Out of the Blue

The rain here yesterday morning definitely seemed to fit the description torrential downpour, as it was coming down in buckets for a good stretch. Thankfully, our basement remained dry, which serves as a further reassurance that the recently repair to the crack in our foundation seems to have solved our wet basement. We can't say we're positive, as the occasions we suffered mini-floods were unpredictable, but it seems hard to imagine it would have stayed dry amid all that before it got fixed.

Links: Thanks Ant.
Play: Maserati GranTurismo 2018.
Links: Porsche builds 911 Turbo out of massive Lego bricks.
'Cheech and Chong Day' declared in West Hollywood. Dave's not here!
Stories: Astronaut Says It 'Smells Great' Inside the International Space Station. 20 years of farts and counting.
The Plan to Save California's Legendary Weed From 'Big Cannabis.'
Police: Grandmother killed husband, then killed lookalike to steal her identity. Damn!
Science: Immunotherapy transforms lung cancer, the biggest cancer killer.
Scientists accidentally produce an enzyme that devours plastic.
How Dogs View The World- Brain Scans Tell Us What They See. Thanks Cutter.
Media: Driver tries to escape traffic, but can't escape instant karma. That moment you always dream of.
Magic beer.
1911 - Streets of NYC (speed corrected, added sound).
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40 Replies. 2 pages. Viewing page 1.
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40.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 19, 2018, 13:18
40.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 19, 2018, 13:18
Apr 19, 2018, 13:18
 
Kxmode wrote on Apr 18, 2018, 21:32:
[VG]Reagle wrote on Apr 18, 2018, 17:24:
Who paying for these astroids to be tracked?!??? Maybe if a few astroids hit the earth it would wake a few people up!!!People like Chris Roberts! A dinosaur killer right down the snoze would be perfecto...

Why do you keep coloring words in your comment? I think that's worse than CAPS.

To... get people to pay attention and respond?
If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. Slava Ukraini!
Avatar 22024
39.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 18, 2018, 21:32
Kxmode
 
39.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 18, 2018, 21:32
Apr 18, 2018, 21:32
 Kxmode
 
[VG]Reagle wrote on Apr 18, 2018, 17:24:
Who paying for these astroids to be tracked?!??? Maybe if a few astroids hit the earth it would wake a few people up!!!People like Chris Roberts! A dinosaur killer right down the snoze would be perfecto...

Why do you keep coloring words in your comment? I think that's worse than CAPS.
"...and in stonks, Fizzy Squeezy Stocklebocks leaped over Droopy Whoopy Bondfluffs, hitting 300-gigglebits to their 150-snorebucks. Meanwhile, in Whimsyland's market, the pancakes reached parity with pogo sticks."
Avatar 18786
38.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 18, 2018, 17:24
38.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 18, 2018, 17:24
Apr 18, 2018, 17:24
 
Who paying for these astroids to be tracked?!??? Maybe if a few astroids hit the earth it would wake a few people up!!!People like Chris Roberts! A dinosaur killer right down the snoze would be perfecto...
DON'T LIKE MY COMMENTS?!? THEN STOP RELEASING GARBAGE.
Avatar 8515
37.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 18, 2018, 13:28
37.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 18, 2018, 13:28
Apr 18, 2018, 13:28
 
Okay, well I guess I misunderstood our ability to spot these things. While I understood in general that asteroids are difficult to spot for the reasons you stated, I would have thought a 50-100 meter asteroid passing within the orbit of the moon every 2.51 years would have been "easy pickings" as it were. Guess not.
“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” -- Carl Sagan
36.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 18, 2018, 13:27
36.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 18, 2018, 13:27
Apr 18, 2018, 13:27
 
RedEye9 wrote on Apr 18, 2018, 13:05:
Mr. Tact wrote on Apr 18, 2018, 12:30:
Yeah, Redeye -- I understood all of that before you posted it.

Odd, if you truly understood "all of that" you would not have any questions.


We could be identifying and tracking a lot more of these than we are. This isn't a shrug-shoulders-and-do-nothing kind of problem. Are their orbits and futures completely predictable? Of course not, but the more you know, the more you understand, and the more we could prepare for such an eventuality.
If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. Slava Ukraini!
Avatar 22024
35.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 18, 2018, 13:19
35.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 18, 2018, 13:19
Apr 18, 2018, 13:19
 
Mr. Tact wrote on Apr 18, 2018, 12:30:
Yeah, Redeye -- I understood all of that before you posted it.

However if this April really was the first time someone sighted this asteroid, which I'm not yet convinced of. I still find it difficult to believe an asteroid of this size with a orbital period of 2.51 years could have gone unnoticed until now. We have been surveying local space for these things for quite a while now. If the orbital period was 10 or 15 years, then it would make a lot more sense.

