UPDATE: co-author admits it is a “horrible mistake”, see below – Anthony
From the you’ve got to be effing kidding me department.
First, I apologize to my readers for the headline. Read on and I think you’ll see it is justified. The headline is paraphrased from the article and the paper to give you the flavor. I have reproduced the passage used by the Guardian and provided a link to the full paper below.
First, the Guardian story: (h/t to reader “a jones”)
Now the paper, peer reviewed and published in Acta Astronautica titled:
Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis
Seth D. Baum,1 Jacob D. Haqq-Misra,2 & Shawn D. Domagal-Goldman3
1. Department of Geography, Pennsylvania State University.
2. Department of Meteorology, Pennsylvania State University
3. NASA Planetary Science Division
Acta Astronautica, 2011, 68(11-12): 2114-2129
Here’s the relevant passage:
A preemptive strike [from extraterrestrials] would be particularly likely in the early phases of our expansion because a civilization may become increasingly difficult to destroy as it continues to expand. Humanity may just now be entering the period in which its rapid civilizational expansion could be detected by an ETI because our expansion is changing the composition of Earth’s atmosphere (e.g. via greenhouse gas emissions), which therefore changes the spectral signature of Earth. While it is difficult to estimate the likelihood of this scenario, it should at a minimum give us pause as we evaluate our expansive tendencies.
Words fail me. Truly this is science fiction, and not the good kind. I have a feature called “Climate Craziness of the Week”, this may be the all time winner.
Read the entire paper here (PDF)
================================================================
UPDATE: Former Economist sci/tech reporter Oliver Morton chips in with this in comments, it seems a “horrible mistake” was made by the co-author. Still no word on how this passes peer review.
http://paleblueblog.org/post/9110304050/some-important-points-of-clarification
So here’s the thing. This isn’t a “NASA report.” It’s not work funded by NASA, nor is it work supported by NASA in other ways. It was just a fun paper written by a few friends, one of whom happens to have a NASA affiliation.
…
But I do admit to making a horrible mistake. It was an honest one, and a naive one… but it was a mistake nonetheless. I should not have listed my affiliation as “NASA Headquarters.” I did so because that is my current academic affiliation. But when I did so I did not realize the full implications that has. I’m deeply sorry for that, but it was a mistake born our of carelessness and inexperience and nothing more. I will do what I can to rectify this, including distributing this post to the Guardian, Drudge, and NASA Watch. Please help me spread this post to the other places you may see the article inaccurately attributed to NASA.
Great one for numberwatch!!
Wow, I think this merits an end of year award for Climate Craziness of the Week. Heck, I think this one might be the first induction for a Hall of Fame (Shame). Consider it, Anthony.
CO2 increase =increased threat from ET.
This is as about a rigorous as a lot of CAGW stuff..
I wonder if there is any $$$ for them in this angle though 🙂
Zowie. So why would the aliens think a slight increase in a trace gas, still well below prehistoric levels, indicates civilization when most planets undergo dramatic shifts in atmospheric composition, such as occured on the Earth, Mars, and Venus?
I, for one, look forward to an invasion attempt by these alien idiots who can stare at thousands of planets for millions of years and not realize that atmospheric gases change over time.
Um…..sounds like the plot to The Day the Earth Stood Still.
In any case, this “scientist” argues we should limit our economic growth because it’ll make “nice” aliens less likely to commit planetwide genocide on us?
Err….what?
If aliens were a real threat then limiting economic growth and energy production would not be a good strategy – rapidly expanding the economy with nuclear power, detection systems and space-based military technologies would be far more useful.
When will people realize that due to the superincredinormus distances involved, the time required to travel such distances, and the amount of energy required to accelerate a spacecraft to any significant percentage of light speed (on the order of several sun’s worth of energy) the mathematical probability of any human EVER encountering an intelligent alien is exactly:
zero.
And yet any aliens that might be monitoring our atmosphere would only see the changes hundreds, if not thousands of years in the future (assuming then even live in our galaxy), by which time we’d probably be sufficiently advanced to fight them off. Or extinct, if the antis have their way…
That’s beyond crazy, that’s flipping laugh-out-loud hilarious. These “scientists” who produced this must surely be satirists spoofing the whole CAGW movement?
To be fair, it seems that the entire exercise is one big what-if thought experiment, but trust the Grauniad to seize on the carbon cultist crackpot chunk and frame the paper as being more scientific rationale for puritanical eco-flagellation.
Peer review passed the paper? It reads like an late night college bull session between sophomores that are avoiding real scholarship.
This is beyond merely climate craziness . This is full bore bat s__t craziness . Have they been talking to Paul Krugman ?
When people talk about ‘cut backs’ on expenditure…wouldn’t stuff like this be a very good place to start!
Appropriately, this brings virtual science right back to its origins – in the Drake Equation that underpins the SETI experiment. The late Michael Crichton was onto this, with his essay ‘Aliens Cause Global Warming.’ Life resembles art!!
David Cameron will believe it – so will his cabinet!
Doh!
Shark jumping alert!
“I snap”
“I lose it”
“Flurry to the solar nexus”
It must be bad in AGW land and the Guardian has now slipped below the National Enquirer in terms of credibility.
Penn State, uh? Suddenly, the double whitewash for Mann starts making sense
Ah – at last a credulous explanation for the various mass-extinctions.
Dinosaurs succumbed to alien extermination because of the much higher CO2 and Methane levels caused by their breathing, belching and farting
Now I understand !!!
Weird. I clicked on WUWT and got http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/ instead. Looks like my browser’s been hijacked.
For those outside the UK, the Guardian is a left-wing ‘warmist’ newspaper which prides itself on having an online comment section called ‘Comment is Free’. And it is, unless you suggest that climate change may be natural; in which case you are ‘deleted’. So, comment is free, but speech isn’t.
I notice that this piece is written by someone called Ian Sample, who is described as their ‘Science Correspondent’. So much for the Guardian’s science then.
But this one really takes the biscuit. it shows that they are getting desperate. It’s enough to make a cat laugh.
“Whom the Gods would destroy, they first make mad”
If aliens can detect any fingerprint of intelligent life on earth, it will be our electronics communications.
If the person who wrote this is even allowed in the same building as real scientists. Then we really do have a HUGE problem!
So thermonuclear explosions will not trigger this response from ET but a very tiny increase in a life giving trace gas will. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Perhaps ETs just hate plants.
Wouldn’t it be funny if aliens destroyed our civilization to protect the Universe from ever reading The Grauniad?
“…and yet, across the gulf of space, minds immeasurably superior to ours regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely, they drew there plans against us”
Meanwhile, in the Guardian newsroom, minds immeasurably inferior to ours wrote this.
“Humanity may just now be entering the period in which its rapid civilizational expansion could be detected by an ETI because our expansion is changing the composition of Earth’s atmosphere (e.g. via greenhouse gas emissions), which therefore changes the spectral signature of Earth. While it is difficult to estimate the likelihood of this scenario, it should at a minimum give us pause as we evaluate our expansive tendencies.”
So, how many advanced alien civilizations are estimated to be located within one hundred thousand light years of earth?
Propagation delay — it’s a tough concept.
I think NASA could tolerate a few budget cuts.
Hey, is the article really that bad? They do say it’s “unlikely” – like the IPCC says climate sensitivity is “unlikely” to be above 4.5. Seems to me the odds are about the same.
WE ARE WATCHING YOU, YOU ARE ALL DOOOOOOMED! MWHAHAHA !
As a proud member of the Union of Concerned Scientists, I am advocating everyone get a copy of Slim Whitman’s Indian Love Call and have it ready to play when we are invaded.
Nuckuler weapons are powerless against these alien forces, we must have at the ready the only known weapon that can destroy them in their tracks: Country Music.
I am also urging the UCS to put out an urgent bulletin that implores the males to learn jews harp, and females to learn to play the spoons. Small children should be given kazoos, and people of German extraction should make ready their accordions.
As an absolute last resort, and ONLY as a last resort, those few that are remaining should be encouraged to uncask the banjos. I just hope it doesn’t come down to that. (prepare them with aDF#AD tuning, boys)
I, for one, welcome our new eco-friendly overlords.
Let’s face it, they’ve got to be better than the eco-friendly overlords we’re already putting up with.
About “Acta Astronautica”, Elsevier publication:
http://www.iafastro.net/?id=457
It’s a peer-reviewed publication.
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/310/authorinstructions
“The system automatically converts source files to a single Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the article, which is used in the peer-review process. Please note that even though manuscript source files are converted to PDF at submission for the review process, these source files are needed for further processing after acceptance.”
So i think the publication of this paper is an important milestone for science: It proves beyond any reasonable doubt that you can publish any kind of drivel in a peer-reviewed journal as long as you believe in AGW.
Paranoia strikes deep
Into your heart it will creep
Begins when you are always afraid
Step out of line and the man comes and takes you away
My paraphrase of Buffalo Springfield. Paranoia with delusions is a serious mental illness.
aliens may kills us because stories like this prove that we are mindless fools.
wtf?
take us out early, vell that should have been after the toba supervolcano eruption some 70.000 years ago, just about 10.000 of us left after that one.
As for aliens detecting signs of intelligent life on earth, let’s just beam that “science” report out into space, it will clearly show that there isen’t any here…
Just a guess, but the brainstorming session with Messrs Baum, Haqq-Misra, & Domagal-Goldman included one or more of the following:
Jaeger shots
box set of Star Trek TOS
someone fluent in Klingon
the statement “I can’t believe I’m getting grant money for this!”
Oh, BTW, Carl Sagan IS dead, so they might want to change the tense:
“Even Carl Sagan, who is usually quite optimistic about
ETI encounters, has expressed concern regarding ETI risks.”
I must remember this one the next time someone sounds off about the precautionary principle.
Speaking as a lifelong science fiction fan, this crap isn’t science fiction at all. It just barely qualifies as fantasy.
Your tax dollars at work.
I am so happy to know that my tax dollars are being spent on research about the big possible maybe that the “statistical probability extra-terrestrial” is possibly either nice and pleasant, don’t care hippies of green skin, or a legion of storm troopers that may be benevolent, helpful, or just angry. Of course, all of this is meaningless unless this was done a computer model.. oh wait.. it probably was.. except, the programmers used the climate models as a baseline and left in the CO2 knob. Someone obviously turned it on the “super high death warming mode” and with a few “hansen adjustments” made it into the paper…
Now, where did I put that photo torpedo? I at least found my light saber..
As opposed to NASA working on space flight….
No wonder I drink
Have these kiddies been watching the Simpsons while inhaling the stuff Bill said he didn’t?
Acta Astronautica? Sounds more like Acta Astroretracta.
The Onion called, they want their “scientist” back.
Time travel?
(Submitted on 22 Apr 2011 (v1), last revised 16 Aug 2011 (this version, v2))
http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.4462
[Full pdf here: http://arxiv.org/pdf/1104.4462v2 ~dbs, mod.]
“Truly this is science fiction, and not the good kind.”
No. It isn’t.
Not even the bad kind.
I write science fiction. My readers expect the science part to have some basis in reality (even if only a theory not generally accepted, it has to be internally consistent). My readers will write and ask to see my numbers or references if they have difficulty with one of my plot elements (and unlike certain “climate researchers”, I will share that data) .
Suspension of disbelief is one thing. But… 1) aliens detect a 1-Earth mass planet, 2) at a range of multiple lightyears determine its “correct” temperature, 3) determine that temperature is rising dangerously (which we can’t do on site), 4) detect that the increase is SGW (sapiogenic global warming [grin]), 5) determine that makes humans a threat to other species lightyears away (hmm, better make that sapiogenic galactic warming instead), and 6) decide that the only way to stop the inevitable massacre is to… massacre the miscreants…
I wouldn’t touch it.
True, the idea has been used. But not in what I would call SF, and very poorly at that.
They’re more likely to assume we’re a pack of dumb asses due to the blind faith in the AGW religion.
Well, Penn State, for one, can welcome our big-headed overlords.
OK.
So can we add “the threat of alien invasion” to the things that Global Warming can cause, then?
EE Doc Smith, Simak, Hoyle, Heinlein, Azimov etc really have had a big influence on these guys.
Did they ever get past peer review ????
I happen to think the premise of this paper has already come true.
We HAVE BEEN invaded by aliens who are trying to destroy our civilization, they’ve been among us since about the 70’s and they are disguised as Greens, or eco-nuts if you prefer.
