Starship Asterisk*

mek wrote:you know there are still many of us without any kind of cell phone

EXCELLENT POINT! Mod parent up -- oops, I thought this was Slashdot for a moment.

Cell phones, and their derivatives (dumb-phones), have become fashion statements which serve any meaningful purpose to the vast majority of owners. They are like toys to most - a way to take poor quality pictures, send trendy tweets and mini-emails (SMS), and an increasingly large and toxic addition to our garbage dumps.

I see Waldo

RFWW wrote:I heard that the largest radio telescope came online today. It's in South America. In the Andes. In Chile.

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=25464#p159009
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=20553#p159011

Perhaps the QR code aesthetic prompts adverse psychological reactions. These codes are most unsightly and unpleasing to the eye. Reminiscent of a Borg spacecube.

Off topic: I would also like to see more information about the solar cycle, and in specific the unusual length of the last solar minimum. And how has the recent solar activity compared with past cycles?

And of course, thanks to APOD for bringing some really awesome astronomy to the Internet.

Chris Peterson wrote:Thanks to the editors for occasionally posting this sort of APOD. It helps me figure out who the idiots are who need to be on my ignore list!

Well said! It allowed me to determine that YOU are an Idiot -- Welcome to my ignore list............

bystander wrote:

RFWW wrote:I heard that the largest radio telescope came online today. It's in South America. In the Andes. In Chile.

http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=25464#p159009
http://asterisk.apod.com/viewtopic.php?t=20553#p159011

Thanks for the information, and I think it would make sense for APOD to cover this new telescope in a timely way.

While today's image may represent a reflection on embracing such new communication technology, a thing APOD was literally born out of, it could also be an attempt at spreading the word about one of the coolest sites on the internet. The third-to-last sentence is an encouragement to actually print out the image and hang it up somewhere, thus linking other mobile computers and computees to the amazing APOD. This would be a fun thing to do indeed.

At least some understand

I'm removing apod from my bookmarks bar on my homepage. I enjoy the beautiful images. Not this corporate techno propaganda. Goodbye

pauln wrote: I wonder what we'll have tomorrow...

The way things are going, tomorrow's "APOD" will be an advertisement for a cell-phone. Who said there was no advertising revenue on this "mad and unpredictable" site?

What does this have to do with astronomy, picture, or the day?

Can't understand the angry comments. Take ANAPOD (Anapod is Not Astronomy Picture Of the Day) with a little bit of humor, folks!

Wow. I'm disappointed that it didn't point anywhere of interest. I mean, I was essentially asked to do nothing, and I get no picture today! At the least, it could've pointed to [random-picture]. Then, you'd have some fun scanning the thing.

But on the other hand, wow! Some people here are *really* touchy!! Calm down folks!

This is just another window into a universe that has many windows. The cosmos is just not what is "out-there" but what is also here. We create these things but we do not (no one does really) understand how they pertain to the general universe around us everyday. That in my opinion is the question. What is it that we create that effects the universe/cosmos/Earth around us ?

In my opinion the connection (cosmos) runs deep into us and outside of us. Sure we can layer ourselves with pixels and numbers and other distractions. But where in all irony will it lead us ? I believe into a world with no pixels, numbers and distractions. Foolish things crumble to leave a core-face of truth.

me98765543 wrote: As for the guy who claims we should be happy because this is free, you are a moron.

Indeed! This site, as are all government sites, is wholly funded by TAX revenue. It is supposed to deliver information related to astronomy, not pseudo-barcode technology. And for the suggestion it's meant for all the "dedicated" fans to print out and plaster everywhere, that's absurd. Even desperately pathetic.

As a US Citizen and Taxpayer, I WANT MY MONEY BACK!!!

APOD has done codes in the past...

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap060402.html
and
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap050313.html

QR codes offer many of the features we want in interstellar communication. It's binary for easy transmission and reception, and it has built-in redundancy, because if you think the light speed distance to a star is a long time, you should check out the round-trip latency!!

"Not for Human Eyes"

So you thought giving me an epileptic fit by pasting it across my desktop was a good idea...

Grow a brain jerk!

agree with all the unhappy ppl above....

For those wondering about the locomotive pic like I was.
I did a Google search on "Chemin de Fer de l'Est" selected Images and searched the results. I found,
On 22 October 1895 an express train originating from Granville traversed Montparnasse station, plowed into the buffers, wrecked the station building's front wall and dropped to the ground on the street below. The only victim was a news agent who was crushed by the locomotive.

At: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chemins_de ... _l%27Ouest

In the past I've had this happen when APOD posts a movie rather than a picture.

Chris Peterson wrote:Thanks to the editors for occasionally posting this sort of APOD. It helps me figure out who the idiots are who need to be on my ignore list!

Well, I don't know which side of the fence I fall on Chris, but perhaps I'll make your idiot list.
I come here for astronomy pictures - this is my daily greeting; my home page.
There are thousands upon thousands of available images that would have been better suited. This is not astronomy.
But then, maybe I'm an idiot.

BenTorrey wrote:Actually, I found it helpful. I've been seeing these things more and more and was wondering what they are. Thank you for enlightening me.

I agree, thanks, although Earth Science Picture of the Day might have been a better place to post it...

what a bunch of whiners

it's an interesting image and a thoughtful explanation.

thanks

Thank you for that, i do like thinking on different levels .. so i can´t understand those who trolling ..

by the way: My first reaction was to smallen my eyes to see kind of unsharp, because then sometimes there are images evolving .. well it looks like a universe ..

Isn't this cool? We are gradually moving into SF with our machines

I like it - cannot understand all the venom - after the hundreds of great images we get for free finally its nice to see a close up of a borg cube !

Lets have the same picture again tomorrow with an explanation of how the code works!