Tuesday, August 14, 2007

 

Idea for SETI

Been a little bored lately, and ended up reading back towards the topic of SETI. Anyhow, instead of spending all the time looking for a strong analog carrier - they need to devise means of digital detection. A project to create "Digital Carrier Detection With Unknown Protocol". Limited use, but discovering that there is an actual digital signal where only noise was percieved earlier would be a big step forward. Who knows, aliens might even do a key within carrier protocol - making finding their signal much like cracking a DVD. But that can't be done until it's known that the carrier is actually there in the first place.

I suspect if there is any ETI out there with comparable tech to us, if he's using long-distance radio - he's on some form of spread spectrum. So what to do? Here's what I would propose:
1. Look for strong sources that were previously dismissed as white noise.
2. If the white noise from a common source is strongly limited to a band or band-gap-band, even better.
3. Determine if there is any synchronisity within the noise. That is if you can blow up the resolution of the noise - every little peak or valley lines up. This is likely to be the key to determining artifical behavior and observing the signal.
4. If above traits are apparent, run an ambient filter to narrow down signal to definite pops or clicks. This way all you have is a digital reference.
5. Run through methods to for digital signal analysis. Such as each frequency in the spectrum being a bit placeholder. Or perhaps as data running in parallel streams.
6. Try various methods to reverse analyze codecs. See if data exists and can be resolved into known types (audio, video, images, other misc. data types.)

Would be neat if someone bothered to analyze some strong "noise" sources to find out that the ETI has been chattering away all along. I'm sure some researchers would have a forehead slapping moment if this was indeed the case...

It'll probably be another generation before the analog addicts move on and SETI might actually have a chance to seriously do something like this. Well, that's it for today's random thought.

Friday, August 03, 2007

 

Educated guess at Chupacabra Taxonomy

From some of the more recent and less far out descriptions of "chupacabra", I went on a hunch and guessed that it probably had a lot in common with shrews of all things. It just happens to be a shrew the size of a dog. Looking things over, it probably isn't quite a member of the Sorcidae family. But in viewing over members of that family I did find another family called Solenodontidae. And guess what? The only known surviving members of animals in this mostly extinct family can only be found in the Caribbean on the islands of Haiti/Dominican Republic and Cuba. This coincides remarkably well with the Caribbean and Central American origins of the Chupacabra. A larger unknown member of the Sonodon family would have all the traits (strange calls, musky goat-like odor, aloofness, nocturnal, hiding in burrows, scrambling gait) that match those of the latest mammalian Chupacabra descriptions. Being that Solenodons are poisonous, it would also explain its quirky hunting behavior. Prey is paralyzed by the venomous bite, and therefore doesn't put up much resistance (if any.) This critter can pretty much do whatever it wants afterwards. It may actually be a living member of a Solenodon species considered long extinct.

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Wednesday, August 01, 2007

 

Escaping gravity...

Out of curiosity, I wonder how many people would take off (even if temporarily) if they had access to cheap and affordable anti-gravity technology? Think about it, with the right pressure vessel (just has to hold one atmosphere differential, some welding skills and a big compressed air tank should do) and anti-grav heading for space would be a lot less harder. Still unless it was an hour jaunt or so (wheee!), there'd be the issue of working out life support, space suits, air locks. But hell, at least you really know that you could get away from all the B.S. if you wanted. Anti-grav technology if it existed, would also mean that c is no longer the speed limit (you'd get over that whole inertia thing.) So if you had the time to work it out, you could also leave the solar system. Find other planets, maybe one with breathable air and edible plants and/or critters. Now that could be fun, afterall it's the basis for a lot of sci-fi.

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