Any government will work if authority and responsibility are equal and coordinate. This does not insure "good" government; it simply insures that it will work. But such governments are rare—most people want to run things but want no part of the blame. This used to be called the "backseat-driver syndrome." -- Robert A. Heinlein
Monday, March 14, 2005
It’s time for a little math
Apparently, some stupid asses have got it into their pointy little heads that if they got 600 million people to jump at an exact moment in time, they can push the Earth into a slightly different orbit, “correcting the problems of Global Warming (TM)”.
Time to plug in a few numbers…
First, the simplest reason this couldn’t possibly work. 600 million people, averaging roughly 200 pounds each (grossly over-estimated, but I’m trying to prove a point) would equal roughly 60 million tons. That’s 60,000,000 tons.
The Earth weighs an estimated 6,585,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons.
60,000,000.
6,585,000,000,000,000,000,000.
Uh, huh. About like a flea could move a 18-wheeler by jumping.
Second, the slightly more complicated reason it couldn’t possibly work. Gravity. Moving that 60 million tons a few feet from the planet will cause the planet to be pulled slightly towards that 60 million ton mass, exactly offsetting the combination push-off/landing impact.
Third, the most complicated reaon it couldn’t possibly work. Undifferentiated thrust vectors. Each of those 600 million people would be “pushing” the Earth in a slightly different direction, because they would be jumping in wildly different locations.
Imagine a jet airplane. It has anywhere from one to eight jet engines, each of them pushing in much the same direction. Now imagine if instead of that one thrust vector, the airplane had thousands of bottle rockets, each pointing in a slightly different direction. You’ll get the same overall thrust, but that airplane isn’t gonna move, much less fly.
So laugh politely behind your hands, and let’s move on…
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Rick does himself proud
In today’s Round the Reader, Rick shows us a new meme (already promulgated - see below), links up a story about how a DEA agent shot himself in the leg (rather ironically, during a lecture on Gun Safety), how ASV’s Michele is looking for Yankee fans, and finally how the NYTimes is actually admitting a mistake.
Go read.
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Drumwaster at
03:17 PM |
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Goofy Memes
Found as a part of today’s Round the Reader (which I’ll be getting to in just a moment), I present the latest meme to make the rounds.
Enjoy!
bold the states you’ve been to, underline the states you’ve lived in and italicize the state you’re in now…
Alabama / Alaska / Arizona / Arkansas / California / Colorado / Connecticut / Delaware / Florida / Georgia / Hawaii / Idaho / Illinois / Indiana / Iowa / Kansas / Kentucky / Louisiana / Maine / Maryland / Massachusetts / Michigan / Minnesota / Mississippi / Missouri / Montana / Nebraska / Nevada / New Hampshire / New Jersey / New Mexico / New York / North Carolina / North Dakota / Ohio / Oklahoma / Oregon / Pennsylvania / Rhode Island / South Carolina / South Dakota / Tennessee / Texas / Utah / Vermont / Virginia / Washington / West Virginia / Wisconsin / Wyoming / Washington D.C /
Go HERE to have a form generate the HTML for you.
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Busy and Sick
Ever have a 104-degree fever?
OK...better question. Have your kids had a 104 fever, and you wondered why they were whining?
I know. This crud hasn’t let go of me....so, on to antibiotics. Better living through chemicals.
That and this week is St. Patrick’s Day week. I’m in a bagpipe band, so...again, busy.
I haven’t been posting, but I have no intention of quitting. My forced hiatus will end within the next week.
Unless you start paying me not to post.
Posted by
John Cross at
02:56 PM |
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In other news, water found to be wet
It looks as though the bias by the media is no longer just a theoretical one.
The annual report by a press watchdog that is affiliated with Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism said that 36 percent of stories about Bush were negative compared to 12 percent about Kerry, a Massachusetts senator.
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The three network nightly newscasts and public broadcaster PBS tended to be more negative than positive
Best quote:
“It may be that the expectations of the press have sunk enough that they will not sink much further. People are not dismayed by disappointments in the press. They expect them,” the authors of the report said.
Heh.
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