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Stephen Hawking

In a new series on the Discovery Channel, Hawking explains “If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn’t turn out well for the Native Americans”.

My own thoughts are that it would be extremely hard to predict what intelligent aliens’ intentions might be, therefore it is safest to not have contact with them at all. That means, as Hawking also pointed out, not advertising our presence in the universe. In my opinion, sending out information out into space to meet these hopefully altruistic, nice aliens, as in the Pioneer 10 plaque, is naive and stupid beyond description. How do we know these aliens are going to be nice or even neutral? How do we know they wouldn’t wipe us out on contact? There is no way to know, therefore wisest to assume the worst. In the Army, they have a concept called “radio blackout”, where everyone turns off radio transmissions so that an enemy cannot find your position by triangulation. Could it be that other alien civilizations come to this same conclusion – that they can’t trust anyone else out there, and therefore enforce a permanent, planet-wide radio blackout? That would be one explanation of why we haven’t detected alien radio transmissions.

I also agree with Hawking’s point that just by statistical reasoning, any alien civilization more advanced than us, especially those with the ability of distant space travel, would be advanced to an extreme compared to us – likely by millions of years.

Do aliens have a
human-like form?

Another point where I would side with Stephen Hawking is that animals on other planets would have surprisingly similar bodily arrangements/features as earth animals. I would go so far as to predict intelligent aliens would have a general human-like form, maybe not too unlike the “grays” type that has evolved in the popular imagination. My reasoning is the principle of convergent evolution – that is, that adaptions to very similar environmental/niche conditions produce similar adaptions.

I’ve noticed most theoretical physicists don’t theorize about evolution and life very well, but I have to say, Stephen Hawking does pretty good!

Scientific researchers have discovered a kind of jellyfish and a shrimp-like animal 600 feet under an ice shelf in Antarctica, where no sunlight reaches. The discovery sheds light on just what types of lifeforms can survive where, for researchers.

However, in my estimation, just because life can survive 600 feet under an ice shelf on earth or deep underground on earth, doesn’t mean it would exist in equivalent spots on other planets and moons elsewhere in the universe. I think it would take somewhat robust success of life on a given planet or moon in more productive ecosystems to produce lifeforms that could thrive in such energy and heat starved environments. However, if a planet was more hostile, but had much, much more time for life to evolve or was even more overall stable than our planet has been, then complex life might arise in those challenging environments.

Scientists go ‘gaga’ to find creatures beneath 600 feet of ice

Artist’s rendition of
ancient Greenlander

An analysis of an ancient Greenlander’s DNA (from a hair sample) yielded a surprise – that he was unrelated to modern, native Greenlanders and apparently was from a group that migrated from Siberia more recently than known ancestors of Native Americans. Researchers believe the group came from Siberia about 5,500 years ago and the man whose DNA was analyzed lived about 4,000 years ago.

This obviously blows up some previous assumptions about ancient migrations, etc., and I believe there will be many more surprises to be found in human DNA over the next couple of decades, revealing unexpected ancestries, migrations and more. Sure, 90% of archaeology, prehistory will remain the same, but 10% might need totally rewritten. Do South American natives have a small amount of Polynesian ancestry? Do Europeans carry any Neanderthal DNA at all? Mitochondrial DNA studies say something, but they don’t reveal the whole picture. Genetic contributors may leave no trace of mitochondrial DNA, though they contributed nuclear DNA. In fact, male-only contributors would leave no mitochondrial DNA trace at all, since mitochondrial DNA is only inherited through the mother. And simple genetic drift could easily wipe out maternal mitochondrial DNA contribution from female contributors, while the untested nuclear DNA contribution persists.

On a related note, who were the Clovis people? This finding with the ancient Greenlander DNA certainly lends credibility to the theories of the Clovis people being a genetically separate group who found the Americas on their own and died out or were assimilated into later migrations of the ancestors of modern Native Americans.

Ancient human genome sequence of an extinct Palaeo-Eskimo (Nature)

Ancient Greenland gene map reveals surprise (TimesofMalta.com)

Hill Top Gun Club, based in the Athens, Ohio / Ohio University area, provides an array of firearms training, including affordable Ohio concealed carry certification and training.

Political and economic developments have catalyzed a great interest in firearms, ammunition, firearms training and certifications.

Training is done in rural Athens County, but not far from Athens and Ohio University.

• Full time year around combat training
• CCW, shotgun and home defense
• Trainers are former and current Law Enforcement and Military
• Trainers are all NRA Life members
• Athens County’s only certified gun range

Call (740)592-6205 today, to see what training is available, or see the website, below, for more information.

HillTopGunClub.com

Magic Rentals has a nice selection of houses and apartments for rent for Ohio University students and the Athens, Ohio area. In addition to Athens properties, homes are available for rent in the Albany and Amesville areas. The owners are Joel and Martha Laufman.

See Magic Rentals website, MagicRentalsAthens.com, for more information.

Athens, Ohio’s oldest carry-out, with over 50 years of history, has a new owner, new look, and a new name: BellaVino. Lilian Chandler Alfano has bought the business and gave it a nice make-over.

Whether you’re looking for some special wine or spirits, or just looking for a six-pack on the way home, BellaVino is the place. Conveniently located on 22 Stimson Avenue in Athens, it is within walking distance of campus, yet easily reachable by car. Walk in to leisurely browse around or pull up to the drive-through window to get your favorite beer, wine or liquor.

Among BellaVino’s Offerings:

• Wines
  • Fine Wines
  • Organic Wines
  • Specialty Wines
• Beers, Ales, Lagers
• Liquors

Visit the BellaVino website! BellaVinoAthens.com