The Chances of Anything Coming From Mars Are a Million to One He Said
It's been a week from hell and you may be asking yourself "What next?!"
This is next...
For the past few weeks, while we've been distracted by hurricanes, lunatics and blacklists, astronomers have been observing plumes coming from the Arisa Mons volcano on Mars. 'Top Men' have concluded that this steam coming out of the top of a volcano is not, in fact volcanic. The leading publicly discussed theories seem to be the seasonal sublimation of a dust covered glacier or clouds condensing around water droplets blown off the volcano.
Of course, gentle readers, we have watched enough of the Discovery Channel to know that a fuzzy picture means Bigfoot, UFOs or worse and I think we are all well read enough to grasp what the sighting of anomalous plumes on Mars right before Halloween really means.
1
Fortunately, I live nowhere near Grovers Mill.
signed, 2X2L
Posted by: Wonderduck at Mon Oct 29 02:08:23 2018 (9gv+L)
2
'duck, these are "Body Snatcher" types, so chances are they're all around you already. These plumes have been going on for a while, so I would guess about 45% of the country is already being controlled.
Posted by: Ben at Mon Oct 29 08:55:34 2018 (osxtX)
Season 6 of RWBY is off to a rollicking good start.The production values are now almost movie quality and this first episode has best action scene the show has had since Monty died. The fight scene is so much of the episode that it arguably derails the story at one point, but the episode doesn't really suffer for it.. Regards pacing and plotting, this does not even look like it was done by the same people who did the end of last season.
After the dumpster fire that was last season's finale, I'm on my guard, but this season is really REALLY looking promising.
From radio and TV, It looks like an unknown number of people-shaped colostomy bags have blasted their way into a Pittsburgh Synagogue which, it being Saturday, was full of worshippers. Reports point to a lot of fatalities. There is still gunfire.
It looks like there was a Bris ceremony being performed when the fiend came in.
8 dead at least.
UPDATE:
There are reports that the fellow, in addition to being a vile anti-semite, also despises the President with a passion. This makes perfect sense given the Presidents family ties and his actual policies. However, as far as I can tell, these reports, while being widely disseminated, all track back to one, rather dubious source. However, there is reportedly an archive of the murderer's Gab feed here.
You have to hand it to them - of all the different ways to respond to the tragedy in Pittsburgh, the 'correct' people have managed to pick the worst option, which is likely not to help their position, but will hurt it.
If you are an Anti-Semite, you blame the Jews for everything bad, especially when it happens to the Jewish people.
Posted by: cxt217 at Sun Oct 28 17:46:40 2018 (LMsTt)
1
4-Channers are supposedly finding information that his voter registration changed to Republican about the time he was arrested.... Others note that the "Vanifesto" (h/t Mike Kupari) showed a very distinct lack of sun fading.
Posted by: Mauser at Sat Oct 27 00:30:57 2018 (Ix1l6)
When asked about motivation, the girls reportedly told police that they were Satan worshipers. According to police, the girls planned to drink their victims’ blood out of the goblet they were found with. They also discussed eating their victims' flesh and leaving body parts at the school's entrance before killing themselves."Killing all of these students was in hopes it would make them worse sinners ensuring that after they committed suicide ... (they) would go to hell so they could be with Satan," the arrest affidavit reads.
They were hiding in the bathroom to pounce on the first and second graders who they were confident they could overpower.
Fortunately they were not the brightest bulbs on the tree so no one was hurt.
Meanwhile, in Wisconsin, some dude was caught trying to purchase radioactive material to use as a murder weapon. He is a career criminal and politician known to the police as Segway Boy.
There are those who believe that watching anime and reading comic books has no benefits or applicability to day to day life, but it is really beginning to look like the U.S. has developed a need for at least one Magical Girl and a costumed superhero.
Reality is actually far more nasty. I lost the link, but Sarah Hoyt had an article on PJMedia about how a group of girls attending the same school one of her sons attended, conspired in a determine effort to get the kid in trouble (As in, both 'expelled from school' and 'arrested by the police' all on false charges.) because they thought he looked retarded and unattractive. It also turns out that many, if not most, of the girls were the daughters of teachers and staff at the school district who, at the very least, knowingly condoned and excused their offsprings' behavior. And these girls were known to track the boy down after he transferred out of the school district, as well as go to the Hoyts' home, and try to make his life a living hell.
I firmly believe that along with other crimes, any child charged with criminal conspiracy should be tried as an adult. These children almost certainly will never grow up to become decent adults.
