Recalled to life…

Ok, so that’s false advertising, I sincerely doubt I’ll really get myself up to that much more posting before, oh, say….August? Working full-time = teh suck.

But here’s what I looked like last Saturday evening, yay!

my problem

this is how you get my body, peeps. sitting around eating oreos.

Ain’t it just?

I know my blog has been boring lately, so here’s a complementary boring photo of me looking bored.

Impeccable logic, I know. Maybe my next photo will actually be pretty in some way, not just a lame attempt to compensate for the overabundance of nothingness.

best friends

what space is lacking

I really don’t think space tourism is the way forward. Tourism today is one of the world’s largest industries, but it is a luxury industry, something that profits off of other things. Tourism will not bring people to a lasting habitation in space.

No, for a permanent human colony to finally be established in space, space needs an economy which is exports-driven. The moon, for instance, contains many useful metals, including iron and titanium. On the moon, gravity is approximately one sixth that of the Earth–meaning it will take only a fraction of the energy to mine. The velocity needed to escape the moon’s gravity is only one sixth of that of the earth, so moon-orbital vehicles would not be excessively cost-prohibitative. From lunar orbit, the mined resources are sent to the earth, where only gravity and a careful guidance system are necessary to guide them to a controlled landing zone, allowing for instant shipment to nearly anywhere on the globe.

Initially, this would be unprofitable, because it will be vastly more expensive to create and maintain the necessary presence in space than can possibly be reaped from mining the materials. However, as the operation scales up, the cost-earnings ratio swings the other way.

Humans would live originally just on the moon, and only a few–probably less than twenty. Shipments would go directly to lunar orbit, and then to the Earth. Eventually, though, it will become realistic to expand to multiple mines. Shipments going to lunar orbit will collect at a geosynchronous satellite; the satellite’s purpose will be to combine shipments for increased efficiency in their journey to Earth. A base will be established in geosynchronous Earth orbit to receive these shipments; then, rather than falling destructively to the earth, the mechanism used to transport the shipments can unload and return to the lunar satellite, acting as a cargo ship. A less expensive, more disposable entry vehicle will be used to allow the payload to descend to the Earth.

Much of this can be robotized, but as the operations scale up some human hands will need to be around for the maintenance and repairs that machines just aren’t versatile enough to handle. A small crew will be established at each satellite, and continue on the bases on the moon. Eventually a lunar city will allow miners the opportunity to socialize beyond their limited ten-man bases; it will be a nexus, providing fresher food and products from the earth than can be supplied to distributed small centers all over the moon. As the moon grows, so will the necessary support in space. Eventually, the space satellites themselves will need to expand beyond small ten-person crews; they will become a customer for the lunar exports, using them to build space stations and colonies.

On the moon, on the first human bases, cosmic radiation will be a significant problem. Miles of atmosphere shield the Earth from cosmic (and other kinds of) radiation; but the moon’s atmosphere is relatively negligible. Instead, to prevent damage from cosmic radiation, lunar bases will be constructed hundreds of feet underground, allowing the mass of the moon to provide shielding. Given that the purpose of the bases are to mine, digging equipment is necessary anyhow; this solution also provides for cheap and easy material to make walls, given that the moon itself can be used. A small tunnel will allow surface access when necessary, and to send and receive shipments. Originally, all food and similar perishables will be imported from the Earth.

When the satellites are established in lunar and terrestrial geosynchronous orbits, they originally may only require the occasional human visitor for maintenance; when they require a constant small crew, that crew will survive cosmic radiation and muscular decay using the same techniques current astronauts do–leaving. The crews will work in shifts, spending their downtime on the Earth under normal conditions, with limited exposure.

