Vagueness and the Aftermath - A sporadic diary

[Nakor]

If you look at the moon tonight you will see that there is a star about 6ft away from it (Top left).

I've been watching it track across the sky for the last couple of hours or so and the star is staying in the same relative position. How does that work?

Well spotted!

The short answer is it's not a star: it's Jupiter. If you get a decent pair of binoculars, you should be able to see the four largest moons dancing around the planet. They'll change their configuration during the course of the night: sometimes three on the left and one on the right, then two and two, then four and none, etc.

It is currently 435 million miles away. Not a bad pair of binoculars, that

Wow! How exciting.

Thanks Tal.

Just how exciting is it?

Also how important is it that we know this stuff?

Every time I see that we've discovered a new galaxy a zillion light years away I wonder how much it cost to find?

Surely those brilliant minds could be put to better use elsewhere fixing real problems that are happening right here right now on this planet?

People moan about the money being spent on foreign aid which should be diverted to the UK but nobody seems to mind about the billions being spent sending a little robot to Mars to see if there used to be life there 20 million years ago.

It would be interesting to know without doubt but surely sending a billion quid's worth of rice to Ethiopia would be better use of that money?

Imagine the good these people could do if they were tasked with solving world poverty? Surely compared to getting a big lump of metal to fly to Mars it would be a piece of piss?

http://www.design-laorosa.com/2012/11/26-nasa-inventions-that-we-take-for.html

Some insight here into what the Space race gave us

[RED-DOG]

If you look at the moon tonight you will see that there is a star about 6ft away from it (Top left).

I've been watching it track across the sky for the last couple of hours or so and the star is staying in the same relative position. How does that work?

Well spotted!

The short answer is it's not a star: it's Jupiter. If you get a decent pair of binoculars, you should be able to see the four largest moons dancing around the planet. They'll change their configuration during the course of the night: sometimes three on the left and one on the right, then two and two, then four and none, etc.

It is currently 435 million miles away. Not a bad pair of binoculars, that

Wow! How exciting.

Thanks Tal.

Just how exciting is it?

Also how important is it that we know this stuff?

Every time I see that we've discovered a new galaxy a zillion light years away I wonder how much it cost to find?

Surely those brilliant minds could be put to better use elsewhere fixing real problems that are happening right here right now on this planet?

People moan about the money being spent on foreign aid which should be diverted to the UK but nobody seems to mind about the billions being spent sending a little robot to Mars to see if there used to be life there 20 million years ago.

It would be interesting to know without doubt but surely sending a billion quid's worth of rice to Ethiopia would be better use of that money?

Imagine the good these people could do if they were tasked with solving world poverty? Surely compared to getting a big lump of metal to fly to Mars it would be a piece of piss?

http://www.design-laorosa.com/2012/11/26-nasa-inventions-that-we-take-for.html

Some insight here into what the Space race gave us

What a great list. You could pick half a dozen things that are indispensable.

[tikay]

If you look at the moon tonight you will see that there is a star about 6ft away from it (Top left).

I've been watching it track across the sky for the last couple of hours or so and the star is staying in the same relative position. How does that work?

Well spotted!

The short answer is it's not a star: it's Jupiter. If you get a decent pair of binoculars, you should be able to see the four largest moons dancing around the planet. They'll change their configuration during the course of the night: sometimes three on the left and one on the right, then two and two, then four and none, etc.

It is currently 435 million miles away. Not a bad pair of binoculars, that

Wow! How exciting.

Thanks Tal.

Just how exciting is it?

Also how important is it that we know this stuff?

Every time I see that we've discovered a new galaxy a zillion light years away I wonder how much it cost to find?

Surely those brilliant minds could be put to better use elsewhere fixing real problems that are happening right here right now on this planet?

People moan about the money being spent on foreign aid which should be diverted to the UK but nobody seems to mind about the billions being spent sending a little robot to Mars to see if there used to be life there 20 million years ago.

