So that's why Dr. Brent Blue included a towel in the medical kit he designed. And he said it was because "Several pilot friends recommended towels."

http://www.aeromedix.com/aeromedix_articles/medkit/index.html

Jeanette Isabelle

Actually, PBS had a rather nice TV adaptation of Douglas Adam's work. This was years before the movie. And yes, it had the proof of the non-existence of God and many of the other excepts from the Hitchhiker's Guide that were in the book.

there -is- a towel there; you just can't see it because it's one second out of sync with our time zone.
besides, i can use the screwdriver to atomize any water around me(within, say...three inches of my stratum corneum) that doesn't contain traces of my DNA, thus rendering myself dry, but not dehydrated. very neat trick, very popular at poolside dinner parties(your hair will probably still be a bit damp, but you'll be wanting to run a comb through it anyway, so that's fine).





very cool. i've tried a few cool hats as well, but they keep getting hit by stray gunfire.

I just got around to seeing "District 9" recently and really enjoyed it. In some ways it reminded me of the old "Alien Nation" movie / series.

Both are interesting takes on the alien genre where the aliens aren't superior invaders.

Ok, I read of lot of sci-fi. I'm pretty sure that unless we get invaded by yellow blooded cannabalistic omnivorous alligators (ty John Ringo) we have little to worry about.

Our food will more than likely not be compatible with their food. Our atmosphere may kill them. Our germs either will zap their butts dead, or not effect them - 50/50 chance. Unless they are way advanced our weapons will hurt about anything.

"Scuse me Mr. Alien, stand here while my buddy shoots your green self with his Barret" "Wow, that's some hole. Does it hurt?"

Just load up on ammor. Maybe the pets can eat them.

Failing that, use the towel trick from Hitchhikers. If you can't see them...

Somehow I think South Park has it right: the rampant greed, violence, cruelty, and all manners of wickedness on earth will so repel the aliens that they might just cordon us off and declare earth a toxic dump, off limits to the more evolved civilizations in the galaxy.

Since this forum is called Equipped to Survive - what should we add to our EDC or bug-out kit or bug-in stash to prepare for an alien invasion? A vial of your snot from when you had the flu? Silver-tipped ammo for the army from the planet Lupus X? A babel fish?

Da Bing

A cork.

I think you underestimate just how far behind the technological, and energy, curves humans would be against any species capable of leaving their solar system in any meaningful way, doing it routinely and with considerable numbers. Having FTL capability would seem necessary but even without that they would be far, far more advanced then we are.

What can you do about it ... not much. Advising people to do more than the usual instinctual response, dig a hole and hide, would be like advising ants to stock up on seeds and double the guard when humans start building houses next door.

If it was to come to pass you could dig a hole and stock up on beans and bullets, if that sort of activity makes you feel better, but really ... if they are who they must be to have gotten here ... and they are anything but friendly and/or entertained by us ... we are screwed.

The energies and technologies needed for extra-solar exploration/exploitation make planetary bombardment with asteroids trivial. They can drop an asteroid the size of a building anywhere on earth and get the explosive force of a nuclear weapon, with none of the nasty nucleotides.

It is okay to dream of mounting a bold and determined resistance and hunkering down for them to die off from endemic diseases but the bottom line is that if they want us gone ... we are gone. No amount of grim determination, or waving our ineffectual fists, will change that.

The good news is that he more we learn about other solar systems the more we understand exactly how unremarkable our little system is. So far, every assumption about what makes our solar system and planet special has been shown to be a regular feature of other systems and planets. So far, last I checked, suitable stars, water, presence in a habitable zone, and presence of organic molecules were all shown to be present elsewhere. Given the feebleness of our technology and limited reach if we can detect those there are most certainly a whole lot more out there. All that is good. If there is nothing particularly special about our planet there would be little reason to invade. Why would anyone cross a good part of a galaxy to get to what is on their doorstep?

There's some advice here. Not that I take it seriously, but I would quite like to get a teeshirt that illustrates Pythagoras nicely.

I guess it would all depend on motive.

I'm just guessing here, but it would seem like the amount of bombardment needed to eliminate mankind would also render the earth uninhabitable in its existing form. Therefore, the alien race's motive would either have to be purely emotional or there would have to be something very unique about the earth that would still be very valuable following the destruction of the ecosystem.

The issue with the latter is that it flies in the face of the mediocrity principle which is the philosophical underpinning that leads to the conclusion that alien life probable to start with. According to the mediocrity principle there shouldn't be anything unique about the earth and therefore there would be nothing special enough here worth killing all life for (as you, Art, stated as well).

That said, if an alien race were motivated to invade the earth, the likelihood is they would still need boots on the ground at some-point, even if only to mop up the minority that survived the broader assaults. Although, maybe something like V would be more likely, feigning friendship while conspiring towards their own ends.