Did you know the FCC is one of the agencies that governs satellites and the potential for them to turn into space crap. That’s a technical term: everyone knows aliens empty their sewage lines and dump their garbage before they streak off at FTL speeds.
The more humans shoot stuff into LEO (low earth orbit) the higher the probability that eventually, that stuff smacks into other stuff and then game over. Millions of itty-bitty specs, screaming around the planet, that will fuck-you-up if they hit you. No more space access for humanity for centuries. Not at least until they find a way to launch a Jedi laser garbageman to clean up the mess.
But more than this, the fact that space crap (rocks, pebbles, dust, astrophysical-shrapnel) circling in quantity any habitable planet, will pretty much preclude any intelligent species from ever getting off the surface and up into orbit.
Add this to the reasons Fermi’s Paradox is not a conundrum.
Earth is 2^70 unique—a coin, flipped 70 times, all landing heads—unique.
Anonymole - apocryphal agitators 
Have you read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead? It opens with a coin toss not unlike your reference. And isn’t bad enough that we’ve polluted the planet and now we’re shooting shit into space too? One of these days, someone is going to have the horrifyingly bright idea to send heavy water to Mars. Why not, right?
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Will add that to my list.
I have tritiums blooming in my backyard. I’m sure they’d do just as well in the red-perchlorate-infused-soil of Mars.
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Interesting posts and comments. thanks.
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Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions no one asked them – Tolstoy
Not that it’s relevant, but I liked it. There was this woman sheltering in place, spent the day with CNN. She masked up, walked her dog and as dogs do, it took a dump. She had a roll of shit getters on her leash handle, couldn’t find the start of the roll, stood there and cussed and fought it for a good five minutes. Man comes out of his garage, asks her what’s the problem. Almost in tears, the woman says Trump! He’s even fucked up the shit bags!
So…
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Musk is doing a grand job adding more stuff to the mix up there. It’ll be amusing if he finally launches himself off to his base on Mars only to wipe himself out on a node of his own Starlink.
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HA! Indeed.
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What a world.
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Hi A. Mole,
So I was in Reno. I bet black and won 6 in a row. I doubled up each time. I took the winnings off the table and watched black hit two more times for a total of 8 in a row. This post reminded me of that and how probability started with the gamblers and now it is all over the fucking place and tendencies are a pantheon of greater and lesser gods. We all need to remember that the corollary to “Where is everybody?” is ” Nobody knows nothing. ” Thanks. Duke
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I too have a similar story,
Friend and I drove through South Lake Tahoe, he wanted to play poker. I refused to spend money gambling. I sat in the poker room and noticed a $5 chip on beneath the table. I managed to maneuver it out, bet it on Red. Won. I took the extra $5 and lost it on Craps. Did this four more times. I wanted to learn Craps. Eventually I just stuck with Roulette, Went for red five times, took the $160 off, gave the croupier $10 and bought my friend and I breakfast at 5 AM. That, in a nutshell, is my entire gambling history.
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Speaking of space crap, I was watching an episode of How The Universe Works recently where they were delving into the phenomenon of cosmic rays. Allegedly, the small percentage of these rays that have managed to penetrate the troposphere helped to drive evolution by breaking DNA strands which would then reconnect in a different way to produce a different type of organism. The “allegedly” in that sentence was mine, not a disclaimer from any of the astrophysicists interviewed for the show who stated it as an established fact. This makes no sense to me. If this really is the case, then the “survival of the fittest” aspect of Darwinism is rendered moot, since rays originating outside the solar system can’t possibly be of the nature to effect us in a deliberate way. Thoughts?
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Most ionizing radiation including gamma and x-ray (from exploding stars) has the ability to induce genetic defects, Perhaps a G where there should have been an A or T or C, which can result in a different gene sequence producing either, in sperm, a species variant or in general, cancer.
The earth is highly radioactive too, which exposes us to constant ionizing radiation in very small doses.
