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Subject: SPACE Digest V9 #458

SPACE Digest                                      Volume 9 : Issue 458

Today's Topics:
             Article by Karl Hess
    Rate of Extinction (was Re: Asteroids and Dinosaurs )
            re: Space food sticks
         Re: Sun's invisible partner NEMESIS
            Re: Minimalist design
            Re: asteroid almost hits earth
       Re: Extinctions: Asteroids and Dinosaurs (WHY?)
               Re: Extinctions
            Sci.Space.Shuttle (?)
       Memes: can memetic theory explain this episode?
         Re: Sun's invisible partner NEMESIS
                Spencer Report
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Date: Mon, 22 May 1989 16:16-EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Article by Karl Hess

FYI: Libertarian Party News, May/June 1989, p3

        ++++++++++++++

    Tools of Technology are Tools of Liberty
        by Karl Hess

Never has it seemed more clear that the tools of technology are indeed
the tools of liberty.

Look at the major advances swirling radiantly on the edge of our
futures: cold fusion, superconductivity, practical space travel,
nanotechnology, genetic engineering, and the endless bounty of
information storage, retrieval and transfer.

The list alone is enough to cause a libertarian to cheer.

Every one of those advances has come farthest in those places where
people are the most free to pursue independent and individual research.
None has emerged specifically because of a socialist or command economy
or social system. The space travel item, admittedly, is a bit iffy. It
has in fact, been a scoialist enterprise so far even in this country.
But what of @i(practical) space travel, the sort of technology that
will get the next century's pioneers out into the asteroid belt to mine
and build?

The age of non-state space travel is just beginning. There's no reason
to believe that the efforts of independant people will not exceed the
efforts of bureaucratized people in space travel as they have in every
other area where the two have contended.

Think of the libertarian implications of the whole array. Cold fusion
opens up a vast energy base that should end the politics of petroleum
and uranium and put energy squarely back into the free market.
Superconductivity envisions ways to use and move energy efficiently,
everywhere and anywhere - perhaps dealing new blows to the increasingly
useless notion of national boundaries.

Nanotechnology, manufacturing at the atomic level, envisions a world in
which purpose can quickly and materially turn into plan by rearranging
and and redirecting the basic particles of the inorganic world, in ways
roughly comparable to the already burgeoning pricesses of doing that in
the organic world through genetic engineering.

The wonderfully "subversive" impact of information-spreading, even in
socialist lands, or in the private and public bureaucracies of
democracies, is well known and does not seem stoppable.

For members of the Libertarian Party, whose work, by definition, is
political, these matters may seem uselessly distant from the immediate
concerns of repealing bad laws, defeating worse ones, and getting our
neighbors even to listen.

Everyone certainly senses how greatly the world is changing and how
rapidly. Libertarian common sense is more and more a shared common
sense. Yet it certainly cannot hurt to have at least in our own minds a
vision of the future that takes all of the magnificent technology into
consideration.

Libertarians can surely and passionately expand on the old adage and
proudly say that we "think galactically and act locally."

------------------------------

Date: 22 May 89 22:22:09 GMT
From: xanth!nic.MR.NET!thor.acc.stolaf.edu![e-mail]  (James S. Larson @ St. Olaf College)
Subject: Rate of Extinction (was Re: Asteroids and Dinosaurs )

There has been recent discussion as to the rate of extinction of species.
Some sources said that the rate was only a few dozen a century.  While
that may have been true in the past, the rate has increased dramatically
this century.

According to Gaia: An Atlas of Planet Management (edited by Dr. Norman
Meyers, 1984), the annual rate of extinction was less than 1 before
1900.  In 1950 it grew to 6/yr.  In 1975 it was 400/yr.  The projection
for 1990 was 10,000/yr. and the forecast for 2000 was 50,000/yr!!!!

They say "Current estimats suggest that we are losing one species a day
from the 5-10 million species thought to exist.  By the time human
populations reach some sort of ecological equilibrium with their
one-Earth habitat, at least a quarter of all species could have
disappeared."  (p. 155)

This is getting off the topic of the newsgroup, but it illustrates that
we don't need to wait for a one-in-a-million-years asteroid in order
to destroy life on earth.

--
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
| Jim Larson            |    "What?  You mean behind the rabbit?"  |
| [e-mail]    |        -Monty Python and the Holy Grail  |
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------

------------------------------

Date: Mon 22 May 89 16:00:56-PDT
From: Brian Keller <[e-mail]>
Subject: re: Space food sticks

< vax5![e-mail] talks about getting the recipe for space
  food sticks >

Yummy!!  I just barely remember eating space food sticks when I was real
little, but they sure were good.  Remember how they had peanut butter,
chocolate, chocolate fudge, and another flavor or two!  My mom says they
became more and more expensive until nobody bought them anymore, so Pilsbury
stopped making them.  Hard to believe they could be very expensive.  If you
ever find out a recipe, let me know.  Maybe that's how I first became
interested in the space program - eating astronaut food as a little kid!

