561

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: December 18, 2020, 01:53:03 AM »

The password!

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-55337192

lolz

Apparently he successfully got on to Donnie's twitter six years ago as well, again by just guessing the password... 'yourefired.'

562

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Terrible Political Memes

« on: December 18, 2020, 12:47:45 AM »

563

Flat Earth Projects / Re: A journey to the Antarctica

« on: December 17, 2020, 11:33:26 PM »

I have to warn against self-guided wandering around in Antarctica. It will not end well for you.

I didnt nor will I watch that ancient aliens clip, but the likelihood of finding anything is astronomically low and the likelihood of dying while trying is incredibly high.

564

Technology & Information / Re: Massive data breach of US Gov and private companies

« on: December 17, 2020, 10:16:56 PM »

Any other year this would be the biggest story going...

The fact that they have no clue how far it goes or for how long it was happening is wild.

And even the nuclear security administration was breached

565

Flat Earth Theory / Re: Does the Earth rest on a solid foundation or does it float in space?

« on: December 17, 2020, 08:52:03 PM »

For all the flaws I see in it, based on my background, EA is actually a great example of exactly the kind of efforts i would want to see: bring in understanding from recent advances, rather than dismissal as pseudoscience.

The problem here is that it's hard not to dismiss as pseudoscience what is obviously pseudoscience.

I think you are misinterpreting his words. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure he's saying he wishes FE would embrace scientific advances and incorporate them more into their models, as opposed to saying they are part of a hoax or conspiracy.

Clyde is right again.

I find a lot of the wiki, for example, to be overly dismissive of a broad range of scientific methods/advances/hypotheses/achievements.

I dont like it, but I applaud the efforts being put forward to advance EA as an alternative explanation for observations. Rather than throwing out tested scientific knowledge, it builds on it, trying to evaluate whether there is indeed a new framework for us to view and understand natural phenomena.

But that probably stems from my geology background, where all our field's major breakthroughs have typically come from stealing and bastardizing techniques from medical and military innovations!

566

Technology & Information / Massive data breach of US Gov and private companies

« on: December 17, 2020, 08:46:28 PM »

Any thoughts on the discovery of months of data breaches by sophisticated and coordinated hackers... US government agencies and private companies compromised, as yet there is little sense of even the magnitude of data that has been accessed and/or stolen because hackers hid their presence so well.

CNN and I think BBC are tentatively reporting a Russian connection, but haven't provided anything of substance to back it up.

The articles I've been able to find all lack any real insights and the whole story isnt really taking off in Main Stream feeds.

Anyone else have any better links?

567

Flat Earth Theory / Re: Does the Earth rest on a solid foundation or does it float in space?

« on: December 17, 2020, 04:20:49 PM »

Don't misunderstand me, I'm not appealing to cosmology in what I said, I'm simply showing that there's an analog in terms of it being OK for there to be fundamental properties of the universe that are accepted as such. No matter what you want to try and accept as the nature of the universe, there will at some level be things that are axiomatic. Dark energy, like you mention, is one such thing in cosmology right now. It just... is... and there's no telling what it really is, it's just there making the universe expand faster and faster apparently. But the phrase itself is just a place holder for "some energetic force that no one really knows much about." Move into UA-land, and an accelerator could very well be pretty much the same thing conceptually, although at a different scale.

And to be even more clear, I'm not someone who is even a proponent of UA. But the same tired arguments of "but it would exceed LIGHTSPEED!!!1one!" and "nothing can accelerate FoReVeRrRr because it would need infinity energy" get paraded around a lot at both sites and those arguments just aren't very good.

Yeah it's absolutely a fair analogy to raise because that's a major double standard that I've seen in what little time I've been here for.

What I was trying to bring up is that there's something of a reciprocation when it come to common FE proponents' responses to some of those belligerent arguments, where examples of experiments are demanded to back up the classical RE theory, or appeals are made to phenomena that lack observational and experimental support. Local variations in gravity vs. UA and EA vs setting sun would be examples where this occurs.