Unless we wake up to this fact and cull these aliens, our societies will be taken back to subsistence level of development and our numbers cut back to a few hundred millions. 🙂
Well, if you scrape the bottom of the barrel long enough, eventually you go right through.
“Warning, Will Robinson! Put out that fire!”
What is it with economists and now climate scientists that they have extraterrestrial aliens on the brain?
http://hotair.com/archives/2011/08/15/krugman-you-know-what-this-economy-needs-a-space-alien-invasion/
Actually it is science fiction – they nicked the ‘we must clean up our act’ idea from David Brin.
I don’t think they’ll even bother with us: click
But if they do come, I’m sure they’ll be friendly.
It must be wishful thinking. According to Paul Krugman of the New York Times, an alien invasion is just what we need to stimulate the economy and get Obama re-elected.
But why would advanced aliens bother to wipe us out when Global Warming is going to do it for them? Unless they don’t believe in Gore’s doomsday scenario, but then why would they consider us a threat? It doesn’t quite add up.
The peer review committee:
http://www.posters.ws/images/847530/three_stooges.jpg
Couldn’t we just have the Mayor of Philadelphia unleash his flash mobs of pants-dragging, crack-displaying, tattoo-artsy flim flammers on these aliens? That’d repel them especially if these invaders stop by on a hot summer’s day!
This reeks of desperation. On all parts.
Let’s see here – NASA and Penn State (that is, us) paid for this dreck, and the Grauniad gets to publish it so that everyone can laugh at America.
At least this takes my mind off of the bad news on the economy.
/sarc
Message to Galaxy Command from Earth Recon1: Cancel the invasion. They’ll send their scientists. We couldn’t cope.
This frankly only deserves one response, especially after seeing this so soon after Krugman asserting that an alien invasion would save the economy:
Hahah. Hahahahahahahahahaha. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHA!!!
* takes breath *
HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!
Ha Ha Ha! All your C02 are belong to us!!!
Oh wow! Peer reviewed too. Not even grey literature, this is a must include for Dr Pachauri’s AR5.
Is that really worse than what the other alarmists are telling us?
“Make this stuff up, you cannot.” – Yoda
“I imagine they might exist in massive ships … having used up all the resources from their home planet. Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonize whatever planets they can reach.” ~ Stephen Hawking from “into the Universe with Stephen Hawking”.
So, in other words, said aliens would not be scolding us for doing what they already have done. They would just go ahead and wipe us all out anyway…
I tend to agree with the acclaimed British physicist, as opposed to a Guardian article quoting Penn State and NASA “experts”.
Twilight Zone musical theme or Doctor Who?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NPJ6GMXM3E&feature=fvst
Climate craziness of the freakin’ millennium. Words fail to describe the breadth and depth of paranoia here.
And yeah, that colossal change in the composition of the atmosphere would be such a red flag! I’m sure. /sarc
And for another perspective on this discussion, try “The Everything Else Disaster Preparedness Plan” at http://www.breadandbutterscience.com/EEDPP.pdf
If the government has enough money to fund this, the government has too much money.
Who’s up for a tax hike now?
I see this more as a reflection of their view of the intellectual capacity of the alarmist camp. As for aliens destroying modern civilization……that’s well under way. Take a glance at the demonic rioters savaging the our cities, then listen to their far left apologists.
Efffing kidding me is right…
What a preposterous pile of bullsh!t. I have to say I nearly fell out of my chair when I read this…
These so called scientists that produced this rubbish should have their degrees run through a cross cutting shredder doused in gasoline and dropped in an incinerator just prior to having the ashes dispersed in the Arabian sea with Bin Laden’s foul remains. After that ceremony is complete they should publicly apologize for their colossal failures as scientists and then they should demand a refund for said so-called educations.
/rant off
This is yet another piece of validation that the liberal world view is based on self-loathing. So an alien species would see us as bad and destroy us so that we don’t “damage” the rest of the neighborhood. The more years that go by the more I honestly believe that the liberal world view is based on personality disorder.
It would be very ironic if they were to view us as A: food or B: a rather pristine planet rich in resources that is infested with a rather poorly developed life form that could be relatively easily wiped out and the planet exploited for the resources while the life forms are farmed for food/fertilizer.
Maybe the aliens will be the bad guys. The liberal logic always twists “us” (be it our country, our culture, our race, whatever) to be “bad” and always reveres the alien culture or race or country. It is just plain nuts.
IgNobel Prize candidate, clearly. 🙂
I wonder how this would play with the History Channel’s Ancient Aliens series?
This is beyond parody. But wait a sec- this is from “scientists” at Penn State, home of the great Professor Mann.
Nothing to see here, move along!
Good God, these clowns are stupid beyond belief.
Are we sure this isn’t The Onion?
“Read the entire paper here (PDF)”
=============================================
I tried. I almost clicked the link. I can’t. I just can’t. I want to. I just can’t. It would be great to have every time someone babbles about peer-reviewed being a proxy for validity…. or every time someone spews about how much smarter the expert scientists are, or any number of things. But I just can’t. I’ve had too much cerebral pornography to last me a lifetime…..this could possibly destroy my faith in humanity……. I just can’t…..
Jer0me says:
August 18, 2011 at 3:37 pm
OK.
So can we add “the threat of alien invasion” to the things that Global Warming can cause, then?
Heh, certainly looks like a good entry for the warmlist.
http://www.numberwatch.co.uk/warmlist.htm
Carl “Bear” Bussjaeger says:
August 18, 2011 at 3:34 pm
“Truly this is science fiction, and not the good kind.”
No. It isn’t.
Not even the bad kind.
I write science fiction. My readers expect the science part to have some basis in reality (even if only a theory not generally accepted, it has to be internally consistent).
On the other hand Carl, I suppose it might be possible that ET would invade us because our atmospheric CO2 level is rising and they want our CO2!
Probably not, but it makes just about as much sense.
🙂
Who’s to say they couldn’t be chlorophyll-based life forms and the extra CO2 is what saved us by being deemed a beneficial species.
I am ecstatic! Yes, Indeedee!
I just love scarey stories- can’t get enough of ’em.
Way to go NASA! I knew you had it in you (these days.)
At 3:40 PM on 18 August, AndyG55 had written:
Take not the names of our honored dead in vain, you, you mundane!
If any of the charlatans who’d authored this Acta Astrologica bumfodder had been real science fiction fen – readers of the work produced by Fred Hoyle, Robert A. Heinlein, “Doc” Smith, Isaac Asimov, or Clifford Simak – they would not have displayed the dearth of moral and intellectual integrity displayed in this spurious dollop of “research” published in a supposedly peer-reviewed scientific periodical.
Fans, Andy, are slans.
Words fail me….
John From New Zealand says:
August 18, 2011 at 3:34 pm
good point!
It would be pretty cool if they arrived in their spaceships and gave an ultimatum along the lines of..”all those who believe in AGW go to one side of the date line – all those who dont, go to the other, we know the answer and will settle the dispute once and for all” – Then after a week, they vaporize all those on one half of the planet and bugger off again, muttering something like – ‘right then, off to sort out another of the galaxies disputes..’……..
I wonder how many of the Team would stick with AGW once such a metaphorical ‘gun’ was pressed to their heads? I mean, I often wonder whether these guys really truly believe in their stuff or just believe in the tax dollars and funding they can screw out of the system? This is how cynical I have become, something I would never have dreamed of when I became hooked on scientific method and principles all those years ago…….
I can see what these guys spent their research grant on.
Pass it over here lads.
Now I know why governments are so keen on distance charging. Aliens rock up with their invasion fleet, get clamped and presented with a bill for XXly @ $1/km. If they can’t pay, we end up confiscating their ships and owning their planets. Personally I’d suggest beaming out our TV and radio poses a bigger risk.
crosspatch> Maybe the aliens will be the bad guys.
No, they will be the good guys, coming to save earth by showing us the zero-CO2 energy generation technology in their nuclear powered ships. Then destroying us, when they realize [] we know about nuclear but refuse to use.
🙂
Well, the proof that intelligent lifeforms exist in the galaxy is the fact they did not come to visit us.
So relax.
You’ll notice two of the paper’s authors are from Penn State… which currently
includes Mike Mann as one of their leading lights with his dergee in geology and
his stellar work in climate ??? hindcast/forecast modeling.
The AGW peer reviewed crowd has now introduced their own version of a
deus ex machina popular in old morality plays to save the day in
their never ending charade.
One can only hope Al Gore incorporates this theme in his presentations.
He always was a stand-up comedian type of guy.
Alternate reality stuff. Great plot for a B-movie with subpar lines and overbearing acting.
If Space Aliens really did come by this place, they would soon realize that there’s no welcome mat. They’d blow it off and keep right on trekking. They certainly wouldn’t be sharing any of thier advanced technology with a bunch of madcap governments and crazed leadership.
“Nothing to see down there, move the fleet along”.
That’s is they could get here.
More likely some government or big entity would try to pull off a Piltdown UFO visit, claiming to have been chosen to rule the world.
Wait just a cotton picking minute, I thought the heat was TRAPPED here, how do the aliens detect it from light years away ?????????
Can they detect the previously undiscovered MISSING HEAT rays ?????
Just how desperate are these carpetbaggers?
And no doubt, “much more research is required if we are to complete the picture”.
This “work” should be submitted for the 100 metre facepalm in the Olympics.
I woke all my housemates up laughing at this so hard, I think I’ll be getting to sleep tonight by knocking myself unconscious with the corresponding facepalm.
Anthony: we need a way to vote for our favourite “Climate Craziness” story. Then post the monthly and yearly winners. Gems like this should not be buried.
Just when I thought that these loopy rent seekers have “Jumped The Shark”, they set the bar higher and add some velocity. What could be next? Zeus returns from high on Olympus and strikes us all with lightning bolts? The Klingons armed with Batlifs maraud through the countryside? And this was peer reviewed? How the !@#$%^&* did that happen?
That NASA and even that a University would put their names to something like this is utterly disgraceful. Personally, I’d like to know if they had any funding for this (and of course, the source), and if it was developed and written during work hours for NASA at least – e.g., on the taxpayer dime. I assume Penn State is a public univ, but don’t know if that means their staff salaries are only state supported or if they’d be partially federally funded as well. I suppose to be fair I ought to read the actual paper first, but just the fact that the media can come up with this sort of story about it makes me wish we could strip the credentials of the ‘scientists’ who wrote the study (and maybe even look at those who taught them!) – and any involved who’s salaries ARE courtesy of taxpayers ought to be fired, asap.
Reply to: mark wagner says: August 18, 2011 at 2:46 pm
Mark, Mark, Mark! Are you behind the times or what? Don’tcha know that those aliens will just use their choice of technologies such as ‘faster than light,’ hyperdrive, space folding, wormholes, stargates, or the like? Need the power of a sun? No problem, them aliens – er, I mean, sentient beings originating from a planet other than Earth – they’ll learned how to create and harness such power long ago, no problem! Get with the times there, Mark!
Reply to: vboring says: August 18, 2011 at 3:12 pm
Too true! And the benevolent helpful ones will pass us by for the same reason. My back of the envelope calculation shows conclusively that vboring’s hypothesis (above) is 10.14159e6 times more probable than the aliens killing us because of CO2 increase in our atmosphere /sarc.
If this isn’t satire these people are seriously sick. Fools all.
I’m going to invoke a warmist refute:
“I can’t believe this got published.”
What’s more worrying, the fact this got published, or the fact someone in the Grants office approved the application!
As an analytical chemist, I am impressed with the alien technology that produced the detector that can delineate the spectral shift from a couple ppm of CO2 from xyz # of light years away. I’d love to patent that sucker!!
I’m loving the ratcheting up of the desperation of the fraudsters though. Truly hilarious.
Its so down below (this comment) that I’m sure no one is gonna read it, but there is a very simple argument that states that this particular theory (CO2 is dangerous coz aliens) is simply ridiculous:
We’ve been radiating radiowaves since the thirties. And those are a LOT more loud than the trace gases fluctuations.
So the cat’s out of the proverbial bag already. If there are aliens “out to get us” we are doomed already.
By the time they spotted this and come over to destroy us it will not be necessary any more because see levels will have risen so high we all are drowned anyway.
Or our sun has already changed into a red giant and has engulfed earth with it.
Except offcourse if they invented timewarp and be here on time to rescue us from Penn State and M. Man.
