damn
i'd ordered butt plugs and everything.
The European Space Agency has confirmed there is no danger of asteroid 2012 TC4 hitting Earth in October, despite what some panicky YouTube videos might tell you. The rock was spotted five years ago when it whizzed past Earth, missing us by 94,800 kilometres (58,900 miles). Last month NASA eggheads reckoned the asteroid may …
The main question is will the two men with the smallest penis's and biggest ego's have had their towel fight by then?
When is Trump going to threaten the cosmos? Will the Norks fire some missiles into space as a warning?
Maybe it's just me but could it be that all the people that did drugs in the 60's and 70's are now in power which is why everything's getting a bit batshit fucking crazy? Can't wait for the next 20 years, mullets and drugs will be compulsory.
And here in the UK, we have a real-life version of Zelda from Terrahawks running the country...
Surely I can't be the only one to notice the parallels between the PM and Zelda ? BTW, from what I remember, Zelda's plans for world domination were about as successful as the PM's are turning out to be.
Don't think pot was the problem being referred to. Seems to be more all the cheap opiates coming out of Afghanistan and China after the addicts can't go the legal route any more. Of course the only difference to the crack epidemic a generation ago is who is mostly affected.
Pot is not an issue. In fact in older people it may have some beneficial effects on the brain.
The "opiates" aren't true opiates. They are highly synthetic and do not operate the same way that opium does (morphine, heroin). True opiates are hydrophilic. They are water soluble. Fentanyl and similar are lipophylic, they are fat soluble. Water soluble drugs diffuse into the brain through the blood/brain barrier slowly and are then degraded slowly.
Fat soluble drugs are fast in and fast out. This makes overdose far more likely. The synthetics also do not activate the neurochemical receptors in the same manner although the main one(s) are much the same. It isn't just one receptor. There are about 8 IIRC and about half of them are not well characterized last time I studied in this area.
I am considering becoming involved in the code for a hand held mass spectrometer they are developing at the University. It will be used to detect the fake opiates in just molecular quantities. I have worked with spectrometers in the past. I have also done scientific glass blowing.
I really wonder just how long the opiate epidemic will last? At some point we should run out of addicts... Shallow end of the gene pool...
I guess it would be nice to land some sort of tracking beacon on it, and a sensor package while we're at it. Maybe space agencies should work on developing this capability. Most of it could be off the shelf or from leftovers or spare parts from programmes that got scrapped. Put a probe with the beacon and sensors in a parking orbit past the geosynchronous sats around Earth, or maybe in a Moon orbit. Probe would need a fairly powerful motor and a large tank.
The headline photo, if it genuinely portrays 2012TC4, indicates that its orbit is now sufficiently well known to allow the telescope to track it.
In addition to 2012TC4, the photo also shows the trace of another body moving obliquely to 2012TC4. From the faintness and length of the trace I'm guessing it to be another asteroid (I think a satellite would be much more reflective and so quite a bit brighter), moving about twice as fast as 2012TC4 and so somewhat closer to us.