Wouldn't you need to resynchronize the replacement phone to move your 4 GB (or 8 GB) of music, videos and documents to the replacement phone? And before returning you'd need to securely erase all that data, and your phone contacts, from the loaner phone. It takes time, so it isn't free.
All Li-Ion external batteries have charge controllers built in, and some indeed report their charge status via a serial interface. For a simple one see here.
People are only shocked at $40 battery prices if they're used to buying cheap-o no-name brand batteries from Walmart, etc.
I call them "smart shoppers". If the cheap battery works for a long time - great. If it fails soon then they got their money's worth out of it already.
Lithium-Polymer batteries of this type can not be sold to consumers, it's illegal. The conforming battery must be enclosed, and it must have a charge controller inside the enclosure to make it safe. The iPhone battery is just LiPo cells, and the charge controller is on the board. This makes the battery unsafe; the battery may explode in your hands, for example, if you short the leads (or solder them backward.) Lithium is a highly reactive metal, you know...
I am minimally excited about the iPhone, and I posted a few comments to that effect. However I will not be complaining about the battery cost - $50 or $70 is kind of high, but the phone is also expensive, so it fits the customer's profile. I can imagine that some old NiCd batteries for an old phone can be had for $15, but that's a different ball game. At least the battery can be replaced.
What I did complain about, and still do, is the inability to swap batteries on the go. You may be talking more than usual (privately selling something, for example), or you can be far from the base station, or your charger can be lost along with your luggage, or a hurricane can bring down the power, or many other reasons. You want to be able to buy a spare battery and keep it charged, ready to be plugged in. In all known phones, except the iPhone, it takes only seconds to swap the battery. As I said earlier, this brings the iPhone down from a category of dependable, reliable devices to a category of toys; you are happy when your toy works, but if it doesn't - no big deal.
The fact that you need to send your phone in for the battery replacement is also from that category of toys. Sending the phone means losing your phone book (unless it's on the SIM card), losing your calendar, your music, your videos, your everything else that is on that phone - just because the iPhone is all of these things. If you set up your life with an iPhone being a part of it, such as when you depend on it, losing the iPhone for a week would be a serious inconvenience - it is definitely more work than just ripping the plastic wrapper from a new battery and snapping it in, as it is the case with other phones.
It is not as expensive as lengthy. If you are a manager, and a new project lands on your desk you need 200 new programmers within a few months. You can't possibly expect the government to issue visas that fast; even one year would be fairly quick. You also need a pool of resources - and that means a country with a large number of free electrons^W developers who can be hired on a moment's notice. India may have the developers, but you can't hire them fast. Canada is a country that has immigration policies biased toward smart, young, educated people, so it's quite obvious where MS is digging (not in Mexico, for example.)
Nah. Challenge them to produce a 1,000,000 bit long seed for the PRNG that created your static. You have it, and you can recreate your work of art. If they don't then you are the author, and not them. And if the {RI,MP}AA downloaded your static then you are welcome to sue them, just like they do.
No need to be a lawyer. Sign up for a security clearance and then see what happens to your right to free speech or your right to privacy, or to your right to freedom of [international] travel. Generally, soldiers in the army also have very few rights, outside of the right to do what they are told.
One easy solution to that is to buy a generic cell phone for $0, and an iPod. The advantage is that you don't need to hold an iPod in your hand when you make calls, and you don't need to mess with your phone when you change songs on the iPod. It might be actually valuable because a typical phone and an iPod are usually smaller and lighter than an iPhone (not even mentioning smaller iPods.)
Myself I have a generic cell phone which maybe can play music but I never even cared to find that out. The phone is small and I have it with me when I want to. I also have a very good PDA with WiFi, Bluetooth and SD/MMC and CF slots, and 640x480 (VGA) LCD. I use it occasionally to browse the Web, but usually it runs my GPS navigation software. The PDA definitely can play music if I want to, and it does it very well. I can even use my BT headset to listen to it:-) though it's a loss of quality. I also have a tiny, cheap Flash-based (SD card) music player that runs on 2 AAA batteries, if I really want a super-portable device for an occasion.
