Slashdot Mirror
Brightest Galactic Flash Ever Detected Hits Earth
phenon writes "On December 27th scientists detected the largest cosmic blast to strike the Earth, actually altering the earths ionosphere briefly. MSNBC reports (along with Space.com), that this event happened from a magnetar 50,000 light years away from us, and if it had happened from a distance of 10 light years away, we would be talking about mass extinction here on earth. The cosmic ray blast was measured at 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts of power!"
It's so bright, we can't even look at slashdot to see if it's been mentioned already!
Recursive: Adj. See Recursive.
The first one hasn't even dropped off the front page yet.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
First post?
See http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/02/1 9/013255&tid=160
Is Slashdot a write-only service nowadays?
Pretty.
Do Slashdot editors even read Slashdot?
Only in a Slashdot fantasy can a Slackware install turn into several hours of sex . . . . .
/. is always behind. /. had this story days ago.
... I gotta wear shades.
No, wait! It's only a dupe.
So the electromagnetic signal has reached us now...
Probably a mass of ionic particles will travel at a speed way below light speed, does anyone know when that blast is going to arrive, and if there is a way to pick it up using home electronics?
My tinfoil hat is taking a real beating from all these cosmic rays!
slightly warmer than my new Pentium 4 laptop.
Yowza!
I am a leaf on the wind
See also from Friday - right here.
R(k)
This has been mentioned here already!
"Intellectual Property" should be an affront to anyone capable of independent thought.
dupe dupe dupe or earl
dupe dupe dupe of earl....
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
At least it wasn't on the front page anymore :-)
This was a completely irresponsible repost of a story less then 24 hours old. What the hell is up with the mods? I mean, come on! It's still on yesterday's news!
This is the first rehash of a story to actually make me lose my temper with the mods.
'nuff said.
My username does not make me Apathetic. It's irony, get it?
I'll meet your dupe and raise you one inane comment.
So this happened 50,000 years ago, and it's only now being posted to SlashDot?
Gotta be a new record.
It's Bush's fault! It has to be! It's because of the SUV! Global warming! First the tsunami, now this!
Clearly not a dupe: the first story was about the explosion, and this one's about the flash.
Bears don't normally eat things that talk and move backwards.
Okay, after one bright flash, I could logically attribute it to random galactic physics. These things happen in our universe.
But ANOTHER flash? And this one is ALSO the brightest galactic flash ever detected to hit Earth? There is only one answer for such an incredible coincidence of two brightest galactic flashes ever--the apocalypse is coming.
I am barracading myself in a small underground shelter near a mountain in Nevada. I invite any and all Slashdotters to come join me (preferrably females) and await the end of the world. Thank God for Slashdot; without it, I would have never had this incredible cosmic warning. Amen.
...as if millions of Slashdotters cried out "dupe", and were suddenly silenced.
Jeez, editors, we'll let you off having to search through the (broken) search feature before you post your latest, greatest headline, but d'ya think you could at least take a peek at the front page? The original story's less than 7 hours old...
Dealing with lawyers would be a lot less tedious if they all looked like Casey Novak.
they posted it twice!
In the beginning, there was one dupe story...
In the end, there were 10,000 comments swearing about it.
The magnetar's radiation scrambled the servers and that caused the duplication. No, really.
Attention deficit disorder stikes slashdot news at eleven. Latest information indicates a complete lack of caution until the next archane technology is revealed.
n/t.
How's my programming? Call 1-800-DEV-NULL
duply down the duper.
Dupily dupily dupily dupily, \. is such a dupe.
All your base are belong to Google.
Another reminder why the human race needs to develop spaceships and colonize other worlds. Unfortunitly, no one will give a shit until it is too late to save ourselves.
Actually, I think this dupe is what scrolled the other one off the front page.
That has to be a record.
How come /. has so old news today? This particular one was already in the printed newspaper in Italy, La Repubblica (article). And the 6th sense thing was already printed a few days ago.
Isn't that how much power Intel's dual-core CPUs will use?
1.21 gigawatts?!
This calamity is based on a short story by the author of Blade Runner, Phillip Dick. Predicted hundreds of years ago, current scientists watch for this "new star". The day of reckoning comes and at first they think the new sun in the sky is their predicted source, but it turns out that is only the moon, reflecting brightly the oncoming holocaust.
Happily, the Slashdot story is less drastic than the Dick story, with the world being superheated by the light of the star that finally reaches earth.
