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Adopt-a-Star To Fund Research
Travis writes "An international collaboration of astronomers is taking a unique approach to funding their research, through an 'adopt-a-star' program. Preparing for the launch of NASA's Kepler satellite next February, the group will help characterize thousands of stars that the mission will be searching for evidence of Earth-like planets. For a small donation, early adopters get a certificate by email and updates when any planets are found around their adopted star."
I call dibs on "Sol" ;-)
Ahhh...the great dumpster continuum. Many a free computer will be found there. -- sowth (748135)
oh wait.
If you gotta go, you gotta go
Maybe people could adopt individual grains of sand at the beach, to raise money to help keep the beaches clean. The hard part is writing the chosen names with a sharpie on each grain of sand.
...vanity plates were bad.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
How long before I get emails from my so-called star saying:"I've been captured by a bunch of NASA thugs wearing white coats and black spectacles. OMG they want to delete my itunes library I don't give then $10,000!!!!Please send $10,0000 to....
Engineering is the art of compromise.
to start a competing company.
I will only allow people to name stars that are visible from a rural town.
I woudl do it via bidding, with the starting bid based on how bright the star is.
Sol would start at 250k, the north start 1000K and down to a minimum of 40 bucks.
*Visible from the naked yes only valid at time of purchase... No not 'night time' but I don't want to be liable for future pollution.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I remember hearing all those commercials that you could name a star after someone. I was actually dumb enough to do it for a girlfriend. When we got the "chart" the star was.... made up! They actually put a black dot from a magic marker on it.
This sounds oddly familiar.
How about getting NASA's money back from George Bush's bogus faith-based programs?
I remember in high school the who baby care/egg care thing where you (and a pair of classmates) had to take turns watching a fake baby or an egg for a few days. That was my first thought on adopting a star. Oh dang, my star esploded! Does that mean I get a zero on my report card?
Meanwhile, other classmates are laughing because their star is not going anywhere for another 2 million years.
oh, THOSE kinds of stars. Never mind.
LoB
"Anyone who stands out in the middle of a road looks like roadkill to me." --Linus
In the NYC area there's a company that advertises frequently on local radio. International Star Registry will actually name a star after someone and actually register the name in book form at the US Copyright Office. All for only $50. Makes a great gift.
I hope Adopt-A-Star is prepared to compete with the likes of this sham business that preys on the gullible. They must be making money because their ads are frequent around the holidays and they've been on for years. It's disgusting that real science goes wanting for lack of funds but sleazebags make money hand over fist.
This reminds me of that Flight of the Conchords episode...
Murray: There's something I need to talk to you about. It's not good news. Planet Jermaine. It's supernova-ed. Yeah, there's nothing left of it apparently, just a huge gaseous cloud and the beginning of a black hole.
Jermaine: When did this happen?
Murray: About 4 million years ago.
If this is an "international collaboration", then why do you need a US address to donate using a credit card?
For a small donation, early adopters get a certificate by email and updates when any planets are found around their adopted star.
A certificate? If I adopt the star I want DEEDS for any planets that are discovered. And rent when folks get there.
So, do I have to clean up the litter around it every month?
...I hope they have excellent lawyers and maybe a few heavily-armed grunts. International Star Registry is bound to go after them, but with luck the lawyers will figure out a way to counter-sue ISR for all the money it has. The grunts? Well, technically, they'd be there because rich people don't like stopping being rich and definitely don't like their revenue stream drying up and might do something really stupid. OJ doesn't pay anything of his fine because his money is overseas and/or otherwise unreachable.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I went to their web site, but apparently all the stars have already been adopted by Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and Madonna.
What's Rocky Mozel gonna think of this effort to muscle in on the action?
didn't Heinlein predict dishing out intergalactic real-estate we don't actually own?
The reason girls and Windows users don't understand UNIX is because all the documentation is in Man files.
For $10 donation I'd expect to give the star a proper name of my choosing, instead of arcane stellar classifications like LBV 1807-21.
"White Dwarf Research Corporation is a 501c3 non-profit organization dedicated to scientific research and public education on topics relevant to white dwarf stars." http://www.guidestar.org/pqShowGsReport.do?partner=networkforgood&ein=74-2924755/
Basically this is just a fundraiser. It could just as easily been for the research into finding Natalie Portman's image in a bowl of hot grits.
46. The Hobo smiles, his eyes glaze over, and he burps. "Beware the man who has lived longer than the Wasteland."
With all of the hangers on and other assorted junkies orbiting around her some of them might be able to be considered planets.
Like arts? Like cheesy little Indie mags? Check out www.artwerkmag.com, and don't laugh at the bad coding please.