BrianMcL says:
August 18, 2011 at 3:16 pm
“I must remember this one the next time someone sounds off about the precautionary principle.”
Excellent! It is equivalent to Pascal’s Wager (at least the version explained in William James’ “The Will to Believe” (1896)).
Further to DJ’s comments, about a mile overhead, if the banjos fail, we’ll have no option but to go to the Doomsday scenario…bagpipes. And may God have mercy on us all.
What if the aliens come and offer to buy the technology that would permit them to raise the Global Average Temperature of their planet?
Message from Galactic Central:
While monitoring the human species and especially their homeworld for the past 5 million years, we grow concerned of late regarding recent events. We are, therefore, instituting a quarantine of the human planetary system.to keep this disease of bizarre stupidity from spreading to other, more promising, sentient species. We remain hopeful that rational intelligence will once more emerge as a distinguishing characteristic of the human species. We are patient and will see what the next dozen millennia or so hold.
Until then ….
****background chatter**** …preemptive strike indeed … you’d think they were still climbing trees and scampering through the grasses … ****signal ends****
Where is R. Gates’ comment? I searched on his name. I want to hear his explanation of the quality of this article in light of the fact that it was peer-reviewed.
Well, this is a direct continuation of the old 1950-1989 sci-fi theme. Before 1989, when writers and publishers took their orders directly from Moscow, the aliens were trying to stop Americans from using nuclear weapons.
Since 1989, writers and publishers are still enemy saboteurs, but now their orders come from Beijing. China wants to destroy American industry, doesn’t care much about American weapons.
Thus the aliens have shifted their focus to satisfy Chinese goals.
If you wanted proof that these guys at Penn State and NASA might quite not know what they are talking about, Cowboys and Aliens has just hit the big screen! What on earth was in the popcorn? Did the theatre serve Kool Ade? Free!?
I have tears from laughing so hard! OMG!!! This is a great B-movie scifi idea. The killer is that they’re gonna have to borrow your van to get back to their spaceship.
Fox has it, and says it’s “thought-provoking”:
18 Aug: Fox Memphis: Experts Release ET Invasion Scenarios
They speculate that extraterrestrial environmentalists could be so appalled by our planet-polluting ways that they view us as a threat to the intergalactic ecosystem and decide to destroy us.
The thought-provoking scenario is one of many envisaged in a joint study by Penn State and the NASA Planetary Science Division, entitled “Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis.”…
http://www.myfoxmemphis.com/dpps/news/offbeat/experts-release-et-invasion-scenarios-dpgonc-20110818-ch_14624398
Discovery has it, analyses it and says “we need studies like this”. also links to the Guardian article.
18 Aug: Discovery: To Save the Galaxy, Destroy Humanity
Analysis by Ian O’Neill
Needless to say, all these scenarios are completely constructed from human experience — any study into the hypothetical nature of ETI will have a heavy anthropocentric bias. What if we encounter an alien civilization whose intentions are completely baffling? What if we can’t decide whether their intentions will be positive, negative or neutral?
Well, I suppose that’s why we need studies like this.
http://news.discovery.com/space/save-the-galaxy-destroy-humanity-110818.html
weep.
These yahoos are working on their Phd’s at Penn. They are probably a couple of geeks that run around speaking klingon. You notice all the movie and scifi book references. They even managed a Star Trek reference. I wouldn’t take this too seriously.
JC
JohnWho says:
August 18, 2011 at 4:23 pm
On the other hand Carl, I suppose it might be possible that ET would invade us because our atmospheric CO2 level is rising and they want our CO2!
Sell ’em Venus.
On the other hand: why not have Penn. State and M Mann have all the funding they need.
Just for the fun of it.
This is better than the Muppet Show.
By what merit does this stuff need a scientific peer review? Is it just because it comes from a university? because honestly, i see no science here…just fiction. I can write fiction like this too…but it wouldnt be peer reviewed or published..
stimulus money. priceless.
Theo Goodwin says:
August 18, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Where is R. Gates’ comment? I searched on his name. I want to hear his explanation of the quality of this article in light of the fact that it was peer-reviewed.
======================================================================
needs repeating……………………..
So they are supposed to think we trashed the planet…..
….and their solution is to blow it up
………………………………………….42
Sadly, too true!
Yep, a “planetary defense tax” (levied on all developed countries) and a “planetary defense force” with total authority is obviously required; just in case.
Somone call SETI and have them scratch Penn State off the list of places to search for intelligent life.
Why isn’t this in PNAS?
The picture should have the Goracle instead of Jack Nickolson since the Goracle has 2 large houses, one with a heated pool in Nashville where he apparentley consumes 10 times more power than average Tennessian. He also has a 100 foot houseboat with 2 jet skis. And he jets all over the world instead of hanging out with that masuese in Portland and saving fuel but using a lot of (baby) oil.
The Goracle should be reordained as the Vice Hypocrite and Chief.
All of this must just be whimsical farce, written tongue- in- cheek to have a good laugh at the expense of all who would take them seriously.
Right?
Come on, NASA, Penn State… right?
To Serve Mann . . .
guess it is one of those days!
18 Aug: Statesman: AP: Seth Borenstein: Study: Species moving away from global warming faster
north much faster than they were less than a decade ago, a new study says.
About 2,000 species examined are moving away from the equator at an average rate of more than 15 feet per day, about a mile per year, according to new research published Thursday in the journal Science which analyzed previous studies…
“The more warming there’s been in an area, the more you would expect a species to move, and the more they have moved,” said study main author Chris Thomas, a biologist at the University of York.
“The speed is an important issue,” he said. “It is faster than we thought.”…
As the temperatures soared in the 2000s, the species studied moved faster to cooler places, Parmesan (Camille Parmesan, an ecologist at the University of Texas at Austin) said…
http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/study-species-moving-away-from-global-warming-faster-1761154.html
Of course space aliens exist — my model told me so. It produces gremlins too.
Since this is peer reviewed science, this is a prime candidate for inclusion in the next IPCC Assessment’s Summary for Policymakers.
rpercifield says:
August 18, 2011 at 4:43 pm
Just when I thought that these loopy rent seekers have “Jumped The Shark”, they set the bar higher and add some velocity. What could be next? Zeus returns from high on Olympus and strikes us all with lightning bolts? The Klingons armed with Batlifs maraud through the countryside? And this was peer reviewed? How the !@#$%^&* did that happen?
———————————————————————————————————————————
Dude(et):
Stop giving them ideas!!!
Theo Goodwin says:
August 18, 2011 at 5:14 pm
Where is R. Gates’ comment?
R. Gates is busily pouring over old AGU presentations to see if he can find supporting evidence.
And they laugh at me because I believe in a loving God who gave us some rules to live by, in order to enjoy happier lives. How stupid of me. It’s clearly Aliens who judge and damn us.
This stuff belongs on some TV comedy about nerds, Big Bang Theory or such. The proposition is so far extrapolated from reality that one has to wonder about the intelligence of the author’s. I Googled the three of them and they are peas in a pod it would seem. 40 years ago you would dismiss these guys as acid heads but they are too young. Are the effects of LSD inheritable? Their paper presents compelling evidence that it may be, more compelling than the fantasy it sets out.
Do they have tenure? Does Penn State have ivory towers or are they just cheap plastic imitations? ( For ethical reasons of course.)
Must go now. I have a life to get on with. It is nice to start the day with a giggle though. Thankyou Andrew.
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy was a better story. It’s a lot easier for me to believe that alien civilizations would wipe out Earth because of a civil engineering bureaucratic foul-up, than to believe that an alien civilization capable of interstellar travel decide to destroy Earth because it discovered that it is a greenhouse with fluctuating greenhouse gases. I would think a space-faring species would consider that a rare find. Unless it had something against the color green. As the chief sentient indigenous species of Earth we might have some negotiating to do to keep what we have. But, then, it’s not like we haven’t had experience negotiated unequal treaties. So, for now, I’ll keep carrying my towel and hope the bureaucrats don’t destroy Earth.
Belief in AGW addles the mind.
Clearly there is a link between AGW alarmists and fantasists, And not in a good way. This impacts on their work and their scientific capability. And note it is always the taxpayer who is stuck with these loons. In private industry they would be as useful as tits on a bull.
Wow,
If there was no such thing as climate scientists, you’d have to make them up. Desperation doesn’t even begin to describe it.
We’ve been transmitting radio signals since 1906, television since 1926, our continents light up at night (need I mention the 42.3 billion candlepower light atop of the Las Vegas Luxor casino), in credible bursts of energy from atomic bombs, and a whole bunch of other obvious clues we’ve been giving off long before global warming and and these scientists think a small increase in CO2 finally tipped them off?
If the ETI’s knew the scientists who wrote this brilliant piece thought they were so stupid, they would be the first into the stewpot.
To serve “Mann” – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NIufLRpJYnI
This is a near-record-setting winner in the categories of “dumb” and “self-serving.”
It essentially assumes that aliens would share values with the people in question, and then uses that assumption to build a case for political action.
Any one of use could make exactly the same argument with equal force on any topic you could think of.
That someone thought it was worthy of actually publishing is a little frightening, in terms of “people that thoughtless getting paid (probably) more than I do…”
cuckoo says:
August 18, 2011 at 5:09 pm
“Further to DJ’s comments, about a mile overhead, if the banjos fail, we’ll have no option but to go to the Doomsday scenario…bagpipes. And may God have mercy on us all.”
==================================================
Country & Western played on bagpipes?
Talk about your cruel and unusual punishment! Whatever happened to alien rights?
Wasn’t there something about alien rights in the preamble to the Constitution?
IPCC—the Inter Planetary Climate Committee—will come down on us not so ordinary earthlings. Face the death ray or pay “one million dollars” not US dollars please. It’s not extortion—it’s a tax.
Oh man, that’s such a relief, all the financial markets are moaning about the chance of a global recession. Maybe that will buy us some time unless the Vogon Constructor Fleet comes through first.
Hey Anthony, what is category GLOC? Is that better than ridiculae? http://www.abbreviations.com/GLOC isn’t very helpful (Guardian Life Of the Caribbean, Gorgeous Ladies Of Comedy, Ground Line Of Communication).
First used for http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/10/03/the-copenhagen-treaty-draft-wealth-transfer-defined-now-with-dignity-penalty/
Holy crap.
This was the plot of the crappy remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still.
When scientists start offering this stuff up as actual science, WE ARE DOOMED.
Uhm, little green men come from Mars? o_0
And Mars is warming faster an earth.
Pfft, so who cares if the might be aliens attack Mars or carbon dioxide Venus. At least we’d get a “premonition” and would be able to act accordingly as in eradicating all the might be god damn aliens, ha. :p
As a Penn State grad (BSME 1982) I find this more than a little upsetting. I ceased contributions to the institution some time ago, but this is simply humiliating. I feel this personally cheapens my educational credentials. A degree from Penn State used to command respect from almost all circles. Association with Mann has been bad enough. Now this.
“”Green” aliens might object to the environmental damage humans have caused on Earth and wipe us out to save the planet. “”
This is pure psychological projection on their part. It is the greenie eco-whackos who, ultimately, believe “the planet” would be far better off without us evil humans. It is the ultimate greenie megalomanic fantasy to see or have a hand in destroying mankind for the betterment of “the planet”.
It’s tottally true!
Theres gonna be space battles, buildings exploding, Will Smith will be a pilot who tries to save the world from alien invaders….
Oh, wait, that’s the movie ” Independence Day.”
OMG, I never thought of that! I will go out and buy a hybrid car today to fight off those nasty Aliens who now scientists believe both exist and hate us, scientists say.
What about God? He might look down from the heavens and smite us for causing all those Polar Bears to drown, scientists say. Using the logic of the paper, I will buy 100 hybrid cars and run them 24/7 to please God.
[/sarc]
The phrase “, scientists say” is like “may”, “might”, “could”. It has no place in a scientific discussion.
An interesting commentary at NASA Watch:
Sounds like the LGM* principle in operation.
Ian
*Little Green Men
I guess this is why aliens are referred to as “little green men”.
TheGoodLocust says (August 18, 2011 at 2:45 pm): “Um…..sounds like the plot to The Day the Earth Stood Still.”
That was my first thought, too, i.e. the 2008 ecologically correct version (with Keanu Reeves as “Klaatu”), not the 1951 politically correct entry featuring Michael Rennie. I was suitably amused until it occurred to me that Klaatu may already be among us; I’ve actually seen his super robot, Al Gort!
