This cartoon made me smile (click for the whole thing):
Sigh. If only.
Hat tip to Jokermage, who rewrote a bit of reality at that link as well.
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About Bad Astronomy
Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He's written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic and fights the abuse of science, but his true love is praising the wonders of real science.
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December 22nd, 2006 at 3:47 pm
Even though you can get a nice view of the earth from the moon, I prefer mars. The gravity and atmosphere are a big plus.
December 22nd, 2006 at 3:50 pm
Gravity sucks, but so does vacuum. I’ll take a moonbase any day.
December 22nd, 2006 at 6:44 pm
Well, I moved to Canada for university, partly to get away from them. And then the year I moved they elected Harper. *sigh* The moon would have been a better choice…
December 23rd, 2006 at 7:13 am
Is the problem that the world’s leaders are insincere, or is it that we expect them to be something that they’re not?
I wonder if the title of your post was an intentional double-entendre.
December 23rd, 2006 at 8:52 am
Almost blew off the entire morning, distracted by all those ‘toons. Bet ya can’t read just one!
Ah, vacuum. Great for mass driver launched vehicles, the most efficient method ever devised to launch payloads to space. Too bad we can’t maintain such on the earths surface. On the other hand, air makes good reaction mass, as long as your power generator stays on the ground. Just need a really looong extension cord,,,or high power micro wave transmitters,,,
Luna could be a really cool jumping off platform for launching to the outer planets.
GAry 7
December 23rd, 2006 at 11:55 am
Is this what we really want? To:
a) absolve ourselves and our leaders (are we not all leaders of at least some things?) of the responsibility to control human impact on Earth? To say, “yes its bad but whatever…there are other planets”. Will the prblems we enact here not only propogate on other worlds but be in even more control of technology and distance ourselves from evolutionary foundations that allowed us to survive?
b) To assume that human survival is the end all of science, and to that end if ‘we’ can survive on other wolrds, so be it. Earth was nice while it lasted? What about the myriad species that ARE the foundation (along with humans) of the evolving and SURVIVING ecological background.
c) On a tangent of sorts – are we not imply playing out a godly ownership of earth and all extant species? Is this where science and ignorance meet?
Why, then, shouldI propose to my students that we curb our ways and try to meld BACK with nature, in a format that has worked in a symbiotic co-format? Why not give them their saran wrapped hamburgers and help them pick out a new SUV for when they are older….we are giving up anyway.
I think that this is an ignorant use of science.
who was it that spoke “science now has blood in its hands?” Well, I propose we dont re-bloddy our hands.
Hmm…
December 23rd, 2006 at 3:12 pm
>>>” I prefer mars. The gravity and atmosphere are a big plus.”
(blank stare)
That’s a bit like moving from Bratsk to Novosibirsk for the warmer weather.
Note to Monkey: lighten up, guy!
And there really are some of us out here so disconnected from the dippy cultures on the Earth that a “Galt’s Gultch” in space is an attractive idea if only the technology and money were there to accomplish it.