Cliff Smith wrote:

.... For nearly a century, it
has been an established [axiom] 
of relativity that information 
cannot be propagated faster than 
the speed of light, which is as 
far as we know a constant 
throughout the universe. We cannot 
travel faster than light, and
neither can the aliens. While we 
might be statistically certain 
that there are other civilisations 
in distant solar systems, we will 
almost certainly never be able to 
visit them and they will never be 
able to visit us.

So there; anyone got anything to add?

Nice summary of where we're at currently. 
The only thing I would disagree with is 
the last part regarding the limits of 
distance. You are overlooking the 
possibility of long term residence in 
vessals enroute for generations, or
equivalents: life-in-stasis, entirely 
mechanized, cosmic arks, and the other
yet to be understood possibilities 
regarding the quantum mechanics of
space/time, dimensional transits,
the science fiction stuff of exotic
forms of travel. And speaking of far-
off weirdities and curiosities...

     "The shaman seers of the Fourth World
generally agree that those who tenaciously 
cling to the past will fall into mass insanity. 
The serpent power of the Aquarian Age is upon us. 
The Kundalini of Gaia is about to awaken. No one 
can avoid being affected. Most human beings may go 
out of their minds; others will go beyond mind."
 --John Hogue
   http://deoxy.org/deoxy.htm

Mesopotamian myth http://deoxy.org/alephnull/meso.htm
"Mespotamian myth seems to be a common touchstone, as 
if the first culture to develop a written language was 
also the first (and only) one to experience some kind 
of tragic Fall from prelinguistic grace. It is invoked 
by at least three stories which contain lethal texts 
(Snow Crash, Macroscope, and The Origin of Consciousness 
in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.) Mesopotamia has 
a kind of wondrous resonance, as if its people knew 
something magical about language by virtue of their 
pivotal position between orality and literacy, and were 
able to create lethal texts which really worked.
(It is not uncommon for the very first people to do 
something to do it extraordinarily well.) 

"Mesopotamian legends, such as Gilgamesh, differ in a key 
way from Biblical legends. Mesopotamian myths emphasize 
a free exchange between the realms of the living and the 
dead. For example, the bodies of the dead were buried 
with food and servants, to see them on their way in the 
spiritual realm, which was envisioned to be much like 
the realm they had just left. Conversely, the dead could 
interact with the living, blessing those who propitiated 
them and cursing those who did not. This makes Mesopotamian
legend highly amenable to symbolic manipulation, for what 
happens in one realm is mirrored in the other. In other 
words, it is saturated with magic. Biblical legend, on the
other hand, institutes a sharp division between the two 
realms, and thus is much less focused on symbolic 
manipulation. It posits a nonmagical, material, realist 
world. I believe this helps explain why two important
novels about cyberspace, Snow Crash and Macroscope, both 
hark back to Mesopotamian rather than Biblical myth: both 
are about worlds where symbolic manipulation, that is, 
magic, plays a central role. 

"It is worth noting that some Biblical legends are clearly 
reworkings of Mesopotamian legends. The story of the Flood 
can be found in the Gilgamesh legend, and the Tower of Babel 
story appears in Sumerian nam-shubs." 
http://deoxy.org/alephnull/meso.htm

http://www.davidicke.net/emagazine/vol21/articles/meandering.html

{|}  "Vallee refers to this complex system of control--which
{|}  is shaping human society over the course of thousands of
{|}  years--as an 'interface of reality with consciousness.'
{|}  It sounds a lot like Arthur C. Clarke's science fictional
{|}  theme in 2001: A Space Odyssey--an alien intelligence
{|}  subtly directing the course of human development, toward
{|}  mysterious ends. Talk about your cosmic conspiracies!"
{|}  http://www.conspire.com/val.html

http://fafnir.phyast.pitt.edu/exotica/bib/MultiTh.html
|||||Relativistic quark model and pentaquark spectroscopy|||||*
hep-ph/0211436: http://arXiv.org/abs/hep-ph/0211436

"... Here we show however that there are 
certain unified models for dark energy 
which are stable to perturbations in matter
density where the presence of phantom 
energy does not lead to such a cosmic 
doomsday." --Pedro F. Gonzalez-Diaz 
http://xxx.arxiv.org/abs/astro-ph/0305559

Why Does Quark Matter Matter? 
"... The Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) 
is designed to extend this frontier, providing 
access to the most fundamental building blocks 
of nature known so far -- quarks and gluons. 
By colliding the nuclei of gold atoms together 
at nearly the speed of light, RHIC will, for a 
fleeting instant, heat the matter in collision 
to more than a billion times the temperature of 
the sun. In so doing, scientists will be able 
to study the fundamental properties of the basic 
building blocks of matter, as well as learn how 
they behaved collectively some 15 to 20 billion 
years ago, when the universe was barely a 
split-second old..."
http://www.bnl.gov/bnlweb/pubaf/pr/2003/RHIC-background-6.htm

* Pentaquark discovery confounds sceptics 
02 July 03
"A brand new sub-atomic particle called the 
pentaquark has made its debut at labs in 
Japan and the US. Unlike ordinary protons 
and neutrons in atomic nuclei, which contain 
three quarks, the pentaquark has five..."
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp

James Oberg [<http://www.jamesoberg.com/jimspeaks.html>]
[Excerpt from: 'Everything is Under Control' by
             Robert Anton Wilson - 1998 ISBN 0-06-273417-2]

James Oberg, a longtime skeptic of the extraterrestrial 
interpretation of the UFO  phenomenon, has more than once 
suggested a rather conspiritorial countertheory.

