what, no "Eye of Quebec," also known as a 100-km crater visible from space? That's gotta be the best terrestrial black eye out there!
@Plague: and you dude: Event Horizon has a possessed ship that makes people vomit their intestines, and it can travel between our dimension and Hell. And Sam Neil and Lawrence Fishburne are in it...I'm missing the "suck" here.
@braak: dude, I was being serious.
@Plague: You can't be serious: Event Horizon was awesome.
@Ed Grabianowski: yeah, though I think you forgot to amend "radiation doses..." to "doses of hard drugs and alcohol that would kill humans 100 times over"
@Grey_Area: how can you not love these guys. They're awesome!
@icelight: how in the hell can anyone, even a postman kill one of these things?? Do you know what happened?
@Nebris: oh c'mon, I said BC the first time!
but you're half right. I need a copy editor, not a fact-checker (this time). Thanks for pointing that out.
@Slatz_Grobnik: good call, Slatz.
@Ryozenzuzex: it is kind of old news. Scientists have thought Borealis was an impact crater/basin/mega-monster crater for a long time. The new Nature study is confirmation of the theory (well, as much as a theory can be confirmed I guess).
@Dunny0: good question: what should we call huge-ginormous craters?
Awesome post, Nina! Love it...
@ls497: dude, I was a grad student who used to study this stuff and yeah I simplified it, but I think I made it clear that the field won't go away forever (see "oceans of molten metal churning at the center of the planet," etc.). Still, last I remember those plots of the poles wandering all over the place during reversals indicated a pretty weak, pretty aberrant field, potentially for long enough to really mess with life. As I said, we just don't know (see "Bottom line," etc.) And you KNOW it would mess with satellites, power grids and communications networks, so don't even play like I was sensationalizing that.
As for "The Core 2," give me a break. Am I trying to make it sound cool? You bet. Because it is. Stop pretending science is boring. You love it -- why shouldn't everyone else understand why?
Peckman's seen the new Indiana Jones movie one too many times (meaning once). Who is this guy anyway, and why is anyone (other than us obviously) giving him ink?
@TheBadAstronomer: sorry dude. Your article is totally better than AP's.
@Ed Grabianowski: Oh yeah, it's on!
for all you moon-lovers out there, we're dropping an "illest moon of all time" checklist on you next week. Stay tuned!
Oh HELL NO, Grabianowski. Europa is the most excellent moon in da ENTIRE solar system!!!
@braak: Cornell University's entry in the DARPA Urban Challenge back in November was called "Skynet" too.
Seriously, roboticists need to stop naming their AI/futuretech after evil machinery.
@Brock: Good call, Brock.
At the astrobiology conference last week, Paul Davies suggested a $10 billion prize for putting a person on Mars.
@DangerousDac: Dac, I accept responsibility for the destruction of the human race, but I'll never forgive you for spelling my name wrong.
@Ed Grabianowski: dude, I've seen The Postman like eight times. I'm getting on the next flight to Buffalo.
@StrangelyBrown: Hey Strangely, good pickup. Did you happen to notice the byline on that New Scientist article?
Also, I think I wrote that the only *planned* missions are robotic. Phobos Grunt (2009) can look for water or hydrogen that human explorers may be able to use on subsequent missions. With all of NASA's belt-tightening these days you're probably right though -- it's be a while before the US sends a person to the Martian system.
To everyone who says my post is biased because I "assume" that carbon dioxide emissions cause global warming: you're right, I am biased. I do think that CO2 that humans are pumping into the atmosphere is causing the observed changes in our climate and biosphere.
What does this have to do with science fiction? Nothing really, unless you -- like me -- have the same bias and think that continued denial of the problem could at some point (no not 30 minutes from now) in the future lead to a world that's a lot less fun to live in. Dare I say dystopia?
