Couldn't believe this statistic

[JamesF]

I once heard , probably further back than your fact , that the world population would fit in Loch Ness

I can certainly think of a few candidates

James

[harpic]

If you dropped a house brick into the sea above the Mariana trench, how long would it take to reach the bottom?

[JB80]

It would probably be crushed under the pressure well before it reached the bottom.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

It would probably be crushed under the pressure well before it reached the bottom.

OK, a solid granite brick, instead of a regular brick.

[Stargazer_00]

A while.

[Double Kick Drum]

Here a statistic.

76% of all statistics are made up...... i'll get my coat!

[michaelmorris]

Quite odd that, really. And you'd think the weight of all that land on top would cause the planet to tip upside down. Antarctica must be very heavy.

James

As 'up' is a total arbitary concept, perhaps we are already upside down.Also, if the mass difference was signifcant, wouldn't the change in the centre of gravity would mean that the 'heaviest' party would migrate towards the plane in which we are rotating - the equator? Surely this is 'Precession'.

[JamesF]

Quite odd that, really. And you'd think the weight of all that land on top would cause the planet to tip upside down. Antarctica must be very heavy.

I should perhaps point out that my tongue was very firmly in my cheek when I typed this

James

[Naemeth]

Why is Earth dry?

http://hubblesite.or...s/2012/28/full/

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Why is Earth dry?

http://hubblesite.or...s/2012/28/full/

It has been sweating in full sunlight for 4.5 x 10⁹ years. You would be dry as well

[Naemeth]

It has been sweating in full sunlight for 4.5 x 10⁹ years. You would be dry as well

No wonder it's cloudy all of the time .

[KenG]

No wonder it's cloudy all of the time .

That's why that diagram's wrong. They haven't taken in to account all the damn water floating around in the air. Judging by the weather during the past four months, that bubble should be twice the size it's shown.

[starman1969]

I seem to have a habit of starting hot topics lately. Just to go back to the original post, there does seem to be a lack of images of objects in the Southern Hemisphere skies.

I'm not so surprised now I realise how small the population is compared with the northern half. I think if I ever visit Australia, for instance, I may find myself lost when I look up. Even familiar constellations like Orion would look strange to us northerners due to being 'upside down'.

[Stargazer_00]

I'm going to go ahead an derail this one with another fantastic statistic;

there are at least ten times as many bacteria as human cells in the body

http://en.wikipedia....uman_microbiome

Does that mean humans are literally a host organism for walking bacteria colonies?

[J_M_Franklin]

One needs to take into account all the water "in" the planet. Some recent estimates put this at 2-3 times the water on the surface...

[Moonshane]

Here a statistic.

76% of all statistics are made up...... i'll get my coat!

doh! you beat me to it!

[Macavity]

Does that mean humans are literally a host organism for walking bacteria colonies?

Good point. I had been troubled by the popular idea that we are "mostly bacteria".

But never bothered to think much about it...

So, 10x as many of the blighters, but 10x smaller than human cells... 1000x lighter.

Overall, only ~1% of my body mass? So my annual BATH is still quite sufficient!

[AndyWB]

One needs to take into account all the water "in" the planet. Some recent estimates put this at 2-3 times the water on the surface...

Indeed! Otherwise what would the dinosaurs that live in the centre of the Earth drink?

[ErOR]

We get insane cloud coverage here, I don't think that is desirable. Last year I spent around ~4 months not really doing any serious observing because of the weather.

Since a year ago we tried organising dark sky nights with the club and not once have we went. It's 5 for 5 right now, but there's another night coming up in a few weeks so fingers crossed.

[sgazer]

Just thought I'd look up how much of the world's population lives in the southern hemisphere, out of interest.

According to Wikipedia it's around 10-12%. Does this percentage of people realise how lucky they are?

They seem to get all the best stuff down that way as well, it's not fair. The weather in most of the places is pretty good too.

I think we deserve a free invite to Australia or somewhere.

The problem with Australia is there isn't much outside the major capital cities, which is where most people live and work. So it's like living in the London suburbs and commuting to the city centre each day, so the feeling of space is lost somewhat. The only feeling of space is when you are travelling the vast distances outside of the cities to get to some other populated area, during which there is pretty much nothing, or just farms. Granted the houses are mainly detatched (but becoming less so as prices increase) and they need to be with wooden frames and a thin brick veneer, you can hear people talking in the detatched house next door!, but once your on the main suburban roads, it's like driving any busy highway in/out of London, plus you can expect to travel much further to get anywhere. I used to to 5000 miles per year in the UK, now I do 16000 miles per year, mostly in heavy traffic, through some of the most dangerous driving you'll ever see.

If you want to live outside of the city and have some space and perhaps a semi-affordable house ($300,000) then you'd have to expect a long drive to the city, maybe 1-2 hours each day. There will also be very few facilities, services and shops, no public transport and very little local work (or enough to afford a house anyway).

[Scott]

The problem with Australia is there isn't much outside the major capital cities, which is where most people live and work. So it's like living in the London suburbs and commuting to the city centre each day, so the feeling of space is lost somewhat. The only feeling of space is when you are travelling the vast distances outside of the cities to get to some other populated area, during which there is pretty much nothing, or just farms. Granted the houses are mainly detatched (but becoming less so as prices increase) and they need to be with wooden frames and a thin brick veneer, you can hear people talking in the detatched house next door!, but once your on the main suburban roads, it's like driving any busy highway in/out of London, plus you can expect to travel much further to get anywhere. I used to to 5000 miles per year in the UK, now I do 16000 miles per year, mostly in heavy traffic, through some of the most dangerous driving you'll ever see.

If you want to live outside of the city and have some space and perhaps a semi-affordable house ($300,000) then you'd have to expect a long drive to the city, maybe 1-2 hours each day. There will also be very few facilities, services and shops, no public transport and very little local work (or enough to afford a house anyway).

and yet you're still there?