                                                    Brian S. Keller
-------

------------------------------

Date: 22 May 89 21:45:48 GMT
From: oliveb!tymix!3comvax![e-mail]  (Michael McNeil)
Subject: Re: Sun's invisible partner NEMESIS

In article <[e-mail]> Jef Poskanzer <[e-mail]> writes:
}In the referenced message, [e-mail] (Henry Spencer) wrote:
}>Last I heard, this idea was no longer taken seriously by most people.  It
}>appears unlikely that Nemesis's orbit would be stable against perturbations
}>by other stars over billions of years.
}
}It doesn't have to be stable for billions of years, just for the few
}hundred million that we can see in the fossil record.  This specious
}objection comes straight from a Nature editorial, by the way.
}
}Read "The Nemesis Affair: A Story of the Death of Dinosaurs and the
}Ways of Science", by David M. Raup, 1986.  Read "Nemesis: The Death Star",
}by Richard Muller, 1988.  Then decide.

I haven't read these books, admittedly.  However, would you
mind informing me how Nemesis could possibly have gotten into
a stable (or otherwise) orbit around the sun, if it *wasn't*
an original companion of the sun since the sun's formation?

>            Jef Poskanzer   [e-mail]   ...well!pokey

--
Michael McNeil            [e-mail]
3Com Corporation        hplabs!oliveb!3comvax!michaelm
Mountain View, California    work telephone: [phone] x 208

    But what comes after?  What passes when all Creation
    is destroyed, when the gods are dead, and the chosen
    warriors, and the races of men?  ...  Will there be
    gods again; will there be any earth or heaven?
        *The Ragnarok*

------------------------------

Date: 23 May 89 06:11:34 GMT
From: voder!berlioz![e-mail]  (Information @ Any Price )
Subject: Re: Minimalist design

In article <[e-mail]>, [e-mail] (John Roberts) writes:
> ...The device is essentially a bare chip,
> glued to the back of the bee. A portion of the chip is doped to act as a solar
> cell, providing power...
> It is hoped that eventually various kinds of miniature "machinery" can be
> built onto the surface of a silicon wafer.

Ahhh - the primitive beginnings of miniature robotics glimmer dimly.
Soon roaches, wasps and hordes of safari ants under radio control descend
upon the unwitting...<fill in the blanks>. It sure beats having to develop
one's own actuators and stabilisation equipment. Now hand me that mantis
neuron map...!!....what's that on my leg? is it wired?
--
Andrew Palfreyman         USENET: ...{this biomass}!nsc!logic!andrew
National Semiconductor M/S D3969, 2900 Semiconductor Dr., PO Box 58090,
Santa Clara, CA 95052-8090 ; 408-721-4788         there's many a slip
                            'twixt cup and lip

------------------------------

Date: 23 May 89 06:39:41 GMT
From: agate!shelby!Portia!hanauma![e-mail]  (Joe Dellinger)
Subject: Re: asteroid almost hits earth

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (John K Hayes) writes:
>Would this not create the greatest of all earthquakes? I have read
>people's comments on meteor hits in the past, but have not seen any
>reference to this aspect of it.

    I'm not sure about REALLY big hits, but I can tell you that
with ordinary Earthquakes there is a practical upper limit to the amount
of shaking possible, at around 9.2 or so on the Richter scale. A very
few earthquakes achieve this (Alaska, 1964; Chile, 1963 (hope I have
the dates right)). If you pump in more energy beyond this it goes into
locally tearing up rocks, and doesn't propagate away as seismic waves.

    So I wouldn't expect meteors to cause damage far away from the
impact site by standard earthquake-style shaking.

    Incidentally, some geophysicists are waiting quite impatiently
for another mag 9 mega-quake. Such quakes excite the normal modes of the
Earth. For the Chile quake instruments were still recording the ground
all over the Earth moving up and down, up and down, about a millimeter
every hour, a month after the quake. The instruments are _much_ more
sensitive now! Piddling quakes like magnitude 6 or 7 aren't much good.
All the magnitude 7 quakes together sum to only a tiny fraction of
the energy release of one 8 or 9 quake. (Energy goes up about a factor
of 32 with each step on the Richter scale. Don't believe the papers when
they say 10. That number is for ground motion.)
\    /\    /\    /\/\/\/\/\/\/\.-.-.-.-.......___________
 \  /  \  /  \  /Dept of Geophysics, Stanford University \/\/\.-.-....___
  \/    \/    \/Joe Dellinger [e-mail]  apple!hanauma!joe\/\.-._

------------------------------

Date: 23 May 89 13:31:47 GMT
From: titan![e-mail]  (William LeFebvre)
Subject: Re: Extinctions: Asteroids and Dinosaurs (WHY?)

