My favorite part of the article:
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Both of the crucial observations are still ambiguous, however, and may be statistical flukes. Over the next year or so, WMAP and other experiments will test whether large blobs really are lacking and whether small ones really are elliptical.If they are, then our Universe is curved like a Pringle, shaped like a horn, and named after a Star Trek character. You could not make it up.
Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism, it's just the opposite. - John Kenneth Galbraith
Anyway, that's pretty cool.
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Inferno-Spirit said this about your mom:
Sphere
That was a stupid movie.
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We were all impressed when Tarquinn wrote:
That was a stupid movie.
It was a book. Fuck that movie nonsense.
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Inferno-Spirit's fortune cookie read:
It was a book. Fuck that movie nonsense.
I hope the book had a better ending.
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Tarquinn's unholy Backstreet Boys obsession manifested in:
That was a stupid movie.
There was no movie only the book. I refuse to believe the movie exhisted, but it was only a bad dream.
Second: If space really is finite, what exists outside of it? 
Does anything? Is there a larger existance? Goddamn.
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Suddar wrote, obviously thinking too hard:
First: I hope to see mysteries of space such as this solved in my lifetime.Second: If space really is finite, what exists outside of it?
Does anything? Is there a larger existance? Goddamn.
well you rember MIB II? we are just lving in the locker of some other races trainstation
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Suddar painfully thought these words up:
If space really is finite, what exists outside of it?
Our universe is just a galaxy for another universe. And that universe is just a galaxy to another universe. Our universe is just a small speck in the grand scheme of things.
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Karnaj probably says this to all the girls:
Both of the crucial observations are still ambiguous, however, and may be statistical flukes.
Not that it really matters what shape our universe is, as we won't be exploring it anytime soon.
Just more wasted money that should be spent on more important things.
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Peanut butter ass Shaq Reynar booooze lime pole over bench lick:
Just more wasted money that should be spent on more important things.
Actually, money invested in astrophysics is not only tantamount to money invested in mankind's philisophical development, but developments in astrophysics lead to a better understanding of the mechanics of our universe and thereby better control over our universe.
So in other words, you're completely wrong. In the grandest scheme, there is nothing more important than astrophysics.
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Maradon! got all f'ed up on Angel Dust and wrote:
Actually, money invested in astrophysics is not only tantamount to money invested in mankind's philisophical development, but developments in astrophysics lead to a better understanding of the mechanics of our universe and thereby better control over our universe.So in other words, you're completely wrong. In the grandest scheme, there is nothing more important than astrophysics.
Please tell me, how determining the shape of our universe will give us any better control over it then we previously had? What a rediculous statement.
We dont even understand the basic functions of our universe, spending money to know it's shape is highly unlikely to provide any answers. And even if they knew, it's still just a 'best guess' scenario, like everything. Finding the boundries of the universe is simply not possible by our current technology.
Where space does pay off is when we invest in tangible programs like going to the moon, or mars, etc. Those programs always yield new technologies that help us as a whole (microwave ovens, laser surgury, digital satellite networks).
But that's not what this is, it's simply guessing based on what they see through a telescope, not to mention the data is millions of years old at the very least.
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Reynar had this to say about dark elf butts:
Please tell me, how determining the shape of our universe will give us any better control over it then we previously had? What a rediculous statement.We dont even understand the basic functions of our universe, spending money to know it's shape is highly unlikely to provide any answers. Finding the boundries of the universe is simply not possible by our current technology.
Where space does pay off is when we invest in tangible programs like going to the moon, or mars, etc. Those programs always yield new technologies that help us as a whole (microwave ovens, laser surgury, digital satellite networks).
...not to mention the data is millions of years old at the very least.
Hrm, I don't agree with you. First off, I don't think that it is ridiculous to state that this will give us better control over the universe. You cannot have practical science without any type of theory or hypothesis behind it; THAT is simply absurd. The other thing that bugged me was your insinuiation that this doesn't yield any new technologies, but going to Mars (or the Moon) will. Exploration will always cause the creation of new technologies, but we don't necessarily have to be there. To study this new phenomena, maybe they will have to figure out some new way to study things that are *very* far away, is that not new technology?
I know you'll say, "But these don't help us" so I will just use a rebuttal here. Do you think that there would have been *any* support for the Space Program in the 60's/70's if the U.S. was not competing with the Soviet Union? This is easy- no. I'm sure the argument then would've been (if not for competiton with the USSR) "They don't give us any anything!!!" Look what it [exploration] gave us, if people had not been to space or had to *ahem* go to the moon, people would have never even been able to study the properties of places other than the Earth, and thus the environment would not have existed for innovation.
What exactly does this mean? Well... Galileo studied the stars with his telescope 400 years ago and imagined what would've been. Guess what we are doing? Would you have preferred that he went on a boat to Cuba etc because was the only thing that would've been beneficial. I mean... who needs those dumb telescopes anyway?
And let's face it... the amount of money spent on this project is VERY negligible in comparision to Monkey-Man's send an American to Mars charade.
We tend to notice the large discreptancies at the extremes and after formulating the theory to explain them exploit that knowledge on more everyday problems.
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So quoth Hugin:
Observations of the universe on extreme ends of our scales give us data which is valuable when it comes to validating our theoretical models. Quantum Physics arose when we noted that our current rules broke down over very small scales of time, space and energy. From those findings many useful things have arisen.We tend to notice the large discreptancies at the extremes and after formulating the theory to explain them exploit that knowledge on more everyday problems.
Except that Quantum Physics came independant of the exploration of the universe, so Im not sure how that's relevant to this. They've been working on it since before the 1920's, as it was evident from the study of just the things on our own planet, that there was something more.
Quantum Physics was just the next logical step in our technological evolution.
Manticore fucked around with this message on 04-16-2004 at 04:23 PM.
oh, can I get a million dollars for that if I'm right?
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Manticore wrote, obviously thinking too hard:
I bet it's round. it would make sense... or maybe thats just me. if it IS just me, get drunk or high, then try telling me why it doesnt make sense.
oh, can I get a million dollars for that if I'm right?
I have 2 buttons and a set of nail clippers in my pocket, you can have those 
In the end, knowledge is never useless. Seeking out every new idea possible should be the endevor of our race because, when it comes right down to it, we have very little else to do.
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Suddar had this to say about Matthew Broderick:
First: I hope to see mysteries of space such as this solved in my lifetime.Second: If space really is finite, what exists outside of it?
There is no outside, just as there is no before. The universe is absolutely everything. That's what a universe is all about. "Outside of the universe" is the same as saying "on the corner of the circle," an irrational statement.
Naimah fucked around with this message on 04-16-2004 at 11:18 PM.
The pinning down of the large scale geometry of the universe is useful since it will have a effect on every scale from the universe in its entirety to something on the scale of the earth. In the article they mention that towards the point of the horn you could see the back of your own head. That is the effect at the extreme, there will also be an effect here, much smaller but who knows how we might exploit it once it is well understood.
We should note though that this hypothesis of the horn shaped universe has not been scientifically proven yet, more data is once again needed to fully validate it.
And I may add that I would have said something similar to Naimah if he hadn't put it so well himself. Hugin fucked around with this message on 04-17-2004 at 02:13 PM.
Hugin fucked around with this message on 04-17-2004 at 02:12 PM.
