1. What has happened to the old Scienceblogs comments? Have NatGeo permanently deleted them? Does anyone have an archive? Is there any chance of porting them here, as other FT blogs have done?
2. Is FTB giving other people browser problems? On several occasions, my browser has ground to a halt when viewing a particular (essentially random) page. Switching from Firefox to Chrome didn’t help. Only by turning off JavaScript was the page usable. Could one the adverts be introducing a rogue script, which hogs all of the resources?
ambleburysays
Philip Reeves, especially the charming, (really charming, not the pejorative sense charming) Larklight books. A great Steampunk-ish author.
Like a number people, I’d imagine, I was pretty overwhelmed by the Here’s The Situation thread.
I want to say how overcome and humbled I was by the people who shared their experiences, and the people who did such a fantastic job of supporting them and making damn sure their truth was acknowledged and honoured.
Super pissed about Obama. I want to vote Green or some other party, but I’m also afraid of what could happen if he loses.
——————————-
Congarats to Nerd and Redhead! There’s no place like home.
Patricia, OMsays
hyperdeath – My computer drags down to a halt too. Having no clue as to how it works, I’ve decided it’s the gawd ads trying to get me to pray correctly. My theory got proved when I clicked on the prayer ad and it went lickety shit fast. Praze gawd!
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
ah.
I’m pissed about Obama as well. In fact, I kinds was pissed since 2008.
Anyway, :( for me not having the franchise.
Patricia, OMsays
Insomniac – Oops! My birthday list is out now, my birthday is July 4th. Traditionally everyone here gets free grog, swill and spankings that day. *wink*
chigau (違う)says
Don’t worry, thunk.
The following US election will be waaaay worse.
'Tis Himselfsays
Traditionally everyone here gets free grog, swill and spankings that day.
Scienceblogs comment transfer script blew up when it tried to deal with Pharyngula comments. They promise they’ll get them up eventually, but it’s going to be a slower process than expected.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
Hooray Redhead and associated Nerd, glad you’re home.
Patricia: Ooh! Me! Me!
Wait, they don’t let me have grog…
Patricia, OMsays
Steampunk hasn’t even gotten to my corner of the religoverse. Darn it.
Patricia, OMsays
Scienceblogs comment transfer script blew up when it tried to deal with Pharyngula comments.
Surely one of our finest hours!
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
Ah, I’m trying my best to remain pseudonymous, but I’m bad at it.
Scienceblogs comment transfer script blew up when it tried to deal with Pharyngula comments.
Was it tripped up by the phrase “Leica Rangefinder”?
'Tis Himselfsays
Scienceblogs comment transfer script blew up when it tried to deal with Pharyngula comments.
I see the poor transfer script huddled in a corner, whimpering: “Please don’t make me go there again.”
Patricia, OMsays
Thunk – It’s a shame you can’t have any of my birthday grog. It’s the best of the year, a full 10 minutes old!
Tis – birthday swill will of course be the quality stuff, guaranteed not to run when it hits the fan. Just how you like it.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
Heh, patricia. *sets aside grog to age for 5 years*
chigau (違う)says
I think grog blows up after 5 weeks.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
Well then… *puts barrel in a bomb range*
Louissays
I would like to inform everyone that I am exceedingly drunk.
I would also like to inform everyone that the series of data my home PC has been crunching for work has been crunched and the drug interaction hypothesis I predicted seems to to be true (at least computationally). I’ve come up with a model to explain some real (and annoying) lab results. Possibly. Maybe. And I did it whilst I was in the pub. Now THAT is an efficient use of time.
I may have to get drunk again.
Louis
P.S. Merry everything to everyone, especially to The Redhead and Nerd. Here’s looking up your nostril and tickling your earlobe. May many happy things occur to you at appropriate moments and may your genitalia always be befurtleable. Hoorah!
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
As many people that know me in real life are aware, I am a tropical cyclone fanatic.
And now that hurricane season has begun, I realize I have let my interest lapse.
I completely missed Hurricane Carlotta, and for that, I pay penance.
*grumble*
Patricia, OMsays
Birthday grog at the age of five weeks is capable of blowing your gentleman vegetables from here to Bazokystan.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
Is it really that explosive?
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
Wait a minute…
Isn’t that sending hazardous goods on the internet? Aren’t there laws against these things?
Louissays
Patricia,
Crikey!
{Covers Gentlemen Vegetables With Lead Cladding And Sandbags}
Hmmmm I am noticing a certain chafing sensation. I’ll drink through it.
Louis
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
*explosion*
Oh no! Not the Old River Control Structure!
Nooooooooooo………..
Patricia, OMsays
Send it through the inter-tubes? No, no. We hurl the stuff in, didn’t you see the trebuchet?
I know the risk of stirring up a breeze with all those whizzing tankards, barrels and buckets keeps Louis in a state of perpetual excitment, but Pharyngula must be kept supplied.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
Ah, no, I did not.
That’s a very powerful trebucket though.
When delivering to distant lands, aren’t you concerned from large heating caused from the high velocity of the projectile?
i.e., don’t you think that 3000 C ought to cause a grog explosion?
Steampunk? Y’all are pikers. 220 tons running at 180psi and producing 2,000 horsepower. Booyah!
And I got a letter from my insurance company today telling me that they are not covering my hospitalization as the monitoring could have been done in a non-hospital environment. I called the number and, of course, they are not in today. I am hoping that this is just a minor glitch and we can figure things out. Damn.
BroOg
I think it’s time for another Revolution in the US.
This one to be remembered by the History Books as:
HEALTH CARE IS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT YOU FUCKWADS!
Patricia, OMsays
On second thought, perhaps directing Louis to a site with nekkid peepee’s going past pubs was a mistake….
<smiles at thunk in an irritatingly superior manner>
Not too bad, thunk.
(You beat me to it!)
FossilFishysays
[grump]My wife and the designer wouldn’t add a mounting platform to our new house plans for the Roman style catapult I’m building. I mean, how inconsiderate is that? The maths all say that without a little extra height I won’t be able to clear the highway. And don’t get me started on the belfry, where are the poor bats to live, hmmmmm?[/grump]
Patricia, OMsays
You have my sincere sympathies FossilFishy.
chigau (違う)says
OK
Guests are coming.
I must go teach a sister-brother team; 10-8 years old:
how to build a fire.
I’ll let you know how it went.
{If I am spared.}
FossilFishysays
Thank you Patricia. It’s not an easy burden I bear, being a FORWARD THINKER and MAN OF VISION(tm) in a house of everyday pragmatists. I just hope that come the zombie apocalypse (whoo hoo, I spelled apocalypse right first try!) the architectural deficiencies of our abode-to-be don’t come back to, er, bite us.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
John Morales:
Yes. I’m always fast on the buzzer.
'Tis Himselfsays
My wife and the designer wouldn’t add a mounting platform to our new house plans for the Roman style catapult I’m building.
I can sympathize. My wife wouldn’t even let me dig the moat, let alone stock it with crocodiles.
FossilFishysays
chigau: My inner child just tugged on my pant’s cuff. He’s a little hard to understand what with the mouth full of charred marshmallows and all, but I think he said “You rock!”
FossilFishysays
‘Tis! I’m shocked, appalled and appellated! No moat? But, but, but, how can it be your castle without a moat? The moat is a given. [scrambles for house plans] Shit! [speeddials the croc breeder to call off the shipment]
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
More vices:
I honestly need to learn to skewer more trolls.
Though I fear my invective needs polishing and that I’m lazy.
Mostly the latter, I think. I plead “summer break”.
Watch and learn…
FossilFishysays
thunk: I wouldn’t feel too bad about the troll skewering. I realised long ago that for the really bad trolls my contribution would be a mere fart in the veritable shitstorm that was about to come down upon them. It’s rare to the point of invisibility that I can find a point to make that hasn’t been covered with better intelligence, invective and information than I could bring to bear. Mind you, it is fun and the best way to learn is to do. Have at it I say.
Great comment from spudbeach over at Jen’s, and a link y’all have to see.
I am so happy to see a blogger point out that mental illness is the same as physical illness. Why do people assume that depression is voluntary, but a broken leg isn’t? Why do people talk ad nauseum about an appendectomy, but clam up about anxiety? Treat a epilepsy as a disability, but schizophrenia as a shame?
The best response I saw was an art installation: flowers in a mental hospital.
…I confess I haven’t watched Korra yet; I’m hoping to watch it together with mentor later. But I’ll just not look here for a few hours if y’all want to rave.
Owlmirrorsays
Scienceblogs comment transfer script blew up when it tried to deal with Pharyngula comments. They promise they’ll get them up eventually, but it’s going to be a slower process than expected.
Hm.
Why were so many blogs “archived or suspended”? It’s not just TetZoo, but also Neurophilosophy, Bioephemera, Retrospectacle, Laelaps, the Loom, … and lots more. I know that at least some (like the current Discoverblogs instance of the Loom) have archives of all of the posts and comments, but nuking the Sb stuff is … excessive.
Why is all of scienceblogs blocked from web.archive.org, so snapshots of posts and comments cannot even be seen?
Grumpssays
Hi Horde,
This summer I’m going to be buying a narrowboat and moving into it to live full-time on the Grand Union canal in Hertfordshire (UK). I would really like to steampunkify it (wouldn’t that be cool?). But I’m a bit short of imagination and design skills… any suggestions?
My castle has a really nice fire pit built into the courtyard out back. My dear departed brought home an old Kenworth wheel and set it hub side down about 1/2″ into the ground, then surrounded it with landscaping cinder blocks, two high. A Webber Kettle BBQ grill wire grate fits inside the wheel perfectly. You can cook on it, roast marshmallows, corn on the cob, or just have a nice campfire at night.
Most tire or truck places will give you an old truck wheel for free, so it’s a pretty cheap fire pit.
Hooray Redhead! Sending high fives through the USB.
Mattirsays
I’m reading through the Here’s the Situation thread, which is pretty fucking depressing and makes me want to go Hulk Smash on a whole lotta rapists… But since I’m thoroughly exhausted from driving 450 miles roundtrip today to take DaughterSpawn to her summer job attempting to convey Actual Science Information™ to Boy Scouts, I just want to share a very small ray of hope that happened today.
As soon as we walked into camp, where DaughterSpawn’s worked for the past 2 summers, and where I came with SonSpawn’s troop for several years before that, we were greeted enthusiastically by a whole slew of misfit teens and young adults. That was great. But then one 15 year old Mormon boy, who’d visited Chez Mattirs a few months back, came dashing over to me, looking anxious and forgetting to put down the large bucket he was schlepping about for whatever task he was engaged in. When he’d visited us, he’d been joking around with DaughterSpawn’s friend, Nice Mormon Boy, who was being shipped out to Provo (yikes) for the summer, possibly as a way for his parents to break up a potential romance at camp… Anyway, this boy (the 15 year old, not the NMB potential romance one) had been teasing NMB about how he’d be able to pursue GIRLS in Utah, in a really creepy, semi-predator/prey sort of way. I ripped into the poor youth, informing him fairly crudely that girls were people to make friends with, not targets or prey.
Apparently I made a bit of an impact on the kid, because he stood there, clutching his bucket, apologizing repeatedly and saying that he realized that he really didn’t want to think of girls and women that way and he’d been thinking about it for months. I told him not to worry about it, that we all think and say stupid things and have to change the way we think and speak as we learn more about ourselves and other people.
It was really truly adorable, I don’t know if I really made a long-term impact, but seriously, the kid has met me exactly 3 times, including today, and it certainly seemed like he’d been doing some actual thinking…
Now I’m going to go fall down.
FossilFishysays
Mattir: Clenched tentacle salute! The little victories need to be acknowledged just as much as the big idiocy needs to be slapped down. Thanks for that.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
Mattir:
Wow. Damn.
You have made quite a positive impression on a kid my age, and you deserve the rest.
Now if only my classmates would listen. *sigh*
paulburnettsays
Nobody’s noticed (or mentioned…or cared) that the opening sequences of the video were taken at Burning Man – you can tell for sure by all the dust blowing by. Black Rock is also known as The Great Talcum Powder Desert.
Hey I’m dong some sci-fi world building as I mentioned, anyone mind if I throw some questions out for crowd sourcing?
Patricia, OMsays
Well done Mattir!
FossilFishysays
anyone mind if I throw some questions out for crowd sourcing?
Oh hell yes, bring it! The first book I checked out of the library on my own was a Sc-Fi short story collection. I managed a used book store for almost 20 years and by the end had to buy new sci-fi books because it was so rare for one to come into the store that I hadn’t already read. AND, I’m avoiding do any kind of real work.
FossilFishysays
Oh, and my thoughts are so scattered today that I could be considered a crowd all by myself.
One race I have planned is the Tau: there’s a bunch about them but the fact I want help on is their evolution. The working idea is that they’re a symbiotic superoganism. early on the animal like meaty part of them was colonized as a host by a parasitic fungi like species. The fungi like species did the whole behavior modification. As evolution occured they grew more symbiotic and the fungi began adapting into a CNS like function to keep the host safe. Now their systems are a basically one organism with the fungal like body acting as a higher brain function merged with the primitive reptilian brain that is their animal(like) body.
The idea is that their biology and their knowledge of their evolutionary history has greatly effected their religion and culture so I need something like that. I already have that they’re one of the oldest races (their culture actually makes technology develop very slowly though, which off sets their ancient history) to give the time for such an evolution but is it plausible at all? Is there any hand waving I need to do or anything like that?
Second question
Heavy water. how would isotopics like that prop up in xenobiochemistry? Is it likely that other species will have water incompatible with eachother? I know chirality will probably crop up but was wondering about this and if anyone can imagine any other differences
carliesays
Yay Redhead!!!!
Pteryxx, I think it’s just you, me, and Tony, so we can wait. :)
What kills me is that I realized that I will be nowhere near a tv next Saturday, and probably won’t get a chance to watch the finale online for at least a week after that. ARGH.
The Tau for those interested are tall near humanoids looking like a mix between shelf mushrooms and walking stick insects. They also are (hopefully) a unique addition to the Scifi alien tropes in having a hive/group identity but not a hive/group mind (natural telepathy or psionics doesn’t exist in this setting, through technology can pretty much replicate it in some instances)
Patricia, OMsays
Grumps @ 65 – I don’t know what a Narrow Boat is, but assume it’s a boatish sort of thing. All the steampunk stuff I’ve seen involves some cogs & gears & such… I have about 10 1975 burned out Harley Davidson clutch plates (yes, they went to Sturgis) that I would happily ship to you. You could use them as picture frames, lamp shades, paper weights, wind chimes…??? Or you could get drunk & weepy over “that’s all that’s left of the old Shovelhead…” during a boat party.
Owlmirrorsays
@ Nerd: Congratulations on Redhead returning!
@ Mattir: Congratulations on consciousness raising!
ibyeasays
@Ing
As far as I am aware, isotopes act very much like each other except for the radioactivity part. Think about us. We have both C-12 and C-14 in our system. The chemistry can’t tell the difference between those two.
Any chemist/physicist want to check my idea?
carliesays
For anyone interested in Korra, the AV Club has been doing some great recaps.
I know, I know, but only because I recently watched Industrial Revelations series 1 & 2: it’s a standardized type of boat that was no more than 7 feet wide, so it would fit through Victorian canals, tunnels and bridge passages.
ibyeasays
@Ing
That’s very interesting. Since that’s the case, I will tackle the question in some other way. Isn’t heavy water much rarer than regular water? If so, I don’t think it is possible for life that uses just heavy water can arise. Unless there is something else I don’t know about heavy water.
Of course, since your world is fictional, I guess you could use handwavium to get their chemistry to use heavy water. If so, the idea of incompatible water is pretty cool. Now that I think about it, if the creature is stranded in some other planet with water, even with all the water in the world, it will still die of thirst.
That’s very interesting. Since that’s the case, I will tackle the question in some other way. Isn’t heavy water much rarer than regular water? If so, I don’t think it is possible for life that uses just heavy water can arise. Unless there is something else I don’t know about heavy water.
Pretty much that’s my question….is our water pretty much standard or what? I half presumed it was standard just due to seeing so many nova and PBS specials talking about water on meterorites and comments and never mentioning the possibility
I was afraid of that Ing, you need someone with actual knowledge and stuff.
My layperson perspective [doff’s skeptic hat, don’s escapist reader’s hat] is that the symbiosis idea is a great one. I can’t say how much of the wider readership in this genre would know about the crab controlling fungus or the one that makes ants climb to the top of grass blades to be eaten, but I suspect that a decent percentage would. That knowledge is more than enough for me to accept the plausibility of your creatures.
That said, I find that overt handwaving to get around plausibility issues more often hurts my suspension of disbelief than bolsters it. Sometimes trying to explain away the highly improbable or even outright impossible just draws attention to it. It’s speculative fiction after all so a certain leeway is granted even in the most hard of sci-fi novels.
Take Arthur C. Clarke’s “Songs of a Distant Earth”. In it we see as real a scenario for human colonisation of extra-solar planets as can be expected. None of the law of physics are broken. The ship uses embryonic pods to produce the first generation children who are raised by robots. Successful robot parenting a pretty big ask on the part of the author especially in 1986 when it was written. It’s not his best book, but the failure isn’t a result of that ask IMO.
As to heavy water, dammed if I know, though I’m really curious to see what others have to say about it. [replaces skeptic hat, rubs his hands at the though of leaning something new]
Owlmirrorsays
Heavy water. how would isotopics like that prop up in xenobiochemistry? Is it likely that other species will have water incompatible with eachother?
Huh.
I recall being surprised to learn, a while back, that heavy water is actually toxic in very large quantities. Chemical reactions don’t work the same way with deuterium.
I suspect that in general, organisms in an environment with a lot of deuterium will evolve to exclude it from their metabolisms, rather than using it. Only if the deuterium is in a much much larger proportion to hydrogen, they might evolve to use it, and exclude the ordinary hydrogen. Maybe. I am not a biochemist.
That said, I find that overt handwaving to get around plausibility issues more often hurts my suspension of disbelief than bolsters it. Sometimes trying to explain away the highly improbable or even outright impossible just draws attention to it. It’s speculative fiction after all so a certain leeway is granted even in the most hard of sci-fi novels.
Well of of the handwaving is along the lines of “why yes that is unlikely, what a universe isn’t it?”
ibyeasays
I just found out from the wiki that bacterias can actually survive in heavy water. That’s pretty cool.
FossilFishysays
hive/group identity but not a hive/group mind
Ooh, interesting. How is a hive/group identity different from a herd identity? I’ve vague recollections of herd-like aliens though the lack of specific examples springing to mind suggests that they were in short stories.
My layperson perspective [doff’s skeptic hat, don’s escapist reader’s hat] is that the symbiosis idea is a great one. I can’t say how much of the wider readership in this genre would know about the crab controlling fungus or the one that makes ants climb to the top of grass blades to be eaten, but I suspect that a decent percentage would. That knowledge is more than enough for me to accept the plausibility of your creatures.
I’ll take that, I acknowledge that i’m going to have to have some races that rely on BA rather than BS.
A. Rsays
Ing: If an organism had a deuterium (as opposed to protium) based biochemistry, it’s likely that 1) They would live in an environment hotter than ours (to facilitate bond breakage), and 2) Certain biochemical reactions would not occur at all. Also, they would not be at all compatible with protium organisms. (You may want to double check all of this, since it’s coming from a virologist, not a biochemist.)
Searching my memory banks for info about heavy water…
I assume you mean water with a heavier hydrogen isotope. I think it’s a stable isotope, but yeah, it is rare but I’m not sure why.
And there’s something about the solvent properties of the water that changes, and living systems are sensitive to those sorts of things. We do have heavy water in our bodies, but beyond a certain point, it is toxic. Cell function blah blah blah. Maybe Teh Poopyhead could help here.
But I assume evolution could take care of that problem; it might require some handwaving to make the heavier hydrogen the norm on that world. And I have no idea what other implications that would have.
So, in short, I have no idea.
I know, big help, right?
Ooh, interesting. How is a hive/group identity different from a herd identity? I’ve vague recollections of herd-like aliens though the lack of specific examples springing to mind suggests that they were in short stories.
They don’t have a natural herd entity per say. They exist in families of 5-12 or so that are treated as and act as one identity. They are raised from birth to assimilate and subjugate individual ego into a group ego…and that group is expected to do the same with other groups for the sake of harmony. Childhood and the time of courtship->gestation->birth is the only culturally acceptable personal experiences to them. Children are sent from group to group to learn from various elders until they are eventually assigned a permanent place in another group upon which their experience as an individual entity is over. It can be quite unsettling for other species starting to interact with them when one Tau of the same group will bring back up a conversation a completely different Tau had with you a day or two ago.
As you can imagine this is a adaptation that has served them well for their society…yet also crippled technological and scientific development so that despite being ancient compared to other races they were comparatively primitive when first contact was made.
ibyeasays
@Ing
Oh, and on culture, there would be those that would deny that their species started when their ancestor got infested with a fungal parasite. It’s too undignified in their mind. You know, like creationist. ^_^
Tony... therefore Godsays
Nerd:
Congrats on the Redhead returning home.
Mattir: That is amazing. Hopefully your comments will have the young man thinking long and hard about his perception of women.
Ing: If an organism had a deuterium (as opposed to protium) based biochemistry, it’s likely that 1) They would live in an environment hotter than ours (to facilitate bond breakage), and 2) Certain biochemical reactions would not occur at all. Also, they would not be at all compatible with protium organisms. (You may want to double check all of this, since it’s coming from a virologist, not a biochemist.)
That’s pretty much a given. Out of the sentient races there’s maybe 3 total that can share food relatively safely.
Oh, and on culture, there would be those that would deny that their species started when their ancestor got infested with a fungal parasite. It’s too undignified in their mind. You know, like creationist.
Tau do not fight. Tau do not feud. Tau do not disagree….they’re also suspiciously silent on any questions about what happened to any Tau in history who did disagree if any.
Roriesays
@Ing
As far as heavy water is concerned, it’s not too common. Just over 1 in 10’000 hydrogen atoms contain an extra neutron. As for the chemical properties, the self ionisation constant is a bit lower than that of normal water, meaning that acids and bases will not dissociate as easily as they would in normal water (not that much of a difference though). This results from the 2H-16O bond being stronger than the 1H-16O bond in normal water (by a few percent).
There are other varieties as well. Tritium (3H) exists in a small amount, but is radioactive. It’s a β emitter with a half life of 12.3 years. There are other stable oxygen isotopes as well, the heaviest having a mass of 18.
The main use of heavy water (from memory) relies on the nuclear properties of 2H. It’s able to slow down neutrons, which is useful in moderating a nuclear fission reaction.
The Tau are almost like creationists in some way because, like I said their culture is very conformist and their religion is very ingrained. It’s very animistic and gaia like and heavily influenced by what they know of evolution and their personal ancestry.
They believe evolution is predestined and follows a inverse hour glass shape: single origin, flaring out to diversity, and then coming back together to single destination. This has heavily influenced the greater politics of the government they’re a part of and in the setting’s recent memory has caused some regrettable outcomes.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
Yes. Deuterium is rare (iirc) because it is preferentially fused into helium-4, which has a much higher binding energy.
Therefore, it is at its richest outside of galaxies, and much less enriched in the vicinity of stars (which burn it on formation), and brown dwarfs (their sole fuel from 13 to 65 Jupiter masses).
Thank you! Now I know that I don’t have to worry about that
FossilFishysays
Well of of the handwaving is along the lines of “why yes that is unlikely, what a universe isn’t it?”
That sort of thing reminds me as a reader that the universe that I’m reading about isn’t the one in which I live. It breaks down the immersive experience that I look for in a good book. I’d much rather have the particulars of that universe laid out for me to accept or not on their own merits. I’m much more concerned with internal consistency than I am with 100% percent congruence with our universe.
Mind you, egregious errors that are not the speculative point of the story suck too. I read one book where despite being a reasonably engaging narrative it had one ship orbiting another where both were pretty small scale and it had characters floating inside as that ship accelerated. Couldn’t finish it.
ibyeasays
@Ing
I see the potential of their belief to turn them xenophobic. Is that part of the regrettable outcome that happened?
thepintsays
@ Mattir – that’s fantastic! Good for you, and good for the boy for actually doing some thinking and having the courage to say what he did to you. Well done.
@ paulburnett – and so it is footage from Burning Man. I have a lot of friends who go every year – apparently the playa dust gets into EVERYTHING. I would like to go someday, if only to see the insanely cool art cars and art installations that people create (although it would be awesome to actually spin fire in conclave).
*waves at Horde* Hey guys, sorry I’ve been absent so long from TET. Life’s been busy per usual with work, wrangling hippies in the local fire community, considering starting a nerd/geek girl podcast with some of the women who were on the Geek Girls, Gender Identity and Art panel I moderated at C2E2 last spring, and the other billion and one projects that I’m apparently using as surrogates for those spawn I keep refusing to have (according to one of my relatives anyway). And yes, some of those projects have definitely involved bacon – recently won a mac & cheese-off at a friend’s brewery event and I’m told it was so good that even stoned meat-eschewing vegetarians liked it, so I figured it’d be selfish of me not to share the recipe. :)
The Pint’s 3-cheese Baked Mac & Cheese with bacon, peas and a herbed panko & baconfat caramelized shallot topping
Ingredients:
1 pound large elbow macaroni (or Orecchiette, “ear pasta”)
1.5 cups thick cut bacon, chopped
1 cup fresh shelled spring peas or thawed edamame beans
Sauce:
8 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3.5 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup hard apple cider or dry white wine
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound raspberry Bellavitano cheese, shredded (can sub extra sharp cheddar)
4 ounces Romano, shredded
4 ounces Asiago, shredded
1 tblsp mustard powder
1 tblsp garlic powder
ground pepper to taste (start at 1 tblsp and go from there)
salt to taste (start at 1 tblsp and go from there)
Topping:
2 cups Panko (japenese) bread crumbs (can sub regular bread crumbs)
5 shallots, sliced thin
a few dashes of balsamic vinegar
2 tblsp Herbs de Provence
dash of red pepper flakes
truffle salt to taste (optional)
Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 350. Begin boiling water for pasta. In large skillet or fry pan, toast Panko crumbs, herbs and pepper flakes over med heat until crumbs are golden brown. Remove immediately from heat and set aside in a bowl.
2. Cook bacon until crispy in skillet on med/high – remove using a slotted spoon and set on a plate covered with a paper towel to drain. Be sure reserve as much bacon fat as you can in the pan because you’ll need it to caramelize the shallots. When bacon is removed, reduce heat to medium/low and add shallots. Toss shallots in pan to liberally coat with fat and let sit on med/low heat for roughly 7-10 min, stirring only occasionally, to keep the shallots from burning. As shallots start to caramelize, you can add a tablespoon or so of water to the pan if needed to keep them from burning during the caramelization process, can also toss a little bit of sugar into the pan to help move the process along after 7 min. Shallots should be done after about 15-20 min total (you can sub onions, the caramelization process just tends to take longer, closer to 35 min). When shallots are just about done, splash a little bit of balsamic vinegar into the pan to coat the shallots, then remove from heat and add to the bread crumbs. Mix shallots well with crumbs and set aside.
3. Boil pasta according to package instructions. Rinse with cool water to stop cooking process when done and set aside in a colander to drain.
4. In a large saucepan, melt butter. Sprinkle flour over butter and cook 2 to 3 minutes on medium heat, whisking until a roux (paste) forms. Add cold milk and whisk vigorously until dissolved. Cook sauce on medium-low heat until thick and bubbly. Add heavy cream, wine or cider, all cheeses, salt, pepper, mustard & garlic powders. Cook until cheeses are fully melted, stirring occasionally. If sauce is still too stringy thick instead of creamy, add a little more wine (about a tblsp at a time) until you get the desired consistency – the acid in the wine/cider helps keep the cheese from being too stringy.
5. Mix together pasta, sauce, bacon and peas. Pour into a ceramic or glass baking dish. Coat liberally with Panko/shallot mix. Put baking dish on top of a shallow baking pan lined with tin foil or parchment paper (to catch any cheese that bubbles over) and bake in over for about 20 min. Remove, sprinkle with truffle salt and some extra shredded cheese and fresh chopped parsley if desired and VOILA. Enjoy!
That sort of thing reminds me as a reader that the universe that I’m reading about isn’t the one in which I live. It breaks down the immersive experience that I look for in a good book. I’d much rather have the particulars of that universe laid out for me to accept or not on their own merits. I’m much more concerned with internal consistency than I am with 100% percent congruence with our universe.
Sorry I explained that poorly. My rule is that the specifics of how things were are vague and not explained…because there’s no reason to. Anyone who knows how the FTL travel or communication works is an experts in the science and has no reason to talk down to their peers to explain it…anyone who doesn’t just knows that it does work and knows to trust the egg heads. Someone pointing out what would be odd would be treated like creationism today (in sane parts of the world); because it’s someone acting with slack jawed incredulity about questions long since answered. The response is more of acknowledging that steller conditions make silicon based biomes unlikely…but there’s at least one because it’s a big galaxy.
Patricia, OMsays
Sup is allowed –
{sup}™{/sup}
But exchange the {} for
Gawd I suck at explaining that.
Weed Monkey #87 – Smart alec! So if a Narrow Boat is already Victorian, why does it need to be steampunked more than it is?
Wait…
Does that mean if I already have an old Harley I need to get it more Davidson’d?
I need some sangria.
I see the potential of their belief to turn them xenophobic. Is that part of the regrettable outcome that happened?,
Yes and no. In some ways yes, in other ways the opposite. They believe that all the other races will/should become like them and are eager to “help” by pushing them in that direction. They believe the end game of life is for all the ecosystems of the universe to become one metaecosystem and that all societies join to form on unified metasociety. Since they’re one of the founders of the Consortium this typically translates to them to be very open about introducing newly discovered races into their society…by force if necessary. It’s for their own good in the long game after all.
That policy is seen as successful in one instance (humans) yet disastrous and embarrassing (to everyone not a Tau pretty much) with a more recent race “welcomed” into the Consortium. The later event has led to the Tau’s influence waning, and them bitterly seeing themselves as being pushed to the side
nathanschroedersays
@72 paulburnett
I noticed.
There aren’t all that many fire throwing octopuses around these days.
Nate…
Tony... therefore Godsays
chigau @43
Is there an irreligious version of ‘AMEN’? Please insert here.
I don’t understand why it’s not obvious that *everyone* should have it.
~~
For some reason, I have the theme song to “Jabberjaw” stuck in my head right now…
~~
‘Tis @51:
Would you wife have allowed crocoducks instead?
~~
Pteryxx:
re: Korra,
We should have Korra episodes running in the background of the Pharyngula Podcast…
Women are just too emotional to think clearly. I’m not saying this to provoke anybody.
That can’t be anything else than intentional provocation.
FossilFishysays
Ah I see Ing. Yup, that makes sense. The only thing worse that the noob character who’s sole purpose is to have the basics explained to them is the dreaded “info dump”. I often find myself thinking at the author: just get on with the story dammit and trust me to figure it out.
I just now realised that sci-fi is in fact presuppositional in nature. Humph, no wonder fundies generally don’t like it.
I’m seconding Weed Monkey. Simon has clearly shown himself to be a predator. Whether he’s just a cowardly scavenger or a actual rapist really doesn’t matter. He’s using that thread to prowl
thepintsays
@ Weed Monkey – FFS, is that shit STILL going on?
ibyeasays
@thepint
Crap like this never stops. Many people are too invested in being douchebags.
So if a Narrow Boat is already Victorian, why does it need to be steampunked more than it is?
They were often very simple and boring things, made of wooden planks and not much else, carrying bulky stuff like iron ore and drawn along the canal by horses or a gang of burly men. Not very interesting, I presume? :) But some engines and gears and steam and valves would certainly kick it up a notch.
Patricia, OMsays
Weed Monkey – OK, now I see. Yep some old retro clutch plates that have seen some of the most fascinating parts of the American West & History would jazz the thing up.
thepintsays
@ibyea – Seriously. I couldn’t bring myself to jump into that thread because of how maddeningly predictable and familiar all that victim-blaming crap was, but this latest asshat was the absolute limit. I commented, but it looks like PZ lowered the banhammer on that asshole. Good.
…. Anyone want to place bets on how long it will take for the next mansplainin’ asshole to show up?
Patricia, OMsays
Good night sweethearts!
chigau (違う)says
Good night Patricia.
—
Tony
Amen works for me.
—
The fire lesson was heavily laden with:
This is the fireplace.
It is a place to make fire.
That is the lawn, it is not a place to make fire.
because
This is the fireplace.
It is where you make fire.
I think it worked.
FossilFishysays
Ing The only book that I can think of that has anything like your societal structure is Joe Haldeman’s “Forever” trilogy. In the second book the majority of humanity has become simply Man, one endlessly repeated clone of one man and one woman who share in a group mind by connecting to some sort of technological database. The individuals still are capable of independent thought and actions subject to corrections by the collective. This is a minor plot point in the third book.
There’s also an alien society that shares that basic plan, Man and the aliens get along better than Man and wild humans do. Haldeman doesn’t really explore that aspect of his world much, it’s more about the wild humans.
thepint, your recipe at #111 is curiously similar to a common and well liked Finnish dish, macaroni casserole. In its basic form it’s nothing more than elbow macaroni, minced meat, and mixed milk and egg to make it set in the oven, plus condiments and spices. (Breadcrumbs on the top are common but I’ve never much cared for them.) But of course, adding various vegetables, cheeses and chilies makes it much more interesting. And certainly bacon (+ chipotle) for some smoky goodness. :)
chigau (違う)says
I’m rererereading The Word for World is Forest.
It still works.
FossilFishysays
Edit: This is a minor plot point in the second book.
thepintsays
@ Weed Monkey – really? That’s interesting. I’m not very familiar with Finnish recipes, but baked mac & cheese in some variation or another’s been pretty ubiquitous in my American upbringing. Although I guess technically if you don’t use macaroni specifically, it’s a baked noodle & cheese casserole, not mac & cheese. I like how the breaded topping provides a contrasting texture to the creaminess of the cheese sauce and pasta – peas or edamame are a nice touch of color (also, yummy) and using bacon (or pancetta) is a nice way of layering in salt flavor. My favorite part of this recipe though, was caramelizing the shallots in bacon fat – I’ve never done that before and the results were AMAZING. It’s definitely going in my regular rotation. Was there ever a particular combo that you were partial to?
While stumbling through teh book of faces, I found someone had linked to a gif that pretty much sums up my reaction to every single victim blaming rape apologist who showed up on the Here’s the Situation thread: http://i1085.photobucket.com/albums/j424/Aubergine_Ace/3d801217.gif Hope it provides a much needed laugh.
thepint: I predict we will see the next mansplainin’ asshole in about 2 days.
—————————————–
Celebrated my friend K making it over here safely by going down to Delaney’s for lunch. Nice place, been there before, and my brother likes it. As promised, I got buzzed.
