Ralph Spoilsport - Slashdot User

Submission + - 11,000 year old temple found in SE Turkey (smithsonianmag.com)

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Ralph Spoilsport

on Wednesday November 12, 2008 @06:24PM

Ralph Spoilsport writes: "In Southeast Turkey, the archeologistKlaus Schmidt has discovered an 11,000 year old temple. Normal civilisation theory suggests that agriculture created cities, and cities created monuments. This discovery suggests just the opposite — people got together to build a huge monument to their religion, and in order to sustain it, communities were formed and agriculture (already in development) quickly followed on to sustain the population. Truly a startling find with significant implications."

Submission + - NASA says it will set up polar moon camp

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Ralph Spoilsport

on Tuesday December 05, 2006 @12:44AM

Ralph Spoilsport writes: "AP reports: NASA may be going to the same old moon with a ship that looks a lot like a 1960s Apollo capsule, but the space agency said Monday that it's going to do something dramatically different this time: Stay there.

The goal is to have a base at the South Pole permanently staffed by 2024. Why the South Pole? It get more Sun, making solar power more doable. The cost? Expensive. From TFA: "The tooth fairy is not going to drop $500 to $800 billion on NASA," McCurdy said. "Being creative on the moon can sometimes get you confined to the moon."

Can we/should we do it? 800 billion bucks buys a boatload of pretty little probes — how much science can we get out of an $800 billion moon base compared to hundreds of probes of ever increasing sophistication? Is putting a half dozen hairless apes on the moon a good idea? Come on slashdotters! Where are we with this issue?"

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