"We are all going to die; it seems much better to choose the time and the way, rather than holding on for the last little bit with no quality of life."
There was an excellent comment on 'the onion' the other day;
"If God wanted people to die with dignity, He wouldn't have created modern medical technology capable of artificially prolonging life."
people differ so much... for me the first episodes of firefly were the best; the last three episodes sucked. Maybe it was because the actors could see the writing on the wall and acted accordingly.
But it seems that one mans poor acting is another mans good acting; I thought the acting in Space A&B was appaling. As were the plots, the props, the backstory... you get the idea.
I think the animated 'roughnecks' series had better acting...
"wrapping the Earth in a cloud of junk, making space travel from Earth impossible"
Wow.. if I were an extraterrestrial, I'd *arrange* for this to happen... no *way* would I want those Humans escaping into space. They'd be a veritable *plague* on the galaxy...
"then I posed to question to Jerry and he poo-poo'd my worries with some analogy of a coconut in the pacific ocean. (He did seem to overlook the idea that the analogous coconut would be moving at a few miles per second and could really ding a ship with such some force)."
He was arguing that the Pacific ocean is so very big and the coconut so very small that chances of a collision were not worth worrying about?
Reminds me of the thread about so-called 'temperature' of inter-cluster gas clouds... you see astronomers call these clouds of gas 'hot' because the *average* speed of particles in them is *extremely* high.
So if you *do* catch one of these particles, it imparts a lot of energy and therefore its 'hot'.
This ignores the fact that 99.99999% of the volume of the cloud is empty and not moving at *any* speed and is therefore cold.. except that 'temperature' cannot be defined for empty space.
The astronomer takes the average and declares the aggregate of the whole cloud to be 'very hot'.
So normal humans, like me, get confused and just wind up thinking that the astronomers are wierd.
Similarly for the high-speed coconut; we think in terms of our regular, mundane frame of reference.
Even if the coconut were shooting along at high speed, your average Joe, or Jerry P., will discount the whole idea that there is a threat at all... because chances of actually being hit appear to be tiny.
This is the problem with trying to express suchideas to people who havn't had many decades of physics education.
I just downloaded episode 11 and found it exactly the same, or maybe worse.
The wobbly, nausiating camera isn't half of it; they may as well call the Galactica 'Spaceship One' because its just yanks in space. Ms President... ewwww
The imaginary 'cylon' girlfriend is really stupid; that guy would have been spotted as unstable in the first episode and put away or maybe just drugged and allowed to perform janitorial duties.
The cylons being created by humans and rebelling is just the matrix and terminator again.
And if you actually *liked* 'Space Above and Beyond' well that explains *everything*
All I'm wondering is, if you had a space ship out there in the ICM you wouldn't need to worry about it being warmed up by this stuff, right? Just sitting there, minding your own business.
Its not as if its a cloud of hot, *dangerous*, plasma that is going to mess with your hull plating?
I'm just trying to understand if this is plasma as in hot glowy stuff that melts through things or not.
Excuse me, my education on plasma has mostly been Trek.
Ok so if we built a space ship (somehow) and powered off toward the nearest star at high speed, the occupants wouldn't have to worry too much about hitting some unexpected obstacle on the 'road'?
"observation that clusters of galaxies had to have a lot of mass not shining in the visible spectrum in order to be bound objects"
What is the problem here? Does an Oort cloud 'shine'? If the interstellar spaces were crowded with planet-sized bodies, would these 'shine'? Can't this 'missing matter' merely be rocky or icy crud between the stars? I've often suspected that interstellar navigation might be *extremely* dangerous due to such obsticals, but wouldn't they count as 'dark matter'?
"One of the observational lynchpins of the model is its set of predictions for light element abundances."
So is this setting a limit on how 'crowded with crap' the interstellar medium could be? And if we discover that its thicker than this, then relativity is in trouble?
"it was discovered that the space between galaxies in clusters is filled with a 10-100 million degree gas (well, plasma) known as the intracluster medium or ICM"
Ok so suppose one were in a spacecraft in one of these clouds of 'plasma' and one stuck a thermometer out of the hull, would it *really* show such a high temperature? Would it not be a cold 'vacuum' out there... even thinner and colder than the 'vacuum' of our own solar system?
Or is the high temperature somehow taken as an aggregate temperature for a large volume of space with small quantities of gas particles or ions whizzing about at extremely high speed and therefore the point temperature at any given location in that cloud would actually be quite low?
Slashdot Mirror
"We are all going to die; it seems much better to choose the time and the way, rather than holding on for the last little bit with no quality of life."
There was an excellent comment on 'the onion' the other day;
"If God wanted people to die with dignity, He wouldn't have created modern medical technology capable of artificially prolonging life."
"What are you going to do to me if I commit suicide, huh?"
I don't know about if you succeed -- I guess that in modern America the judge would sentence you to burn in hell.
But if you fail, well then presumably, in America, you'd get the lethal injection?
"My advice to anyone contemplating suicide..DONT. Nothing is worth ruining the lives of your loved ones."
Yes, thats exactly the sort of moral blackmail that holds our society together.
"I, for one, welcome our 17 year old female overlords."
Over*ladies* you insensitive clod!
"plus all the PR (trips to schools, educational programs)."
I can just imagine it...
little kid; "Are you really an astronaut, mister?"
nasa astronaut; "yeah, son, thats right" (gleaming smile)
little kid; "how many times have you been in space mister?"
nasa astronaut; "well, I havn't actually been *in* space, but we train for it all of the time!"
little kid; "ummm when *are* you going into space then, mister?"
nasa astronaut; "I'm unlikely ever to go into space, son"
little kid; "so how come you are an astronaut?"
people differ so much... for me the first episodes of firefly were the best; the last three episodes sucked. Maybe it was because the actors could see the writing on the wall and acted accordingly.
