[ExI] Best and brightest

[Eugen Leitl]

On Sat, Nov 12, 2011 at 04:35:24PM -0800, Dennis May wrote:

> Ths scale of things in the US is not well understood.  Her brother talked
> about flying to Miami and driving up to Missouri to see her that afternoon.
>  
> I saw a similar reaction by Japanese engineers and a German friend years
> ago.  They don't seem to get the idea that some US states are as big
> as some countries they are used to.

Strange. Same applies to the scale of space. Most people really have no
feel for the size of our own solar system nevermind the galaxy and
beyond.

I remember when I flew around the solar system on an emulator on
a prototype SGI Indigo, trying to hit the Sun, it's very difficult even at c.
(And then, when I flew into the Sun the simulator dumped core).