Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

US Navy Was Ordered To Listen For Martian Broadcast

Posted by samzenpus on from the roaring-extraterrestrial-20's dept.

MarkWhittington writes "It seems that a SETI (Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence) experiment happened decades before the Project Ozma occurred in 1960. The historians at the blog Letters of Note have uncovered a telegram sent in 1924 by then Chief of Naval Operations Edward W. Eberle instructing the United States Navy to listen for radio transmissions from the planet Mars."

104 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Re:And... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Noise.

  2. Transmission was heard... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    They did catch a radio transmission, which said "Yvan eht nioj".

    1. Re:Transmission was heard... by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

      They received a radio commercial: "Get your Human Ant Farm now! Watch humans toil away in your very own transparent human farm! They're so cheap that you can just throw them away and start over rather than clean the cage. We all know how smelly earthlings can get, zboys and zgirls. Your zmom will be so proud!"

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    2. Re:Transmission was heard... by auric_dude · · Score: 1

      No I didn't but according to some sources 'The chances of anything coming from Mars are a million to one".

    3. Re:Transmission was heard... by the_arrow · · Score: 2, Funny

      Ah, but "a million to one" chance always succeeds! But it needs to exactly a million to one... A million and one to one chance, or a 999999 to one chance will fail.

      --
      / The Arrow
      "How lovely you are. So lovely in my straightjacket..." - Nny
    4. Re:Transmission was heard... by tinkerton · · Score: 1

      Let me see. A minimum set of characters would contain 30-ish in all. your text is 13 chars, so 13**30 is 10 e33 combinations. The chances of encountering this string in a say a Mhz random bitstream does seem rather small. But "Navy" must have been possible.

    5. Re:Transmission was heard... by RealErmine · · Score: 1

      almost.

      "Million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten." —Granny Weatherwax

      --
      Dewey, you fool! Your decimal system has played right into my hands!
    6. Re:Transmission was heard... by b4upoo · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Short wave operators have used moon bounce to reflect signals back to Earth. I suspect that the military might have had an interest in trying to use Mars as a reflector for radio messages. The idea being that it would take a very sensitive and specific antenna to recover a reflected message from such a distance. I don't know if it can be done but I'll bet they were trying to do it.

    7. Re:Transmission was heard... by Tynin · · Score: 1

      This should be modded insightful/interesting. Good idea b4upoo!

    8. Re:Transmission was heard... by afxgrin · · Score: 1

      The conversation went sort of like this:

      "Hi"

      40 minutes passes

      "Hey"

      40 minutes passes

      "Wow this works"

      40 minutes passes

      "Cool"

      40 minutes passes

      "Ok, I'm just going to call you now, k?"

      40 minutes passes

      "Ok"

      --
      Come on, they knew about the speed of light back then. This would be a pretty desperate means of communications. But sure, it seems that nothing is beyond the US military to explore...

    9. Re:Transmission was heard... by Tynin · · Score: 1

      It is more like 3 to 20 minutes IIRC. I see your point on the delay, but the moon isn't always viewable to bounce messages off of. Of course, neither is Mars. Still an interesting idea.

    10. Re:Transmission was heard... by afxgrin · · Score: 1

      I'm talking about Mars.

      And it takes 10 or 20 minutes one way. So x2 if the point is to bounce the signal off Mars for Earth communications.

  3. Underfunded? by sanosuke001 · · Score: 2, Funny

    So is that why SETI doesn't get more funding? The Navy knows there aren't any signals out there because they're getting their allies to block any new incoming transmissions...

    It all makes sense now!

    --
    -SaNo
    1. Re:Underfunded? by gtall · · Score: 4, Funny

      Actually, they've stopped because a more interesting problem arose. They are spending all their resources on attempting to detect intelligent signals from the U. S. Congress. So far, the noise has completely overridden any underlying signal but they still hope for success with ever more sensitive equipment. It was thought that when Biden left, this would raise the signal to noise ratio, and it did for awhile. At least the noise decreased. But now it appears that the vice-president's office is acting like a radio black hole even able to suck intelligent brainwaves from escaping. The proof is apparently in the speeches the vice president has given since becoming vice-president. Alien abduction and replacement cannot be ruled out. Anyhow, a radio black hole has never before been seen in the natural universe and so close scrutiny by Navy scientists is called for.