But it seems that one mans poor acting is another mans good acting; I thought the acting in Space A&B was appaling. As were the plots, the props, the backstory... you get the idea.
I think the animated 'roughnecks' series had better acting...
Just one mans opinion, mind.
And if only *they* had kept blogs, maybe there'd be no united states of america today...
That was a true classic.
If it wasn't so long, I'd print it in blood on rabbit hide and nail it too the wall of my cubicle.
"It was supposed to be a huge sponge or something"
I don't think they could afford to launch the entire US defense department.
"wrapping the Earth in a cloud of junk, making space travel from Earth impossible"
Wow.. if I were an extraterrestrial, I'd *arrange* for this to happen... no *way* would I want those Humans escaping into space. They'd be a veritable *plague* on the galaxy...
I was wondering, is the 'ped' in 'pedant' the same as in 'pederast'?
"then I posed to question to Jerry and he poo-poo'd my worries with some analogy of a coconut in the pacific ocean. (He did seem to overlook the idea that the analogous coconut would be moving at a few miles per second and could really ding a ship with such some force) ."
He was arguing that the Pacific ocean is so very big and the coconut so very small that chances of a collision were not worth worrying about?
Reminds me of the thread about so-called 'temperature' of inter-cluster gas clouds... you see astronomers call these clouds of gas 'hot' because the *average* speed of particles in them is *extremely* high.
So if you *do* catch one of these particles, it imparts a lot of energy and therefore its 'hot'.
This ignores the fact that 99.99999% of the volume of the cloud is empty and not moving at *any* speed and is therefore cold.. except that 'temperature' cannot be defined for empty space.
The astronomer takes the average and declares the aggregate of the whole cloud to be 'very hot'.
So normal humans, like me, get confused and just wind up thinking that the astronomers are wierd.
Similarly for the high-speed coconut; we think in terms of our regular, mundane frame of reference.
Even if the coconut were shooting along at high speed, your average Joe, or Jerry P., will discount the whole idea that there is a threat at all... because chances of actually being hit appear to be tiny.
This is the problem with trying to express suchideas to people who havn't had many decades of physics education.
what are you on about?
This new-fangled BSG is IMO total rubbish.
I saw '33' and found it irritating and boring.
I just downloaded episode 11 and found it exactly the same, or maybe worse.
The wobbly, nausiating camera isn't half of it; they may as well call the Galactica 'Spaceship One' because its just yanks in space. Ms President... ewwww
The imaginary 'cylon' girlfriend is really stupid; that guy would have been spotted as unstable in the first episode and put away or maybe just drugged and allowed to perform janitorial duties.
The cylons being created by humans and rebelling is just the matrix and terminator again.
And if you actually *liked* 'Space Above and Beyond' well that explains *everything*
I suppose you liked 'Earth Two' as well?
Ok so China... but Iran? I mean come on isn't Islam close *enough*?
ok, Church is seperate from state just as Microsoft is seperate from state.
I'm thinking... this is the USA... and this is different to Iran and China... how?
All I'm wondering is, if you had a space ship out there in the ICM you wouldn't need to worry about it being warmed up by this stuff, right? Just sitting there, minding your own business.
Its not as if its a cloud of hot, *dangerous*, plasma that is going to mess with your hull plating?
I'm just trying to understand if this is plasma as in hot glowy stuff that melts through things or not.
Excuse me, my education on plasma has mostly been Trek.
"You would need a Geiger counter rather than a thermometer"
Right, so if you stuck your hand out there, it would feel cold, not hot, right? Even though its 'thousands of degrees hot plasma'?
So... they'd actually be *happy* to have their servers reduced to heaps of steaming slag?
Ok so if we built a space ship (somehow) and powered off toward the nearest star at high speed, the occupants wouldn't have to worry too much about hitting some unexpected obstacle on the 'road'?
"and you have a precedent saying porn isn't about content it's about intent of the viewer."
If only people would understand the term 'pornography' literaly; 'pictures of prostitutes'
But Slashdotters *can* contribute; by putting stories on the slashdot page that link to their political websites we can contribute page visits...
Its called the slashdot effect.
"claiming that the whole deal was unconstitutional (separation of church and state)"
So it *is* possible to seperate church and state in Utah?
A couple of questions
"observation that clusters of galaxies had to have a lot of mass not shining in the visible spectrum in order to be bound objects"
What is the problem here? Does an Oort cloud 'shine'? If the interstellar spaces were crowded with planet-sized bodies, would these 'shine'? Can't this 'missing matter' merely be rocky or icy crud between the stars? I've often suspected that interstellar navigation might be *extremely* dangerous due to such obsticals, but wouldn't they count as 'dark matter'?
"One of the observational lynchpins of the model is its set of predictions for light element abundances."
So is this setting a limit on how 'crowded with crap' the interstellar medium could be? And if we discover that its thicker than this, then relativity is in trouble?
"it was discovered that the space between galaxies in clusters is filled with a 10-100 million degree gas (well, plasma) known as the intracluster medium or ICM"
Ok so suppose one were in a spacecraft in one of these clouds of 'plasma' and one stuck a thermometer out of the hull, would it *really* show such a high temperature? Would it not be a cold 'vacuum' out there... even thinner and colder than the 'vacuum' of our own solar system?
Or is the high temperature somehow taken as an aggregate temperature for a large volume of space with small quantities of gas particles or ions whizzing about at extremely high speed and therefore the point temperature at any given location in that cloud would actually be quite low?