Near Earth Objects (NEOs) are hard to spot. They're small and not very reflective. To track them, we need a dedicated tracker in space. So, NASA needs more money. Given their love of national defense, and their love for tracking and profiling all things dark, you'd think Republicans would fund this activity properly.
If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. Slava Ukraini!
Avatar 22024
34.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 18, 2018, 13:05
34.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 18, 2018, 13:05
Apr 18, 2018, 13:05
 
Mr. Tact wrote on Apr 18, 2018, 12:30:
Yeah, Redeye -- I understood all of that before you posted it.

Odd, if you truly understood "all of that" you would not have any questions.

"I expect death to be nothingness and by removing from me all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism." Isaac Asimov
Avatar 58135
33.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 18, 2018, 12:30
33.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 18, 2018, 12:30
Apr 18, 2018, 12:30
 
Yeah, Redeye -- I understood all of that before you posted it.

However if this April really was the first time someone sighted this asteroid, which I'm not yet convinced of. I still find it difficult to believe an asteroid of this size with a orbital period of 2.51 years could have gone unnoticed until now. We have been surveying local space for these things for quite a while now. If the orbital period was 10 or 15 years, then it would make a lot more sense.
“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” -- Carl Sagan
32.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 18, 2018, 12:23
32.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 18, 2018, 12:23
Apr 18, 2018, 12:23
 
Mr. Tact wrote on Apr 18, 2018, 00:34:
I noticed a headline about this asteroid making a "close" pass of Earth recently. Can someone explain to me why an asteroid with an orbital period of 2.51 years which passes within the orbit of our moon was only seen for the first time on 14 Apr 2018?

Maybe it's just odd verbiage? They are saying the first sighting, but they mean the first sighting on this pass?
Easily

snippet
from Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything"

Identifying an asteroid doesn’t make it safe.
Even if every asteroid in the solar system had a name and known orbit, no one could say what perturbations might send any of them hurtling towards us. We can’t forecast rock disturbances on our own surface. Any asteroid out there that has our name on it is very likely to have no other.
Think of the Earth’s orbit as a kind of motorway on which we are the only vehicle, but which is crossed regularly by pedestrians who don’t know enough to look before stepping off the verge. At least 90 per cent of these pedestrians are quite unknown to us. We don’t know where they live, what sort of hours they keep, how often they come our way. All we know is that at some point, at uncertain intervals, they trundle across the road down which we are cruising at over 100,000 kilometres an hour. As Steven Ostro of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory has put it, “Suppose that there was a button you could push and you
could light up all the Earth-crossing asteroids larger than about ten metres, there would be over a hundred million of these objects in the sky
.” In short, you would see not a couple of thousand distant twinkling stars, but millions upon millions upon millions of nearer, randomly moving objects—“all of which are capable of colliding with the Earth and all of which are moving on
slightly different courses through the sky at different rates. It would be deeply unnerving.” Well, be unnerved, because it is there. We just can’t see it.
Altogether it is thought—though it is really only a guess, based on
extrapolating from cratering rates on the Moon—that some two thousand
asteroids big enough to imperil civilized existence regularly cross our orbit.
But even a small asteroid—the size of a house, say—could destroy a city. The number of these relative tiddlers in Earth-crossing orbits is almost certainly in the hundreds of thousands and possibly in the millions, and they are nearly impossible to track.
The first one wasn’t spotted until 1991, and that was after it had already gone by. Named 1991 BA, it was noticed as it sailed past us at a distance of 170,000 kilometres—in cosmic terms the equivalent of a bullet passing through one’s sleeve without touching the arm. Two years later, another, somewhat larger asteroid missed us by just 145,000 kilometres—the closest pass yet recorded. It, too, was not seen until it had passed and would have arrived without warning. According to Timothy Ferris, writing in the New Yorker, such near misses probably happen two or three times a week and go unnoticed.
An object a hundred metres across couldn’t be picked up by any Earth-based telescope until it was within just a few days of us, and that is only if a telescope happened to be trained on it, which is unlikely because even now the number of people searching for such objects is modest. The arresting analogy that is always made is that the number of people in the world who are actively searching for asteroids is fewer than the staff of a typical McDonald’s restaurant. (It is actually somewhat higher now. But not much.)

end snippet

TLDR
There are too many of them and there will NEVER be enough of us looking for them.
"I expect death to be nothingness and by removing from me all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism." Isaac Asimov
Avatar 58135
31.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 18, 2018, 00:45
31.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 18, 2018, 00:45
Apr 18, 2018, 00:45
 
Mr. Tact wrote on Apr 18, 2018, 00:34:
I noticed a headline about this asteroid making a "close" pass of Earth recently. Can someone explain to me why an asteroid with an orbital period of 2.51 years which passes within the orbit of our moon was only seen for the first time on 14 Apr 2018?

Trump was made aware of it multiple times but declared it ...(insert Jazz hands) *Fake News*
Um .. Behind you...
Avatar 34289
30.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 18, 2018, 00:34
30.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 18, 2018, 00:34
Apr 18, 2018, 00:34
 
I noticed a headline about this asteroid making a "close" pass of Earth recently. Can someone explain to me why an asteroid with an orbital period of 2.51 years which passes within the orbit of our moon was only seen for the first time on 14 Apr 2018?

