I wrestled with myself a bit about posting this, but really, we are all human (except for spambots) and so we all have certain biological functions that, although we try to ignore/suppress/downplay them, they will always make themselves heard.
Or smelled.
So I will simply link to this FAQ about gaseous emissions, and excuse myself from further comment.
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Phil Plait, the creator of Bad Astronomy, is an astronomer, lecturer, and author. After ten years working on Hubble Space Telescope and six more working on astronomy education, he struck out on his own as a writer. He has written two books, dozens of magazine articles, and 12 bazillion blog articles. He is a skeptic, and fights misuses of science as well as praising the wonder of real science.
Contact me: The Bad Astronomer "at" gmail "dot" com
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June 5th, 2006 at 1:31 pm
June 5th, 2006 at 1:53 pm
Umm, so one bit of advice is to take some moments of your day to release the “captive,” as they refer to them, so your beloved will sleep soundly at night in bed. And stay away from cabbage.
Illuminating link…. (-8~
June 5th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
This reminds me of discussions of gaseous outflows I had with a friend in grad school who was working on high-mass protostars (where there were also gaseous outflows).
-Rob
June 5th, 2006 at 3:35 pm
I didn’t need to know any of that. Please stick to astronomy from now on. Please?
June 5th, 2006 at 3:56 pm
Outgassing is something those of us who have ever been involved with satellite operations have had to think about. For example, you don’t want to turn on a high voltage power supply until outgassing is completed, or you might have problems with arcing.
Wait, that page isn’t about outgassing considerations during early orbit operations?
June 5th, 2006 at 3:59 pm
Frank, we waited weeks to turn on the STIS camera on Hubble after it was installed, to make sure all the air had leaked out, as well as giving time to any materials that leak out gases slowly when exposed to a vaccum. After waiting years to launch, and finally getting it up there, waiting longer was torture. But at 2500 Volts, better to be safe!
June 5th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
This takes “Too Much Information” to a whole new level.
June 5th, 2006 at 5:43 pm
For those of us feeling the limits of our classical, liberal-arts education, “Even Yoda farts” might just prove the best replacement yet for “Even Homer nods”.
June 5th, 2006 at 8:06 pm
Not everyone has such unclean biological functions.
June 5th, 2006 at 8:33 pm
You know, I’m thinking this blog entry would have been better suited for tomorrow considering all the comments I heard today regarding 666. The Houston Chronicle had the AP article Apocalypse now or later — 6-6-6 is up-But don’t worry, online gambling sites bet we survive
in the main section today.
I suppose I should feel comforted that Tim LaHaye feels June 6 isn’t a problem:
Hot air indeed!
My phone number prefix is one digit away from 666, so I do know of people who asked the phone company to change their numbers, and they did. I don’t know if SW Bell will still give into that sort of paranoia.
June 5th, 2006 at 8:36 pm
You know, I’m thinking this blog entry would have been better suited for tomorrow considering all the comments I heard today regarding 666. The Houston Chronicle had the AP article Apocalypse now or later — 6-6-6 is up-But don’t worry, online gambling sites bet we survive
in the main section today.
I suppose I should feel comforted that Tim LaHaye feels June 6 isn’t a problem:
Hot air indeed!
My phone number prefix is one digit away from 666, so I do know of people who asked the phone company to change their numbers, and they did. I don’t know if SW Bell will still give into that sort of paranoia.
(Aha! See, there’s an evil filter system here already!)
June 5th, 2006 at 10:56 pm
Phil, I’m really disappointed.
That web page did not answer the question as to why we cannot pee and fart simultaneously.
June 5th, 2006 at 11:11 pm
This is my reward (or punishment?) for reading your page early in the morning, BEFORE HAVING BREAKFAST!
Oh well, skipping the most important meal of the day shouldn’t matter to the larger affairs of the cosmos :-/
June 6th, 2006 at 12:14 am
I now challenge any grade-school child to tell me science is boring
June 6th, 2006 at 1:11 am
So is this analogous to the formation of planetary nebulae?
June 6th, 2006 at 5:36 am
Tim G: it happens to me all the time! Is my anatomy abnormal?
June 6th, 2006 at 6:14 am
Gee, I didn’t know farts were mostly inert gases!!! Tanks for that info. Now I can safely expirate next to the camp fire,,,
GAry 7
June 6th, 2006 at 9:49 am
ioresult: I seem to recall some comedian making jokes about the inability to do both simultaneously.
Don’t think of it as an abnormality. Think of it as a talent.
June 6th, 2006 at 10:46 am
Inert, but…flammable!!!
June 6th, 2006 at 12:44 pm
“I can safely expirate next to the campfire.” Perhaps you mean I can expel flatus next to the campfire, flatus being the latin for gas generated in the stomach or bowels, a causation of flatulence (Merriam Webster’s 11th. Collegiate Dictionary). Expirate is more at to die or the escape of carbon dioxide from the body protoplasm, (as through the blood and lungs by diffusion), also a termination. This posting can be considered a pendantic outgassing but in no way meant to be pungent…
June 6th, 2006 at 4:45 pm
Thank you, Bad Astronomer, for boldly taking us where no bad astronomer has gone before.
June 6th, 2006 at 10:09 pm
As long as we’re degenerating to bathroom humor, a related page at that site is http://www.heptune.com/poop.html
Maybe wait til after eating to read about it, though. Or avoid it altogether. Whatever.