Hello all, it's been a while since I last posted, but I thought this was rather cool.

Some of you may know about the Nintendo Wii. I won't go into details about it here, suffice to say it's amazing. In addition to allowing you to play games it also has the ability to give you the weather forecast for your area. You tell it where you're located by moving around a giant globe, rather like Google Earth.

Well, apparently the stars in the background of this globe are actual stars, which I think is pretty cool.

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I am delighted to report that I have convinced my wife that we need a Wii. And a flatscreen TV. Previously she was inclined to waste the money on frivilous things like house improvements.

Still working on that myself. Wish me luck

On a similar note, I've noticed the starry background of google earth. Does anyone know if that background (that appears to rotate with the earth) is correct? If so, how utterly fascinating!

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"I have this theory that the Apollo missions were faked when NASA found out that general relativity was wrong because the Earth was expanding due to the Sun's iron core being influenced by magnetic waves from the electric universe after being perturbed by Planet X and thereby causing global warming. Where should I start a thread about this?" ~ ToSeek

"Those are the people that wonder how a thermos knows whether to keep something hot or keep something cold." ~ NeoWatcher

if you do get a flat screen with that Wii, just make sure you tie that newly upgraded tether nice and tight, and try not to punch the dog when you are sliding into third base..

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"blacker than the blackest black... times infinity."- Nathan Explosion
The.. Best.. Thread..Ever...

Everyone needs a Wii.

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I have a Wii coming my way as soon as I can find one. The girlfriend told me if I don't get one for Christmas, we'll get one ASAP. I've been drooling over this thing for a year now.

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"The plan does not involve mayonaise."
"... I knew there was a catch."

You can't take the sky from me.

Especially if you drink a lot of coffee.

Meh, that may be cool... but the weather feature actualyl sucks... usually it is 12+ hours old and tells you it is sunny and warm out when in reality it is dark and pouring down freezing rain. Not that I needed it for my weather anyway, when I've got literally a dozen computers running in the hosue, a television, my phone etc.

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-The Wolf
http://www.ryanmercer.com

Most people say it's not bad, normally updated every two to three hours, etc.

However, I must admit that I don't see the point of it, but that doesn't make this any less cool.

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Well, it's no wonder the updates are slow, ryanmercer lives on Mars.

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Hwæt! We Gardena in geardagum,
þeodcyninga, þrym gefrunon,
hu ða æþelingas ellen fremedon.

They are.

It took me a while. I zeroed on the South Pole, then backed all the way out to 40,000mi. That puts Polaris directly behind Earth. The Little Dipper was very hard to spot - the Big Dipper was much easier.

Centre on New Zealand (40S 173E).
Back out to max altitude of 40,000mi.
The Big Dipper is there above the Earth's disc.


Keep in mind though that, while the starfield is correct, its orientation is completely arbitrary. It is simply a static (though 3D) wallpaper. GoogleEarth is frozen in time - The Big Dipper hovers over Spain (and opposite NZ) day and night...

A little further research indicates that Capella is what is in the sky over New York state (42N75W), which corresponds to a viewing time of 12AM at this time of year. Maybe they picked midnight on New Year's Eve as their arbitrary star position.

Wow. That took about 2 hours.... I need a life.

Sorry it took so long for you, but I do thank you for the reply!

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"I have this theory that the Apollo missions were faked when NASA found out that general relativity was wrong because the Earth was expanding due to the Sun's iron core being influenced by magnetic waves from the electric universe after being perturbed by Planet X and thereby causing global warming. Where should I start a thread about this?" ~ ToSeek

"Those are the people that wonder how a thermos knows whether to keep something hot or keep something cold." ~ NeoWatcher