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Member # 256
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"...Psyliam's "rougish hair" would be adorning the saddlebag of some Navajo chief."
If we ever invent a time travel device, that is just by far the most compelling argument to change history with it. B)
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
Or we could just dump Liam in the middle of the Battle of Little Big Horn (and, yes, I know that wasn't the Navajo, so don't nitpick).
-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
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Would they have? They were a long way from the tech level and resource impoverishment Europe was dealing with in the 15th century... But go back further than that.
The Norse founded colonies in Iceland, Greenland, and Vinland, but pulled them all out again later. There is some sketchy evidence that they made it at least as far South as Central America (maybe the basis of the Qetzalcoatl myth?).
Around -- what was it -- the 10th century, I think, the Chinese emperors decided there was nothing worth risking further eastward exploration across the Pacific, so they stopped the extended voyages that in short order would have led to the Chinese discovery of Alaska and Hawaii.
And there are ruins of a roughly 3rd century B.C. Phoenician settlement in Ohio (I think that was the state...). But they obviously didn't find anything here to justify continued round trips.
And through all this time the aboriginal peoples of the Americas didn't build anything much larger than war canoes. The Plains Indians were fighting each other on and off for centuries without any sort of significant technological development beyond the bow. No forged iron or steel. No gunpowder for rockets, cannon, or firearms. Ironic that nowadays, Indian reservations are the best places to go in the U.S. to get fireworks...
But for the present issue -- write to the person you plan on voting for. Write to their running mate. Write to your congresspeople -- senators and representatives. Let them know that whatever happens, and whoever ends up in the Oval Office, you want this program and its funding to continue on schedule. Join a space group, Like the Planetary Society or even just a local one ('round here we have the Orange County Space Society). You can stay up-to-date and also better organize write-in campaigns, like the one that saved New Horizons.
--Jonah
-------------------- "That's what I like about these high school girls, I keep getting older, they stay the same age."
--David "Woody" Wooderson, Dazed and Confused
Registered: Feb 2001
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Bowing out of the argument for a sec: There's actually a fun book by Orson Scott Card on this subject. The historical facts even seem pretty researched. Pastwatch
Mind you, I don't actually think the results of the plot/intervention are realistic, in fact it might be the kind of thing that Omega might be thrilled to death about. But still, its a worthwhile read.
Registered: Mar 1999
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-------------------- "I am an almost extinct breed, an old-fashioned gentleman, which means I can be a cast-iron son-of-a-bitch when it suits me." --Jubal Harshaw
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted
If one were so inclined, one could make the argument that Western Civilization as a whole would drown all Meso-American/idiginous cultures in a pissing contest for badness, malice and sheer natural destruction.
But so far as we know there are no indigenous species to oppress or convert in space. I don't know why we'd even bother. I suppose all this pent up manifest destiny has to go somewhere.
Registered: Sep 2000
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@Peregrinus: No offence, but Phoenician settlements on the American continent - no matter in what country or state - is total BS!
-------------------- Lister: Don't give me the "Star Trek" crap! It's too early in the morning. - Red Dwarf "The Last Day"
Registered: Nov 1999
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