Brightest Galactic Flash Ever Detected Hits Earth 230
phenon writes "On December 27th scientists detected the largest cosmic blast to strike the Earth, actually altering the earths ionosphere briefly. MSNBC reports (along with Space.com), that this event happened from a magnetar 50,000 light years away from us, and if it had happened from a distance of 10 light years away, we would be talking about mass extinction here on earth. The cosmic ray blast was measured at 10,000 trillion trillion trillion watts of power!"
pet and repeat were in a boat... (Score:3, Funny)
Slashdot's so bright... (Score:1, Funny)
Dupe, Dupe, Dupe... (Score:5, Funny)
Dupe of URL,
Dupe, Dupe,
Dupe of URL, Dupe, Dupe.
As I click through this whirl, Nothing can stop the Dupe of URL
And you,
you code in Perl
No one can hurt you, oh, no...
Re:Dupe, Dupe, Dupe... (Score:2)
The true retarded hilarity of the situation only becomes apparent when you stop to consider all the wonderful submitted material that was rejected in order to make space for yet another installment in the Endless Saga of the Duplicate Postings on Slashdot.
Sigh.
Paying attention to that man behind the curtain.. (Score:2)
I Know Why (Score:2)
Much of my wisdom comes from movies. They're so graphic and poignant. Let me share something I saw in Kill Bill that may explain dupes:
"How is he ever going to see you again?" - Esteban Vihaio
Of course this
Fortune, from the bottom of the page: (Score:2)
Quite timely.
Re:pet and repeat were in a boat... (Score:2)
Re:pet and repeat were in a boat... (Score:2, Funny)
This joke appeared in the 2nd edition of K&R. If you look up "recursion" in the index, you get pointed to page 269 (how geeky am I for remembering the page number?), which, of course, is the page on which the index reference to recursion is printed...
Brilliant!
Stroy is a dupe (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Story is a dupe (Score:2, Funny)
That has to be a record.
Re:Story is a dupe (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Story is a dupe (Score:2)
Re:Story is a dupe (Score:3, Funny)
Oh wait.
And it came from the Dupe Belt. (Score:1, Funny)
Old news .... (Score:1)
Is Slashdot a write-only service nowadays?
Wow (Score:1)
Um, Yeah . . . . . . (Score:5, Funny)
Re: Um, Yeah . . . . . . (Score:5, Funny)
> Do Slashdot editors even read Slashdot?
No, they've got better things to do with their time.
Re: Um, Yeah . . . . . . (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Um, Yeah . . . . . . (Score:2)
No.
Re:Um, Yeah . . . . . . (Score:5, Funny)
(quite how I've dumped Slashdot editors and porn producers in the same barrel, I'll never know...)
Re:Um, Yeah . . . . . . (Score:2, Insightful)
Both produce a product that doesn't require much skill (filming sex or posting a URL to an article with a "witty" comment attached) and both leave you wanting something more substatial after viewing?
Re:Um, Yeah . . . . . . (Score:5, Interesting)
Both produce large quantities of schlock. They don't care about the material, but they know that it sells. Nobody respects them, but they make a lot of money anyway.
Re:Um, Yeah . . . . . . (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Um, Yeah . . . . . . (Score:5, Insightful)
Jesus (Score:1, Funny)
Dupe (Score:1, Redundant)
Re:Dupe (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Dupe (Score:2)
Again? (Score:1)
No, wait! It's only a dupe.
Twice in two days! (Score:5, Funny)
Score 1, Redundant (Score:3, Interesting)
See also from Friday - right here [slashdot.org].
At least it's not... (Score:5, Funny)
'nuff said. [slashdot.org]
Dupe! (Score:2, Funny)
Damn right it's old news (Score:4, Funny)
Gotta be a new record.
Re:Damn right it's old news (Score:2)
Re:Damn right it's old news (Score:2)
It's Bush's fault! (Score:2, Funny)
No, no, no... (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:No, no, no... (Score:2)
Light years are a measure of DISTANCE, not TIME!
