Jinn of Quality and Risk

We can improve Mars with good atmospheric pressure and temperature, and liquid water on its surface, all within fifty years of the start of a terraforming programme. The result would support crops and allow people to walk outdoors with no more than an oxygen mask. A terraformed Mars would have a dry-land area somewhat smaller than that of the Earth, plus oceans. Naturally, this will make some people unhappy.

See also the Mars Simulation Project, a free software project to create a simulation of future human settlement on Mars. I was involved in a similar Mars simulation project in 1986 (software engineering, Carnegie Mellon); we delivered two versions of our software to the Planetary Society and NASA (we used Ada and Pascal). Jim Tomayko was our (excellent) professor, attached to the SEI. 

Wargames are realistic tools to understand strategy, explore alternative scenarios, and evaluate risk: I've fought in more than 20 "wars" between India and Pakistan. I've seen skirmishes turn into conflagrations. I've seen ferocious attacks across the border, and defending divisions worn down. I've seen Pakistani commanders turn to nuclear weapons to fend off advancing Indian divisions. I've seen New Delhi —a city of more than 11 million— destroyed and hundreds of thousands of its residents killed in a flash. 

Philo T. Farnsworth was the inventor of television. Through the nineteen-thirties and forties, he engaged in a heroic battle to perfect and commercialize his discovery, fending off creditors and predators, and working himself to the point of emotional and physical exhaustion. His nemesis was David Sarnoff, the head of RCA, then one of the most powerful American electronics companies. [The New Yorker, A Critic At Large] 

Water-ice has been found in vast quantities just below the surface across great swathes of the planet Mars. Melted, it would create very large and deep oceans. The discovery by Mars Odyssey, which has been orbiting the red planet since late last year, is expected to inspire the US space agency Nasa to start planning a manned mission to Mars. Fantastic! 

What if you could take a pill and [skip] sleep? ... [Provigil] allows people to remain awake and attentive when their bodies normally crave shut-eye, without suffering the unpleasant side effects and risk of addiction associated with caffeine, amphetamines and other stimulants. [LA Times RR]