Work in Progress

Newest Swiss Cukoo? Speed climber

  

Nuts.

always leave a light on

A few weeks ago, The Search for ExtraTerrestial Intelligence Institute (SETI) announced funding for the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) in California has run out and that, starting this month, the ATA would go into a hibernation state.

A little background: SETI has been around for about 50 years as science has acquired the technological means to actually look for signs of intelligent life in the universe. It took about 36 years (1995) for astronomers to discover a single planet outside our solar system but since that time, the pace of discovery has quickened to the point that thousands of planets have been detected.

In a NY Times Op-Ed piece last month, University of Toronto professor of astronomy & astrophysics Ray Jayawardhana wrote:

After millenniums of musings and a century of failed attempts, astronomers first detected an exoplanet, a planet orbiting a normal star other than the Sun, in 1995. Now they are finding hundreds of such worlds each year. Last month, NASA announced that 1,235 new possible planets had been observed by Kepler, a telescope on a space satellite. Six of the planets that Kepler found circle one star, and the orbits of five of them would fit within that of Mercury, the closest planet to our Sun.

By timing the passages of these five planets across their sun’s visage — which provides confirmation of their planetary nature — we can witness their graceful dance with one another, choreographed by gravity. These discoveries remind us that nature is often richer and more wondrous than our imagination. The diversity of alien worlds has surprised us and challenged our preconceptions many times over.

It is quite a change from merely 20 years ago, when we knew for sure of just one planetary system: ours. The pace of discovery, supported by new instruments and missions and innovative strategies by planet seekers, has been astounding.

What’s more, from measurements of their masses and sizes, we can infer what some of these worlds are made of: gases, ice or rocks. Astronomers have been able to take the temperature of planets around other stars, first with telescopes in space but more recently with ground-based instruments, as my collaborators and I have done.

Two and a half years ago, we even managed to capture the first direct pictures of alien worlds. There is something about a photo of an alien planet — even if it only appears as a faint dot next to a bright, overexposed star — that makes it “real.” Given that stars shine like floodlights next to the planetary embers huddled around them, success required painstaking efforts and clever innovations. One essential tool is adaptive optics technology, which, in effect, takes the twinkle out of the stars, thus providing sharper images from telescopes on the ground than would otherwise be possible.

At the crux of this grand pursuit is one basic question: Is our warm, wet, rocky world, teeming with life, the exception or the norm? It is an important question for every one of us, not just for scientists. It seems absurd, if not arrogant, to think that ours is the only life-bearing world in the galaxy, given hundreds of billions of other suns, the apparent ubiquity of planets, and the cosmic abundance of life’s ingredients. It may be that life is fairly common, but that “intelligent” life is rare.

But within the next few years, astronomers expect to find dozens of alien earths that are roughly the size of our planet. Some of them will likely be in the so-called habitable zone, where the temperatures are just right for liquid water. The discovery of “Earth twins,” with conditions similar to what we find here, will inevitably bring questions about alien life to the forefront.

Detecting signs of life elsewhere will not be easy, but it may well occur in my lifetime, if not during the next decade. Given the daunting distances between the stars, the real-life version will almost certainly be a lot less sensational than the movies depicting alien invasions or crash-landing spaceships.

If, on the other hand, an alien radio signal were to be detected, that would constitute a more clear-cut and exciting moment. Even if the contents of the message remained elusive for decades, we would know that there was someone “intelligent” at the other end. The search for extraterrestrial intelligence with radio telescopes has come of age recently, 50 years after the first feeble attempt. The construction of the Allen Telescope Array on an arid plateau in northern California greatly expands the number of star systems from which astronomers could detect signals.

However it arrives, the first definitive evidence of life elsewhere will mark a turning point in our intellectual history, perhaps only rivaled by Copernicus’s heliocentric theory or Darwin’s theory of evolution. If life can spring up on two planets independently, why not on a thousand or even a billion others? The ramifications of finding out for sure that ours isn’t the only inhabited world are likely to be felt, over time, in many areas of human thought and endeavor — from biology and philosophy to religion and art.

Some people worry that discovering life elsewhere, especially if it turns out to be in possession of incredible technology, will make us feel small and insignificant. They seem concerned that it will constitute a horrific blow to our collective ego.

I happen to be an optimist. It may take decades after the initial indications of alien life for scientists to gather enough evidence to be certain or to decipher a signal of artificial origin. The full ramifications of the discovery may not be felt for generations, giving us plenty of time to get used to the presence of our galactic neighbors. Besides, knowing that we are not alone just might be the kick in the pants we need to grow up as a species.

Read the rest here.

So while we appear to be on the verge of scientific breaththroughs that could reshape how we see everything we have to contend with the very real-life post-financial crisis concerns about keeping the lights and paying the bills for what may seem like a non-essential purpose at the moment.

I certainly understand the argument that finding E.T. may have to be put on hold while we feed the hungry people on Earth but it is important that we continue to move science forward, for it is in science that we will find the answers to solve our problems.

