A Facebook pal commented on the election results in Wisconsin. I replied that I hadn't even raised my periscope to look outside the South Dakota primary yet.
I should have raised my telescope.
Yesterday Venus passed directly between the Earth and the Sun. The transit of Venus happens roughly twice a century. It won't happen again until December 10&ndash11, 2117. You and I probably won't see that. Click Play again.
Venus is about the size of Earth, shy of 8,000 miles across. Venus was about 27 million miles away from us yesterday. The sun, 93 million miles away from us, is a giant nuclear fire 865,000 miles across.
The above images were captured by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, launched in 2010 on a five-year mission to study the sun and its effect on space weather. Your tax dollars at work... and yes, we should pay taxes for wonder.
Wow. Great video Cory. Thanks for posting it.
Venus is so tiny and insignificant, as Earth is. The sun is so massive and terrifying! I cannot imagine that level of heat. The deep red, the swirling and curving fire.
Who do you suppose won the Venusian Global Primary, Cory? (They have one every time this happens. Then the general on the next one. No need for term limits. Most winners don't make it through the second round.)
I sent my absentee ballot in, but I'm not sure it counted.
The Klabricans won the majority in the last elections and they passed a rule that we Mondocrats had to show up at the polls at least once per lifetime.
I've been voting absentee all my life, since mom sent us here when I was very young (52 earth years.) I don't intend to return, but I do like to keep up with their politics.
Bill, I heard that the young new Mondocrat Nrlak'kndyr Gthad'riap won for his party with his Environmental Reform ideas. I know a lot of the Venusians are very worried about global cooling. I've heard that in some places, the average daily temperature has been falling below 850 degrees.
I don't think the Klabricans had much of a primary, since they generally agree. They've got their hierarchy pretty much set for the next 500-some-odd years. It's a controversial stance, I know, but it's worked out for them in the past, and I can't say that Venus has suffered much for it.
I could be wrong. You're probably more up-to-date with a lot of this stuff than I am. I'm just reporting what my sensors have picked up from their Aztec Pyramid-mounted radio receivers.
Thanks Carter. I haven't heard a thing from the big V since Sibby pilfered my sensor set when I was out at the Nemec farm in Holabird a few years back. (...it was either him or Nick. Pretty sure it was Sibby, because Nick's a Catholic Zen Master and doesn't need tools anymore.)
p.s. Carter, I'm totally opposed to the Klabrian caste system. It's class snobbery pure and simple. And yes it hurts. You just can't tell because of the cloud cover.
You should try to get in contact with the Europan enclave, Bill. We Europans have been out of contact with home enough times that we definitely understand how it feels to be without a sensor set. They might even have someone at the enclave to set it up to pick up Venusian signals (that's how I got mine).
If you don't know where the Enclave is, just head down to Earth Sector B624.13. Do you know what the Plutorite Space Opera house on Mars looks like? It looks similar to that. You really can't miss it.
I'm sorry to hear that, Bill. I have my doubts about it, and as much as I like the Mondocrat policies, a lot of them seem to support Venus First ideals, which puts them at odds with most of the rest of the Orion Arm Union. And let's be honest, here, the ORU needs all the support it can get, what with the austerity measures the rest of Milky Way Confederation is pushing on us.
Gee whiz...which reminds me, I gotta go.
Good stuff, Carter. Thanks for the aside and the great tip. We should probably chill on the V chat for now. The natives are getting restless. Oh wait. I forgot, just one more. Do you remember that one Venusian "knock knock" joke?
You know:
Knock knock.
Who's there?
Come in.
(end of joke.)
Best. Joke. Ever.
But I suppose you had to be there, right?
Bill:
How can we chill the chat on a planet whose average surface temperature is hot enough to melt lead?
Radar, which "sees" through the clouds, allows us to gape at the results of the Klabrican corporations' planet-wide gouge-mining enterprises for dilithium and neutrite, which they in turn sell (causing some controversy) to our allies the Vulcans ...
http://www.sciencewriter.net/ncd/venus.png
OMG Stan, what a beautiful shot. But wait, what's that white thing just above center? Looks like a Masonic crop circle! Well, there goes the neighborhood.
Hahahahahahhaha! Thanks gentlemen.