With over 50 redundant "dupe" responses on slashdot, you'd think this story is becoming a DUPER-NOVA!
>and if it had happened from a distance of 10 light
>years away, we would be talking about mass
>extinction here on earth
Uh, no. If it had happened from a 10 light year distance we wouldn't be talking about anything at all!
For a second there, I had thought I had a sixth sense last night about something 50,000 lightyears away not being 10 lightyears away, and not killing us. But, no, I actually did read about this just before I went to bed, and had forgotten.
Assuming /. is using a database for its article entries (and if they aren't, wow, I'm surprised), should they implement a search function of keywords, forcing a mod to search for key words before posting?
I must be dreaming though... I mean, if they can't even read their own site, I very much doubt they'd bother searching before posting.
It's better to burn out than to fade away
C'mon folks, seriously. It's not even off of the front page yet.
Try not to let life get in the way of living.
DeputySpade (458056) has got some sixth sense.
"That it can reach out and tap us on the shoulder like this, reminds us that we really are linked to the cosmos," said Phil Wilkinson of IPS Australia, that country's space weather service.
First they make up this "story" about global warming and now this?!? Like we're supposed to feel some kind of link to the cosmos just because they tell us to?!? Damn activist scientists always pushing their agenda down our throats and making up terms like "cosmos" to scare us good consumers!
"The cosmic ray blast was measured at 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts of power!"
That ought to get me up to 88mph so I can go home...
Why can't they write 10^xy or ten to the power of something or exa/peta/tera/whatever Watt? There _are_ technically inclined readers here. Especially in the science section.
My god, it's full of stars...
It seems that with every disaster that NASA or an astronomer discovers in the universe, the news always has to add, "If it were closer to Earth, we'd all be dead!"
Well, duh. I know that intergalactic disasters are a hard sell for primetime news, but is it really necessary to endanger Earth every f-ing time something in the universe blows up? As our ability to perceive and record these incidents gets better, it's going to get very tired, very fast. "Major sun flare on Alpha Centauri! If We Were Living on the Sun, We Would All Suffer First Degree Burns or More!"
Is it the news outlets adding the "If X was close to Earth we'd be dead" or is it the scientists seeking to justify their work? All this article writes is, "If the explosion had been within just 10 light-years, Earth could have suffered a mass extinction, it is said." Did the reporter's mom say that? Grr.
"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea." - DNA
"A learning experience is one of those things that says, 'You know that thing you just did? Don't do that.'" - DNA
"A language that doesn't affect the way you think about programming, is not worth knowing" - Alan Perlis
Even though it's a dupe, this is the first time I saw this story. Now I know I'm thinking of correlations in the wild, but 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts is a large amount of energy.
:)
Two days earlier, there was a massive earthquake. I wonder what part of the planet was facing the direction of the flash at that time? Who knows, we might have detected our first gravity wave...space-time might deform about 2 days in 50.000 years faster than light
-- Waht? Tehr's a preveiw buottn?
At this rate it's only a matter of time before Earth is conquered by the Magnetars! All your base....
I'll try to submit this story to slashdot right now... Just to see if they'll post it AGAIN. :)
Cmon, I can understand that duplicate stories can happen, but in the same day!!??
perception is reality
If you go here and shrink your font a bit both summaries are readable at the same time.
I just submited this story early today and it was rejec... no, wait...
I shot the sheriff
...its pretty much an interstellar release of flatulence
Dude, you've duped again...
rm
Sci-Fi Storm
This comment is a dupe of the past ten in this thread.
It's hard to be religious when certain people are never incinerated by bolts of lightning.
In gamma rays, the event equaled the brightness of the full Moon's reflected visible light
So if it had been closer, we all would have be turned into Hulks?
"I'm Spacey Spacem! The hits from one end of the universe to the other on Galactic Radio, now with over 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts of power!"
The lessons of history teach us - if they teach us anything - that nobody learns the lessons that history teaches us.
The cosmic ray blast was measured at 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts of power!"
Reckon that's enough to power a P4?
So... my brand new P4 uses just a tad bit more power than that.
This is precisely why homo sapiens should be working on the spatial diversification of mother earth's DNA and not fighting petty little wars all over the globe.
The earth is a womb and the task of understanding, preserving and propogating life, especially intelligent self-aware life, falls to us, the advanced monkeys, since the cetaceans have not really been much help. As someone once said having all your DNA at the bottom of a gravity well, relying on single biosphere for all of your oxygen is not a good long term stategy.
