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The Deepest Photo Ever Taken
Astroturtle writes "Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope's powerful new Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) have taken the deepest visible-light image ever made of the sky. The 3.5-day (84-hour) exposure captures stars as faint as 31st magnitude, according to Tom M. Brown (Space Telescope Science Institute), who headed the eight-person team that took the picture."
That is some very wild looking photography. I wonder if I could download the entire pic and use it as a wallpaper (I'm kidding).
I was thinking about SARS, and I actually think that a world SARS epedemy could solve a lot.
Why is that? Well - I'm speaking of a cynical point of view.
During the 80'ies and 90'ies Denmark has been recognized to be the best country in the world in terms of social welfare. But a new problem is rising in Denmark. The workers that made great welfare in the 80'ies are beginning to age and retire, but they have been lazy in terms of breeding.
I was born in 1984, and I am currently under education. Already now, I can feel problems. The government is cutting everywhere - including education. Why? Possibly because the number of workers in Denmark is steadily dropping, and our former workers are transforming into retired seniors. Now these seniors don't contribute anymore, they're an expense, since they receive social retirement money. Over $1.000 pr. month.
This means, when I am going into the working market - becoming an adult, I'll probably have to work more and pay more tax than my parents - all to finance the growing group of elderly people.
Why is this group representing a bigger share of the population than before? Well - people have less children than 50 years ago, and they live longer due to scientific/medical evolution.
So where does SARS step in?
We'll - if we look at it from a pure cynical view, SARS supposedly kills 30-50% of seniors infected, while only 3-6% of young people infected has to go....
I'm just picturing a blooming economy, a reduction in work, better schools, better hospitals, better healthcare, lower rent / more housing available, etc... The current danish state is going downhill because of the growing amount of old people. Why the hell didn't they have more children? Why didn't they secure the future economy? I feel let down by the older society...
Yes, it is egoistic, but the danish society was perfectly aware in the 70'ies that problems was arising within the next 30 years due to the falling number of births, but they chose to spend money here and now, and look. This is only the top of the iceberg. The worker/senior rate will top in 2015. So somehow, I would welcome SARS, as it solves a great threat to the danish economy. Most likely all seniors will disagree with me, but that's just their point of view.
So I am asking you? Would you prefer a world wide SARS epidemy, if you could choose?