One of the hardest things for people to understand about the universe is just
how big it is. There are three approaches typically used in describing its size. The first, the song, was pioneered by
Monty Python (NSFWish, wireframe of naked woman) and then done just as masterfully by
the Animaniacs. The second, the zoom method has been featured
twice before here on the blue. The third method is the
comparison method (skip to 1:30, unless you like looking at a image of the solar system with terrible distorted orbits), yielding some truly
beautiful videos (this one found via the fantastic
Bad Astronomy blog). These videos go, at most, as far as looking at the local cluster or the Virgo Supercluster. There are two videos that attempt to show the size of the entire universe,
one unsuccessfully (although with great music) and
one successfully. (Warning, all links except the first one, are to YT videos).
posted by Hactar to MetaFilter at Jul-1-09 at 2:06 PM
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Thanks Kattullus, this was wonderful to read.
Especially because this Friday, I am celebrating one year of sobriety.
This morning, someone on Twitter quoted Frank Sinatra saying that he feels sorry for people who don't drink because when they wake up sober, that's the best their day is going to get. Without being judgmental - because drink...
posted by greekphilosophy to MetaFilter at Jul-1-09 at 12:30 PM
147 users marked this as a favorite
You know, my husband was a stay at home Dad during our daughter's short life.
It drove me crazy when I read Parents magazine. The magazine is called Parents, right? But it's chock-full of ads for makeup, yoga classes, what Mom's should do, articles like "Be the best MOM in the playgroup," and so forth. It's been a long time since ...
posted by bunnycup to MetaFilter at Jul-2-09 at 9:17 AM
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Describing him as an over-hyped non-talent is an understatement. The man had one half-good song, Billie Jean, and that is it.
Let's see, how shall I put this... you have got to be fucking tone deaf or brain dead. And this goes for all of you coming with this fucking "oh he was just an overrated unit-shifting product" bullshit. Off The ...
posted by DecemberBoy to MetaFilter at Jun-25-09 at 7:01 PM
84 users marked this as a favorite
What small-ish changes have you made that greatly impacted your life?
What are some cheap and effective ways to make your life easier?
What are some useful skills or abilities that can be learned in a short amount of time, and are never forgotten?
Obvious or creative ways to cut costs and live cheap?
Simple tricks to improve MPG?
Hel...
posted by malapropist to Ask MetaFilter at Jun-27-09 at 11:06 AM
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John Kenneth Fisher: "And if the man was, as he almost surely was, guilty of just 1% of the many many rumors of child molestation that came up over the years, than he sure as hell wasn't worthy of respect, and he sure as hell isn't getting my ".""
Optimus Chyme: "Michael Jackson was challenging in a lot of ways, mostly b...
posted by dgaicun to MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 12:17 AM
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Not that I don't think democracy is terrible, but his replacement is monarchy? Has he taken a look at the kinds of dudes who've been monarchs, and how well that's worked?
Also, I'm bristling like hell at:
civilization is crumbling
Motherfucker, you will KNOW civilization is crumbling when I'm standing in your kitchen with a bowie knife, r...
posted by Greg Nog to MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 4:38 PM
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you: All that happened was he sent me an email transfer of $1000 to my EMAIL!!!....I had to go into my email, just like you would do if a family/friend and picked my bank....$1000 was wired to my account and I picked it up and withdrew it. It was then in my pocket.....$30 was for gas, however I had a bike so I pocketed it. I had to transfer the res...
posted by koeselitz to Ask MetaFilter at Jul-1-09 at 11:54 AM
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Well, I'll just comment based on personal tastes and experiences.
I grew up in the country, with guns in fact. My little brother & I were reared around guns, and from an early age saw our parents using shotguns and rifles for hunting. When you're poor in rural America its far cheaper to buy a box of shells and eat for the winter than to ...
posted by Mutant to MetaFilter at Jun-27-09 at 4:23 AM
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I'll try to be as brief as possible, but I had an ALMOST-perfect car buying experience recently. I'll post what I did, and then throw in blurbs where I felt I could have improved. It's long, but I needed to type this up for a friend who's about to buy a car anyway. Take it all with a grain of salt.
DANGEROUS GROUND
My dad is a pretty smart...
posted by cebailey to Ask MetaFilter at Apr-25-06 at 9:34 PM
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Good argument, except for all the EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE that points in the exact opposite direction.
My all-time favorite dismissive response to something came in a long-archived Ron Paul thread on SA: "Good point. On the other hand, recorded history."
posted by Pope Guilty to MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 4:35 PM
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My younger brother was excited about Transformers 2, made fun of me for suggesting that it might not be that great, and left the house last night expecting to enjoy it. When he returned, he said "The entire movie was like a woman with enormous breasts running in slow motion while behind her two blenders have non-consensual sex. Also the camera...
posted by Rinku to MetaFilter at Jun-26-09 at 12:37 PM
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Wow how things have changed. When I was 13 I was downloading MP3s from FTP sites that required ratios, converting them down to 64k (moving from stereo to mono), all so I could get twice as many songs on my 64MB Rio PMP350. The entire process was incredibly laborious.
I think my entire library was about 300MB at the time, which drew a lot of &quo...
posted by geoff. to MetaFilter at Jun-29-09 at 7:52 AM
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Yeah, Malice, except what about the times that birth control fails? What about the many, many women -- especially those who live in rural areas (and, obviously, are often part of a lower economic bracket) who don't have the benefit of a Planned Parenthood clinic around the corner? What about the teenager whose parents have preached abstinence-only,...
posted by shiu mai baby to MetaFilter at Jul-1-09 at 12:15 PM
50 users marked this as a favorite