Sunday, March 30, 2008

Initial Survey of Planet 3/Astra

(See also 2007 Post: Notes - on the authenticity of this document)

Initial Survey of Planet 3/Astra
Author: Director of Exploration, Spaceship Chamaeleon
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Executive Summary
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The recent exploration of 3/Astra has contributed much to the potential benefit of our own planet though not in ways anticipated. To summarize, 3/Astra is not at this time suitable for colonization due to the nature of the dominant species who have already disrupted several natural planetary equilibria. Even elimination of that species would not recover the planet in meaningful time frames.
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These equilibria affect the constitution of the atmosphere, the radiation reflective rates of the planet and its upper atmosphere, the proportions of fresh clean water available for use for agriculture, flora and fauna consumption, the proportions of sustainable arable land, the proportions of flora reserves to replenish breathable gases, the diversity of species and their interrelated dependencies, the average daily and seasonal temperatures and temperature ranges for habitable zones, the reliability of average weather conditions and the rarity of all extreme weather events among other characteristics. An upset in any one of these equilibria would probably be sufficient to rule out the suitability of 3/Astra for our purposes of colonization.
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The best use for 3/Astra is as an educational tool for our own people and a possible future colony in a few centuries’ time or perhaps longer. The isolation of 3/Astra from our planet and the intellectual and technological limitations of the dominant indigenous species is sufficiently great for there to be no adverse impact on our planet or its species regardless of the outcome of current trends. This isolation makes the planet an ideal experimental workshop for both species behaviour and climate change.
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The time frame for 3/Astra’s recovery and suitability for colonization depends largely upon the planet’s own natural capacity for returning the environment to a stable and survivable condition for its species. As with all planets, in time indigenous flora and fauna will necessarily evolve to become compatible with the environment whereas the converse will never be true; it is not the puddle which amazingly and coincidentally fits the water – it must always be the water which bends to fit the puddle!
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The knowledge and education we can derive from 3/Astra includes the following categories:
a) to watch whether, how and over what timescale the planet can recover a habitable environment;
b) to learn that the natural balance which a planet achieves should never be perturbed, nor the balance between species, which are necessarily all interrelated and interdependent within any one bounded biospace;
c) to learn how to best use the energies naturally available on our planet and to witness the penalties for energy waste, misuse and abuse;
d) to realize that the solution to fouling one’s own environment is not to seek another in which to repeat the same mistakes;
e) to learn that to isolate oneself from one’s environment necessarily results in one’s own reduced capacity for surviving and thriving within that environment;
f) to observe which methods of government are least beneficial to a species;
g) to note that those who seek power are those least trustworthy to be granted it;
h) to learn how knowledge gained within a species may be most effectively passed on to future generations (or at least observe those methods least effective);
i) to learn that investment in sustainable and environmentally sympathetic productivity is preferable to investment in destruction, wasteful consumption or self-indulgence;
j) to learn that the value of anything to be traded must be the true and fair value of that item and not an inflated imaginary value based upon greed, corruption, mendacity, misconceptions or false hopes;
k) to learn that tolerance, cooperation and consideration for others and for other species brings rewards more permanent and more valuable than any quest for self-indulgence, self-aggrandisement or self-satisfaction; and
l) to learn that the most valuable asset anyone or any species can acquire or retain is their own health.
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The foregoing list cannot be assumed to be entire and complete; it is merely a list of categories which have most readily been identified by the exploration team during this survey and which may be modified and/or supplemented by other categories as our own situation changes and as experience is gained from observing activities and change on 3/Astra.
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We strongly recommend cancellation of the project to colonize 3/Astra in the near term and the establishment of a new fund to finance the experimental observation and long term benign monitoring of 3/Astra by regular clandestine visitation and observational reporting progress-wise going forward.
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Introduction and Terms of Reference
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The exploration survey team landed on 3/Astra from Spaceship Chamaeleon were charged with investigating planet 3/Astra with a view to potential colonization of the planet in the face of increased pressure on our own planet from population growth and its escalating need for additional resources for food and industrial purposes.
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The team has been clandestinely on 3/Astra for 2 years now and has reported back regularly and progressively by securely coded electromagnetic means. As far as we can tell our presence here on 3/Astra has not been detected by the dominant species.
A report was requested at the conclusion of the initial period of research and this document constitutes the first summary report. Should it be decided to continue with the plan to colonize, a more detailed report will be provided following further research.
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The following report comprises a brief physical description of the planet, its flora and fauna, and the practices of the dominant species which we would either need to eliminate or come to some accommodation with should we decide to colonize.
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The Geography of 3/Astra
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The world of 3/Astra comprises approximately 75% oceanic and 25% terrestrial environments both densely populated by a wide range of species except in a few inhospitable regions. The inhospitable regions on land include those near the extreme poles and those where there is little or no rainfall or where temperatures are too extreme for life forms to survive. Oceans are salt water of varying salinity. The average ocean salinity is between 3% and 4% by weight. Salinity can be even lower within or near river mouths and in polar or glacier melt zones.
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The atmosphere is very shallow, as on our planet, diminishing to 1% at 30 kilometres(1),
largely composed of nitrogen with approximately one fifth oxygen and a tiny fraction of a few other gases. The balance of these gases is currently becoming disturbed. The atmospheric pressure at sea level is approximately the same as on our planet.
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The fertile or arable soil depth is also very shallow, averaging barely one eighth of a metre on land. In spite of possessing mostly level or gently sloping areas, the terrain is often hilly with some high mountains on land and even deeper troughs beneath the oceans. Volcanic activity is still present though much diminished from previous aeons. The land is the above-sea portion of tectonic plates which are still moving and causing quakes and tremors. Much of 3/Astra’s terrestrial surface layer is flat near sea level, both above and below water.
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The 3/Astra year(2) (
period of rotation of the planet around its star) is almost identical to our own and the axial inclination of the planet’s rotation to its orbital plane is also roughly similar to our own at about 24ยบ so normal seasonal variations have not been dissimilar to those with which our people are already familiar and well-suited.
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1. Units of length have been standardized to the metre ( 0.95 x 10-13 light years) approximately half the height of an average adult male.
2. A 3/Astra-year is the time it takes 3/Astra to rotate around its star, Astra. The reader may assume it is roughly equivalent to one of our own years. Throughout this report the term ‘year’ may be taken as being the same as an Astra year.
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Life Forms on 3/Astra
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Most life forms on 3/Astra are carbon based, oxygen consuming and water dependent.
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Life forms consist of bacteria and other micro-organisms, plant life varying in size from algae up to large trees and animals of a wide range of species. Most life forms have evolved over aeons though a few have remained largely unchanged for long periods.
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Life exists in all areas of the planet except at the extreme poles. In most desert areas, where life is apparently absent most of the time, plant life blossoms rapidly after rare but occasional rain showers which, in turn, bring in insects and other animals for the duration of growth.
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The dominant animal life forms are mammals with reptiles, insects, birds and fish as significant other forms. It would appear that the reptiles, insects and birds have existed for many hundreds of millions of years often almost completely unchanged, that fish have evolved continually over millions of years sometimes developing forms able to leave the water and at other times returning. From fossil records many species have evolved and become extinct over the ages but the extinction rate is growing and is currently faster now than at any time in history, even including a major catastrophic period which has been determined to have occurred some 60-odd million years ago. The fastest evolvers are micro-organisms which are covered in a later section. The second fastest evolvers in recent millennia have been the mammals with primates at the top of the predator chain. The dominant species are similar to ourselves, a hominoid of very recent evolution but of extremely limited intelligence and apparently, particularly in group behaviour, almost totally lacking in common sense or rational thought.
