PakledHostage

The trouble is that religious differences have been one of the top justifications for people killing each other throughout history. Only with today's weapons, we do it so much more effectively. Also religion gets in the way of things that are important to the future of our species, such as education (i.e.intelligent design being taught in American school science classes) and contraception.

Did we just witness yet more evidence of the validity of Godwin's law?

This raises another interesting one to think about: Autonomous weapons. Daniel Suarez did a TED talk about this topic this past June. His talk was titled "The kill decision shouldn't belong to a robot".

I would add "too self interested to care". Look at the justifications people use for driving their F150s. For taking "adventure" cruises to the Galapagos and Antarctica. For caving. Even in the absence of religious ideology that encourages exploitation of the planet's resources, people almost always place their own self interests ahead of the greater good. That's probably human instinct, but one of the most unique things about us is that we have the capacity to override our instincts with reason if we're willing to make the effort.

While it is a noble idea, we'd never be able to get the "go forth and multiply" crowd to buy into it... And it makes me think of the opening sequence in Idiocracy.

I'm not sure it would have that big an impact. As others have said already, oil isn't going to be depleted overnight. The current incarnation of the oil industry will gradually shrink and evolve as our remaining oil becomes too precious to burn (oil is used to make a whole bunch of very important products including pharmaceuticals, plastics, etc). Maybe someone else has access to a better reference, but I just had a quick look at the Wikipedia article on the United States Economy and oil doesn't even get its own line item in either the "Employment by sector" table or the "GDP by industry". Presumably its production is too small a percentage of the US GDP and employment to be notable. This despite the fact that the US is supposedly the world's third largest producer of oil and the second largest producer of natural gas.

Indeed. Congratulations! It is nice to see that you're getting recognized for your success while pursuing such a big dream.

We actually weren't even that far north when I took that photo. We were south of Goose Bay, Labrador. It was just a particularly active night. The University of Fairbanks Aurora forecast intensity was only at 3, but they were brighter and more active than I expected for that intensity level.

Sorry in advance to anyone who's upset that I'm reviving an old thread, but it is a good thread. There are some great photos in here for anyone who hasn't browsed through them. Here's another of mine that I'd like to share: I took it out the window of a B757-300. You can see the winglet protruding above the wing tip light. It was a bit hard to hold the camera still the whole time that the shutter was open, but the aurora was very bright so I only needed to use an EV of about -2 (4 seconds, f/3.5, ISO 1600).

If you are talking about the "landed at" coordinates in the map view, then yes they leave a lot to be desired... I recall posting a bug report about them back when they were first added in some ancient version of the game, but nothing seems to have ever come of it or other such reports.

While I recognize the point you are trying to make about the difference between exposure to high heat flux and high temperature, you picked an unfortunate example. The Mythbusters did a segment proving that you can, in fact, briefly stick your hand into molten lead without getting burned. I'd post a link to the YouTube video, but it is hard to do from my smartphone.

There was an interesting story a while back about using deactivated HIV to cure leukemia in humans. Such experimental treatment options aren't available for your pet though. And while I am sorry to hear about your dog, please don't attempt anything to cause him/her any more suffering. Maybe the most caring thing you can do for your friend is to ease him/her out of this world peacefully.

It means something along the lines of [slack jawed yokel twang]"they should be learnin' readin', 'ritin' and 'rithmetic"[/slack jawed yokel twang]

Titan is certainly intriguing, but I think the point many of us are trying to make is "let's go after the low hanging fruit first". Follow the water, to borrow a phrase.

To be clear, I am not invoking anything metaphysical in how the messenger molecules work. What I am expressing amazement at (and in turn pointing out) is that there are incredibly complex processes that occur at the sub cellular level. Those processes certainly do adhere to known physical laws, but their existence implies that modelling human consciousness probably runs deeper than just modeling networks of synapses as on-off switches.

So that begs another question: If sufficient funding only exists to support either a) more manned missions to LEO or maybe a future return to the moon or an asteroid sample return missions to places like Titan, Mars and Europa Which do people prefer? Myself, I would prefer that there was a greater focus on robotic missions. Manned missions are too expensive and result in all of our eggs being in one proverbial basket. On the other hand, the world's space agencies could accomplish several scientifically valuable and impressive robotic missions for the same money as is currently being spent on the ISS.

I think it is naive to believe that neurons or even a neuron's axons and dendrites are analogous to bits in a computer. Cells have incredibly complex biology and a lot of processing happens at the sub-cellular level. Even single celled organisms are capable of responding to diverse stimuli in their environments. Drew Berry did a TED talk a few years ago that gave some insight into the molecular machinery inside every cell. What blew me away was the bit at the end where the chemical signal broadcasting system molecules actually walk along the micro-tubules in the cell's nucleus... How do they know where they are going?

I'd go with Europa. I understand that there are regions on the surface where material from the moon's interior oceans are accessible. It would be truly momentous if we were to discover evidence of organic activity in those samples.

The Wikipedia article for the Mercury-Redstone 3 flight (Alan Shepard's Freedom 7 flight) includes the image below: The flight's timeline says it started its pitch program at 16 seconds into the flight, pitching at 2 degrees per second to an angle of 45 degrees.

LADEE's position is already being updated in Eyes On The Solar System. Keeners like us can follow its progress there.

That's because of all the SRB stages.

that thing doesn't mess around!

@Jimbobq11: Take pictures and post them?

Weather briefing gives 0% chance of weather violating launch criteria.