If I were to decide anything in that matter, I would force all oil companies (and those exploiting other subterranean ressources) to leave all rain-forests and other sensitive parts of nature asap, and to re-build the already spoiled parts as good as possible and refund the people whom they caused damage by the drilling or digging, without the allowance to increase the prizes for these ressources to buffer that.
But unfortunately I don't have a say in that subject... :,(

Thorin...EVERY part of nature is " sensitive " in one way or another. As far as refunding " whom they caused damage by the drilling...", well...they already do that. Take a look at the oil fields in Alaska. The Inuit people who had rigs put up on their native land DO get reimbursed in the form of payments from the responsible companies.

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Air Cold, the blade stops;
from silent stone,
Death is preordained

Calm Chaos Forums : Everyone Welcome

. . . Special Thanks to Johnney Guinness for Originally bringing SETI@home Users Dedication to the Memory of Sir Arthur C Clarke

> Berkeley has Posted - on the Front Page a Link to this Dedication . . .

Thanks to All SETI Crunchers that assisted in this Effort

- A Tribute i am quite sure Sir Arthur Appreciates from his position . . .


Long Live SETI BOINC . . .

Thank you Richard,
It was important that SETI@home recognize, in some small way, the contribution that Arthur C. Clarke made to this project.

Arthur C. Clarke helped fuel peoples imagination with both science fiction and science fact.

I'm glad we were able to do something!

Thank you, your a gentleman,
John.

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. . . Special Thanks to Johnney Guinness for Originally bringing SETI@home Users Dedication to the Memory of Sir Arthur C Clarke

> Berkeley has Posted - on the Front Page a Link to this Dedication . . .

Thanks to All SETI Crunchers that assisted in this Effort

- A Tribute i am quite sure Sir Arthur Appreciates from his position . . .


Long Live SETI BOINC . . .

Thank you Richard,
It was important that SETI@home recognize, in some small way, the contribution that Arthur C. Clarke made to this project.

Arthur C. Clarke helped fuel peoples imagination with both science fiction and science fact.

I'm glad we were able to do something!

Thank you, your a gentleman,
John.

. . . Johnney - You are Most Welcome and (again) that Message Definetly goes out to All that Contributed as Well

> Exemplary Thanks to Berkeley for their Posting too . . .

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BOINC Wiki . . .

Science Status Page . . .

. . . Topical LINKS of Interest regarding The SETI Project & Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence


---> Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence . . .



---> Interstellar Radio Messages . . .

"I would like to notice the importance of designing and, especially, accomplishing practical projects directed to sending signals.

This is the only way to understand subtle problems of contacts. Here, as it always happens, egoists end up with failure."


Academician Andrey Sakharov, Nobel laureate.

Questionnaire "CETI", 1971

---> ACTIVE SETI . . . by Yvan Dutil and Stephane Dumas

Active SETI is also known by the term "CETI", which stands for Communication with ExtraTerrestrial Intelligence; and "METI" (Message to ETI)

---> 'Communication with Alien Intelligence' - by Marvin Minsky - In memoriam: Hans Freudenthal - 1985

When first we meet those aliens in outer space, will we and they be able to converse? I'll try to show that, yes,

we will–provided they are motivated to cooperate–because we'll both think similar ways.


My arguments for this are very weak but let's pretend, for brevity, that things are clearer than they are.


I'll propose two reasons why aliens will think like us, in spite of different origins.


All problem-solvers, intelligent or not, are subject to the same ultimate constraints–limitations on space, time, and materials.


In order for animals to evolve powerful ways to deal with such constraints, they must have ways to represent the situations they face,

and they must have processes for manipulating those representations.

---> 'RADIO SIGNALS TO EXTRATERRESTRIALS' - by Alexander L. Zaitsev - 2001

excerpted:

our spectral behavior is a show of continuous function at the alien's SETI indicator.

It may be supposed that this function might be used for information about our emotional world.

The most well known and easy way to express our emotional condition is music

---> Sending and Searching for Interstellar Messages - pdf File


---> Tesla at 75 . . .

