Search found 974 matches
- Sun Feb 17, 2019 5:04 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Children can be Mentally Scarred when told they may be Shot to Death
- Replies: 12
- Views: 530
Re: Children can be Mentally Scarred when told they may be Shot to Death
What would the psychological reaction for a generation (or two) be when raised in a world with a solid belief that instant death can happen with little to no warning at any time, erasing life as we know it on the planet after a furious exchange of nuclear weaponry? We have mostly achieved “fear fat...
- Sat Feb 16, 2019 2:34 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Children can be Mentally Scarred when told they may be Shot to Death
- Replies: 12
- Views: 530
Re: Children can be Mentally Scarred when told they may be Shot to Death
The long-term problen is that making the children fearful may lead to some of them being in a state of perpetual fear where they lose the ability to function or start distrusting adults in general, or conversely that they get “fear fatigue” and simply shut down their fear response entirely in all si...
- Sat Feb 16, 2019 2:28 pm UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 2112: "Night Shift"
- Replies: 33
- Views: 1441
Re: 2112: "Night Shift"
Having flown across the Atlantic many times, I can agree that it is big. Very big. Jet airliners are very fast and it still takes them hours to get across. I don't know about the Pacific, though. I have seen the Pacific from California but I've never flown across. Everyone says it's much bigger tha...
- Fri Feb 15, 2019 10:24 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Children can be Mentally Scarred when told they may be Shot to Death
- Replies: 12
- Views: 530
Re: Children can be Mentally Scarred when told they may be Shot to Death
However, the creation of such fear and paranoia did serve to advance the agenda of Cold War profiteers. . .
- Fri Feb 15, 2019 2:49 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: In other news... (humorous news items)
- Replies: 15072
- Views: 2484859
Re: In other news... (humorous news items)
At the largest scale, the main distinction between corporations and organized crime is that government hasn’t banned the things that the corporations are doing.
- Wed Feb 13, 2019 6:48 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: In other news... (humorous news items)
- Replies: 15072
- Views: 2484859
Re: In other news... (humorous news items)
If they don’t want people gawking into their apartments, then I hear that there’s this marvelous invention called “curtains” that they could use.
- Wed Feb 13, 2019 6:42 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Science fleeting thoughts
- Replies: 191
- Views: 30545
Re: Science fleeting thoughts
What the whole thing resembles to me is a Musk-style HyperLoop system, but with the tube being transparent rather than opaque. Aluminum oxide crystal would be a more than adequate material.
- Mon Feb 11, 2019 11:06 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: In other news... (humorous news items)
- Replies: 15072
- Views: 2484859
Re: In other news... (humorous news items)
What is this Gillick standard? It appears to be British legal terminology that is not shared by other legal systems. Anyway, in the USA, unemancipated minors generally have no right to defy the will of their legal guardian(s) unless said guardians are engaging in legally defined abuse of said minor....
- Mon Feb 11, 2019 10:50 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: The Darker Side of the News
- Replies: 4265
- Views: 622326
Re: The Darker Side of the News
Also there's a big difference between boycotting companies from a country due to its foreign policies, and discriminating against people from that country. The government is not one and the same as the people. It is perfectly possible to oppose a government without holding malice toward its citizen...
- Thu Feb 07, 2019 1:38 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: Re: 2107: "Launch risk"
- Replies: 16
- Views: 1422
Re: 2107: "Launch risk"
Sharks don’t breathe air anyway. They breathe water. There is no liquid water in space.
- Wed Feb 06, 2019 1:33 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: Re: 2107: "Launch risk"
- Replies: 16
- Views: 1422
Re: 2107: "Launch risk"
you're less likely to die from a space launch than from a shark attack. Cause, y'know, everything else about space travel aside from the launch is perfectly simple and safe. 100% of spaceflight deaths to date have happened either during the launch phase or the entry/landing phase. Nobody has yet di...
- Sat Feb 02, 2019 4:45 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 2106: "Sharing Options"
- Replies: 22
- Views: 1641
Re: 2106: "Sharing Options"
Perhaps more pertinent than giving your information to hostile foreign governments: also giving your information to a hostile domestic government, which tends to be in a stronger position to exploit it. That’s ridiculous—we ALL know that domestic governments are never hostile, right? *looks around ...
