So I’ll grant that it might be much harder to recognize the stray signals of an intelligent civilization with today’s technology than that of fifty years ago, but I’m not sure it’s any harder to detect that there’s *something* there. The SETI folks looking for narrow-band birdies might be in trouble, though.

Your point that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from white noise is one I hadn’t seen before, but makes a lot of sense.

It seems that the only way SETI is going to find other civilizations is if they’re deliberately transmitting a signal that’s intended to be detected. This plotline was used in “The Listeners” by James Gunn, and later in Sagan’s “Contact”.

Then of course, there’s Stanislaw Lem’s “Star Diaries” where the great philosopher Master O comes up with his own method of finding other civilizations: The “A Priori Clue”, in which you look for new stars in the sky, which indicate a civilization that has discovered nuclear power and just blown itself up.

I do, hence the full gear every time I go out on my bike.

I was thinking of printing off some photos of people who lost their skin on the tarmac from the interweb, and leaving them tucked in the seats of bikes who’s riders are dressed inappropriatly!

(1) Men and women of full age, without any limitation due to race, nationality or religion, have the right to marry and to found a family. They are entitled to equal rights as to marriage, during marriage and at its dissolution.

(2) Marriage shall be entered into only with the free and full consent of the intending spouses.

(3) The family is the natural and fundamental group unit of society and is entitled to protection by society and the State.

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It is stated as a fundamental human right to marry and start a family. No exclusions. It seems that California is in breach of the UN Declaration of Human Rights.

Something I’ve read recently that your post reminds me of: A book called ‘Don’t think of an Elephant’ by George Lakoff where he spotlights things like Proposition 8 as a thin edge of the wedge. How dare a government tell us who we can and can’t marry? As Lakoff points out, this is scary and unacceptable. If we accept this it’s just a simple progression to governments telling us who we can and can’t associate with (think Nazi Germany), or telling us which religion we may or may not be, etc.