Interesting News, Articles & Stuff

[florduh]

...not knowing what would come after the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts twice rejected a certain new artist before the War began...

It was probably inevitable that the remaining European aristocracy would destroy itself in one last bloody war, but the series of coincidences causing WWI to pop off is pretty insane.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History podcast has an amazing series on the war called "Blueprint for Armageddon". Sometimes it helps to remember that things have always been pretty stupid.

I'm pretty sure this is the prologue, where Dan discusses how a guy I previously never heard of caused WWI, WWII, and eventually 9/11. This dude is an amazing storyteller.

 

[Ramahs]

There’s No Cheap Way to Deal With the Climate Crisis

Warming will bring enormous economic costs. Cutting emissions now will save money later.

www.propublica.org

Our current plan for dealing with climate change is 1) hoping a miracle takes place within the next 10-15 years, and 2) shifting all of the costs to future generations.



As a species, we're basically doing the macro version of ignoring the "Check Engine" light so we can avoid paying a repair bill now, virtually ensuring we'll need to spend much more money on a whole new engine later.

 

[florduh]

Is Exxon flexing on us with their "WE put billions and billions of tons of CO2 into the atmosphere"?

 

[cybrguy]

Gotta Love Iceland...

 

[Robert-in-YEG]

The Pulse | Substack

Emerging ideas on consciousness, current events, science, solutions & more – birthing a new planetary consciousness. Explore how our current paradigms shape our society. Click to read The Pulse, a Substack publication with tens of thousands of subscribers.

thepulse.one

What is it about the human psyche that labels “far out” and “fringe” hypotheses, opinions, and evidence as false or not possible? Why do we have difficulty entertaining discoveries that do not fit within the framework of accepted knowledge? Furthermore, who is responsible for setting the limits of acceptable knowledge? Why has real phenomenon been ridiculed throughout human history?

 

[florduh]

Why do we have difficulty entertaining discoveries that do not fit within the framework of accepted knowledge?

Can't speak for anyone else, but for myself, I have no problem entertaining "out there" ideas. Extraordinary claims do require extraordinary evidence, but you can still have an open mind. When it comes to aliens, I literally WANT to believe. Given the age of the galaxy, it's sort of frightening that we've seen no obvious evidence of advanced extraterrestrial civilizations.

The Great Filter: A possible solution to the Fermi Paradox

There are many major hurdles to becoming an interplanetary species, but one might be tougher than the rest.

astronomy.com

If the Great Filter is behind us, though, it bodes well for humanity as a species; the universe may be ours for the taking. If, however, the Great Filter still lies ahead, we may be doomed.

Based on the available evidence from the UFO disclosures, I'm like 50/50 on aliens visiting earth. Maybe they are here. But why all the hiding and secrecy? There's the added wrinkle that all of these disclosures are coming from the US Department of "Defense", a famously dishonest institution.

And while we're discussing "far out" ideas, why do most people assume UFO's are aliens? Couldn't they just as easily be human time travellers from the far future? Since the vehicles are apparently breaking the laws of physics anyway. Shit, the popular image of "grey" aliens sort of look like humans with another million years of evolution under their belt.

 

[Robert-in-YEG]

Can't speak for anyone else, but for myself, I have no problem entertaining "out there" ideas.

How do we know that you aren't alien? What is your intent?

We could be in a sea of alien life? I drive down the street, shake my head, and wonder where some of these people come from. Everything looks different than just a few years ago.

How do I am know that I am not an alien? Maybe something has taken over my mind, and the 'Robert' that was me, has been replaced by an Octopus. Cephalopods are amazing and challenge our understanding of intelligence. So maybe an alien cephalopod has invaded my brain.

That is a very deep question. Time for another cup of tea.

Robert-in-YEG

"There is a sacredness in tears. They are not the mark of weakness, but of power. They speak more eloquently than ten thousand tongues. They are the messengers of overwhelming grief, of deep contrition, and of unspeakable love."
~ Washington Irving

 

[florduh]

How do we know that you aren't alien?

We could be in a sea of alien life?

Everyone might be an alien. That's the idea behind "panspermia". It's pretty clear that every living thing on earth descended from a common ancestor. But who's to say that common ancestor wasn't a single cell organism that caught a ride on an asteroid? Something like 2/3 of the history of the universe played out before the creation of earth. Lots of time for life to develop elsewhere before migrating here.

NASA Astrobiology

In Search of Panspermia

astrobiology.nasa.gov

In this context, the question generally raised is whether Earth might have been seeded by early Martian life (if it existed). Mars, it is becoming increasingly accepted, was probably more habitable in its early period than Earth. But panspermia inherently could go the other way as well, or possibly even between solar systems.