- Thu Jan 31, 2019 9:46 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 2104: "Biff Tannen"
- Replies: 42
- Views: 3550
Re: 2104: "Biff Tannen"
No, the MOST disturbing part is that building and operating such a plant is expected to generate a profit. Just who is buying thousands of tons of dioxin per year? Is President Nixon perhaps planning to finally win the Vietnam War by spraying it onto the Viet Cong’s croplands?
- Wed Jan 30, 2019 3:12 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Can a thruster using geomagnetic fields and superconductors generate a thrust?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 906
Re: Can a thruster using geomagnetic fields and superconductors generate a thrust?
AFAIK it will generate lift, but not enough to overcome Earth’s gravity if it has to lift its own power source. If the area of the geomagnetic field convergence layer is large, use it to increase the geomagnetic field by 100-1000 times, if the coil uses a superconductor material and a larger curr...
- Tue Jan 29, 2019 3:28 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Can a thruster using geomagnetic fields and superconductors generate a thrust?
- Replies: 9
- Views: 906
Re: Can a Thruster that uses geomagnetic fields and superconductors generate lift?
AFAIK it will generate lift, but not enough to overcome Earth’s gravity if it has to lift its own power source.
- Mon Jan 28, 2019 11:36 pm UTC
- Forum: Serious Business
- Topic: More efficient airplane boarding protocols
- Replies: 79
- Views: 16129
Re: More efficient airplane boarding protocols
The most effective means of speeding boarding would be simply to have multiple boarding points instead of having everyone boarding through a single hatch. Having passengers board through the rear hatches as well as the front would nearly double boarding rates, though it would require a dual gangway.
- Mon Jan 28, 2019 8:12 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Science fleeting thoughts
- Replies: 191
- Views: 30545
Re: Science fleeting thoughts
Ok, most cells only keep enough ATP (the molecule used for on-the-spot energy delivery within cells) on hand to last for ten seconds at most. This can be supplemented by creatine phosphate stores, but that too will run out after another ten to thirty seconds. After that, cells turn to anaerobic ferm...
- Sun Jan 27, 2019 7:44 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Police misbehavior thread
- Replies: 6551
- Views: 1028306
Re: Police misbehavior thread
Whether they get life or death, my first concern is that they never walk free again.
- Sun Jan 27, 2019 2:04 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Consequences of climate change
- Replies: 90
- Views: 19763
Re: Consequences of climate change
The problem with methods of internalizing those external costs (e.g. via tradable carbon credits) is that the people who don’t want to pay for it (largely because they would need to buy the largest amount of them) have sufficient power to block the enforcement of such a system to begin with.
- Fri Jan 25, 2019 4:37 pm UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 2103: "Midcontinent Rift System"
- Replies: 28
- Views: 2247
Re: 2103: "Midcontinent Rift System"
Vote for BHG!
- Fri Jan 18, 2019 11:06 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Teachers being trained to kill kids
- Replies: 108
- Views: 9112
Re: Teachers being trained to kill kids
In that case, we need some statistics (preferably from a source that is not directly connected to tge lobbies for either side of the argument) measuring the approximate fraction of incidents in which an armed defender results in escalation vs. de-escalation.
- Fri Jan 18, 2019 5:55 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 8369
- Views: 702003
Re: Trump presidency
The other underlying assumption is that when something extremely urgent comes along (e.g. Pearl Harbor attack), the parties put aside their differences for the moment in order to act in the combined interest of all. It is this part which has broken down over the last three or four Presidential Admin...
- Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:28 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Science fleeting thoughts
- Replies: 191
- Views: 30545
Re: Science fleeting thoughts
If air pressure is adequate above the ice, then high-efficiency aircraft would be workable—either nuclear powered stratospheric jets or zeppelins could make the flight within days (supersonic) to weeks (zeppelin). If, however, the conditions are near-vacuum, then building a maglev rail line across t...
- Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:13 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 2096: "Mattresses"
- Replies: 35
- Views: 3785
Re: 2096: "Mattresses"
I slept on a $100 futon for five years and was fine with it. That’s a Japanese style futon, mind you, meaning that it was the floor pads and covers without the frame that “American” style futons have.
- Sun Jan 13, 2019 8:09 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 2097: "Thor Tools"
- Replies: 39
- Views: 3398
Re: 2097: "Thor Tools"
JohnTheWysard wrote:I think an awl would be a very impressive weapon, since of course Thor would have the Cosmic Awl.
No, Odin has the awl. That’s why they call him the Awl-Father.
