XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World: 09/22/10

Wednesday, 22 September 2010

Pope’s Astronomer Says He Would Baptise an Alien - have souls and could choose to be baptised if humans ever met them -

Pope’s Astronomer Says He Would Baptise an Alien - have souls and could choose to be baptised if humans ever met them -

Brother Guy Consolmagno, the Pope's Astronomer

Brother Guy Consolmagno, the Pope's Astronomer

Guy Consolmagno, one of the pope's astronomers, said he would be 'delighted' if intelligent life was found among the stars. Photograph: David Sillitoe/Guardian

Aliens might have souls and could choose to be baptised if humans ever met them, a Vatican scientist said today. The official also dismissed intelligent design as “bad theology” that had been “hijacked” by American creationist fundamentalists.

Guy Consolmagno, who is one of the pope’s astronomers, said he would be “delighted” if intelligent life was found among the stars. “But the odds of us finding it, of it being intelligent and us being able to communicate with it – when you add them up it’s probably not a practical question.”

Speaking ahead of a talk at the British Science Festival in Birmingham tomorrow, he said that the traditional definition of a soul was to have intelligence, free will, freedom to love and freedom to make decisions. “Any entity – no matter how many tentacles it has – has a soul.” Would he baptise an alien? “Only if they asked.”

Consolmagno, who became interested in science through reading science fiction, said that the Vatican was well aware of the latest goings-on in scientific research. “You’d be surprised,” he said.

Dog Poop Lights Up City Park - a street lamp in Cambridge, Mass., that is powered by dog poop -

Dog Poop Lights Up City Park - a street lamp in Cambridge, Mass., that is powered by dog poop -

Dog Poop Lights Up City Park,

Matthew Mazzotta

Conceptual artist Matthew Mazzotta has created a street lamp that uses methane gas from feces collected at a dog park in Cambridge, Mass.

Environmentalists are going gaga for a street lamp in Cambridge, Mass., that is powered by dog poop.

The lamp, a shining example of how humans can make use of an underutilized and perpetually renewable energy source -- feces -- is the brainchild of Matthew Mazzotta, a conceptual artist who studied at the nearby Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) who wanted to give back to the community.

The lamp is located at a dog park and uses a device known as a methane digester. Folks whose dogs do their business there simply collect the poop in a plastic bag and put it in the device and turn a crank to help the methane in the tank rise up to the top so it can be piped to the gas-burning lamppost that is attached.

Mazzotta says the Fido-powered flames are "eternal" and will "burn until someone or a group of people propose an idea to use the heat and light of the constantly burning flame and make a public project."

Methane digesters are nothing new. Mazzotta says they are common in China, India and South America where they are used mostly with cow manure, not dog poop.

"No one is taking account of all the methane produced by animals that live in cities," Mazzotta told AOL News. "Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases -- even more than carbon dioxide -- but when it burns [it] separates into water and carbon dioxide."

Mazzotta was inspired to create what is now called the "Park Spark Project" after a trip to India, where he first saw the devices.

"When I came back, I saw whole bags of dog poop collected in bags and dumped in landfills," he said. "I thought we should burn it, reduce it and make free energy."

So he proposed the idea to Cambridge officials and after six months of discussion, got the OK. After that, he got a $4,000 grant from his alma mater.

Since it seems to take a village to clean up all the dog poop, part of Mazzotta's project is to have the community decide how to use the excrement energy.

For instance, in the next few weeks, Mazzotta will be gathering ideas on how to best use the flame. According to Wired.com, some of the suggestion already include a shadow-projection box, a popcorn stand and a tea house.

But what is happening in a dog park in Cambridge could become known as the "sh-t heard around the world."

"Every dog park around the world should take their poop and do something with it."

It looks like that may happen. Ever since word got out about the poop-powered lamp, Mazzotta has been talking with people from all over the world who want the straight poop about his concept, including an official from a town near Paris, France.

Even better, he says, is how the lamp is affecting the locals in the dog park.

"When people throw their poop in the digester, they now know their actions have implications," Mazzotta said.

Read more - http://www.aolnews.com/weird-news/article/street-lamp-in-cambridge-mass-dog-park-is-powered-by-methane-from-dog-poop/19643188?test=latestnews

UK Pensioner takes dogs for walk...and returns to find locks changed and an immigrant family living in his home

UK Pensioner takes dogs for walk...and returns to find locks changed and an immigrant family living in his home -

Distraught: George Pope, 72, was unable to get into his council house because the locks were changed

A pensioner who took his dogs out for a walk returned to find a family had moved into his home.

