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#2 Re: Not So Free Chat » Columbine Paintball Recreation - What do you think of this? » 2003-07-26 16:31:36

The whole Hunting for Bambi thing was actually a hoax. I feel kind of bad for all those organizations who took it seriously, petitioned, wrote letters to the government, and broadcasted it nationwide only to make fools out of themselves. Except now they're trying to put the people in jail for embarrassing them, which I think is stupid. I knew this was fake as soon as I read how they refused to tell the government where they were playing.

<a href="http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/07/25/bambi.reut/index.html">Read about it.</a>

*Aww that didn't work. http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/West/07/25/b … index.html maybe that's how.

#3 Re: Intelligent Alien Life » Intelligent life in an anaerobic ecology? » 2003-07-25 11:22:14

What environments do you think intelligent life forms could live in besides a nitrogen/oxy mix? Would a nitrogen/methane (like Titan's, but warmer and with a higher g) ecology be possible? How about argon substituting nitrogen? A CO2/methane planet, although I have doubts about energy yield? I don't really have an education in this, does anyone with knowledge have an opinion?

#4 Re: Terraformation » Terraforming Venus - methods anyone? » 2003-07-25 11:03:28

So it's kind of like when the terraformers in Blue Mars wrapped magnetic rails along the lines of latitude and placed a giant magnet in orbit?

#5 Re: Intelligent Alien Life » Universal Life - Is all - complex life in the universe similar? » 2003-07-20 22:33:52

I used to know a ton about silicon based life and its weaknesses, but I forgot everything. However, I did make a story on phosphorus based creatures somewhere on my computer. I think the best base would be boron. No actually the best base would be carbon.

#6 Re: Terraformation » So what if we find out there's no nitrogen on Mars » 2003-07-20 22:04:30

As far as I know, there's no evidence that nitrogen is present. The atmosphere needs it, but so does the regolith. Actually the regolith needs a lot of things tongue That's the smiley for when the situation is hard to solve right? I hope it is. Anyway, Kim Stanley Robinson mentioned that argon could be substituted for nitrogen but would be very hard to separate out of the regolith. Next to impossible. But if there is no nitrogen, we might be forced to not terraform Mars at all smile

#7 Re: Not So Free Chat » Whats the best ps2 game - The ones you love the most » 2003-07-20 21:31:57

I was going to rent Xenosaga, but someone told me it's about people doing it with robots. lol Xenogears is $40 at the local video game store.

#8 Re: Human missions » What do you think of returning to the moon? » 2003-07-14 19:57:01

I've been reading a lot about it, and the June issue of Astronomy had a whole thing dedicated to returning to the moon. What are your thoughts about going back to the moon? I think we should set up some kind of presence on the moon now since Mars probably won't happen until ~2030. Also, the poles almost certainly have ice from all the asteroids, and I believe there is good reason to put an observatory on the far side.

#9 Re: Not So Free Chat » Columbine Paintball Recreation - What do you think of this? » 2003-07-14 18:39:49

I just looked at it again and on the bottom of the site it says:

Disclaimer: Columbine PaintBall is a web site for entertainment purposes only. Columbine Paintball is not an actual paintball facility, nor is there any monetary profits related to Columbine Paintball.  However, the ignorant mail people send us is pathetic. Apparently people will believe anything, such as believing that a plane actually crashed into the Pentagon on 9-11.

#10 Re: Not So Free Chat » Columbine Paintball Recreation - What do you think of this? » 2003-07-14 11:48:07

That's like making a September 11 video game. Maybe the people who made it want to honor the tragedy, but I don't think that is the right way.

#11 Re: Terraformation » When should we terraform » 2003-07-13 19:16:18

I'm about to read the Venus series by Pamela Sargent, I've heard a lot about how great they are and the author won the Nebula and Locus awards for Child of Venus so it has to be good. The second book is out of print but you could probably pick it up at the library. There is also quite a bit of material online about terraforming the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. Europa, Titan, Ganymede, and Callisto all look promising, or at least posssible.

I think that we should try to just live on Mars as it already is for the mean time. Maybe in the twenty second century we can start terraforming. If we do encounter life on Mars, it would be very rewarding to "raise" it. That is, restore the planet's atmosphere to some thing that the life could thrive on. It would be like humanity's kid! Haha actually it would be like the Uplift Saga, did anyone read that? The author envisions the universe as a place where one sentient race brings another race to sentience in a process called uplift.