First: Fried calamari. I think I prefer it lightly floured. Some places I’ve had it in, very greasy or the batter is very heavy. First beer: Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale. Lovely thick head, and it went down a treat. I’d have had another one, but then I saw something on the draught menu that made me change my mind.
Main attraction: Blackened tilapia sandwich. Talk about spicy! Made my nose run. So good though. I think the heat came from the vinaigrette they drizzled on the fish. Came with plantanos maduros, which were also good. Let’s just say that I was immensely grateful for the glass of water that followed.
To finish, I tried Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, which I saw mentioned either here or on another site. Anyway, it was good, but I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get much of a chocolate flavor – it was more akin to coffee. I don’t think I’ll order that again; it could be I should’ve had it with something to bring out the cocoa flavor, but eh.
They did have a bottle of Lucid absinthe behind the bar, which surprised me. I’ve never been able to find a seller here, so either someone ordered from a place outside the state, or it was always sold here and I wasn’t looking hard enough. Thought about trying it, but then decided that since I didn’t know how absinthe might affect me, I’d stick with beer. I might get a bottle and try it at home so I can determine if having it in public might lead to me doing stupid things.
———————————————–
Not wading into that mire of animosity that is the Situation thread. I doubt I could do a better job than what’s already been said, plus I just turn speechless and wrathful around that kind of shit lately. I’m glad simon got banned – his comments were just . . . ugh. Of course we get emotional, who’s life and autonomy are on the line, yours OR OURS??
Sheesh . . . I stand by my answer to a question on OKC: The world would be better without stupid people. I’m not sure simon qualified as such, but for now I’ll stick him in that category.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG) + Csays
Chigau: But why do you make fire in the fireplace and not the lawn? :p
(I swear this was me when I was 10-12; I started getting in trouble because I wasn’t too keen on some of the arbirtary rules Handed Down From On High.)
FossilFishysays
Ah fuckity fuck. Let’s try this again The Forever War and the its sequel Forever Free are relevant to my point. Please ignore all previous attempts at hyperlinkage and series designation.
What it seems to me is the sin-based thinking often prevalent among some parents, much like the “no bike-riding” discussed earlier.
An additional theme present in this is the criminalization of student behavior. This basically reinforces the power dynamic between the “authority figures” and the students. This reinforces the sin-based thinking and brings out the ageism of that philosophy…
Ah, public school. How I do not miss you.
ibyeasays
@thunk
Texas seems to be really popular in that list.
Good morning
No time to click all those shiny linkies, sadly
Yay for the Redhead and her Nerd!
Mattir
You asked yourself why you keep doing that shit: It’s because you make a fucking diffeence for those kids who most likely don’t have anybody else Mattiresque around.
+++
Situations thread
I just read only 4 comments in which horace the asshole talked about “reasonable precaution” and my breakfast came back to visit me. Fucking rape apologist.
thunk:
following up on your interesting link…I checked out the original article:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/7520759/School-bans-photographs-of-pupils.html
In letter sent to parents the head teacher said: ”In order that we can protect our students from potential unwarranted breaches of confidence and the possibility of ‘cyber-bullying’ and or other on-line exploitation, we have decided that our only sensible course of action is to carefully control the use of photography at all school events.
”Westfield Community Technology College will no longer allow the use of any photography or video recording by parents, carers, family or friends at any school events.”
The letter said photographs used for external publicity must be approved by parents, while school ”file” photographs of pupils will only be used for educational purposes.
There’s quite a bit wrong with this approach.
One of the first that springs to mind: Nowhere is it mentioned that the *school* won’t take any videos. So the school can still take videos but the parents cannot? If that’s the case, then the school is setting itself up to be Big Brother. They’ve assumed authority over the children *and* the parents (you can’t take videos, but we can). Can they assure parents that the school’s videos won’t be misused? If they can, why can’t they be assured that the videos taken by parents won’t be misused?
It’s been a while since I’ve been to a school, but am I correct in thinking they have video surveillance in several areas inside and out? How do parents know those videos won’t be misused?
Then there’s question of how reasonable this idea is. What evidence are they basing this on? What can they point to that says “aha. taking pictures of teens is directly responsible for cyber-bullying and online exploitation?
It dawned on me just now that the administrators are treating this as if the pictures are the problem, rather than the *people* taking the pictures.
Grumps, regarding a steam punk narrow boat, “steam punk” suggests a funnel to me. I would add piping on the outside of the boat, and all kinds of not quite necessary equipment for the captain (like a large brass telescope, a oversized compass with extra dials if possible) and if you can fit it, a paddle wheel at the back.
And, if you’re not planning on going anywhere with it, a ramming bow like the Nautilus.
opposablethumbssays
Mattir: that is really great (a bit like when somebody de-lurks here to say what Pharyngula has meant to them) – go you! One mind at a time …
Pedantry/language geek alert:
per se
(not per say)
– the “se” bit is the reflexive pronoun, same as you find in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese etc.; here it means “itself”. “Of itself” or “in itself”.
/pedantry/language geek (subject to correction by Real Proper language geeks who actually know what they’re talking about, obviously)
FossilFishysays
For the Aussie crowd: Inside Nature’s Giants will be dissecting a giant squid tonight, SBS 8:30pm eastern time. Woo, and may I say, who! [looks at the pile of dirty dishes, looks at clock, panics]
Quite right, you made a serious error. I’ve never passed a pub, nekkid or otherwise, in my life.* For shame, for shame!
Louis
*Although my liver is speaking to me in loud tones today about the possibility that it might be a very good idea from now on. I ignore it. The liver is evil and must be punished.
Louissays
Ing, #77,
I see you’ve got some useful answers already to your second question, so I’ll restrict mine to three words:
Kinetic isotope effect.
Biochemical systems are particularly sensitive to isotopic composition, so if your species lived in a deuterium rich environment (unlikely for reasons mentioned above, but it doth vary) it is possible for them to have “incompatible water” with another species. I’d look at other isotopes though, carbon 13 rich environments for example. Pick something stable and biologically necessary.
Oh and please don’t fall into the SciFi Silicon Trap. Silicon life forms irritate the shit out of me. Silicon does not catenate anywhere near as well as carbon. Silicon rich life forms…sure, silicon based life forms…wellllllllll maybe if it was an Si/O system but Si/Si…no. I want my money back! Second period elements are special for a reason. Considerations of valency are nice but not all.
I had lunch yesterday with Esteleth and three friends of hers. It was a fun time, if too short.
A linkie from HappiestSadist: “True vagina master” made me LOL so hard my cat fled in terror.
On a more serious note, are all nudists/naturalists the sort of dumbass ’60s rejects who think that the way to solve society’s problems is to throw off all one’s inhibitions, not to address power differentials? First there was Jenny, one of the victim blamers in the “Here’s the Situation” thread. Then there’s this shit-for-brains.
I’m also reminded of the aging baby boomer dude who promotes the ideal of “radical honesty,” which rejects the idea that polite fictions or biting your tongue are ever a good idea. In the interest of being “radically honest,” he told his teenage babysitter that he was attracted to her. That got a lot of chuckles from teh menz interviewing him on NPR a few years ago.
Ogvorbis: Ignorant sycophantic magpie.says
Happy Father’s Day to all of the Hording dads! (You too, PZ.)
Thank you.
And a Happy Father’s Day (US) from me to all other males who have, like me, inflicted their genes on another generation.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Tony:
Honestly, I don’t think there are any guarantees regarding that.
There was a case involving the Lower Merion School District, where they were taking secret photos of students (at all hours) through webcams on school-provided laptops.
It was challenged, but the fact this existed illustrates the authoritarianism of schools.
Additionally, students have been disciplined for posts on Facebook or other some such thing *not related to school*. This sort of all-hours monitoring of student activity worries me.
What if they suddenly don’t like my Pharyngula vitriol? Maybe it’s too offensive for them or something…
thunk @ 137: If I showed the kids at work that list, they’d probably smother the teachers and staff with grateful hugs! We haven’t banned tag or outside food, we allow kids to bring birthday treats in, even homemade ones (and those are always a huge hit- nothing like homemade, and the kids know it), all parents have to do is sign a form saying they’re cool with their kids being photographed, AND, we love it when kids high-five and hug each other.
I do keep being reminded that I have to be careful about touching kids, although when it comes to breaking up a fight, I throw that caution to the wind. Making sure neither child has to leave with a serious injury is more important IMO, and I damn well don’t plan to sue the school if I get hurt in the process. I’ve rarely had to do this with the older kids, but the younger ones can get nasty.
Hats – The only rule is that kids can’t wear them in the school building, boy or girl. It works pretty well, the kids don’t seem to have a ton of trouble with it.
Slap-on bracelets and such – Confiscated if they are proving more of a distraction for the students than anything else. They are usually returned to the owner at dismissal time, it’s rare that someone doesn’t get something back at all. Or, the student has to put the items in their backpack.
Something the article didn’t mention: Toys from home. We require that students keep them in their backpacks, or their desks if they can keep from taking them out and playing with them during class time. Again, confiscated and returned as with bracelets. When kids start fighting over toys, especially the little kids, we try to get them to settle things nicely; many times I’ve still had to confiscate a toy for a while because the fighting keeps happening. This happens more with things like Bakugan and those superhero toys, balls come a close second. I bet the nutbars would ban all toys from home…if they still had recess at all.
thepintsays
@ Part-Time Insomniac – well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you lose your 2 day bet. We’ve got another live one on the Here’s the Situation Thread, now trying to pin rape culture squarely on substance abuse and whining that we’re the sexists for thinking all men are rapists (how is that strawman not falling apart from being waved around so much?).
Easy money says this one meets the ban hammer in less than 10 comments.
Good fucking morning, indeed. I shoulda added whiskey to my coffee.
Oh and please don’t fall into the SciFi Silicon Trap. Silicon life forms irritate the shit out of me. Silicon does not catenate anywhere near as well as carbon. Silicon rich life forms…sure, silicon based life forms…wellllllllll maybe if it was an Si/O system but Si/Si…no. I want my money back! Second period elements are special for a reason. Considerations of valency are nice but not all.
Could you elaborate on this? Race so far are non-organic, require acidic sulfuric atmosphere, high pressure and low temperature. They’re also notably slower than average due to their abiochemistry.
Beatricesays
And admittedly some repaired drawers…
Hey, don’t diss that result. It toke me about a year to finally get off my ass and repair two drawers that had the bottom almost hanging off.
And then it took me an hour to fix them. Three quarters to find the hammer and a quarter to get it done.
tim rowledge, Ersatz Haderachsays
Ah, Abney Park; I forget whether it was Tis or Brownian that pointed me in their direction but whichever or whoever, thank you so much. Even Lady Bridget, a confirmed sneer at all things SF, likes them.
For a narrow-boat you shouldn’t need to do very much to go all steampunk. As previously mentioned they date from the right period anyway. It would be fairly reasonable to go with a funnel and escaping steam, brass pipes, pressure gauges, steam whistles, riveted brown leather and all that trope-fulfilling stuff. Don’t forget to wear suitable clothing when driving it. A battered bowler with a head-cannon might be nice. Consider a pair of the nice captains goggles from the Abney Park market. Perhaps modify the Abney Park ‘Airship Pirates’ flag to suit a ‘Narrowboat Pirates’ theme. If you’re really feeling flush, get Captain Robert to record a customised version of the airship pirates song.
For those of you with no experience of narrowboats, consider a half-wide RV that floats. Making one liveable is an exercise in careful design, like any small boat but with added fun because of the high aspect ratio. Thirty years ago (fuck, where did all the time go?) I was doing a master’s at the RCA in Kensington and one of the tutors lived on the Prince Albert, a fairly well known narrowboat of rather fine appearance. We had a very enjoyable party on board one summer evening and chugged along past the London Zoo. With maybe 20 people on board it was definitely ‘cosy’. Googling images of narrowboat brings up lots of evocative shots. You might find stuff of interest on an old acquaintance’s website at SteamBoat Ed’s place. He’s been know to turn up with a usb operated steam calliope and a steam powered fucking machine…
I missed the conversations that ensued back in the old SciBlog days so I decided to come back. Plus it’s a great break from all the racist misogynist on tumblr.
Louissays
Ing, #162,
Sure. Catenation is the property of an element to bond repeatedly to atoms of the same element and thus build up chains. Carbon is the daddy of catenating elements. It’s (partly) a function of electronegativity, atom size, bond strength and the availability of d-orbitals (for things like sulfur).
To make any chain above about 11 atoms in length (so something longer than a simple 11 C hydrocarbon) you’re going to need to stick something other than silicon in the mix. So what I mean by this is if you took, say, DNA (or any biopolymer) and magically did a simple “find and replace” for carbon with silicon, the molecule would fall apart. All the important biomolecules of life (on earth) are carbon based. They are effectively big carbon chains with interesting bits hanging off them.
Okay, that’s a deeply misleading analogy! Proteins are, for example, comprised of amino acids, so the chain of C is broken up with N, but what I am referring to is the ability of carbon to make (infinite as far as we know) chains of atoms of carbon linked to carbon linked to carbon….
Silicon can’t do that. You can put about 6 to 8 silicons in a row before things start to fall apart, I think the record is 11 from memory, but these silanes (the silicon analogue of alkanes) are increasingly thermally and chemically unstable the longer the chain (i.e. the greater the number of silicons linked in a line).
Like I said, if you make silicones (polymers of the type -Si-O-Si- with the relevant atoms, like H, bonded to the silicon atoms) these are much more stable. And longer silanes are more stable at lower temperature.
If you want a non organic (i.e. not carbon containing) life form what you need to consider is heredity and metabolism. What does it feed on and how does “genetic” information pass from generation to generation (if it does). Anything that has a biopolymer system of heredity (like ours) is not going to be just based on silicon or sulfur, it’ll need other elements to manage it, other polymeric sources. Even at relatively low temperatures. If you want to get away from carbon you’re almost certainly getting away from anything we might recognise as living. It’s genuinely not simple.
Think back to highschool biology and consider those simplistic definitions of what “life” is. To do those things certain biochemical conditions need to be met, and as far as we know, nothing but carbon containing biopolymers come even close to being able to do that. You might be able to enrich/substitute some percentage of “new” atoms (for example as in the recent claims of arsenic metabolising bacteria which have been found to be highly dodgy) or a relatively silicon enriched carbon based biomolecule, but other than that, you’re erring towards the fiction side of science fiction if you see what I mean.
If you want a non organic (i.e. not carbon containing) life form what you need to consider is heredity and metabolism. What does it feed on and how does “genetic” information pass from generation to generation (if it does). Anything that has a biopolymer system of heredity (like ours) is not going to be just based on silicon or sulfur, it’ll need other elements to manage it, other polymeric sources. Even at relatively low temperatures. If you want to get away from carbon you’re almost certainly getting away from anything we might recognise as living. It’s genuinely not simple.
My thought for them was that they reproduce via budding. To reproduce their bodies start to assemble smaller versions of them that are released when they can be autonomous.
So would a Si-O chemistry work for them or will it have to be somewhat organic? The idea for them was that their chemistry would be radically different (using ammonia or something else for a solvent even)and by extension their thought process hard to grasp. Despite being part of the Consortium their culture would be relatively unknown, due to everything they say heavily filtered to get it into a form understandable by everyone else.
The other non-organic races fortunately avoid the problem of chemistry since they’re synthetic and were constructed rather than evolved
Ogvorbis: Ignorant sycophantic magpie.says
Louis:
Regarding the possibility of life (fictional or someday-to-be-discovered) that is not based on carbon, would there be the same selectivity of, say, organic sulfer that one sees in the ratios of organic carbon and non-organic carbon? Would life still be preferential to lighter or heavier isotopes?
Sarahfacesays
Re: Narrowboat –
That sounds like a really cool project – everyone else has mentioned all the ideas I would have said, so I can’t add anything to that.
@Louis: This chemistry lesson is very interesting; I learn something new every time I come here. But I’m kind of glad that I don’t even have to learn any chemistry any more, unless I want to (YES!).
Either Germany has just scored a goal or there’s a herd of cows on the loose
diannesays
Germany just scored and the cows are very happy about it? Germany looks like they’re going to be in the next round unless something very unexpected happens…
Our Moment of Mormon Madness for today is also a Moment of Mormon Mealy Mouthed Deceit. Some of you may remember that I posted a comment a few days ago about a gay mormon man who claimed he was happy in a heterosexual marriage. Josh Weed wrote about his attraction to men, his enjoyment of a “robust” sex life with his wife, and how he happy he was to live by mormon rules. Among other major news outlets, his story appeared in The Daily Mail.
The article didn’t make good sense to begin with, but now it makes even less. Turns out Josh Weed is a Reparative Therapist specializing in helping mormons (and other religious gay men) to overcome cultural difficulties with being gay.
JoeMyGod outed Josh Weed, as did Think Progress and several other journalists and bloggers who found Weed’s story incredible.
JoeMyGod posted part of Weed’s self-description, which includes “work dedicated to helping people combat patterns and beliefs that cause feelings of shame, hopelessness and despair … those with sexual identity issue and unwanted sexual attractions and/or behaviors…”
Sure sounds like reparative therapy that accepts “shame” as part of homosexuality.
Think Progress actually got a response from Weed, excerpts below:
I do not practice, nor do I believe in, reparative therapy or change therapy. Quite the opposite, my therapeutic stance is one that favors (but does not depend on) the idea that sexual orientation is immutable.[…]
That doesn’t quite match the whole “shame” idea, Mr. Weed. I smell mormon backtracking for the sake of trying to appear less creepy to the rest of the world.
Given my background, I feel especially adept at helping clients who feel that their attractions are “unwanted” because of cultural or religious contexts. I work with them to help them accept their sexual orientation for what it is, so that they can move forward into the decision making part of their life.
I help them get to the point where the question becomes something like, “This part of me is real, and I am totally okay. Now what?” I then help them as they navigate the difficult waters of decision.
As in help that includes advice for gay men to marry mormon women and pop out babies I assume.
Think Progress expresses their opinion:
This leaves the situation in murky territory. The harms of ex-gay therapy are as much the result of denying or refusing to act on one’s sexual orientation as of actually trying to change it. Consider the Catholic Church’s Courage ministry, which counsels gays and lesbians to practice a life of chastity, denying themselves the right to love. It may well be true that Weed always affirms clients’ sexual orientation and encourages them to embrace and accept it, but if he is using his own story as an example — as he claims — then this still raises serious questions.
…The language of “unwanted sexual attractions and/or behaviors” is uniquely used by those who advocate ex-gay therapy, as it implies that a person’s sexual orientation is somehow separate from the core of their identity and can be treated as such with behavioral adjustment. Weed’s consistent use of this rhetoric is conspicuous, as is the absence of words like “affirmation” to describe how he responds to clients’ identities….
…in the original story, he explained that the entire reason he was coming out and telling his story is because he was already sharing it with his clients to help them. If Weed is using his own choices as an example for how individuals can conform to heterosexist ideals by simply ignoring the sexual orientation that is part of who they are, then he is advocating harm and reinforcing internalized stigma. Weed’s apparent happiness with his unique life choices in no way justifies suggesting the same choices for others.
Louissays
Ing,
My thought for them was that they reproduce via budding. To reproduce their bodies start to assemble smaller versions of them that are released when they can be autonomous.
But how?
;-)
Underneath the biological “budding” big scale stuff is the chemistry that makes it go. If you’re proposing a radically different environment and a radically different chemistry (inorganic vs organic) then the chemistry of heredity/metabolism will also be radically different.
F’rinstance, in the budding process how does the bud know to be like the parent? What is transferred between the parent and bud with that information in it? If it’s chemical then the chances are it will have to be some form of polymer (or perhaps crystal…). That polymer will need to be “read” somehow, or at least translated into the building materials for the organism (the equivalents of muscles, bones and what not).
The issue of alien biochemistry is really thorny. It’s best not tackled at all unless you’re willing to go for total fantasy on the subject (or huge over complex explanations), IMO. Given the various conditions extremophiles on earth can live in, I wouldn’t worry too much about “DNA style” biopolymers and what they can achieve, it’s quite a bit.
The “different water/isotope” idea is really good, chemically incompatible/physically incompatible species are a really good area to explore, again IMO. Imagine trying to communicate with the organisms at the bottom of Challenger Deep on the surface, or at their depth, without intervening technology. Imagine landing on a planet, discovering water, drinking that water and then discovering that the D/H ratio was sufficiently different to cause biomedical complications.
Louis
Louissays
Ogvorbis,
I’m not sure what you mean. If you mean “organic” as in “in living systems”, then I’m pretty sure sulfur can’t do the job that carbon does, again because of the catenation issue. DNA, proteins, carbohydrates are HUGE molecules, massively polymeric structures all based on (largely) carbon and the ability carbon has to bond to itself (and form stable functional groups of an enormous variety). No other element has this ability to this extent and it’s a function of the electronic/atomic properties of the element vastly more than the environment that chemical finds itself in (temp and pressure for example).
So whilst some silanes (for example) are stable at low temperatures, they’re still vastly more reactive than their carbon counterparts, and vastly more thermally labile too.
Whether or not a specific biochemical preference would exist for a specific isotope, well that will be determined by local conditions more. If organisms evolved in a very, very 13C rich environment (as opposed to the ~1% 13C on earth) then sure, their biochemistry would potentially have evolved to be more tolerant of that isotopic ratio than ours has. That’s a reasonable inference.
The chemical kinetics of these isotopes is different because different isotopes have different masses, so if you imagine a chemical bond between two atoms as a kind of spring, then putting different weights on the ends affects the behaviour of that spring. The spring will break easier or not depending on those weights. Okay so that’s a vast oversimplification, but it’s a good mental picture to work with.
Does that help?
Louis
Ogvorbis: Obtuse Mansays
Louis:
Sort of. I wasn’t thinking in terms of sulfer (or silicon, or any other element) replacing carbon in a terrestrial biological unit, but rather, if life evolved that did not use carbon, would there still be preferential uptake of particular isotopes? I know, from my current obsession with extinctions, that perturbations in the isotopic carbon ratios (C12/C13) are useful markers for determining how much carbon was tied up in life and was wondering whether this would still be applicable if life was based on something other than carbon.
Damn, I don’t have the vocabulary to actually phrase the question I was trying to ask.
Louissays
Ogvorbis,
Ahhhhhh yeah! No, it’s my bad, my hungover brain needs a kickstart!
Yeah, the kinetic isotope effect (for example) is universal in the sense that it applies to a greater/lesser extent to any element in a chemical reaction. The degree to which this happens is going to be dependent on the kinetics of the reaction etc, but yeah, it’s an intrinsic physical property of chemical bonds.
By now the happy cows sound like they suffer from constipation.
I’m afraid I won’t get another quite night like last night…
Sarahfacesays
*An Asus, to be exact.
Dammit, I *nearly* spat tea all over my laptop >.<
diannesays
@180: It’s quiet here…too quiet. I fear Holland is out for the year.
Ogvorbis: I Am ObtuseMansays
Dammit, I *nearly* spat tea all over my laptop >.<
Sorry.
Would a D7sus work better for you?
David Marjanovićsays
Cipher! Congratulations!!! :-)
France: Socialists got much more than a majority in parliament. Greece: Syriza (the neo-lefty-populists) consider themselves losers and do not want to participate in the next government; that means the conservatives and the socialists will have to form a coalition… or there’ll be a third election in 6 weeks.
Sarahfacesays
Would a D7sus work better for you?
As long as it doesn’t result in my already-kinda-borked laptop being permanently broken before the day after tomorrow (when I finally get my new one, yay!), I really don’t care :P
David
I’ll arrive at the 16th (July, obviously). That day will be filled with much family rejoicing, but then we can go and see them dinos
Oh, what’s your size (T-shirt) and do you know Jules’?
David Marjanovićsays
Why is all of scienceblogs blocked from web.archive.org, so snapshots of posts and comments cannot even be seen?
Because ScienceBlogs used something called robots.txt that prevented crawlers from reading it. Google evidently didn’t care, but web.archive.org apparently did.
I really hope Tet Zoo version 2 will be restored.
Ogvorbis: I Am ObtuseMansays
I am heading for Colorado to work a fire. The High Park fire. I’ll be flying out tomorrow and be back in two weeks.
David Marjanovićsays
I’ll arrive at the 16th (July, obviously). That day will be filled with much family rejoicing, but then we can go and see them dinos
:-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
Oh, what’s your size (T-shirt) and do you know Jules’?
I’ll ask Jules. Mine… all sizes actually encompass wide ranges… M is generally good, but I can even wear XL T-shirts (especially, but not only, as minidresses).
I am heading for Colorado to work a fire. The High Park fire. I’ll be flying out tomorrow and be back in two weeks.
Be safe, and take care. Also, if I may: Hooray! Fresh fire stories!
carliesays
Good luck, Og. Come back safe and bring us some stories. :)
Oy, yard work. Two summers ago (or was it only one? I think two) I built one of those brick circle things around our front tree. I know the dangers of overmulching trees, but it’s a huge mature tree and I only used a couple of inches of mulch, so I thought I was doin’ it rite. Went out to weed it today, and found a huge clump of wood rot in the mulch. Fuuuuuuuuck. So I spent two hours raking and shoveling out mulch. Now there’s just about a half-inch coating left over most of it, all the visible fungus is gone, and I used some of the not visibly rotted mulch to patch a couple of holes in the yard (away from the tree), and there weren’t too many adventitious rootlets that got exposed. Now I guess I ought to think about what to plant there to be basic ground cover (that isn’t hostas). It’s just a bit annoying that I had to spend that much time to make everything look… exactly the same, if I’m lucky. Even mowing the lawn is a little more rewarding. *first world problems*
opposablethumbssays
I am heading for Colorado to work a fire.
Ogvorbis, be safe. Much internet-mediated appreciation for your totally-being-an-amazing-bloke-ness, and post-bloody-triggering-thread hugs if you would do me the honour of accepting them.
So your advice is: if I’m reading right, not to bother going into too much details on WHY a species is chemically different and all and just accept that it’s because they’re aliens so it doesn’t matter if they’re organic or not if they’re extremephiles?
No. I’ll be lucky if I can find an outlet to charge my mp3 player.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Og, take care!
The Laughing Coyote (Canis Sativa)says
Back from camping at Harrison lake. It was pretty awesome. Caught quite a few decent fish. Got very drunk and stoned with good friends, and had a lot of fun despite being rained out and not sleeping much at all.
Louissays
Ing,
Alien biochemistry is a very deep rabbit hole!
If you’re erring on the “hard science” side of scifi, then unless you’re at near absolute zero or nearly at lava temperatures, there’s a decent chance an earth-like extremophile can cope. Okay maybe not that hot! ;-)
The same sort of thing runs for pH and pressure etc. We have life on mountain tops and life at ocean depths. We have hydrogen sulfide metabolising ocean vent organisms and extremophiles that tolerate conditions inside nuclear reactors or the upper reaches of our atmosphere. Ok so these are microorganisms, so it is a hell of a stretch to multicellularity, but if you’re going to start specifying the basis of some alien’s biochemistry it’s going to get gnarly fast if you are expecting it to be scientifically literate.
Silicones as opposed to silanes might be a good start, it’s possible to make polymers from them, and you could also go from there to silicates (and hence crystalline materials that could be used to store information). It would be easier to leave the details of that vague, but saying “silicon based life” without a little detail is a bit of a personal pet peeve, and will definitely earn you an eyeroll from chemically literate readers.
Mind you, space ships make noise in Star Wars space, travel faster than light and you can replicate stuff and teleport in Star Trek, so it depends how sciencey you want to make it.
I think you could get away with a lot more by being less specific about their biochemistry than by getting into the details. I think your idea about a species so alien to communicate with it’s practically impossible is a great one, and underused in my experience. After all, I tried to have a chat with an octopus once and it was not very edifying. ;-)
Louis
Louissays
Take Care Og! (Roast a sausage for me)
Louis
Owlmirrorsays
Why is all of scienceblogs blocked from web.archive.org, so snapshots of posts and comments cannot even be seen?
Because ScienceBlogs used something called robots.txt that prevented crawlers from reading it.
No. The robots.txt is new; it was not there until fairly recently. It is blocking access to pages which were already crawled (or may have caused those snapshots to be purged from archive.org’s database).
I know that it was possible to access archive.org snapshots of Sb pages before the move to wordpress, and even shortly afterward — as noted by sgbm.
Google evidently didn’t care,
Actually, I think Google is removing cached versions of Sb pages now that the robots.txt is there.
I really hope Tet Zoo version 2 will be restored.
I thought Darren mentioned that he had a friend who was trying to get a Movable-Type backup of his posts and threads?
There was a thing on lifehacker awhile back for how to make an mp3 charger out of an altoids tin (the thin ones) and a couple of batteries and some electronics whatnot. Won’t help for this trip, but might come in handy later: source
cicely. Just cicely.says
Hill giants should not be allowed to wear plate mail. Or use bastard swords.
–
Hurrah! For the Homecoming of the Redhead!
–
As many people that know me in real life are aware, I am a tropical cyclone fanatic.
I generally check out the hurricanes/tropical storms every morning. I try to second-guess which ts’ will “spin up” to hurricane status.
–
I like atlatls for throwing sharp things.
I like the thought of throwing sharp things with an atlatl; and whenever I do, my elbow and shoulder make sarcastic remarks.
–
Mattir: *fireworks&confetti* Getting a young man to think about his bad attitudes is a very valuable thing. Perhaps, one day, he need not wash up in one of the MRA Threads as the day’s Troll-Onna-Spit.
:)
–
I’ve vague recollections of herd-like aliens though the lack of specific examples springing to mind suggests that they were in short stories.
Niven’s Puppeteers?
–
Adding well-wishes and safe-journeyings for Ogvorbis.
–
Julie says she’s S and very excited to meet you, Giliell.
Owlmirror, thanks for the links; I’ll check them out… sometime. Darren mentioned on Twitter that he now has many but not all threads with all their comments; and yes, Google has removed Tet Zoo from its cache.
Owensays
I think I shall begin using the phrase “Austerian Economics” to describe the current set of far-right “destroy society to save the economy” policies.
FossilFishysays
Ogvorbis
[grumpy intentionally obtuse music pedant] Asus what? And D7? major/major, major/minor, minor/minor 7? And again sus what? Gah, the imprecision of commercial music notation, grumble, grumble, get offa my lawn, grumble….{/grumpy intentionally obtuse music pedant]
As someone who’s home and loved one’s were only spared by a 2am wind change I cannot fathom doing anything about a wildfire but running away, fast. Stay safe.
cm's changeable monikersays
carlie:
basic ground cover (that isn’t hostas)
Epimediums. They’re lovely.
Rey Foxsays
TV Tropes has entries for blogs now? Could it be possible that TV Tropes has Jumped the Shark?
ibyeasays
Oh my god, something terrible happened while I was working. Across the street from my parents’ business, two teenage boys were shot. I had to get that out of my chest. :(
ibyeasays
@thunk
What’s up with the conservatives’ focus with debt and austerity?! Austerity causes more debt in the long run, and their doofus brains don’t realize it!
Nutmegsays
I got back this afternoon from a weekend of camping and fishing. It rained most of the time, and the fishing was mediocre, but it beat sitting at home. I especially enjoyed making men’s brains explode by being a young woman in Man-Land™ (aka the river and fish camp). You’d think that they had never seen a woman drive boats, catch fish, and back up trailers before.
Finally made it through all the comments here, and I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, but:
I gather that there was another Explosion of Misogyny while I was away. Thanks to everyone who did the hard work there, and *hugs* for those who are having a rough time with it.
Nerd: Congrats on getting the Redhead home! I hope the adjustment period goes as well as can be expected.
Chigau: Did you survive teaching the young’uns to make fire? Kids seem to gain so much confidence when they learn some basic outdoor skills, and fire-making is right up there. I loved teaching my 12-year-old cousin to start a fire with flint and steel. At first he was in awe that I could do it, and then he was thrilled that he could too.
Mattir: I hope you and DaughterSpawn continue to be awesome! I kind of want to go to your Boy Scout camp, despite being a) female and b) too old.
Ogvorbis: Good luck at the fire! Stay safe!
chigau (違う)says
Nutmeg
Fire-making went well.
We used newspaper and lighter.
It was more an indoctrination session about fire safety.
ibyeasays
@David Marjanovic
Yay for socialist victory in France!
Ogvorbis: I Am ObtuseMansays
I fly out tomorrow morning at 0835 (AVP to Charlotte to DEN). I arrive in Denver at 1:30 local time (pm) and catch a ride up to Fort Collins to check in at the Armory.
I have worked with this type I team before and they are good people.
You can keep updated on the basics at http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf . Scroll down to Rocky Mountain Area and I am at the High Park fire. Yes, the one which keeps burning all the houses.
This could be a challenging one.
Mattirsays
Ogvorbis, be careful and come back filled with new stories. You’ve done an amazing job here over the last few days.
ibyea – please take care of yourself also.
* * * *
On teaching kids to make fires: when I was a newish Boy Scout volunteer type person (I think SonSpawn may still have been a cub scout, so 5 or 6 years back), I showed up at a district level campout and discovered that I’d been volunteered to teach 150 boys to make fires with flint and steel. I had a few supplies, went out and got more, got kids to fray some jute ropes, and cut up some linen in my car to make charcloth. I went home the next evening with my legs smeared with creosote (from making charcloth), but a whole lot of kids who could actually make fires. It was pretty cool.
I’m a huge believer in teaching kids to play safely with fire. We heat our house with wood, so it’s been incredibly important for the Spawns to know about fire – we started teaching them to strike matches when they were FOUR. When they were 7, we had a hurricane and were out of electricity for about a week. On day 2 or 3, DaughterSpawn asked if she could play with matches. I gave them a box of strike on anything matches, a couple rocks, a lit candle, a cookie sheet, and a dish of water. They lit matches until the (battery powered) smoke detector went off. It was great fun, and no one got burned.
* * * *
On stupid school rules – one of the most annoying parts of homeschooling is teaching the Spawns that they will get in trouble for being competent humans while attending summer camps, especially those run by government/park type organizations. So no knives, no matches or firestarting kits, no advil, no first aid kit… I got to sit through 12 hours of horrible training on such rules last week, in preparation for running my summer camp this week.
Now off to sleep so I can be fresh for tomorrow’s exhaustion…
A. Rsays
Ogvorbis: Stay safe, and remember to tell the trees to stop, drop, and roll!
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Mattir:
Whoa.
Competent parents like you are rare. *applause*.
Now if only I was competent enough to do that stuff… :/
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
*sheltered*
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
And good luck, Og! We’ll be rooting for ya!
chigau (違う)says
Mattir
*ahem*
HOW THE FUCK DO YOU GO CAMPING WITHOUT A KNIFE AND FIRE?
*ahem*
Sleep well.
Ogvorbis: I Am ObtuseMansays
Ogvorbis: Stay safe, and remember to tell the trees to stop, drop, and roll!
Of course, you have to be wearing nomex when you are inside as the interior temps can hit 300F. Or more.
But compared to what is outside, at least you can survive.
Ogvorbis: I Am ObtuseMansays
HOW THE FUCK DO YOU GO CAMPING WITHOUT A KNIFE AND FIRE?
