Space...GET ME THERE NOW Part 2

 

Bye bye

In my last post I went on for a bit about how, if we stay on this planet too long, something will inevitable make us a permanent part of the fossil record. A shift in global climate, asteroid, a Palin-Trump presidency, something will put an end to us as a species. Unless we leave. It doesn't need to be all of us, or even most of us. Just enough of us, so that if things do go south here on Mother Earth, it won't be the end of us as a species. But now that that is settled, the situation becomes a bit tricky.

The difficulties with manned space travel are numerous. First and foremost comes the issue that humans don't take too well to extended periods of weightlessness. The Russian cosmonauts who stayed on the space station for a year turned into little more than porcelain dolls. Depending on thrust technology and timing of the launch a space craft can reach Mars in as little as 130 days. But then comes the problem that once outside of Earths magnetosphere, any ship becomes the proverbial bug in the petri dish for the Suns radiation storms. We haven't even touched the problems of food, oxygen and water. One solution would be to put all the passengers into some type of hibernation (cryogenic or otherwise) but that would be highly energy intensive and the ship would still require a crew to maintain it and intervene should something unforeseen happen. So that would just leave us at square one. Plus the problem of all the machinery and equipment that is needed once the colonists arrive at their destination. It all looks to be an incredible money sink for something that has an ROI just short of infinity. How on earth would we be able to make this cheaper and therefore more achieveable.

You probably not like the answer. We will have to become much better at genetic manipulation.

 Genetic manipulation on the human level is something that is very controversial right now. GMO's (Genetically Modified Organisms) are still fighting a losing battle for acceptance in Europe,w here they are often portrayed as some sort of evil corporate scheme that only Ming the Merciless would cook up. Truth is, genetic modification is liable to be the next great achievement of humanity. Something that will make the it possible to grow crops that don't require pesticides because they are immune to all pests and blights. Naturally, there is always a possibility of it going horribly wrong. You just need to read Paolo Bacigalupi's The Windup Girl  for a look at a world caught in the grip of ruthless food companies that engineer crop blights to kill off competition. 

However, for the purposes of our argument, genetic modification is something close to the silver bullet. You don't need to worry too much about radiation and muscular/skeletal atrophy due to weightlessness, if you can breed a generation of colonists who are naturally more resistant to radiation and are meant for a weightless environment. Instead of a horribly expensive and energy hungry hibernation system, why not modify colonists to hibernate naturally? We could land a colony ship on Mars, filled with humans who are already adapted to many of the conditions there. What about radiation resistant food stuffs? Or plants with hyper-accelerated CO2-O2 exchange rates? There goes your need to design, test and build a complex air scrubber system or concern yourself about the oxygen supply once you arrive. 

The idea of meddling around with our genes is a very scary notion to most people, particularly the religious and those who have read Auldus Huxley's Brave New World and were scared shitless by it. But much like the social attitude towards homosexuality, television, the internet and cellphones, it will quickly cease to be controversial and will become banal and ordinary. And that day will come when genetic modification becomes cheap. The benefits are just too numerous for it not to become accepted. The ability to eliminate heredity diseases, boost children's immune systems, make us smarter and stronger.. Eventually, we will probably have something like a genetic Moore's Law: that every generation will have twice the genetic advantages and abilities than their immediate ancestors. It is, to quote one of my favorite movie villains, inevitable. As with all things, there may be a significant downside to all this. Science fiction and pop culture is teeming with warnings about the dangerous of "playing God". I take a much more pragmatic approach to this argument. Of all the species that have walked this tiny blue planet, 99% are extinct. If we wish to be part of that 1% that endures, we must seieze every advantage with the ferociousness of a starved man fighting for survival. Because we are. If that means that we must alter ourselves are a genetic level, and then leave our home planet, than we would be fools not to avail ourselves of our ability to do so. 

Charles Darwin's most famous and most misunderstood description of evolution was "survival of the fittest". We as humans will soon have the ability to make ourselves the fittest, no matter the situation. No matter the planet.

