GEORGE BUSH AND CONSERVATIVES IS AN EVIL DEVIL! HE SHOULD NOT BE REECELCTED!!! [subliterate alert]

[awildanimal]

GEORGE BUSH IS EVIL!!! CONSERVATIVES ARE EVIL!!!! CONSERVATIVES ARE STEALING FOOD AND MONEY FROM BABIES AND CHILDREN AND GIVING THEN TO RICH RACIST NAZIS IN GOVNERMENT!! THEY ARE STARTING HOLOCAUSTS AGAINST MINORITES WOMEN AND THE POOR!! THEY HATE THE POOR AND TAKE FROM THEM AND GIVE IT TO THE RICH!!! CONSERVATIVES ARE NAZIS!! MY SISTER HAS A HIGH IQ!~!! CONSERVAITIVES ARE BOMBING CHILDREN IN IRAK AND IRAN!! THEY ARE KILLING BABIES BECAUSE THEY ARE NOT WHITE AND RICH LIKE THE CONSERVATIVES ARE!!! THEY ARE ALL RACIST AND EVIL!!

[Monkey Face]

See?

[Tax-chick]

Bill ate the chicken. Santana went to bed. I found Tom and the girls, and loaded up the van and took Bill and Tom to church for their classes. Anoreth will bring them home. Vlad had a Spasm because we left Bill and Tom. It will be his bedtime soon!

[Monkey Face]

Better watch out - those fracking Venusians will kick your asteroids from here to eternity if you’re not careful...

They can't hurt me. I eat Wheaties!

[fanfan]

I know, Face.

We asteroid travellers need a little time at home. And at the spa.
:-)

[Monkey Face]

Ohyah.

“Spasm.” I had one of those once.
We were living in Alaska, and I liked to hold my breath until I got what I wanted. My mother had other ideas.

She ran some water in the tub and threw me in, clothes and all.

I, for one, have never tried it on my children, nor do I recommend it...

[fanfan]

Thanks for raising all those good kids, TC.

[Tax-chick]

We’ve put them in a shower in the past. A bowl of cereal cleared up Vlad’s spasm :-). He’s just very attached to his brothers and doesn’t like any of them to be away from him.

[Tax-chick]

You’re welcome. It keeps me off the streets :-).

[NicknamedBob]

"How close do we have to be?
And can we VOTE on this?
I mean, what if some of us want to go back to the South Pacific?
Being Earthbound again for a while might restore some of the wanderlust in some of us...besides...Christmas is coming..."

Part of my plan so far is to run shuttles to and from Venus to scoop up atmosphere for conversion to rocket reaction mass and carbon fiber materials, (including buckytube cable).

We already run surreptitious shuttle runs to Earth. We have to keep that on the down-low because of our rocket motors. So anyone needing emergency transportation or supplies can use that channel. Keep in mind it's expensive.

Anyway, as to voting: You will have a choice of staying in an orbit of sorts, with the familiar Habitat rotation and spherical elevator connections, or riding down to the Venus colony location.

I suppose we could drop you off at the Mars colony also, if you can get yourself invited to stay there.

The only thing I expect to change is that the Flying Castle Habitat will become a literal Flying Castle again, by descending into the atmosphere of Venus to an altitude of fifty kilometers high or so. It will remain tethered to an anchor point in a 100 hour orbit, and will ride the circulating wind pattern of Venus, with the changes that will bring about.

Clearly, communication and transportation between the Habitats will have to be different. Very different.

Gone will be the days of a two-minute zip over to an adjacent Habitat for a late breakfast or shopping trip. You'll have to plan for a slightly longer term situation than that.

The tether will be a long one, and it will take us some time to knit it out of the insubstantial air of Venus, and whatever other materials we can conjure.

But your circumstances won't need to change unless you want them to.

[Monkey Face]

Some kids are REALLY stubborn!
I’m happy to say that the years have softened my outlook quite a bit!

If cereal works, then that’s what needs to be done!

My daughter used to stomp through the house and slam doors. She learned (9 years old when she came to us) that slamming doors and stomping was counter-productive. She soon learned what “logical consequences” meant. From that day forward, she never slammed a door or stomped. :o])

[fanfan]

Good thing!

*ducking*

[NicknamedBob]

Heavy Thinking (2)


(Continued ...) Venus.

I know what you’re thinking and saying to yourselves; Bob’s pulling our legs again. I know it sounds like that.

This may take some explanation.

I’ve probably mentioned this, but I don’t want to research when or where, and you’re not likely to, so I’ll just go over the basics again, with your permission.

You all know that Venus is inhospitable to life, with hellish temperatures and crushing pressures on its surface.

True.

You also know that Mount Kilimanjaro is snow-capped, even though it nestles in the heart of equatorial Africa. At more than nineteen thousand feet, its rarified air remains very cool.

Hmm.

This principle of decreasing temperature with increasing altitude applies to the planet Venus as well.

In fact, quite fortuitously, at a height of fifty kilometers, the atmosphere of Venus has not only the same pressure as Earth, but also a similar range of temperatures.

So if you found yourself in a balloon at that altitude, you would be relatively comfortable, except for not being able to breath the air, that minor issue of droplets of sulfuric acid, and by the way, just what is holding up the balloon?

Venus’ atmosphere is predominantly carbon dioxide, more than 96 percent. You couldn’t breathe it, but there is oxygen bound up in it, and plants know how to get it out.

In fact, in such a thick atmosphere, not only will a hot-air balloon keep you up, but even a balloon full of ordinary air would keep you up. Regular oxygen and nitrogen will support a balloon with half the lifting force of helium on Earth!

Now, admittedly, there may be a few technical problems to overcome; like what do we go into Venus’ atmosphere with; how do we slow down from interplanetary speed; and that sort of thing.

But don’t worry. I’m working on it.

[Monkey Face]

<>i>...But don’t worry. I’m working on it.

Famous last words.

I think I'll wait until you have perfected, if you don't mind...;o]

[Tax-chick]

He was hungry, because he was asleep while everyone else was eating hot dogs.

[Tax-chick]

Sounds interesting! I’ll come back and read it after I put the byos to bed.

[NicknamedBob]

My favorite famous last words are: “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this dist ...”

[Monkey Face]

KFC is a good choice to follow hotdogs.

I mean, he DID sacrifice his eating for the OTHER mandatory activity of a growing young man...

[Monkey Face]

Mine is, “I thought you said he was IMPORTANT!”

[Robert A Cook PE]

Robt appears to be in favor of Venusian blimps/tethered balloons, digeriblesbles, or other suspenders-in-atmosphere ...

Likes the idea of being suspended from a non-flamable substance one can breathe in an emergency, rather than being suspended below a flammable substance that is needed to keep you up in the burning container ...

Now. Jest who gets the sci-fi story writes for those trapped back on earth?

[NicknamedBob]

"Now. Jest who gets the sci-fi story writes for those trapped back on earth?"

These stories have already been written. Where do you think I got my information?