Starship Asterisk*

neufer wrote:

http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/04/19/russia-launches-animals-into-space-on-one-month-journey/ wrote:
Russia launches [15 geckos] into space on one-month journey
By Miriam Kramer, April 19, 2013

<<An intrepid critter crew of geckos, mice and gerbils and other animals launched into orbit Friday (April 19) to begin a month-long Russian experiment to study how space travel affects living creatures. The space mission, scientists assure, will return the animals to Earth alive.

The new animal astronauts launched into orbit at 6 a.m. EDT (1000 GMT) atop a Russian-built Soyuz 2 rocket that lifted off from Baikonur Cosmodrome, Kazakhstan, in Central Asia. The rocket carried the Bion-M1 space capsule, which is filled with enclosures for 45 mice, eight Mongolian gerbils, 15 geckos and numerous other species. They are expected to spend a month in orbit, flying 357 miles above Earth while scientists on the ground monitor the health of the capsule's passengers. [See photos of the Bion-M1 space animals mission]

"There has been a long history of this kind of biological research over the past 40 years, and NASA and the Russian side have been collaborating for that entire time, which is pretty remarkable. But each mission kind of brings a unique focus, be it the actual duration of the mission or the specimens being flown," Nicole Rayl, project manager for NASA's portion of the mission, told SPACE.com. While the project is run by Russia's Federal Space Agency, also called Roscosmos, an international team of scientists is overseeing the mission's many experiments.

Bion-M1 is Russia's first mission dedicated to launching animals into space in 17 years. The last Bion mission carried rhesus monkeys, geckos and amphibians into orbit for 15 days in 1996. And while there have been other animal-centric launches since that time, the Bion-M1 mission is the longest flight of its kind in the Russian science program's 40-year history. For this reason, Bion-M1 is designed to help scientists understand how long-duration human spaceflight might affect astronauts, Rayl said. "The unique nature of this mission is that it's a 30-day mission, so it's longer than a lot of the other animal and biological missions we've flown," Rayl said. "The big importance for us is that we get to compare data from this longer mission with better analytical tools that we have today, [compared] to the missions we've flown in the past that were similar but not exactly the same."

After a month in orbit, the Bion-M1 spacecraft will fall to Earth and scientists will collect the animals and run tests. While the mice, gerbils, geckos and other creatures should survive their plunge through the Earth's atmosphere, scientists will need to humanely euthanize the animals in order to get the data they need, Rayl added.>>

http://www.latinospost.com/articles/19478/20130519/russian-animal-orbiter-returns-critters-dead.htm wrote:
Russian Animal Orbiter Returns --- With Most Critters Dead
By Erik Derr, May 19, 2013 05:10 PM EDT

<<Roscosmos, Russia's Federal Space Agency, launched 45 mice, eight Mongolian gerbils, 15 geckos, a handful of snails and numerous other species to test how long stretches in a zero-gravity environment affect living creatures. But, less than half of the cosmic critters survived the flight, Russian news agencies, along with the Global Post, reported. According to Russian scientists, the animals on board the Bion-M craft either expired from of the stresses of space or because of equipment failure.

Scientists explained before the mission the experiment was intended to test the effects of weightlessness and other factors of space flight on cell structure. One of the areas researchers will be focused on is how being in outer-space impacted animals' reproductive processes, said a report by Space.com

Russian state television showed the capsule and some of its inhabitants after it landed Sunday in a planted field near Orenburg, about 750 miles southeast of Moscow. The report said not all of the animals survived the flight. Vladimir Sychov, deputy director of the Institute of Medical and Biological Problems, said it was the first time that animals had spent so much time in space on their own. The surviving travelers were to be flown back to Moscow, where a previous report indicated they will be euthanized and then studied.

Nicole Rayl, a project manager for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, who participated in the mission, said last month that the month in space was "longer than a lot of the other animal and biological missions we've flown. The big importance for us is that we get to compare data from this longer mission with better analytical tools that we have today, [compared] to the missions we've flown in the past that were similar but not exactly the same.">>

geckzilla wrote:
Did one species survive more than another species though? I wonder which ones died.

geckzilla wrote:
Sketchy article, but the geckos and snails survived just fine.

The article mistakenly refers to the geckos as newts. The differences between the two types of creatures are not all that subtle!

geckzilla wrote:
You may not be able to keep up with bystander but you are surely the best post count sentry we have. Owlice's 7000th post was in a hidden section of the forum. I need to somehow work Accipitridae into your naively (it's just the first letter that counts, right? guys?) alliterated title. Accipitridaeous Abstruse Allusion Artificer?

geckzilla wrote:You may not be able to keep up with bystander but you are surely the best post count sentry we have. Owlice's 7000th post was in a hidden section of the forum. I need to somehow work Accipitridae into your naively (it's just the first letter that counts, right? guys?) alliterated title. Accipitridaeous Abstruse Allusion Artificer?

