Science. Freaking awesome science.

[StN]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

When is this launch supposed to happen? It's delayed till tomorrow?

Boca Chica SN8 15km test is one day soon... Elon never releases detailed timelines, you have to reverse engineer advice to local residents, county road closures, and air traffic Notice TO AirMen submissions.

RocketLab is the 15th Nov I think.

[Lightspeed]

Thanks!

[Lightspeed]

This has some amazing detailed images of human cells, all labelled.

http://www.digizyme.com/cst_landscapes.html

[Lightspeed]

Jupiter's ocean moon Europa probably glows in the dark

I really hope I we develop tech for cheaply travelling the solar system. I wanna visit Jupiter.

[Lightspeed]

Using the president’s tweets to understand political diversion in the age of social media

Social media has arguably shifted political agenda-setting power away from mainstream media onto politicians. Current U.S. President Trump’s reliance on Twitter is unprecedented, but the underlying implications for agenda setting are poorly understood. Using the president as a case study, we present evidence suggesting that President Trump’s use of Twitter diverts crucial media (The New York Times and ABC News) from topics that are potentially harmful to him. We find that increased media coverage of the Mueller investigation is immediately followed by Trump tweeting increasingly about unrelated issues. This increased activity, in turn, is followed by a reduction in coverage of the Mueller investigation—a finding that is consistent with the hypothesis that President Trump’s tweets may also successfully divert the media from topics that he considers threatening. The pattern is absent in placebo analyses involving Brexit coverage and several other topics that do not present a political risk to the president. Our results are robust to the inclusion of numerous control variables and examination of several alternative explanations, although the generality of the successful diversion must be established by further investigation.

[StN]

Originally Posted by StN

Boca Chica SN8 15km test is one day soon... Elon never releases detailed timelines, you have to reverse engineer advice to local residents, county road closures, and air traffic Notice TO AirMen submissions.

RocketLab is the 15th Nov I think.

Hmm - Starship postponed until they work out why the hydraulics melted.

RocketLab postponed until later this week I guess because of the NASA crew 1 mission tomorrow.

[Lightspeed]

Oh yeah, I saw that. They were worried the burst valve functioning after the melting, which it did. No boom.

[Ab]

Bad news from Arecibo

https://www.universetoday.com/148866...tory-entirely/

[Lightspeed]

Amazing legacy. Sad way for the project to end.

Now I want to play some GoldenEye.

[Lightspeed]

Building blocks of life can form long before stars

[StN]

Originally Posted by Ab

Bad news from Arecibo

https://www.universetoday.com/148866...tory-entirely/

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EoJsJl0X...jpg&name=large

[StN]

Hmm - if the static fire goes well, maybe a SN8 launch to 15km tomorrow/next day...

[StN]

Ok - now hat they have done the last dry run test. Looking good from midnight our time onwards.

[StN]

Maybe today. So close yesterday.

Also - I chuckled.

[Ab]

Chuck Yeager died yesterday. RIP.

[StN]

RIP Chuck.

RIP SN8 - you were a very good boy and did 99% of what you needed to.

Flew upwards.
Got to 12.5km
Flipped to belly flop mode.
Steered back to Texas.
Flipped back to pointy end up.
Came in a bit hot.
RUD right in the middle of the landing pad.

[Lightspeed]

Here's the footage, starting 30s before launch.

Exciting stuff! Definitely was surprised by how quickly the ground came up.

[Lightspeed]

Latest Mars rover is landing in just over a week:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/

[StN]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

Latest Mars rover is landing in just over a week:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/

...and my (and tha daughters) name is engraved on it! Part of teaching her about the long game. It was years ago. We are also on the earlier Insight mission.

So at least the Martians will have a target list when they decide to take action on whomever is littering their planet with robots.

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

Latest Mars rover is landing in just over a week:

https://mars.nasa.gov/mars2020/timeline/landing/

Success!

