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Google Moon, Just a map of the moon
jaredGalen
post Jul 20 2005, 09:09 AM
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Look at what google have done for the moon landing anniversary.
smile.gif

http://moon.google.com/


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djellison
post Jul 20 2005, 09:24 AM
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Make sure you zoom ALL the way in smile.gif

Doug
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jaredGalen
post Jul 20 2005, 10:35 AM
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QUOTE (djellison @ Jul 20 2005, 10:24 AM)
Make sure you zoom ALL the way in smile.gif

Doug
*


Hehe, makin' me hungry.


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edstrick
post Jul 20 2005, 10:41 AM
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Recall the short story:

"A Report on the Nature of the Lunar Surface", by (i believe) John Brunner. :-)
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Bob Shaw
post Jul 20 2005, 11:37 AM
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QUOTE (edstrick @ Jul 20 2005, 11:41 AM)
Recall the short story:

"A Report on the Nature of the Lunar Surface", by (i believe) John Brunner.    :-)
*



Yup. Many years ago, I had a good laugh with him about it - I quoted it to him as a great 'short-short' SF story, unaware that he'd written it, and he had the delicious (to coin a phrase) experience of being able to say 'Well, actually, *I* wrote that!'. I think it was Limburger, so the amount quoted in the story might have been a bit more than, er, delicious! Sadly, he died in Glasgow ten years ago at the first SF WorldCon to be held here. John Brunner was a giant of his time, but for some reason was barely published after the 1970s, despite being a thoroughly modern author. He was also, in the early 1970s 'Shockwave Rider', the first person to popularise the concept of computer worms.


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gpurcell
post Jul 20 2005, 03:49 PM
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QUOTE (Bob Shaw @ Jul 20 2005, 11:37 AM)
Yup.  Many years ago, I had a good laugh with him about it - I quoted it to him as a great 'short-short' SF story, unaware that he'd written it, and he had the delicious (to coin a phrase) experience of being able to say 'Well, actually, *I* wrote that!'.  I think it was Limburger, so the amount quoted in the story might have been a bit more than, er, delicious!  Sadly, he died in Glasgow ten years ago at the first SF WorldCon to be held here.  John Brunner was a giant of his time, but for some reason was barely published after the 1970s, despite being a thoroughly modern author. He was also, in the early 1970s 'Shockwave Rider', the first person to popularise the concept of computer worms.
*


Also "Stand on Zanzibar," a fabulous book.
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alan
post Jul 20 2005, 05:25 PM
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reminds me of a commercial from a few years ago
"for hundreds of years man believed the moon was made of cheese,
36 years ago we landed on the moon and discovered it was made of rock,
we haven't gone back:
behold the power of cheese"
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CosmicRocker
post Jul 21 2005, 03:55 AM
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There is yet more humor within this Google project. It appears to be a campaign to attract new recruits. See http://www.google.com/help/faq_moon.html, where they introduce the Copernicus initiative, and provide an additional link to a presentation on their planned lunar hosting and research center.

http://www.google.com/jobs/lunar_job.html

It's a pretty humorous read, but from what I have seen of Google's R&D philosophy, it may not be meant totally in jest.


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Guest_BruceMoomaw_*
post Jul 21 2005, 04:37 AM
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Believe it or not, in early 1970 "Science" published -- completely deadpan, with no advance hint of its unusual nature, and smack in the middle of a set of legitimate papers -- a piece comparing the physical properties of the Apollo 11 and 12 lunar samples with those of several varieties of cheese. It ended by explaining the differences on the grounds of "how much better aged the lunar samples are." (I can't remember how close the issue date was to April 1.) I wonder how many other people did a double-take after they started to read that thing?
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mike
post Jul 21 2005, 05:04 AM
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I wonder how the whole 'Moon is made of cheese' thing got started.. Why not 'Mars is made of beef' or 'Venus is made of curried rice'? The ocean is made of whiskey, the dirt is made of chocolate.. The clouds are made of wisps of sugar, and the air is made of glass.
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edstrick
post Jul 21 2005, 07:09 AM
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Uh... "More Cheese, Grommit?"