My point is that one might be better off using specialized devices for their intended purpose. For example, iPhone's 4GB storage is good for, say, 500 songs, or 30 CDs. Probably less. And if you want video then an episode of a show will weigh 500 MB easily; far more if it is a full length movie. That wouldn't be a problem with a HDD-based iPod. Similarly, the generic phone will cost you about zero and you can pick and choose the provider as much as you want. Is it really that important to have touch screen instead of buttons to dial a number? I don't think so.
Understood about your devil's advocate approach. My comment here is kind of tangential, but I think relevant.
I read Harry Turtledove's "Worldwar" tetralogy recently (and not done yet.) But here is the relevant part. The time is 1942, and aliens (of our own technological level in 2000) already invaded. An englishman, a radar operator and otherwise smart guy, opens up a semiconductor-based radar from a downed alien airplane and can't figure out how it works. "There are no tubes!" he says. I believe this scene is realistic. Only few scientists of the time could comprehend the principle, and they'd have to be able to either dissect a solid crystal and visualize individual doping atoms (hardly possible!) or they'd have to somehow infer the planar technology, P-N barriers and everything else that hasn't been invented yet, and won't be invented for decades ahead. Maybe if the scientists are given the working alien hardware and told to dig in this direction they'd save a few years, but still they have to do most of the work themselves - the equipment does not come with textbooks on metallurgy and crystallography and solid state physics - and all that is a required knowledge if you want to make a transistor. Add quantum physics to the mix if you want your transistor to work fast.
As I mentioned elsewhere, Li-Ion batteries have a limited number of charge cycles, and once they are used up the battery doesn't take charge any more. I guess we know that well enough with our notebook batteries, isn't it so? Replacement batteries for notebooks are bought all the time, and I purchased a few myself. A battery for a $1,000 notebook may cost a $100 but the owner (a road warrior) needs his computer to work on the go.
The iPhone was opened, as you probably saw a few days ago, and it is obvious that not even a geek would be able to open the case without some custom tools. The replacement battery is also not going to be on the market because it is against the law in this configuration (the Li-Ion battery may be sold only as a user-replaceable part, like notebook batteries, but not as a solderable part.)
Without a replaceable battery the user can only hope that he is not using too many charge cycles of his new and shiny iPhone before the battery dies. That may be difficult, though, because the phone has WiFi and EDGE connectivity and if you actively use them they may bite some chunk of power from the battery. Apple specifies only 6 hours of Internet use until the battery is empty - but that's not that much, and you never want to run your phone's battery dry - someone may need to call you about something important! The audio playback, however, does not impact the battery much, so Apple learned from early iPod battery debacle. Let's see if they learned enough to pick the right battery for a more power-hungry device.
You just want to stand out as an "individual" by resisting the iPhone "groupthink". In essence, you are no different from the people you are criticizing.
That is true only if someone goes against the groupthink automatically and without an independent thought. You haven't proven your case here, though, because I do not hate iPods - though I don't own one. I just don't need any, I am not a music addict and I work best in silence.
iPods are indeed a decent purchase in terms of quality of hardware, and with generally good UI. Geeks may want something fancier, with [more] buttons and such, but most of the people are happy with iPods. Good for them, though they still pay a premium for all that, and for the brand name. But I guess they have the cash to burn. Fashion-wise, you probably can't surprise anyone by owning an iPod, so it's not that important these days. It was, though, when the iPod line was launched.
In any case, the major difference between iPod and iPhone is that iPod created a new function where none were before. It was a first truly pocket-sized music player which could hold all your music (or at least a sizable part of it.) Then it became a first music player that played video. Then it became a first music player in a tiny size. Then it became a first super-thin music player. And so on - iPod was offering to the user something that the user did not have before.
Now turn to the iPhone. What exactly does it add to the wealth of free phones that the market is flooded with?
Large display. That is good but has only a limited value. Most phones have adequate displays already. It may be useful if you browse the Web on the phone; I don't. Besides, my PDA has a 640x480 LCD so the iPhone would be a downgrade for me.
