Extragalactic fast radio bursts turn out to be microwave oven in the kitchen at Parkes

Who knew the opening the door of a microwave oven while it was on could release something like an extragalactic fast radio burst? Astrophysicists at Parkes  Observatory didn’t realize for 17 years, then someone noticed these radio bursts only happened in business hours.

Was there a consensus on perytons I wonder?

h/t Manfred

Strange ‘outer space’ signal that baffled Australian scientists turns out to be microwave oven

Scientists discover cause of signals detected at Australia’s Parkes telescope, originally believed to come from another galaxy

Scientists monitoring an Australian radio telescope have discovered that a series of strange signals which have baffled astrophysicists for 17 years were caused by the facility’s kitchen microwave being opened while in use.

The finding was made by Emily Petroff, a PhD student, who set up an interference monitor at the site to investigate the signals, known as perytons, which were thought to be from space but were also known – somewhat unusually – to be detected only during business hours.

The signals were first detected at Australia’s Parkes telescope in 1998 and were similar in frequency and duration to fast radio bursts, which are believed to come from another galaxy.

Soon after setting up the monitor, Ms Petroff in January detected three short signal bursts, whose data indicated a source similar to a microwave oven. The signals were also detected by the 210-foot telescope.

Is that magnetron a thousand light years away, or in the kitchen next door?

“Tests revealed that a peryton can be generated at 1.4 GHz when a microwave oven door is opened prematurely and the telescope is at an appropriate relative angle,” the paper says.

“Radio emission escaping from microwave ovens during the magnetron shutdown phase neatly explain all of the observed properties of the peryton signals.

REFERENCE

Petroff et al (2015) Identifying the source of perytons at the Parkes radio telescope, arXiv:1504.02165 [astro-ph.IM]

9.1 out of 10 based on 64 ratings

138 comments to Extragalactic fast radio bursts turn out to be microwave oven in the kitchen at Parkes

  • #

    Still, I suppose this, umm, message is better than the opening speech of the 1936 Summer Olympic Games!

    Tony.

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  • #

    At least they were honest about it! In certain fields that’s sorely lacking.

    280

  • #
    David-of-Cooyal in Oz

    Congratulations to Emily. Please promote her quickly to the IPCC. Here BS-detector skills are urgently needed there.
    Cheers,
    Dave B

    PS and introduce her to Figueres before she leaves…

    522

    • #
      Bob Fernley-Jones

      David,
      Yebbut I hope it does not harm her job security.

      82

    • #
      handjive

      PS and introduce her to Figueres before she leaves…

      UPDATE
      Figueres’s fossil-fueled Australian jaunt via theconversation.com

      Check out that overloaded B grade star-studded gravy train of climate quacksters.

      72

    • #
      tony thomas

      Never let a publishing opportunity go to waste. 15 scientists jostle for the kudos:

      Identifying the source of perytons at the Parkes radio telescope
      E. Petroff, E. F. Keane, E. D. Barr, J. E. Reynolds, J. Sarkissian, P. G. Edwards, J. Stevens, C. Brem, A. Jameson, S. Burke-Spolaor, S. Johnston, N. D. R. Bhat, P. Chandra, S. Kudale, S. Bhandari
      (Submitted on 9 Apr 2015)
      “Perytons” are millisecond-duration transients of terrestrial origin, whose frequency-swept emission mimics the dispersion of an astrophysical pulse that has propagated through tenuous cold plasma. In fact, their similarity to FRB 010724 had previously cast a shadow over the interpretation of “fast radio bursts,” which otherwise appear to be of extragalactic origin. Until now, the physical origin of the dispersion-mimicking perytons had remained a mystery. We have identified strong out-of-band emission at 2.3–2.5 GHz associated with several peryton events. Subsequent tests revealed that a peryton can be generated at 1.4 GHz when a microwave oven door is opened prematurely and the telescope is at an appropriate relative angle. Radio emission escaping from microwave ovens during the magnetron shut-down phase neatly explain all of the observed properties of the peryton signals. Now that the peryton source has been identified, we furthermore demonstrate that the microwaves on site could not have caused FRB 010724. This and other distinct observational differences show that FRBs are excellent candidates for genuine extragalactic transients.

      21

  • #
    James Bradley

    Well what do you know, another myth busted.

    Hmmmm, microwaves became a popular kitchen item in the late 80’s.

    Maybe microwave ovens are responsible for the mysterious changes to temperature data since then.

    282

    • #
      Dariusz

      The Microwave background radiation was discovered by accident and they guys who discovered it got their accidental noble prices. The guys who predicted its existence and tried to find it got nothing.
      Not today, the more one seems to be caring about the planet or the people the more likely you gonna get it like the worse president in the US history or the modern John the Baptist bearman pig or the pornographer.

      31

  • #

    Oh, no. Settled science and all that. Was it ‘consensus’?

    142

  • #
    Leonard Lane

    Now that is funny.
    Does this mean that alien union rules and working hours are exactly the same as those in Parkes, AU?
    How long could these things go on before someone checked for local origin of the signals?
    Does this mean that the graduate student should get a 6 figure reward and the astronomers should be made redundant?
    Perhaps it should be a subject of a Dilbert cartoon?

    150

    • #
      Unmentionable

      The big thing (but thankfully non-ionizing and thus inconsequential) and takeaway from all of this, is that for the past ~35 years we’ve been repeatedly told, black and blue, by scientists, technocrats, universities, manufacturers and regulators, that there’s no stray radiation emission coming out of your microwave oven.

      Clearly, either none of them knew any facts at all, or they were not telling us the truth, which they did know, so else decided to lie about it.

      I’m going for the former, and also the latter; that the industry and university ‘parrots’ simply claimed to have a special knowledge which they didn’t have, and to have done testing which they never performed at all, or were incompetant to perform – and those who did test, and test competently, and who did measure accurately and repeatably, and who decided to lie about their publicly unacceptable result. For our own good of course.

      Does that ring true for everyone else too?

      123

      • #
        Bill

        if you review the facts, you will find that they opened the door while it is operating. This is a known hazard that you (as the user) are warned about. Repeatedly. But if you never read the directions, or know anything about them, use commons sense etc, you would not know this.

        Just like the warnings that come with chainsaws now, for those who fail to think: “do not stop chain with hands or genetils”

        10

  • #
    Eugene WR Gallun

    There is a major difference between real scientists and the climate frauds.

    Real scientists are not afraid to let an embarrassing (and funny) truth out. That is part of doing science and they do not avoid it. Let the chips fall where they may. Full disclosure. It confirms their basic integrity. (Also remember that faster than light thing of a few years back in Europe where a screw was found to not be tightened down giving false readings? Took them 6 months to figure it out but full disclosure on that also.)

    Now the climate frauds trying to pass themselves off as scientists hide everything. They have a perfect record of no failure because they never admit to it. And no checking their data! No checking their results! No real science there.

    Real science is done by people who go looking for why they and others might be wrong. In climate science that never happens.

