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Alien Contact Illegal in US
Hard_Code writes "Apparently it is illegal for United States citizens to make contact with aliens and their vehicles. " This is bizarre as hell. Not much in the way of proof, but its still pretty interesting. I'll definitely be giving extra terrestrials the silent treatment next time they try to abduct me. Update: 10/30 05:55 by CT : several people pointed out that this
is an Urban Legend. Pretty cool.
I think reserved just means that its holding its place so you don't go looking for something thats been removed.
No way I can say my thoughts on the government in here without cursing in all caps for 5 paragraphs, so instead I'll say that the fact that this was ever a law is just another sign that this country needs to be invaded, taken over, and then reclaimed by it's people, who then form a new and better government.
-- 'The' Lord and Master Bitman On High, Master Of All
"You ever heard of Division 6? There is no Division 6. Who are those guys?"
/. please look directly at the end of this device...
Now will all of
That might be correct .. but the point is .. Why in the first place was this law made in the first place, when the officials were steadfastedly denying any alien encounter and were ridiculing pple reported that they did make contact with aliens.. ??
Hmm..
... "follow me" the wise man said, but he walked behind
(fyi, you can use the tag to print fixed-width text. Not as good as <PRE>, but it makes it a little easier to format stuff.)
-jacob
Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations (14 CFR 1211 "Extraterrestrial Exposure") stipulates that it is a crime to be in contact with extraterrestrial beings or their spacecraft. This was repealed on April 26, 1991. It did exist; if you have any doubts, go to the library, find the CFR from pre '91, and look it up. For real laughs, also take the time to research the discussions which preceded the repeal.
This is really pathetic, Every time I read posts a little too late, the pages are /.'d. It's amazing to think what we could do to any box in the world simply by posting a story.
~Steve
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"<r-xr-xr-x> Just try to edit me" -- www.ircnews.com
Wow. I worked *with* Dan Geib last summer.
Small world.
Yes, but does talking to aliens count as 'export'? If it does, then people in US can't talk to aliens securely (without breaking the law) , but those in the rest of the world can.
The thing that worries me is that the US government has developed the same paternalistic attitude to other cultures that has lead to the downfall of empires (including the British empire).
There is only one thing that bothers me with this story.
What do Rob mean by "NEXT time they try to abduct me"
When was last time ???
I took the TGV from Paris to Genève and experienced exactly the phenomenon you describe--the ride was so smooth it felt like I was going slower than on an Amtrak train at home (which typically don't go much above 110 km/h). I had to do some careful estimation using my watch and the spacing of the telegraph poles along the route to convince myself otherwise.
spawn_of_yog_sothoth
211.101 Applicability. The provisions of this part apply to all NASA manned and unmanned space missions...
I could dismiss this whole controversy as a tempest in a teacup if the above passage contained the word "only", so as to read: "The provisions of this part apply only to all NASA manned and unmanned space missions..."
I read it. There is nothing confusing about it and there is absolutely no need to insert the word "only" in the text. The section applies to NASA missions. It does not apply to you and me. If you think that it does, you don't understand Federal Regulations. (You should note that this is a regulation, not a law.) If anyone tried to deprive you of your liberty on the basis of this section, any judge would release you faster than you could say "habeus corpus".
If they want to illegally keep you far away from daylight, they don't need this bogus section to do it.
I have discovered a truly marvelous sig, unfortunately the sig limit is too small to contain i
Hahhaah, you got caught : )
No matter what you say about how safe it is to drive at 75 miles per hour on the interstates, the real problem is that the speed limits on local roads are ignored just as much as those on the highway. People routinely drive down my 35MPH neighborhood street at 60MPH just because it's four lanes wide. Now, I didn't design it, and I think it's stupid that they built a 35MPH road four lanes wide, but people walk in this neighborhood, and pedestrians have no protection from a 60MPH vehicle careening around a blind corner.
