Starship Asterisk*

beyond wrote:

neufer wrote:

beyond wrote:
Carlin sucked but i just spent a few hours with the Beatles and a couple of The Doors songs.

Should you have posted this under "What makes the Earth habitable?"

I never thought of that. But i do think it would take a lot more than the Beatles and The Doors.
Perhaps a few cases of Hostess Sno-Balls in assorted colors also and who knows what.

Actually, as to what i know about what makes the Earth habitable can not be discussed at this website. It goes beyond the parameters of Science as man knows it. But almost every-one can relate to Hostess Sno-Balls -- right

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tribble wrote:

Tribble / Hostess Sno-Ball

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H.A. Rey's way to connect the stars of the constellation Gemini. The twins are shown holding hands at [color=#FF0000][b]Iota Geminorum[/b][/color]

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<<Tribbles are fictional animals in the Star Trek universe who first appeared in the episode titled "The Trouble With Tribbles". They are depicted as small, soft, and gentle, and as producing a soothing purring sound. These traits are said to endear them to most sentient races which encounter them, with the notable exception of Klingons, who consider tribbles to be "mortal enemies" of the Klingon Empire, as stated in the Star Trek Deep Space Nine episode "Trials and Tribble-ations". The expression "multiplying like tribbles" has become commonplace in the context of science fiction or technology.

• David Gerrold: "I thought I was telling the “rabbits in Australia” story. When rabbits were first introduced to Australia, they multiplied at an incredible rate because there were no predators or natural enemies to keep them in control. It was an ecology story — and a spaceship is the perfect setting for it because a spaceship must be a balanced ecology.
  
  When it came to designing the creatures though, I had to be simple — they had to be easy to build; they had to be cheap, and they had to be believable. We wouldn’t want to use rabbits for the story — we wanted something … well, gimmicky. We needed a science fiction animal. …
  
  I had to think — what would be easy?
  
  Holly ... Sherman had a key ring attached to a ball of pink fuzz. The more I looked at it, the more obvious it became. ...The ease with which a fluff ball could be manufactured made it a natural candidate.

Spock, a half-Vulcan himself, explains that Vulcans see no useful purpose for tribbles, so the species is not endearing to them, but it's not mutual for the ever-adoring species. However, he is caught petting one while claiming, "Fortunately, I am... immune to its effects".

According to Star Trek canon, tribbles are native to the planet Iota Geminorum IV. They are essentially small bundles of fur with no visible external features. The fur of live-action and animated tribbles ranges from solid white to grey, speckled light to dark brown, yellow to reddish orange, and black. According to Leonard McCoy's dialogue their only two purposes in life appear to be to eat and to reproduce, and they perform both of these functions exceptionally well. McCoy concludes that tribbles use over fifty percent of their metabolism for reproduction and that they are born pregnant. A creature that was genetically engineered to hunt tribbles is introduced in the animated episode "More Tribbles, More Troubles".

Deep Space Nine: In the episode "Trials and Tribble-ations" the crew of the USS Defiant encounter the tribbles once more when they accidentally travel back in time and participate in the events of "The Trouble With Tribbles". The Deep Space Nine characters are edited into scenes with the original series cast, although a few of the scenes are from different episodes. Each of the featured characters is seen in this episode, including Cyrano Jones and Arne Darvin. In this episode, Worf reveals that the tribbles were hunted down and exterminated by the Klingon Empire; specially trained warriors were sent to kill every tribble in existence, and an armada of Klingon vessels obliterated the tribble's home world. Klingons are unique among Star Trek's races in their extreme hatred of the creatures as "an ecological menace". The feeling was apparently mutual, because tribbles emitted a loud shrieking noise instead of their normal soothing purr in the presence of Klingons. Deep Space Nine Security Officer Odo, amused by the irony of the fierce Klingons hunting the gentle tribbles, dryly remarks, "Another glorious chapter in Klingon history. Tell me, do they still sing songs of the Great Tribble Hunt?">>

According to Star Trek canon, tribbles are native to the planet Iota Geminorum IV.

