I'm going to go ahead and assume you are an American, and make the further assumption that you have never actually left your country.
Freedom of Speech is very much an American concept, one that the rest of the world simply does not have.
In Australia, for example, the current is in the position to mandate what does and does not constitute "acceptable" speech, and is doing so with abandon.
Their main opponent is not HM Opposition as you might expect, but News Ltd. When the Government's main opponent on freedom of speech issues is Rupert Murdoch, you know things are bad.
In Australia, unfortunately, we do not have anything like your First Amendment speech protections. I wish it were otherwise, but here the government is able to restrict speech as it sees fit. Most Australian governments have left this wisely alone, but the current government seems to view the electorate as an anthill and they are poking us with stick after stick, just to see what happens.
The tactic of having a member of the government express his "private" views publicly in this way is their established method of testing the water on things they would like to introduce. The Health Minister made similar noises a while back about banning abortion. He was raised by monks.
NASA have already lost out any chance of getting money from private space use- the Russians and Europeans have the satellite launch business sewn up. If the US is to have any chance of competing here, it will be through private interests.
If NASA turns over the commercially viable uses of space to private industry, then the Agency can concentrate on the kind of exploration missions that it should be doing - the private sector would never mount a Voyager or Pathfinder mission, for example. I think more missions along those lines are where NASA's future should lie.
NASA are just standing in the way of US commercial space interests, and they should get out of the way, concentrate on their strengths, and stop trying to be "all things space" which is simply not a realistic goal.
Okay, apologies for the smart-ass thing, but its a common misconception that Mars cannot hold an atmosphere due to its lack of magnetic field. This is a patently false premise, and is repeated time after time.
Likewise, Mars' smaller size compared with Venus does not account for its inability to hold a thick atmosphere - witness Titan, also with no magnetic field. Though I should also point out that Titan's orbit brings it inside Saturn's magnetic field for some of the time.
A reasonable person can conclude that as long as there is an active process replacing what is lost, a body without a magnetic field can hold on to its atmosphere just fine.
I suspect that the fact that Mars' atmosphere becomes 1,000 times thicker if you wind back the clock is just a coincidence. Looking again at Venus and Titan, it can be seem that volcanism (past or present) is an important part of atmospheric renewal. Mars too had significant volcanism in its past.
The other thing to note about Mars compared to Earth is that it is tectonically intert. So high ground remains high, low ground remains low (more or less).
Under such conditions there could be large olivine depoists in areas that never saw water because they were away from any water deposits (no idea on theories of past Martian rainfall patterns)
Chances are there were reasonably long-lived large lake networks in Mars, but yeah, that could have been 3 billion years ago now.
Also, since Mars has no magnetic field to speak of, any bulked-up the atmosphere would be lost even faster. Forget terraforming.
Every time Mars is discussed some half-informed person has to come out with this. It is a false premise. Utterly false. Just because a body has no magnetic field does not mean it cannot sustain an atmosphere long-term. Just so long as there is an active process replacing whatever is lost, you'll be fine.
The proof? I'll say this in loud, slow english
VENUS. HAS. NO. MAGNETIC. FIELD.
Re:How About Best Geek History Books...
on
Top 20 Geek Novels
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· Score: 1
When I think of geek history books, I don't think about biographies of people still with us today.
"A Short History of Nearly Everything" takes us from the development of scientific disciplines in Victorian times through to today.
"Longitude" talks about how geeks tried solutions both mechanical and astronomical to solve what in their day was seen as an insoluble problem.
"Quicksliver" is the start of a series that covers the late 17th and early 18th centuries and is kind of an 'origins' story for geeks, and much else.
These books are by Bill Bryson, Dava Sobel, and Neal Stephenson respectively and I would recommend them all.
20 Geek Books ... ok then
on
Top 20 Geek Novels
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· Score: 2, Interesting
I'm going to jump right in and put my list down before looking at anyone else's comments - I assume I won't be alone here.
1. Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson (geeks in time! not to be missed)
2. Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson (it's good, and frankly, a samurai sword wielding computer hacker named Hiro Protagonist is what many here aspire to be)
3. Ilium by Dan Simmons (good stuff. Greek gods and that... in space!!! and time)
4. The Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan (ooo, non-fiction. something like this needs to act as our Bible if we are to seriously combat the pseudo-religious waffle that is stifling science and learning these days
5. Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons (the graphic novel that started it all)
6. The Forever War by Joe Haldeman (probably the best example of welding the science into science fiction and still telling a great story)
7. A Game of Thrones by George RR Martin. (unlike most fantasy novels, this one is actaully good. Better than that, it's great!)
8. Longitude by Dava Sobel (a great read about those geeks of the past who attempted to solve one of the greatest problems of their day - and bitched and fought with one another instead of working together to get the job done)
9. Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (what if the antichrist were a geek wunderkind?)
10. A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson (kind of like a geek primer really. How we got to where we are)
11. Perdido Street Station by China Mieville (what, steampunk pseudo-Victorian sci-fi? Mieville described it as 'the new wierd' but then disowned the title. I like mine better anyway.
12. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli (when geeks get to tell the people in charge how to behave, it tends to come out a bit like this)
13. Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut (geeks destroy the world, normal -ie chain-smoking, girl-fucking- guy looks on, nonplussed
14. Y The Last Man by Brian K Vaughan (what if the last man alive were a skinny geek?)
15. Evolution by Stephen Baxter (ok, now this one takes the long view)
16. The Illiad by Homer (because you should)
17. The Lord of the Rings by JRR Tolkien (see notes on 16)
18. American Gods by Neil Gaiman (UK residents may prefer to substitute Neverwhere here, this is perfectly acceptable)
19. Douglas Adams (whichever of his books you want)
20. Slashdot ("hey that's not a book!" - I know but you need to throw the home crowd a bone)
It was probably a case of he expected the prologue to explain the rest of the movie. I expect he was trying to guard against his comments being used to justify a bug-eyed aliens movie.
I'm sure studios must have pitched him a "Carl Sagan's Alien Attack!!!" kind of movie, and he didn't want to be associated with anything he couldn't agree with.
You're assuming they even know what Slashdot is, never mind have the net savvy to come here and read this thread. Or, for that matter, the literacy skills necessary to read this thread.
If you look at the main facing side of Hyperion (in the image that is actually of Hyperion) what you are seeing is part of a very old impact crater.
You can see the raised part in the centre, around which is part of the old crater wall.
Note the crater wall is significantly brighter than the surrounds - this is exposed materials, mainly water ice to judge from the brightness.
The other thing to note is that the crater is incomplete, and is itself riddled with craters, both the centre and the crater walls. This tells us that the large crater is very old. How old I would leave to an expert of the Saturnian system, who would no more about impact frequencies than me.
Hyperion is interesting in that it is the largest irregular body in the solar system. Anything larger (and many smaller objects) are pulled into a spherical shape by their own gravity. Hyperion is not that much smaller than Enceladus, and is of a similar make-up (frozen H2O) yet these object are very different.
I would hypothesise that a large impact has sheared off part of Hyperion- that's why the large crater is incomplete - the rest is gone, possibly to become part of the ring material but I don't know what the timing of that blast was.
The very strange not-really-craters next to the very large impact crater I would say were outgassing artefacts, not any type of impact crater. Basically the heat from the large impact caused volatiles to rocket out of Hyperion, leaving those sort of "exit valve" formations.
There were separate Ion Storm studios around the US. As far as I can tell, they never communicated with one another.
Romero and Hall came out with Storm Over Gift 3, an unbelievably primitive and generally crappy RTS, and followed it with Daikatana, an unbelievably primitive and generally crappy FPS.
Spector's Ion Storm studio came out with Deus Ex.
Ion Storm was a company where the company logo meant either shit or sugar, but you had to look for which studio had produced the game.
What's happening in China now is similar to what happened in the US and Europe in 78-84 - an explosion in home gaming.
As then, piracy is rampant, which provides a disincentive for developers and publisher to enter the market even though it's rapidly growing.
Fortunately (from a developer/publisher) point of view, they have the technology now to make all gaming online only. When you can charge subscription, piracy becomes irrelevant.
