59 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
59 lines
2.4 KiB
Plaintext
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SUBJECT: DON'T ABANDON THE SEARCH FOR LIFE FILE: UFO3016
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Don't abandon the search for life
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10/07/93
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SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER
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IN THE 17th century, the astronomer Galileo Galilei used a
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telescope to see new worlds - mountains on the Moon, the
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crescent shape of Venus, moons orbiting Jupiter. Some of
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his critics refused to look through his telescope.
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Now the U.S. Congress is displaying the same anti-science
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peevishness. Last Friday, a conference committee voted
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to kill funding for a NASA project that uses radio
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telescopes to search the universe for inhabitants of
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other worlds.
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While grocery-store tabloids scream about flying
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saucers, NASA is looking for the real thing. The discovery
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of aliens would be one of the most - perhaps the most -
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incredible discoveries in history. The failure to detect
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extraterrestrials is also important: It would be
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evidence that intelligent life is much rarer and, hence, a
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much more remarkable phenomenon than some biological
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theories imply.
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A year ago, NASA scientists at Mountain View launched
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their search for aliens, a program called the High
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Resolution Microwave Survey, also known as Search for
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Extraterrestrial Intelligence or SETI. Its cost for the
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next year is $12 million - a fraction of the cost of a
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single $2 billion Seawolf submarine, whose post-Cold War
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usefulness is limited to being a jobs program for
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Connecticut shipyards.
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Ironically, the extraterrestrial search's economical
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size, a staff of 100 or so scientists around the country,
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may have been its undoing. Whereas the space shuttle and
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space station mean big bucks and job payrolls for
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politically powerful states such as Texas, Alabama and
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Florida, the extraterrestrial search was too small to
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fight back. Congress apparently bought the demagogic
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objections of U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., who
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cruelly misrepresented the project as a "great Martian
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chase."
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Now, the best chance to save the project is President
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Clinton.
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The extraterrestrial search makes use of America's best
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technology and our best minds. It excites the
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imagination, but it has a purpose and a thrifty price tag.
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Don't abandon the universe, Mr. President.
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**********************************************
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* THE U.F.O. BBS - http://www.ufobbs.com/ufo *
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