Do all species go through an "adopt a star" program on their way to manned, interstellar travel? My personal opinion is that this whole program would look really idiotic to someone from another planet.
Might as well get a pet stone and name it.
Not only are they cheaper, but you're also 100% sure it's not a scam (since you either only pay when you get the stone or you pick the stone yourself) AND it's 100% yours so nobody else has it at the same time as you.
Just so long as the planet orbiting it is not called Livinum with a moon called "LV-426"....
Laters Sol "Have you found the secrets of the universe? Asked Zebade "I'm sure I left them here somewhere"
Up there with selling land on the moon, There have been many "Adopt a Star" scams like this by con artists and scammers. I've attached some below. That these astronomers are doing the same thing is shameful.
Star Registry from $15 Name a Star after Your Loved One Unique and Personalized Gift www.XXXXX.com
Name A Star From $19.95 Buy A Star? Yes. At StarNamer®. Top quality with no compromises www.XXXXX.net
Name a Star After Someone A gift that will last a lifetime Name a star! - Now only $18.95 XXXXX.com
Cool Gift- Name A Star The Star Foundation will also donate up to 25% to charity. www.XXXX.net
25% to charity? How lovely. These astronomers obviously consider themselves a 'charity', but not even a tax deductible one. I hope these guys find themselves behind bars. This last one I didn't X-out:
Buy A Star Bargain Buy A Star here! Find, bid, win it on eBay Australia www.ebay.com.au/Buy+A+Star
For only a dollar a day, you too can help to make sure that these stars don't go unstudied.
And for your donation, you'll get a certificate and a picture of your adopted star.
Please, don't allow for the continuation of the tragedy of unstudied stars.
Somewhere near zero on the keypad.
Engineering is the art of compromise.
As long as when the planet orbiting a star I name launches an invasion, so that it is forever known in history as the "INVASION FROM PLANET POOHEAD-6"
-- I really need to bleed off some of this
The pet rock made millions, I sure as hell look forward to this dwarfing that "entrepreneurship" or this planet truly is narcississtic.
For a small donation, early adopters get a certificate by email and updates when any planets are found around their adopted star.
Do I get mineral rights? I need a stellar-sized nuclear fusion furnace to generate heavy metals (typically gold and platinum) from hydrogen and helium to fund construction of and to power my interstellar death ray. And I want to name it Fluffy Love Pumpkin.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
I'd pay money for officially naming a star, but not for "adopting" one.
You can name stars right now for a small charge.
What would alien punishment or sentencing encompass??
Would we be liable???
what if it is the death penalty, via planatary vapourisation????
aieeee!!!!!
This 'adoption' business is not something to be taken as lightly as they have been taking it. They must think of the consequences. {WARNING : the following question contains another geek reference, those with weak science fiction tolerance should skip to the next paragraph now. If you are unsure of your tolerance level; you can get an approximate estimate by calculating how many RL dates you have been on in the last month, if dates > 0 you may want to at least wear protective glasses. } What if they are Thrintun , or Kzinti?
{we now return you to your regular programming.}
One has to be careful, and in order to do that one must practice safe star adoption.
Personally this one has yet to see a company that makes a French safe that could stand the 2400 to 25000 Kelvin temperatures.
-M
-Magdalene --"there are 10 types of people in the world, those who read binary, and those who don't"
God, I am sick of those commercials on the radio around here.
On another, loosely related note; Is it true that you can't buy crap like "Airborne" in Europe? Not that it doesn't mean there aren't morons there too - I ask because someone from Amsterdam wanted to "go shopping" to pick up that and other placebos while she was here...
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
For a small donation, early adopters get a certificate by email and updates when any planets are found around their adopted star.
What they should do is sell the rights to name any planet found around the adopted star.
I'll adopt Halle Berry, if she will come and stay at my place.
There's a part of the site that allows you to put your name on a DVD that's going to aboard kepler. From a technical perspective how do they plan to do this? We represent letters with ascii eg ascii 48 I believe (IIRC) is like the number 0.
Are they putting some kind of graphical ascii translation table on the DVD? Also how would the aliens know how to read it. The beginning of a DVD is just a bunch of inodes. And with all the other uses of CDs/DVDs that you hear about at boyscout camp they may think it's some kind of frisbee or a device used to reflect light if you get lost or something.
I request you to turn off your unwanted service. NOW.
Patents Drive Free Software as Hurricanes Drive Construction Industry
I just can't get past the irony that this article only 1 article separated from an article describing research on how bad it is to respond to all spam and pop-ups for a month.
It just seems WAY to related! :)
Whats gonna worry me is when people either claim someone stole their star or there is commercials before movies about how wrong it is to make and sell pirated stars. And how do you know which star is yours anyway? Ooh Oooh dibs on that one.