Any wise person on Earth would stand to reason that if aliens should chance upon a contraption of ours flying through deep space, they would be quick to wonder, perhaps before all else: “What kind of music do these things called ‘humans’ listen to?” It would be a matter of simple curiosity and intergalactic importance, maybe even with the potential – who knows? – to bond us across extra dimensions or warring worlds.
It is also a subject that the American space programme took up, with at least some degree of seriousness, in the 1970s. Back then, to go along with plans for launching a pair of probes as part of the Voyager programme, Nasa embarked on a project to create a Golden Record. The result would be just that: a shiny record, like so many others on more boring and ordinary black vinyl, coated in gold and pressed with sounds from the planet Earth into its grooves. It would be attached to a probe and shot up into space, waiting for a chance to strike up a tune in the whirring cosmic jukebox.
For aliens, the Golden Record came with elaborate instructions on how to play it back, including diagrams and explanations in pictorial code, meant to communicate with extraterrestrial beings whose English might not be so advanced. It was treated for durability through intense stretches of travel between hot and cold, and it had a special cartridge, with a needle that could be placed directly on the surface to encircle the signals for sounds. It was a real, workable record – decidedly more than a lark. Maybe the chances of it getting played were slim, but why not make it up to the task if the occasion should ever come?
The task of representing the entire human race and the whole of planet Earth was no small responsibility, and it fell upon the imaginative shoulders of science-fiction writer and noted ponderer of the stars Carl Sagan. He, along with a group brought together for the project, selected 115 images from our picturesque planet and, more evocatively, an assemblage of telltale sounds. Some were naturally occurring, such as wind, rain, surf, crickets, frogs and a chimpanzee. Others were mechanical, such as a tractor, bus, car, riveter and train. Many more were short bits of spoken word, including greetings from human beings in 55 different languages, from the nearly 6,000-year-old Sumerian tongue known as Akkadian to Arabic, Cantonese, Farsi, Swedish, Vietnamese and more.
Having worked through all that, the curious alien could turn his or her (or its?) attention to the real bounty of the Golden Record: the music. About the entire project, Sagan once declared: "The spacecraft will be encountered and the record played only if there are advanced spacefaring civilisations in interstellar space. But the launching of this bottle into the cosmic ocean says something very hopeful about life on this planet."
Hopeful – and beautiful too, then as well as now. This summer, decades after the Voyager probes were sent aloft in 1977, Nasa uploaded some of the Golden Record's aural contents to the music-sharing website, SoundCloud, where they can be heard by any earthbound being with an internet connection. The sanctioned release focuses on the weird noisy parts, such as the track labelled Life Signs, Pulsar, which opens the whole thing: it's skittery and strange, a bit of hapless static with some creaky, crunching sounds. After that comes Kiss, Mother and Child, with the cry of a baby, followed by a parent cooing: "Oh come on now". Next up are engine sounds, a dopplerised locomotive, a horse and cart, Morse code and ships.
Many avant-garde sound artists while away countless hours in unconvincing attempts to evoke so much with so little. But again, the music is where the real charms are. Hearable in the official Nasa batch is an eerie, abstract realisation of the age-old notion of the Music of the Spheres, a projected idea of what the universe sounds like with planets spinning at different intervals like so many keys in an enormous cosmic instrument.
The idea goes back to the mystical Greek mathematician Pythagoras and later Johannes Kepler, a 17th-century astronomer who theorised ambitiously about planetary motion. The manifestation of it on the Golden Record was realised by Laurie Spiegel, a pioneering computer musician who just a few years later released a fantastic and still-startlingly advanced album called The Expanding Universe. How's that for serendipity?