The lunar city, too, will be developed underground for safety from exposure to cosmic radiation. At this point, the mining crews will begin staying for longer shifts, rather than traveling back to the Earth after only a few weeks. In the lightened gravity of the moon, excercise will be tremendously important to delay muscle atrophy; the lunar city will provide new and improved devices for simulating artificial Earth gravity, perhaps something Ferris-wheel sized and shaped, but used at such speed to create centripetal force at a ninety degree angle to the moon’s “down.” Here, miners will be able to experience the Earth’s gravity for hours or even a few days of off-time at a time, as well as picking up on other resources. The lunar city will provide water to the miners by melting the moon’s ice; as it expands, it will contain its own greenhouses, using the appropriate wavelengths of artificial light and irrigation to grow plants for both a more oxygen/carbon dioxide exchange and for fresh food. Lower gravity will likely have a pronounced effect on such food, but the most easily forseeable effect is that it would be capable of growing larger more quickly, which simply makes the process desirable.

As the moon’s mining operation grows, so will the need for permanent settlements in space. Given the hazards and problems of space, a dedicated colony would need to be massive and probably circular; it would rotate to use centripetal force for artificial gravity, and its walls would include millions of tons of lunar dust, exported simply to provide mass between the vulnerable humans inside and the cosmic radiation outside; a densely packed wall, a hundred or more feet in depth, will surround the colony and make it survivable.

This colony, too, will be a city, but unlike the lunar city it will be able to rotate freely and easily, allowing for an easily adjustable simulated level of gravity. It will also begin to grow plants for food and fresher air; it will attract tourists; perhaps, if situated in Earth orbit, it will be only a short hop from a space elevator or low-orbit docking platform for limited altitude vehicles. Eventually it will move from being just a waystation or re-exporter of moon raw materials to a manufacturing center; factory peripherals outside the main colony, not rotating and thus without any gravity at all, can easily move and assemble dense loads; the energy saved by not having to fight Earth-level gravitational forces in manufacturing will be tremendous, and the colony can take advantage of this. It will be a research platform, enabling all kinds of research that cannot be performed in a gravitational environment. Solar panels, unhindered by Earth atmosphere or climate, will provide tremendous amounts of energy; waste product can be easily ejected on a projectile path towards the sun, rather than taking up landfill space or emitting toxic gasses while being burned.

Based on the initial crude design, a commercial developer will decide to build a bigger, better, more efficient colony, based on a vastly improved design, and attract permanent residents. Competing colonies will be established, in space orbit and below the moon’s surface, and before too long perhaps Mars’ moons will be mined as well; eventually Mars itself, despite its greater gravity, could become an export center for raw materials. Privately owned freight haulers will ply the void, carrying passengers and cargo between colonies in space and on the moon. Companies will provide flights to space, or rides on the space elevator, and transport from low-Earth-orbit satellites to the colonies. Small spacecraft will marketed to individuals, first freight captains, then bored aristocrats looking for new thrills, then entry-level models to the public. People can once again live on the frontier beyond human civilization, visiting only for trade and necessary supplies before returning to freedom once more. Humankind will branch out and exist beyond just the confines of Earth, able to visit home but not limited any longer to that locale.

Why did I provide this unnecessarily detailed and lengthy description? Because most people don’t bother to think about this. If I said we need to have colonies in space, they would ask why, or how. Even many space enthusiasts think space tourism is the way forward, and it is to a limited extent. Space tourism spurs industries to develop technology to get from the ground to low Earth orbit and back, and that’s the first step–and efficient low-orbit vehicle. But space tourism won’t establish a space colony–the resources necessary will simply outweigh the money to be made. Capitalists, with an eye on space’s resources, need to be informed. Someone with the money and long-term point of view to invest billions in this and be capable of failing–but showing the way for a later successful venture–must decide it’s a reasonable return on investment. Someone who worries that mankind is too vulnerable upon this little green sphere, that we may nuke ourselves to pieces or be hit by an asteroid, and if that happens there needs to be a human population elsewhere to come back and repopulate thousands of years later when the Earth is habitable again–a Noah’s ark.

