@felixthecat

What? I imagined it'd be a litterbox.

What a buffoon.

Like working at Costco isn't a kick in the nades enough - this asshat comes along and makes their lives even suckyer by giving them extra work to do. I'm sure the Costco workers got a huge chuckle out of this guys major time waster.

Nothing Neat, or Clever, or Funny here.

Mission objectives and a better description at the source:

http://www.jspec.jaxa.jp/e/activity/ikaros.html

Unfortunately they don't mention that nasty old law called Inverse Square Law, making solar sails for the OUTER solar system pretty much useless.

@Zeytoun

My real credentials are firmly hidden behind the anonymity of the net.

So take your pick, I'm either a lifetime subscriber to Popular Mechanics and BS my way thru the intertubes, or perhaps I hold a PhD or two (maybe even one in a offshoot of physics), have numerous publications to my name (nothing for popular consumption, written with the goal of complete obfuscation of even the simplest of sentences), and enjoy the Professor Emeritus title from not one but three relatively well known Uni's (so unfortunately, I too am past my academic prime and reside firmly in the commercial world of research for pay).

So chose which ever one makes you feel better or make one up - it matters not to me.

@zeytoun

Hawkings, even in his heyday (60's/70's which is long long long gone) was pretty much a two shot wonder.

His bigger claim to fame is more because of his watered down physic's for dummies books and the fact that he beat the odds by surviving (if you can call it that) a disease that's usually fatal).

He hasn't made the current top 100 physicists list for decades.

Sure Hawkings might have been smart during his prime (like most Physicists, they all peak early in their careers) but it doesn't make him a expert on ET's.

What? No drunken green in the box?

What nonsense.

The energy to get here far exceeds the total energy/material value of any given solar system - including ours.

Unless they're looking for pets, or like frying ants with magnifying glasses, there's no nefarious reason for a superior race to mess with Earth.

As to slave labor - come on, the automotive industry is well on it's way of completely manufacturing a car via robots - why would a space faring race need human labour.

The first strike hypothesis is to debate. If the advance species is absolutely heartless, then it's a good safe strategy. But even us puny humans seem to be slowly outgrowing that mode of thinking. Without any data (either way) on how ET's think, it's all conjecture at this point, so why worry about something you can't control.

Seems like Hawkins finally got around to seeing "Battlefield Earth" and now is panicking (or desperate to have something with pseudo-value to publish).

@BookWrm73

Wasn't the NY Central Park Hotel shut down for a huge SPAM infestation right after it was voted the dumpiest hotel in NY City?

@Kelsey

Sure it does. Better to hit 330 pounds of animal at 45 mph then 3500 pounds of metal at 90 mph (45+45).

Where's the suspended water bottle and bowl full of seeds and kibble?

The dog's bummed - he just wanted someone to help him put in the barbecue spit.

$2.3 million, divided by $9/hr is a whole lot of paid man hours.

I wonder what they estimate the break even point is for that investment (2 years, 5 years, ???). Especially with the tanked economy and the highest unemployment rate ever.

People still use paper tax forms? How quaint!

If only the governments would think of the safety of their children and mandate radar/laser aimed automatic weapons on EVERY automobile - only then will our future be secure.

Shes old not dead.

Now a vid with a Zombie using a iPad, that would be Neat.