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Evidence of Infinite Cycle of Big Bangs? Time Travel?
Have we just seen ghosts of black holes from another universe?
Evidence that Universe has infinite cycle of Big Bangs from very early black holes
Separately:
Physicists Say They've Come Up With a Mathematical Model For a Viable Time Machine
All you need is the same exotic matter that powers your Alcubierre drive. What? You don't have one of those?
Random thoughts about this Brave New World.
My daughter just went to a Drag(on) party (sp???):
literally a pre-wedding party for two guys (and there was a stage drag theater contest).
My questions (being an old guy trying to fit into a new world)
1. Is it husband and wife or husband and husband (wife and wife for lesbians)?
2. Why do people do drag? and why don't they dress that way all the time if they like doing it so much?
3. I knew a 'flaming homo' in Toronto (did not know him well enough to ask questions like this): why do some guys act straight and some so feminine to outright flaming in yo' face?
Will probably remember some other questions later... does anyone have a primer?
Honestly asking.... this is all new to the guy who grew up (small town) saying "Ha...you're a homo!" without really knowing what that meant (when told about a 'circle jerk' i wondered why a bunch of guys would want to do that while thinking about women, lol).
Let the flaming begin!
**A side thought:
In the future there WILL be sex bots:
.....there will also be 'child sex bots' (and will/can child sex bots be made illegal?)... thinking about this is kind of disturbing, but i know it IS coming, sooner or later.
Will something like that take care of a pedo's needs or lead to something worse?
If you had a fully functioning sex-bot that looks/feels real with wonderful AI, would you consider never having a relationship (such as marriage) again or just stick with sex-bot?
If my wife died and i had a bot/AI that was acceptable, i might just stick with it, methinks.
Damn, my mind is going tonight!
Book Club Proposal
1. First book posted on Main Page (Community Reviews nexus) on the first of the month. Let's just pick Liu Cixin's The Three-Body Problem for the inaugural book, unless you have any better ideas.
That thread will contain discussion of the book throughout the month, as well as any suggestions you might have for the next book (you have two weeks to make them).
2. On the 15th of the month, we'll have a front page poll to choose the next book. An editor will pick suggestions from the discussion thread. It looks like we can have a maximum of 8 poll options, which is probably sufficient.
3. Finally, a new thread on the first of the next month, announcing the new pick, containing discussion for the new pick, calling for suggestions, and also as a place to write any closing thoughts you had about the previous month's book.
Guidelines
A. You are encouraged to use the <spoiler></spoiler> tag in the discussions. You don't have to wrap your entire comment with the spoiler tag, just use your best judgment.
B. The book should be written primarily in the English language, or the American language.
C. The suggestions could be from any genre, not just "hard sci-fi". Even those ess-jay-dubya Hugo Award #winning books are welcome.
D. The book should be obtainable from a variety of sources, including BitTorrent, Library Genesis, etc. The thread will link to official places to buy the book, such as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, or the author's website. Bezos haters, feel free to add to this list.
Is a 1 month cycle long enough? Do you want a 2 month cycle instead?
What say you?
Smoke-gets-in-your dept
@mrpg is smoking something?
Today's dept headings may be hard to read due to all the smoke, but....wtf he smoking?
Is he a new Canadian running from Trumps America?
Is he smoking what we all think he's smoking?
Is he really Smokey the Bear?
Don't touch that knob...don't touch that dial...and stop touching yourself!
(Seriously....WassHeSmokin'?)
Dipole Drive
The Dipole Drive: A New Concept for Space Propulsion
Why bring your propellant?
Zombie Conservatives
The Guardian and the BBC report that last year the Conservative Party in the UK received twice as much money in donations from dead people than from living members. The Labour Party received almost £10M more in donations, mostly from living members. The Conservative Party had a membership of 124 000 (living) and Labour 564 443.
lardass leathernecks
So, uhhh, fat soldiers and sailors? Yeah, it's always been a thing. One service or another gets a little lax, and suddenly, you got a bunch of fatties waddling around the base, or wherever. This isn't much of a problem in wartime, but peacetime can be terrible. Dude's 5 ft 9 inches, and weighs 320 pounds, and just can't keep up. Life is like that. But, the military can't afford to ignore the problem.
