tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-20585671582518336952024-03-05T01:54:32.774-08:00Earth B4 ContactEarth B4 Contacthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13550105799241550826noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2058567158251833695.post-63740242727611729392013-02-15T20:55:00.000-08:002013-02-15T20:55:00.848-08:00Are Asteroids Calling On Us All To Be EARTHLINGS?<br />
Ok, I've been REALLY bad keeping this blog running lately. I'll blame it on a course, Astrobiology and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life, a MOOC that I'm taking through Coursera. That, plus my teaching schedule and a bit of the winter blahs (cough, sniffle, ache...) has put me behind. I will try to be better - starting right now!<br />
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If your head's been buried in the sand today (or snow if you're like me), today has been a Double Danger Day for planet Earth. With all the hype about our expected asteroid visitor, 2012 DA14 - which, fortunately - and as expected - did NOT hit the planet, Mother Nature decided to blindside us with a unpleasant surprise - a meteor that DID strike the US - Chelyabinsk, Russia to be precise. Because of its small size, it was impossible to detect the object before it entered Earth's atmosphere. Scientists and politicians will debate what could have been done, what should have been done to prevent the estimated 1,200 injuries (mostly caused by glass shattered in the sonic boom as the meteor exploded into pieces) and the nearly $30 million in property damage. And everyone should be thinking about how to prevent this from happening again - deflector shields? asteroid nudging devices? Earth nets? Definitely enhanced detection! What I haven't heard in all the buzz and internet chatter today, though, is how these two events for one day made us all think of ourselves as Earthlings, rather than Americans, Russians, British, Australians, Egyptians, Swedish, whatever we are. Outer space doesn't acknowledge or respect our human-made artificial boundaries and categories. Doesn't care about our politics or economics, wars or religions, and it definitely doesn't care whether we're gay or straight! Doesn't care about whether the crater it's creating is in Europe or Asia or Africa or the Americas. Outer space - whether real threats like today's meteor, predicted misses like 2012 DA14, or maybe-one-of-these-days threats like solar flares or gamma ray bursts - treats us all equally. Which is to say, it doesn't give a hoot! Its target is simply The Earth - and we are all simply Earthlings. Because the rest of the universe treats us as one planet and, by extension - one people - isn't it about time that we did, too? <br />
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So, make this your thought for the day - what can we do to get it through our thick heads that we are EARTHLINGS? Not in the corny science fiction sense of fighting flying saucers and little green men, but in the very real sense that the universe is much bigger than our beloved "blue marble" and, like it or not, our parochial prejudices and self-interests don't mean much out there. Planet Earth and its inhabitants are in the throes of a new identity crisis, one we've never had to deal with before. Thousands of years of recorded human history and we have now come to the point where we need to put aside enough of our differences so we can join together in becoming the kind of united planet that can deal effectively with asteroid threats that seek to harm any of us, any where, any time.<br />
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Today's events are a good opportunity to start pondering this, brainstorming ideas, even making plans. Earthlings of our planet, where do we start?<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="webkit-fake-url://4A5FD8E3-01DF-471B-8DBA-DBF25A81862C/russia-meteor2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="russia-meteor2.jpg" border="0" height="240" src="webkit-fake-url://4A5FD8E3-01DF-471B-8DBA-DBF25A81862C/russia-meteor2.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
Photo of Meteor, Chelyabinsk, Russia</div>
<div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
AP Photo-nasha gazeta,www.ng.kz</div>
<div style="font-size: medium; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;">
http://news.nationalpost.com</div>
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Earth B4 Contacthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13550105799241550826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2058567158251833695.post-22239505547477832392013-01-13T17:23:00.002-08:002013-01-13T21:17:11.997-08:00Our New Logo<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz_1jKB4PvIegx8mwgFzhE8wbBZSnJ9loj5Wf6aYMHsRfo_YWVGYbIIkljR9ROL-XkbtXPGRxCKbqr1ZUanrX4XykFIeaX6IqQFI7b9fdEWjCZp-EEv2Svaxhz4dyCU2ZIUgGF0Kc4IsTW/s1600/EB4C+LOGO.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="204" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjz_1jKB4PvIegx8mwgFzhE8wbBZSnJ9loj5Wf6aYMHsRfo_YWVGYbIIkljR9ROL-XkbtXPGRxCKbqr1ZUanrX4XykFIeaX6IqQFI7b9fdEWjCZp-EEv2Svaxhz4dyCU2ZIUgGF0Kc4IsTW/s320/EB4C+LOGO.png" width="320" /></a></div>
