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"Astronomy compels the soul to look upward and leads us from this world to another." - Plato, 'I may not have gone where I intended to go- but I think I have ended up where I intended to be.' - Douglas Adams, 'Space is big. You just won't believe how vastly hugely mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it's a long way down the road to the chemist but that's just peanuts to space.' - Douglas Adam, And the stars look very different today For here Am I sitting in a tin can Far above the world, Caps only when ness folks, David Bowie, DON'T PANIC, Douglas Adams, Gettin' higher baby, I sing in the reaches We'll see what we find 'Cause we are all made of stars, Look out your window I can see his light If we can sparkle he may land tonight, Satellite's gone Way up to Mars Soon it will be filled With parking cars, Star men, To the seat with the clearest view And she's hooked to the silver screen
Those are the words emblazoned upon the dashboard of the Tesla car Elon Musk shot into space this week, managing to make space travel, and rockets that can land back on Earth with aplomb, appear easy-peasy lemon-squeezy.
The nod to Douglas Adams makes Esme’s heart beat happier, as does the soundtrack playing through the speakers as it drives on into into the heavens – Life on Mars by David Bowie. A fitting tribute to both Star Men I’d say, (not to mention Tesla himself!)
Well done Elon.
If he ever buys a white cat and shaves his head it’s time to get very worried folks.
The full story is below, courtesy of The Guardian newspaper –
SpaceX oddity: how Elon Musk sent a car towards Mars
Esme’s personal, and bestest towel, here for Bill to see.
And there’s more! (New information released!) Elon has revealed there’s something extra hidden on board the car. A hidden cache of information! I suspected something similar, it’s too good an opportunity not to add a little more for the finders of the car, should there be any.
‘Stashed inside the midnight-cherry Roadster was a mysterious, small object designed to last for millions (perhaps billions) of years – even in extreme environments like space, or on the distant surfaces of far-flung planetary bodies.
Called an Arch (pronounced ‘Ark’), this tiny storage device is built for long-term data archiving, holding libraries of information encoded on a small disc of quartz crystal, not much larger than a coin.
According to Arch Mission Foundation, the California-based nonprofit behind the technology, these Archs could “preserve and disseminate humanity’s knowledge across time and space, for the benefit of future generations”.
The Arch looks like a shrunk-down DVD or Blu-ray, but its potential for data storage goes way beyond any optical discs you have in your home.
The technology, developed by physicist Peter Kazansky from the University of Southampton in the UK, can theoretically hold up to 360 terabytes of data, about the same amount as 7,000 Blu-Ray discs.’
See more at this link
looks over excited
Esme's Cloud 
https://s5.postimg.org/411znuko7/5xwlae0rzne01.png
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Well played sir. Well played.
Esme clapping and laughing upon the Cloud
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Not one of mine, but indeed, hat tip to whoever nailed that one.
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Oh the credit given was for finding and posting it anyway. I didn’t know you made them! Got any examples of your handiwork?
Esme Cloud being nosy as ever.
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Eeek, I’m shocked! I love my memes… don’t get me started.
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Hahahahaha! Brilliant! I should have guessed the angle you’d come from.
Esme falling about upon the Cloud
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Dickie Branson needs to fight back for Blighty! I suggest one of his rocket jobbies tipped with a 1940s Rolls Royce Silver Wraith driven by . . . by . . . I dunno . . . Hattie Jacques! Bloody yanks! Actually, he’s South African, isn’t he, the Musket?
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Oh this approved itself! That’s the second time in two weeks this has happened. It was Lucy last time. Sorry Hariod, outrageous behaviour, a thousand pardons. Do carry on being a complete nut.
Hahahahaha.
He may well be.
Esme laughing and waving at Hariod upon the Cloud
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I hadn’t realized that Douglas Adams was a fast-car enthusiast, so I imagine Adams in the suit and at the wheel there. 42-skidoo to you and a towel or two, Esme, for the grand tribute to Elon 🙂
102 days ’til Towel Day ❤ 🙂 ❤
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Ha! Yes indeed Bill, 42-skidoo back to you as well.
I am about to add a photo to the post just for you.
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A great towel it is too: proper font, flow and fun. That’s what it’s all about if you ask me — the hokey pokey is meaningless by comparison 🙂
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Thanking you kindly sir.
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Dear god…what a waste of a beautiful car.
