The Blob grows further
From the Aviation Week site ( www.aviationnow.com ): "Cost overruns on the International Space Station are approaching $4 billion, and the White House's Office of Management and Budget has told NASA to find a way to pay for it before the agency's fiscal 2002 budget is set. "Sources tell Aerospace Daily that the station program office is developing options to cut back the scope of the station to cover the cost increase. Meanwhile, managers across NASA will be told Friday to find the money in their programs to pay for it. "Sources tell the Daily that the meeting, which includes agency associate administrators and field center directors, will include a call from Dan Goldin. He will urge cuts in current programs to cover the additional station costs over the next 4 years. "The additional costs are projected to be between $3.6 and $4 billion. Among the reasons for the station overrun are delays in Boeing's plans to reduce the size of its station staff as work on various components of the company's prime contract are finished, sources said. "Some of the cost-cutting options that station managers are looking at include 'off ramps' designed to halt station assembly short of what is now understood as completion." Comment is superfluous. Bruce Moomaw == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
SETI EDUCATION E-NEWS 2
SETI EDUCATION E-NEWS 2 == E-Newsletter Contents: Upcoming Public Events: Science Talks Opportunities for Educators: Field Test Teachers Needed Education Workshops Student Summer Opportunity Education Who's Who: Ly Ly Contact Information == UPCOMING PUBLIC EVENTS For more information, link to http://www.seti.org/general/cal.html Seth Shostak March 2-4, 2001 CONTACT 2001 Conference Friday: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, CA Saturday-Sunday: Biltmore Hotel, Santa Clara, CA For more information, visit http://www.softwaremanagement.com/contact/ Pascal Lee March 7, 2001 at 7:00 pm "Finding Mars on Earth" Smithwick Theater, Foothill College 12345 El Monte Road Los Altos Hills, CA Call (650) 949-7888 for more information Seth Shostak and Doug Vakoch March 18, 2001 at 3:00 pm A panel discussion: "SETI and the Social Implications of Contact" Morrison Auditorium, California Academy of Sciences Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, CA For more information, visit http://www.seti.org/general/cal_announce/seti_contact.html == OPPORTUNITIES FOR EDUCATORS FIELD TEST TEACHERS NEEDED! APPLY BY FEBRUARY 28. The Voyages Through Time (VTT) curriculum development project is now recruiting nationally for high school science teachers to field test VTT during academic year 2001-02. VTT is an integrated course in six modules around the theme of evolution. You can learn more about the project and obtain an application to join us as a field test teacher by connecting to the education pages on the SETI Institute web site and following the links to Voyages Through Time: http://www.seti.org/education/Welcome.html == EDUCATION WORKSHOPS The SETI Institute staff presents workshops at a variety of science and education conferences. An education calendar appears at our Web site: http://www.seti.org/education/cal-ed.html SAN DIEGO SCIENCE EDUCATORS ASSOCIATION 17TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE MARCH 9-10 Web site http://www.sdsea.org/ "Why are Humans Different Colors?" Pamela Harman and Edna DeVore March 9, 8:00 am "Life in the Universe: The Search for Life in the Galaxy" Edna DeVore and Pamela Harman March 9, 9:30 am "Explore the Invisible Universe with NASA" Edna DeVore and Pamela Harman March 9, 11:00 am NATIONAL SCIENCE TEACHERS ASSOCIATION NATIONAL CONVENTION March 22-25, 2001 St. Louis, MO Web site http://www.nsta.org/conv/ Visit us in the exhibit hall March 22-25 Voyages Through Time: Everything Evolves "Why are Humans Different Colors?" March 22, 12:30 pm Life in the Universe: The Search for Life in the Galaxy March 22, 9:30 am Earth Science Shar-a-thon March 23, 8:00 am Astronomy Shar-a-thon March 23, 9:30 am SETI Workshop "Bring SETI to your Classroom" March 23, 4:30 pm Earth Science Shar-a-thon March 24, 8:00 am "Explore the Invisible Universe with NASA" March 24, 3:30 pm == PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OPPORTUNITIES San Diego Science Educators Association 17th Annual Conference 2001: A Science Odyssey Friday-Saturday, March 9-10, 2001, The San Diego Concourse Web site http://www.sdsea.org/ Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) Educators Day Technology-Based K-12 Teaching-Learning Issues Strategies Saturday, March 10, 2001, San Jose Convention Center Web site: http://www.acm.org/acm1/educators/index.html National Science Teachers Association National Convention Thursday-Sunday, March 22-25, 2001 Cervantes Convention Center, St. Louis, MO Web site http://www.nsta.org/conv/ Andrew Fraknoi "The Violent Universe: Crashing Asteroids, Exploding Stars, and Cannibal Galaxies" Saturday, March 24, 2001, 9:00 am to 5:30 pm 155 Dwinelle Hall University of