Time in a Space Bottle

My wife and I watched the movie Contact the other night, with Jodi Foster. It was interesting to see it again, but today I was sitting at my computer, waiting for some code to compile, when a thought occurred to me.

In the movie, they portrayed that the distant alien intelligence sent back a television transmission to Earth that supposedly was one of the first broadcasts, showing Hitler announcing the opening of the Olympic games. I thought to myself, how did they get that footage for the movie? Was it fabricated? There weren't any video recorders around at that time, so was it film?

But that wasn't the interesting thought that I had. The interesting part followed.

What if someone wanted to capture those original broadcasts on video tape? It actually should be possible. Right now. Even later in the future.

Think about it. Everything we have ever transmitted from this planet is streaming through space at the speed of light. Eventually, those signals will (and already have in some cases) reach distant stars and planets and other celestial bodies or pass through distortions in space. It seems entirely conceivable (and probable) that those signals could be reflected under certain conditions, turning the signals around on a return trip back to Earth.

Years later, if we had a powerful receiver pointed at just the right spot in the sky, we could receive those reflected signals, and listen to what was on the radio, or watch what was on the television, fifty years ago. In a sense, we could say that we were watching live, because it wouldn't be a recording. In every sense, it would be the original transmission. Because it IS the original transmission!

These days, we could capture those signals on to tape or other digital media, clean them up, and sell them on the Internet for a profit. At least, that's probably what humans would do with it.

Little Miss Perception

This happened to me a few months ago - just an example of how people's own ignorance can potentially get others into trouble.

I was driving down a thoroughfare along the San Francisco Bay Area peninsula (mid-peninsula), doing the speed limit, on my way to Taco Bell, of all places. There was some traffic behind me, but not close enough to be concerned about (I'd say like 8 to 10 car lengths).

My turn was coming up, and I'm a pretty habitual guy (my wife may say I am a stickler when it comes to driving laws), so I turned on my turn signal and took my foot off the gas. I applied the break to begin slowing down, and I noticed the vehicle directly behind me was quickly approaching, having made no response whatsoever to my actions (like, say, to slow down to avoid running into me).

Closer and closer she came (I noticed it was a female driving, but I am not picking on female drivers) and I became a bit worried when I noticed she wasn't even looking at the road ahead of her. Since my actions so far in preparation of my turn spanned a period of 5 or 6 seconds (which is a long time if you sit down and count it, considering how fast things can happen in traffic), I could only wonder just how long she had not been paying attention.

JUST before it was too late, she looked up and noticed me, just as my front wheels were crossing the curb line into the Taco Bell driveway. I could see the shock in her face as she realized she was about to careen into me, and she slammed on her breaks and veered a bit to avoid collision. [As a side note, I was just about to "punch it" to zoom into the parking lot, so she never would have hit me, anyway]

She then proceeded to sit on her horn and prominently display her middle finger in an unfriendly gesture.

What a stupid fucking bitch.

In her mind, I apparently did something wrong. I was just glad she wasn't 1 or 2 car lengths closer to me and that I wasn't just another moron driving down the road, making unexpected stops and turns with no warning or other indication, or she would have slammed right into me. I am certain that if she rammed me, she would have done everything in her power to hold me responsible, regardless of the fact that she failed to look in front of her vehicle while she was driving, failed to notice my turn signal which blinked prominently at least three times before I applied my brakes, failed to notice my brake lights, and just simply overall failed to notice that I was even on the road in front of her, never mind that I was slowing down to make a turn.

It astounds and amazes me that I can not only pay attention to what I am doing, but at the same time be aware of what others around me are doing, and yet some people can't even figure out that they're stupid. How can you NOT pay attention when you are driving? I just don't get that. How many lives are lost every year due to automobile accidents? How many lives change, permanently, due to accidents?

What does it take for people to get it?

My wife's driving scares the shit out of me, but that's another story. She gets annoyed when I tell her to fasten her seat belt, or question what she is doing, or point out potential hazards while I am riding with her. But, dammit, I have a right. It's not like I'm sitting next to someone in a bar who is drowning themselves in alcohol - I've got no business telling them they shouldn't drink so much. But when I am a passenger in a car, I am at the mercy of the driver - their actions affect me, directly! And it is the driver's responsibility -- RESPONSIBILITY -- to get their passengers safely to their destination.

That's a hard word for a lot of people (Americans?) to swallow, it seems - responsibility. I take it very seriously. If I am a passenger and I feel the driver of the vehicle in which I am riding is not looking out for my safety, I'm going to say something. Like it or not, end of story, period. If they don't like it, they can kick me out. If I don't like it enough, I may ask them to let me out, please, thank you very much, hope to see you again...alive.

I realize not everyone is perfect - I'm sure not - so I leave some room for error there. But if someone consistently exhibits the same behavior, and it's dangerous, I get very nervous about riding with them. And I get (rightfully) very concerned when I share the road with hundreds (and hundreds) of other people I don't even know at all. You HAVE to be on your toes at ALL times - even if your car is not moving!

There are so many people out there, and none of them are perfect, and so many people change or end their lives because of one stupid mistake, one lapse of attention or judgment, one wrong move, or even as a result of being distracted by someone else doing something stupid. Sometimes, people die as a direct result of simply BEING stupid, or as a direct result of someone else who IS stupid. We all do stupid things once in a while, but its those people who were truly born stupid and never changed (yet somehow wound up behind the wheel of a moving vehicle) that you really have to watch out for. And they're out there.

Boy, are they out there.

Good Taste

Yesterday at lunch, the place where I work served sweet and sour chicken. I wasn't in the mood for it, so I grabbed a box lunch, instead: a club sandwich.

It was goo-ood!

Later, I ate a banana. It was good, too. But while I was eating the banana, I started thinking about all the things we eat. They're all things that are (or once were) alive. The wheat in the bread was grown, the banana was grown, the chicken that I didn't eat was once running around on a farm, and the meat in my club sandwich came from some animal(s), and the tomato and avocado were all grown somewhere.

Organic matter. Mmm.

As I was thinking about all these things I was eating, and all the things that get eaten, one final thought came to mind:

"When I go, I hope I taste good."