Actually, I think this happened earlier this year, where the top story was a dupe of the top "older stuff" story. Truly sad. What do the subscribers think? Are either of you reading this? Would you pay for a newspaper that printed the exact same story two days in a row out of incompetence?
The sad part is that in all likelihood, OSTG (Slashdot's owner) couldn't care less, as long as they keep churning out stories -- the more flamebait, the better. Remember, your ad impressions are paying the editors' salaries. I've been using Adblock on /. for months because I can't subsidize this sort of scam with a clear conscience.
Karma: Segmentation fault (tried to dereference a null post)
There's a pretty big difference between "10" and "50,000".
If you have to ask, you'll never know.
Dupe of URL,
Dupe, Dupe,
Dupe of URL, Dupe, Dupe.
As I click through this whirl, Nothing can stop the Dupe of URL
And you,
you code in Perl
No one can hurt you, oh, no...
"Flyin' in just a sweet place,
Never been known to fail..."
The cosmic ray blast was measured at 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts of power! or almost the power one Pentium 4 needs.
Oh wait.
It's tragic. Laugh.
And all it got were a fist full of Mardi Gras beads for flashing...
Now the question is... Was that 10 trillion trillon trillion watt's of power calculated at 120 volts or 240?
> if it had happened from a distance of 10 light
> years away, we would be talking about mass
> extinction here on earth.
Only if it had hit the side opposite the one we are on.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
We wouldn't be talking about it.
Of /. that is. I mean really.. the past couple of weeks have
been piss poor in regards subject and dupes. Then again,
I guess if you have to worry when the company is gonna go
bellyup you won't be very motivated. Ouch LNUX.
People don't usually make the same mistake twice -- they make it three times, four time, five times...
Quite timely.
Hey, Tom Hanks - stop watching CNN Airport News!
Worst... cosmic explosion... ever!
Hey The media do the same thing with every disaster. There have been about 12 "Trials of the century" this century.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
or a Time Warp caused by an expolding star?
... well, duh. That's what apocalyses do, silly.
___
It's the end of my comment as I know it and I feel fine.
They'd sterilize the earth and there'd be no warning.
Hmmm, let us look at some facts:
12/26/04: Most deadly tsunami in recorded history happens.
12/27/04: Largest ever gamma ray burst happens.
These two major natural events occur with in one day of each other.
Coincidence? Could there be a possible linkage? If so, what could possibly link these two seemingly unrelated events.
Simple - because the same people who talk about these disasters that could almost wipe out earth, are the same people who talk about devising an anti-asteroid protection grid for Earth. They have to spread a little FUD or people would laugh them out of the building.
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
Tell me about it when I am dead, now THAT would be something, because I expect not to be listening when I am dead.
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
I dunno if that's how it works - some kind of quota of how many stories get posted per (where is time, or n-submitted, or what). If they're just posting the "good ones" as fast as they come thru the submission queue, then the dup posts confirm some kind of consistency in the submission vetting process. Of course, by now, the posting process should check whether the URLs in the story are the same as ones that have been posted, at least suggesting an appended "this story is a followup", depending on the time/events elapsed. The Slashdot queue editorial process, workflow and criteria would make for very interesting reading.
--
make install -not war
We get hit by 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts of energy, and yet burning fossil fuels are the source of global warming?
Good security is based upon reality and common sense. Common sense is a function of having common knowledge.
opening his fridge for a snack.
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
I teach a class on literature with apocalyptic themes, so this is close to my heart...
CNN ran a story on magnatars a few weeks ago. Following the trend that you cite of having to endanger the Earth with the unknown at every possible journalistic opportunity, CNN conjectured the devistating consequences of a magnatar passing through our solar system.
The quoted result? "The exotic object would destroy the data on every credit card on the planet."
Tin foil: it's not just for heads any more.
a sterile Earth... imagine the consequences. She'll be hanging out in bars, picking up strange planets... spending her time being pummeled by asteroids. Not a care in the world!
Cake or Death? Cake Please!
Even brighter than the flash of brilliance when Amazon came up with 1-click shopping and then patented it?
Best. Comment. Ever. Enjoy!
We could even use this in weather reports: "The weather may be dreary, but if the sun was closer to Earth, we'd all be DEAD!!!!!"
I can't subsidize this sort of scam with a clear conscience.
Then why do you read, and even post, if you have such a moral problem with Slashdot?
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Actually there are a lot of things blowing up in the Universe that I doubt you've ever heard about. This one just happened to get more media attention for one reason or another. If the media publish something like this, they'll want to make it sound interesting for as many people as possible, even when it isn't.
