It means "title sexed up to juice pageviews", because "NASA: Hubble detects rock, probably formed by collision of two other rocks" doesn't exactly set fire to the belly of sci-fi fans.
Funny thing is, I clicked on "New Hubble camera photographs unusual comet inside solar system (nasa.gov)" to read the article and look at this pictures. I clicked on the comments of this one to see if anyone caught it.
It means that somebody has a really weird idea of what a spaceship looks like. As the article text says, it looks like a debris cloud that is getting smeared out by sunlight pressure. So, if it's a spaceship, it's a spaceship that exploded already.
Seems the quality of alien spaceships is going down. They used to at least be able to travel at least four light years, reach Roswell, New Mexico, then explode. Now they travel four light years minimum and explode before even reaching Earth. I'm not really certain that we have much to learn from our neighbors who seem so desperate to contact us, yet so frightfully incapable of it; we don't need to travel the stars to blow things up, we can do it right here. Seems more efficient than their approach.
The photo caption calls it an "X" shaped object, and the last sentence sums it up: They have no clue about what this is, and they are still speculating about how this object was formed.
I'll agree that sci-fi geeks have vastly inflated opinions of both fields. That said, advances from AI have contributed to your quality of life significantly. Space exploration has been one massive money pit since we got satellites working.
AI:
+ Keeps your inbox free of spam.
+ Is more responsible for black Americans being able to get a home loan without being discriminated against than any act of Congress.
+ Saves you money on your car insurance.
+ Runs the factories that make your goods and the warehouses that ship them.
+ Loses video games against you every day without complaint, by being hopefully challenging enough to flatter your ego without actually being difficult.
+ Can do some surprisingly sophisticated things with language analysis these days, such as determine whether you're a man or woman by analysis of a sample of your writing.
And the coolest thing about AI is that we've accomplished the above feats of magic so freaking routinely that people don't even think they're AI anymore. People will only admit something is AI when we can't do it.
If space exploration includes the Apollo project (which I assume it does) you should add integrated circuits, CNC machining, freeze dried foods, LED's, aircraft anti icing systems, solar energy, water purification, the Internet, and probably many more I can't think of right now.
{edit} According to the Apollo project Wikipedia page, it looks like integrated circuits and CNC machining may have been driven by the project, though there is no mention on the respective pages (revisionist history on the Apollo page, or missing info on the other pages).
According to that page, NASA did not contribute to 'LEDs' as people would understand the term on HN (i.e. they did not invent the little lights that go blinky-blinky on consumer electronics). It seems to be talking about high-intensity LEDs for medical applications. In that vein, saying that the Apollo program gave us 'LEDs' is somewhat misleading (though maybe not on purpose).
I notice that 'The Internet' is only mention as linked to some 'Internet-powered oven.'
I pulled all of the examples from the NASA spinoff page that you linked, except for the Internet one which as we all know was initiated by DARPA. I thought that was under NASA, but can see now that this isn't so. Sorry about that, and thanks for clearing it up.
I commented because I (probably for the first time ever...) disagreed with patio11's comment that AI has contributed much more to humanity than spaceflight.
I am skeptical of the spinoffs rationale for NASA. Let's say that we feel the burning, urgent need for freezedried food for humanity. OK, so let's just research freezedried food. That is pretty cheap, compared with having to blast a human into orbit in such a fashion that they don't die, and gains absolutely nothing from being associated with the space program.
Ditto everything NASA has ever produced except satellites. That is the sole example where spaceflight qua spaceflight was actually valuable to us.
More informative articles: "Suspected Asteroid Collision Leaves Odd X-Pattern of Trailing Debris" Note the title difference. Stay away from gizmodo, it rots your brain.
I think, "Stay away from gizmodo, it rots your brain." is going a bit too far in this case. I know there's been a lot of talk about "linkbait" titles, but this one was clearly for fun/humour value. The whole article was tongue in cheek ("Spaceship-shaped"). I don't believe anyone on HN would actually read this article headline and believe alien spaceships were on their way (not with only 23 upvotes!).
