teddyrised

Boggy I'm sorry if I didn't make it clear, but I've made no assumptions that life needs oxygen or water to survive. On a side note, in the universe where liquid methane is in abundance, and since it is a source of organic carbon, there is a high possibility that life may evolve to be adapted on liquid methane and for the satellites of Jupiter and Saturn, some of them shows volcanic activity (thus an internal source of heat) and a possible liquid ocean underneath the frozen surface - there might be life there, or if not, some basic organic molecules than can eventually evolve into lifeforms.

Same here. Discovering extraterrestrial life has really no effect on the creationism theory. They are neither complementary nor antagonistic. Anyway regarding the question of why other terrestrial (ie solid) planets in the solar system couldn't have possibly support life: 1. Mercury - no atmosphere and extremely high temperature 2. Venus - excessively high atmospheric pressure. Although some might quote that the sulphuric-acid based atmosphere helps to prevent lifeforms from existing, remember that we are assuming that life needs oxygen and water to survive. 3. Mars - thanks 6undeground for the headsup! Mars has no atmosphere due to it's weak magnetic field, causing the atmosphere to be literally 'blown' away by solar wind.

As passionate as a lot of you seem to be about the existence of intelligent life out there, the odds are actually against you. A lot of what so called "Evolutionist" theorize is that what happened on Earth (life) was a fluke, a freak of nature, something with such a slim chance of ever happening that it's a miracle it occurred on Earth.quote> I believe this theory (and thanks for phrasing it in a very reader-friendly way, I suck at explaining theories), but I think it only applies to intelligent life. Basic organic molecules can be made from a mixture of methane, water and some other chemicals that I couldn't remember (but widely available on many planets) by zapping them with a bolt of high voltage electricity (aka lightning, when it occurs naturally). Extraterrestrial conditions may vary significantly from what we have on earth, so the evolutionary path may be completely and radically different, but there is still life out there. However, I doubt the existence of many intelligent lifeforms. Perhaps just a few, and we are one of them. Intelligent life is most probably formed by chance (with a very slim probability of occurring).

ET life is one thing that has me puzzled. its obviously one of the biggest questions in the world. here are some of my thoughts about it 1. like what most people say, the universe is huge, there has got to be something out there 2. if ET life does exist, what does this say about religion ? 3. If we do find ET life, what would we do if they are hostile to us ? 4. Perhaps we have found ET life but the Government hides it from us, for an example the Roswell incident. 5. how would the world react ? people go crazy over small differences we humans have with each other, imagine if they find out ET life exist ! 6. would finding ET life be worth it ? it could cause unwanted troubles, or substantial benefit, tough call. those are some of my thoughts.quote> Although I highly believe that extraterrestrial life does exist, I don't hold so much faith for intelligent ones. The development of intelligence might just be coincidental like us, or it's possible through evolution, but through a very slim probability. The greatest threat extraterrestrial life pose for us is not of it's hostility, but more of its invasiveness. Perhaps the most advanced extraterrestrial life is in a similar form to bacteria and viruses, they might infect us humans who have yet to develop any immunity to them in case of accidental physical contact. Or they might have evolved in a different atmosphere and planet that they are completely not viable on Earth. I suspect that even if human did discover extraterrestrial life, the government and related agencies are the ones to know of it first, and then they'll do some coverup until something happens (like a discovery by normal civilians or a leaked report, etc - remember the Roswell incident?). There are still many secrets that governmental organisations are hiding behind their backs - we'll never know what they actually know. Finding ET life would be quite futile since it is proven that our TV signals do not spread beyond one light year. Even if ET life did eject some high energy electrical beam or something, it's highly unlikely that we'll be aiming at that specific part of the sky for that moment. It's better if they come and find us, heheh, IF and ONLY IF intelligent life does exist.

fukuda said it right. Travelling faster than light (whether is it physically or transmitting electrical signals), if possible, would consume a significant amount of energy, and thus communications will be almost infeasible and unjustifiable. Physics theories are universal. By examining the light spectrum from distance stars (say, millions of light years away, aka light emmited millions of years ago) shows that they do follow the laws of Physics - thus the laws of Physics is not only spatially (in terms of physical space, region or distance) identical but temporally (in terms of time) identical as well.