If we'd spent half the money we've wasted on asphalt in the last 50 years on maintaining and expanding a good railway system instead of feeding the automotive industry lobbyists, we'd all be a lot safer and a lot more equal. Our children, the blind, and everyone else who can't drive for one reason or another (epilepsy, arthritis, etc) would be able to get places on their own.
I don't think learning to operate an automobile at high speeds is an important skill everyone should know. It's much nicer to think about something else on the way to work or on a trip than whether the guy in the other lane is going to swing over and plop himself into your four-second following distance or where the next gas station is. And the maintenance on cars! Don't get me started!
I'll be very happy when this fad is over and done with and we start ripping up the asphalt deserts we've created and rebuilding public spaces for people instead of machines.
jrose@questionable.com
If you want to get somewhere fast, go via train or plane. Otherwise, be patient.
No. Who are you to tell us what to do?
I bow to the will of the majority, so if something gets a majority vote in the community then I'll obey it, even if I disagree with it. That's what belonging to a community is all about.
But the speed limit on motorways was never put to the vote, and they don't dare put it to the vote because they know they'd lose. That's why the normal free-flowing speed on British motorways is over 85 mph, despite a legal limit of 70. (Even the Metropolitan Police recommend raising the limit, without effect.) In a democracy, when politicians don't listen, their laws get ignored.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
Speaking of reliability.... WTF is that site?
Doesn't seem to be very reliable to me...
Interesting.
Here's the relevant section:
1211.101 - Applicability The provisions of this part to all NASA manned and unmanned space missions which land or come within the atmospheric envelope of a celestial body and return to the Earth.
Posted by patg:
this whole thing is weird
True, and yet, many viruses frequently mutate, such as the common cold. And, as for not being similar, that depends on what theory you accept. Some would say that certain conditions must exist for a planet/whatever to develop life of any sort (I am not one of them, I'm simply playing devil's advocate). As such, it might also be argued that there is a good chance that these aliens would be quite similar to us.
However, I believe that it isn't a serious threat for an entirely different matter: the incredibly unlikelihood of aliens showing up on our doorstep, much less ones genetically similar to us, is enough to outweigh any paranoia about alien epidemics wiping us out. So, in a way, I suppose I agree with at least *part* of your point.
It takes hardly any time to look up a law. This would be the simplest type of story to investigate. He should do at least some research before posting a story.
It is an interesting story, however, because this law did exist for some time. A good example of how the government feels they should treat us.
The article says the law isn't just about encountering aliens, but having contact with anything extraterrestrial. (ie. the MOON)
Even without knowing about the actual text, it was pretty obvious that aliens like me weren't wellcome... ...but god, I never thought I was a decease. One would think higher intellect was in demand. Now we know better :-) sad.
Anybody remember the sci-fi story, "The Big Front Yard"? I read itas a kid and I loved it.
The moral of the story: if a race is intelligent enough for practical interstellar flight, it's a fair bet that they're intelligent enough to pick who they want to contact. In fact, they're probably better qualified than any government.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
As for the genetic similarity issue you raised, I think the notion that the systems by which life was established on earth are unique is hogwash. That is to say I agree with you, in non-devil's advocate mode, completely
My favorite example of this is that of the bizarre species that live in deep oceans. They live off of boiling hot water and sulfur, which are two things that would kill almost any other species on the planet. At this point, the only thing that can be consistently said to be necessary for life as we know it is good old Water, and hydrocarbons. Now, it may very well be that these are not fundamental requirements, but it's all we can go off for now. Even if those are fundamental requirements, water and carbon are all over the universe (take a glance at a passing comet for example
So, life is out there. The only question in my mind is whether that life is capable of communicating with us and whether it would even want to if it could
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before anybody flames, I saw this on Ars Technica, and it was too bizarre not to submit. Usually I don't submit things and then see them here days later and kick myself.
In any case, even though it was repealed, it is interesting that it even made it into law in the first place!