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Population
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The population of 3/Astra is very large but shrinking, only growing uncontrolled in the dominant species which is gradually replacing all others except micro-organisms and also damaging the atmospheric, aquatic, marine and terrestrial environments. These trends have been noted by the dominant species and discussed amongst them but largely ignored in favour of the more immediate material benefits being gained from their practices contributing to the damage.
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The requirements for the existence of any species, as on our planet, include a survivable atmosphere, sufficient nutrition, available clean water, shelter from weather and other threats and a climate range suited to the species. The dominant species on 3/Astra is currently overloading the planet with its requirements for nutrition, its pollution of water resources and its alteration to the climate through day-to-day practices. By and large it was not detected that any species other than the hominoid was endangering the environment or incapable of sustaining its own survival other than to note that the pressures on all other species from the dominant species were not survivable in the longer term.
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Marine Life
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Marine life comprises plant species, bacteria and other micro-organisms, invertebrates, crustacea, a wide range of fish and a few marine mammals, some reaching large sizes. There is a food chain within this structure and the dominant land species is also hunting all life forms in the oceans either for food or for amusement. Technological development within the dominant land species has recently enabled hominoid hunters to harvest marine species at a rate greater than that which can be replaced by natural propagation.
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Terrestrial Life
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Terrestrial life comprises bacteria and other micro-organisms, very wide ranges of plant and insect species, reptiles and mammals often peculiar to localities. Some reptiles have in the past reached enormous sizes but those are now extinct. The largest mammals have also become extinct in recent times, generally as a result of hunting by the dominant species. A few large mammals still exist in diminishing numbers and are in some cases protected by a few members of the dominant species who wish them (and other endangered species) to be preserved. In spite of majority support among the dominant species for such protection the practice of hunting rare species still continues, though only for amusement or financial reward, no longer for food.
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Micro-organisms
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The planet is, as with our own, very densely populated with micro-organisms most of which thrive in symbiosis with other species. Many serve valuable purposes as an aid to hygiene, digestion and resistance to more harmful micro-organisms. Most flora and fauna species, largely without a conscious realization of this symbiosis, thrive by employing practices which permit infection by these micro-organisms. This contributes to most species possessing a high level of immunity to harmful elements to which they are daily exposed in their natural environment. Indeed evolution itself nurtures those which best adapt to their environment thereby further promoting these beneficial activities. Similarly the micro-organisms themselves mutate into forms which are best suited to their environment including their host. A micro-organism which destroys the host on which it depends will not benefit through this destruction except where it can readily and sustainably infect a new host and serve the useful purpose of curbing over-population. The evolution rate is significantly faster amongst the micro-organisms than any other species of flora or fauna due to their extremely rapid rate of propagation and regeneration.
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The Dominant Species
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The dominant species on 3/Astra is a hominoid at the top of the primate family of species. Generally similar in physical form and appearance to our own people but diverse across the planet. The male is typically aggressive in nature from an ancestral requirement to defend the tribal group and to hunt for food. The female is generally the nurturer, more gentle and thoughtful in nature.
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Although currently considered to be one single species there is growing evidence that the current dominant hominoid has not been the only one to have evolved. Whether other variants have become extinct or whether they have interbred to provide fairly consistent fertile hybrids is unproven. Nevertheless the variation between hominoids from different regions is wide and easily identifiable as being linked to geographic origins. These variations are clearly genetic and they must each have evolved in isolation over hundreds of centuries and in sympathy with local environmental conditions.
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Since the variations are many and diverse it should be possible, in any future visitation by our people, for us to mingle amongst their hominoids attracting no more attention than any indigenous 3/Astra traveller might incur. If our future representatives arouse suspicion it will be because of their speech, behaviour, knowledge or intellect failing to conform to local norms rather than physical appearance. Accordingly future representatives should be well-versed in the regional customs, local knowledge and normal behaviour before arrival.
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Because our own exploration team necessarily arrived without such prior training it has been essential for us to maintain a very low profile to avoid detection.
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Agricultural Practices
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Technological development within the dominant land species over just the last few thousand years has enabled the hominoids to farm plant and animal food species in order to ensure that they can be replaced as fast as they are consumed. Apart from these farm environments the continued survival of almost all other species is at risk.
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The farms consist of areas of land, river or sea where food species can be contained or encouraged to remain, where favourable conditions can be provided for a population more densely populated than it would be in the natural environment and where harvesting on a large scale can be accomplished rapidly with minimum effort. Necessarily the higher density of any single food species nurtured in farms provides a fertile environment for infestation by other species which has been countered by the profligate use of chemicals, many of a toxic nature. Some hominoids nurture these farms as their active adult life activity and exchange harvested produce for credits which they can use to exchange again for other lifestyle requirements.
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Hominoid Trading
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Using this system of credits, all hominoids engage in some activity to gain credits in exchange for some service or product.
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For example: Farmers gain credits by selling produce. These credits may be used to exchange for other services such as the building of homes, animal houses or storehouses. As a result other hominoids may earn credits by performing construction services for these farmers and also for other hominoids. Some hominoids specialize in producing beverages, in turn exchanged for credits not only with these builders and farmers but also any other hominoids who may have accrued credits by providing any number of services to anyone with credits to trade. And so it goes on, throughout all hominoid communities, each hominoid choosing some activity of perceived value to other hominoids which can be traded for these credits.
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Credits, Banking and Risk Insurance
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Over the millennia these credits have come in many forms. Anything could be used provided it could be regarded as representing some trusted stable value. In some regions certain ocean animal shells have been used, those most desirable to the community who are able to attach some relative value to any particular shell. Other communities have used rare or precious items such as rare minerals or metals; some communities used bracelets and anklets which were worn by the female of the species to display their male partner’s wealth and to carry the credits for trading purposes.
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Later, when hominoids started to travel around their planet and preferred not to carry large amounts of credit as they moved, a system of ‘banking’ was developed through which, by lending one’s credits in one location, one could reclaim them in another more distant location for a small service levy paid out of the deposited credits. Later still, hominoids of trustworthy status requiring a temporary loan could borrow credits from these banks for a certain agreed time period and repay such loans later plus a small levy over and above the originally borrowed sum. Banks then sought out investors with surplus credits to deposit their credits for use in providing these loans. In this latter case, instead of charging a levy to hold funds, the banks agreed to pay the investor for these loans and then charge even more to the borrower.
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Necessarily such loans, investments and borrowings incurred risk posed by some borrower possibly failing to carry out their promise to repay. Such risks were quantified by experience over time and the cost of all losses was made up by excess charges paid by all utilising the banking system. Agreements covering the cost of any risk became known as ‘insurance’. Some hominoids make their living entirely through this credit transaction and insurance system whilst living their own lives in a wholly non-productive manner.
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In this way a system of banking has now grown to encompass the entire planet. At this stage in their development, whilst credits can still be earned and traded using paper or metal currency, the majority of trading is performed by using the banks to maintain the accounts of investors, borrowers and traders. Indeed, the vast majority of transactions at this point in time are handled purely on paper in accordance with agreement or by trusted communication between hominoids via the banks.