I think even if we discovered extraterrestrial life, God will not be disproved. Religion and extraterrestrial life are not completely antagonistic to each other. There's another theory I've read on Wikipedia regarding the topic (sorry but I cleared my history and couldn't find the url). It might be hard to detect life on other systems because they might be too advanced that they're consuming so much energy - this necessitates them to harvest energy from the star itself, which means snuffing out possible lightrays and transmission from their system. Intelligent life might be very rare, but there's definitely life out there. Won't be it an awful waste of space if there's only us in the whole universe?

@Danlikebooks: Quoting from my previous post (and summarised a little)... 1. Our signals couldn't reach even the nearest star: We always believed that our television signals and radio transmissions are acting like an ever-expanding sphere, extending away from Earth and into the unknown. But scientists revealed in the recent Discovery Channel documentary, Life After People (has anybody watched it?), that our signals and transmission will lose energy and eventually fade into pure noise after one light year - and the nearest star is about THREE light years away - three times the distance. 2. The probability of two colonies of intelligent life using the same technology for communication approximates to zero: And even if we manage to refine our technology someday that our signals and transmissions will propagate with almost 100% efficiency through space, the intelligent life on the other end of the universe might not be using the same technology, the same radio channels, the same equipments - the probability of two life forms using the same technology is just too slim to be considered. 3. The distance is too daunting - nearest possible life is three lightyears away. For better chances, more than 50 light years: Extraterrestrial life does exist, but it's infeasible for us to establish a connection with them. We can only detect, but not communicate - the distance is way too great. Even if life exist in the nearest start system (three light years away), it will take 6 years for us to get a reply. Considering that life can exist only at a very significantly huge distance, say, 50 light years, communicating will be an extremely ardous task - waiting a reply will take a century. What if a natural disaster or intelligence-caused calamity happens to wipes out the entire colony of life? That'll break the communication as well. I hope this helps!

Personally I think that creationism and intelligent design are two aspects that are, and will be, in constant conflict with evolution theory. Just bear in mind that although evolution is just a scientific theory, there is no evidence so far that can disprove this theory. Although we are still far from proving this theory to be a fact (it'll take millions of years), there is current evidence pointing towards it - like how insects exposed to mutagens and insecticides evolve, in terms of the entire brood/colony, into insecticide resistance; as well as how humans have domesticated dogs from wolves; and another powerful evidence is the human effect on evolution - complete homozygosity of wheat plant, which is never seen before in the past. It's nature's and mankind's forces that's resulting in evolution, as proposed by scientists. Don't get me wrong - I still respect the views of other religions. I'm just stating the facts. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- @skigeek: Well said! My point is, whether you believe in creationism, evolution, or whatever who's to say that this is the only planet where it happened?quote> @Godzillaman: ROFLMAO the photo you've attached gave me a good laugh, really.

A quote by Doctor Arroyway (Jodie Foster) in the film Contact: I'll tell you one thing about the universe, though. The universe is a pretty big place. It's bigger than anything anyone has ever dreamed of before. So if it's just us... seems like an awful waste of space. Right?quote> Right. The universe is very big - it's reckoned by scientists and astrologers alike that the number of stars in the universe is more than the number of grains of sand we have on earth. And for every single second the universe is expanding (since the Big Bang, if you believe in it) and evolving. It wouldn't make any sense if Earth is the ONLY planet out of the trillions of planets out there (in billions of solar systems) that has some form of life. But when it comes to INTELLIGENT life, it's a different thing. Human might be created because of a random, unpredictable event in the past, which caused us to gain intelligence and dominate over other living animals. It must have been something that made it possible for us to think, to create, to wander and to dream. It's not part of evolution - evolution helped to refine our knowledge and our organic, physical aspects of life. There is most probably life in the universe, but intelligent life might be a little bit rare. Even if intelligent life (or lives) do exist, we will most probably be unable to reach out and communicate with them by current technological standards. Remember that we always believed that our television signals and radio transmissions are acting like an ever-expanding sphere, extending away from Earth and into the unknown? But scientists revealed in the recent Discovery Channel documentary, Life After People (has anybody watched it?), that our signals and transmission will lose energy and eventually fade into pure noise after one light year - and the nearest star is about THREE light years away - three times the distance. And even if we manage to refine our technology someday that our signals and transmissions will propagate with almost 100% efficiency through space, the intelligent life on the other end of the universe might not be using the same technology, the same radio channels, the same equipments - the probability of two life forms using the same technology is just too slim to be considered. Extraterrestrial life does exist, but it's infeasible for us to establish a connection with them. We can only detect, but not communicate - the distance is way too great. Even if life exist in the nearest start system (three light years away), it will take 6 years for us to get a reply. Considering that life can exist only at a very significantly huge distance, say, 50 light years, communicating will be an extremely ardous task - waiting a reply will take a century. What if a natural disaster or intelligence-caused calamity happens to wipes out the entire colony of life? That'll break the communication as well. Sorry for the long wordy post I'm just sharing what I think.

