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O.K., just a couple thoughts more on this topic which nobody else seems to think is a big deal and, until we get some more information, of course, we don’t actually know that the Borra-Trottier report is proof of intelligent extraterrestrial life, we just don’t know that it’s not. Then, I promise to leave the topic alone (well, I’ll try) until we get some more information, but I would be surprised if there aren’t a lot of astronomers around the world -professionals as well as amateurs – looking into those 234 suns right now.
I haven’t been able to find out what percentage of stars in the Galaxy are G2V type stars, like our sun, but I’m pretty sure it’s not a rare type. So, out of the 2.5 million stars examined, probably several thousand, maybe over a hundred thousand, might fit that description. So, even among those, 234 is a small percentage. To me, this makes it more convincing that the signals came from advanced civilizations, and not just the natural spectral pattern of that kind of star. It’s basic Drake equation stuff. There needs to be a planet in the Goldilocks zone. That planet needs to have surface water, but not be entirely covered by surface water. Civilzation is not going to develop on a liquid planet because you would not have fire, and without fire you wouldn’t have metallurgy, and that’s pretty key. It’s probably important, if a civilization is going to survive a few thousand years, that the planet not get hit by TOO many asteroids, so a large planet like Jupiter further out might be a prerequisite, but maybe it needs to get smacked now and again by SOME asteroids, and maybe we’re right in the Goldilocks zone of that. If an asteroid hadn’t killed all the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, we’d have never evolved. So, the numbers drop again.
In the end, only 234 out of thousands isn’t so much. If they are intelligent signals, are they coming from 234 worlds which have been settled by one spacefaring species or (which I think more likely), 234 separate alien species, who have formed at least enough of a federation that they’ve agreed on a type of message, which they are now beaming out to us. Well, perhaps US specifically. I suspect it’s mor like “Whoever can see this, please feel free to get in touch.”
Another thought that struck me while I was thinking about this is that the survival of the human race is no longer themost interesting question. The question is, can we have intelligent life that lasts forever? Out of 235 species (counting su), I’d say the odds are pretty good.

Well, that was silly. Here’s what happened:
Helena has started taking tennis lessons, which actually makes my life easier overall, so tonight’s screwup is small potatoes in the larger scheme of things. It means that instead of taking Isabel to tennis and waiting there for an hour and walking her home, which I don’t usually enjoy much because there’s nothing in their cafe including, most of the time, service and it’s starting to get cool enough (not to mention already pitch dark) so waiting outside is not an option and there’s no place to go but the cafe, I can just drop her off and go home, and then she comes home with Helena.
Well, I’d come home and Helena was just about to go, when I stepped out to the balcony to smoke a well deserved joint, not that I did anything special today, but everybody deserves a good joint now and again. She looked out, said she was leaving, and shut the balcony door, which she always does, hates the smell inside the flat, and she locked it. Which she also does, sometimes, but when somebody’s at home it’s no big deal, the do let me back in.
I didn’t realize it at first, as I said, I was smoking a joint, and I watched as she left the building and walked to the car, feeling good about having a bit of extra free home time instead of waiting around for Isabel to finish her lesson. I watched a few people coming and going, listened to a passing railroad train, let my thoughts wander. Then I finished my joint, turned to go back in, and realized I was locked out.
I considered calling her, but the phone was inside. I considered trying to find a way to break in, but couldn’t think of any that didn’t involve broken glass, so gave up on that idea. Fortunately, it was not a cold evening. A bit chilly, I was not wearing shoes but,fortunately, I did have socks. And a short sleeved shirt. But, there’s a window across the front and I could have closed it if I had wanted to. Actually, the space could be converted into a nice winter garden if we didn’t have it so cluttered with junk.
Anyway, I had to wait for Sam to get home from football to let me in, which was about 45 minutes. There was nothing to do, and nothing to get done. A bit of unplanned mandatory down time. Kind of pleasant, actually. But, I’ll try not to repeat the experience.

