Why the internets are dumb.
Nov. 26th, 2009 04:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spiderplanetMy sleep schedule is now officially fucked up. So I ramble.
I remember reading something in a science book fifteen years ago. Fifteen years is a long time and I'm old, so my memory might be off. On the other hand, the book was fifteen years old when I read it, so my memory might be right, but the theories posited may have been disproved by now. On the other, other hand, my memory might be right and it's still one of several competing theories.
It was a real science book, by a big shot astronomer. I won't attribute the speculation because I no longer own the book, it's out of print, and I don't want to clog the intertoobs further by accusing a legitimate scientist of something potentially ridiculous.
The speculation/theory/proven fact/butt progeny *that I remember* asserted that early forms of life, most of the earth's water, and rare metals probably came to Earth via comets. For the purposes of my school project, I only care about rare metals.
On the other, other, other hand, *Some Dude* at my daughter's college (an equally citable source) asserts that it is now generally established that such metals came to Earth during the formation of the Solar System and not after, and therefore rare metals are not concentrated in any specific amounts on Luna or in asteroids because those bodies did not contain sufficient mass to have caused striations in their formation. *Some Dude* is a geology major and possibly not a moron. I hereby deem him credible enough to bother verifying, but not credible enough to take at face value.
I could look something like that up if only I had some world wide collection of information networked together, perhaps in some sort of WEB type system, that I could search.
Goddammit. While it is sometimes hilarious, the internet is the opposite of useful. Remember when all of the internet led to porn? Today, all of the internet leads to crackpots.
I do know that I need to just go to the public library. But the web thing! It's right here!
ETA: It has been brought up in the comments to the other journal, the "not public" one, that Mars most definitely and indisputably has rare mineral deposits, no matter what the origin. Mars is nearly as large as Earth, and is similar in many respects, the only major difference being the lack of sustainable atmosphere. It can be said as a statement of fact that whoever gets early mining rights to Mars will not die poor.
I remember reading something in a science book fifteen years ago. Fifteen years is a long time and I'm old, so my memory might be off. On the other hand, the book was fifteen years old when I read it, so my memory might be right, but the theories posited may have been disproved by now. On the other, other hand, my memory might be right and it's still one of several competing theories.
It was a real science book, by a big shot astronomer. I won't attribute the speculation because I no longer own the book, it's out of print, and I don't want to clog the intertoobs further by accusing a legitimate scientist of something potentially ridiculous.
The speculation/theory/proven fact/butt progeny *that I remember* asserted that early forms of life, most of the earth's water, and rare metals probably came to Earth via comets. For the purposes of my school project, I only care about rare metals.
On the other, other, other hand, *Some Dude* at my daughter's college (an equally citable source) asserts that it is now generally established that such metals came to Earth during the formation of the Solar System and not after, and therefore rare metals are not concentrated in any specific amounts on Luna or in asteroids because those bodies did not contain sufficient mass to have caused striations in their formation. *Some Dude* is a geology major and possibly not a moron. I hereby deem him credible enough to bother verifying, but not credible enough to take at face value.
I could look something like that up if only I had some world wide collection of information networked together, perhaps in some sort of WEB type system, that I could search.
Goddammit. While it is sometimes hilarious, the internet is the opposite of useful. Remember when all of the internet led to porn? Today, all of the internet leads to crackpots.
I do know that I need to just go to the public library. But the web thing! It's right here!
ETA: It has been brought up in the comments to the other journal, the "not public" one, that Mars most definitely and indisputably has rare mineral deposits, no matter what the origin. Mars is nearly as large as Earth, and is similar in many respects, the only major difference being the lack of sustainable atmosphere. It can be said as a statement of fact that whoever gets early mining rights to Mars will not die poor.
