Communication and other myths

Wired reports that more efforts are under way to communicate with dolphins, but as a tool to better understand inter-species communications challenges, with a special focus on extra terrestrials.

Before we hope to understand extraterrestrials, then, perhaps we should practice with smart animals right here on Earth. Astronomer Laurance Doyle of the SETI Institute was struck by this thought at a recent conference.

“From the way the presenter was speaking, I thought he was going to announce that he had found a signal of extraterrestrial intelligence,” Doyle said. “We’ve been waiting for this for years, but I thought, ‘We’re not ready!’  We can’t even speak to the intelligent animals on Earth.”

But then again, necessity IS the mother of invention. When the time comes, who knows what we’ll hear. Or if they will want to tell us.
Remember the Subanthropic Principle?

On a related note, on Wired again, scientists are taking a second look at SETI and the assorted messages we as a species have tried to send over the years. It seems that we have been sending crap out there. Crap that no earth person would make sense of, besides the team that devised it:

The next four messages — the Cosmic Calls of 1999 and 2003, theTeen Age Message of 2001 and “A Message From Earth” in 2008 — were sent from a radio telescope in Evpatoria, Ukraine.

Those broadcasts went to more-local stars, between 20 and 69 light-years from Earth, where we could hope to hear back from anyone listening in. But they included recordings of classical music and photographs and drawings submitted by the public — information of sentimental value to Earthlings, but gibberish to aliens who might not even have eyes or ears.

Well, if they have no eyes and no ears… I don’t know where to start here. They mean if they are vegetables or communicate through neutrino bursts in Hyperspace? Well, then I simply don’t see the point, but, more importantly, no one will. An ultra intelligent multi-dimensional turtle from Alpha Centauri will probably be served as an exotic delicacy in Lunar restaurants before the Millennium is over.

I mean we know Dolphins are intelligent. Does anyone care?

I think it is more that the messages that we have to rethink here, but we are not paying attention.

Subanthropic indeed..

Discredit-Misinform-Destroy: Business as usual

In this article in the Independent, it appears there is a full-fledged conspiracy attempt against the conspiracy whistle-blowers themselves: Wikileaks. Read on:

The computer hackers' collective Anonymous has uncovered a proposal by a consortium of private contractors to attack and discredit WikiLeaks.

Last week Anonymous volunteers broke into the servers of HB Gary Federal, a security company that sells investigative services to companies, and posted thousands of the firm's emails on to the internet….
Hacktivists, journalists and bloggers have since pored over the emails and discovered what appears to be a proposal that was intended to be pitched to the Bank of America to sabotage WikiLeaks and discredit journalists who are sympathetic to the whistle-blowing website.

The PowerPoint presentation claims that a trio of internet security companies – HB Gary Federal, Palantir Technologies and Berico Technologies – are already prepared to attack WikiLeaks which is rumoured to be getting ready to release a cache of potentially embarrassing information on the Bank of America.

The presentation, which has been seen by The Independent, recommends a multi-pronged assault on WikiLeaks including deliberately submitting false documents to the website to undermine its credibility, pioneering cyber attacks to expose who the leakers to WikiLeaks are and going after sympathetic journalists.

Well, if 70 years of UFOlogy and Paranormal Research have taught us anything, is that it is business as usual for the Darkly Clad Men.
The business of misinformation, deceit, mayhem. Most of the time it works, too. For the masses at least.
You see, the Internet is the great False Info Superhighway, but it is also the truth’s only hope. In this day and age conspiracies don’t seem to last as long as they used to, and they are short-lived at best..

Unless the above piece of news is part of the Conspiracy, aimed at diverting attention away from.. what?
Hell if I know. Interesting nonetheless.

Transparency is here. What do we see?

No Comment

Blue Mars

This image comes from the official NASA gallery Image of the day, and shows a crater on Mars displaying a beautiful blue color.

I don’t know about you, but this fills me with hope that one day we’ll make Mars a Blue Planet, and have a new home there.
Imagine that. A whole new planet, a whole new set of mysteries..
What, you didn’t know I was a sci-fi buff?

Voynich Manuscript dated, not by Bacon

Not written by Francis Bacon, that is, as he lived in the 13th century, and the carbon dating revealed the book to be written in the early 15th century.
For those of you not familiar with the Voynich Manuscript check the Wikipedia entry for the history of the “World’s most mysterious manuscript”.

Written in an unknown language and depicting unknown plants and animals it has baffled scientists and intrigued mystics. Some have even gone as far as to suggest it is of alien origin or even the Necronomicon.

A nice artistic try inspired by the Voynich manuscript was the Codex Serafinianus by Italian Artist Luigi Serafini, although far creepier and less intriguing.

The Voynich still defies expert coders, although some believe they have found the secret and cracked the code, or some words at least.. I am not convinced.

Nice to know there are still things out there that just don’t make sense.

Original story here.

High Weirdness in Russian Woods

I don’t know what to make of that video, assuming that it’s real of course. There is a floating child and what seems to be a proud parent observing it’s progress.
WTF?
Any guess on this would be plausible. Aliens, Cryptoterrestrials, Sufi Masters, you name it.
Just makes me think what a great tool the Internet is. Just think about it: Back in the “good old days” when someone recorded an unusual video it took months to reach some fringe publications, if the owner of the video was extremely persistent. Now, you just hit the Upload button.
This is the Future, and the researchers dream. Then again, it is also a nightmare to try to sift through all the hoaxes.
Yes, the Upload button works with fake videos too…

Temple Mount UFO - hot topic!

An Internet Controversy has erupted concerning a UFO that appeared over the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem. Now the two above videos appear to be authentic and synchronized, despite efforts to debunk. The debunkers where debunked and, well, the truth did not exactly shine but it is nonetheless interesting. You cannot expect the Truth in these matters, right?

One of the four videos was actually fake, as it seems from this debunking attempt.

And yes, there is a fourth one:

Cool stuff, especially if it is real. The only thing that bothers me is the resemblance of the situation with the events in Skyline, the sci-fi movie recently released. Not proof of fake, but something to make you (and me) wonder..

IF it is real, what are They interested in? Could it be the Foundation Stone? Could it be that ancient relics and points of power have a more profound significance that just religion? Questions, questions.. Answers please!