All of my thoughts on the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

What constitutes contact with an extraterrestrial life form?

It may make sense that such a claim would have to have compelling scientific evidence, since science is the best method that humans have come up with so far for backing up claims in the real world.

But what is ENOUGH evidence?

We have astronauts saying there have been cover-ups.

We have skeptics saying UFOs are weather balloons, government testing, coincidence, insanity.

We have past civilizations shrouded in mystery – the Mayans, the Egyptians, et cetera – sometimes with what appears to be lost technologies compared to the level of human knowledge of today.

We have “Chariots of the Gods”.

We have the seemingly impossible (to us) logistics of long distance, high-speed space travel – see the work of Nichio Kaku and Albert Einstein, which suggests that space and time may be more of a fabric.

Laws of human science claim that nothing we know of can travel faster than the speed of light.

There are at least 1 billion stars in our galaxy. And there are at least 1 billion galaxies.

These numbers inform Drake’s Equation, which purports that the chances are simply too large for extraterrestrial life NOT to exist.

Furthermore, what is meant by the term “intelligent species”? Does that mean “sentient”? Does it mean “as intelligent or more intelligent than our own”?

And isn’t that arrogant on many levels?

Thinking that we are “the only ’sentient’ beings in the universe”?

And wanting to compare extraterrestrial intelligence to our own? Maybe that only because it’s the only measuring stick we know.

Also, we have been searching and broadcasting information into the sky using radio signals. But maybe their technology would be different than ours!
As in, not wave-based? Perhaps some kind of new particle-based communication system?

There is the issue of the concieved dangers of teleportation.

There is the theory that “abductees”, those who claim they were kidnapped by extraterrestrial species of some kind, have their memory clouded or erased.

Is God an extraterrestrial?

My questions are many.

Could “UFO experiences” be dreams? We all have so many at night – some of them incredibly REAL.

It’s difficult for me to place full validity on claims at night, during sleep, because of this.

I’ve had DREAMS of PARALYSIS. A lot of people have, right?

I’ve had vivid dreams. Dreams that seemed SO real that they mess up the rest of my “day” (this is assuming that I am NOT still sleeping! – Ha. Am I really writing this? To be or not to be?)

And I think a lot of people have shared many of these types of experiences while sleeping/dreaming.

That is why I think the absolute best evidence we have or could hope to attain are the big sightings during the day – the ones with many separate witnesses at once.

As with any other unexplained phenomena, any of these happenings could be (and often are) dismissed as publicity stunts or hoaxes.

Hell, if we’re going to go that far, all of our lives might just be dreams.

I think this is why we reach out so much to other human beings – others of our species. It’s comforting, even if this is difficult to do in a society of increasing distrust and unrest.

We CAN guess at what would be the impact of the discovery of extraterrestrial life, and the implications there are HUGE. What an earth-shaking day that would be.

The only thing we can do is keep our eyes and ears open, and keep watching the sky and the stars.

Those brightly burning suckers really burned out years ago and the light is only reaching us now.

Chew on that one.

New ventures and mind cleaning

Been working on a couple things I mentioned last post, but most importantly, something I’ve been looking for a very long time – a way to conglomerate my most useful interests and projects all into one.

And I think I’ve found it.

More on that soon.

Been on Twitter a lot, under real and assumed names – poking around this digital playground for some answers to some very real-life problems.

People are so touchy on there though! Very easy to piss people off. And I do sometimes. And it’s fun sometimes.

The image in this post is by NartyArt, her art is really something. I’ve been wanting to put more images in these posts for a while now, and now I can say I discovered a really amazing artist – also check out her flickr.

I’m planning on using one of her pieces for the cover of the upcoming Handcuff Hospital album Western Hairstyles.

By the way, you can listen to two of those songs over at the Handcuff Hospital MySpace.

I’ve probably said that before. I’m just pleased with how the recording came out. They need mastering, but otherwise, it’s done.

Really, I should sleep – just wanted to put up a little update.

Working on more topical posts, don’t you worry!

Poverty-induced suicide

I am disturbed by this story I read on CNN.

There is something wrong with this country, we are so obsessed with success and survival has become so difficult that people are resorting to drastic measures.

It’s also bullshit about “people should reach out for help” – I can say personally, as a person who applied for all manner of financial help and assistance with the state, this is often the most difficult thing to do.

The state does NOT want to give out money.

I, for one, know very well about being underpaid, overworked and overwhelmed, as much of America does.

I am pissed off at Oprah Winfrey because she is an idiot.

Big girls are HOT and FABULOUS (PIC LINK IS NSFW!)

Why, you ask?

I just read on the FRONT OF CNN that she “feels like a fat cow” at 200 pounds.

