A George Carlin Quote for this particular group(snagged from the Rude Pundit)

[semillama]

I know discussions about Mr. Carlin's passing are all over DU, but the guy was one of US.

So, I give you George's perspective on reality:

"There are two ways to think about this existence we have. One of them is that it's Wednesday and it's three fifteen and we're talking here in my home, and at four o'clock I have to leave for another meeting. Now, that's a reality. But there's another reality. We're in the solar system of a second-rate star, three quarters of the way out on a spiral arm of an average galaxy in a thing called the Local Group. And ours is only one of billions of galaxies, each of which has billions of stars. Some star systems are binary, and there could be a planet that revolves around a center of gravity between two binary stars. So you'd have two sunrises and two sunsets every day. One could be a red giant, the other a white dwarf; two different-sized, -shaped, and -colored suns in the sky. And there might be other planets and comets. In other words, fuck Wednesday, fuck three fifteen, fuck four o'clock, fuck the United States, fuck the earth. It's all temporal bullshit. I like thinking about being out there and not thinking about the corporate structure, not worrying about freedom, and not worrying about guns. I chose a life of ideas. That entertains me. That nourishes me."

[muriel_volestrangler]

1. Did you know that on certain parts of Mercury, you get 2 sunrises each day?

# Rotates on its axis in 58.6 days. This is 2/3 of its revolution period and is an example of a tidal lock or resonance. After two revolutions or three rotations, the same face of Mercury faces the Sun. (176 days)
# Because of its slow rotation and highly eccentric orbit, the motions of the Sun as seen from Mercury are strange. When Mercury is nearest the Sun the Sun would appear to move backwards across the sky.

http://www.uwgb.edu/DutchS/planets/mercury.htm

So in certain places, you'd see the Sun rise in the east, then reverse and set again in the east, and then rise again. And on the other side of the planet, you'd see it set twice.

[YankeyMCC]

2. A second rate star!

hey what's second rate about our star! ;)

I'll miss Mr Carlin's wit.

[moggie]

3. It's a lot worse than second-rate

Take a look at this little slide show for some better examples:

http://www.techdo.com/images/largest-know-star.htm

[YankeyMCC]

4. Size isn't everything ;)

Try living around that big star ;)