Maybe it's just odd verbiage? They are saying the first sighting, but they mean the first sighting on this pass?
“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” -- Carl Sagan
29.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 18, 2018, 00:07
29.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 18, 2018, 00:07
Apr 18, 2018, 00:07
 
jdreyer wrote on Apr 17, 2018, 21:58:
Kxmode wrote on Apr 17, 2018, 17:23:
Starbucks tweets, "On 5/29, we'll close US company-owned stores to conduct racial-bias training to address implicit bias & prevent discrimination. We're taking a hard look at who we are as a company. We’re ashamed & recognize that racial bias is a problem we must address." I didn't know this was a thing.

It's a thing because there have been a series of unfortunate events at Starbucks recently involving African Americans who were just minding their own business. In addition to being the right thing to do, Starbucks clientele has a fairly liberal bent so it's good business to appear that you take racial equality seriously.

yeah it's just insane how racist that whole situation was. i can't imagine being so terrified of a race of people that just their presence sends me into a panic like the manager of that starbucks.
28.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 17, 2018, 21:58
28.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 17, 2018, 21:58
Apr 17, 2018, 21:58
 
Kxmode wrote on Apr 17, 2018, 17:23:
Starbucks tweets, "On 5/29, we'll close US company-owned stores to conduct racial-bias training to address implicit bias & prevent discrimination. We're taking a hard look at who we are as a company. We’re ashamed & recognize that racial bias is a problem we must address." I didn't know this was a thing.

It's a thing because there have been a series of unfortunate events at Starbucks recently involving African Americans who were just minding their own business. In addition to being the right thing to do, Starbucks clientele has a fairly liberal bent so it's good business to appear that you take racial equality seriously.
If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. Slava Ukraini!
Avatar 22024
27.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 17, 2018, 21:29
Kxmode
 
27.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 17, 2018, 21:29
Apr 17, 2018, 21:29
 Kxmode
 
Mr. Tact wrote on Apr 17, 2018, 21:21:
Kxmode wrote on Apr 17, 2018, 20:07:
Mr. Tact wrote on Apr 17, 2018, 17:24:
You didn't know Starbucks was a thing?
I see what you did thar.
So, you noticed I was pointing out your post was so vague there was no way to determine what it meant, and then didn't correct the issue. Bloody clever of you.

I thought your comment was a funny and sarcastic take on Starbucks' ubiquitous nature, but, sure, if you want to go in that direction, I won't stop you.
"...and in stonks, Fizzy Squeezy Stocklebocks leaped over Droopy Whoopy Bondfluffs, hitting 300-gigglebits to their 150-snorebucks. Meanwhile, in Whimsyland's market, the pancakes reached parity with pogo sticks."
Avatar 18786
26.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 17, 2018, 21:21
26.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 17, 2018, 21:21
Apr 17, 2018, 21:21
 
Kxmode wrote on Apr 17, 2018, 20:07:
Mr. Tact wrote on Apr 17, 2018, 17:24:
You didn't know Starbucks was a thing?
I see what you did thar.
So, you noticed I was pointing out your post was so vague there was no way to determine what it meant, and then didn't correct the issue. Bloody clever of you.
“Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.” -- Carl Sagan
25.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 17, 2018, 21:13
25.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 17, 2018, 21:13
Apr 17, 2018, 21:13
 
Beamer wrote on Apr 17, 2018, 20:03:
DangerDog wrote on Apr 17, 2018, 18:25:
Looks like they're trying hard to not be.

Because they're taking steps to treat their most rapidly growing demographic the same as they do other demographics?

Because regardless of their PR stunt black people (and some white people) are going to tear their shit down.

Avatar 6174
24.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 17, 2018, 20:07
Kxmode
 
24.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 17, 2018, 20:07
Apr 17, 2018, 20:07
 Kxmode
 
Mr. Tact wrote on Apr 17, 2018, 17:24:
You didn't know Starbucks was a thing?

I see what you did thar.
"...and in stonks, Fizzy Squeezy Stocklebocks leaped over Droopy Whoopy Bondfluffs, hitting 300-gigglebits to their 150-snorebucks. Meanwhile, in Whimsyland's market, the pancakes reached parity with pogo sticks."
Avatar 18786
23.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 17, 2018, 20:03
23.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 17, 2018, 20:03
Apr 17, 2018, 20:03
 
DangerDog wrote on Apr 17, 2018, 18:25:
Looks like they're trying hard to not be.

Because they're taking steps to treat their most rapidly growing demographic the same as they do other demographics?
22.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 17, 2018, 19:11
22.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 17, 2018, 19:11
Apr 17, 2018, 19:11
 
Yet another reason I stopped going to Starbucks.
"The horse I bet on was so slow, the jockey kept a diary of the trip." - Henny Youngman
21.
 
Re: Out of the Blue
Apr 17, 2018, 18:25
21.
Re: Out of the Blue Apr 17, 2018, 18:25
Apr 17, 2018, 18:25
 
Looks like they're trying hard to not be.
Avatar 6174
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