Martian Mind Meld Pipe Blend Challenge (Feb, Mar 2023)

[deluxestogie]

Photo: NASA Perseverance Rover 10 SEP 2022

Martian Mind Meld Pipe Blend Challenge

NASA's Perseverance Rover captured this photograph in September of 2022. As anyone can plainly see, it is the carefully sculpted, alabaster (or maybe meerschaum) face of a Martian, complete with eyelashes. Who knew that Martians had eyelashes? But Martians are famous for practicing telepathy. See if you are able to read his (her? its?) mind, in order to learn the secrets of a true Martian pipe blend.

The blend can be whatever the Martian tells you with telepathy. What particular tobacco varieties were grown on Mars is a complete unknown. How they were processed and blended is also unknown.

The FTT forum has no registered members from Mars, but that may be because Martians don't need email to communitcate with one another, and therefore have no email addresses (required to register). I'm not sure if they can type, or even if they have fingers.

Artist's drawing of a tobacco barn on Mars. NASA. (No rain to worry about.)

To Participate:

• Mind-meld with a Martian
• Create your blend. (Only one blend per participant)
• Post a clear photo of the blend, and its recipe, along with your tasting notes—in this thread.
• The Challenge will close at the end of March 2023.

Each participant will receive a customized 8½" x 11½" certificate (as a printable pdf) displaying their submitted blend on the label. (Print an extra copy, to cut out a label for your blend container.)

If there are at least 5 submissions, then it will be opened to all forum members for voting, to select a winning Martian pipe blend, and the winner will receive a suitable certificate, instead of the participant certificate.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Here's a thought. Use a blend of "red" varieties of tobacco. Allow it to completely dry. Crush it to rubble. Set ¼ of the rubble into a second container, and further crush it into dust. Then, with both containers nearby, start to pack a pipe with the rubble, then add a pinch of red dust. Continue to add alternating layers of rubble and dust, until the pipe bowl is filled.

I would expect the result to have, at some previous stage, shown some potential. But now it is dusty and lifeless, with occasional dust devils.

Bob

EDIT: I have actually tried this approach with aged cigar scrap, in an attempt to utilize the tobacco dust that sheds to the bottom of the container. It lights well, and burns well. Smoke aroma is rather nice. Pouch aroma is... Well... Don't sniff too vigorously, or you'll begin to sneeze.

EDIT 2: I did not get this suggestion from a Martian.

 

[ChinaVoodoo]

Mine is going to be round with a vanilla centre.

 

[deluxestogie]

News Flash: Support Gathers for @ChinaVoodoo Concept

This just in. The latest, genuine Martian telepathic image.

The vanilla filled crater appears to be formed from a brittle, black, magmatic rock that has cooled rapidly in the scant Martian atmosphere. On Mars, this is colloquially referred to as Oreo rock.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Today is the last day of February. It is now only one month until pipe blend submissions for the Martian Mind Meld Challenge will be closed (unless you are an actual Martian). It's time for serious blending.

To Participate:

• Mind-meld with a Martian
• Create your blend. (Only one blend per participant)
• Post a clear photo of the blend, and its recipe, along with your tasting notes—in this thread.
• The Challenge will close at the end of March 2023.

Bob

 

[HillDweller]

Well, I decided to have a go at this. I did manage to contact a Martian. He did confirm that all of their tobacco is red, at least in his sector. He said that they would like just a little bit of variety. They monitor our communications and heard some ham radio buffs discussing pipe blends and they are very curious about perique. So I chose to keep it largely red (Red Virginia and Red Tip Burley) but with a bit of Bright and perique. The Bright I had was on the red side, almost as red as the Red. So in parts per 16th:

• Virginia Red FC 8
• Burley Red Tip 2
• Virginia Bright 4
• Perique 2

I stacked leaves and rolled into carottes, which I rolled up in baggies and gently pressed under some concrete blocks and a couple of dumbbells, and kept it there for four or five days. Then I sliced into oblong coins. Tasted pretty rough when freshly sliced, started improving after three days or so. Now two weeks in it seems to be coming into it's own. I'm not very good at describing flavors, but I can say that the Virginia dominates with the Burley thickening the taste somewhat and the Perique adding a bit of sweetness and spice. I smoke outdoors so tough to say about the room note, but the smoke coming off the bowl seems to give a pleasant odor. And that's that, as you can see I am not a master photographer. Picture includes one carotte and slices from the other.

