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| Personal background |
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About Myself and My Wife:
I am a white male human of American, Irish and German background. Born April 7th, 1959; married November 15th, 1982; living in Anchorage, Alaska since September, 1982.
Current Employment:
I'm Part-Owner and Project Manager / Program Coordinator of Sequestered Solutions Alaska (SSA), which is a secure data hosting facility located in Anchorage, Alaska. I spend my work week juggling between leading edge and bleeding edge technology, guiding Clients and Company Staff through Project Development and Execution, and assisting my Management and other Owners in keeping the Company in the "green", and out of the "Red".
Past Employment:
My past employment includes 14 years in the Oil Exploration and Production Industry - ten years of which was spent working two-week-on / two-week-off shifts in the Prudhoe Bay, Kuparuk and Endicott Island Oil Fields, located on the north coast of Alaska. This allowed me to rack up quite a few air miles on the Credit Card over the course of a decade.
Previous to the oil fields, I worked in the Alaskan Vocational School Industry as a Computer College Registrar, and the Office Manager of a Masonry School. I even briefly worked as a Clerk - Typist for the State of Alaska.
OK – here goes. I became very proficient with a "Hush-Puppy", a regular ole .45, an M-24 and an M-203 in active 11B and "in-active B4 services" for the US Army, and was first introduced to small, micro-computers while in the service, too. I got to see the world during my US Army time - though the world didn't get to see much of me, or my “force multiplyingâ€, if I was doing my job right. Wow, I never used to say anything about my “Army†time except that I was a clerk – 71L – I can’t believe I just said what I said, and put it out on the Internet. I’ll probably get “cleaned†now; oh well, what the heck – it’s been over 20 years – let’s hope most don’t care anymore, if they did, ever, eh?
Before the US Army, I did whatever I could to make a buck - from selling shoes to bagging groceries.
About My Thinking Unit:
I supposedly have an IQ that's been tested at 140 (give or take 5 points), though I think the two dogs and cat that live with my wife and I are smarter in the practical sense ... I mean - who is paying the bills for food, lodging and entertainment - them, or me?
About my Real Thinking Unit:
My courageous wife is a former State of Alaska worker, and originally from Columbia, South Carolina.
About our Dreams and Plans that actually came true:
We saved our hard earned money, and besides the house here in Anchorage, we own a small cabin with 120 acres of land in Talkeetna, Alaska - which is located 110 miles north of Anchorage, and 100 miles south of Mt. McKinley.
About our small bit of forest in Talkeetna, Alaska:
Our hobbies include, obviously, going out to the cabin and feeding our herd of mosquitoes. I would say "flock" of mosquitoes as they are a flying species, but that just doesn't sound big enough for the number of mosquitoes we have - "herd" sounds more appropriate for both the number, and the size of this particular group of creatures found on our property.
We also have a small herd of Moose (one Bull and three to four Cows), at least one Lynx, Black and Brown Bear, squirrels, marmot, and at least one porcupine. We have so many bird types I don't know where to start - though the Bald and Golden Eagles, Hawks and Owls, and of course, the Ravens - all leave such huge shadows when flying by during the daylight that you just can't avoid stopping and looking up to see what it was that just flew by ... and were big enough to block out the Sun on a sunny day.
We have, of course, many more species of birds during the summer months than during the winter. Being on the summer "end range" of many Bird Species Migratory Pathways, or close to them, means we get to see some pretty incredible types of Birds!
At the beginning of summer, great flocks of Canadian Geese, and many other Geese types, flood in from the south in great flocks; some stopping for the summer and nesting, most stopping for a rest before they continue to head to northern Alaska and the Arctic Ocean coast line - which is still almost untouched by modern man ... except for a few small oil fields and such.
While working in Prudhoe Bay, I used to love to watch the migratory birds flood in at the beginning of summer; the small birds immediately feasting on the enormous and abundant supply of mosquitoes buzzing around their tiny heads; the large Geese and other water birds indulging in the shallow pools of water in the tundra, full of the water vegetation that nature has designed them to eat and proliferate on as a species ... and also by nature's design, thousands of square miles of these tundra "Grocery Pools" and free range nesting areas for the Water Birds - practically in-accessible to most predators (except the Fox) and even modern man, and so pretty well still untouched and unspoiled.
Back to Talkeetna - even there, like in my 120 acres of forest, there are thousands of small swampy areas - permafrost just a few feet under the surface of these swampy areas, and as such, they are not the best for building on, and continue to remain untouched in many cases. I have one small 10 acre area on my property with a spring fed pond in the middle - this marshy area is home during the summer to 10's if not hundreds of Loons, besides many species of ducks, geese and other water fowl.
The sound at dusk, and again at morning's first light, is just awesome; the Loons at dusk calling one another with their incredible call (if you haven't ever heard it, I suggest finding the "Loon Call / Sound" out on the Internet, and playing it for yourself) - hearing several hundred birds making this call every night of summer is quite the experience.
And always in the background at these times, the other water fowl gently cooing and cawing, back and forth, to their mates, to others of their species, and to their young - obviously expressing that all is well, they know of no threat (which is why they are cooing), they have food for themselves and their young, and they are obviously happy with their forest summer home. After you have got used to the Loon calls, it becomes very easy to fall asleep to the sound of the water fowl having a great Alaskan Summer Evening.