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These service organizations have amassed massive capital over the years, all gleaned from other hominoids’ credits, and now represent powerful agencies in the humanoid economy and political arena, all this having occurred in the total absence of any productivity.
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Industry and Commerce
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As technology developed hominoids worked in groups to manufacture items of perceived value to others. Factories have developed near resource sources and hominoids have grouped around them for employment in exchange for small fractions of the credits earned by the factory owners. In turn, these populations have requirements for other industrial or agricultural products. So each group trades constantly with all others.
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As workers can earn the credits they require in only a portion of any time period, they have gained leisure time in the balance of the time period during which they seek to indulge themselves. Such indulgences include catering for all hominoid senses and emotions, specifically for hearing, sight, touch, smell, hunger, thirst, lust and other gratifications through musical or theatrical performances, sexual services and eating at centralised kitchens which offer desirable nutriment. These theatrical performers, musicians, sex workers and hospitality providers charge credits for their services or food such that they earn enough profit over and above their immediate costs for their own continued prosperity. Obviously workers in these service, entertainment and hospitality industry sectors have their own requirements for food and agricultural produce along with the indulgences in their own leisure time.
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An enormous web of hominoid activity has grown up around the entire planet such that at the present time the prosperity of any one sector can affect the continued prosperity of any other; each trader depends entirely upon others; suppliers depend upon consumers, manufacturers and retailers depend upon customers; customers depend upon their own incomes which, in turn, depend upon the prosperity of their employers. And so the circle of trade continues. Providing that risks and losses are covered by profits, providing profits are acceptable, providing investors receive a reasonable return, providing nothing is ever over-valued, this trading continues apace. Where there is a failure in the links of these chains interruptions occur within the network. Where there is severe failure the value of the credits becomes unstable and hominoids withhold trade thereby causing the entire web or large portions of it to spiral towards collapse. Ultimately the system depends upon straightforward dealings and trustworthiness, a reasonable recognition and allowance for risk, and reliable delivery of valuable goods and services, and therefore must fail when any of this is deficient.
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At this point in the hominoid population’s development by far the majority of hominoids are involved in earning credits by providing non-essential services than in producing valuable product. These service industries include the banking and insurance industries and the leisure industry. A much smaller proportion are involved in agriculture, mining and manufacturing. In spite of this bias many geographical areas of 3/Astra have populations which are severely under-nourished and some hominoids live in extremely poor conditions on the periphery of ostentatiously wealthy regions. The same disparity applies between nations. Some communities, guilty over this disparity, donate gifts of credits to groups which are able to attract attention to their poverty. These gifts rarely resolve the problem contributing to the poverty but do serve to assuage the guilt of the donors.
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As will become apparent further into this report, the natural greed and egoism of the hominoid species constantly threatens this commercial web. When it collapses only those hominoids who are productive will possess the elements necessary for survival - nutrition, water, shelter and safety from threats; the movement of credits will then slow or stop except between the food producers and those who are desirable in trading with them. Those whose survival is imperilled will either die out or resort to violence to reclaim their access to needs. .
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The system is ripe for collapse.
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Government
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Communities of hominoids have developed methods of coordinated community management. Either competition between the strongest elements nurtures one physically strong hominoid or group of hominoids leading to a dictatorial style of management independent of intellect, or a community grouping collectively considers options for policies and their management by determining which hominoids have the greater level of support and endorsement.
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Where the dictatorial style is adopted the greed and egoism of the powerful usually leads to a subordination of the populace, suppression of privileges and theft of assets, and oppression ensues. Often a military force is employed by the powerful, along the lines of a state-sponsored armed gang. Sometimes genocide is employed to eliminate opposition, competition or those stereotyped as undesirable. However the dictatorial style is not always destined to be detrimental to the community; on occasion the powerful are motivated by factors other than greed such as social objectives or moral or ethical considerations for the benefit of the wider community. Usually such dictators are independently wealthy, and therefore have little need for further wealth acquisition, and are consequently less prone to corruption.
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Where the collective style is adopted a government is formed after sampling the feelings and preferences of the community through a voting system, ideally where no pressure is exerted on any voter and freedom of choice is the overriding philosophy. Following election the hominoid leader or governing group takes over management for a fixed and finite period of time, following which the leaders will sample the community to see if the leaders should be retained or changed. But because a temporary government is involved in the process of selecting a future government the system is prone to corruption.
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This cycle of repetitive collective surveying repeats indefinitely at fixed intervals. To gain votes aspiring hominoids will meet with their voting public in an effort to ingratiate themselves with their constituency. This ingratiation is done by fawning to their public and promising anything which can win their support. The art of fawning for votes has reached considerably skilful levels on 3/Astra where potential candidates are trained by specialist hominoids in how to present themselves for optimum response.
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Once management is taken over in either system the leading group arranges itself such that a small group of hominoids control all others, usually in hierarchies. This control is exercised in both systems either militarily or by constitutional law. Since both military hierarchical leadership and judicial appointment is under the control of the appointed leaders, regulatory and disciplinary independence is clearly absent in both systems.
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Once elected or appointed the leading individuals are free to exercise any policy, promised or otherwise. It is common to simply avoid implementing promises and even, in some cases, act against promises. In some cases leaders have even taken their community to war or committed illegal acts on an international scale. Even if the community is massively against such action leaders have still chosen to go against the will of their community and then invest enormous effort to create either a falsified view of why the action was necessary or even a falsified version of history. In many cases these actions lead to situations far worse than those at the outset for all parties concerned. Such rogue states are tolerated, each rogue claiming innocence and that some other is more roguish. The public may be incensed by such behaviour but are powerless to do anything about it in either system.
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To overturn an elected government one must wait the prescribed period during which those elected can indulge themselves freely. To overturn a dictatorship a group must resort to violence but generally finds itself in opposition to a paid and well-armed militia. If the government response to the dissenters is violent enough then the opposing individual or individuals are eliminated permanently.
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Even when finding one amongst them is guilty of some unacceptable behaviour, politicians generally reprieve one another after token reprimand or slight punishment and so corruption is rife. Such corruption also thrives between politicians and their wealthier business supporters who are also reprieved in like manner once exposed. Most politicians (and wealthier business hominoids) regardless of effectiveness, retire from working life in luxurious comfort, sometimes in exile, having gained for themselves all the wealth and privileges they desire.
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Hominoids have short memories, do not readily learn from history and often find that opposition candidates or alternatives are equally corrupt, incompetent, misguided, egoistic and greedy as those which most recently caused offence. As a result dissention is either rare or put down quickly and the governed hominoids submit to the status quo in order to get on with their own smaller scale indulgences.
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Technology and Weaponry
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Hominoid technology has developed rapidly only during the last few centuries. Prior to that wheels, hand-tools and local resources were boundaries to the species’ capability. In quick succession engines powered by heated water, gases and fossil fuel were developed and skills in metallurgy, chemistry and electronics have leapt ahead at a rapid rate. On 3/Astra almost all transportation methods faster than a domesticated quadruped were developed within the last 150 years. Message transmission was also limited to the speed of a galloping domesticated quadruped until electronic communication was devised.