The Earth’s governments will never provide the necessary capital, because they do what their constituent citizens require to allow them to maintain power, and the majority of mankind is too ignorant and self-interested to recognize the importance of this or make it a priority. It will have to be done by someone with tremendous resources and vision, the one person whose power to accomplish things doesn’t depend on the beliefs or expectations of the average man. Someone who understands that an economy cannot be built on tourism; that tourism can supplement it and eventually supplant it, but that tourism itself will never inspire lasting infrastructure. It will take someone who realizes that the one benefit space has over the Earth is a vastly larger supply of resources, and in many cases lower gravity which makes them easier to mine and transport. Someone with tremendous resources to invest as a startup, someone who’s more dedicated to this concept than to his wealth–willing to lose billions of dollars on his own venture if it doesn’t work out, knowing that his attempt has shown the way and opened the dreams of thousands of others, and insured that someone else will invest and keep trying, perhaps years later, perhaps after public skepticism and fear has died down about original unsuccess, but eventually.

But why not just say that? Why this long, specific example? Do I really think it will work out exactly like this? Of course not. I’m just saying that it can. If this were to happen, it would work. This isn’t a prediction of what will happen–it’s an assertion that it can, definitely, be done. It’s a refutation of all those who never thought about it because they’d never believe it will happen. It’s an example of a rough but not unreasonable plan of how this could happen. Yes, there are other obstacles and dangers in space I haven’t addressed, but they can be overcome, just as the cosmic radiation I’ve constantly referred to can–with lots of resources, work, and a determination to do whatever is necessary. That’s how the West was won, after all, wasn’t it? And that’s what space is, now, the next frontier awaiting mankind, the only refuge available in the foreseeable future for people who want to get away from others and live in peaceful anarchy.

my church appearance (Or: how I learned to stop worrying and need to shave)

The other day I was having a pretty interesting conversation with a friend online about metaphysics. Haven’t had one of those in a while, it was refreshing. Even discussed when & why I became a Christian. Not often that one comes up. But mostly we discussed the varying probabilities and likelihoods of the existence of higher powers, and the fundamental logic that leads to agnosticism.

Not quite sure why I bring it up. Just…mostly wanted something to post about, I guess =P

At any rate, happy St. Valentine’s Day…or whatever…to all you stupid people who have relationships. Some of us don’t, you know, and we’re PERFECTLY FINE WITH THAT. We aren’t DISSATISFIED or LONELY at all. Not even slightly. Just so you know.

recalled to life

Someone please tell me you get that reference.

Also, I LIVE! I finally bothered enough to take a photo for muh blog. It didn’t really work out, but whatever! It’s refreshing. I’m still sick, but it seems I’m feeling more active–enough so to do my hair for the first time like forever. It didn’t really work out, but whatever! It’s refreshing. I’m going to do my hair lots of times now! Ohhhhh yes, the joys of emulating Jeremy Clarkson…how…refreshing…

still sick

Thought I was mostly over being sick. Turns out I was just misinformed. Now though rather than primarily being exhausted/drained, I’m primarily stuffed up/unable to breathe through my nose, and coughing like mad.

I’m getting tired of it. Too bad I can’t think of anything I can do (the medicine doesn’t really seem to do much to help, but I still take it).

i hate the world right now

The natural world, I mean, I always hate the regular one. But right now it’s wet and cold and miserable, and I can’t seem to care about anything.

I know ours is uncomfortably hot, but I’m ready for summer. That will mean both that I can go places without feeling miserable and that there will be places to go which aren’t miserable.

happy panda

this is chaz

he is exactly like this

Not just for people who have a lover

Don’t believe the packaging, I’ve been enjoying these for a couple days, and I have no lover…wait. The flu and I have gotten to know each other quite well over the last few days…even become intimate…shared the same bed…oh no! They ARE made only for people who have lovers! WAIT! If you don’t have a lover, and were about to go buy these, don’t! You could be in mortal peril!

Disclaimer: for those of you who are computer people and not literature people, if you consult a literature person, he or she can inform you that this was supposed to be funny. He or she will likely be unable to tell you whether anyone actually thought it was [funny], but most literature people do in fact possess the necessary skills to detect the intended satire of “people-who-don’t-know-how-to-use-apostrophes-to-demonstrate-the-possessive-in-English.”

so now I know what schizophrenia is like

Well, probably not.

This afternoon I went to the doctor. Turns out I have H1N1 (swine flu, guess I ated too much pig), Bronchitis, and Strep. Nothin’ like some good old-fashioned multiple simultaneous viral and bacterial infections. So apparently I can’t go back to work until Monday.