It would be interesting to know without doubt but surely sending a billion quid's worth of rice to Ethiopia would be better use of that money?

Imagine the good these people could do if they were tasked with solving world poverty? Surely compared to getting a big lump of metal to fly to Mars it would be a piece of piss?

http://www.design-laorosa.com/2012/11/26-nasa-inventions-that-we-take-for.html

Some insight here into what the Space race gave us

What a great list. You could pick half a dozen things that are indispensable.

Or just as many that are bs, & as many again that would have been discovered or developed anyway.

NASA may have used all or most of those, but I can't thank them for genuinely inventing them, as I doubt they did.

Still, there's always memory foam & joysticks.
 

[tikay]

I should add my apologies for what appears to be cynicism.

In fact it was cynicism, but that's not something I'm proud of. Team Knock Everything get along quite well without me as a rule. 

[RED-DOG]

I should add my apologies for what appears to be cynicism.

In fact it was cynicism, but that's not something I'm proud of. Team Knock Everything get along quite well without me as a rule. 

Oscar Wilde had your number.

“A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing.”

[RED-DOG]

Sheffield to Essex via Berlin to save eight quid.


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35424393

[RED-DOG]

Would it be wrong to eradicate mosquitoes?


BBC News - The mosquito is the most dangerous animal in the world, carrying diseases that kill one million people a year. Now the Zika virus, which is carried by mosquitoes, has been linked with thousands of babies born with brain defects in South America. Should the insects be wiped out?

Click to see full-size image.

[EvilPie]

Mosquitos are the only creature that I kill without a second thought. I'm not even keen on squashing a fly if there's any opportunity to shoo it out of the window.

I wouldn't mind mosquitos and their blood sucking if they didn't leave me itching like crazy and semi-permanently scarred. I've still got marks on my ankles from two months ago!! Turn that annoying itch and a scar in to agonising death of me and my future babies and yes I'd happily eradicate every last one of them.

It may well be wrong but f**k 'em and I don't say that lightly.

[bobAlike]

Do they do any good things?

[bobAlike]

Mosquitos are the only creature that I kill without a second thought. I'm not even keen on squashing a fly if there's any opportunity to shoo it out of the window.

I wouldn't mind mosquitos and their blood sucking if they didn't leave me itching like crazy and semi-permanently scarred. I've still got marks on my ankles from two months ago!! Turn that annoying itch and a scar in to agonising death of me and my future babies and yes I'd happily eradicate every last one of them.

It may well be wrong but f**k 'em and I don't say that lightly.

I beg to differ, starring out the U and C makes it lightly

[RED-DOG]

Do they do any good things?

So are there any downsides to removing mosquitoes? According to Phil Lounibos, an entomologist at Florida University, mosquito eradication "is fraught with undesirable side effects".

He says mosquitoes, which mostly feed on plant nectar, are important pollinators. They are also a food source for birds and bats while their young - as larvae - are consumed by fish and frogs. This could have an effect further up and down the food chain.



Science writer David Quammen has argued that mosquitoes have limited the destructive impact of humanity on nature. "Mosquitoes make tropical rainforests, for humans, virtually uninhabitable," he said.

Rainforests, home to a large share of our total plant and animal species, are under serious threat from man-made destruction. "Nothing has done more to delay this catastrophe over the past 10,000 years, than the mosquito," Quammen said.

[strak33]

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2016/jan/10/wetherspoons-carpet-tumblr-blog

[RED-DOG]

http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2016/jan/10/wetherspoons-carpet-tumblr-blog

Ooh! Great find Strakky Thank you.

[RED-DOG]

Some interesting pics here.



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-35370494

[Karabiner]

The blossom tree outside my living-room window is in full bloom despite the recent cold snap, and that's a good six weeks earlier than usual.

Today at Wollaton Park I noticed quite a few magpies and crows collecting nest material, and there was a pair of green woodpeckers flitting about on the first fairway. I'm not sure if they migrate but it feels early to see them.