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Most hominoids are literate in their own language and the majority of hominoids have ready access to books and libraries meaning that scientific knowledge can be passed on separate to the education system. Communication has increased to speed of light transmission in the last 50 years or so and news of events can now be distributed planet-wide virtually instantaneously.
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Chemically powered rocket technology, initially used for warfare, was further developed only during the last 50 years and has generally been utilized solely for the placement of satellites for intercommunity espionage, military threat, weather forecasting and communication purposes.
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Nuclear sciences are beginning to be understood but the destructive fission process has been adopted over the more constructive and controllable fusion process. In line with hominoid nature, bombs were the first development, followed by poorly designed unstable reactors which created energy cheaply but produced toxic waste for which no disposal plans have been made. Each year large quantities of toxic waste with half-lives in excess of 25 millenia are produced. Poorer communities are urged to accept this waste and its future health consequences in exchange for credits. Confrontations between communities has resulted in the threat of mutually assured destruction, i.e. “if you offend me I will arrange for us both to cease to exist”, a strategy which is only comprehensible amongst and effective between 3/Astra hominoids.
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The driver for all these and earlier developments has primarily been military and caused by the warlike nature of the species. By-products from military developments have occasionally been put to beneficial civil use but the motivation has always been greed, power or a combination of the two.
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Unfortunately even the limited technological advances of the hominoid are not matched by a wisdom or maturity to manage their use. Generally few rules or guidelines exist in the early stages of technological development and typically once a technology has been developed the hominoid cannot resist employing it in spite of possible, probable or even known dangers, like children playing with a new firework. Certainly inter-tribal rules are virtually non-existent thereby permitting new developments to be utilised in warfare to gain status, power or assets from new sources. Restrictions on such behaviour can only come from those with lesser technical capability at the time who necessarily have less leverage to exert control.
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For the first time on this planet a species has gained the power to destroy itself. As in a male teenage youth, physical development has occurred ahead of wisdom and self-restraint.
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Generally the hominoid exaggerates the benefits of any new technology and denies any harmful effects. In spite of experiencing problems the hominoid will still tend to set them aside and deny their relevance or applicability to the future. The hominoid rarely learns from history and similar mistakes are made generation after generation. The only activity which indelibly leads the hominoid towards behavioural constraints is that of failing to satisfy greed.
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Hominoid Family Groupings
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Hominoids generally live in small family groups consisting of one male, one dominant or subservient female and their offspring. On occasion other family members are included. On occasion some family member is non-existent or has absconded or died.
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Some communities still use an older wider family group where grand-parents are included and looked after by younger more active generations. Some groupings are wider still including brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, uncles or even more remote relatives.
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Generally both males and females each take one spouse though cases of more than one of either gender can occur. Some males and females choose not to take a partner, either preferring the single life or preferring alternative sexual relationships which are too diverse, and in some cases too repulsive to our culture, to describe in this report and are left to future analysts to describe and explain.
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Commonly partnering arrangements fail due to the untrustworthy and self-indulgent nature of the hominoid in which case the partnerships are annulled and new partnering takes place. For the individual hominoid, the more times partnerships are dissolved the lower the likelihood of subsequent partnerships lasting.
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Generally children are nurtured by their parents up to and perhaps beyond puberty. Generally children leave home and seek to make their own life with or without partners not too many years after puberty.
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Sexual intercourse is enjoyed as a pastime and indulged in freely. Unwanted pregnancies are generally avoided by chemical means though females are able to obtain terminations of their unwanted children before full foetal development. Sometimes an unplanned pregnancy is allowed to run full term and the child is passed to another family wanting a child. Sometimes this involves the exchange of credits. Sometimes an unplanned pregnancy runs full term and the female retains the child without engaging a partner.
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Because of the liberal attitude towards sexual intercourse and ready availability of sexual services, various diseases are common, which are passed on through this and other indulgent practices for self-gratification. No attempt appears to be made to verify the health or suitability of any sexual partner prior to intercourse, which is purely driven by self-gratification. Commonly sexual intercourse and sexual abuse occurs without consent.
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Hominoid Education
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Generally education is provided within the family for the first 3-4 years of a child’s life, the teaching coming from the untrained parents, primarily or usually the female. Generally male and female children are treated equally though some communities favour a male child due to its larger future earning capabilities.
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Language is taught in the home along with basic numeracy and literacy. Each community has its own language usually incomprehensible to any other. Where languages are similar or common, regional dialects separating the groups is the norm.
Following the first few years children are formally educated in schools for the next 9 to 12 years, first at primary level for about 6 years then at secondary level after that. Often they then seek employment. Optionally older children (male or female youths) can choose to extend their education by attending tertiary institutions for a further 3-5 years or even, in some cases, considerably longer. Generally the better and longer a youth’s education the easier it is for that young adult to gain desirable employment in later life.
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To overcome the language difficulty in inter-regional communication, some students learn more than one language and become translators. There is a trend to standardise on a few languages across the planet but the humanoids cannot agree which should be adopted. As a result trading occurs mostly within standard language blocs.
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The main problem with education on 3/Astra is that the hominoids are taught by teachers. Generally 3/Astra teachers are poorly rewarded in credits for their efforts so, unless highly motivated hominoids can be appointed, those less qualified in their subjects are recruited. For the first six years of schooling children are taught by primary school teachers. Generally these teachers are less well qualified than secondary or tertiary level teachers who each specialize in their own aptitudes. Primary school teachers are generally expected to teach their class all or most subjects regardless of aptitude. These teachers are given broad-based training on how to manage young students. In many cases their basic skills and aptitudes are limited and this limitation is consequently passed on to their charges. From time to time standardized teaching methods are changed and teachers experienced in one methodology are expected to adopt another, unfamiliarity obviously leading to further limitation. Occasionally a new methodology falls into disrepute and the method is altered yet again or even reverted to the prior method (by this time a new generation of students have matured and become teachers so their already limited abilities are limited further still).
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At primary and secondary level teaching is in groups and the teaching rate is geared to the slowest learner who can keep up with the rate set by the teacher. Slower learners are left behind and faster learners are held back. The entire system is designed to limit the student to the lowest common denominator.
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Hominoid infants have a huge capacity for learning at a very early age. This rate of learning diminishes rapidly with age. In spite of this the hominoid applies the most sophisticated educational solutions to the older children and the least sophisticated to the young. The hominoid does not possess the reasoning power to resolve this incongruity.
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Employment and Self-Employment
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Generally adults seek employment to earn credits to cover family needs. Sometimes younger adults contribute to this prior to completing their formal education. These credits are used to support the family group in their day-to-day costs for nutrition, health, shelter and leisure indulgences. Any excess is either saved, using the banking system, or intentionally wasted through excessive indulgence.
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Some adults seek to employ themselves in the hope they can earn higher credits rather than limiting themselves to a small portion of an employer’s profits. To achieve self-employment the adult must invest significant time in starting their business activity, in gaining missing skills and in acquiring the physical accoutrements and materials necessary for the product or service to be provided by the chosen business. Often such ventures fail before adequate investment is completed, either because insufficient credits are available or because the product or service does not gain adequate acceptance with targeted customers.
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Typically governments of all types attend to the needs of their own members and supporters first and those of the populace last. As a result politicians and their employees are nurtured best, power blocs (including large businesses) contributing political support are nurtured next and small business(3) operators and their employees largely left to their own devices or offered promises and token sympathy close to election time (refer Government). Of the order of 80% of hominoids are either self-employed or employed by small businesses which obviously gives them numbers to appoint their government. The hominoid does not have the reasoning power to recognize the implications of this fact.