Posted by: cxt217 at Fri Oct 26 19:56:28 2018 (LMsTt)
Oh This Will Help Calm Things I'm Sure (UPDATED)
It looks like some creep has sent pipe bombs to prominent Democrats. I guess he/she decided that the actions of the Unabomber and James Hodgkinson are examples and not horrible warnings.
Also. Regarding today's outbreak of TwitterMadness: We really don't know anything about these things or who sent them other than the silly logo, so holding forth about False Flag ops, Incel edgelords or Larry The Cable Guy fandom is the exact opposite of helpful.
Remember, whoever did this was probably a nutbar. This would make trying to figure out motive via inferring who logically and rationally stands to benefit a fools errand since logic and rationality may not be in play.
UPDATE 2:
Finally! Some actual facts from Pixy in the comments.
...those fake ISIS stickers are literal false flags.
So THERE! No matter how this turns out, certain people will be able to save face. Thanks Pixy!
The part me that possesses morbid curiosity is interested in seeing the reactions of the usual suspects if the responsible party turns out to be a whack-a-doodle who targeted Soros, Obama, Clinton et al because they were not left-wing or progressive enough.
Then I realize that we would know exactly what the reactions would be.
Posted by: cxt217 at Wed Oct 24 17:17:58 2018 (LMsTt)
2
It's pretty easy to tell. If the news goes nuts when they find the guy, he was a conservative nutbar. If the story disappears completely, he was a Liberal.
Posted by: Mauser at Wed Oct 24 21:10:18 2018 (Ix1l6)
3
The modern version of Occam's Razor is Ahmed's Clock: if it looks like a Hollywood bomb, it probably is. This is related to Viagra News: if the story stays up for more than four days, they found a conservative to pin it on.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Thu Oct 25 00:30:54 2018 (tgyIO)
4
The NY Post has an article this morning saying these were "bombs": they had no detonation device.
Posted by: Rick C at Thu Oct 25 11:02:07 2018 (Iwkd4)
5
What are we at now, seven bombs? And not ONE went off. Seriously, the Unabomber was an old guy living in a shack in Mexico on a shoestring and did better than that. Fireworks explosives? Not even black powder, or cordite removed from bullets? I'd expect a reich-winger to do better than that. CNN was even comfortable with taking a picture of theirs, rather than getting the h__l out of the room. Hmmmm.
Some were hand delivered? Where's the security camera video -- when the Austin bomber struck, it was up within about 72-96 hours after the second one -- so I'm waiting. If he's that incompetent a bomb builder, it would be VERY suspicious if
he were able to perfectly avoid leaving any trace for the FBI to track
him down.
There's only two ways it's going to turn out
Prediction 1: this "incompetent bomber" will somehow be a perfect genius in erasing his or her tracks and never be found. = FALSE FLAG
Prediction 2: He'll turn out to be a loon and the FBI will catch him very soon. = CRAZY
Posted by: Ubu at Thu Oct 25 12:39:41 2018 (SlLGE)
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Someone pointed out that those fake ISIS stickers are literal false flags. I don't know if our Evil Midnight Bomber What Bombs at Midnight is that smart though.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Thu Oct 25 23:44:01 2018 (PiXy!)
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Looks like he's a right-wing lunatic who was arrested for making bomb threats back in 2002.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Fri Oct 26 11:40:32 2018 (PiXy!)
8
Annnnnnnd.... prediction 2 it is. Some have asked "seriously how could he have run around will all that on his van and not have it vandalized?" Well, if I saw that many stickers on a van, I wouldn't mess with it!
I've said for years: anyone with two or more bumper-stickers on their car is too damn proud of their kids, or a loon.
Posted by: Ubu at Fri Oct 26 12:51:28 2018 (SlLGE)
Also in Colorado, some of the voting instruction books are missing pages.
It's unclear if the Adams county ballots have been found or replaced, but according to the article, the Weld County Ballots were duplicated, meaning that there are thousands of extra ballots floating around in the wilds of Colorado.
Regarding some of the concerns brought up by cxt217 in the comments of the earlier post:
The agent/human beatbox/cosmetologist is actually a character trope of sports manga and to an extent idol shows as well.
Of course he also is pretty solid as a stark-raving mad scientist/necromancer. Also, regarding his not being at all likable, I don't think he's actually a protagonist...at all. He's rather over the top, but not by as much as one might think given the genres involved.
Regarding concerns about Hoshikawa,
A dead loli is always in poor taste but there is no dead loli here as she's not technically dead...well...there may be legal issues, involving blood pressure, heartbeats and respiration but as an American who looks at things from the perspective of individual rights stemming from English common law rather than the Napoleanic code or Confucian precedent, I am actually happy that she has been granted a second chance at experiencing the world rather than having it cut short after 13 years (or 16-19 for the others).
