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US Air Force Pays SETI To Check Kepler-22b For Alien Life
New submitter iComp writes with this quote from El Reg:
"The Search for Extra Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) has announced that it is back in business checking out the new [potentially] habitable exoplanets recently discovered by NASA's Kepler space telescope to see if they might be home to alien civilizations. The cash needed to restart SETI's efforts has come in part from the U.S. Air Force Space Command, who are interested in using the organization's detection instruments for 'space situational awareness'."
Maintaining scan for UFO's.
"Intruder...alert...U...F...O..."
Does this mean I'll finally have a use for my Y2k bunker? If so, I should get busy building it.
Before they're finished blowing up people and things in Afghanistan etc?
Do they have a bunch of "Space Marines" ready to jump out of the trunk of the Space Shuttle, like in Moonraker? Or are they working on "Space Warrior Robot Soldiers?" . . . definitely more geekier!
Will our first contact with Alien Life be with military space drones? That ought to work out nice: "Oh, the Alien Military Drones' way of saying they like you, is to bite your Military Space Drone in the ankle!"
Well, I guess I won't have to worry about such contacts happening in my lifetime. Unless we figure out how to surf those faster-than-light-neutrinos.
Or maybe . . . "they" know how to do it?
"Alien Charlie does surf!"
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
. . . our U.S. military, who can't seem to figure peace out on our OWN planet . . .
Peace is not the job of the military. Their job is to fight wars. Peace is the job of politicians and diplomats.
"War is a mere continuation of politics by other means," ("Der Krieg ist eine bloße Fortsetzung der Politik mit anderen Mitteln") -- Carl von Clasewitz
However, when we meet aliens, the politicians and diplomats will base their decisions on intelligence gathered by the military folks. Like, "What are the aliens' true intentions?" Are they secretly lizards who chow down on rats, or are they just passing through the space neighborhood and stopped for a pee-break at the Earth?
Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
I imagined a conversation about "situational awareness" during the Iraq war going something like this:
General: So, what's the situation?
Advisor: Sir! In the 15th century, the Aztecs defeated Azcapotzalco, sir!
General: Excellent!
Apple quietly got a grant from the U.S. Air Force Space Command to develop a virus for 'space-craft defensive measures'...
Yes, but did she look like
According to Google image search, a young Jodi Foster.
Science is all about firing a drunk pig out of a cannon just to see what happens.
You'll end up just as jaded as you are here on Earth. All I see is Orange, Greenette, Purplehead...
If they looked our way today, they would have front-row seats to the rise of the Ottoman empire.
Front row seats? If I had front row tickets to a concert, and they seated me 600 light years away, I'd be pissed. Unless it was a Disaster Area concert. Or Justin Bieber.
"the USAF wants to track sub orbital cruise missiles..."
I'd say that the discovery of sub-orbital missiles on Kepler-22b would be a pretty damn good indication of alien life. Intelligent? Not so much.
We may finally achieve the dreams of our ancient ancestors, who gazed up at the stars and thought, "I wonder if there are any bangable chicks up there?"
"When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
That stupid phalanx killed three of my tanks so I am not so sure about this.