The first I saw of this check in at Standing Rock facebook wave, which is kind of a cool thing because fuck the police, it was from somebody I was pretty sure was not in the U.S. and thought “Wait a minute, I’m sure he’s in Prague, and he just got back from the U.S. a month or so, he wouldn’t have gone AGAIN” and then my second thought was “What a poser, pretending to be somewhere he’s not” and then I started seeing it from everybody, and the rationale behind it.
But, I didn’t know how to do it. So, I asked. And somebody told me. And my knowledge of how to use Facebook is somewhat increased, that is my one thing for today in the ‘learn something new every day’ game, which I am all in favor of elevating from ‘trite phrase’ to ‘actual thing’ status.
Another thing I learned today is that some of my students at the Anglo-German Business Academy where I’m subbing for a few weeks are totally racist. We had a discussion on how to solve the problem of overpopulation and every other answer started with “Kill all the….” And they thought they were being funny.
Anyway, Standing Rock. It’s a great idea, if the cops are going to be searching Facebook to harass people, we might as well mess with them. It’s sort of an “I’m Spartacus!” moment.
Generally, though, the knowledge of how to mark your location is of little interest to me and I’m not likely to start using it in normal circumstances. When I see people posting “I’m eating a sandwich at Bob’s Sandwich Bar” I’m not generally too interested unless it’s somebody I actually know and maybe Bob’s Sandwich Bar is a place I’ve actually been. It’s harmless enough, like cats or kids, but not really a conversation starter, not something that’s going to change my life.
Standing Rock is another matter entirely.

…and another opens, as they say, but often as not when one door closes a whole bunch of others open which means you either have to make choices or diversify.
The closing door is a poetry group I apparently have been banned from…I say apparently, because all reference to them has disappeared from my facebook page – I suppose they could have changed their name without telling me, or suddenly ceased to exist, but I consider that unlikely.
Also, the last poem I posted there said bad things about Hillary Clinton and used some bad language, so I reckon that’s why.
No matter. At first, I just brushed it off. After all, I’ve got my poetry readings, so I present my work there, I do short, short poems on twitter, and eventually everything gets collected in books (which make lovely Christmas presents by the way. A book of poetry is not terribly expensive and you can give it to that person you want to convince that you are a deep and sensitive type), so what the heck. But then I wrote a little poem today, not a great one, may or may not read it at the next poetry reading, but had a strong desire to post it somewhere.
It’s like when you’ve been thinking all day of smoking a joint when you get off work and then you get home and don’t have any papers, you WILL go out to get papers, even in a fucking blizzard.
So, I went to Google and typed in ‘facebook poetry groups,’ and found several lists. There are still 4 or 5 ‘pending,’ but for now, Hello Lost Notes and Dreams Poetry Paradox of a Drifting Star, Faces of Poetry, Poetry Universe, Poetry and Stories at Moontown Cafe, 2 a.m., and Poetry and Music. Good bye, Occasional Poems.

I was just watching Morgan Freeman’s “Through the Worm Hole” and that was the subject, “Free Will v. Pre-Determination” and my own position on the classical dilemma is that it must be more complicated than that.
Because in questions like this, it always is, and it usually comes down to some kind of combination of both.
Which came first, the Chicken or the Egg? Is Light a Particle or a Wave? Is life better in the city or the country?
False dichotomies all around. Light is made of waves which are made of particles traveling in unison, that’s what a wave is, look at a stadium wave, each person is a particle, but you still get the wave effect. Maybe I’m over simplifying but I’d just call that simplifying. But, I’m going the wrong way. My premise is that it’s more complicated, which means you meed to bring in all the other theories of light and there are plenty of those, for sure.
Chicken or egg? What about dinosaur eggs. Those came before chickens. But, seriously, there were undoubtedly intermittent stages of evolution, where you couldn’t call the creature a chicken, then it was something that resembles a modern chicken but isn’t, then a chicken-like creature and then, eventually, a chicken.
Is life better in the city or the country? Better for who? Better in what way? Isn’t is possible to do both?
So with free will v. pre-determination, I think we have free will as to what we watch on TV, about half the time, depending on who you live with, you have the choice of who you live with, more or less, except for kids, and criminals, and most people at some point in their lives. We have free will over what we eat, barring some severe allergies and cultural restraints. We don’t really have much free will that will actually determine the future. Well, maybe we do collectively, but it just doesn’t seem the human race is interested in working collectively. If not,though, we are pre-determined to fail. Free will could change that. Free will and a bit of common sense.