Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Looking for lifeless planets in the Milky Way

Welcome great readers. Thanks for being here.

I have been discussing the demise of planet Kusha these past couple of days. Granted it’s not happening for several hundred thousand years, but if we had to move, is there somewhere we could go.

Yes. There are indeed worlds out there capable of supporting life that are not already colonized by living things. There aren’t many but they do exist. Most planets capable of supporting life do. The theory of the primal bacteria is supported by the notion that anywhere in the Milky Way we’ve been where life could possibly survive, we’ve found life there.

Surveyors are out scanning the galaxy looking for sterile planets in the “Goldilocks Zone”. They are being catalogued and watched. My guess is that they will be settled soon so as to beat the Galactic provisions against settling planets that already have life.

There are also being searched for evidence for the primal bacteria. Scientists have been trying to find this bacteria for  along time and so far have come up empty handed. There have been a few close calls but none so far have had all the characteristics required for the first life. There is hope that something will be found on the sterile empty worlds.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: The End of Planet Kusha

Welcome festive readers. Thanks for being here.

Yes, planet Kusha is a dying planet. It’s core is cooling and solidifying. Eventually the magnetic field will weaken and the world’s life will begin to die.

Am I worried about this? Um, not really. Most scientists think this will not happen for six to seven hundred thousand years.

Until then we party on here on planet Kusha. But that begs the question, “How soon doe we need to start looking for a new world?”

How many worlds are out available for colonization? Further the question must be asked if there is any life on any potential world do we have a right to move there and take over?

We humans colonized Harappa which had complex life. We took over there world and in fighting amongst ourselves destroyed the planet. The black wolves on Harappa are all dead now as well as all the other indigenous life. Who knows that they weren’t destined to evolve into something with more intellect. Perhaps it would have been one of them to stop the coming Cosmic War.

This is a dilemma that there is no answer to. Not even Max Gavaskar came up with a good answer for these questions. Unless you can find a lifeless world you can terraform you are going to end the evolutionary path of living things.

Tomorrow we’ll look at what kinds of worlds are available.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Autumn on Planet Kusha

Welcome helpful readers. Thanks for being here

Fall is coming to planet Kusha. Yes, Kusha has a winter. Kind of. We get rain and some mountains get snow. I mean even Harappan had snow and it was a hot world. 

Here on Kusha we only get snow in the high mountains. Kusha is an old world and its geology is settling down. It is suspected that this world will become unlivable in less than a hundred thousand years. Buy then the magnetic field will diminish due to the solidifying of the planet’s core. The internal heat of this world is cooling and is suspected to continue doing to till the planet freezes.

The age of Kusha is one factor that has made living here so pleasant but also carries the seed of our world’s end. There are very few natural disasters here. Volcanos are mostly entirely extinct. The crust of Kusha is very stable as the inside of the world solidifies. The climate is stable as well but slowly cooling. Several thousand years ago when the Fordians were occupying the world it was a much warmer place. The Fordians liked it that way. They prefer a mean temperature around 35º to 40º. The actions of the Fordians raised the temperature to levels even they found uncomfortable but the cooling trend has wiped away most of the environmental damage done by the Fordians.

Tomorrow: more on the future of Kusha

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Bubba the Science Fan's return to the blog.

Welcome gentle readers. Thanks for being here.

I am back from a short respite in writing my blog. Philip the Bard will return tomorrow with tales from Max Gavaskar’s life and more.

The final book in the Max Gavaskar series will be coming out soon. Hopefully, before the holidays. I have been in contact with the cover artist and I eagerly anticipate her work on the cover. 

I am editing the draft and preparing it for the “real” editor. I think it will be the best book in the series.

The future of the blog? I can’t say for sure how long I will be writing this blog. At least until after the final book comes out. There will be some back story that I can delve into then. There are some things I don’t want “out there” until readers have had a chance at the book. I don’t want to reveal too many spoilers.

When the blog is done it will be a chronicle of the universe I have created. This content along with the Max Gavaskar series, and the as yet unpublished Harappa comprise the Harappan History Project. 

There are certainly untold stories left in this Universe but I am not sure exactly what form they might take. I have a hope that someday fan fiction will fill in some of the gaps. I have yet to hear from any of my readers outside of my friendly circle so I don’t know what the feelings about Max and her world are. If there is no interest there will be no continuation of Max’s story.

Her story it self is told fairly completely in “The Mother of the Galaxy” and I doubt that readers will be left feeling that her story is unfinished. Yes, there are parts of her story untold that might be fodder for future books but the story started when Marcus Johnson left Earth with 2000 followers will be told to its conclusion.

