Re: The Price of gasoline - was: Re: Ben Franklin dollars arrived

On Wed, 26 Apr 2006 00:40:57 GMT, someone@xxxxxxxxxxx (e) wrote:

In article <i5et425n9fd37a41httd1ojf1pfhpbh1dt@xxxxxxx>, Cliff <cliff50@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:


On Tue, 25 Apr 2006 22:49:59 GMT, someone@xxxxxxxxxxx (e) wrote:

In article <Xns97B04B0DCCA33WQAHBGMXSZHVspammote@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, bz
<bz+rcc@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

someone@xxxxxxxxxxx (e) wrote in news:4Ng3g.105869$Qb5.93860
@fe01.news.easynews.com:

is it dubai or bahrain that will run out in 8-9 years so the
king decided to build a luxury series of islands for
tourists? in the shape of a palm tree, they will rake in
more money than the oil and last a lot longer.
a king who takes care of his people. whoda thunkit?


We (tinw, but mankind as a whole in this case), MUST make it a global
priority to colonize near earth space and move our industries into space.

1) Energy is 'free' for the taking. Need more energy, make your solar
furnace mirror bigger.

2) 'Natural resources' are 'free' for the taking (catching, really.). Start
grabbing those 'earth orbit crossing asteroids' and refining them. This
removes the threat of one smashing into the earth and turns them into
refined metals, etc. You find one where ever it currently is, hang mirrors
on it that focus solar energy onto the surface and produce a jet of vapor.
Use that to change the orbit. Given enough lead time, you can 'bring home
the bacon' for very little expense. There will be only one scarce resource,
the human mind.

3) Once we have moved most of our industry and much of our population into
orbit, we can clean up the earth and turn it into park land. Bring back
some of the species we have extirpated.

4) We have a very small 'window of opportunity' in which to do the above
because we are about to use up the millions of years worth of solar energy
that 'nature' stored up for our use in getting 'out of the cradle' and into
space.

If we don't do it within the next 25 to 50 years, our descendents, in a few
hundred years, if there are any, will be subsistence farmers, cursing the
21st century idiots that left them a depleted, resource poor, and polluted
world.

They will do this until the next dinosaur killer comes along.

Then, some other species will evolve in a few hundred million years.
Perhaps they will be smarter than we were. I wonder what they will think of
our coins when they dig them up.




and don't forget what heinlein said,
earth is too fragile a basket for humanity to have all it's
eggs in.
one decent natural disaster and we's dead.
there should have been a permanent colony on the moon for 30
years. we had the technology then, but we seem to have lost
the impetus after 1969.
a marian colony should have been there for 20 years and we
damn well should have an interstellar ship building. could
have started it 20 years ago and then it would have been
finished in time for the new ion drive.
"aye captain, the whole asteroid's a spaceship and it's
powered by an ion drive. they could teach us a thing or
two!"
scotty, tos

I don't normally get into these discussions but I think one of the
last things we need to do is to go out into space. We have so much
land and so many resources under the oceans that we could feed
everyone in the world and probably power everything that would ever
need power.

I never could understand the need to spend billions on going into
outer space when we have so much unexplored under the seas and it
should cost a whole lot less to do something useful with it.
Cliff
plus, don't forget all the sunken ships with gold and silver pirate
treasure on them. We'd get the benefit of that, just keeping it on
track on RCC.

i know you understand the concept of serendipity. do you
realise that space exploration has added to the length of
human life? learning to survive in space has led to
discoveries that keep people alive; materials for joints,
artificial limbs, new medecines. space research has more
than paid for itself. do a little googling.
and again, one major disaster on earth could destroy the
entire human race. i believe intelligence may be rare in the
universe and despite many flaws, i think the human race
should survive.
and where is your sense of adventure? we can't even imagine
what's out there to benefit us. i believe there may be other
intelligent beings. be neat to meet them...or at least
communicate.
i can't believe the head in the sand stuff. damn, there's A
WHOLE UNIVERSE to discover. and it pays for itself.....!
there may be monetary unit we can't even dream of....

I guess we could dance in a circle all night long. I love the idea of
other planets. I know all about the inventions and discoveries from
space travel. I also know about the inventions and discoveries that
have come from under the seas. My head isn't in the sand, it's in the
water.

Going into space seems like taking a metal detector 100 miles from
home to search for something that a rumor says is there when your gut
tells you that if you're Jed Clampett and you are shooting at some
food in your own back yard and up comes bubbling crude oil, Texas tea.
My whole issue is that while space exploration is neat as can be,
exploration of our own planet is woefully missing. Since there is
more surface area under water than above water, what's to stop the
human race from going down, down, down below the seas. Tap into the
core for heat and energy. Collect the food from the deep. Imagine
the life forms that we haven't even seen yet. What's at the bottom of
the Marianas trench (spelling is not my forte').

Our president says we'll have cars running on hydrogen soon and we'll
get away from using gasoline. IF he's right, neat, if he's not, then
maybe all the money they are throwing at sending a probe way out, to
send back information way after we are all dead and new technology
will have already sent a probe past the last one, maybe that's not a
real good use of money.

Explore the seas. There is food there. There are elements there.
There may be cures there. Heck, if we could migrate down and populate
before the waves then anything short of the sun going nova or a meteor
hitting really hard, then maybe there wouldn't be any more world
disaster.

Dang, sorry, I don't normally wax this prophetic. It's a discussion I
love having. I'm old. I saw John Glenn go up, I saw the news reports
on the Russians going up, I've seen the extreme victories of people
from other countries working together in the international space
statioin, and I've also seen the terrible tradgedy when something goes
wrong. I've seen the news about American subs (The Thrasher) and subs
from other countries settling on the bottom, miles down and we can't
do anything. Every get undertaking requires taking great chances.

Cliff

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