Story of real-life alien hunter with lifetime’s quest

THE thought that we’re not alone has intrigued and perplexed ever since Neanderthal man first raised his eyes skywards and wondered what that big silvery circle thing in the sky was.

Stars, planets and the vast scale of the galaxy, all part of a brainbusting conundrum that has confounded civilisations down the generations, leaving mere human minds to boggle under the concept that, somewhere out there, one of those twinkling little stars is home to someone else.

As for Hollywood movies, they whisk us to imaginary worlds of little green men with light sabres and a disturbing habit of shooting first then asking later to be taken to our leader – in perfect if slightly robotic English – or to curious worlds with multi- coloured moons and purple oceans.

Could any of that possibly, in our wildest dreams, ever be real?

Actually, yes, says Dr Duncan Forgan, straight-faced, deadly serious and not even wearing a replica Star Trek uniform or a giant fancy dress Chewbacca head. It could be true and, indeed, it probably is.

Well, perhaps not the bits about the light sabres and green men. Or the multi-coloured moons and the purple oceans – I made all that up. Besides, that’s the fine detail to be established once and for all sometime later.

Right now it’s enough to know that, on those starry nights when we choose to raise our eyes heavenwards, peering through the haar and the city’s light pollution to ponder the prospect of intelligent life on other planets, there’s probably someone else looking down at us wondering exactly the same thing.

“The idea that we’re alone as biological organisms, well, for me, that’s kind of unlikely,” says Dr Forgan, a sort of Han Solo with a university degree and Edinburgh’s real-life “alien hunter”.

“There are estimated to be 100 billion planets in the galaxy,” he continues, ignoring the references to Space: 1999 and the odd Vulcan salute. “That only one could have even simple biological life seems to be unlikely. If that was the case, then it would be a shattering result.”

Far more likely, he believes, is that alien life forms are really out there. Indeed, according to one raft of research he published after intense study from his lair at the Royal Observatory on Blackford Hill, there could be between a mere 361 up to a jaw-dropping 38,000 alien civilisations in our galaxy alone.

And if even one of them has a Death Star, enough unleaded to fuel it plus a dislike of folks who walk upright, watch mind-numbing reality television shows, tweet about what they had for breakfast and overindulge in McDonalds, then we’ve had it.

Of course, Dr Forgan has heard all those smarty-pants jibes before – about ET and Klingons on the starboard bow, death rays, phasers, teleporting and Captain Kirk’s acting ability. Still just 27 years old, he learned a while ago that, when he goes to a party and someone asks what he does for a living, it’s probably less hassle to simply respond, “I’m a PhD research fellow in an academic position”, than to admit, “Well, as a matter of fact, I hunt for aliens”.

And yet that’s pretty much a large element of what he does. Even if the proper term for it all is that he “carries out theoretical calculations for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence”, he’s basically the chap peering skywards, armed with an astonishing array of scientific data to help deduce where life forms may be, and what their home might be like.

Of course, if you want aliens, the best place to find them is on the silver screen, and now Dr Forgan has ventured there too. Not a cameo appearance in Avatar, but in a short film made by Edinburgh College of Art students aimed at explaining his “out of this world” research, with the hope of inspiring us all to become amateur alien hunters.

Are You Ready for the Machine-to-Machine Revolution?

As Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu once said, “an ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.” It’s a fitting statement to describe today’s hyper-competitive world, where sensing and responding to changing trends in real time – aka the “sentient” enterprise – dictates whether a business survives and thrives. And now that the smart phone revolution has placed the power of the web at one’s fingertips, we have a better understanding of how the machine-to-machine (M2M) revolution impacts the power of the sentient enterprise.

Imagine a refrigerated cabinet or vending machine able to communicate its state, announcing if it is powered on, at the right temperature, well stocked, with the right product mix, at the right location, how shoppers interact with it, if it is due for routine maintenance and so on.

