Showing posts with label Discoveries. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Discoveries. Show all posts

Thursday, July 10, 2008

Water on the Moon


Guess what! They found water on the Moon! Cascading rivers of it like the Niagara Falls over ancient cliffs creating kayak-friendly whitewater torrents downstream. How the hell did the astronauts missed it years ago? We could have had a Wynn’s Resort and Casino there already.

Water on the Moon? Oh really? That is what is being reported in today’s Nature magazine. Researchers led by geologist Alberto Saal from Brown University supposedly found traces of water molecules in pebbles brought back by Apollo missions between 1969 and 1972. I always thought pebbles are those semi-round, smooth-edged stones eroded that way by water and that pebbles or when you call them pebbles are usually associated with water. Now when these ‘stones’ that were brought back nearly 40 years ago from the Moon, were looked at, I can only presume the shape spurred geologist to call it pebbles in the first place. And if that argument is accepted then it could only mean that there was or is water on the Moon. How else would pebbles have been created? Why did it take 40 years for a team of geologist and geophysicist and who knows what other –gists to make that connection?

Saal also said that these pebbles were scattered 3 billion years ago when lunar volcanoes erupted. This guy is good. We can’t even tell who killed JonBenet Ramsey 11 years ago and only now they could tell that no one of the Ramsey family was involved in the murder and that the DA’s office fucked up a whole family’s life, but Mr. or Dr. Saal can tell what happened on the Moon 3 billion years ago and while he is 382,000 km from it and has never set foot on it. Can you maybe tell me Saturday’s lottery numbers? And maybe this water, with the Moon such a dry environment has long ago evaporated. Imagine what happens to water in the middle of the Sahara desert. It goes woof…all gone…in an afternoon. Even underground.

Now if there is water on the Moon, “This opens up so many lines of study” Saal said. Oh really? Let’s create a new curriculum for the last few dedicated science students left in the USA and let’s spend some valuable Dollars getting students to go into these “new lines of study”. It is such a worthwhile cause and so needed in our society and the freshly graduated students can go forth into the world with a major in Water on the Moon and find a job instantly.

Saal also mentioned it took 3 years to get minimal funding to bombard the pebbles with another series of tests. Somebody actually paid for this analysis? Probably used tax payers’ money on top of it. No right-minded, dumb-ass investor is going to give money for a this. Why should they? No one is going to pack up a water rig, supplies and team of riggers on the next lunar mission, tell them to drill and only report back when they found something. Hell, there is a struggle to find investors for known alternative and renewable energy sources right here on earth. Some things that can actually have a return on investment and better secure the future of earthlings.

Now I know the possibility of finding “real” lunar water on the Moon (I wonder what it would taste like) is a big deal for NASA (well maybe, I don’t really know) because they can extract the hydrogen as an energy source (but then they first need energy to do the extracting process, so they can just as well take the oil barrels with them to the Moon) and use the Moon as a viable springboard to travel to Mars, seeing that we’ve ran out of vacation destinations here on earth. But to really want us to believe there still is water on the Moon scientists will have to do a bit better than all these fanciful theories obtained from looking at 3 billion year old pebbles. I suppose it’s not much different than paleoanthropologists that find a 3 million year old finger bone in the Rift Valley and constructs a whole new species of humanoids and their habits from it.

Man I can’t wait for the Lunar Water from Coca-Cola Bottling Co. to appear on our groceries shelves. Not to mention the litter of a human mining operation on the Moon. We’ve got oceans of water here on earth too. Who gives a shit about speculation of water on the Moon?

The future lunar landscape? A forest of water rigs.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

Titanic Artifacts Exhibition

As is typical with many artifact exhibitions the drama of the décor and the music is far more dramatic than the artifacts themselves. The Titanic Artifact Exhibition I visited tonight here in Monterrey, Mexico is no different.

Luckily I was expecting something like that so no disappointment. After all, what can be expected after the artifacts spent 85 years under the freezing seas of the north Atlantic. Among the artifacts were hair brushes, smoking pipes, jewelry, shavers, cups and saucers and plates, coins and money notes (some blackened over the years) all in glass boxes. 300 small artifacts in total.

One of the things that really caught my eye was the old black and white photos, blown up to huge posters. In one, with the Titanic in the background, still being built in the dry dock, the workers were leaving the yard, all of them in black pants and black coats and white shirts. Either a uniform or clothes only came in black and white those days for low paid folks. Another photo was of the engineers pouring over blueprints in a huge sunlit room, also in black and white suits, except in this photo there was an odd engineer with a grey coat on. One of the real surprises was a recovered men’s suit, still in reasonable good condition.

As usual no photo taking was allowed, but that had never stopped me from snapping a few secretly.
Reproduction of the Titanic's Veranda Cafe.

Replica of a 3rd class cabin. At $35 ticket / $620 in today's money, sharing with 3 other occupants that most likely spoke different languages. 1st class tickets were $4,500 / $78,950 in today's money.

Supper bowls of the Titanic as it was found on the seafloor.