 

[loui loui]

My martian friends recommend a blend of pure Tofta tobacco to get into contact with the martian gods.
The taste is said to be a mix of divine and earth.

 

[deluxestogie]

Apparently, the Martians grew tobacco in contour-plowed rows.

Photo: Mars Perseverance Rover 01 MAR 2023.

Bob

 

[skychaser]

Makes sense. Contour plowing helps prevent erosion during heavy rains.

 

[Plinsc]

That picture really rocks
I never would have believed as a kid watching moon landings that I’d get to see pictures of Mars one day!

 

[deluxestogie]

Viking I landed on Mars during the summer of 1976. Once the first photo was (slowly) transmitted to NASA, the engineers were awed to see what looked like somewhere within the Grand Canyon, with a blue sky overhead. An engineer aimed the camera at the color wheel attached to a lander leg, and calibrated the camera. Those present in the control room were then treated to the very first image of Mars' pink sky, something nobody had anticipated.

The daily postings of Perseverance rover photos:

Images from the Mars Perseverance Rover - NASA

Raw images of Mars taken by the Perseverance rover and Ingenuity Mars helicopter in Jezero Crater.

mars.nasa.gov

Bob

 

[skychaser]

Some days the sky is blue.

 

[deluxestogie]

Some days the sky is blue.

Sort of. Depending on the lighting, the cameras do hinky things with the color balance.

 

[skychaser]

the cameras do hinky things with the color balance.

Or maybe NASA does. hmm... (i need a foil hat for my smoking fox) I bet I have seen a dozen blue sky photos in raw images from the various rovers. I'd like to see what it looks like looking straight up on a blue horizon day there. Most days the sky is the bluest on Earth looking nearly straight up. As you look closer to the horizon it gets lighter and lighter and finally looks almost white. Only in very clear dry air does it look blue down to the horizon. That's why we astronomers love Arizona. (That night sky must look pretty awesome on Mars, between dust storms.)

Light angle does make a big difference though, like with our pink dawns here. Half the sky can look pink for a couple minutes. My favorite atmospheric phenomena is watching Earth shadow creep up from the east at sunset. Blue sky above a wide pink band, with deep blue/black below. In winter it can cover 150 degrees of sky from north to south. So to judge a Mars sky color fairly, first I need to know what time of day it is there and the light angle. And I'd need a couple views at different angles looking away from any blue sky horizon. Here on Earth, blue down low means even bluer above. Is the same true there? If not, why?

I have a whole folder of Mars picts from way back. Some are pretty strange. And a long list of anomalous things that conflict with the current widely accepted theories of Mars. But dogma rules in Astronomy! Until it finally doesn't. Just ask Galileo. So color me skeptical about a lot of things the "experts" say. And I'm especially interested in what they don't say. I think much more is known than we are told. I'll leave it there.

Circling around back to tobacco talk... I wonder which Burley would do best on Mars? Blue Star or Tennessee Red?

 

[deluxestogie]

Speaking of dessert (Yum!), here are two pie charts:

aaas.org.au

In a Martian mind meld, I received special permission to reveal this closely guarded secret.

Physics. Spectroscopy! Which portions of the electromagnetic spectrum are blocked by the composition of the atmosphere, and which are not.

And then there is the micro-dust. Both in theory and in observation, Mars sky is a dull orange-pink, except near sunrise and sunset. When the sun is seen near the horizon, the Mars sky is blue. So the script is flipped, when compared to Earth.

Bob (wearing an un-shielded, knit cap)

 

[Homegrowngoodnes]

Plants could help fix some of that abundance of carbon in the Martian atmosphere...lol

 

[deluxestogie]

3 weeks to go.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Tick...tick...tick...
2 weeks to go to submit your blend.

To Participate:

• Mind-meld with a Martian
• Create your blend. (Only one blend per participant)
• Post a clear photo of the blend, and its recipe, along with your tasting notes—in this thread.
• The Challenge will close at the end of March 2023.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

My own Martian mind meld felt more like mind bending. The blend was somewhat challenging, but came out as smooth and well balanced, though a bit dusty. At least Martians blend using parts per 16, which made it a little easier to decipher. Nicotine is medium.

Bob

 

[deluxestogie]

Photographed on Mars today (really!):

The Martians have probably found it to be helpful, since a hornworm egg is exactly the size of Lincoln's chin.

Bob