"I think that nothing can be more important than interplanetary communication.


It will certainly come some day. and the certitude that there are other human beings in the universe, working, suffering, struggling, like ourselves,

will produce a magic effect on mankind and will form the foundation of a universal brotherhood that will last as long as humanity itself."

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BOINC Wiki . . .

Science Status Page . . .

. . . 2008 marks the beginning of "Target Earth" -- a year-long focus on Near Earth Objects (NEOs) and the hazards that marauding space-rocks pose to our planet

The tracking of near-Earth objects has been a priority for The Planetary Society since its inception.

Of more than a quarter-million dollars donated by the Society to NEO research over the years, more than half

has come in the form of Shoemaker NEO Grants to amateur observers. One of the grant's recipients, Roy Tucker

from Arizona, co-discovered Apophis, the 300-meter-diameter asteroid that will make a spectacularly close

passage by our planet in 2029 and again in 2036

<snip>

Target Earth encompasses The Planetary Society's three-pronged approach to NEO research: funding researchers who

discover and track asteroids, advocating greater NEO research funding by the government, and helping spur the

development of possible ways to avert disaster should a potentially dangerous asteroid be discovered . . .

. . . other places to check out regarding NEO's

> and, as well here: F.A.I.R. - Future Asteroid Interception Research

< Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering

< Torino Impact Scale

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BOINC Wiki . . .

Science Status Page . . .

. . . a bit of nostaglia for The Project: Technical news reports - 2002

This page contains the latest technical news on the astronomical and computer-system sides of SETI@home: 1999 - 2003

excerpted:

June 3, 2002

Online Science Database Reorganization

We recently completed a major reorganization of our online science database. Before describing what we did and why, here is a quick history review of our informix databases.

In the beginning, there were two databases, "user" and "science". There is not much to say here about the user database. It is growing slowly and neither the database nor the server is nearing any boundary limits

<snip>

The SETI@Home system architecture is designed to provide high operational resiliency. Both the output (sending workunits) and the input (receiving results) are buffered so that we can have the online science database in maintenance for a period of time with no real effect . . .

This Information / Links are Copyrighted © 2001 by SETI@home


. . . at Present, see this Update on the Project: "First Signs of the NTPCkr" Near Time Persistency Checker (NTPCKR) . . .

and as Well:
SETI@home looking for more volunteers


With Sincerity & Respect,

richard w lubrich jr AKA leonardo, nobody & Dr. C.E.T.I. @ SETI BOINC since Feb 29 2000

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. . . from Sky & Telescope - SETI Searches Today - by Alan M. MacRobert


Where should we tune the radio dial to listen for ET? Cosmic background noise is quietest in the band from about 0.5 to 60 gigahertz. Our atmosphere interferes the least from about 1 to 12 gigahertz. The black area shows the sum of all natural interference. Some searches have concentrated on the 'water hole,' the band marked off by strong emissions of hydrogen (H) at 1.42 gigahertz and hydroxyl (OH) around 1.72. These emissions are common throughout the universe, so the band between them might be a plausible place for alien civilizations trying to attract attention.
Courtesy Sky & Telescope

Is life common in the universe? Biologists today tend to think so.

Are intelligent, technological species of life — like us — common or rare? Long-lasting or short-lived? No one knows, and scientific opinions are sharply divided.

Are any such civilizations broadcasting their existence to the cosmos? There's only one way to find out, and that's to listen.

Several large searches for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) are currently scanning the stars, looking for both radio and laser transmissions from distant civilizations. Either type of signal could be sent across interstellar distances fairly economically, scientists are convinced . . .

. . . read more on SETI here


Copyright © 2008 New Track Media. All rights reserved

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. . . "We should all be looking for little glitches in our data." Werthimer


First we find all the resting contacts between objects. The criteria are: a corner must be very close to an edge and moving very slowly (in the direction perpendicular to the edge). Using these criteria, we assemble a list of contact points. For each contact, we store information such as: which are the two objects that are in contact, what is the normal (perpendicular vector) to the edge, where the point of contact is relative to each object, etc

SETI Conference: Planning for a Long, Long Search - by J. Kelly Beatty and Alan M. MacRober

Seth Shostak, senior astronomer at the SETI Institute, recently said that if Moore's Law continues to hold true, he thinks that we'll detect an alien communique within the next two decades.

