The Polls are Closed and any further discussion regarding the position of Beacon can be debated in this Thread. The Final Vote Count is as Follows and if I missed anyones vote please tell me.
No more changing of votes. Democracy at the strangest is finally done

May The Better Team Win

Final Vote Count I recorded at 12:22 AM Pacific Time May 30, 2006

Far Rim


00. BrianL
1. ElkGroveDan
2. prometheus
3. climber
4. MahFL
5. Joffan
6. bergadder
7. Stu
8. Nix
9. Bill Harris
10. centsworth II
11. alan
12. dilo
13. Kenny
14. Marz
15. Oersted
16. atomoid
17. Stevelu
18. Pando
19. Bobby
20. hendric
21. MichaelT
22. avkillick
23. algorimancer
24. Cosmic Rocker

Near Rim

1. lyford
2. sranderson
3. helvick
4. Tesheiner
5. ustrax
6. Chris
7. RNeuhaus
8. dvandorn
9. imipak
10. Shaka
11. Phil Stooke
12. jamescanvin
13. mchan
14. DFinfrock
15. ant103
16. fredk
17. Windy T
18. myran
19. Castor
20. Adam
21. antoniseb
22. marswiggle

Missed the Vote but First Cheerleader for the Near Rim Team

1. Holder of the Two Leashes

Fence Sitters

1. djellison
2. Bob Shaw
3. Zeke4ther
4. Tman
5. Gonzz

Well crater fans, on paper, the Near Siders look like a much stronger team. Led by big, Power forward Helvick, spotters Tesheiner and Canvin with their uncanny ability to track the flow of the roving, and Stooke steady as always defending their scientific position, you gotta like their chances against a team that's pretty much gotten this far on gut feelings, not skill.

Still, in a One Beacon, winner take all series, anything can happen,... especially if perennial all-star Bill Harris has found his game again after badly misjudging a routine outcrop at Mogollon.

Given the importance of this match, it's too bad they aren't playing before a bigger crowd. I only count 4 people in the stands.

Brian

PS Coach, I want a new jersey. I don't like 19, I want to be 00.

Only 4 people at the stands? You are forgetting that the match is being broadcasted live at UMSF SportTV!!

Hundreds of lurkers like me are watching as the tension is mounting, ready to shout GOAL when one of the teams finally scores.
Now if I could only find a hot-dog stand in Victoria Stadium... not to mention washroom facilities..

This whole taking sides thing reminds me of this picture for some reason:

Though our teams do need mascots....

Oh, blast it all. I missed voting on this? Just so everyone knows, I would have voted "near rim". Well, I'll try to do a better job keeping up on deadlines in the future.

I hope I haven't usurped anyone's authority on this - I still sorta wish these had been official mission patches, but now we can put these mascots to a semi-official use





Rah Rah sis boom bah!

(someone with better photoshop chops feel free to fix the extraneous text...)

Hot diggity dam', Lyford! You missed your calling (you don't design logos, do you?).
There is a slight omission though - our fearless, little band of Fence-sitters. Actually the cartoon possibilities are vast! Consider, say, a Humpty-Dumpty theme, or that uncomfortable stretch with feet on either side of the barbed wire. However, I wouldn't think it appropriate to work in the Stars and Stripes, since to my knowledge they're all "danged furriners".
I could hardly object to the US flag proudly waving over our Winning Near-siders, but not as comfortable with it decorating those "gutsy" guys whose intuition puts them on the Far-side.
Come to think of it, even our side owes a lot of its "Right Stuff" to some Grand Masters of Parallax from Europe.
Maybe we too need a somewhat more international decor.
Fantastic start, though!

Here's one for the Fence Sitters. Perhaps followed by the lyrics to "Brave Sir Robin".

Well, I just changed the text on the unofficial mission patches.... And you are right Shaka about the flags adn the international flava of our corps, but I don't have the skill to change them... I was lucky to get the text in there.

For those who may be unfamiliar with our two little mascots, due to generational or geographical distance, I give you this link....

And just to round out your collection....

wooohooo! Yes, I'm afraid I dated myself there, Lyford. Back in my day he was called Daffy Duck.
I'd never seen the "official" patches. I thought you'd created them from scratch!

Hey BrianL. Check above for your number again

Thanks, coach. Now, when are we going to sit down to renegotiate my contract?

Brian

I believe our brave team deserves something new, although I liked the idea of DD as a mascot...
Here's my proposal...:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/ustrax3/nru3.jpg

Awesome.

WWWwwooooOOOwwWWW! Who's doing the T-shirt?

Hehe impressive DD, but did you know that Marvin has home field advantage... and he's able to resort to a huge fanclub as seen in "hare way to the stars" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=--OuL79YkHc

"Hare way to the stars" is an allusion to http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000002JS...v=glance&n=5174 , right?

I bow to ustrax's mad skills.... Viva Near Rim United! Let the other team make their own mascot!

Though it must have taken great restraint for him to make a graphic without bringing hugging or an abyss into it....

This is only a work in progress...

Really, I'm thinking about changing the lettering above and maybe some other minor details, if you, team mates, would like to add something to it be free to say so...

We're waiting for our opponents answer...




It is time for new blood on Mars, DD has the Opportunity!

Careful what you wish for! Yikes! What team is Astro0 on????

How about a pair of navigator's dividers gripped in the left hand?
Symbolic of our empirical devotion to measurement and observation, a tribute to Henry the Navigator himself.

