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Contact with Space Aliens

Discussion in 'Fred's House of Pancakes' started by bwilson4web, Aug 16, 2016.

  1. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

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    It was a terrible thing - it was initially two deaths, but if I remember rightly, another died later, and others were very ill. Two die after eating death cap mushrooms - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation).

    The Chinese and Australian governments now both warn Chinese tourists here not to eat any mushrooms. There are apparently some really delicious wild mushrooms here, but you really have to know what you're doing.
     
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  2. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

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    Ah, yes. Here they are.



    The whole of the classic 80s film Morons from Outer Space, if any of you have an hour and a half to spare.
     
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  3. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    The idea that evolution with all its twists and turns could result in indistinguishable species (intellectual or not) on different worlds...well...

    This has been a Sci Fi plot device, tracing back to some Earlier Visitor who seeded the garden, stacked the deck, whatever you like.

    This could have happened. I don't say otherwise. I say that everything depends on faster-than-light travel. Lacking that there would be biological islands separated by 'no, you cannot imagine how vast' distances.

    Lacking that, biologicals in mid-galaxy may be closely spaced enough to engage in 'radio TV' conversations. Out here in the outer 1/3, one over r squared and latency really bite.
     
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  4. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

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    Yes. I do hope that FTL travel is possible, one way or another. The way my Dad drives, it certainly seems like we're getting close to that sort of speed.

    It would be sad if there are loads of other civilisations and we never get to meet them.
     
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  5. bingee3

    bingee3 Active Member

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    My favorite book , many entries of flying machines , visitation of , what we would call Aliens
    Even one entry explains the detailed description of the landing vehicle , the Book ?? The Bible
     
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  6. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    hkmb we are on two unrelated tracks here. Mushroom tragedy speaks to China 'education from authority' general practice. What you were taught may work well enough at home. Wander far, and authority ... isn't.

    Fungi have been putting sporocarps 'out there' for 100s millions years. I don't suppose they pattern themselves towards 'high primate' responses of 6 million years, less so Chinese scholars of 3000 years.

    They are playing their own game, and we don't know what it is.
     
  7. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    "...creators of the universe surrounded each solar system with a shell that could only be broken from within"@57. Dammit stop triggering me! Other things need done here!

    Consider the Macadamia nut. Famously hard to crack from outside. From inside, hydraulic pressure from expanding baby root needs to break through, or else... no more Macadamias.

    That shell is a vastly complex lignin polymer that says 'Bucky Fuller geodesic dome' on the outside, but with tiny defects on the inside. I have found but two papers on the subject.

    +++

    We look to other stars and think "must be planets, must be life, must be big minds to learn from". That also must be true, but they are so far...

    Or we could look at this planet; its biology (not to discount geology) and think 'we have mastered it'. That is not even nearly correct.

    This is our home and perhaps our fate is to 'master' it. Get your brains into gear, allocate resources appropriately, and figure out how the damn planet works. Make it work better for the human enterprise, and with minimal harm to all the other occupants.

    Having done, we might validate investment by God who has given us fingers and brains. To grasp and to grasp. Having done, we might qualify for discourse with other, distant civilizations who already figured out how their planets work and thus qualified for moving along further.

    +++

    If ET is already here (as may be) it strikes me as an out-of-sequence event. As if people here seek an easier way than doing our appropriate work. Growing grains, burning things, beginning science? Meh. We have much more than that to do.
     
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  8. RobH

    RobH Senior Member

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    Alpha Lipoic Acid has been successfully used to treat mushroom poisoning.

    See http://jeffreydachmd.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Becker-Charles-Amanita-mushroom-poisoning-thioctic-acid-ALA-Alpha-Lipoic-Acid-West-J-Med-1976.pdf
    and

    Success with Intravenous Alpha Lipoic Acid (thioctic acid) for Amanita hepatotoxic poisoning. | Burt Berkson MD PhD - Academia.edu

    Google "alpha lipoic acid mushroom poisoning" for additional references.
     
