noteworthy wrote:
Silver star.

This is better with the audio/video, but the transcript is still quite worthwhile.

Rose: Did you get what you needed from the budget in order to carry out the kinds of thing that is you think are a part of this battle against terrorism, this long war, and this attitude that you're reflecting now? In terms of the kind – how you're shifting from a Cold War to a different war.

Rumsfeld: The budget is fine. It's going to --
Rose: You can live with it?
Rumsfeld: We can live with it and we ought to do a better job of spending it. In other words, it is --
Rose: In terms of weapon systems?
Rumsfeld: Well, no. Weapons systems are one thing. Everyone talks about this airplane or that ship.
Rose: Right.

Rumsfeld: I'm more interested in intelligence gathering, connecting intelligence to the operations in real time so that you can actually stop something from happening. That's what we need to get better at. It is the soft stuff. It is the connectors. In linking the services in a way that you leverage that capability. Increasing precision in your attacks. Speeding data to the user, the person who needs it. The operator of that -- to have that data in his hands so something good can come of it. That's what we need. Sure, we have to worry about platforms and ships and guns and tanks and planes and that stuff. That is not what the department of defense has to be about.

MemeStreams is what it has to be about.

And the paragraph highlighted above is going on a posterboard in my office.

It's a ruse! That's an extraterrestrial being that is trying to fool us! Wait! Wait! Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain! If not - then we'd better check his blood alcohol content!

RE: Interview with Secretary Rumsfeld on the Charlie Rose Show

All your base are belong to Microsoft?

WASHINGTON — Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, one of the richest men on Earth, pledged Friday to donate $13.5 million for the research into extra-terrestrial life.

With the contribution, Allen will have given $25 million for the construction of the Allen Telescope Array , a network of 350 radio telescopes being built to find signs of life in space, said Thomas Pierson, director of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute.

The radio telescopes will measure the density of the early universe, the formation of stars and magnetic fields.

Allen donates millions to hunt for aliens

Decius wrote:
] I think its inevitable. In 100 years the moon will be covered
] with settlements. On dark nights you'll look up a see a sphere
] covered with a glowing spider web of cities and roads. We take
] the night moon for granted, hanging there naked and pristine
] as nature created her. Future generations will not know that
] moon, and the last to know her will mourn her loss. I think
] someone will probably buy enough land up there to make a sign
] visible from earth. Land will be cheap at first as the place
] is inhospitable. And there will be nothing you can do about it
] really. What people on the moon do with their land is
] definately out of the jurisdiction of some country on earth.

[ I dunno, i wouldn't say anything is inevitable, except maybe the end of the universe. It's like anything, a matter of fighting for things you believe in. I don't think unbridled corporatism is our assured future... i think there's plenty of time to work out positive solutions to our problems. I *definitely* don't think the moon will be out of Earth nations' jurisdiction for a long, *long* time, if ever.
Do i think that the dark moon will live forever? No, and I feel like that's probably a good thing all in all. I'm not against change, just change that minimizes or marginalizes our humanity. Seeing the lights of a moon settlement seems to me to expand and excite that feeling of human accomplishment. Sky-sized advertisements, on the other hand, diminish our humanity, underscore the baser aspects of our nature and lock us into traditional modes, even if it's under a different mechanism.
In the same way that I can appreciate achitechture and efficient means for housing people doesn't mean i wish to see all the world covered with it, it's a matter of balancing progress with history, technology with nature. It's not a new theme, at all, and I tend to feel like we're sort of losing the battle in a lot of ways, but it's important, i think, to give plenty of thought to things like human commons, nature vs. efficiency, etc. We'll be voting in our lifetimes on laws regarding utilization of extraterrestrial resources... it's time to think about that now, right along side your opinion on utilization of earthbound forests, air and sea resources. -k]

RE: Yahoo! News - Russian Inventor Patents Space-Ads Device

] Mars radiation 'serious risk' to astronauts
]
]
] Nasa's Mars Odyssey spacecraft has confirmed suspicions
] that the radiation on Mars could endanger astronauts sent
] to explore the planet.
]
]
] Scientists say the high radiation levels also suggest any
] extraterrestrial life would have little chance of
] surviving unless it were shielded beneath the planet's
] dusty, cold surface.

Ananova - Mars radiation 'serious risk' to astronauts

"Researchers spearheading a worldwide effort to find ET, or anyone else out in space besides us humans, plan to revisit a group of their most likely candidate radio signals using the world's largest radio telescope."

Global Extraterrestrial Hunt to Revisit Old Signals

] "Thousands of individuals are abducted by
] extraterrestrial beings each year.
]
]
] Who do the aliens choose, and why haven't they chosen
] you? " -- Call now!

Experience an Alien Abduction

So "Clonaid" is this company that is sponsored by a religous group that believes extraterrestrial scientists created life on earth. I am struggling to decide whether to put this under science or humor, so I am going to put it under miscellaneous and you can decide for yourself. Personally, I am against full human cloning, where the objective is to create a human being through cloning. What purpose does this serve? All this is doing is bringing cloning to the attention of everyone, which may lead to a full on law against any kind of cloning, and thats just not good. I could rant on and on and on and on about this (ask Tom), but I guess I will leave it for now. Anyway...you should also check out "Clonaid's" site.

CNN.com - Pro-cloning group claims to have embryos - November 28, 2001