So, my Navy has always had problems with weight. A guy could eventually be discharged for medical reasons if he was too heavy, but it would take awhile. I understand that in the early 90's, a lot of housecleaning was done in the Navy, and they got pretty serious about lard asses. You might have 18 years in, and less than two years from retirement - but if you didn't lose the weight, you got booted.
The Air Force probably has a worse history with overweight than the Navy. Coasties probably about the same as the Navy. Army? REMF's might get away with having a pair of asses in tow, not so much Rangers and such.
Today? FFS, the USMC is having weight problems!
PDF addressing the problem here: https://www.marines.mil/Portals/59/Publications/MCO%206110.3A.pdf?ver=2017-01-04-071352-610
Russian Times article covers it: https://www.rt.com/usa/436525-marine-corps-obesity-diet/
No more burgers or beer? The fitness-obsessed US Marine Corps is rolling out a color-coded food labeling scheme in a bid to trim the fat and fight the growing problem of its members being classified as overweight or obese.
Obesity is widespread in the US, and not even the military elite is safe. A 2017 Army report classified 17 percent of soldiers as ‘obese,’ and the problem is rearing its ugly head even in the USMC, which has the strictest physical fitness requirements of all military branches.
Keen to avoid the Devil Dogs from becoming unfit and blubbery, USMC leadership is starting the fight against obesity at the chow halls, reported Military.com.
Marines eating on base will now tuck into a menu designed to provide clean energy and better fuel their mental and physical needs. The offerings were inspired by the food served to elite college athletes, Force Fitness Division director Colonel Stephen Armes told Military.com.
Lean protein like bison meatloaf and mahi-mahi steaks will be offered at mealtimes, and grab-and go snacks will consist of yogurts, cheese, eggs, trail mix, and vegetarian options. Marines looking to grab a quick and dirty snack will now have to walk further: junk food options will be placed at the back of the chow hall, past all the healthier offerings.
If that walk of shame doesn’t discourage Private Pudge from unhealthy snacking, the Corps hopes that its new color coding system will. The healthiest foods will be labeled green, or “eat as much as you want,” while yellow labels will advise troops to “eat with caution.” Red labels will be attached to the worst junk food, with Marines advised to “go minimal.”
Similar changes are being made in other branches. The Army operates its own labeling system to help soldiers make informed choices, while the Navy cut out all fried foods and soda on its ships in 2014.
The Marine Corps still holds the honor of being the fittest branch of the military. Yet, according to a 2016 report, over 4,800 Marines are technically overweight. However, Marines who tip the scales can opt to be measured by their body fat percentage instead, as the standard Body Mass Index (BMI) scale unfairly considers some muscular marines ‘overweight.’
As small as the Corps’ obesity problem may be, for a force that calls itself the home of “The Few, the Proud, the Brave,” it is still a problem, and one that leadership hopes they can head off in the kitchen.
"Incorporating the basic nutrition principles will build a foundation for mission readiness, cognitive performance as well as endurance performance," college nutritionist Nikki Jupe told MIlitary.com. "Using different nutritional strategies [can also help] prepare for deployment."
What amazes me is, our entire nation pretty much eats trash. Why doesn't the military just take unilateral action, and ban junk food? Ban processed foods containing sugars and salts. Ban all those chips. Then, the rest of us should follow suit.
A few generations ago, there were people who led sedentary lives, but didn't blow up to blimp size. They ate less, of course, but they ate HEALTHY!!
Walk through your local grocery, and look at what is on offer. All processed stuff. The food I grew up on is simply no longer available. Need an example? Beef liver. A couple months ago, I decided that I wanted liver and onions when I got home. Stopped at a store - no liver. Stopped at another, no liver. Stopped at a THIRD grocery store. Hmmm. Liver, sort of. It wasn't in the butcher section, where I expected it. I found some liver vacuum packed, already processed by some industrial farm.
It gets harder and harder to find "real food" without added sugar, added salt, dairy products contaminated with antibiotics and growth hormones. And, chicken. Blechh.
So, today, we have lardass leathernecks.
We're doing something seriously wrong in this country.