    Eugene WR Gallun

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      I had a Professor at one time, who told us:

      “You learn nothing new, by being right. You only learn by being wrong. When I was a young man, I was fortunate enough to be wrong, more often than most of my colleagues, which is why I am now a Professor, and they are not.”

      I have never forgotten that, and have strived all my working life to be wrong. Can I have my Professorship now, please?

      321

      • #
        Peter Miller

        That comment of your professor is truly brilliant and desperately needs to be taken on board by those operating in the wacky world of ‘climate science’.

        102

      • #
        Hat Rack

        They reckon you learn from your mistakes.

        I became a frickin genius years ago!

        60

        • #
          Retired now

          It is possible to learn from mistakes but not all people do. They justify and do all sorts of mind tricks to cope. In fact they repeat their mistakes over and over becoming excellent mistake makers, improving their ability to make mistakes eventually becoming genius mistake makers.

          Alternatively we can choose to learn from our mistakes and maybe become a genius or perhaps just wise.

          10

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    “its cooking , Jim, but not as we know it…”

    250

  • #
    tom0mason

    Wow, have they caught the alien yet?
    .
    .
    .
    .

    The alien researcher that uses the microwave oven during business hours?
    ¯
    😎

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    • #
      GMac

      An alien sleeper was sent in to discredit any findings of alien communications,by deliberately opening that microwave oven door every time that there was a burst of communications with their Earth agents,unfortunately or fortunately Australian scientists are not quick on the ball and it took them 17 years to find out.
      Probably explains CAGW,it’s the aliens behind it,anyone who believes in CAGW is off the planet!

      00

    • #
      RoHa

      I didn’t know they had “working hours” at Parkes. I thought it was a continuous operation.

      (My brother wrote some of the software for the place.)

      10

  • #
    bemused

    I read about that the other day and since then I’ve been wracking my brains trying to remember similar incidents reported over the years.

    60

    • #
      Andrew McRae

      The only incident I could recall turned out to be the opposite type – a case of a momentous cosmic phenomenon being temporarily mistaken for pigeons.
      https://www.scientificamerican.com/slideshow/smart-luck-how-the-big-bang-was-found-by-accident-slide-show/

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      • #
        bemused

        There are several, perhaps more mundane things, of a similar ilk that have happened that reflect exactly the same situation, yet they simply will not come to mind. They reflect the fact that we sometimes miss the bleeding obvious.

        50

    • #
      James Murphy

      Cosmic microwave background radiation took a bit of time to identify, as it was thought to be related to pigeons, pigeon droppings and nesting material in the receiver, amongst other things.

      Curiosity regarding ‘scruff’ on radio telescope paper charts lead to the discovery of Pulsars. Burnell and Hewish called the initial signal LGM-1, with LGM being an acronym for Little Green Men, and they had no idea what it was to start with.

      Admittedly, in these cases, everyone worked backwards from the most likely causes, to the least, which seems not to be the case in Parkes, if the media are reporting things correctly. However, I guess this discovery may assist with investigations of other supposed FRBs detected around the world.

      As was explained by a radio astronomer whose name escapes me, the way data is recorded, stored, and then investigated now, is not as conducive to serendipitous discoveries as older investigative methods and data display methods were.

      20

    • #
      RoHa

      (Pssssst. Racking. It means “torturing on the rack”.)

      00

    • #
      West Houston

      A Physicist I work with had “discovered” an unprecedented signal in data from a particle accelerator.

      It was consistent with Magnesium’s emission spectrum, where none should have been present.

      Coincidentally, they had just switched to a new brand of rubber gloves to handle the “targets” – the kind that come pre-treated with talcum powder.

      10

  • #
    OriginalSteve

    “The walls are cloosing in……nooooooo…..”

    http://www.abc.net.au/environment/articles/2015/04/30/4226722.htm

    CLIMATE CHANGE IS a significant worldwide threat to human health that requires urgent action. There is overwhelming evidence that the global climate is warming and human factors have contributed to the warming. It is happening gradually, but there is no doubt that it is warming.

    The AMA supports that evidence.

    As the world continues to warm, there will be significant and sometimes devastating impacts of climate change — particularly for human health.

    Today, along with the president of the highly respected Australian Academy of Science, Professor Andrew Holmes, I launched the Academy’s much-anticipated report — Climate change challenges to health: Risks and opportunities (pdf).

    The report brings together the latest comprehensive scientific evidence and knowledge on the serious risks that climate change poses to human health. It suggests a pathway for policy makers at all levels to prepare for the health impacts of climate change.

    Both the AMA and the Academy of Science hope it will be a catalyst for the Federal Government to show leadership in reducing greenhouse gas emissions ahead of the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris later this year.

    Not only does the report outline a case for policies to mitigate climate change, but it is also a call to action for all Australian governments to prepare for the health impacts of climate change. Policies and institutions must be in place now to ensure that Australia can adapt to the health consequences of climate change — these phenomena are inevitable.”

    511

    • #
      David-of-Cooyal in Oz

      Thanks for that.
      I’ve just submitted a response on the ABC site, which would have been timed May 6 at about 3:50 pm. But it requires acceptance, and my view wouldn’t be popular as it mentions my zero.
      Cheers,
      Dave B

      161

      • #
        Graeme No.3

        The ABC will be too busy giving free publicity to the Greens over their new “leadership” team to pay any attention to anything else..

        161

      • #
        David-of-Cooyal in Oz

        My response was accepted, which was a surprise to me at first, but I went on to read the earlier comments and there were a number of a sceptical slant. Not really expecting success, I was brief, with just an assertion:
        “Did you know that the number the IPCC cannot find, climate sensitivity, is actually zero?
        So all this fear is unfounded.”
        There has been no further comment to the article, which I guess is old news now.
        Cheers,
        Dave B

        10

        • #
          David-of-Cooyal in Oz

          I’ve just found, and replied to, a response to my post to the ABC site. That respondent was very polite, quoted AR4 numbers as if that was evidence, and I’ve used:
          http://tinyurl.com/lpkbgt
          comment #4 (my “zero” post), as my reference.

          Cheers,
          Dave B

          00

    • #

      Temps and sea levels may continue to rise – as they have done throughout the holocene when they weren’t falling – but I’d invite the AMA and Academy to show leadership in considering what just a bit of cooling did in China and Europe during the LIA. Hey, they can also check out how Africa handled just that bit of cooling in the 1970s. Above all, I’d like them to consider what a lot of cooling did to just about everybody after 2200 BC.

      In common with every other human who has ever lived, I have no idea what the climate will be like ten or a hundred years from now. Which means we need to be ready for the lot.

      And I bags not having to wipe down grimy solar panels in the event of a Mt Laki-type eruption occurring during a cooling phase. There’s a good job for a suddenly out-of-work climate modeller.

      171

    • #
      Peter Miller

      Steve

      Why does my BSometer always start screeching when I read something like this?

      Somehow this sort of thing always reminds me of lemmings and of officialdom demanding their population commits economic suicide for no apparent reason.