California, Berkeley For more information, visit http://www.learningsphere.org/astronomy.htm "An Education Odyssey" Spring 2001 CUE Conference Hosted by Computer-Using Educators, Inc. Thursday-Saturday, May 17-19, 2001 Anaheim Convention Center, Anaheim, CA Mail-in registration deadline is April 20 Online registration April 27 Please visit http://www.cue.org/ or call the CUE office at (510) 814-6630 "Portals to Learning" Fall 2001 CUE Conference Hosted by Computer-Using Educators, Inc. Thursday-Saturday, October 11-13, 2001 Sacramento Convention Center, Sacramento, CA Mail-in registration deadline is October 1 Online registration October 7 Please visit http://www.cue.org/ or call the CUE office at (510) 814-6630 == STUDENT SUMMER OPPORTUNITY Three UC campuses (Davis, Irvine, and Santa Cruz) will be enrolling high achieving high school students who excel in mathematics and science in the 4-week residential programs for this summer. UC is accepting
Quote of the Day for February 16, 2001
"If a man walk in the woods for love of them half of each day, he is in danger of being regarded as a loafer; but if he spends his whole day as a speculator, shearing off those woods and making earth bald before her time, he is esteemed an industrious and enterprising citizen." - Henry David Thoreau, "Life without Principle", 1863 http://eserver.org/thoreau/lifewout.html == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
Astronomers mock Fox show about Moon fakery
The last paragraphs are especially incriminating: Astronomers mock Fox show about Moon fakery http://usatoday.com/usatonline/20010215/3069311s.htm One sad part of the show for astronomers involves the production's use of Brian Welch, a well-liked NASA spokesman, who died unexpectedly in November at age 42. Welch rebuts some of the coverup allegations. Show producers confessed total ignorance of his death. ''Don't hate us. We're just entertainers,'' Tipley says. == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
Re: NASA Watch comments on the Fox Apollo crapumentary
On Fri, 16 Feb 2001 11:59:38 Larry Klaes wrote: "MOON LANDING QUESTIONED ON THE ALL-NEW SPECIAL 'CONSPIRACY THEORY: DID WE LAND ON THE MOON' FEB. 15 ON FOX" NASA put a man on the moon for the first time in 1969 -- or did it? Could the entire moon program have been an elaborate deception staged to fool the public? The conspiracy theories are investigated in the all-new one-hour special" Among the most ridiculous claims in this program was that astronauts were killed (by NASA) to keep them silent "because they knew too much" and that the Apollo landings on the moon were faked. Well, FOX wasn't even original, they stole the idea from the movie "Capricorn One"! In this movie it wasn't the Moon that NASA was pretending to have landed upon, but Mars. As for the killing of astronauts who knew to much: just the same. Maybe the copyright-holders of "Capricorn One" are willing to sue FOX??? Gert van den Heuvel, The Netherlands Get your small business started at Lycos Small Business at http://www.lycos.com/business/mail.html == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
Re: NASA Watch comments on the Fox Apollo crapumentary
"MOON LANDING QUESTIONED ON THE ALL-NEW SPECIAL 'CONSPIRACY THEORY: Yes, Fox embarrassed themselves playing this drivel. I'm not sure how poisonous this type of TV programming is compared to shows like "survivor" and its spin-offs, but ironically it may stimulate most people to ask more questions. It's good for people to be skeptical, but not blindly one-sided like the show. I only caught glimpses of what was aired on TV, but some of the skeptics claims are fairly weak. If they'd been a little more open minded, less stupid, and provided equal time to viewpoints it could of been a better show. Examples: - The flag waves while astronauts plant it. Is this due to wind? If so, how come it stops as soon as the astronaut takes his hand away? Why would there be wind on an indoor stage setting anyways? Why does the flag look so stiff and flutter so unnaturally? If NASA is hoaxing us, wouldn't they have edited the pictures to remove any questionable material? - The shadows aren't parallel. Is this due to stage setting? Maybe a fish-eye lens causes this? Maybe parallax? etc... This kind of balanced questioning could produce some healthy thought. Just because NASA or a scientist makes a claim doesn't make it true... so cover it from all angles. Certainly NASA was able to land at least robots, since mirrors, detailed pictures, and far pictures of earth were obtained. What about lunar regolith samples? Spectroscopic analysis? Certainly the apollo rockets were sufficient to the task? So turn the argument around: how can NASA keep such a huge secret and keep the scientists around the world fooled for so long? It may be that Fox knows the average american better than I how else can you explain that you can air Alien Autopsy and also claim that we can't land people on the moon? Just keep flashing sensational muck before your audience to keep them watching through the ads. The moral of the story? You can lead a moron to television, but ya can't make him think. == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
