Talk:Earth/Archive 5

This is an archive of past discussions about Earth. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page.

Archive 1

←

Archive 3

→

Pop culture section

This entry needs a section called "Earth in popular culture", to keep it in line with every other wikipedia entry. Simbachu 20:32, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

I agree it can consolidate some of the loose refences such as the Hitchhiker reference HighInBC 20:42, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

The section made by this request, "Earth in Modern Culture", seems to lack proper, accurate information of any kind that could provide a reader with proper greater knowledge about the Earth in said context, to be precise the conclusion that Earth implies "reason" or "life" is subject to discussion and more a matter of perspective that proper information, that is to say that up to now the section is not only a stub, but a piece of accumulated junk, unless something can be done about its content to be something more than meaningless I would say said article better deserves deletion.---GTB 6:29 am Lima Peru 20/10/2006

A Very Special Note from the Management

Q. Should I replace this article with the words "mostly harmless" or "harmless", as per The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy?

A. No. Every other vandalism to this article is just that, and people who do this will be the first against the wall when the revolution comes. Share and enjoy!

I was thinking about doing this myself, but I had a feeling it would have been done before. Oh wells :-) Bennity 11:50, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

Damn! Karlusss 22:21, 27 April 2006 (UTC)

Heh, I thought out it too, but couldn't bring myself to do it... great minds think alike apparently. 149.161.20.23 15:36, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Yet another archive

I have archived the talk page as it was getting long, please move any discussion still active back here. HighInBC 20:00, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

POV (evolution/age of earth)

Sorry for bringing this up again, but I was still going to ask something. --Scotteh 20:06, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

This article is pathetic - I'm sorry to say. Someone please change it. The whole article is written in the evolutionist's perspective and cites rubbish referances. Are we now forgetting that there exist other theories over the age of the earth, etc.? Howcome this article only contains the theories of the evolutionists? Half the world does not even support evolution! This is pathetic. With articles such as these, Wikipedia is only going to become more and more unreliable. --Scotteh 19:02, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

This article is written on the basis of science. Which other point of view are you trying to get into this article?? Please provide citations. HighInBC 20:38, 20 August 2006 (UTC)

You can't ignore that evolution is the only theory in existence. Have you ever heard of Creationism? Intelligent Design? I'm sure there are many more, but I'm just taking them for examples. --Scotteh 05:03, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Technical topics are expected to reflect the views of experts in the field. You'd be hard pressed to find credible experts on the history of the Earth who believe in either creationism or intelligent design. While many people do accept those views as a matter of faith, from an evidentiary standpoint they are not credible alternatives to describing the history and evolution of the Earth. Though perhaps the article could benefit from a section on origin beliefs and other faith based views. Dragons flight 05:46, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

...Just so long as Turtles all the way down gets its fair share of attention! ;-)

Atlant 14:41, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't see why they aren't credible. Whoever said that science was the only credible theory to the age of the earth? No one will ever prove the age of the earth and therefore it's idiotic to exclusively note science's opinion on this. It's situations like this that continue to make Wikipaedia further and further away from being an encyclopaedia, let alone a notable encyclopaedia. --Scotteh 14:09, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Wikipedia is part of the fact-based, not faith-based, community. In articles dealing with physical matters, we deal in actual scientific facts, not various religious mythologies. There are plenty of other articles where you can espouse your particular creation mythology all you like (may I suggest Religious cosmology and Cosmology (metaphysics)), but the Earth article will stay based on the facts as we know them

Atlant 14:37, 21 August 2006 (UTC)

Rubbish. How can you say these are facts? None of them has been proven, and if they were "proved" it's not the exact finding that comes out. Stop coming with your fucking mythology crap, I'm not a fucking retard. If you can't argue like a mature person I suggest you keep yourself to your job and stop lurking around Wikipaedia. Now, for anyone who wants to talk about this without fucking about bull shit, I am suggesting that the so-called facts in this article be preceded by "tests has shown" or "it is believed that", you know, stuff in that direction. --Scotteh 17:46, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

This is not personal. It is about reliable sources and verifyability. The information put forward is the most accurate information that can be demonstrated by observable events. There is nothing wrong with believing in any number of things, but that does not mean it is encyclopedic. As far as I know there are no actual experimental results that back up intellegent design. Simply beleiving something does not qualify it as encyclopedic.

