I truly wish it was just you... I fear it isn't... I certainly don't think she does... but i'm sure there are plenty of people out there that are certainly willing to accept that because she can shoot... she can turn the economy around... It makes perfect sense when you think about it...

Oh lord... sometimes i want to pray for a comet...

I once toured the science institute in Baltimore (it is at John's Hopkins) as a friend worked there. I happened to be there right around when the comet struck Jupiter. I saw some absolutely beautiful photographs of the event.

In answer to bigbikeman's question... I think the answer is rather straight forward. Profits. War/Oil-mongers in the government want profits. They pursue those profits at the expense of the taxpayer. We as taxpayers foot the bill for their profiteering. Is it cool? No. Is it productive? No, not for humanity. But it sure has heck profits.

The powermongers which run governments, not only the US government, seek short term gains at the expense on long term benefits to humanity.

Same old crap as seen throughout history.

Occasionally we get lucky and something good comes out of it. If only we could be more consistent about it.

Yeah, that's when we find out comets are attracted to shiny hoops of superconducting magnets...


Anyone for a nice little game of interplanetary lawn darts?

>> ^Farhad2000:
>> ^Doc_M:
People like to blame humanity for a lot of nature's ails, but there are a million ways for nature to kick its own ass.
Viruses are a biggy. Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Forest Fires from lightnight, comets, etc. I think humanity has an inflated opinion of how important we are in all of nature.

That kind of attitude is the same reason most of the world is still sitting on it's hands while huge swathes of biospheres are disappearing.
Am fairly convinced that I have seen things in the wild I know my grand children will not.


Recognition of relative insubstantiality is no excuse for abuse. We are still the stewards of the Earth. No argument there. I just see people panic and overestimate their effect and their ability to control an eco- and geological system as complicated and enormous as this planet. Smells a bit too much like fear-politics to me.

As for the possibility of overpopulation? America fortunately has a pretty low concentration of people in general. Canada even more so. And we're not really growing that fast, numbers-wise. China's laws will likely decrease its crowding eventually. Japan is relatively stagnant, as is western Europe. My population concerns would have to focus on India, Africa, and perhaps Arab and Persian nations. Not sure about those last two... or Russia. Would have to research it. Perhaps rising energy costs will encourage urbanization and less sprawl. Building projects in a good number of global cities is booming at the moment. See Dubai, Chicago, NYC... and quite a number of Arab/Persian cities or so I'm told. It's harder to get information for those in English.

BTW, the suspect honeybee virus is called Israel Acute Paralysis Virus. "IAPV was first described in 2004 in Israel (21), where infected bees presented with shivering wings, progressed to paralysis, and then died outside the hive." There are several pockets of it in America, Canada, France, and Israel.
http://jvi.asm.org/cgi/content/full/82/13/6209?view=long&pmid=18434396

Soooo, you can feel ok about your Cell phone for now. Save that fear at least for cancer. lol.

>> ^Doc_M:
People like to blame humanity for a lot of nature's ails, but there are a million ways for nature to kick its own ass.
Viruses are a biggy. Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Forest Fires from lightnight, comets, etc. I think humanity has an inflated opinion of how important we are in all of nature.


That kind of attitude is the same reason most of the world is still sitting on it's hands while huge swathes of biospheres are disappearing.

Am fairly convinced that I have seen things in the wild I know my grand children will not.

It's a virus. They're pretty sure about it at this point. Unfortunate for the bees, but it is nature that is killing them off. Not us. The virus is BTW, not infectious to humans so we at least don't need to fear any sort of outbreak outside of bees. Honestly, when they were trying to guess about the cause, and people somehow came up with cell phones, great bouts of laughter could be heard in most major biological research labs. We literally lolled. Ironically, me and my co-workers immediately said "bet you a fiver, it's a virus." Someone owes me $5.

People like to blame humanity for a lot of nature's ails, but there are a million ways for nature to kick its own ass.
Viruses are a biggy. Volcanoes, Earthquakes, Forest Fires from lightnight, comets, etc. I think humanity has an inflated opinion of how important we are in all of nature.

matt's in ur vomit comet

doin parabolas

there are many issues i have with this.

