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>
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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>
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Wiktionary's word of the day:
unseldom:
(archaic) Not seldom; frequently, regularly.
<https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unseldom>
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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>
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