How We Knew AL00667 Would Miss Earth 290
jefu writes "In January there seems to have been an incident in which it was thought that an object (asteroid) in space might have hit the earth within a couple of days of being spotted. It did miss, though. This story (from NASA/Ames) talks about the discovery of the object and the process that astronomers went through to determine if the asteroid was or was not a threat."
timing... (Score:5, Funny)
Miss Earth what? (Score:5, Funny)
Ob Simpsons quotes (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds like the doomsday whistle! Ain't been blown for nigh onto three years.
Cheers,
IT
Re:Interesting... (Score:5, Funny)
MADMEN (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Miss Earth what? (Score:5, Funny)
Well, we were lucky this once... (Score:3, Funny)
Else we'd be meeting all the time travelers from the future
It would mean the end of life as we know it ? (Score:5, Funny)
Scientist: No, but it might burn up a few cities and destory 70% of the humans
Onlooker2: So I'd be dead ?
Scientist: But the people left alive will have an excellent chance of survival due to the systematic culling of slashdot trolls
Onlooker1: Why did you keep it under the wraps ?
Scientist: We were kinda hoping it would slag Sanford Wallace in location... and have the Pope claim it was divine intervention
Onlooker3: What about SCO ?
Scientist: Looks like the next one from Kuiper belt would do that clean
PS: maybe you should read "God's Debris" to be frightened by Slashdot.
How they really figured out that it was ok (Score:5, Funny)
Since they didn't felt any shake, it was proven that the meteorite had missed the Earth.
It was further proven that a zillion cans of beer barely lasts a couple of days and that having a million cans of baked beans is pretty useless when you forgot to bring a can-opener
One thing of note is that somehow, 10 years worth of Playboy magazines disapeared without a trace.
Re:8 Comments so far - server has already timed ou (Score:5, Funny)
NASA Server hit by slashdot asteroid. They didn't see it coming...
Re:Within a couple of days!? (Score:5, Funny)
If the asteroid were a political party, you'd find a great deal of people supporting any effort at crushing it.
I think it's time to label asteroids as "liberal" or "terrorist" to get things moving
Re:How they really figured out that it was ok (Score:0, Funny)
If they had had a can-opener, they would've found out how vital a good ventilation system is when eating so many baked beans
Re:Wow (Score:5, Funny)
Besides everyone knows the world ends in 2017 due to old UNIX Y2K17 bug & embedded NT licence key expiry causing cascade failure of ICBM guidance systems. ;-) lol I will need Lead underpants soon... ha ha ha
Relax, Statically speaking you will probably win the lotto 12 times, get struck by lighting 302 times, and die from stress or cancer 240 million times... likely to happen long before then... ;-)
Re:Flipped a coin? (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Server Unresponsive, Article Text (Score:5, Funny)
Puny Earthlings! We will crush them!
Re:8 Comments so far - server has already timed ou (Score:3, Funny)
this could have certainly made life more... (Score:4, Funny)
And maybe my neighbours underground bunker would have finally proven to be useful for things other than coding marathons...
This would also be one hell sure way to get rid of windoze once and for all... only something as distributed as open-source software can survive such a catastrophy... wouldnt it be amazing if entire source code of windows was lost. wow !
Now compare that to the linux source present on millions(?) of computers all over the world. Reminds me of the phoenix...
tisk tisk..
(warning: seriousness levels dangerously low)
Re:That number.. AL00667 (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Interesting... (Score:5, Funny)
A collision is a near-miss.
*boom* Look. They nearly missed
Appologies to George Carlin
At least we'll have the Internet (Score:5, Funny)
Slashdotters can continue to sleep comfortably with the knowledge that TCP/IP is designed to withstand such an event; lets just hope there's a backup of the /. backend in case its server(s) get struck, shorted by the tsunami, or looted by the local villagers.
Re:That number.. AL00667 (Score:3, Funny)
Follow up article? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Flipped a coin? (Score:2, Funny)
Tunguska was Tesla, MAN! wake up and smell the ozone
they never found not one drop of evidence of foreign matter in soilcores from all the expeditions back there since. It was Tesla testing his death ray, i'm convinced
Missed due to Slashdot (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Ob Simpsons quotes (Score:3, Funny)
"Quick, lets burn down the observatory so that this never happens again!"
Re:How they really figured out that it was ok (Score:5, Funny)
Hmm.. lets see. Your in an underground bunker, sealed from the outside world, with nothing to eat but baked beans and beer. If that isn't a recepie for a WMD gas attack then I don't know what is!
Re:Not so.. (Score:1, Funny)
Re:That number.. AL00667 (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Interesting... (Score:3, Funny)
Someone's been playing an awfull lot of Civilization. Parhaps if we found another type of luxury on one of our contries squares. =)
What We Need (Score:5, Funny)
We build a nondescript isosceles triangular spaceship, controlled by one man with a joystick. Left and right rotate the ship, up thrusts the ship forward, and down, well, down depends upon your configuration. Optionally, it could throw the ship through hyperspace to some other random point in space, or else it could put deflector shields up around the ship.
In addition to the joystick, the ship's pilot should have access to a red button (it must be red). Pressing the button should cause balls of energy to shoot out of the front of the ship, capable of breaking apart large asteroids, and destroying small ones. Pressing the button should also make a "PCHOW!" sound.
It is our clearest and best long-term option.
How they knew? Numerology. (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Wow (Score:4, Funny)
Don't forget the tin foil hat to gaurd against the aliens that will likely take advantage of the situation, and an accurate firearm to shoot the ensuing radioactive zombies in the head.
Re:That number.. AL00667 (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Interesting... (Score:4, Funny)
Right. "We had a near miss event last night." In theory, as you indicate, you could assume that "near" and "miss" both modify "event," but it is common in American English to modify modifiers, so that near modifies miss, and "near miss" as a phrase modifies "event."
Either way it is, at best, a near misleading phrase with a near threatening probability of being near misinterpretted. You should stay far away from such a near confusing phrase and stick to straightforward language.
Good enlgish makes for bad headlines, though.
-Adam
Homeland Security Alert (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Natural diaster... (Score:2, Funny)
Yeah, if L00667 had hit Washington DC, the rest of the world would point and snicker that America got a smackdown. The rest of the US would point and snicker as well because there would be no Congress left to appropriate eighty ba-zillion dollars to rebuild itself.
But would anyone really, fundamentally change their ways?What about AL00666? (Score:4, Funny)
AL00667 reminds me of that "neighbour of the beast" joke
Re:Fort Wal (Score:5, Funny)
So in the event of a meteroid strike, I for one will welcome our new Walmart line level employee overlords... As opposed to the Walmart corporate type overlords we have now.
That's not what Q said we should do... (Score:4, Funny)
Re:That number.. AL00667 (Score:2, Funny)
Now I'm not highly superstitious (tosses spilled salt over shoulder)... but I would think twice about getting on said plane (and still probably board it, damn $250 ticket)...
Re:An exercise for the reader (Score:2, Funny)
Re:How they really figured out that it was ok (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wow (Score:2, Funny)
Decisions (Score:3, Funny)
Scientist: Heads or tails?
Wow, really? (Score:2, Funny)
In January there seems to have been an incident in which it was thought that an object (asteroid) in space might have hit the earth within a couple of days of being spotted. It did miss, though.
No way -- it really missed? I thought I was dead.
Slashdot: facts for hermits, stuff that's obvious.