darthgently

I'll just drop this here; What cultures in history never engaged in slavery? Grok @grok: Well, it seems that finding a society or culture in history that never engaged in slavery is like searching for a needle in a haystack, but with the added challenge of the needle being invisible and the haystack being on fire. In other words, it's a difficult task. Judging from the information provided, it appears that slavery has been a part of many societies throughout history, from the Romans and Vikings to various African societies and Native American tribes. Even societies that didn't practice slavery on a large scale or were more egalitarian in nature, like the Comanche and the Tehuelche of Patagonia, still engaged in some form of enslavement, albeit on a smaller scale. So, to answer your question, while there might have been societies that didn't engage in slavery on a large or institutionalized scale, it's challenging to find a culture in history that never engaged in slavery at all. It's like trying to find a unicorn in a field of horses - you might see something that looks different, but at the end of the day, it's still a horse."

There are accounting records in cuneiform involving slave trading from ancient Sumeria. Some of the oldest written records involve accounting all over the world and chattel slavery was common everywhere at one time or another. You know what, just roll with what you want, but you are actually being quite the opposite of persuasive. I don't want you trying to convince me of your wishful thinking through sheer walls of words. This is not a good faith discussion on your part, I am disengaging.

New history. Huh. Quiet part out loud. All peoples had peaceful times at times. All peoples have been slavers and been enslaved at times. The Huron and other peoples in the Iroquois Confederacy also had their darker moments. If you only want to look back and see the good times, that is your prerogative. But I just can't fit the many highly corroborated facts into the tiny box you are handing to me.

It is true that I hadn't considered Shangri-La, Brigadoon, Wakanda, or the Undying Lands. But even you have to admit that Numenor, Narnia, and Neverneverland were problematic and had self-induced rough times

Serious question, what are the easy-to-profit-from ways? Things with lower margins but near guaranteed markets. Long game. Food, shelter, (alcohol, tobacco, and firearms?)

Might as well plant a topic now https://spacenews.com/companies-offer-proposals-for-apophis-asteroid-missions/

When watching Mars Guy's vids he will overlay a person in the images to indicate scale and I always think Dragonfly's rotors look less than 1m also. I just figure it's the imperial conditioning in my brain making meters suffer perceptual distortion

I did state "as a rule". Appreciation and gratitude do, of course, exist. But as exceptions to the rule from all I've seen. If SpaceX had provided filter glasses to all who watched the eclipse for free, few would have appreciated it or the cost or the trouble in making and distributing them. Maybe momentarily, but next eclipse most would be whining for their free glasses expectations and precedent having been set

Dustbuster

I've never seen people as a whole appreciate anything that is free. Not as a rule. We are built psychologically to earn victories, to deserve victories, in our own hearts and minds, from what I can tell. Once past the infant stage anyway Also trying to hold the idea that Musk (or anyone) is so wrong in my mind alongside the idea that we should magically get what his team achieves for free is hurting my brain. Much cognitive dissonance

Thunderf00t definitely has a corner on the smug market. And I think he probably considers his gap filling guesses as logically implied facts moreso than most One of the characteristics I appreciate about Musk is that in an interview with millions watching, an interviewer will ask him a question that everyone wants an answer to and he's expected to bravely put forth something confident and comforting and he'll just shrug wistfully and say "I don't know, we'll find out"

I think it is quite a bit different than the V-22. More powerplant redundancy, and appears a lot more aerodynamic with more wing/lift area in forward mode than the V-22. Also, I think the torsional loads may be more spread out with possibly less focused gyroscopic inertia during mode change. I really like the way the aft end of the motor nacelles become landing legs. Finally, the four smaller props vs two large V-22 props give better ground, tree, and powerline clearance. Admittedly, I'm thinking "flying car" more than "cargo/troop hauler"

Maybe you are thinking too much based on too little actual information. There is so much we do not know. The problem with the logical left hemisphere is that it tries to fill in what it doesn't know with something that "makes sense". This is fine if these gaps are labeled internally with "maybe", "guessing", "hypothesis" etc, but if left unlabeled they end up feeling like logically implied facts, which they are not. I am constantly backtracking in my thoughts making sure to properly label unknowns as unknowns to keep me out of trouble. I learned the hard way, lol, it's been a long road

Hopefully they follow up with the latest in a short sequel. I'm just going by the trailer being a year old. It does look excellent. Most of the Gravitas vid are on YouTube, going to look for it... Full documentary on premium:

You previously defined living things as "unnatural". Which implies possibly the most interesting definitions of both "living" and "natural" I've come upon in the handful of decades I've been literate