But the workshop participants were less optimistic. "Maybe within 100 or 200 years," suggested Kent Cullers, the Institute's head of research and development. "Twenty years is too soon."

"I agree," put in Werthimer. "I think maybe 50 or 100 years."

Not all SETI efforts are radio-based. Paul Horowitz and Andrew Howard of Harvard have built a 72-inch telescope west of Boston to conduct a wide-sky survey for very brief pulses of light that might be directed Earth's way. The most powerful lasers designed so far (such as the Laser Megajoule in France and the National Ignition Facility in the U.S.) can blast out nearly a million billion watts of light for a few billionths of a second. In that brief instant such a laser, aimed at our solar system through a 10-meter telescope on a distant planet, would far outshine the planet's host star. Detecting such brief pulses of light is technologically easy. The ability to do it will soon be built into high-end amateur CCD cameras.

"If they really want to contact us, they can," Horowitz said.

But, the conference participants stressed, we still don't know if we're watching or listening the right way. For instance, between radio and visible light there's a gigantic unexplored spectrum of infrared and millimeter-waves frequencies. There's reason to think these are the most efficient frequencies for interstellar communication. Perhaps the aliens have decided that anyone smart enough to be interesting will realize this, and are signaling there accordingly. But we can't search these frequencies well until we do can SETI from above Earth's atmosphere.

"Your best guess is your worst enemy," admitted Werthimer. "It's naïve to think that the searches we're doing today are the best ones." Instead, he advises, think serendipity. "We should all be looking for little glitches in our data."

Copyright © 2008 New Track Media. All rights reserved

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. . . i Originally met Skip Spence, of Moby Grape - back in Milwaukee, Wisconsin - Skip plays here, on the Mike Douglas Show

@ the time - i was @ Milwaukee School of Engineering (in the late '60s)





Peter Lewis (guitar, vocals); Jerry Miller (lead guitar, some vocals); Bob Mosley (bass, vocals); Skip Spence (guitar, vocals); Don Stevenson (drums)

Note: Spence died of multiple medical problems in April 1999


. . . a Review of Moby Grape

. . . enjoy

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BOINC Wiki . . .

Science Status Page . . .

. . . looking at the life from the other side

The Other Side of Life Paranormal Investigation Group

Welcome to "The Other Side of Life." This site is built and dedicated to publishing our findings in our continuing research and investigation into the world of the paranormal. We are a small, Michigan based non-profit investigation team that simply seeks the answers to the things of this world, and beyond that currently are considered unexplained.

We do not claim to be all knowing experts, but what sets us apart from many other paranormal investigation groups is our dedication to detail. "We are not out for a cheap thrill" We are serious investigators, who only wish to study and decipher the claims of the paranormal.

Whether it be Ghosts, Haunting's, UFO sightings, or Crypto Zoological creatures we will investigate it . . .

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BOINC Wiki . . .

Science Status Page . . .

'Are We Alone' . . .



SETI@home Project Scientist Eric Korpela speaks about the probablility of finding intelligent life on earthlike planets as one of the guests

interviewed by Seth Shostak on this week edition of 'Are We Alone', the SETI Institute's Weekly radio magazine . . . [quoted from SETI @ home MAINPAGE]


Guests:

Diana Valencia - Planetary physicist at Harvard University
Charley Lineweaver - Cosmologist at the Australian National University
David Deamer - Research scientist at the University of California at Santa Cruz
Baruch Blumberg - Scientist at the Fox Chase Cancer Institute, Nobel Prize winner, and Trustee at the SETI Institute
Matthew Kenworthy - Astronomer at the University of Arizona

Eric Korpela - Research Scientist at the University of California, Berkeley

Richard Muller - Physicist, University of California, Berkeley

Kathryn Denning - Anthropologist at York University

How did the first cells make the scene? Could there be critters on some newly discovered planets? And what happens if we ever encounter weird life?

