Not really. If a star that appears to be significantly older than the universe is discovered, well that's happened before. There have been times when we thought that the universe was one age and then got back results from measuring the age of certain star and globular clusters that were older than what we thought was the age of the universe. When something like this usually means that either method of measuring the age of the or the method of measuring the age of the universe is wrong. Most astronomers today seem pretty confident in the current method of measuring the age of the universe so if a too ancient star is found they are more likely to question their method of estimating the age of the star. What it would prove is that the big bang was not a singular event and that material from other big bangs has floated into our region. This sort of idea has been put forward by various string theorists and often in connection with p-branes.
I was under the impression that brane theories suggest that the only way different branes could interact was through gravity. You wouldn't get actual matter floating in from one brane to another. In any case material from other big bangs would likely have been created under a different set of physical laws and would be like nothing else in "our" universe.
But it's out of projectiles, and won't blow up anything, so this time, many Boethins WON'T die to give us this information.
The new plan is to upload the complete works of Celine Dion to Deep Impact's computers. If the satellite encounters any resistance, it will start playing at full volume until the Boethins surrender.
IIRC, Velikovsky believed that Jupiter spat out comets. One of these comets was responsible for a number of the miracles in the Old Testament. And then it became the planet Venus when it finally cooled down and its orbit stabilized.
This is pretty different. Here, you have one Pluto-sized object which was hit by a smaller object and broke apart. Some of the debris from that collision was thrown into the inner solar system forming comets and the rest coalesced into a into a large, fast spinning object and miscellaneous smaller objects including its two moons and a few smaller Kuiper Belt objects.
This isn't a new theory by the way. Most scientists now believe that the Earth and Moon along with Pluto, Charon, and its other satellites where also the result of a similar impact.
All Kuiper Belt objects resemble icy asteroids. But as the article somewhat obliquely points out, when KBOs cross the obit of Neptune and move into the inner solar system they, start to heat up and grow icy tails. In other words, they turn into comets.
And by info, you mean long discredited quack theories right? The electric universe theory which the site you linked to is widely dismissed by most physicists. It does however excite these people.
This is actually made a much less tenable theory by the latest gravitational lensing result involving colliding galaxies. Presumably matter on an adjacent brane would interact with itself other than gravitationally, but it's clear from the lensing that the dark matter didn't interact with itself other than gravitationally.
Perhaps the laws of physics are different on the other brane, but it still seems odd that the two bunches of matter would pass right through each other.
Well, there could be two adjacent branes I suppose. But that's just starting to get silly.
Actually, some string theories require that this "silliness" occur. Branes interact gravitationally and one theory suggests that the universe came into existence when our brane collided with another. The branes would have to be adjacent if they are close enough to collide.
I just did a quick check. Mercury is smaller than our moon.
No it's not. From http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/moon_worldbook.html and http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/mercury_worldbook.ht ml respectively, "The moon's average radius (distance from its center to its surface) is 1,079.6 miles (1,737.4 kilometers), about 27 percent of the radius of Earth." and "Mercury is the planet nearest the sun. It has a diameter of 3,032 miles (4,879 kilometers), about two-fifths of Earth's diameter."
My own preferred criterion for planethood is that every object which is round and in orbit around the sun gets to join the party but we divide the planets into categories. You've got your major planets (i.e. the classical eight) and your minor planets of which Pluto is the best known. So what if we wind up with a hundred planets? Most people will only remember the original nine and textbooks will only need to add an asterisk to Pluto's entry noting that it's the best known of many minor planets.
2. The Orwellian nature of some parts of science. Once a theory is replaced by another, nobody seems to be cognizant of the fact that the current pet theory could be as easily replaced as the last theory. (We are at war with blue, we have always been at war with blue.)
Theories aren't always "replaced." For example, Newton's theory of gravity was replaced by Einstein's Relativity but still remains valid and quite useful at speeds which are much slower than the speed of light. This is because Newtonian Gravity wasn't really replaced by Relativity, it was merely expanded to cover situations where it would otherwise break down. The same situation applies to evolution. The day that Intelligent Design can actually predict that evolution (or show how can appear to happen even though it doesn't happen at all) happens differently with the presence of a designer than without, it will become a true scientific theory. Until then, it's just creationism dressed up in a lab coat and glasses, pretending to be smart.
I also have been reading e-books on PDAs for a long time. As the devices evolve with brighter screens and higher resolutions, they become much more comfortable to read. E-books may only be a niche product right now and I've found that the best way of reading them is with another niche product -- the PDA. You're right that no one is going to shell out much money for an e-book only device but if you're going to be using a PDA or Smartphone anyway, e-books are a wonderful task for it.