It was at my first TED conference in 2009 that I heard the Seti Intitute's "Jill Tarter make her TED Prize wish: to keep looking for cosmic company. Using a growing array of radio telescopes, she (and all of us) can listen for patterns that may be a sign of intelligence elsewhere in the universe."

She made the case far more eloquently that I ever could: we have to keep the lights on.

 

As individuals, there is only one thing we can do: donate.

I did.

Because I think that, if a message is coming, I'd want to make sure it wasn't missed.

That's that. Now what? (Updated)

Every time you think the Republican party, which has used racially-charged imagery in its campaigns since the mid-60s, cannot sink any lower, they manage to drain a little more out of the pool. 

The birther questions surrounding President Obama were ridiculous but nothing is beyond the pale for the likes of Sarah Palin (To be fair, and has been pointed out, Palin has been back & forth on the birth certificate issue but her latest position seemed to be that it was "distracting & annoying"), not to mention the nonsensical ravings of Donald Trump.

David Frum is a conservative (but Canadian! Horrors!) who wrote specches for George W. Bush and he sees the birther BS for what it is:

Yet even now, the racialist aspect of the anti-Obama movement has not subsided. Trump has moved from the birth certificate to questioning the president’s academic qualifications for the Harvard Law School. Trump himself was a troubled student (at one point he attended a military school) who nonetheless gained admission to Wharton. His father’s wealth and business success cannot have hurt with that application. Yet he feels himself qualified to pronounce on who is and who is not smart enough to attend Harvard Law. Barack Obama graduated magna cum laude. (And to anticipate a new line of attack – yes, Harvard Law School exams were blind-graded.) He was elected editor of the law review. And his classmates, left and right, universally admired his abilities.

I wish it were otherwise, but it does seem that these racialized attacks on Obama have exacted a toll on him. But they also have exacted a toll on the opposition to Obama. The too-faint repudiation of birtherism by regular Republicans has shaped not only the Obama brand, but also the Republican brand. It was not only white people who heard the implied message about who counts and who does not count as a “real American.”

I write as an opponent of virtually every major and minor action of this administration. Republicans should be fighting this president on policy, not winking at those who use race as a weapon. It’s worth recalling the generous words of John McCain on election night 2008:

[T]hough we have come a long way from the old injustices that once stained our nation’s reputation and denied some Americans the full blessings of American citizenship, the memory of them still had the power to wound. A century ago, President Theodore Roosevelt’s invitation of Booker T. Washington to dine at the White House was taken as an outrage in many quarters. America today is a world away from the cruel and frightful bigotry of that time. There is no better evidence of this than the election of an African-American to the presidency of the United States. Let there be no reason now for any American to fail to cherish their citizenship in this, the greatest nation on Earth.

And those who imagine that they somehow enhance the value of that citizenship by belittling the American-ness of their president – they not only disgrace the politics they uphold, but they do damage that will not soon be forgotten by the voters a revived Republicanism must win.

Read the rest here.

So, now that the President has released his birth certificate? What is the next line of meaningless-noise on the horizon?

I really wonder how anyone can be proud to call themselves a Republican when we see this constant stream of effluvium.

 

 

From Buffalo to Sarasota: protect yourself from salty snack perverts at the marina

From MSNBC.com:

Lying on his family room floor with assault weapons trained on him, shouts of "pedophile!" and "pornographer!" stinging like his fresh cuts and bruises, the Buffalo homeowner didn't need long to figure out the reason for the early morning wake-up call from a swarm of federal agents.

That new wireless router. He'd gotten fed up trying to set a password. Someone must have used his Internet connection, he thought.

"We know who you are! You downloaded thousands of images at 11:30 last night," the man's lawyer, Barry Covert, recounted the agents saying. They referred to a screen name, "Doldrum."

"No, I didn't," he insisted. "Somebody else could have but I didn't do anything like that."

"You're a creep ... just admit it," they said.

Law enforcement officials say the case is a cautionary tale. Their advice: Password-protect your wireless router.

Plenty of others would agree.

The Sarasota, Fla. man, for example, who got a similar visit from the FBI last year after someone on a boat docked in a marina outside his building used a potato chip can as an antenna to boost his wireless signal and download an astounding 10 million images of child porn, or the North Syracuse, N.Y., man who in December 2009 opened his door to police who'd been following an electronic trail of illegal videos and images. The man's neighbor pleaded guilty April 12.

Read the rest here but before you do, go protect your Wi-Fi router.

Wait, what? Potato chip? WTF??!

homeward bound

  

Gorgeous.

Nick Kristof on Spilled Tea

NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof counts Greg Mortenson among his friends and so he finds the recent controversy difficult to believe. At the very least, he believes that Mortenson has done so much good, we may have to overlook the lapses in judgment that may have occurred. Kristof believes these lapses, if they took place, may have Mortenson's lack of organizational skills as a foundation more than any desire to benefit personally from charitable donations.