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3. Small businesses are defined here as those typically run by less than 20 or 30 hominoids under one or two self-employed hominoids with no predominant government, military or single large business affiliation.

The Law and Punishment
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Where an individual is regarded as offending against the norm of acceptable behaviour the tactic employed is isolation, excommunication or rejection from a group. In the most severe cases governments or equally powerful groupings will even resort to crime themselves and eliminate the offending individual. In between these two extremes lies the bulk of hominoid offending which is dealt with by the judiciary using a rulebook written and adopted by the government called “The Law”.
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The Law prescribes each and all unacceptable behaviour and, following a ritual trial, a guilty individual is then sentenced to a punishment. In extreme cases in some tribes the death penalty is still employed in spite of numerous cases where executed individuals have later been proven innocent. The hominoid does not possess the reasoning power to resolve this contradiction.
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In serious cases not warranting execution, variable terms of imprisonment may be prescribed. The length of the term may be related to the seriousness of the offence. Imprisonment is justified on the basis that it removes a danger temporarily from the community, that it deprives guilty individuals (and, unfortunately, their innocent dependents) from an ability to earn an income and that it is designed to rehabilitate the offenders in spite of there being no reliable or consistent evidence of this outcome. There is, in fact, much evidence that the relocation of an individual to a penal community and restriction within that group tends to alienate the convicted individual from their normal community and exposes them to the teachings of other more habitual offenders who are joint inmates. A criminal community is thereby nurtured which tends to harbour resentment and enable an offender, after release, to re-offend but with increased sophistication, effectiveness or violence making future crime more likely and apprehension progressively more difficult. The proponents of the penal system, though loudly claiming rehabilitation as the primary motive, are clearly more motivated by revenge than any other factor since rehabilitation is neither a well-versed science nor a reliable outcome. Observation of the public during apprehensions and trials clearly exposes the primitive hysterical nature of the hominoid and its lust for revenge.
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In most minor cases only a financial penalty is imposed and the guilty hominoid forfeits a prescribed number of credits to the government. Greed is a major driver for hominoid behaviour and financial penalty avoidance is therefore a very effective motive in many cases.
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The legal system has given rise to a large service sector which acts out the prosecution, defence and judgement of accused hominoids for massive fees. The legal system of fines does, however, provide tax revenue to subsidise costly government employees and services. The incarceration system is also very costly, the average inmate costing the community more than the average hominoid earnings in credits. And all this for absolutely zero productivity.
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Sports
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The hominoid is most imaginative in creating leisure time activities of a competitive physical nature called ‘sports’. Most involve the propulsion of vaguely spherical objects or missiles in some predefined direction. Sometimes these attempts are opposed by another team determined to propel the object in the opposite direction. The oscillation of the object, as competing hominoids propel it first one way then the other, arouses much excitement, both in the competitors and amongst their supporters, who watch, chant tribal sayings, shout encouragement or abuse, wave limbs or jump hysterically up and down. After a predefined interval scores are tallied, distances measured or strokes counted and one or other individual or team is declared the ‘winner’. The supporters of the losers are disheartened and perform poorly until the next competition. Supporters of the winners feel most superior (even though they themselves did nothing) and revel in their goading of others.
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Tribalism
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3/Astra hominoids are basically insecure and seek endorsement from groups. This tribal behaviour occurs in all areas and facets of hominoid life. Business allegiances, political groupings, sporting groupings, hobby and pastime groups all dictate the day-to-day behaviour of individuals. Despised individuals are excommunicated or ejected from their group and, in the extreme case, do not survive.
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In leisure time many seek to support some sporting team which has a local connection (refer Sports). Competition between these sporting teams can lead to major tribal conflict and violent drunken behaviour but is tolerated as an outlet for the pent up frustration of the insecure populace.
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Philosophy
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Hominoids have sufficient intelligence to be conscious they are mortal but are confused about their creation, existence and reason for life. Groups form to explain these matters and within these groups individuals support one another by reaffirming some hominoid myth or dogma. Unproven or blatantly false beliefs are not a problem since to remain a member of a group a hominoid must “have faith” which means “believe something to be true” in spite of lack of evidence, irrationality, improbability or even evidence to the contrary. This fracture in logic is not an issue for the hominoid since their reasoning capability is severely limited by their overriding desire to achieve some preconceived goal.
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Religion
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Many of these hominoid groupings have given rise to yet another service industry where credits are exchanged for imaginary or psychological benefits. Religious groupings in particular have traded effectively over the millennia, many spreading total falsehoods or creating ethnic or tribal tensions leading to torture, murder, warfare, genocide and other criminal campaigns purely for the purposes of perpetuating the power of those controlling the group. Some religious groupings, along with some commercial groupings, have gained power on a scale comparable with nations and governments.
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Competing religious groupings vehemently denounce one another. Each forcefully believes their own dogma to be the only true one and will even commit crimes or break their own vows to defeat their competitors. Since these myths and dogmas are each the creation of the group organizers, since none can be proven and since all depend upon the faith of their followers, there can be no resolution to this irrational struggle.
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Inheritances and Longevity
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Generally credits and assets of hominoids who die are passed to their spouses or children. Where these assets are meagre the costs of body disposal and transfer of assets consume significant proportions of the assets. Where these assets are substantial significant values are transferred to hominoids with little or no experience in managing, maintaining or growing those assets and commonly such assets are mismanaged or squandered in the ensuing few years. Unearned wealth for hominoids appears in practice to either have the adverse effect of actually fostering decreased responsibility and consequently to increased poverty within one or two generations or granting power to those less capable of using it wisely.
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Hominoids spend most of their adult life accruing credits and indulging themselves in sensual gratification. Ultimately it is their state of health which determines their longevity and this is least well serviced during early adult life particularly amongst the more affluent. As a consequence those with greater assets often die earliest through irresponsible behaviour, self-indulgence and stress over status and material acquisition.
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Hominoid Housing
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Generally a family home consists of a box covered to keep out the weather. Each home is surrounded by a small section of land to keep space between neighbours which is used for outdoor activities and perhaps some gardening. Hominoids regard homes, among other material items, as a significant indicator of status. The more superficial and greedy hominoids change homes often to demonstrate gradually improving status. Often poorer large families occupy small spaces whilst more affluent small families occupy vast spaces, mostly unused and simply procured to demonstrate their status.
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Some homes consist of large multi-storey dwellings where each family has a section of the building. These families live in close proximity with their neighbours and share common outdoor areas. Some communities have rectangular homes whilst others employ circular constructions. Most are permanent and designed to last 50 years or more whilst others are trans-locatable. Relocatable homes generally use lighter materials and require more maintenance. Some homes are built above water or are built on poles or platforms to keep them off the water or land. Some communities use natural shelter such as caves.
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Rural and less affluent communities save water off their roofs for drinking or domestic use though generally in townships all rainwater is channelled off roofs and streets into the sea. Generally there is a shortage of clean fresh water in densely populated communities yet these are the least likely to be saving their water and most likely to squander it.