A team of prominent scientists at MIT and Harvard are sufficiently convinced in the plausibility of panspermia that they have spent a decade, and a fair amount of NASA and other funding, to design and produce an instrument that can be sent to Mars and potentially detect DNA or more primitive RNA.

TL;DR we might all be Martians.

 

[Planck]

Based on the available evidence from the UFO disclosures

What evidence, there is no evidence, unless abysmal quality images and of who knows what are evidence. Granted some do have red circles adding gobs of creditability.

 

[florduh]

What evidence, there is no evidence, unless abysmal quality images and of who knows what are evidence. Granted some do have red circles adding gobs of creditability.

That's funny, I almosted posted that exact video here!

I can't believe this was 5 months ago, but the evidence I found somewhat compelling were the stories from navy pilots on 60 Minutes.

That having been said, eyewitness testimony is notoriously unreliable, and after Vietnam, Iraq, etc the Pentagon has next to zero credibility. Even at the time, I remember thinking this might be a PsyOp. After all, were on track to spend about 9 trillion dollars on "defense" over the next 10 years. During peacetime. What better way to gin up support for such an outrageous sum than concocting a "Missile Gap" between us and little green men.

I mean, maybe aliens or time travellers are visiting us in futuristic spacecraft. Though you'd sort of think there would be much more compelling evidence, especially with billions of people carrying a camera with them at all times. Seems a bit odd that they'd only focus on bothering US Navy pilots too.

 

[cybrguy]

I want her....

Oh, wait, did I say that out loud?

In truth one of the most important things she said was "according to our current understanding of Physics". We have no idea about what we know nothing about. If we are wrong about those "laws of physics" that we depend on for most of our understanding of these kind of things than all bets are off. When Frank Herbert began talking about "folding space" I began to realize how little we actually know about what we don't know, and ideas like Herbert's cast what we actually know to the wind...

 

[Planck]

That's funny, I almosted posted that exact video here!

I can't believe this was 5 months ago, but the evidence I found somewhat compelling were the stories from navy pilots on 60 Minutes.

I think this was completely busted. There are a few through reviews, here is one. He waffles on a bit but is generally on point.

and another

When Frank Herbert began talking about "folding space" I began to realize how little we actually know about what we don't know, and ideas like Herbert's cast what we actually know to the wind...

I like Herbert however he is a (brilliant) science fiction writer not a scientist. He has no degree whatsoever, never graduated college. In many cases I'd say big deal, advanced quantum and astrophysics is so tough to grasp without the background knowledge. It's interesting and fanciful speculation but I disagree that it casts what we actually know to the wind. YMMV.

 

[Robert-in-YEG]

FBI aware of and investigating fake FBI emails sent to thousands​

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/fbi-aware-investigating-fake-fbi-emails

 

[cybrguy]

I like Herbert however he is a (brilliant) science fiction writer not a scientist. He has no degree whatsoever, never graduated college. In many cases I'd say big deal, advanced quantum and astrophysics is so tough to grasp without the background knowledge. It's interesting and fanciful speculation but I disagree that it casts what we actually know to the wind. YMMV.

You miss my point. I'm not suggesting that Herbert is presenting anything like credible science. He is creating entertaining and exciting fictions of one way the future could look. What I got from Herbert, at 16 or so when I first read him, was the idea that we had no idea what we don't know and that something like folding space that seems preposterous to us now could possibly be not only reasonable but even less unbelievable than other things that turn out to be real. I think it was Arthur C Clark who said "any sufficiently advanced technology would be indistinguishable from magic".

How would the shuttle program or the ISS have looked to people just a couple hundred years ago. There may be civilizations out there millions of years old, or even more. We've been working on space since what, the 50s? Einstein theorized the laser in something like 1914, but it took till 1960 to build one. We're likely babies compared to other civilizations.

I'm just saying that I have absolutely no evidence that interstellar travel is possible and little convincing evidence that we have been visited by extraterrestrials of any kind, but like Dr. Becky in that video I have absolutely no doubt that we are not alone in the universe, and if that is true there is no reason to doubt that some of those civilizations are likely Ancient with a capital A. And look what humans have done in just a few hundred thousand years or less.

The laws of Physics are immutable, until we break one.

 

[florduh]

I think this was completely busted

LOL well, there you go. Like I said I very much want to believe, so I forgot about Occam’s Razor. At this point I’m ready for our Alien overlords to take over

I read a lot of Sci Fi, and in it most FTL travel involves getting around the known laws of physics, not totally breaking them. Like we’re not wrong about the speed of light. But it’s possible new breakthroughs could help us get around it.

There are existing plans for warp drives. They just require outrageous amounts of energy. Maybe some alien civilization has access to unlimited energy.

