Rascal Nag

I thought I\'d share, as I\'ve done with a few other videos of mine here: Space Engine - The Planet of the Idiots I also am sort of moving into this type of video, with the spoken stuff, rather than just music. Good idea/bad idea? If the latter, any tips going forward?

No, it\'s being worked on by NASA.

Well, I just got done a research paper on Hamlet Criticisms for my British Literature class. It\'s 2:23 AM... So, anyone else have huge papers/lots of school work coming up?

Oh no, this is not my voice. As Phoxtane said, it\'s Carl Sagan\'s. But yes, I did record all the footage in space engine and edit it myself. Only the audio and the one photo at the end aren\'t mine (Though I certainly wish the photo was 'mine', since that would imply I worked on Voyager 1, unfortunately I was not alive then). Yup, it\'s an anagram! I\'m a huge fan of Carl Sagan\'s stuff, it\'s his work that inspired me to strive to become an astrophysicist. Not one yet, though.

Alright, so it seems more than intriguing. In fact it makes me want to: YES YES YES YES, FINALLY! THIS IS WHAT WE NEED, A PRIVATE COMPANY THAT HAS RIDICULOUSLY SECURE BACKING! http://www.space.com/15336-planetary-resources-space-exploration-announcement.html I wonder what they will unveil next week.

I make these things from time to time. I think it\'s been 2 months since my last one, so I felt this one was overdue. I thought I\'d share it with you guys. SpaceEngine - Those Other Worlds Any thoughts? Or any videos you\'ve made?

It wasn\'t that big. The light only seemed to center right around the meteor and was not that bright, unlike a fireball. It only had a tiny tail as well. It just lasted for quite a while compared to other meteors I\'ve seen, and had a nice glow to it.

I was walking my dog before he went to sleep, as I do most nights. I was just about to go in with him, until he went a bit crazy and ran to a bush to do his business, dragging me along with him. As I waited for him to finish, I craned my neck upwards. It\'s very clear tonight, and although I didn\'t really think much about what I was doing, I suppose my general attraction to the stars just made me look above. After a brief moment of simply staring at the twinkling points of light, I saw it. For a meteor, it seemed to be travelling quite slow. It didn\'t burn up suddenly, rather it flirted with the prospect, slowly oscillating between a glowing yellow-white and a dim white blue, as if the meteor was becoming a part of the dark sky itself. It was in no rush, for a meteor, and so lasted 3 or 4 seconds, traversing a large distance in the night sky. Just as the spectacle was nearing the tree branches high above me, it faded away. I think that this was my best meteor sighting yet. Though it is still 5 days away and it is possible there is no relation, I hope that this is the beginning of a strong Lyrid meteor shower. So, what are some meteors you guys have seen? Edit: Unfortunately, after a brief check, the weather seems to be against me, with a forecast of showers on Saturday. Friday is also subject to some clouds. I can only hope things change for the better...

Titanic - The Final Word - with James Cameron - ENDING - Nat Geo (04-15-12) I didn\'t watch this whole thing. In fact, I was just eating and it just happened to be on. They were closing up the show, I wasn\'t really paying attention to be honest. But the ending Cameron gave grabbed me, and hit so many nails on the head. I\'m glad I managed to catch this.

Found this just a few minutes ago. Thought I should post it here:

51 years ago today, Yuri Gagarin hopped in his Vostok Capsule aboard the Vostok-K rocket to become the first human to enter space, orbit the Earth, and return safely. Last year, on the 50th anniversary, this day was made the International Day of Human Space Flight. Another notable event on this day came 30 years ago, when STS-1 launch, starting the era of the Shuttle.

Ah, sorry about that then.

I know this. But the problem is not with the time. They of course need to test it like a new rocket. The problem is that it\'s using parts from the 80s that we know will give it high operation costs after all that testing. An entirely new rocket would probably need more testing of course, but in the long run, it could have substantial financial advantages. Instead of throwing away an entire first stage, which is planned for SLS, and rebuilding it you could have one that is almost fully reusable, cutting off a huge amount of costs right there. Instead of funding research on technology that would be essential for exploration beyond the sphere of SLS, we\'ll be spending all that money on SLS itself. We have to actively be working on the next era of space exploration during the current one, not using up all our resources on the current and having another one of these situations where everyone thinks that NASA is dying after the shuttle.

