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Random (yet interesting) Facts!
Topic Started: Jul 12 2009, 09:44 PM (2,381 Views)
Ànraich
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L'évolution Spéculative est moi

I learned a couple of interesting things yesterday after finally finishing Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku:

-Antimatter is just normal matter traveling backwards through time (see Feynman if you want more information)
-It's highly possible that there is only one electron in the entire universe, it's simply doing a U-turn through time trillions of times a second and appears that there are more than one from our perspective
-Tachyons are special particles believed to have caused the inflation of the universe when it was a young membrane bubble in the Space-Time Foam (11th Dimension)*
-In 2015 we'll launch a group of satellites that will be able to detect the gravity waves released by the big bang, allowing us to discover the conditions of the universe 10^-35 seconds after the big bang occurred**

*Tachyons (sometimes called Inflatons) probably no longer exist, but they are a type of matter that actually accelerates as it loses energy (thereby destablizing the early universe, causing certain strange particles to convert to normal particles). The more atoms they collide with, the faster they go; they eventually reach an infinite speed (they can't go slower than light, actually).

**These satellites are going to be a huge deal. Each one will fire a laser nine billion light years in length and can scan 73% of the visible universe through gravity wave detection. They will be succeeded by a group of satellites in 2035 that can detect the entire universe through gravity waves, even the parts we can't see (we can only see for a maximum of 13 billion light years, as light hasn't existed long enough to travel farther).
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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lamna
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Sounds like a cracking project. NASA or ESA? Or is it another joint thing?

-The German WW1 Paris Gun's shells were the first man made object to reach the stratosphere and the gun fried so far the Coriolis effect had to be considered in the calculations.

-Japan's first Ironclad was also the Confederate State's last.

-Saigon is officially now called Ho Chi Minh City.
Edited by lamna, Jul 21 2009, 02:33 PM.
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Ànraich
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It's just NASA I think. It's pretty crazy, apparently the laser will only have half a watt of power, and yet it will reach nine billion light years in length (after nine billion years, obviously). But the one in 2035 will be 300 watts of power.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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colddigger
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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let's just hope no space dust gets in its way :D
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lamna
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Sounds like an interesting project. I think I am starting to move towards "Just explore space with robots" camp. I mean the idea of men on Mars is a nice one, and we should leave the earth but imagine the missions that could have been done with the money spend on the ISS
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Ànraich
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Robots can't make judgments like humans can though. We can look at things and instantly recognize if they are biological in origin or not, while robots must rely on gathering data and transmitting it to humans for analysis. You can't replicate instinct; robots can't just know something like we humans can. We have an uncanny ability for detecting subtle changes in our environment that even we don't fully understand.

Besides, it violates human nature to simply say "let's just stay here and let robots do all the work." We have to push onwards, go forward, expand or die. We humans live for going into the unknown and expanding into the frontier.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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lamna
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I know all that and I do want people to go out there, but if you compare the achievements of men in space in the last 30 years with robotic missions it is defiantly in the robots favour.

We have had the tech for a Mars mission since at least the 80's and probably the technology for a Jupiter-Saturn mission right now, and we are still pissing about skimming the atmosphere.
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Ànraich
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Well yea, we've been to busy sending robots everywhere to go anywhere our selves.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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colddigger
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
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but the atmosphere is just too cool!
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lamna
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That is not the problem, people stopped to rest on their laurels too long.
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
i don't see how the atmosphere being totally rad could ever be a problem
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Ànraich
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Atmospheres are overrated; oceans beneath miles of insulating ice is the future.
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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colddigger
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Joke's over! Love, Parasky
 *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *  *
oh darn, ya got me thar!
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lamna
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What are you going to breath in those oceans? Air that you had to lug all there way there, or bring equipment to make it on arrival.

I suppose you could modify humans to live in hostile seas, but then when you take the next step you need to lug round water.

I just checked Bad Astronomy. ISS might be de-orbited by 2016. It is too big to burn up like Mir so they have to send missions to dismantle it.
The Russians are going to try to remove their modules and reuse them at least.
Not sure ESA, CSA or JAXA will be thrilled.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/07/21/de-orbiting-the-iss-in-2016/
Edited by lamna, Jul 21 2009, 07:07 PM.
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If we could reduce the world’s population to a village of precisely 100 people, with all existing human ratios remaining the same, the demographics would look something like this:

The village would have 60 Asians, 14 Africans, 12 Europeans, 8 Latin Americans, 5 from the USA and Canada, and 1 from the South Pacific

51 would be male, 49 would be female

82 would be non-white; 18 white

67 would be non-Christian; 33 would be Christian

40 would not have shoes

80 would live in substandard housing

67 would be unable to read

50 would be malnourished and 1 dying of starvation

33 would be without access to a safe water supply

39 would lack access to improved sanitation

24 would not have any electricity (And of the 76 that do
have electricity, most would only use it for light at night.)

7 people would have access to the Internet

1 would have a college education

1 would have HIV

2 would be near birth; 1 near death

5 would control 32% of the entire world’s wealth; all 5 would be US citizens

33 would be receiving --and attempting to live on-- only 3% of the income of “the village”
We should all aspire to die surrounded by our dearest friends. Just like Julius Caesar.

"The Lord Universe said: 'The same fate I have given to all things from stones to stars, that one day they shall become naught but memories aloft upon the winds of time. From dust all was born, and to dust all shall return.' He then looked upon His greatest creation, life, and pitied them, for unlike stars and stones they would soon learn of this fate and despair in the futility of their own existence. And so the Lord Universe decided to give life two gifts to save them from this despair. The first of these gifts was the soul, that life might more readily accept their fate, and the second was fear, that they might in time learn to avoid it altogether." - Excerpt from a Chanagwan creation myth, Legends and Folklore of the Planet Ghar, collected and published by Yieju Bai'an, explorer from the Celestial Commonwealth of Qonming

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