I’ve counted Greg as a friend, had his family over at my house for lunch and extolled him in my column. He gave a blurb for my most recent book, “Half the Sky,” and I read his book “Three Cups of Tea” to my daughter. It’s indisputable that Greg has educated many thousands of children, and he has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.

And now his life’s work is tottering after a “60 Minutes” exposé and an online booklet by Jon Krakauer, a onetime supporter. Greg is accused of many offenses: misstating how he got started building schools; lying about a dramatic kidnapping; exaggerating how many schools he has built and operates; and using his charity, the Central Asia Institute, “as his personal A.T.M.” The attorney general of Montana, where his charity is based, has opened an inquiry into the allegations.

I don’t know what to make of these accusations. Part of me wishes that all this journalistic energy had been directed instead to ferret out abuses by politicians who allocate government resources to campaign donors rather than to the neediest among us, but that’s not a real answer. The critics have raised serious questions that deserve better answers: we need to hold school-builders accountable as well as fat cats.

My inclination is to reserve judgment until we know more, for disorganization may explain more faults than dishonesty. I am deeply troubled that only 41 percent of the money raised in 2009 went to build schools, and Greg, by nature, is more of a founding visionary than the disciplined C.E.O. necessary to run a $20 million-a-year charity. On the other hand, I’m willing to give some benefit of the doubt to a man who has risked his life on behalf of some of the world’s most voiceless people.

I’ve visited some of Greg’s schools in Afghanistan, and what I saw worked. Girls in his schools were thrilled to be getting an education. Women were learning vocational skills, such as sewing. Those schools felt like some of the happiest places in Afghanistan.

I also believe that Greg was profoundly right about some big things.

He was right about the need for American outreach in the Muslim world. He was right that building schools tends to promote stability more than dropping bombs. He was right about the transformative power of education, especially girls’ education. He was right about the need to listen to local people — yes, over cup after cup after cup of tea — rather than just issue instructions.

Read the rest here.

Kristof states his bias right at the outset so it's obvious he's prepared to cut Mortenson slack and, like us, he just hopes whatever follows exonerates his friend more than buries him in deeper scandal. 

How did this happen? When did this happen?

Just because it's been a blah day and I can't think of a better way to end it than with a laugh.

This talk is very funny and in the end, very sweet. I know I've posted it before but, you know, it is my blog and you don't have to read it if you don't want to!

So, you know that thing you do, that thing with your face, when you smile? Yeah, don't do that.

OK, this is just plain mean-spirited but I'm in a bad mood on a gloomy day and Stephen Harper is a tool.

And even more than mean-spirited, I'm hardly one to make fun of others as there hasn't been a good picture taken of me since the Trudeau years but there it is.

For more goofy pictures of the Federal party leaders, go to the Toronto Star website.

Hello ambivalence, my old friend

A few days ago, I posted a story about the niqab ban in France that was uncharacteristically leaving me of two minds on a sensitive topic, religious freedom and the place of religion in western society, on which I am not usually torn.

Anyway, it just happened again, FFS.

(If you don't know what that acronym stands for, ask your teenager but rest assured, it's profane)

A few years ago, I read Three Cups of Tea and was very moved by its author's story about trying to improve the lives of girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The stories were incredibly profound and it motivated me to have delusional aspirations of raising funds to build a school somewhere and when that idea proved too difficult, I donated some funds to a couple of groups that were already doing that kind of work.

Yesterday, however, 60 Minutes did a story about Mortenson and his Central Asia Institute that did not reflect well on either him nor it. In fact, the best one can say about it is that Mr. Mortenson appears to have made some very sloppy decisions and worst case, he's a pretty big fake artist and/or liar.

Some of the claims against him are minor and irrelevant. Whether he went to Afghanistan once or three times during a specific period in the book is beside the point. If these visits were combined into one for the purpose of keeping the story moving is not important.

Whether he was kidnapped is a pretty big potential whopper of a lie but even there, for artistic licence, I'd be prepared to overlook such a fib.

I'd even go so far as to say it's not as important if all the numbers in the story add up: if Mortenson is claiming they've built a few more schools than they've actually built, well, that's unfortunate but that's show-biz. He has to keep telling stories to keep the money coming to continue to do the good work he does? Fine.

HOWEVER, that his charity is funding his book tours but not collecting a dime of the book revenues is outright fraud and theft.

That his charity provides Mr. Mortenson with private jets is starting to delve into a Jim & Tammy Faye Bakker scenario of abuse of funds.

Another inspirational author, Jon Krakauer, has written a book about the CAE and what he describes as Mortenson's abuses. Krakauer appears in the 60 Minutes piece and he speaks as someone who knows his facts and has details and corroboration in his back pocket. 

Mr. Mortenson has backtracked somewhat on his story but only he, and a good forensic accounting firm, can truly clear the air at this point.

 

All the accusations against Mortenson may or may not be true. It seems very likely that some, maybe most, are but here's hoping the important ones are false because this world really needs people like Greg Mortenson, even a flawed Greg Mortenson. 

the most enthusiastic, if confused, member of the mighty Kiss Nation!

I love Failbook.