Lest anyone think we can avoid our fate by being “good”, note that virtue is just as likely to get us killed:
The truth may be out there, but it sure ain’t in Penn. State.
(Ok, I’ll stop, cause I got a million of these jokes.)
Global warming causes alien invasion. Yes, definately one for the Numberwatch list. I would larf if weren’t so criminally stupid.
Just want to clarify a point on what is required to achieve the speed of light. The sun accelerates several tons of matter every second to the speed of light in the form of photons. – and matter is energy and you don’t need several suns worth of energy to accelerate something to the speed of light.
These reasons would make more sense:
http://www.stantonfriedman.com/index.php?ptp=articles&fdt=2006.11.10&prt=2
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/8029045/Aliens-tried-to-warn-US-and-Russia-they-were-playing-with-fire-during-Cold-War.html
http://www.stantonfriedman.com/index.php?ptp=articles&fdt=2006.11.10
http://www.stantonfriedman.com/
I’ve got my pair of old Klipsch Hereseys pointed towards the sky and my Slim Whitman records cued up. I’m ready for the little green bastards, by god.
If they’re gonna be that pissed off about co2, think of what they’ll do when they find out some of the other things we’ve done. Quick, hide the history books…..
@ Pat 5:48
How, exactly, does a frog know to move 15 ft north every day? Is not the temperature 15 ft north, south, east and west exactly the same temperature as “home?” What would encourage the frog to move? And how would said frog know which direction (north) would be “cooler?” Inquiring minds want to know….
@ Rational Debate 4:44
Thanks for setting me straight. I didn’t realize that my thought processes were so far divorced from…uhm… “reality.” Or something.
This goes along with my theory that NASA has been infiltrated by aliens. Ah, and never apologize for using craptastic in a sentence. I just added it to my WordPress dictionary.
I wonder if we can start a charitable fund to help these “scientists” get the help they need and to refund any grant monies that may have gone into their education. No reason this story can’t have a happy ending.
Greg Bone,
Obviously you’ve been keeping up with the latest and best research over at http://timecube.com/
And of course if aliens did reach Earth they would entirely stay away from humans who can’t even agree on the temperature of their own planet.
I hear the theme music from The Twilight Zone in my head . . .
After reviewing the drivel on broadcast TV, I’m sure the aliens will conclude there is no intelligent life on earth. Gilligan’s Island may have unintentionally saved humanity.
Ignobel for Nasa!
So let me get this straight, Mr. Hawking–you’re saying these aliens exist in massive ships, so they’ve obviously got the technology to build on a grand scale and get said structures launched and across immense distances, meaning they’re very technologically advanced. They must know how to obtain and refine metals like iron to make steel, as well as aluminum, from their home planet. If their home planet is anything like Earth (elemental composition: iron (32.1%), oxygen (30.1%), silicon (15.1%), magnesium (13.9%), sulfur (2.9%), nickel (1.8%), calcium (1.5%), and aluminium (1.4%); with the remaining 1.2% consisting of trace amounts of other elements) certainly they’d have a VAST resource base (“bazillions of tons doesn’t even come close”) from which to build their space ships, their cities, their industrial complexes WITHOUT having to fly half way across the galaxy, spending hundreds if not thousands of years in the journey, just to pick on little ol’ Earth without having first gobbled up some extremely metal-rich meteoriods along the way.
No, Mr. Hawking, you’re brilliant in your chosen field but I’m afraid what you’d said above is laughable for the reasons I’ve stated. (Apparently, Mr. Hawking isn’t the only one out of his depth on this one. He’s apparently joined by Messers Baum, Haqq-Misra, and Domagal-Goldman and all their “peer reviews”, too.)
I reckon I have seen that face on the right side of the picture (at gunpoint) before. Isn’t that guy… James Hansen?
Any alien life form that could detect this would have, pretty much by definition, reached the Kurzweil Singularity. Since time stops there, I doubt that they would give a flying **** what we are up to – other than for comedic value.
This pretty well puts paid to the idea that “Peer Review” is some sort of gold standard doesn’t it.
They have entered loony bin territory. All I can think of is net.
These guys must be sceptics out to ridicule the agw crowd.
Imagine: Aliensare flying by and catch an Al Gore rant. They completely stop their flight and see that Earth science is bogged down with this meme. They send a message to over all transmission modes: “We also used to believe in the same garbage science and it cost us 100 years of progress over disease, famine, and technological advances. Run away from these kooks!”
Classic projection. They want to kill us (No Pressure), so they figure the little green guys will too.
What idiots.
When we first go to other solar systems, I hope our people carry thermo-nuclear weapons, just in case. And, if they encounter alians, the first question that needs to be answered is “are they carrying thermo-nuclear weapons?”
Craptastic. Someone should inform the Oxford Dictionary people about this wonderful new word.
The self-hatred toward humanity shown by liberals and greens is a serious issue.
I would suggest, as a mental illness, it’s a reason to excuse oneself from public discourse.
Another good reason that we need to establish a base on the moon. We can send these scientists to “keep a lookout for the aliens”. Just make sure the real astronauts don’t have to bunk with them.
Well honestly I don’t find this scientific peer-reviewed research in the least bit surprising because clearly these aliens already walk and talk among us and are hell bent on destroying our civilisation. Wake up and smell these aliens deniers! To the naked eye they appear just like you and I but beneath their external subterfuge these intergalactic chameleons are very dangerous green aliens. Be alert and once detected always approach them with extreme caution as they’re known devourers of grey matter and will latch on and suck your sweetbreads dry if you drop your guard and get too close to any of them. An excruciating, hallucinogenic and agonising death as the Big Bang slowly fades with a whimper.
….or maybe they’re just setting us up so they can say something like:
It’s about time you get the joke…..we were just kidding all along about this Global Warming Stuff……you mean you thought we were serious?
Robert of Ottawa,
Any aliens capable of visiting the Earth are far, far ahead of us technologically. And as Arthur C. Clarke said, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
If, at the beginning of the industrial revolution only 150 years ago, a U.S. nuclear powered aircraft carrier had appeared, it could easily have destroyed the entire world’s wooden ship navies, and capitals, no problem.
If an alien entity appeared here, it would be much more advanced than the example given above. Thus, we are totally at the mercy of any advanced entity. It’s entirely their call.
But we can make plans to deflect continent-threatening asteroids, using only a tiny part of all the monies wasted on the CAGW scam.
They would have performed better research if they had just gone through back issues of Astounding/Analog Magazine from 1940 to 1970…
How about an alien preemptive strike on Penn State and NASA GISS. Save us all the trouble.
Was that James Hansen, playing the part of the Soviet ambassador?
At 8:08 PM, Casey writes:
Maybe in one of Christopher Anvil‘s humorous stories. But in the rest of John W. Campbell‘s Astounding/Analog? Not even in that editor’s most profoundly “Dean Drive” and Dianetics periods of nuttiness.
As a science fiction story line, this NASA/Penn State global warming plot doesn’t even merit as low B-grade schlock. The aliens are more likely to applaud us for adding desperately needed and essential CO2 plant food to our atmosphere, demonstrating constructive and beneficial humanity as an excellent steward of our beautiful planet earth!
OK…. maybe that’s a little bit schlocky also, but I’m a ‘glass is more than half full, with good sipping liquor’ kinda guy!
I have to wonder from the article that if that’s the best we can do in the thinking department those Aliens would simply step on us and keep on going.
Your Tax dollar at work… surprised there isn’t another Nobel prize in there somewhere. After all Al Gore got one for his scence fiction.
Keep moving nothing to see here.
Farmers from Outer Space. They came in green suits, they looked so nice and smiled a lot.
They promised utopia, plenty to eat, easy money, free healthcare, plenty of nifty gadgets and
the life of Riley.
Nobody recognized them, until they began harvesting. By then, it was too late.
The remnants hid in caves, and painted pictures of the game they hunted when the Aliens were away transporting more of the harvested. Oh, we forgot to tell you….they were last seen 14,000 years ago. They went into suspended animation in the Antarctic and Greenland, waiting for the next big melt.
Something went wrong during the Younger Dryas, and their reanimation mechanism malfunctioned due to a virus planted by infiltrating humans posing as harvest collaborators.
Lately, there have been strange stirring deep in the vast expanses under the Antarctic Ice Cap. Greenland too. Some strange cores from the bedrock there are raising eyebrows. As usual, the institutions sit on the findings, keeping them hidden. But, all that is about to change. Thier reanimation is being triggered by the opposite conditions: the end of the Interglacial. Ancient texts recently discovered have fallen into the wrong hands: They plan on selling us to the Alien Harvesters in exchange for spacecraft technology.
They’re coming.
/ end script
Got cave?
Another, perhaps more realistic possibility would be that Aliens destroy Pennstate and NASA for defamatory statements about them.
If five drug-crazed fools sat in a laboratory for 10 days to come up with the dumbest possible AGW story, they couldn’t come close to this.
It must be a hoax.
Here’s some information that may help people see the reality of our past.
The truth which can stand on its own.
Gods are an extraterrestrial race of beings.
Barbara Joy O’Brien – Co-author of ‘Genius of the Few’
http://www.goldenageproject.org.uk/videoBJOB.php
Exposing the Lost City of ENKI
http://jewels2012ascend.blogspot.com/2011/01/discovering-oldest-manmade-structure-on.html
by Angelique Serrao
July 14, 2008
from WendagForums Website
A stone calendar that is apparently older than 75 000 years has been discovered in Mpumalanga.
Adam’s Calendar – as it has been named by the two South Africans who discovered the find – is reportedly the oldest man-made structure on Earth. This astonishing claim, which could set the scientific world in a spin, has been made in a picture book which is being released worldwide on Monday.
————————-
http://www.squidoo.com/ufo-coverups
UFO Quotes from Presidents, Astronauts, Senior Military and more. UFO Cover Up? These people say YES.
————————-
People need to get out of species adolescence and become eager and ready for alien society because it’s plain to see they( Jesus,Enki,EA plan to keep their promise of return to be our savior from the comming destruction.
Once you understand Gods are an extraterrestrial race of beings and get past the primitive concept of “God” and understand why the Gods left all those carvings in stone was for those of us who are enlightened enough to read and understand them, as they cannot be altered, unlike the Bible.
Yet there are those who still swear by the Bible, in any of its myriad versions, as the revealed word of their “God” have to ignore or deny the clear fact that the Old Testament was a skewed and forged theo-political rewrite of a far more ancient document, the Enuma Elish, dating from at least Sumeria, which was not theological at all.
—————————–
China, Belgium, Spain, Chile, Uruguay and and now Mexico have officially acknowledged the alien presence
—————————–
ENUMA ELISH
http://www.mindspring.com/~mysticgryphon/enuma.htm
——————————
What else other than a space craft can the “fiery chariot” is,which is described so vividly in the “Book of Ezekiel”were?
“Third Book of Enoch” that the Lord kept his “Shekinah” at the entrance of the Garden of Eden until the days of Enoch when he abruptly left for his heavenly
abode,
The Anunnaki-Sumerian (gods?) are the same as the Greek/Roman and Egyptian, and some also in other cultures… just with different names. ie. Enki/Ea/Ptah, Ningishzidda/Thoth/Quetzalcoatl, Enlil/Yahweh.
Once you read a bit on the subject you will soon come to realise that the Anunnaki were/are real flesh and blood individuals capable of prolonging their life-span indefinately.
“The Truth About Enki”
http://www.redicecreations.com/article.php?id=5247
THE TURTH ABOUT ENKI by John F. Winston
http://www.subgenius.com/bigfist/bulldada/X0011_JWHIST.html
Messages From Enki: Humanity’s Father
http://www.enkispeaks.com/Essays/11Enki&NinmahMakeGirlsTillSheCurses_2.html
http://www.neilfreer.com/SRINDEXPAGE.html
WHITE PAPERS
Sapiens Rising: Beyond The Babel Factor
Exponential Evolution: A Manual For Futants
The Alien Question: An Expanded Perspective
Zen In The Art Of Spiritual Machine Maintenance
Genetic Exploration: An Expanded Perspective
————————
Those who from heaven came down and made the Garden of Eden at Eridu
http://www.goldenageproject.org.uk/videoBJOB.php
—————————————————
Eridu photos from british museum
http://tinyurl.com/24z44u2
http://www.britishmuseum.org/the_museum/museum_in_the_world/middle_east_programme/iraq_project/eridu_photos/page_1.aspx
————————-
Everything you Know is Wrong
Lloyd Pye – Everything You Know Is Wrong 1.6
http://www.disclose.tv/action/viewvideo/45266/Lloyd_Pye___Everything_You_Know_is_Wrong_1_6/
Related Articles by Lloyd Pye:
Human Origins – Part 1
Human Origins – Part 2
Darwinism vs. Creationism
Life’s True Beginnings
Our Earliest Human Ancestor?