During the day, not only the sounds of the water fowl, but the small to medium song birds - really brightens up the forest. Normally, all during the summer, there is a low pitched "hum" sound that pervades the entire forest, which (believe it or not) is the sound of millions of mosquitoes flying between the trees, and over and around the "Musk Keg" (Swampy) areas. That sound in itself is quite remarkable after you realize what it is.
But then, that sound is replaced by hundreds of different song birds. Normally, the calls start with just one or two brave song birds of different types making a call, and waiting for another to answer. Within a half hour or so, the racket is almost over powering.
Now, if you want, all you have to do is occasionally call out very loudly, and they will all quiet down for a bit. However, the more you attempt this "trick", the less effective it gets by the day.
I rather like the "racket" myself, as I always know when something is "amiss" if the song birds are not singing - some type of predator is loose in the forest, and if the birds are quiet near by, the predator is near by, too ... and normally is another human.
Anyway - that why I like my place in Talkeetna. Hope I haven't completely bored you to death, going off topic like this.
The End. |
| Thoughts about SETI and SETI@home |
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I personally run SETI@home on my computers just in case another civilization out there may actually want to communicate, and make a friendly relationship with the humans of our planet. And as such, they might be listening for, and respond in some manner, to one of our myriad of radio, television and other energy type signals we've been broadcasting openly since the early to mid 1930's. I personally would rather the SETI@home type Humans be the folks who would first receive such a signal, and therefore, have the initial chance to figure out just how to respond to such a reply ... before our military or government or politicians took it all over and got us all killed.
Having said that, I also wonder if another intelligent type civilization would actually be silly enough to broadcast "in the open" as we have been. It's my opinion that, if we as a "planet of life" would have thought about it a bit, and have been a bit more concerned about who or whom might actually be listening for such a signal, we ourselves might have done our best to some how devise a method to mask the location of our energy signals.
Allow me to explain...
Mathematically, and based on my life experiences in my short life span on this planet, I figure if there are other intelligent life forms out there in the Cosmos - some got to their "intelligent" point by becoming the biggest and baddest brother (or sister) on their block, figuring out how to completely protect themselves as a group, and destroying anything that tried to knock them off of their "hill", so to speak.
Or, on the other hand - they basically got to their "Intelligence" point by being able to figure out how not to destroy themselves, and, to be able to live in peace and friendship with all other life forms they have encountered - both on their own planet, and with those other life forms they have encountered throughout the cosmos.
Now, I could throw a whole bunch of numbers out there to come up with a precise set of odds, or, I could just come up with the simplest of answers (which is much easier - Occam's Razor being in mind). As such, I bet its a 50 - 50 probability as to whether those we encounter will be friendly or not (another reason why I question our own belief in that we are an intelligent species ... fairly smart - yes; intelligent - questionable).
I mean, if we were that intelligent, why would we automatically assume that any other life form that may be able to listen for our energy signals would just have to be friendly - when we ourselves can't even get along with the other species of beings living on this planet, nor the other humans living within our own neighborhoods (let alone within the next Country's borders)?
That's a pretty big leap of faith, in my view. Or, just sheer stupidity, and another flaming example of how we really do miss the mark when we label our selves as a truly Intelligent species among the Cosmos.
Of course, when we first started sending out these energy signals into space, we didn't even partially fathom the distance they would continue to travel at the speed of light at the time we started making these signals.
Now that we do have a limited understanding of how far these signals are traveling, we still continue to blast away our position within the universe, with stronger and stronger transmitters.
Our only present concern is that the beings to whom we are directing the transmission to - those located on our planet, or, those Astronauts or man-made devices still within close proximity of Earth and / or our solar system, will be able to receive those specific signals, along with the governing earthly concept that whom ever is sending the signal is monetarily compensated for sending the same.
However, at this point, its basically too late to do anything about hiding or masking the position of our star's planet that has been transmitting these energy signals throughout the cosmos; a simple triangulation device would be able to allow any truly halfway intelligent being of finding our planet's position within the universe.
As such, I believe we all better hope and pray (if you happen to be one of those Earth Humans who do believe in an all powerful God) that this particular project SETI@home receives a return signal from that 50% of other cosmos civilizations out there that are truly Intelligent, and thereby, astutely and profoundly friendly in nature, and able to form a relationship with the Humans of this planet in order to assist our young civilization in learning a bit more about truly being Intelligent.
A few things that would be of great assistance to our human intelligence - how to avoid destroying ourselves in a mistaken zeal for total power and dominance over other humans; how to live in peace together with ourselves and with our other living species of life on this planet; how to protect and shield our Planet, our other close by planets, and our life giving Star from being damaged or destroyed by some rogue Asteroid or Comet impact; and of what I believe another truly intelligent species might point out as an utmost important knowledge, in whom we should be openly communicating with, and, in whom it may not be wise to be advertising our latest automobile or kitchen helper utensil commercials to.
Good Luck to us all, and especially to you - SETI@home!
Mike |
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