If our opponents lack for inspiration:
Marvin sleeping on the far rim, dreaming of the Pharos of Alexandria.
Wile E. Coyote just barely managing to straddle the gleaming points on a barbed-wire fence.

P.S. Exploratorium back online. Oppy still mired: http://qt.exploratorium.edu/mars/opportuni...GBP2599L2M1.JPG

Far Team strikes back then... (still can't believe I actually spend time on this, but my kids will love it )

and Far-team troops are hereby requested to improve/replace the thing !

Nico

I love this place!

Let's just hope we all use our secret powers for good, not evil.

Dam', Nico, that is just pure poetry!
I withdraw my feeble suggestion; this says it all. Maybe you could have the left hand patting his tummy, where his gut feelings are.

(laughs a man who digged an abyss out of a dune field...)

Nico...

(shakes head in admiration) Genius. Sheer genius.

No changing needed, that's perfect as it is.

And Spongebob's "unique" laugh will soon be ringing out across Mars as he celebrates being on the winning team!!!

Well, for near-rimmers, the beacon is apparently on wheels and DD is shifting it back and forth...

Oh, and Nico.... FAR OUT, man!

You remain an observer first and foremost, Ustrax. You observed black and drew the obvious conclusion. Everyone knows dune fields are white!

My God! The beacon is Humpty Dumpty himself!!!

glad you guys like it -I just love SpongeBob.

And Spongy Bob likes Mars! Or so he keeps telling me...
I should be going to bed.

Nico

Here are the requested dividers...:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/ustrax3/nru5.jpg

But I prefer this kind of hugging-our-opponents spirit...:

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/ustrax3/nru4.jpg



Near rimmers...Unite!

Ustrax:

Spongebob is Yellow, and thus immune to your hero's super powers!

Oh, and I translated that bit of Da Vinci Code latin as:

'In deepest abyss, in darkest pit, them near-rimmers jes' make me spit!'

Bob Shaw

No comment

I had access to the translated hieroglyphs at the foot of the Martian Sphynx and some lines caught my attention...:

'...For I, foreseing, built a Sacred Promontory,
for the Near and Dear Ones Glory.
Anathema! I condemn the far ones to fill with their spit
the crater of the beacon myth...'

And it goes on the same line but the language used by this martian sages would make blush the more sensible ones...
Be affraid...






C'mon...Everybody can see that's a fake...A sponge cannot be that size...

There is now confirmation on the jpl site that what we call "Beacon" as been Officialy named "SpongeBoB"

Well, while nearimer are struggling to connect to jpl, we Farimers we'd better take advantage of this. Who's the Boss here ? ElkGroveDan I believe...

Where did that information come from?...

It serves only as motivation for NRU to conquer it...On the nearest rim...

Of coarthe you know, thisth means WAR!

Sir Stu! The gauntlet is at your feet! Respond, or be forever called craven!

If you's a poet,
Let's see you show it!

http://i16.photobucket.com/albums/b14/ustrax3/nru4.jpg
The Knights of The Near Rim

I would, but I'm too busy laughing at all these brilliant pictures... just amazing!

OH MY. What did I start with this Near/Far Rim Beacon Vote

I've had it!...

I'll fix all your maniacal contests.


I'll fill the entire crater to the brimming rim... with LIME JELLO!

And we'll make them wrestle each other in it, while us fence-sitters watch safely from the sidelines...

Bob Shaw

You've blood on your hands, boy, no doubt about it. Where once there was the symphonic harmony of international exploration, now rule the martial gods of Civil War! Cry, Havoc!

The Knights who Say "Near!"

[quote name='ustrax' date='Jun 1 2006, 11:06 PM' post='56653']
Where did that information come from?...

You didn't believe me, didn't you?
Sorry Ustrax : Geneve's conventions do NOT apply on Mars

Sorry, I've been down in Pasadena at a JPL meeting. They wanted the opinion of a political media communications guy as to what name to give the beacon. It was all very confidential so I can't tell you what we decided on other than to say, "Oh, who lives in a pineapple under the sea?....."

Who soaks up his gut-feelings quick as can be?
Absorbent and yellow and porous is he.
Who won't face the rigors of trigonometry?
Absorbent and yellow and porous is he.
Who suffers from holes in his grasp of the-o-ry?
Absorbent and yellow and porous is he.

The preceeding message was a propaganda ploy paid for by the Knights Who Say "Near".

I never would have thought that Victoria would be so spongeworthy.

Phil

Where's the kaboom? There ought to have been an Earth-shattering kaboom!

-the other Doug

Now that's poetry Shaka...

... but I'm starting to get just a little bit scared now...!! We could be heading for an all out Toon War...

Oppy is still stucked hopfully not for long.
Meanwhile, let me bring you to a flight over Victoria and her beacon :
Click to view attachment

Beacon is easily visible (actualy, the flash of my camera!) on the Far rim

Note : another pick from Budapest (!) hope there's no right on this. For the ones that'll like to do a better job, please feel free, I'm a (very) beginer in picts work.

Right! What are we going to do with this love-sick Frenchman? We've no members in China, so we can't abduct her and bring her to him. The frustration could scar him for life! He might start to brood, and even lose all interest in Mars!
O.K., Climber, here's the program: (1) Climb two mountains every day, and then rub yourself all over with snow.
(2) Write 500 times: "Just two ships passing in the night." (or the French equivalent).
(3) Recite over and over until you fall asleep,"[i]Victoria is (in the following order): a crater on Mars, Magellan's ship, a British queen, a state in Australia, a beer in Australia, a Hungarian tour-guide."[/i]

We're only thinking of your welfare, mon ami.