space

Why Colonize Mars?

“Because it’s there!”
-George Mallory, English mountaineer

Mars is a barren wasteland devoid of life. There’s nothing there, even less than in the average Earth desert. There is no air to breathe, no water, no arable soil on which to grow crops. It’s just a big empty ball of dust and rock.

A lot of people ask (and with good reason): Instead of wasting massive amounts of valuable resources on some dream project with no apparent value, dumping tons of CO2 into the atmosphere in the process, why not instead spend the money improving life here on Earth?

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Gun Control: What’s The Problem?

The United States is one of the most heavily armed places on Earth, measured per capita.  There are places that have been in civil war for long enough that all noncombatants have fled; they are less heavily armed than we.  And we see the results on the news on a daily basis, it seems; just the other night there was another mass shooting, an apparent ambush at a backyard barbecue.

So gun control appears to be a logical necessity.  Why is there even debate on the subject?

I’ve examined some statistics that may give us an answer, as well as a possible course going forward.  I’ll warn you now, though:  The answers I arrived at are vastly different than the ones I at first expected. (more…)

The Science Of Planets: The Flat Map

The Science Of Planets:  Why Is The Map Cluster Flat?

Greetings, students.  In case you missed the previous lesson, I am Elder Kh’preng, Servant of the Web, former envoy of the Crystal Confederation, and your instructor in this series of introductory classes on the science of the Nu Era.  Again, I’d like to remind you of my policy, that questions are not permitted during class.  If you wish to ask me something in private, just pass through the web outside my office door during the posted hours.

Perhaps the most confusing aspect of warfare in the Echo Cluster, at least to atmospheric pilots, is that interplanetary travel is represented two-dimensionally (more…)