1) delta-wing aircraft are almost useless for passenger air travel. they're far more efficient for flying, but you can't put people anywhere but the center, since anyone over a wing would end up sideways whenever the plane banked. also, this would fly in a mild version of the parabolic flight pattern used by the vomit comet which, i believe, is rightly so called.

2) i'd imagine these craft would be kinda useless for freight, mainly because of how much helium one would need, though i could easily be wrong on that one.

3) it's probably slow. especially the first ascent to altitude. and landing it must be a lot of fun.

that's just the first couple of things i could think of. to be fair, i have no training in aviation or aerodynamics past high school physics, which was a while ago.

that all having been said, i love seeing new innovation in engineering. anyone interested in aviation should watch this TED talk by Burt Rutan on how the US govt has allowed innovation in aviation to stagnate

i don't see how the game would get ruined by it. but there'll probably be a side debate over how it relates to reality.

i would hope that they have more of an explanation behind how life started out, as leaving it to a comet (and that's the end of any further explanation) is childish/primitive.
Hopefully it'll show how elements go on to form organic compounds and then at some point you have competition and the whole process starts..

That comet thing would have had to travel faster than the speed of light to travel all the way into the galaxy that fast.

This video is clearly fake.

Wright is as righteous as Obama is...check yer tool-pouch-the Obamatool works as well as the Wrighttool....Moyers is a handy spokesfuck as well......(anti-semite scumbag)....

Man dag, rah rah for yer own country dude, have you got the first inkling of what Barack means for a country this fucking damaged????
What Hillary means...what McPain means?????

we can only hope for a frikkin' comet....

Do you wear yer old drill-team uniform still????

The Comet Empire was the best part of the series, a lot less juvenile than the first of the Robotech series. Plus, you gotta love a ship that is basically one big gun. On par with the Robotech Invid series.

I remember working at a hospital when this happened. I came in that night to do my shift and found the following joke fax stuck to the bulletin board:

> Stardate 10357.22 (March 28, 1997)
>
> To All Heaven's Gate Personnel:
>
>Due to extensive tail winds caused by the comet Hale-Bopp, pickup of
>the 39 passengers has been delayed until year 3024 when we pass the earth
>again.
>
>Do not eat the pudding at this time.
>
> ***REPEAT***
>
>Do not eat the pudding at this time.




I almost pissed myself.

Are you a Scientologist on the Run? A Branch Davidian lamenting the things you lost in the fire? A Nike wearing member of Heaven's Gate who missed the comet? Did they run out of Kool-Aid during lunch and now you find yourself lost, homeless and friendless?

You're all welcome here at CultSift, a warm fuzzy place that serves as a clearing-house for cult related videos and discussion on this big blue spaceship we call the internet. Come on in, put your feet up, loosen your cilise, shave your head and cut your nuts off if that's your thing, but make yourself at home.

If you want to become a CultSifter, all you have to do is ask a CultSifter.

http://cult.videosift.com/

>> ^MycroftHomlz:
You can't treat Mira with the same math and logic as a comet, because it produces its own energy.

I wasn't thinking of it like a comet, which does not emit energy (does it?). A comet's tail is created from material being stripped away by solar wind, and is visible because of reflected sunlight, correct?

The question about velocity was not a lack of understanding of basic physics, but a lack of a good description of Mira's linear velocity relative to the material through which it's passing. The wiki article only vaguely mentions it in passing, and notes its radial, not angular, velocity in the sidebar. Thanks for the nasa link, though, as that answers it exactly. It's linear velocity is roughly 130 km/sec, which translates to a distance of roughly 13 light years in 30000 years. Cool - that was the easy part.

But apparently I'm not getting my main question across very clearly. I understand that stars use fusion to generate the energy they are emitting. But the distal end of that tail is 13 light years away from the star and has been emitting UV radiation for over 30000 years. My question is not about the amount of energy released, but the rate at which it is being released. Are you suggesting that excited hydrogen atoms are taking over 30000 years to return to a low energy state without undergoing any other interaction after the star has passed?

A vast amount of energy is transferred to the interstellar hydrogen gas in a fairly short amount of time as Mira zooms by, but then the hydrogen is taking 30000 years to release that energy? That's what I'm not understanding. I mean, if hydrogen atoms can store that much energy for that long, then I'd recommend one of you smart physicist types start looking into hydrogen based batteries!