To
become official, "hella" would have to jump through quite a few
bureaucratic hoops. It would have to pass through the Consultative
Committee for Units (CCU), one of 10 advisory committees of the
International Committee for Weights and Measures (CIPM). If the CCU
recommends it the CIPM, that board must then decide whether to advance
the cause to the General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM), the
official authority that can make changes to the SI system.
That international organization, based in France, includes members from 81 countries.
"I
think that for a number of reasons it's a long shot," said Ben Stein, a
spokesperson for the National Institute of Standards and Technology,
the U.S. organization that handles measurements. "The types of things
they would consider are is it needed, does it add or reduce confusion,
are the names consistent with other names associated with the prefixes?"
Sendek
argues that the name would honor the scientific contributions of
Northern Californians, who have famously popularized the phrase "hella"
to mean "a whole lot."
Cached
fishead ...*∞º˙ on 31 Dec 09"Russia is considering sending a spacecraft to a large asteroid to knock it off its path and prevent a possible collision with Earth, the head of the country's space agency said Wednesday. Anatoly Perminov said the space agency will hold a meeting soon to assess a mission to Apophis, telling Golos Rossii radio that it would invite NASA, the European Space Agency, the Chinese space agency and others to join the project once it is finalized. When the 270-meter (885-foot) asteroid was first discovered in 2004, astronomers estimated the chances of it smashing into Earth in its first flyby in 2029 were as high as 1-in-37, but have since lowered their estimate. Further studies ruled out the possibility of an impact in 2029, when the asteroid is expected to come no closer than 18,300 miles (29,450 kilometers) above Earth's surface, but they indicated a small possibility of a hit on subsequent encounters. In October, NASA lowered the odds that Apophis could hit Earth in 2036 from a 1-in-45,000 as earlier thought to a 1-in-250,000 chance after researchers recalculated the asteroid's path. It said another close encounter in 2068 will involve a 1-in-330,000 chance of impact. Without mentioning NASA findings, Perminov said that he heard from a scientist that Apophis is getting closer and may hit the planet. "I don't remember exactly, but it seems to me it could hit the Earth by 2032," Perminov said. "People's lives are at stake. We should pay several hundred million dollars and build a system that would allow to prevent a collision, rather than sit and wait for it to happen and kill hundreds of thousands of people," Perminov said. Scientists have long theorized about asteroid deflection strategies. Some have proposed sending a probe to circle around a dangerous asteroid to gradually change its trajectory. Others suggested sending a spacecraft to collide with the asteroid and alter its momentum, or using nuclear weapons to hit it."
