And a Happy New Year to you to Glenn.:-) Dave
On Dec 31, 2007 3:08 AM, <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > David Savage <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Dec 31, 2007 10:39 AM, David J Brooks <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I'm a day early, but, looks like the planet has made another orbit > > > around the sun, and we still have not blown it up, yet.:-) > > > > I sure hope you haven't jinxed the planet Dave. There is still a few > > hours to go. > > I'm not worried. Given the amount of inertia involved, even if > something big enough to reverse Earth's course or knock it out > of its orbit (I'm counting knocking us into a perpendicular orbit > as a case of "not completing this orbit", as well as events that > send us hurtling into the sun or out of the solar system -- but > if we just get bumped into a nearer or farther orbit in the > ecliptic then I'll only consider that a change of schedule) .. > given the amount of momentum involved, I have no worries that > the planet could be accelerated quickly enough to prevent > completion of our current orbit on or close to schedule. :-) > > > (But for folks who _like_ to worry, may I suggest Exit Mundi, a > collection of realistic end-of-the-world scenarios? > <http://www.exitmundi.nl/exitmundi.htm>) > > > Even the known methods for _destroying_ the Earth, rather than just > redirecting it so that it fails to complete its current orbit, take > more than 24 hours, so David hasn't jinxed us even if a very resourceful > arch-villain is working on it. See: How To Destroy The Earth > <http://qntm.org/?destroy> "The Earth is built to _last_. It is a > 4,550,000,000-year-old, 5,973,600,000,000,000,000,000-tonne ball of iron. > It has taken more devastating asteroid hits in its lifetime than you've > had hot dinners, and lo, it still orbits merrily. So my first piece of > advice to you, dear would-be Earth-destroyer, is: do NOT think this will > be easy." > > (This, of course, is a good time to suggest reading Why Destroy The > Earth <http://qntm.org/?why> as well, which includes arguments for > why _not_ to.) > > > So my prediction is that despite Mr. Brooks' _admittedly_ premature > congratulations, the completion of the current orbit is still a safe > bet. > > Whether he's jinxed the _next_ orbit remains to be seen, but fortunately > most known methods of blowing it up will take more than a year to set up ... > > > -- Glenn > > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- Equine Photography www.caughtinmotion.com http://brooksinthecountry.blogspot.com/ Ontario Canada -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
