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The space station looks like this.

This looks more like two trailers parked next to an inflatable igloo from a campy spy flick about Not-So-Secret Eskimo Intelligence agents.

Bonus points if you can find the part of the video where the caption describes the person on screen as the "Designer of the Doom" (misspelling Dome).

At various times over that last 30 years I've idly wondered what the economic impact on the Earth would be the first time somebody tows a few million tons of nickel-steel into close orbit for manufacturing purposes. Moving a small asteroid is within our technical capabilities now, albeit on the outer edge of the envelope due merely to the masses involved (and the finances). But I think that unless governments make it illegal, someone is going to do this with a tiny (100 foot?) asteroid within my lifetime - maybe one of the earth-crossing ones.

This quote is out of date - I'm sure we have found hundreds of smaller ones since 2001.

the smallest Earth-crossing asteroid 3554 Amun (see orbit) is a mile-wide (2,000-meter) lump of iron, nickel, cobalt, platinum, and other metals; it contains 30 times as much metal as Humans have mined throughout history, although it is only the smallest of dozens of known metallic asteroids and worth perhaps US$ 20 trillion if mined slowly to meet demand at 2001 market prices.

I think however that the major change will be the rapid explosion of humans into near-earth orbital space - the stuff's worth more up there than down here, and availability of construction materials is one of the key factors in making space a viable locale for human activity.

I wonder if they are going to get Gary Gnu (sorry, best example I could find) to as the lead gnews anchor?

Consider the size of the universe. Then consider all of your knowledge of the universe. Now consider how likely intelligent life exists. The fact of the matter is, we are a very small and insignificant on the grand scheme of things. How can you, with any confidence, "doubt there is another intelligent lifeform out there". I would think that an assertion like that would require more knowledge than any of us have currently.

When considering the size of the universe, consider these figures:
Size of the sun: 1,299,400 Earths

Size of Jupiter: 1316 Earths

(scroll to bottom, look at volume)

Speed of Light: 186,000 mi/per sec

Diameter of our Galaxy = 90,000 light years or 5,865,696,000,000 (almost 6 trillion) miles across

Number of stars in the Milky Way: 200 - 600 Billion

The universe is HUUGE - and this is just what we are able to see....



Number of stars in the visible universe = 2000 billion billion or 20,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Number of superclusters in the visible universe = 270 000

Number of galaxy groups in the visible universe = 500 million

Number of large galaxies in the visible universe = 10 billion

Number of dwarf galaxies in the visible universe = 100 billion

We are on a teeny-tiny planet next to an average star, in unremarkable galaxy - let's not take things out of context.

While I won't say it is likely that there is intelligent life, I would reserve judgement until there is more data - as should anyone concerned about truth.

No ads is good ads.

Nope, it should be "No gnads is good gnads..."

See here for the background...

And I, for one, welcome our new crazily named space rock overlords. I'd like to remind them that as a trusted TV personality, I can be helpful in rounding up others to toil in their near-earth asteroid mines.

I just weighed in my son's car last night, now it is "impounded" until the trial on Saturday.

I think most people know about graphite, etc. so it may not give an advantage (but of course is needed!). One thing you should do is hold the car on its side so the wheel is resting on the end of the axle/nail. Then spin the wheel. It should spin pretty freely. Then do the same with the car flipped so the wheel is resting on the body of the car. If it doesn't spin freely in both those situations, then smooth it out, more graphite, etc.

One thing I did was put a bit of paint on the body right where the wheel touched it, then sprinkled graphite on the paint when it was still wet. We'll see if that helps. Excuse me, I meant to say MY SON did that.

- adam