BS: Shakespeare on Mars

Subject: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Johnny in OKC
Date: 25 Jan 04 - 08:59 PM

FROM TODAY'S NASA REPORT:

Dr. Steve Squyres, the principal scientist, said, "I will attempt no science analysis, because it looks like nothing I've ever seen before. I've got no words for this."

Another new, indescribable vista brought more amazement. "Holy smokes," Dr. Squyres said. "I'm just blown away by this."

"I am flabbergasted," Dr. Sqyres said. "I am astonished. I am blown away. Opportunity has touched down in a bizarre alien landscape."

Dr. Larry Soderblum of the U.S. Geological Survey, one of the project scientists called the site "Martian paydirt."

SHEER POETRY.

Peter Theisinger, the project manager for the rovers, summed up the long night simply: "We done good."

TO WHICH WE CAN ONLY ADD, "YEE-HAW!"

LOVE, JOHNNY

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: s6k
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 04:50 AM

Lets begin the search for elvis

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Peter T.
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 08:20 AM

Um, guys. It looks like a bunch of red rocks. I have seen many many red rocks in red sand before -- go to PEI in the winter.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 12:35 PM

How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars;
Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk...(Merchant of Venice)

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 01:36 PM

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more,
Or close the wall up with our English dead!
In peace there 's nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility;
But when the blast of war blows in our ears,
Then imitate the action of the tiger:
Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood."
                        --Henry V

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Amos
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 01:44 PM

Peter,

I have seen many red rocks, too -- the high desert ofg Arizona is rich with them.

But none of them are the dark side of Mars, never before seen by human eyes.

Our species has never been to another planet before; and soon will.

That is a monumental event. My father probably never thought of the dark side of Mars, and surely never saw it when he lived, and his father may not have even known there was such a place.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Megan L
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 02:53 PM

Shakespeare on Mars best place for the old paid by the word historicaly inacurate sycophant.

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Rapparee
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 04:30 PM

He was a playwright, Megan, not a historian. And we are all syncophants to one degree or another.

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Peter T.
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 06:52 PM

Well, my father used to talk about the dark side of Mars all the time, but then he read Edgar Rice Burroughs like me.

We did the monumental bit already. The earth is the best thing out there, and we are wrecking it.

"The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves....."

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Amos
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 07:16 PM

Actually I am told by Kevin that Mars does not actually have a dark side -- it rotates regularly enough that both sides -- all sides -- are seen. I borrowed the phrase from some journalist in recent days and it understandably struck my fancy.

Burroughs was only fantasy, and the red rocks of the Meridiani Planum are there before us as real as your feet are, but much harder to reach. :>)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Johnny in OKC
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 08:35 PM

Well, the Moon doesn't have a "dark side" either,
inspite of what hundreds of TV astronomers have said.
Or maybe they are TV astrologers.

Question about Mars: What about the polar icecaps?
Aren't they made of water? Or something else?
If they are looking for water, they're in the wrong spot.
Appreciate your help, O knowlegable ones.

Love, Johnny

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Amos
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 08:37 PM

The question is whether the caps are of frozen water, or frozen carbon dioxide. The presence in the Martian soil of large quantities of hematite, a ferric oxide, is indicative of water processes. I don't think conclusive analysis has been published yet, though.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: freda underhill
Date: 26 Jan 04 - 09:41 PM

Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
-- Julius Caesar I.ii.

O for a Muse of fire, that would ascend The brightest heaven of invention, A kingdom for a stage, princes to act, And monarchs to behold the swelling scene! Then should the warlike Harry, like himself, Assume the port of Mars; and at his heels, Leashed-in like hounds, should famine, sword, and fire, Crouch for employment.

and..
If you want to build a ship, don't herd people together to collect wood and don't assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.
--Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Teresa
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 12:24 AM

The thread title sounds like a good one for an alternate history tale. ;) Has anyone ever done such a thing? Whimsical thought. ...
Teresa

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Dave Bryant
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 07:51 AM

The moon doesn't actually have a dark side either - the back's fully illuminated by the sun, between the phases that we call Old & New moon. Unlike Mars though, it does only show one side to the Earth. Until the first moon orbiter, no-one knew quite what it's back-side looked like.

Teresa: - I once read a sci-fi story where an expedition to the moon find that Leonardo da Vinci had got there first.

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: SueB
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 12:02 PM

Harry Turtledove wrote an alternate history which had as its premise that the British did not defeat the Spanish Armada in 1588 - it has Shakespeare as main protagonist, writing a forbidden play which incites Londoners to revolt and drive the Spaniards out of London and England. Very fun to read. London as the scene of the Inquisition probably not as bizarre or alien a landscape as Mars...

As someone who still isn't quite sure how the radio works, I am certainly flabbergasted myself that human beings, out of the sheer power of their imaginations, were able to dream up a way to see a place to which we cannot travel. The amazing thing to me is not that it looks so strange but that it looks so familiar.

Then again, there is an idea prevalent in certain circles that the Moon Landing film was faked, so how sure can we be that this actually is Mars we're being shown, and not PEI?

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Chief Chaos
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 12:34 PM

Romeo: But, soft! what light on red rock strewn sandy plain breaks?
It is the east, and Juliet is the sun.
Arise, fair sun, and kill the envious phobos, or is it deimos?
Foresooth! But never have I been able to tell the one from the other!

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: Peter T.
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 01:53 PM

If you see a little girl with carrot-top hair bouncing across the landscape, you are definitely in PEI.

yours,

Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: Shakespeare on Mars
From: GUEST,Johnny in OKC
Date: 27 Jan 04 - 09:44 PM

Thanks for all the Shakespeare quotes,
both real and bogus ...

"Brush up your Shakespeare,
Start quoting him now.
Brush up your Shakespeare
And the ladies you will wow."

Love, Johnny