Earth must prepare for close encounter with aliens, say scientists
guardian - World governments should prepare a co-ordinated action plan in case Earth is contacted by aliens, according to scientists.
Scientists argue that a branch of the UN must be given responsibility for "supra-Earth affairs" and formulate a plan for how to deal with extraterrestrials, should they appear.
The comments are part of an extraterrestrial-themed edition of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A published today. In it, scientists examine all aspects of the search for extraterrestrial life, from astronomy and biology to the political and religious fallout that would result from alien contact.
"Will a suitable process based on expert advice from proper and responsible scientists arise at all, or will interests of power and opportunism more probably set the scene?" asked Professor John Zarnecki of the Open University and Dr Martin Dominik of the University of St Andrews in the introductory paper. "A lack of co-ordination can be avoided by creating an overarching framework in a truly global effort governed by an international politically legitimated body." The pair argue that the UN has a ready-made mechanism for such a forum in its Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (Copuos).
Member states of Copuos should put "supra-Earth affairs" on their agenda, say the scientists, and establish structures similar to those proposed for dealing with threats from near-Earth objects, such as asteroids, that might be on a collision course with our planet.
According to Simon Conway Morris, a professor of evolutionary palaeobiology at Cambridge University, anyone planning for alien contact should prepare for the worst.
Evolution on alien worlds, he said, is likely to be Darwinian in nature. Morris argues that life anywhere else in the universe will therefore probably have important similarities with life on Earth – especially if it comes from Earth-like worlds that have similar biological molecules to ours. That means ET might resemble us, warts and all, with our tendencies towards violence and exploitation.
"Why should we 'prepare for the worst'? First, if intelligent aliens exist, they will look just like us, and given our far from glorious history, this should give us pause for thought," wrote Morris in the journal's special issue.
Ted Peters, a professor of systematic theology at the Pacific Lutheran Theological Seminary in California, considered what might happen to the world's religions in the event of ET making contact. Conventional wisdom suggests that terrestrial religion would collapse if the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence (ETI) were confirmed, he wrote.
"Because our religious traditions formulated their key beliefs within an ancient world view now out of date, would shocking new knowledge dislodge our pre-modern dogmas? Are religious believers Earth-centric, so that contact with ET would de-centre and marginalise our sense of self-importance? Do our traditional religions rank us human beings on top of life's hierarchy, so if we meet ETI who are smarter than us will we lose our superior rank? If we are created in God's image, as the biblical traditions teach, will we have to share that divine image with our new neighbours?"
His conclusion, however, is that faith in Earth's major religions would survive intact. "Theologians will not find themselves out of a job. In fact, theologians might relish the new challenges to reformulate classical religious commitments in light of the new and wider vision of God's creation."
"Traditional theologians must then become astrotheologians ... What I forecast is this: contact with extraterrestrial intelligence will expand the existing religious vision that all of creation – including the 13.7bn-year history of the universe replete with all of God's creatures – is the gift of a loving and gracious God," he speculated.
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Government Allegedly Forced TruTV To Yank FEMA Camps Episode
networkworld - What is one sure-fired way to feed a conspiracy theory? Make a TV episode supposedly exposing a conspiracy theory and then, after alleged government pressure, have truTV yank that episode off the air. The episode was Jesse Ventura's Conspiracy Theory "Police State" about "secret" FEMA camps or fusion centers. There are still no public answers as to why this happened. It is, at the least, thought-provoking.
Although I did not see this episode when it aired, and had never seen Ventura's Conspiracy Theory series, I did watch the program via YouTube to see what all the fuss was about. "The secret government plan to spy on, round up, and imprison innocent Americans." Taken from the narrator's description, "Jesse Ventura uncovers a plot to force martial law on law abiding citizens, replace 50 states with 10 giant prison sectors, fill up hundreds of concentration camps with people like you and me, and pull the trigger with a disease pandemic."
According to Alex Jones, truTV pulled the episode from the airing schedule due to government threats. Jones added that he isn't allowed to talk about it, something to do with government men in black showing up, and "they are now remotely erasing it off of DVRs." In theory, these videos posted at the bottom of this article are not expected to stay up on YouTube very long before being pulled. I advise you to also watch it and see if it makes you go hmmmm.
