Poems at the Poetry Free-for-all

Ted

09-02-2003, 06:43 PM

Originally posted by prokopton
20 million Hiroshima bombs.

So, what will you do with the next eleven years, knowing that they will be your last?

serious replies only.

heh.

Geoff

Write one good poem. If I start now I might finish in time.

*Note: Because of my generally (and stunningly) bad luck in life, those 1/909,000 odds will likely get a lot more probable as the time nears.

Ted
terribly sorry, all

Kristi

09-02-2003, 06:55 PM

Howard, I think we'd get along better with this version of Bruce (http://www.fes.uwaterloo.ca/architecture/faculty_projects/terri/fifth.jpg).

Tony Hoffman

09-02-2003, 07:00 PM

I was quite appalled by how CNN treated this on TV; I was giving blood when I saw the headline: "Giant Asteroid on Collision Course with Earth", it was only much later that they posted in very small type that the chance of collision was 1 in 909,000--and further astrometry is likely to reduce that even more. Talk about gratuitous alarmism.

--Tony

HowardM2

09-02-2003, 07:08 PM

"Talk about gratuitous alarmism."

Especially considering that such discoveries are occurring a couple of times a year recently since astronomers have become aware of the pretty large numbers of Earth-crossing asteroids and have begun actively searching for them.

Tony Smith

09-02-2003, 07:27 PM

Originally posted by Kristi
Howard, I think we'd get along better with this version of Bruce (http://www.fes.uwaterloo.ca/architecture/faculty_projects/terri/fifth.jpg).

You sure you don't prefer this one (http://nude-celebrity-1.com/bruce-willis/bruce-willis-005.jpg) , Kristi?

Tony Smith

09-02-2003, 07:31 PM

Originally posted by HowardM2
Especially considering that such discoveries are occurring a couple of times a year recently since astronomers have become aware of the pretty large numbers of Earth-crossing asteroids and have begun actively searching for them.

There are currently 524 Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (http://usgovinfo.about.com/gi/dynamic/offsite.htm?site=http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/orbits/) according to NASA. This makes 525.

Tony

Harry R

09-02-2003, 07:45 PM

I'd put my life in the hands of this Bruce (http://www.leviathanstudios.com/figures/willis/willis10.jpg).

Donner

09-02-2003, 08:02 PM

Why worry about asteroids when there are so many other ways (http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/causes.html?source=DeathClock) to die? Including choking on Bruce's gun.

Donner

Kristi

09-02-2003, 08:26 PM

You sure you don't prefer this one , Kristi? Tony, I see Harry knows what I like :eek: ! Hey, if it's ending with a bang...

David Bowers

09-02-2003, 08:28 PM

Nobody on Earth, apart from Madeleine Stowe of course, would entrust their life to this Bruce (http://movieweb.com/movie/12monkeys/co2.jpg).

Michael Collins

09-02-2003, 08:32 PM

Originally posted by Donner
Why worry about asteroids when there are so many other ways (http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/causes.html?source=DeathClock) to die? Including choking on Bruce's gun.

Donner

I'd rather Bruce's gun than this (http://ebola.cjb.net/). Hrghh. Has anyone read The Hot Zone? Scary stuff.

Mike

HowardM2

09-02-2003, 08:37 PM

Of course, there are assorted other (http://www.geocities.com/bruce.mathews/resume2.html) Bruces (http://hometown.aol.com/bst246/myhomepage/business.html) who probably won't do, either.

David Bowers

09-02-2003, 09:25 PM

Originally posted by HowardM2
Of course, there are assorted other (http://www.geocities.com/bruce.mathews/resume2.html) Bruces (http://hometown.aol.com/bst246/myhomepage/business.html) who probably won't do, either.

Yep. (http://www.charlottechurch.net/images1/Palladium/Palladium_Summertime_01.JPG)

prokopton

09-03-2003, 03:23 PM

Originally posted by David Bowers
Yep. (http://www.charlottechurch.net/images1/Palladium/Palladium_Summertime_01.JPG)

Nice to see you too.

Great! We're doomed and all you can come up with are poets, actors and comedians!

So, we really are hooped in 11 years..

What are you going to do with it? (one only please)

I'll opt for:
sampling all those great wines of Europe I've neglected this past half century - preferably at the house winery itself - if they'll let me sleep it off under a shade tree afterwards.
Oh yeah, and I want to tour the wineyards by bicycle!

Geoff
Southern France and Italy here I come.

Tony Hoffman

09-03-2003, 05:44 PM

It looks like March 21, 2014 will just be another dull day, (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/asteroid_norisk_030903.html) after all. Oh, well--there's always another potential dino-killer coming along.

Kristi

09-03-2003, 08:04 PM

Is this similar to the threat of nuclear war? Should we just hide under our desks?

Tony Smith

09-03-2003, 08:56 PM

The threat is over. Return to your homes

Tony
move along people
nothing to see here

Kristi

09-03-2003, 09:45 PM

*stands behind Tony and waives at the camera*

Tony Hoffman

09-04-2003, 12:18 AM

Originally posted by Kristi
Is this similar to the threat of nuclear war? Should we just hide under our desks?

If the threat had been real and imminent, there's really not much one could have done, especially if it's an "Ellie" (ELE), as they called it in Deep Impact, an extinction-level event. For 2003 QQ77, it was probably large enough to waste a continent, so you could perhaps fly to the other side of the world--though even that's no guarantee of safety.

Actually, the fact that we're getting all these press-hyped asteroid scares is on one level a good thing; it means that we're locating and cataloguing large numbers of these Earth-crossing asteroids. Ever since the collision of the 20-odd fragments of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 with Jupiter in 1994 woke the world up to the danger of celestial objects colliding with our planet, many sky surveys have been initiated to try to track down all asteroids that ply the inner solar system that are large enough to potentially pose a threat to us. They've already identified a fair percentage of these objects; by finding them early enough, we have a chance to find a way to deflect any that pose a real danger before a collision is imminent. There is just one known asteroid that poses a significant risk of hitting us in the coming centuries, and that is 1950 DA (http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/solarsystem/asteroid_1950da_020404.html) which has about a 1 in 300 chance of hitting us, on March 16, 2880. It was discovered over 50 years ago, so its orbit is quite well known. (What usually happens is that an object is found and, with only a few days of observations to use in calculating an orbit, it may appear to pose an impact danger at some time a few decades or centuries later, but when more observations allow its orbit to be more precisely calculated, the collision can be ruled out. But by that time, the press has already run with the story.)