It's 10 PM. Do you know if you're un-American?
it appears strange to me that discovery of earth as sphere has been delayed for so long it seems to me fairly easy to guess just watching ocean horizon and ships dis/appearing behind it coupled with obvious shpere like shape of the moon... people must have come to the conclusion that earth was sphere and elephants carrying the turtle was government sponsored 'music for masses'! http://www.mesopust.com/
From the article:
"On October 5, 1982, Dr. Brain T. Clifford of the Pentagon announced at a press conference ("The Star", New York, Oct. 5, 1982) that contact between U.S. citizens and extra-terrestrials or their vehicles is strictly illegal."
I saw this link on memepool a little earlier. Notice the reference here: The Star. That tabloid newspaper you try not to look like you're reading when you're in the checkout line at the supermarket? Any article that uses that rag as a "source" is worthess.
--- Phyre
Taken to the extreme, this includes shortwave stations such as Voice of America, Radio France International etc. Theoretically it also includes extraterrestrial transmissions and RF noise from other stars!
Some bands, such as walkie-talkies, are open to all, but they're few and far between.
Unsurprisingly this law is only very rarely enforced (you can buy all-band radios and set up antennas at home pretty much as you wish). In the 1960's two suspected pirate radio DJ's were fined because they had a pirate radio bumper sticker- thus they must have listened to the radio station; although there was insufficient evidence to prove they were DJs.
--
Andrew Oakley - www.aoakley.com
Title 14 USC applies to the Cost Guard *not* NASA.
NASA is under Title 42, Chapter 26 - National Space Program.
Some1 had too much time on thier hands to try and fake the text of a law
NASA is undet 14 CFR not USC, my bad
Well, i guess this means I can't e-mail my congressmen anymore :)
"Dancing is the vertical expression of a horizontal desire" --Robert Frost
P.S. Very interesting, I got some errors when I tried to post this message - my browser refused to talk to www.slashdot.org (tried all 3 IPs). THEY'RE TRYING TO SILENCE ME!
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Stupid/senseless/blinkered/over-zealous laws are nothing new. As always, just ignore them.
Heck, on British motorways, only about 15% of drivers obey the speed limit. That's not because we're a nation of anarchists, but simply because there is no other recourse (this was never put to democratic vote, and politicians won't listen anyway), and stupid laws deserve contempt.
I sure hope that nobody who comes face-to-face with an extra-terrestrial is so totally lacking in gray matter that the first thing on their mind is whether contact is allowed by some politician. Sheesh. We'd lose all universe-cred.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
I just checked out the Code of Federal regulations and that subsection they specify as containing this law doesn't exist. Take a look here for Title 14. It lists all the regs governing NASA.
let's see if I can copy this right..
http://www.cninews.com/Search/CNI.0199.html
This article says it is legal again, since 1991.
Which means it's been legal to talk to me since I was, oh, 23 or so.
Just to let people know, "The Star" is a tabloid, so I wouldn't trust any of this information. However, like most tabloid articles, it's pretty humorous. :)
You can find Title 14, Section 1211 (or rather, the lack thereof) at http://www4.law.cornell.edu/cf r/14p1211.htm#14p1211s .
I know Rob can't personally verify every story before he posts it. But shouldn't you be a little more careful with a particularly implausible and inflammatory one, like this one? It took me ten minutes on Google to find this information.
(I hope this isn't a double post... my first version of this comment mysteriously vanished, along with about twenty other posts.)
MSK
http://www.qtm.net/~geibdan/et-law.html says that the regulation in question was repealed in 1991. It's now OK to touch aliens in any way you like.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Well, in my opinion, I believe that this may actually be a good idea, to some degree. Imagine what happened to the native cultures when the Conquistadors landed in South America, but on a much larger scale. Any viral bodies that these "visitors" might be carrying could have devastating effects to humans.
Now, while I don't think that this is necessary legislation (if indeed it's actually in existence), I think that it may indeed be a good idea to at least ask those aliens to wash their hands before you let them in your house.
*sigh* repost because /. lost my original post.
