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Off-Topic Discussion => General Discussion => Topic started by: an0n on November 19, 2004, 04:08:02 pm

Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: an0n on November 19, 2004, 04:08:02 pm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/4025293.stm

Morons.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Liberator on November 19, 2004, 04:16:48 pm
I've got one question.  What the hell is a Head of Year?
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: an0n on November 19, 2004, 04:22:37 pm
An administration person given punishment decisions over a whole year of pupils.

It's the step between Tutor and Head Teacher.

It's similar in nature to a Head of Department (Science, Math, etc) but they preside over a whole year instead of a whole subject.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Rictor on November 19, 2004, 04:26:57 pm
yeah I read about this.

I can understand trying to motivate the kids, but this is pushing it.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Xavier Lazarus on November 19, 2004, 04:28:24 pm
Catlick school. Says it all.

No other kids would be gullible enough.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Triple Ace on November 19, 2004, 04:30:10 pm
I thought it was funny. :lol:
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: an0n on November 19, 2004, 04:34:30 pm
Shouldn't their God have protected them anyways?
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Liberator on November 19, 2004, 04:36:17 pm
an0n are going militant atheiest like Kazan?
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: an0n on November 19, 2004, 04:37:52 pm
Nah, I just get pissed off by the amassed stupidity every so often and feel like stabbing everyone.

Ignorant ****ing bastards that they are.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: DamoclesX on November 19, 2004, 05:04:48 pm
HAhahah

sorry

HAHHAHAHAHA

thats just funny as hell
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Flipside on November 19, 2004, 05:25:15 pm
No-one would have believed that in the latter half of the twentieth centrury.....

DADAdaaaaa! ;)
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: .::Tin Can::. on November 19, 2004, 06:43:06 pm
You would have figured any one of these kids would have turned on the news, and all over the headlines it would say "METEOR GOING TO CRASH INTO EARTH OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!1!!!1!!1111"
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: aldo_14 on November 19, 2004, 06:57:54 pm
Quote
Originally posted by .::Tin Can::.
You would have figured any one of these kids would have turned on the news, and all over the headlines it would say "METEOR GOING TO CRASH INTO EARTH OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!1!!!1!!1111"


Most kids don't bring TV sets with them to assembly.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Ford Prefect on November 19, 2004, 07:16:27 pm
I would laugh really hard if the scrolling headlines on the TV news read "METEOR GOING TO CRASH INTO EARTH OMGWTFBBQ!!!!!1!!!1!!1111"
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: aldo_14 on November 19, 2004, 07:18:40 pm
And then you would flee.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: karajorma on November 19, 2004, 07:19:17 pm
You'd have thought that at least one of them would have known that any asteroid that big would have been spotted well before the actual impact though. Even watching Armageddon teaches you that much :rolleyes: :D
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Ford Prefect on November 19, 2004, 07:21:39 pm
Quote
And then you would flee.


No, I would die laughing my ass off in front of the television.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Corsair on November 19, 2004, 07:34:07 pm
oh dear lord. I lose a bit of faith in mankind every day...
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: TrashMan on November 19, 2004, 07:56:09 pm
Quote
Originally posted by karajorma
You'd have thought that at least one of them would have known that any asteroid that big would have been spotted well before the actual impact though. Even watching Armageddon teaches you that much :rolleyes: :D


Actually no...
The sky is freaking HUGE and we can only monitor about 3% of it at a time.

The truth is that a gigantic metoer could come any second and kill us all without us even knowing..now THAT is scary.:shaking:
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Taristin on November 19, 2004, 08:02:35 pm
Not really. I'm not afraid of such things... It's pointless to waste your life afraid of death...  

Besides, I'd much rather not know the end was near than know...
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Ford Prefect on November 19, 2004, 08:04:59 pm
Quote
Actually no...
The sky is freaking HUGE and we can only monitor about 3% of it at a time.

The truth is that a gigantic metoer could come any second and kill us all without us even knowing..now THAT is scary.