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Homes consist of sleeping, food preparation and consumption areas and leisure areas. Generally sleeping rooms are set aside for one or more children only and separately for one or more adults only though some communities sleep many to a room. Food preparation is one area usually containing a heating machine, a bowl to contain water for cleaning purposes and surfaces for food processing. Meals are served in bowls or platters either individually or shared. In more affluent communities these food processing areas are lavishly appointed with several machines designed to further consume energy or water.
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Leisure space is more or less non-existent in the less affluent areas, other rooms doubling for any free time activity, whilst leisure space in some affluent communities can be almost unimaginably self-indulgent; in some homes rooms are set aside solely for playing games with balls; in others rooms are fully equipped for visual or sound entertainment, sometimes involving massive display screens or sound producing boxes. Many affluent homes even keep their transportation indoors, under better conditions than many other families house their own children. The gap between the least affluent and the most affluent is obscenely wide and can only contribute to future disharmony within the species.
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Generally homes are larger and rooms are bigger and better appointed in the more affluent community areas. Homes are purchased and sold using the credits system, often involving massive borrowings from the banks at huge levies. Generally homes in cities increase in perceived value and owners in such areas have used this artificial inflation to accrue funds for their retirement instead of saving or producing. Inevitably such activity, which is wholly unproductive, must conclude with a collapse of the credits system in the housing sector.
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Hominoids use their homes to isolate themselves from their environment. In the more lavish homes machinery operates night and day either to heat vacant spaces or to cool them down. In both cases energy is consumed which has been provided by the burning of natural elements found on the planet, usually remote from the consumer. The energy and effort required to mine these unreplenishable elements, refine them and transport them around the globe is immense and the majority of the energy produced by using up these increasingly scarce elements is wasted. The same fuels are even used to power the transportation of the fuel itself to the domestic consumer. The mining and refinement process is significantly wasteful and the final energy delivered at the consumer end in heat, reduction of heat or motive power is a tiny fraction of the energy that the unmined element original represented.
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No plan is in place to address the inevitable exhaustion of these unreplenishable elements.
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Hominoid Health
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With a prior history of reasonable resistance to disease the hominoid species is currently losing its immunity at an alarming rate. Combined with the rapid evolutionary capability of micro-organisms and viruses this is giving rise to epidemics on a global scale. Allergies to common materials, flora and food items are becoming common where individuals are forced to avoid food items which others can enjoy freely. Respiratory allergies are also becoming increasingly common.
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It is likely that the rapid decline in the hominoid immune system is due primarily to a lifestyle in which hominoids have sought to insulate themselves from their environment which has resulted in them failing to build up a reasonable level of immunity during early life. This insulation occurs at various levels. Firstly in insulation from weather, climate and natural daily events through which the species has in the past successfully evolved. By living in artificially heated, cooled and filtered atmospheres the vulnerability to variation on those occasions when passing between environments is acute.
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In addition the environment and food and beverage intake is largely sterile thereby reducing the hominoids ability to build up defence mechanisms against micro-organisms occurring naturally in rain, river water and fresh food items. Farms use large quantities of chemicals to resist natural pests and organisms which might reduce the size of the crop. Meat is killed, frozen and then well-cooked to eliminate or minimize any organisms living within the meat. Fruit and vegetables are harvested whilst still coated with manufactured chemicals designed to eliminate food parasites, and several other sources of chemicals provide further poisonous intake. Factory produced food commonly contains chemicals for artificial colouring, flavour and preservation against deterioration without providing any nutritional benefit, further contributing to the hominoids’ chemical intake and insulation from naturally occurring foods and micro-organisms.
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One example of hominoid behaviour well-illustrates a problem which occurs widely throughout their food industry:
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Milk has been a basic food item amongst the species for millennia. Following weaning, the hominoid moves onto milk obtained from domestic ungulate stock. This practise has been widely beneficial in contributing nutrition in an efficient and sustainable manner both on a large and small scale. Because of the more recent generally poor diet and high fat intake of hominoids the species has commonly become overweight and, in an effort to counter this, has commenced the practise of reducing the fat content of milk.
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After farmers milk their dairy herd, the milk is treated to eliminate parasites. It is then chilled and transported to a processing plant where the cream is separated out of the milk. This cream, a major contributor of fats, is then converted into other products which are consumed anyway thereby entirely defeating the original objective. Further the milk is skimmed, chemically altered, refined and/or combined with additives producing an item still vaguely recognisable in colour but otherwise wholly unrecognisable as milk. This skimmed or refined product is then promoted as the ‘healthier’ item and distributed and fed to children and the rest of the family. No immunity is built up owing to the sterility of the product and as a result the hominoid population is now exhibiting increased levels of allergy to dairy products. Some reactions are so severe that all dairy products must be avoided by some individuals.
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In short the hominoid has not yet realized that a species must adapt to the environment in which it dwells as the converse can never be true. If the hominoid alters that environment then its own adaptation would need to change. If the hominoid were ever to realize that it could improve its immunity by exposing itself throughout life to a wide range of natural situations, climates and micro-organisms, then it could possibly reverse the trend. There is no evidence that the 3/Astra hominoid possesses reasoning skills of this level of sophistication at this time.
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Hominoid Medical Treatment
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Over the centuries hominoids have developed medical and surgical practices to heal many injuries and infections.
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Cell mutation has become a major cause of death and the treatment after early detection has commonly been surgical removal of affected tissue or organs. In some cases this is not practical and other treatments can be as offensive as enduring the disease. Many hominoid organs can be transplanted though rejection is still a major problem and generally the prognosis is for a shortened life span.
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On the medical side most recent research and development has occurred in the areas of administration of chemical panacea to counter offending physical symptoms. Antibiotics were invented barely 4 generations ago and were initially most helpful in assisting the hominoid’s own immune system. However a lack of common sense allowed the adoption of self-defeating policies incapable of being reasoned against by this species; the same treatment was given to all hominoids suffering similar ailments and they were accommodated in groups during treatment. Whilst the initial trend was a decimation of the offending micro-organism or virus, the rapid evolutionary capability of such species was ignored. The ensuing consequence was for the micro-organisms or viruses which survived to evolve new resistant variants.
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The medical response to the decreasing effectiveness of any one antibiotic was to change to another but to still employ it homogeneously within groups. This allowed the micro-organisms or species to evolve in a wide range of directions including becoming multi-resistant over a few decades.
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The situation at present is that the effectiveness of most antibiotics is diminishing and several species of micro-organism have become multi-resistant. Annually new epidemics arise and treatments to counter them take too long to distribute to the needy by which time the infection is out of hand. In addition, sexual practices, the widespread usage of harmful drugs for self-indulgent purposes and poor diet, combined with the reduction in the effectiveness of the species’ immune system, are all contributing to a rapid decline in the health of this species – entirely self-induced.
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Health During Colonization
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Several of our exploration team have succumbed to illnesses contracted on 3/Astra. This has been entirely due to our immune systems being unfamiliar with the 3/Astra environment and incapable of developing antibodies within the limited time available to allow for recovery.
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When our people migrate to a new colony such as 3/Astra, the greatest dangers will be encountered in the health field. Generally migrants from our planet will not have immunity from the micro-organisms of their new planet. It will be essential to build up sufficient immunity before arrival unless a wholly sterile environment is to be established at the initial disembarkation point. Whilst living in sterile ‘bubbles’ may be a short term solution it is not practicable in the longer term as is illustrated by the behaviour of the 3/Astra hominoids.