Slashdot Bug or a conspiracy by government agencies to suppress the truth that is out there??
You decide!
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Read up on 'kinetic energy', and how it is proportional to the square of the speed.
If you want to get somewhere fast, go via train or plane. Otherwise, be patient.
An even better question is why is almost everyone posting at Score 2?
I'm Agent Manhine and my Supervisor ( Agent Black ) Was able to confirm that this is indead ligit.
That 1 year jail term is realy a cover so we can recrute the best of those contacteas and "reeducate" the rest.
--= Isn't it surprising how badly I spell ?
On top of that my comment got eaten.
well... it did say they were reserving it again, and it was allegedly repealed in 1991.
however the phone number of the contact person on the link I gave "is no longer in service"
That makes it more interesting.. That is taking things to the extreme.. Wow.. That means that SETI@Home if done then would have been illegal.
"The lame excuse offered by NASA as a sugar coating for this bitter pill is that extra-terrestrials might have a virus that could wipe out the human race"
Dont tell me that EM waves can carry viruses.. man that is a cool idea that only the Govt would have tried out and maybe succedded.
Am I being a bit too X-philish ??
Manifest
... "follow me" the wise man said, but he walked behind
and here I am on my way out the door to meet the ambassador from Arbarkulous Maalb for lunch.
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"Rex unto my cleeb, and thou shalt have everlasting blort." - Zorp 3:16
Sacred cows make the best burgers.
1211 Removed in 1991 and I think its a page next to it 19259, but who the hell would have a copy of this thing on their shelf with THAT many pages...
t e.cgi?WAISdocID=203086071+14+0+0&WAISactio n=retrieve
.56 FR . ............57592 . ...................14191 . ....................19259
/.
:-)
http://frwebgate3.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/waisga
That is the line where I found it... If you're too lazy to go see it I'll paste that small section here...
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1991
14 CFR
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page
Chapter V
1204.501 (a) revised..........................................
1204.503 (b), (f)(3)(i)(D), (ii), (g) and (i) revised.............57592
1204.504 (a), (e)(3)(ii)(B), (iii), (f) and (h) revised...........57592
1204.1400--1204.1407 (Subpart 14) Revised................35812
1205 Removed..........................................
1209.100--1209.104 (Subpart 1) Revised........................8910
1211 Removed..........................................
1213.102 (a) introductory text revised..............................66787
Hope the HTML works, I'm not too familiar with it on
[after preview] Ok... so you can't use PRE on the board? What a pain in the ass... So I formatted with Period's by hand... hope you all can read it
- 8Complex
There's a difference between Laws and Regulations, and CFR means Code of Federal Regulations. (14 CFR, for example, contains all the Federal Aviation Regulations: Parts 1 - 199.) Regulations are a civil, not a criminal, matter.
You cannot be imprisoned for violating a regulation, but other sanctions and fines can be applied. But you don't necessarily have the usual constitutional protections of due process etc. in a regulatory process.
The CFR's tend to be very technical, and the average congress person has no hope of understanding them. Try browsing Title 14. For example, 91.175 - Takeoff and Landing Under IFR.
Unlimited growth == Cancer.
Remind it to use 1-800-COLLECT?
Hey, I mean, If you saw an alien who needed to use your phone what would YOU do?
Probably the same thing Ed O'Neill did, and tell him about 1-800-COLLECT. Save fifty percent to all calls in the Orion Arm, sixty after Galactic Midnight.Even if aliens where similar to us physically, that doesn't mean that their DNA would be particularly similar (assuming they had any).
I'm going to be very unscientific, because I have no data on hand. However there have been numerous stories published in the major Western-US newspapers (where the speed limits tend to be raised) that show that the average speed over the limit decreases when limits are raised. People still speed, but by less. The claim here is that most people only speed by a few mph, while a handful still drive 15 mph over the limit. This frees up the law enforcement teams to ticket those drivers who are most dangerous, without making judgments about moderate speeders.
Take this with a grain of salt, as I don't have any studies or figures onhand to cite.