I have a lot of sympathy for the astronomers being quoted. I've had enough experience dealing with journalists to know that it doesn't really matter what you say to them -- they'll often twist it whatever way is most useful to them for the story they want to write.
It looks like the news wire to me. Gaensler (who was quoted) clearly states that there aren't any stars like that within 10 light years, making it obvious that he was really just making a comparison to demonstrate how powerful it was, and that there's no actual danger. It's the journalist who made the decision to include the comment in the story, and at the very least I think it's to his credit that the entire quote was included in what appears to be a reasonable context.... unlike the slashdot summary for this story, which is pointlessly sensationalist by taking the first half of the quote without the last half.
The BBC story (linked from the slashdot dupe) is the worst rendition that I've seen, though. BBC published the quote at the end of the article, but copied the "10 light year" comment to the top in an unclear context, emphasising it and making it appear as if it actually was a danger. As far as I'm concerned, that's just irresponsible reporting. It's trying to make out that there's a potential disaster in the works when there clearly isn't one.
Yeah, but at this this story puts the piece in a different light....
I don't want knowledge. I want certainty. - Law, David Bowie
And whoever provides the URL to that page can have all my karma, posthumously of course.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
This is precisely why homo sapiens should be working on the spatial diversification of mother earth's DNA and not fighting petty little wars all over the globe.
.... NOT!!
I'm sure the rest of the universe is going to appreciate the plague of humanity visited upon them
"but is it really necessary to endanger Earth every f-ing time something in the universe blows up?"
Yeah, its just like the wild stories about how just because a couple of buildings in New York get blown up, suddenly all of civilisation is in danger...
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
It seems that /. could use people who don't even fucking read the blog they're in charge of.
Why is it cool to post the same story 3 times in the same day, but a cook who grabs the crap from yesterday's garbage gets fired?
Most often heard from Slashdot editors wives, girlfriends, boyfriends or inflatable toys:
"This again?"
Seriously, take a moment from inspecting your own balls, and DO YOUR FUCKING JOB. Really.
Or go get fired from McFuckingClownBurger. This site is full of people who do more than you appear to do in the first 5 minutes of their 10 hour day. Is it too much to ask of the editors that they actually read, scan, or glance at the site enough to be called 'editors'?
A gas station toilet has a better story queue than you worthless bitches. Is it really TOO MUCH to READ SUMMARIES OF 12 stories? IS IT? If so, I suggest special ed tutoring. Perhaps you'll learn something from the fucking tards that can at least tell me if they've seen the goddamn puppy in the book before.
Why 'edit' this site at all if you're going to masturbate on donuts all day? Fuck, I can do that, and I don't even have a degree.
You know what really blows my teensy mind? That there was four hours between the time you posted your first story, and the time you posted the dupe from yesterday. What where you doing? Playing Minelayer? Eating samitches? Posting to Fark? Please tell me you do this for free, and that OSDN doesn't pay you to smell your fingers for hours on end.
Yeah, I amy be drunk, but I can still recognize a stupid dupe on the front page of the site I edit. Which is not this one. Which is probably why I'm not working there.
Or smelling my index finger.
Bitches.
Is this what I have heard of called as Alpha Reburst? I have seen a pretty detaiiled documentary about it. It's the greatest energy transition phenomenon in cosmos.
Sigged!
ARgh. My +5 humor gets modded down "off topic." It was a subtle dig at the media's fascination with things that don't matter while all the while ignoring stories like this that do.
dunno if that's how it works - some kind of quota of how many stories get posted per (where is time, or n-submitted, or what). If they're just posting the "good ones" as fast as they come thru the submission queue, then the dup posts confirm some kind of consistency in the submission vetting process
Much of my wisdom comes from movies. They're so graphic and poignant. Let me share something I saw in Kill Bill that may explain dupes:
"How is he ever going to see you again?" - Esteban Vihaio
Of course this doesn't accurately describe the reason. It is striking how broad the topics are of interest to us all. After reading n topics, it's hard to be motivated to look at n + 1. Another thing is the odd lack of immediate relevance to my life most of the topics have due to the sheer number of topics. Also amazing, the sheer number of things of immediate interest that do not appear as topics! It makes Slashdot a bit distracting though still fun.
So what can anyone say about people who will still look at a duplicated story?
Know your pads. One time pad: good for cryptography. Two timing pad: where to take your mistress.