Now imagine millions of such machines worldwide, adding up to a sizeable business for a company.  Imagine each machine offering shoppers the ability to pay for the product in multiple smart ways through other devices (smart phones, smart cards, touch screen, etc). Imagine the enterprise being able to remotely and dynamically tune the machine with advertising, pricing, promotions, bundling, language and currency.  Imagine the machine tailoring an offer to a shopper that it recognizes as a loyal customer (if the shopper allows it).

The ability to glean real time shopper insight, optimize retail locations, make the supply chain efficient and effective and to generate a high return on assets seems like a marketing and operations dream. This smart asset scenario is well within reach of M2M.

The other side of this scenario involves a mobile asset such as a reefer (a refrigerated container) on a vessel in the ocean, on a railcar, or on a trailer on the road.  Tracking a mobile asset like a reefer across its lifecycle as its changes multiple hands and ensures that it maintains its state (and the state of its contents) is extremely valuable to the entire value chain.  This ensures timely supply, proactive notification and planning and faster processing of claims.  Configuring a container to ensure it remains connected via satellite and terrestrial networks means it can provide real time intelligence, in a cost effective way.

The power of a connected car or vehicle is obvious, since in-vehicle services for drivers have been around for some time.  Connecting these “connected” cars and trucks to enterprises that wish to push a range of employee services like smart parking, green incentives, flexible insurance, field service requests, emergency notifications enders the corporation with the fleet smart and sentient.  The benefits to the corporation come in multiple forms.

The power of the mobile web is nowhere more obvious than in emerging economies where significant populations have been empowered by mobile technology, enabling them to leapfrog the wired stage of growth entirely.  It also enables vast numbers of micro businesses to join the business network of a large enterprise and be included financially as well.  Low cost devices can provide a range of simple services (order management, contacts, service tracking, payments, micro-banking, etc.) and the connection to the enterprise leads to enormous savings in supply efficiency and rapid business growth as the enterprise becomes suddenly and acutely aware of the collective needs for products across millions and millions of small businesses.  A number of large corporations are waking up to this reality.

States Aim to Launch More Mobile Apps

Robert Meza, project lead for California’s mobile strategy, heads a team that’s working to make the state portal a destination for on-the-go taxpayers — and their efforts are generating results. An average of nearly 2,000 people access Ca.gov from handheld devices daily, and iPhone and Android traffic constitutes 95 percent of it.

Many state and local jurisdictions are already on top of things, according to a February 2012 survey of 100 members of GovTech Exchange, an online community of senior-level IT pros from state and local government. The survey found that 38 percent of respondents planned to launch new mobile offerings within 12 months. (Another 23 percent said they weren’t sure.) Of those planning new deployments, 55 percent said they will use responsive design techniques that allow a single source of content to be viewed by multiple device types and operating systems. Roughly half said they’ll create the apps using in-house developers, while the other half planned to work with outside developers.

Use of responsive design is on the upswing in state government, according to Nolan Jones, vice president of eGovernment innovation at NIC. “It’s growing in popularity,” he said. “Basically, the vision behind that is [that] the end user shouldn’t worry about how they’re accessing information.”

That’s the approach being taken in California. Instead of using platform-specific native apps that users download from digital stores like iTunes, the California Technology Agency (CTA) is building no-frills mobile websites that adapt to whatever operating system or device a user has, no downloads necessary. 

Though some California agencies have native apps, they’re a rarity, Meza said, adding that the state’s focus on responsive design saves time and money. “Some of the federal programs and other states that launched an iPhone app are under tremendous pressure now, ‘Where’s my Android app? Where’s my Windows phone app?’” Meza said. “We’re never going to be iPhone or Android fanboys.”

California is in good company, according to a 2011 assessment of state portals conducted by e.Republic’s Center for Digital Government. Twenty-eight states had mobile-optimized versions of their government portals, the assessment found. But 31 also had native apps for specific platforms, suggesting that despite the drawback to platform-specific apps, both solutions have value.

