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Tuesday, November 19, 2002 |
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News - Aack! Stupid cloudy Michigan weather prevents us from seeing Leonid meteor storm: http://www.space.com/spacewatch/leonids_results_021119.html Comment - Report from Arizona desert says observers saw about one meteor a second. Sigh. That would have been so cool to see... News - Symposium looks at whether it will ever be possible to travel to other star systems: http://makeashorterlink.com/?F2DD52F72 Comment - Right now, it doesn't look like there's any way to travel faster than the speed of light. A big question to ask is: where is everybody? Why haven't we found other intelligent life in the Universe? The problem is this: the Universe is so old (14 billion years) that even traveling at less-than-light speed, someone somewhere ought to have colonized the entire galaxy by now. Either we're alone, or we're being ignored (or cloaked) for some reason. It's certainly something to ponder as I gaze through my telescope. News - Speaking of space, scientists are also trying to figure out if there is a practical way to deflect asteroids that might be on course to whack us: http://makeashorterlink.com/?A23E32F72 Comment - New studies show that many asteroids are like popcorn balls, only made of rocks instead of popcorn. So a nuclear device might not move an asteroid out of the way. It might just rearrange the popcorn, which will continue to travel on course and bounce off our heads. News -- Amazon taking orders for Segway Personal Transporter: http://makeashorterlink.com/?Q38E34F72 Comment - Only $5,000 and it gets delivered in March. Some of you may recall my blog from last year when I described seeing the Segways zipping around downtown Lansing. Super cool! But practical for our climate? You might need to put snow tires on them. And, aren't we all supposed to be out there getting our 10,000 steps a day? Do we really need to be riding this gadget instead of walking? Maybe the biggest market for these things will be for people with limited mobility. Click here to see current comments and add your own. 11:56:10 AM 
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