We are developing the social individualist meta-context for the future. From the very serious to the extremely frivolous... lets see what is on the mind of the Samizdata people.
Samizdata, derived from Samizdat /n. - a system of clandestine publication of banned literature in the USSR [Russ.,= self-publishing house]
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A space discovery The late Arthur C. Clarke would have been impressed by this discovery, I reckon:
The Hubble Space Telescope has discovered the first organic molecule on a planet that’s not in our solar system. According to NASA, this breakthrough could be a major step toward discovering life on other planets. Scientists believe that the organic compound detected, methane, can be an integral part in the chemical reactions considered necessary to form life as we know it.
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Who Are We? The Samizdata people are a bunch of sinister and heavily armed globalist illuminati who seek to infect the entire world with the values of personal liberty and several property. Amongst our many crimes is a sense of humour and the intermittent use of British spelling.
We are also a varied group made up of social individualists, classical liberals, whigs, libertarians, extropians, futurists, ‘Porcupines’, Karl Popper fetishists, recovering neo-conservatives, crazed Ayn Rand worshipers, over-caffeinated Virginia Postrel devotees, witty Frédéric Bastiat wannabes, cypherpunks, minarchists, kritarchists and wild-eyed anarcho-capitalists from Britain, North America, Australia and Europe.
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Methane is present on several planets and moons in our solar system which are likely devoid of life.
I’ll get excited when free oxygen is detected on some remote world.
Very interesting stuff, at least as a proof of the principle that such gases can be detected from this distance. Hopefully more discoveries will follow shortly, particularly the discovery of both oxygen and methane in the same atmosphere…
I agree with Knirirr. We’ve progressed in a few short years from merely being able to determine that an extra-solar system planet exists (a remarkable feat in itself) to identifying components in its atmosphere. My hat’s off to these scientists.
So Cool.
I love living in the 21st Century.
The methane comes from alien cow farts. Admit it, you were all thinking it.
I agree that the fact they were able to identify a particular compound in an extra-solar planet’s atmosphere is pretty impressive. However, I wish it were something a bit more exciting than methane – even though it’s technically an organic compound, it’s the simplest one, with no carbon/nitrogen chains, no multiple bonds – a yawner. Simple ammonia would be more exciting, as it can act as the “water” of a colder world – a universal solvent of sorts.
Consider what the Scotsman asked Scott:
“What are the possibilities of trade with this place? Could there be coal?”
Keep looking and searching
Life comes and goes
That is the fundememental
Of it
Did they sign the Kyoto protocol? No.
So global warming must have wiped out the inhabitants of the planets with methane atmospheres.
I blame George Bush.
What have we here, laddie? Poems, no less! RAB reckons himself a poet!
Chair Bard of Cathays High (disqualified for having an obscene nom de plume)
Seriously Sunfish, I was a published poet in my yooth,
But on that occasion, I was just pissed.
Jesus look at the time on it, 5am!
I dont even remember writing it!