But the bummer is, enough time has passed for the entire galaxy to have been colonized even with slower than light travel. If intelligent life is common. Shit, it’s barely common here!

 

[Planck]

like Dr. Becky in that video I have absolutely no doubt that we are not alone in the universe, and if that is true there is no reason to doubt that some of those civilizations are likely Ancient with a capital A

I think I understand your point now and believe we strongly agree on the big picture and that Dr. Becky is hot! The universe is extremely hostile to life, I can think of many reasons why there may be no Ancient civilizations in the cosmic scale. But yeah it's entirely possible that civilizations may have archived Ancient status and still exist or have existed and been erased so completely that no trace remains.

But the bummer is, enough time has passed for the entire galaxy to have been colonized even with slower than light travel. If intelligent life is common. Shit, it’s barely common here!

Did I ever mention how much I enjoy your insightful and humorous posts.

Regardless even traveling at the speed of light the universe is an impossible large thing yeah. We'd overtake the Voyager probe in 12 minutes and still take 100,000 light years to cross our little galaxy.

Parts 2 and 3

 

[macbill]

Tobacco lawsuits could upend Biden's plan for historic menthol ban

The agency’s effort to decide which e-cigarettes can stay on the market could force it to confront the menthol question much sooner.

www.politico.com

Bad Link. Sorry. Historians found a WWI bunker ‘frozen in time’ in the Alps. Climate change makes it a bittersweet discovery.​

 

[Robert-in-YEG]

Cumbre Vieja volcano erupting on La Palma​

 

[cybrguy]

Historians found a WWI bunker ‘frozen in time’ in the Alps. Climate change makes it a bittersweet discovery.

Bad link, but behind paywall anyway. Try this one...

Melting glacier reveals World War I cave shelter and artifacts | CNN

Researchers have recovered a treasure trove of World War I artifacts from a cave shelter in northern Italy revealed by the melting of a glacier.

edition.cnn.com

 

[Robert-in-YEG]

Inside the US military bases that are MORE secretive than Area 51 from Site R built inside a MOUNTAIN to a ‘mole-city’

Inside the US military bases that are MORE secretive than Area 51

WHILE the highly classified Area 51 might be the United States’ most famous military base it’s far from the country’s most secretive. The covert Air Force base, located in Lincoln…

www.the-sun.com

 

[macbill]

Alex Jones guilty in Sandy Hook defamation cases

Radio host Alex Jones was found guilty on Monday in four defamation cases brought by the families of victims of the Sandy Hook. A Connecticut judge ruled on four defamation cases after Jones called…

www.wtrf.com

 

[florduh]

Alex Jones guilty in Sandy Hook defamation cases

Radio host Alex Jones was found guilty on Monday in four defamation cases brought by the families of victims of the Sandy Hook. A Connecticut judge ruled on four defamation cases after Jones called…

www.wtrf.com

Good. I can't imagine being a parent who lost a child who then has to deal with droves of fucktards telling me I'm lying, and my kid didn't really die. All because the dumbest motherfucker on the internet convinced his dipshit fans Sandy Hook was a "false flag".

Alex likes to call many of our elites and politicians "literal demons". He's wrong about that. They're just figurative demons. Just like Alex Jones.

 

[cybrguy]

I am really hoping his lack of respect for the court (let alone the families) leads the judge to make him pay at least $52M in damages, or $2M for each person killed.

 

[Robert-in-YEG]

Big storm hitting Western Canada

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/snow-weather-alberta-1.6249222

Southbound lanes of B.C.’s major Coquihalla Highway washed away by intense rain | Globalnews.ca

The ministry said crews are still assessing the impacts to the highway and will hopefully know more soon about when it is possible to reopen the lanes.

globalnews.ca

 

[florduh]

Whenever there's a police misconduct incident, a common refrain you'll hear is, "it's just a few bad apples." Maybe that's true, but cases like this make me pretty skeptical:

Whistleblower featured in USA TODAY 'Behind the Blue Wall' series ousted from police union

Two months after Joliet Police Sgt. Javier Esqueda was featured in a USA TODAY investigation, officers voted to remove him from a supervisor's union.

www.usatoday.com

Esqueda told USA TODAY that he’s become a pariah among his coworkers since July 2020, when he shared with a television reporter footage from January of that year showing how officers treated a handcuffed Black man in medical distress. Officers slapped Eric Lurry, restricted his airway and shoved a baton in his mouth hours before his death. Esqueda faces up to 20 years in prison after department officials opened a criminal investigation into his actions and prosecutors charged him with four counts of official misconduct.

So the "good apple" gets fired and faces 20 years in prison. The cops who acted like fucking thugs and possibly killed a guy? A slap on the wrist. Like so many of our societal problems, it seems like we have some misaligned incentives at play here.