      There are two parts thought to be present in any Congressional signal if there be any all. The Republican part, it is theorized, is very attenuated but appears to vacillate between sanity and insanity. The phase of the moon figures in here. The Democrat part is chaotic in a strange way, the chaos appears to wrap back on itself. This has the effect of entirely isolating them in an electronic brain trap, no new ideas come in or go out. The Navy feels the key to unlocking this trap is frontal and backtal lobotomy leaving only the lower base parts of the Democrat brain intact. To catch the Republican signal, should it indeed be there, trained dolphins with lasers on their heads will be required. In the meantime, tin foil hats are being distributed throughout the government in the hopes of preventing any dangerous emissions, which might be present but at undetectable levels, from impacting the nation.

      The Navy, in an interim report, says that apart from a mysterious exponential rise in the national debt, no active Congressional signal is present. Said Admiral Wavey-Gravy, "Some of us believe Congress doesn't really exist given they seem to have no discernible effect on the surrounding political environment; it is as though 1000 Klieg lights turned on and no Congress-critter materialized to bask in their warm glow." When it was pointed out to Adm. Wave that news conferences were being held daily by Congress-critters, his response was, "You mean alleged Congress-critters, it isn't like anyone actually caught them doing anything intelligent, is it?"

  4. Not Mars by Max+Littlemore · · Score: 5, Funny

    Nope. Nope. Nope. Nope
    Earth.
    Yip yip yip yip yip yip.
    Huh! Look. Aaaawwwwww. Radio.
    Radio.
    Yip yip yip yip yip.
    Radio
    Uhuh, uhuh, Radio. Yipyipyipyipyip.

    --
    I don't therefore I'm not.
    1. Re:Not Mars by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Informative

      For your viewing pleasure: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qxWGr8VhzQ

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    2. Re:Not Mars by shock1970 · · Score: 1

      Awesome... Totally Awesome!

    3. Re:Not Mars by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Funny

      Speak for yourself. That show turned me into a multi-cultural hippie with a overly-romanticized view of people who live in garbage cans. How am I supposed to pursue a career in politics after they made me so accepting and open-minded?

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    4. Re:Not Mars by Hamsterdan · · Score: 1

      Wow... I didn't remember that. I wonder how many kids were scared by those aliens...

      --
      I've got better things to do tonight than die.
  5. Re:And... by click2005 · · Score: 1

    So mars owns the copyright to random noise?

    --
    I am a free slashdotter. I will not be modded, blogged, DRM'd, patented, podcasted or RFID'd. My life is my own.
  6. Man, by Tablizer · · Score: 4, Funny

    what I wouldn't give to be able to put a transmitter on Mars and fuck with them. "Bring me all your pretty girls and best beers or face destruction, puny Earthlings! And spell out 'Earth is Stupid' with your battleships so we can spot it from space."

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  7. tone, tone, tone by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Funny

    "We're sorry, this is a long-distance call. Please hang up and deposit 8 million gold bars."

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:tone, tone, tone by istartedi · · Score: 2, Informative

      That works out to $3.52 trillion in today's dollars, if you use London Good Delivery bars (400 oz./bar * $1100/oz * 8 million).

      --
      For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
    2. Re:tone, tone, tone by Captain+Nitpick · · Score: 1

      That works out to $3.52 trillion in today's dollars, if you use London Good Delivery bars (400 oz./bar * $1100/oz * 8 million).

      And it amounts to about 8% of all the gold ever mined worldwide.

      --
      But then again, I could be wrong.
    3. Re:tone, tone, tone by daveime · · Score: 1

      I think you meant "for all intents and purposes", but not bad.

    4. Re:tone, tone, tone by selven · · Score: 1

      I think the man whom made that sig was deliberately doing that.

    5. Re:tone, tone, tone by quenda · · Score: 1

      He was wrong about "whom" and he used the phrase "begs the question" wrongly too. Or didn't you notice?

      And you failed to say "woosh!!!",so -2 geek points.

    6. Re:tone, tone, tone by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

      That works out to $3.52 trillion in today's dollars, if you use London Good Delivery bars (400 oz./bar * $1100/oz * 8 million).

      And it works out to a sticky mess if you use Good Humor bars.

    7. Re:tone, tone, tone by treeves · · Score: 1

      I'd say it was a veiled and subtle woosh and he should keep his geek points.