The free Official Delaware State Parks Guide, available for Apple iOS and Android, is a mobile tour guide in the Pocket Ranger series. Users browse state parks by region, activity or type of environment, and the app provides the locations and hours of operation for each one. The pro version is a $3.99 in-app purchase with enhanced GPS features. Users cache maps to their device and use 3G or Wi-Fi service to view interactive GPS maps and leave markers, called waypoints, on maps to track their movements. Users also can sync their device with friends’ or relatives’ devices to create a network where people track one another, which is handy if someone is in trouble.

Because the state has a revenue-sharing arrangement with ParksByNature, both will profit from in-app purchases. Delaware only has used Pocket Ranger since fall 2011, however, so the state has not yet seen substantial rewards. According to Chris Polo, chief of creative services for Delaware State Parks, there were about 800 downloads as of winter 2011 — not bad for one of the smallest states in the country, she said.

Development on the Delaware State Parks Guide began in summer 2011 after ParksByNature approached Delaware for permission to use state data. “The state paid absolutely nothing. It was all done by ParksByNature,” Polo said. App purchases generate extra money for a government, easing the burden on taxpayers. And if an app’s popular enough, the revenue could help save a park from closure.

The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA), a division of the Massachusetts Department of Transportation (MassDOT), featured a staggering 50 apps on its website as of March 2012. They comprise Web apps like MBTAway, which uses a mobile device’s GPS or Wi-Fi to provide a list of nearby bus stops, and native apps like Where’s My MBTA Rail? for Apple iOS, which uses GPS to offer real-time tracking of commuter rail lines.

And none of them was created by the state. MassDOT provides open data to developers, whether they’re companies or regular citizens. The licensing agreement allows anyone to use real-time and static traffic data to build apps for consumers. Available data sets include CSV, XML and JavaScript Object Notation files as well as Google’s GTFS-realtime specification.

The state saves money and manpower by leaving the development up to citizens and companies. “I think it’s always important for a government in a time of tight budgets,” said Josh Robin, MBTA’s director of innovation and special projects. “We need to look for the private sector to be involved in the solution, and this is an area where we have that opportunity.”

The state takes a hands-off approach to give developers freedom. Consequently many of the MBTA’s apps duplicate the same services, but not all are created equal. Robin doesn’t find the plethora of apps problematic because the market will decide which gains traction.

California’s strategy is similar. In February 2012, the CTA launched version 3.0 of the state’s free mobile Web template, which lets developers use state data to create mobile Web apps in ASP, NET and PHP. Thirty-five state departments already used earlier versions of the template, and their apps are offered on Ca.gov’s mobile site today.

Zimmerman being tracked by sensitive GPS device

herever George Zimmerman went after he was released on bond from a Florida jail, a sensitive GPS device will pinpoint his location for authorities and alert them if he drifts even a few feet away from where he is allowed.

Zimmerman, who is charged with second-degree murder in the killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, went into hiding Monday as he awaits trial. He must pay an $8-a-day fee to use the device, which is generally used to track people charged in domestic violence cases.

Local bail bondsmen whose clients have worn the same device used to pinpoint Zimmerman said it is highly sensitive and can send messages to authorities in real-time. Zimmerman had to put up the customary 10 percent of his $150,000 bond to leave jail.

Seminole County Sheriff's officials are offering few details on how Zimmerman will be specifically monitored, other than to say the device he is wearing has the same 24/7 capabilities it uses to track accused domestic violence offenders. Zimmerman may be residing outside of Florida for safety reasons.

The monitoring program has been in use since 2003 in Seminole and provides "real-time monitoring of an offender's movements and is capable of monitoring anywhere in the U.S.," according to a sheriff's office news release. In 2009, the agency said using the devices saved $950,000 by keeping people out of jail.

"It does help us out as far as keeping track of people, there's no doubt about it," said David Engel, who has been running a bail bonds business with his wife in Sanford since 1992. "It does not come off. It's locked on their leg. If it ever came off it would send a signal. They're not very strong, but it can't just fall off."

