Pons_Aelius @ Pons_Aelius @kbin.social

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5

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1,786

Joined

2 yr. ago

Nuclear thermal engines still need propellent.

And while they have an ISP about 10 times higher than chemical rockets, they are still basically useless for interstellar distances.

Simply because the more you accelerate the more you have to break and you have to carry the propellant for both.

TLDR: the rocket equation is a merciless task master.

Leaving the solar system is less than 1% of the distance to the nearest star.

The Voyager probes have left the solar system. It took about 30 years for them to do it...

And that is still orders of magnitude more likely than time travel or interstellar aliens.

And so is one branch of the US government not talking to another

This map of UFO sightings has the USA at 250,000 but as soon as you cross the border into mexico you only have...895.

While Europe tops outs at 20,000.

From everything we know interstellar travel in less than generational time scales is all but impossible.

The only thing that is more improbable from our current knowledge of physics is...travel back in time.

Occam's razor: The explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is usually correct.

So we have three possibilities.

A foreign power

Aliens

Time Travel.

...

The boring reality is that it is the first one. A foreign power.

Cheers. That is the best spelling correction I have ever read.

I am leaving it as is.

It is simple really.

People stopped because the steamers made accessing media easier than piracy at a reasonable price.

Now that the reasonable price part is slipping away, people are re-assessing that decision.

No need. There are plenty of places here in the fediverse to find out about piracy.

The big takeaway from this is that change doesn’t happen until the old guard dies.

Not quite.

The takeaway is that every year the old guard that died is replaced by a new group that ages into being grumpy old fucks.

I'm old GenX and have watched many people who used to be radicals when they were young turn into reactionary old fucks when they hit their 40s and 50s.

And people in your cohort will do the same as they age.

That is not what causes VR motion sickness.

Did you read my comment?

If the graphics look rubbish out brain will feel sick.

That is not what causes VR motion sickness.

It is the disconnect from the movement signals our brain is receiving from our eyes via VR and our vestibular organ which tells us our physical orientation.

VR motion sickness has the same cause as seasickness and car sickness and all testing I have seen is that about 1/3 of the population will never be able to use VR without getting sick.

The only other forum I participate in is Arstecknica.

Shostakovich, particularly his 7th (The Leningrad) Symphony which will always have a special place in my heart.

We are well into the period of diminishing returns of graphics advancement where it really no longer matters.

The same has happened with PCs in general by about 2005. personal computers passed the point where a 2 year upgrade made little to no difference.

Same with mobile phones about a decade ago.

The older generations have always seen the younger generations as lazy

“They think they know everything, and are always quite sure about it.”

“Our youth love luxury. They have bad manners and despise authority. They show disrespect for their elders and love to chatter instead of exercise. Young people are now tyrants, not the servants of their household. They no longer rise when their elders enter the room. They contradict their parents, chatter before company, gobble up food and terrorize their teachers.”
Rhetoric, Aristotle, 4th Century BC

People have always whinged about young adults. Here's proof

Why old people will always complain about young people

I have read that so many times but have never seen any links to examples of actual sales.

Edit: Did a quick search and found thousands of accounts for sale but the average price was $0.20.

I seriously doubt that selling accounts could generate any real revenue worth the time and effort for anyone living in a western country.

Fuck, I just love how he says the devil made me do it and cannot even take personal responsibility for his actions.

Exactly the type of person you want in a position of power over others...

Big Bada Boom

Most MAGA Americans forget Alaska exists. Especially those who reside in Texas as it is an existential threat to their self image.

Surface area of the earth: 510,064,472 km²

So at any moment 255..000.000 km² of the earth is hit with solar radiation. I think we have a while before it becomes an issue.