Space...GET ME THERE NOW! Part 1

A few weeks ago, I was watching an episode of Real Time with Bill Maher. His special guest that night was astrophysicist, bon vivant and man about the town Neil DeGrasse Tyson, a man so charismatic and knowledgeable that I am frankly appalled he hasn't been made Science Czar of the United States. (His weekly radio show Star Talk, can be heard as a pod cast. To say I highly recommend it would be a vile understatement.) Mr. Tyson was there to talk about all things spacey and climate change, and at one point had to defend the need for NASA and the space program to his host. Mr. Maher, apparently, believed that such an extensive and expensive program was unnecessary given the problems on on terra firma, and additionally stated that any sane American ought to oppose a man trip to Mars simple because it was brought to life by former President George W. Bush.

I very nearly put my fist through my computer screen. Which would have been monstrously unfair of me, as my computer has done nothing to deserve such treatment. Mr. Maher on the other hand would have deserved the black eye.

There are times when I find my world turning into something out of Carrol's Wonderland, and those times generally seem to involve whenever Republicans are defending the space programs against Democrats. It is the one instance I can think of, where conservatives defend science against progressives. At close to 30, I still have not been able to silence the cognitive dissonance this creates. It seems to me, that when listed in order of importance the ability to leave this planet, should the environment become toxic for us or a asteroid the size of Mexico City decides to nestle in Pacific Ocean, would far, far outrank the public sector unions right to hold everyone hostage if they don't get their 2.5% raise. While this may seem callous of me, my reasoning is fueled by a very certain and frightening fact.

In the history of our planet: there have been five mass extinction events. Of those, the last one, the Cretaceous-Tertiary event was the asteroid impact that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. Lesser extinction events have been recorded as well, which means in those instances only  less than 50% of animal and plant life died. Going to the Wikipedia page for "Extinction event" is a chilling undertaking. Half way down the page, one of the reasons for a significant die off is listed as "Sustained and significant global warming". Fuck those lousy politicos with their "the science isn't all in" prevarication. Scientists don't need to be sure about the cause of an event to know if it will kill us all. 

My point, is that for us as a species to survive, we have to get off this rock. Soon. I would love to see NASA grab a slice of the Defense budget. I am pretty sure that with 100 billion annually at their disposal, those walking Pentium processors would be able to build us one hell of a Mars base by 2025. Question remains then, how will we survive once we get there?

Things I like...AND YOU SHOULD TOO!!

The Bugle! Audio Newspaper for a visual World!

For a little over a year and a half now, The Bugle has been my favorite podcast. I would even go so far as to say that it is indeed, the best podcast in the history of the world ever. Amen. The basic premise of the 'cast is that John Oliver (pictured on the left, him of The Daily Show fame) and his friend Andy Zaltzman (of whom I can honestly say, I had never heard of before). Every week, these two jokers get together (via the internet) and take the piss out of global current events. I guess a more genteel way of putting it would be that they highlight the absurdities of international events, Often using pretty awful puns. Luckily the puns don't overshadow the avalanche of awesome that generally follows.

The show roughly follows the format of a news show, with segments dedicated to current events, sports and listener emails, as well the occasional guest commentator. The duo does have a stable of favorite targets that generally consists of dictators of the ridiculous variety (Hugo Chavez, Col. Gadaffi, Kim Jong Il), sports stars heralding from the lunatic fringe (Delonte West) and Italian Prime Minister and lecherous octogenarian satyr Silvio Berlusconi. The "occasional guest commentator" I mentioned earlier takes the form of The American, a caricature portrayed by comedian Rory Albanese (a producer at The Daily Show) who is basically every stereotype of a Newark resident combined with a dictionary of American exceptionalism and xenophobia.

Completing this confederacy of dunces is the producer Chris, who only recently took over the position from his predecessor, Tom the Producer. Bugle listeners welcomed the new arrival by inundating the poor bastard with so many good natured "fuck you" emails that the movement metastasized into a website. Which just shows you what types of asshats listen to The Bugle, and why I am proud to count myself among them.

In essence, it is hysterically funny, it comes on every week and you all should listen to it. Do it. I am waiting. SUBSCRIBE YOU BASTARD!

