I was looking to see if I could find any of my old 'super secret' doodles, and I managed to locate one. Unfortunately, the method of encryption I used is largely based on the individuals memory of what the original words were, rather than a process that can be reversed. This makes decryption rather tricky for anyone other than the writer since there is no one-to-one correlation between the letter and the word it represents. It also makes it nearly impossible to decipher the designs that one made when they were ~10 years old and forgot about for nearly 20 years.
The arrangement of the numbers seems to exclude an alphanumeric encryption, greatly simplifying any possible encryption. Also, this more closely resembles a modern day teens phone text, or possibly a memory aid, similar to what I have seen some students do in preparation for a test. It would seem more likely to me that this is just an abbreviation or condensation, like the first letter of each word. For instance, the first sentence of this post would read 'TAOTNSEAAEGSAPE', or something similar. When I was younger, I remember making 'super secret' doodles that were annotated in a similar fashion, in the most complex encryption I could devise on my own, to prevent others from reading them. There would likely appear to be structure in the message, since language has rules and guidelines that govern which words make sense in what order, that gives the semblance of a simple encryption. Anyway, that is my guess with my limited knowledge of encryption... LOLGLGTGTTYL.
It looks nice, but it didn't send a shiver down my spine like the first two did. Not to mention it is a painful reminder that all my gear could again be obsolete. I think I will say no more, least I portray myself as a bitter husk of a human that was beaten up by a bunch of insolent adolescents last time the level cap was raised...
Ahem. As I was saying... Shiny is good, shivering is excellent.
Only if they stole the idea to make the mind reading machine by using the mind reading machine to read my mind and thus steal the mind reading machine plans. The idea could have been taken from another source such as a blueprint, or I could be making a claim of patent infringement in order to obtain some of the previously mentioned profit...
I didn't break it! Someone else read my mind and used my account to write that! Those mind reading fiends will pay for... wait, it was modded funny? NM, it was me all along...
Lies! They are all wrong! Now, what you need to do is immediately send the contaminated laptop to me and I will (selflessly and for the good of all humanity) dispose of it for free.*
* Offer valid for 5 min after posting, a nominal $100 fee must be paid after the initial offer expires to cover handling and disposing of biological waste.
** Additional charges may apply for residents of states not beginning with the letters 'Q','Z', or 'X'.
I notice that if the wall behind my screen is too dark my eyes become strained more easily. During daylight I don't have much trouble, but after dark or on cloudy days the normal light fixture (above and behind me) isn't enough or causes glare. Pointing my desk lamp at the wall behind my screen helps. An additional benefit is that, at this very moment, the moth that would be fluttering at my screen is now meeting a crispy demise...
I know some of these have been mentioned already but here are a few tings that come to my mind.
1: Lunar space elevator/slingshot to launch payloads at high velocity.
2: Giant telescopes. No atmosphere, low gravity, and no jarring lunch into space makes huge telescopes easier.
3: Radio spectrum analysis on the far side of the moon would block spectrum pollution from earth.
4: Resources. Titanium, Helium-3, and others.
5: Laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory (LIGO on the moon). Since there is less seismic activity on the moon the detection of gravity waves would be easier.
6: Asteroid/comet detection. An array of observation stations could scan the sky to track and catalog potentially dangerous space objects.
7: Earth defense from asteroid strikes. A laser array (or a mass impactor) could slightly deflect a asteroid on a collision path with earth.
8: A base of operations for manned interplanetary missions since it is easier to launch a craft from its reduced gravity field.
9: Earth observatory. It would be a stable, long term point from which scientists could monitor many aspects of earth.
10: Fun. Who wouldn't love a rock climbing wall, swimming pool, or pedal powered flying machine on the moon.
11: Profit. I'm sure there would be a monetary incentive, either in the resources or tourist like activity, for people to go to the moon.
12: (Insert next hundred ideas here...)
Indeed there is no shortage of ideas or reasons to go, the article seems more focused on the potential problems of land management/rights/claims. i.e. Who gets to make the rules for the moon.