   In June 1980, Moscow had a major UFO flap. People saw a
giant light and some claimed that aliens were chasing cars 
and drilling holes through house windows. Tens of thousands 
of citizens allegedly saw some or all of this weirdity. 
In _Omni_ magazine, Oberg proposed that the KGB was behind 
it: "The KGB, eager to muddy the waters and cover up public
recognition of the military space center at Pietsk, is only 
too happy to promote scintillating stories about aliens
chasing cars and boring nasty holes in windows."
   More recently, Oberg has pointed an accusing finger at
agencies of the U.S. government:

   ... Government representatives--officials, military
   officers, etc.--used "UFO" as a convenient camouflage
   for other official classified activities (such as
   retrieval of crashed aircraft or nuclear weapons or 
   other objects); or used artificial "UFO stories" 
   (in oral, written, photographic, film, etc. form) as
   "tracers" in studying the function of security 
   safeguards and personnel psychological responses; or 
   used "UFO" as an excuse (either intended or accidental)
   to cover up improper, forbidden, or diplomatically
   delicate activities... or any other activity that the
   government--or any part of it--wanted to keep hidden.

   Oberg made these charges in an open letter to Dr.
Steven Greer of the _CSETI_ organization, who is trying
to force the government to release UFO secrets. Oberg 
supports Greer in wanting the secrets given to the public, 
even though Greer expects the hidden data will support the
extraterrestrial hypothesis and Oberg believes it will just
show that the government lies to us a lot of the time.
   Most conspiritologists would certainly like to see the
release of any alleged "UFO secrets" dealing with lost
nuclear weapons and "improper, forbidden, or diplomatically
delicate" activities.

See also:
William Cooper, Crop Circles, NASA, Nazis and JFK, UMMO Letters

References:
KGB lies--
  _Omni_, September 1982

U.S. government lies--
  _Saucer Smear_, Vol. 44, No. 6, June 1997 
  (P.O. Box 1709, Key West, FL 33041)

*****************************************************************

And: _______________________________________

Robert Anton Wilson may be found at http://www.rawilson.com
     _______________________________________

 "As Thomas Huxley said, the universe acts a lot like a chess game
 in which the player on the other side remains invisible to us.
 By analyzing the moves, we try to form an image of the intellect
 behind them. Images that have seemed almost believable to me at
 various times have included the gods and goddesses of ancient
 Greece (if you develop a Classic Poetry habit, that kind of
 neurolinguistic programming can happen...) and also, of course,
 those extra-terrestrials who have so much popularity these days.
 I have also considered the player on the other side as more
 impersonal, like the Tao, or more bizarre, like Shiva Dancing,
 or more abstract, like Philip K. Dick's Vast Active Living
 Information System (VALIS.) Mostly, though I think of the player
 on the other side as a pookah -- a resident of Ireland, in rabbit
 form, who may at any time dump a truckload of the Unknown and
 Inexplicable right on your doorstep." --Robert Anton Wilson
   http://www.rawilson.com

  "What is necessary for man is to free himself from
  the entire past of mankind, not only his individual
  past. That is to say, you have to free yourself
  from what every man before you has thought, felt
  and experienced -- then only is it possible for you
  to be yourself. The whole purpose of my talking to
  people is to point out the uniqueness of every
  individual. Culture or civilization or whatever you
  might call it has always tried to fit us into a
  framework. Man is not man at all; I call him a
  'unique animal' -- and man will remain a unique
  animal as long as he's burdened by the culture."

  The "Anti-Krishnamurti":
  -- Uppaluri Gopala Krishnamurti (Born 9 July 1918)
  http://www.well.com/user/jct/mystiq1.htm


When will Rolls-Royce bring out the personal star cruiser?
"Cool Chips News Articles and Press Releases" 
http://www.coolchips.com/press/index.shtml

http://www.sandia.gov/nano/Npressrelease.htm
(Five Years Ago...) Not science fiction any more 
     "Sandia's quantum mechanical transistor may
     increase computer speed and sensor accuracy
        http://www.sandia.gov/media/quantran.htm
"... The device, dubbed DELTT (Double Electron Layer Tunneling
Transistor), offers promise of significant improvements in the
speed of computers and in the accuracy of sensors. Sandia is a
laboratory of the Department of Energy (DOE).
A trillion operations a second?
http://www.sandia.gov/nano/Npressrelease.htm

Contacts: 

	For Cool Chips plc: 

	Chris Bourne:
	+44 (0)208 571 5216
	pr@coolchips.gi
	http://www.coolchips.gi


	For Rolls-Royce plc: 

	Gary Atkins:
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	gary.atkins@rolls-royce.com