GROONK[dot]NET ಠ_ಠ

Yes, there are other bits floating around out there in The Black. But most of that noise is unintentional. Including Hitler’s broadcasting the opening of the 1936 Olympics.

This shit here, this is unconscionable.

It could be the longest commercial break in history. Over a six-hour period this morning, high-powered radars in the Arctic Circle broadcast an advertisement into space for the first time.

The advertisement, for Doritos tortilla chips, was being directed towards a solar system in the Ursa Major constellation, just 42 light years from Earth. The solar system contains a habitable zone, and could host an Earth-like planet and extraterrestrial life.

The EISCAT European space station on the Norwegian island of Svalbard sent the message using its array of radars. Those radars are normally used to study the Earth’s upper atmosphere.

[...]

The advert itself is unlikely to be decoded by extraterrestrial life, according to van Eyken. “We’re sending it as an MPEG file coded into 1s and 0s. It’s going to look pretty random,” he says. But repeating the message in a series of regular pulses over several hours should help extraterrestrials identify the message as intelligent, he thinks.

I don’t care, man. When the Space Bears come down from the skies looking at you for thin pieces of cheese covered cardboard, you’ll re-think the wisdom of being a money whore.

(via warren eliis: who has an article you really should read, new scientists)

Related posts:

1. May 11, 1999: Solar Wind. Missing for 2 Days.
2. Solar Sails
3. Craigslist to be Transmitted Beyond the Solar System
4. Dial A for Alien
5. Spider bots to weave solar sails