These may not be the sort of questions you hear being bandied about in your local coffee shop, but they were hot topics at the AbSciCon conference

held recently in Santa Clara, California, and sponsored by the SETI Institute.


AbSciCon stands for Astrobiology Science Conference, and Seth was there, talking to researchers about progress in puzzling out how life began on Earth,

and where it might have gained a claw-hold elsewhere. Could there be certain parts of our Galaxy that are off-limits for life? Also, hear whether our

universe has special properties that render it just dandy for life, and whether we should be looking for viruses on Mars

All Informations Provided - are Copyrighted 2007 by 'Are We Alone'

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BOINC Wiki . . .

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. . . NASA 'coined' Planet X Originally from Astronomer Clyde Tombaugh
- they weren't bein' "cute" Taurus (just thought You might like to know this

> INFO. re: Clyde W. Tombaugh: 1906-1997


Photograph Credit and Copyright: J. Kelly Beatty

> Clyde Tombaugh was the American astronomer who discovered the planet Pluto.

On August 20, 1949, he observed a UFO - (i was born October 29 1949 ;)

. . . "Planet X"

<snip>

the astronomer Clyde Tombaugh at the Lowell Observatory in Arizona on February 18, 1930 (although the body was first photographed on March 19, 1915).

Tombaugh was searching for a "Planet X"

<snip>

At the time of Pluto's discovery it was the farthest object known in the solar system and we can now recognise that its discovery was as much due to luck as to the diligence of Tombough's search.

While Pluto's identification as Planet X was then doubted, it was nevertheless identified as the solar system's ninth planet . . .

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BOINC Wiki . . .

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. . . the following HubbleSite - is a Reference Desk - Get the facts: answers to the basic questions about astronomy and Hubble, figures and charts, and dictionary definitions for astronomical terms

> Additional Resources are available here along with Photographs . . . have fun . . .

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BOINC Wiki . . .

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. . . from the SETI Institute 'Why Don't They Do SETI?'

. . . So what's the story? Why is SETI nearly exclusively an American game?

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BOINC Wiki . . .

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The WorldWide Telescope is a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope . . .

WorldWide Telescope is created with the Microsoft® high performance Visual Experience Engine™

and allows seamless panning and zooming around the night sky, planets, and image environments

. . . In Depth: WWT provides a single Internet-based portal to this unprecedented catalog of data to study the evolving universe. By connecting to the same source materials that scientists at NASA and Caltech are using for their research

. . . WorldWide Telescope also contains features to help you explore the Earth, satellites,

such as the Moon, and 360 degree panoramas of Yosemite’s Half Dome and other locations

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BOINC Wiki . . .

Science Status Page . . .

The WorldWide Telescope is a Web 2.0 visualization software environment that enables your computer to function as a virtual telescope . . .

WorldWide Telescope is created with the Microsoft® high performance Visual Experience Engine™

and allows seamless panning and zooming around the night sky, planets, and image environments

. . . In Depth: WWT provides a single Internet-based portal to this unprecedented catalog of data to study the evolving universe. By connecting to the same source materials that scientists at NASA and Caltech are using for their research

. . . WorldWide Telescope also contains features to help you explore the Earth, satellites,

such as the Moon, and 360 degree panoramas of Yosemite’s Half Dome and other locations

I know one thing, that is a nice scope in the pic. I've always been more of a fan of the meade LX200 scopes, but that is one nice Celestron there.

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. . . in the beginning - there was Gedye & Kasnoff





. . . The Story of SETI@home

. . . In 1994, David Gedye and Craig Kasnoff, two computer scientists from Seattle, came up with a brilliant solution to this problem:

instead of running a single large computer for a long time, why not run thousands of small computers for short periods of time?

. . . 'Hands-On Radio SETI Exhibit' - by David Anderson

Radio SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) is an area of scientific study that listens to radio waves from other stars,

seeking evidence of life outside Earth. Examples of radio SETI projects include SETI@home and Phoenix.