      --
      ...the future crusty old bastards are already drinking the Kool-Aid.
  8. This is good science by JoshuaZ · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This is good science. In 1924 we didn't have any strong reasons to think that there wasn't intelligent life on Mars. If anything, the evidence seemed to favor the other direction. Moreover, simply having ships listen in wouldn't have cost that much money. So this was an experiment with potentially very high pay-off compared to the resources it took. This does lead to some interesting ideas for a scifi story in which they do find signals. NaNoWriMo anyone?

    1. Re:This is good science by DerekLyons · · Score: 1

      Moreover, simply having ships listen in wouldn't have cost that much money.

      Wouldn't have cost much money - and would have accomplished diddley squat (shipboard amplifiers wouldn't up to the task). Doesn't matter anyways, as the telegram directed shore stations to do the listening.

    2. Re:This is good science by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      This is good science. In 1924 we didn't have any strong reasons to think that there wasn't intelligent life on Mars. If anything, the evidence seemed to favor the other direction. Moreover, simply having ships listen in wouldn't have cost that much money. So this was an experiment with potentially very high pay-off compared to the resources it took. This does lead to some interesting ideas for a scifi story in which they do find signals. NaNoWriMo anyone?

      Sadly this coincided with the great Martian radio strike of '24. All martian DJs were marching picket lines at the time.

    3. Re:This is good science by Nqdiddles · · Score: 1

      Coming a week or so too late to be of use to me this year. Might be something to file away in the draw of possibilities for next year though!

      --
      And that kids is how I met your mother.
    4. Re:This is good science by retchdog · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Vernor Vinge does a lot of this. My favorite, where the "aliens" are two rival bands of humans visiting another planet and competing to establish first contact, is A Deepness in the Sky. I wish I could say more, but even describing the overall structure of the story would involve a spoiler. :-/ It's loosely a sequel to A Fire Upon the Deep, but they can be read interchangably.

      I would have sniffed at this kind of stuff before, but having read Deepness... I think it's worth spending some resources to keep an eye open.

      (Yeah, I know; most likely, they could wipe us out without blinking an eye. But that wouldn't be very interesting. ;-)

      --
      "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
    5. Re:This is good science by tverbeek · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's easy to forget just how new most of our knowledge about the universe beyond Earth's atmosphere is. A mere fifty years ago, just throwing a dog or chimp into orbit was tricky business, and all we knew of other celestial bodies was seen through a glass darkly, from the murkey depths of our atmosphere. So... damn right there coulda been people on Mars in 1924. Just like in the 1960s we "knew" that it was utterly barren... but now aren't quite so sure. I can certainly see why some members of our society might find this rapid evolution of "what we know" unsettling, so they cling to a system of belief that promises not to change. But I think the roller coaster ride of Science is great.

      --
      http://alternatives.rzero.com/
    6. Re:This is good science by ArcherB · · Score: 1

      This is good science. In 1924 we didn't have any strong reasons to think that there wasn't intelligent life on Mars.

      Well, of course not. Where do you think M&M's come from?

      --
      There is no "I disagree" mod for a reason. Flamebait, Troll, and Overrated are not substitutes.
    7. Re:This is good science by Idiomatick · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "A mere fifty years ago, just throwing a dog or chimp into orbit was tricky business"

      Now we can't at all. Huzzah~!

    8. Re:This is good science by bzipitidoo · · Score: 1

      It was a total shot in the dark. By all means, do those when there isn't anything better to try, or you can't wait. Problem is, there usually are more visible targets to aim for. When that is so, it's really not good science to explore blindly.

      I suspect SETI in its current form will turn out to be a waste of effort. There are so many unknowns, but some of the knowns make scanning the electromagnetic spectrum look very unlikely to bear fruit. How far can a radio signal travel before it is too faint to be detected? Or to put it another way, what is the strongest signal a civilization could reasonably produce? The time it would take is another knock against. What I'm thinking is that faster than light communication may be possible (spooky action at a distance?), and if it is, then probably intelligent aliens have figured it out and would not use a method dependent on the speed of light.

      Something else I wonder is whether the fundamentals of nature make the whole scheme of using a carrier signal with modulation (amplitude, frequency, phase) the way to use the electromagnetic spectrum. If aliens use that medium, can we detect something no matter what method they use?

      --
      Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
    9. Re:This is good science by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1

      This is good science. In 1924 we didn't have any strong reasons to think that there wasn't intelligent life on Mars.

