Remembering Oumuamua

Avi Loeb's ridiculously titled Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth (as though the entire UFO phenomenon never existed) is about the discovery and significance of the Oumuamua asteroid (the first interstellar object observed by astronomers) and has received generally positive reviews, including in The New York Times and The New Yorker.  In my view, we actually have a lot more compelling evidence of extraterrestrial visitors to earth than we do evidence that Oumuamua was more than an oddly shaped rock doing a fly-by of our sun -- though I also agree with Loeb that “If we acknowledge that 'Oumuamua is plausibly of extraterrestrial-technology origin, whole new vistas of exploration for evidence and discovery open before us.” It's odd that The New York Times reviewer fails to mention UFOs, given the superb reporting the paper has done on the subject -- as several of those commenting on the article point out.  At least Elizabeth Kolbert mentions UFOs in her New Yorker piece, and even reaches out to Erich von Däniken, author of Chariots of the Gods, who calls Loeb courageous, as “No scientist wants to be ridiculed, and whenever they deal with U.F.O.s or extraterrestrials, they are ridiculed by the media.”  Kolbert certainly recognizes that possibility, and she quotes Loeb, who says, “Extraordinary conservatism keeps us extraordinarily ignorant.” Too true.