Date: Mon, 15 Mar 2004 23:44:11 -0500 (EST)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>
Subject: [WSFA] Re: possible tenth Solar planet
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

Keith F. Lynch wrote:

> I also recommend that everyone look at the scale model of the solar
> system on the national mall, that starts in front of the Air & Space
> Museum.  If you want to get a good look at anything other than the
> sun and maybe Jupiter, I recommend bringing a magnifying glass.  If
> you want to get any look at all at anything beyond the inner solar
> system, I recommend wearing a good pair of hiking shoes.

> Keeping the same scale, they could put some Kuiper belt objects in
> Georgetown, some Oort cloud objects in front of their new Dulles
> Annex (except that they'd be far too small to see on that scale),
> and the closest star in Australia.

Jim Kling <jkling at nasw.org> wrote:

> In that case, on March 27, I could become the first human being
> to travel to the closest star.  Is it anywhere near Sydney, do
> you think?

Sorry, but it looks like I dropped a decimal point.  (It must be around
here somewhere.  Maybe under the coffee table.)  According to the
website for the scale model, http://www.jeffreybennett.com/voyage.htm,
the scale is ten billion to one, and the nearest star is in San
Francisco.

Maybe it's not too late for you to get a refund from the airline.
("'Aukland'!?  I distinctly said 'Oakland'!")

You mentioned that you're currently in the Philippines.  You're not
the only WSFA member there.  Have you gotten together with Ivy?  She
hasn't posted recently, but she's still on this list.  WSFA has met in
Melbourne, so it can meet in Manila.
--
Keith F. Lynch - http://keithlynch.net/
Please see http://keithlynch.net/email.html before emailing me.