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I am astounded Meeka! A sci fi writer as well! Hahahahaha. It’s the perfect set up for something that would seem quite unlikely to happen in a sci fi story. That one car out there, with it’s messages on board, (the latest of which I’ve found out – he had printed on the car’s circuit board The words “made on Earth by humans”) it’s a potential way of connecting with alien life that doesn’t show humanity to be utter gits with their flag in hand looking for new territory to shove it in and ransack the place for all it has, instead, waving and showing a goofy smile, a sense of humour, an excerpt of wonderful music, a fabulous imaginative folly! Also, he has pointed out that something needed to be tested in this way, some object of fair mass, and as he makes Tesla cars, and as Tesla had such a massive impact on technology, it really made sense and was also fun. There are wasted cars all over the world, broken and busted, this one only cost Elon the cash, and is driving off into the universe! takes a big breath
I think the idea and action is far more beautiful than the car.
Still, each to their own eh? laughs a lot.
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-grin- I’m very fond of Elon Musk since he put in that huge battery in South Australia, but imagination aside, do you know how MUCH space junk is floating around up there? It is getting to the point of being a very serious problem because all of that stuff is moving at speed and collisions are incredibly destructive. They don’t just disappear in a poof of smoke. They break up, becoming smaller and more deadly. Imagine a pea soup of whizzing metallic particles that can punch holes in space craft like the pellets from a shotgun!
-cough-
Okay, I’ll stop ranting now. 🙂
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Yes, but that’s literal junk. Rubbish. This is both useful to space exploration and art. It’s like saying there’s tons of crap music because Justin Beiber and Philip Glass are polluting the airwaves and it’s all rubbish. I agree with the dumping generally, it’s a nightmare, but credit where credit is due.
Esme having none of it happily upon the Cloud
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LMAO – okay! I admit defeat, he was imaginative and it is his money, but I wish he’d sent that car to me instead. :p
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Hurray! Hahahahaha. I’d like him to send you a car as well as the space one, so everyone’s happy eh?
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-giggles- Behave young lady! :D:D
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It won’t be in earth orbit, rather one around Mars and the sun. That roadster is on a loooooong journey.
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Exactly.
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Ah, okay. I guess that’s better. I wonder if he’s angling to be the first resident of a Mars colony?
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I would be, if I were him.
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Wouldn’t it be funny if Mars really did become a destination, one day?
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It better, and many more planets, or else we’re doomed.
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Ah now that’s a whole new discussion. 🙂 Can we ethically colonise another planet[s] before we learn not to destroy the one we’ve already got?
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Given our performance to date, No. I wrote this years ago, still accurate:
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I’ve deleted my own pending reply to Meeka about humanity, because it’s absolute pants on a barge pole compared to yours John, and you’re saying exactly the same things. Spot on; a truly tragic point made beautifully.
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Hah…you’ve said what I feel too. Our genes hold the best and worst of humanity, and we constantly lurch from one to the other. 😦
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I’ve moved your comments and John’s to the bottom dearie because the thread has gone too skinny. nods
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Ah, thanks, Esme. 🙂
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I’ve moved your comments and Meeka’s to the bottom because the thread has gone too skinny. nods
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Yeah, why don’t you change your settings to stop that?
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I can’t. Or at least I haven’t been able to up to now. can you give me a pointer?
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Eeek, I’m hopeless at these things, but the magic button you’re looking for is to be found beyond the bubbling brook, on the eastern side of the enchanted forest, where the rocks sing… somewhere in “comments settings” you’ll find a wizard who will ask you how many comments before nesting (I think that’s the word he’ll use?) stops.
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Invaluable info John. Thanks for that. shoves a custard pie in his face – Esme Cloud mooning at him
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Hehehe… I just found it. It’s in “settings” then “discussion,” 7th option down, titled “Enable threaded (nested) comments”
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That isn’t it, that just means I can have the comments ‘nested’ whatever that is, underneath, I already have that clicked. But thanks hahahaha. I’ve been through the settings a few times, and have been told that my theme is the problem, some just do the skinny thing after so many comments. I can’t change the theme because I can’t find another one that has the layout I like plus the tags at the side. I spend a age looking last year all to no avail. This will appear letter by letter on the post probably falls about – esme x
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Must be your theme then. Sorry.
