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NASA Warns of Cluttered Space
Ant wrote to mention a National Geographic article looking at the cluttered nature of Near-Earth Orbit. From the article: "Since the launch of the Soviet Union's Sputnik I satellite in 1957, humans have been generating space junk. The U.S. Space Surveillance Network is currently tracking over 13,000 human-made objects larger than four inches (ten centimeters) in diameter orbiting the Earth. These include both operational spacecraft and debris such as derelict rocket bodies. 'Of the 13,000 objects, over 40 percent came from breakups of both spacecraft and rocket bodies,'Johnson said."
NASA hopes to send a team of the world's best garbage men into space to collect this trash. Luckily for them, that's Ben Affleck's current occupation.
... oh, wait, it's not funny if we're actually going to do it.
The enforced labor works with the prison system on highways, why can't it work in space?
Oh, I'm sure it's not all space junk, I'm sure there's some capsules containing rhesus monkey skeletons smearing their dying words on the glass of their cockpits with their fecal matter.
Simple solution, sell each item on eBay "as is" for very cheap. Then issue arrest warrants out for the winning bidders and demand they remove their trash from the perfect ecosystem of space.
If aliens could see our planet, would we be the white trash of the universe? With our garbage strewn about our front yard, four cars in our backyard that aren't mobile and a house that is?
Blame it on the Soviet Union and act like we're doing the rest of the world a huge favor by cleaning it up?
My work here is dung.
The U.S. Space Surveillance Network is currently tracking over 13,000 human-made objects larger than four inches (ten centimeters) in diameter
Or what is commonly referred to as the Nicole Ritchie threshold.
"and a teenager doing drugs that will ruin the rest of his life. "
WTF? thats kinda outta left field dont you think?
let me be the first to say that being a teenager and doing drugs will NOT ruin your life. Infact the oposite might be true. But yeah, some people dont realize the glory of hacking their minds till way too late in life, if ever. Thats how it goes i guess. If you fail at life its not the drugs your taking or not taking, its you.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
I would say that very much depends on the drug involved:
(Addictive potential + neural damage + difficulty in quitting) / (individual traits) = potential for ruining life
While I would agree the above statement is ambiguious it really sums it up. The GP post about a teen using drugs was to illustrate our race's inability to see beyond the now. We as a specis have simply not evolved past our preditor/prey hardwiring yet.
-nB
whois gawk date unzip strip find touch finger mount join nice man top fsck grep eject more yes exit umount sleep dump
What you gon' do with all that junk? ...
All that junk inside your trunk?
let me be the first to say that being a teenager and doing drugs will NOT ruin your life... ...If you fail at life its not the drugs your taking or not taking, its you.
I'm sure all those kids who've been pronounced DOA at the ER or pronounced dead at the scene after wrecking their car or OD'ing on their drug of choice greatly appreciate you standing-up for them, given their currently lack of ability to stand-up for themselves. Or to do anything else in the present tense.