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Quote: Bob Schroeck wrote:
In that case, let's throw opal exportation into the economy articles. They ought to fetch a high price on Earth simply because of their origin.
For novelty's sake, at least. Opals don't have much industrial use, as far as I can tell, and they've been synthesized successfully.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com
"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."
Genuine Martian Opals... My mother would love that.
Yeah, it's really going to be that kind of appeal that will make them a good export. The combination of the source plus the relatively small volume of
transport from Mars will probably give them an artificially-inflated value, such as diamonds have thanks to deBoer's. (And of course, look for scam artists
to sell Daneside opals as "genuine Martian", too...)
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Hrm... There'd have to be a way of authenticating them, though. I'd imagine that there would be some sort of subtle difference that a competent jewler
can spot.
Or maybe not. There could be a story idea in tracking down scam artists selling bogus "Martial opals".
Or we could go all H. Beam Piper and say they have some odd polarization or what not that makes them opalesce differently from earth opals. Or glow. Or
something.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
The latter actually sounds plausible. Besides, if there really is no difference, then that sort of fraud can go on an awful long time before someone gets wise
to it. Anybody got a friend at NASA or something that can say anything about what differences there may be between Earth opals and Martian ones?
Quote:%[link=http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5jjnnio78MYmhWnWQRnIW5pF1P7bA]http://ukpress.google.com/article/ALeqM ... IW5pF1P7bA]
They have found a fungus in the Patagonia rain forest that, apparently, secretes diesel fuel.
Same story, different teller:
http://podcast.cbc.ca/mp3/quirks_20081108_9016.mp3]Quirks & Quarks (CBC radio) podcast (Link should be valid for about a month.)
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
The Hubble space telescope has taken the first visible-light photos of a planet around another star -- a superJovian shepherding a dust disk around Formalhaut.
Register story
here.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Article
here.
This would make terraforming Mars a whole lot easier, I would think.
Ebony the Black Dragon
http://ebony14.livejournal.com
"Good night, and may the Good Lord take a Viking to you."
Ya know, scientists have said that as humanity spread out accross the solar system, water is going to become the one greatest comodity, even more precious than
any other precious metal out there. I'm starting to think that this is not the case and that water-ice exists in abundance in our system.
Reminds me a little of Asimov's "The Martian Way", even...
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
Alarmists, the lot of them. Hydrogen and Oxygen are two of the most plentiful elements out there. Only makes sense that a good deal of it exists as water.
Hmm... Thoughts on reaction mass and why the Magnificent Midnight and her 'children' aren't 'gas guzzlers' - later though.
"Space isn't remote at all. It's only an hour's drive away if your car could go straight upwards."
-- Fred Hoyle
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin
And that should be the motto of Fenspace.
-- Bob
---------
Then the horns kicked in...
...and my shoes began to squeak.
another quote:
"I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it."
-- Thomas Jefferson
___________________________
"I've always wanted to be somebody, but I should have been more specific." - George Carlin
Which is why the Roughriders are going to be very much like the Confederate Freespacers of UF-verse. ^_^
The Register: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/04/xcor_deal/]US space outfit promises The Right Stuff experience
Yes, it's another company offering sub-orbital flights sometime in the future. But note their first customer: an investment banker who recently made the first tandem skydive over Mt. Everest, and wants to plant his country's flag on the Moon. He'd fit in wonderfully in Fenspace, right? Thing is, he's a Dane. No, not a 'Dane, a Dane...
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012
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