This is not an attack on religeon, this is simply not a faith based venue. HighInBC 17:51, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Sensible, but if it is the most accurate it doesn't mean it is completely accurate. Therefore, saying the earth is so and so many years old, is a lie. --Scotteh 18:14, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Not a lie, just the best of our knowledge. From the official wikipedia policy WP:Verifiability:

The threshold for inclusion in Wikipedia is verifiability, not truth. "Verifiable" in this context means that any reader must be able to check that material added to Wikipedia has already been published by a reliable source, because Wikipedia does not publish original thought or original research.

As you can see we are not seeking to know what cannot be known, we are demonstrating what the current published sources currently beleive. HighInBC 18:27, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Lots of published sources believe otherwise. This is not good enough a reason. What qualifies as a reliable source? Something that rejects religion? Seems like it to me. Hmpf, that's pathetic. What a sad "encyclopaedia" Wikipaedia is then... --Scotteh 18:35, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Scotteh, please keep mindful of WP:CIV and WP:NPA. You're pretty far across the line on your reply to me. Meanwhile, you'll also want to keep mindful of WP:AWW. We don't need to qualify every value with "scientists believe that...".

Atlant 18:43, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Who the hell are you???? Do not remove comments that didn't disclose clasified information. --Scotteh 19:11, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Scotteh, I understand that you are upset at having your post removed. Personally ~~I think it is strange that Atlant (talk · contribs) removed this[1] edit, as it only verged on personal attack.~~ This[2] edit is the one that he should have removed, as nobody has the right to use wikipedia for personal attacks. Please we are here to discuss the subject, not the editor. HighInBC 19:27, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

I realize now this removal of information was a mistake due to a bug. The edit in question[3] has been returned HighInBC 20:24, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

You are a bunch of religiousless people trying to force your ideologoies down the throats of the religious people. --Scotteh 19:33, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

No force, you can go to another website. Also you will find many articles do delve into religeon when it is on-topic. You are trying to call this some sort of personal campaign against your beliefs but this is just not so. Our refusal you beleive and proffess what you beleive is not an attack on your beliefs. This wiki has clearly defines standards that are made public and these are the standards we abide by. No amount of insisting will change our minds we need relaible citations that clearly illustrate your point of view. HighInBC 19:36, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

(FYI: I didn't deliberately remove anything. But there is some sort of bug in the Wikimedia software where it fails to flag "edit conflicts" on talk pages and so person A's contribution ends up replacing person B's contribution. I believe that is what happened here, but if an apology will help, then: "I apologize; I did not deliberately remove anyone's comments from this talk page."

Atlant 19:39, 23 August 2006 (UTC))

I am beginning to wonder if Atlant is human. It sounds as if it is a computer. Also, this discussion isn't about beliefs. It's about what is right and what's not the truth. Also, if it were about beliefs, then it would include science, because the exclusive noting of evolutionistic beliefs is nothing more than the propagandanization of an unlisted religion trying to diliberately attack other religions through suggestion, and not straight to the face. --Scotteh 19:46, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

I am sorry Scotteh but this discussion has ceased to be productive. Please present new evidence or put this argument to bed. Simply repeating yourself and attacking your opponents will not change our minds. You are on the verge of being ignored. I would prefer to listen, but only if it is productive. HighInBC 19:51, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

In that case, I will be back soon (like a week or so) with some evidence and new argumentations. PS: Thanks High in bc for your tolerable and neutral argumentation. --Scotteh 19:54, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Excellent, also I will leave you with this helpful hint from WP:Reliable_sources:

An opinion is a view that someone holds, the content of which may or may not be verifiable. However, that a certain person or group expressed a certain opinion is a fact (that is, it is true that the person expressed the opinion) and it may be included in Wikipedia if it can be verified; that is, if you can cite a good source showing that the person or group expressed the opinion.

