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Topic: Space Thread (Read 519106 times)
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Nebu
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Hope they take pictures of the US flag. Not technically accurate, but still got me to chuckle.
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"Always do what is right. It will gratify half of mankind and astound the other."
- Mark Twain
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satael
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Posts: 2431
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Rosetta woke up! It was kind of interesting to watch it happen live (on tv) and see how the little spike in the signal was such a big thing
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calapine
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Posts: 7352
Solely responsible for the thread on "The Condom Wall."
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Rosetta woke up! It was kind of interesting to watch it happen live (on tv) and see how the little spike in the signal was such a big thing Big thing due to being all solar powered. Other satellites going beyond Mars had radioisotope thermoelectric generators. 10th year in space too, so it's holding up well. Some background: DLR | CHASING A COMET - The Rosetta Mission
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« Last Edit: January 20, 2014, 09:47:56 PM by calapine »
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Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic!
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Lucas
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Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.
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" He's so impatient, it's like watching a teenager fuck a glorious older woman." - Ironwood on J.J. Abrams
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Trippy
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Lucas
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Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.
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Ahh, thanks for that link: sure, not as glamourous as other theories that started circulating after the announcement, but very interesting nonetheless: According to theory, the primordial gravitational waves will tell us about the first, infinitessimal moment of the universe's history. Cosmologists believe that 10-34 seconds after the big bang (a decimal point followed by 33 zeros and a one) the universe was driven to expand hugely.
Known as inflation, the theory was dreamed up to explain why the universe is so remarkably uniform from place to place. But it has always lacked some credibility because no one can find a convincing physical explanation for why it happened.
Now researchers may be forced to redouble their efforts. "The primordial gravitational waves have long been thought to be the smoking gun of inflation. It's as close to a proof of that theory as you are going to get," says Peiris. This is because cosmologists believe only inflation can amplify the primordial gravitational waves into a detectable signal. I guess it also implies and build a more solid ground for the Big Bang theory in general.
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" He's so impatient, it's like watching a teenager fuck a glorious older woman." - Ironwood on J.J. Abrams
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Lucas
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Posts: 3298
Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.
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" He's so impatient, it's like watching a teenager fuck a glorious older woman." - Ironwood on J.J. Abrams
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Khaldun
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Posts: 15163
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Ahh, thanks for that link: sure, not as glamourous as other theories that started circulating after the announcement, but very interesting nonetheless: According to theory, the primordial gravitational waves will tell us about the first, infinitessimal moment of the universe's history. Cosmologists believe that 10-34 seconds after the big bang (a decimal point followed by 33 zeros and a one) the universe was driven to expand hugely.
Known as inflation, the theory was dreamed up to explain why the universe is so remarkably uniform from place to place. But it has always lacked some credibility because no one can find a convincing physical explanation for why it happened.
Now researchers may be forced to redouble their efforts. "The primordial gravitational waves have long been thought to be the smoking gun of inflation. It's as close to a proof of that theory as you are going to get," says Peiris. This is because cosmologists believe only inflation can amplify the primordial gravitational waves into a detectable signal. I guess it also implies and build a more solid ground for the Big Bang theory in general. Was talking with a cosmologist I know and he says actually that the findings are driving everyone nuts. Yes, they confirm inflation, but in fact the gravitational waves are much, much stronger than any theory predicted they should be, and that's a huge problem that can possibly make sense only if there is a multiverse of a particular kind.
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Bungee
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Posts: 897
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Was talking with a cosmologist I know and he says actually that the findings are driving everyone nuts. Yes, they confirm inflation, but in fact the gravitational waves are much, much stronger than any theory predicted they should be, and that's a huge problem that can possibly make sense only if there is a multiverse of a particular kind.
I actually thought that this was the big takeway and breaking news in all of this, that the findings push multiverses and string-theory/supersymmetry at the edge of "Fact."
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Freedom is the raid target. -tazelbain
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Khaldun
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Yeah. Though my colleague was saying that it is even causing some problems for supersymmetry and string theory, which are also being undercut in complicated ways by CERN work (nobody's seeing the predicted supersymmetric particles at the mass range they ought to be at). The strength of the gravitational waves requires some really particular kinds of multiverses--he was saying it's as if our observable universe is just a sort of bounded pocket universe where everything has cooled, but inflation from the Big Bang is still going on in adjacent "universes".
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Cyrrex
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So what you are saying is that Sliders is actually possible.
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"...maybe if you cleaned the piss out of the sunny d bottles under your desks and returned em, you could upgrade you vid cards, fucken lusers.." - Grunk
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Bungee
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So what you are saying is that Sliders is actually possible probable.
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Freedom is the raid target. -tazelbain
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tazelbain
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tazelbain
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Sounds like a vote for Culture multiverse.