I've been out of touch from Simtropolis for almost a year, but I'm back here to thank the NAM team for their unwavering dedication to the NAM project, and all the countless hours they've invested in making NAM a possible reality instead of just an impossible dream. NAM has made cities look more realistic with amazing additions and modifications to transport / commute related pieces in SimCity 4, making many awesome CJs look even more awesome with the help of NAM. To many, Simcity 4 is never Simcity 4 without NAM, seriously here's a big thank you and a happy new year to everyone, especially those who've worked hard from the NAM team! Thank you so much. Anyway this is not a comeback for me. Botania is kind of dead - I'm just reluctant to conclude it. May everyone have a smooth-sailing 2008, especially to those who are still keeping their CJs alive! I'm really impresed by CJers because they really spend loads of effort in making things interesting. Kudos to everyone.

Here is a list of links that will bring you to the different updates! Botania Update #1: AncestraliaBotania Update #2: Candomile Botania Update #3: Candomile Construction Works Botania Sneak Peek #1: A Tropical Paradise Botania Update #4: The Atoll Part 1 Botania Update #5: The Atoll Part 2 Botania Update #6: Pleasant Hill Part 1 Botania Update #7: Pleasant Hill Part 2 Botania Update #8: Pleasant Hill Part 3 Botania Update #9: Lakeside Part 1 Botania Update #10: Lakeside Part 2 Botania Update #11: Harmonic Gardens & Nicole Botania Update #12: Sunway Botania Update #13: Silent Creek Destroyed By Fire Botania Update #14: Silent Creek Revived Botania Update #15: Mysoria Mosiac Series Botania Tutorial #1: Sunken Rail, Rail Bridges & Concrete Walls Botania Update #16: Glentina Mosiac Series Botania Update #17: Latest Region View Botania Update #18: Peninsula Unveiled Botania Update #19: Latest Region View Botania Tutorial #2: Making Your Own Mosiac! Botania Update #20: Paranua's Downtown & Suburbs Botania Update #21: Centresia's Downtown & Suburbs Botania Update #22: Valeria's Mass Housing Project Botania Update #23: Mayfair, A Subruban Dream Botania Sneak Peek #2: Agriculture, Getting Real Rural Botania Sneak Peek #3: Mountain Road Botania Update #24: Origin Of Crater City Botania Update #25: A Nice View Of Crater City Botania Update #26: Crater City Mosiac Botania Update #27: The Crater & The Memorial Park (Crater City) Botania Update #28: The City Of Ladriona Botania Update #29: Rivervalley In The Limelight Botania Update #30: Kinuea Plain - An Agricultural Town Botania Update #31: Kinuea Plain Mosiac Series Botania Update #32: Here Comes Longshore City! Botania Update #33: Acadia Unveiled Botania Update #34: Presenting To You, Hoglaria Botania Update #35: Estelia & St Bernard Hi all! Thanks a lot for visiting my CJ! This is my very first CJ... so excited that I can actually publish here on Simtropolis I named my region Botania... for some reasons I like greens and tress! Well, before I begin, I would like to credit where my ideas of city-building come from... 1. Green Depra (my favourite CJ! ) 2. Kinata Region 3. Edmonton I believe that pictures worth a thousand words, so now let's move on to the pictures Featuring Candomile, one of the two cities in my region. I will try to update as long as I have the time That's all for the first post of my very first CJ All sort of comments welcomed... a warm welcome to all of you to Botania P.S.: I created this account years ago and so I do not know how stupid can I be by putting my full name as the username... so please address me as Terry will do... thanks!