What words describe the world we have created on planet Earth? What strengths and weaknesses do we bring to our first encounters with future non-terrestrials? Where do we want to start changing ourselves today in order to be ready for the future tomorrow? This is <i>Earth B4 Contact</i>'s new logo. Can we work together to change our weaknesses into strengths?Earth B4 Contacthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13550105799241550826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2058567158251833695.post-38127531375429031722013-01-09T22:38:00.001-08:002013-01-09T22:38:32.186-08:00Jimmy Buffett a God? Create Your Own World!<!--StartFragment-->
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Would you like to live in a world inhabited by people who
looked like giant margarita glasses, aptly dubbed <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Margaritaville</i>, who worshipped (you guessed it!) Jimmy Buffett as a
god?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Or how about the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Republic of South Paw </i>where left-handers
live on a diet of laundry lint and<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>right-handers
are shunned? Maybe <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Fruitopia</i> sounds
sweet, ruled over by King Jack O’Mellon, where criminals are recycled into
fruit fertilizer? No?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then how about <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Bootyville</i>, inhabited by one-eyed pirate
aliens?<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>Each semester my Intro to Sociology
students have to get in a group and create their own society – from
scratch.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>No preconceptions, no
boundaries other than the limits of their own imaginations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They have to create a society complete with
people, a language, a history, a political hierarchy, socialization practices,
cultural traditions, etc. They all think it’s a lot of fun, of course –
arguably the best group activity of the whole semester.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the novelty of the exercise masks its
more somber message.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We all create our own societies – you and I – each day that
we walk this planet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In many ways, the
world we live in is a fiction that we’ve created to suit our purposes, our own
version of Middle Earth replete with heroes and villains, complicated languages
and alliances, and tales of friendship, love and bloodshed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the master storyteller Tolkien, the world
we create may have some semblance of reality, but mostly it is a reflection of
our fears and desires, more allegory than substance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like the fantastical creations of my students,
the societies we create are inconsistent and sometimes even bizarre (after all,
is a lint soufflé any more absurd than a Congress that refuses to create laws?!)
<o:p></o:p></div>
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The point of all this rambling (yes, there is most
definitely a point!) is that we – all of us – each in our own little patch of
the planet, play a part in creating the Before Contact society that we live
in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even if we choose to do nothing, to
abstain – we have still made a choice.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Societies are created; they don’t just passively or magically
appear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tolkien and my students were
lucky; they only had to create their worlds on paper.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Real worlds are constructed both with bricks
of concrete and with bricks of bigotry or tolerance, greed or generosity,
dishonesty or integrity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>You get the
picture.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Our world doesn’t need to fit
neatly together like Tolkien’s epic, nor does it need to be as hare-brained as
many of my students’ creations. But wouldn’t it be wonderful if the societies
we create now lead us into a future, heavy with the possibility of Contact?
Bravely and boldly would be great; but I’d be happy with slowly and meekly if
done with an honest spirit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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So, class, get into your groups and start brainstorming!