Functions as an iPod. Many phones play music already, so this is not exactly new.
Has a touch interface. This is new, but not necessarily good. Many people dial by touch, and I personally like buttons (but won't hate touch buttons nevertheless.)
Is tied to probably the worst cellular provider in the country. That is priceless.
Has no programmability beyond what the Web browser offers.
Not a clamshell (this is a personal complaint, disregard if you disagree.)
Battery is not replaceable. This is a killer, IMO. Li-Ion batteries die after a couple of years, faster if you use them. (the total number of charge cycles is about 500.) Why to throw a perfectly good, expensive phone away if you only need a $50 battery? What is the plan, doc? The phone is not a micro-power iPod, the phone draws some decent power when talking. Does Apple expect everyone to dump their $500 iPhones in two years?
Super-expensive. Most people get their phones for free.
Did I miss something? Let's check Apple's Web site:
iPhone is a revolutionary new mobile phone that allows you to make a call by simply tapping a name or number in your address book, a favorites list, or a call log.
Fancy that, I have this function in my old phone already, and I doubt that anyone else lacks it. You just press a button instead of tapping, how hard is that? Besides, I'd hate to touch a wrong entry and dial a wrong number. Hard buttons have their advantages.
It also automatically syncs all your contacts from a PC, Mac, or Internet service.
So does my phone (Sanyo PM-8200) - I have a USB cable for it and the software. Works great and allows me to move camera photos from the phone (or onto it) without using any wireless function, in complete privacy and with excellent speed. I back up my phone's contacts this way.
And it lets you select and listen to voicemail messages in whatever order you want -- just like email.
May be convenient and an innovation, but has nothing to do with the iPhone. This is in cellular provider's department. I guess Apple just coded the thing while Verizon and others were busy turning phones' features off.
But, the Cosmological assertion of the birth of Everything by expansion from a singularity has always seemed a bit more of a mystical explanation to me than a scientific one.
Strike a flint, get a spark. What is so mystical here?
It's like jewelry - a status symbol. People buy jewelry not because they are doing optics experiments or need a portable glass-cutting tool. iPhone has a potential to be eventually usable for making calls, but given that the battery in it is not replaceable (now we know for sure!) it is clear that iPhone is designed as a toy, to be a toy, and it is sold at a price of an intricate toy as well. In other words, it is not a businessman's strong and solid weapon of communication - it's a gentle, flimsy and feminine fashion apparel.
I'm also on Sprint, and when I upgraded I just bought the phone from their Web site, and it was either activated out of the box, or I just had to do something like power it up... I clearly remember that I had no need to call anyone at Sprint, and now that I heard about AT&T I also know that I will stay with Sprint for a while:-)
Why can I travel forward in time if I just wait a little, without even doing anything special? And when I'm done traveling the Earth is still here. How would you explain that?
If you don't like the previous question, here is another. What do you mean when you say "the Earth has moved" - moved relative to what? Do you mean a preferred frame, by any chance? If not then I nail my favorite frame right here, where I am, since they are all the same. Then it will always stay with me, and I will simply let the Universe to figure out where it ought to be after my trips in time!
I can see this being relevant only if such an affidavit purports to identify the killer, for example. The #3 specifically points at that. But in this case the guy was not killed, so the affidavit is neither a Dying Declaration nor it is used as such. It's just what it is - a notary-certified statement, with living witnesses.
I would like to agree with you. Most importantly, the Roswell base probably was not exactly the most secret facility of the time. Quite the opposite, I'd say - the whole thing was built by German and Italian POWs and was basically just a large airfield for training:
The major unit at Roswell AAF was the 3030th AAF Base Unit (Pilot School, Specialized Very Heavy) which specialized in B-29 4 engine pilot training and Bombadier School. (link
I would expect to see hardly any security concerns there, in the middle of the country, and in a middle of a desert. They probably had no secrets to be worried about.