The way I see it, the only reason that law was ever in effect was because of the aliens that have already infiltrated the United States government, and wish to cover up their activities. They did this because the United States is simply too destructive, and they knew the Americans would kill them. Now, here in Canada, we can make contact with aliens any time we want, and we only have alien governments in Saskatchewan. :)
Ah, nice catch. I'd been wondering what the major difference was between CFR and say, USC (United States Code) was.
Question, however: Presidential Executive Orders take effect when published in the Federal Register. Is this the same as the FR in CFR? And, if, so, why do these executive orders carry the same "weight" as law? Is it because everyone's afraid to tick off the President?
(Feel free to reply via e-mail if this is too off-topic)
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Hehehe. I just love hearing people talk about the isolation requirements put on the Apollo missions. So few people, even today, know that it was just a sham to make the public feel secure. Sure it all "looked" sealed, but not really. We knew there weren't any "moon germs". Hell, we were all really surprised by the mars "bacteria".
I think the alien contact laws probably stem more from the ideas behind the air force operation procedures regarding contact with extra-terrestrials. The real concern with contacting aliens has allways been the possibility of offending or scaring them or doing anything that might cause them to attack us. Or even worse, they might leave before any 'important' people get a chance to meet them, never to return. The amount we could learn from any species that managed to cross interstellar distances is potentially so important that it shouldn't be left to 'amateurs'. What I never understood, though, is where a colonel gets the experience contacting extra-terrestrials that every captain or lower apparently lacks.
If you actually read the text of the law, which was repealed about 8 years ago (see other posts), it's quite clear that it's a provision for quarantine of things which have been in contact with another planet, i.e. a space probe which returns from mars, a manned mission to the moon, etc, on the off chance they could bring back viral or other contamination (the original apollo 11 astronauts were quarantined for exactly this reason, probably under that same law).
Nowhere does it mention contact with extraterrestrial BEINGS (maybe the confusion came from the use of the phrase "extra-terrestrial" in the (perfectly clear) sense of "beyond earth", but was interpreted in the E.T. sense by a credulous reader.
This is an actual law, buried in the sub-sub-sub articles of laws governing interstate transportation.
There are two things interesting about this law.
First of all, this law was passed in the early 1950s. Interesting time to pass any laws regarding alien contact.
Second, this law was meant to refer to illegal aliens, i.e. Mexicans. The law had something to do with anti-smuggling legislation, as well as criminalizing the process of helping illegal aliens into the country. But it was passed as is, without amendment, which is a funny thing for a bunch of lawyers to do.
On venus it might be 16 days local time =)
Yes, I am! Thanks for reminding me. :)
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"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
Quine "quine?
>(In Europe we can use any key length we feel like).
In america, we can also use any key length we feel like. We just can't export our software to you. I think our government is under the impression that only americans are smart enough to write strong crypto.
The Germans seem to cope on the remaining stretches of unlimited autobahnen. It is actually quite relaxing driving at 220kmh _without_ worrying about being nicked for speeding. Plus, drivers are _way_ better there than in Holland with its 100/120kmh limit on motorways (if you see someone doing something really dumb on an autobahn like pulling out in front of someone without looking, you are almost guaranteed they are dutch).
;-)
However, most drivers sit at around 140-160kmh - that is a comfortable limit for many drivers/cars.
(My apologies to the Dutch on this list, but driving here is frightening).
But if you want to go really fast on land (320kmh), get on a French TGV. Problem is, it doesn't feel fast
I remember a study regarding the speed limits. It showed that for the most part, people find 70-75mph a "comfortable" speed to drive.
;-)
When the speed limits were maxed at 55mph in the US, the majority of people still drove 70mph or so on the interstates. Now that the limits are 70mph in most places, people haven't increased their speed to 90mph (as many critics of rasing the limit said would happen) but rather kept in the 70-75 range.
Of course, there are still a small minority who drive 90 but they would do that regardless of lower limtis.
