"Black Hole" term seen as racist

[Shonner]

It had to happen.

Astronomers now need to watch what they say.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,380143,00.html

[Hawk]

I say call a spade a spade. If they think the term 'black hole' is racist then as far as I'm concerned they have a problem.
Political correctness is not in my dictionary.

[USRailFan]

I wonder when they'll demand abolishing blackboards in schools?

[jhilden2]

I can see there being a problem if the guy called it a "Nappy Headed Hole".

[pmcn]

I read about it in this aritcle: http://blogs.chron.com/sciguy/archives/2008/07/is_black_hole_a.html. I like Sciguy's statement about the "white hole". Ignorance is bliss until you end up in the national news.

Paul

[rpicardi1]

I wonder when they'll demand abolishing blackboards in schools?

The classic Blackboard was a dark gray slate slab hung on the wall in some old crumbling school building. It is now a green colored fiberboard called a chalkboard. The last known slate blackboard in this area vanished with the demolition of St Mary's Elementary School last month in the dying city of Saginaw. Population was 61,799 in 2000, down from 102,000 in 1970, now at last count 56,263 and dropping.

Former city mayor Ham, was convicted of insurance fraud when her expensive imported sports car burned up in her driveway. Then, there is the mayor of Detroit and his millions wasted in defense of his sexual harassment lawsuit. (No need to guess the political party and skin color in each case.)

In defense of Black city mayors, in 1967, mayor Marsh of Saginaw told store owners to stand guard and use deadly force if necessary to defend their businesses from the looters that were coming up from the Detroit race riots. Faced with the prospect of certain death, those causing the riots turned around and went back to Detroit to continue their looting until the National Guard was called up and used deadly force to end their lawlessness.

[inflammable]

Hey, playing stupid word games and crying all the time is working out for the Muslims in Europe.

Monkey see, Monkey do.

No pun intended.

James

[rdamurphy]

Hmm, I suppose this wouldn't be a good time to mention Uranus...

Robert

[USRailFan]

I think I'll move to the USA, gather up a lot of other Scandinavians, and start claiming that the fact that there is a Cristoffer Columbus Day but no Leiv Eiriksson Day must be considered an oppression of the USA's Scandinavian minority.

[rdamurphy]

Columbus Day is already considered an oppression of aboriginal Americans...

Robert

[Jim Prower]

I wonder when they'll demand abolishing blackboards in schools?

The classic Blackboard was a dark gray slate slab hung on the wall in some old crumbling school building. It is now a green colored fiberboard called a chalkboard. The last known slate blackboard in this area vanished with the demolition of St Mary's Elementary School last month in the dying city of Saginaw. Population was 61,799 in 2000, down from 102,000 in 1970, now at last count 56,263 and dropping.

Furthermore, the next generation of "Writing on the Wall" has come out: The Dry-Erase Whiteboard, which is appearing all over Bradley University's campus. Should I, as a white person, be offended, then? I mean, if black holes have some sort of racial meaning....

[Shonner]

Now they have Smart Boards that computer projectors display on. It's basically a giant touchpad for the computer.

As a white man, I am deeply offended by the term "Smart Board". Are they implying that White Boards are ignorant or inferior in some way?

[mjs2101]

Gee, what about black diamonds vs. white diamonds? Are black sandy beaches any better than typical sandy beaches?

And speaking of astronomy, why are there no "white holes" out there! I mean, you have black, red, white and brown dwarf stars, so why can't "holes" be represented in the same light? :)

As for discrimination, why don't we have white history month? And seeing the black population have ebonics, why isn't redneck an "official" language as well? Equal opportunity! White power! :)

Mykel

[Amtrak 464]

"It sounds like Central Collections has become a black hole,"
If I heard that, I'd think he was saying money gets collected, but never into the budget. Not racist.

[bnsf1959]

"What's the differences between Devil's food cake and Angel food cake?" Heard that on Fox News today. :p

[rdamurphy]

There have been theories about "white holes" but they would be too bizarre to exist. Black holes are so dense, and have absorbed so much matter and gas, that within the event horizon, time comes to a stop. (There is only ONE constant in the universe: The speed of light or "C") Since C can't change, time does. And yes, special relativity is proven, and is observable.

A White Hole would be the opposite of a Black hole, one would only last, from our perspective, an infinitely small amount of time, but would, within it's event horizon, completely divest itself of all of it's mass within the blink of an eye. Faster, actually. Now Stephen Hawkin has his own theories about white holes, which make sense, in that a black hole and a white hole are the same object, at the same time, and the black hole portion sucks in matter while the white hole portion emits radiation. Since that's how we observe black holes, through radiation emissions, (check one out here (http://chandra.harvard.edu/photo/category/blackholes.html), they're awesome!)

Again, it's one of those dreamy theoretical constructs scientists like to come up with, like the "Big Bang" theory. Did you know that the special relativity equations prove that the Big Bang couldn't have happened? Or the laws of physics had to change 200,000 years after the beginning of the Universe. But scientists still cling to it.

The sad part of all this is that we as the human race have advanced to the point where we understand the mathematics behind a black hole, we can comprehend and understand the concepts behind nuclear energy, the very thing that makes a star burn hot, but can't get over something as silly as the fact that some people have more melanin in their skin than others...


http://forums.flightsim.com/vbts/attachment.php?attachmentid=4893&stc=1&d=1215863027

Robert

[Shonner]

"It sounds like Central Collections has become a black hole,"
If I heard that, I'd think he was saying money gets collected, but never into the budget. Not racist.

If you listen to the audio of the meeting that took place, you hear everyone grown because they can't believe it when the crazy guy interrupts about Black Hole being a racist term. This is before he goes outside and starts ranting about angel and devil cakes. He's a perfect example of how someone filled with so much hate, so much so that they gargle the stuff, can be so moronic.

[rdamurphy]

Obviously a follower of the "Reverend" Jesse Jackson!

Robert

[Shonner]

Have you seen Jesse lately? The guy is seeing his life's work go down the drain. He's lost his power. And that 93% block he and Sharpton have been preaching hate to all these years may become more interested in its own lives than in how Jackson says they should exist. As if they can't survive without him, or something.

His face shows it all. Even his son is sick of him. Bill Cosby needs to say something here, I think. The Factor needs to get Sharpton off the show and put Cosby there.

[PatPut99]

This would explan why so many people are racist...