Most asteroids are also tiny. In fact, Phobos and Deimos are believed to be captured asteroids by some astronomers. I've seen estimates that suggest that all the asteroids put together wouldn't produce a body as large as Mercury.
This is off-topic but I tried Greasemonkey recently. While I really liked it at first, Greasemonkey has one huge flaw under Windows XP. When it is enabled, Firefox uses up 100% of my CPU time. It really hurt my computer's stability (yeah I know, runnings XP doesn't help either). Have other people run into this problem or is it just me?
I think Cell phones are too small for many pda-ish things, currently.
What about the Treo650? I used to have a Handspring. I carried it in my backpack and only ocassionally used it to retrieve an odd bit of information. I never used it for things like "todo" or calendar management, since I never carried it with me. However, with the Treo, I always have it. I can jot something down. I keep a full calendar. I immediately saw a spike in productivity and fewer missed appointments.
But there in lies the paraodox of the PDA vs cellphone argument. The Treo 650 runs the almost exact same OS that all Palm PDAs run, PalmOS 5.x. As cellphones become more powerful, they become full-fledged PDAs themselves. It's also the reason why PDA vs cellphone arguments tend to be shallow since the most powerful cellphones are essentially PDAs that happen to have a built in cellphone.
In all fairness, SFF PCs didn't start to get popular until after the Apple Cube -- Apple's first attempt at a stylish small form facter computer -- came out a few years ago. So, in a way SFF was Apple's idea first, they just took a while to really get it done right.
I'm been ogling the Mac Mini online right now. But I've already got a Shuttle SFF on my desk which blows it away in hardware terms. Of course, small as my Shuttle XPC is, it's still twice the size of the Mac Mini. It's nice to be small....
I upgraded from a Visor Platinum with a VisorPhone to a Treo partially because of the smaller size and weight but also because of the increased memory. I was always swapping my VisorPhone for memory modules and with my Treo that wasn't as much of a problem simply because it has twice as much RAM as my Visor. I also quickly learned that with the Blazer browser and web clipping that I can look up stuff in Google and with dictionary PQAs which would normally require loading up a dictionary or map program.
Re:keypad vs. graffiti--handspring's response
on
New Treo Reviewed
·
· Score: 1
The Treo 180, 270, and 300 can use Graffiti. You need free third party utilities like Newpen to write in Graffiti without a Graffiti area. With the Treo 600, you don't event need that since PalmOS 5.2 allows you to write anywhere on the screen. Unfortunately, Palm changed their version of Graffiti with OS 5.2 so you have to relearn your Graffiti strokes.
There have been terestrial telescopes that can see farther than Hubble for quite some time now. This isn't that big of a deal. And besides, what's to stop us from just launching a new and improved Hubble ][?
Terrestrial telescopes are still at the mercy of bad weather and suffer distortion from the atmosphere. As for a new Hubble, the Webb telescope will probably fit that bill but there's the matter of us not having a way to get it into orbit with the shuttle grounded and no good successor vehicle on the horizon.
Thank you for your interest in Movielink. We want you to take part in the powerful Internet movie rental experience that Movielink delivers; however, you currently do not meet our minimum system requirements. You will need to adjust the following:
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I had Mozilla open at the time and have never really liked IE. I think I'll just stick to Usenet, Kazaa, and Bittorrent for now. They don't ask me to change my web browser.
and the white dwarf will never explode as supernova.
Well, that depends. If the white dwarf is close enough to the Chandrasekhar limit, and somehow manages to accrete enough matter to actually pass it, it would go supernova. Becoming overwheight can be dangerous even for old, retired stars. Marlon Brando should take notice:)
Actually a white dwarf can explode as a classical nova but it has to have a normal companion star. When this occurs, the white dwarf's gravity strips gas off the companion which builds up on the white dwarf's surface until it explodes.
Going slightly off-topic, this was a plot point in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
But he is also famous for seminal work on the steady-state theory of the universe
Though no idea should be dismissed a priori in science, this alone calls into question Dr. Gold's ability. Unless they're using "steady state" in a manner unconnected to its traditional usage, Dr. Gold is on the side of a theory that has pretty much fallen by the wayside. Excluding the increasingly, um, eccentric Fred Hoyle, there are no real leaders among the handful of proponents of steady state.
