Have you ever thought about why abiogenesis only happened a single time on our planet in 4 billion years

It's more likely that it happened several times, but only one was around long enough and evolved beyond single celled organisms/amino acid chains and just beat the rest. Geological record's a bit shit for hard evidence, and our only evidence supporting that it happened once is us... so it's not solid either way.

Iirc some tests showed that simple amino acids could be built in some primordial sea and the addition of lightning or asteroid inpacts to generate the heat to get them to combine into other things was theoretically possible (both of which were as common back then as today, if not more).

And this was before Geologists did deep-sea surveys and discovered little "islands" of life around undersea thermal vents.

Don't get me wrong here it was a fucking stroke of luck with an astronomical amount of decimal places for the statistical likelihood of life on Earth starting and then getting this far, but it's not 0.

I kinda doubt the government(s) announcing it, unless it was some sort of public spectacle that couldn't be hidden.

Probably pretty bad first reaction. There's no telling what their form of communication would be like, and if they arrived here by any means at all, that would put them at leagues ahead of us in intelligence and technology, considering getting anywhere outside of the local systems takes us aaaaages. We'd quickly become something to investigate and study, if we aren't edible or immediately violent towards them.

If it's something akin to discovering Bacteria or single celled organisms on the moons of Titan or Io (?), or fossilised shit on Mars there'd be some hype/buzzfeed articles in the public, massive debates in the science and religious communities, and not much else.

Quote from: Genghis Khan on June 15, 2018, 03:58:38 PM

Build a wall around California.

Yeah, let's build a wall around the most important state in the USA

Let the Earthquakes separate LA off from the mainland, and then run it as some sort of Mad Max/Alcatraz prison.

I doubt the current Republican controlled senate would accept this plan in a million years because the borders are drawn in such a way that the Democratic Party would automatically gain +6 senate seats.

I was gonna say, is all of California a blue state? I was wondering if any gerrymandering was being slipped through on how the borders were suggested, but I don't know enough about the political climate there apart from California being some sort of hippie-liberal-nightmare-paradise place.

I just wanta see Russian hooligans batter the away team's supporters while the match plays on in the background.

Quote from: Doug on June 14, 2018, 10:56:47 AM

35mm photography

Show your work

Sure.

There ya go. You stay away from me though.

Your existence here is politically incorrect.

Still better than loaf, but that's not exactly a compliment.

Still Fresh.

Used to have 6 ducks, 2 cockerals, 12 hens, 5 cats, and a border-collie/labradour.

Just have the neighbour's cat now though.

Leave before the EU quarantines it and you get stuck with the 2/3rds overweight/obese and Vicky Pollards with baby trolleys in tow.

Think Children of Men, but fatter.

When you put it like that, it does sound like a conflict of interest.

"Right, so we get the Abrams, and you can have unlimited access to our armories of semi automatic rifles from the 1940's*"

*_{Providing you have the licenses and training to operate them.}

To be fair though, having unfetted access as "the people" would decide would be downright awful. Britain had that idea with the HomeGuard by giving them old Enfields (almost top of the range for the British Army then), and the rest almost free reign to have weapons (which some hilariously fashioned pikes in the hopes of defeating a German invasion).

The friendly-fire, accidental discharges and general lack of training meant a lot of casualties were recorded and many considered the Home Guard to be more of a succesful morale boost than an actual fighting force.

Letting "the people" do the decisions is bad, it's why you elect an governement to run shit.  In theory.

I dunno if it's the healthiest way, but I see mine around every new year's or so and we have a grand old time in the pub.

We talk about things, albeit the topic never revolves around our current/lack of relationships, and we say our goodbyes to the catchup with some garlic bread from the local takeaway. Before then, the first 6 months where we shared the same friends, I was mostly ignoring it and getting very drunk at parties.

I wouldn't exactly say I'm over her, and it still sucks what happened, but we both have different people to love now. Just recognise that the love you had is gone and the next one will be just as great, but different.

I can tell you thinking about "What would be?" is definitely a bad idea. Don't do that.

Ello auld frend ;^)

Don't care about the woman. What gives with the blue facepaint(s) and prosthetic arm though?

Also question about balance. Do only Germans get Doodlebugs and V2's? Do Tigers (Heavy tanks) outmatch the Cromwells ("cavalry"/light  tanks)?

But that place already banned /r/Jailbait and /r/incels

When it's in my interests to do so.

Can't take good pictures with my film camera (fucked up exposures, light leaks, blurry shots...)? Learn how to camera. Now I take the occasionally dodgy shot, but now I just have to focus on composition rather than if I'll get a shot at all.

Next big step is to self-develop my rolls of film and shave a ton off costs.