NYT: #MeToo Leader/Victim Settled With Her Own Accuser
Asia Argento, a #MeToo Leader, Made a Deal With Her Own Accuser (archive)
The Italian actress and director Asia Argento was among the first women in the movie business to publicly accuse the producer Harvey Weinstein of sexual assault. She became a leading figure in the #MeToo movement. Her boyfriend, the culinary television star Anthony Bourdain, eagerly joined the fight.
But in the months that followed her revelations about Mr. Weinstein last October, Ms. Argento quietly arranged to pay $380,000 to her own accuser: Jimmy Bennett, a young actor and rock musician who said she had sexually assaulted him in a California hotel room years earlier, when he was only two months past his 17th birthday. She was 37. The age of consent in California is 18.
That claim and the subsequent arrangement for payments are laid out in documents between lawyers for Ms. Argento and Mr. Bennett, a former child actor who once played her son in a movie.
The documents, which were sent to The New York Times through encrypted email by an unidentified party, include a selfie dated May 9, 2013, of the two lying in bed. As part of the agreement, Mr. Bennett, who is now 22, gave the photograph and its copyright to Ms. Argento, now 42. Three people familiar with the case said the documents were authentic.
And here are the gruesome details:
[...] The fallout from “a sexual battery” was so traumatic that it hindered Mr. Bennett’s work and income and threatened his mental health, according to a notice of intent to sue that his lawyer sent in November to Richard Hofstetter, Mr. Bourdain’s longtime lawyer, who was also representing Ms. Argento at the time.
[...] Mr. Bennett, who has an eye condition that prevents him from driving, arrived at Ms. Argento’s hotel room that morning with a family member, according to his notice of intent. The document lays out Mr. Bennett’s account: Ms. Argento asked the family member to leave so she could be alone with the actor. She gave him alcohol to drink and showed him a series of notes she had written to him on hotel stationery. Then she kissed him, pushed him back on the bed, removed his pants and performed oral sex. She climbed on top of him and the two had intercourse, the document says. She then asked him to take a number of photos.
[...] The two had lunch, and Mr. Bennett headed home to Orange County, where he lived with his parents. As he was driven home, according to his claim, he began to feel “extremely confused, mortified, and disgusted.” But a month later, on June 8, he sent Ms. Argento a Twitter message, “Miss you momma!!!!” that included a photograph of an engraved bracelet she had given him to commemorate the movie. (His Twitter account has recently been shut down.)
[...] Mr. Bennett claimed his parents had barred him from the family’s house and kept his possessions, and over the years had cheated him out of at least $1.5 million in earnings. He said he was broke and two months behind on his rent. The case was settled in December 2014, but the terms were not disclosed.
Sounds like a 17-year-old had a good time, but went through some money issues when he turned 18 due to his manipulative stage parents (who clearly didn't care about leaving him in a hotel room with a total MILF, since they drove him to and from there). Argento had been getting a lot more attention due to recounting her involvement with Weinstein, and he had the evidence needed to blackmail her and make the rent. Sound about right? Now switch the genders. Oh no!
Bennett had starred with Argento in The Heart Is Deceitful Above All Things (2004) when he was about 8 and she was about 28. She also directed and co-wrote the movie:
[...] Sarah's current lover, Kenny (Matt Schulze), a truck driver, eventually abandons them at a truck stop while Sarah is soliciting. Sarah realizes that if she is going to keep her men she cannot say Jeremiah is her son. She persuades Jeremiah to cross dress so he can act as her "little sister", and Jeremiah's cross-dressing evolves to include his mother's seduction techniques. After dressing up as a "baby doll" version of Sarah which consisted of her makeup, her white nightgown and her red high heel pumps, Jeremiah (although the audience sees Asia Argento as Jeremiah because this scene could not be done with child actors as it was too inappropriate) seduces Jackson (Marilyn Manson), his mother's latest man, who initially tries to rebuff the boy's advances, but then gives in. Sarah is furious with Jackson for giving in to the boy's advances and with Jeremiah for ruining her panties with drops of blood on them, and she takes Jeremiah and leaves.
That sounds like an interesting picture show!
Her boyfriend, the culinary television star Anthony Bourdain, eagerly joined the fight.
