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| What do you think of our future? |
| Star Trek happy |
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11% |
[ 1 ] |
| Doin fine, with all the normal problems |
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44% |
[ 4 ] |
| Still around, but I doubt I would like the human race |
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11% |
[ 1 ] |
| De-evolve, die out, cataclyismic destruction |
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11% |
[ 1 ] |
| Other (try not to use this unless you really have to) |
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22% |
[ 2 ] |
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| Total Votes : 9 |
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laogaiguk
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea
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 Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 5:14 pm Post subject: Astronomers find distant, fluffy world |
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EDIT, my comment at the bottom has brought on some different topics. Go ahead and talk about the article (which I think is cool), or talk about the future of the human race. Your choice.
| Quote: |
Astronomers find distant, fluffy world
POSTED: 1611 GMT (0011 HKT), September 14, 2006
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WASHINGTON (AP) -- The largest planet ever found orbiting another star is so puffy it would float on water, astronomers said Thursday.
The newly discovered planet, dubbed HAT-P-1, is both the largest and least dense of the nearly 200 worlds astronomers have found outside our own solar system.
HAT-P-1 orbits one of a pair of stars in the constellation Lacerta, about 450 light-years from Earth.
"This new planet, if you could imagine putting it in a cosmic water glass, it would float," said Robert Noyes, a research astrophysicist with the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory.
HAT-P-1 is an oddball planet, since it orbits its parent star at just one-twentieth of the distance that separates Earth from our own sun. While Earth takes a year to orbit the sun, the newly found planet whips around its star once every 4.5 days.
Astronomers believe HAT-P-1 may belong to an entirely new class of planets, along with a second, smaller distant world that's also puffier than theories would have predicted, Noyes said.
Astronomers used a network of telescopes in Arizona and Hawaii to discover the planet. Its parent star is too faint to see with the naked eye but can be spied with binoculars.
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. |
Astronomers find distant, fluffy world
I just like the idea that there are not just other planets, but whole new kinds of planets we haven't thought of. Who really knows what is out there? Sometimes I'm sad that I won't really be able to see what the human race finds and accomplishes in the future (though I plan on living to 200 years old  )
Last edited by laogaiguk on Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:02 am; edited 1 time in total |
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Junior
Joined: 18 Nov 2005
Location: the eye
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| Posted: Mon Sep 18, 2006 7:52 pm Post subject: Re: Astronomers find distant, fluffy world |
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| laogaiguk wrote: |
| Sometimes I'm sad that I won't really be able to see what the human race finds and accomplishes in the future |
Count yourself lucky that you will miss out on whats to come. 200 years is highly optimistic of you. |
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Yo!Chingo
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: Seoul Korea
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| Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 4:16 am Post subject: |
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| I find myself regretting the fact that I won't be around to know the future but then I'm also happy. If the world is as messed up as I think it's gonna be, the future ain't so bright. |
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Ya-ta Boy
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: Established in 1994
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| Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:07 am Post subject: |
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| It's bad enough that Pluto got demoted. Now they use words like 'fluffy' to describe a real planet. I hope they find some other adjective or future generations will be faced with the indignity of saying they live on Planet Muffin. Or Snookems. |
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laogaiguk
Joined: 06 Dec 2005
Location: somewhere in Korea
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| Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:11 am Post subject: |
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| Ya-ta Boy wrote: |
| It's bad enough that Pluto got demoted. Now they use words like 'fluffy' to describe a real planet. I hope they find some other adjective or future generations will be faced with the indignity of saying they live on Planet Muffin. Or Snookems. |
Better than living on Uranus though Ya-ta |
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Rteacher
Joined: 23 May 2005
Location: Western MA, USA
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| Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 5:26 am Post subject: |
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| Because of Chaitanya Mahaprabu's sankirtan movement there will be a "Golden Age" for the next ten thousand years - after which time things will steadily degrade for several hundred thousand years and get so bad that Vishnu incarnates as Kalki avatar, riding a white horse and killing everyone who's left on earth with his blazing sword (thus bestowing upon them eternal liberation...) |
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Moldy Rutabaga
Joined: 01 Jul 2003
Location: Ansan, Korea
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| Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 6:26 am Post subject: |
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| Quote: |
| The largest planet ever found orbiting another star is so puffy it would float on water, astronomers said Thursday. |
And already China is claiming that it's part of one China, the people there are bitter about the Japanese, and Korea is recruiting there for EPIK teachers!
Yes, it does sound like a silly way of describing a planet-- fluffy. Imagine the scenario.
Uhura: Captain, warships from the planet Effervescence at 200 flutons.
Kirk: (Snigger, snigger) The planet what!
Scotty: Hee, hee, it sounds like a Diet Fresca commercial.
Spock: I don't get it.
I used to worry about the future of earth a lot, and I wasted time worrying that futuristic robots would rebel and enslave or destroy mankind. But lately I've begun to think--you robots are amateurs!-- no one's as good at destroying the planet like we are! Give us fifty years, and you computers will be lucky if there's a Vic-20 still running that hasn't been burned out by acid rain.
Predictions I have about the next century.
There will be an atomic war, possibly fought over either water or Islam.
Populations will drop.
Countries will disappear in favor of economic trading zones.
Much less meat will be eaten.
Simple-life naturalist lifestyles will expand.
Cheap energy from various sources will become common.
Koreans might even master waiting for people to get out of the elevator or subway car before jamming in.
Jessica Alba's granddaughter will be hot too.
Ken:> |
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mithridates
Joined: 03 Mar 2003
Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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| Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:05 am Post subject: |
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I don't believe that things are getting worse.
Illiteracy:
Internet population just passed 1 billion and increasing at huge rates in places like China and Russia
Poverty:
Life expectancy:
There's also less conflict and war per capita than there has ever been. Along with that here are the areas in which there's conflict at the moment:
Compare that to the way things used to be (well, not all areas of conflict but still):
There's far too much economic integration for nations to undertake anything too foolish. The only real danger is from terrorists or something similar obtaining weapons they shouldn't have. |
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happeningthang
Joined: 26 Apr 2003
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| Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:22 am Post subject: |
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I'd have to agree with Mith and his visual aids display. Things are getting better, and while we have a tendency to repeat the same mistakes, us humans will keep on trucking.
It will take the planet collapsing under our weight to make any real dent in our progress. Admittedly that's a developing likelihood, but I think it'll be more of a culling than a species killer. |
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cdninkorea
Joined: 27 Jan 2006
Location: Seoul
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| Posted: Tue Sep 19, 2006 7:41 pm Post subject: |
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| Wow, Mithridates, that's an excellent post. |
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