I found this article on Google News, and began to read with fascination: Brightest supernova ever, discovered,
until I found this utterly idiotic (to anyone who understands even the most basic physics) statement:
Some idiot who doesn't get it wrote:The explosion occurred in Sept 2006, but the NASA observatory detected it only on Monday, after light from it traveled 240 million light years.
Five brownie points each to the first five people who actually do understand why that statement is so ridiculous.
Light is getting faster these days... I blame America.
What a ridiculous statement, that guy will never live that one down. You don't even have to understand basic physics to see a problem in that sentence, common sense was not at work here.
straycat82 wrote:
What a ridiculous statement, that guy will never live that one down.
He's going to blame the copy editor.
And now there was no doubt that the trees were really moving - moving in and out through one another as if in a complicated country dance. ('And I suppose,' thought Lucy, 'when trees dance, it must be a very, very country dance indeed.')
Usually when a statement like that is made, you at least know what the person is trying to say. Example: in the Washington Post a few years ago, in the health section I saw the sentence: "One should avoid sunbathing in the hours from 10 AM to 2 PM because that is when the sun is closest to the earth." He meant that's when the sunlight is the most direct (plus forgot daylight saving time).
But what is this writer trying to say? I wonder if it's that they detected it in September 2006 and took a few months to crunch the numbers and determine that it was the brightest supernova they'd seen?
Charlie Whorfin Woods
"Our work puts heavy metal where it belongs -- as a music genre and not a pollutant in drinking water." -- Prof Ali Miserez.
chas wrote:I wonder if it's that they detected it in September 2006 and took a few months to crunch the numbers and determine that it was the brightest supernova they'd seen?
That's what I figured.
If not, then it must be because they moved the clocks forward an hour.
chas wrote:I wonder if it's that they detected it in September 2006 and took a few months to crunch the numbers and determine that it was the brightest supernova they'd seen?
That's what I figured.
If not, then it must be because they moved the clocks forward an hour.
The coolest thing about this particular supernova is that apparently there is some question as to whether it may involve some sort of event that we have not yet encountered in our understanding in physics.
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On the subject of science / math pet peeves, my favorite has to be the "anything over 100 percent" idiocy.
"Unless you're giving us 110% of your talents, you are part of the problem!"
There ain't no such thing as 110% of anything. When you're at 100%, you've go the whole thing.
i once lived in beckley, wv. there was a newstory about a new 8000 foot flagpole in beckley. i've never known how many feet there are in a mile but i thought, "wow, that's some flag pole." i was too busy that day and didn't get the opportunity to ask someone who actually new math to tell me how tall that would be. the next day, the newspaper had a follow-up story about all the people who were pleased that beckley had such a tall flagpole. it would really put us on the map, there would be jobs, tourists would come....... the third day, there was a correction, it was an 80 foot flagpole.
Rose tint my world. Keep me safe from my trouble and pain. 白飞梦