I wonder if Bourdain knew about the Argento-Bennett thing (which did happen before they met AFAIK):
Asia Argento Says Anthony Bourdain’s Suicide 'Obsession' Is 'Heart Wrenching:' 'I Never Knew'
Asia Argento has spoken out about an article compiling a list of times her late boyfriend Anthony Bourdain publicly brought up committing suicide before his death, calling it a “heart wrenching read.” “I never knew about this obsession of his. He never told me,” she wrote on social media, sharing a link to the document, which was released earlier this month.
Even if the Bennett incident had nothing to do with him, he did go to bat for her publicly over Weinstein, including describing how he fantasized about Weinstein dying of a stroke in a bathtub while nobody would take his call. And here's a related quote from one of his final interviews:
Acknowledging that Clinton is "f**king magnetic," having met him in person, Bourdain revealed that he does not believe Clinton should have been thrown out of office because of the Lewinsky scandal - calling it "ridiculous." According to Bourdain, the real issue was the way that the Clintons dealt with the scandal - "It was the shaming, discrediting, undermining the women," that followed.
If only the women always discredited and undermined themselves. It would make marginalizing them so much easier!
Well, too little, too late for Weinstein. He was just too greedy.
The documents, which were sent to The New York Times through encrypted email by an unidentified party
Looks like NYT is getting some mileage from its leak submission page.
Also at The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline, and Vanity Fair.
Left and right is wrong, but why is that important?
There are decent arguments in both directions. Left and right, imperfect and imprecise as they are, are not complete nonsense. Realizing that is relatively new for me, and you could say that's the reason for the entry itself. For decades, I thought "this is complete nonsense" and I was mystified that it got traction. Just goes to prove how powerful control of the media/education/military/industrial/government complex is... well no. Not entirely.
There's something deeper here. As inaccurate as left and right are, they are accurate at a level, a particular level that is, shall we say, very close to the gut?
But it's not really an ideological or political divide this corresponds to, it's a *psychological* divide. The left is more psychologically open, to both good and bad influences, the right more suspicious of both sorts of outside influence.
So there is some truth to it, and some rational reason for people to cling to it.
But it's still, essentially, nuts. You need a minimum of two dimensions to make the slightest sense of politics *qua politics*. Right and left, as commonly presented here in the USA, conflates separate poles that have nothing to do with each other. Left is "liberal" but liberal has been a dirty word since they crucified Carter (pbuphn.) And the actual left has virtually no one left that's actually noticeably liberal in any way. Right is 'conservative' but conservative is not the opposite of liberal; and the right-wing party hasn't been noticeably more conservative than the left-wing party in decades anyway.
So let's set 2 dimensions, that means 4 poles. Liberal is the opposite of authoritarian, conservative is the opposite of radical. I know, not a new thought, Nolan will sue me, but at least my labels are correct. What we actually have is two extremely authoritarian parties, one slightly radical and the other extremely radical. There are no liberals, nor conservatives, allowed space on the field at all.
Trump is currently the closest thing that is permitted to exist, per the mainstream media. And they're outraged that he exists. He's not very liberal at all, but there's only maybe 3 or 4 congresscritters to his 'left' in the classical sense in all of Washington!
He's not very conservative either, though I'd think about twice that many congresscritters could flank him there.
As there are ~550 congresscritters, this is a very depressing statistic for a conservative, or a liberal, let alone someone like myself who is tending towards both positions.
And why is this all important? Because as long as they can focus on this artificial division, between ostensibly 'liberal' progressives (whose actual positions range from radical liberal to radical authoritarian, with a heavy bias towards the latter) and ostensibly 'conservative' fascists (whose actual position, in my terms, would range from conservative liberal to conservative authoritarian, with a heavy bias towards the latter *in leadership* but not necessarily in the rank and file) the authentic liberal positions are systematically marginalized and made invisible.
The game is to keep the liberals split, with conservative liberals in one party and radical liberals in the other party - while both parties remain safely under control of authoritarians.
And this is why it's important. Because if there is any alternative to dystopia, it must be for the conservative liberals and the radical liberals to unite and overthrow our common oppressors - the authoritarians, the authoritarian mind, and all that resembles it.
