For someone (me) who learned that Pluto was a planet, then at some point after I left school, heard it wasn't (and without any explanation), this little piece of basic info brings it all into focus.

Why did it take so long for someone to tell us clearly what was going on?

Once we leave school, we're left in a black hole of learning with only our own microscopes to tunnel-vision our way through the facts and see the world around us. I yearn to return to school again

See that ladies and gentlemen: DON'T HAVE CHILDREN! They'll not only slow your own dreams, but the dreams of hundreds of other people.>> ^lucky760:

Just FYI, the biggest hang-up with the birth of VS5 is yours truly. I originally wanted to rebuild VS from scratch using my much better PHP framework that I've developed over the past 2+ years, however parenthood, my full-time job, and my part-time job have been a black hole of time, so it would probably take me more than a year to follow through with that plan, so VS5 will just evolve from this old relic.
VS5 will be my focus once I'm through with the current massive project that I've been working on for over a year now. (But then when baby #2 arrives in October, I'm sure my development time will vanish again.)
So, in short, everyone hang in there and bear with us and VS4. I am but one man and as I always do, I'll work my buns off for the betterment of we, our community, as fast as I possibly can.
Thanks for your patience!

Just FYI, the biggest hang-up with the birth of VS5 is yours truly. I originally wanted to rebuild VS from scratch using my much better PHP framework that I've developed over the past 2+ years, however parenthood, my full-time job, and my part-time job have been a black hole of time, so it would probably take me more than a year to follow through with that plan, so VS5 will just evolve from this old relic.

VS5 will be my focus once I'm through with the current massive project that I've been working on for over a year now. (But then when baby #2 arrives in October, I'm sure my development time will vanish again.)

So, in short, everyone hang in there and bear with us and VS4. I am but one man and as I always do, I'll work my buns off for the betterment of we, our community, as fast as I possibly can.

Thanks for your patience!

>> ^ChaosEngine:
You act as though the labour and resources went into a black hole. Engineers were employed, research was done, factories were built, money was made and families were fed.
A crime against humanity? Are you seriously comparing owning a fucking car to this, or this or this? I really hope you're joking.

This is the broken window fallacy.

At least mass murder is good for the environment. Burning the equivalent of five man-years of labour on one car just to feed your vanity, and making the whole world poorer in the process, is a pure evil.

>> ^gorillaman:

Absurd luxuries like these cost so much because of the amount of labour and resources that went into producing them. Labour and resources that could have been spent producing something worthwhile instead. When you buy a Lamborghini you're making the world worse for everyone. Owning a Lamborghini is a crime against humanity.


Cost of raising a child in the US: $220,000

List price of a Gallardo: $198,000

As far as I'm concerned, your parents could have spent the money on producing something worthwhile instead of having you.

You act as though the labour and resources went into a black hole. Engineers were employed, research was done, factories were built, money was made and families were fed.

A crime against humanity? Are you seriously comparing owning a fucking car to this, or this or this? I really hope you're joking.

Your video, A number so large your head collapses into a black hole, has made it into the Top 15 New Videos listing. Congratulations on your achievement. For your contribution you have been awarded 1 Power Point.

>> ^dystopianfuturetoday:

Not crazy about your title bb. It downplays the humanity in favor of religion and politics.
I think the world is changing, but I don't think this guy's transformation had to do with the shift towards a more progressive and tolerant culture. I think he changed because of personal experience and his capacity for empathy.
Great sift.


I see your point, but the two perspectives are not mutually exclusive. The way I read the title, the rapper's humanity and empathy shines all the brighter when coming out (pardon the pun) of a black hole of bigotry and homophobia (the religious/conservative South) to which the rapper refers in his lyrics.

Leslie Mann is a charisma black hole. She is where likability goes to die.

>> ^poolcleaner:

>> ^criticalthud:
in reality, we're ultimately just guessing.

Yes, ultimately (in reality) everything is JUST a guess -- or, if you prefer, guessing. And I emphasize GUESS because that's all it is. Good work (and FUCK the sarcasm button. In this case, I emphasize FUCK because I don't give it out very often.). t('o't)


no, ultimately, everything is not JUST a guess. there are these things we call facts. but neither you nor anyone has ever experienced a black hole or witnessed the joining of two black holes. but hey, what the FUCK. let's pretend our young, stupid species actually knows something about the universe while most of our population is still debating whether evolution exists.

Two black holes merging, that's how Chuck Norris was born.

>> ^Trancecoach:

seems like Tyson is explaining it in a way that's still a bit over the kid's head... dumb it down, will ya? the kid's 7 years old!


I don't think so. Sure the kid may not get everything. But the kid was asking about black holes colliding with each other. He obviously understands enough about black holes that they suck in everything around them. You don't want to fall into the trap of talking down to a kid, kids can be smarter and more able to comprehend than you may think.

Yeah, you can spend a bit more time along the way asking whether they 'get' a certain thing you're describing to make sure they're keeping up, but don't talk down to kids.

I'm not "dismissing" it, I'm just calling it what it is. If someone tries to sell you a pile of dogshit by calling it cotton candy most likely you won't buy it. Because you know it's just a pile of dogshit, not cotton candy.Different representations of reality are called different names for a reason. Because they are different. Animation is animation, not time lapse. That's all I'm saying.>> ^poolcleaner:

>> ^Opus_Moderandi:
Seems legit.
When I hear the term "time lapse", I think of something recorded in real time that is sped up because, in reality, the actual event is very slow. Not something generated by a computer. An animation of anything is just that, an animation. imo....>> ^Sagemind:
Now, that would depend if this animation was an approximation or based on stats taken from actual sensors placed in the water to record water flow speeds. So... An animation of a time lapse maybe...?
>> ^Opus_Moderandi:
Isn't this actually animation? Not "time lapse"?



Well, if you think about it, it's all just representations of reality, whether it's an CGI animation made up of calculated data or the actual snap shots played continuously as an animated sequence of stills. (Also, consider other "videos" or images of phenomena in outerspace: black holes or so-called dark matter. We have to recreate images and video based upon various different observations. So I think while, yes, it is animation, you're losing out on the grandeur of the video by dismissing it as "animation".

>> ^Opus_Moderandi:

Seems legit.
When I hear the term "time lapse", I think of something recorded in real time that is sped up because, in reality, the actual event is very slow. Not something generated by a computer. An animation of anything is just that, an animation. imo....>> ^Sagemind:
Now, that would depend if this animation was an approximation or based on stats taken from actual sensors placed in the water to record water flow speeds. So... An animation of a time lapse maybe...?
>> ^Opus_Moderandi:
Isn't this actually animation? Not "time lapse"?




Well, if you think about it, it's all just representations of reality, whether it's an CGI animation made up of calculated data or the actual snap shots played continuously as an animated sequence of stills. (Also, consider other "videos" or images of phenomena in outerspace: black holes or so-called dark matter. We have to recreate images and video based upon various different observations. So I think while, yes, it is animation, you're losing out on the grandeur of the video by dismissing it as "animation".

Whooops - that's off by a decimal place. It's 0.0074c.

>> ^jonny:

So about 0.074c. I'll be interested to see the highest velocities they measure.
>> ^Bloodscourge:
>> ^Payback:
8,000,000 km/h = ~4970969.537898672 mph which is not too shabby.

FTFW

I'm reading Hawking's "A Brief History of Time", the 10th anniversary "updated" edition. In 1996, Hawking was unaware of any positively identified black holes, nor of the universe's accelerating expansion. It's funny to think that 15 years later, I know stuff that he didn't. It's like realizing you're older than your father was in some old pictures.