Starship Asterisk*

neufer wrote:AstroNOMY, n. [OE. astronomie, F. astronomie, L. astronomia, fr. Gr. , fr. astronomer; star + to distribute, regulate. See Star, and NOMAD]
........................
NOMAD, n. [Gr. Living on pasturage, to distribute or divide, to feed. This verb is connected with L. Nemus, a wood, a place over-grown with trees, and also a pasture, the primary sense of which is probably to spring or shoot, for the verb signifies among other things, to leap, to dance, and may be allied to Eng. nimble. Cattle originally subsisted by browsing, as they still do in new settlements.] One who leads a wandering life, and subsists by tending herds of cattle which graze on herbage of spontaneous growth. Such is the practice at this day in the central and northern parts of Asia, and the Numidians in Africa are supposed to have been so called from this practice.

My Asterisk friend neufer gets my vote for the best response to today's APOD so far...

Sir, like I said earlier, you are truly "the labouring man that tills the fertile soil".

I don't get it. It's a picture of a puzzle piece?

G12650 wrote:I think APOD has lost its way. Come back! Come back! Focus on Astronomical visually appealing images. Stay away from sociological and anthropological missteps. You can post dancing people on the other APOD: Anthropological Picture of the Day!

Agreed - we're here for things pertaining to astronomy and this was so far off the mark it wasn't funny. To me this is YouTube fodder, not APOD material!

Rev. Johnny Healey wrote:I don't get it. It's a picture of a puzzle piece?

It's a Flash video. Your Flash player program may not be working properly. Your browser within which the Flash player runs (or your computer hardware) may be incompatible with the Flash player program or not support the speed. For everybody's benefit, I wish they'd just stick to JPEGs for the main picture.

I usually run without my Flash player installed because Flash-based ads are a nuisance to me. I install it temporarily on special occasions to see special videos like this APOD (which does use a JPEG for the main picture).

Do I really need to repeat the consensus? This is not Astronomy.

this post is truly awful, even ignoring that it's definitively not astronomy. when there have been videos before, there has always been a fallback picture -- not in this case. i don't even see the puzzle piece; i use noscript and have never needed to allow apod.nasa.gov before.

additionally, the caption is patently false. few people are able to watch the above video without smiling? i grimaced in pain. this video is an embarrassment to the human race. let's hope no one on an exoplanet is watching this, or they'll soon be here to nuke us out of our own misery.

This was really really stupid.

Showing where the hell is matt on APOD.

Completely inapropriate.

Is there just nothing good to show anymore? I'd rather have an old star picture than some stupid video that has nothing to do with astronomy.

APOD is going downhill with this kinda stuff.

geonuc wrote:I liked it.

Yeah, I like it too, BUT NOT HERE!

I agree with the black hole balance statement. I just remind myself that the internet has allowed the majority of negative people to voice their opinion, along with the unintelligible.

I have APOD as my homepage, because everyday when I get to work I like some inspiration for projects and thoughts. Not because I like "pretty pictures".

Forelan wrote:I like inspiration ... Not ... pretty pictures

asher501 wrote:I don't believe watching the 'Voyager Golden Record' would describe our essence, it's too technical... the beauty of our planet is easy to see.

John Keats wrote:Beauty is truth, truth beauty. That is all ye know on Earth, and all ye need to know.

Jean Lisette Aroeste wrote:Is There in Truth No Beauty?

Kirk offers Miranda a rose.
Miranda: "I suppose it has thorns."
Kirk: "I never met a rose that didn't."

I was surprised, very puzzled, then amused, and finaly convinced that this "astronomy" video was a very enjoyable "waste" of my time!! Thanks APOD for this unexpected and worthwhile distraction!!

soupphysics wrote:I'd rather have an old star picture.....

Sure you would. Then you - or someone - would start (another) thread that talks about how 'we've all seen that image before' and 'why can't TPTB at APoD find something new, that we haven't seen 100x before', etc., and the whining would continue......


Lord......

Honestly, my first thought was that APOD had been hacked.

". . . few people are able to watch the [July 22nd APOD] video without smiling . . ."

It would seem that I am one of the few. Like that sentry in the DMZ I am not much inclined to suffer dancing fools lightly.

Forelan wrote:...I just remind myself that the internet has allowed the majority of negative people to voice their opinion, along with the unintelligible...

The Internet is very close (sometimes dangerously close) to being a real-world implementation of the Infinite Monkey Theorem.

Sangfroid wrote:a real-world implementation of the Infinite Monkey Theorem.

Unfamiliar. Is that similar to "a million monkeys at a million typewriters for a million years"?

Now familiar: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_monkey_theorem

Like many, I wondered what it had to do with astronomy. I'd never seen it before, and though I was puzzled by it at first, it DID eventually make me smile. I wonder what the reaction would've been had it been "Happy people dancing on Mars"?

Just wondering...

Indigo_Sunrise wrote:

soupphysics wrote:I'd rather have an old star picture.....

Sure you would. Then you - or someone - would start (another) thread that talks about how 'we've all seen that image before' and 'why can't TPTB at APoD find something new, that we haven't seen 100x before', etc., and the whining would continue......


Lord......

I completely agree, I have been a long time viewer of APOD, but I never post. For obvious reasons.

They could post a picture of the moon everyday for a year and I would still find something interesting in the picture.

When we use out eyes with our brain everything makes sense.

Forelan wrote:They could post a picture of the moon everyday for a year and I would still find something interesting in the picture.

This morning the waning gibbous moon was posted in the blue daytime sky (weather in individual locations permitting). You are right - the moon is always worth a look.

Forelan wrote:I never post. For obvious reasons.

