giles@ucf-cs.UUCP (Bruce Giles) (05/09/84)
>> 1. There is a planet of amphibious(?) beings which is literally "drying" >> up, for any number of reasons.... Okay, what are some of those reasons? Did everyone decide to drink at the same time? (Or is it flush?) Seriously, you can't get rid of water that easily. Contaminate it, yes. But destroy it, no. (unless you have *very* inefficient fusion plants :-)). And, even if by some unbelievable process their water does disappear, it would probabily be far easier to skim hydrogen of the neighborhood gas giant and combine it with oxygen smelted from any nearby rocky planetary body; at least compared to hauling megamass of water over interstellar distances. No -- Drying planets with indigenous life belong in the same class of stories as those with alpha Centari visible from New York. Perhaps 1 out of 10,000 has a valid explanation, but certainly none generated in Hollywood falls into that category. ave discordia going bump in the night ... bruce giles decvax!ucf-cs!giles university of central florida giles.ucf-cs@Rand-Relay orlando, florida 32816
gds@mit-eddie.UUCP (Greg Skinner) (05/10/84)
>> 1. There is a planet of amphibious(?) beings which is literally "drying" >> up, for any number of reasons.... > Okay, what are some of those reasons? Did everyone decide to drink at the > same time? (Or is it flush?) Planet-wide drought, caused by imbalances in the hydrogen-oxygen mixture of the planet's atmosphere. The same, caused by the planet moving out of orbit (closer to its sun). The same, caused by contamination of the planet's atmosphere (perhaps natural, perhaps not). > And, even if by some unbelievable process their water does disappear, it > would probabily be far easier to skim hydrogen of the neighborhood gas > giant and combine it with oxygen smelted from any nearby rocky planetary > body; at least compared to hauling megamass of water over interstellar > distances. That is assuming those type of planets exist in their solar system. If they don't, they must come to other planets. And if they are going to do that, they might as well get water in its natural form (even if they have to steal it) rather than go to Jupiter and do it the hard way. -- Be ye moby, for I am moby. Greg Skinner (gregbo) {decvax!genrad, eagle!mit-vax, ihnp4}!mit-eddie!gds You can't trust anyone around here with the su password these days.
steven@qubix.UUCP (Steven Maurer) (05/14/84)
[In our lives, we all must suffer ourselves] > > Okay, what are some of those reasons? Did everyone decide to drink at the > > same time? (Or is it flush?) > > Planet-wide drought, caused by imbalances in the hydrogen-oxygen mixture > of the planet's atmosphere. > > The same, caused by the planet moving out of orbit (closer to its sun). > > The same, caused by contamination of the planet's atmosphere (perhaps > natural, perhaps not). 1] "imbalances in the hydrogen-oxygen mixture" ???? That would mean that there was either Too much Hydrogen, or Too much Oxygen. Either one, would kill the entire planet long before lack of H2O became a problem. Besides, just what is performing the seperation into component elements? Last I heard, it takes a lot of KCALs to persuade those little H's to break up from the O's. 2] "Caused by the planet moving .. (closer to its sun)". That would not make the water go away. It would vaporize it (and the planet too). 3] "caused by cotamination of the planet's atmosphere" This could only mean that the planet has been producing reducing agents at a volume beyond compare. Even then, the amount of water on the planet would be basically unchanged, and it certainly would be easier to just extract the water, than to travel to another planet to get some. > > And, even if by some unbelievable process their water does disappear, it > > would probabily be far easier to skim hydrogen of the neighborhood gas > > giant and combine it with oxygen smelted from any nearby rocky planetary > > body; at least compared to hauling megamass of water over interstellar > > distances. > > That is assuming those type of planets exist in their solar system. If > they don't, they must come to other planets. And if they are going to > do that, they might as well get water in its natural form (even if they > have to steal it) rather than go to Jupiter and do it the hard way. 1] There must be 100,000,000 balls of ice between here and the "home planet". The ice contained in all, is no doubt considerably larger than the size of jupiter. 2] Grabbing a spaceship full of water, is not exactly going to solve the draught problems of an entire planet. 3] There is a story told by Asimov called "The Martian Way", which is about the sheer stupidity of people, and what happens when it is used by a demogouge. The sheer stupid subject used by that demogouge? Earth was running out of water (due to Martian use of it). Steven M.
grw@fortune.UUCP (Glenn Wichman) (05/15/84)
[here, mousie!]
Well, not to defend "V" or anything, but they probably decided
to get their water from Earth because it seemed like a much funner
place than Europa. These guys obviously got off on facism, and Europa
provides few opportunities for same.
Also, about the tongue -- it was clear throughout the show that
--somehow-- the aliens could make their tongues look like normal
human tongues, so I see no problem there.
BUT!! It was also clear that the aliens required LIVE FOOD, (The
Earthlings must never see us eat!), so how did that one alien commander
manage to have dinner at Gooder's moms house all the time?
There are too many other holes to go into now.
Hey, if it's okay to use germ warfare on Space Facists,
why not on Earth Facists?
(The above does not constitute a "cute signoff")
-Glenn