Actually, I disagree to an extent. NASA isn\'t only poorly funded but poorly structured. Look at SLS. It\'s just tweaked old stuff that\'s unnecessarily expensive. It not only needs better funding but also needs to rely on private companies much more. They always say that 'Oh we\'re interacting with this and that and blah blah blah' But it\'s in such a controlled manner that it might as well just be NASA doing it alone. Private space companies need to be able to compete for NASA contracts. NASA needs to be in place for when new exploration must be done, exploration that is too much of a risk for a private company. But that exploration should be done with craft built by private companies, so that competition makes sure the product is cheaper and yet better than what we have now. NASA could certainly develop it\'s own technology for stuff, but NASA also can\'t take the reins of everything.

That is a problem. I\'m not sure if it\'s the biggest one, but definitely a problem. Especially in some public schools. I would really like knowing why this is a problem all of a sudden, though. Is it because of poor parenting? Maybe. Is it because new technology has made entertainment seem more important than education? Maybe. Is it because they feel the authority is just leading them to a dead end? Maybe. Or is it all of that? Cause and effect - Something\'s causing a drastic change in how people look at authority, and it needs to be found and dealt with in some way. A lot of people think it\'s just teens being teens, growing pains. But I doubt it. Did you hear about this kind of stuff before? And why is it happening on such a huge level now? Saying it\'s just teens being teens just doesn\'t sit well with me. Not all humans have the same personality, ESPECIALLY when you get into a highschool setting where people are often still figuring out who they are and what they want to do. If there\'s to be such a widespread problem of disrespect for authority in such a diverse community such as human beings, I don\'t think it\'s just because that\'s the way things are. People with different minds should respond differently to authority, naturally. Unfortunately this problem won\'t be easy to solve. There will be some groups that are lax and say it\'s because we\'re too harsh and need to pamper everyone (wrong, then when they\'re met with something tough they\'ll throw a fit). There will be some that say we are too lax and need to be harsher and punish everyone severely (also wrong, then you just get more hate) Then there\'s those who would rather sit and watch the grass grow. Oh and yeah, then there\'s those who won\'t respect authority and tell anyone who tries to fix the situation not to bother because they don\'t want their help.

Awesome. This could catapult private space flight into a new era, as people wouldn\'t just dismiss it as a dead-end business endeavor. The more private space companies, the more competition, and the more competition, the better the product, obviously. And with better products we can explore farther!

I\'m not saying it\'s easy. But it is necessary in my opinion. And it does not have to be done every single class. It doesn\'t even need to be in the classroom, to be honest. There could be a whole separate time in the schedule for it, where there would be content that ALL faculty could collaborate on. My school has different schedules, sometimes school ends at 2:45 on a normal day. Sometimes at 3 if there\'s an assembly. Sometimes at 1:45 if there\'s faculty meetings that day OR a large after school event, and after 1:45 all the students are at it. I think if these assemblies (Right now, they\'re often just times for ANOTHER alumni who went into a business field to recount his life. Which is seen boring by almost everyone.) and after school events (Which usually are boring games that everyone is forced to go to) were put to good use, they could go a long way to inspiring people.