Hi everyone, I'm not here to announce that Botania is back. Sadly to say, I can't find any more free time to devote myself to this city journal and my hostel blocked access to Simtrropolis completely (I live in a forign nation). So for a few months or so when I have a break and I return home only then I'll get the luxury to visit here. I'll rather say that this cj is not dead yet, as I have plans to revive it once I get to university (and out of the restrictive life of living in a hostel). I sincerely thank you all for your support, but don't expect this cj to be back until next year. I've got a major exam to take this year too. To all other cjers and simtropolis members out there, check out the really awesome cjs around. I must say that each author has really invested a whole lot of effort in maintaining them. Take care and see you all Terry

Hi everyone, thanks for your concern for Botania. Especially dedgren, thanks for your comment! It is greatly appreciated Well, I just wan to say that Botania is well alive (at least in my hard-drive), almost all the plugins are restored (for those which are unrecoverable from STEX due to the shift I've tried to destroy the realted buildings etc. and replace them with something else). However, Botania is progressing too slow to be a proper CJ. Well, I have to admit that after that harddisk crash I've almost sure that I'll loose Botania forever. So the recovery of the available information was of course a big surprise, but then I felt that I've not as passionate as before. It is school holiday in most countries in Asia (approx 2 months), and I'm busy enriching myself with other stuff. So this is another reason why Botania is progressing so slowly. And no, I am not running out of ideas. Humans do run out of creativity sometimes but it gets restored after some resting. I'll plan to continue this CJ once I've filled the entire region (about 12 more medium cities to fill, so will be quite soon I think). Thanks for all your support, especially those who linked / acknowledged me in their posts / Cjs / or any published information. Thank you all. And your support makes Botania moving on. Soon.

Holy.... choco you are getting better and better with your CJ! Omigosh I can't believe how beautiful Green Depra looks like from the region view! And what I LOVE most about this update is the railway bridge! Reminds me of the railway lines that winds through the Alps... having all the greenery and scenic views below the tracks while the tracks stay high and dry on bridges! Woah! And love the little fishing docks under the railway bridge. They are simply awesome and they added this very nice and realistic touch to Green Depra. Way to go choco!!! Love all the greens I can get from Green Depra.

Hi there everyone, thanks a lot for your emotional support. I got back the recovered data in my crashed harddrive today afternoon from the technician. I browsed through my computer and found that my "My Document" folder is largely intact including Botania's folder. Yay at least I didn't loose 8 months of hardwork. But here is the bombshell. My plugin folder is heavily corrupted, and I lost most of my applications and programmes. And gee I lost 2 out of 4.6 gb from my iTunes. Gah. So please give me 2 weeks time to check, download and verify the plugin's lost and reinstall my game. Thank you for all your support. P.S. salut221 would you post a screenshot illustrating the bad transition? I'll try to fix it once Botania is running again

Woah lovely farmlands perched on rolling green hills. It really takes a lot of courage to built farms on uneven terrain. Sometimes when I do so the individual pieces of lots of the farm just jutted out of the place. And from your CJ is realised how beautiful can the default terrain and water colour of SC4 is. I use mods to change them btw. Keep up the good work!

Woah lovely mosaics you have over here I simply like the way your downtown area's layout. Neat, clean and yet creative! And the downtown is also dotted with a lot of open spaces... just like in real life where metropolis are not only concrete forests. Keep it up!

Hi there. Today I'll bring you all both good news and bad news. Let me see. I think you guys will prefer the bad news first. Okay, here it goes: My computer crashed on Sunday evening and the harddrive was damaged. That's what the technician says. This means that I am not only left without a computer to play my region but also means that data might be lost since the hard drive is damaged. If not mistaken, Botania has a total of 48 cities, 2 million in population and I've played it for 8+ months, the longest time I've ever spent on a region since I started playing a few years ago. I'm now using my friend's computer... The good news is... The technician says he can at least recover 50% of the documents inside my hard drive. This means that there will be a 50:50 chance that Botania will be left undamaged / suffer minor damages. But there will be also a 50:50 chance that Botania will be gone forever. He will be contacting me on Thursday or Friday evening about the recovery of data. I will be keeping all my fingers crossed. Actually, Botania is quite a successful first time CJ for me myself. I'm glad that there is somewhere to share this CJ online with many other members who gave me support. I am sorry that Botania will be offline maybe for a few more days (until Thursday / Friday)or forever (if techician is unable to recover all the files). But fret not. During this period I will be on Simtrop as usual, doing my usual dialy routine. At least you guys make me feel that I'm not alone and there is always hope, just like my CJ - Botania, A City of Hopes and Greens. I do not dare to make a hasty conclusion here. Let's just hope for the best.

