Lord British's Lost Lunar Rover Found, After 37 Years 193
Lanxon writes "The guy behind Ultima Online once bought an old Russian rover, despite it being lost on the moon somewhere. And now, using images released by NASA, it has been located on the moon's surface after nearly four decades of being MIA, reports Wired. Richard Garriott, who created the Ultima Online multiplayer game, bought the Lunokhod 2 in a Sotheby's auction in New York in 1998. And so new was the discovery of his lost possession, he hadn't even heard that the craft had been discovered when Wired spoke to him."
(Richard Garriott is also well known as Lord British.)
Just goes to show... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Ebay Oportunity Awaits (Score:5, Funny)
As he is someone who has made his fortune from people paying for virtual possessions, I doubt that physical possession of the item is really that important for the sale :)
He should create an inventory of the parts of the rover and rent out custody of individual pieces on monthly subscription to those who want bragging rights to "having" something on the moon.
Re:Proof he owns the moon. (Score:5, Funny)
I will suffer no claims to my throne.
Re:I was there, I saw the whole thing. (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Proof he owns the moon. (Score:5, Funny)
Dude, he's Lord British.
Lord British.
I think he can do whatever he wants.
Re:creator of Ultima Online? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Proof he owns the moon. (Score:5, Funny)
As of 10/06/03, I hate COBOL developers
As of the 10th of June 1903 you hate COBOL developers?
Re:Look Closer (Score:5, Funny)
Further observation reveals a parking ticket and booted wheel. With time elapsed, the fine comes to 100 million quatloos.
Here are your messages:
'You have thirty minutes to move your lunar rover.'
'You have ten minutes to move your rover.'
'Your rover has been impounded.'
'Your rover has been crushed into a cube.'
'You have thirty minutes to move your cube.'
Re:Proof he owns the moon. (Score:3, Funny)
I see you're interested in property. Well have I got a deal for you! I've got the Brooklyn Bridge, recently being sold by NYC in the wake of the recession. Mind you, the WHOLE bridge isn't for sale (who could afford that!), but what I'm selling is a percentage of ownership of the bridge! Act fast! They aren't building another one!
Bridges not your style? How about some excellent prime real-estate in Florida?
Parking ticket (Score:1, Funny)
One can only hope the Russians didnt park the thing next to a hydrant.
Russians are smart people (Score:4, Funny)
Not only do they get rid of their junk by sending it off world, they also find someone dumb enough to pay for it.
Re:Proof he owns the moon. (Score:5, Funny)
Loved UO (Score:4, Funny)
You notice your lunar rover is missing.
GUARDS!!
*whack*
Re:...what? (Score:3, Funny)
And we travel in packs.
Re:Proof he owns the moon. (Score:3, Funny)
I, too, live on land once owned by the Spanish - my children trace then themselves back to one of the Conquistadors (name listed at a national monument, yadda yadda).
Actually, it's land that was once either owned by no one or more accurately, was the sovereign territory of one of what we call a pueblo tribe until raiding expeditions in search of The Seven Cities of Gold raped, murdered and pillaged these native peoples. Naturally, upon defeat, these people were converted to Christianity.
And that's when the Spanish Crown started handing out land grants - to the Conquistadors and to the monks, priests and friars taking such good care of the ignorant heathens - under threat of their immortal souls and under threat of losing their hands and feet (literally), leading to Popé's Rebellion, and that was suppressed, putting the land under the control of the Spanish governor in Santa Fe, answerable to his superior in Mexico city.
Then there's the whole matter of how we got the land away from the Spanish.
You can call on all of the Marines you want, but you're living on stolen land.
In fact, it's specifically because you can call on the Marines, with superior warrior spirit, fighting skills and warmaking technology - up to and including nukes - that you're able to continue to live on stolen land.
And by the way - vast stretches of this land (beyond the imagination of people who've never really been to the Southwest) were included in Spanish land grants where no monk, friar, prist or Spanish soldier ever set foot.
Unless you've done your homework, you're not only living on stolen land, you could very well be living on land granted with no more original authority of occupancy by the Spanish than I have on the moon. (I didn't buy any real estate shares on the moon - I simply followed your legal precedents established by the Spanish - I looked up at it and land-granted it to myself because it was as far as my eye could see.)
That sort of gives some legitimacy to my legal claim that is hard to pass up.
The legitimacy of thieves backed up by ability to wage war, the latter being your own words.
From what I've read, pretty much the whole world's land possession is the story of tribes killing and enslaving tribes until nations are established and nations killing and enslaving nations until we have the map we have today.
Whose boundaries are still being redraw as I write this.
So don't hand me the law and ask me to supplicate to any government as if there's something sacred in any of it where land ownership is concerned. You and I are just schmoes born into a scheme where we pay mortgages to bandits, given legitimacy by other bandits and we're making out like the bandits we descended from.
I hereby declare myself: EarlyMon - El Primer Bandido de la Luna Grande!
Join me hermano - the Conquista de la Luna Grande is on!