I do have a knife packed. The fire will be *ahem* provided.
Mattirsays
Well, thunk, you could join the Boy Scouts of America, like we did. Or you could figure out whether you live relatively near to some Pharyngulaunt or Pharynguncle with such skills and the ability to converse with your parents so as to make assure them that a teen to teen Pharyngula meetup in a nice public space would be safe. Or you could just get a good book on outdoor skills – the BSA ones are actually very good – and practice on your own.
ibyeasays
@Mattir
Yeah, they are so worried about shielding children from TEH EVIL WORLD!!! that they aren’t teaching them anything useful. Plus, when teaching kids about things like fire, one usually teach about safety precautions, so I don’t know why they are so panicked about those things.
Rev. BigDumbChimpsays
Stay safe Og and drop into Fort Collins when you’re done and have a beer at New Belgium
Mattirsays
Ogvorbis, are you part of an interagency hotshot crew? I passed the base of one of them as I drove DaughterSpawn to camp yesterday and thought the name was great.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Meh… I’m probably too lazy. bah.
Mattirsays
Really? Too lazy to buy a book and a small amount of stuff and fool around in the back yard? I sort of doubt that…
Ogvorbis: I Am ObtuseMansays
Ogvorbis, are you part of an interagency hotshot crew?
No. I have a bad knee (courtesy of the US Army (Be All You Can Be!)) so I can’t even be on a type 2 crew, much less a hotshot crew. I go out as a single resource, either an SEC2 (Security Specialist type 2) or an SECM (Security Manager). My vote for the best job at a fire. The hours are long (usually up for 16 hours with 2 breaks of 30 minutes so you get paid for 15 hours) but you get to talk to lots of different people.
ibyeasays
@Mattir
Thanks for your concern.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
@237:
Whoa, I’m so timid.
Whenever somebody suggests something relating to my wish to do stuff (does that last sentence make sense?), I basically go white with fear.
Same thing happens when I’m searching for something I’m trying to find.
Or joining something online. Which is what kept me lurking for so long.
*deep breaths*
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Mattir: Yes. I don’t like the outdoors, actually. I know it’s good for me…
*STOP BEING LAZY*
A. Rsays
Og: You can fit a tree in one of those aluminium contraptions?
chigau (違う)says
Ogvorbis
If they are nickeldiming you for two 30-minute breaks on a 16-hour shift, I hope your wage is fucking outrageous reasonable.
Mind you, space ships make noise in Star Wars space, travel faster than light and you can replicate stuff and teleport in Star Trek, so it depends how sciencey you want to make it.
It’s sciency in the details in enough ways to try to feel grounded and then things where we’d need to break with science like FTL is excused by break through in physics that aren’t elaborated on because no one feels the need to patronize everyone else by telling them what they learned about in school.
No sound in space, most of space is empty and lacking anything interesting whatsoever.
Oh another question for people who know space. How would you imagine travel working? Is it possible to basically rely on paths and be blocked off or anything like that that could cause a bottleneck on a territory border?
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Ing:
I sorta know space, but the only thing I can think of is launch windows (time constraint), but that would be pointless for outside solar system targets.
But delta-V constraints may force movement to travel in a straight line or something…
(correct me if mistaken*
A. Rsays
Ing: Nothing in deep space could totally block a (logically 3D) border, but nebulae and other stuff could make force a detour. However, I’m not a space scientist, so take my claims with a grain of NaCl.
A. Rsays
Argh! “make force.” I need to proofread.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
A.R.
I’m pretty sure nebulae would be way too thin to pose a danger, but any interstellar dust damage at superluminal (or near-luminal) velocities would be killer.
A. Rsays
thunk: Yeah, exactly what I was thinking. In fact, that’s why Star Trek ships have deflector dishes. And certain types of nebulae could do nasty things to the people/materials used in construction of a ship if it were not properly designed/shielded. They might interfere with any sensor systems used, but that’s pure speculation.
Hmmm. Thinking of the setting relying on gate/relay systems for most FTL travel. Ships can do it themselves but since most of space is not of interest it’s easier to just make those “hyperspace bypasses”
The hyperspace bypasses will be vastly easier than going the actual distance.
And they could have one exit and entrance.
These can be blockaded.
It also will work on why people can’t say hide from authorities easily just by ducking into some of the “uninteresting space”. Threat of running out of fuel without finding more. The setting pretty much mines what it needs from “dead space”
It also works really well into one story element.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
And if one does run out of fuel for some reason, they won’t slow down.
Newton’s First Law.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Basically, ing, it’ll be absurdly impractical to accelerate to reasonable speeds (and STOP) through interstellar distances.
As in 10 million tons of fuel impractical.
A. Rsays
Spaceship fuel: That depends on the fuel used, if it’s something like a nuclear reactor (i.e. can run for years without refueling) a resource desert wouldn’t be a problem unless it was huge, but if the ship is more analogous to an automobile, it could be a great plot point.
And if one does run out of fuel for some reason, they won’t slow down.
Newton’s First Law.
Oh yeah that’s established. Unless, as I’m considering it the non-gate FTL requires engines to bend physics and running out of fuel means that you have to slow down to reasonable speeds.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
A.R; Not exactly; space is so big that accelerating will still take mass quantities of fuel, even if you’re using fusion pulse propulsion.
Was thinking of getting around that by having the ships do FTL by not actually accelerated but doing something akin to wormhole/folding space…so a ship’s speed/distance is by how far it can reach, how efficient it’s engine is, ans how fastly it can calculate and recharge to do it again
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Ing 267; But you can’t slow down without delta-V without some sort of force (friction by the hyperspace medium or something?) I’m honestly a bit unclear on this myself.
But you can’t slow down without delta-V without some sort of force (friction by the hyperspace medium or something?) I’m honestly a bit unclear on this myself.
If I go that route I imagine not being able to sustain the FPUTAD (Fuck Physics Up The Ass Drive) would cause anything doing FTL to destructively deaccelerate down past the speed of light…then leaving the wreckage speeding along adrift until it hits something?
The idea for space adn the combat there was also to think more Submarines than dog fighting. Keeping distance and trying to find/overwhelm defenses. A deflector shield can repel energy or particle fire, but you can’t exactly fire back without dropping it.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
But you kinda have to use FTL for it to be practical.
Ing; Your method of gauging (for me) seems almost earth-like…
On earth (autos, planes), total performance is measured by range.
In space, total performance is measured by change in velocity.
I think i’m just approaching this from a different mindset.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Ing:
But maybe it would accelerate to infinite speed (as in some models of tachyons) *shudder*
Well I can’t imagine something that actually relies on change in velocity working due to the time dilation, and the sheer magnitude of the distance and speeds required.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
And the combat;
That does sound reasonable.
Energy weapons have very long range in the interstellar medium, so it would be limited by collimation and the ability to target the ship.
But maybe it would accelerate to infinite speed (as in some models of tachyons) *shudder*
Either way you’d basically be lost forever. (Hey maybe that’s how engines get energy…infinite speed==infinite energy right :-p )
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
And mind you, these millions of km may take some appreciable time to travel by EM radiation, so the ship would have to plan ahead.
Doubly so, as it is seeing the enemy ship x seconds in the past, and needing to hit x seconds in the future.
A. Rsays
thunk: Given that we are talking about an FTL drive, which would basically have to work outside of normal space, fuel, other than that used to power sublight engines would not be much of a concern, unless the FTL drive is an energy hog (like an Alcubierre drive). Of course, we are also thinking of the problem without considering the potential use of an as-yet undiscovered power source.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
A.R., Yeah you’re right. Ing could hand-wave lots of things in that.
Energy weapons have very long range in the interstellar medium, so it would be limited by collimation and the ability to target the ship.
Think millions of (not a few) miles.
Right the name of the game is “keep everyone far away”
I figure travel to a place basically consists of 1) find gate, 2) use gate, 3) trudge the weeks via accelerating or warping there because everyone keeps their gate far enough away from the planet to intercept something they dont’ want close to it.
And mind you, these millions of km may take some appreciable time to travel by EM radiation, so the ship would have to plan ahead.
Doubly so, as it is seeing the enemy ship x seconds in the past, and needing to hit x seconds in the future.
Thought that a tactic to beat this might be to release swarms of drones to get in to the mile distance, and either pester/attack themselves, or get a bead on the target and transfer data back by FTC
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Yes, I was thinking more of
1) use conventional travel to gate
2) use gate
3) Conventional again to planet
Of course, if you don’t want 1 and 3 to take more than a few days, you’ll need a warp thingy, put the gates close the the planet, or have lots and lots of delta-V available.
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
283: FTC?
chigau (違う)says
All that physics shit: velocity, inertia, mass, light-speed, fuel, etc must be dumped.
You must go with wishing for wormholes.
Ing: I personally think you should expand of the submarine analogy, i.e. have the target thousands of miles away, get a firing solution from a computer, and fire a torpedo-like weapon.
ImaginesABeachsays
[Bragging mother]
BoyChild (age 11) came up to me today and said, “Mom, I don’t believe in god. Wanna know why?” I sighed with relief and asked why. He said, “well do you believe in vampires? (no) Have you ever seen one? (no), is there any proof that vampires exist? (no). Same for god.”
I don’t think I’ve ever discussed gods with my kids (both were baptized for their father’s benefit) but of course they are exposed to mythology via culture. And BOTH kids independently decided against belief in god.
Be safe, Ogvorbis. That goes to the rest of you lot too, but especially Og.
Hekuni Cat, MQGsays
THE REDHEAD IS NOW HOME
Hooray! I’m so happy for both of you.
chigau (違う)says
thunk
I don’t think it’s sad.
A writer thinks up a situation and puts the characters in it.
If the writer must™ ignore a few bits of reality, who cares?
(if the story works)
(and there is internal consistency)
chigau (違う)says
ImaginesABeach
re: atheist offspring
yay!
Don’t rest.
Keep it as an occasional conversation.
Rey Foxsays
He said, “well do you believe in vampires? (no) Have you ever seen one? (no), is there any proof that vampires exist? (no). Same for god.”
But vampires are the Uncaused Cause! The Ground of All Being! The Ineffable Unfathomable! So they HAVE to exist!
And with that, I’m thoroughly threadrupt. Safe flight to Ogvorbis.
ImaginesABeachsays
Brother Ogvorbis –
Please, for the love of Mike, give someone your log-in information and instructions to give regular updates, along the lines of “he continues to breath fairly often.” That way, if the news carries a story about a fire fighter getting his boot trapped in a net under a helicopter and being used to pee on the fire, we will be comforted that it probably isn’t you.
ImaginesABeachsays
Off to bed. Will have to figure out how to discuss with BoyChild the occasional need for discretion, especially around my in-laws.
chigau (違う)says
OMG
Oggy
Do what ImaginesABeach asked.
chigau (違う)says
oh wait
never mind
Lyn M, Purveyor of Fine Aphorisms of Deathsays
@ we are Ing
And if one does run out of fuel for some reason, they won’t slow down.
Newton’s First Law.
This could work in reverse, though, as a case of running out of fuel and therefore being unable to slow to avoid hitting something.
Could enough lateral momentum to cause a course change be developed by jettisoning things? If you had projectile weapons, I would think so. Shoot at right angles to your travel route and thereby slowly get the ship to react and adjust in the opposite direction so you miss the object. Centre of mass would hit the object, but that would be an imaginary centre, with the ship on one side and the far more rapidly moving projectiles on the other which together form the mass.
Hope that is clear. Just seems like an interesting way to use actual Newtonian motion physics in space.
Anyway, I have an internship! It’s low paid part time work but it’s something. I’m working on the campaign of a fellow who’s running for county-wide office. I’ve never worked on a political campaign before. I went to a Juneteenth celebration and buttonholed signatures, and I actually did pretty well! I got there late (interesting story as to why, but too personal) and collected a good number of signatures anyway. I just started introducing myself to people, saying, “Hi, I’m new in town, so I’m just going to introduce myself. Have you signed a petition for T—— yet?” and sometimes they had but then they would introduce themselves, and I got a $50 gift certificate for website design and brand marketing services. In a downtown neighborhood of a depressed, rust belt town in upstate NY. There were kids drumming, an Ice Cream Truck, bikers, a preacher type dude who lectured about health, blood pressure, alcoholism, and such things, and a crazy loud DJ with old skool beats and rows of kids and black ladies (not so much the men) doing the Electric boogie in the grass.
My life has never been boring. I will say that.
Cipher, OM, Fighting Fucktoysays
Paper’s done.
For better or worse, I’ve sent it off. I don’t need to think about it anymore.
Time to sleep.
Lyn M, Purveyor of Fine Aphorisms of Deathsays
@ SallyStrange: bottom-feeding, work-shy peasant
Woo hooo!
So the nym really WAS a lie all the time. Imagine that.
I love how you people can go off discussing the logistics of interstellar travel :)
Woooh-hoo for Sally Strange
BTW, does the polanski asshole over at B&W send you the same “I’ll admit to rape as long as it isn’t called rape” vibes as he does wit me?
Any yay for cipher
imagines a beach
That’s wonderful news. I hope their dad isn’t too disappointed.
I’ve never bothered to watch that Mel “CrazyEyes” Gibson’s torture porn film The passion of the Christ, but this Youtube video seems to cover it in 90 seconds.
I decided to play hooky from work today ‘cos I had a whoa busy weekend I’m still exhausted.
Anyway, I’ve finally been asked if I’m disappointed that DarkFetus is girltype. I was at a 4 year old’s birthday party, so I couldn’t tell my SiL to go fuck herself.
>:(
I also did some baking for the various goings on– cherry muffins for brunch yesterday and a 7Up pound cake for dessert after dinner last night. The pound cake was surprisingly more tangy than sweet and I liked it a whole lot.
FossilFishysays
Ing: If you’re positing interstellar warfare one thing to remember is that any species that has near lightspeed capability also has a practically unlimited supply of doomsday weapons.
There’s no need to get fancy, all you have to do is accelerate a mass, any mass, and direct it at the planet. It could be as simple as rock attached to the hull of your craft. Get up to speed on the correct vector, gently let the rock go and hey-presto, one Dinokiller on the way.
The greater the speed, the smaller the mass needed. You can accelerate it way outside the system and let it coast to the target rendering it practically invisible. There’s no realistic way stop such weapons ’cause space is big (unlike the trip to the chemist) and something moving at relativistic speeds is going to be damn near impossible to stop even if you could find it.
There’s no need to get fancy, all you have to do is accelerate a mass, any mass, and direct it at the planet. It could be as simple as rock attached to the hull of your craft. Get up to speed on the correct vector, gently let the rock go and hey-presto, one Dinokiller on the way.
Anyway, I’ve finally been asked if I’m disappointed that DarkFetus is girltype. I was at a 4 year old’s birthday party, so I couldn’t tell my SiL to go fuck herself.
>:(
She’s a fucking asshole.
Let me guess, the Lego frieds were for your niece?
ImaginesABeachsays
I hope their dad isn’t too disappointed.
Mr. Beach didn’t really react when GirlChild said she was an atheist. He hasn’t heard it from BoyChild yet. Mr. Beach was raised Catholic and says he believes in god, but hasn’t been to church other than for family obligations (weddings, funerals, first communions) since we were married almost 15 years ago. I think it’s mostly habit to say so.
Tony... therefore Godsays
thunk:
It was usually related to them being gang symbols or something…
That makes *perfect* sense. Hats being universal gang symbols and all that…
I’d better throw away my four trucker hats, my Guiness hat, and my Bacardi cocktail hat. Oh and definitely throw away my Superman s-shield hat. I wouldn’t want anyone to recognize what gang I belong to.
No, I mean why did you buy it? Especially if you can’t even build a piglet out of the pieces?
Oh! For my niece’s birthday. I was specifically told not to buy “Lego for boys”. *headdesk!*
But I feel like building blocks are good for all kids (and they’re hella fun), so it could’ve been worse, I guess. :-/
Giliell:
She’s a fucking asshole.
Let me guess, the Lego frieds were for your niece?
Yep. Major asshole.
The thing is, my SiL who is all about the pink for her little girl is SUPER DUPER OMG excited that I’m going to have a girl. This was my other SiL, who is younger than I am and has no children. I have no idea where that comment came from, but I’m still pissed about it. >:(
In Kate Griffin’s urban gothic novel “The Midnight Mayor” the phrase “Give me back my hat!” plays a surprising role in the pending doom of the Greater London area. Plus lots of blood, gore and supernatural baddies. Loved it!
IMO, just asking whether one is happy with the sex of one’s child to be, or would rather have had the opposite, is already beyond what I would consider polite, but I can imagine it coming up between good friends. However, implying that the opposite would in fact have been better — as I gather what happened — is definitely beyond the pale.
Lyn M, Purveyor of Fine Aphorisms of Deathsays
Thought I’d mention a product you all may know, of course, but it’s new to me. It’s printer paper for photographs. The neat thing is the side you print is a textured plastic surface, and the back is very smooth plastic. The pictures it prints are very good quality. You can then apply it to a surface, like a wall or fridge. If you get tired of it, you can peel it off. If you move it a lot and the back gets furred up, you wash it off gently with a cloth and a little soap and water. It works again.
I’m having fun putting these up all over the place and not having to worry about the walls. Here, the cost is about $12 for a pack of A4 (letter sized basically). They look nice and you don’t need a frame.
Lyn M, Purveyor of Fine Aphorisms of Deathsays
Audley
Yes, people LOVE to tell you what you should feel and do with your child. Even what “kind” you should have. It is aggravating, but I felt that the joy of having the child you have, unique and wonderful, usually washes away the dimbulb things. I hope that stage comes for you soon and even the remarks of a SIL will not bother you. Waiting for it is tough, but I understand it is not much longer.
All the best to you.
Oh, and as a lawyer, I must mention that killing them all and burning their houses down is still not legal.
FossilFishysays
SQB Yup, and many others. It’s a problem that I can’t see solved without some kind of handwave.
Audley
Anyway, I’ve finally been asked if I’m disappointed that DarkFetus is girltype.
You know, I’ve hung around here long enough that I shouldn’t be surprised at that sort of thing. But what the fucking hell? It must be my maleness again, because no one has said anything like that to me. Nor have they given me any kind of hard time about having only one child. Mrs. Fishy on the other hand has had to repeatedly defend our decision to have only one child. Bah.
SQB:
I guess it could come up between friends, but it seems like all of my friends have simply been happy that I’m happy, you know?
Let me tell you, after I’ve dealt with various asshole family members, I really appreciate how awesome my IRL, internet, and Horde friends are.
However, implying that the opposite would in fact have been better — as I gather what happened — is definitely beyond the pale.
Yep, that’s exactly what happened. She asked me if I was disappointed that DF is going to be a girl. I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around that.
FossilFishysays
Hope
I used to want to live in the shiny, spacey future promised by Popular Science and Amazing Stories. One where all our problems were solved and we all lived happy, shiny lives. But as time rolled on and the future crept into the past with nary a hover bike or robot butler to be seen, I had to modify my desires.
Then I wanted to live in a future where the relative peace and plenty I enjoyed were the norm, not just here for me, but everywhere. The Wall fell, it seemed possible. But then time passed and the Towers fell and I had to say no, not in my lifetime.
So I scaled back again. Maybe we could at least sort out ourselves, close the divide between the genders in, well, just about everything? Surely that was possible? Things are so much better now than they were last decade, and that was better the one before, right? In this at least things were already moving in the right direction. And then time passed and I found Pharyngula, and I read the threads that blew up to unimaginable sizes. Unimaginable to me because, you know, it’s getting better….
The velvet curtain of privilege is an awful thing, it hides the full reality of our society. Peeking through the rent torn by PZ’s posts and the comments on them has shown me once again that my desire to live in a shiny future was naive.
But oddly, I still feel hope. Despite the absolute, overwhelming idiocy of the likes of jenny and her ilk, they are not winning. Not here. They cannot win because the hoard will not stop. As one commenter falls away, exhausted, another takes up the fight. This is community, this is strength.
Pharyngula is a culture that’s defining itself in those horrid, horrible threads as one that will fight back until the bitter end. And in that, I find hope. My daughter will live in a better world, a fairer world, a shiny world dammit, if the communities who believe in that world never give up. And by fucking-rabbi-on-a-stick, that’s one thing you can say about the horde: it never gives up.
Thank you, thank you all.
keenacatsays
Oh, and as a lawyer, I must mention that killing them all and burning their houses down is still not legal.
You lawyery types are SUCH killjoys.
___________________________________________
Happy news from the ex crapola: My family is chipping in some major bucks for me to refurnish my apartment when ex moves out and takes his stuff with him. Hah!
Oh, and as a lawyer, I must mention that killing them all and burning their houses down is still not legal.
Should I double check my local laws, just to make extra sure that this is the case? :p
FossilFishy:
It must be my maleness again, because no one has said anything like that to me. Nor have they given me any kind of hard time about having only one child.
I think you’re right. I know that no one has said anything like that to Mr Darkheart, even though he’s technically the one responsible for “making” a girl.
I’m going to continue to receive all of the criticism, yay!
(…) he’s technically the one responsible for “making” a girl.
Of course not, it’s the fault of your feminazi ovum, rejecting all his poor Y-chromosomed gametes (screaming “but wut about the menz” as they went under).
FossilFishysays
SQB
Of course not, it’s the fault of your feminazi ovum, rejecting all his poor Y-chromosomed gametes (screaming “but wut about the menz” as they went under).
Of course not, it’s the fault of your feminazi ovum, rejecting all his poor Y-chromosomed gametes (screaming “but wut about the menz” as they went under).
Oh man, I wish my feminazi ovum was equipped with lasers to pew! pew! pew! all of the Y chromosome carrying sperm out of existence!
Lyn M, Purveyor of Fine Aphorisms of Deathsays
Should I double check my local laws, just to make extra sure that this is the case? :p
As a lawyer, I must recommend that. In my profession, we have a latin tag for it, “Quidnam hades teneo” or in English, “Who the hell knows?” Check away.
Do not fear, friends. Now shiny new and original Deepak Chopra wisdom can be delivered to you in nanoseconds, by means of the Quantum Random Energy Chopra Quote Generator(tm). Full of meridian consciousness.
PZ? Care to establish a Chopra-Quote-Feature so we can haz a random Chopra Asspull each day? “Your consciousness comprehends unbridled knowledge.”
carliesays
She asked me if I was disappointed that DF is going to be a girl. I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around that.
“Yes. *crestfallen look* Yes, I am disappointed. Oh, I’m sure I’ll learn to tolerate her, in time, and perhaps one day my bitter, dry heart might even get a tiny glimmer of what could pass for a brief flicker of joy if she somehow manages to make something of her shambled, second-rate life. But I know that every time I look at her it will be with a cold undercurrent of disdain, and that every time I change her diaper, every time I buy sparkly wee shoes, every time I hear “Mommy, I want to be just like you when I grow up”, I will mourn for the Penis That Might Have Been. I can only hope that she doesn’t internalize the hatred I have towards her being a girl to the point that she becomes a mass murderer and embarrasses the family.”
Think she would be satisfied with that answer? ;)
carliesays
Happy news from the ex crapola: My family is chipping in some major bucks for me to refurnish my apartment when ex moves out and takes his stuff with him. Hah!
Yay! And the best part is you can get whatever you want without asking ANYBODY if it’s ok. :)
opposablethumbssays
SallyStrange – yay for your internship! They are lucky to have someone like you.
.
Cipher, many congrats on getting your paper finished. Do let us know if you feel like letting any of the horde read it at any point – maybe with your identifying details filed off? I’d love to read it some time if you feel ok with it (I’m not in your field or anything, I just think it sounds like a fascinating topic).
.
Audley, I can’t believe your SiL asked you that. What the fuck kind of a shit-stupid question is that? And … she has a niece, after all – your other SiL’s daughter, right? Oooooo. That’s so fucking sad. It would be less surprising (though no whit less repugnant) if you already had 3 or 4 daughters yourself, but for a first pregnancy? wtf.
Ah, no, re-thinking that. Aha. I’ve got it. She has become aware of the fact that you don’t do The All-Pink-All-The-Time Thing and has interpreted this to mean that you don’t like girls/don’t want a girl. Headdesk headdesk headdesk!!!!!!!!!! Fucking argh crash headfloor with physically dangerous levels of eyerolling.
.
keenacat, re-doing your flat sounds brilliant – so good to make your everyday surroundings fresh and new. Good for your family!
keenacatsays
Yay! And the best part is you can get whatever you want without asking ANYBODY if it’s ok. :)
Indeed. I admit, I am looking forward to it. I had to abort a few ideas for the flat when we moved in because he wouldn’t have it, and now I can furnish ALL THE ROOMS to my liking. And decorate and shit. Yay!
Audley
I can well believe that pink-SIL is all happy about DGF. Has she offered you the pink stuff already? Some people really buy into that “seperate but equal” bullshit and completely forget that their childhood offered choices. There’s nothing wrong about a pink dress, or about having 25 different shades of nail-polish as an adult or the biggest matchbox-collection in town. But they don’t understand that they’re taking away choices, the freedom to grow up with options.
IMO, just asking whether one is happy with the sex of one’s child to be, or would rather have had the opposite, is already beyond what I would consider polite, but I can imagine it coming up between good friends.
I’d say that, unless it’s very, very close friends anything but “Aren’t you happy the Fetus is sex ABC?” is inappropriate. Being happy about sex A doesn’t mean one would have been unhappy about B. It just means HAPPY. I’m happy with my two girls, but I would be equally happy with two boys. Or one of each.
To me, that’s the difference between that awefull S. Oliver shirt “anything girls can do, boys can do better” and this embroidery design. There’s the matching one for boys, too. To me, they simply declare that being a boy/girl is good, not better. Although I know that many people have problems thinking in the positive (the basic form of the adjective) alone. For them things can’t be “good” or “bad”, they must be better or worse.
Keenacat
Yay. I love redecorating. Are you thinking about a certain style?
“Yes. *crestfallen look* Yes, I am disappointed. Oh, I’m sure I’ll learn to tolerate her, in time, and perhaps one day my bitter, dry heart might even get a tiny glimmer of what could pass for a brief flicker of joy if she somehow manages to make something of her shambled, second-rate life. But I know that every time I look at her it will be with a cold undercurrent of disdain, and that every time I change her diaper, every time I buy sparkly wee shoes, every time I hear “Mommy, I want to be just like you when I grow up”, I will mourn for the Penis That Might Have Been. I can only hope that she doesn’t internalize the hatred I have towards her being a girl to the point that she becomes a mass murderer and embarrasses the family.”
I just needed to see that again. :D
opposablethumbs:
I’ve got it. She has become aware of the fact that you don’t do The All-Pink-All-The-Time Thing and has interpreted this to mean that you don’t like girls/don’t want a girl. Headdesk headdesk headdesk!!!!!!!!!! Fucking argh crash headfloor with physically dangerous levels of eyerolling.
!!
Holy shit, I think that’s it! Because I don’t want to jam a little girl into asinine gender roles means I don’t want a little girl and I think that having a little girl is a bad thing.
*headdesk*
*headdesk*
*headdfloor*
*drool!*
Tony... therefore Godsays
Audley:
Arggh!
That was a horrible thing for your SiL to say. I wonder how she’d feel if someone said that to her parents while she was around…
~
I feel dirty. Just stumbled upon “Conservapedia”. I had a broad sense of what it was about but wow, the wingnuttery is super strong there. Plus they have this weird fixation on bestiality.
~
Weed Monkey:
re: Passion of the Christ,
I still find it funny that so many parents and church leaders embraced this movie:
yet other movies that depict violence are heavily criticized:
http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/movieguide-warns-hunger-games-will-lead-american-hitler-has-homosexual-and-cross-dressing-im
Strong but not extremely explicit or very overt humanist worldview with some Romantic elements, plus light moral elements such as protagonist protects her younger sister, some strong elements suggesting opposition to totalitarian dictatorship, and some homosexual and cross-dressing implications where men in a large city wear makeup and gaudy outfits and a minor character acts effeminately; three profanities and five obscenities; very strong violence includes children kill children with knives, swords, bows and arrows, not always shown but with blood implied, girl is burned, youngest child is killed by bow stabbing right through her, adults get into fights and destroy buildings, mutated dogs eat boy, girl beaten against wall, and girls fight and one gets slashed on cheek; no sex scenes but some kissing and kissing on cheek, plus some homosexual cross-dressing where men of large city are in makeup and gaudy outfits; no nudity; drinking and drunkenness; no smoking or drugs, but bug stings girl and she hallucinates for two days; and, dysfunctional family implied as mother has left children and father is not alive, lying, mentor for children is an alcoholic, government plays propaganda, and a dictatorship but it’s implicitly rebuked though not strongly enough.
[emphasis mine]
So the violence in an R-rated movie is ok as long as it serves a higher function, but violence in a PG-13 film is too much?
Notice how they included ‘…some homosexual cross-dressing…’ twice?
~
I had a pretty wild Sunday. Woke up around noon, heard what sounded like a total of three gunshots followed by people outside reacting to them. I looked out of my front window and saw flames. When I went to open the door there was too much smoke to see anything. It turned out that someone’s car had exploded next door!
Luckily nobody was hurt; the owner of the car had been driving for 4 hours or so and was in his apartment taking a nap before going in to work. From what I could gather from the other lookie-loos, it was supposedly caused by an electrical problem.
I tried really hard to acknowledge Father’s Day. I called my dad, told him all about my interesting afternoon, and he started trying to excuse me from the phone five minutes into the conversation- I was in a drive-through car wash taking care of the ash on my car, and he started in with “well I’ll let you get to work on your car.” I explained that it was automatic and I wasn’t in a hurry, but he kept coming up with reasons why I should get off the phone. It’s a bummer when I make an effort to do “traditional” dad/son stuff and I’m the only one trying.
No, thankfully. She’s pregnant, too (due at the end of next month). She doesn’t know if she’s having a girl or a boy, so she’s hanging on to it for now.
There’s nothing wrong about a pink dress, or about having 25 different shades of nail-polish as an adult or the biggest matchbox-collection in town. But they don’t understand that they’re taking away choices, the freedom to grow up with options.
This is it, exactly! As I’ve been trying to explain to people, I don’t want the DF to be completely gender neutral in everything that she does– when she’s old enough to make choices and express her opinions, I want her to be comfortable asking for both a baby doll and a toy truck. I don’t see this as being a radical way to raise a child, but perhaps I’m wrong.
This is it, exactly! As I’ve been trying to explain to people, I don’t want the DF to be completely gender neutral in everything that she does– when she’s old enough to make choices and express her opinions, I want her to be comfortable asking for both a baby doll and a toy truck. I don’t see this as being a radical way to raise a child, but perhaps I’m wrong.
I wish you a lot of strength for this, because I know it isn’t easy. Because sadly we’re not the only ones to raise our children. I could really see #1 moving from “I want/ don’t want X because of Y” to “I want/ don’t want X because it’s for girls/ not for girls” and it makes me want to scream.
It’s horrible how she gets ideas installed into her head without even having a basic understanding about what they mean.
Last week she played that she was a “famous queen”. I was a bit puzzled. I’ve kept the Disney princess bullshit at a minimum. I think I’ll get her Mulan for her birthday. So I asked
“what do queens do?”
“They can fly!”
“And what’s famous?”
“well, I need the red slippers for that!”
She has no clue what either word actually means but she thinks that’s what she should be…
Good morning (or time period where you are)!
—
Nerd: Yay on the Redhead’s return home!
—
Ogvorbis: Be safe!
—
Audley: Argh! What is wrong with people?
—
Cipher: Yay for finished papers!
—
SallyStrange: Yay on the internship!
—
Spent the part of yesterday hanging out with my brilliant 14yo adopta-nephew as he launched his newest model rocket and beat me mercilessly at poker. I lost my entire candy fortune: Smarties, Swedish fish, Junior Mints, and even the Jolly Ranchers! (He did, however, split his winnings with me while we watched our favorite “Doctor Who” episodes on Netflix.)
Got home and discovered UPS had delivered the monthly package from my mother. Instead of the usual mystery novels, goodies, and dollar store gifts, there was a pile of hometown newspapers from November and December and a stack of Time magazines from last summer. Um…oh-kay. She also included the usual “God wuvs you” book, so I presume there is some reason for the other stuff.
Tony... therefore Godsays
SallyStrange:
Congratulations on the internship.
~
Predator:
What a horrible way to be woken up. Sorry things didn’t go any better with your father.
~
keenacat:
I’m almost certain I’ll regret it, but here goes
::slinking off to check your link::
Ing: If you’re positing interstellar warfare one thing to remember is that any species that has near lightspeed capability also has a practically unlimited supply of doomsday weapons.
There’s no need to get fancy, all you have to do is accelerate a mass, any mass, and direct it at the planet. It could be as simple as rock attached to the hull of your craft. Get up to speed on the correct vector, gently let the rock go and hey-presto, one Dinokiller on the way.
The greater the speed, the smaller the mass needed. You can accelerate it way outside the system and let it coast to the target rendering it practically invisible. There’s no realistic way stop such weapons ’cause space is big (unlike the trip to the chemist) and something moving at relativistic speeds is going to be damn near impossible to stop even if you could find it.
Taken into account…another reason why gates are outside of real borders and systems are flooded with defense grids and precautions to try to prevent such shit. Entry into a system is heavily regulated and defended. Infantry combat is almost gone due to the scale of this combat…now it’s a matter of “disable defenses so we can sabre rattle with our mass drivers”
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Yes.
Said relativistic vehicles can me deployed in mass numbers. The swarm would basically be unstoppable.
Tony... therefore Godsays
keenacat:
Here’s my Deepak fictional quote:
“Your body gives rise to an abundance of happiness.”
Sure.
My body also gives rise to an abundance of smelly odors after I drink milk.
Is that deep too?
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
And also, you would have nearly NO warning (save for FTL communication), because of their speed.
Said relativistic vehicles can me deployed in mass numbers. The swarm would basically be unstoppable.
Of course you yourself would lose the planet though. Also it puts things into a MAD scenario where thus people don’t do that in fear of all out war. It’s a nuclear option
Are you fucking kidding me??
I can’t wait to see his justification for killing that poor animal.
BCPA_Lady (now appearing in MN!)says
FossilFishy:
It must be my maleness again, because no one has said anything like that to me. Nor have they given me any kind of hard time about having only one child.
It’s always the woman’s fault. Even when it’s not under her control, it’s her fault.
—
keenacat:
Happy news from the ex crapola: My family is chipping in some major bucks for me to refurnish my apartment when ex moves out and takes his stuff with him. Hah!
That’s fantastic!
—
Lyn M:
In my profession, we have a latin tag for it, “Quidnam hades teneo” or in English, “Who the hell knows?”
This makes me even more happy about taking Beginning Latin in the fall. I want to be able to sound quite profound while actually being snarky. Of course, given past history with languages, I may crash and burn horribly.
Rey Foxsays
youngest child is killed by bow stabbing right through her
Ahem. It was a spear.