Re:No, no, no... (Score:2)
Re:No, no, no... (Score:2)
Re:No, no, no... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:No, no, no... (Score:2)
Sign of the apocalypse (Score:3, Funny)
But ANOTHER flash? And this one is ALSO the brightest galactic flash ever detected to hit Earth? There is only one answer for such an incredible coincidence of two brightest galactic flashes ever--the apocalypse is coming.
I am barracading myself in a small underground shelter near a mountain in Nevada. I invite any and all Slashdotters to come join me (preferrably females) and await the end of the world. Thank God for Slashdot; without it, I would have never had this incredible cosmic warning. Amen.
Re:Sign of the apocalypse (Score:2)
Where did you ever get that idea?
the apocalypse is coming... (Score:2)
I feel a great disturbance in the force... (Score:3, Funny)
Jeez, editors, we'll let you off having to search through the (broken) search feature before you post your latest, greatest headline, but d'ya think you could at least take a peek at the front page? The original story's less than 7 hours old...
the dupe is not the editors/mods fault this time (Score:2)
Who would be talking about mass extinction? (Score:2)
@ /. after being printed on newspapers (Score:2, Interesting)
Hmmmmmmmmm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hmmmmmmmmm (Score:2)
Re:Hmmmmmmmmm (Score:2)
You should trademark dupernova asap because I have a feeling it's going to be a very popular word around slashdot.
Uh, no (Score:2)
>years away, we would be talking about mass
>extinction here on earth
Uh, no. If it had happened from a 10 light year distance we wouldn't be talking about anything at all!
Darn, I *did* read this last night. (Score:3, Funny)
Database? (Score:2)
I must be dreaming though... I mean, if they can't even read their own site, I very much doubt they'd bother searching before posting.
Re:Database? (Score:2)
The article you approved appears below. If there is a dupe... well, you should have used the 'Search' button!
Here we go again! (Score:3, Funny)
First they make up this "story" about global warming and now this?!? Like we're supposed to feel some kind of link to the cosmos just because they tell us to?!? Damn activist scientists always pushing their agenda down our throats and making up terms like "cosmos" to scare us good consumers!
Oh goody! (Score:2)
That ought to get me up to 88mph so I can go home...
The Dawn of Man (Score:2)
My god, it's full of stars...
Dr. Little. Dr. Chicken Little, astronomer. (Score:5, Insightful)
Well, duh. I know that intergalactic disasters are a hard sell for primetime news, but is it really necessary to endanger Earth every f-ing time something in the universe blows up? As our ability to perceive and record these incidents gets better, it's going to get very tired, very fast. "Major sun flare on Alpha Centauri! If We Were Living on the Sun, We Would All Suffer First Degree Burns or More!"
Is it the news outlets adding the "If X was close to Earth we'd be dead" or is it the scientists seeking to justify their work? All this article writes is, "If the explosion had been within just 10 light-years, Earth could have suffered a mass extinction, it is said." Did the reporter's mom say that? Grr.
Re:Dr. Little. Dr. Chicken Little, astronomer. (Score:2)
Hey The media do the same thing with every disaster. There have been about 12 "Trials of the century" this century.
Re:Dr. Little. Dr. Chicken Little, astronomer. (Score:2)
Re:Dr. Little. Dr. Chicken Little, astronomer. (Score:2)
CNN ran a story on magnatars a few weeks ago. Following the trend that you cite of having to endanger the Earth with the unknown at every possible journalistic opportunity, CNN conjectured the devistating consequences of a magnatar passing through our solar system.
The quoted result? "The exotic object would destroy the data on every credit card on the planet."
Tin foil: it's not just for heads any more.