New MIT Press books on AI and Evolutionary Robotics
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: new books from MIT Press Date: Fri, 16 Feb 2001 15:29:17 GMT NEW BOOKS IN COMPUTER SCIENCE FROM THE MIT PRESS Featured in this e-mail: Introduction to AI Robotics, by Robin R. Murphy Evolutionary Robotics, by Stefano Nolfi and Dario Floreano *If you would like to receive a free hard copy of our Computer Science catalog, please send an email including your name and mailing address to [EMAIL PROTECTED], with "Computer Science catalog" in the subject line. Please follow the URLs below for more information. Introduction to AI Robotics Robin R. Murphy http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/MURIHF00 This text covers all the material needed to understand the principles behind the AI approach to robotics and to program an artificially intelligent robot for applications involving sensing, navigation, planning, and uncertainty. Robin Murphy is extremely effective at combining theoretical and practical rigor with a light narrative touch. In the overview, for example, she touches upon anthropomorphic robots from classic films and science fiction stories before delving into the nuts and bolts of organizing intelligence in robots. Following the overview, Murphy contrasts AI and engineering approaches and discusses what she calls the three paradigms of AI robotics: hierarchical, reactive, and hybrid deliberative/reactive. Later chapters explore multiagent scenarios, navigation and path-planning for mobile robots, and the basics of computer vision and range sensing. Each chapter includes objectives, review questions, and exercises. Many chapters contain one or more case studies showing how the concepts were implemented on real robots. Murphy, who is well known for her classroom teaching, conveys the intellectual adventure of mastering complex theoretical and technical material. Robin R. Murphy is Associate Professor in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and in the Department of Psychology, at the University of South Florida, Tampa. 8 x 9, 400 pp., 100 illus., cloth ISBN 0-262-13383-0 Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Agents series A Bradford Book Evolutionary Robotics The Biology, Intelligence, and Technology of Self-Organizing Machines Stefano Nolfi and Dario Floreano http://mitpress.mit.edu/promotions/books/NOLEHF00 Evolutionary robotics is a new technique for the automatic creation of autonomous robots. Inspired by the Darwinian principle of selective reproduction of the fittest, it views robots as autonomous artificial organisms that develop their own skills in close interaction with the environment and without human intervention. Drawing heavily on biology and ethology, it uses the tools of neural networks, genetic algorithms, dynamic systems, and biomorphic engineering. The resulting robots share with simple biological systems the characteristics of robustness, simplicity, small size, flexibility, and modularity. In evolutionary robotics, an initial population of artificial chromosomes, each encoding the control system of a robot, is randomly created and put into the environment. Each robot is then free to act (move, look around, manipulate) according to its genetically specified controller while its performance on various tasks is automatically evaluated. The fittest robots then "reproduce" by swapping parts of their genetic material with small random mutations. The process is repeated until the "birth" of a robot that satisfies the performance criteria. This book describes the basic concepts and methodologies of evolutionary robotics and the results achieved so far. An important feature is the clear presentation of a set of empirical experiments of increasing complexity. Software with a graphic interface, freely available on a Web page, will allow the reader to replicate and vary (in simulation and on real robots) most of the experiments. Stefano Nolfi is Coordinator of the Division of Neural Systems and Artificial Life, Institute of Psychology, National Research Council, Rome. Dario Floreano is Assistant Professor of Biorobotics and Adaptive Systems, Institute of Robotics, Department of Microengineering, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne. 7 x 9, 384 pp., 157 illus., cloth ISBN 0-262-14070-5 Intelligent Robotics and Autonomous Agents series A Bradford Book "An excellent book providing a thorough coverage of the subject. Clearly and insightfully written, this is a must for researchers and postgraduate students interested in new approaches to intelligent robotics." --Phil Husbands, School of Cognitive and Computing Sciences, University of Sussex "This is an exciting new area that has implications and ramifications ranging from psychology to artificial life; can we create robots with intelligent or adaptive behavior using techniques comparable to the Darwinian evolution that created the animals and ourselves? Here is an authoritative, clearly written survey written by two of the researchers who helped to pioneer the