A lot of new contributors joined this thread. It has happened before when there's been a radical choice for the day's APOD. Maybe TPTB get tired of seeing posts by all the regular old contributors, and they go out on a limb purposely to antagonize a few more warm bodies into the mix. Kind of like being perturbed out of the Oort cloud. I like to see more contributors myself.

Well it wont make me post daily. Forums typically bother me, to much pointless banter.

If it is a good point then why respond to it.

Forelan wrote:Forums typically bother me, to much pointless banter. If it is a good point then why respond to it.

Everything you say is true, and of course this topic is 100% banter.

Nonetheless, the APOD forum regularly produces threads you can follow through the clutter. Which is more than I can say for a lot of other technical and non-technical public forums (and APOD lives in both worlds at once, an added difficulty factor). Not bad for a free-for-all IMHO.

apodman wrote:

Forelan wrote:Forums typically bother me, to much pointless banter. If it is a good point then why respond to it.

Everything you say is true, and of course this topic is 100% banter.

It wasnt pointless, had to defend the right choice to post a perfectly decent video, with very good connections to astronomy.

devany wrote:Well, I didn't know it was well known, or that it was sponsored by chewing gum until I read this thread.

But I had come to post a complaint. What a disappointment. What was the point?

Except driving more traffic to the forum maybe?

Really, the guy can't even effing dance.

And every cloud has a silver lining... thanks for the links to the Kayuga mission.

My bold.

You are most welcome indeed.

I'll post the link again to save people from having to search the thread for it:

http://wms.selene.jaxa.jp/data/jpn/tc/0 ... 0mbps.html

I'd rather see the lunar probe dancing around Tycho over today's APOD any day.
I accept the arguments that ours is a diverse universe encompassing everything in it, but people do come to this site to see wonderful things out there in space and for the most part, APOD hits the proverbial nail bang on the head every time for me. I thank APOD for that because it makes a bright spot in my day before I drive to work. I expect APOD type things from APOD and would go to YouTube if I wanted to see this kind of video. And indeed I do venture there occasionally, but never to try and brighten my day before setting off to work. For that I depend on APOD and LPOD.

And as for the 'whiners' comment from Indigo Sunrise. How very dare you. That is most unfair, are we no longer allowed to make any comments, or are they to be only positive ones?

ATEOTD we APOD visitors are 'customers' that come here because we're wide eyed with the wonder of what is out there. I do hope that people aren't put off by todays APOD because it is indeed the exception rather than the rule.
Please guys, keep it real. This site sets the bar very high indeed, lets not lose track of the mission.

It also seems that this is one of the fastest growing threads for some time. I'm amazed at the amount of low or first posters that have ventured a comment about this APOD.

I guess I'm lucky I can't view the flash image since our work computer wont allow us to upgrage to version 9 without Admin permission..... =D

hehehehe


INDIGO SUNSET:

You have some pretty weak comebacks... those are funny to read though. =b

And APOD will never ever have a shortage of space images to use (or astronomy related ones) because thousands of them are processed each day. Just look on all the space sites out there. People put up there own images, agencies have their own images and data from satellites and probes on and around other worlds... why not some HiRise images?

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/nea.php

You run out, grab something new from there... =/

I'm just curious now why they chose something not-so-astronomy related, when we can't even start topics in the Cafe here about stuff non-astronomy related. Seems like the people who are Mods on here need to close this topic, change the newest APOD and make it a picture of this:


Poor space bunny lost in space.... as APOD is today. ^^

*dances around*

Forelan wrote:It wasnt pointless

When I said "100% banter" I was referring to the entire topic and to the fact that it has nothing to do with hard science, and I didn't say "pointless". It contains many points, some worth pondering.

I was not referring to your post nor anything you said nor any particular thing any individual said.

Since I categorize this topic as banter, I consider contributions to be for fun.

Andy Wade wrote:And as for the 'whiners' comment from Indigo Sunrise. How very dare you....

I dare very well, thank you much.
You can't say it's not true. People whine about the silliest stuff. Is it going to matter tomorrow what the APoD was for today? Or a week from now? A year? 100 yrs from now? Is it really going to affect your future that today's image - er, video - wasn't space related?!? I thought not. Who cares?
We all come here for a reason: mine's curiosity. Curiosity of the next amazing image - or in this case a few brief moments of enjoyment brought on by a VIDEO OF PEOPLE DANCING AROUND THE WORLD. So stop the presses that it's not astronomical in nature. I stand by my statement on whining. And sure you can comment as you like, just as I can respond as I like.
As I previously said - tomorrow's another day, and another image.....

I can't be bothered to take a poll of pro and antis but gosh, there are some tight-****** people here. I came to mock, people dancing feugh! Got even more scornful when I saw Mr.Matt and his 'dance', but I stayed to enjoy, and laugh.

Loosen up, you diehard apodders. Enjoy! This is a piece of fun, foam on the water, but why not, now and again?

John

Arramon wrote:I guess I'm lucky I can't view the flash image since our work computer wont allow us to upgrage to version 9 without Admin permission..... =D

hehehehe


INDIGO SUNRISE:

You have some pretty GREAT comebacks... those are funny to read though. =b

And APOD will never ever have a shortage of space images to use (or astronomy related ones) because thousands of them are processed each day. Just look on all the space sites out there. People put up there own images, agencies have their own images and data from satellites and probes on and around other worlds... why not some HiRise images?

http://hirise.lpl.arizona.edu/nea.php

You run out, grab something new from there... =/

I'm just curious now why they chose something not-so-astronomy related, when we can't even start topics in the Cafe here about stuff non-astronomy related. Seems like the people who are Mods on here need to close this topic, change the newest APOD and make it a picture of this:


Poor space bunny lost in space.... as APOD is today. ^^

*dances around*

*FIXED*