Engel isn't involved with Zimmerman's case, but said his experience with clients who have used them has been relatively seamless because the devices are so hands-off.

The device is much like a cellphone, with a small box, receiver and battery charger, fixed to his ankle with a thin strap.

Computer software that is synched to the device enables "inclusionary zones" to establish where a person can go. It also can report whether the user is being compliant with release conditions like curfews. Zimmerman has been asked to observe a curfew between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The tracking devices are most often used to make sure suspects in domestic violence cases don't come near alleged victims, Engel said.

It will likely be inconvenient for Zimmerman, however: The tracker must be worn all the time, even while bathing.

Mena Trombino, manager at MacDonald Bail Bonds, said people who have worn the devices after posting bail have rarely complained.

"The only time we ever had anybody complain was when one guy had to wear it to work," she said.

Engel said the technology is so sensitive that the monitoring computer has been alerted by the wearer unknowingly drifting a few feet into a restricted area while driving to the grocery store, for example.

It's because of that that people generally don't try to circumvent the system, though it has happened.

"They can get cut and we do have people cut them," Engel said. "(Authorities) call us and let us know. So it's better for us when they have them on."

Why Is a Patent Troll in Luxembourg Suing U.S. Public Transit Agencies?

Dowell Baker, a law firm specializing in patent litigation in Lafayette, Indiana, finds companies to target in a couple different ways. The firm’s client, ArrivalStar, holds 34 U.S. patents, all related to the idea of tracking a vehicle in motion and then alerting people, through some communications device, of when it may arrive or whether it’s running late. As you might imagine, many entities – airlines, school buses, freight-tracking services, package-delivery companies – do something quite similar to this. And Dowell Baker believes they’re all infringing on these patents.

The firm scours for potential infringers on the Internet. Sometimes, companies that have already been sued by ArrivalStar – and now license its patents – will tip off the firm to its competitors. And then there are the really easy targets: public transit agencies. They’re quite public about the cell phone apps and notifications that you can sign up for, as a rider, to keep tabs on buses and trains. And so Dowell Baker signs up for them, too.

“We had to get a separate phone account,” says partner Anthony Dowell, “because no one wanted to get all these notifications on their phone.”

This is a strange story. And this detail probably conveys that best: There is a dedicated cell phone sitting in a law office in Indiana pinging at all hours of the day with alerts about bus delays and approaching trains in cities across the country.

The case is particularly odd given that ArrivalStar sells no product or service. It isn’t really competing with any of these companies, certainly not the transit agencies. When the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority texts its riders about a waylaid train, that service doesn’t cut into ArrivalStar’s profits. But the company, while it makes little else, controls these patents.

Some of them date back to the mid-1990s, when an inventor named Martin Kelly Jones initially filed them. Today, a company called Melvino Technologies Limited, which is registered in the British Virgin Islands, owns all of his patents. And ArrivalStar, registered in Luxembourg, has the exclusive rights to license them.

Together, Melvino and ArrivalStar have sued at least 10 public transit agencies and threatened legal action against at least eight others. Noticing the pattern, tech and transit advocates have begun to flag ArrivalStar as a “patent troll,” a company that exists solely to sue supposed patent infringers for financial gain. Most perplexing to the many people involved is this question: How does anyone own the rights to the obvious idea of alerting people when their train, or bus, or plane might pull in?

“It’s a very old conflict in the U.S. patent system,” Dowell says. “The Wright brothers never manufactured an airplane, but they filed for and obtained the first patent and engaged in litigation for years about it.”

ArrivalStar’s critics frame this a little differently.

“It’s kind of like a hostage situation,” says Julie Samuels, a staff attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation. “Because settling it is always going to be cheaper than litigating. When you start suing cash-strapped local governments, they don’t have the resources to fight back.”

Fighting a suit like this can run into the millions of dollars. So far, every transit agency ArrivalStar has sued has settled, as have more than a hundred private companies. No one has ever taken one of these cases all the way to trial, where a judge might begin to sort out exactly what the broad language in these patents truly means.