The word "seminal" means "containing seeds of later development." The article makes no mention of whether or not he still advocates (or ever advocated) that theory. It only stated that his work was important for its development.
Also, keep in mind that many brilliant minds have dabbled in what we now consider quackery. Issac Newton, for example, was interested in alchemy and biblical chronology. Yet he still managed to develop his brilliant theory of gravitation.
Slashdot Mirror
In short: it would be bad mmm-kay?
Not really. If a star that appears to be significantly older than the universe is discovered, well that's happened before. There have been times when we thought that the universe was one age and then got back results from measuring the age of certain star and globular clusters that were older than what we thought was the age of the universe. When something like this usually means that either method of measuring the age of the or the method of measuring the age of the universe is wrong. Most astronomers today seem pretty confident in the current method of measuring the age of the universe so if a too ancient star is found they are more likely to question their method of estimating the age of the star.
What it would prove is that the big bang was not a singular event and that material from other big bangs has floated into our region. This sort of idea has been put forward by various string theorists and often in connection with p-branes.
I was under the impression that brane theories suggest that the only way different branes could interact was through gravity. You wouldn't get actual matter floating in from one brane to another. In any case material from other big bangs would likely have been created under a different set of physical laws and would be like nothing else in "our" universe.
But it's out of projectiles, and won't blow up anything, so this time, many Boethins WON'T die to give us this information.
The new plan is to upload the complete works of Celine Dion to Deep Impact's computers. If the satellite encounters any resistance, it will start playing at full volume until the Boethins surrender.
"Windows - Tweaks for about 4-6 hours"
Is that with or without the trial of Norton Antivirus on the disk...?
That's about how long it takes to get rid of Norton Antivirus and install AVG.
IIRC, Velikovsky believed that Jupiter spat out comets. One of these comets was responsible for a number of the miracles in the Old Testament. And then it became the planet Venus when it finally cooled down and its orbit stabilized.
This is pretty different. Here, you have one Pluto-sized object which was hit by a smaller object and broke apart. Some of the debris from that collision was thrown into the inner solar system forming comets and the rest coalesced into a into a large, fast spinning object and miscellaneous smaller objects including its two moons and a few smaller Kuiper Belt objects.
This isn't a new theory by the way. Most scientists now believe that the Earth and Moon along with Pluto, Charon, and its other satellites where also the result of a similar impact.
All Kuiper Belt objects resemble icy asteroids. But as the article somewhat obliquely points out, when KBOs cross the obit of Neptune and move into the inner solar system they, start to heat up and grow icy tails. In other words, they turn into comets.
And by info, you mean long discredited quack theories right? The electric universe theory which the site you linked to is widely dismissed by most physicists. It does however excite these people.
I hate HTML mail too. I almost never get "legitimate" HTML -- it's almost always spam. If HTML mail went away, all I'd say is "good riddance.
Actually, some string theories require that this "silliness" occur. Branes interact gravitationally and one theory suggests that the universe came into existence when our brane collided with another. The branes would have to be adjacent if they are close enough to collide.
I just did a quick check. Mercury is smaller than our moon.
No it's not. From http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/moon_worldbook.html and http://www.nasa.gov/worldbook/mercury_worldbook.h
My own preferred criterion for planethood is that every object which is round and in orbit around the sun gets to join the party but we divide the planets into categories. You've got your major planets (i.e. the classical eight) and your minor planets of which Pluto is the best known. So what if we wind up with a hundred planets? Most people will only remember the original nine and textbooks will only need to add an asterisk to Pluto's entry noting that it's the best known of many minor planets.
2. The Orwellian nature of some parts of science. Once a theory is replaced by another, nobody seems to be cognizant of the fact that the current pet theory could be as easily replaced as the last theory. (We are at war with blue, we have always been at war with blue.)
Theories aren't always "replaced." For example, Newton's theory of gravity was replaced by Einstein's Relativity but still remains valid and quite useful at speeds which are much slower than the speed of light. This is because Newtonian Gravity wasn't really replaced by Relativity, it was merely expanded to cover situations where it would otherwise break down. The same situation applies to evolution. The day that Intelligent Design can actually predict that evolution (or show how can appear to happen even though it doesn't happen at all) happens differently with the presence of a designer than without, it will become a true scientific theory. Until then, it's just creationism dressed up in a lab coat and glasses, pretending to be smart.
