Gaia Symphony International Version

[Michael Badzik]

Markus Nornes seemed to be trashing one of my boyhood heroes when he 
wrote:

>The film featured interviews with four people, the Dalai lama, "ocean
>adventurer" Jaques Mayol, "Prof." Frank Drake ...

Why did you put "Prof." in quotes? He is, after all, currently Professor 
Emeritus at the University of California at Santa Cruz.

>Frank Drake is an astronomer, formerly of Cornell and presently the
>director of the SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute.

>(It would be interesting to find out why he left Cornell.) He's jumped on 
>various NASA projects, which made all his rhetoric on ETs grinding on 
>this particular US taxpayer.

Then you will be pleased to know that the SETI project had its NASA 
funding cancelled some years ago. It currently subsists on private and 
corporate donations. Drake is a radio astronomer of some renown, so it 
would not be surprising if he still did some work for NASA. Or do you 
know something here that I don't?

Michael Badzik
mike at vena.com