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"Me am play gods"
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Khaldun
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I don't have the math to even vaguely understand, but I don't think it's the Sliders kind of multiverse that splits off from every action or difference. It's sort of like when you have a big plate full of soap bubbles. Maybe we're in one soap bubble and there are a bunch of others, and the whole thing is getting more and more air pumped into it, including our soap bubble.
Hope it doesn't pop.
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Morat20
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Yeah. Though my colleague was saying that it is even causing some problems for supersymmetry and string theory, which are also being undercut in complicated ways by CERN work (nobody's seeing the predicted supersymmetric particles at the mass range they ought to be at). The strength of the gravitational waves requires some really particular kinds of multiverses--he was saying it's as if our observable universe is just a sort of bounded pocket universe where everything has cooled, but inflation from the Big Bang is still going on in adjacent "universes".
Cosmologists -- well, technically physicists but physics doesn't get any funkier than early Big Bang -- really need something weird to study. They've been stuck. The Standard Model works too frickin' well, but they can't reconcile gravity and quantum mechanics. And they don't -- or didn't -- have anything far enough outside of expectations to really give them ideas. So if it's multiverse crap that gets them a lever to pry open the next level of the universe's secrets, that's great. :) Edited to add: I think they're talking brane theory or M-theory or something like that.
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Ghambit
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Posts: 5576
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In order for those grav. waves to exist only within the spacetime of the big bang (when viewed from a higher reference frame), M-Theory (two branes banging together) would just about have to be a reality; so expect to see those guys showing off real soon. My thing though (especially if the energy levels dont fit) is that how do we know for sure that the grav. waves arent entirely non-local? What if a large amount of them (if not all) actually come from another 'verse entirely?
To me, that's always been the more compelling theory... Green's old 'Gravity Phone' analogy, wherein we could possibly divine data from grav. waves that are coming from another universe (or the multiverse) entirely, as it's posited that gravity would be the only recognizable force between universes/branes.
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« Last Edit: April 06, 2014, 12:38:12 PM by Ghambit »
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"See, the beauty of webgames is that I can play them on my phone while I'm plowing your mom." -Samwise
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Merusk
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Posts: 27449
Badge Whore
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Yeah. Though my colleague was saying that it is even causing some problems for supersymmetry and string theory, which are also being undercut in complicated ways by CERN work (nobody's seeing the predicted supersymmetric particles at the mass range they ought to be at). The strength of the gravitational waves requires some really particular kinds of multiverses--he was saying it's as if our observable universe is just a sort of bounded pocket universe where everything has cooled, but inflation from the Big Bang is still going on in adjacent "universes".
How does that mesh with the "oh crap we might just be a hologram" stuff that was found a few years ago. With my limited knowledge it seems like they'd be reinforcing each other. We're a reflection of another universe/ sprung off of the "primary" otherworld. We're not the man, we're the mirror. (explains all these goatees...)
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The past cannot be changed. The future is yet within your power.
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Bungee
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Posts: 897
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Freedom is the raid target. -tazelbain
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Ghambit
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Posts: 5576
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Meh, most of these teleconferences are letdowns. NASA/JPL are very open with their data, so the majority of the time the "big news" is rather mundane. Geeks love talking shop also; give 'em a pedestal and they'll use it, especially where grants are concerned.
Most this will be is a superearth sized planet located in the habitable zone. It would prove the tech., for sure - but that's really already been done. The main crux of all this is eventually linking SETI with projects at higher wavelengths that can narrow the field. That's where the rubber meets the road.
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« Last Edit: April 17, 2014, 09:22:58 AM by Ghambit »
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"See, the beauty of webgames is that I can play them on my phone while I'm plowing your mom." -Samwise
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Bungee
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Posts: 897
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Meh, most of these teleconferences are letdowns. NASA/JPL are very open with their data, so the majority of the time the "big news" is rather mundane. Geeks love talking shop also; give 'em a pedestal and they'll use it, especially where grants are concerned.
Most this will be is a superearth sized planet located in the habitable zone. It would prove the tech., for sure - but that's really already been done. The main crux of all this is eventually linking SETI with projects at higher wavelengths that care narrow the field. That's where the rubber meets the road.
Well they did add somebody from SETI to the lineup for the conference. No idea how usual that is though tbh.
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Freedom is the raid target. -tazelbain
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Ghambit
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Posts: 5576
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"See, the beauty of webgames is that I can play them on my phone while I'm plowing your mom." -Samwise
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Lucas
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Posts: 3298
Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.
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Great news (and this time is not even a so called "super-earth") ! Be sure to read the entire article 'cause it contains a lot more info: Although the size of Kepler-186f is known, its mass and composition are not. Previous research, however, suggests that a planet the size of Kepler-186f is likely to be rocky. [...] Kepler-186f orbits its star once every 130-days and receives one-third the energy from its star that Earth gets from the sun, placing it nearer the outer edge of the habitable zone. On the surface of Kepler-186f, the brightness of its star at high noon is only as bright as our sun appears to us about an hour before sunset. [...] "Being in the habitable zone does not mean we know this planet is habitable. The temperature on the planet is strongly dependent on what kind of atmosphere the planet has," said Thomas Barclay, research scientist at the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute at Ames, and co-author of the paper. "Kepler-186f can be thought of as an Earth-cousin rather than an Earth-twin. It has many properties that resemble Earth."
