Starship Asterisk*

heehaw wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2020 9:37 am What a pleasant surprise today! Very relaxing, and gives human meaning to a sterile universe. The surface of that one planet, Earth, gives us far more than any other space in the universe, doesn't it! But! one sad note about today's great APOD: it reminds us of some of our loss with social distancing, doesn't it!!!

https://www.etymonline.com/word/dance wrote:

Click to play embedded YouTube video.

dance (v.): c. 1300, dauncen, "move the body or feet rhythmically to music," from Old French dancier (12c., Modern French danser), which is of unknown origin, perhaps from Low Frankish *dintjan and akin to Old Frisian dintje "tremble, quiver." Through French influence in arts and society, it has become the primary word for this activity from Spain to Russia (Italian danzare, Spanish danzar, Romanian dansa, Swedish dansa, German tanzen).

In part the loanword from French is used mainly with reference to fashionable dancing while the older native word persists in use with reference to folk-dancing, as definitively Russ. pljasat' vs. tancovat'. In English it replaced Old English sealtian, itself a borrowing from Latin saltare "to dance," frequentative of salire "to leap" (see salient (adj.); "dance" words frequently are derived from words meaning "jump, leap"). Native words used for the activity in Old English included tumbian (see tumble (v.)), hoppian(see hop (v.1)). Meaning "to leap or spring with regular or irregular steps as an expression of some emotion" is from late 14c. Of inanimate things, "move nimbly or quickly with irregular motion," 1560s. Transitive sense of "give a dancing motion to" is from c. 1500. To dance attendance "strive to please and gain favor by obsequiousness" is from late 15c.>>

Tom Roberts wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2020 6:41 am Dear Editors

I am a huge fan of APOD. It's is the invariably the first site I open every morning. I have learned so much about the Universe through viewing your site, although all too frequently you run boring pictures of the Milky Way seen within an Earth landscape, but that is tolerable given there is so much else of real interest.

But this morning post was not only thoroughly ridiculous... no, it was downright stupid and frankly shocking. We all know the contribution NASA scientists have made to alert humankind to the existential threat of climate warming. It is something you can be proud of, but giving some complete fool who has traveled the world creating a massive carbon footprint to prove the completely obvious is just unacceptable and irresponsible. You may be surprised to know that all humans sleep everyday in all cultures, they also defecate, sing, chat, gossip, eat various kinds of food, use fire as well as electronic equipment, read books and magazines (although not everywhere), generally pair up to procreate and the females have a small number of children which they take many years to raise, usually in families. The list of what all humans do everyday across the world is much longer but I don't have days to write all these obvious things everyone in the world already seems to know except you.

The USA is a world leader in climate destruction - from the President to the average car driver. I can now see why?

Very sincerely and sadly yours. Tom Roberts

APOD Robot wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2020 4:05 am Happy People Dancing on Planet Earth

Explanation: What are these humans doing? Dancing. Many humans on Earth exhibit periods of happiness, and one method of displaying happiness is dancing. Happiness and dancing transcend national boundaries and occur in practically every human society. Above, Matt Harding traveled through many nations on Earth, planned on dancing, and filmed the result. The featured video, one in a series of similar videos, is perhaps a dramatic example that humans from all over planet Earth feel a common bond as part of a single species. Happiness is frequently contagious -- few people are able to watch the featured video without smiling.

Pingouin wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2020 10:38 am So what's cooking for tomorrow: a TikTok video of someone dressing their cat as Spiderman to desperately get attention, or something actually educational?

Sa Ji Tario wrote: ↑Sun Jun 14, 2020 9:57 pm Oh how many people protest! During a day that APOD did not edit an image and now for a video, the first time 50% lost interest, now 25%. And good! It is better that they leave rather than continue to pester here, of course, with all due respect.