In a downtown neighborhood of a depressed, rust belt town in upstate NY. There were kids drumming, an Ice Cream Truck, bikers, a preacher type dude who lectured about health, blood pressure, alcoholism, and such things, and a crazy loud DJ with old skool beats and rows of kids and black ladies (not so much the men) doing the Electric boogie in the grass.
For contrast, here was the setting of my volunteer work with Raptor Rehab this weekend in Missouri. Small town “Heritage Days” festival. One of the trucks arriving from the parade had an American flag and a Confederate flag. One of the booths was for colloidal silver, another appeared to be about concealed handguns. The one food truck that I could see from where we were set up had kettle corn.
keenacatsays
Tony,
His wife tells the newspaper that the dog’s death was a “horrible accident.”
YEAH RIGHT sometimes punches just HAPPEN, you know? Can’t do anything about it.
Or maybe she means the accident was the pup dying from the punch, because pups should be re-punchable?
__________________________________________
In slightly happier news, I’ll leave now to hand in my first homemade prescription (for my levothyroxine). Haha OMG I’m a doc nao!
“They are encouraging kids to think, ‘Well, you know what? They’re talking about being a homosexual and they’re saying there’s nothing wrong with being gay, so you know what, I think I might try that out for a little bit,” Cowger says. “That is what’s going on!”
They are encouraging kids to think, ‘Well, you know what? They’re talking about being a homosexual and they’re saying there’s nothing wrong with being gay, so you know what, I think I might try that out for a little bit,” Cowger says. “That is what’s going on!”
Hehe “little bit”
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Ing;;
Ah, planets.
They’re sitting ducks, so that could be a major danger.
They’re sitting ducks, so that could be a major danger.
But at least potentially fortifable with early detection systems + (FTLC) to try to keep things far away from them. Also there’s the MAD with attacking a planet like that…and that because of gates in order to do so you’d have to be within range of their defense grids so it’d be practically a suicide run to try it.
Beatricesays
That kid’s website
He should have practiced that smug smirk a bit more in front of the mirror, it’s obvious that he’s trying too hard.
And it’s generally accepted that there’s no reason to attack another planet unless you’re just being agressive. Space is big so you can expand out elsewhere and find what you need resource wise without having to bother with other life forms. If you’re going to attack the planet it logically must be for a reason that just bombing it to bits won’t be productive towards.
Louissays
I just looked at that kid’s website.
I have decided that sobriety, it is not for me. I am starting drinking early this week.
Louis
Rev. BigDumbChimpsays
What if I just feel like bombing a few worlds into stardust?
You’d be in the Freestates (libertarianesq policy) and if you can afford ti you’re free to wander out to deadspace and bomb a placing planetoid for giggles.
Of the three factions two are on well enough terms that all out war is not desired…and even then it’d probably be easier to just strand them by destroying or shutting off a gate, or blockading it.
The other one has a bottle neck problem due to said gate and is in a cold war state. Confrontation is constantly delayed as one side wants to avoid/delay all out war and the other one is optimistically thinking any such war won’t apply to them.
Sooo, soon the miscommunication between my sister and me that resulted in too much bread will culminate in a fantastic dinner :)
Semmelknödel with Mushroom-Gulassh
Audley
Yes, we can and I think it’s doable.
But honestly, I thought it would be easier.
Hell, i grew up during the 80’s when He-Man had at least a token-female on each side (that’s one more than most current boy-playsets) and Barbie had real jobs. I shouldn’t have to deal with that fuck at all.
And I was honestly naive when I thought I would just provide alternatives and everything would be fine. I didn’t realize that there was a multi-billion dollar industry stacked against me.
“As America grows more polarized, conservatives increasingly reject science and rational thought,” — that’s the title of an article in Salon.
Excerpt:
The past decade-plus have turned science from a mostly politically neutral issue into a heavily partisan one, with Republicans becoming the party of anti-science while Democrats increasingly tout their dedication to research and evidence-based policy. According to a study published in American Sociological Review, since 1974, conservative trust in science has been in a free-fall, declining 25 percent. In 1974, conservatives were the most pro-science group, higher than liberals and moderates. Now they’re the least pro-science group of all, with liberals showing the most trust in science.
People who frequently attend church were the most likely to lose their trust in science…
Rather than “losing their trust in science,” I would say that they lose their ability to sort fact from fiction.
PZ is mentioned:
As PZ Myers argued, the poor public education in science means that a shrinking portion of the American public is going into careers in science. Americans from working class backgrounds who go into these careers are far more likely to use their education and career contacts to return to their communities and improve the economic and health conditions back home. But with these declining numbers of American scientists, that possibility is being shut down.
Richard Austinsays
Ing:
Planetary conquest is impractical. The amount of resources necessary to actually take over an inhabited planet are prohibitive to get through space; the power differential between the two groups would have to be overwhelming to begin with.
I mean, think about how much effort and energy it would take to safely land, say, a million soldiers and all their required gear, munitions, food, whatever, on Earth. And that likely wouldn’t be sufficient to take over the whole planet in any kind of reasonable time frame. And then think about how many ships it would take to get those kinds of resources from another star system to this one; if one had that kind of power, one could build a planet somewhere and just use that for less effort and expense.
If someone is going to attack a planet, pretty much the only reason to do so (with extremely limited exceptions that would be based on capturing a specific resource) is to obliterate it.
A. Rsays
RKVs: The only way I can imagine one of these could be stopped involves the use of space-based weapons firing on a solution relayed from a distant early warning system.
Rev. BigDumbChimpsays
@Rev
You’d be in the Freestates (libertarianesq policy) and if you can afford it you’re free to wander out to deadspace and bomb a placing planetoid for giggles.
An article on the Politico website makes a laudable effort to sort out the muddled facts and the muddled politics surrounding Bain Capital. Writers Alexander Burns and John Harris say what I’ve been thinking for some time:
Obama has declined to embrace a belief that many Democrats strongly hold: that Bain is a fundamentally exploitative company and that Romney’s decisions there reflect his own flawed judgment and morality.
Exactly. What’s with this repetition from many Dem politicians, not just Obama, that making money the way Bain does is a good idea? Bain is not a private equity firm that mostly offers startup money to new businesses, or renovation money to existing businesses, or management expertise where needed. Bain is a company that takes those pro-business actions occasionally while it mostly looks for ways to pillage and burn. If your company fails during or after the pillaging, that’s just proof that the company was weak and Bain just delivered the mercy blow.
Look at Bain’s earnings compared to those of the companies with which they interacted. Most of the time Bain won big whether the company failed or thrived. Bain’s plate is not just full, but overfull.
Obama is trying so hard to battle the anti-business label conservatives put on him that I think he has ended up telling lies. Yes, there is something wrong with Bain.
I don’t think questioning the ethics of Bain Capital’s managers is equal to attacking free enterprise.
A followup to my post @391 — this comment comes from a reader at the Politico site:
Some of what Romney/Bain did can be called capitalism, but quite a few of their deals were pure asset-stripping and head-cutting done primarily to enrich the VC investors. This is nothing new. I worked with a Big 8 firm throughout the eighties when LBO’s and “turnarounds” were all the rage and I saw this kind of thing routinely. Sometimes, when local management was involved, there was an effort to take care of employees, but far too frequently there was little concern for the loyal workers who were whacked to pay the high costs of leverage. These deals had more to do with gaining ownership by leveraging assets than turning companies around. Perhaps you remember “Chainsaw” Al Dunlap. This lack of genuine concern for local communities and employees is a hazard that comes with a distant, uninvolved ownership. …
This lack of genuine concern for local communities and employees is a hazard that comes with a distant, uninvolved ownership. …
Speaking of which, Mano found a story from last fall about a workplace that makes the one in Office Space look utterly functional. Bold is my emphasis:
BETTENDORF, Iowa — William Ernst, the owner of the QC Mart chain of convenience stores in the Bettendorf, Iowa, area, recently offered prizes to employees who could predict which of them would be fired next, said the Des Moines Register.
There’s very little news coverage of this (mostly affects women, so why should anyone care?), but over the weekend Mitt Romney spoke via video feed to the Faith & Freedom Coalition. Among other things, Romney evinced his considerable distaste for Obama’s position on access to contraception.
Romney took the “religious freedom” tack in his anti-contraception remarks.
The Faith & Freedom Coalition is run by Ralph Reed. Yes, the same Ralph Reed that was identified as a criminal in the Abramoff scandal. I guess this proves that right-wingers really do have short memories. Ralph Reed took millions of Native American tribal dollars and used those dollars not to lobby for Native American rights and interests, but to fund Christian campaigns against tribal casinos.
So, unethical business practices, criminal activity — no problem. Mitt Romney is right at home with this group.
Romney also quoted Rick Santorum. No further comment needed.
cicely. Just cicely.says
And BOTH kids independently decided against belief in god.
ImaginesABeach, that’s awesome!
–
SallyStrange: *high five* on the internship!
–
Cipher, hurrah! for the doneness of the paper. :)
–
Tony... therefore Godsays
I want to shake Dominick Zarrillo’s hand. The support and love he shows his son Jeff, and his partner Paul is inspiring:
“As this Father’s Day approached, all I could think about was how much I want my son to experience the joys of being a father, how much I want him to marry the person he loves and to raise a family.
For now, he is still waiting, and fighting. I see how much the struggle costs him, how discouraging it is that despite his strength and patience and faith in the system, the ultimate decision rests in the hands of those who have yet to act.
~
I absolutely love how this fifth grader can grasp simple human compassion and basic rights. He could teach Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachmann, George W Bush, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Sarah Palin and all the other religio-conservative politicians quite a bit (if they would listen):
Supreme Court Justice Scalia is getting ready to vote against the health care law. He’s been looking for a way to do the far right wing a solid, and I think he has found one. He’s going after precedent defining the Commerce Clause, saying it was improperly decided.
Now, within days of the historic ruling, Scalia is releasing a new book in which he finds fault with a Roosevelt-era Supreme Court decision that forms a critical part of the legal undergirding for the health care reform law. For Scalia, that’s a dramatic turnaround, because he has previously embraced the premise of that decision in an opinion he authored in 2005 that supporters of the health care law have frequently cited.
In Scalia’s new book, a 500-page disquisition on statutory construction being published this week, he says the landmark 1942 ruling Wickard v. Filburn — which has served as the lynchpin of the federal government’s broad authority to regulate interstate economic activities under the Constitution’s Commerce Clause — was improperly decided.
According to an advance review in the New York Times, Scalia writes that Wickard “expanded the Commerce Clause beyond all reason” by deciding that “a farmer’s cultivation of wheat for his own consumption affected interstate commerce and thus could be regulated under the Commerce Clause.”
When did Scalia reach this conclusion? Well, quite recently, actually. Indeed, the far-right justice seemed to change his mind about the Commerce Clause right around the time he was looking for a way to rule against the health care law.
Some good news. Over the weekend, Mayors from here, there and everywhere met. Surprise! They passed a pro-choice resolution.
At their annual meeting in Orlando, Florida over the weekend, the U.S. Conference of Mayors approved a resolution in support of funding for Planned Parenthood and women’s access to abortion services and contraception. The nonpartisan organization representing mayors from over 1,300 cities criticized both state governments and Congress for attempting to roll back women’s access to reproductive care.
In the resolution, the mayors pointed to anti-choice legislation in several states including the now-infamous mandatory ultrasound laws that caused an uproar earlier this year in Virginia, as well as state laws that ban abortion after 20 weeks of pregnancy “regardless of the women’s situation, without exceptions to protect her health, and in violation of the right to privacy guaranteed under Roe v. Wade.” The mayors also chided Congress for voting to defund Title X and Planned Parenthood as well as several other anti-choice bills approved by the Republican-majority House of Representatives since 2010. “(The) U.S. Conference of Mayors urges Congress and the states to pursue a positive agenda that reaffirms fundamental rights and improves women’s access to safe and comprehensive reproductive-health care,” the resolution concludes.
“When it comes to reproductive health decisions, nobody knows better than an individual woman what is best for herself and her family,” said Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, one of the sponsors of the resolution. “New York City is committed to supporting a woman’s right to choose and ensuring that all New Yorkers have the information, and access to care, they need to make safe and healthy decisions.”
Other mayors who helped introduce the resolution included Sam Adams of Portland, Oregon., Ed Lee of San Francisco, Mike McGinn of Seattle, Pedro E. Segarra of Hartford and Antonio Villaraigosa of Los Angeles….
If your in Consortium you could request your manditory civil service be on a mining expedition.
Amphioxsays
If you’re positing interstellar warfare one thing to remember is that any species that has near lightspeed capability also has a practically unlimited supply of doomsday weapons.
Hey, that’s the plot of “The Killing Stars”.
(Note that since all interstellar spaceships, by lieu of their own mass and velocity, are weapons of mass destruction, that means that current international treaties and laws actually prohibit humans from building interstellar spaceships. Those one would presume that by the time we get (if we get that far) the tech to build such a thing, the treaties and international laws will probably be updated).
Of course, in any setting wherein there are more than 2 sides capable of this tactic, no one will dare to launch.
The energy required for the initial launch will be enormous, and shine like a beacon to anyone watching. This won’t help the target, since the signal is lightspeed, so the near-lightspeed attack will arrive only a very short time after the signal is seen. But any third party that is not the target will see it, and that means the launching party must consider that when they launch they will 1) announce their location to all third parties and 2) demonstrate that they are able and willing to launch pre-emptive and unprovoked attacks of this nature. And since these attacks are unstoppable, the third party will have no choice but to launch their own pre-emptive attack.
In a situation of multiple near-lightspeed capable civilizations, with incomplete knowledge of one another, this could lead to a rapid apocalyptic daisy-chain of galactic destruction.
B, fearing A, launches pre-emptive attack. Unbeknownst to B, C observes B attack A, and fearing B, launches attack on B. D observes C attack B, but, unaware of the attack on A, thinks C launched unprovoked attack on B, and launches at C. E launches at D for similar reason. And so on. In short order only one near-lightspeed capable civilization (call it Z) is left. Now if anywhere on this chain some observes Z launch before the attack targeted to them gets to them, and launches at Z, then poof, everyone’s dead, except for the non near-lightspeed capable civs.
Hey, thanks for the congrats, everyone! I’m about to head over to the office to do some data entry (YAY I FUCKING LOVE DATA ENTRY, SERIOUSLY I DO) in a few. I just wanted to reiterate congrats for Cipher and sympathies for Audley in the misfortune of having asshole relatives.
Amphioxsays
A deflector shield can repel energy or particle fire, but you can’t exactly fire back without dropping it.
What would have to be done is what was done in WWI when your lines are faced with suppressing fire from enemy artillery.
You can’t return fire from the area under attack, but you can triangulate the location of the enemy’s weapons from their pattern of fire, and strike back from another weapons installation you have which hopefully your enemy doesn’t know about.
The key is to keep as many of your assets hidden from enemy observation as possible, and spread them out.
One fascinating thing about this link is that the gene that produces tetrachromacy in some females is the exact same gene that results in red-green colourblindness in males. So what would at first appear to be a detrimental variant actually turns out to be a beneficial, gain-of-function mutation in some instances.
Amphioxsays
The corollary to #401 would be that civilizations with foresight will never dare launch any near-lightspeed expedition, peaceful or not, from their home star system, or any system which they value as a colony. They will voluntarily restrict themselves to slow sub-light generational ships for colonization purposes, and if they have near-lightspeed capabilities that they wish to use, they will only build launch installations far away from their home systems (in which case sublight slow supply becomes an issue).
Similarly they will not use near-light-speed propulsion for any non-military/civilian use that requires deceleration, because the energy expenditure of decelerating also shines like a beacon and would reveal their relativistic capability to outside observers.
This could be another solution for Fermi’s Paradox.
Rey Foxsays
YAY I FUCKING LOVE DATA ENTRY, SERIOUSLY I DO
People who dis on data entry are just angry that they can’t do work with headphones on.
chigau (違う)says
I have bronchitis.
Nutmegsays
People who dis on data entry are just angry that they can’t do work with headphones on.
Yep. Headphones make everything better. I love the days I’m dissecting my critters, because I can listen to podcasts all day and ignore everyone else in the lab. Bliss.
A. Rsays
Amphiox: That, however assumes that the only way of practical interstellar travel is some sort of relativistic drive. Of course, this is the only real possibility with our understanding of physics, but more advanced cultures may have developed something more like a wormhole drive etc. that would allow FTL travel.
Going to have to stop fun talk for a while. Boss person has spent a lot of time now belittling me and badgering me and breaking me down. They’re taking a perverse glee in not wanting me around, but not wanting me out of work at all and bean counting and rules lawyer anyway they can to make it difficult to find work, then belittling me for being too lazy not to have found a job yet.
RahXephon, worse than Hitler, Pol Pot, the Antichrist, Stalin, and Mao combinedsays
I came by this on Hemant’s blog. Did anyone here read Leah Libresco’s blog before this?
I don’t really get this. I mean, I think I’ve seen this happen to a few other people before: they get so twisted up in moral philosophy, having to justify/explain everything that when they get to a point where they’re at a loss for explanation, it’s like a spring snaps and they go “uh..must be God! Whew!” like it’s a release valve for their mental incongruities.
I mean, that’s what it sounds like when she says this:
I’ve heard some explanations that try to bake morality into the natural world by reaching for evolutionary psychology. They argue that moral dispositions are evolutionarily triumphant over selfishness, or they talk about group selection, or something else. Usually, these proposed solutions radically misunderstand a) evolution b) moral philosophy or c) both. I didn’t think the answer was there. My friend pressed me to stop beating up on other people’s explanations and offer one of my own.
“I don’t know,” I said. ”I’ve got bupkis.”
“Your best guess.”
“I haven’t got one.”
“You must have some idea.”
“I don’t know. I’ve got nothing. I guess Morality just loves me or something.”
“…”
“Ok, ok, yes, I heard what I just said. Give me a second and let me decide if I believe it.”
It turns out I did.
I believed that the Moral Law wasn’t just a Platonic truth, abstract and distant. It turns out I actually believed it was some kind of Person, as well as Truth.
That Moral Law Person being the Catholic God. Yeesh.
Matt Penfoldsays
That Moral Law Person being the Catholic God. Yeesh.
Well I have to say that anyone these days who decides voluntarily to convert to Catholicism probably does have a problem understanding morality, since a moral person would not countenance such a move.
ButchKittiessays
I already knew that The Daily Beast was crap, but this is just delightful:
Well I have to say that anyone these days who decides voluntarily to convert to Catholicism probably does have a problem understanding morality, since a moral person would not countenance such a move.
From a quick look at her post she’s a dualist and a transhumanist. And she apparently approves of GK Chesterton and CS Lewis, so …
Geesh I hate my body right now. The thyroxin is driving me crazy. Actually I’m permanently hungry. I ate a lot before, no question, but that was mostly the “hmm this looks appetizing let’s eat it” stuff. Now I want six meals a day or I get “give me food or I’m going to gnaw off somebody’s leg” hungry.
RahXephon, worse than Hitler, Pol Pot, the Antichrist, Stalin, and Mao combinedsays
Interesting to see if this is an effect of Patheos. Anyone care to take bets on when Hemant turns?
I don’t really know much about it, but I assume Patheos is some kinda community site like FtB but with theists and atheists? It shows in the comments; there are a few people criticizing the logic Leah’s exhibiting in her conversion, but there’s also lots of “God’s so happy another godless heathen has returned to His graces! PRAISE TEH LAWD!!!” type comments going on too.*
*Speaking of this, I get so tired of the attitude so many Christians engage in where they present their faith as something you will inevitably accept, even if most people only acquiesce because of the wars of attrition and thousands of pages of rhetorical cotton candy they’re capable of spinning. I’ve seen Christians convert non-Christians simply because they were able to outlast the non-Christian in a prolonged discussion. I dunno about Leah, but I don’t wanna be William Lane Craig’d to Jesus.
carliesays
RahXephon – if you head over to BlagHag, there’s a raging discussion going on about it now. Mainly someone claiming that you can totes be a good Catholic without believing anything the Catholic Church says.
Ing, I’m so so sorry.
Giliell – is it possible you’re not on quite the right dose yet? I know my spouse took a few tries to get the dose that was enough to do its job without causing wacky side effects.
RahXephon, worse than Hitler, Pol Pot, the Antichrist, Stalin, and Mao combinedsays
Mainly someone claiming that you can totes be a good Catholic without believing anything the Catholic Church says.
Ugh. I have enough of those people in my family. They go to church every Sunday and do whatever they want all the rest of the time. The church doesn’t seem to have any actual influence on their lives, which makes me question why they would go to something every week that’s culturally irrelevant to them. Habit, I guess?
carlie
It’s entirely possible. After all it’s the “first try” and sadly with Hashimoto’s you can never be sure. Sister says that it’s to be expected.
Tony... therefore Godsays
RahXephon:
I don’t know. I’ve got nothing. I guess Morality just loves me or something.”
“Morality just loves me”?
What kind of woo shit is that?
When did morality become a sentient being capable of emotions?
What scientific evidence does she have to support that ridiculous idea?
How do you get from “I don’t have a clear idea of where my system of morals comes from…therefore God”?
And the god of catholicism to boot.
Tony... therefore Godsays
ButchKitties:
Our final dataset included more than 500 universities. The crimes we considered were: murder, negligent murder, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, car theft, and arson.
No mention of sexual assault or rape?
Out of 500 universities.
And there are morons out there who think Rape Culture is non existent…Damn.
chigau (違う)says
RahXephon
Do your relatives who “go to church every Sunday and do whatever they want all the rest of the time” take Communion when they go to church?
If they do that without going to Confession beforehand as far as I remember from my Catechism
THEY ARE GOING TO HEEELLLL!!!!!
tell them that from me ;)
Beatricesays
The church doesn’t seem to have any actual influence on their lives, which makes me question why they would go to something every week that’s culturally irrelevant to them. Habit, I guess?
Ah, cultural Catholics. Partly habitually, partly because of that special fuzzy feeling when they can say that Catholicism is part of their identity and their traditions. Because they are not just whoever, they have important traditions which are, like, old and traditional and make them special in the eyes of God and their neighbors.
ChasCPetersonsays
Tony, they explain:
One major change to the methodology from last year’s rankings: Though incidents of forcible and non-forcible rape are available, they were not ascribed a point value for the rankings. Rape is obviously a most serious crime, but the data often punishes the schools that are the safest (encouraging victims to come forward) and rewards the most hostile (where culture or policy suppresses reporting).
ChasCPetersonsays
I should clarify that that explanation accompanied the 2010 rankings by the same website.
Amphioxsays
Amphiox: That, however assumes that the only way of practical interstellar travel is some sort of relativistic drive. Of course, this is the only real possibility with our understanding of physics, but more advanced cultures may have developed something more like a wormhole drive etc. that would allow FTL travel.
It depends on the specifics of the physics of hypothetical FTL.
But if the FTL also is a weapon of mass destruction in the manner of relativistic impactors (say for example, if opening a wormhole releases enough energy to devastate a planet if you place the wormhole just so), then the same logic still applies. So long as FTL travel also allows for FTL communication, ie detection.
(If you have FTL travel without FTL communication/detection, then whoever develops FTL first conquers the universe at will, and no one will be able to stop them – they’ll be destroyed BEFORE they even see the attack, and indeed MUST do so for self-preservation, or else the next FTL civilization that turns out to be aggressive will destroy THEM).
Tony... therefore Godsays
Matt Penfold:
Well I have to say that anyone these days who decides voluntarily to convert to Catholicism probably does have a problem understanding morality, since a moral person would not countenance such a move.
QFT!
I am unable to comprehend why she made this decision. I can’t understand how in almost no time at all, she decided to jump on the Catholic bandwagon.
Most important: I can’t understand why someone seeking a coherent system of morality would turn to the Catholic Church, specifically.
“Hi, we’re the moral police of the planet. Just ignore the fact that we don’t give a rat’s ass about all the children that many of our priests have raped over the course of our history. Also, you should ignore that we didn’t turn any of them over to authorities. You will find yourself needing to quietly downplay how frequently we quietly reassigned priests so the law couldn’t touch them. Yeah, just ignore all that, plus any of our connections to Nazi Germany. Other than that, and the way we treat women and gays, our strident opposition to contraception, and the lies we’ve spread about condoms in Africa, we’re a bunch of *swell old guys*”
Given what little she revealed in her post, it’s clear she really thought that through.
A. Rsays
Amphiox: Yes, that’s true, but if you think about it, even with FTL communication, the attack would almost certainly be launched in secret, so it is unlikely that the target would have more than a few seconds notice. Also recall that ICBMs and conventional spaceflight use identical methods of launch, much like our hypothetical Doomsday weapons, and the early militarily (sometimes unannounced) launches did not start a nuclear exchange. Granted, spy networks may have played a part in this. (Apologies for the rambling, I’m trying to get what’s in my head into the comments box, and the transcription process isn’t perfect!)
Esteleth, Raging Dyke of Fuck Mountainsays
I am threadrupt! I shall continue to be threadrupt for awhile, because I’m busy reading the “situation” thread.
So, I’m dashing in to make an announcement.
On this coming September 25, it will be FIVE FUCKING YEARS since the completion of my final round of cancer treatments. My latest tests are clear and all that.
*celebration*
That is, there will be a damned awesome party. I am throwing it for myself. Not on the 25th, because work and all that, but a few days earlier, on the 22nd.
Which is to say that if there could be a little Pharygulation at my place, that would be awesome. If not, the Horde is hereby invited to toss back a grog (or six) in my honor wherever they are located.
Relatedly: get your goddamned routine checkups! It was stage 1, and still completely enclosed in the tissue. As a result, surgical excision was simple, and there was relatively little grief. But! It was near the edge of the tissue, near a lymph node, near tissue that cannot be easily excised and is otherwise fragile, and the doctors have been very clear that even a few months could have made things very different.
chigau (違う)says
Esteleth
Yay! for 5 fucking years!
Tony... therefore Godsays
Chas:
That makes this recent list even more fucked up that they didn’t even add a disclaimer for rape and sexual assault. One of the commenters mentioned that they may have included sexual assault with other forms of assault, which if true, is massively fucked up.
ButchKittiessays
@426
That makes me feel a very, very, very tiny bit better, but at the very least it’s astonishing that TBD didn’t include that explanation in the 2012 article.
Surely there is a way to correct for that kind of slant in the data, like weighting the data so that reported rapes count less heavily when the university has a strong sexual assault policy that encourages reporting? Leaving it out entirely is ignoring such a vital piece of the picture that there’s little point in doing a crime ranking at all. The Jeanne Clery annual reports include copies of each university’s sexual assault policies.
Tony... therefore Godsays
Esteleth:
::raises glass of Sangria::
To 5 years!
Congratulations!
Silisays
Sorry to hear the fuckers are grinding you down, Ing.
Yay, Esteleth
Journey’s a bit far for me but I’ll raise my glass to you.
Come next summer MIL will have her 5 years up as well.
Amphioxsays
A.R., remember that I am including detection with communication. Everything actually depends on the relative difference between detection and attack. The actual speed, whether sub light or FTL, itself doesn’t matter.
The scenarios I describe occur if attack and detection occur at almost the same speed(any temporal effects of FTL will apply equally and cancel out). If you are the attacker, your target cannot defend itself because it will only detect the attack just before it gets hit. But a third party observing the both of you will see your launch and it’s results and will be free to preemptively attack you, and you will have no defense.
The other scenarios are;
1) Detection is much faster than attack. This is the real world scenario. ICBMs are detected by radar at light speed. This makes countermeasures and retaliation theoretically possible, enabling deterrence. This would also be the case if attacks were relativistic, but detection and communication were FTL.
2) Attack is much faster than detection. Here whoever attacks first automatically wins. Everyone else is destroyed even before they know they are under attack.
Mattirsays
Hooray for Esteleth! Will make a somewhat overdue medical appointment in your honor…
Today was the first day of summer camp. I realized I needed to transfer worms from a completely composted tray of the vermicomposting sytem. On the spur of the moment, I dumped it all into a kid wading pool and had the campers fish out as many worms as they could. They did this for 45 minutes!!! About halfway through, I found a couple of worm egg cases and stuck them under the microscope. We could see the baby worms (fetal worms? whatever…) wriggling around inside the case. I stuck the case under a digital camera microscope and made a movie as well. So not only did I get a somewhat annoying chore taken care of, I got a lot of quietly absorbed campers learning about red wrigglers, wondering whether their parents would let them set up an indoor vermicomposting system.
Other things we did – take a longish hike, learn about nature journaling (along with being quiet so as to hear stuff in nature), listen to the “rap battles” of male wood thrushes (kids came up with that description of the dueling song behavior), and paint mudcloth.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday are field trips, which are actually way easier than camp days on site at the nature center.
Did you know that the Mittbot 3000 has a lot in common with Bryce Harper?
Lyn M, Purveyor of Fine Aphorisms of Deathsays
@BCPA_Lady (now appearing in MN!) #364
Apologies if I posted this before, but I don’t see it in the thread.
The Latin tag I posted was made up of loosely packed Latin words. There are real tags, but I couldn’t think of one that was funny in context when translated, so I faked it.
Good luck with your real Latin and just ignore mine.
I’m just going to leave this one there. It pretty much speaks for itself:
This 2012-2013 school year, thanks to a bill pushed through by governor Bobby Jindal, thousands of students in Louisiana will receive state voucher money, transferred from public school funding, to attend private religious schools, some of which teach from a Christian curriculum that suggests the Loch Ness Monster disproves evolution and states that the alleged creature, which has never been demonstrated to even exist, has been tracked by submarine and is probably a plesiosaur. The curriculum also claims that a Japanese fishing boat caught a dinosaur. http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2012/06/16/loch-ness-monster-debunks-evolution-louisiana-to-fund-schools-using-odd-curriculum/
Patricia, OMsays
Hooray Esteleth & 5 years! I had my 6 month ultra-sound on the 15th, and I’m good too, Yeah!
Mattir – I have another piece finished, do we have a deadline for the knitting? The family meltdown is on hold for the moment, so I’m knitting like mad. (Huzzah for knitting)
Amphiox: True. I would hate to think that space exploration would be hampered by something like that. Perhaps some FTL message could be sent well before a launch, much like rocket launch flight plans are announced, to prevent such incidences.
tim rowledge, Ersatz Haderachsays
And it’s generally accepted that there’s no reason to attack another planet unless you’re just being agressive.
What? Are you crazy? Didn’t you get the memo – they want our wimminz!Or was our water? I forget. Anyway, so long as they don’t want our pee-pees all is ok.
Esteleth – here’s to making it 50 years all-clear. It’s nice to hear of a good result for someone. Too many friends and relatives getting bad news.
ibyeasays
@Ing
Surely there has to be a way to combat their harassment? Isn’t that illegal or something?
@Carlie
I read the first few things on the list, and I couldn’t go further. It’s just so cringeworthy.
Amphioxsays
True. I would hate to think that space exploration would be hampered by something like that. Perhaps some FTL message could be sent well before a launch, much like rocket launch flight plans are announced, to prevent such incidences.
One imagines a universe full of advanced civilizations, all hunkered down in their home solar systems, diligently scanning the surrounding stars with their own versions of SETI, not daring to venture into interstellar space until they have found, catalogued, and made contact with all their neighbours, just to make sure there are no misunderstandings….
Amphioxsays
This means of course that there needs to be a flip-side to Star Trek’s Prime Directive.
Not only must pre-warp civilizations be left alone, but at the moment of warp discovery, all such civilizations MUST be contacted, immediately, in order to bring them within the purview of the galactic diplomatic umbrella right away, so that they do not attack someone or provoke someone else to attack them, by accident.
My dog is not well. Our guess is that the thing, whatever it was, that she caught and ate a couple of days ago in the yard is the culprit. Mom couldn’t tell if it was a bird or a squirrel from the remains. Silast night, Aria has been under the weather. Took a mighty shit in the dining room while we were at work, although that seems to have helped. I’m glad – I thought we might have to take her to the vet if she didn’t show signs of getting better today.
Patricia, OMsays
Wait, they want our wimmenz & our peepees?
No.
I solemnly swear, I will donate one horseradish/kerosene farting, snoring, Bulldog to any invader of planet Earth in exchange for the wimmenz & peepees.
OK, and a bucket of 10 minute old grog. Damn, you people drive a hard bargain.
Patricia, OMsays
Insomniac – Advise from a person that worked as a grunt at a veterinary hospital for 13 years, take the dog, the mighty shit, and any remains you have to the vets. Your dog might not be just dealing with the critter it ingested, if the critter was poisoned and died in your yard the dog will be dealing with that too.
Please don’t think I’m saying this as a superior dog owner, my Bulldog is sooo stoopid that he lays out in the yard and snorts dirt. *face palm*
Patricia – SNORTS dirt? He literally plops down and just inhales, with no care for the fact that it’s DIRT going up his nose?
Sadly I tossed all the shit-covered paper towels into the garbage when I cleaned up after Aria. And that bag was put into the large garbage container outside. Last load of trash was collected by the city early this morning, so there goes any chance of retrieving the leftovers from her attack/snack.
Right now she’s downstairs sleeping. She did go potty outside earlier, so that’s a good sign, since she didn’t really go last night. I’ll see how she is before I go to work. That’s probably about all I can do for now.
Patricia, OMsays
Insomniac – Yep, my English Bulldog snorts dirt. He eats chicken bombs, and rolls in cow flops – every.chance.he.gets. I’m not sure if his disgusting habits are because he is a rescue dog, and suffered torture, or if he just likes disgusting stuff. As a rescue mom I took him in because he is one of the most emotionally & physically disabled Bulldogs I have ever seen, and his disabilities meant he needed a home with no physical challenges (stairs, etc.), a strong male presence (he was woman abused), and NO children (he was dragged and choked by children.) You will be happy to learn those children were removed from the home.
It sounds like you are monitoring your dog well. If she isn’t better in the morning I would buzz straight off to the vets. But you can assure them your dog isn’t a stoopid as mine – that SNORTS dirt.
Patricia, OMsays
thunk – I don’t believe,
oh wait, let’s do this proper –
Thunk – I do not Believe that you FEEL the true Spirit of Pharyngula grog. The Grog was in the Beginning, Sugar Cane, and the Sugar Cane was good. And the Grog was gooder.
But then, in 2010 part of Marvins stash of Illudium Q-36 came into the hands of Patricia, and with the help of Nerd of Redhead, the Pharyngula grog took on the Earth shattering properties of Martian enhanced liquids known no where else on Earth.
And so it came to pass, that the Pharyngula Grog rose up, and had Gentleman Vegetable blowing up powers, and those that were counted as the children of the tribe of PZ were amazed, and hailed the holy Grog.
And to this day the explosive, drunkness inducing qualities of 10 minute old Pharyngula Grog ™has not been surpassed.
Forever and ever, Ramen.
Therrinsays
Darkheart the Incubator (Incubus? hm, maybe not),
She asked me if I was disappointed that DF is going to be a girl.
*Sighing heavily* “Yes, I had so hoped for a xenomorph, but I guess I’ll settle for a human.”
thunk = ∫ SQRRAWK! d(MQG)says
Patricia:
Take your Book of Grog and shove it.
