For those of you who are wondering what to do, and more specifically, where to go, if Nikki Haley becomes governor of South Carolina (and if people actually continue to speak seriously of Sarah Palin as presidential material), there’s good news:
WASHINGTON — Astronomers say they have for the first time spotted a planet beyond our own in what is sometimes called the Goldilocks zone for life: Not too hot, not too cold. Juuuust right.
Not too far from its star, not too close. So it could contain liquid water. The planet itself is neither too big nor too small for the proper surface, gravity and atmosphere.
It’s just right. Just like Earth.
“This really is the first Goldilocks planet,” said co-discoverer R. Paul Butler of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
The new planet sits smack in the middle of what astronomers refer to as the habitable zone, unlike any of the nearly 500 other planets astronomers have found outside our solar system. And it is in our galactic neighborhood, suggesting that plenty of Earth-like planets circle other stars.
Finding a planet that could potentially support life is a major step toward answering the timeless question: Are we alone?
I don’t know about you, but I’ve been talking with a learned gent, name of Jor-El, about a prototype spacecraft he has that’s capable of interstellar distances…
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I’m gonna find Serenity!
“Serenity” isn’t the destination. “Serenity” is how you get there…
The words of the song are
You can’t take the sky from me;
I’m gonna find Serenity” –no?
What was it they called it when they made the planets human -habitable?
“Serenity is how you get there.”
How Dao!
Too close for Terminus–too far for Planet of the Apes.
Serenity NOW! Or at least a decent Firefly class freighter.
And for an other smash of pop culture, may I present this totally SFW and apolitical link to a bit of interwebs humor:
http://27.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_ktniknZ3tt1qzpwi0o1_500.jpg
Brad, I hope Joss Whedon strikes gold with his upcoming Avengers movie, because if it’s a huge hit, he may then be able to get a movie sequel to Serenity green-lighted by the studios. If he wants to do it, that is. Or better yet, revive the Firefly series.
Meanwhile, I hope the aliens hurry up and land on our planet so we can finally come to our senses and rid ourselves of the artificial distinctions between human beings based on religious beliefs, race, or national borders.
Burl, dao is better than go se.
Kathryn, those are indeed the words. And I don’t remember the word that they used in Firefly, but the usual word in Sci-Fi, dating to at least Dune, is “terraforming.” I want to say Whedon used that, but (sigh) looks like I’ll have to go back and watch it again to check.
Phillip, I didn’t know Joss was doing the Avengers movie. I can’t wait to see it. Oh, and wouldn’t that be fantastic if the series could be revived. I follow both Nathan Fillion and Jewel Staite on Twitter, so I know they’re out there and available. Adam Baldwin, too. You couldn’t possibly have a revival without the incomparable Jayne Cobb…
Shiny…
Nathan Fillion is now on ABC’s “Castle”. He may not be available, which would be a great shame.
By the way, he paid homage to “Firefly” in the series’ Halloween episode last year by wearing a “space cowboy” costume like Mal favored.
Terraforming is indeed the word they used.
I thought the Serenity movie was a Neflix “star” shorter than the series. I think the series format worked better. Spoiler alert: and they killed off the pilot, whose name escapes me despite being my favorite character.Aging is not nice…
BTW, Brad, just for the sake of clarity, the Whedon Avengers movie is Avengers as in Marvel Comics superheroes, not Avengers as in Emma Peel and John Steed. (Which I naturally what thought of when I first heard it.) Either way, it’s OK with me, I’m sure it will be a pretty cool movie. More here:
http://splashpage.mtv.com/2010/09/28/joss-whedon-avengers-2/
Wash was your favorite character? He was great, but it would never occur to me to see him as favorite…
My public favorite is Jayne. My secret favorite is Kaylee, because she’s so doggone cute, but being an old married guy, I say “Jayne” publicly.
The Hero of Canton…
Kaylee was adorbs, too. I like goofy, I guess. Jayne was my least favorite–apparently required for plot reasons, but he just kept being angry and unreasonable and stupid. I’m surprised he appealed to you.
Shepherd was cool, too. Died in the movie, as well.
I did not care for the Companion person, either–too much like a drag queen, frankly.
Captain should have ended up with Christina!
My next favorite would be Capt. Mal.
My least favorite? The doctor. Sorry, Doc. As Jayne would say, don’t get me wrong, Doc; “I think it’s noble as a grape, you looking after your sister like that….” But I don’t like him much more than Jayne does. He grates for some reason.
Speaking of characters I LIKE, check out this shocking pic of Inara…
Still really, really hot, though, in an unexpected way…
While we’re having fun with this… here’s Nathan in his Mal costume on “Castle.”
And remember the hilarious “Downfall” spoof that Burl showed us last year? Well, here’s the same clip, only about “Firefly.
Christina! Our Mrs. Reynolds! Oh, yeah… way hotter than Inara. But if you think there was anything non-feminine about Inara, you need to look again. She is most definitely not a boy.
Of course, I was thinking of CREW when listing my favorites, which is why Christine didn’t get a mention.
And Jayne is AWESOME! He gets all the best lines. Well, all the best lines that Mal doesn’t get. And he’s the butt of so many other good ones, such as the one from your boy Wash: “Start with the part where Jayne gets knocked out by a 90-pound girl, ’cause… I don’t think that’s ever getting old.”
It has been a great disappointment not to get to know what type of ID Shepherd book flashed in “Ariel” to get them out of trouble.
Drag queens are plenty feminine–actually way over-the-top feminine, with heavy makeup designed to create ultra-feminine features, and va-va-voom clothing.
Now Zoe–not so feminine, but very sexy, I think.
Like our own planet, Goldilocks has other names. It’s also “Gliese 581g,” and somewhat more memorably, “Zarmina’s World,” for the wife of one of the co-discoverers.
This article suggests that chances of life being there are actually quite slim.
But hey, we haven’t terraformed it yet, right? I just hope we don’t have to travel through Reaver territory to get there…