What should our world look like in these (short? or many?) years Before
Contact?<o:p></o:p></div>
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Earth B4 Contacthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13550105799241550826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2058567158251833695.post-81505652563464400772013-01-05T16:04:00.001-08:002013-01-05T16:04:58.698-08:00<!--StartFragment-->
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Holidays are over . . . time to get back to the hard work of
pondering the mysteries of the Universe!<o:p></o:p></div>
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One of my favorite sci sites these days is the Facebook
site, “I F***g Love Science.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>MIT’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Scope</i> magazine recently (December 18,
2012) did an article about the site’s founder, Elise Andrew.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Take a look at the whole scoop yourself <a href="http://scopeweb.mit.edu/?p=2397">http://scopeweb.mit.edu/?p=2397</a>)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ms. Andrew started the site, it seems, less
than a year ago as a mental release from the pressures of finishing her
dissertation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(Sadly, I just ate lots of
chocolate, but to be fair, there wasn’t any Facebook in the Stone Ages of the
1980s and 1990s).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Point is, she started
a site that went viral. I’m sure part of that (OK, I admit it! A LOT of it!) is
due to the shock value of the name.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Put
“F**k” or “F***g” on anything and it immediately becomes more interesting.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like forbidden fruit.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the site itself is fascinating! She pulls
together both mainstream and offbeat stories, has cool photos, cartoons and
infographics and has over 2.3 million – yes, MILLION – “Likes.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Because of her success, all of us who do
science education and outreach need to do 3 things:<o:p></o:p></div>
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1) Thank our lucky stars (yeah, I meant the pun!) that she
got burnt out working on her dissertation! If everything had been going
hunky-dory, she might not have gotten bummed out enough to start the site! <o:p></o:p></div>
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2) Figure out what she is doing right – and like every good
educator – copy it!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(It’s OK! We call it
sharing “best practices!”) No, we all don’t want to start dropping the “F-bomb”
in all our sites and blogs and presentations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even too much of a good thing is still too much!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Maybe it’s the eclectic mix of her stories
(bugs, snakes, DNA, clouds, exoplanets . . . ), maybe it’s the sometimes
irreverent tone (“Planet Infected by Humans” is a good example), maybe it’s the
simple fact that she posts A LOT.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It
keeps her site in front of our face – and it keeps me, at least, eager to open
my Fb to see what’s new in the last hour or two!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Right now, she has the magic touch! May we
all be so lucky!<o:p></o:p></div>
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3) Plot a course for what’s next for her 2.3 million “Likes.”
Social media is very faddish (My Space, anyone?) and viral stories and sites
can become stale and the butt of twitter jokes within months (sometimes weeks,
days, or even hours!)<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s been going
strong for the better part of a year, but what happens later?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She’s grabbed people’s attention, but now
what?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Can we get some of those people
involved in citizen science projects? Send them over to Zooniverse?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Plug some of the free online MOOCs (Massive
Open Online Courses) for those who want to “read more about it?”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Get people tapped into their local astronomy
clubs or wildlife sanctuaries or ??.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ideas,
people, we need ideas!!<o:p></o:p></div>
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There’s an opportunity here to advance science outreach long-term
. . . just need to f***g find it! <o:p></o:p></div>
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Earth B4 Contacthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13550105799241550826noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2058567158251833695.post-86164243599685573842012-12-27T22:49:00.000-08:002012-12-27T22:49:30.121-08:00<!--StartFragment-->
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<span style="font-family: Herculanum; font-size: 26.0pt;">E</span><span style="font-family: Herculanum;">arth</span><span style="font-family: Herculanum; font-size: 26.0pt;"> B</span><sub><span style="font-family: "Amanda\0027s Cute";">4
</span></sub><span style="font-family: Herculanum; font-size: 26.0pt;">C</span><span style="font-family: Herculanum;">ontact<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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B.C.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>For a historian,
the first letters we learn, the elementary letters that create a fixed point on
our ever-present timelines.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Things
happen before and things happen after those imposing, yet simple letters:
people born and die; wars start and sometimes finish; movements rise up, fade
away and are frequently resurrected by new generations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But unlike those traditional fixed letters
that really reveal more about us – our religious beliefs and cultural stories -
than about the true nature and flow of time itself, the simple letters <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">B.C.</i> now denote a new impending
threshold: the historical period that we are living in right now <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">before</i> the discovery, confirmation and
official, public recognition of and interaction with non-terrestrial life-forms.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i>Earth, </i><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">B.C.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Before. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contact.</i><o:p></o:p></div>
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Who are we – this people of Earth – who as yet have no
experience of the Others who may (probably? most likely? definitely?
inevitably?) share this Universe with us? What will we bring to the encounter?