This means that while opinion itself is not welcome, facts about opinion are. HighInBC 19:57, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

So basically you are saying I can come on here and provide a cite, and say that these certain group of people believe that the earth is more than 6 000 years old? Or will evolution always be regarded more factuous than the rest of the beliefs? Ok, what I'm trying to say is, that if I provide a cite which states that there are people believing that the age of the earth is 6 000 years old, would this be mentioned in the article somewhere down below where no one ever reads, or would it get as much attention as the other beliefs, such as evolution, get? --Scotteh 20:06, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Ok, here is how it works. There is scientific evidence that directly supports evolution, so we can say that. Since, as far as I know, there is no scientific evidence for intellegent design you can only prove that people believe in it.

As for it's position in the article I am imagining something along the lines of Despite faith based beleifs that the earth is considerably younger(citation goes here), the majority of scientific evidence suggest that the Earth is approximatly 4.5 billions years old..

Notice I didn't put the 6000 years there? That is because different faith based groups give different estimates. This is of course just my opinion, others may has different views. HighInBC 20:14, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Ok then. PS: keep this here, I'm going to provide some stuff in the next few hours, maybe days, that could perhaps be included in the article. I also want to see what other users say when they comment on this. --Scotteh 20:22, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Wow, this is like the first time I actually read the article, and it seems that several statements need the {{citation needed}} tag. I don't think it matters how important the statement is, but what about suggesting that someone cite all of these stuff? --Scotteh 20:25, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

On the to-do list is Implement suggestions from Featured Article review, which includes the need for more citations, this is a wonderful way to improve the article. Also, you may wish to find and place some of those citations there yourself. HighInBC 20:28, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

Just wanted to mention that evolution does not deal with the age of the Earth. -AlexJohnc3 My Talk Page 23:04, 23 August 2006 (UTC)

I wanted to point out, that this article is already very long and only briefly touches upon subjects that are covered more in depth in other related articles. Have you taken a look at the Age of the Earth article? Also, Dating Creation and Origin belief deal with this. HighInBC 14:34, 24 August 2006 (UTC)

I CANT BELIEVE

Why do so many religionists (mainly), always screw up discussion pages with their holier than thou rants. Is it because they have no proof of their own beliefs and are frustrated that everyone doesn't arbitrarily accept the same faith system to which they were indoctrinated.

Is it because they intuitively know (correctly I might add) that there really is a power greater than mankind, and are so frustrated that the quantum nature of creator cannot be proven but only experienced?

Or is it that after reading scripture translated by those with an agenda, they feel so empty that they must verify their weak position by trying to convince others of its validity? Apparently they keep forgetting the part that suggests your relationship with your maker is a private one, not to be taken to the streets.

Are they wanting answers so desparately they are willing to look foolish as if an attempt to get the attention of someone who really knows something and can give them those answers?

Could it be all of the above? I cant believe I read all that. Scotteh: may I suggest reading more to increase your vocabulary? You had a beginning. You will have an end. The creature should know they were created. The proof is in the mirror. Or not there (a light is on, but no one is home). Alphaquad 14:04, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

This a bit off topic, this is the talk page for discussion the Earth. HighInBC 14:06, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

But relevant to "discussion style" perhaps? And "discussion the Earth" might include a wide range of subjects. Pedantry at its best. Now we've both stated the obvious and have something in common. Now I am thinking off-topic only makes sense in the case of articles. I emphasize the term discussion defined as clear communication unclouded by unstable emotion, that all can benefit, that young ones (and aliens) don't accidentally learn this is the way intelligent people of Earth interact. Understanding causes is critical to a solution. Alphaquad 16:27, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

Evolution is just a theory and has very little if not no proof to back it up. This planet is incredible. The trees, the ocean, the sunset. There is no way this planet just appeared and everything just gradually formed. No, im going with intelligent design. Someone has got to change it. Crion Naxx

Perhaps Earth#Notes will interest you, it is full of, well not proof, but citations to the information in this article. Please know that the threshold of inclusion in this enclycopiedia is not truth, but verifiablity. HighInBC ^{(Need help? Ask me)} 04:03, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

You are free to edit the article to include any theory, so long as evidence is provided and the article remains NPOV. A theory in itself is not POV unless it explicitly demeans another point of view - stating the reasoning behind a theory DOES NOT demean another. Provide respectable evidence for your arguments and it deserves the airtime. --Danlibbo 03:48, 16 November 2006 (UTC)

Opening paragraph

Going back to the previous discussion .... I don't like the opening paragraph:

"The Earth was created by God around 5,000 years ago[1] (see Age of the Earth) and its largest natural satellite, the Moon, was orbiting it shortly thereafter, around 5,000 years ago."