Carpenter Genes
Mystery Skulls
http://www.starchildproject.com
Anyone else notice the whole alien/ufo thing is getting a lot more media attention lately? When did they decide to start treating it as an actual threat like these morons with this article? NASA involving itself is just ridiculous. They’re just trying to scare us with something else now that no one cares about CAGW.
We come in peace.
[Post enhanced.☺ ~dbs]
They’ve got to be taking the piss at this point. It’s pretty obvious that you receive citations and funding based on including the global warming tag on your paper. Take that rationale to its logical (and comedic) extreme and this is the result.
They’ve lost it in the same manner that Hitler lost it in his final days. In a total fantasy world, surrounded by itchy sycophants. Amazing.
I swear I’ve seen this movie before …
Yes, it was Keanu Reeves’ biggest dud.
The Day the Earth Stood Still (2008)
An alien spacecraft of sorts arrives in New York City. Aboard is a human-like alien and a giant robot of immense size and power. The alien identifies himself as Klaatu and says he has come to save the Earth. When the friendly, PC woman scientist, learns exactly what he means when he says he is there to save the Earth (destroy mankind), she tries to convince him to change his intentions.
Paging Josh, come in Mr Josh please. Cartoon essential for this thread!
TWE says:
August 18, 2011 at 9:05 pm
Unconfirmed reports scattered about that something along the lines of a staged Alien landing is afoot.
Funny how NASA is so eager to boot Elenin, but is quick to drop tantalizing hints of extraterrestrial visitation. It mixes like oil on water.
And if Gilligan couldn’t do, Jersey Shore most assuredly will.
Smokey said:
Nah, they would run out of ammo and fuel for the aircraft pretty quickly.
Maybe I have had a bit too much of the Old Pulteney tonight but I cannot believe anybody actually wrote this as a serious endeavor. Somebody, somewhere planted this article and The Guardian picked it up or The Guardian knows it is crap and printed it anyway. I especially liked the section about not broadcasting anything that could tell the Aliens about the biological make up of humans. Isn’t that what we broadcast every hour every day?
Thanks Barry Day, I just lost several IQ points from clicking one of your links.
“A preemptive strike [from extraterrestrials] would be particularly likely in the early phases of our expansion because a civilization may become increasingly difficult to destroy as it continues to expand.”
The proper way to look at this enormous threat to mankind is that we as humans must do everything in our power to advance ourselves as quickly as possible to get up there and whoop ET before he knows what hit him.
We should all definitely consider implementing Plan B.
I’m surprised no-one read any of the comments in the Guardian, those who say this must be a late night (relaxant inspired ?) brainstorming session are spot on, as the explanation by one of the authors shows;
—————————–
“So here’s the thing. This isn’t a “NASA report.” It’s not work funded by NASA, nor is it work supported by NASA in other ways. It was just a fun paper written by a few friends, one of whom happens to have a NASA affiliation.”
http://paleblueblog.org/post/9110304050/some-important-points-of-clarification
Some how if NASA gets a transmission:”We are the Borg.Resistance is futile.Prepare to
be assimilated.” I do not think it is because of AGW…
Though I could see AlGore and Mann for instance as Borg….
Neo says:
August 18, 2011 at 9:12 pm
“———When the friendly, PC woman scientist, learns exactly what he means when he says he is there to save the Earth (destroy mankind), she tries to convince him to change his intentions.”
Obviously, the movie failed because it was counter to reality, the PC scientist would have said ” Great, let’s get started !” But, she didn’t need the Aliens, she has the Greens 🙁
They must have gotten paid by the word….
Me? I’d have made, at $1/word, 7 bucks.
We won’t know till they get here.
Look. There’s a guy sitting over there in some kind of technician’s garb…
His hands are covering his face. He’s rythmically rocking back and forth saying
to no one in particular, “This is not happening. This is not happening !”
I think he was a scientist who, in good faith, staked his reputation and career
on the proposition that AGW was a demonstrably valid hypothosis.
In this case “peer reviewed” means some actors read it.
That’s explain it …. Al Gore is an alien. He’s the preemptive strike.
Wow! Can you imagine how viral a youtube video of the destruction of the world would go? Ya mon! And when they do it, I wanna be right at ground zero and feel that special ET love while I’m being vaporized… into another form of… GREENHOUSE GAS! Bwahaaaaa!!!!
I don’t know if it’s a NASA report, but I skimmed the paper, and it seems to me the Guardian article is accurate as to both the content and the conclusions.
Maybe it is possible to have faster-than-light travel using wind-power or solar…
I have the solution
So Simple
A. Back off and let those men who want to marry men, marry men.
B. Allow those women who want to marry women, marry women.
C. In three generations, there will be no Greens.
I love it when a plan comes together so simply
After 9/11 the left tried to put their own grievances in the mouths of al Qaeda, warning that we needed to become less capitalist, less imperialist, less prosperous, less consuming of resources, less racist (their accusation), more equalitarian, more socialist, more accepting of stone age intolerance, etcetera, if we wanted to avoid further “backlash.” Now they are putting their own grievances in the mouths of E.T..
Very simply, it is THEY–in this case a cadre of NASA approved leftists–that want to destroy mankind, and their war against prosperity is well in control of the levers of power in many western countries, the worst example being the United States.
Also, TimM’s comment, “To Serve Mann,” is the thread winner.
Taking a clue from the picture I’m guessing they will start in Vegas with a ‘Sex Bomb’.
If I can stop laughing for a few moments, there could be a serious side to this. Maybe Guardian readers will suddenly realise that they’ve been hoaxed and then defrauded all along.
Please don’t be too concerned! We Australians are happy to provide the billions we will collect from our Carbon Tax to put towards weapon research to hold off the coming alien invasion.
As one commenter on the Guardian aritlcle aptly noted:-
“I guess this is what is considered work at NASA now that the space shuttle program is dead.”
One really shouldn’t mock the afflicted (suppresse another laughing fit) … but it’s wonderful to see that the spirit of Robert Sheckley is still alive and well, and producing those superbly hilarious off-beat SF scenarios. I’m guessing that in book two the aliens will realise that our CO2 has been heating the whole solar system and run away in terror of their lives. More, please!
Across the Vast Expanse of Space
What technology
is needed to traverse a
great galactic span?
NASA’s scientists
can calulate the figures
if anyone can.
Aliens, they yell,
<a href="http://allrightallright.blogspot.com/2011/08/aliens-plan-to-destroy-evil-human.html"will construct starships and come
to earth and kill man.
(Of course, those beings,
many centuries ago,
must have hatched their plan.)
Alternatively,
they suggest, we could impose
a coal-burning ban;
then, from far away,
aliens would halt our doom
before it began.
Look on the bright side that’s about it for scare stories and AGW, what’s left? Well not to tempt fate but couldn’t all this CO2 stop the earth spinning?
The greatest scienctific research ever under taken?
Madder than a bag of cats.
Geoff C says: August 18, 2011 at 2:57 pm
“If aliens can detect any fingerprint of intelligent life on earth, it will be our electronics communications.”
What is it about people that ignore the bleeding obvious!!!
Look at the ceiling!! What do you see? Look at the sky (at night) what do you see? Look down a telescope in any urban environment … what do you see?
Human created light! Light modulated at various harmonics of 5Hz light that is millions billions trillions? of times larger than any of the stupid “beacons to extraterrestrial life”.
Indeed, if any alien were to look at the bleedingly obvious signal of human created light and the signals from all that mains cabling and its harmonics, the one conclusion they will draw is that:
The world is controlled by two empires/religions, one based on the 60Hz “faith” and the other on 50Hz. They will then be able to plot the progression and growth of each empire draw fabulous “representations” of the churches of the 50Hz and 60Hz religions and no doubt show the high priests of the religions in their coats of flashing colours with tenticles hanging out.
They have some weird dreams over at NASA
I’ve checked and these people seem to be serious.
So is it OK if I add Seth D. Baum, Jacob D. Haqq-Misra, & Shawn D. Domagal-Goldman to the list of people who should never be believed about anything?
Bill Parsons said on August 18, 2011 at 3:36 pm:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mann4.jpg
Gee, I don’t know, I have seen bigger…
Huh, that’s strange. His eyes seem to be following me as I move around… Like they’re watching me somehow… I can feel those dark beady orbs peering into my soul…
===
Noticed this on Michael Mann’s Wikipedia entry when finding the pic, note it now before it’s “disappeared” as too revealing:
I’m uncertain, given Wikipedia’s partially chaotic nature, if all three of these together are Reference 17 or just the first with the other two unnumbered/forgotten in the reference list:
So The Guardian is quite happy with Mann’s pet blog creation as it’s part of their “Environmental Network.” And they decided this chunk of craptastic goodness from Mann’s stomping grounds was worthy of the slaughter of quadrillions of innocent electrons to broadcast it to the world.
An ongoing conspiracy to misinform and deceive the public into believing CAGW? Gee, why would anyone think that?
They seem obsessed in making false links between c02 and other factors – that’s their mindset.
c02 may cause global warmnig
co2 may cause aliens to invade.
what next?
I got one:
greenhouse gases may cause the universe to implode
The best thing is the Guardian comments. Has to be bad for that lot to go against it!
I would say that the increasing industrial waste levels would be a sign that we are NOT a threat. When we master industry without releasing large amounts of thermally active gases and particulate I believe we’ll be much more threatening.
Now let’s be serious folks. Wait until this paper has been peer-reviewed at The Journal of Irreproducible Results before criticising.
Drat. http://www.jir.com/
What are these people on?
Considering that human production of CO2 is only 3% of the total produced annually how could we pose a threat.
Did my tax dollars help pay the people who produced this claptrap? If so I’m contacting my senator.
I have said many times that the longer this AGW drivel continues to influence our political “leaders” then the more outlandish will be their claims. Having said that I think we have probably hit the zenith with this one.
You couldn’t make it up!!
This is Gandhi reversed isn’t it? First they think they’ve won, then they scorn you, then you laugh at them, then they’re done.
Besides, the onion has already done this one much better; the real cause of global warming is clearly a new solar system discovered about four feet off the ground;
“http://www.theonion.com/articles/new-solar-system-discovered-four-feet-from-earth,1094/”
DanDaly says:
August 18, 2011 at 5:59 pm
Actually, that was a cover story. It was actually destroyed deliberately under the instructions of Zaphod, who was coerced into it by his psychoanalyst since he was unable to pay his humongous bill (IIRC).
Mind you, that was probably a cover story for …. And so it goes on. May God bless and look after Douglas Adams for eternity!
Come on, everyone, you’re forgetting the New Scientific Principle…
“Peer review so it MUST be true!!!!”
It really is worse than we thought 🙁
Well, this beats dendromancy hands down, and from the home of Dendromantist in Chief, Holy Michael.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/dec/05/olympic-games-2012-alien-conspiracy-theory
Obvious ain’t it – part of the plot to stage a fake alien invasion at the 2012 Olympic Games in London by the new world order elite . The NASA and Penn connection for ‘credibility’, and of course, the Guardian in on the plot helping to provide sufficient background so pushing the NASA connection as if it’s an official report – it isn’t is it…?
Hmm. ET go home.
And take all the AGW scientists with you.
The dry run in 1984..
Space aliens have already taken over the earth. They have infiltrated the UN. The plan to reduce CO2 in the name of saving the planet is their plan to tip the earth into the next glaciation and wipe out humanity. Then they’ll warm the place back up and live here.
Now doesn’t that sound more reasonable than space aliens observing the earth’s climate from light years away and deciding to attack because we’re a threat to ourselves.
Never mind the vacuous nature of NASA, what about the void in the Grauniad.
The Grauniad used to pride itself on being the liberal academic’s broadsheet, and now it has turned into the National Enquirer. Says a lot for the UK intelligentsia in general and the Green movement in particular.
.
>>Greg Bone says: August 18, 2011 at 6:50 pm
>>Just want to clarify a point on what is required to achieve the
>>speed of light. The sun accelerates several tons of matter every
>>second to the speed of light in the form of photons.
