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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Why do you support Vladimir Putin?
« on: February 27, 2022, 09:05:28 AM »
Given recent events, it's time. What does everyone think?
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / R.I.P. Rush Limbaugh
« on: February 17, 2021, 09:30:06 AM »
https://www.axios.com/rush-limbaugh-dies-cancer-e2557f61-cce1-4ea5-bbbe-d75e74351602.html
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Conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh died Wednesday at the age of 70 after a battle with lung cancer, his wife announced on his radio show.
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Arts & Entertainment / R.I.P. Screech
« on: February 01, 2021, 12:32:54 PM »
Looks like the bell couldn't save Screech this time.
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dustin-diamond-screech-on-saved-by-the-bell-dies-at-44-report
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dustin-diamond-screech-on-saved-by-the-bell-dies-at-44-report
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Dustin Diamond, who spent 13 seasons as the goofy nerd Screech on the Saturday morning sitcom Saved by the Bell and its various iterations before his life and career took a turn for the worse, died Monday. He was 44.
The cause of death was carcinoma, his rep, Roger Paul, told The Hollywood Reporter. The actor was diagnosed with stage 4 cancer three weeks ago and was receiving treatments at a Florida hospital.
"In that time, it managed to spread rapidly throughout his system; the only mercy it exhibited was its sharp and swift execution," Paul said in a statement. "Dustin did not suffer. He did not have to lie submerged in pain. For that, we are grateful."
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Arts & Entertainment / Phil Spector dead
« on: January 17, 2021, 03:48:52 PM »
Mixed feelings here so, R.I.P. and burn in hell.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/arts/music/phil-spector-dead.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/17/arts/music/phil-spector-dead.html
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Phil Spector, one of the most influential and successful record producers in rock ’n’ roll, who generated a string of hits in the early 1960s defined by the lavish instrumental treatment known as the wall of sound, but who was sentenced to prison for the murder of a woman at his home, died on Saturday. He was 81.
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Is patriotism a socialist principle?
« on: January 09, 2021, 02:51:08 PM »
All this talk about how evil socialism puts country above the individual got me thinking. Patriotism is defined as love or devotion to one's country. Beyond flag waving and the occasional parade, that love or devotion is often expressed in the form of military or public service, or some other type of service where one (presumably) is putting the needs their country ahead of their own. Isn't serving the "greater good" like that one of the principles of socialism?
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Technology, Science & Alt Science / Will SpaceX Starship belly flop?
« on: December 08, 2020, 08:05:06 AM »
At long last, SpaceX will attempt to launch their SN8 Starship prototype to 50,000 feet or so sometime today (exact launch time TBD). Will it be able to pull of the "belly flop" reentry maneuver and land safely or will it belly flop itself all the way down to a brand new crater? Even Elon Musk only gives the test a 1 in 3 chance of success.
Here is a livestream of the event:
Here is a livestream of the event:
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Technology, Science & Alt Science / URGENT!! Protect your router with a 5G faraday cage
« on: December 04, 2020, 08:14:20 PM »5G Truthers Bought Faraday Cages to Protect Their Routers. They're Mad They Worked.
Let's say you hate 5G and genuinely believe it causes cancer or spreads COVID-19, despite there being no evidence to support those wild conspiracies. To shield 5G's myriad evils, then, you put your WiFi router in a metallic box that "blocks about 90 percent" of the signal. There! Now you're instantly protected from those treacherous waves of radiation!
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Arts & Entertainment / R.I.P. Green Cross Code Man
« on: November 29, 2020, 08:34:39 AM »
Oh, he played Darth Vader too.
https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/29/21724911/darth-vader-actor-david-prowse-died-star-wars
https://www.theverge.com/2020/11/29/21724911/darth-vader-actor-david-prowse-died-star-wars
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Before he became an actor, Prowse was a champion bodybuilder in the UK in the 1960s. His biggest role prior to Darth Vader was as the Green Cross Code Man, a hero who promoted street-crossing safety to children in a government public service campaign. Prowse called the Code Man gig “the best job I’ve ever had, including my Star Wars role, and by far my proudest achievement.”
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Arts & Entertainment / R.I.P. Sean Connery
« on: October 31, 2020, 09:03:27 AM »Sir Sean Connery has died at the age of 90, his family has said.
The Scottish actor was best known for his portrayal of James Bond, being the first to bring the role to the big screen and appearing in seven of the spy thrillers.
Sir Sean died peacefully in his sleep in the Bahamas, having been "unwell for some time", his son said.
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Arts & Entertainment / R.I.P. Eddie Van Halen
« on: October 06, 2020, 12:48:20 PM »
Good bye to another of the great ones.
Eddie Van Halen -- the legendary guitarist and co-founder of Van Halen -- has died after a long battle with throat cancer ... TMZ has learned.