- Fri Jan 11, 2019 10:13 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 8369
- Views: 702003
Re: Trump presidency
CorruptUser wrote:I dont know, I'd prefer to use Trump's head to smash into nails repeatedly...
We’d never get the bloodstains out afterward.
- Fri Jan 11, 2019 1:36 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Stars in background of deep-sky photos are in foreground
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1596
Re: Stars in background of deep-sky photos are in foreground
It is worth mentioning that it is impossible to launch directly from a planetary (or other) surface into an orbit around that body that has a LOWER inclination than the latitude of the launch site. Essentially, the highest-latitude point of the orbit can not be less then the latitude of the launch s...
- Fri Jan 11, 2019 1:24 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 2096: "Mattresses"
- Replies: 35
- Views: 3785
Re: 2096: "Mattresses"
IIRC, the distinction between burglary and robbery is that in robbery, the offender confronts the victim and uses intimidation pr violence to get them to hand over the goods, whereas burglary involves an attempt to abscond with the goods before the victims even know that a theft has occurred.
- Wed Jan 09, 2019 10:35 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 8369
- Views: 702003
Re: Trump presidency
You guys do remember that Congress can overrule a Presidential veto, right? If Trump remains intransigent, then a sufficient number of Republicans must vote in favor of passing the funding bill to make a two-thirds majority. Goven that the content of the bill is literally the same as one that they h...
- Wed Jan 09, 2019 8:07 am UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: Stars in background of deep-sky photos are in foreground
- Replies: 21
- Views: 1596
Re: Stars in background of deep-sky photos are in foreground
Also, given Luna’s slow rotation rate, the primary reason for an equatorial launch/landing site (free discount on delta-v needed to land or launch) is not a significant factor.
- Sun Jan 06, 2019 1:30 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 8369
- Views: 702003
Re: Trump presidency
Honor is nice, but the landlord won’t accept it as payment on the lease.
- Sat Jan 05, 2019 2:14 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Police misbehavior thread
- Replies: 6551
- Views: 1028306
Re: Police misbehavior thread
Given that only six states seem to have elected Sheriffs, it may be the that some people in those states spend most of the time being unaware that the office of Sheriff is an elected one rather than an appointed one, and find themselves mildly surprised when they see it on their sample ballots becau...
- Sun Dec 30, 2018 6:35 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 8369
- Views: 702003
Re: Trump presidency
They will probably need to include a clause about it in the bill that provides for their back pay.
- Sat Dec 29, 2018 9:56 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Teachers being trained to kill kids
- Replies: 108
- Views: 9112
Re: Teachers being trained to kill kids
I would say that the root cause is a culture of conflict resolution that views the total eradication of opponents as the preferred method rather than persuasion or reconciliation.
- Fri Dec 28, 2018 4:46 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Teachers being trained to kill kids
- Replies: 108
- Views: 9112
Re: Teachers being trained to kill kids
Kids are about one hundred times more likely to be killed by traffic accidents than by shootings, but nobody is making a ruckus about the need to save child pedestrians from dangerous motorists.
- Mon Dec 24, 2018 3:32 am UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 2088: "Schwarzschild's Cat"
- Replies: 36
- Views: 4012
Re: 2088: "Schwarzschild's Cat"
Pfhorrest wrote:Is that not an ocelot?
Impossible. He doesn’t have a revolver.
- Sun Dec 23, 2018 12:36 pm UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Teachers being trained to kill kids
- Replies: 108
- Views: 9112
Re: Teachers being trained to kill kids
No, but proponents of arming teachers would argue that the three day course is better than simply giving the teachers the weapons with no training at all.
- Fri Dec 21, 2018 8:18 am UTC
- Forum: News & Articles
- Topic: Trump presidency
- Replies: 8369
- Views: 702003
Re: Trump presidency
Nah, they just really hate having to pay the bills for somebody else. Whether that somebody else is wealthy or poor is secondary.
- Wed Dec 19, 2018 4:04 pm UTC
- Forum: Science
- Topic: What is my Exact Mailing Address?
- Replies: 11
- Views: 1364
Re: What is my Exact Mailing Address?
C-137? I thought that we were Earth-1218?
- Tue Dec 18, 2018 9:05 pm UTC
- Forum: Individual XKCD Comic Threads
- Topic: 2086: "History Department"
- Replies: 23
- Views: 3433
Re: 2086: "History Department"
Given the slowness of transatlantic communications at the time, it was September before anybody in Britain knew about what happened in the American colonies on 4 July 1776.