The thing is, I do watch what is happening to our freedom and our privacy, innocent people in peace groups put on watchlists, so there were many things I did know in this episode and many that I did not. The huge stockpile of hundreds of thousands of plastic coffins, that can hold four bodies each, is very creepy and only a tiny piece of the puzzle. But be warned, allegedly you can also land on a watchlist for being a conspiracy theorist.
According to the ACLU, the number of fusion centers jumped from 40 to at least 72. ACLU'S Mike German, a 16-year veteran of the FBI's Special Agent in domestic terrorism, said fusion centers have no guidelines and no oversight.
During Ventura's exposé, he says, "That Government plan to suspend the Constitution, declare martial law, and round up anyone deemed a National Security threat, it's documented; it's called Rex 84. It was cooked up under the Reagan Administration by Col. Oliver North." He adds that the Council of Governors, established by President Obama on Jan. 11, 2010, divides America into 10 sectors. In case of a national emergency, the country is quarantined into these sectors and the president can send in the military and round up dissidents. Where would these people be taken?
FEMA camps? Ventura and Jones visited "residential centers" that were designed by Halliburton and others to hold whole families. Ventura said they look like prisons with barbed wire, double fences, railroad tracks just like Nazi Germany, and were intended for rounding up immigrants, aliens and also dissidents. The bill H.R. 645 called for the creation of these camps to be run by Homeland Security.
Activist William Lewis on Ventura's show said he has found over 800 detention facilities -- concentration prison camps. They can even be found on old military bases; a way to spot them is supposedly the barbed wire. If the barbed wire is turned inward, it's meant to keep the people in from getting out. Most barbed wire that protects facilities is designed pointing outward to keep people from getting in.
Then Ventura and Jones traveled to Madison, Georgia, where they saw hundreds of thousands of stacked plastic coffins that could hold four bodies per container. Again, the trail seemed to lead to a Halliburton contract. These "coffins" were "officially plastic grave liners with lids." Shortly after taking video of this mass coffin pileup, workers came in and hauled off the coffins. Jones added that he believes FEMA and the CDC may intend to trigger a pandemic to bring in martial law.
In 2009, Popular Science debunked FEMA Camps and the reasoning for the "500,000 plastic coffins" -- just in case you want on opposing investigation viewpoint.
Ventura tried to get answers about the facilities, including why the posted sign on the residential facility used the term "escape" -- which usually implies someone inside is being held against their will. There were many "no comment" answers, even when Ventura went to talk to the congressmen who helped sponsor H.R. 645 and the creation of these "concentration camps." Congressman Jim Gerlach of Pennsylvania "left his office" when Ventura showed up for an interview. Another co-sponsor of H.R. 645, Congressman Steve Cohen of Tennessee, said FEMA camps "don't exist."
If you don't intend to watch "Police State Fema Camps," then you should at least consider watching this portion. Congressman Cohen denies the existence of these camps; when asked why would we be building FEMA camps and their purpose, Cohen states, "Well we wouldn't because they don't exist. It's just a figment of some people's who have concerns about maybe Martians or other creatures coming to infiltrate our society thinking there are such camps."
Ventura replied, "I have fear of my government, not green monsters in machines from outer space."
Cohen, in reply to Ventura's question about children being kept there, said, "I don't know who the children are and the children are probably very happy."
I'm fairly certain I've seen lines like that in movies where sick Nazis have children in concentration camps. It's flat out creepy. The entire episode is disturbing and thought-provoking, whether you decide you agree with this conspiracy theory or not. But if it's not basically true, then why would the government allegedly place pressure on truTV to stop it from airing again like all the other episodes do? The part that is no conspiracy for certain? This episode has well and truly been removed from truTV...so if it was censored, how much more of this is true? It provokes deep thoughts of "hmmmm" at the very least.
You can find the episodes here
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South Korea Buries One Million Pigs Alive
sky - South Korea has been heavily criticised for burying up to one million pigs alive as it grapples with a foot and mouth disease outbreak. Since the first case of the disease was confirmed in November the country has embarked on a mass cull. Foot and mouth disease affects all cloven hoofed animals such as pigs, cattle and goats, and any country that has cases of it is unable to export the animals' meat.
The South Korean government has so far refused to vaccinate pigs against the disease and is now slaughtering them in record numbers despite appeals to stop. On January 4 in one area of Gangwon-Do, 33,900 pigs alone were destroyed, according to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). Compassion in World Farming (CIWF) said that South Korea's actions contravene international guidelines.
