Early Morning Open Thread: … Star Stuff!
Commentor Bago posted this link last night, as a ‘rebuttal’ to Professor Hawking’s alien-alarums…
I had not previously realized how much material the American Museum of Natural History, beloved fantasia-land and wonder-box of my childhood, has posted on YouTube. If y’all never hear from me again, it’s because I’m off wandering its virtual corridors, mouth agape with delight.
April 27, 2010 4:00 am
Posted in: Open Thread, Science and Technology
23 Comments
23 Responses
robertdsc - April 27, 2010 | 4:05 am · Link
I do that all the time on Wikipedia.
Lovely Rita - April 27, 2010 | 4:24 am · Link
I posted this in the dead thread about John’s bird feeder. I have to share.
OMG I’m sorry to hijack the thread but I just went on a blind date with a wingnut. I ended up having to explain to him in a loud voice why we couldn’t just kill all the “bad people”. He means the “real, absolute scum of the earth” as a form of population control or because they are a drain on society. He invoked the phrases “welfare queen” and “crack whore” non snarkily. He spoke of me seeing the “blue side of a barn” while he saw the “red side”. I ended the evening stealing pot from his bag and cigs from his pack for enduring his miserable company.
It was fucking surreal.
Rita +4 glasses of sparkling +2 one hitters
Bob K - April 27, 2010 | 4:37 am · Link
@Lovely Rita:
Rita – You my hero. One must admit that your winger was eloquent with his Blue Barn/Red Barn Analogy. But other than that.
Corporate Welfare Queen – Exxon Mobil did not pay any corporate income taxes on 2009.
Cracked Whore – A whore is a terrible thing to waste.
They really should update their epithets – Crack is so passe. Meth Whore is so much more up to date
You should never take weed from a winger – you never know what it’s been laced with and believe me you don’t want to come anywhere near the fumes that come off Lord Murdoch.
Suzanne Plummer – Maiden name of Sue Lowden – Joe the Plumber – coincidence? You decide. Also, Too.
Blue Pill/Red Pill – after that date I think you should go for the Blue Pill
Mark S. - April 27, 2010 | 4:40 am · Link
Maybe if you’re really baked Glen Beck starts making sense.
Bob K - April 27, 2010 | 4:53 am · Link
@Mark S.:
The snark is strong in this one. We must bring it in November start preaching the gospel according to St. Libtard whenever possible.
The money goes from Corporations/Wealthy to Lobbyists who take it to Washington and hand it out to whoever want it with the unspoken understanding that when it comes time to vote they know which side of their bread is buttered.
We the sheeple = peasants
Life is not fair – you should have learned that by now
Sharing is more important than having the most toys
To quote number from Number Two: “I spent the last 30 years of my life turning this two-bit evil empire into a world class multi-national. I was going to have a cover story with Forbes. But you, like an idiot, want to take over the world. And you don’t even realize that there is no world anymore! It’s only corporations!”
May the blessings of BOB be with you this message brought to you by subgenius.com
Lovely Rita - April 27, 2010 | 5:17 am · Link
@ BobK
LMAO I nearly burst out laughing at the “red barn, blue barn” thing. He actually doesn’t think he’s an extremeist like the “religious nuts”. He’s into “science and geology”, which is where he draws his theories about “how the strong survive”. The solution to all the problems we face as a country seemed to be killing people in some way or for some reason
It was actually good weed. I hope he smokes it all the time.
Mark S. - April 27, 2010 | 5:32 am · Link
@Lovely Rita:
Geez, did you go on a date with Otto from A Fish Called Wanda?
Lovely Rita - April 27, 2010 | 5:46 am · Link
@Mark S.
I belly laughed at that! That is exactly what it was like!
He asks me if I know anything about physics or astronomy and I say not really so he sets in to teach me about it. He talks about how we are at a “revolution point” and I ask if he means string theory (thanks BJ!). He then says it’s like Newton and Galileo but now. I think “Dude you just pulled out the names of the only two scientists you know.”.
I wouldn’t start a “teaching conversation” with someone about the Roman Empire if all I could do is parrot “Coliseum” and “Russell Crowe”.
“You know what he said when he found out your daughter’s name is Portia? ‘Why did they name her after a car?”
Nikki - April 27, 2010 | 6:22 am · Link
That video was lovely!
Prospero - April 27, 2010 | 7:05 am · Link
Wingnuts?
Joey Maloney - April 27, 2010 | 7:16 am · Link
Anne, that clip reminds me of this one, “Cosmic Zoom”, that seriously blew my mind when I was about 7 years old.
Dr. Omed - April 27, 2010 | 7:27 am · Link
This clip is very cool. I wonder how many people remember Charles and Ray Eames 1968 short film, Powers of Ten, which is the original of the zoom out zoom in trope used in this viddy.
Xenos - April 27, 2010 | 7:33 am · Link
I don’t get how this video is a rebuttal to Hawking. OK, the universe is gob-smackingly big. All the more room for hungry nasty aliens who want to go out for lunch to be lurking with their warp drives. Look at that cute little blue planet, with sweet icing on the top and bottom, hanging like a ripe peach waiting to be plucked…
Linda Featheringill - April 27, 2010 | 7:40 am · Link
Absolutely beautiful!! [Sighs with delight.]
ericblair - April 27, 2010 | 8:14 am · Link
“Space,” it says, “is big. Really big. You just won’t believe how vastly hugely mindbogglingly big it is. I mean you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist, but that’s just peanuts to space, listen…” – Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
This video is actually meant to fill you with despair by showing you where that sock you lost in the dryer could possibly have ended up.
Today is 12.19.17.5.11 10 Chuwen 4 Wo « Dr. Omed’s Tent Show Revival - April 27, 2010 | 8:23 am · Link
[...] like this viddy from the American Musuem of Natural History, which I found on Balloon Juice (posted by Anne Laurie). It makes me feel small, in a good way. But it also brought to mind the [...]
Biscuits - April 27, 2010 | 8:25 am · Link
I don’t know why, but the vastness of space is comforting and calming to me. It is so huge and unknown. I guess it just makes all my silly problems seem so insignificant. That was beautiful to watch. Thank you
Paul in KY - April 27, 2010 | 8:53 am · Link
I think Dr. Hawking was just opining that we probably wouldn’t want any aliens visiting us, be they Organians or Klingons. The technological superiority these creatures would have (even if they just came from Alpha-Centauri) would be completely overwhelming to us.
Christopher Rowley wrote some excellent books where a naive Earth ventures out into the cosmos & meets up with an alien race (the Laowon) who have been ‘civilized’ for 6 or 7 times as long as us & control 20 parsecs of space to our 1. Needless to say, we become sorta like the Palestinians to their Israelis.
Chances that we get visited are pretty remote (due to the vast distances), but not infintesimal (IMO).
JSpencer - April 27, 2010 | 9:02 am · Link
@Biscuits:
Same here, it’s a pleasant antidote to the silly claustrophobia of humanity.
Raenelle - April 27, 2010 | 9:18 am · Link
That is one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen.
gnomedad - April 27, 2010 | 9:24 am · Link
It was nice of God to create photons from those distant objects in the middle of nearby empty space so they would arrive in time for us to see them.
slag - April 27, 2010 | 10:58 am · Link
Nice sense of perspective in the morning! Thanks!
Quiddity - April 27, 2010 | 5:48 pm · Link
Eight planets. So much for Pluto (I know the recent history demoting it, but still, showing Pluto might have been an opportunity to display the Kuiper Belt).
I did not know there were so many alpine lakes north of the Himalayas.