

2011: The Year You Weren’t Expecting - wglb
http://arbesman.net/blog/2011/01/02/2011-the-year-you-werent-expecting/

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Bud
The full sentence is necessary here; headline is somewhat baffling, since
Neptune obviously has orbited at SOME point before:

The planet Neptune completes its first full orbit since its discovery on Sept.
23, 1846.

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dazzawazza
before that date it wasn't neptune, so I guess it's correct.

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iwwr
A planet by any other name...

would still smell of methane and ammonia.

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btilly
But does it smell if there is no living thing there to do the smelling?

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sliverstorm
Does it smell if any living thing cannot survive smelling it?

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btilly
The Corduroy Appreciation Club exists and has an annual holiday? Weird.

I can't believe that they were tactless enough to choose November 11. Which in
much of the world is a very solemn day, dedicated to remembering various wars.
In the US it is a much smaller deal than in other countries, but we still have
veterans day. Not exactly a day for celebration.

(The reason for choosing November 11 is that the treaty ending WW I specified
that the shooting would stop on the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th
month.)

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bluesnowmonkey
Remembrance Day has become something of a misnomer, since almost no one alive
actually remembers WW1. Also, there are more people alive today with a Nov. 11
birthday than died in that war. So I think it's OK to celebrate again.

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btilly
Nobody may remember WW I, but there are lots of other wars that people
remember. And in lots of countries, Nov 11 is the day set aside to remember
it.

Personally I cannot think of Nov 11 without remembering school assemblies
where a WW II vet had put together a program to impress upon us the
seriousness of the occasion. In particular I can't forget a picture of a man
whose throat had just been cut by a bayonet. The wall of blood coming out had
not yet hit the ground.

YMMV. But for me, personally, November 11 will never be a day of celebration.

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varjag
> The youngest countries in the world currently are Curacao and the Republic
> of Kosovo.

It's actually Southern Ossetia and Abkhasia. The recognition is spotty of
course, but Kosovo ain't perfect either.

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nazgulnarsil
I thought they were moving towards basing all units of measure on the speed of
light?