In article <[e-mail]> [e-mail] (Timothy D Margeson) writes:
>The current issue of Scientific American has an excellant article on the
>extintion matter.

So why is this stuff still being cross-posted to sci.space.SHUTTLE?
Is the shuttle going to become extinct because of an asteroid?

            William LeFebvre
            Department of Computer Science
            Rice University
            <[e-mail]>

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 23 May 1989 12:54-EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Re: Extinctions

> I've read that the current rate of extinction is about 15 species/century --

This number has got to be wrong. Maybe 15 Chordata species per century.
There are probably more than 15 insect species lost per year in the
Amazon ALONE since the Brazilian government started shipping its
"surplus population" out to slash and burn.

------------------------------

Date:     23-MAY-1989 15:35:57 GMT
From: [e-mail]
Subject:  Sci.Space.Shuttle (?)
Site:     Topical Paradise, KCL London, England
Sender: Malc <[e-mail]>


I've just finished wading through 40 of the latest back issues, and
I found and subsequently lost ;-) a reference to Sci.Space.Shuttle.
Please would someone send me the subscription e-mail address for it.

Re: UFO saga.
    The highly credible British Newspaper the "Sunday Sport" regularly
carries stories of UFO contacts and ET wierdness. (Usually sandwiched between
pictures of topless 'ladies')
"How to tell if your Grandmother is an Alien"
"World War II bomber found on Moon"
So let us PLEASE confine UFO 'discussions' to such reputable and respectable
publications, and spare our humble Sci.Space. :-)
                        Malc

Disclaimer: My friends may purchase items of the above mentioned, I just
        read what they stick on my door ;-)

------------------------------

Date: 23 May 89 02:54:15 GMT
From: amdahl!drivax![e-mail]  (MacLeod)
Subject: Memes: can memetic theory explain this episode?

From my modest readings in Memetics I think that the writers are reifying
significance out of little real substance.  But I could be wrong.  In any case,
I'd like to see a memetic analysis of one of my favorite stories in
cultural anthropology.  Aside from any facts I may have garbled, the story is
real.

The US maintains one or more isolated research stations at or near the
South Pole, where they recieve few visitors and where radio conditions are
such as to prevent contact with the rest of the world for long periods.
According to the story, there are two shifts sent there, a summer shift and
a winter shift.  The winter shift has, as one might imagine, the harder time,
spending virtually six months underground in artificial conditions.

One fall the winter team was checking in.  They arrived with their personal
gear and a supply of cultural artifacts designed to entertain and divert
them during their stay.  VCR machines and videotapes were very popular.

After some time the crew had looked at all the available tapes, theirs
and their friends, and were starved for input.  Then some genius took
three of the VCRs and the stack of tapes and began to create a sort of
vernacular art-form consisting of snips of this and that.  According to
the story, he used westerns, Disney movies, pornography, and recordings
previously made from television, among other sources.  It was spliced together
to form a two-hour long, uh, "media event".

From reports, it was hilarious, and the crew watched it over and over.
And over and over.  Soon the dialogue which accompanied various scenes
began to creep into conversations at the base; doings and events were
described in terms of events from the tape.  The tape soon became the
yardstick with which life and activity was explained and rationalized.

One sees the punchline coming.  When the summer shift arrived, according
to the story, they could *hardly communicate* with the inhabitants.  Some
synergistic effect of the isolation, the mad genius of the tape's author,
and the personalities of the crew members had generated mass schizophrenia.

It might be instructive to get parallel analyses of this even from a
fundamentalist Xtian, a Scientologist, a General Semanticist, a Freudian
psychoanalyst, a memeticist, and Buckminster Fuller.  I wish it were
possible.

Michael Sloan MacLeod  (amdahl!drivax!macleod)

------------------------------

Date: 22 May 89 18:11:24 GMT
From: mcvax!ukc!strath-cs!glasgow!bru-cc![e-mail]  (M D Ayton)
Subject: Re: Sun's invisible partner NEMESIS

>Oh, come now!  I take it, Ed, that you will not consider Nemesis to
>exist unless/until it is directly observed.  Does this mean you won't
>accept the existence of electrons until someone takes a photograph of one?

No, and photographs can be faked - I may not even believe my very own mark I
eyeball!

B->

Martin.      [e-mail]
             [e-mail]

(PS For those who missed the smiley - I am joking)

------------------------------

Date: Tue, 23 May 1989 12:46-EDT
From: [e-mail]
Subject: Spencer Report

> NASA picks Martin Marietta to build the Flight Telerobotic Servicer for
> the space station.  [For those who don't know what this is, it's the
> $297M effort mandated by Congress to duplicate Canada's contribution to
> the space station.  Such wonderful things happen in times of tight budgets.]

I'm not sure which stench is stronger here. The smell of Pork or the
smell of Nationalism.

------------------------------

End of SPACE Digest V9 #458
*******************