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/world/436...-lands-on-mars

[StN]

1. Say what you will and won't do.
2. Do them both anyway.
3. List on Wall Street.
4. Profit!

The (newly minted) millionaire madlad from Mahia's mic drop.

Elon approves.

[Lightspeed]

I was gonna ask if you were buying in...

[blynk]

has it already listed? or in the process

[StN]

Looks like it might be June.

[StN]

Wow!

Missed the mark by >< that much.

But landed.

[StN]

Majestic.

He liked it so much he wanted to go again, and join his brothers in Valhalla, shiny and chrome!

[Lightspeed]

They sure like blowing those things up.

[Lightspeed]

Here's the video, since StN is too busy raising his kids or something useless like that:

Starship | SN10 | High-Altitude Flight Test

[Lightspeed]

The explosion.

[Lightspeed]

In the emptiness of space, Voyager 1 detects plasma 'hum'

Mostly just impressed by Voyager.

[Ab]

The day we actually lose contact with either of the Voyagers I will fucking cry.

On a related note, the contract under which I'm currently whoring myself out to pay the bills is with the Royal Institution of Australia. I am surrounded by super bright people, most of whom are PhDs in something or other, which means my default position of assuming that everyone around me is an idiot is falling a bit flat.

But this month it's literally my job to do "science freaking awesome science" stuff all day every day. So, cool.

[Lightspeed]

This is interesting:

A Nuclear Energy Company Sets Its Sights on Deep Space

Still, very, ah, aspirational let us say.

[Lightspeed]

All that's happening is some old people thinking they're better than other people. As it tends to go with old people. They will be rightfully reamed.

Science is only one paradigm of knowledge. Responsible for many wonders and many horrors. Science offers no protection from itself. We absolutely need other forms of knowledge to maximise our chances of survival.

[Ab]

Science is a system that lets us separate the true stuff from the false stuff. If a piece of "traditional knowledge" fails the tests, it wasn't actually knowledge; it was belief.

Of course pointing this out is hate speech now.

[xor]

Originally Posted by nzherald

Those changes are meant to put mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge) on a par with other types of knowledge, particularly Western knowledge.

What is Maori knowledge? I know ol' mate lolspeed doesn't like definitions but could ya throw a dog a bone?

[Ab]

It's like the gag... you know what we call alternative medicine that's been proven to work? medicine.

You know what we call traditional knowledge that's been proven to be true? knowledge.

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by Ab

Science is a system that lets us separate the true stuff from the false stuff. If a piece of "traditional knowledge" fails the tests, it wasn't actually knowledge; it was belief.

Of course pointing this out is hate speech now.

That's one thing science is. A look to history shows that science has filled a variety of roles.

Sometimes things people say in ignorance are hateful. Because of that which is lost on the ignorant but is known to others.

The consequences here aren't people getting machine gunned on the streets for having their hateful views exposed.

Now, I wonder if people can recall how science was considered and valued the last time people in the so-called Enlightened cities of world were indeed vulnerable to being gunned down in the street for holding views, supporting positions, opposing others. How it was pointed to as justification for many changes to the way people lived. Buy-in from the population expected, demanded, compelled.

I'm far from an expert, but I've read at least enough, been shown real, verifiable history of all kinds of awful nonsense done in the name of science. And I've also seen how science has been applied to the task of understanding science. And you know what science teaches us?

It can't be all about science.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

That's one thing science is.

No, that's literally exactly all that it is. A system that separates truth from falsehood. If you say it's more than that, you're either wrong, or using the word "science" to refer to something else.

[Lightspeed]

I get maybe that's how you were raised, but you're demonstrating a failure in mentalization. As are these professors.

You are of course welcome to your beliefs. The hateful thing is to insist the world lives by these beliefs, indifferent to the pain and harm they might cause.

For me, the measure of truth is effectiveness. What's effective will be what persists.

1950s ideas about science are having a bit of a struggle right now.

[xor]

Originally Posted by Lightspeed

I get maybe that's how you were raised

lol, because he's a maori amirite? lolol, not racist at all

#Aroha