Sunday, October 23, 2011
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Shoot for the Moon
There are many adages that we learn as we grow. For example, "We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit." And that's absolutely true and semi-motivates you to want to be awesome. But some of these expressions are completely false and should not ever be repeated. One such example: "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you'll land among the stars." Absolutely false.
Newtons first law of motion tells us that velocity (and thus momentum) is constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force. That means, if you shoot for the moon and miss, you're not going to land anywhere at all. The cold vacuum of outer space will turn you into a frozen ball of ice and you'll find yourself hurtling through space, forever.
Even if you're traveling in a space capsule or something built to withstand the environment, you certainly won't land anywhere, and more importantly, you won't be among the stars. Stars are billions and billions of miles apart from one another, so even stars aren't among themselves. And unless you have the luminosity of a star, no one is going to give a fuck that you're out there anyway. You're like the tree that fell in the woods.
"Hey, if a guy is flying through space and no one ever hears about it or sees him or it has any bearing on existence at all, was the guy even flying through space at all?"
Despite the odds being nearly nil, the best possible situation would be to get pulled into the gravitational field of a distant star and then you could potentially become a planet. Which would be pretty cool. Or you could be a moon of one of those planets. Despite taking it in college, I don't really know the physics of a body entering a foreign galaxy (unless of course we're talking about that night I spent in Bangkok. Huzzah.).
Past precedent tells us that you don't need to be shooting for the moon anyway. No other country in the world has ever landed a man on the moon other than the United States, and even NASA had a hell of a time pulling it off.
Is it possible that this expression was actually developed by NASA to motivate astronauts? Absolutely not. In the eyes of the world, three lost astronauts is a complete and utter failure, considering the desired intent was to hit the moon.
So, to the author of this seemingly motivational expression, fuck you.
-Craig JW, 110927
Newtons first law of motion tells us that velocity (and thus momentum) is constant unless the body is acted upon by an external force. That means, if you shoot for the moon and miss, you're not going to land anywhere at all. The cold vacuum of outer space will turn you into a frozen ball of ice and you'll find yourself hurtling through space, forever.
Even if you're traveling in a space capsule or something built to withstand the environment, you certainly won't land anywhere, and more importantly, you won't be among the stars. Stars are billions and billions of miles apart from one another, so even stars aren't among themselves. And unless you have the luminosity of a star, no one is going to give a fuck that you're out there anyway. You're like the tree that fell in the woods.
"Hey, if a guy is flying through space and no one ever hears about it or sees him or it has any bearing on existence at all, was the guy even flying through space at all?"
Despite the odds being nearly nil, the best possible situation would be to get pulled into the gravitational field of a distant star and then you could potentially become a planet. Which would be pretty cool. Or you could be a moon of one of those planets. Despite taking it in college, I don't really know the physics of a body entering a foreign galaxy (unless of course we're talking about that night I spent in Bangkok. Huzzah.).
Past precedent tells us that you don't need to be shooting for the moon anyway. No other country in the world has ever landed a man on the moon other than the United States, and even NASA had a hell of a time pulling it off.
Is it possible that this expression was actually developed by NASA to motivate astronauts? Absolutely not. In the eyes of the world, three lost astronauts is a complete and utter failure, considering the desired intent was to hit the moon.
So, to the author of this seemingly motivational expression, fuck you.
-Craig JW, 110927
Saturday, May 7, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
Athena's New Habit #2
When Athena wants me to wake up in the morning to take her to the bathroom, she jumps [up the (box spring + mattress) distance] onto my bed and lays down with her front half on the top of my head.
should this event ever be documented, i will upload pics.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)