I demand to see Scientific Testing (TM) done.
ambleburysays
Welcome home to the Redhead, and every good wish to her Nerd, too.
After some discussion,it has been made apparent to me that Amblebury is, in fact a masculine-sounding(?) name. Assumptions that my gender is male possibly flowed from that. It doesn’t bother me, however trying to come up with one of those terribly clever by-lines that people use is tricky. So far the best I’ve come up with is:
Amblebury, no penis (I’m vegetarian.)
—
Needs work, I know.
keenacatsays
How about Amblebury, hiding Vagina since [Year of adopting nym]
ambleburysays
I like it, keenacat. I like it indeed.
Louissays
Carlie, #453,
Hey, number 5 doesn’t sound all bad!
But sadly, most of that articles was “WTF?”. Not out of how kinky it was, quite the reverse, how fucking dull any of it was. Really, Cosmo, really? Use tongue during oral on sensitive bits? Really? Now please tell me more about the sky being blue.
What annoys me is that sex advice is just so…well…not sexy usually. There are exceptions, but Cosmo is hardly likely to be a bastion of high bar sexual practise and equality.
Oh well
Louis
P.S. Amblebury, your nick should be “Amblebury, I’m a woman damn you”. Perhaps…well, perhaps not. Keenacat’s suggestion is better. I need coffee!
opposablethumbssays
Congratulations to Esteleth on the five-year mark. That’s really wonderful.
And to Mattir on clearly being an awesome camp leader. I want to go on your camp field trips now …
John Moralessays
Interstellar war by warships or missiles is so déclassé.
X-posted from the Victim Blaming thread: (the topic came up as to whether there was any difference between the way things tend to go in the US as compared with other places)
me:
Actually I’d be really interested in the Horde’s opinions of what the differences are (if any) between UK-style sexism and US-style – specifically from the point of view of a young UK woman soon(ish) to be visiting the US for the first time. A dos and don’ts advice request, really. Hmm, better take this to TET, perhaps?
Have to go away from the computer for a bit in a minute, but will peruse eagerly later.
SQB – Oh, I’m sure it is. Everything works but the spin, so it’s probably either the lid latch or the water sensor. It’s just a high inconvenience right now in both time and money, not that there is ever a convenient time for a major appliance to break. I’m just whining.
More importantly, hooray for Esteleth !
Matt Penfoldsays
SQB – Oh, I’m sure it is. Everything works but the spin, so it’s probably either the lid latch or the water sensor. It’s just a high inconvenience right now in both time and money, not that there is ever a convenient time for a major appliance to break. I’m just whining.
Are you able to get your washing out of the machine, or is a front-loader that is full of water ?
Nerd, how is the Redhead settling in? Even though it’s coming home, it’s still a lot of change for her (and you).
Nerd of Redhead, Dances OM Trollssays
Nerd, how is the Redhead settling in? Even though it’s coming home, it’s still a lot of change for her (and you).
We’re still a work in progress. She’s getting settled in on the main floor. A stairlift should be installed later this week. Still have things like hospital pillows coming. We still have to find a way to get her in and out of the house, but a short stairlift in the back hall should do it. Otherwise, we will have 34′ of ramps out front. A lot of little details like some extra weight on one side of the commode so it is steadier. She was up walking with her hemi-walker yesterday. Not very far, but up and walking.
quoderatdemonstrandumsays
Vatican News Flash:
Vatican blames alleged corruption, money laundering and backstabbing cardinal politics stories on the evil machinations of the Media and Satan. Yes, Satan. It’s almost as if the Vatican’s Standard Operating Procedure is to blame the “Church’s enemies” for its wrongdoing. During the paedophile scandal, the Princes of the Church were quoted in the press blaming: the media, Satan, jews, homosexuals, gossip, and precocious lascivious children who “tempted” priests.
I feel like crap today. I can’t take off today because gosh darnit, I have a product to write and must release it by today so – oh wait, what is that, I can do it tomorrow? Fuuuuuuuuck….
*sigh* Well, I’ll see how I feel in an hour or so. If I still feel shitty, I’ll go home.
A USAF soldier in Germany who went over the hill 28 years ago and settled down in Sweden is still wanted by the US authorities.
Makes perfect sense. People who kidnap, torture civilians or perform illegal wiretapping: No prosecution.
Ordinary grunt who never hurt anyone: Will be arrested even if he is 100 years old when he returns.
— — — — — — —
.
“…private religious schools, some of which teach from a Christian curriculum that suggests the Loch Ness Monster disproves evolution and states that the alleged creature, which has never been demonstrated to even exist, has been tracked by submarine and is probably a plesiosaur. The curriculum also claims that a Japanese fishing boat caught a dinosaur.”
.
I know there are stereotypes about people in the Deep South, but does this Bobby Jindahl possibly have webbed toes and a banjo?
The stereotype must have started somewhere. Jindahl, governor of Loch Ness.
The rest of you may remember the story of Ellen Beth Wachs, persecuted by Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd for having the temerity to oppose his illegal gifts to churches of county property.Yeah, that would be this sheriff. I think the poster should read: “If you support separation of Church and State, stay outta Polk County”.
Surely there has to be a way to combat their harassment? Isn’t that illegal or something?
Last harassment complaint was dismissed by HR because it didn’t meet their standards of harassment…he basically told me I was wrong to feel offended, the behavior wasn’t appropriate but I was mistaken in being offended enough to make the harassment claim when it wouldn’t stop.
Filing another one just burns bridges as it won’t be processed until I’m gone.
FossilFishysays
Had an earthquake round these parts tonight. Not too big and no reports of severe damage or injury as of yet. Here’s hoping it stays that way.
I missed it. Mrs. Fishy called me minutes after it happened. The building she was in shook quite noticeably. I told her that it could be nothing good, car striking the building or somesuch and to check any doors that she couldn’t see through for heat. She of course laughed at my worst case worries. Hmmph.
As best I can figure I was walking when it happened. I’d just got the bub to sleep and was feeling a little tired too and I have a vague memory of a bit of vertigo as I got up and walked back to the kitchen. Might have been the floor fooling my balance rather than my ears.
You know, I once noticed a partial eclipse of the sun because all the pinholes in the tin cladding of the shearing shed I was in were throwing light dots with a bite out of them. And yet I somehow miss the ground shaking enough to make another building only 4k away sway? WTF’s up with that? Either I’m not getting enough sleep or the last few years of ageing have ravaged more than my hairline.
diannesays
A USAF soldier in Germany who went over the hill 28 years ago and settled down in Sweden is still wanted by the US authorities.
His desire to return when he’s made a life for himself in Sweden puzzles me. I understand that he wants to see his parents, but just send them a couple of airline tickets to Stockholm. One way. There’s no point in their returning to the uncivilized US either.
Fossil Fishy:
Last year, we had a very minor earthquake around these here parts– my husband’s building was evacuated, but I was driving about 10 miles away and didn’t feel a damned thing. Small earthquakes are funny like that, I think.
Rey Foxsays
I know there are stereotypes about people in the Deep South, but does this Bobby Jindahl possibly have webbed toes and a banjo?
Unlikely, as he is the son of Indian immigrants.
theoblivionmachinesays
RahXephon @411.
Wow, ironymeter, bullshit detector and stupidshield all gone in one go, fuck.
Out of all the religions out there, fucking catholicism for fucking Morals, that’s just… I have no words…
Something else entirely:
You folks here really are amazing.
I don’t know how many scores of years ago, an intelligent person brought forth on this world, a new idea, feminism, conceived in reason, and dedicated to the proposition that all people are created equal.
Now we are engaged in a great war on equality, testing whether feminism, or any idea so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great blog of that war. We have come to comment on a post of that blog, as a final resting place for those unreasonable ideas and lies so that feminism may survive.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense we cannot waiver, we cannot stop, we cannot quit our fight. The brave people, living and dead, who have struggled before us, call on us to continue this effort. The world will little note, nor long remember what we write here, but it can never forget our actions away from here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here, and everywhere, to the unfinished work which they who fought before us have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us, that from our honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause to which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this idea, feminism, shall have a new wave of freedom, and that feminism of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from this earth.
I just blinked…
Yay for the homecoming of the Redhead!
Hope all is well, Nerd.
YAY
Redhead!!
Hooray for Redhead and her Nerd!
Now the KILL IT WITH FIRE link goes here:
Error 404 – Page Not Found
Here’s a steampunk aircraft.
Huzzah for the Redhead! Pullet Patrol™ salute!
TZT link fixed.
Ah, I do love steampunk, in all its glorious, steam-powered, coal-fueled weirdness.
Two important matters:
1. What has happened to the old Scienceblogs comments? Have NatGeo permanently deleted them? Does anyone have an archive? Is there any chance of porting them here, as other FT blogs have done?
2. Is FTB giving other people browser problems? On several occasions, my browser has ground to a halt when viewing a particular (essentially random) page. Switching from Firefox to Chrome didn’t help. Only by turning off JavaScript was the page usable. Could one the adverts be introducing a rogue script, which hogs all of the resources?
Philip Reeves, especially the charming, (really charming, not the pejorative sense charming) Larklight books. A great Steampunk-ish author.
Like a number people, I’d imagine, I was pretty overwhelmed by the Here’s The Situation thread.
I want to say how overcome and humbled I was by the people who shared their experiences, and the people who did such a fantastic job of supporting them and making damn sure their truth was acknowledged and honoured.
Bit teary again now.
Happy Birthday Patricia!
——————————–
Super pissed about Obama. I want to vote Green or some other party, but I’m also afraid of what could happen if he loses.
——————————-
Congarats to Nerd and Redhead! There’s no place like home.
hyperdeath – My computer drags down to a halt too. Having no clue as to how it works, I’ve decided it’s the gawd ads trying to get me to pray correctly. My theory got proved when I clicked on the prayer ad and it went lickety shit fast. Praze gawd!
ah.
I’m pissed about Obama as well. In fact, I kinds was pissed since 2008.
Anyway, :( for me not having the franchise.
Insomniac – Oops! My birthday list is out now, my birthday is July 4th. Traditionally everyone here gets free grog, swill and spankings that day. *wink*
Don’t worry, thunk.
The following US election will be waaaay worse.
Free swill? Sign me up.
Scienceblogs comment transfer script blew up when it tried to deal with Pharyngula comments. They promise they’ll get them up eventually, but it’s going to be a slower process than expected.
Hooray Redhead and associated Nerd, glad you’re home.
Patricia: Ooh! Me! Me!
Wait, they don’t let me have grog…
Steampunk hasn’t even gotten to my corner of the religoverse. Darn it.
Surely one of our finest hours!
Ah, I’m trying my best to remain pseudonymous, but I’m bad at it.
<— needs practice
The Tentacled Overlord:
Was it tripped up by the phrase “Leica Rangefinder”?
I see the poor transfer script huddled in a corner, whimpering: “Please don’t make me go there again.”
Thunk – It’s a shame you can’t have any of my birthday grog. It’s the best of the year, a full 10 minutes old!
Tis – birthday swill will of course be the quality stuff, guaranteed not to run when it hits the fan. Just how you like it.
Heh, patricia. *sets aside grog to age for 5 years*
I think grog blows up after 5 weeks.
Well then… *puts barrel in a bomb range*
I would like to inform everyone that I am exceedingly drunk.
I would also like to inform everyone that the series of data my home PC has been crunching for work has been crunched and the drug interaction hypothesis I predicted seems to to be true (at least computationally). I’ve come up with a model to explain some real (and annoying) lab results. Possibly. Maybe. And I did it whilst I was in the pub. Now THAT is an efficient use of time.
I may have to get drunk again.
Louis
P.S. Merry everything to everyone, especially to The Redhead and Nerd. Here’s looking up your nostril and tickling your earlobe. May many happy things occur to you at appropriate moments and may your genitalia always be befurtleable. Hoorah!
As many people that know me in real life are aware, I am a tropical cyclone fanatic.
And now that hurricane season has begun, I realize I have let my interest lapse.
I completely missed Hurricane Carlotta, and for that, I pay penance.
*grumble*
Birthday grog at the age of five weeks is capable of blowing your gentleman vegetables from here to Bazokystan.
Is it really that explosive?
Wait a minute…
Isn’t that sending hazardous goods on the internet? Aren’t there laws against these things?
Patricia,
Crikey!
{Covers Gentlemen Vegetables With Lead Cladding And Sandbags}
Hmmmm I am noticing a certain chafing sensation. I’ll drink through it.
Louis
*explosion*
Oh no! Not the Old River Control Structure!
Nooooooooooo………..
Send it through the inter-tubes? No, no. We hurl the stuff in, didn’t you see the trebuchet?
I know the risk of stirring up a breeze with all those whizzing tankards, barrels and buckets keeps Louis in a state of perpetual excitment, but Pharyngula must be kept supplied.
Ah, no, I did not.
That’s a very powerful trebucket though.
When delivering to distant lands, aren’t you concerned from large heating caused from the high velocity of the projectile?
i.e., don’t you think that 3000 C ought to cause a grog explosion?
I fear for your safety.
Love steampunk.
Here’s some steampunk derby girls.
Here’s my favorite of those.
I, for one, prefer to impart projectiles with great velocity through the use of a gigantic columbiad.
Louis if you become too besotted this early you’ll miss the fun:
http://pdxpipeline.com/2012/06/11/portland-naked-bike-ride-pictures-info/
Nerd: That is fantastic. Yeah!!!!
Steampunk? Y’all are pikers. 220 tons running at 180psi and producing 2,000 horsepower. Booyah!
And I got a letter from my insurance company today telling me that they are not covering my hospitalization as the monitoring could have been done in a non-hospital environment. I called the number and, of course, they are not in today. I am hoping that this is just a minor glitch and we can figure things out. Damn.
I like atlatls for throwing sharp things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlatl
Where’s TLC?
BroOg
I think it’s time for another Revolution in the US.
This one to be remembered by the History Books as:
HEALTH CARE IS A BASIC HUMAN RIGHT YOU FUCKWADS!
On second thought, perhaps directing Louis to a site with nekkid peepee’s going past pubs was a mistake….
Parboiled squid jizzes in diner’s mouth.
Daisy Cutter:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/06/14/i-may-have-to-give-up-calamari/
Ms. Daisy Cutter, ahem.
<smiles at thunk in an irritatingly superior manner>
Not too bad, thunk.
(You beat me to it!)
[grump]My wife and the designer wouldn’t add a mounting platform to our new house plans for the Roman style catapult I’m building. I mean, how inconsiderate is that? The maths all say that without a little extra height I won’t be able to clear the highway. And don’t get me started on the belfry, where are the poor bats to live, hmmmmm?[/grump]
You have my sincere sympathies FossilFishy.
OK
Guests are coming.
I must go teach a sister-brother team; 10-8 years old:
how to build a fire.
I’ll let you know how it went.
{If I am spared.}
Thank you Patricia. It’s not an easy burden I bear, being a FORWARD THINKER and MAN OF VISION(tm) in a house of everyday pragmatists. I just hope that come the zombie apocalypse (whoo hoo, I spelled apocalypse right first try!) the architectural deficiencies of our abode-to-be don’t come back to, er, bite us.
John Morales:
Yes. I’m always fast on the buzzer.
I can sympathize. My wife wouldn’t even let me dig the moat, let alone stock it with crocodiles.
chigau: My inner child just tugged on my pant’s cuff. He’s a little hard to understand what with the mouth full of charred marshmallows and all, but I think he said “You rock!”
‘Tis! I’m shocked, appalled and appellated! No moat? But, but, but, how can it be your castle without a moat? The moat is a given. [scrambles for house plans] Shit! [speeddials the croc breeder to call off the shipment]
More vices:
I honestly need to learn to skewer more trolls.
Though I fear my invective needs polishing and that I’m lazy.
Mostly the latter, I think. I plead “summer break”.
Watch and learn…
thunk: I wouldn’t feel too bad about the troll skewering. I realised long ago that for the really bad trolls my contribution would be a mere fart in the veritable shitstorm that was about to come down upon them. It’s rare to the point of invisibility that I can find a point to make that hasn’t been covered with better intelligence, invective and information than I could bring to bear. Mind you, it is fun and the best way to learn is to do. Have at it I say.
Drinking beer and watching Killer Klowns from Outer Space at 04.30. I don’t think beer is strong enough for this film.
so fucking perfect
Yay Redhead!!!!
Chas – He’s got the whooooole world in his hands…
HOLY COW DID YOU ALL WATCH KORRA TODAY.
Yay for the Redhead!
—
Great comment from spudbeach over at Jen’s, and a link y’all have to see.
http://www.thisiscolossal.com/2012/03/bloom-28000-potted-flowers-installed-at-the-massachusetts-mental-health-center/
Original comment at:
http://freethoughtblogs.com/blaghag/2012/06/a-dermatillomania-update/#comment-90868
…I confess I haven’t watched Korra yet; I’m hoping to watch it together with mentor later. But I’ll just not look here for a few hours if y’all want to rave.
Hm.
Why were so many blogs “archived or suspended”? It’s not just TetZoo, but also Neurophilosophy, Bioephemera, Retrospectacle, Laelaps, the Loom, … and lots more. I know that at least some (like the current Discoverblogs instance of the Loom) have archives of all of the posts and comments, but nuking the Sb stuff is … excessive.
Why is all of scienceblogs blocked from web.archive.org, so snapshots of posts and comments cannot even be seen?
Hi Horde,
This summer I’m going to be buying a narrowboat and moving into it to live full-time on the Grand Union canal in Hertfordshire (UK). I would really like to steampunkify it (wouldn’t that be cool?). But I’m a bit short of imagination and design skills… any suggestions?
Googling “steampunk narrowboat” https://www.google.co.uk/search?rlz=1C1RNBN_enGB439GB439&aq=f&sugexp=chrome,mod=5&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8&q=steampunk+narrowboat doesn’t really help. So any ideas would be gratefully received.
John
My castle has a really nice fire pit built into the courtyard out back. My dear departed brought home an old Kenworth wheel and set it hub side down about 1/2″ into the ground, then surrounded it with landscaping cinder blocks, two high. A Webber Kettle BBQ grill wire grate fits inside the wheel perfectly. You can cook on it, roast marshmallows, corn on the cob, or just have a nice campfire at night.
Most tire or truck places will give you an old truck wheel for free, so it’s a pretty cheap fire pit.
Nerd,
♥♥♥!
Hooray Redhead! Sending high fives through the USB.
I’m reading through the Here’s the Situation thread, which is pretty fucking depressing and makes me want to go Hulk Smash on a whole lotta rapists… But since I’m thoroughly exhausted from driving 450 miles roundtrip today to take DaughterSpawn to her summer job attempting to convey Actual Science Information™ to Boy Scouts, I just want to share a very small ray of hope that happened today.
As soon as we walked into camp, where DaughterSpawn’s worked for the past 2 summers, and where I came with SonSpawn’s troop for several years before that, we were greeted enthusiastically by a whole slew of misfit teens and young adults. That was great. But then one 15 year old Mormon boy, who’d visited Chez Mattirs a few months back, came dashing over to me, looking anxious and forgetting to put down the large bucket he was schlepping about for whatever task he was engaged in. When he’d visited us, he’d been joking around with DaughterSpawn’s friend, Nice Mormon Boy, who was being shipped out to Provo (yikes) for the summer, possibly as a way for his parents to break up a potential romance at camp… Anyway, this boy (the 15 year old, not the NMB potential romance one) had been teasing NMB about how he’d be able to pursue GIRLS in Utah, in a really creepy, semi-predator/prey sort of way. I ripped into the poor youth, informing him fairly crudely that girls were people to make friends with, not targets or prey.
Apparently I made a bit of an impact on the kid, because he stood there, clutching his bucket, apologizing repeatedly and saying that he realized that he really didn’t want to think of girls and women that way and he’d been thinking about it for months. I told him not to worry about it, that we all think and say stupid things and have to change the way we think and speak as we learn more about ourselves and other people.
It was really truly adorable, I don’t know if I really made a long-term impact, but seriously, the kid has met me exactly 3 times, including today, and it certainly seemed like he’d been doing some actual thinking…
Now I’m going to go fall down.
Mattir: Clenched tentacle salute! The little victories need to be acknowledged just as much as the big idiocy needs to be slapped down. Thanks for that.
Mattir:
Wow. Damn.
You have made quite a positive impression on a kid my age, and you deserve the rest.
Now if only my classmates would listen. *sigh*
Nobody’s noticed (or mentioned…or cared) that the opening sequences of the video were taken at Burning Man – you can tell for sure by all the dust blowing by. Black Rock is also known as The Great Talcum Powder Desert.
Hey I’m dong some sci-fi world building as I mentioned, anyone mind if I throw some questions out for crowd sourcing?
Well done Mattir!
Oh hell yes, bring it! The first book I checked out of the library on my own was a Sc-Fi short story collection. I managed a used book store for almost 20 years and by the end had to buy new sci-fi books because it was so rare for one to come into the store that I hadn’t already read. AND, I’m avoiding do any kind of real work.
Oh, and my thoughts are so scattered today that I could be considered a crowd all by myself.
First question:
One race I have planned is the Tau: there’s a bunch about them but the fact I want help on is their evolution. The working idea is that they’re a symbiotic superoganism. early on the animal like meaty part of them was colonized as a host by a parasitic fungi like species. The fungi like species did the whole behavior modification. As evolution occured they grew more symbiotic and the fungi began adapting into a CNS like function to keep the host safe. Now their systems are a basically one organism with the fungal like body acting as a higher brain function merged with the primitive reptilian brain that is their animal(like) body.
The idea is that their biology and their knowledge of their evolutionary history has greatly effected their religion and culture so I need something like that. I already have that they’re one of the oldest races (their culture actually makes technology develop very slowly though, which off sets their ancient history) to give the time for such an evolution but is it plausible at all? Is there any hand waving I need to do or anything like that?
Second question
Heavy water. how would isotopics like that prop up in xenobiochemistry? Is it likely that other species will have water incompatible with eachother? I know chirality will probably crop up but was wondering about this and if anyone can imagine any other differences
Yay Redhead!!!!
Pteryxx, I think it’s just you, me, and Tony, so we can wait. :)
What kills me is that I realized that I will be nowhere near a tv next Saturday, and probably won’t get a chance to watch the finale online for at least a week after that. ARGH.
The Tau for those interested are tall near humanoids looking like a mix between shelf mushrooms and walking stick insects. They also are (hopefully) a unique addition to the Scifi alien tropes in having a hive/group identity but not a hive/group mind (natural telepathy or psionics doesn’t exist in this setting, through technology can pretty much replicate it in some instances)
Grumps @ 65 – I don’t know what a Narrow Boat is, but assume it’s a boatish sort of thing. All the steampunk stuff I’ve seen involves some cogs & gears & such… I have about 10 1975 burned out Harley Davidson clutch plates (yes, they went to Sturgis) that I would happily ship to you. You could use them as picture frames, lamp shades, paper weights, wind chimes…??? Or you could get drunk & weepy over “that’s all that’s left of the old Shovelhead…” during a boat party.
@ Nerd: Congratulations on Redhead returning!
@ Mattir: Congratulations on consciousness raising!
@Ing
As far as I am aware, isotopes act very much like each other except for the radioactivity part. Think about us. We have both C-12 and C-14 in our system. The chemistry can’t tell the difference between those two.
Any chemist/physicist want to check my idea?
For anyone interested in Korra, the AV Club has been doing some great recaps.
Correction: check what I said above?
@Ibyea
IIRC heavywater isn’t radioactive though…it’s just denser and can’t be used for biochemistry because of it’s greater bonding
Hooray, the Redhead is home!
Mattir: Good for you.
Thunk/John: Thanks. I can’t believe I missed that. Has someone else also beaten me to these two articles from the Guardian?
– New science boss attacks coalition over lack of top women in the lab.
– End the macho culture that turns women off science.
I know, I know, but only because I recently watched Industrial Revelations series 1 & 2: it’s a standardized type of boat that was no more than 7 feet wide, so it would fit through Victorian canals, tunnels and bridge passages.
@Ing
That’s very interesting. Since that’s the case, I will tackle the question in some other way. Isn’t heavy water much rarer than regular water? If so, I don’t think it is possible for life that uses just heavy water can arise. Unless there is something else I don’t know about heavy water.
Of course, since your world is fictional, I guess you could use handwavium to get their chemistry to use heavy water. If so, the idea of incompatible water is pretty cool. Now that I think about it, if the creature is stranded in some other planet with water, even with all the water in the world, it will still die of thirst.
Pretty much that’s my question….is our water pretty much standard or what? I half presumed it was standard just due to seeing so many nova and PBS specials talking about water on meterorites and comments and never mentioning the possibility
PZ, disgusting shit cleanup time at isle http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/06/16/jesus-freakin-christ-obama/comment-page-1/#comment-366756
I was afraid of that Ing, you need someone with actual knowledge and stuff.
My layperson perspective [doff’s skeptic hat, don’s escapist reader’s hat] is that the symbiosis idea is a great one. I can’t say how much of the wider readership in this genre would know about the crab controlling fungus or the one that makes ants climb to the top of grass blades to be eaten, but I suspect that a decent percentage would. That knowledge is more than enough for me to accept the plausibility of your creatures.
That said, I find that overt handwaving to get around plausibility issues more often hurts my suspension of disbelief than bolsters it. Sometimes trying to explain away the highly improbable or even outright impossible just draws attention to it. It’s speculative fiction after all so a certain leeway is granted even in the most hard of sci-fi novels.
Take Arthur C. Clarke’s “Songs of a Distant Earth”. In it we see as real a scenario for human colonisation of extra-solar planets as can be expected. None of the law of physics are broken. The ship uses embryonic pods to produce the first generation children who are raised by robots. Successful robot parenting a pretty big ask on the part of the author especially in 1986 when it was written. It’s not his best book, but the failure isn’t a result of that ask IMO.
As to heavy water, dammed if I know, though I’m really curious to see what others have to say about it. [replaces skeptic hat, rubs his hands at the though of leaning something new]
Huh.
I recall being surprised to learn, a while back, that heavy water is actually toxic in very large quantities. Chemical reactions don’t work the same way with deuterium.
I suspect that in general, organisms in an environment with a lot of deuterium will evolve to exclude it from their metabolisms, rather than using it. Only if the deuterium is in a much much larger proportion to hydrogen, they might evolve to use it, and exclude the ordinary hydrogen. Maybe. I am not a biochemist.
Weird tangent: some people think that heavy isotopes promote longer life.
Well of of the handwaving is along the lines of “why yes that is unlikely, what a universe isn’t it?”
I just found out from the wiki that bacterias can actually survive in heavy water. That’s pretty cool.
Ooh, interesting. How is a hive/group identity different from a herd identity? I’ve vague recollections of herd-like aliens though the lack of specific examples springing to mind suggests that they were in short stories.
I’ll take that, I acknowledge that i’m going to have to have some races that rely on BA rather than BS.
Ing: If an organism had a deuterium (as opposed to protium) based biochemistry, it’s likely that 1) They would live in an environment hotter than ours (to facilitate bond breakage), and 2) Certain biochemical reactions would not occur at all. Also, they would not be at all compatible with protium organisms. (You may want to double check all of this, since it’s coming from a virologist, not a biochemist.)
Searching my memory banks for info about heavy water…
I assume you mean water with a heavier hydrogen isotope. I think it’s a stable isotope, but yeah, it is rare but I’m not sure why.
And there’s something about the solvent properties of the water that changes, and living systems are sensitive to those sorts of things. We do have heavy water in our bodies, but beyond a certain point, it is toxic. Cell function blah blah blah. Maybe Teh Poopyhead could help here.
But I assume evolution could take care of that problem; it might require some handwaving to make the heavier hydrogen the norm on that world. And I have no idea what other implications that would have.
So, in short, I have no idea.
I know, big help, right?
They don’t have a natural herd entity per say. They exist in families of 5-12 or so that are treated as and act as one identity. They are raised from birth to assimilate and subjugate individual ego into a group ego…and that group is expected to do the same with other groups for the sake of harmony. Childhood and the time of courtship->gestation->birth is the only culturally acceptable personal experiences to them. Children are sent from group to group to learn from various elders until they are eventually assigned a permanent place in another group upon which their experience as an individual entity is over. It can be quite unsettling for other species starting to interact with them when one Tau of the same group will bring back up a conversation a completely different Tau had with you a day or two ago.
As you can imagine this is a adaptation that has served them well for their society…yet also crippled technological and scientific development so that despite being ancient compared to other races they were comparatively primitive when first contact was made.
@Ing
Oh, and on culture, there would be those that would deny that their species started when their ancestor got infested with a fungal parasite. It’s too undignified in their mind. You know, like creationist. ^_^
Nerd:
Congrats on the Redhead returning home.
Mattir:
That is amazing. Hopefully your comments will have the young man thinking long and hard about his perception of women.
That’s pretty much a given. Out of the sentient races there’s maybe 3 total that can share food relatively safely.
Tau do not fight. Tau do not feud. Tau do not disagree….they’re also suspiciously silent on any questions about what happened to any Tau in history who did disagree if any.
@Ing
As far as heavy water is concerned, it’s not too common. Just over 1 in 10’000 hydrogen atoms contain an extra neutron. As for the chemical properties, the self ionisation constant is a bit lower than that of normal water, meaning that acids and bases will not dissociate as easily as they would in normal water (not that much of a difference though). This results from the 2H-16O bond being stronger than the 1H-16O bond in normal water (by a few percent).
There are other varieties as well. Tritium (3H) exists in a small amount, but is radioactive. It’s a β emitter with a half life of 12.3 years. There are other stable oxygen isotopes as well, the heaviest having a mass of 18.
The main use of heavy water (from memory) relies on the nuclear properties of 2H. It’s able to slow down neutrons, which is useful in moderating a nuclear fission reaction.
Edit: it seems that “sup” tags are not permitted.
@Ing
Oh.
Then I will go back and think some more.
The Tau are almost like creationists in some way because, like I said their culture is very conformist and their religion is very ingrained. It’s very animistic and gaia like and heavily influenced by what they know of evolution and their personal ancestry.
They believe evolution is predestined and follows a inverse hour glass shape: single origin, flaring out to diversity, and then coming back together to single destination. This has heavily influenced the greater politics of the government they’re a part of and in the setting’s recent memory has caused some regrettable outcomes.
Yes. Deuterium is rare (iirc) because it is preferentially fused into helium-4, which has a much higher binding energy.
Therefore, it is at its richest outside of galaxies, and much less enriched in the vicinity of stars (which burn it on formation), and brown dwarfs (their sole fuel from 13 to 65 Jupiter masses).
*astronomy buff*
Thank you! Now I know that I don’t have to worry about that
That sort of thing reminds me as a reader that the universe that I’m reading about isn’t the one in which I live. It breaks down the immersive experience that I look for in a good book. I’d much rather have the particulars of that universe laid out for me to accept or not on their own merits. I’m much more concerned with internal consistency than I am with 100% percent congruence with our universe.
Mind you, egregious errors that are not the speculative point of the story suck too. I read one book where despite being a reasonably engaging narrative it had one ship orbiting another where both were pretty small scale and it had characters floating inside as that ship accelerated. Couldn’t finish it.
@Ing
I see the potential of their belief to turn them xenophobic. Is that part of the regrettable outcome that happened?
@ Mattir – that’s fantastic! Good for you, and good for the boy for actually doing some thinking and having the courage to say what he did to you. Well done.
@ paulburnett – and so it is footage from Burning Man. I have a lot of friends who go every year – apparently the playa dust gets into EVERYTHING. I would like to go someday, if only to see the insanely cool art cars and art installations that people create (although it would be awesome to actually spin fire in conclave).
*waves at Horde* Hey guys, sorry I’ve been absent so long from TET. Life’s been busy per usual with work, wrangling hippies in the local fire community, considering starting a nerd/geek girl podcast with some of the women who were on the Geek Girls, Gender Identity and Art panel I moderated at C2E2 last spring, and the other billion and one projects that I’m apparently using as surrogates for those spawn I keep refusing to have (according to one of my relatives anyway). And yes, some of those projects have definitely involved bacon – recently won a mac & cheese-off at a friend’s brewery event and I’m told it was so good that even stoned meat-eschewing vegetarians liked it, so I figured it’d be selfish of me not to share the recipe. :)
The Pint’s 3-cheese Baked Mac & Cheese with bacon, peas and a herbed panko & baconfat caramelized shallot topping
Ingredients:
1 pound large elbow macaroni (or Orecchiette, “ear pasta”)
1.5 cups thick cut bacon, chopped
1 cup fresh shelled spring peas or thawed edamame beans
Sauce:
8 tablespoons butter
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3.5 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup hard apple cider or dry white wine
1 tablespoon freshly ground black pepper
1 pound raspberry Bellavitano cheese, shredded (can sub extra sharp cheddar)
4 ounces Romano, shredded
4 ounces Asiago, shredded
1 tblsp mustard powder
1 tblsp garlic powder
ground pepper to taste (start at 1 tblsp and go from there)
salt to taste (start at 1 tblsp and go from there)
Topping:
2 cups Panko (japenese) bread crumbs (can sub regular bread crumbs)
5 shallots, sliced thin
a few dashes of balsamic vinegar
2 tblsp Herbs de Provence
dash of red pepper flakes
truffle salt to taste (optional)
Instructions:
1. Heat oven to 350. Begin boiling water for pasta. In large skillet or fry pan, toast Panko crumbs, herbs and pepper flakes over med heat until crumbs are golden brown. Remove immediately from heat and set aside in a bowl.
2. Cook bacon until crispy in skillet on med/high – remove using a slotted spoon and set on a plate covered with a paper towel to drain. Be sure reserve as much bacon fat as you can in the pan because you’ll need it to caramelize the shallots. When bacon is removed, reduce heat to medium/low and add shallots. Toss shallots in pan to liberally coat with fat and let sit on med/low heat for roughly 7-10 min, stirring only occasionally, to keep the shallots from burning. As shallots start to caramelize, you can add a tablespoon or so of water to the pan if needed to keep them from burning during the caramelization process, can also toss a little bit of sugar into the pan to help move the process along after 7 min. Shallots should be done after about 15-20 min total (you can sub onions, the caramelization process just tends to take longer, closer to 35 min). When shallots are just about done, splash a little bit of balsamic vinegar into the pan to coat the shallots, then remove from heat and add to the bread crumbs. Mix shallots well with crumbs and set aside.
3. Boil pasta according to package instructions. Rinse with cool water to stop cooking process when done and set aside in a colander to drain.
4. In a large saucepan, melt butter. Sprinkle flour over butter and cook 2 to 3 minutes on medium heat, whisking until a roux (paste) forms. Add cold milk and whisk vigorously until dissolved. Cook sauce on medium-low heat until thick and bubbly. Add heavy cream, wine or cider, all cheeses, salt, pepper, mustard & garlic powders. Cook until cheeses are fully melted, stirring occasionally. If sauce is still too stringy thick instead of creamy, add a little more wine (about a tblsp at a time) until you get the desired consistency – the acid in the wine/cider helps keep the cheese from being too stringy.
