Milky Way's black hole to eat space cloud mid-2013
Offline The colossal black hole at the center of our Milky Way galaxy will soon to get a big, tasty meal, astronomers say. A humongous gas cloud is on a collision course for the Milky Way's core — the home of Sagittarius A*(pronounced "Sagittarius A-star") which scientists suspect is a supermassive black hole with the mass of 4 million suns. When the huge gas cloud arrives in the vicinity, which it will appear to us to do in mid-2013, it will surely be swallowed up by the hungry black hole, scientists say.
Astrophysicist Stefan Gillessen of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Munich Germany, has been observing the Milky Way's center for about 20 years. So far, he's seen only two stars come as close to Sagittarius A* as the cloud will.
"They passed unharmed, but this time will be different: the gas cloud will be completely ripped apart by the tidal forces of the black hole," Gillessen said in a statement.
The cloud is due to pass within about 36 light-hours (about 25 billion miles, or 40 billion kilometers) of the black hole. Its speed, which is now more than 5 million mph (8 million km per hour), has nearly doubled in the last seven years as it approaches its doom. It has already started to shred, and is likely to break up completely before it hits the black hole.
While black holes themselves are impossible to see — they are objects whose gravitational pull is so strong, even light cannot escape — astronomers can watch what happens when matter falls into one. The areas around some active supermassive black holes are so bright, in fact, that they are visible across the universe. Scientists are looking forward to the rare chance to see something fall into our own galaxy's black hole. As it falls nearer and nearer, the cloud is expected to heat up and release bright X-ray radiation that should be visible from Earth. The collision-bound cloud was discovered by a team of astronomers led by Reinhard Genzel at the European Southern Observatory.
http://www.space.com/16388-milky-way-black-hole-eats-cloud.html
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
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W and O and W!
Reading stuff like this is far more interesting than stupid ancient comic books.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
Yes. We need to clear our palate every so often and scrape the shit off our shoes.
Me and this dumb degree in theology. Wasted time.
Religion Kills !!!
Numbers 31:17-18 - Now kill all the boys. And kill every woman who has slept with a man, but save for yourselves every girl who has never slept with a man.
http://jesus-needs-money.blogspot.com/
Well, you wasted your time believing it, yes. But to be a good chess player, you need to know the moves of your rival, having been on that side at one time, makes you a much better atheist. So no, you did not waste your time. It only would have been a waste if you had never gotten out of it.
Consider yourself a well educated deprogramer. Having been on that side, those still there cant pull any shit on you because you know the same things they do. And we are certainly glad you have that information. Sucked that you had to believe to get there, but now you are putting that to good use.
"We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus -- and nonbelievers."Obama
Check out my poetry here on Rational Responders Like my poetry thread on Facebook under Brian James Rational Poet, @Brianrrs37 on Twitter and my blog at www.brianjamesrationalpoet.blog
I totally agree with Brian on that.
“It is proof of a base and low mind for one to wish to think with the masses or majority, merely because the majority is the majority. Truth does not change because it is, or is not, believed by a majority of the people.”
― Giordano Bruno
Depending on the particular degree, it may be useful. My former S-I-L (of blessed memory), had a M.Div and I believe she worked as a counselor.
The problem with a lot of theology degrees (and theologies ...) is that they focus more on Hell and less on Life On Earth. If I had a M.Div or D.Div and ran off and became and Atheist, I'd be looking at the "social worker" professions. Especially since the clergy ideally =should= be concerned about "social work". Not that many of them are ...
"Obviously I'm convinced of the existence of G-d. I'm equally convinced that Atheists who've led good lives will be in Olam HaBa going "How the heck did I wind up in this place?!?" while Christians who've treated people like dirt will be in some other place asking the exact same question."
The only possible thing the world needs saving from are those running it.
https://sites.google.com/site/oldseers
Knowledge trumps faith and I'm not a Theist
Lies are nothing more then falsehoods searching for the truth
The only possible thing the world needs saving from are those running it.
https://sites.google.com/site/oldseers
Knowledge trumps faith and I'm not a Theist
Lies are nothing more then falsehoods searching for the truth
that theologians know much at all about God. Wasn't the knowledge of God lost in the fall of Adam. If it was lost then they can't possibly know. That's why they are still theologians. If they actually knew then there wouldn't be theologians. Thenwise, as long as there's theologians ---they don't know. Think about that. Your time wasn't wasted- you merely spent a lot of time finding out they are wrong. You completed step one.