Hands-On Radio SETI Exhibit (HORSE) is an interactive page that uses sound and animation to teach about radio SETI . . .

. . . Magical frames of reference and signal candidates - December 15, 2002
by Eric Person

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BOINC Wiki . . .

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by: Joshua S. Bloom, Maryam Modjaz, UC Berkeley, and the PAIRITEL SN/GRB team


. . . X-ray outburst leads to all-out study of supernova

By Robert Sanders, Media Relations | 21 May 2008

BERKELEY – The lucky capture in January of an X-ray outburst from the very beginning of a supernova allowed astronomers around the world to quickly follow up with ground-based telescopes and collect a wealth of new information on early processes in stellar explosions, according to a paper newly submitted to The Astrophysical Journal.

On Jan. 9, 2008, NASA's Swift satellite captured the X-ray burst, the first ever recorded from a normal supernova at the moment of "shock breakout," when the shock wave rebounding from the collapsed core breaks though the star's surface to produce a shower of X-rays.

According to first author Maryam Modjaz, a Miller postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley, capturing the breakout flash was a case of serendipity. Swift was already monitoring another supernova in the galaxy when the second one exploded. At the same time, UC Berkeley astronomers and their colleagues were monitoring the first supernova from the ground and caught images of the new one only hours after the explosion.

<snip>

The initial X-ray measurements were different from other X-ray flashes observed by Swift and Chandra and may provide a signature for identifying other Type Ib supernovae, Modjaz and Butler emphasized.

"A purely X-ray-only discovery allows people now to have a signpost in time and place to do all their other follow-up observations," Bloom said

Such "panchromatic" analyses of supernovae will become more common if two planned orbiting X-ray satellites dedicated to all-sky surveys are launched in coming years, Bloom said. One of these, ARGOS-X, is up for review by NASA next month. Another, called EXIST, is in the planning stage.

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BOINC Wiki . . .

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H. Paul Shuch executive director of the SETI League,
points out that properly equipped amateur radio astronomers
could fill a meaningful niche in monitoring the sky for
powerful intermittent signals.


. . . SETI@home and Public Participation Distributed Computing - Produced by: Microsoft Research - October 6, 2005

Description:

Werthimer will discuss the possibility of life in the universe and the search for radio signals from other civilizations.

SETI@home analyzes data from the world's largest radio telescope using desktop computers from five million volunteers in

226 countries.


SETI@home participants have contributed two million years of computer time and have formed Earth's most powerful supercomputer.

Users have the small but captivating possibility their computer will detect the first signal from a civilization beyond Earth.


Werthimer will also discuss plans for future SETI experiments, petaop signal processing, and open source code for public

participation distributed computing (BOINC - Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing).


Speaker(s):

Dan Werthimer, director, Serendip Seti; chief scientist, SETI@home


Runtime:00:22:40

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BOINC Wiki . . .

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.


International investment banker Frank Yeary joins UC Berkeley as new vice chancellor

By Marie Felde, Media Relations | 16 June 2008

BERKELEY – University of California, Berkeley, Chancellor Robert J. Birgeneau today (Monday, June 16) announced the appointment of leading international finance banker and UC Berkeley alumnus Frank D. Yeary as a new vice chancellor.

Yeary, who resigns as global head of mergers and acquisitions for Citigroup, will report directly to Birgeneau and will advise the chancellor, the executive vice chancellor and provost, and their senior staff on strategic planning and financial issues important to the campus.

Yeary will guide major strategic initiatives, specifically spearheading the development of a long-range financial plan to help the campus develop and manage a more stable, reliable funding strategy. He will also provide international financial expertise in global research and education partnerships, and he may teach classes at UC Berkeley's Haas School of Business.


"The critical purpose for bringing Frank Yeary into this position is to strengthen our financial position through strategies that blend public and private support and that take advantage of opportunities, partnerships and alliances," said Birgeneau.

> added Note: quote . . . 'his annual base salary of $200,000, which he will donate to the campus' unquote

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