|
| Personal background |
|---|
Hi - I'm a semi-retired American expat, residing here in Northern Thailand over the past last 13 years, who keeps busy helping Asian university students with their science projects. As an example, we are currently working on a biology project where we can effectively grow a sustainable agricultural crop in high salinity soils, which are abundant within the Northeastern region of the country. Before coming to Thailand I was/am an Electrical Engineer who has worked for some of the aerospace manufacturers in Southern California.
One of the many things that I miss about my lifestyle here in Southeast Asia is not being able to attend some of the Astronomy seminars that I see taking place back in the states and occasionally venturing out on weekly to monthly outings to the Los Angeles Observatory. An advantage of living here, within this Eastern Hemisphere, is I am able to witness some solar system events that are only discussed in the Western Hemisphere, such as the solar eclipse back in 1999.
The aforementioned, concerning assistance to science students, is both my hobby, recreational activity and part-time job; although on occasion, I've been known to spend a number of nightly hours at a local pub named O'Malley's, Irish Pub, absorbing and analyzing the chemical differences offered in fine blends of various international beers and available ales.
|
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
|---|
Personal Opinions:
Starting with SETI@Home in its early days (1999), I began my interest with distributive processing projects, but I suspended my activity when SETI started its second pass, or phase of computation, due to a very slow thinking CPU (200 MHz) and a lazy dial-up modem that sometimes hung-up on the ISP without being requested to do so.
I don't necessarily believe there is other forms of life existing in deep outer space, as we know it, or that has been over dramatized by Hollywood, but I do feel there is alien life; such as, plants and insect like creatures that could exist on distant and remote planets. Furthermore, if there should be life on other planets, I also believe we will not be able to detect signals from them here on plant earth, such as SETI@Home or Einstein@Home is attemping to accomplish, but instead with outer space missions like TPF (Terrestrial Planet Finder) and LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna). So why do I participate in these two very worthy Astro Physics Projects?
Mostly because, presently I am gaining a free e-Learning education here on the Internet, on a subject that I have always been interested in, but without the time to actively pursue within a formal academic institution. Both SETI@Home and Einstein@Home compliment my educational desires by allowing me to ease-drop in on discussions (posts) from well-known Scientists and students of Astronomy and Physics. Later this coming year (2005), I will enrolled in an Astronomy course offered on the Internet by a university in the United Kingdom.
Every hobby or time consuming interest produces favorites, below our listed mine for Engineering, Science and Politics.
Favorites:
Scientist: (Oppenheimer - for scientist, manager, humanitarian and educator)
"The trouble with secrecy is that it denies to the government itself the wisdom and the resources of the whole community."
J. Robert Oppenheimer, the "father of the atomic bomb," was born in New York City on April 22, 1904. An expert in quantum theory and nuclear physics, he was enlisted into the fledgling U.S. atomic weapons program in 1941. In 1942, the "Manhattan Project," as the program became known, was greatly expanded, and Oppenheimer was ................
http://www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive/speech_214.html
Quotation: (JFK - for bravery and foresight)
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too.
-John F. Kennedy, Rice University, 1962,
http://vesuvius.jsc.nasa.gov/er/seh/ricetalk.htm
Photograph: (for astronomy, pictured above)
Together, the radio lobes span over one million light years -- what caused them? In the center is a large but peculiar elliptical galaxy dubbed NGC 1316. Detailed inspection of the NGC 1316 system indicates that it began absorbing a small neighboring galaxy about 100 million years ago. Gas from the galactic collision has fallen inward toward the massive central black hole, with friction heating the gas to 10 million degrees. For reasons not yet well understood, two oppositely pointed fast moving jets of particles then developed, eventually smashing into the ambient material on either side of the giant elliptical galaxy. The result is a huge reservoir of hot gas that emits radio waves, observed as the orange (false-color) radio lobes in the above image. The radio image is superposed on an optical survey image of the same part of the sky. Strange patterns in the radio lobes likely indicate slight changes in the directions of the jets.
-Credit: Ed Fomalont (NRAO) et al., VLA, NRAO, AUI, NSF,
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap050628.html
Web Site: (for astronomy)
Jet Propulsion Laboratory - California Institute of Technology: As mentioned earlier within this profile, I've worked for some of the aerospace contractors within Southern California, and JPL was a customer site for one of the contractors I worked for. Being stationed at JPL (only 9 months) for me was possibly the best assignment I had during my working career. The positive "Can Do" attitude and enthusiasm was an experience I'll never forget.
http://www.jpl.nasa.gov
Profile: (SETI @Home)
When we, as Data Processors, come to the SETI @Home web site, we or myself any way, leave the world we live in behind us and venture into outer space, but it's nice to find a "Profile" authored by someone who is very down-to-earth. I quote from his profile regarding why this individual enjoys processing for SETI: "I like SETI as opposed to other distributed computing projects as no commercial entity stands to make money out of my CPU time. Sure, it may be a noble cause to donate CPU time to trying to find a cure for cancer but if such a cure is found you can bet your bottom dollar that "the company" will make a fortune out of it. And if I then get cancer and need their expensive drug sometime will they give it to me free or discounted because I donated X amount of CPU-years to help discover it I don't think so jack." Enough Said!
http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/view_profile.php?userid=149775
|
| Your feedback on this profile |
|---|
| Recommend this profile for User of the Day: |
I like this profile |
| Alert administrators to an offensive profile: |
I do not like this profile |
|
|