      91

    • #
      Manfred

      The AMA supports that evidence.

      Not by a medical plebiscite they don’t.
      By executive edict alone.

      20

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        So let me understand this – the AMA leadership ( not the rank & file ) has decreed CAGW is worthy to support?

        Is that correct?

        20

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      I wonder if 97% of doctors now recommend global warming?

      10

    • #
      angela

      Baaah, the wolves are coming, Baaah!

      00

  • #

    Haw haw haw. They should have hushed it up. How will they ever get another grant?

    141

    • #
      James Bradley

      Gee Aye,

      Probably a new study showing how microwave ovens cause climate change.

      192

    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      Actually, if bursts of microwave energy are escaping from the microwave, when people just open the door without stopping the machine first, that implies that the said person is probably being irradiated with microwave frequencies. These are known to cause brain tumours and cause diminution of brain functions.

      I wonder if this phenomena is common, not only in astronomy, but also in research establishments concerned with climate fiddling? That could explain a lot.

      132

      • #
        RB

        Leakage from the first Microwave ovens on the market were found to cause sterility in men. Considering men tend to be more impatient, I think dimunition of other functions is of a higher concern.

        50

      • #
        Peter C

        These are known to cause brain tumours and cause diminution of brain functions.

        .
        Huh?

        Not saying microwaves are good for your brain. I just thought it got cooked.

        20

      • #
        C.J.Richards

        Hmmm. I often do that to avoid the ‘Ready Alarm’ waking the house late at night.
        Opening the door at the last minute so it doesn’t go off.
        It’s never done me any harm, and they always say that two heads are better than one.

        40

  • #

    There is something worth inquiring about here, and it goes directly to the second sentence of Joanne’s text: (my bolding here)

    Astrophysicists at Parkes Observatory didn’t realize for 17 years, then someone noticed these radio bursts only happened in business hours.

    I wonder how many Government grants have been paid to this search over the 17 year they have strung this out,umm, been investigating this.

    Tony.

    PostScript – Oh come on you people, I thought my first comment was really witty!

    182

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Hey I just gave you a thumbs up that one Tony 🙂

      This is not surprising, didn’t they used to play cricket on the bloody thing?

      60

      • #

        I thought at least someone here would have read that novel, or even seen the almost dreadful movie they made out of it.

        Tony.

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        • #
          TedM

          Sorry Tony> I don’t watch dreadful movies. As soon as I hear that Crappy music at the beginning, I switch channels or switch off.

          60

          • #
            sophocles

            Sorry Tony, that speech was a little before my time, so I can honestly say I have no memory of it.

            20

        • #
          Yonniestone

          Tony your first comment was referencing the movie “Contact” was it not?, yes that would be a cringe worthy moment with other life. 🙂

          30

          • #

            Oddly, I thought that the novel was actually okay, tight, and very technical.

            The movie had to (considerably, vastly, monumentally) dumb down the technical aspects for the masses, and it still went over their heads would be my guess. A real first grade turkey of a movie.

            Tony,

            30

            • #
              John O'Connor

              Odd – I love movies like that and Dante’s Peak etc., where they manage to get the science so gloriously wrong.
              Love the bit in DP where the aluminium boat disintegrates.
              Its not like they wouldn’t be asphyxiated completely by then for a start 🙂

              00

        • #
          Annie

          Nah ….sorry Tony….hadn’t a clue as to the allusion.

          00

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      Well to be fair, they have had almost 20 years and they still havent worked out CAGW isnt happening….so 17 years for an integallactic misadventure seems reasonable….the wheels turn slowly, you know….imagine if they had stuck in Antarctic ice and had to be rescued by Russian Astrophysiscists? Oh the indignity of it all…..

      152

    • #
      Bob Fernley-Jones

      The likely explanation seems to be that they did not study the data. (or possibly they did not want to reveal it). My view as an engineer is that academics either do not understand DATA HANDLING or push it aside when it is inconvenient to their cause. Take for example Steve McIntyre’s fact finding approach to reality.

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    • #
      Ted O'Brien.

      Fair go. Getting a bit loose with the comment here.

      Go to the source for the details, don’t make them up.

      30

  • #

    Oh and some people treat these things seriously like this guy

    http://www.centauri-dreams.org/?p=32883

    and the whole issue of radio noise led to this commitment of public money http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Square_Kilometre_Array It would have been cheaper just to unplug the ovens (haw haw haw)

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      A square Km? – bit of overkill to reheat a cup of coffee isnt it?

      62

    • #
      Peter C

      I suspect that you don’t find this story overly funny Gee Aye!

      21

      • #

        No Peter C… laughing at scientists is what I love to do most. It just proves how bad they are and how much we’ve wasted on these over educated do nothings.

        00

  • #
    bemused

    I suspect that the euphoria that followed the movie ‘The Dish’ may have been a contributory factor.

    51

  • #
    Geoffrey Williams

    This blog has nothing to do with the subject of Microwaves but following on OriginalSteve;
    Dr Brian Owler is a nice man.
    I have met him – he fixed my wife’s back some years ago and both she and I are grateful to him for that.
    However on the subject of Climate Change;
    I’ve not read his AMA report and I do not intend to. Nor would I understand it perhaps.
    But what I do know is that I wish academics like Dr Owler would remain neutral in the political field of Climate Change.
    Who is he kidding? Why is he doing this I wonder – his report smacks of political conformity and self interest.
    Does he really expect me/us to believe that an increase in temperature of 1 degree C in the last 100 years or so has damaged the health of humankind.
    Or as he says “The report brings together the latest comprehensive scientific evidence and knowledge on the serious risks that climate change poses to human health”
    Nonsense we are as a species healthier and fitter than ever before! The planet has not warmed significantly for about 18 years. Sorry Brian!
    Best regards
    Geoff Williams
    Sydney

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    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      Have you ever tried to pick up a solar panel? If he is a specialist in back injuries, I am not surprised that he is worried!

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  • #
    Bob Fernley-Jones

    I haven’t kept up with it but does anyone know what happened to the cold war scare when multiple atmospheric nuclear bursts were “detected by The West” which were later thankfully put down to something naughty coming from the galaxies out there? I vaguely remember it was put down to greedy black holes swallowing something big, but given the vast distances involved and the great strength of the signal (like a local nuclear burst) it would have to be generated in a single polar axis. What struck me as a bit odd was the high frequency of the events. Yes, I know there are probably quite a lot of galaxies but they are also rather far away, and what are the chances of those polar axes emissions actually pointing precisely at the Earth?
    Anyone know what the latest theory is?

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    • #
      OriginalSteve

      A long time ago in galaxy far far away……

      Yes imagine that – a galactic burp and we have DEFCON 5…..

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    • #
    • #
      ROM

      Bob Fernley-Jones @ #17

      My generation of the late 1930’s and early 1940’s has been much, much closer to all out nuclear war that would have destroyed civilisation than the present generations realise.