Errrrr … since photons are massless, how do you imagine that there are ‘several tons of them’?? Go and stand in the corner, Master Bone, and take this pointy hat with you. Big ‘D’ to the front, thank you.
.
>>Greg Bone says: August 18, 2011 at 6:50 pm
>>Just want to clarify a point on what is required to achieve the
>>speed of light. The sun accelerates several tons of matter every
>>second to the speed of light in the form of photons.
Errrrr … since photons are massless, how do you imagine that there are ‘several tons of them’?? Go and stand in the corner, Master Bone, and take this pointy hat with you. Big ‘D’ to the front, thank you.
Better still, you could join the Grauniad as their science correspondent.
.
It’s more likely that the world’s military will kill us with climate tinkering. Studies should be done on the the impact of aluminum oxide on human health and climate. An aluminum shield around the earth may make high and low frequency communication systems work better but it is not good for the rest. Spraying this stuff in the atmosphere under the guise on engineering a solution for global warming has not been proven.
Sorry we will be late with the invasion and subsequent destruction of earth as our fleet were blinded by the light emitting from a certain house in the earth area of Belle Meade, Nashville and sadly careered into your moon !
Therefore we kindly request that a certain Al Gore turn his bloody lights off and we can get on with the job of annihilating your planet
Can we have your liver then?
So I guess the man-bear-pig attack failed?
NASA was once a respected science group.
Looks like the Drake Equation will need adjustment :
from N = R* fp ne fl fi fc L
to N = R* fp ne fl (fi-nAGW) fc L
(Although further research may show that nAGW is a constant, with a value of 1).
ROTFLMAO! You know this will probably evolve into something else:
To Serve PSU . . . several FOIA requests
Two links mentioned in earlier comments: Nasa Watch and PaleBlue blog have made it clear that NASA is not involved in this fiasco, although the fact that there was even some doubt *does* reflect on the current NASA and its direction. I was going to offer my opinion that this was a simple internal mis-communication where the NASA employee was told ‘Moslem outreach’ but took it as ‘Alien outreach’. Ah well.
Those comments from the authors at the above mentioned links do not address PSU however. They say they were just having fun. Perhaps, but did the taxpayers chip in at all? You guys who wrote this ‘paper’ better get on damage control or else you may singlehandedly be responsible for FOIA’s and a lot of aggravation for the school from the PA Attorney General and Congress, not to mention the public and their alumnus. Kinda ironic, a lefty newspaper blog (Guardian) fingers PSU and NASA, and the AGW cult suffers another blow! It’s like friendly fire. Almost feel sorry for them. Almost.
This is also gonna leave a mark because one other casualty will be the typical AGW cultist that throws around the: ‘Hey, we have thousands of peer reviewed papers backing our claims!’. Yep. So much for that cavalier statement. For example, the immediate response to that claim will be something along the lines of: ‘Peer reviewed papers huh? You mean like this one!’.
Justice. It’s all good. 🙂
If anybody has problems getting a science paper peer reviewed and published, then just stick this one in their face. This is one fine example that any paper will be accepted along as it links AGW to it. Scientific method doesn’t matter, science doesn’t matter, imagination and alarm does.
Imagination responce in progress.
“The planet has not been attacked by ET over recent decades of warming because detected that humans have had little do with it and also observed warming over the centuries”
“ET detected other planets in the solar system warming too from light years away so knew solar activity was part of it”
“ET behind humans backs rented a copy of independance day and despite concerned of slight warming of the planet, called off attacks because got scared what humans may do to unfriendly visitors.
I believe that the probability of an alien invasion is higher that the probability of any of these “scientists” getting another grant.
April Fools day comes late this year!
FD
http://paleblueblog.org/post/9110304050/some-important-points-of-clarification
So here’s the thing. This isn’t a “NASA report.” It’s not work funded by NASA, nor is it work supported by NASA in other ways. It was just a fun paper written by a few friends, one of whom happens to have a NASA affiliation.
…
But I do admit to making a horrible mistake. It was an honest one, and a naive one… but it was a mistake nonetheless. I should not have listed my affiliation as “NASA Headquarters.” I did so because that is my current academic affiliation. But when I did so I did not realize the full implications that has. I’m deeply sorry for that, but it was a mistake born our of carelessness and inexperience and nothing more. I will do what I can to rectify this, including distributing this post to the Guardian, Drudge, and NASA Watch. Please help me spread this post to the other places you may see the article inaccurately attributed to NASA.
Message E.T.A. soon.
Reads as follows.:-
Do not worry, you are not worth the bullet.
message end.
No doubt the aliens will want to harvest our precious bodily fluids, too.
Oliver Morton (@Eaterofsun) says:
August 19, 2011 at 5:26 am
> So here’s the thing. This isn’t a “NASA report.” It’s not work funded by NASA, nor is it work supported by NASA in other ways.
Not to worry – NASA knows full well it cannot block attempts by people affiliated with NASA from spouting off to peer journals, the US Congress, or anyone else who might be listening off the planet, especially if the subject includes CO2 pollution. Perhaps they’ll get an EPA grant to see if ETs will want to sample CO2 from Venus (too much sulfur?), Mars (too thin?), or Earth (just right, with good oceanic and limestone storage).
I would like to know who did the peer review….
BBC Radio 4 News at One just reported this story. They played the ‘Dr. Who’ theme first, then said that NASA says we should curb our greenhouse emissions to avoid alien attack, then said, “We’ll let you think about that one.” So if even the Beeb doesn’t believe it….
http://paleblueblog.org/post/9110304050/some-important-points-of-clarification
[So here’s the thing. This isn’t a “NASA report.” It’s not work funded by NASA, nor is it work supported by NASA in other ways. It was just a fun paper written by a few friends, one of whom happens to have a NASA affiliation.]
Someone taking the mickey out of the peer reviewed system, not a suprise this is too unbelievable to be true, but not too different from the rubbish supporting AGW that is accepted.
I have been in contact with the Aliens through the use of ACID (Alien Contact Interstellar Dialog). They sent one of their Ambassadors (ronaldmcdonald), a rather funny looking chap who reminded me of a clown, who explained that the Alien society was not going to destroy Planet. They were going to harvest some of the humans to eat. They were going to pick only the biggest, plump, juicy ones; much like we pick the big fat plump cherry for a treat. You see, they are actually an advanced plant society (triffids) and their relatives are evolving on Planet. The Aliens are angry that we have been eating their brethren but need us to increase CO2 levels to 666 ppm so that they can complete their evolution.
POT (Propaganda Overruling Thinking) will rise as the benchmark for the intellectual organizational structure of this newly evolved species that will then become the prime contact with ACID, which will then regulate the harvest of humans. The EPA (Extraterrestrial Propaganda Agency) will be the duel interface with ACID that will regulate all CO2 levels so as the plants on Planet are hindered in growth so that they do not become a threat to the Extraterrestrial plants. The EPA will serve the duel purpose of keeping the plants at bay while providing a stable supply of plump, ripe humans for a sustainable environment.
Another organization, the IPCC (Interstellar Propaganda Colony Control), through frequent contact with ACID, will serve as the prime driver of policy to control humans by showing that the plants are doing the humans a favor by eating them, as it keeps their population under control. A Goreacle will be installed to help the IPCC control the masses.
There will be a major effort to eliminate the army of ones, the WUWT (World Understanding Weather Traits), as any independent thinking will have a detrimental effect on the combined efforts and effects of the EPA, ACID, POT, IPCC, and the Goreacle. This underground army is believed to be led by Anthony Watts, but due to the independent nature of its members there could be hundreds of thousands of cells.
I will now meet with a representitive of BEER ( … ).
Look up Curiosity on Discovery and in particular their look at Project Blue Beam
Is it April Fool’s Day?
Someone must be putting on a con, right?
I skimmed through the report and thought it looked like a fun little paper. Of course the Guardian picked up just one of very many possible scenarios and twisted it.
Josh could have a field day with this.
I always wondered where Al Gore got his ideas from…
Al and Alf discussing climate change
Come to think of it… Alf’s “Dad”, Willie, looked a lot like Joe Lieberman… 😉
Apologies if someone else has mentioned this – but wasn’t this scenario about aliens taking the liberty over careless earthlings a film with Keanu Reeves…? The Day the Earth stood still (remake – not the wonderful original) – a piece of green propaganda bilge.
The mere idea that atmospheric composition without knowing about the underlying system of oceans, landmass, ecosystems and their interactions would indicate anything to an outside observer is indicative that these people only work on one cylinder and never get the whole picture.
Question: If mace is a spround srang, and I have a bright hat, what time is it in Copenhagen?
Answer: a fly paper!
Correct!
Trusting the scientists that Joh Huntsman trusts.
This one has my vote for all time whatever you call it.
For anyone who is interested,
Here is the authors web site
http://sethbaum.com/
Can anyone please explain to me why/how this obvious crackpot is able to produce this utter nonesense (presumably) at the US taxpayers expense and even worse subsequently get it ‘peer reviewed’ and published?
Here is his CV
http://sethbaum.com/cv.pdf
Note the ‘advisor’ for his PhD ‘Discounting Across Space and Time in Climate
Change Assessment’ is one William Ewart Easterling
http://www.eesi.psu.edu/people/Easterling.shtml
http://www.ems.psu.edu/easterling
http://www.ems.psu.edu/sites/default/files/u5/vita/Easterling_Resume.pdf
who is the Dean of EMS at PSU which makes him Michael E. Mann’s (http://www.meteo.psu.edu/~mann/Mann/) boss.
Enough said I think?
http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=1623
http://www.smbc-comics.com/comics/20090830.gif
/yep, nuff said.
“OOOOHHH Baby! SHAG me!”
The plot of the next psychadelic Bond movie has been born.
Well, Michael Crichton did tell us, tongue firmly in cheek, how space aliens (or, rather, a belief in space aliens) cause global warming. Now we have “scientists” telling us, in all seriousness, that space aliens could forcibly terminate global warming.
If these characters are worried about how space aliens should react to us, they should be less concerned with greenhouse gases, and much more concerned over potential alien concern that global warming psychosis (and other popular eco-psychoses) are possibly contagious and thus Earth should be forcibly quarantined (or worse).
This has to take the award for climate craziness of the week, no contest.
Mark Baker says:
August 18, 2011 at 9:34 pm
“Maybe I have had a bit too much of the Old Pulteney tonight but I cannot believe anybody actually wrote this as a serious endeavor. Somebody, somewhere planted this article and The Guardian picked it up or The Guardian knows it is crap and printed it anyway. I especially liked the section about not broadcasting anything that could tell the Aliens about the biological make up of humans. Isn’t that what we broadcast every hour every day?”
Actually, it is a good use of the Precautionary Principle. There is a finite chance that an advanced alien civilization exists (by “finite,” we mean that a finite number of zeros is needed to express the probability). There is a finite chance that the aliens might become pissed off because of our global warming. Therefore, the Precautionary Principle demands that we take action to prevent to possibility that Earth might be destroyed by Green Pissed Off Aliens. We must take action to reverse global warming and to create defenses appropriate for aliens. We will have new taxes on energy and new taxes for defense. In a way, it is sort of a Left-Right political compromise.
So, let me get this straight. Scientists have been arguing that current and future CO2 production will cause catastrophes and destruction, thus, eliminating most of humanity. They say, to save ourselves, we need to reduce CO2 emissions. But, now, the theory is our destructive CO2 and the production and technology related to it’s emission, if left unchecked, will make us too strong to destroy so the aliens will have to destroy us preemptively??? I kind of like the alien theory better, all things considered.
GORT! klaatu barada nikto CO2-O
Merovign says:
August 18, 2011 at 6:07 pm
“Any one of use could make exactly the same argument with equal force on any topic you could think of.”
Yes, that is the folly of the Precautionary Principle. Unfortunately, the Head of the EPA, Lisa Jackson, has cited the Precautionary Principle as one justification for the EPA treating CO2 as a threat to humans.
You are all being TOO skeptical.
Penn state is absolutely correct!
Michael Mann is an alien! He was dispatched to the Earth to regress it’s technology, stimulate a return of ice age glaciation, and cause the extinction of a possible competitor. This dastardly plot, even recruits duped and zombified humans to aid in their own destruction.
They are here, and there doesn’t seem to be much we can do about it!
