Gee Mark, I guess according what you say above, had you lived during the time of Copernicus, Galileo or Leeuwenhoeck you would have been one of those ready to condem these geniuses.

The true trait of an idiot is a person that follows a uninformed stubborn self-nominated commander in his ideas about transfer of Martian microbes without question when NASA's own planetary protection officer blasts him.

An idiot will accept anything he is told as dogma without consdiering other scientific evidence.

Barry wrote: An idiot will buy hook, line and sinker, ideas and numerous books about sending people to Mars to live in colonies even though NASA can't even fly the space shuttle without mishap.

Chris Writes: Gees, just can't argue with this logic. So when are we stopping all the cars as we seem unable to build any that people don't die in.

Barry wrote: An idiot will think putting a plywood and fiberglass silo in the Utah desert and Arctic is real Mars science.

An idiot will think that canvas, duct tape and garbage can lids make for impressive Mars space suits.

Chris writes: Peer reviewed papers and Ph Ds doing the research, seems to be proof of our sincere science. BTW, what something is made of has nothing to do with what science come out of it. Nobody but you think we are trying to be "impressive" in analog spacesuits

Barry wrote: An idiot will think playing Mr. Marsman in the desert is useful somehow to science. After all, the real scientists living in Antarctica year after year have shown already what it is like to live and work in the harshest cold desert on Earth. Antarctica is the closest Martian analog we have so why play the games. Nope. The Mars Society Utah desert fiasco has nothing to do with real science - rather is a gimmick to sell books and obtain funding from Star Trek wannabe's.

Now I ask, who is the idiot here?

Chris writes: Well folks who is the idiot here the one who doesn't reply to serious replies and always starts a new with....canvas and duct tape ... or is it the people doing scientific research and scientific papers on Human Factors? The key word here is doing not pretending, not complaining. Note I've given Barry and Ed targets to focus on. Barry haven't attacked them because if they started calling Ph D-ed scientists names they would soon have a loads of trouble.

--Chris Vancil