5. Mix together pasta, sauce, bacon and peas. Pour into a ceramic or glass baking dish. Coat liberally with Panko/shallot mix. Put baking dish on top of a shallow baking pan lined with tin foil or parchment paper (to catch any cheese that bubbles over) and bake in over for about 20 min. Remove, sprinkle with truffle salt and some extra shredded cheese and fresh chopped parsley if desired and VOILA. Enjoy!
Sorry I explained that poorly. My rule is that the specifics of how things were are vague and not explained…because there’s no reason to. Anyone who knows how the FTL travel or communication works is an experts in the science and has no reason to talk down to their peers to explain it…anyone who doesn’t just knows that it does work and knows to trust the egg heads. Someone pointing out what would be odd would be treated like creationism today (in sane parts of the world); because it’s someone acting with slack jawed incredulity about questions long since answered. The response is more of acknowledging that steller conditions make silicon based biomes unlikely…but there’s at least one because it’s a big galaxy.
Sup is allowed –
{sup}™{/sup}
But exchange the {} for
Gawd I suck at explaining that.
Weed Monkey #87 – Smart alec! So if a Narrow Boat is already Victorian, why does it need to be steampunked more than it is?
Wait…
Does that mean if I already have an old Harley I need to get it more Davidson’d?
I need some sangria.
Well crap – that sup thing turned out well. *not*
Yes and no. In some ways yes, in other ways the opposite. They believe that all the other races will/should become like them and are eager to “help” by pushing them in that direction. They believe the end game of life is for all the ecosystems of the universe to become one metaecosystem and that all societies join to form on unified metasociety. Since they’re one of the founders of the Consortium this typically translates to them to be very open about introducing newly discovered races into their society…by force if necessary. It’s for their own good in the long game after all.
That policy is seen as successful in one instance (humans) yet disastrous and embarrassing (to everyone not a Tau pretty much) with a more recent race “welcomed” into the Consortium. The later event has led to the Tau’s influence waning, and them bitterly seeing themselves as being pushed to the side
@72 paulburnett
I noticed.
There aren’t all that many fire throwing octopuses around these days.
Nate…
chigau @43
Is there an irreligious version of ‘AMEN’? Please insert here.
I don’t understand why it’s not obvious that *everyone* should have it.
~~
For some reason, I have the theme song to “Jabberjaw” stuck in my head right now…
~~
‘Tis @51:
Would you wife have allowed crocoducks instead?
~~
Pteryxx:
re: Korra,
We should have Korra episodes running in the background of the Pharyngula Podcast…
Ok I’m not trying to make a habit of this, but there’s one simonprimer at http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/06/15/heres-the-situation/comment-page-3/#comment-366804 who’s simply asking to get his ass kicked.
That can’t be anything else than intentional provocation.
Ah I see Ing. Yup, that makes sense. The only thing worse that the noob character who’s sole purpose is to have the basics explained to them is the dreaded “info dump”. I often find myself thinking at the author: just get on with the story dammit and trust me to figure it out.
I just now realised that sci-fi is in fact presuppositional in nature. Humph, no wonder fundies generally don’t like it.
I’m seconding Weed Monkey. Simon has clearly shown himself to be a predator. Whether he’s just a cowardly scavenger or a actual rapist really doesn’t matter. He’s using that thread to prowl
@ Weed Monkey – FFS, is that shit STILL going on?
@thepint
Crap like this never stops. Many people are too invested in being douchebags.
Patricia
They were often very simple and boring things, made of wooden planks and not much else, carrying bulky stuff like iron ore and drawn along the canal by horses or a gang of burly men. Not very interesting, I presume? :) But some engines and gears and steam and valves would certainly kick it up a notch.
Weed Monkey – OK, now I see. Yep some old retro clutch plates that have seen some of the most fascinating parts of the American West & History would jazz the thing up.
@ibyea – Seriously. I couldn’t bring myself to jump into that thread because of how maddeningly predictable and familiar all that victim-blaming crap was, but this latest asshat was the absolute limit. I commented, but it looks like PZ lowered the banhammer on that asshole. Good.
…. Anyone want to place bets on how long it will take for the next mansplainin’ asshole to show up?
Good night sweethearts!
Good night Patricia.
—
Tony
Amen works for me.
—
The fire lesson was heavily laden with:
This is the fireplace.
It is a place to make fire.
That is the lawn, it is not a place to make fire.
because
This is the fireplace.
It is where you make fire.
I think it worked.
Ing The only book that I can think of that has anything like your societal structure is Joe Haldeman’s “Forever” trilogy. In the second book the majority of humanity has become simply Man, one endlessly repeated clone of one man and one woman who share in a group mind by connecting to some sort of technological database. The individuals still are capable of independent thought and actions subject to corrections by the collective. This is a minor plot point in the third book.
There’s also an alien society that shares that basic plan, Man and the aliens get along better than Man and wild humans do. Haldeman doesn’t really explore that aspect of his world much, it’s more about the wild humans.
Borked the links sort of.
thepint, your recipe at #111 is curiously similar to a common and well liked Finnish dish, macaroni casserole. In its basic form it’s nothing more than elbow macaroni, minced meat, and mixed milk and egg to make it set in the oven, plus condiments and spices. (Breadcrumbs on the top are common but I’ve never much cared for them.) But of course, adding various vegetables, cheeses and chilies makes it much more interesting. And certainly bacon (+ chipotle) for some smoky goodness. :)
I’m rererereading The Word for World is Forest.
It still works.
Edit: This is a minor plot point in the second book.
@ Weed Monkey – really? That’s interesting. I’m not very familiar with Finnish recipes, but baked mac & cheese in some variation or another’s been pretty ubiquitous in my American upbringing. Although I guess technically if you don’t use macaroni specifically, it’s a baked noodle & cheese casserole, not mac & cheese. I like how the breaded topping provides a contrasting texture to the creaminess of the cheese sauce and pasta – peas or edamame are a nice touch of color (also, yummy) and using bacon (or pancetta) is a nice way of layering in salt flavor. My favorite part of this recipe though, was caramelizing the shallots in bacon fat – I’ve never done that before and the results were AMAZING. It’s definitely going in my regular rotation. Was there ever a particular combo that you were partial to?
While stumbling through teh book of faces, I found someone had linked to a gif that pretty much sums up my reaction to every single victim blaming rape apologist who showed up on the Here’s the Situation thread: http://i1085.photobucket.com/albums/j424/Aubergine_Ace/3d801217.gif Hope it provides a much needed laugh.
And with that, I’m off to bed. ‘Night all!
thepint: I predict we will see the next mansplainin’ asshole in about 2 days.
—————————————–
Celebrated my friend K making it over here safely by going down to Delaney’s for lunch. Nice place, been there before, and my brother likes it. As promised, I got buzzed.
First: Fried calamari. I think I prefer it lightly floured. Some places I’ve had it in, very greasy or the batter is very heavy. First beer: Kilkenny Irish Cream Ale. Lovely thick head, and it went down a treat. I’d have had another one, but then I saw something on the draught menu that made me change my mind.
Main attraction: Blackened tilapia sandwich. Talk about spicy! Made my nose run. So good though. I think the heat came from the vinaigrette they drizzled on the fish. Came with plantanos maduros, which were also good. Let’s just say that I was immensely grateful for the glass of water that followed.
To finish, I tried Young’s Double Chocolate Stout, which I saw mentioned either here or on another site. Anyway, it was good, but I was a bit disappointed that I didn’t get much of a chocolate flavor – it was more akin to coffee. I don’t think I’ll order that again; it could be I should’ve had it with something to bring out the cocoa flavor, but eh.
They did have a bottle of Lucid absinthe behind the bar, which surprised me. I’ve never been able to find a seller here, so either someone ordered from a place outside the state, or it was always sold here and I wasn’t looking hard enough. Thought about trying it, but then decided that since I didn’t know how absinthe might affect me, I’d stick with beer. I might get a bottle and try it at home so I can determine if having it in public might lead to me doing stupid things.
———————————————–
Not wading into that mire of animosity that is the Situation thread. I doubt I could do a better job than what’s already been said, plus I just turn speechless and wrathful around that kind of shit lately. I’m glad simon got banned – his comments were just . . . ugh. Of course we get emotional, who’s life and autonomy are on the line, yours OR OURS??
Sheesh . . . I stand by my answer to a question on OKC: The world would be better without stupid people. I’m not sure simon qualified as such, but for now I’ll stick him in that category.
Chigau: But why do you make fire in the fireplace and not the lawn? :p
(I swear this was me when I was 10-12; I started getting in trouble because I wasn’t too keen on some of the arbirtary rules Handed Down From On High.)
Ah fuckity fuck. Let’s try this again The Forever War and the its sequel Forever Free are relevant to my point. Please ignore all previous attempts at hyperlinkage and series designation.
Very thought-provoking:
http://www.cracked.com/article_19339_the-6-dumbest-things-schools-are-doing-in-name-safety.html
What it seems to me is the sin-based thinking often prevalent among some parents, much like the “no bike-riding” discussed earlier.
An additional theme present in this is the criminalization of student behavior. This basically reinforces the power dynamic between the “authority figures” and the students. This reinforces the sin-based thinking and brings out the ageism of that philosophy…
Ah, public school. How I do not miss you.
@thunk
Texas seems to be really popular in that list.
Good morning
No time to click all those shiny linkies, sadly
Yay for the Redhead and her Nerd!
Mattir
You asked yourself why you keep doing that shit: It’s because you make a fucking diffeence for those kids who most likely don’t have anybody else Mattiresque around.
+++
Situations thread
I just read only 4 comments in which horace the asshole talked about “reasonable precaution” and my breakfast came back to visit me. Fucking rape apologist.
@thunk
Thanks. Cracked.com is my amber.
Back again sometime.
thunk:
following up on your interesting link…I checked out the original article:
There’s quite a bit wrong with this approach.
One of the first that springs to mind: Nowhere is it mentioned that the *school* won’t take any videos. So the school can still take videos but the parents cannot? If that’s the case, then the school is setting itself up to be Big Brother. They’ve assumed authority over the children *and* the parents (you can’t take videos, but we can). Can they assure parents that the school’s videos won’t be misused? If they can, why can’t they be assured that the videos taken by parents won’t be misused?
It’s been a while since I’ve been to a school, but am I correct in thinking they have video surveillance in several areas inside and out? How do parents know those videos won’t be misused?
Then there’s question of how reasonable this idea is. What evidence are they basing this on? What can they point to that says “aha. taking pictures of teens is directly responsible for cyber-bullying and online exploitation?
It dawned on me just now that the administrators are treating this as if the pictures are the problem, rather than the *people* taking the pictures.
Grumps, regarding a steam punk narrow boat, “steam punk” suggests a funnel to me. I would add piping on the outside of the boat, and all kinds of not quite necessary equipment for the captain (like a large brass telescope, a oversized compass with extra dials if possible) and if you can fit it, a paddle wheel at the back.
And, if you’re not planning on going anywhere with it, a ramming bow like the Nautilus.
Mattir: that is really great (a bit like when somebody de-lurks here to say what Pharyngula has meant to them) – go you! One mind at a time …
Pedantry/language geek alert:
per se
(not per say)
– the “se” bit is the reflexive pronoun, same as you find in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese etc.; here it means “itself”. “Of itself” or “in itself”.
/pedantry/language geek (subject to correction by Real Proper language geeks who actually know what they’re talking about, obviously)
For the Aussie crowd: Inside Nature’s Giants will be dissecting a giant squid tonight, SBS 8:30pm eastern time. Woo, and may I say, who! [looks at the pile of dirty dishes, looks at clock, panics]
miffa
medio in horto magno
est nitida domus
sunt duo cuniculi
domnus domna floccus
floccus laborat in horto
et flores aspergit
aspergit compte singulos
ecce vides id
domna flocca domum curat
primo stoream verrit
si storea rursus munda est
postea in urbem it
fabas emit in ramo
etiam crassum pirum
erant fabae ipsi sibi
est domino pirum
In the news: Sydney pastor slams anti-gay marriage campaign
Patricia, #44,
Quite right, you made a serious error. I’ve never passed a pub, nekkid or otherwise, in my life.* For shame, for shame!
Louis
*Although my liver is speaking to me in loud tones today about the possibility that it might be a very good idea from now on. I ignore it. The liver is evil and must be punished.
Ing, #77,
I see you’ve got some useful answers already to your second question, so I’ll restrict mine to three words:
Kinetic isotope effect.
Biochemical systems are particularly sensitive to isotopic composition, so if your species lived in a deuterium rich environment (unlikely for reasons mentioned above, but it doth vary) it is possible for them to have “incompatible water” with another species. I’d look at other isotopes though, carbon 13 rich environments for example. Pick something stable and biologically necessary.
Oh and please don’t fall into the SciFi Silicon Trap. Silicon life forms irritate the shit out of me. Silicon does not catenate anywhere near as well as carbon. Silicon rich life forms…sure, silicon based life forms…wellllllllll maybe if it was an Si/O system but Si/Si…no. I want my money back! Second period elements are special for a reason. Considerations of valency are nice but not all.
Louis
Happy Father’s Day to all of the Hording dads! (You too, PZ.)
I’m making cherry muffins this morning– you guys want in?
I had lunch yesterday with Esteleth and three friends of hers. It was a fun time, if too short.
A linkie from HappiestSadist: “True vagina master” made me LOL so hard my cat fled in terror.
On a more serious note, are all nudists/naturalists the sort of dumbass ’60s rejects who think that the way to solve society’s problems is to throw off all one’s inhibitions, not to address power differentials? First there was Jenny, one of the victim blamers in the “Here’s the Situation” thread. Then there’s this shit-for-brains.
I’m also reminded of the aging baby boomer dude who promotes the ideal of “radical honesty,” which rejects the idea that polite fictions or biting your tongue are ever a good idea. In the interest of being “radically honest,” he told his teenage babysitter that he was attracted to her. That got a lot of chuckles from teh menz interviewing him on NPR a few years ago.
Thank you.
And a Happy Father’s Day (US) from me to all other males who have, like me, inflicted their genes on another generation.
Tony:
Honestly, I don’t think there are any guarantees regarding that.
There was a case involving the Lower Merion School District, where they were taking secret photos of students (at all hours) through webcams on school-provided laptops.
It was challenged, but the fact this existed illustrates the authoritarianism of schools.
Additionally, students have been disciplined for posts on Facebook or other some such thing *not related to school*. This sort of all-hours monitoring of student activity worries me.
What if they suddenly don’t like my Pharyngula vitriol? Maybe it’s too offensive for them or something…
Woooo-hoooo!
I have shelves in my kitchen AND a working lamp
And a complete mess from cutting the boards, but we’ll just ignore that.
Father’s day? Long over here, but happy father’s day to all you guys who live where it’s celebrated today.
Also, the dreaded *hats*.
The justifications for banning hats seemed absurd to me when I was 8 or so. It was usually related to them being gang symbols or something…
Something I eagerly disputed but never changed.
Unh… Feeling decidedly uncharitable toward steampunk today, after sitting through the Downey Sherlock Holmes last night.
“You are reaching for the caaaaaaaan openeeeerrrrrr….”
(From here.)
When our school system here went to the new, and very restrictive, dress code, plaids were banned. Why? Because they might be used as gang colours.
What the fuck did they think the tartans were for?
thunk @ 137: If I showed the kids at work that list, they’d probably smother the teachers and staff with grateful hugs! We haven’t banned tag or outside food, we allow kids to bring birthday treats in, even homemade ones (and those are always a huge hit- nothing like homemade, and the kids know it), all parents have to do is sign a form saying they’re cool with their kids being photographed, AND, we love it when kids high-five and hug each other.
I do keep being reminded that I have to be careful about touching kids, although when it comes to breaking up a fight, I throw that caution to the wind. Making sure neither child has to leave with a serious injury is more important IMO, and I damn well don’t plan to sue the school if I get hurt in the process. I’ve rarely had to do this with the older kids, but the younger ones can get nasty.
Because I realized there was more to say:
Hats – The only rule is that kids can’t wear them in the school building, boy or girl. It works pretty well, the kids don’t seem to have a ton of trouble with it.
Slap-on bracelets and such – Confiscated if they are proving more of a distraction for the students than anything else. They are usually returned to the owner at dismissal time, it’s rare that someone doesn’t get something back at all. Or, the student has to put the items in their backpack.
Something the article didn’t mention: Toys from home. We require that students keep them in their backpacks, or their desks if they can keep from taking them out and playing with them during class time. Again, confiscated and returned as with bracelets. When kids start fighting over toys, especially the little kids, we try to get them to settle things nicely; many times I’ve still had to confiscate a toy for a while because the fighting keeps happening. This happens more with things like Bakugan and those superhero toys, balls come a close second. I bet the nutbars would ban all toys from home…if they still had recess at all.
@ Part-Time Insomniac – well, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you lose your 2 day bet. We’ve got another live one on the Here’s the Situation Thread, now trying to pin rape culture squarely on substance abuse and whining that we’re the sexists for thinking all men are rapists (how is that strawman not falling apart from being waved around so much?).
Easy money says this one meets the ban hammer in less than 10 comments.
Good fucking morning, indeed. I shoulda added whiskey to my coffee.
Urgh, don’t you hate it when you work for two solid hours and in the end you have a clean drawer? And admittedly some repaired drawers…
Could you elaborate on this? Race so far are non-organic, require acidic sulfuric atmosphere, high pressure and low temperature. They’re also notably slower than average due to their abiochemistry.
Hey, don’t diss that result. It toke me about a year to finally get off my ass and repair two drawers that had the bottom almost hanging off.
And then it took me an hour to fix them. Three quarters to find the hammer and a quarter to get it done.
Ah, Abney Park; I forget whether it was Tis or Brownian that pointed me in their direction but whichever or whoever, thank you so much. Even Lady Bridget, a confirmed sneer at all things SF, likes them.
For a narrow-boat you shouldn’t need to do very much to go all steampunk. As previously mentioned they date from the right period anyway. It would be fairly reasonable to go with a funnel and escaping steam, brass pipes, pressure gauges, steam whistles, riveted brown leather and all that trope-fulfilling stuff. Don’t forget to wear suitable clothing when driving it. A battered bowler with a head-cannon might be nice. Consider a pair of the nice captains goggles from the Abney Park market. Perhaps modify the Abney Park ‘Airship Pirates’ flag to suit a ‘Narrowboat Pirates’ theme. If you’re really feeling flush, get Captain Robert to record a customised version of the airship pirates song.
For those of you with no experience of narrowboats, consider a half-wide RV that floats. Making one liveable is an exercise in careful design, like any small boat but with added fun because of the high aspect ratio. Thirty years ago (fuck, where did all the time go?) I was doing a master’s at the RCA in Kensington and one of the tutors lived on the Prince Albert, a fairly well known narrowboat of rather fine appearance. We had a very enjoyable party on board one summer evening and chugged along past the London Zoo. With maybe 20 people on board it was definitely ‘cosy’. Googling images of narrowboat brings up lots of evocative shots. You might find stuff of interest on an old acquaintance’s website at SteamBoat Ed’s place. He’s been know to turn up with a usb operated steam calliope and a steam powered fucking machine…
Carlie,
:D
I missed the conversations that ensued back in the old SciBlog days so I decided to come back. Plus it’s a great break from all the racist misogynist on tumblr.
Ing, #162,
Sure. Catenation is the property of an element to bond repeatedly to atoms of the same element and thus build up chains. Carbon is the daddy of catenating elements. It’s (partly) a function of electronegativity, atom size, bond strength and the availability of d-orbitals (for things like sulfur).
To make any chain above about 11 atoms in length (so something longer than a simple 11 C hydrocarbon) you’re going to need to stick something other than silicon in the mix. So what I mean by this is if you took, say, DNA (or any biopolymer) and magically did a simple “find and replace” for carbon with silicon, the molecule would fall apart. All the important biomolecules of life (on earth) are carbon based. They are effectively big carbon chains with interesting bits hanging off them.
Okay, that’s a deeply misleading analogy! Proteins are, for example, comprised of amino acids, so the chain of C is broken up with N, but what I am referring to is the ability of carbon to make (infinite as far as we know) chains of atoms of carbon linked to carbon linked to carbon….
Silicon can’t do that. You can put about 6 to 8 silicons in a row before things start to fall apart, I think the record is 11 from memory, but these silanes (the silicon analogue of alkanes) are increasingly thermally and chemically unstable the longer the chain (i.e. the greater the number of silicons linked in a line).
Like I said, if you make silicones (polymers of the type -Si-O-Si- with the relevant atoms, like H, bonded to the silicon atoms) these are much more stable. And longer silanes are more stable at lower temperature.
If you want a non organic (i.e. not carbon containing) life form what you need to consider is heredity and metabolism. What does it feed on and how does “genetic” information pass from generation to generation (if it does). Anything that has a biopolymer system of heredity (like ours) is not going to be just based on silicon or sulfur, it’ll need other elements to manage it, other polymeric sources. Even at relatively low temperatures. If you want to get away from carbon you’re almost certainly getting away from anything we might recognise as living. It’s genuinely not simple.
Think back to highschool biology and consider those simplistic definitions of what “life” is. To do those things certain biochemical conditions need to be met, and as far as we know, nothing but carbon containing biopolymers come even close to being able to do that. You might be able to enrich/substitute some percentage of “new” atoms (for example as in the recent claims of arsenic metabolising bacteria which have been found to be highly dodgy) or a relatively silicon enriched carbon based biomolecule, but other than that, you’re erring towards the fiction side of science fiction if you see what I mean.
Louis
My thought for them was that they reproduce via budding. To reproduce their bodies start to assemble smaller versions of them that are released when they can be autonomous.
@Louis
So would a Si-O chemistry work for them or will it have to be somewhat organic? The idea for them was that their chemistry would be radically different (using ammonia or something else for a solvent even)and by extension their thought process hard to grasp. Despite being part of the Consortium their culture would be relatively unknown, due to everything they say heavily filtered to get it into a form understandable by everyone else.
The other non-organic races fortunately avoid the problem of chemistry since they’re synthetic and were constructed rather than evolved
Louis:
Regarding the possibility of life (fictional or someday-to-be-discovered) that is not based on carbon, would there be the same selectivity of, say, organic sulfer that one sees in the ratios of organic carbon and non-organic carbon? Would life still be preferential to lighter or heavier isotopes?
Re: Narrowboat –
That sounds like a really cool project – everyone else has mentioned all the ideas I would have said, so I can’t add anything to that.
@Louis: This chemistry lesson is very interesting; I learn something new every time I come here. But I’m kind of glad that I don’t even have to learn any chemistry any more, unless I want to (YES!).
Either Germany has just scored a goal or there’s a herd of cows on the loose
Germany just scored and the cows are very happy about it? Germany looks like they’re going to be in the next round unless something very unexpected happens…
Our Moment of Mormon Madness for today is also a Moment of Mormon Mealy Mouthed Deceit. Some of you may remember that I posted a comment a few days ago about a gay mormon man who claimed he was happy in a heterosexual marriage. Josh Weed wrote about his attraction to men, his enjoyment of a “robust” sex life with his wife, and how he happy he was to live by mormon rules. Among other major news outlets, his story appeared in The Daily Mail.
The article didn’t make good sense to begin with, but now it makes even less. Turns out Josh Weed is a Reparative Therapist specializing in helping mormons (and other religious gay men) to overcome cultural difficulties with being gay.
JoeMyGod outed Josh Weed, as did Think Progress and several other journalists and bloggers who found Weed’s story incredible.
JoeMyGod posted part of Weed’s self-description, which includes “work dedicated to helping people combat patterns and beliefs that cause feelings of shame, hopelessness and despair … those with sexual identity issue and unwanted sexual attractions and/or behaviors…”
Sure sounds like reparative therapy that accepts “shame” as part of homosexuality.
Think Progress actually got a response from Weed, excerpts below:
That doesn’t quite match the whole “shame” idea, Mr. Weed. I smell mormon backtracking for the sake of trying to appear less creepy to the rest of the world.
As in help that includes advice for gay men to marry mormon women and pop out babies I assume.
Think Progress expresses their opinion:
Ing,
But how?
;-)
Underneath the biological “budding” big scale stuff is the chemistry that makes it go. If you’re proposing a radically different environment and a radically different chemistry (inorganic vs organic) then the chemistry of heredity/metabolism will also be radically different.
F’rinstance, in the budding process how does the bud know to be like the parent? What is transferred between the parent and bud with that information in it? If it’s chemical then the chances are it will have to be some form of polymer (or perhaps crystal…). That polymer will need to be “read” somehow, or at least translated into the building materials for the organism (the equivalents of muscles, bones and what not).
The issue of alien biochemistry is really thorny. It’s best not tackled at all unless you’re willing to go for total fantasy on the subject (or huge over complex explanations), IMO. Given the various conditions extremophiles on earth can live in, I wouldn’t worry too much about “DNA style” biopolymers and what they can achieve, it’s quite a bit.
The “different water/isotope” idea is really good, chemically incompatible/physically incompatible species are a really good area to explore, again IMO. Imagine trying to communicate with the organisms at the bottom of Challenger Deep on the surface, or at their depth, without intervening technology. Imagine landing on a planet, discovering water, drinking that water and then discovering that the D/H ratio was sufficiently different to cause biomedical complications.
Louis
Ogvorbis,
I’m not sure what you mean. If you mean “organic” as in “in living systems”, then I’m pretty sure sulfur can’t do the job that carbon does, again because of the catenation issue. DNA, proteins, carbohydrates are HUGE molecules, massively polymeric structures all based on (largely) carbon and the ability carbon has to bond to itself (and form stable functional groups of an enormous variety). No other element has this ability to this extent and it’s a function of the electronic/atomic properties of the element vastly more than the environment that chemical finds itself in (temp and pressure for example).
So whilst some silanes (for example) are stable at low temperatures, they’re still vastly more reactive than their carbon counterparts, and vastly more thermally labile too.
Whether or not a specific biochemical preference would exist for a specific isotope, well that will be determined by local conditions more. If organisms evolved in a very, very 13C rich environment (as opposed to the ~1% 13C on earth) then sure, their biochemistry would potentially have evolved to be more tolerant of that isotopic ratio than ours has. That’s a reasonable inference.
The chemical kinetics of these isotopes is different because different isotopes have different masses, so if you imagine a chemical bond between two atoms as a kind of spring, then putting different weights on the ends affects the behaviour of that spring. The spring will break easier or not depending on those weights. Okay so that’s a vast oversimplification, but it’s a good mental picture to work with.
Does that help?
Louis
Louis:
Sort of. I wasn’t thinking in terms of sulfer (or silicon, or any other element) replacing carbon in a terrestrial biological unit, but rather, if life evolved that did not use carbon, would there still be preferential uptake of particular isotopes? I know, from my current obsession with extinctions, that perturbations in the isotopic carbon ratios (C12/C13) are useful markers for determining how much carbon was tied up in life and was wondering whether this would still be applicable if life was based on something other than carbon.
Damn, I don’t have the vocabulary to actually phrase the question I was trying to ask.
Ogvorbis,
Ahhhhhh yeah! No, it’s my bad, my hungover brain needs a kickstart!
Yeah, the kinetic isotope effect (for example) is universal in the sense that it applies to a greater/lesser extent to any element in a chemical reaction. The degree to which this happens is going to be dependent on the kinetics of the reaction etc, but yeah, it’s an intrinsic physical property of chemical bonds.
Louis
I’m changing the category of the events described in comment #173 to “Mormon Mealy Mouthed Mendacity.”
Okay. That makes sense.
Not that I’ll do anything with it, but your discussion with Ing, added to my recent readings, just struck a chord(, y’know?
*An Asus, to be exact.
By now the happy cows sound like they suffer from constipation.
I’m afraid I won’t get another quite night like last night…
Dammit, I *nearly* spat tea all over my laptop >.<
@180: It’s quiet here…too quiet. I fear Holland is out for the year.
Sorry.
Would a D7sus work better for you?
Cipher! Congratulations!!! :-)
France: Socialists got much more than a majority in parliament. Greece: Syriza (the neo-lefty-populists) consider themselves losers and do not want to participate in the next government; that means the conservatives and the socialists will have to form a coalition… or there’ll be a third election in 6 weeks.
As long as it doesn’t result in my already-kinda-borked laptop being permanently broken before the day after tomorrow (when I finally get my new one, yay!), I really don’t care :P
So, I finally wrote a new blog post: Why do we treat asylum-seekers so badly?
*scrolling up*
Congo rats also to Redhead, Nerd, and Mattir!!!
Wooo-hoooo
Just book the train tickets to Berlin
David
I’ll arrive at the 16th (July, obviously). That day will be filled with much family rejoicing, but then we can go and see them dinos
Oh, what’s your size (T-shirt) and do you know Jules’?
Because ScienceBlogs used something called robots.txt that prevented crawlers from reading it. Google evidently didn’t care, but web.archive.org apparently did.
I really hope Tet Zoo version 2 will be restored.
I am heading for Colorado to work a fire. The High Park fire. I’ll be flying out tomorrow and be back in two weeks.
:-) :-) :-) :-) :-)
I’ll ask Jules. Mine… all sizes actually encompass wide ranges… M is generally good, but I can even wear XL T-shirts (especially, but not only, as minidresses).
Be safe, and take care. Also, if I may: Hooray! Fresh fire stories!
Good luck, Og. Come back safe and bring us some stories. :)
Oy, yard work. Two summers ago (or was it only one? I think two) I built one of those brick circle things around our front tree. I know the dangers of overmulching trees, but it’s a huge mature tree and I only used a couple of inches of mulch, so I thought I was doin’ it rite. Went out to weed it today, and found a huge clump of wood rot in the mulch. Fuuuuuuuuck. So I spent two hours raking and shoveling out mulch. Now there’s just about a half-inch coating left over most of it, all the visible fungus is gone, and I used some of the not visibly rotted mulch to patch a couple of holes in the yard (away from the tree), and there weren’t too many adventitious rootlets that got exposed. Now I guess I ought to think about what to plant there to be basic ground cover (that isn’t hostas). It’s just a bit annoying that I had to spend that much time to make everything look… exactly the same, if I’m lucky. Even mowing the lawn is a little more rewarding. *first world problems*
Ogvorbis, be safe. Much internet-mediated appreciation for your totally-being-an-amazing-bloke-ness, and post-bloody-triggering-thread hugs if you would do me the honour of accepting them.
Ogvorbis, take care and come back with new stories!
@Louis
So your advice is: if I’m reading right, not to bother going into too much details on WHY a species is chemically different and all and just accept that it’s because they’re aliens so it doesn’t matter if they’re organic or not if they’re extremephiles?
Ogvorbis
Take care, come back soon!
Best wishes, Ogvorbis. Stay safe.
Ogvorbis
Take care.
Will you have wifi?
All:
Thanks for the well wishes. I will be careful.
No. I’ll be lucky if I can find an outlet to charge my mp3 player.
Og, take care!
Back from camping at Harrison lake. It was pretty awesome. Caught quite a few decent fish. Got very drunk and stoned with good friends, and had a lot of fun despite being rained out and not sleeping much at all.
Ing,
Alien biochemistry is a very deep rabbit hole!
If you’re erring on the “hard science” side of scifi, then unless you’re at near absolute zero or nearly at lava temperatures, there’s a decent chance an earth-like extremophile can cope. Okay maybe not that hot! ;-)
The same sort of thing runs for pH and pressure etc. We have life on mountain tops and life at ocean depths. We have hydrogen sulfide metabolising ocean vent organisms and extremophiles that tolerate conditions inside nuclear reactors or the upper reaches of our atmosphere. Ok so these are microorganisms, so it is a hell of a stretch to multicellularity, but if you’re going to start specifying the basis of some alien’s biochemistry it’s going to get gnarly fast if you are expecting it to be scientifically literate.
Silicones as opposed to silanes might be a good start, it’s possible to make polymers from them, and you could also go from there to silicates (and hence crystalline materials that could be used to store information). It would be easier to leave the details of that vague, but saying “silicon based life” without a little detail is a bit of a personal pet peeve, and will definitely earn you an eyeroll from chemically literate readers.
Mind you, space ships make noise in Star Wars space, travel faster than light and you can replicate stuff and teleport in Star Trek, so it depends how sciencey you want to make it.
I think you could get away with a lot more by being less specific about their biochemistry than by getting into the details. I think your idea about a species so alien to communicate with it’s practically impossible is a great one, and underused in my experience. After all, I tried to have a chat with an octopus once and it was not very edifying. ;-)
Louis
Take Care Og! (Roast a sausage for me)
Louis
No. The robots.txt is new; it was not there until fairly recently. It is blocking access to pages which were already crawled (or may have caused those snapshots to be purged from archive.org’s database).
I know that it was possible to access archive.org snapshots of Sb pages before the move to wordpress, and even shortly afterward — as noted by sgbm.
Actually, I think Google is removing cached versions of Sb pages now that the robots.txt is there.
I thought Darren mentioned that he had a friend who was trying to get a Movable-Type backup of his posts and threads?
Me too! It knew English literature, it quoted Alice in Wonderland. It said “Eat me!”, so I did.
Good night, taking my sillyness to bed
They make solar-powered chargers now for campers/hikers. Also possibly useful during power outages.
Tell us what’s good for us, y’know.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-18456131
ZOMG Debts!
Austerians…
There was a thing on lifehacker awhile back for how to make an mp3 charger out of an altoids tin (the thin ones) and a couple of batteries and some electronics whatnot. Won’t help for this trip, but might come in handy later: source
Hill giants should not be allowed to wear plate mail. Or use bastard swords.
–
Hurrah! For the Homecoming of the Redhead!
–
I generally check out the hurricanes/tropical storms every morning. I try to second-guess which ts’ will “spin up” to hurricane status.
–
I like the thought of throwing sharp things with an atlatl; and whenever I do, my elbow and shoulder make sarcastic remarks.
–
Mattir: *fireworks&confetti* Getting a young man to think about his bad attitudes is a very valuable thing. Perhaps, one day, he need not wash up in one of the MRA Threads as the day’s Troll-Onna-Spit.
:)
–
Niven’s Puppeteers?
–
Adding well-wishes and safe-journeyings for Ogvorbis.
–
Og:
BWAHAHAHA!!!!
Also, stay safe out there.
Thunk, I am totally unshocked that Niall Ferguson wrote that essay.
Daisy Cutter:
Oh. Probably some nut or something. Never heard of this Ferguson though.
Cicely: Me too, but mostly following whatever predictions there are.
However, I tend to do a lot of wish-casting…
(snark)
ZOMG this blob in the Bay of Campeche is going to become a Cat 5 and hit New Orleans, Miami, and New York! It’ll be exciting…
(/snark)
Awesomeness has Crossed The Streams. Tetrapod Zoology has a TV Tropes page.
Julie says she’s S and very excited to meet you, Giliell.
Owlmirror, thanks for the links; I’ll check them out… sometime. Darren mentioned on Twitter that he now has many but not all threads with all their comments; and yes, Google has removed Tet Zoo from its cache.
