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#81 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Next door to Florida Man, world's worst superhero.
Posts: 15,639
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#82 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Next door to Florida Man, world's worst superhero.
Posts: 15,639
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#83 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,251
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What is it with you Earthlings?
358 Million years ago it was the Cephalopods, getting all cold eyed and gangsta. 65 Million years ago it was the Dinosaurs, gonna do the lizard stomp on us. Now its the primates. Lets see what do we have to work with in the "shut the monkeys up storage bin", which you call the asteroid belt. |
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#84 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 1,258
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Actually, there is an amazing coincidence here. The energy required to boost all of Mars' matter to escape velocity is almost exactly equal to the energy required to stop it in its orbit (and let it fall into the sun). By "almost equal" I mean within 1 per cent.
Who'd have thought? |
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#85 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 38,908
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"As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose -- that it may violate property instead of protecting it -- then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. Political questions will always be prejudicial, dominant, and all-absorbing. There will be fighting at the door of the Legislative Palace, and the struggle within will be no less furious." - Bastiat, The Law |
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#86 |
I lost an avatar bet.
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 25,926
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Surprisingly, that is one thing I like about N. Gingrich. I don't support all his ideas, but I believe they should be discussed before they are dismissed. He sometimes thinks too far outside the box, but Congress is tragically myopic and the government would do better to explore unconventional options before deciding on a plan.
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#87 |
I lost an avatar bet.
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 25,926
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#88 |
I lost an avatar bet.
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 25,926
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#89 |
beer-swilling semiliterate
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Connecticut, or King Arthur's Court. Hard to tell sometimes.
Posts: 25,012
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How much antimatter would it take to make a bomb that would vaporize Mars?
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A møøse ønce bit my sister |
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#90 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,251
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#91 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 8,230
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#92 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Cardiff, South Wales
Posts: 23,324
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__________________
It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward - Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) God can make a cow out of a tree, but has He ever done so? Therefore show some reason why a thing is so, or cease to hold that it is so - William of Conches, c1150 |
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#93 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Cardiff, South Wales
Posts: 23,324
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__________________
It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward - Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) God can make a cow out of a tree, but has He ever done so? Therefore show some reason why a thing is so, or cease to hold that it is so - William of Conches, c1150 |
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#94 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Cardiff, South Wales
Posts: 23,324
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__________________
It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward - Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) God can make a cow out of a tree, but has He ever done so? Therefore show some reason why a thing is so, or cease to hold that it is so - William of Conches, c1150 |
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#95 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 38,908
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__________________
"As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose -- that it may violate property instead of protecting it -- then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. Political questions will always be prejudicial, dominant, and all-absorbing. There will be fighting at the door of the Legislative Palace, and the struggle within will be no less furious." - Bastiat, The Law |
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#96 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Cardiff, South Wales
Posts: 23,324
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__________________
It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward - Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) God can make a cow out of a tree, but has He ever done so? Therefore show some reason why a thing is so, or cease to hold that it is so - William of Conches, c1150 |
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#97 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Sep 2001
Location: Cardiff, South Wales
Posts: 23,324
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__________________
It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward - Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) God can make a cow out of a tree, but has He ever done so? Therefore show some reason why a thing is so, or cease to hold that it is so - William of Conches, c1150 |
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#98 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 1,258
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#99 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Egoville
Posts: 3,582
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__________________
Reading this sentence is ineluctable. |
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#100 |
Critical Thinker
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 397
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I think we are all in agreement?
If mars can be destroyed, it should be. |
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#101 |
Dental Floss Tycoon
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 16,923
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Counterbalance in the little town of Ridgeview, Ohio. Two people permanently enslaved by the tyranny of fear and superstitution, facing the future with a kind of helpless dread. Two others facing the future with confidence - having escaped one of the darker places of the Twilight Zone. |
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#102 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 9,242
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#103 |
New Blood
Join Date: Apr 2009
Posts: 24
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Tell the NeoCons there are terrorists with WMDs on Mars
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#104 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,251
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If we need to protect Earth from asteroids we need to test what we have to see if it works.
Have one of our nukes hit an asteroid on the 4th of July. Make sure it will be visible in the night sky from North America. Go get the squirrel boy! say with a southern accent. |
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#105 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 1,258
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#106 |
Penultimate Amazing
Join Date: Jun 2003
Posts: 38,908
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__________________
"As long as it is admitted that the law may be diverted from its true purpose -- that it may violate property instead of protecting it -- then everyone will want to participate in making the law, either to protect himself against plunder or to use it for plunder. Political questions will always be prejudicial, dominant, and all-absorbing. There will be fighting at the door of the Legislative Palace, and the struggle within will be no less furious." - Bastiat, The Law |
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#107 |
I lost an avatar bet.
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 25,926
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#108 |
a carbon based life-form
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 39,049
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#109 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,251
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#110 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 9,242
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#111 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Egoville
Posts: 3,582
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__________________
Reading this sentence is ineluctable. |
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#112 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 9,242
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(geez! - the pressure is excruciating!) Non-serious answer*: Cruise used to be cute, then he opened his mouth. Cuteness betrayed! Also, I really like the way that Orson Welles played with peoples' heads. People haven't gotten any smarter - that could sooooo happen again. Serious answer: It depends on what the martians would do with earth once they conquered/obliterated humans. I don't necessarily value human life over other life (more than cockroaches, less than cats; varies by individual**) and I have a good sense of the ill effects on other life of human life (if it continues as it has, which I regard as very likely). Without any foreknowledge of the character and purposes of martians***, I might feel compelled to oppose the martians, but I would certainly take care of some particularly annoying humans in the process. * Actually, I'm serious about both of these answers, too. ** Many people are worse than cockroaches, while a very few are better than some cats. *** Particularly with regard towards their policy on cats. |
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#113 |
Sarcastic Conqueror of Notions
Join Date: Mar 2004
Posts: 29,163
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In The Forge of God, Greg Bear estimates a 100 million ton nugget of neutron star colliding with a similar nugget of anti-neutrons at the center of the Earth would impart sufficient energy to cause the Earth to blow apart AKA make its mass blow itself out of its common gravity well.
IIRC, curiously that is also about how much mass the sun converts to energy every second, by one account I have read. Seems a bit high to me. |
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"Great innovations should not be forced [by way of] slender majorities." - Thomas Jefferson The government should nationalize it! Socialized, single-payer video game development and sales now! More, cheaper, better games, right? Right? |
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#114 |
Graduate Poster
Join Date: Apr 2011
Posts: 1,258
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Ack! Who let me make that claim, anyway? Why don't you people check on claims like this?
I just redid my calculations, and it seems that "mistakes were made". Actually, to stop Mars in its orbit takes nearly 40 times as much energy as blowing it up. Sorry, all. Well, at least we don't have to worry about the numerologists. |
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#115 |
Massager of French
Join Date: Jul 2002
Posts: 3,372
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Over 100 responses, and no one has mentioned Alexander Abian?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Abian |
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#116 |
Philosopher
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 9,242
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#117 |
I lost an avatar bet.
Join Date: Dec 2001
Posts: 25,926
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My answer would be that I always root for the underdog. Tom Cruise is a certified Level 8 Operating Theatan. He has control of time, space, matter, life, death, health and a host of other things that can be controlled by the mind of an OT VIII.
. although apparently dignity is not on that list. |
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#118 |
Illuminator
Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: Egoville
Posts: 3,582
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__________________
Reading this sentence is ineluctable. |
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