Now the police can focus on busting those drivers who are on one end of the bell curve, not everyone who is under the fattest part. (And people who hang out with aliens, of course.
Number of accidents are at their lowest when everyone travels at more or less the same speed.
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Alright, about ten minutes ago there were about two dozen comments-- where the hell did they all go??
Can you say "alien abduction"?
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"Rex unto my cleeb, and thou shalt have everlasting blort." - Zorp 3:16
Sacred cows make the best burgers.
The reason that the viruses the conquistadors brought with them were a problem was because ultimately the natives and the spanish were biologically very similar. The genetic differences between ethnicities are very minor and viruses don't require much if any adaptation to jump from one to the other.
An alien virus would be adapted to effect the biology of alien species. The likelyhood that an alien species would be genetically similar to humans is INCREDIBLY slim. Thus the virus would get here, find no suitable host, and either die or go into some sort of hibernation state.
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Want to know what some of these backwater regions are? Good portions of United States and Britain, for starters. There's a good list on Age Of Consent which lists when sexual relationships of varying natures become legal, if ever, though it doesn't list which positions are legal IIRC, though I know for a fact that in Virginia, everything but male-dominated missionary is illegal (you can get a heterosexual couple jailed with the right contacts by claiming that they enacted in fellatio or cunningulus, for example).
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"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
Quine "quine?
This makes me ponder .. why was that law made ?? .. so much so that a law was made ??
That is as long back as 1969 isn't it ?? Doesn't this mean that even then they thought that Aliens can contact men
Hey on second thought.. that also opens up the chance that maybe, maybe even as way back as '69 Earthlings had made contact with Aliens.. oh maybe it is the other way around !
Manifest
... "follow me" the wise man said, but he walked behind
well... it did say they were reserving it again, and it was allegedly repealed in 1991.
"Reserved" just means that section is empty. At least that's what the johns hopkins university government library librarian told me and a friend when we went in there to look it up four years ago. I'm sure she thought we were nuts. My friend and I were fresh from reading some conspiracy tripe on the internet, and when we saw "reserved" we thought Ha! They're hiding it from us! The librarian calmly flipped to the back of the book where there was a list of changes, and it said that section had been removed. So now that the section is empty, it's reserved.
"1211, talking to aliens is no fun!" chanted an angry crowd outside of Blockbuster today. Debbie Smith, local protester, had this to say, "Look at Drew Barrymore, she played with that little brown alien and look what happened to her - drugs, booze, sex, is this what we're trying to tell our young people?!?"
ACLU spokesman Kent Harris replied, "Talking to aliens is every man and woman's right. George Washington was a mason and all they do is talk to aliens, well sometimes they talk to scientologists but thats about the same thing."
The point about the Star being a tabloid is well-taken. Certainly it explains the bizarre slant given the story.
The regulation in question was the enforcement for the biological-isolation régime observed after Apollo 11, 12, and (I think) 14. Astronauts returning from the moon had to wear respirators and (at first) suits; the command module had to be sealed, and anything exposed in the course of getting the astronauts out of it disinfected; the crew had to spend a couple of weeks in a negative-pressure lab; workers exposed to moon rocks were also put in the lab.
It was done, not because anyone thought it likely that there were Moon Germs, but because if there were, it'd look stupid not to have taken precautions.
As with any quarantine, this had the force of law, and the power to enforce it resided, not in the Public Health Service or USAMRIID, but NASA, in the person of its administrator. That's all the reg said.
Hey moderators, why's this offtopic? The post was about something similar, stupid unenforceable laws and stuff. Jeeze.
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"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
Quine "quine?
Heh, and that was supposed to be posted as AC. Slashdot is *really* quirky tonight. ;) Sorry for any offense towards moderators. Was just checking the system for bugs (no, really! :)
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"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
"'Is not a quine' is not a quine" is a quine.
Quine "quine?