    #68 RobH, Aug 23, 2016
    Last edited: Aug 23, 2016
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  9. RobH

    RobH Senior Member

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    According to Charles Hall, one of the species he encountered, the "Norwegians with 24 teeth", took 20 years to travel here at less than light speed. He refers to their technology as "DC-3", while the greys rate "P51 Mustang". The Tall Whites are more "YF-22". All are humanoid, which means to me that we share common ancestry. Actually, I'd say that any living entity with DNA shares ancestry. There has got to be other ways of coding genetics than DNA.
     
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  10. bwilson4web

    bwilson4web BMW i3 and Model 3

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    I am under the impression there may be more than one mushroom toxin.

    Bob Wilson
     
  11. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    "more than one mushroom toxin"@70. I would say yes. By way of understatement.

    This may have therapeutic effect against muscarine and as such I hope it is in every hospital's armory. Evidence is not purely pro, but what the heck, Amanita eaters need every edge.

    The worst mushrooms in my book are the ones hospitals send you home after and 3 days later your liver turns to goo. I mean, seriously...

    Net effect of all this may be to make PriusChatters highly risk averse. I can live with that. You may miss some amazing tastes, but I don't want your 'liver goo' to be on me.
     
  12. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Tall Whites and all the rest: Planet finding has made great leaps in recent years but I don't see that Art Bell etc. have kept up. Each of these teams have come from some star, we should know where, and it should have a detectable planet. Don't you think? I mean, at the very least...
     
  13. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    "any living entity with DNA shares ancestry" @69. I totally agree at the planetary scale. At larger scales people talk about asteroid transferal. There is no evidence for/against...

    As far as wholly independent development of such coding systems, all I can say is that the monomers involved can be formed in Miller/Urey type experiments.

    For chemically different coding systems, I got nothing'. Suppose they could exist. Carbon-central chemistry is amazingly varied.

    That's why we love it, and it loves us. Is us.
     
  14. asjoseph

    asjoseph Samuel, '04 Ruthiemobile

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    ... indicative of the word "negro," the word "alien" is rude. And, antiquated. It's not "nice." If you must know, we don't use that term, anymore. Insider nomenclature, the government boys affectionately refer to them as, "the kids." And, they refer to us as, "the containers" (e.g., for our DNA). As of this writing, they (the kids) are a just little cheesed off, at us. They won't be back, not for a little while. But, perhaps you might find it comforting to know, they've left a small contingent of their own behind, for babysitting chores (e.g., "to keep the containers from destroying themselves") - Samuel, The '04 Ruthiemobile.
     
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  15. RobH

    RobH Senior Member

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  16. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    A very near (probably nearest) star has a Earthish planet in orbit. This is new news. Once again (like 'Trappist') it is a really low-luminosity 'cool' star and only with the planet in a really tight orbit can Goldilocks energy flux be obtained.

    But again I wonder whether biology could manage anything like photosynthesis without more energetic photons.

    On the surface of such a planet, the star in sky above would appear huge. Tidal forces...can't really guess.

    This may become the target for Breakthrough initiative little devices propelled to ~0.2 C. With which, we shall learn the true density of interstellar dust particles. Cause each one will kill off one of those devices. Bzzzt Bzzzt Bzzzt
     
  17. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

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    If you're that close to a cool star, wouldn't radiation be a problem? And solar wind?
     
  18. tochatihu

    tochatihu Senior Member

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    Problem? I would presume very much so.

    Several species of ET possibly hanging around on Earth (see above posts) would be able to answer such questions and more. But we seem not to be hearing much at all about their nifty science.

    I do not know what they are doing. As a guess, sofa+snacks+beer+TV. Like everybody else :eek:
     
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  19. hkmb

    hkmb Senior Member

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    I understand that most ET species stayed on Earth until early this year. But they were so disappointed by the new season of The X-Files that they left. Can't say I blame them.
     
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  20. bisco

    bisco cookie crumbler

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    seriously? you didn't notice them at the olympics? i thought it was obvious.