Moral. Never trust a Plymothian travel agent.
1 Like
I visited Roanoke Island a few years ago. Not disimilar to Lopwell in many ways, descended into disaster after a short period of excessive drinking & barbecued meat. We daren’t ever let the Lopwell gathering stretch further into Sunday or people will simply go native.
3 Likes
Bluddy journalists: although it’s true that all kinds of solar radiation will be a big issue on mars, the Earth’s magnetosphere mainly protects us from charged-particle bombardment, it’s chiefly our atmosphere that reduces gamma radiation to life-compatible levels. Where it gets confusing (I’ve just read) is when gamma radiation is emitted from the collision of solar charged particles interacting with atmospheric gases…
I also hadn’t realised that Mars’ magnetospheric history isn’t known beyond conjecture - if it’s always been weak and patchy then the chances of life (as we know it, Jim) ever existing there are of course negligible. What is known, is that it is uneven - described as “bubbles” - within which conditions will be a little more conducive to life.
Notwithstanding, we have lifeforms (e.g. tardigrades) on this planet that can cope with enhanced levels of radiation, ionic bombardment &c, even space-level vacuums, and survive to breed in kinder conditions, so even if there’s never been anything there, I’m fairly sure we’ll be able to genetically-engineer Mars-tolerant lifeforms. Farming them (and thriving ourselves) will be another tier of ingenuity altogether, but we’ll do it eventually.
Surely there must already be some Mars resistant life forms in Lincolnshire?
Not enough rain and mud for 'em - but you’re right otherwise…
Mmmm, tardigradeburger.
1 Like
Quite a nice article for the layperson, including some decent analogies - entropy etc.
2 Likes
Makes more sense than this.
He has a good go at it, for lay people. But it might be worth taking just one more step with the entropy story. He’s pointed out that it gives an arrow to time and that, overall, entropy in closed systems increases. Overall. But that doesn’t have to be true locally. Parts of the system can go the other way and become more ordered, just as long as other parts make up for it by becoming even more disordered. Hence metal ore becoming (most of) a Garrard 301 and the primordial ocean eventually delivering up @Mrs_Maureen_OPinion .
1 Like
That is just one of many current theories and by no means attracts the majority of scientific support.
1 Like
In any case, it is not certain whether that is an example of decreasing disorder.
Surely you meant
1 Like
Alas, no.
Doc says it’s too late to start on the hormones and I should just enjoy being a cunt rather than owning one…
Ah well, at least I’ve got the tits 
3 Likes
…and the feet. 
1 Like
I hate you.
So much 
1 Like
@Valvebloke
Just what are you up to in your garden shed?
Is it a commission from Pete to create a power supply for his next DIY project?
I’ve got a mate who works there. I really ought to see if I can get a look round (he once asked me, in some seriousness, about the possibility of using very large valve amps as a component of a piece of plasma diagnostic kit, for pretty much the same reason that the Russians used them in their fighter aircraft - hardness against pulsed electromagnetic field damage).
Given that they’re only a few miles away, and the prevailing wind direction is roughly from their site to the town, I’m also mildly curious about their inventory of tritium gas.
3 Likes
I imagine it would be a fascinating thing to see,
Would you need to wear lead underpants?
I hope mankind can crack practical nuclear fusion as it would be a massive game changer for reliable zero carbon power generation.