Wow lovely seaside suburbs filled with coconut / palm trees! They look surely awesome with the beautiful water mod you've chosen to you (if not mistaken it should be PEG's crystal lagoon~) Sorry for missing the last update... but it is really great! I feelso guilty for missing it. Anyway, thanks for this zoomed out shot of the city! Finally I get to have a good look at it. I've noticed you are using some of the big shopping malls... great! They fit snugly into the suburban setting. And it appeals to me a lot as you've invested a lot of time and effort in the planning stage of this city. Keep it up!

Every picture looks awesome. And now you make me feeling afraid of scrolling upwards because my jaws and teeth will keep falling all around the place. *takes a peek and then picks up jaw from floor* Those pictures are magnificent! Every picture is unique from one and another and it is really nice to see them all bundled up in one awesome update in Paradise Falls. Paradise Falls is really the most beautiful and wonderful paradise I've ever seen! With the rolling green hills, steep cliffs, navy blue water, windy dirt tracks, farmlands nicely planted in the middle of nowhere, streams, waterfalls and etc etc etc... just blew me off my seat! Waaaaaaah~ *blown away* Terrain: Very very excellent choice of terrain you've chosen here. I guess you've did a lot of planning before the construction of this CJ. I think you knew what will you be doing so you've chosen the correct and perfectly complement terrain mod beforehand. If not mistaken it is the Olympus Terrain Mod is it? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it surely looks lovely! Trees: Cycledogg will cry if he sees all your screenshots. You've maximise the utility of those trees in your region Jacky! So green~ and the green makes Paradise Falls a 120% paradise! Farms: The farms are simply beautiful! Nicely embeded in a blanket of trees. They look randomly laid out... and the Tuscan Style farmhouses look outstanding amongst the greenery. And I've noticed you've made them cute little waterholes for farmers to get water from / to let their animals bathe in. I love the concept! Road: Dirt road. They fit nicely into the natural setting you're creating, and with all the winding, curving and bending, they are probably one of the best mountain roads I can find in any CJs! Streams and Ponds: Great use of PEG's Stream and Pond Kits! Especially those waterfall lots that created this misty effects in the forest. One thousand thumbs up for those! Hope I didn'tleave out anything. Sorry about the wordy post but I think it is worth my time to comment on such a wonderfully crafted CJ! Keep up the excellent work jacky!

Lovely suburbs you have over there crazychicken! And the neat layout of the suburbs with all the trees gives me a very peaceful and calm feeling. What a nice place to live in! Great use of all the mega-sized shopping lots! They surely fir into the suburban setting you've created! The placement of the stadium is simply great and it looks stunningly beautiful especially when viewed from lower zoom levels where it blends nicely with the parks and houses around it. Oh, and you've used Jeronij's concrete wall with buddybud's addons! Woah both of them will be super-excited if they see the way how you use their uploads creatively! Keep up the good work!

Thanks a lot dedgren! Haha I didn't actually expect so much for helping to achieve the milestone but I'm glad that I helped And if I accidentally spoil the plan for you yourself to post the 1000th post, sorries! I should have looked at the post count before posting. Anyways, 3RR is really doing well dedgren! And of course a thousand million billion trillion thank you for sharing those amazing ploppable rocks! They do miracles for my rivers that are constructed from ploppable water. On the other hand, although long expired but I would still like to express my gratitude to you for sharing the amazing tutorial about how to create rivers with ploppable water... it helped me a lot See ya!

Wow great use of the canals! I will surely try to experiment with them after this thanks for the inspiration! I noticed you've used Deadwood's raised park as well as MBear's mediterranean lots! Very nice effects you're creating in your city and this is refreshing and eye-pleasing. All the best!