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" He's so impatient, it's like watching a teenager fuck a glorious older woman." - Ironwood on J.J. Abrams
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Ghambit
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Posts: 5576
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I sat through the entire Ustream. All 80 of us! There were a whole 1000 people watching though.
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"See, the beauty of webgames is that I can play them on my phone while I'm plowing your mom." -Samwise
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Lucas
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Posts: 3298
Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.
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" He's so impatient, it's like watching a teenager fuck a glorious older woman." - Ironwood on J.J. Abrams
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Numtini
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Posts: 7675
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I hadn't realized they were doing a new ship instead of just man rating the Dragon v1. Ground landings with thrusters is really ambitious.
Sierra and Boeing are years behind on this. The Dream Chaser isn't even up for a test until 2016 and I have no idea what's going on with Boeing. If the Russians really do cut us off from lifts, I could see some $$ getting tossed at Space X to get the thing man rated sooner rather than later.
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If you can read this, you're on a board populated by misogynist assholes.
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Chimpy
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While it is cool and all that they have shown off their new design, it looks like a "hey look at the shiny" to me. The seats look to have zero vibration dampening built into them at all, not to mention they are just carbon fibre with a tiny leather pad that is just decorative. And touch screens are pretty useless if they can't be used with a pressure-suit glove since post Apollo 1 (and the previous Soviet training accident) no one does launch or re-entry sans pressure suit.
I like the idea of a lot of what SpaceX is doing but I have heard some pretty galling reports of terrible QA/QC on things like fuel tank welds in the past which tied with their whole "See we can do this better and cheaper and faster, FREE MARKET, YO!" attitude they scare me a little bit. I would love to be proven wrong and see them successful, but spaceflight is a dangerous business and the fact that they really have not had a big failure themselves to learn from makes me wait for the other shoe to drop more than if they had a catastrophic failure that caused them to revisit things.
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'Reality' is the only word in the language that should always be used in quotes.
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Numtini
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It looked to me like the dampening is built into the struts--are those cushions or pistons or both. What's most astonishing to me is that something that small can carry enough fuel for a powered descent. It seems like that should require a huge amount of power.
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If you can read this, you're on a board populated by misogynist assholes.
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Venkman
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I agree with all of this. You can tell they're lead by business rather than science. I applaud them trying to make it interesting for consumers though. On touchscreens though, not sure it's that difficult even in a suit. Capacitive fingers and large enough points on the UI. Biggest issue is whether a touchscreen UI has a greater chance of input errors than discrete buttons. Consider how often I can screw something up on my iPad, I'm skeptical a shaky rocket under thrust is a valid use for UI even with the most well trained physically fit person
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Lucas
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Posts: 3298
Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.
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« Last Edit: July 16, 2014, 11:19:48 AM by Lucas »
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" He's so impatient, it's like watching a teenager fuck a glorious older woman." - Ironwood on J.J. Abrams
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Lucas
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Posts: 3298
Further proof that Italians have suspect taste in games.
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" He's so impatient, it's like watching a teenager fuck a glorious older woman." - Ironwood on J.J. Abrams
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01101010
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You call it an accident. I call it justice.
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That seems extremely dangerous. I guess it could be a huge benefit, but man I'd hate to risk something going bizarrely wrong.
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Does any one know where the love of God goes...When the waves turn the minutes to hours? -G. Lightfoot
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calapine
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Posts: 7352
Solely responsible for the thread on "The Condom Wall."
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After a space-journey of merely 10 years Rosetta is of happenings! Picture of 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko taken this Tuesday at a distance of 1950 km: Roating image (earlier this month): Final rendezvous next Wedneday (6th August) and touchdown of the lander (Philae) in November.
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Restoration is a perfectly valid school of magic!
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WayAbvPar
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And then the report that they knocked it off its orbit and it is now headed directly at the earth, and Bruce Willis isn't taking calls.
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When speaking of the MMOG industry, the glass may be half full, but it's full of urine. HaemishM
Always wear clean underwear because you never know when a Tory Government is going to fuck you.- Ironwood
Libertarians make fun of everyone because they can't see beyond the event horizons of their own assholes Surlyboi
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01101010
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You call it an accident. I call it justice.
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And then the report that they knocked it off its orbit and it is now headed directly at the earth, and Bruce Willis isn't taking calls.
And Affleck is in Gotham, busy with shit.
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Does any one know where the love of God goes...When the waves turn the minutes to hours? -G. Lightfoot
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Shannow
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Someone liked something? Who the fuzzy fuck was this heretic? You don't come to this website and enjoy something. Fuck that. ~ The Walrus
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