      And, just to demonstrate that good science is timeless, we have impirically proved that in 2009 there is no intelligent life to be found on Earth either.

    10. Re:This is good science by BrokenHalo · · Score: 1

      If aliens want to transmit information, c will always be a limit, unless our universe is non-causal, and thus fundamentally impossible to understand.

      This sometimes leaves me thinking that if there were a hypothetical Intelligent Designer(TM), building a universe with such a physical limit to speed was probably a pretty good idea, since it effectively keeps us where we are, so we can't fuck up any other planets. :-)

    11. Re:This is good science by daveime · · Score: 1

      Not very knowledgeable about Quantums and stuff, but why can't Quantum Entanglement imply the states of 2 things as they are now ? Why does a change in one half "now" allow a change in the other half "past / future", thus breaking causality ?

    12. Re:This is good science by Mycroft_VIII · · Score: 1

      Not entirely certain I understand your question, but perhaps this wikipedia page and some of it's links will help:

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faster-than-light

      Mycroft

      --
      https://signup.leagueoflegends.com/?ref=4c3ed6600b6ea
    13. Re:This is good science by tverbeek · · Score: 1

      I realize it's fashionable to moan about the state of the US space program, but A) it's not as bad as you seem to be hallucinating, and B) there are several other countries with orbital launch capability, too.

      --
      http://alternatives.rzero.com/
    14. Re:This is good science by argStyopa · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "A mere fifty years ago, just throwing a dog or chimp into orbit was tricky business..."

      More importantly, we were trying.

      Now, it seems, we can hardly be bothered. We've got all these darn poor people to take care of, and WoW to play, not necessarily in that order.

      --
      -Styopa
    15. Re:This is good science by balbord · · Score: 1

      Are implying M&M's are Mars droppings?
      That was totally uncalled for.

      --
      "If I have been able to see so far, It is because I went out and bought a damn binoculars" - Ze da Esquina
    16. Re:This is good science by LordVader717 · · Score: 1

      It was a total shot in the dark. By all means, do those when there isn't anything better to try, or you can't wait. Problem is, there usually are more visible targets to aim for.

      That sounds a bit aloof considering that one of the most revolutionary images ever taken of the universe, the Hubble Deep Field, was exactly that, a shot in the dark. And yes, there were a ton of "more visible" targets.

      As soon as you have new technology available, the first thing you do is try out the unknown.

      As for SETI, it's more a question of information theory than of physics. Radio waves are the only current conceivable way of detecting life. The only problem is the amount of analysis and processing that may be necessary.

      Something else I wonder is whether the fundamentals of nature make the whole scheme of using a carrier signal with modulation (amplitude, frequency, phase) the way to use the electromagnetic spectrum.

      That's the only way to use the electromagnetic spectrum, as those parameters completely describe the physical properties.

    17. Re:This is good science by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 1

      Chimps? Heck, I still have trouble throwing even a small dog into orbit.

      --
      Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
    18. Re:This is good science by NachtVorst · · Score: 1

      Maybe he's moaning about the state of animal rights these days? The next dog or chimp in space will probably be Chinese.

    19. Re:This is good science by ergean · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Offtopic:
      "A Fire Upon the Deep" how should I say this... I hate this kind of books. Few good ideas... and a fucking big chunk of pages in between them. I've read it hoping against hope that it would have a good ending to save it.

      Sorry had to say it, some of you could go and read it and bang their heads to the wall asking themselves: Why did I read this damn book to the end?

    20. Re:This is good science by retchdog · · Score: 1

      I agree, the pacing in A Fire Upon the Deep was ... challenging, but I thought the ideas were great. I liked how the dogs "discovered" solitude and selective communication and, with it, fascism. I think that Deepness is much better, plot-wise and stylistically. If you ever feel like giving him another shot, I recommend it. He can't do character development for beans of course but this seems like par for libertarian-bent writers. /flamebait

      BTW, I'm not a Vinge fanboy or anything, but I haven't found anyone else who merges pretty-hard science and space opera, with cyber/neuro-punk themes. I tried to read Banks' Excession (it was just the one I happened to pick up), but this was tedious and the "ship talk" was poorly edited and just read like bad fanfic. (I do like Banks' mainstream novels though: at least, Wasp Factory and Complicity.)

