An anonymous reader writes “Using data from recent comet-probing space missions, British scientists are reporting today that the odds of life starting on Earth rather than inside a comet are one trillion trillion (10 to the power of 24) to one against. That is, we’re not originally from around here. Radiation in comets could keep water in liquid form for millions of years, they say, which along with the clay and organic molecules found on-board would provide an ideal incubator. ‘Professor Wickramasinghe said: “The findings of the comet missions, which surprised many, strengthen the argument for panspermia. We now have a mechanism for how it could have happened. All the necessary elements - clay, organic molecules and water - are there. The longer time scale and the greater mass of comets make it overwhelmingly more likely that life began in space than on earth."‘“

jamie points out that the author of this paper has many ‘fringe’ theories. Your mileage may vary.

Linky Linky:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/08/070814093819.htm

Racer, your avatar rox.  Long live the fighters!

To call this based on fringe theories would be like saying it’s possible your refrigerator appeared in your kitchen from wheels of Brie rolling down the corridor at Heathrow Airport in London. Astrology belief that the gravitational pull of Jupiter affects your daily fortunes has more foundation than this.

For all the conclusions and odds, this article uses words like “theory,” “could” and “potential” an awful lot.

Shoemaker-Levy 9

That is to say that we’ve seen firsthand what happens when a comet impacts a planet.  There are plenty of reputable theories regarding comets depositing the basic materials necessary for life to exist: water, methane, carbon… But the idea that a living organism, or even just complex organic material, contained within a comet’s nucleus could survive impact with another body… Well that’s just silly.

Interestingly enough, Discovery HD Theater is showing “Super Comet: After the Impact” tonight at 20:00 CDT.

Oh, and the next-gen format war is pissing me off yet again.  Blu-ray Disc is winning, but Dune is only available on HD-DVD.

^^

I’ve been rooting for Blu-ray all along (despite my utter hatred of Sony), but the stubbornness of Universal and Lion’s Gate is maddening sometimes.

Rageous - 15 August 2007 10:24 AM

I’ve been rooting for Blu-ray all along (despite my utter hatred of Sony), but the stubbornness of Universal and Lion’s Gate is maddening sometimes.

Eff Sony!  Bunch of greedy bastards buying second-rate kimchi panels, dressing them up with absurdly impractical bezels and then charging tier one prices for their shit gear.  Factor that into their long line of attempts to cram their own standards down everyone else’s throats (Beta, ATRAC, pre-compromise DVD spec, Memory Stick and now Blu-Ray), and there is no company on the planet I hate more (maybe AT&T, but that’s a very personal issue at the moment).

Now that Sony is a major player in the movie industry they have the upper hand they need to take revenge on Toshiba for the DVD compromise, but Toshiba’s HD-DVD is better for consumers.  It keeps costs down for both the players and the media by being an improvement on the original DVD spec instead of being a completely different spec.  Sure Blu-ray can hold more data, but HD-DVD holds enough data.  After that the differences blur since both use the same audio and video codecs.  As long as HD-DVD has enough storage space for the movie in question there should be no difference between the two in audio and video quality.

Even though I was rooting for HD-DVD, I know when the battle is over.  Here is my list of bad signs for HD-DVD in the order they occurred…

-Most movie studios side with Blu-ray
-Only one manufacturer of HD-DVD players (Toshiba)
-First generation players unable to output 1080p
-Hybrid HD-DVD’s (contain both DVD and HD-DVD versions of the movie) come out a year late and with limited studio support
-xBox 360 Elite still requires HD-DVD accessory, no built-in drive
-Blockbuster decides to quit stocking HD-DVD in their stores
-After first year, Blu-ray player prices drop by 50%

*sigh* Marketing wins, again.

In the meantime, I have accepted that Blu-ray has won.  However, this does not help me when Dune is only available on HD-DVD.  Several other movies I love, too (Dazed & Confused, Apollo 13, The Matrix, etc.).