“It’s a mess,” Samuels says. “Not to sound glib, but you’re talking about taxpayer dollars when these cities have no money to start with. And that’s not what we want our cities focused on now – or ever. But right now, it seems especially egregious.”

Drive-in field shows reel revival

As a theater owner, Rod Saunders routinely sees dozens of ho-hum films, but recently he saw one that really made him tear up -- We Bought a Zoo, starring Matt Damon and Scarlett Johansson.

"I could relate," Mr. Saunders said with a chuckle while recalling the 2011 film about a man who knows nothing about running a zoo but buys one anyway.

Were anyone to make a film called We Opened a Drive-In, Mr. Saunders, and his wife, Donna, would be perfect for the lead roles.

The Saunders family of Liberty Center began their sixth season Friday as owners of the Field of Dreams Drive-In company, and while their unusual business venture hasn't paid off financially yet, they've managed to improve and expand it annually to where they can envision profits a few years from now.

"With any new business you don't start to expect making money right off the bat. We knew it was going to take money and that we'd have to invest back into it," said Mrs. Saunders, who handles much of the administrative and technical work associated with the business.

"We never expected to make money for the first five years. We expected to put money into the business and grow it, and that's what we've done," Mrs. Saunders said.

In fact, the Saunderses estimate they have invested between $400,000 and $500,000 in their business since opening their Liberty Center Field of Dreams Drive-In -- conveniently located in the backyard of their 4.5-acre property on Henry County Road 6 in Washington Township just south of Swanton -- in the summer of 2007.

"Every year we were adding something -- new equipment, new screens, we grew the concessions," Mrs. Saunders said.

The first year, they showed second-run films on a 48-by-20-foot screen. But they quickly learned the realities of attracting customers: People want to see something new.

Improved concessions was their next lesson. Food sales are the key to profitability once the movie studios take their huge cut of the gate admissions.

In 2010 the couple added a second 42-by-18-foot screen after learning another hard lesson of the drive-in business: By contract, theater owners must show a first-run film for three to four weeks, but business for a film drops considerably after the first weekend.

On a film's second weekend, their 175-vehicle big screen area was usually half-empty. So their second smaller screen provided a site to fulfill their contract obligations while utilizing a smaller area .

They also added a series of games, putting golf, and sand volleyball courts for customers who arrive early.

Last year the Saunderses made their biggest move yet, buying a run-down drive-in in Tiffin that was about to close.

They spent $50,000 on renovations and renamed it the Field of Dreams Tiffin Drive-In. In midseason they added a second 42-by-18-foot screen there to complement its existing 88-by-40-foot screen.

With seasonal maintenance and several blockbuster movies slated for this year, such as The Avengers, Men in Black III, and The Dark Knight Rises, the Saunders family could see their first profit this year if the films deliver and good weather prevails.

"We are close to making a profit and we are definitely seeing the writing on the wall, especially with our growth projection," Mrs. Saunders said.

"We are looking for this to be a really good year."

But while no longer neophytes, the couple say they still have a lot to learn about owning a drive-in.

"I would say we're maybe 80 percent there. We certainly know a lot now. But when we meet with other owners in this industry, we kind of shake the bushes a lot," Mrs. Saunders said.

"At conventions we ask questions -- a lot. Like, 'Why do you do that? We do it this way, but why do you do it that way?' The truth is, we don't know any better."

Review board warned that mentally ill man accused of murder was a risk

A review board began granting a man accused of murdering a gay activist this week conditional leaves from a psychiatric hospital in Halifax two months ago, even though the board considered the mentally ill man a "significant risk" to public safety.

But a legal expert in the mental health field says the warning in the disposition order from the Nova Scotia Review Board didn't mean Andre Denny was considered dangerous.

Denny was charged Wednesday with second-degree murder in the beating death of 49-year-old Raymond Taavel. The accused, diagnosed with schizophrenia when he was a teenager, is undergoing a 30-day psychiatric assessment.