My personal issue with FET isnt the attempts to advocate for a different interpretation of our world, but the dismissal of such broad reaches of scientific advances and achievements. I would find it much easier to embrace if there was more (perceived) effort to integrate modern science into FET. For all the flaws I see in it, based on my background, EA is actually a great example of exactly the kind of efforts i would want to see: bring in understanding from recent advances, rather than dismissal as pseudoscience.

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Flat Earth Theory / Re: Does the Earth rest on a solid foundation or does it float in space?

« on: December 17, 2020, 02:26:27 PM »

Answering "where the force comes from" is really moving the goal posts. There are unknowns in all things. The force could simply be a fundamental property of the universe in the UA model. Current cosmology claims there is a certain unknown fundamental property of the universe cause it to expand at an ever-increasing rate, and that's not considered controversial in the least.

Its shifting the goalposts a bit to be sure, but it gets to a fundamental flaw within FET. I will accept the unknown/unexplained source for the acceleration since you justifiably call to the same kinds of unknowns that are broadly accepted within RE cosmology.

But the whole basis of FET supposedly rests on empirical observations and testable experimentation. FET provides numerous alternate explanations for classic RE hypotheses, based on clever equivalencies that have been pointed out. But they comminly only work for one specific set of observations, rather than fitting with a holistic worldview. Where these deficiencies arise, in many cases, aspects of RE are brought in as a fail safe - like Einstein's Special Relativity to explain why we dont accelerate beyond the speed of light. Or dark energy to explain the origin of electromagnetic acceleration.

FET arose in large part because people wanted to trust their senses and rely on what can be observed and tested. But the 'pseudoscience' of cosmology and astronomy sure seem to come in handy when the limits of FET are questioned.

569

Flat Earth Projects / Re: A journey to the Antarctica

« on: December 16, 2020, 09:27:15 PM »

You can get to Antarctica for much less if you're a) lucky, and b) willing to work for free.

You have to apply and win a lottery. Many many students have bolstered their resumes by doing this. Adults can do it as well. Most of these positions will limit you to ship-based and coastal work (the active scientists would be the ones making the helicopter trips inland), but some offer work at the research stations in the interior of the continent, like that at the south pole. It'll still cost you several thousand USD to get there unless you live near the ports of origin for the research vessels.

570

Flat Earth Projects / Re: A journey to the Antarctica

« on: December 16, 2020, 01:06:53 PM »

If you have ~75,000 USD, you can fly to the south pole research station and stay there for a week.

571

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Covid-19 vaccine two shots

« on: December 15, 2020, 04:36:45 AM »

Yeah but trump at least has a persona, something to fall for. Ted Cruz is: an idiot; spineless; careless enough to publicly comment on a pornhub video... is it just that hes an egregious ass kisser despite his personal history with Donnie?

572

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Covid-19 vaccine two shots

« on: December 15, 2020, 03:43:54 AM »

How does Ted Cruz still hold public office?

573

Flat Earth Theory / Re: Why the round earth hoax?

« on: December 15, 2020, 03:39:09 AM »

Yeah it was just curiosity - I dont think there is a 'right' way to approach dealing with the realities we all face on a day to day basis.

Personally, seeing myself as a single person on a huge planet that is infinitesimally small compared to the rest of the universe, it's very humbling but I also see it as an extremely fortunate chance. A chance to do anything. Despite that, I underachieve. I try to be a good person (I do okay at it - im nice at the very least). And I do it because it's just the right thing to do. It's how I hope people will treat me.

Theres no points for doing it, or a golden ticket to Valhalla waiting for me. We get our chance, to make the best use we can of the time were given on this watery rock, then that's it.

The control issue is always an interesting question... powerful groups, be they religious, military, or political, will use anything they can my take is that being a small part of a large universe gives them the least power over me, but that's an entirely different tin of beans.

