Tim Blair

Where is my Irradium Q Space Modulator?

Probably surrendered to the government after Port Arthur.

I love you, Marvin!

Is there any oil on Mars...?

its closest approach to Earth in 60,000 years. It will never be closer in our lifetime.

Unless you live to 120,000 or so. Duh.

Guy's got a talent for stating the obvious.

mojo,

It is a bit more complicated that simple symmetry - just because the last near approach was 60,000 years ago it doesn't mean we will be at the same distance from Mars in 60,000 years. If I remember correctly we will be a similar distance from Mars every few hundred years for a while and then there will be another big gap.

On a completely unrelated subject, I'd like to dig some dirt on Che Guevara and Fidel Castro - are there any reliable resources on the web where I can find this stuff? If you type the names into Google, all you get is a tonne of worshipful Socialist websites.

You have got to love Russell's 'Similar Distance for a Few Hundred Years then Another Big Gap' theory of proximity to Mars.

Every scientific theory should have a name like that.

Just remember to duck as it passes over.

What happened to the "Ka-Boom!" There's supposed to be an almighty "Ka-Boom!"

If it's anything like Halley's Comet '86 I'll be sadly disappointed.

However, the Leonid showers (01), viewed far away from a city, were sensational.

I took six shots at it with my 30/30 and I think I wounded it. It seems to be wobbling in the sky.

Oh great Perfectsense. Didn't your Daddy teach you to use enough gun for the job? If you've just wounded it...

TimT:

Don't know what's available on the Web but Georgie Anne Geyer's ``Guerrilla Prince'' (Castro biography) is a good place to start.

And it's cloudy in Chicago, so we can't see Mars or anything else :(

Any chance we can get more Californians to "follow it" (i.e. off themselves) as it passes? The Darwin Awards are due just around the corner...

"Where's the kaboom? There's supposed to be a Mars-shattering kaboom.

Mars obscures my view of...umm...Uranus. On second thought, I'll leave it where it is.

This is when they'll launch their invasion fleet.

Guard your women.

TimT: grab a copy of "The Perfect Latin American Idiot" at Amazon.

It just looked like a big star. It was pretty small, too. There can't be life on there. I mean, how would they all fit?

TimT: For Castro, start with this post. It has links to some academic papers. Also check out these figures from Twentieth Century Atlas - Death Tolls. Pinochet was a piker compared to Castro. And yet who does the left praise?

That almighty Ka-Boom in the form of a Barret fifty cal. Gee...Perfectsense, makes that 30/30 seem kinda pussy

I'm not worried about Mars. I'd be worried if it was that eeeevil Planet of the Apes...

Wait a minute... Statue of Liberty?!

That's Earth!

You maniacs!!! You blew it up!!! DAMN YOU! DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!!

IIRC, Mars will make another close pass in 2060, or something like that. The "won't be this close again within our lifetime" phrasing wasn't that absurd.

2060? Hmm. I'll be only 98. That sounds doable.
Anyway, I have to be in good enough shape to get to England in 2066 to observe the millennial of the Norman Conquest at the battlefield of Hastings. My friends and I made a deal to do this back in 1980, and I intend to keep my word!

Interesting link about Cuba, Scott. I think one can infer that the authors are not fond of Castro-haters from the use of "ax to grind" in the summary:

ANALYSIS: The dividing line between those who have an ax to grind and those who don't falls in the 5,000-12,000 range.

Thanks guys, will check out those links ASAP. I'm sure they'll be useful.