"... I think, "Stay away from gizmodo, it rots your brain." is going a bit too far in this case... The whole article was tongue in cheek. I don't believe anyone on HN would actually read this article headline and believe ..."
Entertainment sans informative news - "to me" - is a flag for spin. A sign something or someone is broken on the Internet ~ http://xkcd.com/386/ :)
11,000 MPH is pretty slow for a space ship. If it really is an alien they must at impulse speed. The normal speed of NASA's space shuttle in orbit is about 17,580 MPH.
29 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 67.0 ms ] threadSeems the quality of alien spaceships is going down. They used to at least be able to travel at least four light years, reach Roswell, New Mexico, then explode. Now they travel four light years minimum and explode before even reaching Earth. I'm not really certain that we have much to learn from our neighbors who seem so desperate to contact us, yet so frightfully incapable of it; we don't need to travel the stars to blow things up, we can do it right here. Seems more efficient than their approach.
It sounds really exciting until you learn more about it.
AI:
+ Keeps your inbox free of spam.
+ Is more responsible for black Americans being able to get a home loan without being discriminated against than any act of Congress.
+ Saves you money on your car insurance.
+ Runs the factories that make your goods and the warehouses that ship them.
+ Loses video games against you every day without complaint, by being hopefully challenging enough to flatter your ego without actually being difficult.
+ Can do some surprisingly sophisticated things with language analysis these days, such as determine whether you're a man or woman by analysis of a sample of your writing.
And the coolest thing about AI is that we've accomplished the above feats of magic so freaking routinely that people don't even think they're AI anymore. People will only admit something is AI when we can't do it.
Space Exploration:
+ Artificial satellites.
+ Slush fund for defense contractors.
+ Tang.
Huh? I thought APRANet was a DARPA project, not a NASA project.
> LED's
The word 'NASA' is found nowhere on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LED
> integrated circuits
Jack Kirby (He was working for Texas Instruments at the time and later won a Nobel Prize for it)
> CNC Machining
General Motors, General Electric, etc (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cnc_machining)
{edit} According to the Apollo project Wikipedia page, it looks like integrated circuits and CNC machining may have been driven by the project, though there is no mention on the respective pages (revisionist history on the Apollo page, or missing info on the other pages).
{edit2} A better page for reference would be: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_Spinoff
According to that page, NASA did not contribute to 'LEDs' as people would understand the term on HN (i.e. they did not invent the little lights that go blinky-blinky on consumer electronics). It seems to be talking about high-intensity LEDs for medical applications. In that vein, saying that the Apollo program gave us 'LEDs' is somewhat misleading (though maybe not on purpose).
I notice that 'The Internet' is only mention as linked to some 'Internet-powered oven.'
I commented because I (probably for the first time ever...) disagreed with patio11's comment that AI has contributed much more to humanity than spaceflight.
Ditto everything NASA has ever produced except satellites. That is the sole example where spaceflight qua spaceflight was actually valuable to us.
+ GPS
+ 2-way communication
+ satellite TV/radio
+ maps
+ weather/climate measurements
...and probably more by just operating in orbit.
summary ~ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2010/07/
full story ~ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2010/07/fu...
images ~ http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2010/07/im...
I think, "Stay away from gizmodo, it rots your brain." is going a bit too far in this case. I know there's been a lot of talk about "linkbait" titles, but this one was clearly for fun/humour value. The whole article was tongue in cheek ("Spaceship-shaped"). I don't believe anyone on HN would actually read this article headline and believe alien spaceships were on their way (not with only 23 upvotes!).
Entertainment sans informative news - "to me" - is a flag for spin. A sign something or someone is broken on the Internet ~ http://xkcd.com/386/ :)
http://www.spacesector.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/B...