I also have been reading e-books on PDAs for a long time. As the devices evolve with brighter screens and higher resolutions, they become much more comfortable to read. E-books may only be a niche product right now and I've found that the best way of reading them is with another niche product -- the PDA. You're right that no one is going to shell out much money for an e-book only device but if you're going to be using a PDA or Smartphone anyway, e-books are a wonderful task for it.
Most asteroids are also tiny. In fact, Phobos and Deimos are believed to be captured asteroids by some astronomers. I've seen estimates that suggest that all the asteroids put together wouldn't produce a body as large as Mercury.
LightningParakeet
I know you're joking but that would be such a cool name for a PDA based browser....
This is off-topic but I tried Greasemonkey recently. While I really liked it at first, Greasemonkey has one huge flaw under Windows XP. When it is enabled, Firefox uses up 100% of my CPU time. It really hurt my computer's stability (yeah I know, runnings XP doesn't help either). Have other people run into this problem or is it just me?
I've been getting something like five "upgrade" spams a day since January.
But there in lies the paraodox of the PDA vs cellphone argument. The Treo 650 runs the almost exact same OS that all Palm PDAs run, PalmOS 5.x. As cellphones become more powerful, they become full-fledged PDAs themselves. It's also the reason why PDA vs cellphone arguments tend to be shallow since the most powerful cellphones are essentially PDAs that happen to have a built in cellphone.
In all fairness, SFF PCs didn't start to get popular until after the Apple Cube -- Apple's first attempt at a stylish small form facter computer -- came out a few years ago. So, in a way SFF was Apple's idea first, they just took a while to really get it done right.
I'm been ogling the Mac Mini online right now. But I've already got a Shuttle SFF on my desk which blows it away in hardware terms. Of course, small as my Shuttle XPC is, it's still twice the size of the Mac Mini. It's nice to be small....
If they can do a good enough job recreating the rides, their Whuffie's going through the roof!
They can set their blasters to flash-bake and tear through the Magic Kingom.
I upgraded from a Visor Platinum with a VisorPhone to a Treo partially because of the smaller size and weight but also because of the increased memory. I was always swapping my VisorPhone for memory modules and with my Treo that wasn't as much of a problem simply because it has twice as much RAM as my Visor. I also quickly learned that with the Blazer browser and web clipping that I can look up stuff in Google and with dictionary PQAs which would normally require loading up a dictionary or map program.
The Treo 180, 270, and 300 can use Graffiti. You need free third party utilities like Newpen to write in Graffiti without a Graffiti area. With the Treo 600, you don't event need that since PalmOS 5.2 allows you to write anywhere on the screen. Unfortunately, Palm changed their version of Graffiti with OS 5.2 so you have to relearn your Graffiti strokes.
For the ultimate insult we have to forget about mirrors and instead distribute it on Kazaa and through bittorrent.
There have been terestrial telescopes that can see farther than Hubble for quite some time now. This isn't that big of a deal. And besides, what's to stop us from just launching a new and improved Hubble ][?
Terrestrial telescopes are still at the mercy of bad weather and suffer distortion from the atmosphere. As for a new Hubble, the Webb telescope will probably fit that bill but there's the matter of us not having a way to get it into orbit with the shuttle grounded and no good successor vehicle on the horizon.
I had Mozilla open at the time and have never really liked IE. I think I'll just stick to Usenet, Kazaa, and Bittorrent for now. They don't ask me to change my web browser.
and the white dwarf will never explode as supernova.
:)
Well, that depends. If the white dwarf is close enough to the Chandrasekhar limit, and somehow manages to accrete enough matter to actually pass it, it would go supernova. Becoming overwheight can be dangerous even for old, retired stars.
Marlon Brando should take notice
Actually a white dwarf can explode as a classical nova but it has to have a normal companion star. When this occurs, the white dwarf's gravity strips gas off the companion which builds up on the white dwarf's surface until it explodes.
Going slightly off-topic, this was a plot point in an episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation.
Though no idea should be dismissed a priori in science, this alone calls into question Dr. Gold's ability. Unless they're using "steady state" in a manner unconnected to its traditional usage, Dr. Gold is on the side of a theory that has pretty much fallen by the wayside. Excluding the increasingly, um, eccentric Fred Hoyle, there are no real leaders among the handful of proponents of steady state.
The word "seminal" means "containing seeds of later development." The article makes no mention of whether or not he still advocates (or ever advocated) that theory. It only stated that his work was important for its development.
Also, keep in mind that many brilliant minds have dabbled in what we now consider quackery. Issac Newton, for example, was interested in alchemy and biblical chronology. Yet he still managed to develop his brilliant theory of gravitation.