Yes, our fears, shaded by many clashing hues of divine dogma as well as our
all-too-human prejudices based on silly notions of superiority and childish
games of one-upmanship.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These show us at
our worst and betray the smallness of mind of a species still groping for
adolescent identity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But in the silence
between all the clatter of politics, religion and profit, there is a sense of
hope and of wonderment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is the
truly awe-full experience of looking up at the stars and asking, “If only?” and,
for the first time, believing it could really be true.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>There is the very real experience of
remembering men and women who danced on the moon, lived amongst the stars,
skydived through the blistering atmosphere and created machines that echo our human
voices light years away – and knowing that if we could do these wondrous
things, so, too, could Others.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></div>
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We are on the threshold of a world that accepts the reality
of hundreds (thousands? millions?) of habitable exoplanets as mundane fact,
that seriously appreciates and even participates in organized, scientific
searches for non-terrestrial communication, and that is tenuously redefining,
or perhaps more accurately, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">refining</i>
definitions of what it means to be alive, to be aware, to be intelligent and to
be human.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are a people <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Before Contact</i>: hopeful, cynical,
compassionate, cruel, wise and ever so foolish, but in the midst of it all,
frightfully and excitingly aware that the experience of Contact can come any
day – and it will change us . . . forever.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Nothing will be the same again.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither our values nor our prejudices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither our politics nor our religions.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Neither our schools, nor our homes, nor our
relationships with those we hold most dear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Some of us will be frightened and cling to what is familiar, rallying
around comforting beliefs and rituals. Others of us will become emboldened by
new entrepreneurial opportunities yet unimaginable (non-Earth medicine, tourism,
resource extraction, and so many more).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Still others will become cynical and disbelieve the eyes and ears of others,
and perhaps even their own, and fall back on hardened prejudices.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But others of us – and I truly hope it is the
majority of us, from all nooks and crannies of this “pale blue dot” we call
home – will become amazed and awestruck.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Like little children playing in the vastness of a beach brimming with
zillions grains of sand, we will have stepped out into the vastness of a
Universe (or perhaps a Multiverse?) full of wonder and possibility.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, there will be danger.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yes, there will be fears.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We would be utter fools to not be
afraid.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But we would be even bigger
fools to hold back or run away.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Humans,
no . . . Earthlings, are made of stronger stuff than that!<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Contact will be terrifying and it may not be
immediately successful, however success is defined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And we must all realize that our first
Contact will most likely be with a fungus, or a microorganism or a
bacterium.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But once <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">LIFE</i> is discovered off-planet Earth, our <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">life</i> here on Earth will never be the same again. Everything . . .
and I means <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">EVERYTHING</i> will
change.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And are we even remotely ready
for that, we the people, the species, the organisms living on planet Earth <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Before Contact</i>? I don’t think so, do
you?<o:p></o:p></div>
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<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">B<sub><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">4</span></sub> Contact</i> muses about who
we are now, in this slice of time – however thin or stretched – before our
First Contact with non-terrestrial, non-Earthly life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It will comment on politics, religion,
economics, culture, ethics, education and more <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– whatever stories are in the news, on
people’s minds, or trending in the culture – to see what they say about us as a
people on the brink.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are living in a
watershed era.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are the eras that
historians love to analyze, but this time, I won’t be doing it from the safe
distance of a hundred, five hundred or one thousand years.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With the realization that we are made of
stars, there are no safe distances from the Universe any longer.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>With probes and missions dotting the solar
system and inching beyond, we know what we all hope comes next.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are a people preparing for the next fixed
point in Earth history.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We are living on
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Earth B<sub><span style="mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">4</span></sub> Contact</i>.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Earth B4 Contacthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13550105799241550826noreply@blogger.com0