It doesn't really matter what model they use - flat-fee, metered, ISP tie in. In fact I expect all these models will be used, and will be appropriate in their own space.
The article is making a pretty long assumption in equating 'habitable' with 'geologically active surface'.
Surface life may well prove to the the rarity.
Somewhere like Ganymede, or Europa, has a far greater habitability beneath the surface.
Sub-surface regions seems generally more likely to allow life to get started than surfaces. A bit of activity there is good, as life thrives in changing rather than fixed environments (as far as we know).
Even life on earth began below the surface, in the oceans.
Sub-surface is where we may find life on Mars, there's no question of life on the surface there.
Venus would probably be habitable if it had an earth-like rotation. But it turns so slowly that a day is slightly longer than a year.
The additional heat that it receives from the sun, combined with that length of exposure to it, meant temperatures soared.
The atmosphere is mainly Sulphur Dioxide. The planet has been wrought with volcanism in the past, so much so that the whole surface is about the same age.
Any water Venus may have had is long gone.
The thick atmosphere acts as a blanket, trapping the heat it receives from the sun, basically making the planet is its own pressure cooker. Every so often, it must 'boil over' in a colossal volcanic episode.
That's not the point. Surface life (which is what the postulation is all about) requires a surface that can retain heat. Generation of heat is not the issue.
The surface of Io remains freaking cold, even though that moon is the most volcanically active body known, becasue it cannot retain the heat it generates*.
*okay to be accurate the heat is generated by interations between Io and Jupiter, not by Io alone.
Slashdot Mirror
Freedom of Speech is very much an American concept, one that the rest of the world simply does not have.
In Australia, for example, the current is in the position to mandate what does and does not constitute "acceptable" speech, and is doing so with abandon.
Their main opponent is not HM Opposition as you might expect, but News Ltd. When the Government's main opponent on freedom of speech issues is Rupert Murdoch, you know things are bad.
In Australia, unfortunately, we do not have anything like your First Amendment speech protections. I wish it were otherwise, but here the government is able to restrict speech as it sees fit. Most Australian governments have left this wisely alone, but the current government seems to view the electorate as an anthill and they are poking us with stick after stick, just to see what happens.
The tactic of having a member of the government express his "private" views publicly in this way is their established method of testing the water on things they would like to introduce. The Health Minister made similar noises a while back about banning abortion. He was raised by monks.
If NASA turns over the commercially viable uses of space to private industry, then the Agency can concentrate on the kind of exploration missions that it should be doing - the private sector would never mount a Voyager or Pathfinder mission, for example. I think more missions along those lines are where NASA's future should lie.
NASA are just standing in the way of US commercial space interests, and they should get out of the way, concentrate on their strengths, and stop trying to be "all things space" which is simply not a realistic goal.
You do meta-moderate, don't you?
Likewise, Mars' smaller size compared with Venus does not account for its inability to hold a thick atmosphere - witness Titan, also with no magnetic field. Though I should also point out that Titan's orbit brings it inside Saturn's magnetic field for some of the time.
A reasonable person can conclude that as long as there is an active process replacing what is lost, a body without a magnetic field can hold on to its atmosphere just fine.
I suspect that the fact that Mars' atmosphere becomes 1,000 times thicker if you wind back the clock is just a coincidence. Looking again at Venus and Titan, it can be seem that volcanism (past or present) is an important part of atmospheric renewal. Mars too had significant volcanism in its past.
Under such conditions there could be large olivine depoists in areas that never saw water because they were away from any water deposits (no idea on theories of past Martian rainfall patterns)
Chances are there were reasonably long-lived large lake networks in Mars, but yeah, that could have been 3 billion years ago now.
Every time Mars is discussed some half-informed person has to come out with this. It is a false premise. Utterly false. Just because a body has no magnetic field does not mean it cannot sustain an atmosphere long-term. Just so long as there is an active process replacing whatever is lost, you'll be fine.
The proof? I'll say this in loud, slow english
VENUS. HAS. NO. MAGNETIC. FIELD.
"A Short History of Nearly Everything" takes us from the development of scientific disciplines in Victorian times through to today.