I think I shall begin using the phrase “Austerian Economics” to describe the current set of far-right “destroy society to save the economy” policies.
Ogvorbis
[grumpy intentionally obtuse music pedant] Asus what? And D7? major/major, major/minor, minor/minor 7? And again sus what? Gah, the imprecision of commercial music notation, grumble, grumble, get offa my lawn, grumble….{/grumpy intentionally obtuse music pedant]
As someone who’s home and loved one’s were only spared by a 2am wind change I cannot fathom doing anything about a wildfire but running away, fast. Stay safe.
carlie:
Epimediums. They’re lovely.
TV Tropes has entries for blogs now? Could it be possible that TV Tropes has Jumped the Shark?
Oh my god, something terrible happened while I was working. Across the street from my parents’ business, two teenage boys were shot. I had to get that out of my chest. :(
@thunk
What’s up with the conservatives’ focus with debt and austerity?! Austerity causes more debt in the long run, and their doofus brains don’t realize it!
I got back this afternoon from a weekend of camping and fishing. It rained most of the time, and the fishing was mediocre, but it beat sitting at home. I especially enjoyed making men’s brains explode by being a young woman in Man-Land™ (aka the river and fish camp). You’d think that they had never seen a woman drive boats, catch fish, and back up trailers before.
Finally made it through all the comments here, and I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed, but:
I gather that there was another Explosion of Misogyny while I was away. Thanks to everyone who did the hard work there, and *hugs* for those who are having a rough time with it.
Nerd: Congrats on getting the Redhead home! I hope the adjustment period goes as well as can be expected.
Chigau: Did you survive teaching the young’uns to make fire? Kids seem to gain so much confidence when they learn some basic outdoor skills, and fire-making is right up there. I loved teaching my 12-year-old cousin to start a fire with flint and steel. At first he was in awe that I could do it, and then he was thrilled that he could too.
Mattir: I hope you and DaughterSpawn continue to be awesome! I kind of want to go to your Boy Scout camp, despite being a) female and b) too old.
Ogvorbis: Good luck at the fire! Stay safe!
Nutmeg
Fire-making went well.
We used newspaper and lighter.
It was more an indoctrination session about fire safety.
@David Marjanovic
Yay for socialist victory in France!
I fly out tomorrow morning at 0835 (AVP to Charlotte to DEN). I arrive in Denver at 1:30 local time (pm) and catch a ride up to Fort Collins to check in at the Armory.
I have worked with this type I team before and they are good people.
You can keep updated on the basics at http://www.nifc.gov/nicc/sitreprt.pdf . Scroll down to Rocky Mountain Area and I am at the High Park fire. Yes, the one which keeps burning all the houses.
This could be a challenging one.
Ogvorbis, be careful and come back filled with new stories. You’ve done an amazing job here over the last few days.
ibyea – please take care of yourself also.
* * * *
On teaching kids to make fires: when I was a newish Boy Scout volunteer type person (I think SonSpawn may still have been a cub scout, so 5 or 6 years back), I showed up at a district level campout and discovered that I’d been volunteered to teach 150 boys to make fires with flint and steel. I had a few supplies, went out and got more, got kids to fray some jute ropes, and cut up some linen in my car to make charcloth. I went home the next evening with my legs smeared with creosote (from making charcloth), but a whole lot of kids who could actually make fires. It was pretty cool.
I’m a huge believer in teaching kids to play safely with fire. We heat our house with wood, so it’s been incredibly important for the Spawns to know about fire – we started teaching them to strike matches when they were FOUR. When they were 7, we had a hurricane and were out of electricity for about a week. On day 2 or 3, DaughterSpawn asked if she could play with matches. I gave them a box of strike on anything matches, a couple rocks, a lit candle, a cookie sheet, and a dish of water. They lit matches until the (battery powered) smoke detector went off. It was great fun, and no one got burned.
* * * *
On stupid school rules – one of the most annoying parts of homeschooling is teaching the Spawns that they will get in trouble for being competent humans while attending summer camps, especially those run by government/park type organizations. So no knives, no matches or firestarting kits, no advil, no first aid kit… I got to sit through 12 hours of horrible training on such rules last week, in preparation for running my summer camp this week.
Now off to sleep so I can be fresh for tomorrow’s exhaustion…
Ogvorbis: Stay safe, and remember to tell the trees to stop, drop, and roll!
Mattir:
Whoa.
Competent parents like you are rare. *applause*.
Now if only I was competent enough to do that stuff… :/
*sheltered*
And good luck, Og! We’ll be rooting for ya!
Mattir
*ahem*
HOW THE FUCK DO YOU GO CAMPING WITHOUT A KNIFE AND FIRE?
*ahem*
Sleep well.
Hell, no. I would crawl inside my shake and bake.
I am fully trained in the use of these things.
Of course, you have to be wearing nomex when you are inside as the interior temps can hit 300F. Or more.
But compared to what is outside, at least you can survive.
I do have a knife packed. The fire will be *ahem* provided.
Well, thunk, you could join the Boy Scouts of America, like we did. Or you could figure out whether you live relatively near to some Pharyngulaunt or Pharynguncle with such skills and the ability to converse with your parents so as to make assure them that a teen to teen Pharyngula meetup in a nice public space would be safe. Or you could just get a good book on outdoor skills – the BSA ones are actually very good – and practice on your own.
@Mattir
Yeah, they are so worried about shielding children from TEH EVIL WORLD!!! that they aren’t teaching them anything useful. Plus, when teaching kids about things like fire, one usually teach about safety precautions, so I don’t know why they are so panicked about those things.
Stay safe Og and drop into Fort Collins when you’re done and have a beer at New Belgium
Ogvorbis, are you part of an interagency hotshot crew? I passed the base of one of them as I drove DaughterSpawn to camp yesterday and thought the name was great.
Meh… I’m probably too lazy. bah.
Really? Too lazy to buy a book and a small amount of stuff and fool around in the back yard? I sort of doubt that…
No. I have a bad knee (courtesy of the US Army (Be All You Can Be!)) so I can’t even be on a type 2 crew, much less a hotshot crew. I go out as a single resource, either an SEC2 (Security Specialist type 2) or an SECM (Security Manager). My vote for the best job at a fire. The hours are long (usually up for 16 hours with 2 breaks of 30 minutes so you get paid for 15 hours) but you get to talk to lots of different people.
@Mattir
Thanks for your concern.
@237:
Whoa, I’m so timid.
Whenever somebody suggests something relating to my wish to do stuff (does that last sentence make sense?), I basically go white with fear.
Same thing happens when I’m searching for something I’m trying to find.
Or joining something online. Which is what kept me lurking for so long.
*deep breaths*
Mattir: Yes. I don’t like the outdoors, actually. I know it’s good for me…
*STOP BEING LAZY*
Og: You can fit a tree in one of those aluminium contraptions?
Ogvorbis
If they are nickeldiming you for two 30-minute breaks on a 16-hour shift, I hope your wage is
fucking outrageousreasonable.It’s sciency in the details in enough ways to try to feel grounded and then things where we’d need to break with science like FTL is excused by break through in physics that aren’t elaborated on because no one feels the need to patronize everyone else by telling them what they learned about in school.
No sound in space, most of space is empty and lacking anything interesting whatsoever.
Oh another question for people who know space. How would you imagine travel working? Is it possible to basically rely on paths and be blocked off or anything like that that could cause a bottleneck on a territory border?
Ing:
I sorta know space, but the only thing I can think of is launch windows (time constraint), but that would be pointless for outside solar system targets.
But delta-V constraints may force movement to travel in a straight line or something…
(correct me if mistaken*
Ing: Nothing in deep space could totally block a (logically 3D) border, but nebulae and other stuff could make force a detour. However, I’m not a space scientist, so take my claims with a grain of NaCl.
Argh! “make force.” I need to proofread.
A.R.
I’m pretty sure nebulae would be way too thin to pose a danger, but any interstellar dust damage at superluminal (or near-luminal) velocities would be killer.
thunk: Yeah, exactly what I was thinking. In fact, that’s why Star Trek ships have deflector dishes. And certain types of nebulae could do nasty things to the people/materials used in construction of a ship if it were not properly designed/shielded. They might interfere with any sensor systems used, but that’s pure speculation.
eh?
Like what types?
*not an astronomer, sorry*
This might provide some insight.
One thing to keep in mind;
You’ll need a lot of fuel if you’re doing it realistically.
And you’ll need fuel to carry that fuel.
And so on.
It grows exponentially, and quickly becomes impractical.
Hmmm. Thinking of the setting relying on gate/relay systems for most FTL travel. Ships can do it themselves but since most of space is not of interest it’s easier to just make those “hyperspace bypasses”
Ing:
That sounds a bit more practical.
Space is HARD. :p
And it is easily-blockadable.
Oggie:
Stay safe and good luck!
thunk: I believe some Supernova Remnant nebulae are significant generators of cosmic rays.
Ooooh….a resource desert could potentially create a ‘border bottle neck’ then couldn’t it?
Don’t you mean difficult? Cause 3 dimensions. It’s easy to go around a blockade unless it’s like a planet or something?
Ing:
The hyperspace bypasses will be vastly easier than going the actual distance.
And they could have one exit and entrance.
These can be blockaded.
A.R: Yeah.
Ing 258:
Yes; a lack of the fuel of vogue would be a major headache, either in not speeding up, or not slowing down. :p
It also will work on why people can’t say hide from authorities easily just by ducking into some of the “uninteresting space”. Threat of running out of fuel without finding more. The setting pretty much mines what it needs from “dead space”
It also works really well into one story element.
And if one does run out of fuel for some reason, they won’t slow down.
Newton’s First Law.
Basically, ing, it’ll be absurdly impractical to accelerate to reasonable speeds (and STOP) through interstellar distances.
As in 10 million tons of fuel impractical.
Spaceship fuel: That depends on the fuel used, if it’s something like a nuclear reactor (i.e. can run for years without refueling) a resource desert wouldn’t be a problem unless it was huge, but if the ship is more analogous to an automobile, it could be a great plot point.
Oh yeah that’s established. Unless, as I’m considering it the non-gate FTL requires engines to bend physics and running out of fuel means that you have to slow down to reasonable speeds.
A.R; Not exactly; space is so big that accelerating will still take mass quantities of fuel, even if you’re using fusion pulse propulsion.
@Thunk
Was thinking of getting around that by having the ships do FTL by not actually accelerated but doing something akin to wormhole/folding space…so a ship’s speed/distance is by how far it can reach, how efficient it’s engine is, ans how fastly it can calculate and recharge to do it again
Ing 267; But you can’t slow down without delta-V without some sort of force (friction by the hyperspace medium or something?) I’m honestly a bit unclear on this myself.
Ing 269: Ah, I was thinking differently.
*I played too much Orbiter*
If I go that route I imagine not being able to sustain the FPUTAD (Fuck Physics Up The Ass Drive) would cause anything doing FTL to destructively deaccelerate down past the speed of light…then leaving the wreckage speeding along adrift until it hits something?
The idea for space adn the combat there was also to think more Submarines than dog fighting. Keeping distance and trying to find/overwhelm defenses. A deflector shield can repel energy or particle fire, but you can’t exactly fire back without dropping it.
But you kinda have to use FTL for it to be practical.
Ing; Your method of gauging (for me) seems almost earth-like…
On earth (autos, planes), total performance is measured by range.
In space, total performance is measured by change in velocity.
I think i’m just approaching this from a different mindset.
Ing:
But maybe it would accelerate to infinite speed (as in some models of tachyons) *shudder*
@Thunk
Well I can’t imagine something that actually relies on change in velocity working due to the time dilation, and the sheer magnitude of the distance and speeds required.
And the combat;
That does sound reasonable.
Energy weapons have very long range in the interstellar medium, so it would be limited by collimation and the ability to target the ship.
Think millions of (not a few) miles.
Either way you’d basically be lost forever. (Hey maybe that’s how engines get energy…infinite speed==infinite energy right :-p )
And mind you, these millions of km may take some appreciable time to travel by EM radiation, so the ship would have to plan ahead.
Doubly so, as it is seeing the enemy ship x seconds in the past, and needing to hit x seconds in the future.
thunk: Given that we are talking about an FTL drive, which would basically have to work outside of normal space, fuel, other than that used to power sublight engines would not be much of a concern, unless the FTL drive is an energy hog (like an Alcubierre drive). Of course, we are also thinking of the problem without considering the potential use of an as-yet undiscovered power source.
A.R., Yeah you’re right. Ing could hand-wave lots of things in that.
Right the name of the game is “keep everyone far away”
I figure travel to a place basically consists of 1) find gate, 2) use gate, 3) trudge the weeks via accelerating or warping there because everyone keeps their gate far enough away from the planet to intercept something they dont’ want close to it.
Thought that a tactic to beat this might be to release swarms of drones to get in to the mile distance, and either pester/attack themselves, or get a bead on the target and transfer data back by FTC
Yes, I was thinking more of
1) use conventional travel to gate
2) use gate
3) Conventional again to planet
Of course, if you don’t want 1 and 3 to take more than a few days, you’ll need a warp thingy, put the gates close the the planet, or have lots and lots of delta-V available.
283: FTC?
All that physics shit: velocity, inertia, mass, light-speed, fuel, etc must be dumped.
You must go with wishing for wormholes.
Sorry FTLC (Faster than light communication)
Chigau:
Yes, in many cases.
Sad, but the plot must move forward.
yup, gates and wormhole jumps.
Ing: I personally think you should expand of the submarine analogy, i.e. have the target thousands of miles away, get a firing solution from a computer, and fire a torpedo-like weapon.
[Bragging mother]
BoyChild (age 11) came up to me today and said, “Mom, I don’t believe in god. Wanna know why?” I sighed with relief and asked why. He said, “well do you believe in vampires? (no) Have you ever seen one? (no), is there any proof that vampires exist? (no). Same for god.”
I don’t think I’ve ever discussed gods with my kids (both were baptized for their father’s benefit) but of course they are exposed to mythology via culture. And BOTH kids independently decided against belief in god.
[/bragging mother]
Be safe, Ogvorbis. That goes to the rest of you lot too, but especially Og.
Hooray! I’m so happy for both of you.
thunk
I don’t think it’s sad.
A writer thinks up a situation and puts the characters in it.
If the writer must™ ignore a few bits of reality, who cares?
(if the story works)
(and there is internal consistency)
ImaginesABeach
re: atheist offspring
yay!
Don’t rest.
Keep it as an occasional conversation.
But vampires are the Uncaused Cause! The Ground of All Being! The Ineffable Unfathomable! So they HAVE to exist!
And with that, I’m thoroughly threadrupt. Safe flight to Ogvorbis.
Brother Ogvorbis –
Please, for the love of Mike, give someone your log-in information and instructions to give regular updates, along the lines of “he continues to breath fairly often.” That way, if the news carries a story about a fire fighter getting his boot trapped in a net under a helicopter and being used to pee on the fire, we will be comforted that it probably isn’t you.
Off to bed. Will have to figure out how to discuss with BoyChild the occasional need for discretion, especially around my in-laws.
OMG
Oggy
Do what ImaginesABeach asked.
oh wait
never mind
@ we are Ing
This could work in reverse, though, as a case of running out of fuel and therefore being unable to slow to avoid hitting something.
Could enough lateral momentum to cause a course change be developed by jettisoning things? If you had projectile weapons, I would think so. Shoot at right angles to your travel route and thereby slowly get the ship to react and adjust in the opposite direction so you miss the object. Centre of mass would hit the object, but that would be an imaginary centre, with the ship on one side and the far more rapidly moving projectiles on the other which together form the mass.
Hope that is clear. Just seems like an interesting way to use actual Newtonian motion physics in space.
HI REDHEAD
And now I see the whole FTL travel part and hope my post was not annoying.
Lyn:
If so, then I’m annoying as fuck.
THREADRUPT UPDATE
THREADRUPT UPDATE
uh whoops
Sorry for any duplication.
Anyway, I have an internship! It’s low paid part time work but it’s something. I’m working on the campaign of a fellow who’s running for county-wide office. I’ve never worked on a political campaign before. I went to a Juneteenth celebration and buttonholed signatures, and I actually did pretty well! I got there late (interesting story as to why, but too personal) and collected a good number of signatures anyway. I just started introducing myself to people, saying, “Hi, I’m new in town, so I’m just going to introduce myself. Have you signed a petition for T—— yet?” and sometimes they had but then they would introduce themselves, and I got a $50 gift certificate for website design and brand marketing services. In a downtown neighborhood of a depressed, rust belt town in upstate NY. There were kids drumming, an Ice Cream Truck, bikers, a preacher type dude who lectured about health, blood pressure, alcoholism, and such things, and a crazy loud DJ with old skool beats and rows of kids and black ladies (not so much the men) doing the Electric boogie in the grass.
My life has never been boring. I will say that.
Paper’s done.
For better or worse, I’ve sent it off. I don’t need to think about it anymore.
Time to sleep.
@ SallyStrange: bottom-feeding, work-shy peasant
Woo hooo!
So the nym really WAS a lie all the time. Imagine that.
Yep, our team is out. Were/are you in The Netherlands, noting the quietness?
All orange gadgets are becoming landfill :( —
* I hate promotional gadgets. Instant landfill, what a waste!
Good morning
If it is
I love how you people can go off discussing the logistics of interstellar travel :)
Woooh-hoo for Sally Strange
BTW, does the polanski asshole over at B&W send you the same “I’ll admit to rape as long as it isn’t called rape” vibes as he does wit me?
Any yay for cipher
imagines a beach
That’s wonderful news. I hope their dad isn’t too disappointed.
I’ve never bothered to watch that Mel “CrazyEyes” Gibson’s torture porn film The passion of the Christ, but this Youtube video seems to cover it in 90 seconds.
Why?
====
Is there anything wrong with that?
====
Yay!
====
And Mattir, yay! for the other Mormon boy and the impact you had on him.
Kind of threadrupt.
I decided to play hooky from work today ‘cos I had a whoa busy weekend I’m still exhausted.
Anyway, I’ve finally been asked if I’m disappointed that DarkFetus is girltype. I was at a 4 year old’s birthday party, so I couldn’t tell my SiL to go fuck herself.
>:(
I also did some baking for the various goings on– cherry muffins for brunch yesterday and a 7Up pound cake for dessert after dinner last night. The pound cake was surprisingly more tangy than sweet and I liked it a whole lot.
Ing: If you’re positing interstellar warfare one thing to remember is that any species that has near lightspeed capability also has a practically unlimited supply of doomsday weapons.
There’s no need to get fancy, all you have to do is accelerate a mass, any mass, and direct it at the planet. It could be as simple as rock attached to the hull of your craft. Get up to speed on the correct vector, gently let the rock go and hey-presto, one Dinokiller on the way.
The greater the speed, the smaller the mass needed. You can accelerate it way outside the system and let it coast to the target rendering it practically invisible. There’s no realistic way stop such weapons ’cause space is big (unlike the trip to the chemist) and something moving at relativistic speeds is going to be damn near impossible to stop even if you could find it.
SQB,
Because I don’t think you can build a piglet out of the Lego Friends pieces. :(
No, I mean why did you buy it? Especially if you can’t even build a piglet out of the pieces?
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress.
Audley
She’s a fucking asshole.
Let me guess, the Lego frieds were for your niece?
Mr. Beach didn’t really react when GirlChild said she was an atheist. He hasn’t heard it from BoyChild yet. Mr. Beach was raised Catholic and says he believes in god, but hasn’t been to church other than for family obligations (weddings, funerals, first communions) since we were married almost 15 years ago. I think it’s mostly habit to say so.
thunk:
That makes *perfect* sense. Hats being universal gang symbols and all that…
I’d better throw away my four trucker hats, my Guiness hat, and my Bacardi cocktail hat. Oh and definitely throw away my Superman s-shield hat. I wouldn’t want anyone to recognize what gang I belong to.
SQB:
Oh! For my niece’s birthday. I was specifically told not to buy “Lego for boys”. *headdesk!*
But I feel like building blocks are good for all kids (and they’re hella fun), so it could’ve been worse, I guess. :-/
Giliell:
Yep. Major asshole.
The thing is, my SiL who is all about the pink for her little girl is SUPER DUPER OMG excited that I’m going to have a girl. This was my other SiL, who is younger than I am and has no children. I have no idea where that comment came from, but I’m still pissed about it. >:(
Internet ‘trolls’ face being named under new bill http://phys.org/news/2012-06-internet-trolls-bill.html
— — — — — —
“I’d better throw away my four trucker hats, my Guiness hat, and my Bacardi cocktail hat”
In Kate Griffin’s urban gothic novel “The Midnight Mayor” the phrase “Give me back my hat!” plays a surprising role in the pending doom of the Greater London area. Plus lots of blood, gore and supernatural baddies. Loved it!
Audley
HULK SMASH on DFs behalf.
*KEENACAT AND AUDLEY SMASH!*
*HULK RAGE!*
IMO, just asking whether one is happy with the sex of one’s child to be, or would rather have had the opposite, is already beyond what I would consider polite, but I can imagine it coming up between good friends. However, implying that the opposite would in fact have been better — as I gather what happened — is definitely beyond the pale.
Thought I’d mention a product you all may know, of course, but it’s new to me. It’s printer paper for photographs. The neat thing is the side you print is a textured plastic surface, and the back is very smooth plastic. The pictures it prints are very good quality. You can then apply it to a surface, like a wall or fridge. If you get tired of it, you can peel it off. If you move it a lot and the back gets furred up, you wash it off gently with a cloth and a little soap and water. It works again.
I’m having fun putting these up all over the place and not having to worry about the walls. Here, the cost is about $12 for a pack of A4 (letter sized basically). They look nice and you don’t need a frame.
Audley
Yes, people LOVE to tell you what you should feel and do with your child. Even what “kind” you should have. It is aggravating, but I felt that the joy of having the child you have, unique and wonderful, usually washes away the dimbulb things. I hope that stage comes for you soon and even the remarks of a SIL will not bother you. Waiting for it is tough, but I understand it is not much longer.
All the best to you.
Oh, and as a lawyer, I must mention that killing them all and burning their houses down is still not legal.
SQB Yup, and many others. It’s a problem that I can’t see solved without some kind of handwave.
Audley
You know, I’ve hung around here long enough that I shouldn’t be surprised at that sort of thing. But what the fucking hell? It must be my maleness again, because no one has said anything like that to me. Nor have they given me any kind of hard time about having only one child. Mrs. Fishy on the other hand has had to repeatedly defend our decision to have only one child. Bah.
SQB:
I guess it could come up between friends, but it seems like all of my friends have simply been happy that I’m happy, you know?
Let me tell you, after I’ve dealt with various asshole family members, I really appreciate how awesome my IRL, internet, and Horde friends are.
Yep, that’s exactly what happened. She asked me if I was disappointed that DF is going to be a girl. I’m still having a hard time wrapping my head around that.
Hope
I used to want to live in the shiny, spacey future promised by Popular Science and Amazing Stories. One where all our problems were solved and we all lived happy, shiny lives. But as time rolled on and the future crept into the past with nary a hover bike or robot butler to be seen, I had to modify my desires.
Then I wanted to live in a future where the relative peace and plenty I enjoyed were the norm, not just here for me, but everywhere. The Wall fell, it seemed possible. But then time passed and the Towers fell and I had to say no, not in my lifetime.
So I scaled back again. Maybe we could at least sort out ourselves, close the divide between the genders in, well, just about everything? Surely that was possible? Things are so much better now than they were last decade, and that was better the one before, right? In this at least things were already moving in the right direction. And then time passed and I found Pharyngula, and I read the threads that blew up to unimaginable sizes. Unimaginable to me because, you know, it’s getting better….
The velvet curtain of privilege is an awful thing, it hides the full reality of our society. Peeking through the rent torn by PZ’s posts and the comments on them has shown me once again that my desire to live in a shiny future was naive.
But oddly, I still feel hope. Despite the absolute, overwhelming idiocy of the likes of jenny and her ilk, they are not winning. Not here. They cannot win because the hoard will not stop. As one commenter falls away, exhausted, another takes up the fight. This is community, this is strength.
Pharyngula is a culture that’s defining itself in those horrid, horrible threads as one that will fight back until the bitter end. And in that, I find hope. My daughter will live in a better world, a fairer world, a shiny world dammit, if the communities who believe in that world never give up. And by fucking-rabbi-on-a-stick, that’s one thing you can say about the horde: it never gives up.
Thank you, thank you all.
You lawyery types are SUCH killjoys.
___________________________________________
Happy news from the ex crapola: My family is chipping in some major bucks for me to refurnish my apartment when ex moves out and takes his stuff with him. Hah!
Lyn:
Thank you!
Should I double check my local laws, just to make extra sure that this is the case? :p
FossilFishy:
I think you’re right. I know that no one has said anything like that to Mr Darkheart, even though he’s technically the one responsible for “making” a girl.
I’m going to continue to receive all of the criticism, yay!
(TW: forced abortion) The
caseviolation of Feng Jiammei is exactly why “pro-choice” is not the opposite of “pro-life”.Of course not, it’s the fault of your feminazi ovum, rejecting all his poor Y-chromosomed gametes (screaming “but wut about the menz” as they went under).
SQB
That got an honest LOL that startled Mrs. F.
SQB:
Oh man, I wish my feminazi ovum was equipped with lasers to pew! pew! pew! all of the Y chromosome carrying sperm out of existence!
As a lawyer, I must recommend that. In my profession, we have a latin tag for it, “Quidnam hades teneo” or in English, “Who the hell knows?” Check away.
All your Y belong to X.
http://www.wisdomofchopra.com/
Do not fear, friends. Now shiny new and original Deepak Chopra wisdom can be delivered to you in nanoseconds, by means of the Quantum Random Energy Chopra Quote Generator(tm). Full of meridian consciousness.
PZ? Care to establish a Chopra-Quote-Feature so we can haz a random Chopra Asspull each day?
“Yes. *crestfallen look* Yes, I am disappointed. Oh, I’m sure I’ll learn to tolerate her, in time, and perhaps one day my bitter, dry heart might even get a tiny glimmer of what could pass for a brief flicker of joy if she somehow manages to make something of her shambled, second-rate life. But I know that every time I look at her it will be with a cold undercurrent of disdain, and that every time I change her diaper, every time I buy sparkly wee shoes, every time I hear “Mommy, I want to be just like you when I grow up”, I will mourn for the Penis That Might Have Been. I can only hope that she doesn’t internalize the hatred I have towards her being a girl to the point that she becomes a mass murderer and embarrasses the family.”
Think she would be satisfied with that answer? ;)
Yay! And the best part is you can get whatever you want without asking ANYBODY if it’s ok. :)
SallyStrange – yay for your internship! They are lucky to have someone like you.
.
Cipher, many congrats on getting your paper finished. Do let us know if you feel like letting any of the horde read it at any point – maybe with your identifying details filed off? I’d love to read it some time if you feel ok with it (I’m not in your field or anything, I just think it sounds like a fascinating topic).
.
Audley, I can’t believe your SiL asked you that. What the fuck kind of a shit-stupid question is that? And … she has a niece, after all – your other SiL’s daughter, right? Oooooo. That’s so fucking sad. It would be less surprising (though no whit less repugnant) if you already had 3 or 4 daughters yourself, but for a first pregnancy? wtf.
Ah, no, re-thinking that. Aha. I’ve got it. She has become aware of the fact that you don’t do The All-Pink-All-The-Time Thing and has interpreted this to mean that you don’t like girls/don’t want a girl. Headdesk headdesk headdesk!!!!!!!!!! Fucking argh crash headfloor with physically dangerous levels of eyerolling.
.
keenacat, re-doing your flat sounds brilliant – so good to make your everyday surroundings fresh and new. Good for your family!
Indeed. I admit, I am looking forward to it. I had to abort a few ideas for the flat when we moved in because he wouldn’t have it, and now I can furnish ALL THE ROOMS to my liking. And decorate and shit. Yay!
Audley
I can well believe that pink-SIL is all happy about DGF. Has she offered you the pink stuff already? Some people really buy into that “seperate but equal” bullshit and completely forget that their childhood offered choices. There’s nothing wrong about a pink dress, or about having 25 different shades of nail-polish as an adult or the biggest matchbox-collection in town. But they don’t understand that they’re taking away choices, the freedom to grow up with options.
I’d say that, unless it’s very, very close friends anything but “Aren’t you happy the Fetus is sex ABC?” is inappropriate. Being happy about sex A doesn’t mean one would have been unhappy about B. It just means HAPPY. I’m happy with my two girls, but I would be equally happy with two boys. Or one of each.
To me, that’s the difference between that awefull S. Oliver shirt “anything girls can do, boys can do better” and this embroidery design. There’s the matching one for boys, too. To me, they simply declare that being a boy/girl is good, not better. Although I know that many people have problems thinking in the positive (the basic form of the adjective) alone. For them things can’t be “good” or “bad”, they must be better or worse.
Keenacat
Yay. I love redecorating. Are you thinking about a certain style?
carlie:
I just needed to see that again. :D
opposablethumbs:
!!
Holy shit, I think that’s it! Because I don’t want to jam a little girl into asinine gender roles means I don’t want a little girl and I think that having a little girl is a bad thing.
*headdesk*
*headdesk*
*headdfloor*
*drool!*
Audley:
Arggh!
That was a horrible thing for your SiL to say. I wonder how she’d feel if someone said that to her parents while she was around…
~
I feel dirty. Just stumbled upon “Conservapedia”. I had a broad sense of what it was about but wow, the wingnuttery is super strong there. Plus they have this weird fixation on bestiality.
~
Weed Monkey:
re: Passion of the Christ,
I still find it funny that so many parents and church leaders embraced this movie:
yet other movies that depict violence are heavily criticized:
[emphasis mine]
So the violence in an R-rated movie is ok as long as it serves a higher function, but violence in a PG-13 film is too much?
Notice how they included ‘…some homosexual cross-dressing…’ twice?
~
Be nice if he explained *how* the world was made a better place. Wishful thinking on his part?
`
In the “do you really think this is going to make people take you seriously” category, we have:
Dear Kazakhstan:
State symbols are not people.
That is all.
~
Finally, just for laughs:
“Legitimate religious objections”??!!
When is someone going to inform us what these objections are?
keenacat @339: If that seems like too much reading, why not discover the wisdom of Chopra by flailing around in your living room? With this: http://marketplace.xbox.com/en-US/Product/Deepak-Chopras-Leela/66acd000-77fe-1000-9115-d8025451086b
I had a pretty wild Sunday. Woke up around noon, heard what sounded like a total of three gunshots followed by people outside reacting to them. I looked out of my front window and saw flames. When I went to open the door there was too much smoke to see anything. It turned out that someone’s car had exploded next door!
Luckily nobody was hurt; the owner of the car had been driving for 4 hours or so and was in his apartment taking a nap before going in to work. From what I could gather from the other lookie-loos, it was supposedly caused by an electrical problem.
I tried really hard to acknowledge Father’s Day. I called my dad, told him all about my interesting afternoon, and he started trying to excuse me from the phone five minutes into the conversation- I was in a drive-through car wash taking care of the ash on my car, and he started in with “well I’ll let you get to work on your car.” I explained that it was automatic and I wasn’t in a hurry, but he kept coming up with reasons why I should get off the phone. It’s a bummer when I make an effort to do “traditional” dad/son stuff and I’m the only one trying.
Giliell:
No, thankfully. She’s pregnant, too (due at the end of next month). She doesn’t know if she’s having a girl or a boy, so she’s hanging on to it for now.
This is it, exactly! As I’ve been trying to explain to people, I don’t want the DF to be completely gender neutral in everything that she does– when she’s old enough to make choices and express her opinions, I want her to be comfortable asking for both a baby doll and a toy truck. I don’t see this as being a radical way to raise a child, but perhaps I’m wrong.
Audley
I wish you a lot of strength for this, because I know it isn’t easy. Because sadly we’re not the only ones to raise our children. I could really see #1 moving from “I want/ don’t want X because of Y” to “I want/ don’t want X because it’s for girls/ not for girls” and it makes me want to scream.
It’s horrible how she gets ideas installed into her head without even having a basic understanding about what they mean.
Last week she played that she was a “famous queen”. I was a bit puzzled. I’ve kept the Disney princess bullshit at a minimum. I think I’ll get her Mulan for her birthday. So I asked
“what do queens do?”
“They can fly!”
“And what’s famous?”
“well, I need the red slippers for that!”
She has no clue what either word actually means but she thinks that’s what she should be…
Giliell:
All we can do is try, right?
Good morning (or time period where you are)!
—
Nerd: Yay on the Redhead’s return home!
—
Ogvorbis: Be safe!
—
Audley: Argh! What is wrong with people?
—
Cipher: Yay for finished papers!
—
SallyStrange: Yay on the internship!
—
Spent the part of yesterday hanging out with my brilliant 14yo adopta-nephew as he launched his newest model rocket and beat me mercilessly at poker. I lost my entire candy fortune: Smarties, Swedish fish, Junior Mints, and even the Jolly Ranchers! (He did, however, split his winnings with me while we watched our favorite “Doctor Who” episodes on Netflix.)
Got home and discovered UPS had delivered the monthly package from my mother. Instead of the usual mystery novels, goodies, and dollar store gifts, there was a pile of hometown newspapers from November and December and a stack of Time magazines from last summer. Um…oh-kay. She also included the usual “God wuvs you” book, so I presume there is some reason for the other stuff.
SallyStrange:
Congratulations on the internship.
~
Predator:
What a horrible way to be woken up. Sorry things didn’t go any better with your father.
~
keenacat:
I’m almost certain I’ll regret it, but here goes
::slinking off to check your link::
What Disney Movies Taught Me.
Taken into account…another reason why gates are outside of real borders and systems are flooded with defense grids and precautions to try to prevent such shit. Entry into a system is heavily regulated and defended. Infantry combat is almost gone due to the scale of this combat…now it’s a matter of “disable defenses so we can sabre rattle with our mass drivers”
Yes.
Said relativistic vehicles can me deployed in mass numbers. The swarm would basically be unstoppable.
keenacat:
Here’s my Deepak fictional quote:
“Your body gives rise to an abundance of happiness.”
Sure.
My body also gives rise to an abundance of smelly odors after I drink milk.
Is that deep too?
And also, you would have nearly NO warning (save for FTL communication), because of their speed.
Of course you yourself would lose the planet though. Also it puts things into a MAD scenario where thus people don’t do that in fear of all out war. It’s a nuclear option
Wouldn’t it be hard to aim such a thing though? I mean couldn’t it just accidentally hit any of the passing space junk?
Tony,
I’d say your quote is a glorification of masturbation. I heart it. :D
Also,
*lactose intolerant tackle hug*
*snerfle* Space junk.
uh, yeah, ing.
But given you can sight a spaceship, you can aim it.
It wouldn’t really be deflected by gravity or anything (save near black holes).
And the projectiles (rods of tungsten have been suggested) could explode just before impact to create a high-speed shrapnel cloud.
And you wouldn’t ruin a planet if it’s not in the path…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relativistic_kill_vehicle
Are you fucking kidding me??