Teaching is a mess in America because of how it\'s devolved into nothing but lectures and similar things at the lower levels. If you\'re going for a PhD though, lectures I guess would kind of be necessary - there\'s going to be a lot to do and a lot to cover. You just need to be good at soaking at all up. But I strongly believe that education at the highschool level and lower would be much better if it was more interactive, more applied and more inspirational. Problem is, we\'re not doing anything REALLY interesting at the moment in the world, at least to a kid or teenager, so what can teachers relate the knowledge to? If there\'s nothing to apply it to, the students just ask: 'When will I ever need this?' and then stop caring about the subject. Personally I think that course of action is quite mentally unsound - you acted on a question, not an answer. Why not go get an answer, then decide what to do about the stuff you need to learn? But let\'s go back again: There\'s nothing interesting going on. There\'s nothing out there that drives students to keep learning, and when that question comes up, to find an answer. Too many think that learning is boring and that all this hard work to become a scientist or something is worthless, since it doesn\'t look to them like it makes anything come to fruition, since they haven\'t seen anything happen. And despite this obvious lack of a motivator out there, education has stayed the same. It\'s not because we need the latest technology in the classroom (though it helps) and don\'t have it. It\'s not because all students are dumber now for some reason. It\'s because when the world stopped providing talking points for teachers, they refused to make their own. Educators, at least at the lower levels, must try to say something now and then that makes a student think. Something that gives that whole lesson on, say, Trigonometric identities, a meaning beyond just 'If I don\'t understand it, I\'ll fail the test.' Look at what Tyson does, or what Sagan did or what Cox does. They are perfect examples of what teachers should strive to be like. 3 E\'s and an I: Energetic, Emotional, Engaged, and Inspirational. There is one very good example of this in Cosmos, it\'s even in a classroom setting. Anyone else who watched the series probably knows what I\'m talking about, but here it is anyway: Carl Sagan returns to his sixth-grade classroom to share Voyager\'s discoveries That\'s how teaching should be done. Or, if teachers keep refusing to teach the way they need to in this time, there needs to be an outside source to drive the students. Personally, I think there is no better object to do so than NASA. But that\'s my opinion.

Wouldn\'t explode unless you were made of balloon skin, but yeah, a vacuum will make you have problems in gravity or not.

Let\'s cut ping some slack at least, his profile indicates he is only 12. When I was 12 I didn\'t have the faintest idea how this kind of stuff really worked ???.

Gravity does not counteract Internal pressure. External pressure counteracts Internal pressure. The external pressure may be created by the gravitational field of Earth pulling its atmosphere together, but gravity itself does not counteract internal pressure. When there is no atmosphere due to no planet\'s gravity pulling in gas, we put on a suit with its own gas inside of it, and make sure that the pressure in the suit is regulated to prevent harm. The fabrics of the suit are built tough enough to withstand the pressure difference of the vacuum and inner suit, of course. And no, the suits would not blow up like balloons. The fabric is also rigid enough to prevent that, while being flexible enough to allow movement. Yes, it\'s far more likely that any expansion outside the lungs is so small that it just isn\'t noticeable.

I\'d say a good deal of it comes from the South, even within America the stereotypes of bible thumpers and racism there run wild. Also the fact that a good portion of the population is obese. And also the fact that we try to be the World Police and put our noses in things we shouldn\'t. And our failing public education system. The list could go on - This isn\'t the America that once was.

Fun Fact: The founder of Armadillo Aerospace is John Carmack from id software. He\'s been at the head of games like Wolfenstein, Doom and Quake. Who says video games are bad for you?

He was, in fact. And no, this would not happen: 1. Zero gravity DOES NOT EXIST. ANYWHERE. There is always gravity. Right now our solar system is orbiting the center of the Milky way due to the extreme pull of a supermassive black hole. Even in between galaxies there is gravity, it\'s just very weak. Also, don\'t use SOI in terms of real life, since there isn\'t really a defined thing like that. For example, the oceans may be sitting on Earth but they are still affected by the Moon (tides), since IRL our Moon\'s gravitational force does not cease existing at some certain distance from it. Real life doesn\'t have to deal with the computing problems Squad has to deal with ;D . 2. Gravity does NOT compress us. It only attracts us, and if it is too strong, crush us, but not in the way pressure would. Pressure compresses us, pushing in from all directions (or out in this case), not just pulling from one like Gravity. Yes, in zero gravity one might grow taller as we\'re not being pulled down anymore. But this is not due to low pressure. 3.If anything, in a vacuum we\'d expand slightly in all directions. But not burst. Our body is too tough for that. To be honest, I think you\'ve mixed gravity and pressure together for some reason. You shouldn\'t do that, one\'s a fundamental force, the other is just stuff pushing against other stuff, basically. 4.Though we wouldn\'t burst, we\'d die without oxygen of course. But we have suits for that, so we\'re okay.

I\'m more leaning towards being an astrophysicist rather than an astronaut, though I certainly wouldn\'t mind being both, if possible.