Survival Stories

Occasionally, there's a story in the news that redefines human survival. Mitsutaka Uchikoshi was walking down Japan's Rokko Mountain when he fell, broke his hip, and became unconscious. He was later discovered by a climber after spending 24 days without food or water. His body temperature dropped to 71 degrees F, and his pulse was barely discernible. When his rescuers brought him to the hospital, he woke up, and eventually made a full recovery.

Pretty amazing.

Gliese 581 c

Gliese 581 c is a newly detected planet 20.5 light-years away, and located in the constellation Libra. The news from this past week almost slipped by unnoticed. But it could be something that will change our world -- in terms of human perspectives on the universe.

The planet has an estimated size about 50 percent larger (and 5 times more massive) than Earth, and a surface temperature between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius. It's one of the best possibilities for a planet outside our solar system that could sustain liquid water and "life".

The discovery was made using an instrument called HARPS (High Accuracy Radial Velocity for Planetary Searcher), which is a very precise spectrograph. It is located on the ESO 3.6-m telescope at La Silla, Chile. HARPS is able to measure velocities with a precision better than one meter per second (or 3.6 km/h). Pretty amazing technology.

I took a pause for reflection this morning, and to let the significance of this new discovery sink into my brain. Wow. It does stir up a sense of curiosity to find out more about this new world. When I was growing up, no one knew if there "any" planets outside our own solar system.

Here's a link to a Wikipedia article.

Global Consciousness Project

There are some research projects out there to make you go "hmm..."

I came across the following website during one of my random (or maybe not so random) walks in cyberspace. It's called the "Global Consciousness Project" being conducted at Princeton University and directed by Roger Nelson.

Basically, the research looks at the output of many random number generators (computers) placed around the world. They are networked together, and the data is transmitted and stored on a centralized server. The question being investigated is whether the collected data have deviations from "randomness" that correlate with human events that happen in the world, especially events that have a global impact.

Some of the results of this study suggest that there might actually be a global mind and matter "link". Some of the published papers suggest that there might even be correlations with the events surrounding September 11, 2001.

Yes, there's plenty of material to make you go "hmm..."