Asteroid Collision

"Paul Schlyter" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Gavin Whittaker wrote:

In uk.sci.astronomy Gareth Slee writted:
: Million to One chance of a collision apparently.
: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3200019.stm

from which:

"The chances of a catastrophe are likely to become even slimmer once
more measurements of the asteroid's orbit have been made."

If this is true, shouldn't astronomers increase the number of
measurements?

WELL, WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY'RE DOING? Do you think they'll never
ever make another observation of this object?



If you re-read the post, you'll see that Gavin was making a joke.


Duh!


Don't you mean Doh?

In article ,
Stuart Mulligan wrote:

"Paul Schlyter" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Gavin Whittaker wrote:

In uk.sci.astronomy Gareth Slee writted:
: Million to One chance of a collision apparently.
: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3200019.stm

from which:

"The chances of a catastrophe are likely to become even slimmer once
more measurements of the asteroid's orbit have been made."

If this is true, shouldn't astronomers increase the number of
measurements?

WELL, WHAT DO YOU THINK THEY'RE DOING? Do you think they'll never
ever make another observation of this object?

If you re-read the post, you'll see that Gavin was making a joke.

I did, but I failed to see the smiley indicating it was a joke.... :-)


Duh!

Don't you mean Doh?

Actually, I don't know the difference between them (remember that
English is not my native language). Care to elaborate a bit?

--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlyter, Grev Turegatan 40, SE-114 38 Stockholm, SWEDEN
e-mail: pausch at stockholm dot bostream dot se
WWW: http://www.stjarnhimlen.se/
http://home.tiscali.se/pausch/

In article , Brian Tung wrote:

OK, I'm going to do the straight line on this one.

Paul Schlyter wrote:
I did, but I failed to see the smiley indicating it was a joke.... :-)

No smiley, but it seemed pretty obvious it was a joke, even without the
smiley. Lots of people have written subtle jokes in books that don't
have a single smiley in them.

I know -- but there's a risk in doing so, since the absence of the
smiley will make a number of people take your joke seriously. IRL
that would be less likely to happen, because the mimics of your face
and/or the tone of your voice would indicate it was a joke. But that
extra information gets lost in electronic communication.


Duh!

Don't you mean Doh?

Actually, I don't know the difference between them (remember that
English is not my native language). Care to elaborate a bit?

"Duh" is a
..........................
"Doh" is a
..........................

Thanks for your explanation!


--
----------------------------------------------------------------
Paul Schlyter, Grev Turegatan 40, SE-114 38 Stockholm, SWEDEN
e-mail: pausch at stockholm dot bostream dot se
WWW: http://www.stjarnhimlen.se/
http://home.tiscali.se/pausch/

"Brian Tung" wrote in message
...
OK, I'm going to do the straight line on this one.

Paul Schlyter wrote:
I did, but I failed to see the smiley indicating it was a joke.... :-)

No smiley, but it seemed pretty obvious it was a joke, even without the
smiley. Lots of people have written subtle jokes in books that don't
have a single smiley in them.

Duh!

Don't you mean Doh?

Actually, I don't know the difference between them (remember that
English is not my native language). Care to elaborate a bit?

"Duh" is a slang expression indicating, in contexts like the above,
something that it so obvious that it goes without saying (and yet
someone went ahead and said it anyway). It dates from no later than
the 1940s and may have had its origin in cartoon blockheads who said
"duh" when pausing in putative thought.

"Doh" is a slang expression indicating that the speaker (or someone
the speaker is referring to)

Isn't "Doh" an expression used by the speaker only in reference to himself?
Thats how I understood (and meant) it anyway.

In uk.sci.astronomy Paul Schlyter writted:
: In article ,
: Stuart Mulligan wrote:

: If you re-read the post, you'll see that Gavin was making a joke.
:
: I did, but I failed to see the smiley indicating it was a joke.... :-)

You have a point, it was my omission.
Coincidentally, we have all been given small cards at work this week
with smileys on, for this very reason. It's a real pain having to pass it
round when you make a joke in a large group, but it saves anyone
misunderstanding.
I gather Billy Connolly now uses an industrial-sized one that was made in
the Clyde shipyards for live performaces.

: Duh!
:
: Don't you mean Doh?

...a deer, a femail deer...


Gavin

Stuart Mulligan wrote:
"Doh" is a slang expression indicating that the speaker (or someone
the speaker is referring to)

Isn't "Doh" an expression used by the speaker only in reference to himself?
Thats how I understood (and meant) it anyway.

Initially, I suppose. However, it's now common (in our parts, anyway)
for someone to "comment" on a companion's boneheaded move by calling out
"Doh!":

Fred: "I just accidentally sent my e-mail to a spammer's mailing list."

Barney: "Doh! Major, major doh!"

Mo.

Brian Tung
The Astronomy Corner at http://astro.isi.edu/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://astro.isi.edu/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://astro.isi.edu/reference/faq.txt