I wonder if, in addition to everything else the show is, this counts as Isekai?
All the main characters have been moved at least 10 years in the future and as many as 160. Just 10 years ago was a different world. Also, they've been granted the ability to take bullets through the neck, fire-pokers through the head and to self-decapitate, so they're stuck in a strange world but with magical powers.
Shipstorm
Why do the two metal heads keep showing up? Are they going to be romantic interests for two of the girls or something? 'cause that would be...wrong.
I deal enough with jerks in real life that seeing jerks in entertainment as anything except targets of plot karma, tends to rub me the wrong way. Given how the overwhelming majority of jerks in entertainment as just there to be jerks instead of, say, "He's a jerk but he's the one keeping the squad safe during the war,' and I am not incline to be generous with Kotaro. Especially, since I suspect:
He was the person who killed at least several members of the group before raising them back up - which would help explain why Sakura is in the group. Also, I strongly suspect that Sakura might not actually be in the same state as the other girls.
Posted by: cxt217 at Tue Oct 23 15:46:03 2018 (LMsTt)
3
I dunno, that's pretty dark for this kind of show. Also, I don't think the dates work - Sakura's really the only one we know died recently (Tae is anyone's guess...)
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Wed Oct 24 03:09:35 2018 (v29Tn)
4
We've got 4 rough dates. Kotaru tells Sakura she's been dead for 10 years. In the opening scene she's looking at the "Legendary Heisei Idol" on TV who presumably died shortly thereafter. Junko, the "Legendary Showa Idol" was one of the first idols from the Early '80s and Courtesan Lass is from the Meiji era. Taking Tae out of the mix due to lack of data, every one of the girls except Saki was (or was aspiring to be) an entertainer. Saki was the leader of a biker gang that took over Kyushu. I think that last bit is counterfactual, so, applying contemporary standards of logic, it's possible that "biker chick" was actually the persona of an 80's female pro-wrestler. That, in turn, would raise the possibility that this series is actually a darkly woke commentary on the way society discards its female entertainers. It would also open the alternate possibility that this is actually a docudrama offering one possible explanation, (but not the only one) for a series of unexplained disappearances. It is also conceivable that I'm overthinking this.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Oct 24 06:23:48 2018 (Oqyrj)
5
My experience with anime, is that if you're thinking, you're overthinking. The rare exceptions are awesome.
Posted by: Ubu at Wed Oct 24 09:19:12 2018 (SlLGE)
She is the only girl who has no info given on the official website. Even Tae had an age attached to her. Add to certain other little things, such as having an obvious pain response shown in the anime, and I have to wonder what is her actual status. Also, I was actually being nice in my initial description of Kotaro. My Fandom Post included this acidic bit: "A particularly grating moment was his calling out of Ai and Junko in Episode 3 which, had it come from any other character, might have been moving and positive. Instead, Kotaro came off as a milder version of a killer who murdered a kid's parents and is now telling the kid to stop moping. It just does not work and coming from the man who supposedly raised Ai and Junk from the grave, sounds insulting as the final cherry on top.
Posted by: cxt217 at Wed Oct 24 12:28:26 2018 (LMsTt)
7
So, Berg Katze, Rory Mercury, and Excel Excel walk into a bar...
I'm not sure what's going on here, but I'm pretty sure it's not what we've been shown so far. Also, the makeup in episode 3 is extremely thorough.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Thu Oct 25 07:26:31 2018 (tgyIO)
Astounding!
Via Pixy, comes news that researchers have discovered references to a novel length version of John Campbell's short story Who Goes There?(The literary basis for The Thing,The ThingandThe Thing, that Hammer movie about the Russian train and ...this thing.)
It's Kickstarter and rewards are $7 for e-book, $12, for paperback and $25 for hardcover plus all three have 10 different bundles of classic sci-fi stories including the John W. Campbell megapack.
Happy Ruger Day
10/22 is Ruger Day. Everyone celebrate! Sadly there were no format relevant 10/22 pictures that weren't nightmare fuel so here's a Blackhawk instead.
Image is Colt Revolver Tan from Girls Frontline, but if you look closely you'll note she's holding a Blackhawk complete with Ruger Logo.
1
And her belt buckle is backwards....
Sorry, pet peeve of mine.
Posted by: Mauser at Mon Oct 22 21:00:15 2018 (Ix1l6)
2
Trademark issues, apparently. In the US she's "SAA", for Single Action Army. (and completely, irrationally obsessed with cola... the only line she has NOT about cola is her passing off the question of her age!)