Besides, there is another fact to prove their initially relaxed posture: the base indeed reported, as it was printed in many newspapers, that they recovered the object. They had no obligation to do that, and if they thought of this as classified they could just say so and nobody would report or print anything. Given the Manhattan Project there was plenty of stuff in the country that was at least confidential, and every reporter knew about that.
But they reported the discovery of the craft, and I can't possibly imagine why would they do that if even a cursory look at any earthly hardware would assure you and me that it was made here. A weather balloon (or a radar reflector, or whatever) would be clearly identified - or at least they'd find some markings of US origin, and not in an "unknown script". When some stuff crashes and airmen approach the site, the idea of a UFO (in 1947!) would be not just the least likely - it would never occur at all. They had to have some facts to push them toward this very unorthodox idea, and bodies of ETs could be just enough. Either that, or they were all overdosing on some mushrooms. But the fact remains - they reported what they reported.
what does it say about a race that throws expired members of its own species at other civilizations?
Dedicated to the cause? Not squeamish? Treating dead body as a dead body, and not as a sacred vessel? Or maybe able to move their consciousness between bodies with ease?
maybe cloned or what-have-you
Even better.
I don't think trashing a spaceship would be cheap
Not cheaper than failing the whole interstellar mission, I guess.
the aliens wait until mankind reaches a point where contact can be made safely and with predictable results
For example, all religions would be just delighted that their God sent them a bunch of heathens to be educated and converted. They'd see a lot of sense in that -- God's Will, proof of humanity's uniqueness etc. etc.
I say it's impossible because, assuming your premise:
Not a single sample of early but almost-modern NVGs is available.
NVGs are not difficult to invent, they are difficult to buy parts for.
For example, we could have a NVG as early as 1930 because you could use the early iconoscope to capture IR light below the visible power and amplify it as much as you want. That's what TV does, basically, and it is not a surprise that some camcorders are IR-capable.
But that NVG would weigh 200-300 lbs and wouldn't be exactly portable. To make it portable you need to advance the technology quite a lot. First portable NVGs were still vacuum tube based, but implemented in a very smart way, as a series of long parallel holes in a glass plate. The front edge, facing the field, would receive the picture, produce electrons, those electrons would then be accelerated within all the tubes and when they hit the end, facing you, the light would be both visible and bright. That worked like a "bug eye" - once the picture is focused it is transferred as if through a bunch of fibers, just with amplification.
With semiconductors you can create far fancier, and more efficient NVGs. But we, as a society, made every single step of this path, and it is proven beyond doubt how exactly each step was made, by who (scientists like to publish!) and who stepped on shoulders of those giants and made the next advance, etc. etc.
As other people mentioned, if you show me a working time machine, or a fusion battery of CR2032 size, or an FTL drive, then I may want to consider the idea of external help - just because no human on this planet has a foggiest idea about how to even approach any of those challenges. But the problem is that every known invention on this planet is 100% traceable to its origins, and origins of those origins, recursively.
How would that work? Anyone can rebut this story at any time, now or later:
2a : to contradict or oppose by formal legal argument, plea, or countervailing proof
b : to expose the falsity of : REFUTE
It's not like we need to hear his rebuttal to the rebuttal. He already said what he wanted, and if he excluded himself from further discussions, it's his choice. Now it's enough for someone to show that, for example, a certain hangar, where the egg was supposedly held, was not constructed until much later. A construction contract with a date and a map of the site would suffice. Or it can be shown that certain people referred to in the affidavit were provably not there (the Army is good at keeping job records.)
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Wouldn't you need to resynchronize the replacement phone to move your 4 GB (or 8 GB) of music, videos and documents to the replacement phone? And before returning you'd need to securely erase all that data, and your phone contacts, from the loaner phone. It takes time, so it isn't free.
All Li-Ion external batteries have charge controllers built in, and some indeed report their charge status via a serial interface. For a simple one see here.
I call them "smart shoppers". If the cheap battery works for a long time - great. If it fails soon then they got their money's worth out of it already.