Sources directly connected to the rock star tell us ... he died at St. John's Hospital in Santa Monica Tuesday. His wife, Janie, was by his side, along with his son, Wolfgang, and Alex, Eddie's brother and drummer.
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Arts & Entertainment / R.I.P. Charlie Daniels
« on: July 06, 2020, 08:05:18 PM »
May you be in heaven for 15 minutes before the Devil learns that you aren't in Georgia any more.
(CNN)Country music scribe Charlie Daniels, best known for the hit "The Devil Went Down to Georgia," has died. He was 83.
The multi-instrumentalist had a hemorrhagic stroke in Hermitage, Tennessee, and was pronounced dead Monday, his publicists said in a statement.
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Arts & Entertainment / R.I.P. Carl Reiner
« on: June 30, 2020, 11:03:31 AM »
Another comedy legend that couldn't get renewed for one more season:
Carl Reiner, the comedian, writer, director and actor whose contributions to the development of television comedy are rivaled by few others, died Monday night of natural causes at his home in Beverly Hills. He was 98.
Just three days before his passing, Reiner — the father of actor and director Rob Reiner — tweeted what now seems his public goodbye: “Nothing pleases me more than knowing that I have lived the best life possible by having met & marrying the gifted Estelle (Stella) Lebost – who partnered with me in bringing Rob, Annie & Lucas Reiner into this needy & evolving world.”
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Arts & Entertainment / Is all music now in the public domain?
« on: February 25, 2020, 02:10:32 PM »To determine the finite nature of melodies, Riehl and Rubin developed an algorithm that recorded every possible 8-note, 12-beat melody combo. This used the same basic tactic some hackers use to guess passwords: Churning through every possible combination of notes until none remained. Riehl says this algorithm works at a rate of 300,000 melodies per second.What does this mean for the future of music publishing? Have these guys made life easier for musicians writing new music, or is it just wishful thinking on their part?
Once a work is committed to a tangible format, it's considered copyrighted. And in MIDI format, notes are just numbers.
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Arts & Entertainment / R.I.P. Chewbacca
« on: May 02, 2019, 05:11:47 PM »“Star Wars” actor Peter Mayhew, who played Chewbacca in the original trilogy, died on Tuesday, his family announced on his Twitter. He was 74.
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The Lounge / Bob Knodel a.k.a the engineer
« on: February 27, 2019, 09:54:47 AM »
If anyone has watched the NetFlix documentary Behind the Curve, you may have noticed that they introduced Bob Knodel of GlobeBusters as "The Engineer". I can't help but to wonder if he's the same guy who used to post as theengineer on this site some years ago. Does anyone know for sure?
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Flat Earth General / FET obsession with debunking heliocentrism
« on: January 31, 2019, 08:58:56 AM »
Why does it seem that FE'ers think that debunking heliocentrism proves that the earth is flat? I'll concede that the heliocentric model does rely on the earth being round. However, the earth being round does not rely on the heliocentric model being correct. After all, round earth geocintrism was the prevailing model for over 1000 years and still works far better than any flat earth model that I'm currently aware of.
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Flat Earth General / SpaceShipTwo finally reaches "space"
« on: December 13, 2018, 11:54:04 AM »
Looks like space tourism is one step closer to becoming real.
MOJAVE, Calif. — Virgin Galactic achieved a long-awaited milestone Dec. 13 when its SpaceShipTwo suborbital vehicle performed its highest test flight to date, exceeding one altitude often used as the boundary of space.
The WhiteKnightTwo aircraft carrying SpaceShipTwo took off from Mojave Air and Space Port here at 10:11 a.m. Eastern. The aircraft released the SpaceShipTwo vehicle, named VSS Unity, at 11:00 a.m. Eastern at an altitude of about 13,100 meters.
With pilots Mark Stucky and C.J. Sturckow at the controls, SpaceShipTwo fired its hybrid rocket motor for 60 seconds. The vehicle reached a peak altitude of 83 kilometers and top speed of Mach 2.9 before gliding back to a safe landing here at 11:11 a.m. Eastern.
That altitude exceeds the boundary of 50 miles, or about 80 kilometers, used by U.S. government agencies for awarding astronaut wings.
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Flat Earth General / Yet another media bashing of FE'ers
« on: November 08, 2018, 07:32:12 AM »
Will the conspiracy never end their ridiculous persecution of FE'ers and their right to trust their senses and believe that the earth is flat?
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/11/why-does-flat-earth-belief-still-exist/
https://arstechnica.com/science/2018/11/why-does-flat-earth-belief-still-exist/
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Flat Earth General / On the notion of Zetetic Inquiry and Flat Earth "Theory"
« on: October 23, 2018, 09:46:40 AM »
FE'ers like to go on about how the Zetetic method is superior to the scientific method. However, one of the tenets of Zeteicism is the rejection of working from theory. Therefore, does it not stand to reason that it's quite inappropriate to refer to the Zetetic investigation of the shape of the earth as Flat Earth Theory? Surely it must be time to remedy this insult to the dedicated Zetetic community by removing the word "theory" from FET and finding a better alternative.
