Why hello, Mark -

I gave some thought as to why I am still participating in any way in these public forums, and realized I need to give you an apology -
You see, I have been using you. As I sit here, facing some 150 pages, about 100 of them in 4 point type, looking for information on the celestial Balam and their role in the Tzuk, looking at yet another 15 to 18 hour day of going through stacks of material which hold little joy for me, the coffee begins to fail, as has the tea, the Coca Cola, the Dr. Pepper, the cigarettes...
It's then that I know I can always turn ob my computer in expectation that your latest outrage will once again get my juices flowing.
But if this technique is going to continue to work, you are simply going to have to do better. Raising matters which were already handled once does no more than waste time. For example, this current post is a complete re-hash, and little more than a nuisance, one which most here saw answered at

http://bbs.msnbc.com/bbs/msnbc-space/posts/pd/115689.asp

The same reasons (given there) for not responding further are as valid now as they were then.

No, what you really need to do is what you have done several times before, which is to misquote me to people who I know, and then have me trying to figure out exactly what it is that they are talking about - on secnd thought, as this wastes too much of my time, time needed elsewhere, I'm afraid that I will have to put a rather firm and sudden end to this...

The best thing for you to do is to make inane statements about the cost ($2-5 billion - woo boy) and masses required for manned Mars missions - here I can always taunt you for several daus, before having to spend the time to pull out a nice hard fact or two and confront you with them -

As for the timing of your mudballs, at least 9 inches of reading await me, so please make sure that they are daily for the next month or so. A delivery in the morning should go well with coffee, and if your equally inane responses to my replies comes at about 5 or 6 in the evening, that should be enough to keep me going until late into the night -

Your cooperation in these matters will be appreciated -

EP