Starship Asterisk*

I look forward to the December 22, 2012 launch of the Ultrasound Space Telescope.

The trouble with dark matter (or with its theoretical substitute by any other name) is that it walks like a duck but does not quack like a duck. You are half in trouble whatever you call it, but three syllables is a good limit for a term. That's why I'm 33% less excited about what we are calling dar...

I think everyone knows this is just an exercise. Right? --- Meanwhile, referring to contemporary commentary on Tethys, look at the Saturn system for methods of transporting material from one body to another. Saturn's moons and rings trade material like some people change underwear. As an exercise, s...

I thought the universe ceased to be opaque a few hundred thousand years after it began. So as I see it our remarkable point in history (though we've only occupied it recently) has lasted 13.3 billion years so far. Or does this lofty inspirational statement have a meaning I'm missing? save the sarca...

If the spiral is not photoshopped, I can only think that its appearance is from a time exposure of a laser projection, with the shutter luckily open for just the right interval. Well, forget that idea. I just saw the picture on what appeared to be video, not a still photograph, on the (NBC) evening...

we just happen to live at that specific point in the history of the universe where we can see that our specific point in the history of the universe is remarkable, because only at this point would we clearly see how the universe actually originated and is evolving. I thought the universe ceased to ...

neufer wrote:Incoherent ... Troll ... misbehaving

All cleverly simulated. Not buying it.

bystander wrote:EISCAT

Incoherent Scatter? First I've heard of it in this forum.

Why do you think that a red-shifted expanding universe and Big Bang theories are the same idea? They are different things. You could have either one without the other. They fit together into a single model, but saying you don't like one because you don't like the other is arguing from an uninformed ...

Why do think red-shifted objects are red? All wavelengths become longer. Blue becomes green or yellow or red depending on the amount of shift. Green becomes yellow or red, ultraviolet becomes visible, visible becomes infrared, etc. You have to see the wavelength change for known lines in the spectru...

If the spiral is not photoshopped, I can only think that its appearance is from a time exposure of a laser projection, with the shutter luckily open for just the right interval.

orin stepanek wrote:Maybe Mr. APOD could set one up for discussion once in a while.

Artificial intelligence difficult. Random easy.

geckzilla wrote:I think I will avoid using a plural version of forum for now.

Actually, I avoid that already. The plural only became necessary for me to express while mentioning sub-fora, and sub-forums is a particularly mumbly sounding word.

guess what I think of using fora instead of ... forums I agree with you, but my typing fingers act as if they were speaking out loud, and they apparently believe that fora rolls off the tongue and into the ear better. I'm a poet, remember, and there's always new competition in the fora of APOD for ...

Tethys photo - enhanced.

Aha, another variable for geckzilla. If we fix it so only Mr. Robot can open a new topic, how can a topic be opened for an old APOD that never had a discussion of its own? Oh yeah, the [OLDNEWTOPIC*] button. Seriously folks, there's no problem because we can open an old new topic in the Café and let...

Alas, I still get the old notice and no list of topics when I'm logged out (as opposed to all the sub-fora where I get a list of topics whether I'm logged in or not).

You are just too cool. Lotsa stuff to tinker with, huh?

"You are not authorised to read this forum." On the APOD Discussions page, I have gotten the message "You do not have the required permissions to read topics within this forum" since long before the dawn of the age of Mr. Robot (who is here to do nothing more than post new topic...

geckzilla wrote:Any user capable of making it to 10 posts without getting banned ...

Sounds like an event in a Monty Python "twit" contest. Or the final exam that you pass if you can sit at a terminal for 30 minutes without spilling a soda over the keyboard.

If you want to PM RJN you will have to PM RJN. Sputnick is the only one who thinks it can't be done, but then Sputnick still has a lot of facts wrong. I'm sorry if my flippant notice of the introduction of the APOD Robot and my pretending to address the APOD Robot as a self-aware intelligence confu...

(articles and) prepositions aren't generally capitalized in titles (only as the first word). ... from Junior High School English. If only it were that simple. As someone who suffered long in the world of publishing, I can speak ex cathedra on this one (and refer you to the most universally recogniz...

Then there's the mixed case of Eta Carinae. The Bayer designation serves as the popular proper name for the star "Eta Carinae". But the associated nebula is popularly called "the Eta Carinae Nebula", "the Eta Carina Nebula", or just "the Carina Nebula" (dodgin...

Amen.

The International Space Station Over the Ho..? :roll: Watch out for those nanny filters, Mr. Robot! All you need is either (1) new guidelines for APOD titles that are compatible with Asterisk* title size limits or (2) a compression algorithm built into Mr. Robot. For the Asterisk*, I'd call this on...