      --
      "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
  9. LHC by Tablizer · · Score: 5, Funny

    Message received: "This is the Large Hadron Collider from the future. Do not attempt to [static.......] last warning."

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:LHC by MichaelSmith · · Score: 1

      And in 1927...

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    2. Re:LHC by Ukab+the+Great · · Score: 3, Funny

      "...use the LHC to distill vodka. It makes terrible vodka...."

    3. Re:LHC by Sparx139 · · Score: 1

      Replying to undo mis-moderation. You'd think they would have listened by now and added a confirmation...

      --
      Our culture doesn't get smarter, it just finds new ways of being retarded.
    4. Re:LHC by Sparx139 · · Score: 1

      Sorry to double-post, but I that adds confirmation in case anyone is interested in this

      --
      Our culture doesn't get smarter, it just finds new ways of being retarded.
    5. Re:LHC by TheModelEskimo · · Score: 1

      "Repeat...do not attempt....[static] baguette...birds may....most urgent"

  10. Re:Response reads... by elronxenu · · Score: 1

    "... but still, they come..."

  11. What about the president? by taxman_10m · · Score: 1

    The president at the time was Calvin Coolidge. Was this navy guy doing his own thing or was Cool Cal involved too?

  12. Well, sure. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    We want to know if they're talking about stealing our precious bodily fluids.

  13. Syfy by rolodexmarvin2 · · Score: 1

    Science fiction from decades previous inspired fear.

  14. Re:SETI is for show and they hide the real stuff t by causality · · Score: 1

    So is that why SETI doesn't get more funding? The Navy knows there aren't any signals out there because they're getting their allies to block any new incoming transmissions...

    It all makes sense now!

    SETI is for show and they hide the real stuff that is going on.

    ALSO THE AIR FORCE HAS space ships based on allies tech.

    also look at ...ghsdghashr..call dropped.

    Shit. He knows too much!

    --
    It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
  15. Specifically... by tjstork · · Score: 5, Informative

    It wasn't until the 1950s, I believe, that scientists began to realize that Venus and Mars were both utterly inhospitable. Indeed, the first Mariner photographs of Mars, that showed it to be almost moonlike, blasted with craters and seemingly ancient and dead, came as something of a shock to the academic community.

    --
    This is my sig.
    1. Re:Specifically... by ChromeAeonium · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It is kind of disappointing to think about how our society would have evolved from that point on had it turned out that Venus, Mars, and/or the moon were habitable and had their own native flora and fauna, even if they weren't sentient.

    2. Re:Specifically... by Kagura · · Score: 3, Funny

      Have you met a hospitable woman?

    3. Re:Specifically... by Hurricane78 · · Score: 1

      Sentient planets? Yeah, that would really have been cool! ^^

      --
      Any sufficiently advanced intelligence is indistinguishable from stupidity.
  16. Jansky's discovery of cosmic radio waves by 602 · · Score: 1

    My brother Karl Jansky and His Discovery (1929) of Radio Waves from Beyond the Earth

    1. Re:Jansky's discovery of cosmic radio waves by Shag · · Score: 1

      1929? Don't know where you picked that date from, since it's clearly not supported by the article. 1932 is a more generally accepted year for the discovery.

      But yeah, Jansky was awesome. As were a couple other Bell Labs guys a few decades later - maybe you've heard of Penzias and Wilson.

      I'm in the middle of writing a paper on this stuff for one of my classes, and this Navy thing is definitely getting cited. :)

      --
      Village idiot in some extremely smart villages.
  17. Re:And... by Ihmhi · · Score: 3, Funny

    Yes. The Jonas Brothers pay a yearly licensing fee to High Overlord Ykkkkkkdrzkl.

    --
    Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
  18. Acronym mistake? by Tablizer · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Maybe "MARS" is really an acronym for something like Marine Atmospheric Reflection Survey", but some dolt forgot it and did Mars instead.

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
    1. Re:Acronym mistake? by Curlsman · · Score: 1

      "Marine Atmospheric Reflection Survey" was an early expermental kind of SONAR where Ethel Merman stuck her head underwater and sung anything by Cole Porter. They stopped when three gay whales beached themsleves in the Santa Monica pier.

  19. Re:Missed opportunity by jamstar7 · · Score: 3, Funny

    They should have slapped a portable radio on the rovers. Then again cell phones might have been a better move. If AT&T is providing service on Mars there's no way the signal would reach Earth. It's crappy enough when you are standing under a tower.