      There were a number of very, very serious incidents from what turned out to be false alarms during the close to nuclear Cold War.
      So close in fact a few times it was at the hair trigger stage which eventualy frightened the Americans and the Soviets into establishing a direct Hot Line between the American President and the Party Chairman in the USSR.

      One major incident was when a Senior Soviet Naval Officer, Vasili Arkhipov, in a soviet nuclear torpedo equipped submarine was caught in American waters by the American Navy which then depth charged with low intensity practice depth charges, the soviet sub to force it to surface for identification.

      The 4 nuclear armed Soviet subs were all operating as a group during the very dangerous Cuban Missile Crisis.
      Two of the three senior soviet officers holding the codes to unlock the missile launch systems demanded that they be allowed to launch the nuclear torpedo at the American ships.
      The Senior Soviet Naval Officer Vasili_Arkhipov refused and by doing so it is firmly believed, prevented the outbreak of nuclear war.

      ___________________

      From Wiki is this account of a major Soviet radar false alarm which the Russian hair trigger nuclear response was only prevented and stopped by the good sense of a Soviet radar officer.
      [ quoted ]
      Incident

      On 26 September 1983, Stanislav Petrov, a lieutenant colonel in the Soviet Air Defense Forces, was the officer on duty at the Serpukhov-15 bunker near Moscow which housed the command center of the Soviet early warning satellites, code-named Oko.[5] Petrov’s responsibilities included observing the satellite early warning network and notifying his superiors of any impending nuclear missile attack against the Soviet Union. If notification was received from the early warning systems that inbound missiles had been detected, the Soviet Union’s strategy was an immediate nuclear counter-attack against the United States (launch on warning), specified in the doctrine of mutual assured destruction.[6]

      Shortly after midnight, the bunker’s computers reported that one intercontinental ballistic missile was heading toward the Soviet Union from the United States. Petrov considered the detection a computer error, since a first-strike nuclear attack by the United States was likely to involve hundreds of simultaneous missile launches in order to disable any Soviet means of a counterattack. Furthermore, the satellite system’s reliability had been questioned in the past.[7] Petrov dismissed the warning as a false alarm, though accounts of the event differ as to whether he notified his superiors[6] or not[3][full citation needed] after he concluded that the computer detections were false and that no missile had been launched. Later, the computers identified four additional missiles in the air, all directed towards the Soviet Union. Petrov again suspected that the computer system was malfunctioning, despite having no other source of information to confirm his suspicions. The Soviet Union’s land radar was incapable of detecting missiles beyond the horizon,[7] and waiting for it to positively identify the threat would limit the Soviet Union’s response time to a few minutes.[citation needed]

      It was subsequently determined that the false alarms were caused by a rare alignment of sunlight on high-altitude clouds and the satellites’ Molniya orbits, an error later corrected by cross-referencing a geostationary satellite.[8]

      In explaining the factors leading to his decision, Petrov cited his belief and training that any U.S. first strike would be massive, so five missiles seemed an illogical start.[6] In addition, the launch detection system was new and in his view not yet wholly trustworthy, while ground radar had failed to pick up corroborative evidence even after several minutes of the false alarm.[7]
      .
      &
      Oleg Kalugin, a former KGB chief of foreign counter-intelligence who knew Soviet chairman Andropov well, says that Andropov’s distrust of American leaders was profound. It is conceivable that if Petrov had declared the satellite warnings valid, such an erroneous report could have provoked the Soviet leadership into becoming bellicose. Kalugin says, “The danger was in the Soviet leadership thinking, ‘The Americans may attack, so we better attack first.'”[11]

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      • #
        Graeme No.3

        There was the corollary case where the US went onto full alert because of strong signals from the DEW line? It was noticed that the signal pulses were given responding times of several seconds.
        Eventually, it was realised that they were not seeing a massive Soviet attack with radar interference but were observing the rising moon.*

        * At that stage the USA did not consider the moon as a significant military threat, unlike today where the current President seems highly influenced by lunar ideas.

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      • #
        Glen Michel

        Watch Dr. Strangelove again. Gary Powers and his mob did more to exacerbate the cold war than the Cuban stuff.

        10

      • #
        Dariusz

        Only years later Americans realised that some nuclear missiles were live and ready in Cuba. In fact these missiles did not have any security keys or safety procedures. anyone could have hit the proverbial button. It was a miracle that this not occurred.
        In 1983 Krutchkow the head of the KGB was convinced that the US will sneak attack the soviets. His evidence was based on counting windows with the lights on after business hours in the pentagon never realising that most of them were lit by cleaners emptying rubbish bins.

        10

  • #
    Sean McHugh

    Yes, party poopers, but is the microwave oven of terrestrial origin?

    30

  • #
    Truthseeker

    Everyone is missing the really, really, really important question …

    What is the brand of microwave that has been operating consistently for 17 years?

    Enquiring minds what to know …

    160

    • #
      TedM

      “Truthseeker” I love it.

      20

    • #
      Yonniestone

      It doesn’t matter as long as it’s a Science Oven , the link’s a clip from American Hustle and note the reference to Paul Brodeur which later backfired in a lawsuit, funny stuff though.

      20

    • #
      C.J.Richards

      Matsushita wasn’t it ? My Uncle always said when buying our first telly, these Japanese make damn good electronics. Bought a Toshiba, which lasted over 40 years. At the time everyone else on the street was being sold Phillips by the aerial installer and they were always breaking down.

      20

  • #
    Bob Fernley-Jones

    Truthseeker,

    Right, good point.
    I have a small Sharp Car*usel with knobs on it that you turn and a larger version ~16 years old with buttons wot you press an they go beep. The small one is usually only used for little jobs like zapping a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon this time of year for about 13 seconds, but it must be well over 17 years old.

    40

    • #
      Rereke Whakaaro

      The microwave, or the Cabernet Sauvignon?

      40

      • #
        Bob Fernley-Jones

        Rereke,

        I meant the microwave. I don’t find sufficient cost effective benefit in aged cabsav’s. For instance 2013 Yellow Tail at a typical ~$9 is tolerably pleasant and there is no tiresome cork to extract, and the aluminium screw-cap can be recycled.

        40

  • #
    manalive

    To add to the silliness it was reported in the SMH in January that the mysterious signals were “… detected by telescopes across the world, at Australia, California, the Canary Islands, Chile, Germany, Hawaii, and India …”.

    80

    • #
      Yonniestone

      Wow that’s one bigass microwave, ironically I came across this US military microwave type weapon called (wait for it) ADS – Active Denial System, this weapon must’ve been pointing at Brussels the last 18 years or so….

      30

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    pat

    mistakes can be made…and admitted!

