Hi everybody,

I´d like to propouse a "what if" thread.

One of the aspects I like more about this site are the movie reviews. I just love movies. And as you must know, a new Superman movie is comming soon (Superman Returns).
So I was checking old reviews abut the first movie Christopher Reeve (q.e.p.d.) did, and can´t stop thinking about the last scene when he (Superman) turns back time to save Lois by counter-spinning earth.
Now, I know thats pure fantasy, but I´m wondering, can it really be done? I mean, not turn back time, but invert the rotation of the planet with just atmospheric friction?. And in case we can "do it" in any way, what would happen? It would be any influence in the translation around the sun?

Well, I´m not an astronomer, what can I say.

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"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness..." WH Murray

Complete, total and utter destruction of all life on Earth, is my guess.

The energy transfer required to impart that much momentum would destroy the atmosphere, and the tectonic activity sparked by the crust grinding to a halt and being pulled the other way would finish anything off that hadn't already been baked to a crisp.

It'd be like trying to stop a speeding freight train with a marshmallow - and not the big guy on Ghostbusters. But he is Superman.

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Don of Borg - Cool, Calm, Collective.

"Within the next generation I believe that the world's leaders will discover that infant conditioning and narco-hypnosis are more efficient, as instruments of government, than clubs and prisons, and that the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

Ok, I get the point. I mean...wow...off course. So Superman did more harm than good. Have you seen the new trailer? Finally we see a shock wake and a sonic boom whem he speeds up through the atmosphere.

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"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness..." WH Murray

On a different track of problems Superman might create, I've always loved Larry Niven's short story Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.
WARNING - Adult situations.

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

One Earth, One Sky - IYA 2009
All moderation in purple

Isn't there a theory floating about that the Venusian atmosphere is largely responsible for the planet's ridiculously slow rotation? And effect, though, brought on over billions of years, not overnight!

...John...

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"There is a technical, literary term for those who mistake the opinions and beliefs of characters in a novel for those of the author. The term is 'idiot'."
-- Larry Niven