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[Dutrius]

(Early version)
I ordered a case of wine glasses. What I received (managed to salvage from the crater) was a small pool of molten glass.

(Some refinement later...)
I ordered a case of wine glasses. What I received was a case of glass shards.

[LordBaal]

If you order Warhammer 40.000 miniatures, it would be all worthy.


Until you get tired of playing with burnt plastic slag.

[Gentlefish]

We sent whiskey into space. It tastes different than Terran whiskey.

[Starver]

(Some refinement later...)
I ordered a case of wine glasses. What I received was a case of glass shards.

Spoiler: You can probably get a refund on that... (click to show/hide)

We sent whiskey into space. It tastes different than Terran whiskey.

Spoiler: Aldebaran whiskey? (click to show/hide)

[RedKing]

So I checked out the site for Planetary Resources (the asteroid-mining startup). They've actually gotten their own prospecting telescope into orbit, looking for near-earth objects that might be worth checking out. They're deploying another one twice the size in about 10 weeks.


The more I look, the more I think these people would be fantastic to work with.
They named their prospecting sat-probe after the company in Star Wars that manufactured Imperial probe droids.
They have a full-sized Cave Johnson portrait in their lobby.
And then they have this:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

These are geeks after my own heart. If I can't work there, maybe my daughter can someday (she's gung-ho about being an aerospace engineer right now).

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I'm with ya, I've got a fairly decent contact in Space X that I might look into if I don't feel like doing the rational thing and being a drone my whole life.

[RedKing]

That'd be a great recruiting slogan:

"Don't be a drone. Make them instead."

[Bumber]

(Early version)
I ordered a case of wine glasses. What I received (managed to salvage from the crater) was a small pool of molten glass.

(Some refinement later...)
I ordered a case of wine glasses. What I received was a case of glass shards.

(Even later...)
The wine case is intact. My roof is not.

[Bumber]

*fifty years down the line* 'The wine arrived. Tasted great, no damage to the bottles. Cat was killed by the parcel for the fourth time this week. In all, 8/10'

Guys, why don't we just engineer the cat to produce wine?

Urgh. He keeps spraying wine all over the drapes.

[Starver]

Surprised nobody wanted to comment about the eclipse tonight...  (Unless you all have been, but elsewhere.)

So just a Lunar one, hardly a rarity, but it's Space.

Less than 20 minutes until the Earth's penumbra starts going over the Moon (not really much to see).   An hour and ten before the central 'totality' shadow starts across.  Now slightly less than two and a quarter hours until totality.  An hour and twelve minutes of totality then it starts unwinding.  (Figures correct at time of typing, several more minutes may be eaten up before actually posting.)

Best visible from Atlantic-seaboard nations and regions.  Those on the west coast of the US will find it happening perhaps inconveniently close to the horizon during dusk and heading over towards Eastern Europe you're instead going to find it competing with dawn.  Further adrift, round the planet... well, you're probably due a good Solar Eclipse before I get to see another one from anywhere conveniently close to home, so I've got no sympathies for you...

[nogoodnames]

Yeah it's pretty neat, apparently this hasn't happened for around 30 years.

I wish I could stay up to watch it, but I have to get up early tomorrow and I'm trying to get into some semblance of a healthy sleep schedule. It's too bad since I got a telescope for my birthday and this would be a good opportunity to try it out.

[Putnam]

So just a Lunar one, hardly a rarity, but it's Space.

to be fair statistically i'm not sure if there are any other events within about 10,000 light years

the moon/sun angular diameter coincidence going on right now is pretty friggin special believe it or not

[Starver]

So just a Lunar one, hardly a rarity, but it's Space.

to be fair statistically i'm not sure if there are any other events within about 10,000 light years

the moon/sun angular diameter coincidence going on right now is pretty friggin special believe it or not

That applies to Solar Eclipses (how many (few) thousand years is it supposed to be before they all become Annular?) but Earth's shadow is larger than the moon (as is Jupiter's shadow far bigger than its satellites, and probably Mars with Phobos/Deimos) so it's not so 'finely tuned' this way round.

Just a shard of direct light left, as I type.  And even with that glaring at me, the combined sunrises (and/or sunsets) of the Earth are already colouring the rest a dark red.  In a couple of minutes it could well be a good blood-red moon...  If the clouds stay away from my locale.

[Sheb]

Just came back from outside to catch a couple hours of sack time before the day. It was beautiful, the moon suspended as a drop of dried blood in heaven...

[TheDarkStar]

I wish I could have seen it. It's been cloudy all day.