Lithium-Polymer batteries of this type can not be sold to consumers, it's illegal. The conforming battery must be enclosed, and it must have a charge controller inside the enclosure to make it safe. The iPhone battery is just LiPo cells, and the charge controller is on the board. This makes the battery unsafe; the battery may explode in your hands, for example, if you short the leads (or solder them backward.) Lithium is a highly reactive metal, you know...
What I did complain about, and still do, is the inability to swap batteries on the go. You may be talking more than usual (privately selling something, for example), or you can be far from the base station, or your charger can be lost along with your luggage, or a hurricane can bring down the power, or many other reasons. You want to be able to buy a spare battery and keep it charged, ready to be plugged in. In all known phones, except the iPhone, it takes only seconds to swap the battery. As I said earlier, this brings the iPhone down from a category of dependable, reliable devices to a category of toys; you are happy when your toy works, but if it doesn't - no big deal.
The fact that you need to send your phone in for the battery replacement is also from that category of toys. Sending the phone means losing your phone book (unless it's on the SIM card), losing your calendar, your music, your videos, your everything else that is on that phone - just because the iPhone is all of these things. If you set up your life with an iPhone being a part of it, such as when you depend on it, losing the iPhone for a week would be a serious inconvenience - it is definitely more work than just ripping the plastic wrapper from a new battery and snapping it in, as it is the case with other phones.
It is not as expensive as lengthy. If you are a manager, and a new project lands on your desk you need 200 new programmers within a few months. You can't possibly expect the government to issue visas that fast; even one year would be fairly quick. You also need a pool of resources - and that means a country with a large number of free electrons^W developers who can be hired on a moment's notice. India may have the developers, but you can't hire them fast. Canada is a country that has immigration policies biased toward smart, young, educated people, so it's quite obvious where MS is digging (not in Mexico, for example.)
This is generally the preferred way, unless your decision making formula is overly complex, then the code is bad just because of that :-)
Nah. Challenge them to produce a 1,000,000 bit long seed for the PRNG that created your static. You have it, and you can recreate your work of art. If they don't then you are the author, and not them. And if the {RI,MP}AA downloaded your static then you are welcome to sue them, just like they do.
No need to be a lawyer. Sign up for a security clearance and then see what happens to your right to free speech or your right to privacy, or to your right to freedom of [international] travel. Generally, soldiers in the army also have very few rights, outside of the right to do what they are told.
Myself I have a generic cell phone which maybe can play music but I never even cared to find that out. The phone is small and I have it with me when I want to. I also have a very good PDA with WiFi, Bluetooth and SD/MMC and CF slots, and 640x480 (VGA) LCD. I use it occasionally to browse the Web, but usually it runs my GPS navigation software. The PDA definitely can play music if I want to, and it does it very well. I can even use my BT headset to listen to it :-) though it's a loss of quality. I also have a tiny, cheap Flash-based (SD card) music player that runs on 2 AAA batteries, if I really want a super-portable device for an occasion.
My point is that one might be better off using specialized devices for their intended purpose. For example, iPhone's 4GB storage is good for, say, 500 songs, or 30 CDs. Probably less. And if you want video then an episode of a show will weigh 500 MB easily; far more if it is a full length movie. That wouldn't be a problem with a HDD-based iPod. Similarly, the generic phone will cost you about zero and you can pick and choose the provider as much as you want. Is it really that important to have touch screen instead of buttons to dial a number? I don't think so.
I read Harry Turtledove's "Worldwar" tetralogy recently (and not done yet.) But here is the relevant part. The time is 1942, and aliens (of our own technological level in 2000) already invaded. An englishman, a radar operator and otherwise smart guy, opens up a semiconductor-based radar from a downed alien airplane and can't figure out how it works. "There are no tubes!" he says. I believe this scene is realistic. Only few scientists of the time could comprehend the principle, and they'd have to be able to either dissect a solid crystal and visualize individual doping atoms (hardly possible!) or they'd have to somehow infer the planar technology, P-N barriers and everything else that hasn't been invented yet, and won't be invented for decades ahead. Maybe if the scientists are given the working alien hardware and told to dig in this direction they'd save a few years, but still they have to do most of the work themselves - the equipment does not come with textbooks on metallurgy and crystallography and solid state physics - and all that is a required knowledge if you want to make a transistor. Add quantum physics to the mix if you want your transistor to work fast.