For the most resoundingly musical parts, the enterprising listener can venture online to hear unsanctioned uploads (one presumes that licensing would be a cross to bear, even for Nasa) of the full Golden Record playing on for more than five hours. The tracklist is worth the journey, beginning with Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No 2 and swerving, thrillingly, from there to Javanese gamelan music. Worldly sounds abound, with Senegalese percussion leading into a pygmy children's tune, songs by Australian Aborigines and a Mexican mariachi band. There's also Chuck Berry's Johnny B Goode, a blazing example of early electric rock 'n' roll and a song that would, by chance, feature in the 1985 sci-fi classic film Back to the Future.
It's a wondrous and humbling experience to listen to all these sounds of the past in a future so far progressed in time yet in many ways regressed and remote. With prospects for space travel hindered – Nasa still does mind-boggling work but, in terms of funding and scope, is a shell of its former self – it's difficult to think of a programme so ambitiously off-the-charts as Voyager. (Others exist, and actively, but the spirit behind them has surely changed.)
But the prospect of travelling forward and outward through sound remains an option, and the Golden Record remains a good means to do so. After more of its music plays – through Mozart and Peruvian pan pipes, past Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring and jazz by Louis Armstrong – there's a spooky old blues tune by Blind Willie Johnson, with the priceless title Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground. It was recorded in 1927, a half-century before Voyager's time, and it features what sounds like a wizened old soul in a spell of wordless moaning.
That’s a kind of human any alien can understand.
Andy Battaglia is a New York-based writer whose work appears in The Wall Street Journal, Frieze, The Paris Review and more.
The biog
Name: James Mullan
Nationality: Irish
Family: Wife, Pom; and daughters Kate, 18, and Ciara, 13, who attend Jumeirah English Speaking School (JESS)
Favourite book or author: “That’s a really difficult question. I’m a big fan of Donna Tartt, The Secret History. I’d recommend that, go and have a read of that.”
Dream: “It would be to continue to have fun and to work with really interesting people, which I have been very fortunate to do for a lot of my life. I just enjoy working with very smart, fun people.”
What is 'Soft Power'?
Soft power was first mentioned in 1990 by former US Defence Secretary Joseph Nye.
He believed that there were alternative ways of cultivating support from other countries, instead of achieving goals using military strength.
Soft power is, at its root, the ability to convince other states to do what you want without force.
This is traditionally achieved by proving that you share morals and values.
In numbers: China in Dubai
The number of Chinese people living in Dubai: An estimated 200,000
Number of Chinese people in International City: Almost 50,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2018/19: 120,000
Daily visitors to Dragon Mart in 2010: 20,000
Percentage increase in visitors in eight years: 500 per cent
What is double taxation?
- Americans living abroad file taxes with the Internal Revenue Service, which can cost hundreds of dollars to complete even though about 60 per cent do not owe taxes, according to the Taxpayer Advocate Service
- Those obligations apply to millions of Americans residing overseas – estimates range from 3.9 million to 5.5 million – including so-called "accidental Americans" who are unaware they hold dual citizenship
- The double taxation policy has been a contentious issue for decades, with many overseas Americans feeling that it punishes them for pursuing opportunities abroad
- Unlike most countries, the US follows a citizenship-based taxation system, meaning that Americans must file taxes annually, even if they do not earn any income in the US.
Results
5pm: UAE Martyrs Cup (TB) Conditions Dh90,000 2,200m
Winner: Mudaarab, Jim Crowley (jockey), Erwan Charpy (trainer).
5.30pm: Wathba Stallions Cup (PA) Handicap Dh70,000 1,400m
Winner: Jawal Al Reef, Richard Mullen, Hassan Al Hammadi.
6pm: UAE Matyrs Trophy (PA) Maiden Dh80,000 1,600m
Winner: Salima Al Reef, Jesus Rosales, Abdallah Al Hammadi.
6.30pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak (IFAHR) Apprentice Championship (PA) Prestige Dh100,000 1,600m
Winner: Bainoona, Ricardo Iacopini, Eric Lemartinel.