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You are forgiven.
Just this once.
Esme Cloud laughing and pulling his frowning mouth up into a smile with her fingers
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WHAT THA HELL!!!? 😮 This is FO real?
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Where have you been?! Hahahahaha. Yes, it’s absolutely true. Amazing eh?
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Admittedly I’ve been way out of the news-media loop. Why you ask? I’ll tell you! Every medium of news I might stumble across is reporting or inevitably reports on what our moronic Orange Orangutan has done or said to the point that every possible comedian/night-time host have neverending boat-loads of material to easily last half-a-century! (holds his stomach in pain) Uggggghhhhhh!
I’ve also been extremely busy with my recent move and job status. (Professor wigs out screaming…)
This is way too cool! WOW!
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Hahahahahaha. I don’t blame you, I really don’t Prof, we’ll all go looney tunes if we watch too much in the way of Trump’s car crash presidency, better to watch a car flying, but you’d know all about that, you and Marty eh?
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Unfortunately, the live feed has stopped, but this is a few good hours
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Excellent link John, thank you!
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I’ve not been around much. But HELL yes this is one of the best things ever, Elon has such an imagination. It let him do all of this, and he can put whatever the hell he wants into space because he went to fucking space! I bet there is a towel in that car, too. Go, go and be our new hope.
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That’s what I’m talking about!! Woo-hoo!!! Hahahahaha, thank you Spiders, I’m waving my towel your way!
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“Don’t Panic?” H’m.
“Don’t panic,” Elon says to himself as he stuffs the body into a space suit, fixes it into a model car then launches the evidence into space before millions of viewers, committing the perfect crime.
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Bravo Peter! Now that’s imagination for you! Hahahahaha.
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I’m transferring John and Meeka’s comments to here because the thread has gone all skinny and unreadable. Annoying quirk of some themes;
Meeka – Wouldn’t it be funny if Mars really did become a destination, one day?
John – It better, and many more planets, or else we’re doomed.
Meeka – Ah now that’s a whole new discussion. 🙂 Can we ethically colonise another planet[s] before we learn not to destroy the one we’ve already got?
John – Given our performance to date, No. I wrote this years ago, still accurate:
There’s an absurdity in calling oneself a humanist. The hat, which I’m proud to wear, solicits polarised emotions that are not easily reconciled. Here’s the rub: I loathe humanity, but at the same time I am also her greatest cheerleader. I’d build, without even a moment’s hesitation, an entire museum around a single human hand, and right next door I’d erect a mausoleum to house its pair. My heart beats faster every time I watch a space launch, and it breaks in two every time I turn on the News. I am at once amazed and horrified by our species…
Esme – I’ve deleted my own pending reply to Meeka about humanity, because it’s absolute pants on a barge pole compared to yours John, and you’re saying exactly the same things. Spot on; a truly tragic point made beautifully. – Esme Cloud in awe at John’s superb wordage
Meeka – Hah…you’ve said what I feel too. Our genes hold the best and worst of humanity, and we constantly lurch from one to the other. 😦
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And there’s more! I shall add this to the post, but for those who may miss it, Elon has revealed there’s something extra hidden on board the car. A hidden cache of infomation! I suspected something similar, it’s too good an opportunity not to add a little more for the finders of the car, shuld there be any.
‘Stashed inside the midnight-cherry Roadster was a mysterious, small object designed to last for millions (perhaps billions) of years – even in extreme environments like space, or on the distant surfaces of far-flung planetary bodies.
Called an Arch (pronounced ‘Ark’), this tiny storage device is built for long-term data archiving, holding libraries of information encoded on a small disc of quartz crystal, not much larger than a coin.
According to Arch Mission Foundation, the California-based nonprofit behind the technology, these Archs could “preserve and disseminate humanity’s knowledge across time and space, for the benefit of future generations”.
The Arch looks like a shrunk-down DVD or Blu-ray, but its potential for data storage goes way beyond any optical discs you have in your home.
The technology, developed by physicist Peter Kazansky from the University of Southampton in the UK, can theoretically hold up to 360 terabytes of data, about the same amount as 7,000 Blu-Ray discs.’
See more at this link
https://www.sciencealert.com/spacex-launched-second-secret-payload-designed-last-millions-years-tesla-arch
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Ah the manifold manners in which we expend our time, cash and creativity.
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