I'm getting off track, but I advocate "areoforming" which was mentioned (very briefly) in KSR's books. Which is where we study how Mars was at the end of the Noachian Era when it had liquid water on its surface, and then base our entire areoforming on restoring Mars to how it was then.

#12 Re: Not So Free Chat » Whats the best ps2 game - The ones you love the most » 2003-07-13 18:40:48

Anyone remember DOOM? It took place on Phobos if I remember.

#13 Re: Terraformation » Terraforming Venus - methods anyone? » 2003-07-13 18:32:52

Ah dang it I didn't mean to discourage anyone from talking about terraforming Venus! I just meant we shouldn't actually follow through with anything for a long time.

#14 Re: Not So Free Chat » Anyone else looking forward to August 27th? » 2003-07-09 08:48:04

Actually, this is the closest Mars has ever been in all of recorded human history. A century ago it was really close too.

#15 Re: Not So Free Chat » Anyone else looking forward to August 27th? » 2003-07-07 22:17:16

I can't wait, I've been waking up at one in the morning to look at it and it just keeps getting bigger and bigger.

#16 Re: Youth Group / Educational Outreach » Degrees/subjects for future Martian colonists - What will I need to know? » 2003-07-07 22:11:02

I actually wanted to know this too so I looked at NASA's website. I'd recommend astronaut experience, which there's a whole list of requirements for. Getting one thousand hours of jet aircraft experience is tricky if you go the civillian route but it can be done. You should give the NASA site a look and design a system for yourself. Think What do I want to do on Mars? Like say you want to work on doming the craters on Phobos for living and determining whether Mars' moons are captured asteroids or ancient impact ejecta. For this I would study solar system and planetary geology, as well as architecture and ways to screen against radiation, and know a second language (probably Russian). You will obviously have to make your own plan, because this is mine and if you take it you will be destroying my dreams.

EDIT: Made it better.

#17 Re: Not So Free Chat » I bought a globe of Mars » 2003-07-07 21:45:05

Well it's always annoying to have to keep consulting the one page map when I'm reading the Kim Stanley Robinson books, which I read a long time ago but I'm re-reading them. Did you get the topographic globe or the one made of Viking orbiter photos? We got the second one.

#18 Re: Terraformation » Terraforming Venus - methods anyone? » 2003-07-07 21:41:41

Female?? I certainly hope not! No, I figured redplanet is overused, no one would think of calling Mars THE RUSTY PLANET. That was pretty clever. Rustyplanet was actually a name of a map I made for Quake III (it wasn't very good). As for me being on to something, I think that all the planets in the solar system could be colonized. Terraforming Mars is a much closer possibility right now, but some day Venus won't be so far off either. So far, the biggest problem is the 243 Terran day rotation, but we could fix that. Like Mars though, I think we should spend at the very least fifty years studying Venus in its primal state before we even start debating terraforming.

#19 Re: Not So Free Chat » More global warming (sigh) - Methane hydrates » 2003-07-07 12:48:43

I didn't read any of that, but if we have the technology to terraform Mars then we can terraform Earth too.

#20 Re: Not So Free Chat » I bought a globe of Mars » 2003-07-07 12:42:05

It was cool, it should be here in a few days.

#21 Re: Terraformation » Terraforming Venus - methods anyone? » 2003-07-07 12:12:15

<a href="http://www.astronexus.com/misc/3dgraphics/venusterra.html">Terraformed Venus Scene</a>

What do you think it would take to do? I definitely think there will be enough of a case to at least put an orbital station around Venus, but terraforming it seems kind of crazy right now. I guess if we scrubbed all of that CO2 out of the 90 000 millibars of atmosphere we would end up with what, like 60 000 millibars of pure oxygen? That might satisfy our life support needs for the next ten thousand years haha.

We would have to have some way of accelerating the rotation. How were the planets originally set spinning during the solar system's formation? It seems odd that Venus spins west to east but I imagine there will exist some technology in the future that would accelerate it. Maybe we could use magnetics or something.

Whatever we do, the first step in any Cytherean terraforming scheme I've seen is to build a giant shade around the day side of the planet. We could freeze the atmosphere to the surface and then get to work, though it would be kind of dark down there.

I don't know, this was just a thought I've been having lately and right now I don't even think it would be possible. I just thought it would be a good distraction to keep the millions of terraformers off Mars and somewhere else where there isn't a five billion year old record. But who knows, I'm sure Venus has its own interesting things to study.

EDIT: Removed the smilies.

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