According to my measurements, yes :-(
The iPhone was opened, as you probably saw a few days ago, and it is obvious that not even a geek would be able to open the case without some custom tools. The replacement battery is also not going to be on the market because it is against the law in this configuration (the Li-Ion battery may be sold only as a user-replaceable part, like notebook batteries, but not as a solderable part.)
Without a replaceable battery the user can only hope that he is not using too many charge cycles of his new and shiny iPhone before the battery dies. That may be difficult, though, because the phone has WiFi and EDGE connectivity and if you actively use them they may bite some chunk of power from the battery. Apple specifies only 6 hours of Internet use until the battery is empty - but that's not that much, and you never want to run your phone's battery dry - someone may need to call you about something important! The audio playback, however, does not impact the battery much, so Apple learned from early iPod battery debacle. Let's see if they learned enough to pick the right battery for a more power-hungry device.
That is true only if someone goes against the groupthink automatically and without an independent thought. You haven't proven your case here, though, because I do not hate iPods - though I don't own one. I just don't need any, I am not a music addict and I work best in silence.
iPods are indeed a decent purchase in terms of quality of hardware, and with generally good UI. Geeks may want something fancier, with [more] buttons and such, but most of the people are happy with iPods. Good for them, though they still pay a premium for all that, and for the brand name. But I guess they have the cash to burn. Fashion-wise, you probably can't surprise anyone by owning an iPod, so it's not that important these days. It was, though, when the iPod line was launched.
In any case, the major difference between iPod and iPhone is that iPod created a new function where none were before. It was a first truly pocket-sized music player which could hold all your music (or at least a sizable part of it.) Then it became a first music player that played video. Then it became a first music player in a tiny size. Then it became a first super-thin music player. And so on - iPod was offering to the user something that the user did not have before.
Now turn to the iPhone. What exactly does it add to the wealth of free phones that the market is flooded with?
Did I miss something? Let's check Apple's Web site:
iPhone is a revolutionary new mobile phone that allows you to make a call by simply tapping a name or number in your address book, a favorites list, or a call log.
Fancy that, I have this function in my old phone already, and I doubt that anyone else lacks it. You just press a button instead of tapping, how hard is that? Besides, I'd hate to touch a wrong entry and dial a wrong number. Hard buttons have their advantages.
It also automatically syncs all your contacts from a PC, Mac, or Internet service.
So does my phone (Sanyo PM-8200) - I have a USB cable for it and the software. Works great and allows me to move camera photos from the phone (or onto it) without using any wireless function, in complete privacy and with excellent speed. I back up my phone's contacts this way.
And it lets you select and listen to voicemail messages in whatever order you want -- just like email.
May be convenient and an innovation, but has nothing to do with the iPhone. This is in cellular provider's department. I guess Apple just coded the thing while Verizon and others were busy turning phones' features off.
That's why I think that the iPho
Strike a flint, get a spark. What is so mystical here?
It's like jewelry - a status symbol. People buy jewelry not because they are doing optics experiments or need a portable glass-cutting tool. iPhone has a potential to be eventually usable for making calls, but given that the battery in it is not replaceable (now we know for sure!) it is clear that iPhone is designed as a toy, to be a toy, and it is sold at a price of an intricate toy as well. In other words, it is not a businessman's strong and solid weapon of communication - it's a gentle, flimsy and feminine fashion apparel.
I'm also on Sprint, and when I upgraded I just bought the phone from their Web site, and it was either activated out of the box, or I just had to do something like power it up... I clearly remember that I had no need to call anyone at Sprint, and now that I heard about AT&T I also know that I will stay with Sprint for a while :-)
Why can I travel forward in time if I just wait a little, without even doing anything special? And when I'm done traveling the Earth is still here. How would you explain that?
