This is gonna be the thread where we talk about stuff

The expenditure required to do things in space (combined with our current, insufficient understanding of science) greatly outstrips any potential benefit really

why would a gremlin come from the mantle

everyone knows gremlins come from the molten hot core of the planet, spewed out as sparks from a great sparkything

'tis the season for partying in Schazertown, and I just received invitation to my friend Bitch Vanilla's Wikipedia Party.

To show that I'm being (Totes) legit about this, the rules:

1. Go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page.

2. Select 'Random Article' on the left hand navigation.

3. No matter what the page is, dress up as your 'Random Article' for the Wikipedia party!

4. We understand that there will be cheaters out there that will press 'Random Article' until they find something that they like.. Try limit yourself to only THREE presses at the most and challenge yourself with a difficult costume.

Aaaand my articles (because clearly the first two left me straying for the "Random Article" button again):

Canoeing at the 2010 South American Games - Men's K-4 1000 metres

or

MidOcean Partners

or

Symphony No. 2 (Penderecki).

Iiii'm going to have to think about this. If only because I'm thinking of the logistics of fitting a canoe costume into my friend's apartment.

Because SCIENCE! But a moon base is not the way to do it. We as a civilization are far too planet-centric, when all we really need to survive is a star! But nooo, we have 'economy' and 'ethics' and 'politics' getting in the way of proper SCIENCE >:c

fuck food, medicine and education we need to go to space

fuck food, medicine and education we need to go to space

Clearly the reason we still have problems regarding those is that we haven't explored space enough.

Aside which, a lot of tech came out of us exploring space! :D

We should all devote a portion of our brains to finding a way to make launching billions of dollars into an endless void artificially economically viable.

I know I would pay slightly more for a pair of pants that had been in space than for a pair of equivalent not-ever-been-in-space pants.

Aside which, a lot of tech came out of us exploring space! :D

And having said that, there's nothing - literally nothing - that spurs technological innovation and advancement like war.

Personally, I see the only point to exploring outer space is to locate, and subsequently make contact with, intelligent life. The only way to hypothetically do that and not make a complete embarrassment of ourselves is to fix what's fucked up on our own planet first.

I've just figured we were one of those races that would fly through space and invade, conquer, and subsequently ruin any habitable planets we would come across.

Like those guys in independence day.

I dunno. Humans are bastards and all, but I think that there are enough non bloodthirsty people around that that kind of shit wouldn't fly. I imagine most ruining would likely be inadvertent too, considering the whole emphasis on being green at the moment.

Oh hey speaking of humans and moon colonies I need to find those bio-dome projects that failed miserably because the inhabitants were going to murder each other.

But I'm at work so maybe later.

Oh hey speaking of humans and moon colonies I need to find those bio-dome projects that failed miserably because the inhabitants were going to murder each other.

But I'm at work so maybe later.

Well I can't blame them. Pauly Shore could drive anybody mad.

There remains the problem that Earth's resources are fast running out, and no matter how green we get, entropy is still going to increase to a maximum, with all of humanity's eggs in one basket. In the words of Mike Combs (who wrote this article, which pretty much sums up my thoughts on space), spending money on social programs to 'solve our problems here on Earth' doesn't reduce prejudice, make dishonest people honest nor selfish people generous.

It's an issue I feel strongly about, and call me pessimistic but I feel that the window of opportunity, after which there will no longer be enough resources physically on Earth to viably make the expenditure that makes space travel possible, will close within the lifetime of Late Gen Y and Gen Z.

blather blather blatherrrr

The issue I see with your argument, Agent, is space-pertaining endeavours (I'ma give 'em the blanket term Spacecapades from here on out - because wider-range space travel is a totally different barrel of space-coconuts to, say, space observation like Ol' Hubble or experiments in zero gravity) are actively removing Earth's resources. The key point being, the ones humanity's gotta worry about - seeing's in the billennial/ecosystem scheme of things a bit of fossil fuel or aluminium going missing won't matter squat.

We could dig up the earth until we'd eked out every rocket-powering mineral - and expended a lot of energy in that process - and the net impact of that one probe/sleeper craft/missile would probably still pale in comparison to the solar-powered biosphere that's still chugging along back on Earth. In like, the course of one year's photosynthesising/metabolising/ATP-firing.

The planet's perfectly capable of supporting a stable human population - trouble is, if it's going to be six billion people+ who give a shit about equality then we'll all have to live like our great-great-great grandparents did - which either means no internet or genocide. Your pick!

Having said that, your pipe dream's space exploration - mine just happens to be humanity's mastery and intelligent custodianship over the ecosystem. When I spend my summer watching a field of Brassica napus develop its pods, then consider how the oil therein might be extracted, processed, and pumped into a vehicle that's used to carve rare metals out of the ground so they can clad/stabilise/power/accesorize a spacecraft... well. Maybe I'm selfish, but maybe I feel like that biodiesel's better-used hauling my lazy arse to work so I can find out how magical and weird and relevant to our daily lives the lives of insects are, so I can tell people in turn.

My cynicism in your enthusiasm is as much selfishness as it is selflessness for humanity at large. I just think there's too much fantastic things on Earth without having to discard it and jet off to an extremely hypothetical elsewhere.

Oh man this reminds me of a thread I wanted to make.

I guess I'm just overly cynical about this and other social issues, as well as overly vocal. Nooot a good combination.*

In any case, we'll just have to see how the world pans out. We'll last another fifty years yet. (unless the world ends this year, which is a whole different story*)

*thought: overly versus overtly is an interesting thing to mistype.
**thought #2: do you think media is giving more attention to natural disasters, whether consciously aware of 2012 ideas or not?

mmm, I've got a pair of headphones that needs a jack replacement too

should prolly get to that ><

i almost can't breathe because i am unproportionally angry at posts on a forum what the flying fuck is wrong with me

I pressed F12 in firefox
help I'm in the matrix

i almost can't breathe because i am unproportionally angry at posts on a forum what the flying fuck is wrong with me

Let the hate flow through you

Soon, you too will join the Mod side

i almost can't breathe because i am unproportionally angry at posts on a forum what the flying fuck is wrong with me

To be fair, if you're mad at the thread I think you're mad at, I think it's justified.

non-satirical s____-based adventures I've actually read suffering from reader stupidity: two for effin' two.

It's taken me a long time to let go, but I have learned to just close the tab when I am mad at something on the internet because its not worth getting worked up over.

The posts in that thread were all kinds of dumb, though.

So here's February, the second of the twelve divine atheist robot non-gods.



I'm just gonna link the other two images since they're really big:

A closeup of February.
January welcomes February to the fold.

I can use a sewing machine guys