The only possible thing the world needs saving from are those running it.
https://sites.google.com/site/oldseers
Knowledge trumps faith and I'm not a Theist
Lies are nothing more then falsehoods searching for the truth
now an observation from the peanut gallery...
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
the book is faulty, the commentaries are faulty, every fucking thing a human makes, including his god, is faulty. the knowledge of that is the only thing that isn't faulty.
btw, if you took any time to actually try to get to know ex a bit, rather than seeing him as another mark for your divine con, you'd know he's spent his life "trying again" a fuck load more than most of us. you fucking try again.
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
We have it correct.
You've got complaints--then you find a solution. Don't just wimper and bawl---tell us what's wrong in the world. How can it be fixed/corrected. What you've demonstrated here is eggszakly what's wrong with it. Temper tantrums detract/subtract from one's intellect. You've got to be smarter then you exhibit. Try again. If you use the word human then be one, and/or find the difference between human and animal. Do that, and you've got the answer. Hate goes nowhere. When ii interjected "try again" I meant -- keep searching for the answer. It wasn't meant as a negative.
The only possible thing the world needs saving from are those running it.
https://sites.google.com/site/oldseers
Knowledge trumps faith and I'm not a Theist
Lies are nothing more then falsehoods searching for the truth
uh-huh. get in line with that assertion, pal.
i do. i'm a high school teacher. i spend every day training my kids to be politically active secular humanists, and to question everything, especially those who claim to have the answers (and i believe those answers simply don't exist). sometimes it actually takes hold, too.
we do it all the time. what's wrong is religion and irrational thinking. what we try to do is contain it through education. that is my career, in fact. what i do here is nothing more than a hobby.
"human" is a construct made up by our particular species. there is no essential difference between "us" and "them." still, it's a useful construct, since to date no other species yet possesses the capability to eradicate the entire biosphere. this construct consists of empathy and altruism, which i hammer into my students' heads year after year. also, a healthy dose of realism goes along with it.
if you think i'm showing hate toward you, you really do think a lot of yourself.
and i'm saying that just because ex has decided to leave behind a millennia-old dead book and a bunch of ideas about a fictional sky-daddy doesn't mean he's stopped searching for "the answer." on the contrary, he has clearly progressed far beyond the level of those who persist in clinging to fables as somehow purer expressions of truth than what is before our five senses.
more than that, regardless of your intent, your remark came from an imagined position of superiority. who are you to give advice? what makes you think you know more than ex, a man who is facing--and has faced before--a debilitating, potentially fatal disease with an incredible amount of courage and introspection, all of it without the crutch of self-indulgent fantasy? i'm sorry, but were i facing the possibility of a slow, painful death, i think i'd find your prating on about looking for supposed "answers" a wee bit trivial.
or, to paraphrase the prajnaparamita, "samsara is fucking nirvana and nirvana is fucking samsara. dipshit."
"I have never felt comfortable around people who talk about their feelings for Jesus, or any other deity for that matter, because they are usually none too bright. . . . Or maybe 'stupid' is a better way of saying it; but I have never seen much point in getting heavy with either stupid people or Jesus freaks, just as long as they don't bother me. In a world as weird and cruel as this one we have made for ourselves, I figure anybody who can find peace and personal happiness without ripping off somebody else deserves to be left alone. They will not inherit the earth, but then neither will I. . . . And I have learned to live, as it were, with the idea that I will never find peace and happiness, either. But as long as I know there's a pretty good chance I can get my hands on either one of them every once in a while, I do the best I can between high spots."
--Hunter S. Thompson
That is really interesting ex-minister, I look forward to reading about the observations of those watching the gas cloud being consumed.
I've always been fascinated by black-holes, especially the supermassive one that is likely at the center of our galaxy.
Secularist, Atheist, Skeptic, Freethinker