I'd be tempted to de-mil her and put her dummy cores into something less tropey, but she's got shapely buff tiles and an accuracy skill that won't quit (and anyway, she keeps popping out of the random gun-girl builder!)
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Tue Oct 23 03:06:35 2018 (v29Tn)
I read the blurb. But what the blurb describes...that's not what I watched.
From the Blurb...
A typical morning. The usual music. Their normal lives. The peace these seven girls experience will suddenly be destroyed. By the living dead... zombies. A reality that they never wanted a part of, an amazing and terrifying zombie world. They all share one wish: "We want to live." These girls will struggle through this saga, in order to achieve a miracle. MAPPA, Avex Pictures, and Cygames team up to bring you a juicy, 100% original anime. A timeless shocker for all audiences, a brand new style of zombie anime, will soon rise.
The one fly in the ointment is that Kotaro (Mamoru Miyano's character.) is moving well into the 'complete jerk' department, so it is not perfect. He is also clearly incompetent in most things as well, which make him even more grating.
But...So far, Zombie Land Saga is fantastic. I never watch zombie or undead premise stuff, let alone horror, and I greatly enjoy the series - I actually laughed at what occurred in first TWO minutes of the series.
Posted by: cxt217 at Sun Oct 21 15:39:23 2018 (LMsTt)
There is one other thing that bother me about Zombie Land Saga - though it bothers me far less than it would have bothered Steve:
I can not say I like the idea of an undead loli all that much. At least it somehow works in context.
Posted by: cxt217 at Sun Oct 21 19:32:23 2018 (LMsTt)
6
She's just remarkably well-preserved.
(rimshot)
I'm of two minds about this show. It's got about two or three minutes of pure brilliance per episode. But a lot of the rest of it is -really- just not enjoyable. Too much awkward "we're up on stage and would rather not be here" points where I just turn it off and walk away. And Kotaro is no Ilpalazzo.
Posted by: Avatar_exADV at Sun Oct 21 22:08:59 2018 (v29Tn)
7
From the perspective of just the first episode, Kotaro seems like the Sorcerer's Apprentice: he read the first page of the book, and now he thinks he knows enough. Details he doesn't have the answer to are irrelevant.
Posted by: Rick C at Mon Oct 22 20:51:13 2018 (Iwkd4)
Thank You Mauser
If not for your post, I never would have watched this show.
It's not like the poster is devoid of appeal...
...but it and the blurb didn't really grab me.
However, unlike the show reviewed below, this is not exactly what it says on the tin. While that poster is not, strictly speaking, dishonest, it does not adequately convey what this show is about.
Eight Word Title With Bunny Girl In It now has me totally hooked. Despite the poster and an early scene with one of the characters running around in a bunny suit, this is a really creepy show and reminds me most of the Josei horror that was popular at the turn of the century.
It's low key. It's well written and it's keeping me on the edge of my seat.
and by the second episode, I realized that the first scene of the show is such terrifying forshadowing that I've GOT to find out how this turns out.
The characters are well done, likable and react to the just plain "off" things happening around them in rational but believable ways, while still trying to deal with day to day life.
" Yeah. I agree. Shadowbanning is a real problem."
2 episodes in this is definitely looking like a keeper.
1
I haven't had much of a chance to write about it, but Bunny Girl is flat-out my favorite show of this season... and considering it's up against the anime adaptation of Bloom Into You, that's saying a lot.
A lot of people, myself included, are getting Haruhi vibes (though not plot-wise) from it. And I'm not ashamed to say that I think Mai Sakurajima is one of the best female leads to come down the pike in a very long time indeed.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Oct 21 17:33:39 2018 (OjmJE)
2
I'm really curious about where the second girl's story is going to go.
And I'm glad you enjoyed it. I guess I do have a talent for picking out the quirky but good shows (Mysterious Girlfriend X anyone?)
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Oct 21 22:18:45 2018 (Ix1l6)
A slime, for those of you who don't know, is a low level monster in a lot of computer role playing games, in the fantasy genre 'inspired' by D&D. They are essentially a carnivorous blob of jello for beginning and low level players to learn the ropes on. The lowest and weakest of monsters.
Our hero, having done a genuinely heroic thing which got him killed, is granted a request by the what appears to be the Samsarra AI. However, his dying requests are contradictory and the transmigration algorithm screws up, reincarnating him in a suspiciously D&D like fantasy world....but as a slime.
Yeah, it's another Isekai show, but the loser wish fulfillment is somewhat tempered by...
Our hero.
But he's not just a slime! He has an intellect and all of his memories of his education, his job in construction oversight...and playing D&D.
He quickly becomes the most OP...uh slime... you've ever seen.
This is genuinely odd.