The reason the section says "RESERVED" is because of the text of the repeal document, which specifically stated that 14 CFR 1211.100-108 would be "removed and reserved." It is common practice to do this, since if the section were not reserved, laws below it would need to be renumbered in keeping with the CFR's layout.
FWIW: This law was probably passed as a security measure in case we did find anything and ticked them off badly. I suppose the government thought the only way they could get the people who were "contacted" to come in for examination was by brute force.
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How nice to hear. Don't forget that it was Nov. 3rd, 1883 that the Supreme Court declared Native Americans "aliens". With my being a Miami "Injun", just replying to my post would be illegal, and also touching my car.... Who would have thought that an alien would drive a Ford Taurus. Hey, I'll have that meter maid arrested! ~Jason Maggard "It's almost dawn and the cops are gone, let's all get dixie fried!"
Let's do the Time Warp agaaaaaaainnnn...
Zontar The Mindless,
Il n'y a pas de Planet B.
Isn't Quebec the 'Alien' province?
We the Sheeple...
Slashdot has a history of welcoming alien contributors (such as the one who says 'meeept')
If this story were true (which it isn't), Rob would have to stop the alien-generated posts being viewed by US citizens.
OTOH, the aliens I talk to use strong (>4096 bit) encryption , so US people can't talk to them legally anyway (In Europe we can use any key length we feel like).
Oook.
(Apologies to T. Pratchett)
I am actually a demonic entity from the astral plane so its questionable as to whether or not I would fall under this law; however, doesn't this mean that people are going to shy away from me? Perhaps more importantly: does this mean all computer (or at least alternative communication) geeks are being monitored by the government in order to make sure we don't talk to any aliens? Or perhaps they mean immigration aliens; after all, the US is particularly sensitive to illegal immigrants and everyone knows how Americans are biased against immigrants...
Feel free to mark this post at -42 illogical, insane or offtopic. I just felt like forcing my views onto the rest of the world.
Elendale, the lost scholar
Well all I can say is the part giving them the ability to quarintine contactees is VERY logical. After all you don't want to wipe out the population because of some nasty alien virus. Yeah I know it sounds like something from a bad sci-fi movie but it is something to be taken seriously. Especially if you consider the fact that a virus from earth survived 3 years on the moon and was brought back home by the Apollo astronauts.
This highly important aspect seems to have been ignored by the author, hoax or not.
So it might be legal now, but there were 22 years that made "ET Phone Home" illegal in America.
So maybe Steven Spielberg was encouraging kids to break federal law if they encounter wrinkly aliens?
J.
damned vulpine http://sb.drtwister.com/
of this, I think this little play is appropriate:
"ET phone home... ET PHONE HOME!!"
"Hell no.. I'm not allowed to have any sort of contact with you, I'll be damned if I let you use my phone!"
Hey, I mean, If you saw an alien who needed to use your phone what would YOU do?
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Killroy Woz Here
or are acceptable at least, since many of them are aliens in the first place. Of course, the same is true everywhere else, but France may have a few more, as mentioned in another reply, thanks to Remulac ;). My buddy Pete asked his former roommate if he was an alien or not, because he and I were pretty much convinced -- strangely enough, his roommate wouldn't give a straight answer. I'm also convinced that my ex-boss is an alien, but that's a different story that isn't suitable for Slashdot. Why are we looking to the skies to find ALF? THEY already walk among us! I participate in SETI@home just to boast about my AMD Athlon CPU to the people I work with, not because I think it's worth the effort... Implicit, explicit, true, or not, this law is in direct conflict with SETI, and would not hold up against the U.S. Constitution's 1st Amendment right to freedom of assembly. Free assembly is a good thing, but free C and a compiler is just a bit better -- my $0.02.
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E2 IN2 IE?
What is the age of consent on Mars? I would imagine that it's something like 8 years old or thereabouts.
(Before taking exception, engage orbit period calculater)
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Yes, don't you know that everybody who's made contact with aliens either winds up in counselling or disappears? That's strictly government only. If you have an ET in your basement you'd better return him now before the natives find out!
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