Blame the journalists (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually there are a lot of things blowing up in the Universe [harvard.edu] that I doubt you've ever heard about. This one just happened to get more media attention for one reason or another. If the media publish something like this, they'll want to make it sound interesting for as many people as possible, even when it isn't.
I have a lot of s
Re:Dr. Little. Dr. Chicken Little, astronomer. (Score:2)
Yeah, its just like the wild stories about how just because a couple of buildings in New York get blown up, suddenly all of civilisation is in danger...
Wild speculation to follow: (Score:2)
Two days earlier, there was a massive earthquake. I wonder what part of the planet was facing the direction of the flash at that time? Who knows, we might have detected our first gravity wave...space-time might deform about 2 days in 50.000 years faster than light
Just for fun (Score:5, Funny)
Cmon, I can understand that duplicate stories can happen, but in the same day!!??
Dupe, dupe, dupedupedoopdoopdoopdoop.... (Score:2)
Re:Dupe, dupe, dupedupedoopdoopdoopdoop.... (Score:2)
Gamma Rays? (Score:2)
So if it had been closer, we all would have be turned into Hulks?
Re:Gamma Rays? (Score:2)
Perhaps it's a radio call sign (Score:2)
Time to start planning that interstellar mobile... (Score:2)
The earth is a womb and the task of understanding, preserving and propogating life, especially intelligent self-aware life, falls to us, the advanced monkeys, since the cetaceans have not really been much help. As someone once said having all your DNA at the bottom of a gravity well, relying on single biosphere for all of your oxygen is not a good
Hmmm (Score:2)
The power taken in consideration. (Score:2, Funny)
Which Side Did It Hit? (Score:2)
> years away, we would be talking about mass
> extinction here on earth.
Only if it had hit the side opposite the one we are on.
Re:Which Side Did It Hit? (Score:2)
Re:Which Side Did It Hit? (Score:2)
It doesn't "blow the atmosphere away". It wrecks the ozone layer and changes the climate.
Is this the beginning of the end? (Score:2)
been piss poor in regards subject and dupes. Then again,
I guess if you have to worry when the company is gonna go
bellyup you won't be very motivated. Ouch LNUX.
Re:Is this the beginning of the end? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Is this the beginning of the end? (Score:2)
Re:Is this the beginning of the end? (Score:2)
relatively alert person releasing the story. It just seems
to me the 'editors' at
and probably have not for some time now. Saying and doing
are clearly different.
For guys that have built this codebase called
think they could have added an editors module that scans
keywords in a submission against older stories. This could
help catch things that were posted months ago. But honestly
there is no excuse for missing
It may be a dupe, but you can't say it enough... (Score:2)
Tell me about it when I am dead, now THAT would be something, because I expect not to be listening when I am dead.
Let me see if I get this straight... (Score:2)
Re:Let me see if I get this straight... (Score:2)
It was just God... (Score:2)
Are you sure? (Score:2)
TIMOTHY - Not to beat a dead horse, but (Score:2)
It seems that /. could use people who don't even fucking read the blog they're in charge of.
Why is it cool to post the same story 3 times in the same day, but a cook who grabs the crap from yesterday's garbage gets fired?
Most often heard from Slashdot editors wives, girlfriends, boyfriends or inflatable toys:
"This again?"
Seriously, take a moment from inspecting your own balls, and DO YOUR FUCKING JOB. Really.
Or go get fired from McFuckingClow
Re:dupe, dupe, dupe of earl (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wow (Score:2)
Re:Wow (Score:2)
Re:Shockwave? (Score:2)
Re:Shockwave? (Score:2)
Re:Reminder to the human race. (Score:2)
Re:Can I have a job at Slashdot (Score:2)
Re:Gamma ray flashes worry me more than anything.. (Score:2)
a sterile Earth... imagine the consequences. She'll be hanging out in bars, picking up strange planets... spending her time being pummeled by asteroids. Not a care in the world!
Re:Did you see what Paris Hilton was wearing!!! (Score:2)