Hi.

welcome to thursday. uuuuh. what’s on the table for today?

well.  first of all, i’ve finished the first draft of my outreach “zombies in the classroom” zombie simulation game. download it here.

This is a simulation game where, using dice and some clear and simple rules, a zombie epidemic can be modeled. It’s fun with kids, and i’m hoping to drag it to some local schools as a “math outreach” dealie.

ok, second: UFO’s.
So, Stanton Friedman is a very famous UFOlogist. he used to be a physicist and he lives in fredericton. (that’s where i live). Recently he was in the newspaper .

When you read the article it sounds like he claims that a person accelerating at 9.81m/s^2 can reach the speed of light within a year. Now, I know that he used to be a physicist, so this comes off as *super ignorant*. the theory of relativity says that you’re not going to get to the speed of light. So i sent him an email telling him to tuck in his shirt.

he replied that he’d told the reporter that an accelerating rocket can *almost* reach the speed of light. that’s a key difference. I guess the reporter cut out the word *almost*, and i’m satisfied at that.

anyway, he seems a little combative (or maybe i’m coming off as rude?); and seems to want to argue that interstellar travel is possible. We’ve gone back and forth a couple times now.

I concede that interstellar travel is possible, but i still don’t believe that UFO’s are aliens visiting earth, and i told him so. If we start debating, and anything good comes of it, i’ll (with his permission) publish the transcript.

I like UFO’s. I like stanton friedman. I also like where precise arguments and flights of fancy collide. I’ll keep you updated if it gets interesting.