The end of Max’s story does have a “tease” about possible future conflicts, some may find that story intriguing.

In the mean time, Philip the Bard will dish about Max and her friends and I will be offering my observations about recent scientific advances and occasional social commentary.

Be here.

Never mix red wine with Oodo, but cider is fine.

Earth Year 2014

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Paavo Tarvas, A Man of Peace

Welcome free readers. Thanks for being here.

This week we’re discussing some people on the fringe of history.

Today we mention Paavo Tarvas. Calling him a fringe character may be a bit harsh. He is certainly remembered for his instructions to Max Gavaskar just before her speech to the Galaxy during the Galactic War. He is also remembered for brokering a peace deal between two waring factions on planet Earth that had been conflict for generations.  His name is on the Gavaskar - Tarvas Center For Peace.

So, he is well remembered but his post War life is not very well known at all. He stayed in Estonia. I don’t know that he ever left Earth. He recently passed away at the monastery that gave him his name. He hosted some to the early events at the Center for Peace but eventually he retired to a life of contemplation and study. He published several books not of which tell of his time with Max Gavaskar. Their conversations, conversations that strongly influenced history, are lost to us. Max has said very little about what he told her that gave her the courage to speak our against the SID and the Fordians.

What she has said about him has been quite positive. She does mention their conversation in her memoir but she doesn’t go into a lot of detail saying only that he pointed her in the right direction and that his message was one of a positive belief in the nature of intelligent species to do the right thing.

Max has often stated that the needs of the individual almost always lead to mutual respect of members of the community, and that defining our community as all beings is the way to peace. Many suspect that is something she got from Paavo Tarvas.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Philip the Bard's Harappan Blog: Meet Natalie Collins, formerly of the SID

Welcome festive readers. Thanks for being here.

Today lets discuss Natalie Collins. She is little recognized in the histories but she played an important part in the history of Max Gavaskar and First Contact.

She was the station manager of the SID Science Center on planet Kusha. She sided with Dorian Thain on several key points and it was her who allowed Dorian to take the lead in the the initial negotiations with the Fordians. Once Max’s insight on FTL came out it was her who became the Fordians focus.

Natalie was also involved in Kiki Sanderson’s investigation of the Bhor Blast which led to exposing the SID and the Fordians for the frauds they were. If it hadn’t been for Natalie, Kiki may not have been able to find the clues that led to the truth.

After the dust of the Galactic War settled Natalie moved to Kusha and worked with Max Gavaskar in Max’s science lab. Natalie eventually began to be the director of the Gavaskar Science Center, as Max spent more and more time away from Kusha on diplomatic missions.

Natalie is now retired and has a place here in Harappa City. She does volunteer work at the school system and has a fine garden. She never married and lives alone but she is known to have a wide circle of friends from her associations with Max and Dorian Thain. I know that Dorian has taken an interest in seeing that Natalie is secure and happy for her aid to him. Dorian doesn’t forget those who helped him.

Never mix red wine and Oodo.

Philip Normer

Kushan Year 88

Earth Year 2480

Bubba the Science Fan's Friday Blog: Life in Space

Welcome superior readers. Thanks for being here.

Life. Life in outer space. Will we find it?

Russian astronauts recently took a space walk from the ISS. The windows were getting dirty and they went to clean them and find out what was fogging them up. Turns out it’s life! What they found was plankton growing on the windows of the space station.

Immediately I thought of my theory that the Universe is filled with a cosmic bacteria and that when ever an environment suitable for life, any kind of life, arrises the primal bacteria will settle there and begin evolving.

In this case it is more likely that the plankton comes from Earthly sources. Scientists believe the plankton comes from supply missions from Earth and from the suits of the space walkers on and around the ISS.

But, what does this say? If life can survive in the vacuum of space on the shell of our space station it most likely can survive most anywhere.

Scientists are intrigued by recent discoveries of liquid water and methane found on the moons of Jupiter and Saturn. There was the hope that life would be found in these bodies of water and methane. Now it certainly looks like that is a possibility.

For fun (I know it sounds crazy) I occasionally debate Creationists on you tube. Abiogenesis is one point we scientists have to concede we don’t yet understand. I believe we will soon discover the origins of life but we’re not quite there. Finding life on other worlds will go a long way to understand where life came from.

With life living in almost every extreme environment on Earth why would we suppose it isn’t living in extreme environment elsewhere. There is the possibility that Earth and life here is some sort of cosmic joke. That life started here as a fluke and is happening nowhere else, but as Carl Sagan said, “That would be a huge waste of space.”

Never mix red wine with Oodo, but cider is fine.

Earth Year 2014