Anyhow, last night at around 11:30 I woke up and, thinking to sleep through the rest of the night, went into my bedroom and got another dose of Nyquil, since it’d been long enough since my last dose of acetaminophen. Went back to bed. Tried to fall back asleep, laying on my left side, with my arms out in front of me. Felt uncomfortable, fidgeted my way mostly onto my stomach, with my head facing to the right and my arms crossed under the pillow. That didn’t feel right either. Turned to face left (still with my stomach mostly flat), shifted arms to be slightly the other way but still crossed beneath my pillow. Lay there a while, shifting back and forth. Could not get comfortable. Maybe dozed a tiny bit. Went back to shifting. Was hot, would push down the comforter, and thirty seconds later be freezing and pull it back up. Never comfortable the whole time. Eventually I began to see that I was just trying to find the right combination and saw a weird pattern/schematic thing, with white stick figure lines wearing white balloon gloves and yellow booties on my bed in a number of various patterns, combinations, and poses, which mentally corresponded to my attempted body positions, and felt like one of them must be the one that was optimal for comfort and would let me fall asleep. But I couldn’t (fall asleep; I was awake this whole time).

Then I kept shifting and shifting, and eventually it was like there were voices/compulsions in my head which kept screaming at me to shift. There was like a need to lie on my left side with my arms out in front of me to hold a cube of scrap metal (like a 2 ft. x 2ft. x 2ft. Borg cube, but made of scrap metal rather than weird advanced glowy stuff), or to be flat on my stomach with this vision of a gray metal helmet with a tremendous underbite, and my head felt like it was full of howler monkeys, and at my hairline on my forehead and all around my head at that height it felt like there was a tremendous vice squeezing in.

For a while I tossed and turned, unable to do anything about all of this, and completely unable to get any closer to the unconscious realm.

Eventually, I thought that maybe if I could get my thought process back under control and start thinking about yachts or exotic cars or something, and get my mind back to a single train of thought, I’d be able to calm down and go to sleep, so I tried to reign all of these howler-monkey-thoughts in. For a while I wasn’t able to do anything, but eventually I kind of mastered them in that I got them all organized. So then for a while it’s like they were all working and all taxing my brain, and it still felt like I had a vice on, but at least they were somewhat under control. Then it seemed like my entire body was a platform, and that each of these thoughts were in control of part of it, but I at least had them organized and confined to and only in charge of that part, and that they were all working together on an overall factory-esque project. I don’t know why I felt like a factory or like I was producing something, but I didn’t, and I just kept thinking that it must really be draining me and was probably reversing all the good done by getting sleep the day before by tiring me out and using up all my resources.

Eventually (around 6; this all probably started around 12-1, shortly after taking the Nyquil and being unable to fall asleep) I was able to get back to a single train of thought, and then just had a migraine, but no longer felt like my head was in a vice or contained howler monkeys or anything. The entire period of the episode, and afterwards, I was (and am) convinced that it was the side effect of taking Nyquil and being unable to fall asleep. Courtney assures me that the migraine part of it was unrelated (maybe a part of my ongoing fever?) and that the acetaminophen simply wouldn’t have been strong enough to deal with it. So that’s what my last night was like. Oh yeah, around 6-ish I started being able to doze. Around 7 I took some mucinex, and around 8 I took some acetaminophen (aka off-brand tylenol, JUST dedicated acetaminophen unlike Nyquil which uses it in conjunction with other stuff). Then I was able to sleep throughout most of the day again.

At this point, the only thing that’s really a consolation is the knowledge that if this were five hundred years ago, this would be fatal, and I’m gonna be perfectly healthy in a couple weeks. Hahah, suckers.

sick

I’m sick. It’s…really not-fun.

I want a boy pet.

But Petsmart is out.

Also, I had originally planned to get my upcoming video done over this weekend, but my infantile compulsion to install Fedora then attempt to TrueCrypt my Win7 partition has instead given me the happy opportunity to attempt to recover my Win7 partition data, and then restore a functional MBR and OS on my computer.

This I’m posting by pure magic, if anyone was wondering, because I’m just that awesome.