7pm: Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak (IFAHR) Ladies World Championship (PA) Prestige Dh125,000 1,600m
Winner: Assyad, Victoria Larsen, Eric Lemartinel.
8pm: Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan Jewel Crown (PA) Group 1 Dh5,000,000 1,600m
Winner: Mashhur Al Khalediah, Jean-Bernard Eyquem, Phillip Collington.
The specs
Price, base: Dh228,000 / Dh232,000 (est)
Engine: 5.7-litre Hemi V8
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 395hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 552Nm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.5L / 100km
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The specs: 2017 Dodge Ram 1500 Laramie Longhorn
Price, base / as tested: Dhxxx
Engine: 5.7L V8
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Power: 395hp @ 5,600rpm
Torque: 556Nm @ 3,950rpm
Fuel economy, combined: 12.7L / 100km
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A Bad Moms Christmas
Dir: John Lucas and Scott Moore
Starring: Mila Kunis, Kathryn Hahn, Kristen Bell, Susan Sarandon, Christine Baranski, Cheryl Hines
Two stars
Day 1 results:
Open Men (bonus points in brackets)
New Zealand 125 (1) beat UAE 111 (3)
India 111 (4) beat Singapore 75 (0)
South Africa 66 (2) beat Sri Lanka 57 (2)
Australia 126 (4) beat Malaysia -16 (0)
Open Women
New Zealand 64 (2) beat South Africa 57 (2)
England 69 (3) beat UAE 63 (1)
Australia 124 (4) beat UAE 23 (0)
New Zealand 74 (2) beat England 55 (2)
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Libya's Gold
UN Panel of Experts found regime secretly sold a fifth of the country's gold reserves.
The panel’s 2017 report followed a trail to West Africa where large sums of cash and gold were hidden by Abdullah Al Senussi, Qaddafi’s former intelligence chief, in 2011.
Cases filled with cash that was said to amount to $560m in 100 dollar notes, that was kept by a group of Libyans in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
A second stash was said to have been held in Accra, Ghana, inside boxes at the local offices of an international human rights organisation based in France.
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
From Conquest to Deportation
Jeronim Perovic, Hurst
More from Rashmee Roshan Lall
Famous left-handers
- Marie Curie
- Jimi Hendrix
- Leonardo Di Vinci
- David Bowie
- Paul McCartney
- Albert Einstein
- Jack the Ripper
- Barack Obama
- Helen Keller
- Joan of Arc
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Islamic%20Architecture%3A%20A%20World%20History
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Engine: 80 kWh four-wheel-drive
Transmission: eight-speed automatic
Power: 402bhp
Torque: 760Nm
Price: From Dh280,000
The specs
Engine: Four electric motors, one at each wheel
Power: 579hp
Torque: 859Nm
Transmission: Single-speed automatic
Price: From Dh825,900
On sale: Now
The Sand Castle
Director: Matty Brown
Stars: Nadine Labaki, Ziad Bakri, Zain Al Rafeea, Riman Al Rafeea
Rating: 2.5/5
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
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A timeline of the Historical Dictionary of the Arabic Language
- 2018: Formal work begins
- November 2021: First 17 volumes launched
- November 2022: Additional 19 volumes released
- October 2023: Another 31 volumes released
- November 2024: All 127 volumes completed
Hili 2: Unesco World Heritage site
The site is part of the Hili archaeological park in Al Ain. Excavations there have proved the existence of the earliest known agricultural communities in modern-day UAE. Some date to the Bronze Age but Hili 2 is an Iron Age site. The Iron Age witnessed the development of the falaj, a network of channels that funnelled water from natural springs in the area. Wells allowed settlements to be established, but falaj meant they could grow and thrive. Unesco, the UN's cultural body, awarded Al Ain's sites - including Hili 2 - world heritage status in 2011. Now the most recent dig at the site has revealed even more about the skilled people that lived and worked there.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
City's slump
L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
D - Feyenoord, 3-3
L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1