    5 May: ABC NW WA: Ben Collins: Cyclone Quang: authorities at odds over Exmouth warnings
    The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) and the Bureau of Meteorology are at odds over the reasons the Pilbara town of Exmouth was struck by damaging winds that caught many by surprise.
    The impact on Exmouth from Cyclone Quang peaked with a 120 kilometre per hour gust at 11:54am on Friday May 1…
    “It is absolutely horrendous out there, and I am not exaggerating. I’m actually quite angry that we are not on red alert because there should not be anyone outside. There are trees down…and it is very dangerous,” is how Exmouth resident Jenny Gates explained the situation shortly after 11:00am on May 1 to Alex Hyman on ABC Local Radio.
    Talking to Vanessa Mills on Local Radio on May 4, DFES Superintendent for the Pilbara, John Newman, said the damaging winds came from unusual weather phenomena ahead of the cyclone.
    “The wind from that phenomena impacted Exmouth well ahead of the expected onset of gale force winds in the area,” he said.
    When asked why Exmouth was not placed on red alert ahead of the dangerous winds, Mr Newman said the nature of the winds meant they were not forecast.
    “Well no, this down-mixing ahead of the system wasn’t,” he said.
    With Cyclone Quang not forecast to cross the coast until the evening of May 1, Mr Newman said the Bureau of Meteorology had not been able to indicate that Exmouth would be impacted so much earlier.
    “Time and again they do a fantastic job, but unfortunately, given the complexity of these systems, sometimes things slip through,” he said…
    Mr Newman confirmed the town was only placed on yellow alert after the gale force winds struck on the following morning, but insists this was the best possible decision.
    “Winds were up above gale force at the time the move was made to a yellow alert, but once again there was no meteorological data suggesting that things would continue to intensify as they did and produce those 120 kilometre per hour gusts,” he said…
    “Cyclones can sometimes not be these perfectly circular beasts that behave in a certain way.
    Mr Newman said the Cyclone Quang experience was a reminder for north-west residents to never get complacent.
    “I have seen other un-forecast weather phenomena occur around cyclones such as the tornado that came out of wind bands well ahead of a tropical cyclone in Karratha several years ago,” he said.
    “I guess these events just go to reinforce that cyclones can be dangerous, and they can be quite unpredictable.”
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-05/cyclone-quang-warnings-explanation/6445912

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      Unmentionable

      Oh yes, this one was hilarious, I was watching the ABC weather report that day and the satellite loop is playing showing the satellite cloud of the core already fully overland and moving rapidly inland, and the ABC presenter, without blinking, looking at it, says the cyclone will come on shore in a few more hours time. They could not get any sillier, any less accurate or any more unhelpful if they were trying to. The best nonsense money can put to air.

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    pat

    Figueres tells Australia what they must do, then tells Australia to do its homework, then tells Australia nobody can tell it what to do, and ABC laps it up!

    6 May: ABC: Jake Sturmer: Australia must reduce reliance on coal, says UN’s top climate change negotiator Christiana Figueres
    Australia must move away from its reliance on coal, says the United Nations’ top climate negotiator Christiana Figueres.
    The executive secretary of the UN’s Framework Convention on Climate Change spoke to delegates at the Australian Emissions Reduction Summit in Melbourne on Wednesday…
    In her first major interview since her arrival, Ms Figueres told the ABC that Australia had no option other than to gradually step back from coal.
    “As we look into the future – not overnight – but over time there does need to be an economic diversification view that is not going to rely fully on coal,” she said.
    ***”I think Australia will have to look at a gradual transition and a broader resource base for its exports, mainly because the demand for coal is already decreasing and will continue to decrease.”…
    ‘Nobody can tell you how to do it’
    “It is not easy to bring down the emissions in Australia because of the natural resource base that is here.
    “[That’s] the extraordinary coal reserves that are in Australia that have been the backbone of the prosperity and growth of Australia.”…
    “You represent a huge potential to lead the world into a very healthy economic diversification path,” she said.
    ***”You haven’t figured out yet how to do it, but, my friends, that is your homework.”
    And she stopped short of recommending set targets for Australia.
    “That is not a question that I can answer for you.
    “That is a question that Australia, jointly in collaboration across sectors, across political parties, across states, across territories … has to come up with.
    “Nobody can tell you what to do.”
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-05-06/un-climate-negotiator-urges-australia-to-take-leadership-role/6448802

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      tom0mason

      Cheers Pat,

      From the strange mind of the lefty-elite.
      <i."And she stopped short of recommending set targets for Australia.
      “That is not a question that I can answer for you.
      “That is a question that Australia, jointly in collaboration across sectors, across political parties, across states, across territories … has to come up with."

      This Marxist elitist seems to think that she should tell you what questions to ask.

      Yep that’s right Christiana Figueres wrong bloody question!

      10

    • #
      David-of-Cooyal in Oz

      Thanks Pat,
      The SMH hard copy version had a report of her speech (‘Move from coal’: UN climate head”, p9), but I can’t find it on SMH.com. This is a pity as I’ve been mentally preparing a reply which I hoped to get in as a comment on line.
      I was going to offer her the results of my “homework” to inform her that her climate sensitivity factor is zero, and that she can therefore close down the UNFCCC with its job done…

      Will look for another approach,
      Cheers,
      Dave B

      00

    • #

      The easiest place where Australia can make cuts to finance the change to less coal, is by cutting all contributions to the UN.

      The UN doesn’t cast a single vote in Australia so it’ll be universally popular with the electorate.

      00

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    Unmentionable

    I’d love to see a bibliographic physical stack of all the papers and texts referring to this discovery and get a photo of it.

    It should be Heritage Listed and preserved for all future generations.

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    pat

    Figueres says China has made an “amazing commitment” and Chinese want to breathe ***”air into their lungs”!

    6 May: Guardian: Oliver Milman: French ambassador urges Australia to join climate change battle
    Christophe Lecourtier says he is optimistic about Australia’s ‘momentum’ and it joining a ‘coalition of countries’
    France’s ambassador has called on Australia to join the effort to avoid dangerous climate change, saying his country’s leaders had repeatedly raised the issue with the prime minister, Tony Abbott…
    The UN’s climate chief, Christiana Figueres, also speaking at a Carbon Market Institute summit in Melbourne, said she was “counting on Australian leadership” at the Paris talks, but it still had “homework” to do…
    “Australia prides itself on leadership on many fields, not just cricket, and this cannot be an exception,” Figueres said at a speech at the Melbourne cricket ground, where she expressed surprise that the fabled stadium’s grass was being warmed by heaters…
    The UN climate chief said China’s pledge to reduce its use of coal after 2020 was an “amazing commitment” which was sensible because “they have this habit in China of wanting to actually breathe ***air into their lungs”…
    “Leading is achieving and doing what you say,” he said. “Australia has achieved its Kyoto targets, we have done extraordinary things in terms of emissions intensity. Some of the critics, for political reasons, will airbrush those facts.
    “Paris will succeed where Copenhagen failed. We will make a very significant and constructive contribution to a post-2020 agreement. We will not rest until such an agreement is secured. The world cannot, and I believe won’t have, another failure like Copenhagen.”…
    Mary Bruce Warlick, principal deputy assistant secretary of state for the US government’s bureau of energy resources, used the Melbourne summit to call for a global phase-out of fossil-fuel subsidies…
    “The US has been driving efforts to phase out fossil-fuel subsidies, which the International Energy Agency estimated at $548bn in 2013.
    “Clean energy is one of the greatest economic opportunities of all time. We are working with other countries to stop global financial institutions financing dirty power stations.”
    Warlick said an estimated $17t would be invested globally in clean energy between now and 2035.
    http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/may/06/french-ambassador-urges-australia-to-join-climate-change-battle

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      Graeme No.3

      Since it is obvious, to all except some remarkably stupid people, that 100% renewables is ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE, then we can ignore this crap. Even the beyondzerocarbon mob have admitted that.**

      Since TonyFromOz has shown that the quickest and surest way to reduce Australia’s CO2 emissions (if that is necessary) would be to up-grade our coal fired stations, I think that Christiana Figueres, the French ambassador, and Mary Bruce Warlick are talking out of the wrong end of their anatomy.

