Starship Asterisk*

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030331.html
Mt. Etna Lava Plumes
Credit & Copyright: Marco Fulle (Stromboli online)
Explanation: Mt. Etna has been erupting for hundreds of thousands of years. Located in Sicily, Italy, the volcano produces lava fountains over one kilometer high. Mt. Etna is not only one of the most active volcanoes on Earth, it is one of the largest, measuring over 50 kilometers at its base and rising nearly 3 kilometers high. Pictured in 2001 May, the tops of two lava plumes are visible near the center of the frame, while hot lava flowing down the volcano is visible on the left. This panoramic shot also includes the city lights of Calabria and Taormina on the left, and Catania on the right. The Earth's rotation is discernable on this long duration image as star trails. Orange Mars can be seen rising just below the star Antares far in the distance.

Sometimes looking in the archives pays off. I found this beautiful photo of mount Etna. I was amazed that the volcano spews lava fountains 1 kilometer up. That's really awesome. 8)

Orin

Aha, another variable for geckzilla. If we fix it so only Mr. Robot can open a new topic, how can a topic be opened for an old APOD that never had a discussion of its own? Oh yeah, the [OLDNEWTOPIC*] button. Seriously folks, there's no problem because we can open an old new topic in the Café and let a moderator move it later.

Well, actually that's a good point. But locking the forum may not be necessary if the APOD Discuss link itself goes to a thread that already exists. Maybe people just didn't want to read through the topic list and see if it already existed. I don't know. First run with the link on the APOD itself is tonight, I think.

I think a human touch is important once in awhile. I grew up in a time when very little was automatic. and believe it or not it was a lot of fun. When my kids were learning I made sure they new how to drive a stick. They're happy I did.
Mr APOD the Robot does his job; but it doesn't have that personal touch. Discussing APOD goes back to around 2004. Going back to the first page; a lot of the discussion seem to be about setting up discussions. The APODs themselves go back to 1995; So we have about 9 years of undiscussed APODs. There are some nice photographs there; and could be a lot of interesting things to discuss. Maybe Mr. APOD could set one up for discussion once in a while.

Orin

orin stepanek wrote:Maybe Mr. APOD could set one up for discussion once in a while.

Artificial intelligence difficult. Random easy.

apodman wrote:

orin stepanek wrote:Maybe Mr. APOD could set one up for discussion once in a while.

Artificial intelligence difficult. Random easy.

Like I said I like some freedom for some human touch. At least once in a while. look at the picture of Etna blowing lava. Isn't that worth digging out of the archives?
http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/ap030331.html

Orin

Ah, but the human touch is your own undoing, orin! Mr. Robo wasn't exactly born from the ether. He was created by a human.

geckzilla wrote:Ah, but the human touch is your own undoing, orin! Mr. Robo wasn't exactly born from the ether. He was created by a human.

Ahh! Not my undoing as I didn't create him.Is that his name? Welcome to the forum Mr Robo! And please consider my plea;
Man's desire to automate everything is understandable. We would be hard pressed to feed the countless billions without it. So I have no ill will against Mr Robo or the human that created him. But I hunger to start a new post once in a while! There must be someone out there that has the same feelings.

Orin

I understand how you feel. The intent of the robot was to give a direct link from the APOD page to the discussion itself, not to automate everything. It's just that it's hard to get the two linked up without a bit of automation. Did you read in the "improving asterisk" thread about it? There was also a consideration to change the way the discussion works completely and that might have involved complete removal of this forum, or at least its involvement in APOD. I rather like the forum. With the robot, there is also the possibility of creating a nice directory of all the APOD discussion threads for anyone to go back to without the bother of having to manually update it, which is about as fun as deleting spam. Who knows though, maybe it will turn out to be a bad idea and it will all end up scrapped. But we won't know until we try it for a little while.

I did read it; some of it was a little deep; What if Mr. Robo brought up the link to the discussion panel like he always does and give the authorship to the first reply? Or is that getting too involved. Don't get me wrong; I love APOD and the discussions we have and I won't abandon it, It's too much fun. 8) And I suppose I'll get used to it. But I really wanted to start a post on Mt.Etna; and Apodman interjected another variable for you here; and I got carried away with what should have gone into the improving asterisk post. I know it will help keep the spam down a bit and that is a huge plus. Thanks for being patient with me; and I hope you don't mind my nitpicking too much.

Orin