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Fascinating scientific stuff

^^ I saw Christmas in Yellowstone on TV a few weeks ago. Well worth watching in its entirety. You can probably find it someplace online.

Meanwhile, apparently the White House has a petition site. And apparently some Star Wars fans have been petitioning Obama to build a Death Star.

Here is the official - yes, official - White House response.

This Isn't the Petition Response You're Looking For

The Administration shares your desire for job creation and a strong national defense, but a Death Star isn't on the horizon. Here are a few reasons:
  • The construction of the Death Star has been estimated to cost more than $850,000,000,000,000,000. We're working hard to reduce the deficit, not expand it.
  • The Administration does not support blowing up planets.
  • Why would we spend countless taxpayer dollars on a Death Star with a fundamental flaw that can be exploited by a one-man starship?
However, look carefully (here's how) and you'll notice something already floating in the sky -- that's no Moon, it's a Space Station! Yes, we already have a giant, football field-sized International Space Station in orbit around the Earth that's helping us learn how humans can live and thrive in space for long durations. The Space Station has six astronauts -- American, Russian, and Canadian -- living in it right now, conducting research, learning how to live and work in space over long periods of time, routinely welcoming visiting spacecraft and repairing onboard garbage mashers, etc. We've also got two robot science labs -- one wielding a laser -- roving around Mars, looking at whether life ever existed on the Red Planet.

Keep in mind, space is no longer just government-only. Private American companies, through NASA's Commercial Crew and Cargo Program Office (C3PO), are ferrying cargo -- and soon, crew -- to space for NASA, and are pursuing human missions to the Moon this decade.

Even though the United States doesn't have anything that can do the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs, we've got two spacecraft leaving the Solar System and we're building a probe that will fly to the exterior layers of the Sun. We are discovering hundreds of new planets in other star systems and building a much more powerful successor to the Hubble Space Telescope that will see back to the early days of the universe.

We don't have a Death Star, but we do have floating robot assistants on the Space Station, a President who knows his way around a light saber and advanced (marshmallow) cannon, and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which is supporting research on building Luke's arm, floating droids, and quadruped walkers.

We are living in the future! Enjoy it. Or better yet, help build it by pursuing a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field. The President has held the first-ever White House science fairs and Astronomy Night on the South Lawn because he knows these domains are critical to our country's future, and to ensuring the United States continues leading the world in doing big things.

If you do pursue a career in a science, technology, engineering or math-related field, the Force will be with us! Remember, the Death Star's power to destroy a planet, or even a whole star system, is insignificant next to the power of the Force.
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My friend joined the Imperial Forces when he graduated high school. He made it through boot camp at the top of his class and won a spot on the Death Star. Those goddam blood thirsty Jedis blew it up. RIP Kowlen Sputmanner you will not be forgotten!
 
I've said it before and I'll say it again. Didn't anyone tell the White House about Kickstarter?
 
beer good said:
^^ I saw Christmas in Yellowstone on TV a few weeks ago. Well worth watching in its entirety. You can probably find it someplace online.
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Actually, I watched this documentary on a French channel ( another title ) and then I remembered this thread :whistling: --- In fact, I'm still thinking about the wounded beaver ...
 
Hugh said:
My friend joined the Imperial Forces when he graduated high school. He made it through boot camp at the top of his class and won a spot on the Death Star. Those goddam blood thirsty Jedis blew it up. RIP Kowlen Sputmanner you will not be forgotten!
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Sorry to hear about your friend. :(
 
beer good said:
And following up on that, apparently there are now satellites that can spot penguin shit from space.
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It's a reminder, once again, that Antarctica holds many mysteries we've yet to uncover. Also, it was once a thriving, tropical continent that teemed with life. These penguins are some of the only surviving native species of Antarctica.

I bet the dinosaurs found the penguins funny, they're not laughing now...
 
I can see it now: a woman and her Neanderthal baby go to Ikea and he gets left behind accidentally.

awww.truckerdeluxe.com_wordpress_wp_content_uploads_2012_12_Carl_the_Ikea_Monday.jpg
 
beer good said:
So apparently we now have the know-how, if not quite the technology just yet, to clone Neanderthals.

Hooo boy. There's an ethical ticking timebomb. Forget cloning mammoths - what would we do with a bunch of intelligent and conscious experiments? Probably patented by some large biochemical concern?
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Mapping an ancient genome is possible with a living relative, getting it to work like a normal living genome is not yet possible the mammoth watershed being a case in point. Despite the well publicised fact that mammoth tissue is available scientists have admitted that in this instance what is required is mammoth balls... There haven't been any neanderthals found in permafrost so the chances of genuine genetic ressurection are nil.
 
Perhaps, though FWIW, the professor in genetics seems to think it's closer to 1. The hypothetical is still interesting, though; would it be ethical to resurrect a living, breathing, thinking, reasoning extinct human species as an experiment?
 
beer good said:
Perhaps, though FWIW, the professor in genetics seems to think it's closer to 1. The hypothetical is still interesting, though; would it be ethical to resurrect a living, breathing, thinking, reasoning extinct human species as an experiment?
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Yeah I find that strange given the problems the mammoth team have reported and they have far more genuine genetic material... Genetic experimentation on viable human embryos I would say is unethical.
 
That's the thing, though; if the embryo is biologically Homo Sapiens Neanderthalensis rather than Homo Sapiens Sapiens, does that change anything? It's a fair bet most countries don't have legal regulations on non-human humans, at least.

Or if you really want to push the envelope - is it more ethically questionable to genetically "build" (however it would be done) and give birth to a group of Neanderthals who'd never lack for anything materially, than it is to, say, let millions of Homo Sapiens Sapiens every day be born into utter and certain poverty? (I know, I know, false equivalency...)
 
I don't think it does, neanderthals were capable of breeding with our ancestors so genetically speaking the difference between both genomes is negligible.
 
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