Even ultraviolet light can alter genetic code. It’s thought that without early cyanobacteria and algae which produce free O2, that the constant barrage of UVB light (that get’s blocked by O3) would continue to decimate all DNA discouraging any higher forms of life.
The fact is that without all this radiation constantly shaking the genetic box of options, there’d be no alternatives to test to see which was fittest.
In addition to radiation, there are viruses. Much of our DNA is thought to contain remnants of us getting infected and having viral RNA tagged onto our own code.
Darwin’s Theory of Evolution needs billions of variants, all of which must run the survival gauntlet. The more variants, the faster the evolution — to a point. The finches on the Galapagos? Every nuance was induced by a defect in the sperm or egg of a parent bird. Defects sometimes caused by cosmic radiation.
That’s my understanding at least.
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Ask and I shall receive! All of that fascinates me, but this one sentence served to allay my confusion somewhat: “without all this radiation constantly shaking the genetic box of options, there’d be no alternatives to test to see which was fittest”.
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The most fascinating question remains: why haven’t we been able to reproduce the earliest forms of life? If the components are simple, known and available, then why haven’t we assumed the roll of a god and created life?
Does it really take a million years of random global experiments?
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It’s not for lack of trying, and it’s those who try that really confuse the hell out of me. What a preposterously stupid utilization of scientific brilliance.
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Disproving God, the 2nd to last question to answer.
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Divinity is the last great excuse. I’d like to see what happens when there’s no one left to blame.
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This is a major concern for Lasseter.
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He can work on that as soon as he figures out how to spell his name the same way twice.
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OMG it’s a joke dude…but not for you.
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OMFG “dude” it was like so totally cerebral I would’ve missed it without help! You get much more serious about yourself and your life’s work laxatives are gonna stop working.
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Hey, now, no reason to get nasty. Each at his own pace, remember.
I would like to read something else George might write, something tangential, and unrelated.
In other news, I’m writing 2-3k / weekend on Red Into the Sea, the sequel to my first story. It’s not going well. I got plot but no heart. Gotta find that before I get too far. Keep reading The Secret that Tells a Lie, but it’s not helping.
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Try Sin and Syntax. Better yet, drop the plot, throw him in the ocean, see what happens between now and the end. You know how in the Hollywood version of Apollo 13 the flight director throws a pile of what’s in the module on the table and says This is what they have, get them home, or words to that effect? That’s novel 101. TLTTAT is a scene format guide. Just like all the shit on NASA’s table. Or pick up Plotto, something I haven’t done, build one and drop the situations in there, get between them in 2k. Don’t sniff the glue during assembly.
I did this once with the I IV V VI of pop, here’s modern country writing for you. If you’re waiting on a flash of brilliance you’re sitting still.
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Awww…damn. Search Sir Mashalot country
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Worked, wicked sour/sweet smash, gi’ me a pint.
It got the parts, spread ma business all across the tabletop, but it’s the internal angst, the unfulfilled soul-gap that I need to find so as to connect to the MC. No connect, no underlying desire to keep at it.
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Don’t like it, don’t write it. Find something else. How about some spacewalker gets his suit shredded by space junk, big shot of sun spot, instead of dying he becomes one with the vacuum and can operate with or without an atmosphere, a sea fish with legs.
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PH: sometimes educational, sometimes amusing, but always, always highly annoying. Is there value to have a fly in my Universe?
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Yin & Yang, Win & Wang (smile)
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“Depends.”
Somebody needs to look after you. You can’t take a dump in public without someone pointing out the paper stuck to your shoe.
The real value is not self esteem, but self awareness, Taking yourself too seriously is dangerous. And unattractive!
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How do you draw these conclusions?
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Crayons.
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LOL!
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Just as I was starting to enjoy myself again…PH, always lurking, always pooping on someone’s party…
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No, I drop in on ‘Mole and ST and there you are, like a surprise turd found barefoot. Then I have to see how thin your skin is getting. Mofo, up your game or learn to take a hit on your prowess like the rest of us.
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Give him a break, it’s his time-o-the-month, you know.
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Be nice.
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