Guest guest Posted January 16, 2003 Report Share Posted January 16, 2003 Make chili con carné any way you like it, using sausage crumblies. On Thursday, January 16, 2003, at 06:44 PM, (AT) (DOT) com wrote: > Okay, don't brag about the meal, unless you will share with us your > recipe. > It is only fair.... > > ~ Feral ~ > > There is no disguise that can for long conceal love where it exists or > simulate > it where it does not. > -Francois de La Rochefoucauld > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> > , The Stewarts <stews9@c...> > wrote: > we eat many Vegan meals >> anyway -- it's usually just as easy to make something Vegan. We had >> lovely sausage chili last night, for instance, that was Vegan. Yum. >> >> Drake's Equation estimating the probability of intelligent extraterrestrial lifeforms just in our galaxy capable of communicating over interstellar distances. The formula and explanation follows: The Formula: — N = R* fp ne fl fi fc L. The explanation of the formula and its seven factors is as follows: Where: N = Number of communicating civilizations (N). N varies with the values assigned to each of the seven factors. Factor 1: R = Rate of starbirths (R*). Life requires a home planet, which in turn requires a home star. Over the lifetime of the galaxy, the average number of stars formed each year is 10. Factor 2: fp = Number of stars with planets. What portion of stars will go on to form planets? Astronomers estimate that planets form around all stars, thus setting f at 1. Factor 3: ne = Planets with life-supporting environments. What percentage of planetary systems include a habitable world? Drake believed all systems should be able to produce one and set this number at 1. So every solar system should have been able to produce one inhabited world. Factor 4: fl = Planets with life. Of habitable worlds, how many actually produce life? Many specialists believe life begins fairly easily (as it did on Earth) and should emerge on all habitable planets, making fl = 1. Factor 5: fi = Intelligent life. Of life-bearing planets, only a small fraction will have intelligent life. Assumption is that intelligence has a 1 in 10 chance of emerging, making fi = 1. Factor 6: fc = Communicating societies. Even intelligent life may not develop radio or may not wish to contact others. If one out of ten alien intelligences is able and willing to communicate, fc is 1. Factor 7: L = Civilization life span. How long a civilization lasts after developing radio is uncertain, given the risk of catastrophes such as nuclear war. At a 1961 conference L was set to from 1,000 to 1,000,000,000 years. One scientist has pointed out that though we may wish to insert values for each of the seven factors we have the problem of not even being able to make a " guesstimate " for some of them. For example " we still have insufficient information about the presence of planets, and even less about the number that are " located the proper distance of their respective suns. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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