vger

Yeah, I don't even want to think about the kind of security checkpoints that would be involved in getting on board a nuclear-powered cruise ship. Though, some of those research vessels that go into the ice fields might be nuclear powered, and you can pay a huge sum to hitch a ride on one, which helps fund whatever work they're doing. I guess you could count that as a cruise.

There's so many different sub-debates that have happened in this thread, I can't even keep track of them.

Isn't there still the possibility that we'll end up sitting ducks during the transition while the sun continually spits at us?

This thread has inspired me to finally do a cheap photoshop that I've been meaning to make for quite a while. The REAL reason we stopped going to the moon.

Dude... kickstart that puppy.

--retracted in the name of civility--

I'd rather take something slower, provided that I'm not in a huge rush to get somewhere. Last time I had the opportunity, I opted to take a 3-day train ride across the country instead of a 3-hour plane flight. I didn't want to just experience the destination, I wanted to experience getting there. I don't regret that decision for a moment. It was one of the best travel experiences I ever had. Now, if only such things were still done for flight. I would love to ride a luxury prop aircraft like those that were used during the golden age of flight. Or even a blimp, like in 'Last Crusade.' To have a fancy dinner at an actual table while in transit would be amazing.

I feel it would have had even more dramatic effect if it had been included in the "LSD trip." The revelation of "what the monolith does" feels like it should be part of the climax of the film, not a prologue. Not that I have a problem with it at the beginning, mind you. It's just not what I would have done if I were making it. "Aliens seeding Earth" was probably a very foreign concept at the time, so it would've been fun to drop that in the laps of the audience after a couple of hours of "What the heck IS this thing?"

Plans to build a functional replica (presumably, without the rather serious design flaws of the original ) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titanic_II And... wrong forum section, methinks.

Not exactly the most reputable thing, but whatever. http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/thread993563/pg1 If anything, I must say I find it at least a little bit of an amusing concept. If you've got to build really big things out of heavy objects with minimal tech, might as well do it at the equator where things weigh a bit less.

Haven't cellphones (even without GPS) been used to locate lost people, through old-fashioned triangulation? And really, GPS communication isn't automatically a logical sign of a civilization. Perhaps that other civilization wasn't heavily-focused on making everything as easy as clicking a button. They could have had the foresight to see where that would inevitably lead. Or they could have just been elitist jerks and when someone first conjured up their equivalent of an Abacus, the elite order of holy know-it-alls smashed it and said "Do the damn math in your head!" Not saying I think this necessarily happened on Earth, but we need to accept that civilization could develop on a radically different path than our own. May not be so important for archaeology, but it certainly is when it comes to looking for E.T. "The Asguard can never invent a weapon that propels small weights of iron and carbon alloys by igniting a powder of Potassium nitrate, charcoal, and sulphur. We can not think like you." - Thor

Amazing how ALL speculation, eventually gets put on the same level as Russel's Teapot. That is an unjustified amount of insult. And people wondered why I've brought up Alfred Wegener before.

...need cameraman?

Yep, that's it. Thanks!

Yeah, I wish. The only reason I know this even existed is because I snagged a device (nobody cared about it, I asked) from one of my old temp jobs. They specialized in gas resources, so I'm guessing this was used for surveying. Basically looked like a big box (similar to a retro army radio) with a quartz screen and a huge retractable antenna. By the time I got around to playing with it, the old grid system was offline. I can't recall though if this system was international, or just limited to the USA. I'll have to see if I can find where I stashed the darned thing now. When I had it in my hand, I was able to find info about the 'grid' on Wikipedia, but that was a couple years ago. My memory is betraying me now.

jwenting, the algorithms present in media outlets these days do not help the situation at all. It doesn't take long for Yahoo to figure out what the political preferences of an individual are, and it will immediately begin 'censoring' the information it gives to him/her. The result is you only receive headlines that the site thinks you're likely to read. While this is great for getting clicks and popups for sponsors, it also gives you a polarized view of reality. One can quickly become cut off from counterpoints, and will only get the ideas they already have in their head, reinforced.

That all depends on when they were discovered... were they discovered by person A to be present in person B? Or did person A discover it in his/herself? I doubt anyone is capable of avoiding all of them consistently. Even just trying to catch yourself can break your train of thought in the midst of a verbal argument. It may be easy on the internet because you have ample time to prepare your response, but in live debate?

We had a "grid" of towers for navigation for quite a while. It only got shut down within the last 10 years.

Lajos, any idea why they put a diffracted fishbowl effect on that Vanera image? Maybe it's meant to be heat shimmer, but to me it almost looks like a photo taken with a crude microscope.

Oh yeah *facepalm* that whole "Morning Star" thing. Aaanyway, before we derail any further... Venus is now officially more forbidden than the Genesis Planet.

Venus is an analogue for Hera (Goddess of Fire), so... good enough.

My response was to how many CAN afford it. And bumming a ride with Russia's cosmonauts is a lot different from signing up for a flight that is INTENDED to be used by tourists. The former involves a lot more legal hurdles.

An easily sufficient number.

HAL, played by Ian Holm.

Well, DRM is a virus in my book