Michele Danan from the organisation said: "Live vaccinations are the best route but if they do have to kill them we would prefer that they were at least slaughtered humanely." The estimated cost of the cull so far is believed to have reached around £230m when a mass vaccination programme would have cost an estimated £63m. Some animal rights campaigners have criticised the government for putting economic considerations ahead of animal welfare.
It is believed the live burial of pigs began at Christmas and the figure is likely to climb far above the one million mark. Joyce D’Silva, Director of Public Affairs for CIWF said: "Compassion in World Farming is appalled that the Republic of Korea is allegedly throwing pigs into pits and burying them alive. This is totally contrary to international guidelines on humane culling, which the Korean government endorsed five years ago. We urge the Korean government to end this horrendous practice at once and to ensure that, if animals are culled, this is done humanely."
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Discovery Channel, Catholic Church Teaming Up For Exorcist Series
insidetv - Discovery Channel is teaming with the Vatican for an unprecedented new series hunting the deadliest catch of all: Demons.
The Exorcist Files will recreate stories of real-life hauntings and demonic possession, based on cases investigated by the Catholic Church. The project includes access into the Vatican’s case files, as well as interviews with the organization’s top exorcists — religious experts who are rarely seen on television.
“The Vatican is an extraordinarily hard place to get access to, but we explained we’re not going to try to tell people what to think,” says Discovery president and GM Clark Bunting.
Bunting says the investigators believe a demon can inhabit an inanimate object (like a home) or a person. The network executive says he was initially skeptical when first meeting the team but was won over after more than three hours of talks.
“The work these folks do, and their conviction in their beliefs, make for fascinating stories,” Bunting says.
If the show’s first season is successful, the network hopes its partnership with the Church will pave the way for producers GoGo Luckey to take the series to the next level — joining Catholic investigators on live demon-purging ride-alongs. (Move over, Syfy’s Ghost Hunters.)
Exorcist Files marks one of two new series coming to the network and first reported by EW. The other is the intriguing Disappeared (working title), produced by Pilgrim Films, which will test whether its possible to really “go off the grid,” as contestants ditch their identities and attempt to hide anywhere in the world from a team of trackers. More details on Disappeared here.
The Exorcist Files will debut this spring on Discovery Channel; an exact date has not yet been set.
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NASA names '2012' most absurd science-fiction film of all time
guardian - 2012, Roland Emmerich's gleefully comprehensive demolition job disaster movie, has been named the most absurd science-fiction film ever by Nasa.
The film, which was released in 2009 to groans of guilty pleasure and the healthy ringing of cash registers (it took nearly $800m from a $200m budget), was deemed the silliest and most scientifically flawed film at a conference in California.
Set on 21 December 2012, the film tells the story of John Cusack and Amanda Peet's marital reconciliation, against the backdrop of the end of the world – an effect of mysterious neutrino particles that lay waste to the globe's top tourist attractions.
It was, said head of Nasa's Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous mission Donald Yeomans, an "exceptional and extraordinary" example of Hollywood bad science. "The film-makers took advantage of public worries about the so-called end of the world as apparently predicted by the Mayans of Central America, whose calendar ends on December 21, 2012," Yeomans told newspaper the Australian.
Part of Nasa's gripe with the film, it emerged, was the mushrooming mailbags it had triggered. "The agency is getting so many questions from people terrified that the world is going to end in 2012 that we have had to put up a special website to challenge the myths. We have never had to do this before."
They also were unhappy with the use of neutrino particles, which in the film cause solar flares, earthquakes, hurricanes and tsunamis, but which in fact can't interact with physical substances.
The Day After Tomorrow (global warming, accelerated), The Sixth Day (insta-clones), Chain Reaction (bubble fusion), The Core (magnetic field trouble), What the Bleep Do We Know? (billed as a documentary) and Volcano (LA sprouts a volcano) were also singled out for their factual shortcomings. Armageddon – in which an asteroid the size of Texas is blown to bits to save our planet – was the most surprising inclusion on the damned list, as Nasa originally supported the film.
The agency had praise, however, for the attention to scientific accuracy exhibited in Gattaca (recruitment via DNA), Blade Runner, Metropolis and Jurassic Park.
NOTE: yeah, '2012' was a silly film...but still, NASA has little sense of fun. Lon