    I wouldn't wanna have to pay the roaming charges for a cell fone on Mars.

    --
    Understanding the scope of the problem is the first step on the path to true panic.
  20. Venus! by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    Actually, being at sea for a long time, they ignored the order and turned the antennas to Venus instead, hoping for some 3-breasted steamy green babes. "Hey babe, Earth's gravity is 20% stronger, meaning other things are 20% stronger also. Don't believe me? Hover down and check it out."

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  21. How to receive martian broadcasts by digitalhermit · · Score: 2, Funny

    The process of creating a martian broadcast is actually quite simple. The technology is decidely low tech and can be put together in a short afternoon using some wire and a bit of electronic ingenuity. With a Linux PC, a CAT5 ethernet cable, a scissors, a few twists of some SEND/RECV pairs and you can soon detect Martian broadcasts. It's possibly to do it entirely in software also, perhaps with some creative use of the BOND0 adapter, the bonding module, and some misplaced balance-alb statements, but it's hardly worth mentioning.

  22. Re:The chances of anything coming from Mars... by mcneely.mike · · Score: 1

    The chances of anything cumming from Mars... That's what SHE said!

    --
    soylentnews.org Go there to enjoy the people!
  23. This is a topic for The Man by G3ckoG33k · · Score: 1

    Search for Life on Mars? This is a topic for The Man. No, not David Bowie, but http://www.charlieleduff.com/ :) Seriously, this is not any more strange than NASA doing SETI. Or why should it be?

  24. Re:Oh no! by Tablizer · · Score: 1

    [yip-yips] still kind of creep me out.

    I guess we all have some form of that. Clowns still creep me out.

    Does anybody have say RMS or MS-Bob on their list by chance?
       

    --
    Table-ized A.I.
  25. Re:Response reads... by syousef · · Score: 1

    Thank you! At least someone gets it!

    --
    These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
  26. Are you mad? Joke would be on you!!! by syousef · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Bring me all your pretty girls and best beers or face destruction, puny Earthlings!

    Are you MAD, man? If they took you seriously they'd launch all the pretty girls into space! Noooooooo!

    --
    These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
    1. Re:Are you mad? Joke would be on you!!! by evan_arrrr! · · Score: 1

      It's not like it matters anyway, you're on Slashdot.

    2. Re:Are you mad? Joke would be on you!!! by misexistentialist · · Score: 1

      It would once all the strapping jocks, musicians, and corporate masters start stealing our C-level girls! Then again, the creation of the sexbot would take on new urgency, so we might end up better off after all.

  27. I actually knew about this by mbone · · Score: 1

    I know that I read about this in the 1970's in some of the SETI scientific literature - I believe in Intelligent Life in the Universe (Carl Sagan & I.S. Shklovskii, Random House, 1966), but I don't have a copy handy.

  28. Re:Syfy (please no) by cblack · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Please no, The Sci-fi Channel changing their name to SyFy was bad enough. Please do not further this abomination of an abbreviation/rebranding. Call it Sci-Fi or SF, never SyFy.

  29. Re:Syfy (please no) by jandoedel · · Score: 2, Funny

    SyFy must be written by syentists.

  30. Re:Syfy (please no) by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

    If you make it generic then they'll lose their trademark and have to pick another (hopefully less-silly) name.

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  31. Re:Evidence of artificial structures on Mars? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Wow, scientists have found evidence of macroblocking caused by a discrete cosine transform-based compression algorithm in pictures of Mars! Shocking news!

    --
    I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  32. Re:Oh no! by Dachannien · · Score: 1

    You want creepy Sesame Street, you got it:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qSR9P616VCA

  33. Bah! They heard nothing! by h4rm0ny · · Score: 1

    The chances of anything living on Mars, are a million to one!

    --

    Aide-toi, le Ciel t'aidera - Jeanne D'Arc.
    1. Re:Bah! They heard nothing! by elrous0 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Yeah, but with those odds the big Martian cities have to have at least a few people in them.

      --
      SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    2. Re:Bah! They heard nothing! by WED+Fan · · Score: 1

      My life will be forever autumn, now you're not here.