George Pope, 72, was unable to get into his council house because the locks were changed.

Mr Pope left his home in Barking, Essex, to take his dogs out to nearby Parsloes Park last Thursday, September 16.

The arthritis sufferer, who needs a stick to walk, started feeling ill and decided to stay at a friend's house until he was well enough to go home.

But when he returned to his house on Saturday morning, he was stunned to discover his locks had been changed.

He claims a man then walked up the path to his house and accosted him.

'I said, "This is my place". But he said, "This is our property and we intend to stay here unless you go to court". It made me feel ill.'

He added: 'I have been shaking ever since. I get panic attacks. It's just terrible.'

Mr Pope immediately called the council and police.

But he claims they told him the new occupants could not be evicted because they were themselves victims of a scam.

Mr Pope said police claimed the residents, who he believes are from Lithuania, had paid £3,000 to a bogus estate agent to rent the property themselves for six months.

The retired Dagenham Ford worker, who was forced to stay with friends, said: 'Police told me it looked like a civil matter.

'But the squatters were using my home, my gas and my electricity - it's absolutely disgraceful.'

Mr Pope went back to his house on Monday morning to find all his belongings had been thrown out.

Neighbours then helped the him gather up his documents, photographs and clothes.

Mr Pope suspects illegal estate agents of occupying buildings and letting them for money.

'I had been out for just two-and-a-half days. Someone must have been watching me,' he said.

'The rear door had been levered out with screwdrivers - that's how they got in.

'My neighbours are now too frightened to go out anywhere in case the same happens to them,' he added.

A Met Police spokeswoman said: 'Police are investigating a civil dispute where there may have been fraudulent sub-letting of the premises.

'Anyone with information concerning the person who has fraudulently advertised this property for rent and subsequently changed the locks should contact Barking and Dagenham Police.'

Mr Pope, who has lived in the house for four years, was able to move back into his home last night after the family fled but said he is now scared to be there because next door is also being occupied by squatters.

He also claims some of his possessions, including a washing machine and an electric cooker have been taken and that the electricity system has been tampered with.

'The wiring has been ripped out and there are burn marks,' he said.

'The whole experience has been really traumatic.'

A Barking and Dagenham council spokesman said council officers visited the house yesterday and found it to be empty, allowing Mr Pope to move back in.

'The council’s repair service changed the locks and Mr Pope was able to return to his home,' he said.

'This was a highly unusual situation and we are working closely with the police to try and determine exactly what happened.

'By taking quick action we have been able to restore Mr Pope to his home without the need to apply to court for an eviction notice. This would have been a very lengthy process.

'We are also aware of a housing association property in this street that is also being squatted.

'We have contacted the housing association concerned and have asked them to try and resolve the situation.

'We are extremely pleased that Mr Pope is back in his own home.'

UFOs Visited Nuclear Weapons Sites, Former Air Force Officers Say - and possibly tampered with American nuclear weapons -

UFOs have monitored and possibly tampered with American nuclear weapons, according to a group of former Air Force officers who will make their claims public next week at a Washington, D.C., news conference.

"While most of the incidents apparently involved mere surveillance, in a few cases, a significant number of nuclear missiles suddenly and simultaneously malfunctioned, just as USAF security policemen reported seeing disc-shaped craft hovering nearby," says Robert Hastings, author of "UFOs and Nukes: Extraordinary Encounters at Nuclear Weapons Sites."

On Monday, at the National Press Club, Hastings will present six former Air Force personnel who will break their silence and disclose dramatic first-hand experiences with UFOs at nuclear weapons sites.

In a statement, Hastings said, "At long last, all of these witnesses are coming forward to say that, as unbelievable as it may seem to some, UFOs have long monitored and sometimes tampered with our nukes."

Hastings' co-host for the news conference, ICBM launch officer Capt. Robert Salas, was witness to a UFO incident in 1967 that, he says, caused a missile disruption at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana, and he was ordered to keep quiet about it.

"The Air Force is lying about the national security implications of unidentified aerial objects at nuclear bases, and we can prove it," Salas said.

Another officer scheduled to appear at Monday's conference, Col. Charles Halt, witnessed a disc-shaped object shooting beams of light onto the joint Anglo/American RAF Bentwaters airbase in England in 1980. The lights were reportedly near the base's nuclear weapons storage area.

"I believe that the security services of both the United States and the United Kingdom have attempted -- both then and now -- to subvert the significance of what occurred at RAF Bentwaters by the use of well-practiced methods of disinformation."