What is OmniNerd?

Welcome! OmniNerd's content is generated by you, the reader. Through voting and moderation we strive to highlight the nerdiest of what's around and provide content that's a little more thought provoking than other sites.

Submit New Content

Voting Booth

Is it possible that in the distant future, President George W. Bush, the 43rd president, might be viewed as one of the greatest American Presidents?

View Results, All Polls
46 votes, 8 comments
0
Nerd-Its
+ -

NASA's golf an attempt to woo “cooler” forms of life

Comment comment by tomtolman on 23 August 2006

This is certainly in response to the extraterrestrial nerds that contacted earth a few years back. At the time, NASA received an intense series of emissions that included “the first 100 prime numbers, the value of pi to 30 decimal points, a diagram of the periodic table and a whole bunch of other dorky stuff,” according to some researcher.

According to the media, White House Press Secretary Mike McCurry said that "the President is excited, but certainly hopeful of future contact with civilizations that are a little more, you know, cool."

From press reports at the time:

The news came as a shock to astronomers, most of whom believed that any existing civilization in outer space would in all likelihood be thousands of years hipper than ours. "At the very least," said Leslie Dowes, Professor of Astrophysics at Harvard University, "we'd hoped the intelligences we'd discover could at least introduce us to other, more 'with-it' civilizations in outer space."

Such hopes seem dashed, at least temporarily, by the Palomar transmission. McGuire said that despite repeated scrutiny of the encoded signal, it has not been found to contain any references to sports or cars.

"Apparently, the alien life forms who composed this broadcast had never even been picked in gym class, let alone gone to state in junior varsity," McGuire said. "If the alien's civilization does have cheerleaders, which I doubt, I'm convinced they'd never even be able to work up the nerve to talk to them."

This NASA golf attempt is certainly an attempt to woo “cooler” forms of life.

You are a viewing a subset of a larger discussion.
View Full Discussion
Star This to Save in Your Profile Favorite