APOD: A Dangerous Sunrise on Gliese 876d (2012 Apr 29)

[Chris Peterson]

The point I was trying to make is that an M-type star has its habitable zone very close to itself.

I think it's very likely that the whole concept of a habitable zone is simplistic. We have found other places in our own solar system, well outside of the habitable zone, where life could exist. It's also plausible that a tidally locked planet could be a better place for life to develop and to evolve than a rotating planet.

[neufer]

I think it's very likely that the whole concept of a habitable zone is simplistic. We have found other places in our own solar system, well outside of the habitable zone, where life could exist. It's also plausible that a tidally locked planet could be a better place for life to develop and to evolve than a rotating planet.

<<"The Story of the Three Bears" is a fairy tale first recorded in narrative form by British author and poet Robert Southey, and first published anonymously in a volume of his writings in 1837. In Southey's tale, three anthropomorphic bears – "a Little, Small, Wee Bear, a Middle-sized Bear, and a Great, Huge Bear" – live together in a house in the woods. Southey describes them as very good-natured, trusting, harmless, tidy, and hospitable. Each bear has his own porridge bowl, chair, and bed. One day they take a walk in the woods while their porridge cools. An old woman (who is described at various points in the story as impudent, bad, foul-mouthed, ugly, dirty and a vagrant deserving of a stint in the House of Correction) discovers the bears' dwelling. She looks through a window, peeps through the keyhole, and lifts the latch. Assured that no one is home, she walks in. The old woman eats the Wee Bear's porridge, then settles into his chair and breaks it. Prowling about, she finds the bears' beds and falls asleep in Wee Bear's bed. The climax of the tale is reached when the bears return. Wee Bear finds the old woman in his bed and cries, "Somebody has been lying in my bed, – and here she is!" The old woman starts up, jumps from the window, and runs away never to be seen again.

Southey was telling [this old folk tale] to others as early as September 1813, and in 1831 Eleanor Mure versified the tale and presented it to her nephew Horace Broke as a birthday gift. Southey and Mure differ in details. Southey's bears have porridge but Mure's have milk; Southey's old woman has no motive for entering the house but Mure's old woman is piqued when her courtesy visit is rebuffed; Southey's old woman runs away when discovered, but Mure's old woman is impaled on the steeple of St Paul's Cathedral.

Joseph Cundall transformed the antagonist from an ugly old woman to a pretty little girl in his Treasury of Pleasure Books for Young Children. He explained his reasons for doing so in a dedicatory letter to his children, dated November 1849, which was inserted at the beginning of the book: The "Story of the Three Bears" is a very old Nursery Tale, but it was never so well told as by the great poet Southey, whose version I have (with permission) given you, only I have made the intruder a little girl instead of an old woman. This I did because I found that the tale is better known with Silver-Hair, and because there are so many other stories of old women.>>

Art (who's been described at various times as impudent, bad, foul-mouthed, ugly, dirty and a vagrant deserving of a stint in the House of Correction) Neuendorffer

[Beyond]

Art (who's been described at various times as impudent, bad, foul-mouthed, ugly, dirty and a vagrant deserving of a stint in the House of Correction)

No.... really?? How do you Bear up under all that?

[Impersonal Wog]

[Art (who's been described at various times as impudent, bad, foul-mouthed, ugly, dirty and a vagrant deserving of a stint in the House of Correction) Neuendorffer

If I were you I'd just have quoted Isaac Asimov - "People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do."

[neufer]

Art (who's been described at various times as impudent, bad, foul-mouthed,
ugly, dirty and a vagrant deserving of a stint in the House of Correction)

No.... really?? How do you Bear up under all that?

I'm smarter than the average bear.

[Beyond]

Oh, i musta hada brain freeze. I forgetted about Yogi. All those goodies in the pic-a-nic baskets tends to carry him through anything.