Yes, that's true. There have been at least a couple cases recently where huge ass mother****ers missed us by less than a million miles and we only saw them after they passed.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: karajorma on November 19, 2004, 08:22:17 pm
Quote
Originally posted by TrashMan
Actually no...
The sky is freaking HUGE and we can only monitor about 3% of it at a time.

The truth is that a gigantic metoer could come any second and kill us all without us even knowing..now THAT is scary.:shaking:


Sorry but no. The Spaceguard Survey (http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/reports/spaceguard/index.html) estimates the size of a gloabal killer would be at least 2km in size. If you're trying to tell me that an asteroid that size could approach Earth and only be detected on the day before impact then I've got a bridge I'd like to sell you.

What can't be spotted easily are the smaller asteroids which wipe out a city. Those are dangerous and really should be protected against (cause nukes are useful against something that small).  But an asteroid that can kill us all? We'd not be hearing about that one the day it impacts.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Black Wolf on November 19, 2004, 09:25:11 pm
Quote
Originally posted by karajorma

 But an asteroid that can kill us all? We'd not be hearing about that one the day it impacts.


In all likelyhood, we probably would be, just to prevent the mass rape and stuff, but we'd definitely be detecting it on time. Keep in mind that there are millions of semi amateur astronomers looking into the sky every night, as well as the global astronomies, as well as the skywatch programs designed to look for these things. Someone would see it.

And, oh yeah. Stupidity. I'd believe my teachers at assembly over the past several days worth of newscasts full of "New Diet sweeps the nation" stories or whatever.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Ford Prefect on November 19, 2004, 10:00:13 pm
Two kilometers is nothing in space. We simply don't see everything at once. Like I said before, very large things have gone by us without us seeing them until after they pass. And in addition, the objects that we do detect have to be spotted a very long time in advance for us to do anything about it.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Flipside on November 19, 2004, 10:06:12 pm
All I'll say from that point of view is that we've got by for the last several million years without anyone looking out for them ;)

Cataclysmic asteroid collisions are not, I'm pleased to say, a common occurence among the inner planets. And, of course, we have a moon, take a look at the surface of that to find out where a lot of Earth-bound dangers ended up ;)

Oh, and to put things into perspective, yes, we would see anything that was going to hit us, since, it order to be able to do damage it needs to have one of two things, mass or speed. Both of these create phenomenon that are detectable from long range over a wide are.

The Comet that hit Jupiter exploded with a force of 1 triliion megatonnes, it would have cracked the moon in two. However, something of that mass and speed would never get caught in the Earth's gravity well, and for a direct hit... well, imagine playing 3D zero-gravity, no-friction snooker on a table that is 200 km cubed with sawdust on the felt, and you'll have a rough idea of the chances ;)
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Lightspeed on November 20, 2004, 06:10:23 am
But still, it is possible :)
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Flipside on November 20, 2004, 06:43:35 am
Yes, it is :) When you have literally Billions upon Billions of years leeway, even those long shots come up from time to time. However, if we saw a Comet of that magnitude coming towards Earth, the only effective action we could take is to put our heads between our legs and kiss our asses goodbye ;)
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: karajorma on November 20, 2004, 07:33:50 am
Quote
Originally posted by Ford Prefect
Two kilometers is nothing in space. We simply don't see everything at once. Like I said before, very large things have gone by us without us seeing them until after they pass. And in addition, the objects that we do detect have to be spotted a very long time in advance for us to do anything about it.


I never said we'd be able to do anything about it. Just that we'd know it was coming before the day before it hit us.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Lightspeed on November 20, 2004, 09:49:38 am
Quote
Originally posted by Flipside
Yes, it is :) When you have literally Billions upon Billions of years leeway, even those long shots come up from time to time. However, if we saw a Comet of that magnitude coming towards Earth, the only effective action we could take is to put our heads between our legs and kiss our asses goodbye ;)


Uh, it's pretty much random. That means, you don't need much time for it to happen. Heck, it could happen thrice in a row in very little time :D

