The New and Improved SETI

I’m back from my self imposed blogging vacation with an update on the SETI program from Space.com. This will be the year for space, with probes reaching Mars, and Huygens scheduled to land on Titan. What a great time to be alive, barring a few World Wars and tsunamis…well, you can’t have everything.

Taking Time Off

I won’t be blogging for the next week or so. Taking some time off to do repairs on the computer, and enjoy the Christmas season. Will be back sometime after New Year.

Coming Attractions: Huygens lands on Titan

January 14th marks another turning point in our exploration of the Solar System. Huygens lands on Titan, possibly discovering an ocean of hydrocarbons. Should be fun.

White Christmas

I’ve probably seen White Christmas 20 times. Every Christmas, my wife and I gather the munchkins together, and watch Bing, Danny, Rosemary and Vera dance and sing their way to helping the General.

And, yes. I have to admit it. I still have a crush on Vera Ellen. I’ve never seen her in another movie, and only while researching this post discovered she died in 1981. A small part of me very saddened by that. Fortunately, she lives on every Christmas at our house, and every Christmas there’s a happy ending, and always snow…. Merry Christmas.

Born-Again President — White House Hanukkah

Dennis Prager on celebrating Hanukkah at the White House.

Only in America does a president light a menorah while a Jewish choral group sings Hebrew songs and the Marine band plays American songs. Only in America do Jews feel so honored as Jews and yet so completely part of the larger culture, fully Jewish and fully part of the greater nationality. Non-American Jews (including even Canadians) are often amazed at how completely American Jews in the U.S. feel. We take it for granted, but as a former college lecturer in Jewish history, I know that this is unique.

It is quite remarkable, and a celebration of our unique heritage that such a thing can happen, and not even make the news.

The Theme is Freedom

I’ve linked one of my favorite works on Liberty, The Theme is Freedom in Liberty Recommends. Very much worth reading to understand what the Founding Fathers had in mind when they established this nation, and the freedoms we take for granted.

About the separation of Church and State, the wall was never meant to work both ways. Government should indeed stay out of religion. This does not mean the values of faith are to stay out of government. The Founding Fathers, including Jefferson, believed Judeo-Christian tradition and values were a cornerstone of government. Their fear was of government intrusion into religion, not the reverse. It remains the great threat to religious freedom today.

The link is to the Williamsburg Charter, a forthright re-evaluation of the 1st Amendment’s religion clause. Government intrusion into religious matters is indeed to be feared, and fought at every turn. The Williamsburg Charter presents a well-balanced approach to the debate, and places responsibility for civil debate on both sides. Liberty Just in Case is a fine example of that ongoing tension.

Bye, Bye O’Keefe. So, What’s Next for Nasa?

O’Keefe’s resignation presents and opportunity for NASA. O’Keefe was a steady hand, but was far to conservative to hold the post. What’s needed is a bold spokesman, not a bureaucrat. Rather NASA will find such a person remains to be seen.

The Reason for the Season: Mark’s Response

Many of the traditions that have grown up around this day have nothing to do with the story itself. I think it’s important to read the document:

The Birth of Jesus
an excerpt from:
Luke 2:1-20 NIV

In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register.

So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger, because there was no room for them in the inn.
The Shepherds and the Angels
And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid. I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.

Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel, praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men on whom his favor rests.”

When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.”

So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart. The shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.

Most Evangelical Biblical scholars believe Luke wrote this around 80 AD. His goal was to write a history of Jesus. Most scholars believe he used the book of Mark extensively, but also relied on eyewitnesses of the events. There is far more evidence, both internally and externally for the historical accuracy of the New Testament than any other ancient document. Lee Strobel’s book The Case for Christ is an readable and balanced look at the New Testament version of Jesus. Well worth reading at this time of year.

The New Library of Alexandria: Google Powered

This is a huge story, only to build in the coming years:

Google, the operator of the world’s most popular Internet search service, plans to announce an agreement today with some of the nation’s leading research libraries and Oxford University to begin converting their holdings into digital files that would be freely searchable over the Web.

It may be only a step on a long road toward the long-predicted global virtual library. But the collaboration of Google and research institutions that also include Harvard, the University of Michigan, Stanford and the New York Public Library is a major stride in an ambitious Internet effort by various parties. The goal is to expand the Web beyond its current valuable, if eclectic, body of material and create a digital card catalog and searchable library for the world’s books, scholarly papers and special collections.

Someday, we may be able to access all human knowledge through our desktops. A true Encyclopedia Galactica.

An AOL Nightmare

I told the AOL support tech, located somewhere in India, Pakistan, or Hell, that this would be my first post once I woke up from this nightmare. Ummm, I told him this as I was slamming down the phone. Not my usual style, but the conditions certainly warranted it.

Last Friday night, sitting in front of my old 850 mhz AMD Duron, Windows 98SE computer (insert laughter here) I decided to see what was going on with AOL these days. I had a nifty AOL for Broadband disc courtesy of the US Postal Service, and a fifty day free trial. I mean, why not?

No lightning or thunder rolled as I hit INSTALL. No smoke appeared from my processor, though considering it’s age, it was due for some smoke, even a flame or two. But no. It just whirred along like it has since Mary Lynne upgraded it in her garage 3 years ago.

I restarted my geriatric, but still fully functional computer.

Then I clicked the very stylish AOL icon
And my virus software died.
And my spam software began flashing error messages.
And then IE, Mozilla and Opera wouldn’t start.
After that, things began to get really bad.

I unistalled the demonic AOL,carefully using the Control Panel, and then restarted.

My virus software was still DOA

My spam software was complaining it couldn’t use Port 110, and was therefore offically resigning until the idiot that caused the mess found the offending program.

Not even Opera would get me back on the Internet, though the DSL connection was working, and seemed to function fine.

That’s when I called the 7 Eleven, er, AOL tech support.

After firmly establishing that I DID NOT HAVE A MEMBERSHIP, did not WANT a membership, and only wanted an exorcism for my possessed computer, he asked me what the problem was.

I told him.

Calmly. Without expletives.

And then I said the evil word.

Browser.

Yep, browser. I told him I had unistalled Beelzebub, but his spirit remained, and therefore my browsers no longer functioned.

He said, “Oh, we do not handle browsers. This is not our problem.”

Even though he agreed with me that AOL had possessed my computer, he could not FIX IT!!!! Even though it was obvious the evil came from his particular region of Hell, it was not his problem.

And his supervisor was not available, and, no, the supervisor could not call me back. Apparently the phone lines run one way in India, or Pakistan, or Hell.

That’s when I told him about this post.

And slammed the phone down.

Sigh.

I’m back up and running now, thanks to May at SBCYahoo tech support. Took 3 days to do it.

I’m very tired.

And could care less about a made up holiday like Kwanzaa.

Sigh.