Re: Astronomers mock Fox show about Moon fakery
In a message dated 2/16/2001 7:32:17 AM Alaskan Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: One sad part of the show for astronomers involves the production's use of Brian Welch, a well-liked NASA spokesman, who died unexpectedly in November at age 42. Welch rebuts some of the coverup allegations. Show producers confessed total ignorance of his death. ''Don't hate us. We're just entertainers,'' Tipley says. It just goes to show that the media is worthless for real reporting. When entertainment outweighs truth, the sheeple laugh in ignorance. -- JHB == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
Re: NASA Watch comments on the Fox Apollo crapumentary
In a message dated 2/16/2001 11:36:09 AM Alaskan Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: It may be that Fox knows the average american better than I how else can you explain that you can air Alien Autopsy and also claim that we can't land people on the moon? Just keep flashing sensational muck before your audience to keep them watching through the ads. One of the most thought-provoking comments I've ever heard came from one of the 20th century's greatest politicians (although, Bill Clinton probably also could have written something similar). The politician I'm referring to? Adolf Hitler. The quote? 'Repeat a lie long enough, and loudly enough, and people will start to believe it'. Remember Orson Welle's 'War of the Worlds' broadcast of 1936? Some things never change. But, that's what scientists are FOR. To debunk superstition. You can't grow strong analytical 'muscles' in the absence of challenge. -- John Harlow Byrne == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
Re: NASA Watch comments on the Fox Apollo crapumentary
-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Friday, February 16, 2001 3:15 PM Subject: Re: NASA Watch comments on the Fox Apollo crapumentary In a message dated 2/16/2001 11:36:09 AM Alaskan Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: It may be that Fox knows the average american better than I how else can you explain that you can air Alien Autopsy and also claim that we can't land people on the moon? Just keep flashing sensational muck before your audience to keep them watching through the ads. One of the most thought-provoking comments I've ever heard came from one of the 20th century's greatest politicians (although, Bill Clinton probably also could have written something similar). The politician I'm referring to? Adolf Hitler. The quote? 'Repeat a lie long enough, and loudly enough, and people will start to believe it'. Remember Orson Welle's 'War of the Worlds' broadcast of 1936? Some things never change. But, that's what scientists are FOR. To debunk superstition. You can't grow strong analytical 'muscles' in the absence of challenge. -- John Harlow Byrne Actually, I think it was Goebbels who said it -- not Hitler himself (although dear Adolf did say, "A new age of magical interpretation of the world is coming -- of its interpretation by the will rather by the intellect. There is no such thing as knowable truth, either in the moral or in the factual sense.") And as for Clinton -- well, not to get into an ideological piefight in this web group, but Ronald Reagan was even more notorious for it. (One of the neglected parts of Edmund Morris' controversial biography -- although it was reporinted in "Newsweek" -- spends one whole page simply listing Reagan's long parade of literally grotesque misstatements of the most elementary facts, after which Morris notes that Reagan kept cheerfully repeating the same howlers over and over no matter how many times other people, including his own staffers, corrected him. Not a man significantly concerned with his level of accuracy, in short.) The Fox documentary, however, is notable because it's a perfect reflector of two other important facts. First, the fact that we live in the "Media Age" (just as predicted by Arthur C. Clarke) doesn't mean that we live in the "Information Age" -- because we're being deluged with a tidal wave not just of true information, but of lies and misinformation, and we're all still faced with the tremendous problem of trying to sort out the truth from the lies. Second, we have here further proof that -- at the same time that human society becomes more and more dependent upon scientific and technological knowledge -- the average person remains just as ignorant of elementary science as ever. If this keeps up, scientists and engineers will end up as a sort of High Priesthood, probably complete with tall headdresses and human sacrifices. What do you do about this? Damned if I know. Bruce Moomaw == You are subscribed to the Europa Icepick mailing list: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Project information and list (un)subscribe info: http://klx.com/europa/