It's not, necessarily good mind you, but it has potential and at episode 3 it is amusing me quite a bit more than it perhaps ought to.
1I wrote about the manga back last November, and my enthusiasm level for the anime, while reduced, is still pretty high. The manga wore out its party trick by Volume 4, but seeing it animated brings some new energy to it.
I've watched the first two episodes, and it hews very close to the manga indeed.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Oct 21 17:40:36 2018 (OjmJE)
2
I'm put in mind of "Kumo desu ga, Nani Ka?" where the Heroine is reincarnated as a spider monster, and levels up absurdly.
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Oct 21 22:30:46 2018 (Ix1l6)
3Kumoko is a different thing in a sense that it's high-stakes, razor-thin margin combat in every installment. Her arachine plot is surprisingly secondary to her daily struggle. Her world is narrow (for now - yes, I know, okay?). So, the phenomenally gripping action is the schtick. And how well it is done. I never was disgusted by the artificial, too convenient tricks - like the ending of Starship Operators, for example. No matter how crazy her trickery becomes, it has a certain consistency and fidelity to the setting.
Slime is a traditional isekai with only the MC being a slime. And yeah, he/she just eats everything in the end. The world is wide and has a ton of varying creatures, with national politics, etc. Sadly, love and romance are absent entirely, but it's quite rich otherwise.
I heard a lot of people complained how boring the slime anime was. Without the manga, they could not handle the infodump in ep.1.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Oct 22 13:35:48 2018 (LZ7Bg)
4
Kumoko drives me a bit nuts because so much of the state/system just seem pulled out of nowhere.
Posted by: Mauser at Wed Oct 24 21:13:22 2018 (Ix1l6)
A few weeks ago we noted that Bloomberg had broken a HUGE news story that involved China inserting small chips onto mother boards that were intended to allow back door access to ALL THE HARDWARE.
A week or so later we noted that sourcing was rather....thin, and that no rice grain sized chips had been produced.
Now it appears that Apple (who has vociferously denied it all along) is demanding a retraction and apology from Bloomberg.
As Pixy noted in the comments to our first post on the matter, one of the reporters involved has a rather chequered history with computer spying stories.
That TECHDIRT story goes on to suggest that Bloomberg has whittled away their credibility on this and "set fire to the scraps".
For example people quoted in the original story are strongly contradicting it.
All of Bloomberg's sources on this are and remain anonymous. So as of now, the story seems to be a dumpster fire, that still hasn't produced any spy chips or any evidence whatsoever.
None of this is to suggest that its a good idea to be subcontracting our most vital components to overseas slaves whose masters hate our guts, or that this isn't an obvious and even likely threat. However, IF this story is in fact bunk, (as now seems likely) the "Cry Wolf Effect" will make it harder to prepare for such matters. Furthermore if this is bunk then those of us who reported it credulously will find it harder to be believed when it does come to pass.
1
I think every security researcher simultaneously agrees that (a) this could happen, (b) it's a huge problem, and (c) not one word of the Bloomberg story is actually true.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun Oct 21 23:19:15 2018 (PiXy!)
Asia, as a generally, do not give a flying crap about SJW's sensibilities. One of the more amusing things is showing photos of Asian cities with large Buddhist populations to American SJW/Progressive types and watch their heads explode.
I also reminded about how the students at Oberlin College were demanding cultural sensitive cuisines, like General Tso's chicken - probably because they did not know that General Tso's chicken could not exist without Americans (Specifically, the US Navy.)!
Posted by: cxt217 at Fri Oct 19 18:26:42 2018 (LMsTt)
3
There's a story behind that last comment....I'm sure of it.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Oct 20 00:39:38 2018 (Oqyrj)
4
That makes me wonder... could the "Girls on Film" video be made today? It was so controversial then... for entirely different reasons that are the same in the end.
Posted by: ubu at Sat Oct 20 18:56:43 2018 (UlsdO)
Only if you title it 'performance art,' and advertise it as a way to stick it to white Christian men.
Peng Chang-Kuei, who created General Tso's chicken, was a chef for the KMT before he opened a restaurant in New York and introduced General Tso to the public. But he had originally created the recipe as an improvisational dish for several flag officers from the Pacific Fleet who were on an official visit to Taiwan. He had been made responsible for taking care of the visiting admirals' meals, but the visit lasted longer than usual and it was considered bad form to serve the guests the same dishes more than once. So Peng created what became known as General Tso's chicken so he would not have to repeat the same recipe. The admirals liked it very much, and asked Peng for the name of the dish, which he created as well, drawing on a historical figure from Hunan.