• Trigonometric parallax: 25.90 +/- 0.91 milliarcseconds
  Proper motion in RA: -121.28 +/- 1.40 milliarcseconds/year
  Proper motion in dec: -84.43 +/- 0.62 milliarcseconds/year
  Mean BT magnitude: 5.101 +/- 0.004
  Mean VT magnitude: 3.901 +/- 0.003
  Johnson B-V color: 1.024 +/- 0.001
  Spectral type: G9III+...
  Distance: 38.6 +/- 1.4 parsecs (125.9 +/- 4.4 light-years)
  Luminosity: 38.1 +/- 2.7 light-years
  Absolute luminosity: 0.846 +/- 0.076

Ann wrote:

According to Star Trek canon, tribbles are native to the planet Iota Geminorum IV.

It's because it marks the spot where Pollux and Castor hold hands, right?

Iota Geminorum is an orange giant, a star that has depleted the hydrogen in its center and has brightened and swelled up prodigiously. At present it is about 38 times brighter than the Sun. Iota Geminorum has effectively sterilized any of its planets that were previously habitable, and due to the relatively short red giant stage of stars, coupled with the fact that the red giant period may start with an extreme brightening followed by a dimming, it is unlikely that planets further out from the star will find time and sufficiently stable conditions to allow life to emerge.

Ergo, tribbles probably don't hail from Iota Geminorum IV.

neufer wrote: Not Klingons: Hostess Sno-Balls are considered mortal enemies by the Klingons, who track them down throughout the galaxy and obliterated the Sno-Ball homeworld.

owlice wrote:

neufer wrote:
Not Klingons: Hostess Sno-Balls are considered mortal enemies by the Klingons,
who track them down throughout the galaxy and obliterated the Sno-Ball homeworld.

Klingons related to them... they just didn't relate to them in a positive way.

And this thread has made me want a Hostess Sno-ball, thank you very much, something I haven't had in many years.

• ____ King Henry V Act 2, Scene 3
  
  Hostess: Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's
  ___ bosom, if EVER man went to Arthur's bosom.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowball_Earth wrote:
<<Sno-Ball Earth refers to the hypothesis that the Earth's surface became nearly or entirely frozen at least once, before 650 million years ago. The geological community generally accepts this hypothesis because it best explains sedimentary deposits generally regarded as of glacial origin at tropical paleolatitudes and other enigmatic features in the geological record. Opponents to the hypothesis contested the implications of the geological evidence for global glaciation, the geophysical feasibility of an ice- or slush-covered ocean, and the difficulty of escaping an all-frozen condition. There are a number of unanswered questions, including whether the Earth was a full snowball or a "slushball" with a thin equatorial band of open (or seasonally open) water. The geological time frame under consideration comes immediately before the sudden multiplication of life forms on earth known as the Cambrian explosion and may have triggered multi-cellular life on earth. Another, much earlier and longer, snowball episode - the Huronian glaciation - may have been triggered by the oxygen catastrophe.>>

neufer wrote:

• ____ King Henry V Act 2, Scene 3
  
  Hostess: Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's
  ___ bosom, if EVER man went to Arthur's bosom.

owlice wrote:

neufer wrote:

• ____ King Henry V Act 2, Scene 3
  
  Hostess: Nay, sure, he's not in hell: he's in Arthur's
  ___ bosom, if EVER man went to Arthur's bosom.

Is this presented as evidence of Arthur moobs (and does your wife know a man is going there)?!?

• EXODUS 4:6 And HE put his hand into his bosom:
  ___ and when HE took it out, behold, his hand [was] leprous as SNOW.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barsoom wrote:
<<Barsoom is a fictional representation of the planet Mars created by American pulp fiction author Edgar Rice Burroughs. The first Barsoom tale was serialized as Under the Moons of Mars in 1912, and published as a novel as A Princess of Mars in 1917. Ten sequels followed over the next three decades, further extending his vision of Barsoom and adding other characters.