Now, she has struggled with her weight for years, of course, but what will saying she feels like a fat cow make her millions of watchers feel like, many of whom are not deathly skinny either?

I think it’s a bad move.

Even Oprah is wrapped up with this society’s obsession with weight, and for a 28 year old man who enjoys bigger women (ones that at least have some good curves, and some who are VERY voluptuous), I resent Oprah’s insensitivity to these lovely ladies.

So what is going on? This role model for many needs to re-assess her views and the kind of thoughts she projects on the populace.

She’s adding to the problem and not the solution.

Some women (and people in general) are FINE with being a little bigger (thankfully, for guys like me).

In societies of the past, being a little round was a sign of prosperity and wealth, now it’s a bane and everyone is expected to look like these ugly little Kate Moss waifs.

And we wonder why there is an epidemic of eating disorders in this country?

Maybe because our fuller-figured role models are making girls feel worse about their size.

I’m sick of it and I’m taking a stand.

Something interesting from Nikon – the Universcale

Today someone emailed me a link to what was originally a Nikon promotion piece, but is also a stunning view of our universe and everything in it, by size.

the Universcale from Nikon

I think a lot can be learned from it. (What a graphic user interface this thing has!)

Humans have learned a lot in our scant few years on this planet, but we still have much to learn.

For example, we all still need to learn how to stop hating each other.

I think some of the problem is our civilization, our culture, and our media.

We’re taught bias, prejudice, racism, hatred and SELF-loathing from a very early age, in some cases.

And in the grand scheme of things, we’re small.

We would be wise to let our hatred go.

But some have a tougher time with this than others, depending on how ingrained the hate is.

Humans are a strange species.

Six dollars and sixty-six cents.

Should it be maddening to watch television?

I’m talking about advertising here.

Buy it! You'll like it!

Even the most cute, hilarious advertising you can think of.

What’s wrong with it? Let’s see. How about making the customer want to crawl in the deepest, darkest, blackest hole that he or she can find, gouge his or her eyes out, and cover over the ears?

Sound about right?

It’s bombardment. Selling. Selling. SELLING. SELLING!

It makes the Clutch song “Escape From the Prison Planet” ring that much more true.

Where are we living? What are we doing? And how can we turn it all around.

More questions, yes.

Conspiracies and common sense?

This may NOT be about ANYTHING you think it will be.

I have some questions. (Bear with me.)

It’s not good to question everything, but isn’t it good to question some things? How about things that don’t always make sense?

I think that Hubbert’s peak theory and the peak oil concept are interesting, because if we really ARE running out of oil…

wouldn’t car companies WANT to at least try a little harder to perhaps cash in on the new alternatives-to-oil craze, of say solar/electrics which we now know are around the corner, according to this 100 mile per gallon car?

Or would the OIL companies fight their hardest to try and keep non-oil cars off the roads as long as possible?

What about the film Who Killed the Electric Car (the link is to the full film on Google Video, for those who haven’t seen it), where a fleet of cars that were popular among their limited users and more environmentally-friendly than the hybrids of today, were destroyed by GM (who claimed they couldn’t make MONEY from them!?)

No single factor could be identified as the culprit… oil companies, car companies or otherwise, although there were a lot of potential suspects.

But how about this hypothetical scenario.

What if the oil companies had already struck a deal with the automotive companies and the price of oil/gasoline was rising to try and SCARE the populace into BUYING HORDES OF ALTERNATIVE CARS (and wouldn’t this work, even if they released them next year)?

Again, possibly something we could never know.

In another train of thought, I have only recently been fascinated with electricity. (More on that on a later date.)

The legal history of marijuana in the US of A is interesting, as well (just look at the images at that link for some things that are slightly embarrassing). The facts are not what the public knows, and a good amount of public disinformation exists about this chemical, for a (possible) variety of reasons.

Even if some don’t enjoy the work of Academy Award-winning filmmakers such as Michael Moore’s Bowling for Columbine (isn’t Google Video AMAZING?), what about the clear discrepancy in our incredible gun death rate right here in the United States of America, as opposed to other countries? What explains that?

The final question I have is for the Christians (not that I am an athiest, but I am not an adherent of any “religious” “faith”).

Just the first part of the disturbing film Zeitgeist (Google Video) discusses how the “Jesus” and other PROPHET (really think about this) figures in history are not real PEOPLE that existed, but are in actuality symbols or metaphors for the SUN. (The other parts of the movie were less interesting, to me).

These are questions and issues that I’ve had that I don’t have any good answers for. Just some of the things that have been rattling around in my head, are “out there” but not, as of yet, explained.

I won’t even start with the possibility of extraterrestrial life. That’s for another time.