trench (1315) 1 SFW Posts | 4 Space Comments | Favorites | RSS Feed Registered 2007-10-05 11:49:59 Comment Karma: 0 Featured Comments: 0 Member of :

Recent Comments from trench

Comment on Space Station and Shuttle in front of sun (2007-10-05 13:02:55)
egnilk66: It's because it's a damn good post.
Comment on Space Station and Shuttle in front of sun (2007-10-05 12:21:26)
Extinction level events are crazy assumptions? I mean, I suppose they are if you are one of the people that believe that earth was created six thousand years ago... but even then, I think Noah had to prep for an extinction level event. Crazy assumptions. "Applying your monkey instinct to spread your seed whereever you can still isn’t worth the bajillions of dollars." You are placing a dollar value on the survival of our species. In essence, to continue with an analogy I made earlier, you are saying the "gas money" you'd have to spend getting from your trailer to a tornado shelter just isn't worth it. 1) "Who chooses the survivors?" What the hell are you talking about? Who chose the pilgrims? Who chose the miners? Who chose the cowboys? Who chose the scientists? Who chooses anybody? Choices are simply a bi-product of who we are, the "good" and the "bad"... unless you are a fatalist (which it most certainly sounds like you are), these questions shouldn't even be an issue. Ultimately, the reason we migrate, just like any other animal, is for survival. Migration, pilgrimage, it's all the same... a collective instinct for enduring. 2)"Best bet is that these rich folk are going to be on a terraformed rock." If you understand (or, rather, have any knowledge whatsoever of) history, you would comprehend that most of these people being sent off to these space stations... these new colonies, they won't be rich people. Rich people don't typically put their own lives on the line to get something done... they pay the poor to do it for them. "The idea that you could create human fishbowls in space that would last forever is dubious at best." Again, somehow you are misinterpreting what I've said. Using your fishbowl analogy, the earth itself is one... and it won't last forever, that's the point. So, like any fish looking for survival and growth and contributing future generations to the species, he will begin making new fishbowls... or finding bowls that he can transform into fishbowls. It's an ongoing process. You don't still live in the home you grew up in do you? 3) "Even if it was possible to sustain humans forever in some place other than earth, what are our options. Mars and a few moons. There’s no other system with planets even remotely close to us." Possibly 200 light years, says the news yesterday. "And warp drive and hyperspace aren’t going to happen, they just are plot devices on silly shows." You do realize how much technology we take for granted today that was merely "plot devices on silly shows" just decades ago, right? Open your eyes. "I’ll leave it to the psychologists to explain why a man confined to a wheelchair would dream about freely and immediately crusing about the entirety of existence." Troll much? 4) As for number 4, I think your entire paragraph is pretty much summed up with this quote: "We need to live for now, and conquer our mesoworld before we try to tackle infinity." I agree. We aren't talking about infinity, or at least I wasn't... I was talking about now. Today. And staying alive for tomorrow. The next now. The coming Today. By your own philosophy, you might as well not have kids because they are just going to die, right? "Does a miserable machine that only exists to run itself deserve to continue?" You seem tragically emo and disgustingly goth. I’ll leave it to the psychologists to explain why a man unconfined to a wheelchair would forget how to dream freely and imagine limitless possibilities.
Comment on Space Station and Shuttle in front of sun (2007-10-05 08:37:31)
Also, I had to look up the legitimacy of the photo... because this *is* truly spectacular. Thierry Legault snapped the shots... here's one in color, along with some info: http://www.space.com/imageoftheday/image_of_day_070102.html
Comment on Space Station and Shuttle in front of sun (2007-10-05 08:19:05)
Spectacular photograph. Wally, I'm glad you're standing up for space exploration but you skipped the most obvious reason to continue, and it's the one that Stephen Hawking has been trying to shout to the world for the last year or so: In order for our species to survive, we *need* to get off this planet. Another extinction level event is bound to occur, be-it in two years, two-hundred, or two-thousand - it's going to happen. Whether we actually cause the next extinction level event [nuclear holocaust, "global warming", biological warfare, etc...], or it's a "naturally" occurring one [space rocks, environmental changes, black holes, or any undiscovered-unnameables, etc...], we need to spread our seed. This planet has had 5 extinction level events in the past, I believe (it could be six, google it...), and to think that it's not going to happen again is as blissful as ignorance gets. The more territory we occupy in space, be-they planetary or man-made, the greater our chances are for survival. It's that simple. We're tribal folk stuck on an island staring at the volcano and refusing to believe she's gonna blow again. Those saying that space exploration is pointless are analogous to those that refuse to leave their trailers as the tornado sirens are blaring. We need to get off this planet.