Monday, 17. July 2006, 20:43:49
space
This time inorbitarians were alert. We kept an eye on Discovery and it made it safely back to its home. We couldn't stand another NASA horror show and we really liked the shuttle guys and gals. We sincerely hope that they had a great time in orbit too and they enjoyed our farewell party even if our music seemed a bit alien to them.
Nice flight. Glad you made it.
Now please get on the radio and tell to the world how beautiful and big is Earth from up there. So fucken beautiful and big that there is room for everyone if everyone learns to respect everyone else. Maybe that will shake some of the stupid brains that lead her and its people to destruction.
PS: Story is here.
Sunday, 11. June 2006, 22:50:30
science, space, weird
A large meteorite struck in northern Norway this week, landing with an impact an astronomer compared to the atomic bomb used at Hiroshima.
I can't understand why it wasn't in the big news. Hey, this thing did a boom equal to Hiroshima bomb. Had it hit -let's say Athens- it would solve the traffic problems here for the next 100 years and I'd be writing this post from another dimension. Gee man! Those reporters suck. Thankfully the poor meteor didn't know that it needed to erase a city to be famous.
PS: Bad tongues say that inorbitarians are responsible for this. This is totally inaccurate. Well, yes, we had a big party at the time and ,yes, several things went flying (like beer cans, CDs, glasses, some underwear (mostly clean ones), one or two mobile phones and a refrigerator but we insist that they all fell in the Atlantic ocean and not in Norway.
Monday, 6. March 2006, 23:23:56
space
Don’t know why but I wanted to learn more about Northern lights yesterday. At first I found out that the phenomenon is called Northern - Southern lights or Aurora Borealis – Australis depending on whether it is seen close to the North or South pole. This was tricky because I knew it’s name only in Greek (selas) but it didn’t take me long to find out the English term. After that it was quite easy to jump into a wealth of information. (For example http://www.irf.se/norrsken/Norrsken_mainpage.html)
For ignorants like me here is the story in a few words. Charged particles are thrown from the Sun at an incredible speed (this is called solar wind – really poetic term). Those which come our way (i.e. towards Earth) have a hard way hitting Earth’s magnetic field (i.e. Earth magnetosphere), much like trying to get two same sides of two magnets together. So they glide through magnetosphere for the most part except from those that reach close to Earth’s magnetic poles (which are very close to geographical poles). There, the magnetic field looks like a sink which guides those particles directly to the pole. Yet, while particles speed towards Earth they meet with atmosphere (really tough travel huh?) and they start to collide with atmosphere molecules. Each collision gives a high amount of energy to the collided atmosphere molecule (things are turned up). Subsequently the molecule gives off the extra energy as light! Too many collisions and you get Aurora.
Isn’t it great? Those lights are the meeting of Earth and Sun’s matter. A cosmic orgy is taking place up there and those who live quite north or south may peep as much as they like without feeling guilty.
Perhaps someday I, myself, may peep. Who knows?
WIDGETIZE