Starship Asterisk*

apodman wrote:What better repository is there for frivolous posts? It might help save some other more serious topics from their interference.

While the idea of keeping a few topics like this alive as honeypots has some appeal, there is still the problem of casual visitors to the forums stumbling into them and basically walking away from them (and maybe from APOD itself) with disgust. I do believe that the close connection between these forums and APOD demands some diligence in maintaining topic quality.

I have no choice but to agree with Chris....I do not never want to be misled into things that are not true. However, maybe open an unexplained cosmos topical thread dedicated to such issues? and they then can never interrupt real science...

Mark

Chris Peterson wrote:the close connection between these forums and APOD demands some diligence in maintaining topic quality.

Agreed. But exactly how do we maintain topic quality? As a practical matter, topic quality has not been maintained since the Café acquired a larger and more general audience than its original purely scientific core. Since a larger and more general audience is apparently one of the goals or desires here, a return to hard science is problematic. A couple of times you have suggested that quicker and more aggressive moderation is the answer, but the necessary participation seems to be out of scope for the moderators' job description. People like me could exercise more restraint in the flavor of our responses, but my withholding a pinch of pepper isn't going to remove all the other ingredients thrown into the stew, and giving only disciplined responses to wild card posts does nothing to stop more from entering. All I can see that is left is a mixed strategy and a quest for better but not perfect results.

Apodman...

There are not a lot of people who understand,,,like we do... and they stay in the other part of the forum.. I asked a friend at work something about the cosmos and he looked at me like i just spoke another language... people who get as far as talking about anything Astronomy Related I would say are pretty clued up. and have there own views.. Harry from Oz check out my last posts ,,on last page...

Mark

G'day Mark Swain

I'm awear of the link and the information within.

The question is this:

Do you want to understand the "workings"?

==============================
on another note

Not that I agree with time travel.

It sometimes good to go to Fantasy land.

Some people are dreamers and thats OK.


Time travel
NOVA Online | Time Travel
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/time/

This is interesting movie on Time Travel

TimeTravel Experiments, Parallel Universes,...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 9164201392
How to travel through time.

Time traveling Video ? 5min.com
http://www.5min.com/Video/How-to-Travel ... me-2449449


How Time Travel Will Work
HowStuffWorks "How Time Travel Will Work"
http://science.howstuffworks.com/time-travel.htm

Keep Dreaming you never know if you never ever go.

G'day from the land of ozzzzzz

Most people that come to this site, know very little about cosmology and whatever. If we try to make this Forum toooooooooo clinical than this Forum will end the same as others without members.

Allow people to grow and undertsand.

It take TIME.

Harry:

I have an open mind, with no blinkers. I,m ready for any info you want to give me.. Thanks

Mark

mark swain wrote:I,m ready for any info you want to give me.

soon, viagra and penis enlargement posts.

G'day from the land down under.

We in the land of ozzzzzzz

Never ever use Viagra unless there's a reason.

As for that other thing to enlarge well, well, well

Three holes in the ground.

G'day from the land of ozzzzzzz

Hello Mark

Anything?

Just get the gist from this link

Magnetic Reconnection 2009
http://arxiv.org/find/all/1/all:+AND+20 ... /0/all/0/1

I'm still reading through the list.

harry wrote:Three holes in the ground.

That's a deep subject.

Hello All,

I said it once and I'll say it again.

http://asterisk.apod.com/pos ... 9&p=107810

apodman wrote:This is what happens to you when you strike oil.

I didn't know they grew olives in Caliornia.

harry wrote:G'day from the land of ozzzzzz

Most people that come to this site, know very little about cosmology and whatever. If we try to make this Forum toooooooooo clinical than this Forum will end the same as others without members.

Allow people to grow and undertsand.

It take TIME.

The ignorant should be seen and not heard, really, but then how would one know they were ignorant? And what IS ignorance? Is is lack of knowledge, and if so, what is knowledge? Is knowledge an absence of ignorance, and if so, what is lack? Is lack like lackies, or like nappies? Even those dressed in nappies know how to suckle, so those who are that fortunate are not only not ignorant, but truly fortunate. Are there any nebulaes which look like newborn children? Have you noticed the stars in newborns eyes? Perhaps those with stars in their eyes come from above?

G'day loco

What is important for you?

To be right

or

To help others understand a subject that is not well understood.

Loco wrote:The ignorant should be seen and not heard, really, but then how would one know they were ignorant? And what IS ignorance? Is is lack of knowledge, and if so, what is knowledge? Is knowledge an absence of ignorance, and if so, what is lack? Is lack like lackies, or like nappies? Even those dressed in nappies know how to suckle, so those who are that fortunate are not only not ignorant, but truly fortunate. Are there any nebulaes which look like newborn children? Have you noticed the stars in newborns eyes? Perhaps those with stars in their eyes come from above?

I'll have a pint of what hes drinking.

mark swain wrote:
I'll have a pint of what hes drinking.

First we quaff .. then we laugh .. "First we take Manhattan .. then we take Berlin." (L. Cohen)

harry wrote:G'day loco

What is important for you?

To be right

or

To help others understand a subject that is not well understood.

What is the importance of being left behind when the leaders are wrong? What is wrong with being weak when the evil are strong? What really is impotent?

harry wrote:G'day loco

What is important for you?

To be right

or

To help others understand a subject that is not well understood.

Furthermore, who am I to help others understand things not well understood? Do I wear size 14 shoes? Do I
have cameras attached to the front of my toes, and a monitor always before my eyes, that I might see what I am understanding upon? Or, if I were walking on my hands, upside down of course, would my understanding be the sky (or stars at night if I were walking on my hands beneath the moon?) So, yes, upside down is rightside up down under, and visa versa inside out, but understanding is another surface to be plumbed entirely.

G'day Loco

What is important?


It's like being out in the middle of the ocean. You take control or the wind will decide the destination.

harry wrote:G'day Loco

What is important?


It's like being out in the middle of the ocean. You take control or the wind will decide the destination.

Ah .. a sailor's heart! Jib the moonsail, matey.

apodman wrote:... and try that new Jamaican-Italian restaurant, Rasta Pasta.

And as progression is natural, we now have the Take Out Fasta Rasta Pasta which caters specificially to dark skinned Ferrari drivers sporting curled-kinky hair.

G'day from the land of ozzzzzzz

Hello Loco
Here down under we have a Fasta Pasta eat outs.

Are these around the world?

apodman wrote:But exactly how do we maintain topic quality?

'Topic quality' and 'what is science' is purely at the discretion of the moderators, not of the participants. The moderators here are for the most part great folks (and I genuinely mean that truly) but bias is inherrent in each human. Therefore, elimination of bias means eliminating the moderators. At that time forum will be totally free to discuss science. Reasons for keeping moderators, such as to eliminate racist and hateful comments, appears to be totally unnecessary here, as I've never seen one hurtful racist etc. comment. Forming a definition of what science is will always involve bias, and be subject to The Power Structure.

G'day Aris

Topic quality is nice to have.

How do you get it?