A deck of cards could be used for many different games, but I have a feeling they would be hard to control in micro gravity. The astronauts would probably be playing '52 card pickup' on a regular basis... Perhaps small magnetic strips in the cards could be enough to hold them in a stack or onto a slightly magnetized surface. However, I suspect a rogue magnet roaming the space station could prove more of a problem than several normal cards running loose. On second thought, forget the magnets, just use a hair tie or scrunchy to tie up cards not in play.
Thinking about it a little more I would suggest using a light weight Nerf/Velcro ball for space games. The reduced mass to prevent damage/injuries and to reduce launch cost and the Velcro to help with storage and prevent strays (with all the Velcro they have there already it shouldn't be long before a stray ball gets captured).
Some of the games with the ball that I can think of could be:
Dodge Ball.
'Darts'; using a Velcro target board.
Hide and Seek/Hide the Thimble.
Marco-Polo; blindfold a crew member and have them try to tag others with the ball.
Pranks; stick one to a fellow astronaut or in their sleeping bag.
Interceptor; like a game of darts but with a moving target.
Air Soccer/Football; using an air current to guide the ball to the goal (no touching it!).
Tennis; should be fun trying to guide the ball to it's target with a paddle.
Miniature Golf; get the ball to a target in as few 'strokes' as possible (a stroke would be having it stick to an obstacle, such as another crew member).
Zen-Ball; see how long you can make the ball float without touching anything.
I can just imagine the fun a person could have with a SuperBall in a zero/low gravity environment. When I was younger my brothers and I would throw them around in the confined space of our hallway, usually resulting in an involuntary game of dodge ball... Hmm, that may not be such a good space game after all. I remember that it got more painful as time went on while we tried to extract revenge on one another for prior erroneous (or intended) throws. And the dodging was rather ineffective too, as the speed increased the probability of dodging an opponents (or your own) ball declined rapidly. The games usually only lasted a few minutes (the amount of time for a game ending injury or game ending mother).
Slashdot Mirror
I was looking to see if I could find any of my old 'super secret' doodles, and I managed to locate one. Unfortunately, the method of encryption I used is largely based on the individuals memory of what the original words were, rather than a process that can be reversed. This makes decryption rather tricky for anyone other than the writer since there is no one-to-one correlation between the letter and the word it represents. It also makes it nearly impossible to decipher the designs that one made when they were ~10 years old and forgot about for nearly 20 years.
The arrangement of the numbers seems to exclude an alphanumeric encryption, greatly simplifying any possible encryption. Also, this more closely resembles a modern day teens phone text, or possibly a memory aid, similar to what I have seen some students do in preparation for a test. It would seem more likely to me that this is just an abbreviation or condensation, like the first letter of each word. For instance, the first sentence of this post would read 'TAOTNSEAAEGSAPE', or something similar. When I was younger, I remember making 'super secret' doodles that were annotated in a similar fashion, in the most complex encryption I could devise on my own, to prevent others from reading them. There would likely appear to be structure in the message, since language has rules and guidelines that govern which words make sense in what order, that gives the semblance of a simple encryption. Anyway, that is my guess with my limited knowledge of encryption... LOLGLGTGTTYL.
It looks nice, but it didn't send a shiver down my spine like the first two did. Not to mention it is a painful reminder that all my gear could again be obsolete. I think I will say no more, least I portray myself as a bitter husk of a human that was beaten up by a bunch of insolent adolescents last time the level cap was raised...
Ahem. As I was saying... Shiny is good, shivering is excellent.
Only if they stole the idea to make the mind reading machine by using the mind reading machine to read my mind and thus steal the mind reading machine plans. The idea could have been taken from another source such as a blueprint, or I could be making a claim of patent infringement in order to obtain some of the previously mentioned profit...
*gasp* They have Mind RW ability!?! Nooooo!!!!
...I welcome our tin foil hat/satellite dish wearing overlords...
I didn't break it! Someone else read my mind and used my account to write that! Those mind reading fiends will pay for... wait, it was modded funny? NM, it was me all along...
Hey, that was my idea!
Lies! They are all wrong! Now, what you need to do is immediately send the contaminated laptop to me and I will (selflessly and for the good of all humanity) dispose of it for free.*
* Offer valid for 5 min after posting, a nominal $100 fee must be paid after the initial offer expires to cover handling and disposing of biological waste.