Bruce Moomaw recalled:

"Believe it or not, in early 1970 "Science" published -- completely deadpan, with no advance hint of its unusual nature, and smack in the middle of a set of legitimate papers -- a piece comparing the physical properties of the Apollo 11 and 12 lunar samples with those of several varieties of cheese. It ended by explaining the differences on the grounds of "how much better aged the lunar samples are." (I can't remember how close the issue date was to April 1.) I wonder how many other people did a double-take after they started to read that thing? "

"Properties and Composition of Lunar Materials: Earth Anologies", Science, 26 June, 1970, pg. 1579-1580.

"Abstract: The sound velocity data for the lunar rocks were compared to numerous terrestrial rock types and were found to deviate wildly from them. A group of terrestrial materials were found which have velocities comparable to those of the lunar rocks, but they do obey velocity-density relations proposed for earth rocks."

(from a yellowing envelope containing rather ratty and not very good to begin with xeroxes).
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edstrick
post Jul 21 2005, 07:21 AM
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Regarding John Brunner. He had a rather complex career as a science fiction writer. Up to the mid 60's, he was a good second-rank author mostly known for intelligently written but essentially generic "Ace DoubleBacks" and the like. He broke out as a major author with Stand on Zanzibar and other distinctive work through much of the 70's and beyond.

These works tend to split between rather overtly political diatribes like "The Sheep Look Up" and "Stand on Zanzibar" and more conventional but imaginative and distinctive science fiction and fantasy. Zanzibar got the Hugo Award for Best Novel the year after it was published, in the midst of the over-the-top political climate of the time. A lot of people loved it and a lot of people loathed it, with rather few in between.

His other, less politicized work, including "Shockwave Rider", a fore-runner of cyberpunk, have fallin into underserved obscurity. His output, or at least fandom in general's awareness of it, fell off in amount during the 80's and beyond and had less influence. His early death from a stroke was shocking and utterly unanticipated. After an author dies, unless there is a continuing demand for his work (like Heinlein's), without a family member or a sympatico editor to champion the author's work, reprinting tends to dry up and an author tends to fade into market invisibility and ultimate obscurity.
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Bob Shaw
post Jul 21 2005, 09:12 AM
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QUOTE (mike @ Jul 21 2005, 06:04 AM)
I wonder how the whole 'Moon is made of cheese' thing got started..  Why not 'Mars is made of beef' or 'Venus is made of curried rice'?  The ocean is made of whiskey, the dirt is made of chocolate..  The clouds are made of wisps of sugar, and the air is made of glass.
*


Mike:

Have you been talking to Ustrax?

Bob Shaw


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Bob Shaw
post Jul 21 2005, 09:24 AM
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Perversely, in the UK John Brunner *wasn't* known for his 1960s hack Ace output, Kelly Freas covers notwithstanding. Here, at that time, the opportunities to buy US SF paperbacks were very limited indeed - the UK's first SF bookshop only opened in Soho in the late 60s (Derek Stokes' 'Dark They Were And Golden Eyed') and so he was far better known for his magazine pieces and UK book reprints of short stories.

He was a fairly remarkable individual, starting his published writing career while still a teenager, and embracing a number of radical (and liberal) causes (he was a lifelong CND supporter, attended the Aldermaston marches, and wrote many CND folk songs). He was urbane, erudite, studiously well-mannered and got right up the nose of certain of his peers, for whom his aristocratic personal style was anathema.

He wasn't very happy towards the end of his life, feeling paranoid and excluded, but was reportedly very pleased to be visiting WorldCon. His sudden death cast a pall over the event, with even his many detractors rallying round to assist his young widow and generally to speak well of him.


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edstrick
post Jul 21 2005, 10:31 AM
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One of my friends referred to Brunner as the "London Fop". I had a better impression of him at least as a writer if very much not of his politics. He wrote too many pretty damn good books to dismiss for his style or politics.

Regarding the origin of the Cheese bit... The Science article xerox includes in it's references the following:

"Erasmus: "With this pleasant merry toy, he ..... made his friends to believe the moon to be made of green cheese," Adagia, 1542, Udall translation".

Betcha some translation is online.
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