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Flat Earth General / On th notion of refraction and water convexity experiments
« on: October 16, 2018, 10:38:22 AM »
I would propose that the question is not "is there any refraction in any given water convexity experiment?", rather it's "how much refraction is there in any given water convexity observation?" It is well known that air and water temperatures, humidity and air pressure can vary significantly and affect the refractive properties of the air near the water surface to unknown degrees and thereby affect the reliability of such observations. I would therefore propose that all water convexity experiments (on both sides) be deemed inconclusive, and therefore inadmissible, unless the atmospheric and sea conditions can be documented along the entire length of the observed distance.
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Flat Earth General / CBS News covers a Flat Earth meetup
« on: October 15, 2018, 09:42:10 AM »
The FE movement is growing.
If you picture Earth as a ball spinning through space. the folks who recently gathered at a park in Arcadia, California, are eager to argue: you're wrong! Earth is actually "flatter than a pancake," said Nathan Thompson, part of a movement of people who call themselves Flat Earthers.
They insist the Earth is, well, flat.
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Conservitards want to boycot First Man movie: Monster fail edition
« on: September 05, 2018, 10:00:39 AM »
It seems that some people are offended by the upcoming movie First Man because it doesn't show the astronauts planting the American flag. You can read about the kerfuffle here:
https://mashable.com/article/first-man-american-flag-controversy-moon/
However, it seems that at least one YouTuber needs to learn a little more about the Apollo program. The the NASA vs Hollywood pictures showing the missing American flag aren't even from the Apollo 11 mission (Hello!! The lunar rover wasn't used until Apollo 15). If anything, the "Hollywood" picture just looks like a bad photchop the NASA picture.
https://mashable.com/article/first-man-american-flag-controversy-moon/
However, it seems that at least one YouTuber needs to learn a little more about the Apollo program. The the NASA vs Hollywood pictures showing the missing American flag aren't even from the Apollo 11 mission (Hello!! The lunar rover wasn't used until Apollo 15). If anything, the "Hollywood" picture just looks like a bad photchop the NASA picture.
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / RIP John McCain
« on: August 25, 2018, 07:08:51 PM »John S. McCain, the proud naval aviator who climbed from depths of despair as a prisoner of war in Vietnam to pinnacles of power as a Republican congressman and senator from Arizona and a two-time contender for the presidency, died on Saturday at his home in Arizona. He was 81.
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Apple becomes first $1 Trillion US company
« on: August 02, 2018, 12:52:13 PM »
Can anything stop the juggernaut that is Apple?
Apple has become the first US company with a market cap of over $1 trillion. This follows a jump in its stock after reporting strong Q3 earnings that saw the iPhone maker surpass both its own projections and analysts’ estimates, while also making a strong forecast for its upcoming Q4 earnings.
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Why do you support Andrés Manuel López Obrador?
« on: July 02, 2018, 04:01:56 PM »
Mexico has a new president who has vowed to work with Trump to fix everyone's problems. But he still won't pay for the wall.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/02/world/americas/mexico-election-lopez-obrador.html
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/02/world/americas/mexico-election-lopez-obrador.html
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Philosophy, Religion & Society / Was this guy trying to be ironic on purpose?
« on: June 27, 2018, 02:00:44 PM »One of Japan’s most prominent bloggers has been stabbed to death minutes after giving a seminar on how to resolve personal disputes on the internet.Obviously this guy wasn't as good at resolving personal differences as he thought he was.
Media reports said Kenichiro Okamoto, better known by his blogger name Hagex, died on Sunday evening after reportedly being attacked by a man he had argued with online.
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Arts & Entertainment / Do we really need yet another copyright extension?
« on: May 18, 2018, 09:18:45 PM »Buried in an otherwise harmless act, passed by the House and now being considered in the Senate, this new bill purports to create a new digital performance right—basically the right to control copies of recordings on any digital platform (ever hear of the internet?)—for musical recordings made before 1972. These recordings would now have a new right, protected until 2067, which, for some, means a total term of protection of 144 years. The beneficiaries of this monopoly need do nothing to get the benefit of this gift. They don’t have to make the work available. Nor do they have to register their claims in advance.At this rate, will anything make it into the public domain ever again?
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Suggestions & Concerns / New threads from one post wonders
« on: April 30, 2018, 11:01:29 AM »
Is there any way to make it so that only people who have some arbitrary number of posts (let's say 5-10) can start a new thread? I think that this would greatly reduce the number of spam threads and trolls who start a thread and are never heard from again.
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Flat Earth General / A question that RET can't answer
« on: April 20, 2018, 07:51:55 AM »
How can a yellow sun produce white light?
Checkmate!
Checkmate!