The Wow I Can't Believe That News Story Thread

[Trollheart]

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

Holy ****.

Who the **** is that quoted from?

And what does Frownland's continued use of the word "scope" as a reply mean?

Let's not forget that there may be alien civilisations out there, but they may not want to get in touch with us, to say nothing of the ones who are so far ahead of us technologically that we are nothing to them, totally unnoticeable. As someone said on Year Million recently: "When you walk by an anthill, do you think about communicating with the ants?"

[Frownland]

Originally Posted by Trollheart

And what does Frownland's continued use of the word "scope" as a reply mean?

It means that we are a proverbial needle in the haystack. Actually, we're like a grain of sand in a stack of haystacks.

[Trollheart]

Originally Posted by Frownland

It means that we are a proverbial needle in the haystack. Actually, we're like a grain of sand in a stack of haystacks.

Ah, right.
In other news, further on the hurricane:

Head of forecasting at Met Éireann Gerald Fleming said it looked likely that the effects of Ophelia will be felt most strongly in the southwest counties of Cork and Kerry.

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, Mr Fleming said if the current track of the hurricane continues, it looks like it will pass over the country fairly quickly on Monday and may bring heavy rains.

Doesn't sound as if my house is going to end up in Kansas or anything, but if it does, how's anyone there fixed to put me, my sister and our two cats up?

[Trollheart]

However in a statement, Met Éireann said that it is not possible to quantify the exact timing, nor the strength of intensity of the wind and rain, until later in the weekend.

It said: "Ophelia won't be a hurricane in meteorological terms when it reaches our part of the world as she will have moved over the cooler waters of the mid-Atlantic and undergone what is known as extra-tropical transition.

"So while there could be the threat of wind gusts reaching hurricane force or indeed heavy rainfall with this system, it means the traditional attributes of a hurricane - such as an eye or an eye-wall containing a core of hurricane force winds - are very unlikely to be present."

[Chula Vista]

Originally Posted by Frownland

It means that we are a proverbial needle in the haystack. Actually, we're like a grain of sand in a stack of haystacks.

I sat down and did the math once and the best analogy is we're a single grain of sand in the entire Sahara Desert.

[Chula Vista]

"I will tell you I left Texas and I left Florida and and I left Louisiana and I went to Puerto Rico and I met with the President of the Virgin Islands," Trump told the audience of the Values Voter Summit in Washington.

"We are one nation and we all hurt together, we hope together and we heal together," Trump said, later adding, "The Virgin Islands and the President of the Virgin Islands, these are people that are incredible people, they suffered gravely and we're be there, we're going to be there, we have really, it is not even a question of a choice."

PSSSST: Hey Donald, YOU are the president of the Virgin Islands.

[OccultHawk]

Originally Posted by Trollheart

Who the **** is that quoted from?

And what does Frownland's continued use of the word "scope" as a reply mean?

Let's not forget that there may be alien civilisations out there, but they may not want to get in touch with us, to say nothing of the ones who are so far ahead of us technologically that we are nothing to them, totally unnoticeable. As someone said on Year Million recently: "When you walk by an anthill, do you think about communicating with the ants?"

Quote was from Forbes.

National Hurricane Center

All I can say is that if a hurricane is coming your way be prepared. Especially with your sister. Have a supply of food and water a flashlight and radio and batteries and medicine. Be prepared for no water and no electricity. I hope it doesn't hit you like that. Where I live it's a constant worry during hurricane season. Nate, Harvey, and Irma all clipped us but luckily just on the peripheral.

I remember that anthill hypothesis from Michio Kaku. Iirc, he makes that point in The Physics of the Impossible. Fun book. The retort is the same as I said to Frown. Other theoretical physicists will argue that it doesn't account for alien life that wants to be seen. It's not just dependent on them noticing us. And to say we can't notice them because we're as relatively simple as ants still doesn't account for the diversity of communication that could be expected from the Drake equation. It should be they exist at varying points of technological advances.

Frownland mentions scope as a synonym for scale. If they're 3 billion light years away no matter how you slice it they're 3 billion years away from any sort of contact.

[OccultHawk]

Say scope all you want. Radio waves are detectable like light from stars. There's not one alien civilization that wants to be detectable and is. There's not one that can overcome "scope". The vast distances don't explain it away. It explains the non-detection of life that either can't send signals or doesn't want to but it doesn't allow for those who can and do. We know for sure that there's no alien civilization with the desire and ability to communicate with us. That's what silence means. If life is able to technologically surpass where we're at now, by great measure even, it stands to reason that in at least one case there would be something we could detect but there isn't. If scope is the problem then the lack of technology to overcome it, even with the limitation of light speed, is also the problem. And that reinforces the theory that there's a certain technological threshold that always causes self-destruction.

[Frownland]

Originally Posted by OccultHawk

If life is able to technologically surpass where we're at now, by great measure even, it stands to reason that in at least one case there would be something we could detect but there isn't.

I just don't have that kind of faith. Why would our planet stand out? How can they differentiate our satellites out of infinitesimal plain ole meteors?

If scope is the problem then the lack of technology to overcome it, even with the limitation of light speed, is also the problem.

Absolutely. However, even if that technology exists somewhere in the universe, that doesn't mean that it's been used to its fullest extent i.e. scanning the whole universe for life and stopping by to say what's up.

[grindy]

Dyson spheres are nice and all but there's a very good chance they are physically impossible to build, no matter how advanced you are.