costing far too much to do it, all for far too long.

Less and less for more and more – gets my vote!

As people generally do less and less (like the French 35 working hour week) and expect the State to provide more and more freebies (education, health, early retirement (45 years old if you are a Greek policeman), allowances for just about everything etc.), so the election winning promise of an enduring Utopia has to be sustained by ever more Government borrowing. The real economies have now faltered under this weight forcing yet higher and more expensive borrowing.  Set against this, the only way to win elections, is to promise even more than your opponents and forever deny economic reality (“We will all have to start living within our means” being a great example of a sure fire way to lose an Italian / Greek/European election). It has all been short term, political expediency bought on the never-never; debt recycled and passed from Government to Government like a giant political pyramid scheme. And now its collapsing.

Can Italy escape?

In theory “Yes”.  But it would take strong, smart leadership, sustained over several years by a powerful government to lead Italy out of the predicament it has “borrowed, spent and lazed” itself into. The solutions are smaller Governments and prosperity built on productivity (not false growth funded by debt like an addict funds a habit). That eventually means smaller states and less state spending. It will be a long, slow and very painful correction. That means some brave pills being taken by new, brave political leaders in Italy and across Europe. It means properly elected leaders, happy to be unpopular and who are prepared to grit their teeth and stay the course, like George Osborne, despite the shrieks of protest when the going gets tough.

The last time Italy had such a leader was Julius Caesar, so, in reality “No it probably won’t escape”. As for the rest of Europe, they are probably not as politically chaotic as Greece or Italy, but the challenge to sustain the Union looks increasingly formidable. The invaders are at the Gates, not with swords and horses, but in the form of eastern and Chinese competition - Is this going to be the fall of the Euro Empire?

Crisis, what crisis?

As they teeter on the brink of Euro zone oblivion, one could be forgiven for wondering whether the leaders of states of Europe actually realise how serious their predicament really is. Looking at them pose for the inevitable G20 summit pictures in Cane, there is a chilling un-reality to it all. Not unlike passengers posing on the titanic, only they will take us all to the bottom, unless they can get their collective acts together. Don't hold your breath, or rather, get ready to hold it for a long time if we all end up going overboard.