On Jul 1, 2005, at 2:45 PM, Warren Ockrassa wrote:
On Jul 1, 2005, at 2:01 PM, Damon Agretto wrote:
Ok, I could buy that, but why didn't they just stay the first time
instead of burying ships and leaving?
Maybe they were prepositioning equipment in the same way the US has
prepositioned equipment in places like Diego Garcia. It's all about
the
contingency plans; we don't know what sort of "operations" are going
on
in other theaters, etc. or the political, economic, or environmental
situation on Mars (though we could make some good guesses...)...
Sleeper cells?
<OFFTOPIC>
This reminded me of a fake news item I saw the other day: a leak of a
Bush administration memo approving the torture of enemy combatant
fetuses because they might contain terrorist cells.
</OFFTOPIC>
Put the equipment in place against the day when they *might* need it,
and then activate it when it's necessary...?
As for bacteria -- a new virulent mutation that they *didnt* have a
problem with then might well have emerged over the centuries.
Perhaps our failure to complete our full rounds of antibiotics ends up
saving our lives, providing an ironic twist to what Wells intended as
an ironic twist.
As to why no one found them ... that's a puzzler.
BTW, the Wells version had Martians launching their capsules like
artillery, yes -- IIRC flashes were seen on Mars some time (weeks?
months?) before the first arrivals started hitting Earth.
Yes:
During the opposition of 1894 a great light was seen on the
illuminated part of the disk, first at the Lick Observatory,
then by Perrotin of Nice, and then by other observers. English
readers heard of it first in the issue of Nature dated August 2.
I am inclined to think that this blaze may have been the casting
of the huge gun, in the vast pit sunk into their planet, from
which their shots were fired at us. Peculiar markings, as yet
unexplained, were seen near the site of that outbreak during the
next two oppositions.
(BTW: Lick Observatory is about 20 driving miles from here, probably
more like 10 miles as the crow flies.)
The storm burst upon us six years ago now. As Mars approached
opposition, Lavelle of Java set the wires of the astronomical
exchange palpitating with the amazing intelligence of a huge
outbreak of incandescent gas upon the planet. It had occurred
towards midnight of the twelfth; and the spectroscope, to which
he had at once resorted, indicated a mass of flaming gas,
chiefly hydrogen, moving with an enormous velocity towards this
earth. This jet of fire had become invisible about a quarter
past twelve. He compared it to a colossal puff of flame suddenly
and violently squirted out of the planet, "as flaming gases
rushed out of a gun."
(Source: http://www.fourmilab.ch/etexts/www/warworlds/warw.html)
Does anyone remember the 1976 album "Jeff Wayne's Musical Version of The
War of the Worlds"? I spent more than a few of my lonely teenage hours
wearing that damned thing out. To the best of my recollection, they
hewed rather close to the Wells (and not the Welles) version. It's
available on Amazon, of course, with samples! (I'd forgotton how
disco-influenced the opening piece, "Eve of War" was.)
Here's how Wayne's version put it (huge swaths of the album were
narrated and acted, with songs between):
At midnight, on the 12th of August, a huge mass of luminous gas
erupted from Mars and sped towards Earth. Across two hundred
million miles of void, invisibly hurtling towards us, came the
first of the missiles that were to bring so much calamity to
Earth. As I watched, there was another jet of gas. It was
another missile, starting on its way.
And that's how it was for the next ten nights. A flare, spurting
out from Mars. Bright green, drawing a green mist behind it; a
beautiful, but somehow disturbing sight. Ogilby, the astronomer,
assured me we were in no danger. He was convinced there could be
no living thing on that remote, forbidding planet.
Dave
Ulla! Maru
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