"Longitude" talks about how geeks tried solutions both mechanical and astronomical to solve what in their day was seen as an insoluble problem.
"Quicksliver" is the start of a series that covers the late 17th and early 18th centuries and is kind of an 'origins' story for geeks, and much else.
These books are by Bill Bryson, Dava Sobel, and Neal Stephenson respectively and I would recommend them all.
probably preparing a video rebuttal as we speak
Yes, because the last thing America needs is someone clever in politics....
I'm sure studios must have pitched him a "Carl Sagan's Alien Attack!!!" kind of movie, and he didn't want to be associated with anything he couldn't agree with.
People living in the 1960s expected much the same. Prepare for a similar disappointment.
You're assuming they even know what Slashdot is, never mind have the net savvy to come here and read this thread. Or, for that matter, the literacy skills necessary to read this thread.
Just like television
They are, it's just that all the good names are long since taken.
You can see the raised part in the centre, around which is part of the old crater wall.
Note the crater wall is significantly brighter than the surrounds - this is exposed materials, mainly water ice to judge from the brightness.
The other thing to note is that the crater is incomplete, and is itself riddled with craters, both the centre and the crater walls. This tells us that the large crater is very old. How old I would leave to an expert of the Saturnian system, who would no more about impact frequencies than me.
Hyperion is interesting in that it is the largest irregular body in the solar system. Anything larger (and many smaller objects) are pulled into a spherical shape by their own gravity. Hyperion is not that much smaller than Enceladus, and is of a similar make-up (frozen H2O) yet these object are very different.
I would hypothesise that a large impact has sheared off part of Hyperion- that's why the large crater is incomplete - the rest is gone, possibly to become part of the ring material but I don't know what the timing of that blast was.
The very strange not-really-craters next to the very large impact crater I would say were outgassing artefacts, not any type of impact crater. Basically the heat from the large impact caused volatiles to rocket out of Hyperion, leaving those sort of "exit valve" formations.
Romero and Hall came out with Storm Over Gift 3, an unbelievably primitive and generally crappy RTS, and followed it with Daikatana, an unbelievably primitive and generally crappy FPS.
Spector's Ion Storm studio came out with Deus Ex.
Ion Storm was a company where the company logo meant either shit or sugar, but you had to look for which studio had produced the game.
I made 4 statements in my post. Youare claiming 3 of those 4 are incorrect.
Then you say my post is 90% wrong.
And your pretend business is doing what now?
We don't have any investors,
We don't have a product,
But we do have in-principle government approval!
Woooo!
As then, piracy is rampant, which provides a disincentive for developers and publisher to enter the market even though it's rapidly growing.
Fortunately (from a developer/publisher) point of view, they have the technology now to make all gaming online only. When you can charge subscription, piracy becomes irrelevant.
It doesn't really matter what model they use - flat-fee, metered, ISP tie in. In fact I expect all these models will be used, and will be appropriate in their own space.
No but you need to be a creationist or idiot ID 'er to believe it is without foundation.
I dread to think what would happen if they start paying attention to it.
Surface life may well prove to the the rarity.
Somewhere like Ganymede, or Europa, has a far greater habitability beneath the surface.
Sub-surface regions seems generally more likely to allow life to get started than surfaces. A bit of activity there is good, as life thrives in changing rather than fixed environments (as far as we know).
Even life on earth began below the surface, in the oceans.
Sub-surface is where we may find life on Mars, there's no question of life on the surface there.
The additional heat that it receives from the sun, combined with that length of exposure to it, meant temperatures soared.
The atmosphere is mainly Sulphur Dioxide. The planet has been wrought with volcanism in the past, so much so that the whole surface is about the same age.
Any water Venus may have had is long gone.
The thick atmosphere acts as a blanket, trapping the heat it receives from the sun, basically making the planet is its own pressure cooker. Every so often, it must 'boil over' in a colossal volcanic episode.
The surface of Io remains freaking cold, even though that moon is the most volcanically active body known, becasue it cannot retain the heat it generates*.
*okay to be accurate the heat is generated by interations between Io and Jupiter, not by Io alone.