That is a way too biased religious statement. The earth is millions of years old, not 5000. Why can't we just state the age of the earth based on geological fact and add a section specifically for religious beliefs? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 69.125.115.183 (talk • contribs) .

You are of course right. And it has been reverted to the correct way, such edits are only there for a short time. HighInBC 17:51, 26 August 2006 (UTC)

Have another point, isn't Moon is Earth's ONLY natural satellite? If that's the case, why is the word largest is required? It implies that there is more than one natural satellite.... --Cyktsui 01:10, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Sarcasm can be highest or lowest form of humour, I think you pull it off though. Kris 10:58, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Maybe I should have made it a bit clearer, the current sentence is "the Earth was formed around 4.57 billion years ago[1] and its largest natural satellite, the Moon, was orbiting it shortly thereafter, around 4.53 billion years ago."" so there is no 5000 years in there anymore. My point is whether it is more appropriate to remove the word largest. Please comment --Cyktsui 12:35, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Oh yeah well that's been fixed anyway now. I thought you were referring to an isolated vandalism attempt ages ago, and making a joke out of a newbie's confusion over it, didn't realize it still said "largest natural satellite". Of course the Moon is Earth's only known true natural satellite, although there may be a little confusion over Cruithne and 2002 AA29. It should stay as is without "largest" being in there, you're right. Kris 13:13, 1 November 2006 (UTC)

Talking about the moon section now: On this page 3753 Cruithne is called a co-orbital satellite and on the quasi-satellite page it is listed as one of them. Are these both correct? Also the quasi-satellite page has some more bodies that could go with them. CaspianM

It's a good point and well spotted – I couldn't claim to be an expert, but it would seem there is conflicting information between some pages regarding Cruithne. It is in a horseshoe orbit, which the quasi-satellite article states would disqualify it from being a quasi-satellite. The same article lists Cruithne shortly after as a quasi-satellite, so perhaps it needs to be taken out of that list. By definition it is a co-orbital satellite, as I understand, since it orbits in the Earth's neighbourhood at a similar distance. Kris 19:24, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Composition of the Earth

This is a relatively minor point, but the section on "Composition of the Earth" cannot be quite correct. The percent by mass of the earth that is iron, oxygen, etc. is given; if one adds the percentages of these seven major constituents, one gets 101.1%. Even if each of the percentages were rounded, that still would not be enough to make the real value <= 100%, and one would in fact expect these to add up to slightly LESS than 100%. I went to the referenced source, and the percentages that I found there did not agree with the ones on this page. But I was puzzled as to why someone would have mistranscribed them, and wasn't sure "bulk earth" was the correct category to be looking under. Perhaps someone can look into this and fix it?

Thank you for noticing that. I will look into it tommorow if nobody else does and I remember. HighInBC 18:54, 28 August 2006 (UTC)

Has anyone looked at this problem yet? Another thought -- apparently much of earth's large density is due to compression; sources seem to say that the density of the inner core is 13 or even 15 gm/cm^3. This is surprising, since the density of iron is usually around 8 gm/cm^3. How does this work; does iron under extremely high pressures form an unusual crystalline structure or something? How high does the pressure have to be -- would a planet have to be approximately earth-sized for the pressure at the core to be high enough? It would be nice if someone knowledgeable wrote about this or looked into it. Kier07 22:54, 11 September 2006 (UTC)

It could just be a degree of error. HighInBC ^{(Need help? Ask me)} 19:53, 3 November 2006 (UTC)

Clearing the neighbourhood

Removed newly added Clearing the neighbourhood section which linked to planetologists squabbling (see: Clearing the neighbourhood). The article is long enough already without adding their trivial naming squabbles or whatever. Vsmith 00:45, 30 August 2006 (UTC)

Mostly harmless

I'm starting to think people who pull that joke for the umpteenth time should be immediately blocked. Thoughts? Danny Lilithborne 06:01, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

I beleive they are... problem is.. its just random IP addresses most of the time, so unless they have an internet account with static IP, next time they connect they can get back to their old tricks -- Nbound 06:06, 3 September 2006 (UTC)

IPvandals usually aren't blocked for one incident, but you could always look over the history of this article to see if special beatings are applied to people who re-apply the over-worn joke. The few articles that will get you immediately whacked are usually labled as such in an easily-visible header.

