no, this is not from The Onion, although it's indicative of why some people of have trouble taking the UN seriously. [rquoter]THE United Nations was set today to appoint an obscure Malaysian astrophysicist to act as Earth’s first contact for any aliens that may come visiting. Mazlan Othman, the head of the UN's little-known Office for Outer Space Affairs (Unoosa), is to describe her potential new role next week at a scientific conference at the Royal Society’s Kavli conference centre in Buckinghamshire. She is scheduled to tell delegates that the recent discovery of hundreds of planets around other stars has made the detection of extraterrestrial life more likely than ever before - and that means the UN must be ready to coordinate humanity’s response to any “first contact”. During a talk Othman gave recently to fellow scientists, she said: “The continued search for extraterrestrial communication, by several entities, sustains the hope that some day humankind will receive signals from extraterrestrials. "When we do, we should have in place a coordinated response that takes into account all the sensitivities related to the subject. The UN is a ready-made mechanism for such coordination.” Professor Richard Crowther, an expert in space law and governance at the UK Space Agency and who leads British delegations to the UN on such matters, said: “Othman is absolutely the nearest thing we have to a ‘take me to your leader’ person.” However, he thinks humanity’s first encounter with any intelligent aliens is more likely to be via radio or light signals from a distant planet than by beings arriving on Earth. And, he suggests, even if we do encounter aliens in the flesh, they are more likely to be microbes than anything intelligent.[/rquoter] Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-new...ns/story-e6frfku0-1225929498742#ixzz10ktlx6uI
What's the big deal? It seems like it is a paper exercise to get us better prepared in case something ever happens. Odds are great that it won't, but it seems that if it did, the UN is the proper place for it unless first contact comes in Wyoming... Then we can send this guy...
This is BS - an American should be the aliens first point of contact not some third world woo woo astrologer.
agreed, and The Once has always seemed more interested in being president of the galaxy, than tending to the needs of his (putative) countrymen.
why are those 2 related? this is in the chance that some intelligent being approaches earth...not that we approach it, elsewhere. i don't have a problem with this. it's probably wildly unimportant....but i don't think there's anything wrong with it.
So the story came from the Sunday Times? It's indicative of why some people have trouble taking you seriously. :grin:
Either she enthusiastically prepares for an event that will never occur in her liftetime, or she does nothing and the whole planet is woefully unprepared when the aliens come to enslave us.
Good, the aliens can kill the obscure Malaysian astrophysicist while we decide what to do. His death should buy us enough time to learn how to surrender in their language.
Damn, massive ownage by sw4real: And this, basso, is indicative of why nobody takes your posts seriously. Please do more research before starting threads in the future.
I don't understand, how does this even work? Let's say Aliens land in Boston or Paris or whatever, we're all suppose to hide in our basement while the CIA brings that lady over?
