First off, if you're having problems with the Flash videos, read this.
The other day I noticed a link to an article titled Why Pluto is No Longer a Planet. The article was quite interesting, then I watched the accompanying video, then went over to YouTube, searched for 'space' and watched a number of space videos. While some were way over the top ("Why Black Holes Could Delete The Universe" e.g.), some of them were quite interesting, so I collected the best of the bunch for your viewing pleasure. Given Bird Dog's post of the Voyager link this morning, the timing couldn't be better.
Pluto
Like many, I was outraged when I heard that a room full of dusty old codgers in Prague, Czech Republic, had suddenly decided to rewrite history. But, as the following video explains, there was a pretty good reason for the decision. Nor, I admit, was it left up to just a few dusty old codgers.
The article linked above is even more in-depth.
Four more vids below the fold.
Comparisons
Size is a funny thing. For example, we tend to view our sun as 'large' but, in reality, it's practically the smallest sun out there. Like Pluto, it's actually so small that it's classified as a 'dwarf sun'.
Here are a number of size comparisons.
As a small side note, the video asks at one point, "Just think about all that could be inside there", perhaps implying, with untold billions of galaxies and planetary systems in the mix that, by the numbers, alone, there simply must be other intelligent life out there. As an academic exercise, I refute that notion here.
Myths
The Earth is round. Being so close to the sun, Mercury is the hottest planet. And the sun is yellow. Everybody knows this stuff.
Or, maybe we don't.
Add One More
Actually, the above video missed one. Picture the solar system from afar. The sun sits gently in the center while the planets tranquilly circle around it.
Except there's a problem with this pretty picture.
The solar system is traveling almost 45,000 miles per hour through space. The diameter of the earth is 8,000 miles. Therefore, in just one day, the sun has traveled almost a hundred and forty-four times the width of the earth.
Like so:
The Rosie O'Donnell Factor
Finishing up, here's a real oldie. At the moment, I have about 150 web vids in my Art Gallery. Following is the very first entry, text and all.
Admittedly, Rosie O'Donnell has made a real horse's ass out of herself over the years. As a mild example, she claimed on 'The View' that the destruction of the Twin Towers on 9/11 must have been a government conspiracy because "fire can't melt steel" — casually forgetting for the moment that fire is what makes steel in the first place.
But how do you compare the silly statements Rosie O'Donnell makes against others? By what scale do you measure "jack-ass" against "ass-inine"? Finally, someone's put together a formula that works!