The world of Barsoom is a romantic vision of a dying Mars, based on now outdated scientific ideas made popular by Astronomer Percival Lowell in the early 20th century. While depicting many outlandish inventions, and advanced technology, it is a savage, 'frontier' world, of honor, noble sacrifice and constant struggle, where martial prowess is paramount, and where many races fight over dwindling resources. It is filled with lost cities, heroic adventures and undiscovered ancient secrets.

Burroughs frequently made up words from the languages spoken by the peoples in his novels, and used these extensively in the narrative. In Thuvia, Maid of Mars he included a glossary of Barsoomian words used in the first four novels. The word "Barsoom", the native Martian word for Mars, is composed of the Martian name for planet, "soom", and the martian word for eight, "bar". This assumes that Mars is the eighth body in the inner solar system, though to reach this figure it is necessary to count the satellites of both the Earth and Mars itself.>>

neufer wrote: Shouldn't you be out bicycling?

neufer wrote:

• EXODUS 4:6 And HE put his hand into his bosom:
  ___ and when HE took it out, behold, his hand [was] leprous as SNOW.

owlice wrote:

neufer wrote: Shouldn't you be out bicycling?

Heh! I rode yesterday (six weeks with scarcely a ride made yesterday's 27 miles very slow, alas),
but am not opposed to riding today. Think the weather will hold? Meet me on the C&O!

owlice wrote:

neufer wrote:

• EXODUS 4:6 And HE put his hand into his bosom:
  ___ and when HE took it out, behold, his hand [was] leprous as SNOW.

Oog. Charming image...

beyond wrote:The question is: How do you eat a Sno-Ball? Do you eat it raw as klingons eat their food? Do you skin it first, as some kids have been known to do. Or do you perhaps eat it upside down? Or do you have another way that you prefer to eat them? Or do you perhaps have any other ideas of what to do with a Sno-Ball that is fit to be printed here??

My daughter Dawn from Takoma Park, MD wrote:
<<It is sort of dissipating now but it was CRAZY! I felt like they were breaking right over me and at one point headed to stay downstairs.It lasted a good amount of time too. I think we have water coming through the upper door into the kitchen. I was definitely waiting till it all went away to go to work. The electricity went off briefly but is back on now.>>

owlice wrote:

Help Owlice & Boötes the Cat see a meteor & find their way home.

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I was able to get to work on Thursday by going a completely different way than the way I usually do, as my two main commuting roads had been shut down completely by the devastation wreaked by the storm. I was able to come home on those roads, though, late Thursday, and was shocked at the damage. Some trees were just snapped into two, or more, parts; other trees had fallen over, some with root systems which are now vertical, taller than I am. Telephone/power lines are tangled, down, the poles broken or leaning or coming apart.

But I digress. I just came in from my backyard. I have checked the skies several times over the past few nights (when it wasn't raining), hoping to see a meteor or two, but saw only clouds. About an hour ago, I walked outside again, and the clouds ... showed sky between them! I got a tarp from the shed, a blanket and pillow from the house, and lay out in the backyard, hoping that one meteor might possibly be visible in the cracks between the clouds. Amazingly, a large patch of sky opened up as I lay there. Though my right eye caught the flicker of one neighbor's television through her window and I had to shield the other eye from the bright floodlight my neighbors on the other side have shining into their back yard, was that....? Yes! That was a meteor streak, above me to the left!

I thought, "Okay, I've seen my meteor; maybe I should go in and finish sleeping." But there I lay, still staring at the sky and swatting mosquitoes from my face with my free hand. More and more stars became visible, some winking in and out of view. I could hear the traffic on I-95 and the crickets which will undoubtedly invade my house in the coming weeks. The little cat startled me when he stepped on the tarp near my head; he quickly settled down on the blanket to harass my right knee before being shooed away for an extended claws violation. Then another streak! Oh, no more thoughts of going in! But the clouds had started to close again. One more streak, a very bright one! Yay! "Clouds, go away!" No... they came and closed my window to the night sky. Meteors: 3. Mosquito bites: 30. I win!

Now to bed for an hour. Good night!

owlice wrote:But I'm already home! See? There I am, glowering in my tree, same as always!