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After travelling a billion miles from Earth to the Xanadu region on Titan, what could be more appropriate than a roller disco? As immortalised by Olivia Newton-John in her notorious 1980 movie, punters would arrive in a heated dome containing an exact replica of the Pan Pacific auditorium in its incarnation
as the Xanadu club in the film. Power and heat could be supplied by the wind and copious methane available, oxygen could be extracted by electrolysis from the water ice and nitrogen used directly from the atmosphere. The atmospheric pressure doesn't differ that much from ours, all the ingredients for sustaining life are available in the environment to furnish a closed sustainable ecosystem, so let's provide a cheesy disco too.
(?) Xanadu by Jabootu
http://www.jabootu.com/xanadu.htm
A review of the film for the uninitiated [Acme, Jan 19 2005]
How nerdy are you
http://www.wxplotter.com/ft_nq.php
In decimal, sadly. [nineteenthly, Jan 19 2005]
Kubla Kahn by Coleridge
http://etext.lib.vi...ems/Kubla_Khan.html
Weave a circle round him thrice, and close your eyes with holy dread, for he on honeydew hath fed, and drunk the milk of paradise. [robinism, Jan 19 2005, last modified Jan 21 2005]
'Xanadu' by Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Titch.
http://homepage.ntl...t/lyricsd/deed.html
Only the best is good enough. [DrBob, Jan 20 2005]
[link]
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1. Can methane generate power withought oxygen? |
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2. With all those people on a distant moon, what happens when disco stops being cool? |
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1. Wind power is used to generate electricity for electrolysis of water ice to release oxygen, and possibly also to heat the disco. |
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2. They settle down and start a culture based on the worship of Olivia Newton-John. Incidentally, what do you mean "stops being cool."? This movie has always been very far from cool, but this way it would be in a cool environment - ninety-odd Kelvin or so. |
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OK, I'm satisfied by that. |
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Yes, my nerd quotient is in fact 88.3% |
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Not that there's anything wrong with that. |
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I'm for it, but the dome has got to be stately. If it is unstately in any way, I withdraw my bun. |
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Dear [nineteenthly], my nerd quotient is a relatively low 42.7% and as a result I am losing an argument in which I contend that Star Wars is a better film than The Empire Strikes Back simply by virtue of reinventing cinema, which Empire did not do, good as it was. Could I possibly borrow 30% of your quotient until Saturday? By then I will have won the argument with my temporary 72.7% quotient and can return the full amount with 5% interest. |
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The dome could be stately but it would be important not to delay its construction on a trivial business manner or i might forget how to finish it off. |
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[wagster], which number base are you using for your proposed transaction? Mine is of course hexadecimal. |
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I'm not nerdy enough to reach base sixteen, but I'm bored of base ten. Would base fourteen do? No one else seems to be using it right now. |
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I think base 10 would be OK, but i'm not sure about base ten. Nineteen appeals to me for some reason, can't think why. |
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I think an irrational number base might be interesting. |
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you people are morons and nerds at the same time! what!? |
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I'm a noron, [nineteenthly] is just a merd. |
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A merde? That's not a nice thing to say, even if the guy *is* trying to rip of you off with your base numbers (whatever the hell those are!). ;D |
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By the way, how does one find out one's nerd quotient? Does it involve calculus? If so, I don't want to know (because I won't understand it). |
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// A merde? That's not a nice thing to say, even if the guy *is* trying to rip of you off with your base numbers (whatever the hell those are!). ;D // |
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There are 10 types of people in the world, those that understand binary and those that don't... |
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<smiles and nods, pretending to understand> Sure, that's what I always say. <liar> |
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[RichieRich], isn't this the 10th time you've said that? |
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Can't find it... might have been someone else. |
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Managed never to watch the film, in spite of creepy flatmate of girlfriend trying to force it on me every time I visited. If we can ship all copies of the movie to Titan too, that might be far enough away. |
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...build the dome from copies of the film! Video boxes would make great bricks. |
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Am willing to sell my nerd quotient (which is pretty low anyway, but every little helps) for some porportion of your fifteen minutes of fame. Couple of seconds? Dunno what I'll use it for - tell you when I'm famous. |
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You can have all fifteen minutes if you like. |
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I should probably mention that in a couple of weeks I am due to become briefly famous for being caught mud-wrestling with Condoleeza Rice. |
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It won't surprise anyone to know that there is an online quiz to determine one's nerdishness. Actually, this is probably the least surprising fact in history. |
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Videos of the film as bricks! Yes! You do realise that any bar snacks are probably going to be made of plankton, though there would clearly be a copious supply of vodka. |
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I've never seen the movie, but it sounds like a Xanadon't. You would be better off staying home and reading the poem, which is as intoxicating as any recreational drug. |
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Why not base your Xanadu on the poem? Instead of Olivia with rollerskates, hire damsels with dulcimers, etc. You could do a whole theme park, with each ride based on a poem by Coleridge. |
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The trouble with that is, the poem has some taste and therefore doesn't deserve to be a billion miles away. |
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There is of course the Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mick and Tich version too. Maybe a whole city including something based on the movie, something on the poem and something on the 'sixties song. |
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However, regardless of the denomination, you all seem to be forgetting something. |
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All your base are belong to us. |
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I think I'm entitled to this, with a nerd percentile of 87. Someday I will expound to all of you the benefits of a base-12 system. |
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If I say that my nerd quotient is 100, but in binary, am I a nerd or not? |
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Well i've taken off every zig, what do i do now? |
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[david_scothern], i think you must be a recipreversexcluson. |
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Nothing can stand in our way. |
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