Posted by: cxt217 at Sat Oct 20 22:12:37 2018 (LMsTt)
American Civilization and Where it is Headed
There are two essays by T.S.W. over at Declination. The first one looks at what American Civilization actually is and the second looks at current trends and does comparative analysis with historical examples. Both are quite lengthy (over 4300 words for the second one) but thoughtful.
I strongly recommend you read them both in full.
"You should probably disregard his recommendation if you are easily disturbed, prone to anxiety or depression, are on any medication that can cause suicidal thoughts, or have a particularly frail constitution."
1
At times I do fear for our society. But at others, I look around and ask where is the actual existential threat that is similar in magnitude to anything earlier generations have faced before? (Yes, there are a few that come to mind, but if we're already in despair mode when fat and happy, how on Earth... )
Also, this cycle of history thing: I like to push back against it also.
1. Everyone fixates on Rome, but there are dozens of European civilizations between Rome and America. Also, we aren't Rome. (Yes, we are currently saddled with a political aristocracy that has it's head up it's ass, but that isn't specific to Rome, or us.)
The roman republic percolated out of the bronze age. Every single tribe went to war with every other tribe every summer in something out of a Robert E. Howard pulp-novel. Life was cheap. Tribal cohesion was mandated by immediate Darwinian consequences. It was a radically different world from Renaissance Europe or colonial America.
2. We are so far off the map of historical bronze-age Malthusian equilibrium that trying to draw a line (or a sine-wave, or an exponential curve) through any trend older than 100 years ago seems foolish. Give me the average period between civilizations planting flags on the moon, then backsliding. You can't. There's only been one example so far. This is both a promise and a threat: We aren't feeding the current population of the Earth with preindustrial technology or social orders. Hopefully, with some technological and social intelligence, we'll never have to. (On the other hand, it doesn't seem physically realistic that everything goes exponential forever unless we get *really good* at space colonies.)
3. These vast irresistible social forces narratives assume that we're slaves to our social dogmas, instead of the other way around. That we're the chattel property of our tribe and culture instead of it's generators and masters. That actually was true of the Bronze age, and of what Popper called "closed societies", of totalitarian and fanatic states. May we never repeat that hideous mistake!
The only thing more dismal in terms of worldview than the "irresistable historical forces" worldviews are the "irresistable genetic inheritance" worldviews. Show me the cave paintings of the Cro-Magnon moon landings!
Posted by: madrocketsci at Mon Oct 22 00:07:58 2018 (TTXhu)
2
I dunno. I'll probably backslide myself from time to time, but I do like to affirm the following:
We can blow up the world, or we can decay into some dismal static mandarinate, or we can go colonize space, or we can build cool underwater cities, or we can create AI and (screw it up/not screw it up), or we could all go back to nature tomorrow (and promptly starve), or we can (some of us each) do all of the above. And none of it will be some fixed epicycle written in the stars or in the history books, or mandated by historical forces or astrology. It will be the consequence of our choices that determine this. If being human means anything at all, it's that we have brains and can understand the world and react accordingly. What we do isn't an inescapable instinctive pattern.
Posted by: madrocketsci at Mon Oct 22 00:19:18 2018 (TTXhu)
Project H.A.V.O.C.
While the acronym does accurately convey the idea, the High Altitude Venus Operational Concept acronym might need some tweaking for PR reasons.
So far so good, except that as we all know, Venus's surface temperature is that of molten lead, its pressure is higher than in the Marianas Trench and after CO2 and Nitrogen, the most common atmospheric gas is sulfuric acid. Also it's gravity is about the same as Earth and so would require a full sized ( Titan or bigger) acid proof rocket to get the crew back into orbit in the unlikely event they weren't baked, dissolved, and crushed.
This is why Venus has not been on N.A.S.A.'s shortlist for places to visit.
Fortunately there is an amazingly cutting edge technology that allows a manned survey of Venus.
The Blimp!
The High Altitude Venus Operational Concept takes advantage of the fact that temperatures 34 miles above the surface are around 80 degrees and the pressure is that of Boulder Colorado. However because the CO2 atmosphere is much denser than nitrogen, earth air is a lifting gas at that altitude.
"Dirigibles in space!"
So the idea is to inflate the "landing" party's ship on the way down and have it double as a 423 foot long airship, (Actually a manned, dirigible, rockoon) and then fly around the planet for a few weeks or months doing more detailed surveys than can be done from orbit and tele-operating probes on the surface. This also allows for detailed chemical analysis of the atmosphere, using sensors lowered on tethers into the dense lower atmosphere, much like a oceanographer uses Nansen bottles to sample the deep.
After completing the mission, the Blimp will launch a rocket from high altitude (Like a Pegasus) and transport the crew into space, where they'll rendezvous with their mother ship and return to Earth.
