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Package #3
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Miscellany
- Hits: 2306
I'm careful to catch the mailman as she drops off the post today.
I don't want to have to make any more trips to get my parcels.
And it's here, the final parcel from Belgium, again much smaller than I would have imagined, but no smaller than advertised. Thin, finely detailed, a moments pleasure in the cup of one's palm. I place it in the Shrine to the Beloved Virgin, who's Juju is daily growing...
That's the last of the parcels in the mail - for the moment, I've scanned and discovered other treasures but have to search a few of the New Age shops in Kensington to ensure the price is right and that they are (for the moment at least) unique.
The "Wow!" Signal
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Ideas & Questions
- Hits: 1785
Like anyone with an ounce of intelligence, I'm intrigued by the possibility of life - intelligent life - beyond our solar system.
There's something in human nature that cries out for companionship, curiosity, the hope (and fear) that other alien beings are out there and may be somewhat like us.
The SETI institute (Acronym for the SEARCH for EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL INTELLIGENCE) has been watching the skies for decades and not detected anything that would definitively indicate we share the universe with other sentient beings. Well, not detected anything EXCEPT for the "Wow!" signal. Which, exciting as it was, in the end conclusively proved nothing. It was non-replicable, despite repeated listening attempts it did not recur and the source of it remains an enigma.
At the time of the listening it was imagined that any sufficiently advanced interstellar civilization would use radio waves to communicate - hence the listening with radio telescopes. However times change, and in a scant few decades we've seen our own radio signature drop so much that we've become ourselves almost invisible, and we may need to consider that other intelligences may have followed the same trajectory and found other, more efficient means to communicate. We may be looking for intelligence in a very narrow window defined by our own limited technology. Other possibilities for interstellar communication might include an interstellar beacon which would, via quantum entanglement, deliver information instantaneously between stars or remote points. And as our technology we'll doubtless evolve we'll discover other possibilities.
Maths and Art
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: Link of the day
- Hits: 1515
An interesting assortment of articles and resources on the relationships between Mathematics and Art.
A few hours could be well invested here.
Link: http://plus.maths.org/issue54/package/index.html & Link: http://nrich.maths.org/public/
Sold - Helicopter Pilot's Helmet
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- Written by: Rod Boyle
- Category: For Sale
- Hits: 2316
Proof that it all comes down to advertising. He didn't even dicker on the price, drove in from Cochrane to pick it up, he asked how & why I came to have it (long pause...."um....."), I asked what his plans for it were - he has a friend with a plane, it would be a good dirt biking helmet, vague uncertain plans, he just knows that he wants it, exactly how I came to possess it....
Now this leaves me a table to get rid of, but I think I have an angle or two on that, then there's the Pachinko machine and the hanging brass oil lamp.
It's addictive, this downsizing, and I'll see how far I can take it.
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