Outside a court appearance for his client on Wednesday, defence lawyer Pavel Boubnov questioned the decision to temporarily release Denny from the East Coast Forensic Hospital on Monday night, saying his client is prone to violence when he is drinking and off his medication.

As he was being led into court, Denny, 32, shouted at reporters: "Drunken fight."

"Self-defence," he said. "What can I say?"

During a February hearing, the seven-member review board granted conditional leave for Denny, which included a one-hour pass on Monday night that started at 7:30 p.m. Police have said they began looking for Denny when he failed to return to the hospital.

The role of the board, which included two psychiatrists and four lawyers in February, is to decide on what level of community access should be granted to patients in the East Coast Forensic Hospital.

The hospital treats offenders from an adjacent provincial jail and patients who have been found unfit to stand trial, as well as others found not criminally responsible for their actions.

Despite the safety warning, law professor Archie Kaiser of Dalhousie University in Halifax says the term "significant risk" is a specific legal term that is easily misunderstood.

The term is used when the board wants to retain control over an individual as they are integrated back into society, he said. Without the designation, the law would have required the board to set Denny free with no conditions.

"The decision of the board says he is a significant threat because otherwise they would have to wash their hands of him," said Kaiser.

"When you see that phrase, it makes you wary about this decision. (But) the use of that terminology is necessary in the circumstances in order to retain jurisdiction over the accused."

A senior health official said Denny's profile at the forensic hospital wasn't all that different from other patients there.

"The board sees all of the patients here," said Dr. Scott Theriault, clinical director of the Department of Psychiatry at Capital Health.

"And all of the patients here, having been found not criminally responsible ... all have a mental illness and some proportion have substance abuse issues, and a good proportion ... lack insight into the mental illness."

In Denny's case, he was detained at the secure hospital in January after a court ruled he was not criminally responsible on a charge of assault causing bodily harm. The verdict means the accused is incapable of appreciating the nature of their actions or knowing that they were wrong.

The order says Denny was accused of drinking vodka and beating a woman who laughed at him for suggesting "the devil is in the basement" at his home in Membertou, N.S., in June 2011.

"He admitted to striking the victim in the face with an open hand," the disposition order says.

When he was admitted to the hospital in September, it says Denny was "agitated, demanding, argumentative, intrusive, loud disorganized and paranoid." The document notes that Denny is dependent on alcohol, marijuana, opiates and others substances.

With the adjustment of his medication, however, his condition improved and he was granted supervised outings in early February.

Still, the document says Denny continued to struggle.

One doctor at the facility noted that while Denny was aware of his diagnosis he was unable to distinguish reality from his delusions and did not connect his "bizarre experiences" with his illness.

"He also has very poor insight into the effects of substance use on his mental health and on the safety of others around him while he is using drugs and alcohol," the disposition order says.

At the hearing at the hospital on Feb. 20, one of the hospital's doctors warned that he was still unstable.

"Even though he has been here for a long time, he remains unwell and psychotic," the document says. "His behaviour can be quite intimidating at times. ... As recently as a few days ago, he was really delusional. He has poor insight into the adverse effects of drugs and alcohol."

Kaiser, who has a cross appointment at Dalhousie's psychiatry department, said these observations are not surprising, considering Denny's mental illness.

"It doesn't mean ... he would have been detained with no liberty and no prospects for rehabilitation," he said. "Yes, his thoughts may be disorganized. Yes, he may have some delusional thought. But that does not necessarily mean he would be a substantial risk to public safety."

Kaiser also pointed out that the disposition order makes it clear that Denny showed no signs of aggression prior to the hearing in February, and he was free of illicit drugs when subjected to random urine testing.

As well, the assault offence that led to Denny's detention is considered a "mid-level" offence, Kaiser added.

The report itself goes on to say that at least one doctor at the hospital concluded that Denny was expected to respond to drug treatment.