      --
      Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it everywhere, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong fix.
  34. Re:Evidence of artificial structures on Mars? by meringuoid · · Score: 1
    It would be easy to dismiss these structures as pictures artifacts, and jpeg-artifacts comes to mind

    Well, they can't possibly be JPEG artefacts. Because scientists work on the uncompressed TIFF files, not on JPEGs at all. JPEGs are only used for the pretty pictures posted on the web for public use as desktop wallpapers. Nobody would dream of using the JPEGs for research purposes. So these guys, being scientists as you tell us, certainly aren't looking at JPEG artefacts, because they were working from the TIFFs.

    Right?...

    --
    Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.
  35. Re:Oh no! by MrMr · · Score: 1

    You were abducted?

  36. 50 years from now by wcrowe · · Score: 1

    I predict 50 years from now people will look back and think that SETI was just as silly as listening for radio transmissions from Mars.

    --
    Proverbs 21:19
    1. Re:50 years from now by gestalt_n_pepper · · Score: 1

      Pretty much. The window of time that a civilization would use radio waves for communication, and that it would be in a form that we would detect as anything but white noise is likely to pretty small.

      We'd probably do better to scan the universe for solar to galaxy sized artifacts though we might have a hard time recognizing them as such (A primitive might see the Empire State building as just a mountain). We might look for Dyson spheres or odd formation that couldn't have occurred naturally. If we had a system to for patterns in the casimir force in some very large plate arrays, we might see something there.

      The thing is, intelligent life doesn't always involve hardware, or technology. Ask your local dolphin.

      --
      Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
  37. you better take care of those poor people by circletimessquare · · Score: 1

    ever hear of the french revolution?

    you think can continue civilization and the sending of people into outer space with the vandals and goths sacking your major cities?

    it is a sort of ignorance that thinks the poor simply vanish into the ether if you don't address their problems. it is also pretty ignorant not to understand why some of those poor are your next heisenbergs and your next goddards

    it is classism you stink of, and you are not a credit to anything you think are. you're part of the problem, damage to route around. wash off your classism and grow a fucking conscience

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
    1. Re:you better take care of those poor people by lennier · · Score: 1

      "you think can continue civilization and the sending of people into outer space with the vandals and goths sacking your major cities?"

      Sure! Thanks to the rise of private space tourism, the people who get to pay to be launched into outer space ARE the vandals and goths sacking our major cities!

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
    2. Re:you better take care of those poor people by lennier · · Score: 1

      (Okay, with the possible exception of Mark Shuttleworth, and the clown dude.)

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
    3. Re:you better take care of those poor people by argStyopa · · Score: 1

      Perhaps I was speaking ironically of our SOCIETY'S view of things, and not my own? Christ man, maybe you could step outside your rage for just one second and think that by commenting on it, perhaps I AGREE WITH YOU?

      --
      -Styopa
  38. Never heard of them, but... by name_already_taken · · Score: 1

    I don't remember those characters at all, but I can see how kids might be a little creeped out by weird things that stare in through your window and can transport themselves through walls.

    This video featuring them is much better, far less creepy: Sesame Street Yip Yip Martians try Gangsta Rap. It's a great piece of editing.

    --
    Putting moderation advice in your .sig lowers your karma!
  39. Re:Syfy (please no) by rolodexmarvin2 · · Score: 1

    We as intelligent people must use SyFy unerringly in order to display its absolute absurdity.

  40. I think "Emergence" has occurred. by gfolkert · · Score: 1

    Watch out for the possessed Voidhawks! (or even Blackhawks!) No... not a person from Chicago... oh wait. Hmm. Nevermind.

    --
    greg, REMEMBER ED CURRY!!!
  41. Re:Evidence of artificial structures on Mars? by 3vi1 · · Score: 1

    The guy who created the web-page was working based on the JPEGs you get at http://esamultimedia.esa.int/images/marsexpress/137-021104-0533-6-3d2-01-HaleCrater_H.jpg

    Not at all scientific - the artifacts are seen in all the lighter colored areas due to the compression used. He should be more concerned about the purple pixel in the top center: Obviously artificial!

  42. Re:And... by bobzaguy · · Score: 1

    "Overlord Ykkkkkkdrzkl" pronounciation guide pleaseis one or more of the ks silent?

  43. Re:And... by Ihmhi · · Score: 1

    To pronounce his name correctly, you would have to stick an egg beater down your throat and set it to puree.

    --
    Random Thoughts From A Diseased Mind (Not For Dummies)
  44. Re:And... by bobzaguy · · Score: 1

    Just to say a word? that's very agressive, don't you think?