Archaeology, Anthropology, and Interstellar Communication is a collection of essays about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), edited by Douglas Vakoch and published by NASA in 2014. Each of its four sections explores a different topic: (1) the history of SETI as a field; (2) archaeological comparisons for human–alien communication, such as the difficulties of translating ancient languages; (3) the inferential gap between humans and aliens, and the consequences this would have for communication and trade; and (4) the potential nature of alien intelligences. Upon its release, the book received widespread media coverage and generally positive reviews. It was at the center of controversy when publications such as TheBlaze, The Huffington Post, and Artnet misreported a quote about ancient stone carvings from one of its essays, which rhetorically stated that the carvings "might have been made by aliens" for all that they were understood by modern anthropologists.

Read more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archaeology,_Anthropology,_and_Interstellar_Communication

_______________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:

1793:

The Louvre (pyramid pictured) in Paris, today the world's most- visited museum, opened with an exhibition of 537 paintings and 184 objets d'art. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre

1953:

First Indochina War: The French Union withdrew its forces from Operation Camargue against the Việt Minh in central modern-day Vietnam. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Camargue

1988:

The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 became law, authorizing reparations to surviving Japanese Americans interned during World War II. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Liberties_Act_of_1988

2019:

Jeffrey Epstein, an American financier and convicted sex offender, was found dead in his cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, New York. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Jeffrey_Epstein

_____________________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:

unseldom: (archaic) Not seldom; frequently, regularly. https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unseldom

___________________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:

Trump is not just a wacky politician of the far right, or a riveting television spectacle, or a Twitter phenom and bizarre working- class hero. He is not just another candidate to be parsed and analyzed by TV pundits in the same breath as all the others. In terms of our liberal democracy and constitutional order, Trump is an extinction-level event. It’s long past time we started treating him as such.   --Andrew Sullivan https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Andrew_Sullivan