Atlant 22:22, 4 September 2006 (UTC)

A 'fix' for this may be including a 'mostly harmless' paragraph, which included the HGTTG quote and some information about why the entire Earth entry is not simply 'mostly harmless' Tigger-oN 10:10, 10 September 2006 (UTC)

Diameter of earth now vs. 4.5 BYA?

Hi, does anyone have any data or know of references regarding how the diameter of the earth has changes over its evolution? That is, has the diameter of the earth increased or decrease since its inception? I know, according to solar growth rates stored in fossil records, that it's rotation rate is slowing, e.g. at the 2.5 BYA mark the earth rotated once every ten hours, and that at the 4.5 BYA mark it would have been revolving faster than one rotation per hour (Source: Whitrow's What is Time (1972), pg. 63.) Thanks: --Sadi Carnot 12:55, 5 September 2006 (UTC)

Id assume the diameter would have shrunk due to cooling -- Nbound 09:45, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

And if we're talking about diametric evolution, the planet will have been more markedly oblate in the past due to faster rotation coupled with lower density, so the polar and equatorial diameters are approaching each other (although they will never be equal). Kris 10:29, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Lunar age

Just a thought, in the first paragraph the Moon is said to be 4.533Ga old. Firstly, I would like to know where that figure came from, and secondly how come we seem to know it so accurately? I'm not questioning it – I'm sure whoever wrote it knows more about it than me, I would just like to know. Would it not be more correct to state the ages of Earth and the Moon to the same number of significant figures if possible? Kris 08:23, 8 September 2006 (UTC)

Surface

In the section surface it writes

If all of the land on Earth were spread evenly, then water would rise higher than the Statue of Liberty.

Which is obviously false: simple maths shows that the depth would be "average depth of the seas as they are now" x "percentage of land surface in water". Taking the figures from the article, this yields 3,794x0.708=2686.152. Something like this is noted in the footnote:

The average depth is, in fact, significantly greater than the statue of liberty. Letting the average depth be approximately equal to water volume divided by the Earth's surface area: the total volume of water is about 1.4 × 109 km3; the total area of Earth is about 5.1 × 108 km². So the average depth would be roughly 2.8 km, whereas the statue of liberty is only 0.093 km, including the pedestal.

I find this setup rather confusing - wouldn't it make more sense to leave out the Statue of Liberty altogether, because it is nowhere close to comparable?80.109.92.235 00:05, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

I changed it include an approximate figure in the text directly, in place of the off-topic comparision with the SoL. The sentence still feels a bit awkward, though.80.109.92.235 00:59, 13 September 2006 (UTC)

Why is the Earth round?

Why is the Earth round? Ok. Get this. Think of a ball. You are on a ship going down the curve. Wouldn't you suddenly be upside down? But that isnt the case. Therefore, I will reword my question. Why don't ships go upside down when traversing down the curve of Earth if it were round? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 68.89.40.251 (talk • contribs) .

See Gravity. -- Arwel (talk) 00:22, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Gravitational attraction is always towards the center of mass of any object. For a round planet, that point is somewhere near the center of the planet, so gravitational attraction is always roughly towards the center of the planet as well (that is, "down" into the ground).

Atlant 00:30, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Yep... else id be floating off into space about now... (Im in Australia) -- Nbound

Given that this question is not completely dumb, how would you know you were upside-down, anyway? Danny Lilithborne 00:46, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

Quite true... how do we know this isnt how it really is? :P -- Nbound 00:55, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

That map is as valid as any other.

Atlant 01:13, 19 September 2006 (UTC)

"often incorrectly referred to as Terra"

On what basis is "Tellus" to be considered "correct" and "Terra" incorrect?

This seems like yet another case of bringing in a lesser-known bit of knowledge (in this case that "Tellus" is also a name of the Latin earth goddess) and arbitrarily declaring that a particular interpretation based on it is "correct."