National Geographic wrote:
Looking like a refugee from the Addams Family's garden, a new species of Aspidistra plant is among the recently announced finds from the Annamite mountain range of central Vietnam.

Aspidistra nicolai was named in honor of the late Russian botanist Nicolai Arnautov, a senior gardener at the St. Petersburg Botanical Gardens who headed the facility's Aspidistra cultivation program.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keep_the_Aspidistra_Flying wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

<<Keep the Accipitridae Aspidistra Flying, first published 1936, is a socially critical novel by George Orwell. It is set in 1930s London. The main theme is Gordon Comstock's romantic ambition to defy worship of the money-god and status, and the dismal life that results.

"The types he saw all round him, especially the older men, made him squirm. That was what it meant to worship the money-god! To settle down, to Make Good, to sell your soul for a villa and an aspidistra! To turn into the typical bowler-hatted sneak - Strube's 'little man' [-] What a fate!" (Ch III)

The Aspidistra is a hardy, long-living plant that is used as a house plant in England. It was especially popular in the Victorian era, in large part because it could not only tolerate weak sunlight but also could tolerate the poor indoor air quality that resulted from the use of oil lamps and, later, coal gas lamps. They had fallen out of favour by the 20th century, not coincidentally paralleling the advent of electric lighting. Their use had been so widespread among the middle class that they had become a music hall joke appearing in songs such as "Biggest Aspidistra in the World", of which Gracie Fields made a recording.>>

Beyond wrote:
Wow! 5th posting position. How the heck did that happen

Well, one reason is that Ann seems to have gone into hibernation.

• You are the Virgil Hamlin Goode of the Starship Asterisk*

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_2012#Ballot_access wrote:

Code: Select all

Presidential ticket 	Party 	Votes
-------------------------------------------------------------
Obama / Biden 	Democratic 	65,910,437
Romney / Ryan 	Republican 	60,932,795
Johnson / Gray   Libertarian 	1,275,951
Stein / Honkala  Green    	     469,583
Goode/ Clymer 	Constitution 	 122,001

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virgil_Goode wrote:
<<Virgil Hamlin Goode, Jr. (born October 17, 1946) grew up as a Democrat [but] wore his party ties very loosely. He became famous for his support of the tobacco industry, expressing his fear that "his elderly mother would be denied 'the one last pleasure' of smoking a cigarette on her hospital deathbed." He was an ardent defender of gun rights [and] he wanted to do away with Diversity Immigrant Visas [since] such visas would allow people "not from European countries" or from "some terrorist states" to enter America.>>

Beyond wrote:
Well... i don't wear ties. I don't really support the tobacco industry. I'm all for the 2nd Amendment. I don't know anything about 'Diversity Visas, but I'm all for not letting terrorists into the country.
So it would seem that Goode is Beyond me.

• So you are no Goode

neufer wrote:

Code: Select all

bystander          11437  / 4.52 ppd since Mon Aug 28, 2006  / Apathetic Retiree
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
neufer              9775  / 4.80 ppd since Mon Jan 21, 2008  / Abstruse Allusion Artificer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Peterson      7251  / 3.04 ppd since Wed Jan 31, 2007  / Abominable Snowman
owlice              7193  / 2.18 ppd since Wed Aug 02, 2004  / Guardian of the Codes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beyond              4745  / 3.27 ppd since Tue Aug 04, 2009  / Milliways Pundit
Ånn                 4570  / 3.96 ppd since Sat May 29, 2010  / Color Commentator?
Orin Stepanek       3980  / 1.38 ppd since Wed Jul 27, 2005  / Resident Geezer
BMAONE23            3218  / 1.08 ppd since Wed Feb 23, 2005  / Commentator Model 1.23
geckzilla           3000  / 1.40 ppd since Wed Sep 12, 2007  / Ocular Digitator
Harry               2881  / 1.06 ppd since Fri Nov 18, 2005  / G'day G'day G'day G'day
makc/ckam           2102  / 0.73 ppd since Tue Oct 12, 2004  / Best Title in the Universe (171)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rstevenson          1476  / 0.74 ppd since Fri Mar 28, 2008  / Toroidal Pixelator
APOD Robot          1407  / 1.06 ppd since Thu Dec 03, 2009  / Otto Posterman
RJN                 1207  / 0.38 ppd since Sat Jul 24, 2004  / Baffled Boffin
apodman             1171  / 0.56 ppd since Wed Aug 15, 2007  / Teapot Fancier (MIA)
emc                 1161  / 0.54 ppd since Tue Jul 17, 2007  / Equine Locutionist 
The Code/swainy     1091  / 0.87 ppd since Sat Mar 09, 2009  / Cosmic Skeptic (187)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MargaritaMc          881  / 5.35 ppd since Wed Jan 09, 2013  / Commander 
NoelC                869  / 0.32 ppd since Sat Nov 19, 2005  / Creepy Spock
Nereid               832  / 0.35 ppd since Thu Sep 28, 2006  / Intrepidus Dux Emeritus
ta152h0              653  / 0.22 ppd since Sun Aug 28, 2005  / Commander
DavidLeodis          632  / 0.24 ppd since Wed May 01, 2006  / Commander
dougettinger         632  / 0.55 ppd since Wed Mar 17, 2010  / Curious Querier
JohnD                624  / 0.20 ppd since Wed Feb 16, 2005  / Commander
Boomer12k            622  / 0.27 ppd since Sat Apr 21, 2007  / Commander 
Moonlady             600  / 1.47 ppd since Fri Apr 13, 2012  / Commander
Qev                  568  / 0.27 ppd since Wed Mar 08, 2006  / Ontological Cartographer
iamlucky13           515  / 0.20 ppd since Thu May 25, 2006  / Commander
Dr. Skeptic          507  / 0.21 ppd since Thu Jul 27, 2006  / Commander
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

