SETI Shuts Down

Click image to enlarge

SETI@Home, a hugely popular distributed computing project, is being switched off on December 15. What is distributed computing? You take a problem, break it up (or, "chunk" it) into thousands of pieces, and then distribute and solve the pieces on individual computers...in this case hundreds of thousands of PCs.

The SETI project searches for signals from other civilizations. I have run it for years now. Anytime your computer is idle, Seti@home begins processing data from the SETI project. When the problem is finished computing, your PC uploads the results and downloads the next problem. What makes it so popular is the included screen saver that showed your PC's progress in solving the problem. It is compelling and well-done. The problems themselves are data from outer space, captured at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico. Your computer analyzes radio signals (e.g., noise from outer space), looking for patterns and regular occurrences. . .looking for our cousins out there in space. They built this screensaver to be a graphic indicator of the problem you are solving. Watching it makes you feel like you're contributing! It is fun to watch, and fun to be part of a global project. This was not some nut-job deal, but a legitimate scientific endeavor...even if some of us in the field tilt toward the wack-job end of things.

The SETI team is merging with the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing. According to The Inquirer: "The workunit totals of users and teams will be frozen at that point, and the final totals will be available on the web."

A SETI spokesman said that "those who want to keep looking for aliens can do so, but they will also be able to donate computer time studying climate change or other BOINC projects." As if!

SETI is the first distributed computing project and has resulted in thousands of idle machines around the world doing something worthwhile and crunching trillions of numbers. It was fun while it lasted. It will be interesting to see the next distributed projects, and if they capture the public's imagination the way SETI has.
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President Ronald Reagan Glances Out The Window

"You glance out the window and the people are walking around Pennsylvania Avenue and you say, 'I could never say I am going to run down to the drugstore and get some magazines.' I can't do that anymore." President Reagan, 8/11/82, to The Time's Hugh Sidey that he sometimes feels trapped in the White House

"Sometimes I look out there at Pennsylvania Avenue and see people bustling along, and it suddenly dawns on me that probably never again can I just say 'Hey, I'm going down to the drugstore to look at the magazines,' " President Reagan, 12/09/82, discussing his feelings of confinement with a People reporter

"Sometimes I look out the window at Pennsylvania Avenue and wonder what it would be like to be able to just walk down the street to the corner drugstore and look at the magazines. I can't do that anymore." President Reagan, 12/16/82, discussing a regret with The Washington Post

"Sometimes I look out the window at Pennsylvania Avenue and wonder what it would be like to be able to just walk down the street to the corner drugstore and look at the magazines. I can't do that anymore." President Reagan, 12/16/82, shares thought with a radio interviewer
.
"You find yourself remembering what it was like when on the spur of the moment you could just yell to your wife that you were going down to the drugstore and get a magazine. You can't do that anymore." President Reagan, 1/27/84 , telling Time magazine about being President
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Painting: Cyclops 2

Click image to enlarge. . .
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Painting: Five Presidents

click painting to enlarge

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Poem: The Variations

This is a repeat. . .The original poem is not showing up, and therefore here it is once again...

1.
I don't know which is better
The thing itself
Or the chicanes

Lacunae
Variations
Selections

Emendations
Redactions
Prevarications

Blurring and
Sharpening
That transmogrify the tale with time

2.
I don't know which is better
To see the baby emerge
Or to see who the baby becomes

3.
I don't know which is better
To ponder the variations
Or to not


4.
These rogue and rococo thoughts
Skitter sideways
Like a sideshuffling crab

Using evasive tactics
In case anyone locks on
And attempts to impose

A framework
Of coherence and congruence
On these fitfully nuanced palabra


5.
If you actually begin to understand
What I am writing
We have all missed the point

Sometimes I don't know
What it means
Until someone else tells me


6.
Sometimes I don't know
If it's better to pull your leg
Or my own


7.
I don't know which is better
The fog and the detours
Or the thing itself.
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copyright (c) 2005 by Jack Brummet. 11-13-2005 vancouver, british columbia

Alien Lore No. 44 - The Extraterrestrial Exposure Law

This doesn't fall into the lore category, but certainly applies to people subscribing to that lore.

In July 1969, the ET Exposure Law was enacted without public debate (well, except some muffled screaming from UFOlogists). The law prohibits anyone from making contact with a UFO or any alien. If a person breaks this law, he or she can be fined up to $5000 and be incarcerated for up to a year. A NASA administrator is empowered to determine, even without a hearing, if a person has been exposed and can have that individual quarantined under armed guard for an indeterminate period of time. That would mean, I take it, up to and including forever...

There was no appeal to this decision. No test case ever came up, of course--somehow we never bagged anyone chatting up an alien. The law was revoked in the early 1990s. What were they thinking in the first place?
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Mencken Scoffs At Poets

A poet more than thirty years old is simply an overgrown child.

-H. L. Mencken (1880 - 1956)

He flings serious mud for someone who seemed pretty miserable most of the time. We don't want to even go into the world of hurt Mencken was in. . .but he was a very funny man nonetheless.

What Was Jack Kennedy Saying To Lyndon Johnson?