      ** I haven’t included a link because I don’t want readers wasting their time. I’ve talked to 2 of them, incoherent, ignorant and believers in unicorns as I don’t want to be snipped.

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      • #
        GMac

        The only real way of making sure is to ban/remove all product that use any form of electricity and petroleum ,that should give us a big tick on our anti-carbon dioxide report card.
        You all know that it makes sense,going back to wind and water power ,there is also a big upside there will be much lower public costs of health and education,with the much lower production of food then life expectancy will fall greatly,thus no need for extended hospital attendance and a very big plus no need for the age pension,talk about a win-win.

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    pat

    ***hand over your money or we’ll take it by force:

    6 May: Guardian: Simon Bowers: Climate change must be tackled by the markets, say City grandees
    David Blood and Howard Covington separately warn fund managers they are sleepwalking into a future where climate change leaves fossil fuels unburnable
    David Blood, former head of asset management at Goldman Sachs, and Howard Covington, onetime chief executive of New Star Asset Management, both warn that mainstream investment thinking is sleepwalking into a future where the threat of climate change either leaves huge reserves of fossil fuel unburnable or plunges the global economy into crisis.
    Blood insists long-term investors such as pension funds can only justify holding stakes in such companies “if they believe climate change is a hoax”.
    The former Goldman Sachs partner left his role at the bank 12 years ago to team up with former US vice-president and climate change campaigner Al Gore, establishing Generation Investment Management. Now a business responsible for funds of $12bn (£8bn), it is focused on investments that are positioned in anticipation of a dramatic transformation in the energy industry…
    “We are convinced that the transition from a high-carbon to low-carbon economy will be the most significant process in modern economic history – matching the industrial revolution in scale, and the technological revolution in pace,” Blood and Gore explain in their strategy statement for Generation, whose clients include the Environment Agency and the Church of England’s commissioners in the UK, and Calstrs, one of America’s largest pension funds.
    “We believe investors are increasingly aware of the materiality of this transition for business, and we think financial markets have a significant opportunity to chart the way forward.”…
    Blood said he spends much of his time challenging fund managers’ “knee-jerk” hostility to divestment campaigns that target holdings in fossil fuel companies…
    “The natural reaction for most investment committees is: ‘No, we will not divest; we will engage [with fossil fuel groups].’…
    “If your purpose is to change [companies] then think carefully about that. There are some businesses that cannot change … Pragmatically, do you really think ExxonMobil is going to withdraw from the hydrocarbons business?”…
    “The most effective way to address climate change is through the markets,” Blood said. “What upsets me is that there many people on the right in the US who are thoughtful people [but] are climate deniers – not because they reject the science, but because they see it [state intervention] as a political campaign for big government. And that is unhelpful.” …
    Like Blood, Covington warns of a dystopian future in the absence of preventative action now. He has said: “Climate arithmetic shows that we may be very hungry in a few decades’ time … [it] could take us way beyond adaptation into the realm of crumbling disorder.” …
    Specifically, he is looking for an opportunity to test the legal duties of fund trustees in the courts.
    ***That way he hopes to establish in law that those responsible for diverse long-term funds are in fact obliged, in the interests of future beneficiaries, to address the risks to long-term returns presented by climate change…
    But not everyone in the City is listening to increasingly vocal advocates such as Blood and Covington…
    Among them is Terry Smith, one of the City’s most successful and outspoken figures, whose latest venture, the Fundsmith investment management business, was founded in 2010.
    Two years ago Smith declared on his personal blog he would stop airing his scepticism of what he calls “the quasi-religious belief that there is manmade global warming”.
    Explaining his decision to remain silent, he said: “I have come in for some vituperative comment and action from ‘warmists’ … The media on climate change is so biased it would be laughable if it weren’t for the fact that the subject and the waste of scarce resources on cons which pose as solutions are quite serious.”
    Asked if his views had changed since scientists from the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its most detailed report on global warming last year, a spokesman said: “He doesn’t have anything further to say regarding climate change.” The blogpost announcing his pledge of silence, and others airing his views on climate change, have not been taken down.
    http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/06/climate-change-must-be-tackled-by-the-markets-say-city-grandees

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      Graeme No.3

      Notice that the sceptical one is described as a SUCCESSFUL investor.

      That would carry far more weight in the City than any rants from Algore believers.

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    Robdel

    I wonder how many peer reviwed papers were produced by that oven phenomenon during those 17 years.

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    pat

    LOL.

    5 May: National Catholic Reporter: Business, Pentagon pursue climate change strategies
    by Vinnie Rotondaro
    But climate change deniers are increasingly running into true believers in big business and the Pentagon — two groups conservatives hold dear — who are devising future strategies that take into consideration the “question” of climate change…
    In the world of big business, “we have seen significant change in industries in terms of strategy,” said Andrew Logan, director of the Oil & Gas and Insurance Programs at Ceres, a nonprofit sustainability advocacy organization.
    ***Many are now seeking “a way to benefit from climate change,” he said…
    A similar dynamic exists in the Pentagon and at the Department of Defense, says David Titley, director of the Center for Solutions to Weather and Climate Risk at Penn State University.
    “I would say that we are approaching the end of the beginning,” said Titley, a retired rear admiral who served as the U.S. Navy’s oceanographer and initiated the Navy’s Task Force Climate Change while working in the Pentagon. “Relative to five or six years ago, there is much more understanding that the Department of Defense is going to have to deal with climate change,” he said…
    ***Nevertheless, “as far as actually putting money in a budget,” Titley said, “the Department of Defense has a ways to go.”…
    Another report released in 2007 was the Center for Naval Analyses’ “National Security and the Threat of Climate Change.”
    The center’s report was “seminal,” King (Marcus King, an expert on climate change and national security at George Washington University’s Elliot School of International Affairs) said, largely because its advisory board was almost entirely composed of retired three- and four-star admirals and generals.
    “Many of these people were conservatives,” he said. “Some of them were climate skeptics. And when these people of such gravitas in the defense community got together and found that indeed that there were consequential effects for U.S. security, it really moved the debate forward.”
    Next up was the Department of Defense’s 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review, which listed climate change and energy as “two key issues that will play a significant role in shaping the future security environment.”
    “Although they produce distinct types of challenges, climate change, energy security, and economic stability are inextricably linked,” the review read…
    In 2014, the Department of Defense issued a first-ever Climate Change Adaptation Roadmap…
    In a story titled “The Military Takes on Climate Change Deniers,” Bloomberg Business wrote, “The idea that climate change poses serious risks to U.S. national security, long contested in conservative circles, is now an integral part of Pentagon planning.”…
    http://ncronline.org/blogs/eco-catholic/business-pentagon-pursue-climate-change-strategies

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  • #

    Please forgive me for being off topic here, but this gave me a huge belly laugh, although I suppose I should be outraged by the attitude of the ABC.