Assuming an acid proof blimp, Venus is actually much safer than Mars for the astronauts. The gravity is about the same as Earth, the thick atmosphere plus the planet's weak magnetic field would protect the crew from cosmic rays even better than earth does. Venus is much easier to get to and launch windows open much more often than they do for Mars. Two precursor missions, one manned but confined to orbit and one using a 1 quarter scale drone dirigible to test acid proofing and demonstrate that the inflation/deployment system works would precede the crewed Venus blimp sortie..
This is a very good idea for an icebreaker mission. It's more advanced than the moon or asteroid missions currently in the pipeline but still far quicker, easier (and probably safer) than the upcoming mission to Mars. Such a mission would be far shorter in duration than a Mars landing and would be a nice stepping stone on the way to those missions as well as expeditions to the asteroids Mercury, Ceres and Callisto. Flags and footprints albeit without flags or dirty feet (but with a blimp!).
So, today we've discussed rockets, space travel, a manned mission to the planet Venus and an airship, nay, a rockoon even! The only thing that would make this cooler is a swordfight.
Or floating cities...
The fact that air is a lifting gas means that large, long term settlements are theoretically possible, with all the advantages regarding radiation and gravity listed above. Even the sulfuric acid is not that big a problem as it is mostly below the altitudes proposed, where it is quite dilute. In fact, the temperatures while hotter than Death Valley are such that one could could probably do something one can do nowhere except Earth: step outside in a birthday suit and survive as long as one could hold one's breath (but run to the cold shower/eyewash station afterwards!). As an added bonus, unlike anywhere except Titan, due to the sheer density of the CO2, such cloud cities would also be far better protected against meteor strikes than any city on Earth.
A 2015 study at Rutgers (preliminary draft here) published the above artwork some time ago to illustrate what a (very hypothetical) more permanent research station might look like and news reports on Monday's announcement almost universally featured the below N.A.S.A. image of a large floating outpost acting as a tender to several H.A.V.O.C. type airships.
Both of these are very ambitious indeed and probably quite far term. For one thing, despite its advantages, Venus would seem to make little sense as a location for space cities, as they'd be far down a gravity well, there's no water except what one can crack from the sulphuric acid and no easy way to bring in supplies from asteroids. In an O'Neal cylinder or on the surface of a planet like Mars a major damage incident is survivable with space suits and repair teams, on Venus if you balloon deflates you're baked, dissolved, and crushed.
So unless the view of the clouds is SPECTACULAR and sufficiently so to somehow justify interplanetary tourism, there's little reason to believe that there would ever be any kind of permanent outpost on Venus.
I mean what could Venus produce that has real value and couldn't be gotten FAR easier somewhere, indeed anywhere else?
"PHOSPHOROUS!"
Oh right...
One of our Crack Team Of 2-D Science Babes reminds us of this paper (PDF) we perused recently that reviewed what scientists know about Venus's atmosphere. Here's an interesting excerpt...
Venera 13, Venera 14, Vega 1, and Vega 2 descent probes all carried X-ray fluorescence instruments. These instruments measured elemental composition of the cloud particles and found not only sulfur, but also phosphorus, chlorine and iron – notably, as much phosphorus as sulphur in the lower clouds below 52 km [Andreichikov et al, Sov. Astron. Lett. 1986, 1987]. A chemical analysis by Krasnopolsky [PSS, 1985] con- cluded that the phosphorus could be in the form of phosphoric acid (H3PO4) aerosols, which would ac- count for the particulates observed by descent probes down to 33 km altitudes
Phosphorus is absolutely vital to life and while theoretically common on earth is concentrated in useable forms mainly in living organisms and in phosphate rocks (mostly fossils of dead organisms). The amount of free phosphorous pretty much dictates the carrying capacity of the planet and it is a real concern for food production as phosphates are a finite resource. Furthermore, additional sources of phosphorus need to be found if humanity is going to expand into space. such deposits are presumed to exist, but on Earth they seem to have been concentrated by biological action leaving a bit of a chicken-egg problem finding it off planet. Even without off planet colonization phosphorous shortages represent a potential disaster for human food supplies. There is discussion of peak phosphorus here, here and here.
Even if the perils of peak phosphorus are overstated, it IS a finite resource and most off planet settlements are going to require off planet sources of phosphorus if they are to expand. Phosphorus could well end up being something akin to the dilithium, quanticum 40,or spice Melange of the real future. The only extraterrestrial places that I've read that it exists in other than trace amounts is the above mentioned cloud layer on Venus and the red clouds of Jupiter (bound in phosphene).
