JoeSchmuckatelli

As I understand it, the Appalachian mountains are among the oldest on earth - 1.2 billion years old. Formed when Gondwanaland was a thing. Supposedly taller in their day than the Himalayan range of today. Results of proto continent collisions. We only see the weathered remains of the mountains. Coal, as I understand it, is the remnants of forests formed during the carboniferous period - the biological arms race had produced lignin in plants that fungi and bacteria had yet learned to digest. Over millions of years the trees died, laying undigested and forming peat bogs and covered by water and sediments (shallow seas/lakes) eventually, coal. The bands were generally horizontal until the separation of the NA continent building process folded up the land and coal bands. Here is the problem I'm having: the mountain building predates the carboniferous. And yet the coal bands are in the Appalachian range. How? Sources appreciated!

This one?

I'm hoping we can continue to interact here, but if not... Is there a good alternative Science and Spaceflight FORUM (not Discord - too old / no patience) that you might recommend? Would really enjoy being able to continue with you all should these forums implode!

It's been an honor, Folks. Fingers twisted that we get to keep going! Best community on the interwebz

One gallon of gasoline +oil kicked off by a quarter stick of TNT makes an impressive mushroom cloud. ...don't ask how I know this.

And of course the guy who finally makes it... Makes it look easy. Yep. Good analogy

Wine - Dinosaur link discovered https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/07/01/demise-of-dinosaurs-allowed-vines-to-thrive-find-scientists/

Irradiated mutant bacteria from spaaaace being brought back to Earth? What could go wrong? Panik https://www.nasa.gov/centers-and-facilities/ames/ames-science/ames-space-biosciences/multi-drug-resistant-bacteria-found-on-iss-mutating-to-become-functionally-distinct/

I enjoyed your story! I started reading a bunch of the work put out by a Canadian building scientist (can't remember name offhand) back 20 some odd years ago. Was fascinating to watch them try to figure out 'the perfect wall' and answer the insulation, vapor barrier and construction practices questions I was wrestling with. (At the time I was trying to help a client design and build a high efficiency addition using the latest practices) Looks like a. Cool field!

Monday afternoon, several videos had been removed from Chinese social media platforms. Eyewitness accounts shared on social media described hearing a loud explosion upon impact, with one witness telling CNN they saw the rocket fall with their own eyes. They described experiencing a pungent odour and hearing the sound of the explosion afterwards ~MSN article with absurdly long link ~

That is just... Not right. ... There was a Dinosaur show from about 10 years ago - one of the segments had these giant frogs That used to live back then - big enough to eat a small Dino in one bite. IIRC - one scene had a brontosaurus step on the frog If anyone remembers this - it's worth a look. Kinda horrible - but worth it

Well... Isn't that fancy. I can get into S&Sf. Thank you for the tip.

Just can't stop imagining the mutant frog that might need a Lilly Pad that big...

The bad gateway thing is apparently affecting everyone - not just those who have been shadow banned / Kraken banned from the S&Sf sub. What make me sad is that I had a working email login with my temp Alt... But when they merged the accounts they merged the working one into the non working aaaaaaand I'm banned again. ... I'm pretty adept at the backdoor workaround - but really wish the forum software did not hate me.

502 Bad Gateway all afternoon

observations from NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft hint that the Kuiper Belt – the vast, distant outer zone of our solar system populated by hundreds of thousands of icy, rocky planetary building blocks – might stretch much farther out than we thought https://www.nasa.gov/missions/new-horizons/nasas-new-horizons-detects-dusty-hints-of-extended-kuiper-belt/ Also - mission could extend to the 2040s? New Horizons is expected to have sufficient propellant and power to operate through the 2040s, at distances beyond 100 AU from the Sun. That far out, mission scientists say, the SDC could potentially even record the spacecraft’s transition into a region where interstellar particles dominate the dust environment.

Like a deadbeat dad, sperm were thought to give eggs little more than the initial bang that gets things started. Possibly the most humorous start to a Science News article I've seen in a while Sperm Spills Its RNA Secret | Science | AAAS For context: Researchers have shown for the first time that sperm also carry RNA, some of which may provide important signals to the developing embryo. Wrong thread ... whatever - my access to this sub is so wonky I'm just glad it posted

A better read.

Possible but unlikely. Even if the trend remains upward over the next decade... It will still only be a trend.

Makes sense - we've been prepped by history and media to think that when scientists are doing things on the edge of the ethical - they have probably already crossed the line

Here are the 2020 predictions for reference https://spacenews.com/spacexs-2020-ambitions-tempered-by-2019-outcomes/

Too late

You have laid out this argument quite persuasively. I'd never really thought about nuclear power (and weapons) being an almost inevitable discovery Probably because Freshman Chem was a 300 person lecture by a disinterested Grad Student who barely knew his stuff and had no idea how to teach. (Also - I was 18, an indifferent student and easily distracted by the bounty of college life)

To be fair - I only trust intuition in the rare few fields where I have some experience based expertise. Thus it's really 'using the currently available evidence combined with experience' to make a decision. It consistently fails elsewhere - like anticipating the Market - something I only have passing familiarity with. Is actually dealt with quite well if you are the kind of person who is OK with admitting you were wrong. That is apparently hard for some people

I posted a thread a while back looking for the 'killer app' of the current period (much like the railroad, electricity, internal combustion engine and microchip were the killer apps of decades past). The technology had to be disruptive but also allow / enable advances in other areas - as well as being able to mature and permeate the economy. The consensus was that AI is the likely candidate. With people harnessing AI, we may indeed see advances in the technologies you mentioned - or we might not. Hypersonic is a solution to the desire to get somewhere faster - but it's not the only path to that end. With fusion - I agree that it is exciting to live in a time when major advances are likely in the next 10-20 years