SPAMMING THE ALIENS

Want to send an SMS text message to another planet?

Now you can.

From the press release I received this morning:

From today until 5.00 pm Monday, 24 August, the public can visit www.HelloFromEarth.net to post goodwill messages that will be transmitted to the nearest Earth-like planet outside our Solar System likely to support life.

The planet - Gliese 581d - is eight times the size of Earth and some 20 light years away (194 trillion km). It was first discovered in April 2007. Due to its size, it is classified as a 'Super Earth'.



Messages sent during the 2009 National Science Week will arrive in the planet's vicinity by around December 2029.

Messages can be no longer than 160 characters and will be transmitted from the Canberra Deep Space Communication Complex at Tidbinbilla, with the close cooperation of NASA.

They’re also posting all the messages they’ve received so far online. (Moderated, of course, for those of you hoping to declare war on them or invite them down for sexual favor.) They're worth checking out, if only to wonder what sort of impression Twitter culture will make on an alien civilization.

This is by far my favorite:

Dear Alien, to unsubscribe from planet Earth SPAM please respond with *UNSUBSCRIBE*. Thank You.

Daniel
Melbourne, Australia

That was you, drhoz , wasn't it?

Scourge of the universe,

This is dF

BACK ON THE STREET

Lockhart Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, right now.


Sat 15.08.2009 16.17 150820093008

LES PAUL: HE INVENTED QUEEN, TOO

Some more Les Paul pr0n for you: Les Paul & Mary Ford appearing on Alistair Cooke's Omnibus TV show in 1953 to demonstrate the magic of multitrack recording, which (if you didn’t know) Les Paul pioneered.

"Tom Waits - Downtown Train + Lyrics" (Watch on YouTube)

Okay, sure, you can do the same thing today with a Macbook and GarageBand. But I’m one of those elderly people who learned how to multitrack on reel-to-reels. I even still have my f***ing splicing block. So humor me and be amazed.

Guitar hero,

This is dF