BS: No Point In Finishing That Project

Subject: BS: No Point In Mailing Back Those Netflicks DVDs
From: Skivee
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 02:34 PM

http://www.universetoday.com/2008/03/03/looking-down-the-barrel-of-a-gamma-ray-burst/

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Fixing The Thread Title Change
From: Skivee
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 02:38 PM

Anything else that there's no point in doing?

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: MMario
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 02:42 PM

i'D SAY - NO POINT IN BUYING THE LATEST pYRATES cd - EXCEPT...

I've already done it serveral times

I'd prwfer to continue living.

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 02:50 PM

No point in trying to teach a pig to sing....or discussing reason with a person who sees a conspiracy under every rock.

In both cases it wastes your time and annoys the subject of your attempt.

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Bill D
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 02:52 PM

(the universe- today....isn't answering. I guess the gamma rays got 'em..)

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: MMario
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 02:54 PM

learning to type , spell, or proof-read

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Trying That URL
From: PoppaGator
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 03:22 PM

RE: BS: No Point In Trying That URL ~ doesn't work!

I suppose it's some kind of sky-is-falling announcement of the end of the world. Yawn.

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: ClaireBear
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 03:35 PM

No point in clicking here, then!

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Providing That Working Link
From: PoppaGator
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 03:39 PM

...but thanks anyway...

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Amos
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 03:48 PM

There go the damned primaries. And just when things were looking hopeful. Sigh....



A

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 04:18 PM

No point in re-roofing the house, I guess.

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: ClaireBear
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 04:22 PM

Go ahead and re-roof, but remember to put lots of tinfoil underneath the shingles.

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 04:58 PM

Study this carefully.

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: ClaireBear
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 05:36 PM

SRS, I said tinfoil! Tin! Never alimin(i)um! Like, duh!

C

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Rapparee
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 05:37 PM

I think that's what God said when He saw how badly the world was turning out.....

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: ClaireBear
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 05:44 PM

Like, duh?

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Skivee
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 05:48 PM

ClaireBear: I'd thank you for posting the corrected link, but what's the point?

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: ClaireBear
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 06:33 PM

There is no point...surely that was the point?

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Peace
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 06:38 PM

All space is points.

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Amos
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 06:48 PM

But...what is a point, actually?    If all space is made of them, why does c^2 define maximum traversal of space, and why does space warp relative to mass?

A

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Don Firth
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 06:51 PM

Dear, oh, dear! I'm sure that if a friend of mine gets wind of this, it will be an occasion for yet another panic attack.

We were all supposed to die in the wee, small hours of January 29 when asteroid 2007 TU24 (a potato-shaped rock about 800 feet long) was going to collide with the earth. Several web sites reported this, as did a late-night radio program to which my insomniac friend is addicted. "NASA is keeping it hush-hush," she said, "because they're afraid people will panic. And besides, there's nothing they can do about it!"

Sounded a bit goofy to me (she's done this sort of thing before), so I wasted some time on the internet and discovered that astronomers had determined that asteroid 2007 TU24 would be what might be regarded as a "near miss," but that it would miss us by some 334,000 miles, further away than the moon.

But one does not let go of a good opportunity to panic that easily. She had subsequently heard that it would indeed miss the earth, but that it was "ionized," and that, as it passed the earth, there would be a "plasma discharge" that would set fire to the earth's atmosphere. We'd all be, literally, toast!

The morning of January 29th dawned, and lo! we were still hear!

Now—it seems that there is an increase in the intensity of sunspot activity. In astronomy class some decades back, I learned that this occurs on a regular 11-year cycle, and that at it's peak, there is sometimes an increase in radio interference, and often the northern lights are somewhat more spectacular than usual.

Ah!! But this time, she tells me, it will be far more intense, and at the peak of activity in the year 2012, it will stop the rotation of the earth!! There will be huge tidal waves, earthquakes, hurricane-force winds, volcanic eruptions, and a depressing shortage of beer! Also (proof positive), this is predicted by the Mayan calendar!

"Scientists and the government know about this," she says, "but they're keeping it hush-hush because . . . etc., etc."   

I'm not quite sure of the mechanism involved in sunspots, no matter how intense, being able to suddenly stop the rotation of the earth.

Oh! And if that doesn't get us, it is long overdue that the north and south poles are going to swap places. There is geological evidence that the magnetic poles do trade places periodically, but other than having your compass go screwy, there is no evidence of any effect beyond that. Certainly nothing that living beings would even notice. But she has it in her beanie that this means the whole earth is going to flip over 180 degrees, wiping out all life on earth!

I'm not really sure of the mechanism involved in that little dance, either.

My goodness, she leads an exciting life!!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Peace
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 07:22 PM

"and why does space warp relative to mass?"

On their way to being infinite, they go through different stages of possessing mass in greater to other greater or lesser amounts. Then, BOOM. There they are, gone, or not.