    The ABC published a photograph of the new Greens Leader and the one he replaced.

    Here’s link to the image

    It quite naturally shows the female called Christine, and the male called Richard, and they are quite obviously female and male.

    However, good old Auntie still has to put which one is on the left and which one is on the right in brackets for the caption for the image.

    This is how your ABC thinks of you, that you cannot distinguish one from the other. Even if it is aimed at an International audience, how hard is it to distinguish a female with a female name and a male with a male name.

    And then not even proof read the caption.

    Give me strength.

    Tony.

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    pat

    reminder:

    2010: WUWT: When you don’t like the poll numbers, make up your own poll
    Stanford and Woods Institute didn’t like the recent polls like these:
    Pew poll: 2 of 3 Americans think Congressional action on climate change is not a priority
    Gallup: Americans’ Global Warming Concerns Continue to Drop
    Pew Poll: global warming dead last, down from last year
    So with public money from the National Science Foundation, they conducted their own poll, and issued a press release:
    “Large majority of Americans still believe in global warming, Stanford poll finds”…
    The survey was conducted by Woods Institute Senior Fellow Jon Krosnick, a professor of communication and of political science at Stanford, with funding from the National Science Foundation…
    http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/06/10/when-you-dont-like-the-poll-numbers-make-up-your-own-poll/

    mind games:

    6 May: LA Times: Patt Morrison: Stanford’s Jon Krosnick: On climate change, most Americans want action
    Another presidential election, another chance for Republican candidates to step out of the denial zone and deal with climate change. That would put them on the same side as a large majority of Americans, if you ask Jon A. Krosnick. He’s a Stanford University professor who directs the Political Psychology Research Group there, and his two decades of asking Americans about climate change has turned up consistent support for action to rein in global warming…
    Q. How did you get started on climate change?
    Krosnick: In 1995, I got [an invitation] to a meeting of psychologists to talk about global warming. When I heard the framing of the question — why some people cared about climate change and other people didn’t — I understood why I was there. I’d been trying to understand why some Americans care about particular political issues and some don’t. I had studied abortion and gun control and other policy issues.
    Q. How does it compare?
    Krosnick: In some ways, climate change is typical and in some ways it’s not. Pick any issue — gun control, defense spending, even terrorism — and a small group of Americans are very passionate about it: 5% to 15%, sometimes 18% or 20%. But no issue gets anywhere near a majority of Americans…
    Q. In what way is climate change different?
    Krosnick: It’s weird in this regard: About 90% of the passionate are on what you might call the green side. They believe it’s happening, it’s caused by humans, it’s a serious problem, and government should do something about it. That’s unusual in that it allows candidates to win votes by talking about it. Democrats and Republicans will gain votes among independent voters if they take a green position…
    Many Americans, including people in Washington, do not realize how one-sided the public is on this…
    So we’ve started looking at states and haven’t found a single state where a majority of residents are skeptical, but legislators think they are. West Virginia, Oklahoma, Texas — even in those states, large majorities are expressing green points of view…
    Q. What influences people’s thinking?
    Krosnick: In one experiment, we had [control group] participants simply report their opinions on global warming. Others reported after watching a video interview with [Stanford climate scientist Stephen Schneider]. A third group reported its opinions after watching that video and a video of another Stanford professor, from the Hoover Institution, making a counter-argument that more greenhouse gases are good for the planet.
    Compared to the control group, we found that watching Schneider did increase the number of people who said the planet was warming, and so on. When the skeptic [video] followed Schneider, pretty much all the impact of Schneider was eliminated…
    We’ve [also] found the more people have been exposed to Fox News stories in general, the more likely they are to be skeptical about climate change…
    Q. Have public attitudes changed over time?
    ***Krosnick: What we’ve found is about 80% of Americans — I never see 80% of Americans agreeing on anything when it comes to other issues, so this is very unusual — believe the federal government should limit greenhouse gas emissions by businesses and in particular by public utilities…
    Some [other] policies enjoy clear majority support: a carbon tax on business, cap-and-trade systems, tax incentives or mandates to improve energy efficiency of buildings, [cars] or appliances — policies that are characterized as reducing emissions, with a guarantee of reductions. Even if it costs Americans money, we see about two-thirds to three-quarters of the country expressing support for these policies…
    Q. In 2010, Gallup’s Frank Newport disagreed with your conclusions, saying many polling groups showed “demonstrable drops” in Americans’ “acknowledgment and concern” about global warming.
    Krosnick: I don’t know of any studies that have shown anywhere near a majority of Americans expressing incredulity [about global warming], but there certainly is variation in the percentage of Americans expressing particular opinions. [Variations often] have to do with question wording…
    When question wording [is different] in significant ways, it’s not unusual to see substantial differences in the answers you get.
    I wish polls played a more prominent role in governance…
    http://touch.latimes.com/#section/-1/article/p2p-83467321/

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    Unfortunate as it may be for the people concerned, this is how science is supposed to work. A hypothesis (ie guess) about a phenomenon was made and proved to be wrong. For decades, human cells were though to contain 22 pairs of chromosomes, someone did a recount and found there were 23.

    It’s admitting you were wrong which is the important thing.

    Pointman

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    From while they were confused.
    “at an estimated distance of up to 5.5 billion light years from Earth.”
    “Astronomers also found six more such unnoticed bursts in the Parkes telescope’s data and a seventh in Arecibo telescope data.”
    “The theories are now that the radio wave burst might be linked to a very compact type of object ”
    http://www.kurzweilai.net/snapshot-of-cosmic-burst-of-radio-waves

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    ROM

    More than anything else, this Parkes Radio Telescope radio astronomy debacle brings home yet again the irrefutable fact that scientists of every stripe, discipline and profession are no different, they are no better and they are definitely no smarter than every other fatally flawed human that has ever emerged from the womb.

    Those Parkes scientists like scientists of every known science discipline, like every accountant or lawyer or brickie or taxi driver or bureacrat, once they found what they had hoped to find they could not break their minds and intellect away from that pursuit for some 17 years. They could not step out of the mental box they had become locked inside of in their thinking.
    And why not?
    Well if one of them or a team finally established the holy grail of radio astronomy, a real extraterrestrial source of those signals and if those signals could be interpreted as having some element of intelligence detectable in them then as the discoverers of intelligent lifeoutside of the solar system, intelligent life at the level we can understand” intelligence”, the world was their oyster with immense kudos and personal fame for the rest of their lives.

