17 Comments
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Michael Woudenberg's avatar

I read these essays of yours so I can be the BOAT.

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Parker McCoy's avatar

Wow. The sun blinds me enough on brighter days, especially while driving. Gamma Ray Blasts would send me swerving off the road and into a forest and off a cliff and into...well, it would be bad. It's hard to imagine that much luminosity. Great post, Andrew.

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Thanks, Parker! Sometimes, the thing just writes itself. I had a lot of truly wonderful stuff to talk about today.

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Daniel Nest's avatar

BoatFury Shines! (BoatFury Bursts?)

So what you're saying is that one should definitely wear some kind of protective gear when staring directly at GRBs? GRB glasses?

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Andrew Smith's avatar

I feel like heads of state are exempted, but yes.

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Andrew Sniderman 🕷️'s avatar

Albedo 0.12- that's the moon. Venus is 0.75 which is why it's the most visible planet

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Andrew Smith's avatar

Oh wow! Bringing some receipts. Venus waivers a lot, right? I can see it from my back yard!

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Andrew Sniderman 🕷️'s avatar

Another interesting thing is Earths's albedo used to be higher (0.39 like the name of the Vangelis album) but now it's closer to 0.30 because global warming

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Andrew Smith's avatar

That is absolutely interesting. That seems like a dramatic drop, too!

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Andrew Sniderman 🕷️'s avatar

Right! I was surprised to see that

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Andrew Smith's avatar

I feel stupid and contagious

Here we are now, entertain us

Spicy Cool Ranch Dorito's

Planet Earth's declining albedo

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Andrew Sniderman 🕷️'s avatar

It's fine, as long as I can have an ice cold coke with my salty snacks.

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