We can't do that while we're busy dividing up into right-tribe and left-tribe. We can't do that while we're smacking each other in the head with bike-locks to impress our particular oppressors and curry favor with our tribe.
We can't be human beings while we are slaves to these distorted images of tribes that never really existed to begin with.
Tikkum Olam ("Mend the world"), all of you.
Especially you, Ethanol ;)
-Arik Yehuda (the Lion of Judah.)
I Was in the Emergency Room Again Last Night
"If you're not sleeping, it's an emergency."
-- Psychiatrist Darryl Chagi MD, Soquel, California 1997
I stayed up quite a lot longer than I really had any reason to be
awake. At ten last night decided to buy some ice cream at the corner
store but didn't check for my keys before I shut my apartment door
behind me. Happily I realized the problem before walking out the door
at the bottom of the stairs, left it unlocked, quickly went to the
store, bought a can of Campbells Chunky Soup then right back.
The landing at the top of the stairs is big enough to stretch out on
so I figured I'd be OK until I could get my apartment manager to help
me climb into my bedroom window this morning. Eventually realized
that I wasn't sleeping because my Happy Pills were inside the
apartment.
Had no cash for a cab, busses not running this late. Dialed 9-1-1, as
I attempted to speak to the dispatcher I realized I wasn't just wide
awake but actually Manic. Another day of that and you'll need
butterfly nets and tranquilizer rifles to stop me from lighting up the
whole town with my contagious enthusiasm.
Ambulance comes, took me to a very small ER in Salmon Creek called
Legacy. I'd been there before, figured they'd get me the right kinds
of meds then have a sort of "Wingnut Limousine" - really a Buick but
with a bulletproof window between the front and the back - to a mental
hospital that I'd been in before, Telecare at the VA Medical Center in
Vancouver in the back of the building immediately opposite the lobby
in front.
I made plain to the entire ER staff that I could not _possibly_ sleep
until they gave me Elavil but it was only around 3:30 that I realized
they'd overlooked it. They did gave me a fast-acting Zyprexa tablet
that I dissolved under my tongue. While that stopped the onrushing
Mania, without the Elavil I would have no hope whatsoever of sleeping
so it would not be long at all before I was Manic again.
Elavil (amitryptiline) is an antidepressant which I no longer need but
it's _highly_ sedating so one must gradually increase one's dose at
first to build up a tolerance to the sedation, then after one is sure
the depression won't return, taper back off of it over a period of two
or three weeks. To stop suddenly and I simply _cannot_ sleep until I
can take some again. Three days awake and I'm hallucinating. Five
days awake I'm hallucinating so hard I can't see where I'm going when
I try to walk.
They discharged me with a taxi voucher. In the lobby waiting my cab
to arrive, realize I was having vivid visual hallucinations, got
readmitted to the ER, apologized for not having been more clear I need
_Elavil_ too.
The ER doc who gave me the Zyprexa had just gone home so they assigned
me a new doc. Waited a couple hours, he went home too. Third doc
shows up while generally friendly he was quite argumentative. I was
unable to make him understand that I really _did_ need to be in a
mental hospital. _Nothing_ the ER could possibly do would make enough
of a difference.
He agreed to prescribe my Elavil.
I was able to listen to YouTube for another three hours but still
unable to sleep. At 9:30 finally got my Elavil but they never gave me
any food when I asked for it. To take Elavil on a totally empty
stomach is quite painful.
Five minutes later, nurse tells me my cab is here and I head home.
I Was A Piece Of Work when I got home but at least Bob agreed to park
his pickup under the awning over the front of the first floor.
Climbed on cab, onto awning, very easy to get into bedroom window.
I'm no longer Manic but also no longer sleepy. Many psychiatric meds
are toxic to your liver or your kidney so it's not safe to take
another dose of Elavil yet.
I'll make some pancakes, shower, shave then hang out at Taco Bell -
not for the food, rather the air conditioning, Internet, a restroom
and they'll be cool with just giving me a cup of ice water - until
5:00 or so then will take more Elavil and...
... Sleep The Sleep Of The Dead.
This gets really old sometimes. I Mean It Really Does.
Lucidly,
Michael David Crawford