    Precisely the psychological pressures that leads to this type of closed minded intellect that inflicts almost every one of us on this planet sometime, somewhere and continues doing so unless and until we are somehow brought to see our own faults in this regard.

    So they persisted in trying to find that source of those signals and in the end, like so many of these hare like pursuits of scientific chimeras, the mythical scientific beast of their own imaginings that so many purported scientists spend their lives and a fortune in tax payers money pursuing without ever adding anything to the sum of human knowledge and advancement of mankind, so also were those Parkes radio astronomers were apparently totally fixated on finding the source of those signals somewhere out there in the cosmos to the extent that even though they knew those signals always occurred during working hours they apparently could not break their fixation that it had some extraterrestrial source.

    A large proportion of scientists today have a God complex, they think and believe they are right up there with God in status and importance.
    In reality they are no better and no worse intellectually and in practical terms than the guys and gals in every other proffession for all of us began life at the same level and all of us will finish life at the same level.
    In between we all pull on and take off our pants and undies the same way.

    Scientists are no different and Parkes just reminds us and the scientific proffession that in the beginning, the middle and the end we are all still the same flawed human beings.
    We all see what we dearly want to see and believe in regardless of our status, training and the circumstances of our lives.

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      Peter C

      “The theories are now that the radio wave burst might be linked to a very compact type of object ”

      They were very close to the truth! 🙂

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      Graeme No.3

      No, these scientists are different.

      Firstly they were prepared to admit they were wrong (and in public).

      Secondly, the amount of money they spent over 17 years wouldn’t compare with the amount wasted on “Global Warming etc,” every day.

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      • #
        ROM

        They still needed completely new blood ie; Emily Petroff, a PhD student, inserted into their system to both break their fixation with an extraterrestrial source for the signal and pinpoint the outstanding and very obvious flaw in their scientific pursuit of the source of the signal.

        With nothing to be gained by hiding the embarrassment it was probably a very good tactical move science wise and politically to get the whole thing over and done with, take their lumps and move on.

        As for the funding. If we as a wealthy nation can’t afford the small amounts that the astronomers and radio astronomers are getting to run their research [ flaws and all ] to try and find what is out there, in short to satisfy mankind’s age old curiosity about those twinkling points of light, those untold numbers of stars out there in the cosmos and what they may hold then we are a very poor nation indeed in spirit, in intellectual curiosity and in trying to understand our place and role in the cosmos around us.

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    mikerestin

    This sounds strange.
    Either they’ve had the same microwave for 17 years or every replacement leaked.

    30

    • #
      Peter C

      I have had my microwave oven for nearly 20 years. Does not look new but still works as well as ever.

      30

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    Glen Michel

    Metetoo.

    10

  • #
    Gee Aye

    2 I think

    01

  • #

    It,s like the old saying: “when you hear hoof beats think horses rather than zebras” or in this case, rather than unicorns.

    10

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    C.J.Richards

    Make sure your Science is cooked right through before consuming

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    Roy Hogue

    In the interest of full disclosure I have to say that maybe I would have been fooled too. We should be thankful that someone was sharp enough to notice that all the bursts happened during local waking hours. Too bad it wasn’t noticed before everyone went off broadcasting this great new finding all over the place.

    Microwave ovens have had more than their share of controversy over the years. I know mine will interfere with my cordless phone unless the phone is at least 10 – 12 feet away. This probably isn’t microwave energy leaking from the oven but lower frequency stuff generated by the electronics powering the magnetron. But it’s sometimes a real pain, considering that we located one phone in the kitchen for convenience. 🙁

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      Roy Hogue

      In related news — a couple of nights ago I saw CBS hyping the dangers of Wi Fi. News at 11.

      Needless to say I didn’t stay up to watch it.

      If my cell phone won’t get me then my wireless devices will. You can’t seem to win.

      I worked for years for a man whose business involved stuff that generated really high level RF and microwave, as much as 25 Watts output. He knew better than to be exposed directly to that much energy. But he laughed at all the scares about the RF all around us now. He kept his statements polite but he wouldn’t buy into any danger from cell phones, microwave ovens, local radio stations or anything else.

      Considering the number of lawyers just waiting for a good court case who still, after more than a decade can’t find one, I’m sure he was right.

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      • #
        Roy Hogue

        A short anecdote.

        I was acquainted at one time with a man who had been a microwave engineer in the early days of development. According to him they had a huge horn at one end of the lab. He told me a bout turning on the equipment on a cold morning and standing in front of that horn to get warm.

        While that probably wasn’t very prudent, many years later there was no sign that it did him any harm.

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        • #

          proof of the microwave scare campaign. Love your sample size.

          01

          • #
            Roy Hogue

            GA,

            Of course it proves nothing. And I was careful to mention that it was anecdotal. 🙂

            And yet, where is the evidence that in exposure too small to cause dangerous heating there’s any harm? As I pointed out, there’s a large cadre of tort lawyers just looking for something on which to make a big, famous class action suit out of. Where is that suit? I’m sure it would be all over the news if it ever happens.

            Almost everything I have that uses RF, Internet router, wireless and Wi Fi devices, all come with some vague warning about the supposed danger of RF exposure. But they cannot say there’s any empirical evidence of that danger. So far, what we have is the equivalent of asking the nearest fence post if we have a problem. And the fence post probably knows more than those who promulgate problems unsupported by evidence. It’s an amazing thing, the human ability to literally invent danger that doesn’t exist, while ignoring real dangers that we can see with our own two eyes every day of the week (and twice on Sunday). Need I mention chem trails as an example?

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    Tim

    Surely this does not mean that astrophysicists are as fallible as climate scientists?

    Maybe we should go back to the the tried and true ‘throwing of the dice’ method and save on uni fees.

    10

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    ScotsmaninUtah

    Emily Petroff is be congratulated on her discovery. Great job Emily 😀

    17 years, does seem a long time though , to determine the source of an erroneous emission.
    I kinda thought that there was a checklist that Scientists use to eliminate possible terrestrial sources.

    However, I suppose in todays’ IPCC version of “Scientific Research” it is entirely possible that
    everyone has been asked to remove “Microwave Oven” from checklists as it might be
    inadvertently included as a thermal forcing factor in one of IPCCs climate models, as was the case with Solar radiation.

    One cannot be too careful … 😮

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    pattoh

    Just as an aside guys:-

    Does anybody know anything about the “sterio”(side by side) dishes are all about recently built just opposite the Old Broken Hill RFDS base?

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    Thomas in Scotland

    Many years ago I recall reading of a zero redshift line for potassium being found in star spectra at Lick Observatory. This event was found in a number of long exposure spectra and remained a puzzle for some time. It was eventually traced to someone in the dome striking a match to light a cigarette. This:- http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1967PASP…79..351W may be the paper explaining the solution.

    Thanks! 🙂 – Jo

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    RoHa

    Incidentally, have we established that galaxies are formed in microwave ovens?

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    F. Ross

    Oops!

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