Articles

[york707]

Worst Album Covers of 2006

[TomAz]

Mecca Normal: The Observer
According to a press release, The Observer consists mostly of "ruminations on vocalist/multi-instrumentalist Jean Smith's experiences with online dating."

hahahahhahaha

[york707]

Don't drink the Water

[adamnikyo]

Amiga computers are the wave of the future!

...

[adamnikyo]

hey look at me, i'm the Articles 2.0 thread

that's in YOUR FACE, york.

[chunk]

i used to love mecca normal. mecca normal, spinanes, nothing painted blue, munchies, pomona......

sigh.

[mountmccabe]

York turn this one into an uber fun thread too!

[york707]

I hate the new board.

[jackstraw94086]

pollute away, people.

[Hannahrain]

wow.

[TomAz]

Dimitar Sasselov of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who studies the structure and formation of planets, said, "It's 20 light years. We can go there."

yablexplanation: that's a crack pipe. "smoking the pipe" is slang for "being overly optimisitc to the point of being far-fetched". the meaning is, it seems to me the notion of "we can go there" for a place 20 light years away is a bit far-fetched.

[jackstraw94086]

yablexplanation: that's a crack pipe. "smoking the pipe" is slang for "being overly optimisitc to the point of being far-fetched". the meaning is, it seems to me the notion of "we can go there" for a place 20 light years away is a bit far-fetched.

He means we as human race, not we as in "you and me". It'll take technology we don't have yet, but humans or human technology could theoretically make it 20 light years from here within our existence (that being defined as the amount of time before our solar system is destroyed or at least uninhabitable).

[codytwo]

Shouldn't the huge spaceships intended to prevent us from spreading our vile human-virus crimes against nature and lack of civility to other star systems supposed be showing up soon?

[jackstraw94086]

I believe any neighbor advanced enough to find us wouldn't care enough to try.

Nature's kill rate is 100%, and it's suicidal anyway.

[TomAz]

He means we as human race, not we as in "you and me". It'll take technology we don't have yet, but humans or human technology could theoretically make it 20 light years from here within our existence (that being defined as the amount of time before our solar system is destroyed or at least uninhabitable).

Speculating on technological advancements in the distant future is a crap shoot. This guy at NASA (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/re...warp/warp.html) seems to think that interstellar travel would violate known laws of physics. so not only do you need the technology, you actually need to discover new laws of physics to make it work.

[judgejudy]

pollute away, people.

interesting.

[jackstraw94086]

Speculating on technological advancements in the distant future is a crap shoot. This guy at NASA (http://www.nasa.gov/centers/glenn/re...warp/warp.html) seems to think that interstellar travel would violate known laws of physics. so not only do you need the technology, you actually need to discover new laws of physics to make it work.

First you admit that future claims against technology are a crapshoot and then quote some guy who says interstellar travel is impossible.

I don't think the guy who said "we could go there" meant he could make it there in less than 20 years. Perhaps something could be sent there at a small fraction of the speed of light and take thousands of years to arrive.

Then "we'd" have gone there.

[TomAz]

Voyager travelled at 37,000 mph when it left the solar system. Let's say we can get a spacecraft to go ten times that speed. 370,000 mph. By my calculations that would mean it would take 35,000 years to go 20 light years.

[jackstraw94086]

Voyager travelled at 37,000 mph when it left the solar system. Let's say we can get a spacecraft to go ten times that speed. 370,000 mph. By my calculations that would mean it would take 35,000 years to go 20 light years.

10X the speed of voyager seems kind of arbitrary.

You're talking about a spacecraft that was launched decades ago that was meant to only go fast enough to capture information and send it back with technology that's probably even already far outdated.

What if hundreds or even thousands of years from now we sent a spacecraft specifically designed to go 20 light years away without stopping to sight-see along the way voyager did?

Does 10X the speed of voyager seem like a reasonable cap to place on the speed of that spacecraft?

[Hannahrain]

Oregon governer on food stamps for a week

This is pretty cool.

[TomAz]

10X the speed of voyager seems kind of arbitrary.

You're talking about a spacecraft that was launched decades ago that was meant to only go fast enough to capture information and send it back with technology that's probably even already far outdated.

What if hundreds or even thousands of years from now we sent a spacecraft specifically designed to go 20 light years away without stopping to sight-see along the way voyager did?

Does 10X the speed of voyager seem like a reasonable cap to place on the speed of that spacecraft?

it was totally arbitrary. it was meant to serve as an illustrative example.

[jackstraw94086]

it was totally arbitrary. it was meant to serve as an illustrative example.

I'm just sayin' the arbitrary figure seems far too low.

btw, the CIA just found WMDs and an Al Qaeda training camp on Gliese 581c. The also have shots from Hubble of a spacecraft headed there carrying aluminum tubes and yellow cake.

[J~$$$]

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,268697,00.html

yummy.