neufer wrote:I fell asleep waiting for our Resident Geezer to break 4K. ZZZZ....

But since his 3999 is the reverse of my 9993, I'll post anyway (just to get me closer to 10K).

Code: Select all

bystander          11537  / 4.52 ppd since Mon Aug 28, 2006  / Apathetic Retiree
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
neufer              9993  / 4.80 ppd since Mon Jan 21, 2008  / Abstruse Allusion Artificer
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Chris Peterson      7422  / 3.04 ppd since Wed Jan 31, 2007  / Abominable Snowman
owlice              7276  / 2.18 ppd since Wed Aug 02, 2004  / Guardian of the Codes
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Beyond              4948  / 3.34 ppd since Tue Aug 04, 2009  / Milliways Pundit
Ånn                 4653  / 3.93 ppd since Sat May 29, 2010  / Color Commentator?
Orin Stepanek       3999  / 1.35 ppd since Wed Jul 27, 2005  / Resident Geezer
BMAONE23            3235  / 1.08 ppd since Wed Feb 23, 2005  / Commentator Model 1.23
geckzilla           3171  / 1.40 ppd since Wed Sep 12, 2007  / Ocular Digitator
Harry               2881  / 1.06 ppd since Fri Nov 18, 2005  / G'day G'day G'day G'day
makc/ckam           2102  / 0.73 ppd since Tue Oct 12, 2004  / Best Title in the Universe (171)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
rstevenson          1491  / 0.74 ppd since Fri Mar 28, 2008  / Toroidal Pixelator
APOD Robot          1437  / 1.06 ppd since Thu Dec 03, 2009  / Otto Posterman
RJN                 1214  / 0.38 ppd since Sat Jul 24, 2004  / Baffled Boffin
apodman             1201  / 0.56 ppd since Wed Aug 15, 2007  / Teapot Fancier (MIA)
emc                 1171  / 0.54 ppd since Tue Jul 17, 2007  / Equine Locutionist 
The Code/swainy     1091  / 0.87 ppd since Sat Mar 09, 2009  / Cosmic Skeptic (187)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
MargaritaMc          881  / 5.35 ppd since Wed Jan 09, 2013  / Commander 
NoelC                871  / 0.32 ppd since Sat Nov 19, 2005  / Creepy Spock
Nereid               832  / 0.35 ppd since Thu Sep 28, 2006  / Intrepidus Dux Emeritus
ta152h0              670  / 0.22 ppd since Sun Aug 28, 2005  / Commander
Boomer12k            654  / 0.27 ppd since Sat Apr 21, 2007  / Commander 
DavidLeodis          643  / 0.24 ppd since Wed May 01, 2006  / Commander
dougettinger         632  / 0.55 ppd since Wed Mar 17, 2010  / Curious Querier
JohnD                631  / 0.20 ppd since Wed Feb 16, 2005  / Commander
Moonlady             603  / 1.47 ppd since Fri Apr 13, 2012  / Commander
Qev                  568  / 0.27 ppd since Wed Mar 08, 2006  / Ontological Cartographer
iamlucky13           515  / 0.20 ppd since Thu May 25, 2006  / Commander
Dr. Skeptic          507  / 0.21 ppd since Thu Jul 27, 2006  / Commander
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------