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Immunity is gained over a lifetime of experiences following genetic inheritance from both parents and initial antibodies contributed from one’s female parent. Whilst vaccination and immunisation can be valuable in some cases, the greatest immunity is achieved in those whose exposure to their natural environment starts from the earliest age. It is therefore highly likely that, prior to mass colonization, immunity centres should be established on our planet which gradually expose intending colonists to the environment they will encounter at their future destination. This exposure will need to be gently introduced and accelerated to maximum exposure some years before travel.
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Transportation
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To move passengers, products or fuel around the planet, 3/Astra hominoids have developed machines which can travel across land, sea or through the air. In order to avoid collisions between these transportation machines ‘rules of the road’ have been adopted. For example, if every transportation machine operator keeps to the right of another approaching machine, the two may pass safely. Various communities have adopted standards to facilitate this process. In sea lanes the left side is indicated by one colour marker and the right a different standard colour, in actuality red versus green.
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As usual the absence of common sense has been applied to this most sensible of strategies by some communities adopting keeping left whilst others keep right. At sea where all communities have finally agreed to keep right one community uses red for left when leaving channels where every other community has agreed that red indicates the left when entering channels. This particular group is a new immature community which has accrued immense power in recent times and is wholly convinced that every other community is out of step. The hominoid characteristic of egoism applies at large-scale community group level as well as individual level.
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Red versus green has also been adopted to differentiate ‘stop’ or danger from ‘go’ or safety. Unfortunately red/green is the most common form of colour-blindness in hominoids. The choice of red and green is still more curious; despite the obvious desirability that danger should be most easily communicated, the red colour chosen has a wavelength least detectable to the hominoid eye. The most easily detected wavelength, namely blue, has been completely ignored. The hominoid does not have the reasoning capability to redress this.
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Irrespective of the irrationality of having conflicting traffic regulations, all these machines consume energy at a highly inefficient rate, only a fraction of the original energy resulting in potential or kinetic energy gains. The cost of this inefficient process must be met by increased prices on all goods or services involving transportation. These costs are highly significant even though the elements used to produce the energy have been found naturally on the planet, i.e. have no credit cost at the outset. As we all know, energy can neither be created nor destroyed and once energy in any form has been employed to power any device, that energy will always ultimately convert back to heat and result in a temperature rise regardless of how the machinery using that energy operates. So, for example, if energy is used by a hominoid for heating, it will result in far more heat being passed on to the environment than that which the consumer believes they have used in heating their home. Similarly, if energy is used by the hominoid for cooling, significantly greater heat than that which was removed from the home will be imparted to the environment. Fortunately the planet is constantly radiating off most of this excess heat from the indiscriminate consumption of the energy elements, though the upset balance is now assisting in gradually warming the global climate.
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The irony of this foolhardiness is that their star, Astra, is emitting vast quantities of radiation energy, far more than is needed to provide all the power hominoids could ever want, on a continuous basis. However that energy were used it would result in heat and so no losses would be incurred. The hominoids find it far easier to burn something they find than to consider the longer term implications for their environment, even though the penalty for carelessness will inevitably be the pollution of their planet to the point of unsurvivability.
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The wisdom of remaining reliant upon a depleting resource would normally be questioned by any species capable of rational thought, especially when abundant energy from renewable resources is readily available.
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Planetary Pollution
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Pollution on 3/Astra is severe in all regions, the oceans, rivers, atmosphere and on land.
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Chemicals have been used for agricultural and industrial purposes on a largely uncontrolled and massive scale. Many of theses chemicals are potentially poisonous even in small quantities but even more benign chemicals can severely alter the ecology when distributed indiscriminately and in larger volumes. Pollution caused by even infinitessimally small proportions of some of these chemicals is known to detrimentally affect fertility across all species employing heterosexual reproduction. Unless chemicals are contained and disposed of harmlessly they must necessarily all end up in the rivers and oceans since land seepage of rainwater connects with rivers which in turn connect with the sea. On its way this flow provides supposedly fresh water for all species’ consumption, including vegetation and hominoid agricultural, industrial and domestic use.
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By upsetting the ecology, infestation of water resources is widespread and the balance between life forms has been altered. An alteration to any one part of a symbiotic relationship or food chain necessarily affects the rest of the chain. Although this unnecessary toxification of the entire planet is known by the hominoid to be harmful, the species remains bewildered and incapable of addressing the issue; this poisoning will almost certainly continue until irreversible.
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The massive escalation and indiscriminate consumption and waste of fossil fuels has altered the balance of gases in the atmosphere to such an extent that the planet will now continue to change in temperature for many centuries to come (refer Global Warming).
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Global Warming
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A gradually increasing hominoid population is naturally demanding increased food and manufacturing resources. As a result more land is cleared for agriculture or industry and natural flora regions are consequently being reduced. 3/Astra hominoids have not yet understood that their atmosphere, altered by their own exhalation, transportation and industry, is repaired by flora transpiration and that the balance is fragile and unstable.
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The hominoids’ indiscriminate use of machinery and energy are producing exhaust gases which pollute the atmosphere. These changes to the proportions of gas constituents in the atmosphere are not adequately repairable by the planet’s reduced flora and some undesirable gases are ascending through the atmosphere to disturb upper layers which previously allowed the escape of unwanted radiation. Now retained, the additional trapped radiation serves to still further raise the planet’s temperature.
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The continuous increase in hominoid population, the alteration of atmospheric constituents, the removal of flora which re-oxygenates the atmosphere and the excessive indiscriminate consumption of energy are all contributing to a rise in the planet’s average temperature. This has been recognized by the hominoids though many benefiting from poor practises are still arguing strongly against this situation as if by contradicting a recognised fact they may yet alter that fact.
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As the planet warms its polar regions recede. As on our planet, these polar regions are mostly white and normally reflect Astra’s unwanted radiation back into space. But as these ice caps recede the exposed darker land and ocean absorb the heat radiation instead of reflecting it. And so this increased positive response actually serves to accelerate the warming process rather than dampen it.
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There is therefore an unstable equilibrium at work on 3/Astra; by tipping the balance only slightly the equilibrium is destroyed and the mechanism becomes increasingly out of balance, rather like a spinning top as it slows to a stop. As a result it matters not one iota what the hominoids now do – they have no mechanism for reversing the trend even if they wanted to; even completely ceasing to consume energy overnight would not now stop the initiated warming trend, which will now naturally continue to escalate until some other mechanism comes into play either to reduce the radiation arriving at 3/Astra or to increase radiation leaving 3/Astra.
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By melting glaciers and polar ice caps more water is freed into the oceans from these stores. These are very large depositories of fresh water in frozen form high above sea level and, if released, will significantly raise sea levels throughout the planet over the next few decades. As explained above, this trend is now irreversible. However a significant proportion of humanoids dwell on land less than 100 metres above current sea levels. Much land will therefore become uninhabitable and millions of homes will be lost. This will affect residential home availability, housing values and species migration, and the resulting displacement of populations will create stress, competition and enmity between communities. Some communities may even completely cease to exist, e.g. island or low land communities.
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It is possible that an extreme event such as severe volcanic activity or the arrival of a colliding asteroid could alter the atmosphere for several decades causing a major temperature drop at ground level which could then stabilise and settle the climate back to a more moderate level after a few centuries, by which time many or even most life forms on 3/Astra would have become extinct, including all primates.
