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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 04/16/2008 : 12:07:52
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Don't you just love it when some smart-assed kid takes down the Big Guys! Well, it's happened again and I, for one, am delighted! There may yet be hope for the species.
A 13-year-old German schoolboy corrected NASA's estimates on the chances of an asteroid colliding with Earth, a German newspaper reported Tuesday, after spotting the boffins had miscalculated.
Nico Marquardt used telescopic findings from the Institute of Astrophysics in Potsdam (AIP) to calculate that there was a 1 in 450 chance that the Apophis asteroid will collide with Earth, the Potsdamer Neuerster Nachrichten reported.
NASA had previously estimated the chances at only 1 in 45,000 but told its sister organisation, the European Space Agency (ESA), that the young whizzkid had got it right.
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Or maybe not..... I don't like the way them odds tightened up. But anyhow, that'll learn 'em not to try and run any more moon-landing flapdoodle on us. Nico might tear them a new one on that, if it catches his attention.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Edited by - filthy on 04/16/2008 12:09:10
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 04/16/2008 : 12:30:47 [Permalink]
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Well as soon as I get my asteroid thrusters functional, there will be a 1 in 1 chance! Muhahaha!
P.S. SWSV seeks ultra-sexy villaness side-kick, applicants must have at least two of the following skills, High level computer coding/hacking, hand to hand combat expertise, firearms and munitions expertise, safecracking, Pickpocteting/sleight-of-hand knowledge, A Masters in physics or Biological sciences. 150,000$ vehicle is a must. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Chippewa
SFN Regular
USA
1496 Posts |
 Posted - 04/16/2008 : 19:19:01 [Permalink]
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Didn't happen says the Bad Astronomer. He links to other sites that debunk the story as well.  |
Diversity, independence, innovation and imagination are progressive concepts ultimately alien to the conservative mind.
"TAX AND SPEND" IS GOOD! (TAX: Wealthy corporations who won't go poor even after taxes. SPEND: On public works programs, education, the environment, improvements.) |
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Zebra
Skeptic Friend
USA
354 Posts |
Posted - 04/16/2008 : 23:58:11 [Permalink]
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| Ah, well. At least I got to expand my vocabulary, not previously having had a clue that boffin, in its myriad meanings, isn't the same as boffing. |
I think, you know, freedom means freedom for everyone* -Dick Cheney
*some restrictions may apply |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2008 : 04:27:03 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Chippewa
Didn't happen says the Bad Astronomer. He links to other sites that debunk the story as well.
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Interesting.... It was on the hour of news I watch every evening, as well (ABC local). Of course, that doesn't add much support for any story.
Hmmm.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2008 : 04:50:23 [Permalink]
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Yep, evidently the kid blew it. I am deeply disappointed. Gotta give him kudos for trying, though.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2008 : 06:46:59 [Permalink]
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Filthy.... US news reports don't actually fact check anything anymore. All they require is the ability to point and say, "<insert person's name here> said <insert inane moronic drivel here>."
Thats the official format!
Facts are not relevant in the tabloid news system!
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 04/17/2008 : 06:55:18 [Permalink]
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Originally posted by Dude
Filthy.... US news reports don't actually fact check anything anymore. All they require is the ability to point and say, "<insert person's name here> said <insert inane moronic drivel here>."
Thats the official format!
Facts are not relevant in the tabloid news system!
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I know, which is why I only bother with a little local news in the afternoon. But the orginal story was at least said to have been verified by NASA, so.....
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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"From the mouths of babes...."