I can’t wait to see his justification for killing that poor animal.
FossilFishy:
It’s always the woman’s fault. Even when it’s not under her control, it’s her fault.
—
keenacat:
That’s fantastic!
—
Lyn M:
This makes me even more happy about taking Beginning Latin in the fall. I want to be able to sound quite profound while actually being snarky. Of course, given past history with languages, I may crash and burn horribly.
Ahem. It was a spear.
For contrast, here was the setting of my volunteer work with Raptor Rehab this weekend in Missouri. Small town “Heritage Days” festival. One of the trucks arriving from the parade had an American flag and a Confederate flag. One of the booths was for colloidal silver, another appeared to be about concealed handguns. The one food truck that I could see from where we were set up had kettle corn.
Tony,
YEAH RIGHT sometimes punches just HAPPEN, you know? Can’t do anything about it.
Or maybe she means the accident was the pup dying from the punch, because pups should be re-punchable?
__________________________________________
In slightly happier news, I’ll leave now to hand in my first homemade prescription (for my levothyroxine). Haha OMG I’m a doc nao!
ah I thought we were talking about aiming at a planet from outside it’s solar system.
Yeah torpedo warfare. First one to spot the other pretty much wins if they’re seeking to destroy it
keenacat:
Oh, I simply must choose a new Deep Quote. Masturbation is sinful. So says Jahwalla.
~
How long before apologists latch onto this:
I wonder how badly believers will mangle this story…
“John the Baptist was real…therefore God!”
Where did they get the DNA of JtB to compare it to?
Ugh, Ibyea.
Good job, Imagines.
Congrats, Sally!
Audley, GAH.
Yay, Keena!
Predator Handshake: Sympathy.
These boxes contain bricks in several shades of pink, but at least you can build a piglet from them.
14 year old Rush Limbaugh wanna be says Obmama is turning kids gay.
video at link
Hehe “little bit”
Ing;;
Ah, planets.
They’re sitting ducks, so that could be a major danger.
That kid’s website
But at least potentially fortifable with early detection systems + (FTLC) to try to keep things far away from them. Also there’s the MAD with attacking a planet like that…and that because of gates in order to do so you’d have to be within range of their defense grids so it’d be practically a suicide run to try it.
He should have practiced that smug smirk a bit more in front of the mirror, it’s obvious that he’s trying too hard.
And it’s generally accepted that there’s no reason to attack another planet unless you’re just being agressive. Space is big so you can expand out elsewhere and find what you need resource wise without having to bother with other life forms. If you’re going to attack the planet it logically must be for a reason that just bombing it to bits won’t be productive towards.
I just looked at that kid’s website.
I have decided that sobriety, it is not for me. I am starting drinking early this week.
Louis
What if I just feel like bombing a few worlds into stardust?
@Rev
You’d be in the Freestates (libertarianesq policy) and if you can afford ti you’re free to wander out to deadspace and bomb a placing planetoid for giggles.
What about to eliminate potential threats?
The best method is to hold in farts all day until the photoshoot.
That kid has a huge quote saying “You are officially a conservative when you have an article about you on the Huffington Post”.
PZ is a conservative????
Also Obama.
Also Madalyn Murray O’Hair.
Also Sweden.
Of the three factions two are on well enough terms that all out war is not desired…and even then it’d probably be easier to just strand them by destroying or shutting off a gate, or blockading it.
The other one has a bottle neck problem due to said gate and is in a cold war state. Confrontation is constantly delayed as one side wants to avoid/delay all out war and the other one is optimistically thinking any such war won’t apply to them.
Sooo, soon the miscommunication between my sister and me that resulted in too much bread will culminate in a fantastic dinner :)
Semmelknödel with Mushroom-Gulassh
Audley
Yes, we can and I think it’s doable.
But honestly, I thought it would be easier.
Hell, i grew up during the 80’s when He-Man had at least a token-female on each side (that’s one more than most current boy-playsets) and Barbie had real jobs. I shouldn’t have to deal with that fuck at all.
And I was honestly naive when I thought I would just provide alternatives and everything would be fine. I didn’t realize that there was a multi-billion dollar industry stacked against me.
“As America grows more polarized, conservatives increasingly reject science and rational thought,” — that’s the title of an article in Salon.
Excerpt:
Rather than “losing their trust in science,” I would say that they lose their ability to sort fact from fiction.
PZ is mentioned:
Ing:
Planetary conquest is impractical. The amount of resources necessary to actually take over an inhabited planet are prohibitive to get through space; the power differential between the two groups would have to be overwhelming to begin with.
I mean, think about how much effort and energy it would take to safely land, say, a million soldiers and all their required gear, munitions, food, whatever, on Earth. And that likely wouldn’t be sufficient to take over the whole planet in any kind of reasonable time frame. And then think about how many ships it would take to get those kinds of resources from another star system to this one; if one had that kind of power, one could build a planet somewhere and just use that for less effort and expense.
If someone is going to attack a planet, pretty much the only reason to do so (with extremely limited exceptions that would be based on capturing a specific resource) is to obliterate it.
RKVs: The only way I can imagine one of these could be stopped involves the use of space-based weapons firing on a solution relayed from a distant early warning system.
I don’t EVER get to do what I wanna
An article on the Politico website makes a laudable effort to sort out the muddled facts and the muddled politics surrounding Bain Capital. Writers Alexander Burns and John Harris say what I’ve been thinking for some time:
Exactly. What’s with this repetition from many Dem politicians, not just Obama, that making money the way Bain does is a good idea? Bain is not a private equity firm that mostly offers startup money to new businesses, or renovation money to existing businesses, or management expertise where needed. Bain is a company that takes those pro-business actions occasionally while it mostly looks for ways to pillage and burn. If your company fails during or after the pillaging, that’s just proof that the company was weak and Bain just delivered the mercy blow.
Look at Bain’s earnings compared to those of the companies with which they interacted. Most of the time Bain won big whether the company failed or thrived. Bain’s plate is not just full, but overfull.
Obama is trying so hard to battle the anti-business label conservatives put on him that I think he has ended up telling lies. Yes, there is something wrong with Bain.
I don’t think questioning the ethics of Bain Capital’s managers is equal to attacking free enterprise.
A followup to my post @391 — this comment comes from a reader at the Politico site:
New meme: Rationalization Hamster.
Speaking of which, Mano found a story from last fall about a workplace that makes the one in Office Space look utterly functional. Bold is my emphasis:
There’s very little news coverage of this (mostly affects women, so why should anyone care?), but over the weekend Mitt Romney spoke via video feed to the Faith & Freedom Coalition. Among other things, Romney evinced his considerable distaste for Obama’s position on access to contraception.
Romney took the “religious freedom” tack in his anti-contraception remarks.
The Faith & Freedom Coalition is run by Ralph Reed. Yes, the same Ralph Reed that was identified as a criminal in the Abramoff scandal. I guess this proves that right-wingers really do have short memories. Ralph Reed took millions of Native American tribal dollars and used those dollars not to lobby for Native American rights and interests, but to fund Christian campaigns against tribal casinos.
So, unethical business practices, criminal activity — no problem. Mitt Romney is right at home with this group.
Romney also quoted Rick Santorum. No further comment needed.
ImaginesABeach, that’s awesome!
–
SallyStrange: *high five* on the internship!
–
Cipher, hurrah! for the doneness of the paper. :)
–
I want to shake Dominick Zarrillo’s hand. The support and love he shows his son Jeff, and his partner Paul is inspiring:
~
I absolutely love how this fifth grader can grasp simple human compassion and basic rights. He could teach Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Michelle Bachmann, George W Bush, Herman Cain, Rick Perry, Sarah Palin and all the other religio-conservative politicians quite a bit (if they would listen):
Supreme Court Justice Scalia is getting ready to vote against the health care law. He’s been looking for a way to do the far right wing a solid, and I think he has found one. He’s going after precedent defining the Commerce Clause, saying it was improperly decided.
Link to story by Sahil Kapur.
As journalist Steve Benen noted:
Some good news. Over the weekend, Mayors from here, there and everywhere met. Surprise! They passed a pro-choice resolution.
@Rev.
If your in Consortium you could request your manditory civil service be on a mining expedition.
Hey, that’s the plot of “The Killing Stars”.
(Note that since all interstellar spaceships, by lieu of their own mass and velocity, are weapons of mass destruction, that means that current international treaties and laws actually prohibit humans from building interstellar spaceships. Those one would presume that by the time we get (if we get that far) the tech to build such a thing, the treaties and international laws will probably be updated).
Of course, in any setting wherein there are more than 2 sides capable of this tactic, no one will dare to launch.
The energy required for the initial launch will be enormous, and shine like a beacon to anyone watching. This won’t help the target, since the signal is lightspeed, so the near-lightspeed attack will arrive only a very short time after the signal is seen. But any third party that is not the target will see it, and that means the launching party must consider that when they launch they will 1) announce their location to all third parties and 2) demonstrate that they are able and willing to launch pre-emptive and unprovoked attacks of this nature. And since these attacks are unstoppable, the third party will have no choice but to launch their own pre-emptive attack.
In a situation of multiple near-lightspeed capable civilizations, with incomplete knowledge of one another, this could lead to a rapid apocalyptic daisy-chain of galactic destruction.
B, fearing A, launches pre-emptive attack. Unbeknownst to B, C observes B attack A, and fearing B, launches attack on B. D observes C attack B, but, unaware of the attack on A, thinks C launched unprovoked attack on B, and launches at C. E launches at D for similar reason. And so on. In short order only one near-lightspeed capable civilization (call it Z) is left. Now if anywhere on this chain some observes Z launch before the attack targeted to them gets to them, and launches at Z, then poof, everyone’s dead, except for the non near-lightspeed capable civs.
A thus we have a solution to Fermi’s Paradox!
Hey, thanks for the congrats, everyone! I’m about to head over to the office to do some data entry (YAY I FUCKING LOVE DATA ENTRY, SERIOUSLY I DO) in a few. I just wanted to reiterate congrats for Cipher and sympathies for Audley in the misfortune of having asshole relatives.
What would have to be done is what was done in WWI when your lines are faced with suppressing fire from enemy artillery.
You can’t return fire from the area under attack, but you can triangulate the location of the enemy’s weapons from their pattern of fire, and strike back from another weapons installation you have which hopefully your enemy doesn’t know about.
The key is to keep as many of your assets hidden from enemy observation as possible, and spread them out.
For interest:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2012/06/18/the-super-seers-who-live-among-us/#more-37806
One fascinating thing about this link is that the gene that produces tetrachromacy in some females is the exact same gene that results in red-green colourblindness in males. So what would at first appear to be a detrimental variant actually turns out to be a beneficial, gain-of-function mutation in some instances.
The corollary to #401 would be that civilizations with foresight will never dare launch any near-lightspeed expedition, peaceful or not, from their home star system, or any system which they value as a colony. They will voluntarily restrict themselves to slow sub-light generational ships for colonization purposes, and if they have near-lightspeed capabilities that they wish to use, they will only build launch installations far away from their home systems (in which case sublight slow supply becomes an issue).
Similarly they will not use near-light-speed propulsion for any non-military/civilian use that requires deceleration, because the energy expenditure of decelerating also shines like a beacon and would reveal their relativistic capability to outside observers.
This could be another solution for Fermi’s Paradox.
People who dis on data entry are just angry that they can’t do work with headphones on.
I have bronchitis.
Yep. Headphones make everything better. I love the days I’m dissecting my critters, because I can listen to podcasts all day and ignore everyone else in the lab. Bliss.
Amphiox: That, however assumes that the only way of practical interstellar travel is some sort of relativistic drive. Of course, this is the only real possibility with our understanding of physics, but more advanced cultures may have developed something more like a wormhole drive etc. that would allow FTL travel.
Going to have to stop fun talk for a while. Boss person has spent a lot of time now belittling me and badgering me and breaking me down. They’re taking a perverse glee in not wanting me around, but not wanting me out of work at all and bean counting and rules lawyer anyway they can to make it difficult to find work, then belittling me for being too lazy not to have found a job yet.
I came by this on Hemant’s blog. Did anyone here read Leah Libresco’s blog before this?
I don’t really get this. I mean, I think I’ve seen this happen to a few other people before: they get so twisted up in moral philosophy, having to justify/explain everything that when they get to a point where they’re at a loss for explanation, it’s like a spring snaps and they go “uh..must be God! Whew!” like it’s a release valve for their mental incongruities.
I mean, that’s what it sounds like when she says this:
That Moral Law Person being the Catholic God. Yeesh.
Well I have to say that anyone these days who decides voluntarily to convert to Catholicism probably does have a problem understanding morality, since a moral person would not countenance such a move.
I already knew that The Daily Beast was crap, but this is just delightful:
America’s 25 Most Crime-Rattled Colleges
Anyone else notice what crimes TBD didn’t take into account when developing the rankings?
I’ve seen the name Unequally Yoked recommended before, but I don’t recall where, nor have I taken a look at it.
Interesting to see if this is an effect of Patheos. Anyone care to take bets on when Hemant turns?
In other news: finally a god I can believe in.
From a quick look at her post she’s a dualist and a transhumanist. And she apparently approves of GK Chesterton and CS Lewis, so …
*ankle hugs* for Ing
Geesh I hate my body right now. The thyroxin is driving me crazy. Actually I’m permanently hungry. I ate a lot before, no question, but that was mostly the “hmm this looks appetizing let’s eat it” stuff. Now I want six meals a day or I get “give me food or I’m going to gnaw off somebody’s leg” hungry.
I don’t really know much about it, but I assume Patheos is some kinda community site like FtB but with theists and atheists? It shows in the comments; there are a few people criticizing the logic Leah’s exhibiting in her conversion, but there’s also lots of “God’s so happy another godless heathen has returned to His graces! PRAISE TEH LAWD!!!” type comments going on too.*
*Speaking of this, I get so tired of the attitude so many Christians engage in where they present their faith as something you will inevitably accept, even if most people only acquiesce because of the wars of attrition and thousands of pages of rhetorical cotton candy they’re capable of spinning. I’ve seen Christians convert non-Christians simply because they were able to outlast the non-Christian in a prolonged discussion. I dunno about Leah, but I don’t wanna be William Lane Craig’d to Jesus.
RahXephon – if you head over to BlagHag, there’s a raging discussion going on about it now. Mainly someone claiming that you can totes be a good Catholic without believing anything the Catholic Church says.
Ing, I’m so so sorry.
Giliell – is it possible you’re not on quite the right dose yet? I know my spouse took a few tries to get the dose that was enough to do its job without causing wacky side effects.
Ugh. I have enough of those people in my family. They go to church every Sunday and do whatever they want all the rest of the time. The church doesn’t seem to have any actual influence on their lives, which makes me question why they would go to something every week that’s culturally irrelevant to them. Habit, I guess?
carlie
It’s entirely possible. After all it’s the “first try” and sadly with Hashimoto’s you can never be sure. Sister says that it’s to be expected.
RahXephon:
“Morality just loves me”?
What kind of woo shit is that?
When did morality become a sentient being capable of emotions?
What scientific evidence does she have to support that ridiculous idea?
How do you get from “I don’t have a clear idea of where my system of morals comes from…therefore God”?
And the god of catholicism to boot.
ButchKitties:
No mention of sexual assault or rape?
Out of 500 universities.
And there are morons out there who think Rape Culture is non existent…Damn.
RahXephon
Do your relatives who “go to church every Sunday and do whatever they want all the rest of the time” take Communion when they go to church?
If they do that without going to Confession beforehand as far as I remember from my Catechism
THEY ARE GOING TO HEEELLLL!!!!!
tell them that from me ;)
Ah, cultural Catholics. Partly habitually, partly because of that special fuzzy feeling when they can say that Catholicism is part of their identity and their traditions. Because they are not just whoever, they have important traditions which are, like, old and traditional and make them special in the eyes of God and their neighbors.
Tony, they explain:
I should clarify that that explanation accompanied the 2010 rankings by the same website.
It depends on the specifics of the physics of hypothetical FTL.
But if the FTL also is a weapon of mass destruction in the manner of relativistic impactors (say for example, if opening a wormhole releases enough energy to devastate a planet if you place the wormhole just so), then the same logic still applies. So long as FTL travel also allows for FTL communication, ie detection.
(If you have FTL travel without FTL communication/detection, then whoever develops FTL first conquers the universe at will, and no one will be able to stop them – they’ll be destroyed BEFORE they even see the attack, and indeed MUST do so for self-preservation, or else the next FTL civilization that turns out to be aggressive will destroy THEM).
Matt Penfold:
QFT!
I am unable to comprehend why she made this decision. I can’t understand how in almost no time at all, she decided to jump on the Catholic bandwagon.
Most important: I can’t understand why someone seeking a coherent system of morality would turn to the Catholic Church, specifically.
“Hi, we’re the moral police of the planet. Just ignore the fact that we don’t give a rat’s ass about all the children that many of our priests have raped over the course of our history. Also, you should ignore that we didn’t turn any of them over to authorities. You will find yourself needing to quietly downplay how frequently we quietly reassigned priests so the law couldn’t touch them. Yeah, just ignore all that, plus any of our connections to Nazi Germany. Other than that, and the way we treat women and gays, our strident opposition to contraception, and the lies we’ve spread about condoms in Africa, we’re a bunch of *swell old guys*”
Given what little she revealed in her post, it’s clear she really thought that through.
Amphiox: Yes, that’s true, but if you think about it, even with FTL communication, the attack would almost certainly be launched in secret, so it is unlikely that the target would have more than a few seconds notice. Also recall that ICBMs and conventional spaceflight use identical methods of launch, much like our hypothetical Doomsday weapons, and the early militarily (sometimes unannounced) launches did not start a nuclear exchange. Granted, spy networks may have played a part in this. (Apologies for the rambling, I’m trying to get what’s in my head into the comments box, and the transcription process isn’t perfect!)
I am threadrupt! I shall continue to be threadrupt for awhile, because I’m busy reading the “situation” thread.
So, I’m dashing in to make an announcement.
On this coming September 25, it will be FIVE FUCKING YEARS since the completion of my final round of cancer treatments. My latest tests are clear and all that.
*celebration*
That is, there will be a damned awesome party. I am throwing it for myself. Not on the 25th, because work and all that, but a few days earlier, on the 22nd.
Which is to say that if there could be a little Pharygulation at my place, that would be awesome. If not, the Horde is hereby invited to toss back a grog (or six) in my honor wherever they are located.
Relatedly: get your goddamned routine checkups! It was stage 1, and still completely enclosed in the tissue. As a result, surgical excision was simple, and there was relatively little grief. But! It was near the edge of the tissue, near a lymph node, near tissue that cannot be easily excised and is otherwise fragile, and the doctors have been very clear that even a few months could have made things very different.
Esteleth
Yay! for 5 fucking years!
Chas:
That makes this recent list even more fucked up that they didn’t even add a disclaimer for rape and sexual assault. One of the commenters mentioned that they may have included sexual assault with other forms of assault, which if true, is massively fucked up.
@426
That makes me feel a very, very, very tiny bit better, but at the very least it’s astonishing that TBD didn’t include that explanation in the 2012 article.
Surely there is a way to correct for that kind of slant in the data, like weighting the data so that reported rapes count less heavily when the university has a strong sexual assault policy that encourages reporting? Leaving it out entirely is ignoring such a vital piece of the picture that there’s little point in doing a crime ranking at all. The Jeanne Clery annual reports include copies of each university’s sexual assault policies.
Esteleth:
::raises glass of Sangria::
To 5 years!
Congratulations!
Sorry to hear the fuckers are grinding you down, Ing.
I’d spit at them if I could.
Yay, Esteleth
Journey’s a bit far for me but I’ll raise my glass to you.
Come next summer MIL will have her 5 years up as well.
A.R., remember that I am including detection with communication. Everything actually depends on the relative difference between detection and attack. The actual speed, whether sub light or FTL, itself doesn’t matter.
The scenarios I describe occur if attack and detection occur at almost the same speed(any temporal effects of FTL will apply equally and cancel out). If you are the attacker, your target cannot defend itself because it will only detect the attack just before it gets hit. But a third party observing the both of you will see your launch and it’s results and will be free to preemptively attack you, and you will have no defense.
The other scenarios are;
1) Detection is much faster than attack. This is the real world scenario. ICBMs are detected by radar at light speed. This makes countermeasures and retaliation theoretically possible, enabling deterrence. This would also be the case if attacks were relativistic, but detection and communication were FTL.
2) Attack is much faster than detection. Here whoever attacks first automatically wins. Everyone else is destroyed even before they know they are under attack.
Hooray for Esteleth! Will make a somewhat overdue medical appointment in your honor…
Today was the first day of summer camp. I realized I needed to transfer worms from a completely composted tray of the vermicomposting sytem. On the spur of the moment, I dumped it all into a kid wading pool and had the campers fish out as many worms as they could. They did this for 45 minutes!!! About halfway through, I found a couple of worm egg cases and stuck them under the microscope. We could see the baby worms (fetal worms? whatever…) wriggling around inside the case. I stuck the case under a digital camera microscope and made a movie as well. So not only did I get a somewhat annoying chore taken care of, I got a lot of quietly absorbed campers learning about red wrigglers, wondering whether their parents would let them set up an indoor vermicomposting system.
Other things we did – take a longish hike, learn about nature journaling (along with being quiet so as to hear stuff in nature), listen to the “rap battles” of male wood thrushes (kids came up with that description of the dueling song behavior), and paint mudcloth.
Tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday are field trips, which are actually way easier than camp days on site at the nature center.
Just for shits and giggles, here is Charlie Pierce ripping apart a wingnut article that tries to paint a baceball player as a conservative hero doing battle against the affirmative action liberals of baseball.
Did you know that the Mittbot 3000 has a lot in common with Bryce Harper?
@BCPA_Lady (now appearing in MN!) #364
Apologies if I posted this before, but I don’t see it in the thread.
The Latin tag I posted was made up of loosely packed Latin words. There are real tags, but I couldn’t think of one that was funny in context when translated, so I faked it.
Good luck with your real Latin and just ignore mine.
Free Will And Testament-Christine Collister
Lyn:
Ah whatever, Dog Latin is fine.
Iron Man-The Cardigans
Happiness Is A Warm Gun-The Breeders
’97 Bonnie And Clyde-Tori Amos
I’m just going to leave this one there. It pretty much speaks for itself:
Hooray Esteleth & 5 years! I had my 6 month ultra-sound on the 15th, and I’m good too, Yeah!
Mattir – I have another piece finished, do we have a deadline for the knitting? The family meltdown is on hold for the moment, so I’m knitting like mad. (Huzzah for knitting)
Highway 61 Revisited-PJ Harvey
I Put A Spell On You-Diamanda Galás
Amphiox: True. I would hate to think that space exploration would be hampered by something like that. Perhaps some FTL message could be sent well before a launch, much like rocket launch flight plans are announced, to prevent such incidences.
What? Are you crazy? Didn’t you get the memo – they want our wimminz!Or was our water? I forget. Anyway, so long as they don’t want our pee-pees all is ok.
Esteleth – here’s to making it 50 years all-clear. It’s nice to hear of a good result for someone. Too many friends and relatives getting bad news.
@Ing
Surely there has to be a way to combat their harassment? Isn’t that illegal or something?
Oh my – Cosmo’s most ridiculous sex tips.
I think I need a stiff drink to get those mental images out of my head.
@Carlie
I read the first few things on the list, and I couldn’t go further. It’s just so cringeworthy.
One imagines a universe full of advanced civilizations, all hunkered down in their home solar systems, diligently scanning the surrounding stars with their own versions of SETI, not daring to venture into interstellar space until they have found, catalogued, and made contact with all their neighbours, just to make sure there are no misunderstandings….
This means of course that there needs to be a flip-side to Star Trek’s Prime Directive.
Not only must pre-warp civilizations be left alone, but at the moment of warp discovery, all such civilizations MUST be contacted, immediately, in order to bring them within the purview of the galactic diplomatic umbrella right away, so that they do not attack someone or provoke someone else to attack them, by accident.
*raises a mug of Nocello-laced hot chocolate*
Welcome home Redhead!
Congrats, Esteleth!
——————————————–
My dog is not well. Our guess is that the thing, whatever it was, that she caught and ate a couple of days ago in the yard is the culprit. Mom couldn’t tell if it was a bird or a squirrel from the remains. Silast night, Aria has been under the weather. Took a mighty shit in the dining room while we were at work, although that seems to have helped. I’m glad – I thought we might have to take her to the vet if she didn’t show signs of getting better today.
Wait, they want our wimmenz & our peepees?
No.
I solemnly swear, I will donate one horseradish/kerosene farting, snoring, Bulldog to any invader of planet Earth in exchange for the wimmenz & peepees.
OK, and a bucket of 10 minute old grog. Damn, you people drive a hard bargain.
Insomniac – Advise from a person that worked as a grunt at a veterinary hospital for 13 years, take the dog, the mighty shit, and any remains you have to the vets. Your dog might not be just dealing with the critter it ingested, if the critter was poisoned and died in your yard the dog will be dealing with that too.
Please don’t think I’m saying this as a superior dog owner, my Bulldog is sooo stoopid that he lays out in the yard and snorts dirt. *face palm*
Patricia:
Large biblically-named containers of grog?
:D
You can have manipulative prolife bullshit.
Now that I have your attention, this egg salad tastes stale.
Patricia – SNORTS dirt? He literally plops down and just inhales, with no care for the fact that it’s DIRT going up his nose?
Sadly I tossed all the shit-covered paper towels into the garbage when I cleaned up after Aria. And that bag was put into the large garbage container outside. Last load of trash was collected by the city early this morning, so there goes any chance of retrieving the leftovers from her attack/snack.
Right now she’s downstairs sleeping. She did go potty outside earlier, so that’s a good sign, since she didn’t really go last night. I’ll see how she is before I go to work. That’s probably about all I can do for now.
Insomniac – Yep, my English Bulldog snorts dirt. He eats chicken bombs, and rolls in cow flops – every.chance.he.gets. I’m not sure if his disgusting habits are because he is a rescue dog, and suffered torture, or if he just likes disgusting stuff. As a rescue mom I took him in because he is one of the most emotionally & physically disabled Bulldogs I have ever seen, and his disabilities meant he needed a home with no physical challenges (stairs, etc.), a strong male presence (he was woman abused), and NO children (he was dragged and choked by children.) You will be happy to learn those children were removed from the home.
It sounds like you are monitoring your dog well. If she isn’t better in the morning I would buzz straight off to the vets. But you can assure them your dog isn’t a stoopid as mine – that SNORTS dirt.
thunk – I don’t believe,
oh wait, let’s do this proper –
But then, in 2010 part of Marvins stash of Illudium Q-36 came into the hands of Patricia, and with the help of Nerd of Redhead, the Pharyngula grog took on the Earth shattering properties of Martian enhanced liquids known no where else on Earth.
And to this day the explosive, drunkness inducing qualities of 10 minute old Pharyngula Grog ™has not been surpassed.
Darkheart the Incubator (Incubus? hm, maybe not),
*Sighing heavily* “Yes, I had so hoped for a xenomorph, but I guess I’ll settle for a human.”
Patricia:
Take your Book of Grog and shove it.
I demand to see Scientific Testing (TM) done.
Welcome home to the Redhead, and every good wish to her Nerd, too.
After some discussion,it has been made apparent to me that Amblebury is, in fact a masculine-sounding(?) name. Assumptions that my gender is male possibly flowed from that. It doesn’t bother me, however trying to come up with one of those terribly clever by-lines that people use is tricky. So far the best I’ve come up with is:
Amblebury, no penis (I’m vegetarian.)
—
Needs work, I know.
How about
Amblebury, hiding Vagina since [Year of adopting nym]
I like it, keenacat. I like it indeed.
Carlie, #453,
Hey, number 5 doesn’t sound all bad!
But sadly, most of that articles was “WTF?”. Not out of how kinky it was, quite the reverse, how fucking dull any of it was. Really, Cosmo, really? Use tongue during oral on sensitive bits? Really? Now please tell me more about the sky being blue.
What annoys me is that sex advice is just so…well…not sexy usually. There are exceptions, but Cosmo is hardly likely to be a bastion of high bar sexual practise and equality.
Oh well
Louis
P.S. Amblebury, your nick should be “Amblebury, I’m a woman damn you”. Perhaps…well, perhaps not. Keenacat’s suggestion is better. I need coffee!
Congratulations to Esteleth on the five-year mark. That’s really wonderful.
And to Mattir on clearly being an awesome camp leader. I want to go on your camp field trips now …
Interstellar war by warships or missiles is so déclassé.
This study will be ignored by politicians:
“Study shows no evidence medical marijuana increases teen drug use” http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-evidence-medical-marijuana-teen-drug.html
Team introduces breakthrough in understanding of high-temperature superconductivity http://phys.org/news/2012-06-team-breakthrough-high-temperature-superconductivity.html
X-posted from the Victim Blaming thread: (the topic came up as to whether there was any difference between the way things tend to go in the US as compared with other places)
me:
Have to go away from the computer for a bit in a minute, but will peruse eagerly later.
It’s not. My guess is that it’s just that it’s not a feminine-sounding/looking name, so (too) many people assume male by default.
carlie –
I’m not sure I even understand most of those Cosmo suggestions. I would have to have the magazine next to me for reference like a cookbook.
“just a minute, honey, I’m trying to figure out which way I’m supposed to twist my left hand while pulling firmly on your shaft of love.”
Oh yay my washing machine is broken!
*headdesk*
That happens to me only when I don’t have any clean underwear.
Matt – coincidentally enough, that’s what the washing machine is full of.
Carlie, repairable?
SQB – Oh, I’m sure it is. Everything works but the spin, so it’s probably either the lid latch or the water sensor. It’s just a high inconvenience right now in both time and money, not that there is ever a convenient time for a major appliance to break. I’m just whining.
More importantly, hooray for Esteleth !
Are you able to get your washing out of the machine, or is a front-loader that is full of water ?
*cheers, champagne corks popping, confetti*
Hooray for Esteleth?
*reads back*
Hooray for Esteleth!
Therrin @ 465:
I just snarfed my coffee.
You now owe my employer a new keyboard!
Nerd, how is the Redhead settling in? Even though it’s coming home, it’s still a lot of change for her (and you).
We’re still a work in progress. She’s getting settled in on the main floor. A stairlift should be installed later this week. Still have things like hospital pillows coming. We still have to find a way to get her in and out of the house, but a short stairlift in the back hall should do it. Otherwise, we will have 34′ of ramps out front. A lot of little details like some extra weight on one side of the commode so it is steadier. She was up walking with her hemi-walker yesterday. Not very far, but up and walking.
Vatican News Flash:
Vatican blames alleged corruption, money laundering and backstabbing cardinal politics stories on the evil machinations of the Media and Satan. Yes, Satan. It’s almost as if the Vatican’s Standard Operating Procedure is to blame the “Church’s enemies” for its wrongdoing. During the paedophile scandal, the Princes of the Church were quoted in the press blaming: the media, Satan, jews, homosexuals, gossip, and precocious lascivious children who “tempted” priests.
It’s all a Da Vinci Code fiction
I feel like crap today. I can’t take off today because gosh darnit, I have a product to write and must release it by today so – oh wait, what is that, I can do it tomorrow? Fuuuuuuuuck….
*sigh* Well, I’ll see how I feel in an hour or so. If I still feel shitty, I’ll go home.
“Sweden deserter ‘still a wanted man’: US military” http://www.thelocal.se/41518/20120618/
A USAF soldier in Germany who went over the hill 28 years ago and settled down in Sweden is still wanted by the US authorities.
Makes perfect sense. People who kidnap, torture civilians or perform illegal wiretapping: No prosecution.
Ordinary grunt who never hurt anyone: Will be arrested even if he is 100 years old when he returns.
— — — — — — —
.
“…private religious schools, some of which teach from a Christian curriculum that suggests the Loch Ness Monster disproves evolution and states that the alleged creature, which has never been demonstrated to even exist, has been tracked by submarine and is probably a plesiosaur. The curriculum also claims that a Japanese fishing boat caught a dinosaur.”
.
I know there are stereotypes about people in the Deep South, but does this Bobby Jindahl possibly have webbed toes and a banjo?
The stereotype must have started somewhere. Jindahl, governor of Loch Ness.
Looks like this thread’s going to die soon, but I’m just going to leave this here for the few Polk County, Florida atheists who lurk around here: http://www.theledger.com/article/20120618/NEWS/120619276
The rest of you may remember the story of Ellen Beth Wachs, persecuted by Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd for having the temerity to oppose his illegal gifts to churches of county property.Yeah, that would be this sheriff. I think the poster should read: “If you support separation of Church and State, stay outta Polk County”.
The hubris, and the stupid, they burn.
“A miracle molecule hiding in milk (w/ Video)” http://phys.org/news/2012-06-miracle-molecule-video.html
Last harassment complaint was dismissed by HR because it didn’t meet their standards of harassment…he basically told me I was wrong to feel offended, the behavior wasn’t appropriate but I was mistaken in being offended enough to make the harassment claim when it wouldn’t stop.
Filing another one just burns bridges as it won’t be processed until I’m gone.
Had an earthquake round these parts tonight. Not too big and no reports of severe damage or injury as of yet. Here’s hoping it stays that way.
I missed it. Mrs. Fishy called me minutes after it happened. The building she was in shook quite noticeably. I told her that it could be nothing good, car striking the building or somesuch and to check any doors that she couldn’t see through for heat. She of course laughed at my worst case worries. Hmmph.
As best I can figure I was walking when it happened. I’d just got the bub to sleep and was feeling a little tired too and I have a vague memory of a bit of vertigo as I got up and walked back to the kitchen. Might have been the floor fooling my balance rather than my ears.
You know, I once noticed a partial eclipse of the sun because all the pinholes in the tin cladding of the shearing shed I was in were throwing light dots with a bite out of them. And yet I somehow miss the ground shaking enough to make another building only 4k away sway? WTF’s up with that? Either I’m not getting enough sleep or the last few years of ageing have ravaged more than my hairline.
A USAF soldier in Germany who went over the hill 28 years ago and settled down in Sweden is still wanted by the US authorities.
His desire to return when he’s made a life for himself in Sweden puzzles me. I understand that he wants to see his parents, but just send them a couple of airline tickets to Stockholm. One way. There’s no point in their returning to the uncivilized US either.
Fossil Fishy:
Last year, we had a very minor earthquake around these here parts– my husband’s building was evacuated, but I was driving about 10 miles away and didn’t feel a damned thing. Small earthquakes are funny like that, I think.
Unlikely, as he is the son of Indian immigrants.
RahXephon @411.
Wow, ironymeter, bullshit detector and stupidshield all gone in one go, fuck.
Out of all the religions out there, fucking catholicism for fucking Morals, that’s just… I have no words…
Something else entirely:
You folks here really are amazing.
[/Abe]
Heh! A parody of a Beatles album that I like.
I never want to see an other variation of Abbey Road.
Okay, okay, I’ll make the 500th comment that nobody’ll read.