It's just not very likely.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Flipside on November 20, 2004, 09:56:16 am
LOL Mathmatically very true, theoretically we could be bounced all over the solar system by errant comets and through sheer fluke end up in the same orbit as we started. ;)
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: aldo_14 on November 20, 2004, 10:50:51 am
Tunguska stands as a good example, of course.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: karajorma on November 20, 2004, 06:07:12 pm
Rather worryingly Tunguska isn't the most recent of the incidents either. The Amazon Basin was hit in the 30s and Canada just escaped being hit only a few years back.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Flipside on November 20, 2004, 06:16:20 pm
Small impacts are going on all the time, look at how many meteorites have been dug out of the Arizona desert ;)

Tunguska is one of those wierd ones, which is only 'probably' an impact iirc? There were some strange peculiarities about the blast zone?

Oh, they'll hit us from time to time, but they are coming through one of the thickest atmospheres (relative to size) and hitting the densest planet in the Solar System (Yes, this is true, might even explain our evolution a little). Earth, for all it's upheavals, is a tough little nut ;)
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: karajorma on November 20, 2004, 06:35:44 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Flipside
Tunguska is one of those wierd ones, which is only 'probably' an impact iirc? There were some strange peculiarities about the blast zone?


The whole standing trees bit? That's cause the Tunguska asteroid didn't actually hit the ground in one piece. Experiments showed that an asteroid fragmenting about 8 miles up would have that effect and would produce the same "butterfly" observed at the blast site.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Flipside on November 20, 2004, 06:38:06 pm
Ah right, they cleared that one up :D

Last time I read about it, to be honest, was in Arthur C Clarkes mysterious World ;)
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: kode on November 20, 2004, 06:43:22 pm
this just goes to show that you in fact should not believe everything the authorities say.

having said that, the 14 year olds are either exceptionally stupid or the teacher is exceptionally skilled in rhetorics, or a combination of both.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Flipside on November 20, 2004, 06:47:58 pm
'War of the Worlds' syndrome :)
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: kode on November 20, 2004, 08:11:58 pm
Quote
Originally posted by Flipside
'War of the Worlds' syndrome :)


with the slight difference that orson welles was a ****ing genius, and it was back in 1938 which was a time when there were fewer instances of the fourth branch of government around.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Flipside on November 20, 2004, 08:23:06 pm
That is true, but, we have been made hyper-aware of these threats from Outer Space, even on this board people consider it a thing to be concerned about in the short term when far more local global catastrophes threaten us. We have been led to believe that these things could hit at any time.

People can be just as stupid and gullible when they buy their opinions in the papershop every morning ;)
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: karajorma on November 21, 2004, 03:05:43 am
What scares me is the small metalic asteroids rather than the big dinosaur killing ones. The asteroid that created the Wabar impact for instance was only 10m in diameter. There are millions of those in Earth crossing orbits IIRC.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: aldo_14 on November 21, 2004, 07:09:53 am
Quote
Originally posted by Flipside

Last time I read about it, to be honest, was in Arthur C Clarkes mysterious World ;)


I have that book... the one with the crystal skull on the cover?  And the story of the 4-horned sheep?
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Lightspeed on November 21, 2004, 07:48:14 am
Probably all those asteroids are launched by evil terrorists :o :p
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Nuclear1 on November 21, 2004, 09:01:49 am
Anyone ever read "Lucifer's Hammer"? I guess a meteor collision could happen, but not likely.
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: kode on November 21, 2004, 09:22:53 am
Quote
Originally posted by Lightspeed
Probably all those asteroids are launched by evil terrorists :o :p


it's the bugs!
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Flipside on November 21, 2004, 10:14:49 am
Aldo : Yep, that's the one, it was one of my favourite books when I was younger :D

The thing is that the Earth is a bit like a Waterbed, theres continents of Granite, floating around on a semi-solid skin, which is itself floating on a liquid base.

That sort of set-up is surprisingly good at soaking at impacts that would devastate other planets ;)
Title: We'll All Be Dead By Tomorrow!
Post by: Knight Templar on November 21, 2004, 02:22:20 pm
Deep Impact. :nervous: