Comments on: Naked I astronomy

By: Gary Ansorge

Gary Ansorge — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 18:41:55 +0000

You have a beard? When did THAT happen???

Gary 7

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Tue, 13 Dec 2011 02:26:36 +0000

@26 Beer Case: Hover your mouse pointer over the red button under the comic strip toward the left.

By: Beer Case

Beer Case — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 23:58:12 +0000

Am I the only one not seeing any semi-naked Phil? I clicked the picture, and the link (Click it) , and the only thing coming up here, is a cartoon strip about signals from space. Am I missing something?

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:54:37 +0000

@24 Darren: Using our technology, certainly. For all we know, there are ETs out there with a dish the size of half a Dyson sphere

Of course, any intelligence with a receiver that sensitive must be like the galactic version of the FCC, in which case they’d likely take action to censor all the crud that the Earth is broadcasting. Meaning shutting down all our transmitters. Somehow.
*cue dramatic orchestral sting*

By: Darren

Darren — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 20:43:30 +0000

@21 Julie. What, no smilie?

Our television broadcasts are too low power to be picked up at that distance. They disappear into the noise pretty quickly.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:24:50 +0000

David may be way off-topic (again, the BA-UT forum is the thing to Google), but to be fair, the “moving miles” bit is a legitimate question, and was the basis of the Michelson-Morley experiment. The Earth is in motion, after all, and we typically measure miles (or any distance) with the surface of the Earth as a reference.
Of course, Michelson-Morley did not find any sort of “ether,” and soon after, Special (and General) Relativity filled in the blanks as to why.

By: Joseph G

Joseph G — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 21:16:52 +0000

I love Phil’s pose there. Epic. Shades of “The Thinker” and “The Discus Thrower”

@15 Chris So now we know the answer to the eternal question. Boxers or briefs?

See, I find that unrealistic. I’d think an astronomer would wear boxers. More space for the bolides

By: JulieMTL

JulieMTL — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:52:28 +0000

Related more to the discussion in the comic I found this posted (not long after reading of the recovery of two Dr Who episodes): http://www.rimmell.com/bbc/news.htm First Paragraph: “While searching deep space for extra-terrestrial signals, scientists at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico have stumbled across signals broadcast from Earth nearly half a century ago.” We are too late as of 47 years ago.

By: Andy

Andy — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 17:33:14 +0000

I had no idea that red button on the SMBC page was a rollover bonus!

By: Monkey

Monkey — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 13:31:16 +0000

Epic – we see a post of Phil in his near-naked birthday suit and by only comment #7 we are already talking about the speed of light!!!

By: Mike

Mike — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:48:16 +0000

“What if the miles are moving?”

When I read that, I laughed so hard that the color of my eyes changed to music.

By: Messier Tidy Upper

Messier Tidy Upper — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 12:35:28 +0000

@7. David : Okay I’ve tried to answer that for you – click on my name for link or see comment #43 in the Watch the lunar eclipse Saturday that the BA posted on December 9th, 2011 10:00 AM.

Not sure what you mean by “moving miles” though – a mile is standard designated measuring unit that doesn’t really change unless you switch to nautical miles or something like that!

By: Derek

Derek — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 06:56:17 +0000

It was the pope hat that made milk come out of my nose.

By: Chris

Chris — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 06:43:34 +0000

So now we know the answer to the eternal question. Boxers or briefs?

By: Gavin Flower

Gavin Flower — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 06:36:35 +0000

Actually the speed is the same everywhere! However, in air, glass, and other materials; the photon keeps being absorbed and being re radiated – hence the effective speed of light appears to slow! This is the explanation I read recently.

By: nemo

nemo — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 03:34:52 +0000

Phil wearing the Pointy hat.

http://i.imgur.com/cT2CR.gif

By: Makoto

Makoto — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 01:58:06 +0000

That tattoo is epic, and I kind of want one of the same now…

By: tracer

tracer — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 01:05:20 +0000

I also have to admit, I was disappointed that I couldn’t actually drag the Bishop’s miter onto Phil’s head.

By: tracer

tracer — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 01:04:04 +0000

Correction: The speed of light IN A VACUUM is always the same, no matter how fast you or anything else is moving.

The speed of light passing through a medium, such as water or glass, is slower — which gives rise to fun phenomena like Cherenkov radiation.

By: Jason

Jason — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:27:46 +0000

Forum? This is where we comment on seeing Phil naked. But no, the speed of light is always the same, no matter how fast you or anything else is moving.

By: David

David — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:10:18 +0000

Earth-surface miles are not static relative to other celestial objects. The implication is that the known physical laws may be relative to earth gravity but not other graveties. Is this a correct assumption?

By: David

David — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 00:02:29 +0000

I have a question about the speed of light. Is this the right forum? 186000 miles per second, right? what if the miles are moving?

By: Chris

Chris — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 23:50:16 +0000

I didn’t even know about the red button. Now I’m going to have to reread the past several months of comics.

By: Douglas Troy

Douglas Troy — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 21:18:06 +0000

We should say Hi! – LOL!

By: LarianLeQuella

LarianLeQuella — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 20:53:47 +0000

Thanks Doug (I see the moderation queue made my post a little out of date…). So instead I’ll just embed the video here for folks.