If you don't like the previous question, here is another. What do you mean when you say "the Earth has moved" - moved relative to what? Do you mean a preferred frame, by any chance? If not then I nail my favorite frame right here, where I am, since they are all the same. Then it will always stay with me, and I will simply let the Universe to figure out where it ought to be after my trips in time!
I can see this being relevant only if such an affidavit purports to identify the killer, for example. The #3 specifically points at that. But in this case the guy was not killed, so the affidavit is neither a Dying Declaration nor it is used as such. It's just what it is - a notary-certified statement, with living witnesses.
The major unit at Roswell AAF was the 3030th AAF Base Unit (Pilot School, Specialized Very Heavy) which specialized in B-29 4 engine pilot training and Bombadier School. (link
I would expect to see hardly any security concerns there, in the middle of the country, and in a middle of a desert. They probably had no secrets to be worried about.
Besides, there is another fact to prove their initially relaxed posture: the base indeed reported, as it was printed in many newspapers, that they recovered the object. They had no obligation to do that, and if they thought of this as classified they could just say so and nobody would report or print anything. Given the Manhattan Project there was plenty of stuff in the country that was at least confidential, and every reporter knew about that.
But they reported the discovery of the craft, and I can't possibly imagine why would they do that if even a cursory look at any earthly hardware would assure you and me that it was made here. A weather balloon (or a radar reflector, or whatever) would be clearly identified - or at least they'd find some markings of US origin, and not in an "unknown script". When some stuff crashes and airmen approach the site, the idea of a UFO (in 1947!) would be not just the least likely - it would never occur at all. They had to have some facts to push them toward this very unorthodox idea, and bodies of ETs could be just enough. Either that, or they were all overdosing on some mushrooms. But the fact remains - they reported what they reported.
Dedicated to the cause? Not squeamish? Treating dead body as a dead body, and not as a sacred vessel? Or maybe able to move their consciousness between bodies with ease?
maybe cloned or what-have-you
Even better.
I don't think trashing a spaceship would be cheap
Not cheaper than failing the whole interstellar mission, I guess.
the aliens wait until mankind reaches a point where contact can be made safely and with predictable results
For example, all religions would be just delighted that their God sent them a bunch of heathens to be educated and converted. They'd see a lot of sense in that -- God's Will, proof of humanity's uniqueness etc. etc.
For example, we could have a NVG as early as 1930 because you could use the early iconoscope to capture IR light below the visible power and amplify it as much as you want. That's what TV does, basically, and it is not a surprise that some camcorders are IR-capable.
But that NVG would weigh 200-300 lbs and wouldn't be exactly portable. To make it portable you need to advance the technology quite a lot. First portable NVGs were still vacuum tube based, but implemented in a very smart way, as a series of long parallel holes in a glass plate. The front edge, facing the field, would receive the picture, produce electrons, those electrons would then be accelerated within all the tubes and when they hit the end, facing you, the light would be both visible and bright. That worked like a "bug eye" - once the picture is focused it is transferred as if through a bunch of fibers, just with amplification.
With semiconductors you can create far fancier, and more efficient NVGs. But we, as a society, made every single step of this path, and it is proven beyond doubt how exactly each step was made, by who (scientists like to publish!) and who stepped on shoulders of those giants and made the next advance, etc. etc.
As other people mentioned, if you show me a working time machine, or a fusion battery of CR2032 size, or an FTL drive, then I may want to consider the idea of external help - just because no human on this planet has a foggiest idea about how to even approach any of those challenges. But the problem is that every known invention on this planet is 100% traceable to its origins, and origins of those origins, recursively.
2a : to contradict or oppose by formal legal argument, plea, or countervailing proof
b : to expose the falsity of : REFUTE
It's not like we need to hear his rebuttal to the rebuttal. He already said what he wanted, and if he excluded himself from further discussions, it's his choice. Now it's enough for someone to show that, for example, a certain hangar, where the egg was supposedly held, was not constructed until much later. A construction contract with a date and a map of the site would suffice. Or it can be shown that certain people referred to in the affidavit were provably not there (the Army is good at keeping job records.)
It would be probably unwise to allow the very first customer to buy the entire stock so that he can resell it just outside the store.