Steven Cloud

The Asteroid Belt

Steven Cloud:  why doesn't the asteroid belt coalesce?
Cananopie:  I noticed that the orbits between Mars and Jupiter (where the asteroid belt is) looks as though there ought to be a planet there instead of the asteroid belt. Has it ever been considered that the asteroid belt was maybe a destroyed planet?
The Answer
Thank you for your question! The fact that the asteroid belt has such a well-defined, high concentration of asteroids suggests two things. One, that they are fragments of a planet that broke-up long ago, or two, that they are rocks that never managed to accumulate into a genuine planet. Currently, scientists tend to favor the latter explanation. According to Eric Chaisson and Steve McMillan, the authors of the text book "Astronomy Today", 1993 edition, "There is far too little mass in the belt to constitute a planet, and the marked chemical differences between individual asteroids strongly suggest that the asteroids could not all have originated in a single planet. Instead, astronomers believe that the strong gravitational field of Jupiter continuously disturbs the motions of these chunks of primitive matter, nudging and pulling at them, thereby prohibiting them from aggregating into a planet. The existence and composition of the asteroid belt joins the general properties of the planets and their moons on our list of features that any theory of solar system formation must explain."
- NASA
Steven Cloud:  fucking nasa
Cananopie:  The culmination of humanity prior to our generation just winced with what ease I found the information
Steven Cloud:  haha

Pijohos: saw a dude in a prius throw an ipod out of his window
Pijojos: it was DIVINE

Steven Cloud: wow, if you could have taken a picture… that would be our generation’s ‘dust bowl mom’ picture

Eleven contestants will battle for the “gamer’s ultimate dream job,” testing PlayStation games

pijohos: http://kotaku.com/5453899/meet-the-cast-of-sonys-reality-show-the-tester

Steven Cloud: what do testers make?

pijohos: 8-15hr
pijohos: max

pijohos: a reality show to get a minimum wage job

Steven Cloud: haha exactly
Steven Cloud: that’s where we are now as a society
Steven Cloud: it’s a DREAM to make just above the poverty level

The Future.

Cananopie: this wired article you linked a while back is crazy.

Steven Cloud: yeah totally

Cananopie: And I say probably a bad idea

Steven Cloud: creeps me out

Cananopie: right - like the article basically says “Yea, trying to control people through drugs and electricity - old fuckin news baby - we’ve got the way - we’re controlling them with light, and it’s like 10 years down the road baby”

Steven Cloud: they try to act like it’s for people with injuries, but they’ll militarize it straight away. try to say it prevents PTSD. then we’ll finally have remorseless killing machines

Cananopie: or reprogram misbehavior in criminals

Steven Cloud: right. “criminals”

Cananopie: and then to potential criminals

Steven Cloud: yup. then simple deviants

Cananopie: and then mandatory at birth

Steven Cloud: prenatal dude. prenatal.

Cananopie: right - fucked.

Steven Cloud: sigh.

Cananopie: the technology will most likely be lost when the world collapses before then though

Steven Cloud: silver lining!

Cananopie: thats it.

Cananopie:  wheres the site that tells you how much postage is
Steven Cloud:  usps.com -- very obscure site.