MigL

And you can't count. Just about everyone has...

Erno Goldfinger was an architect who lived next door to Ian Fleming; Auric Goldfinger was the Bond villain. Personally I prefer Blofeld, or Blowhard, for D Trump.

Are you sure it wasn't the Lead in the water pipes ?

So many labels; I don't know what I am anymore. Seems to me no one is strictly introvert or strictly extrovert, so naturally someone had to coin a term for varying combinations of the two, because we don't have enough labels. ( no disrespect to your views intended, Tony ) ( and I refuse to call anyone who's flown a sailplane old )

There is a vast difference between the possibility of interstellar travel, and the advantages/reasoning for interstellar travel. We are all in agreement that at our current level of technology we can barely do interplanetary probing/travel, but that doesn't discount the possibility of doing so in the future, however, even if technology does advance to the point where we can, the reasons and advantages to interstellar travel may never be worth it. This assumes, of course, that advanced alien civilizations, if they exist, reason, and have value scales, similar to ours.

of course. They are, arguably, just as needed for grasping stone, and bone, tools/weapons, as they are for texting on your phone.

The alligators are in the White House; and they don't take visitors unless you come with Billions, or donate a luxury Boeing 747 to the head Croc, D Trump.

It sure would be nice if you had gigantic Electromagnetic scoops that gather the interstellar gas/dust in your way, and use it as ejected mass, once energized by a matter-antimatter reactor, to generate forward thrust. Something like a Bussard ramjet ...

What a novel concept. Do whatever the fu*k you want, to whoever you want, then forgive yourself and absolve yourself of any blame or responsibility. I hope none of his advisors mention it to D Trump ...

Is there anything D Trump touches that doesn't turn to sh*t ?

Have you considered that there are different kinds of 'evolution' ? Primates for example have a different evolutionary pathway than ants, or bees, for example, For these types, single members don't take on differing characteristics, rather groups evolve differently to undertake different tasks, and the 'organism' is the collective. Maybe that is how humans are now evolving. We are becoming more social, and take care of each other to enable more of us to reach reproductive age. Isn't that the job of evolution; enable reproduction and passing on of genetic material ? Does that

Oh, OK; that's simple. Evolution is affected by the ability to pass on genetic material to as many offspring as possible. Elon Musk has 14 children with 4 different women. The main cause, then, must be being worth almost a Trillion dollars ...

Oh, you're such an optimist 🙂 .

What difference does it make ? Even if not engulfed by the expanded Sun, it will still be close enough to fry TheVat's picnic.

Both wild animals and humans experience environmental forcingsas you stated. The difference is, humans can now alter their environment to suit them; they don't need to adapt to the environment. A monkey with bad eyesight swings from tree branches, but can't see well and falls to its death, without reproducing. A human gets eyeglasses or laser surgery, and reproduces just fine. A polar bear sees its habitat shrinking because of melting Arctic ice, and eventually all go extinct. Humans build boats, and if needed, install A/C. I Asimov once said" Any sufficiently advanced society stops evolving", and while true to some extent, there are other factors/forcings at play in evolution. For example blond, blue eyed, fit, attractive people may find it easier to find a mate/reproduce in some societies, and while you could dye your hair, join a gym and get facial surgery, this isn't an environmental forcing, but a cultural one. x posted with CharonY and Sethoflagos

In his life ? I really didn't care because I don't run in his circles, and don't frequent casinos so I don't care how many he bankrupts. What about all the stupidity he's committed in the last year and a half since he took over the Presidency ? What about all the stupidity of launching a war, almost 4 months ago, and then begging his enemies to sign an MoU that allows them to keep doing everything they were previously doing, and American taxpayers will contribute 300 Billion for reconstruction. Its amazing that there are still so many Americans who continue to support the The Fu*king Goof. But what, exactly, did these Americans feel slighted about, and whose bitterness D Trump used to his advantage to get re-elected ? It's not like Weimar Germany in 1922, where a wheelbarrow full of Deutschemarks are needed to buy a loaf of bread. Sure, there's no universal Health Care, and a serious gun problem, but inflation under J Biden was coming down faster than any other country, and unemployment was low enough not to matter much. It was among the best countries in the world, and now they are hated by everyone in the world. In less than 2 years he has destroyed the international goodwill America took 100 years to build, and has actually ruined, not improved or gained nationally.

The biggest issue with these multi-century colonization schemes is that they cost a lot, and there is zero return to the people who finance it, but have to remain behind. It is small consolation to us on Earth, that, after having spent Trillions and Trillions of dollars, we may have a colony of humans on a distant planet, if they managed to survive, who we will never see, and we may not be able to communicate with within a human lifespan. So what is the cost to benefit ratio ?

Later outbreaks of the plague seem to have followed the then new system of road building. Isolated communities often kept to themselves, and the only interaction was through newly constructed roads. Those pesky Pestis take every opportunity to spread.

Sorry about the delayed editing; I didn't wanna leave a one line answer. Einstein's GR came out in 1916. By 1926, with the introduction of Quantum Mechanics, we knew that GR was incomplete; there are scales and energies where it is inapplicable., and Einstein spent most of his later life arguing against QM. As far as we know, to make a theory of Gravity compliant with QM, we may have to scrap its geometric model, in favor of a model which meshes fully, at all scales and energies, with QM. It's not that the current model of GR is wrong; it tests perfectly in its area of applicability, but throws out infinities in other areas. The 'map' displays most of the terrain , but displays 'dragons and sea monsters' in unknown areas. I would be willing to bet you that if you were to compile a list of things we know absolutely about reality, and I were to compile a list of things we don't know, my list would be much longer ...

Do you really expect that statement to have a valid answer ? We've been doing what we call science for over 2 Millenia, and we've continuously got it wrong, as we're still making modifications to our understanding. A good scientist looks at the data. What conclusions should we draw from this historical data ?

People who are bitter about the way they've been treated, can always be taken advantage of, by people who will exploit that bitterness. A Hitler, and other historical tyrants knew that. D Trump and the Alberta separatists know it also. By American Government I specifically mean Federal Administration, and members of House and Senate who would rather cover their assess than risk opposing D Trump, and having him support a primary opponent. Funny how, as soon as they lose to a Trump endorsed opponent, they all grow a set. I guess opportunism is more important than honesty and moral/ethical principles. ( oh, I forgot, these are politicians )

Mosy scientists thought the same thing in the late 1800s, just before Max Planck ushered in the birth of Quantum Mechanics, along with the paradigm shift in how we think about reality. I've said it before; the more we learn, the more we realize how much we don't yet know.

It was based on what passed for Physics at the time. Claudius Ptolemy was, after all, a 2nd century Greek astronomer. The problem with having not enough information, like the raisin bun model of the atom, or even the Bohr atom, is that people, or scientists, believe that certain things, like orbital charge motion without radiation and orbital decay, are possible in certain circumstances, until these are resolved by more robust models. I am not arrogant enough to assume we know all there is to know with our current Physical models. IOW, keep an open mind, even while dismissing possibilities.

You would have to look far and wide to find one, in the current American Government.

Oh, you just don't get it ... I don't take this stuff seriously, but like to propose Bussard ramjets powered by matter-antimatter engines. Or machine civilizations beaming their 'software' around the galaxy at the speed of light. Not very likely, but there is an extremely small chance, not only alien but even in our own future. Monntanman on the other hand, has always liked talking about this stuff, and its one of the areas he always participates in, so what do you say we cut him some slack. It wouldn't be the 1st time, because the Sun doesn't orbit the Earth.