Doom, doom, and double doom. GK
http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2010/10/20/test-pattern/
All of this Climate Change caused by man made global warming has it’s roots firmly based in the realm of Augmented reality, so it’s not at all surprising that it has opened up a whole new form of science of ‘anything is possible’, the result of which is evident by the increase of even more fantastical papers and accepted theories, the motto of this new group of scientists should be “Standing on the shoulders of Idiots”.
It’s even more remarkable that a news publication can conclude from these fantastical papers and theories and show the world the embarrassing quality of their intellect and just how low the journalistic standards are at the Guardian by publishing such fantastic and all-to memorable quotes like->
“reducing our emissions might just save humanity from a pre-emptive alien attack, scientists claim”
And it has the most hilarious headlines that would make satirical publications such a the Onion or the Daily Mash envious,
“Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civilisations, say scientists”
This headline must really confuse satirical writers!
Are they suggesting that human civilisation should tax it’s self out of technological existence and cower like a heard of frightened sheep in the face of this theoretical extraterrestrial threat based on what is clearly a scientific peer reviewed paper?
If this is the case, by the time our evil alien overlords get here to start an intergalactic war we should be able to fight them off with our giant Eco-friendly Trebuchets.
I was hoping for a light saber at least when going into interstellar battle. Isn’t Science fun!!
Just wanted to apologize Anthony for not scrolling far enough down this morning before submitting stories…as usual…you are way ahead of me. 🙂
Given that it’s NOT April Fools Day, I’ll guess that someone was smoking some really powerful stuff!!!
Not even Mad Magazine could come up with something as crazy as this!!!!
Waiting for PSU to protest being associated…still waiting…anything?
Yeah, the superior minds of the aliens might be able to understand that a slightly warmer planet is a good thing, leading them to assume that we are smarter than we really are. Then they’ll come here to congratulate us and meet us face to face. Then they’ll learn to read our language and discover how stupid we really are and blow us up. That makes sense to me. Not exactly the same line of reasoning as the above referenced “paper”, but the end result is the same: we’re doomed. 🙁
Ack Ack Ack… Ack Ack!!! Ack! Ack Ack?
Translation found in the deep thinking minds of journalistic and bureaucratic mutants.
{puts on moonbat cap}
Everyone gets all up in the “lightspeed” thing and how aliens would need to be home for dinner.
No one considers that a civilization far in advance of our own may not find life in space to be a problem. They may be physically and intellectually capable of multithousand year trips
and not care about going home at all. They could be close by and watching, having pulled in to the solar system long ago.
And the scenario missed is the one where it is we who are being groomed to fight with some other species who may be on their rapacious way here as we speak.
{end moonbat transmission}
Friends:
Shawn D. Domagal-Goldman was co-author of a peer reviewed, published paper that cited as his only affiliation “NASA Planetary Science Division”. That paper officially originates from Pennsylvania State University and from NASA.
The paper has been (justifiably) widely ridiculed, and Domagal-Goldman now circulates a statement saying;
“So here’s the deal, folks. Yes, I work at NASA. It’s also true that I work at NASA Headquarters. But I am not a civil servant… just a lowly postdoc. More importantly, this paper has nothing to do with my work there. I wasn’t funded for it, nor did I spend any of my time at work or any resources provided to me by NASA to participate in this effort.”
Sorry, but that will not wash.
The output of any person employed on research work is owned by the employer.
I spent over 3 decades conducting research at the Coal Research Establishment (CRE) for the UK’s National Coal Board (NCB). Anything I published in any form (e.g. a letter to a local newspaper) required approval by the NCB. And anything I published that stated my association with CRE or the NCB would have been an official publication of the NCB: how could it not be when I was employed by them to conduct research?
The paper published by Baum, Haqq-Misra & Domagal-Goldman IS an official publication deriving from Pennsylvania State University and from NASA. It will remain as output from NASA unless and until NASA takes disciplinary action against Shawn D. Domagal-Goldman and makes an official statement to repudiate the published paper.
The fact that the paper officially originates from NASA is not affected by whether or not the paper “has anything to do with [Domagal-Goldman’s] work at NASA”. The paper was published by a co-author who works at NASA, it stated the co-author works at NASA, and it did not state that the it and/or its contents did not derive from NASA.
Only NASA can declare that the paper does not originate from NASA and has not – at least, has not yet – made such a statement. Shawn D. Domagal-Goldman has no right to now claim the paper as his alone and not NASA’s: such a claim cannot be correct for any employed research worker (what if the next thing he thinks up – in what he claims is his own time – is a novel method for launching satelites?).
The daft paper of Baum, Haqq-Misra & Domagal-Goldman is a publication that officially originates from Pennsylvania State University and from NASA.
Richard
If the aliens do not like us what would they have made of the Carboniferous. CO2 really got out of control then.
Maybe the trilobites are supposed to be a warning to us.
War of the World – words sayeth all. Peer review? Will the ‘peers’ please step forward. Hidden in a dark corner is the undeclared war- Darwinism vs goliath ET/intelligent design.
Capt Kirk – warp 9, please. Any body of intelligence that travels at this speed ain’t going to sweat the small stuff CAGW.
“assume we’re a pack of dumb asses”, and
“tenticles hanging out” – oops my first cursory read – testicles
What will happen to the culture of Darwinism if this side of the debate is ‘beamed up (particle transporter)’?
Science transformation, polticial government vs independent critical thinking, one 4 yr presidential term or 60 yr/3 generational slow immersion. The first – ‘ah, I told you so’. And the second long-haul, most here will be back to earth-dirt before this happens, so who then will know? The third generation will say ‘this is the truth, and has always been’
“Please, Captain, not in front of the Klingons”. Dr. McCoy “The bureaucratic mentality is the only constant in the universe”
Calm down everyone. Listen! When the CAGWist fear promoter’s (see footnote below) alien invasion fleet arrives to destroy earth, all we need to do is show the aliens we have produced maple syrup. No alien would ever destroy a planet capable of making maple syrup. Right? : )
[ I loved that book . . . ]
Nyuck, nyuck, nyuck.
John
Footnote:
OK, I’ve done some further research on the ‘good (soon to be) Dr Seth Baum’ and he is what I can only describe as a ‘useful immature idiot’.
Have a look at the ‘views’ and ‘research’ pages on his personal web site and you’ll see why I’ve reached this conclusion.
http://sethbaum.com/views/
http://sethbaum.com/research/
He’s clearly intelligent and has an engineering/physics background. How/why then does a man of his obvious intellect and talent end up in the Geography Department of a second rate US academic institution like PSU?
He’s ‘useful’ IMO because he is obviously intelligent and has clear and obvious engineering/physics skills/talent yet he has ended up in a Geography Department. Are well paid/funded engineering/physics jobs that hard to come by in the US that the only way a gradute engineering/physics specialising in optics can find a job is to end up researching ‘global catastrophic risk’ in a Geography Department?
IMO he’s ‘immature’ because at one time (which he seems to be proud of) he was involved in ‘designing a robot system that would drop water balloons on innocent pedestrians as they walked by.’
And finally IMO he’s an ‘idiot’ because he’s written this ridiculous paper which does absolute nothing for his academic reputation.
Now funnily enough this all has a familar ring to it. Who else do I know who is a graduate engineer/physicsist who has ended up finding a job within a Geography Department and who on far too many occasions has demonstrated very immature behaviour and who has also published a number of ridiculously flawed/stupid papers (de-centred PCA and upside down proxies anyone?)?
Ah – of course this Mann! http://www.meteo.psu.edu/~mann/Mann/
From the TwiLight Zone: “To Serve Man…”
KevinUK – Geography dept tend to end up with a lot of spatial stats, remote sensing, and GIS work over here as opposed to the traditional economic demographic work. I can only guess he followed some remote sensing/GIS money trail.
One other thing. I’ve always held that there is a transmitter on the other side of the
Moon-accompanied by a giant billboard:”Warning do not land on the blue planet! insane
asylum. The Galactic council will not be responsible for any damage or death due
to unauthorized landings.”
Could explain several things…
Of course! It was the Greenhouse Gases (TM) all along.
That’s why the aliens will finally come and conquer earth.
Whew, luckily there’s already a hoax that will save us from this menace: carbon taxes!
The Nobel Prize for Economics winner, Paul Krugman, recommends an alien invasion to rescue the planet Earth from its economic doldrums.
Krugman should coordinate his theory with the Pennsylvania State University theory to achieve a scientific consensus on the need for a trillion dollar program to save the planet Earth from economic destruction/alien destruction by a proposiing a sustainable compromise.
I don’t know what has affected Krugman’s thinking, but a first thought about the PSU authors is that they are suffering a concussion from having been struck on the noggin by a Mann hockey stick.
Calling Dr. Huer!
Why would they bother we are all going to die from global warming anyway!
We are all doomed!
I find drinking beer regularlry has prevented aliens from invading Earth.
Wow, that’s pretty funny. I can easily see a report like that being created as a gag by some group of people with a quirky sense of humor. Was this really taken seriously by anyone?
Of course, the idea that ET, and I’ll assume that ETs exist, will be peaceful is also interesting. They could just as easily be bent on conquest/colonization.
This passage from the paper cracked me up.
“Another recommendation is that humanity should avoid giving off the appearance of being a
rapidly expansive civilization. If an ETI perceives humanity as such, then it may be inclined to
attempt a preemptive strike against us so as to prevent us from growing into a threat to the ETI or others in the galaxy. Similarly, ecosystem-valuing universalist ETI may observe humanity’s
ecological destructive tendencies and wipe humanity out in order to preserve the Earth system as a whole. These scenarios give us reason to limit our growth and reduce our impact on global
ecosystems. It would be particularly important for us to limit our emissions of greenhouse gases, since atmospheric composition can be observed from other planets. We acknowledge that the pursuit of emissions reductions and other ecological projects may have much stronger
justifications than those that derive from ETI encounter, but that does not render ETI encounter
scenarios insignificant or irrelevant.”
These greenie folks are more of a threat to civilization than little green men.
OK. Now it is official, people: they HAVE redefined what peer review is. /sarc
On a more serious note, it strikes me that one teensy premise of the paper is way off the mark: even if we accept that aliens exist, are aware of and interested in us and our planet, and capable of detecting miniscule fluctuations in CO2 at huge distances, even then it strikes as anthropocentric in the extreme to assume that aliens would share a highly evolved taxonomical understanding of and appreciation for the Earth’s biodiversity with what is effectively a minority of the indigenous human population.
I guess the aliens who live a few billion light years from us have recently noticed that the oxygen content of the atmosphere has gone from virtually zero to 21% thanks to the boom in green plants.
They may be sending spaceship loads of Roundup!
Scene: the War Room (no smoking or fighting)
“I’m sorry Mr President, but the aliens are about to land, we’ve tried nukes, fighters, no effect. Slim Whitman inflicted twenty percent casualties while the banjos and bagpipes have accounted for another twenty percent but we only have one weapon left.
Only you can authorise its use as it will destroy all intelligent life on the planet, one or two teenagers or those hard of hearing in deep bunkers might make it though.”
The Presidents voice shook as he spoke the fateful words,
“May God forgive us, Unleash the Beiber!”
At least this was supposed to be fiction:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1300563/
The Age of Stupid
“A future archivist looks at old footage from the year 2008 to understand why humankind failed to address climate change. “
As my daughter would say: “LOL”
It presumes a value system similar to some of our own but then, that’s the Guardian, madder than a box of frogs!
Maybe They will simply come here to steal our carbon dioxide to help thaw their frozen world.
Unflippingbelievable! File this under WTF (Winning The Future).
Robert of Ottawa says:
August 19, 2011 at 11:07 am
“I find drinking beer regularlry has prevented aliens from invading Earth.”
=============================================
I can’t argue with what is proven to work.
I haven’t seen an alien yet, so keep hoisting that glass. After all, it’s to “save the planet” and it’s all “for the children.”
Well so much for the Prime Directive.
“I will do what I can to rectify this, including distributing this post to the Guardian, Drudge, and NASA Watch. Please help me spread this post to the other places you may see the article inaccurately attributed to NASA.”
Be sure to tell them all – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3FnpaWQJO0
The science fiction is settled!
Where is the scientific evidence that other civilizations in our galaxy:
(1) even exist?
(2) are any more advanced than we are?
(3) don’t have their own problems?
(4) even know/care what kind of gas we are passing?
Maybe they are looking at earth through their telescopes, terrified that we’re coming to get them…
Report author: “… Oops, did I just click Reply All
New phrase, beyond Fonzi’s “Jumping the Shark” as a term of bottom-of-the-barrel desperation.