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: ClaireBear
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 07:46 PM

What is a point?

Well, all I really know about points is that, if you have one, all you have to do is part your hair on the side and then no one will notice.

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Skivee
Date: 04 Mar 08 - 11:11 PM

Don, I have it on good authority* that there has indeed been a recent increase in sunspot activity, but at this point, it's only of statistical interest. The sunspot cycle has only just begun to cycle back from Solar Minimum. That is to say that several times in the last several weeks we have gone from having NO sunspots to having 2 or 3, then back to NONE. By Solar Max the number will be many dozens at any given time. Then it will decrease, leaving lovely photos of aurora behind. Relatively little rotation stopping will occur. The earthquakes, forced ingestion of chittlins, jello falling from the sky, and sinkholes swallowing major cites will occur, of course. But NASA will make sure that the news media cover them up, just as they have in the past.
On the other hand, our impending doom from Wolf-Rayet 104 will make getting a fried egg much easier. You'll only have to hold it out the window for a while. If she insists on worrying, she should look up the article and get REALLY worked up!


*The website for the SOHO Solar observatory satellite, where anyone can see the current state of our sun in several different wavelengths and full color:
http://sohowww.nascom.nasa.gov/
If cutting and pasting this link doesn't work, it's because of the conspiracy.

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 09:59 AM

To get back to the original post about a gamma-ray burst for a moment, the article says

'astronomers consider these stars as ticking bombs: they could go supernova at any time within the next few hundred thousand years.'

I believe that I will find time to hang up the new curtains in the next few hundred thousand years. Skivee, I'm going ahead.

Don, I feel sorry for your friend. Do you suppose she is suffering from anxiety and is being exploited? Or is she just a drama queen, and we can all relax?
===
Loved your last post, Skivee.

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Changing the Thread Title...
From: PoppaGator
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 11:38 AM

...it just keeps changing back to the original!

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 11:54 AM

So I guess there's no point in finishing thi

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Don Firth
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 08:48 PM

The strange part about it is that this is a very intelligent woman. But she seems to have a couple of neurons that are pre-programmed for disaster, if not downright cataclysm. I don't really know how panicked she gets when she picks up on these things because she seems almost calm—as if resigned.

After all, there really isn't anything one can do if the sun suddenly decides to go supernova. When I try to explain to her that the sun, a normal size G-type main-sequence star, is not massive enough to go supernova; that in 5 to 7 billion years, it will have used up all it's fuel and its core will collapse, at which time it will bloat temporarily into a red giant, incinerating the inner planets, including earth, before it collapses into a white dwarf, after which it will last for several billion more years before it finally fades into a dully glowing cinder.

But no, that can't be right. She heard it on her late night radio horror show.

Yet, so far, nothing she's heard on that program as actually happened. One Doomsday after another passes and we're still here.

But, as I say, in all else, she is acutely intelligent and perceptive.

In Seattle, we get a pretty good snow maybe once every seven or eight years, if even that often. By "pretty good snow," I mean maybe five or six inches. Seattle just isn't set up for snow, largely because, if we get a big snow—12 or 14 inches, say, it happens maybe once in twenty or thirty years. It may paralyze traffic for a few days and then it melts off and it's gone. Every year or so—not necessarily every year—it may snow an inch or two, enough to dust the roofs, but it rarely sticks for more than a few hours, unless the temperature stays in the twenties for a day or two, which doesn't happen that often. The streets, if covered with snow at all, are usually passable if one drives sensibly.

Barbara will ask her several weeks in advance if she would like to come for Thanksgiving dinner. She invariably responds, "Well, yes. If it doesn't snow!"

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Skivee
Date: 05 Mar 08 - 10:37 PM

Well, Don, that's a shame. It sounds to me like maybe she creates huge fantasy crises to blow away the relatively smaller real ones in her life...but this is just from reading your brief discription.

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Rowan
Date: 06 Mar 08 - 01:56 AM

"astronomers consider these stars as ticking bombs: they could go supernova at any time within the next few hundred thousand years"

I bet that won't stop them writing up more grant applications, though.

Cheers, Rowan

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Skivee
Date: 06 Mar 08 - 11:29 AM

Well, they may be head-in-the-clouds academics, but that don't make 'em stupid.

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: MMario
Date: 06 Mar 08 - 11:41 AM

skivee meandered on about " good authority* {snippity-snip}*The website for the SOHO Solar observatory satellite, where anyone can see the current state of our sun in several different wavelengths and full color:"

and photo-shopped pictures suck in another "true believer".

(kidding!)

Subject: RE: BS: No Point In Finishing That Project
From: Skivee
Date: 06 Mar 08 - 01:46 PM

Teehee. PS Thanks for buying all those recordings.
Could you buy a few more? I'm running low on chili dogs.