"Terra" is Latin for earth, as in soil, but also land in the sense of territory (e.g., the new world, "terra nova") and the earth as a whole (notably, "In principio creavit Deus caelum et terram."). English partly follows this very pattern. We talk about tilling the earth, or an earthy smell, but also of the earth as a whole. This sort of metaphoric extension is fundamental in language. Further, Terra is the earth goddess and by extension the earth itself. For example, from Bullfinch's Mythology: "A celebrated exploit of Hercules was his victory over Antaeus. Antaeus, the son of Terra, the Earth, was a mighty giant and wrestler [...]"

"Tellus" appears to be another name for the earth goddess. Bullfinch has (in the story of Medea and AEson) "To the stars she addressed her incantations, and to the moon; to Hecate, the goddess of the underworld, and to Tellus the goddess of the earth, by whose power plants potent for enchantment are produced."

It's not clear how to pick a "correct" choice between the two. "Terra" and "Tellus" appear to be simple alternations and are almost certainly cognate to begin with. Either that, or there were actually two earth goddesses, with suspiciously similar names and attributes, in which case on what basis do we decide that one is "correctly" considered as representing the planet as a whole?

Modern usage at least seems to strongly prefer "Terra", so if one is to be considered "correct" it should be "Terra". -Dmh 17:23, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

I see your point, I support removing any uncited material stating something is incorrect. A bold statement like that needs a citation. HighInBC 18:07, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

It appears someone has re-introduced a milder version of this statement, referencing the entry for Terra (mythology). This in turn flatly states that the disticntion is technically correct Classical Latin. I did a little digging and — bearing in mind that I'm no expert in Latin — found that Ovid tends to contradict this. I won't mess with the Earth article until this resolves, but it's not clear to me why it's important to note a technical distinction in Classical Latin here, even assuming it to be accurate. There's no end of English usage of Terra as earth, and as far as I can tell some Latin usage as well. -Dmh 06:12, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Good catch, wikipedia does not use itself as a reference, so I have removed the reference in question. I attempted to use the citations from the Terra (mythology) article, but one was a dead link and the other provided next to no information. HighInBC 14:20, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

I've taken out the statement in Terra (mythology). There appears to be a grain of truth, in that the notion has been around for a while (e.g., Aquinas asserts that the Romans held such a distinction), but there doesn't seem to be much evidence that the Romans themselves cared that much, except perhaps in some limited context. In any case, it seems at best a rather technical point not worth mentioning here. I'm taking it back out -Dmh 21:27, 18 October 2006 (UTC)

global warming

humans love cars. stop it. think about global warming. lets all protest the stinking oil. ok? walk to work . just walk. forget cars. screw anything that involves mass greenhouse emissions. now if youre just addicted to cars, then screw you. you will get drowned by the oceans. (and wait im not talking nonsense) with more ice caps melting... the oceans will cool and then they will absorb more heat and technically there could be another ice age. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 66.142.143.42 (talk • contribs) .

not everyone lives within walking distance of work -- Nbound 04:01, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

And this has to do with the article at hand how? -66.57.45.134 23:55, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

In any case, global warming is a myth, according to reliable scientific data. 222.153.235.96 04:54, 26 September 2006 (UTC)

Rotating Earth animation

Sorry to be a bit pedantic, but this animation is incorrect: it does not take into account the Earth's axial tilt. Should it therefore be removed?

Martin.Budden 17:15, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

I don't think it's incorrect though- it shows the rotation of the Earth on a equinox.WolfKeeper 22:01, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

At equinox the sun is indeed directly above the equator, but the Earth's axis is still inclined to the orbital plane. In terms of the animation this means that one of the poles should be "nearer" the viewer and one of the poles "further away". Martin.Budden 21:11, 27 September 2006 (UTC)

I chose this camera angle for viewing as much detail as possible. Camera bearing spacecraft could theoretically be anywhere. We cannot call it an impossible view. Thanks for the comment Martin. At this point I am wondering if a Wiki Planetarium project is underway. I have collected all the data and matrix math needed for the project and put it in one place. Most of the data available is of our little corner, so a working Planetarium should be linked to Alpha_Quadrant and certainly to Planetarium. Even an Opengl applet is possible with certain browsers. What will we title the page and where should it be discussed? A picture[4] is worth 1000 words - Working version nearly complete. "Don't bite the newcomers!" Alphaquad 02:18, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

