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Author Topic: Who owns the world?
audra trower williams
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2

posted 16 September 2003 11:09 AM      Profile for audra trower williams   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
You can buy a one-acre plot of land on the moon for £19.95. Slightly cheaper is Venus, which can be had for £14.25, plus registration fee. You can do this because, on 22 November 1980, Dennis M Hope went into the offices of San Francisco County and filed a declaration of ownership for both bodies. Just to be sure, he also filed with the federal government, the USSR and the UN General Assembly. He also declared ownership of the eight remaining planets and their moons. He set up a Lunar embassy and started to license others to sell plots. One, MoonEstates.com, describes itself as the UK's "only extraterrestrial land agents". For Mars, there is even a bill of rights to provide for mediation in the event of land disputes between settlers and a "native creature".

full story


From: And I'm a look you in the eye for every bar of the chorus | Registered: Apr 2001  |  IP: Logged
kuba walda
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3134

posted 16 September 2003 12:04 PM      Profile for kuba walda        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I want Mars!
From: the garden | Registered: Sep 2002  |  IP: Logged
HeywoodFloyd
token right-wing mascot
Babbler # 4226

posted 16 September 2003 12:08 PM      Profile for HeywoodFloyd     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I just want the Tycho crater & and Jupiter's moon Europa.

[ 16 September 2003: Message edited by: HeywoodFloyd ]


From: Edmonton: This place sucks | Registered: Jun 2003  |  IP: Logged
Briguy
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1885

posted 16 September 2003 12:18 PM      Profile for Briguy     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
The recesses of my memory are recalling a story by Robert Heinlein in which a main character (a CEO of a space firm during the first forays into space) convinces his company to do precisely this. The company lays claim to the Moon, and sells off parcels to fund their (or rather the CEO's) dream of colonizing space. For those unfamiliar with Heinlein, he wrote favourably of unbridled militaristic capitalism in his sci-fi stories (although he was reaching for irony in most stories, but that's another discussion).

Anyways, I think this Dennis Hope fellar may have read one too many Heinlein works. Someone should let him know that it's fiction.


From: No one is arguing that we should run the space program based on Physics 101. | Registered: Nov 2001  |  IP: Logged
Alix
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Babbler # 2279

posted 16 September 2003 02:18 PM      Profile for Alix     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
That would be "The Man Who Sold the Moon"

That's exactly what I thought of when I heard this.


From: Kingston | Registered: Feb 2002  |  IP: Logged
Lima Bean
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3000

posted 16 September 2003 03:05 PM      Profile for Lima Bean   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
"The Man Who Fell to Earth" didn't do so bad for himself either. He built up a corporate empire on infotech and funded the construction of a space craft so he could get back home.

Too bad he publicized his departure so heavily, the Scientists caught him and kept him on earth to study him...

David Bowie is the Man (who fell to earth) and he's mega creepy. Pretty strange movie....

off topic, hey?


From: s | Registered: Aug 2002  |  IP: Logged
nonsuch
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 1402

posted 16 September 2003 08:48 PM      Profile for nonsuch     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I think we should establish a squat on the moon, just to see what Dennis does about it.
From: coming and going | Registered: Sep 2001  |  IP: Logged
Michelle
Moderator
Babbler # 560

posted 16 September 2003 08:56 PM      Profile for Michelle   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
This story reminds me of The Little Prince by St. Exupery. Remember the one planet The Little Prince travelled to during his journey to earth? The one where he found a man who claimed to own all the stars or planets or something like that. Anyhow, that story comes to mind.
From: I've got a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
Gir Draxon
leftist-rightie and rightist-leftie
Babbler # 3804

posted 16 September 2003 11:09 PM      Profile for Gir Draxon     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Maybe the rationale for dividing up the land privatly like that is that if it does not happen, there will be wars over it if and when we do try and settle it. This way, at least, there is some conduit for peaceful settlement of other planets when the time comes.
From: Arkham Asylum | Registered: Feb 2003  |  IP: Logged
Albireo
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Babbler # 3052

posted 16 September 2003 11:32 PM      Profile for Albireo     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
This is obviously nothing more than a complete scam like the old Star Registry rip-off.

This bozo has less claim to other planets and moons than Mike Tyson has to be Queen of Great Britain. And I mean that in all seriousness.

Give me $100 and I'll name a pimple on my ass after you. And that would be far more legitimate than this scam, because I can at least claim the right to name my own buttzits as I please. Sure, it's not a very romantic gift for your sweetie, but if you are dumb enough to give me money, I'll gladly show you your investment at any time.


From: --> . <-- | Registered: Sep 2002  |  IP: Logged
DrConway
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Babbler # 490

posted 17 September 2003 01:53 AM      Profile for DrConway     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Hasn't the UN voted anyway that outer space is not owned by any one individual or nation, anyhow?
From: You shall not side with the great against the powerless. | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged
oldgoat
Moderator
Babbler # 1130

posted 17 September 2003 10:35 AM      Profile for oldgoat     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Just stay away from Uranus.

I went through a stage when I read tons of Heinlein, starting with the wonderful Stranger In a Strange Land. Then one day I just gagged on the man's socio/political mindset and I havn't been able to read him since. He is one of the greats of the genre though.


From: The 10th circle | Registered: Jul 2001  |  IP: Logged
Lima Bean
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Babbler # 3000

posted 17 September 2003 10:40 AM      Profile for Lima Bean   Author's Homepage        Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
I find him unforgivably sexist and just generally repugnant. Blech, Heinlein..
From: s | Registered: Aug 2002  |  IP: Logged
Mandos
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Babbler # 888

posted 17 September 2003 12:47 PM      Profile for Mandos   Author's Homepage     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
A cousin of mine bought one (a star name) for her husband. I'm pretty sure she knew it wasn't scientific. That's not the point, though. It was supposed to be sentimental.
From: There, there. | Registered: Jun 2001  |  IP: Logged
Albireo
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 3052

posted 17 September 2003 12:52 PM      Profile for Albireo     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Well, it certainly inspires warm feelings in the person who gets the money.
From: --> . <-- | Registered: Sep 2002  |  IP: Logged

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