Now we have alarmists who’ve reached the bottom, having “Jumped to Aliens.”
Was any one of the authors member of the failed Pennstate Climategate Michael Mann inquiry ?
Robert of Ottawa says:
August 19, 2011 at 11:07 am
I find drinking beer regularlry has prevented aliens from invading Earth.
====================================================
Robert, you are confusing cause and effect… I suggest you repeat the experiment.
So I click on the PaleBlue.blog and all I see is a guy in a canoe from NASA back-paddling.
I’m still waiting for R Gates to comment on this peer reviewed paper published in a scientific journal.
I won’t hold my breath.
reply to: mark wagner says: August 18, 2011 at 6:58 pm
You’re welcome Mark, I try to ‘help’ where I can in situations like this. {VBG}
“Don’t bogart that grant, my friend. Pass it over to me….”
George Turner says:
August 18, 2011 at 2:45 pm
“I, for one, look forward to an invasion attempt by these alien idiots who can stare at thousands of planets for millions of years and not realize that atmospheric gases change over time.”
I agree with George, but for a different reason. Think about all of the past Star Trek episodes. Has any other single male besides me noticed that most of the alien women are really hot? Even the Borg queen. If any of you are monitoring this blog from afar, perhaps you could refer me to a reputable intergalactic dating website? 🙂
Hey! it makes perfect sense.
Really, look at the long term record:
1 – earth gets warmer
2 – CO2 goes up
3 – earth gets cooler
Now we know why it gets cooler after CO2 rises: it’s nuclear winter, brought on by worried alien greens each time.
In all honesty, mankind might want to first try to find a realistic answer to to the question ‘What is life?’ (or, the more basic form: ‘What’s the difference between a live cat and a dead cat?’). All this speculation about ETI skips that step. If we don’t really understand what life is, how in the world would we predict how much of it might be out there, and what it might think of us?
Personally, I blame this type of pseudo-science on the mental illness I call ‘Masters of the Universe complex’.
If you read their definition of ‘universalist,’ it said: “a universalist ETI is one that desires to maximize the interests of everyone, regardless of which civilization they are part of.”
Well, that’s pretty close to how democrats view themselves. In fact, in some circles democrats are viewed as internationalists. Nice of them to blow their own horns…
Steve from Rockwood said August 19, 2011 at 3:30 pm:
The lack of aliens invading Earth is causing Robert to drink beer regularly?
Are you conducting your own similar experiments?
[Robt requests additional data be gathered, more research into the alien/beer ratio be determined. As soon as possible, Robt ] 8<)
Well I dunno. It sounds as credible as anything else the warmers have to say. 🙂
“Robt requests additional data be gathered, more research into the alien/beer ratio be determined. As soon as possible, Robt ”
My grant application is in the mail…..have you noticed the cost of good beer?
From Dave Worley on August 19, 2011 at 7:39 pm:
Did you remember to tie it to global warming? If not, you might be stuck with National Bohemian.
For additional anecdotal evidence, I never got in the habit of regular beer drinking, haven’t had any booze in years, and yet the Earth has still not been attacked by aliens. BTW, my lack of beer drinking may be traced to exposure to National Bohemian back in college. Cheapest stuff available, and almost worth the price.
Heh, I wonder who on their PR staff wrote the Wikipedia entry (emphasis added):
Health benefits? I will note there are many touting the health benefits of drinking urine as well.
Should they now note the health benefit of avoiding alien invasions? Off to your research, Dave!
“Green” aliens might object to the environmental damage humans have caused on Earth and wipe us out to save the planet.
They are already all over the place since IPCC 3 in 2001. They look like humans and gather in Green parties. They are all from Mars (or Venus, like James Hansen).
Today is a good day to be a denier. After reading all these comments and I feel good! 😉
It’s a joke, but people will do anything to get published. Reminds me of an email joke
I received recently from a friend in UK. It started off ‘Bye for now, I am packing my
bags, no sure when I’ll be back again…”
I scrolled down, and there were three little green aliens dancing away and underneath
the message read …
We are looking for good looking sexy middle aged women so be ready to receive us.
Cheers for now, I’m packing my bags too just in case it wasn’t a joke …LOL
Anthony, Please do what you can to assure this thoughtful, insightful, peer reviewed paper is read on every TV station in the US. It deserves no less!
Dear Dave R Aug 19 9.51 pm.
(With great respect I may add) May I suggest you don’t use the term ‘denier’. I am a skeptic about the AGW claim promoted by those who wish to gain financial benefits by corrupting the data to suit their hypothesis.
While attending a lecture by Prof Robert Carter recently he pointed out, denying climate change is not the issue, and can be used against those who disagree with AGW. Climate change is real, but not driven by CO2 or carbon emissions. And more importantly cutting carbon emissions and turning to expensive clean energy will not change the climate anyway. I suggest that you and others emphasise you do believe in climate change as a natural cycle in Earth’s history. But absolutely disagree with AGW as being false to the point it is fraudulent and a lie bringing real science study
into disrepute.
In the mean time folks look at this ‘Stop The Environment’ if this was meant to be a skit on skeptical science, then it didn’t work. It is funny though, are they suggesting again we can control the climate – warning, strong language used.
http://www.funnyordie.com/videos/170f627ee7/stop-the-environment
I love the comment about Al Gore?
Well, if there really were aliens. . . they would destroy humans because we were so stupid as to write junk like this anywhere.
What if the Aliens are plant based.. They will LOVE the increase in Co2, and possibly thank us .. he he he
….. Of course the joke is not the aliens, but that anthropogenic sources of CO2 have any significant effect on climate…… That’s the real joke. 🙂
Marine at 4.15 am I wrote a book actually that concerned a ET who landed by a fault in her surveyor vessel and stranded on Earth.From a solar storm actually c 1788 the same time as the first colonisation by the British in Australia. She could not tolerate the lack of humidity and higher oxygen content of our atmosphere. She landed in the outback. So she had to don a humidity suit to survive in our atmosphere. However, she was able to maintain her physical needs by
the help of Aborigines who directed her to an subterranean cavern where there was plenty of water and she survived in this artificial atmosphere driven by solar energy (from her craft) and plants that gave off more CO2 than oxygen. Until her ET mates could rescue her. I wrote it 20 years ago. However – the plants she brought with her were also ET. It seems these plants had the same ESP as our canines seem to have and were a necessary companion on her flights. Must bring it up to date.
“One flew over Cuckoo’s Nest” comes to mind.
This must be a record on WUWT, 334 comments, 335 if this one gets through moderation. Is this a record? And can we please have some more idiotic but true posts please Anthony, I haven’t laughed so much for ages.
On http://www.joannenova.com.au they got over 1000 for Convoy of No Confidence, then brought in another. Some were actually against the protest, but Jo let them through.
Typical trolls who still think humans contr0l the climate.
As a lot of pro CAGW people do, argue it is peer reviewed science so must be good, yeh right.
If any aliens are even 50 light years away they can only see up to August 1961 at the moment. To any CAGW supporters here, get real and don’t believe everything you read, research it yourself. If there is no better example this has to be the one.
I’ve got it! The whole CAGW scare was just a big goof, a practical joke of sorts. This aliens thing is the tip-off. They were only kidding the whole time! Duh! We skeptics/climate realists can be really dense, sometimes. Any day now, they’re going to say “ha-ha, fooled ya, nyuck nyuck nyuck”. Right? Right?
And the winner is : “Buy a Prius or Mork will shoot you in the face, say experts”
http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/science-%26-technology/buy-a-prius-or-mork-will-shoot-you-in-the-face%2c-say-experts-201108194216/
Now that’s funny!
Andrew Harding says:
August 20, 2011 at 7:08 am
“This must be a record on WUWT, 334 comments, 335 if this one gets through moderation. Is this a record? And can we please have some more idiotic but true posts please Anthony, I haven’t laughed so much for ages.”
=========================================================
It’s a few hundred short of a record and my off-the-cuff guess would be that it’s not even in the top 50.
However… congratulations on post #335, and you are correctomundo; the comments have been a hoot!
These are the same idiots that were drinking heavily during the Reagan years, convinced that we were all going to die in a fireball of nuclear death. Or perhaps it’s their children…
All aboard the paranoid and stupid train…
I nominate this paper for the 2011 Best Appeal to Deus ex Machina Award and may I further suggest the Paul Krugman be the presenter of the award should this paper win?
If the ET’s are so concerned about AGW why don’t they give us zero-point energy?
So we don’t have to kill ourselves after all ROFL!
Looking at the author’s homepages is, well, enlightening – although not in the way I suspect they’d like. One has to seriously wonder about the quality of science education in our schools when you run across things like this – not to mention it’s certainly a heck of a note about the value of ‘peer-review’ anymore. Anyhow, on the homepages…. On one, personal news and music interests come before research, writing, and resume. Or we can check out another published paper, also in a supposedly peer reviewed journal (this one open source, so the authors paid something like $600 for the priviledge), which is described by the author as follows (with links to the youtube bit etc. http://sethbaum.com/ac/2010_Doom.html):
We really need a dramatic reading of that by William Shatner!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpbSwSlP4Yc (tweets) Or by Sarah Palin for that matter, as you’ll see from the Shatner/Palin book-off http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM-mgBvCJmo Just hear, in your mind, either of them going at the above abstract and you’ll be grinning at the least.
Of course, we do have to give some credit – one of this trio did give us the entertaining:
“The Arrival”: Aliens help us raise Earth’s temp, because they like it hot. A 1996 sci-fi movie; gives a new meaning to the term “AGW.”
Deus ex spatio populi
There’s nothing to fear. I know how to speak to spacemen.
Agga Bogga Hagraffa.
I learned that from the “Addams Family” years ago.
Funny. Paul Krugman suggested it would be a good thing with a space alien invasion.
“…I’m deeply sorry for that, but it was a mistake born our of carelessness and inexperience and nothing more.”
Oh, yeah? What about ignorance and gross stupidity? Oh, wait; this was in the Grauniad? No problem, then.
ScepticalCanadian in the Gaurdian made me Laugh Out Loud.
“There you have it folks the hard evidence we have all been waiting for to confirm the validity of the global warming theory.
Now that catastrophic warming is a bust we must attempt to scare the population into action with reports of alines. What about the loch ness monster, big foot perhaps we could get a report on how global warming is affecting them? I have often wondered how 1/2 degree of warming will affect poltergeist or goblins, could we get a report on this as well?
LMAO Peer reviewed science indeed.”
The main Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet printed an article about this the 20. August:
http://www.dagbladet.no/2011/08/20/nyheter/forskning/utenomjordisk_liv/17737039/
The phenomenal thing is that they (who have been believers in AGW from the start, and have had not a little responsibility for turning Norway into a land of believers and Norwegian politicians into the most AGW-taxing politicians in existence) included a poll:
Who do you fear most? – Aliens, or – Alien-researchers?
http://stem.start.no/result.php?id=17864
As you can see, Norwegian readers fear alien-researchers most: 87% as the poll had 15000 votes.
The poll has now been deleted, and I have my suspicions why…
Believing this will take one small step for Mann but a giant leap for the rest of mankind.
Do the authors also imagine what it will be like when the aliens arrive? Will it resemble the finale of Duck Soup?
I doubt that aliens will waste any resources to finish off human civilization once they see what a good job we’re doing by ourselves.
Why aren’t they already here?
Check out “Flying to Valhalla”, by Pellegrino. With the Rules for Alien Contact co-authored by Asimov.
In a nutshell, at least some, or one, predatory space-going species would consider all other such to be competitors to be destroyed. Such a species would probably set up near-C missile factories around their star, and launch at any potential rival.
Other races, not so aggressive, must consider that someone out there thinks like that. The only rational self-preservation strategy is pre-emptive: do it first. So every technological species must reluctantly be obliged to destroy all others as soon as they are detected.
That’s why there’s a Big Silence out there. Knowing the above, the only way to survive, additional setting up your own automated missile factories, is to be very quiet, and migrate to an unlikely locale around some other star, dig in, and hide.
About the missiles: a .92C shuttle-sized object would blow a hundred mile hole in the atmosphere and crust, and wipe out all advanced life. At that speed, you get to see its gamma wake at about 12X its actual distance from you. If it seems 1 light-month away, it’s actually about 4 days out.
Time enough to bend over and kiss your bippy goodbye.
Did any editors resign over this Scientific research yet?