How I know the Verse has a sense of humor

Far back in the day, when I was no more than a strapping young lad in high school, my family got caught up in the Magnetic Poetry fad. For those of you who have been blessed and have forgotten this particularly insipid little fad, it involved many words printed on small magnets that you could then place on your refrigerator (in our case, a flat radiator) and then arrange the words as you saw fit. As is human nature, most of illuminating sonnets that were produced consisted of nothing more than dirty phrases about "boobs" and various bodily functions. Occasionally someone would be struck by the pretentiousness virus and try to put up something deep and meaningful, but thankfully that was a rare occasion.

Luckily, as it always is with such gimmicks, our interest waned. We left the magnets on the radiator because frankly, we couldn't be arsed to take them down. My mother started using them to hold several of her favorite pictures in place. The majority were severely pixelated print outs of our dog. One day I came back to my parents house, was surprised to find it had all disappeared. Magnets and pictures seemed to have evaporated. Only one word seemed to have survived this mysterious purge. Now, every time I walk past it I can't help but think that the cosmos is somehow trying to tell me something.

I also grin.

The Reduced Star Wars

A long time ago, on an island not too far away, but it would still be questionable if you would want to go there, a trio of unbelievably geeks (though not the original, only one of those) were granted permission to apply their unique brand of comedy/faffing about to the works of one George "The Bearded Hutt" Lucas. Thus shielded from the dark legions of the LucasArts Legal department, the went on a bit of a tear and produced for our viewing pleasure Star War Shortened!!

Should be viewed for many reasons but foremost among them:
"Hi, this is my student Obi Wan Kenobi and I'm Liam Neeson!"
Episode II presented entire with acoustic guitar
Flow charts
A tent standing in as Jabba the Hutt
Rotating tassels

PLUS the entire series broken down in less than 60 seconds!

Oh Reduced Shakespeare Company.  You make life bearable.

Part The First


Part the Second

Just what I am listening to...

I have been on a bit of a music binge as of recently, and my obsession has been fixed in two oxymoronic directions. First we have the group The Glitch Mob.

A electronic trio hailing from the West Coast of the United States, ediT, Boreta and Ooah mix some seriously sick beats. I first stumbled upon their music when I found a video one of their fans had created in homage of the group, mixing together snippets of dozens of movie trailers. (I included the vid below.) After watching the thing once I went and checked out their website and was delighted to find that they offer a bunch of music for free. This includes several remixes and half hour mash ups. I also downloaded their debut album Drink The Sea from Amazon and I heartily recommend it to anyone who likes music like Daft Punk.

My second musical obsession of the moment is a french soul & funk prodigy Ben L'Oncle Soul. A frenchman from Tours, Ben L'Onkel actually wanted to call himself Uncle Ben, but changed his nome de plume due to fears of copyright infringement and possibly lawyers.

Taken under contract by Motown France ( I know! O_o), Ben L'Oncle has made it his thing to bring that old school Motown feel back. His music, his clothing even the artwork on his album cover, all of it screams Motown. The music is a mix of French and English, covers and original work. Some of the choices for covers seem odd (Seven Nation Army by The White Stripes, Red Hot Chili Peppers The Other Side) but the guy manages to pull it off, giving each rendition something new and making it fit. I included his Seven Nation Army cover to give you a taste.




BEN L'ONCLE SOUL from yamoy on Vimeo.


Here are the album covers and some additional artwork. Just because I like it and no one seems to be willing to stop me.

The Glitch Mob Drink The Sea

Bem L'Oncle Soul, (Eponymous)

Ohhh Interesting!!

A peninsula ON ANOTHER PENINSULA!

So, I was a little caught off guard when it was announced that Qatar would be hosting the the 2022 World Cup. Now I believe I was ahead of roughly 70% of the Earth's population, given that I knew that Qatar was a country, one of those small oil rich Arab peninsula countries . Oh, and conservative in a way that would give the right wing of the Republican party a three hour erection.

As I am always at least making a token effort to expand my admittedly pitiful base of knowledge before I am flung from this life with the force and disgust of French chef disposing of some low grade American hot dogs that had recently turned, I ventured onto the Wikipedia page for Qatar to give myself at least a superficial idea of what the country is all about.

Okay I also checked CIA Factbook.