earth - io9

posts about #earth more →
Nitrous Oxide Is Destroying the Earth
Other Suns and Planets May Provide Better Conditions for Life than Our Own
30 Characters Who Survived Their Planet's Destruction
Pollution May Actually Be Good for the Earth
Humans Will Need a Second Planet by 2030
The Earth's Magnetic Polarity is Due for a Reversal
Earth Angry, Sends Sarlaccs to Eat Humanity in Giant Texas Sinkhole
What If The Moon Crashed Into The Earth?
A Second Earth in Our Solar System
Smite Primitive Screwheads With Your Laser Gun

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Quilt
08/28/09

In reply to Nitrous Oxide Is Destroying the Earth
Broccoli is killing our Earth.
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rehabber
08/28/09

In reply to Nitrous Oxide Is Destroying the Earth
Just give it a few weeks and something else will come along to KILL the planet. I am 71 and played with mercury when I was a kid and it did not hurt me, me, me... Heck we rolled it around in our hands and put on rings to wear. What a joke.
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Annalee Newitz
08/28/09

@rehabber: When I was a kid, we ate plutonium and I'm totally fine today! Why people worry about nuclear waste I'll never know.
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Klebert L. Hall
08/29/09

@Annalee Newitz:

Oh, fine - you rich kids got Plutonium every day, while we had to walk ten miles, just to get a scrap of depleted Uranium for dinner...
-Kle.
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InsertBullets
08/28/09

In reply to Nitrous Oxide Is Destroying the Earth
Does that make Vin Diesel the world's worst enviromental criminal?
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Klebert L. Hall
08/28/09

In reply to Nitrous Oxide Is Destroying the Earth
"Sure whipits are fun, but now nitrous is destroying a lot more than your brain cells."

More accurately, it always has been, but now someone is pointing it out.

" A study published today in Science proves it is the leading cause of ozone layer destruction in the twenty-first century."

That would be because we have reduced the levels of the former leading causes to the point where NO is now prominent.

There will always be a leading cause; it would be more useful to talk about the magnitude of the effect than about what is the biggest effector.
-Kle.
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Dr Emilio Lizardo
08/28/09

@Klebert L. Hall: I hate that. They always talk about "The most dangerous car on the road" or "the fourth leading cause of death among teenagers." Just because something is most common, doesn't mean it is common.
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Klebert L. Hall
08/29/09

@Dr Emilio Lizardo:

A major problem in medicine, too - just because something doubles your risk of (cancer, heart disease, whatever) doesn't necessarily mean it's a big deal. It might be doubling it from infinitesimal to... infinitesimal.
-Kle.
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Trai_Dep
08/30/09

@Dr Emilio Lizardo: When I was in middle school, I figured the 4th leading cause of death among teenagers was masturbation.
And I did my frantic best to make it #3.
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Log1c
08/27/09

In reply to Nitrous Oxide Is Destroying the Earth

Needs more Devo
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Edited by Log1c at 08/27/09 7:54 PM Log1c was starred Log1c was unstarred

RandomFrequentFlierDent
08/27/09

In reply to Nitrous Oxide Is Destroying the Earth
"So now you know. Every hit you take on that nitrous cracker is killing the Earth."

So I guess going green would consist of . . . starting to shoot up heroin instead?
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gorehound
08/27/09

In reply to Nitrous Oxide Is Destroying the Earth
hahah and i still remember the first time i sukced down on the nitrous and it was in the early 70's high on LSD at a party where some guy had a tank of it with a gas mask rigged up.
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omgwtflolbbqbye
08/27/09

In reply to Nitrous Oxide Is Destroying the Earth
"Every hit you take on that nitrous cracker is killing the Earth"

Guess this chick is the Ted Bundy of the environment then.

