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Starcraft
In his book, Unidentified Flying Objects: Starcraft, Der Voron has offered an extremely well-researched and detailed report of incidents that have occurred all across the globe, from many different eras. Ancient writings may have been the first indication that 'we are not alone,' and Der Voron cites several of these sources as examples. Such statements originate from many different countries and in different continents, from ancient times to contemporary, from Indian tales of events that took place in the wilds of Kipling country to experiences related by a German artillery gunner during World War Two. Reports of 'unidentified contact with objects of undetermined origins' have been filed in government offices from the plains of South America to the fjords of Norway and the steppes of Asia.
Highly annotated and illustrated with fascinating examples of starship models and their possible makeup, armaments and defensive mechanisms (according to some data belonging to U.S. government research on alien starcraft), this ambitious work offers a wealth of documented information on not only Starcraft, otherwise known as 'Flying Saucers,' but the types of extraterrestrials that have flown them. All aliens are not created equal, as their many varied depictions and origins in historical writings attest. The author's use of a plethora of written documentation ably enhances his description of personal civilian and military accounts of those who have had some kind of interaction with these objects.
Also explored in great detail is the intelligence of our sea life, mainly as that intelligence relates to dolphins and the octopi of our deepest oceans, and how they, in turn, can be used in the search for extended knowledge of the universe surrounding our planet. How and why these creatures have gained such highly specialized communication skills and how it is that an octopus can experience an event and not only remember it, but learn from it, is explored, and commented upon as it relates to man's search for a higher intelligence.
While replete with scientific data, terms and information, this work by Der Voron is nevertheless highly readable and extremely illuminating for the common reader with no prior knowledge of extraterrestrial existence, while at the same time it provides hours of reading material and documentation to keep the more knowledgeable busy.
Der Voron's conscientious effort to dig deep for his sources shows in his detailed reports, and his data gathering and willingness to share that information is a challenging endeavor in which he has aptly succeeded. The existence of extraterrestrials is an immensely interesting topic, one that will be explored for years to come, and this work can provide an invaluable asset to any stargazer's bookshelf.
If this review intrigued you, you may want to see this interview with the author of this book in Weekly Universe. You can purchase Unidentified Flying Objects: Starcraft from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
A Google search on this guy reveals that he's just another wacko looking for conspiracy theories.
You prod or shock the goldfish. For about three seconds, it will avoid repeating the set of actions leading to the shock (e.g. swimming to the top left of the bowl to get at a fishy flake).
Then it randomly goes and does it again.
Stupid.
Although, not really- in a watery environment, environmental threats really won't stick around in the same spatial location for long - humans will wait hours, weeks or months before trying somthing twice. So the energy expenditure that in humans goes toward memory upkeep is better steered somewhere else in goldfish.
Taken from here. "The most dramatic evidence for octopus intelligence came in 1992. A pair of researchers in Naples, Italy, Graziano Fiorito and Pietro Scotto, used conventional means--food as a carrot, mild electric shock as the stick--to train a group of captive common octopuses to grab a red ball instead of a white one. The scientists then let untrained animals watch from adjoining tanks as their experienced confreres reached for red balls over and over. Thereafter, Fiorito and Scotto reported, most of the watchers, when offered a choice, pounced on red balls. In fact, they learned to do so more quickly than had the original group. The octopuses, according to the researchers, were doing something invertebrate had never been known to do before: learning by watching."
Remember "extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof".
...richie - It is a good day to code.
...I was having a discussion with an intelligent, but credulous acquaintance who had just read a book by someone from one of the "respectable" UFO organizations (APRO or NICAP, I don't remember which).
He was extremely impressed by a very detailed report on some UFO fragments that had been shown to be some kind of metal of such extreme purity that it could not possibly have originated on Earth. The metallurgical tests had been conducted by a respected scientist in some university in South America.
I was arguing that with UFO reports, you cannot rule out the possibility that they were just made up in whole cloth. He thought this was unlikely. I suggested that we try to contact the scientist who had done the tests and find out what he had to say.
Of course, the book itself was written in a popular style without any formal citations or references you could follow up... just a line or two mentioning "Professor so-and-so in the Department of Metallurgy at the University of Sao Paulo," or wherever it was.
Well, we were at the University of Wisconsin, which has a fine library, and with a little investigation we found that the library actually had _the faculty/student directory_ for that university, and it was only a couple of years old.
Needless to say there was no listing for the cited "scientist," and, indeed, no department that seemed to match the department in which he was supposed to have worked.
My friend was shaken, but not convinced. After all, this wasn't some fly-by-night organization we were dealing with, this was APRO. (Or NICAP).
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Last year I caught a Nature special (or something) regarding the Indoenesian Mimic Octopi that caught my attention like no other creature ever had before!
It's capable of mimicking a crab, sea snake, flounder, lionfish, and other species have other abilities. Absolutely floored me.
I think that "IN UNDERSEA INDONESIA, OCTOPI GENETICALLY MANUPULATE THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIALS."
I hate Grammar Nazi's
Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy: The Universe.
"This isn't a study in computer science, its a study in human behavior"
Aiur is their home planet.
And the unit name is the Zealot.
Magius_AR