Election Thread 2024

[Cassia]

Either they're a boogeyman that doesn't really exist or the American people are the enemy.  Pick your poison.

I think there was a famous song that sums this up...

The problem is all inside your head, he said to me
The answer is easy if you take it logically
It's really not my habit to intrude
Furthermore, I hope my meaning won't be lost or misconstrued
But I'll repeat myself at the risk of being crude
Where is this antifa?

[Nobody]

There must be 50 shades of Grey. 😉

[Cassia]

Administration is requiring tourists to declare 5 years' worth of social media history. The international conference business is dead. Well, enjoy the descent into irrelevance as the scientific world move on.

[Hydra009]

[ferdmonger]

https://www.startribune.com/ice-agents-visit-brooklyn-park-coffee-shop-arrest-cook-after-ruse-to-get-him-outside/601545607?utm_source=gift

Yup.  The worst of the worst.  Big old signing bonuses to those who want to be legally nasty and go after those hideous cooks for being a part of the community. 

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I'm glad I'm old. But I worry for our cats.

[Nobody]

Jeez, Trump can't even flip a coin properly!
All he did at the Army-Navy game was gently toss it in the air. What an ultramaroon! 🤣

[Cassia]

Jeez, Trump can't even flip a coin properly!
All he did at the Army-Navy game was gently toss it in the air. What an ultramaroon! 🤣

And to think that when I was young, I loosely held a notion that some smart people where sort of guiding the ship. Now I think back to the 50s-70s when nearly everyone confidently smoked cigarettes. It calms your nerves, you know.

Our wealthiest people now just as confidently talk about colonizing Mars. They have no fucking clue. Putting lethal radiation, toxic atmosphere, extreme temperatures and poisonous dust storms aside, they have no concept of how specialized our evolution makes us. From the microbe infestation in our bodies that we need to survive to the gravity that keeps our skeletons, blood vessels, eyeballs and muscles together. Millions of years of specialization wasted on an alien planet.

 Not to mention the distances and energy required. Forty-times further way than the moon at its closest point. Launch windows on 2.5-year intervals. Seven months to get there.  Six to 44 minutes round-trip radio comm. No rescue. Suicide mission. Go already Elon, godspeed.

If we ever approached the speed of light, our mass would also approach infinity. There are good reasons I think we will never see aliens. It's the physics of reality-when moving at a blazing 10% of the speed of light, it would still take 42 years to gets to our nearest star.

Star Trek was set in the 2,260s. I doubt we will be cruising to distant galaxies. The species will do well to just survive till then.

[Nobody]

Yeah, no one ever takes into account the interstellar medium that, at relativistic velocity, would grind a spaceship to dust.
And if anyone ever reached the speed of light they would collapse and become a black hole.

[Hydra009]

Our wealthiest people now just as confidently talk about colonizing Mars. They have no fucking clue.

They truly don't.  They have enough wealth and power to make anything happen here on Earth, and so they think they can walk on water out there.  Arrogance and stupiity.  Space is harsh and uncaring, least of all to wealth and status.  Space cares about two things and two things only: knowledge and preparation.

Still, we really do need to get out there eventually.  If for no other reason than the sheer difficulty and harshness necessitates cooperation on a level that overcomes our tribal and violent way of life.  Humans are natural wanderers and explorers - to move forward together, we must move forward individually.

If we ever approached the speed of light, our mass would also approach infinity. There are good reasons I think we will never see aliens. It's the physics of reality-when moving at a blazing 10% of the speed of light, it would still take 42 years to gets to our nearest star.

True.  And we'd have to deal with collisions and radiation.

And one more thing - any colony on the moon or Mars or Europa or elsewhere must be regularly supplied by Earth for a long, long time, probably forever.  Space colonization entails a very serious commitment - we can't boldly go then get distracted by other things.