What was happening here? I don't think I have ever seen a photo of President Jack Kennedy with that same look:::::::::::::concern and anguish, woe, or the benign public face of his rage at whatever LBJ was shouting. I think we all extrapolate JFK saying "Okay Lyndon," or "that's enough," or something along those lines. Of all the LBJ pictures I have seen over the years, this one remains a mystery.

Someone must know how this photo was taken, and the circumstances that caused Senator Kennedy to reach out to muzzle Senator Johnson. It feels like a campaign appearance (therefore it happened after the Demo convention in July). After taking office, LBJ was presumably more restrained. The picture was likely taken sometime between September 5th and November 9th, 1960, between Labor Day--the 'old school' day to launch campaigns--and Election Day.

If you know anything about this photograph, please write! I have done searches on different portals and engines, and quite a few of the serious reference to the photo lead back to
All This Is That, which has no information at all! I can find the picture in other places, but no one ever explains it.

/jack

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Betty Brummet Triumphs Over Lori Sotelo, The Republican Party, And Former Dogcatcher, Republican Chair Chris Vance!

Betty Brummet has won back (and, in fact, never lost because her November 8 ballot was counted), her right to vote in Washington State. The 82 year old grandmother and World War II veteran had her right to vote challenged in a misguided sweep by frenzied Republicans trying to narrow the gap. The G.O.P. focused on evening the score after their hapless gubernatorial candidate narrowly lost a recount in a hotly contested and litigated election.

On being challenged, Betty and her supporters swung into action, contacting newspapers, local politicians, the A.C.L.U., Democratic and Republican Party officials, as well as the King County Prosecutor's Office.

This weekend, Betty Brummet received a self-serving and officious letter from the Republican Party telling her that her right to vote had been "challenged in error."

The Republican efforts backfired. As one citizen put it on the Sound Politics web site, "The only thing Chris Vance and the Republican Party succeeded in doing this election was to use a mean-spirited last-minute voter registration trick which backfired horribly to mint thousands of new Democrats. " ___________________________________________________________

King County Republican Party


November 18, 2005

Betty Brummet
xxxxxxxxxxxx
xxxxxxxxxxxx

Dear Betty Brummet:

We have found that your voter registration address was challenged in error. It was never our intention to challenge your registration address [1], but it was, unfortunately, included on the forms delivered to King County Records and Elections on October 28, 2005. We have delivered a letter to Dean Logan today asking that your voter registration address be rescinded from our challenge.

It is the intention of the Voter Registration Integrity Project that all legal voters in King County be registered properly. Ensuring that only properly eligible and registered persons can vote is essential to prevent diluting the votes of all citizens. There are tens of thousands of duplicate registrations, illegal registrations and registrations of people who are either deceased or have moved. We trust our government to value the sanctity of our vote. When clean voter rolls and not a priority, our vote is not valued. Out intention is to hold our government accountable to its citizens.

We value the right of every eligible person to vote and have no intention to undermine that right in any way. Please accept my apology for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

Sincerely,

Lori Sotelo, Sr. Vice Chair
King County Republican Central Committee


[1] All This Is That Editor's Note: In fact, Ms. Sotelo wrote under oath on the affidavit that accompanied the challenge to Betty's voter registration that Sotelo "has personal knowledge" that Betty did not in fact reside in the house where she has lived the last 52 years.

South Dakotan Charged With Having Sex With Dummy

The victim, or did she
entice him into the
lascivious act?


A Sioux Falls man was charged yesterday with indecent exposure after he was caught trying to have sex with a female mannequin on display at an arts centre.

Security guards found Michael Plentyhorse, 18, sprawled with the dummy on the floor of the Washington Pavillion with his trousers and pants down.

Police spokesman Loren McManus said: "There was inappropriate activity between him and the mannequin. " "That's the only way I know how to put it."

Security at the Pavillion say they've noticed the same mannequin undressed on several occasions. Drugs or alcohol do not seem to have been involved, and there seems to have been no consent given by the dummy.

If you want to visit him, drop him a line, or even send him a blow up doll:

Michael James Plentyhorse
708 N. Dakota Ave.
Sioux Falls, SD 57104-2417
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Keep Washington State Blue -- Vote Democratic

Buy one of their posters here...or just make a donation toward next November's crucial mid-term elections.
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President Bush Has An Unintentionally Comic Moment In Beijing

President Bush performed a comedy routine yesterday. At a briefing in China, The President ducked a question and attempted to leave the news conference. However, he bumped into a set of locked doors.

After the day's meetings with President Hu Jintao, POTUS met a small group of U.S. reporters and and talked about religious freedom, Iraq and the Chinese currency.

One reporter asked: "...you seemed a little off your game, you seemed to hurry through your statement. There was a lack of enthusiasm. Was something bothering you?"

"Have you ever heard of jet lag?" Bush responded. "Well, good. That answers your question."

President Bush then went over a list of positive developments from his meetings.

When the reporter asked for "a very quick follow-up," Bush cut him off by thanking the press corps and telling the reporter "No you may not," as he strode toward a set of double doors leading out of the room.

The doors were locked. "I was trying to escape. Obviously, it didn't work," Bush quipped. An aide pointed him toward the correct door. You can watch a video of the episode too.
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