Domain: vsnl.com
Stories and comments across the archive that link to vsnl.com.
Comments · 8
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Red Rain of Kerala, India
It's a rain of red cells that multiply like yeast yet have no detectable DNA. All earth based-life contains DNA, these cells do not appear. And this is just the tip of their unusual properties:
http://education.vsnl.com/godfrey/
http://www.earthfiles.com/news.php?ID=1337&category=Environment
http://www.popsci.com/popsci/science/2c21c0f98d07b010vgnvcm1000004eecbccdrcrd.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_rain_in_Kerala
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/science/06/02/red.rain/index.html
Alien life, in some sense, has likely already found us.
And on a side note, I would encourage everyone to take a look at Linda Moulton Howe's work at Earthfiles.com. As is always the case, if there is an interesting phenomena on the planet, she does a more in-depth, facsinating job reporting on it than anyone else dare. -
Re:According to the current New Scientist...
I think the blood theory has been discounted (according to this article anyway.) This same article also mentions the particles seem to be "reproducing", even though they don't seem to contain DNA. There is also a link to the guy in India who has been studying the rain for several years now. Pictures of the little beasties are available at the second link.
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Re:Too bad the facts are so humdrum.The story has got the front page of the NewScientist this week (no doubt where the origional interest started), a publication i trust far more than and newspaper. In that article the scientist makes the (previously unpublished) claim that:
...[if noone can prove what it is] someone will have to verify the observation that Louis [the scientist] made whicheven he finds astonishing: that the cells replicate. In earlier unpublished papers, Louis says he cultured the red rain cells in unconventional nutrients, such as cedar wood oil, and showed that these DNA devoid mcrobes divide happily at a temperature of 300oC. Louis admits he left these claims out of his latest paper because he thought they would be considered "too exaordinary"(NewScientist 4th March 2006)Non DNA based replication would seem like pretty good evidence for alien life.... if you believe him.
His latest paper to be published in the respectable Astrophysics and Space Science Can be found here. Dr Godfrey Louis website, with a pic of the particles and mirrors to this paper and links to other papers, here
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Re:Wire Cutters
I'm sure one of these wouldn't have much trouble with the 1/4" steel cables most of those locks use.
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Space bacteria
Bacteria in my shower.... big whoop. Here's a real eye opener:
In 2001 a comet exploded over Kerala, India. For days after the event, it rained red. While this made the news around the world, what didn't make it were the subsequent analyses of the content of the rain. These two papers describe a microbe which was discovered to cause the red tint to the rain. It has no DNA, metabolizes a wide variety of organic and inorganic materials, and actively breeds at 300 degrees C. Is this proof of alien life?
Who cares about bacteria in my shower? This stuff probably came from the stars.
(This story submission was rejected by the editors, insert crack smoking comment here) -
Re:now the question is
Maybe look at two papers - he claims he found a meteorite carrying some weird liveforms in India during some 'Red rain'.
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Re:What ifs...
Calcutta Telephones (or Kolkata Telephones) is a part of BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited), that was formed when part of the Department of Telephones, Govt of India was corporatized last year.
DIAS is not yet popular but is one of the new initiatives by this corporate entity to fight against the private telephony operators in Calcutta like VSNL (Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited), earlier Govt company but now owned by the Tatas after privatization. Baby steps in the ultimate aim of being a completely independent private entity. So I don't think such a company will be considered by anyone as being a government entity. Also, people and corporations in India, unlike in US, blame individuals for their acts, not the government. BTW, India has one of the best governance model in the world, only to be let down by nepotism and corruption in all government sectors. However, inspite of that, the fact that India still exists and is successful as a country is because of its liberal and adaptable constitution. -
Not uncommon
This problem is not specific to Philippines. In India, the government organization VSNL leases out bandwidth to private ISPs. According to their rules, the last time I checked voice over IP was not allowed. AFAIK all major private ISPs lease bandwidth from VSNL so effectively VoIP is banned in India.