Astronomer Dr. Jill Tarter, a founder of the SETI Institute, is one of the leading researchers into the question of whether there is intelligent life in the universe beyond the Earth. Dr. Tarter’s search for extraterrestrial signals is often taken as the role model for Jodi Foster’s portrayal in the film “Contact”. After 25 years of study, Dr. Tarter is convinced that we are not alone in part because life has now been shown to exist in even the most extreme and supposedly uninhabitable environments. Dr. Tarter has just been named one of “The Most Influential Women in Technology” by Fast Company magazine. This week, she is set to receive the coveted TED (Technology Entertainment & Design) Prize, which will grant her “One Wish to Change the World.” Tarter’s wish will be unveiled at TED2009 on February 5, 2009.

To hear Dr. Tarter’s fascinating discussion, please click above.

Tarter is Director of the Institute’s Center for SETI Research, and also holder of the Bernard M. Oliver Chair for SETI. She is one of the few researchers to have devoted her career to hunting for signs of sentient beings elsewhere, and there are few aspects of this field that have not been affected by her work.

Tarter was the lead for Project Phoenix, a decade-long SETI scrutiny of about 750 nearby star systems, using telescopes in Australia, West Virginia and Puerto Rico. While no clearly extraterrestrial signal was found, this was the most comprehensive targeted search for artificially generated cosmic signals ever undertaken. Now Tarter heads up the Institute’s efforts, in partnership with the University of California, Berkeley, to build and operate the Allen Telescope Array, a massive new instrument that will eventually comprise 350 antennas, each 6 meters in diameter. This telescope will be able to enormously increase the speed, and the spectral search range, of the Institute’s hunt for signals. A subset of the full array began operations in the Fall of 2007.

The SETI Institute
The SETI Institute is a unique team of world class scientists dedicated to understanding the origin and nature of life on Earth and its possible existence throughout the universe. The Institute accomplishes this via:

Research - Fundamental and significant investigations into the workings of life, and how and where it might have arisen.

Exploration - Examining life in its most extreme forms and locations on Earth, exploring our solar system for evidence of microbial life, and searching the cosmos for indications of distant life, especially intelligent life.

Education - Education and Outreach programs inviting students to participate in our search for life in the universe, and sharing the wonder of our science with the public.

The SETI Institute is bringing together some of the best and brightest minds in science today to unlock the mysteries of the cosmos.

What do Steve Jobs, Jerry Yang, Larry Oracle, Steve Wozniak, and Regis McKenna have in common? They have put Silicon Valley on the map as the greatest innovation destination in the world of technology. The company that has supported their growing demands for the best travel experience ever is Edwards Luggage, one of the most popular luggage chains in the nation. They have stores in San Francisco, San Mateo, Palo Alto and Walnut Creek.

Edwards is a family business that works day and night to bring their customers all of the cutting edge merchandise that makes traveling easier, more productive and very rewarding. Click above to hear sisters-in-law, Laura Reininger and Randy MacKenzie talk about the travel requirements in this demanding territory and what products are hot for the holiday season.

Gwin Hammond of Mori Luggage and Gifts

Rich or poor, people are still traveling. Just ask Gwin Hammond, Marketing Manager of Mori Luggage and Gifts headquartered in Atlanta. Mori is one of the premiere independent luggage retailers in the nation with stores in Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and Florida. The chain opened its 29^th store in Tampa this past weekend.

Click above to hear Gwin tell you how packed the airports are in her territories and what is hot for the holiday season. Customers have been picking up items like stainless steel scan proof wallets and the Briggs & Riley SpeedThru™ laptop sleeve that doesn’t require passengers to remove their computers while on the X-ray conveyor belt. Gwin explains Mori has many unique new safety concepts for the holiday season and most of them are very affordable.

Lying on the Beach really struck it big this week by interviewing Todd Greene, Founder/Inventor/President of HeadBlade, Inc., the very successful company that took the head shaving niche and created a lifestyle brand for the millions of people who shave their head. Todd invented the original HeadBlade and turned that invention into a multi million dollar business. You can read all about him in Steve Greenberg’s Gadget Nation, the top selling coffee table book that profiles many of America’s most unique and prosperous inventors. Click here to learn what it really takes to make an invention work. It is just not the idea. It is the determination, ambition, common sense and strategic decisions that make the difference. The original HeadBlade was listed among the “Top Ten Designs in 2000” by Time Magazine and is now in the permanent collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Visit www.HeadBlade.com to learn more about the entire company and their ever growing list of products that make them an American sensation.

Chris Boneau

Please Click Here to view the Company Profile.

Lying on the Beach is bringing you a very special Broadway treat. Click above to hear a podcast interview with one of Broadway’s most prominent leaders, Chris Boneau, Founder/Owner of Boneau/Bryan-Brown, the largest theatrical and Broadway Show PR agency. If anyone knows what is going on on Broadway, it is Chris. You name the show, and he and his partner, Adrian Bryan-Brown, are involved in it. Just look at the company’s profile below. Chris talks about how the economy has impacted Broadway, the reaction from investors, the Broadway audience, what’s hot and what will be hot next year.

This exclusive collection is the first ever to feature Johnny’s distinctive and heralded voice narrating the New King James Version New Testament on DVD and 14 of the singer’s most beloved Gospel hits.

The DVD/CD can be purchased exclusively at www.johnnycashstore.com or www.johnnycashbible.com until October 28th. After that, wherever DVD’s are sold.

Johnny Cash - Chapter & Verse DVD Cover

Steve has become a media darling. Just last Saturday, he appeared on the CBS Early Show

To order his book, click on the links below:

Barnes & Noble

Amazon.com

To see Steve pretend he is Adam Sandler click here:
Gadget Nation THE MUSIC VIDEO

Gadget Nation Book Cover

Steve on CBS Early Show

Steve on CBS Early Show

Lying on The Beach gets the real scoop from Paul Schatzkin the expert and author of “The Boy Who Invented Television” about the life of Philo T. Farnsworth. In an effort to sort fact from fiction, Schatzkin has posted a website that details scene-by-scene the ways the play, written by the Emmy-Award winning creator of The West Wing and writer of Charlie Wilson’s War, both distorts and is faithful to the real story of the invention of TV. It is a fascinating tale about creating entertainment, rewriting history, and setting the record straight. Schatzkin’s next book is “Defying Gravity, The Parallel Universe of P Townsend Brown,” on the mysterious and elusive inventor of the Ionic breeze air purifier. For more information, visit: thefarnsworthinvention.com and www.ptbrown.com.

Paul Schatzkin

“The Boy Who Invented Television”

Neptune Memorial Reef

Listen to find out how the TV networks responded to our scoop yesterday about Rosie scoring her own TV talk show. We got the phone calls and the questions on how well we think Rosie will do. All of a sudden our vote and counsel matters. It takes mixing a journalist with a publicist to get the final analysis. Rosie will probably talk about us tonight from the stage unless her handlers get the “upper hand.”

Rosie O’Donnell