This moves the notion of a floating city on Venus from technically feasible to potentially practical and indeed desirable. See, if the Soviet probes were correct, then there is, in Venus's lower atmosphere, phosphorus (in gaseous form) in greater concentrations than the ubiquitous sulfur. You'd need to pump up atmosphere near the surface, filter out the undesirable stuff and if its phosphoric acid then you have to take out the water and oxygen (I'm sure uses can be found for those) I don't know what reagents might be necessary but this represents a steady supply of phosphorous.
But wait...there's more. Venus has more sunlight than earth, a zillion times as much CO2, and about 4 times as much atmospheric nitrogen as Earth. There's also water to be had from the phosphoric and sulphuric acid. And remember you're better protected from meteor strikes and cosmic rays than on Earth. A Venusian phosphorus-gas mine could grow all its own food.
Art from Technica Molodezhi TM - 9 1971 a Soviet Science Magazine
In the longer term, expanding upon such floating farms, Venus could be the breadbasket of the solar system. All that stuff that can be got so much easier on Luna, Mercury, Mars or The Belt? Well, the cloud cities of Venus ought to be able to just buy them. Of course you have solar power out the wazoo so it's at least conceivable that such an outpost might make something useful out of the carbon in the CO2. Note too that the referenced report also mentions the apparent presence of gaseous iron compounds in the lower atmosphere which might be industrially exploitable as well. Finally, Venus has, as mentioned, well more that three Earths worth of nitrogen in its atmosphere. If Venus sold Mars an atmosphere, there'd still be enough left over for thousands of O'Neal Cylinders. Venus has the potential to be not only self-sufficient but an exporter of food, fertilizer and air.
Of course for any of that that to eventually come to pass we need to confirm the Soviet probe data and do close surveys of the planet. N.A.S.A. seems to be planning just that in the next decade.
This is awesome. Even putting aside the longer term speculations; the fact that N.A.S.A. is looking at innovative missions like this is truly heartening.
With regard to the more ambitious proposals, I think we should begin a movement to have high pressure gaseous phosphoric acid referred to by the trade name "Tibanna".
:While trying to hunt down a picture credit I discovered that there is an extensive disquisition on the topic of Venusian settlement and even terraforming from 2014 here.
UPDATE 2:
:Thanks to Pete Zaitcev in the comments there are some links to much earlier thoughts by John Goff on the matter regarding safe rocket recovery here and here as well as Venusian industrial chemistry here and here.
Crackerjack 2-D Science Babe is Rikka from Haganai
1
Enough floating cities and floating Solar arrays, and you'd end up with a planet-wide solar screen, which might well induce an ice age. Easier to mine ice than air I'd think. Condense the thicker parts of the atmosphere into glaciers Bob's-yer-uncle.
Posted by: jabrwok at Wed Oct 17 11:51:03 2018 (BlRin)
Posted by: Wonderduck at Wed Oct 17 14:49:25 2018 (OjmJE)
3
I just want to build some giant sunshades and screen Venus from sunlight for a few years. I figure it'll rain for many decades but once it has, the atmosphere will be a lot thinner.
Still not breathable, but thinner.
I just wonder how long it would take the surface to cool under the deluge.
Posted by: Ed Hering at Wed Oct 17 18:22:06 2018 (NcP+4)
Posted by: Mauser at Wed Oct 17 23:17:15 2018 (Ix1l6)
5
Jon Goff spent some attention on the problem of the material supply when you're surrounded by gas.
Honestly at this point I'm thinking maybe Mercury would be more amenable to colonies.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Fri Oct 19 13:34:22 2018 (LZ7Bg)
6
Mercury, at the poles is surprisingly amenable, there seems to be a lot of ice in the shadows there.
Outside the ices though, there are NO volitiles and it has Mars gravity. OTOH, even away from the poles it's ok to go exploring during the very long night.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri Oct 19 14:19:13 2018 (Oqyrj)
If one is in an online forum and something involving an issue that is on the borderline of the established rules requires a decision from a moderator, a call by the moderator that is against one's liking does not make the moderator a marxist. It means they are moderating...that is their job. They don't get paid. And on a large forum they are having to make a LOT of calls and do a lot of work as well as tend to their own lives so if one is told to stop pushing the envelope (which will then entice a whole bunch of edgelord shitposters to shitpost on the edge and make the mod's life even harder) then one should probably not go all derp-chan & call them a Marxist. A Marxist is every bit as bad as a Nazi and we ought not to throw these words around higgly piggly. Yes. I know. Some people do. A majority of them are Marxists. They're also dicks. Don't be a dick. I have confidence that one is better than that.
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