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Flat Earth Theory / Re: Why the round earth hoax?

« on: December 15, 2020, 02:56:34 AM »

I totally get that it can be (un)easy to feel insignificantly small compared to the universe, but if that worldview is part of a kind of marketing hoax, what's the flip side?

If you're right and the solar system is local, earth is special, and we're more important than a fleeting moment in history...how does that make it different?

Is there pressure now to be more successful, be a better person, help out our fellow man? Is it all part of a larger plan, and if so, do we really have any say in anything?

Those are over the top, granted, but I'm curious, how does (should?) knowing the earth is flat and were more important shape (y)our worldview?

575

Flat Earth Investigations / Re: Time-lapse of SpaceX dragon capsule docking with ISS

« on: December 15, 2020, 02:32:52 AM »

Do these look like models?

Yes.

Perhaps you could share what, in your opinion, a shuttle docking should look like?

Having never seen it, it'd be pure speculation. I'm simply pointing out that the videos presented above look suspicious to me, for aforementioned reasons. I suppose in answer to your question as to what it should look like... 'not suspicious'... I suppose.

Do these look like models?

Yes.

Do these look like models too?

Yes - they look like models; but it's a good example of what can be done!

That's exactly my point though, theres no reason it looks fake. We dont have a real sense of what things look like in outer space, where the ambient lighting from the sun is completely different and (net) zero gravity environment screws up out normal frames of reference which give us the cues we pick up on the notice when things do look fake here on earth - think of all the shitty Hollywood special effects you've seen over the years!

One of the key things that reinforces my belief in things like the moon landing is just how shitty the lander looked! Surely if they were just trying to fool everyone they would have built something that looked impressive to the eye! But instead they had to make something that they could launch to the moon so the aesthetics of it unfortunately suffered quite a bit...

Theres two cents no one asked for at least

576

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Covid-19 vaccine two shots

« on: December 15, 2020, 01:48:37 AM »

Fred Durst's plan > Ted Cruz's plan

577

Flat Earth Investigations / Re: Time-lapse of SpaceX dragon capsule docking with ISS

« on: December 15, 2020, 12:02:59 AM »

Do these look like models?

Yes.

Perhaps you could share what, in your opinion, a shuttle docking should look like?

578

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Terrible Political Memes

« on: December 14, 2020, 11:38:28 PM »

579

Flat Earth Theory / Re: Vendée Globe

« on: December 14, 2020, 06:50:59 PM »

This is a a great case study to look at issues with the FE map, though there are other variable at play that Tom has pointed out, the differences between distances plotted on globe-based maps and the most prominent FE map are staggering.

Appealing to 'exaggerated distances in the hemisphere' creates another issue, because if the world was indeed flat, map making should be simple --no need for complicated projections that necessarily skew the size, distance, shape, or positions of depicted features.

It would be relatively straightforward for one to compare the progress of the racers and compare their speeds to reported weather conditions to evaluate whether the mean seas of the south could account for all of the apparent changes in speeds interpreted from the FE and globe-based maps.

Tom posted some quotes on the nature of weather systems in this region, from sources he likely views as trustworthy... I wonder what else those sources might say about the causes of those weather systems...

580

Philosophy, Religion & Society / Re: Trump

« on: December 14, 2020, 02:45:04 PM »

Today's the day electors vote.

After Today, congress then counts the vote on January 6 and once they are counted and accepted, we are done.

If I have learned anything, it is that Trump is relentless in his pursuit of shitty lawsuits.  As long as there are millions in donations to line his pockets, expect him to bitch, moan, complain and incite until Jan. 20th.

This whole thing would be way more entertaining if 'incite' wasn't the most important word in there.

Whether he's doing it intentionally or not, his cavalier (or just plain reckless) approach to the press and PR is going to continue to raise tensions, and I can only see it getting worse after the bad news continues to pile up against him.