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It is also possible that a warmer planet could produce greater cloud cover which could reduce radiation arriving at the surface of the planet and reflect some, though most of that energy would still be warming the upper atmosphere. Any greater temperature gradients between upper and lower atmosphere levels would naturally result in more severe weather conditions which, in turn, could result in heavier global rainfalls and/or heavier polar snowfalls which could conceivably regenerate the polar ice caps. Such theories are quite unproven at this time, either on our planet or 3/Astra, and experimentation with one’s own environment can justifiably be left to the morons of the universe.
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We may benefit much by watching what occurs on 3/Astra, rather than colonizing or interfering, in order to learn what not to do on our own planet in the event that we are faced with comparable dilemmas.
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Hominoid Intelligence
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The title of this section is bordering on a contradiction of terms. Whilst intelligence is a matter of relativity (and it is likely that hominoids do have reasoning capability superior to many species on 3/Astra), it is also undeniable that this species is one which intentionally destroys its own environment and actively contributes to the deterioration of its own health and suitability to its environment. Throughout our explorations, and without exception, all other species we have examined ensure that they fit their environment and can thrive within it, in every case natural selection favouring those which accomplish this best. If this is a measure of intelligence the hominoid is one of the least intelligent species on the planet.
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Hominoids are always wrong
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By examining their scientific theories and life practices over past centuries there is not one theory or practice which they have devised which has stood the test of time. In every case the contemporary view was regarded as certainty and dissenters have been despised, maltreated, tortured or murdered for not accepting the common view. Yet within short periods of time the contemporary view has changed or even been reversed upon itself. For anything that was considered ‘knowledge’ in the past (e.g. that celestial objects rotate around the planet) it has only been a matter of time before that ‘knowledge’ has been recognised as deficient and replaced by some new knowledge which, in time, has been replaced yet again. Not a single thing ‘known’ to early hominoids is now considered true!
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Future behaviour can therefore be logically and reliably extrapolated from this: anything asserted by any hominoid now will always be proven incorrect at some time in the future. Hominoids have not yet realized this rule but the external observer may rely upon one thing as a certainty - one can be absolutely certain that the contemporary hominoid view will always be wrong, no matter how strongly they might assert their point or how firmly they believe themselves to be correct.
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Whilst in many individual 3/Astra hominoids intelligence can be measured to exist at a moderately high level, this intelligence does not accrue when the hominoid operates in groups. In fact the converse is the case. To our observers the intelligent behaviour of hominoid decision-making groups appears to correlate closely to the intelligence quotient of the most intelligent member of that group divided by the cube root of the number in the group.
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Intelligence Measurement Hypothesis
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It is therefore hypothesised that on 3/Astra:
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IQg = IQmax / cube root of ( Ng )
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Where IQ means Intelligence Quotient, which is measured for any individual relative to the figure of 100 representing the average intelligence of the species in question, i.e. an individual with an IQ of 100 is regarded as average for that species. It is not possible to compare IQs between species because each species must adapt to its own unique lifestyle, environment and reasoning needs for survival. The average member of any species suited to its environment should therefore be 100.
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Whether it is reasonable to use 100 as the norm for a member of a species NOT suited to its environment is a matter for debate and future resolution beyond the scope of this survey other than to assert here that fitness to environment should probably be a major determinant of IQ. Following our experience on 3/Astra it may be appropriate to consider devising a new scale of Relative Intelligence (RIQ) based upon the species fitness for its environment.



Saturday, November 17, 2007

Notes on Initial Survey of Planet 3/Astra Report

The attached document cannot be authenticated at this time. The original, in my possession, has no letterhead, carries a TOP SECRET logo watermark throughout all pages but no attribution other than the Director of Exploration, Spaceship Chamaeleon. It is not known if the document represents fact, fiction or merely role-playing by some organization in an endeavour to practice any potential exploration survey.
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It emerged recently from an unidentified source who claimed it was found at a waste disposal site amongst garbage collected from NASA. It came into my possession from the scientist who received it by mail who wishes to remain anonymous for fear of it possibly affecting his career should it prove to be a hoax. As a retired colleague I now have no such worries.
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3/Astra is not a recognised title for any known celestial body in academic astronomy. One may therefore conclude either that it is codified to prevent identification or that it is a fiction.
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The spaceship ‘Chamaeleon’ has not been identified. No known vehicle from NASA or any other space agency has carried that publicized identity or code name. NASA do not acknowledge any person having the title ‘Director of Exploration’. Requests to the NASA Public Communications and Inquiries Management Office attempting to identify Astra or Chamaeleon have not been answered.
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It is, however, only to be expected that the emergence of any genuine TOP SECRET document into the public arena would inevitable require what United States Americans refer to as ‘plausible deniability’. For the rest of us this simply means that, should the occasion demand it, USA politicians and officials at any level of government department or agency are prepared to lie until any statement is proven mendacious, at which time it is simply declared ‘inoperable’.
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The extent of NASA’s space explorations may not be fully publicly known and it is possible that there are or have been clandestine operations as is known to occur regularly in other USA agencies. Certainly the public are well aware of NASA’s scientific probes and explorations of some solar planets and their satellites (most notably to Mars and Venus in addition to the Voyager missions) though none as yet are known to have been visited by humankind other than the Apollo lunar missions in the latter part of last century.
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Alternatively, several planets have been identified in recent years orbiting stars other than our own Sun, some relatively close in astronomical terms, though travel to all non-solar planets is still thought to be beyond current technology within any one person’s lifetime. Even communication over such distances represents a problem since even the nearest star would take over four years to receive any electromagnetic signal from Earth plus the same time period again for any electromagnetic reply to arrive back on Earth in addition to any time spent by interstellar administrators prevaricating over whether, when or how to reply. Nevertheless sufficient time has now elapsed since suitable technology was developed, and a programme was initiated on Earth to listen for and transmit signals to other planets (refer www.seti.org†), for a reply to have been received from distances significantly further than that of our nearest celestial neighbours.
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On the other hand the document could be a discarded copy of a translated document retrieved from some other location in the universe, or perhaps inadvertently left behind by an alien visitor, and may reflect the impressions of space travellers not from Earth but from another planet, referring in turn to exploration of some other unidentified planet.
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Regardless of the planet in question or the authenticity of the document, it certainly highlights the possibilities and limitations of space travel, planet colonization, problems which one might encounter when visiting new environments in the universe, or lessons which might be learnt from imprudent practices of alien civilizations.
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No explanation has yet been offered by NASA, nor any confirmation or denial as to its authenticity, nor any attempt by them to identify their source, if any, or the planet to which it refers.
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In the absence of any response from NASA I now take the view that the TOP SECRET document must be fictional on the basis that if the document was authentic and top secret they would have responded. Doubt may remain in the reader’s mind. I attach the document above in the public interest, for wider review and for public consideration and comment.
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Comments may be addressed to: 3.astra@gmail.com
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David R. Oswald
The person in receipt of the original document.
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[No acknowledgement of communications nor any response will necessarily be entered into. The author and operator of this site does, however, reserve the right to respond and the right to publish all or any part of any communication received from readers except in circumstances where a specific agreement to the contrary has been established.]
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† SETI – Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. See also http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/extraterrestrial_worldbook.html
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