EDIT: Ah dang, I just realized that she's only hooked on inhaling from computer dusters (which normally don't contain nitrous). For some reason I thought she was also doing whip cream cans.
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Edited by omgwtflolbbqbye at 08/27/09 6:42 PM omgwtflolbbqbye was starred omgwtflolbbqbye was unstarred

GitEmSteveDave_HazEnvy
08/27/09

@omgwtflolbbqbye: It's like I'm walking on sunshine! I will NEVER get tired of that. And how she freaked when they came to take her cat away, which lead to the two police officers having to restrain her.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.
08/27/09

In reply to Nitrous Oxide Is Destroying the Earth
I never understood the practice of sucking the nitrous out of whipped cream. The short span of intoxication is no match for the HUGE amount of bliss you can get out of eating the whole can of whipped cream. To say nothing of what you can do if you're not alone. ;)
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Annalee Newitz
08/28/09

@Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H.: I would like to subscribe to your "bliss and whipped cream" newsletter.
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Anekanta - former space marine
08/27/09

In reply to Nitrous Oxide Is Destroying the Earth
Does this mean I have to take the nitro booster tank out of my car?
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Edited by Anekanta - former space marine at 08/27/09 6:02 PM

Grey_Area
08/27/09

In reply to Nitrous Oxide Is Destroying the Earth
This had me busting out with laughter!

Oh look, Annalee posted something about science.
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Annalee Newitz
08/27/09

@Grey_Area: Put down the canister and slowly back away . . .
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Grey_Area
08/27/09

@Annalee Newitz: WhHaaaAAaaahh?
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twophrasebark
08/13/09

In reply to Other Suns and Planets May Provide Better Conditions for Life than Our Own
It's true there aren't a lot of bids for Earth on GalaxyBay. The Osoob just bought the planet for about 7 Jeorbs.

They'll be here next Tuesday.
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Cory Gross
08/13/09

In reply to Other Suns and Planets May Provide Better Conditions for Life than Our Own
I'm fascinated by the philosophical transition here... It used to be that life in the universe was so improbable that Earth was the only possible place it could be. Now, life in the universe is so probable that it's making life on Earth look more and more impossible. Of course, I say this is all philosophical because, regardless of your speculations, Earth is still the only place we know of with life.
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Blue_Thark
08/13/09

@Cory Gross: Yeah, it's sounding like instead of a "Goldilocks Zone" we're in more of a "Rumpelstiltzkin" situation... Locked in a tiny room, a power-mad king (hot sun) breathing down our necks, trying to spin straw into gold while tiny dwarf-creatures mock us from afar.

The dwarves, of course, are aliens who evolved in much higher gravity-- hence their short stature.
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Evil Tortie's Mom: R.O.A.C.H. promoted this comment Blue_Thark was starred Blue_Thark was unstarred

brentbent: C.O.C.K.R.O.A.C.H. )for all the queer super villians out there(
08/13/09

@Cory Gross: What's this we you talk about human?
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j.blo
08/13/09

In reply to Other Suns and Planets May Provide Better Conditions for Life than Our Own
Am I really going to be the first person to point out that the dude talking about stars is named Guinan? On this site?
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Blue_Thark
08/13/09

@j.blo: Well clearly he's been alive for centuries, and/or is from the future... Otherwise how else would he know so much about alien worlds?
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kolacek
08/13/09

In reply to Other Suns and Planets May Provide Better Conditions for Life than Our Own
Look, honestly? With lip service and apologies to all of the experts we hear from every week:

Given the immense frigging size of this universe we live in, I would not be surprised...no, actually let me rephrase that: I will bet cash freaking money on the fact that there is a damn-near-duplicate copy of this rock we live on with people who look exactly like us.

Write a "1" on a billboard sized piece of paper and then start writing zeros next to it for about 3 or 4 months. Look at that number. That probably doesn't cover the number of planets out there. How could it not be possible?
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Moonlighter
08/13/09

@kolacek: Actually, A more recent estimate of the number of stars in the universe has it around 7*10^22 ([www.space.com]). If our solar system is average in having 8 or 9 planets but only one or two of which may be in a 'habitable zone' you're still only looking at somewhere around 10^23 potentially habitable planets in the universe. The number is absolutely gigantic, but not as long to write out as you make it seem. Here, let me do it for you: 100,000,000,000,000,000,000,000. Even if we turn out to be a small-ish solar system and most had far more planets than ours, or larger habitable zones, it's unlikely we'd see any number larger than adding one more zero to that figure.
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