Sorry the delayed reply. I agree that the animation, strictly speaking, is not incorrect. However I assumed the "camera" would be in the Earth's orbital plane and I expect the average high school student would make the same assumption. I don't think you would loose any detail if the camera was moved into the Earth's orbital plane and the animation would then also illustrate the Earth's axial tilt - so in fact you would be showing more detail. Martin.Budden 23:41, 7 November 2006 (UTC)

Fulfilled Request

As requested in the priority one to do list since September 4th 2006 regarding implementing suggestions from featured article review for this article I have taken action to implement on October 1st 2006. Only minor action was taken for a few examples of grammar, as well as changing the word simular to similar which appeared to have a meaning closer to its paragraph in context. Please read, discuss, and keep as the consensus of the group here sees fit. I now go to the next priority one to do list. Absolutely no worries at all. Neutralaccounting 05:45, 1 October 2006 (UTC)

Images

I am from Earth, atleast I will be staying here a while, anybody want me to take some specific pictures while I am here? HighInBC 14:23, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Earth Infobox

Template:Planet Infobox/Earth was placed on TFD by someone who doesn't like the fact that it stands alone by itself. Please visit the TFD and express your opinion on this issue. Dragons flight 17:47, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

sure take pics of all the landmarks, i hear u have weird substances here on earth qantas goes to venus!

Words for Earth in other languages

I think it interesting that people have made the effort to write the word for Earth in other languages, but why is there no transliteration of the Sanskrit word? "Words for Earth in other languages include: पृथ्वी pr̥thvī (Sanskrit)".DDD DDD 01:54, 17 October 2006 (UTC)

Hello, I am from another planet and was wondering if someone could tell me about life on Planet Earth?

Composition

This section needs some lengthening. That, or actually put some relevent information in the link to another article. This section states composition, but doesn't even state if this is composition by mass or by number of atoms. I recall this information used to be on wikipedia, however now it is on neither page. Harley peters 21:13, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

region?

There should be more info. about which regions prefer "earthing", "earthing system", as compared to "ground", "grounding", "grounded", "grounding system"?

This does seem extremely dependent on dialect, region, neighborhood.

earth_ground;

ground_(electricity);

ground_(electrical);

ground_(power);

ground_and_neutral.

Then there is "earthling".

hopiakuta ; [[ <nowiki> </nowiki> { [[%c2%a1]] [[%c2%bf]] [[ %7e%7e%7e%7e ]] } ;]] 22:30, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

Pedosphere

I was taking a quick scroll of the article and saw the section Pedosphere and thought it was vandalism so hit history to revert it but couldn't find the diff very quickly - so I clicked on the link for it and turns out there's such thing as a pedosphere lol. I wonder if anyone has incorrectly deleted this before. --WikiSlasher 11:40, 28 October 2006 (UTC)

Image caption

An image caption currently reads:

A part of the earth as it looks in its round shape. This is not how it looks from space, however it is what the earth's shape is.

To which my reaction is basically "uhh... what?". This needs more explanation, as it is apparently self-contradictory; how can something have a different shape from what it appears to have? JulesH 07:29, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

There are several reasons that caption needs nuking and replacing:

"...in its round shape." – Why, what does it look like in its other shapes? I understood it had only one shape, an oblate spheroid.

"This is not how it looks from space..." – Well it isn't, unless Earth was experiencing its best ever weather, but this is a bad way to word it.

"...however it is what the earth's shape is." - Do I really need to break this down? Rubbish.

It's hard to say whether whoever wrote it is a subtle vandal or just a bit encyclopaedically green. Kris 10:59, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

I've re-written the caption but it could probably still use some fine-tuning. Kris 11:08, 6 November 2006 (UTC)

Your Mom

Since when is Earth ever called 'Your Mom'? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 58.107.7.189 (talk • contribs) 20:29, November 12, 2006

Hehe, that particular edit was there for less than a minute before being repaired, it was vandalism. You just happened to look during the short time it was like that. HighInBC ^{(Need help? Ask me)} 04:33, 13 November 2006 (UTC)

I thought as much. ^_^ A brief part of me thought it was maybe someone trying to describe the Earth as mother of us all, but got a bit confused. Ah well, no bother.