** Additional charges may apply for residents of states not beginning with the letters 'Q','Z', or 'X'.
Step 4:?
Step 5:Profit!
umm, MT...
I notice that if the wall behind my screen is too dark my eyes become strained more easily. During daylight I don't have much trouble, but after dark or on cloudy days the normal light fixture (above and behind me) isn't enough or causes glare. Pointing my desk lamp at the wall behind my screen helps. An additional benefit is that, at this very moment, the moth that would be fluttering at my screen is now meeting a crispy demise...
I know some of these have been mentioned already but here are a few tings that come to my mind.
1: Lunar space elevator/slingshot to launch payloads at high velocity.
2: Giant telescopes. No atmosphere, low gravity, and no jarring lunch into space makes huge telescopes easier.
3: Radio spectrum analysis on the far side of the moon would block spectrum pollution from earth.
4: Resources. Titanium, Helium-3, and others.
5: Laser interferometer gravitational wave observatory (LIGO on the moon). Since there is less seismic activity on the moon the detection of gravity waves would be easier.
6: Asteroid/comet detection. An array of observation stations could scan the sky to track and catalog potentially dangerous space objects.
7: Earth defense from asteroid strikes. A laser array (or a mass impactor) could slightly deflect a asteroid on a collision path with earth.
8: A base of operations for manned interplanetary missions since it is easier to launch a craft from its reduced gravity field.
9: Earth observatory. It would be a stable, long term point from which scientists could monitor many aspects of earth.
10: Fun. Who wouldn't love a rock climbing wall, swimming pool, or pedal powered flying machine on the moon.
11: Profit. I'm sure there would be a monetary incentive, either in the resources or tourist like activity, for people to go to the moon.
12: (Insert next hundred ideas here...)
Indeed there is no shortage of ideas or reasons to go, the article seems more focused on the potential problems of land management/rights/claims. i.e. Who gets to make the rules for the moon.
Wall Ball, i.e. 2D dodge ball. At my high school we used basketballs...
I would think a game of high-G darts could end up very similar to a game of lawn darts, only on a smaller scale, due to a higher trajectory arc.
/shudders
Hmm, now that has me thinking about high-G lawn darts...
A deck of cards could be used for many different games, but I have a feeling they would be hard to control in micro gravity. The astronauts would probably be playing '52 card pickup' on a regular basis... Perhaps small magnetic strips in the cards could be enough to hold them in a stack or onto a slightly magnetized surface. However, I suspect a rogue magnet roaming the space station could prove more of a problem than several normal cards running loose. On second thought, forget the magnets, just use a hair tie or scrunchy to tie up cards not in play.
Thinking about it a little more I would suggest using a light weight Nerf/Velcro ball for space games. The reduced mass to prevent damage/injuries and to reduce launch cost and the Velcro to help with storage and prevent strays (with all the Velcro they have there already it shouldn't be long before a stray ball gets captured).
Some of the games with the ball that I can think of could be:
Dodge Ball.
'Darts'; using a Velcro target board.
Hide and Seek/Hide the Thimble.
Marco-Polo; blindfold a crew member and have them try to tag others with the ball.
Pranks; stick one to a fellow astronaut or in their sleeping bag.
Interceptor; like a game of darts but with a moving target.
Air Soccer/Football; using an air current to guide the ball to the goal (no touching it!).
Tennis; should be fun trying to guide the ball to it's target with a paddle.
Miniature Golf; get the ball to a target in as few 'strokes' as possible (a stroke would be having it stick to an obstacle, such as another crew member).
Zen-Ball; see how long you can make the ball float without touching anything.
I can just imagine the fun a person could have with a SuperBall in a zero/low gravity environment. When I was younger my brothers and I would throw them around in the confined space of our hallway, usually resulting in an involuntary game of dodge ball... Hmm, that may not be such a good space game after all. I remember that it got more painful as time went on while we tried to extract revenge on one another for prior erroneous (or intended) throws. And the dodging was rather ineffective too, as the speed increased the probability of dodging an opponents (or your own) ball declined rapidly. The games usually only lasted a few minutes (the amount of time for a game ending injury or game ending mother).