Goldberry

This is a think-tank site that provides daily updates on Syria, Iraq, and ISIS. All you ever need to know, and notice how much of this isn't even being reported on in the news. http://iswiraq.blogspot.com/

I feel like I just got schooled on the lineage of spiderman by some comic book nerd. Who cares about this stuff? I just wanted to start some shit.

So is Tom Brady

Is this all over one game? Uno?

They aren't responding to every call. Minimizing their risk. Today, 2 more cops were shot responding to a robbery. Both will make it, but it only highlights that despite the singular death of Eric Garner due to an accident of his poor health, Cops take high risks in their jobs, and the social media public might actually figure out that the majority of cops are doing good jobs.

I fogot all about the Sun. Now that is an interesting thing to observe, and fun to do so since you don't need cold, dark, remote nights to view it. A good tabletop reflector with a solar filter, and you can look at sunspots in great detail and of course observe various eclipses and the like. Definitely worth spending money on the filter and getting a lot more use out of your scope.

Yeah, it's nice to see these but I think many people are expecting this: But in reality, you'll see this: And this is what Saturn might appear like, only smaller...

Eh, Saturn is pretty far away for you to see the rings. You might notice a disc shape to it, but that's going to be about it. Mostly, it'll just be a very bright star. Same for Jupiter.

You're probably best starting off with a Dobsonian. This is classic reflector telescope like the one just pictured above, but it's mounted on a base that swivels. They provide great magnification for the price (best bang for your buck if you simply want to see cool stuff like nebulae and galaxies and comets). Other options are some of the tabletop scopes, which might be a little easier to work with. Dobsonians do require a lot of bending over and and they aren't easy to use when trying to reacquire a target in the sky. This cheap tabletop might be a good starter: http://www.telescope.com/Telescopes/I-want-to-look-at-the-Moon-and-planets/Telescopes-that-are-easy-to-move-carry/Orion-StarMax-90mm-TableTop-Maksutov-Cassegrain-Telescope/pc/1/c/399/sc/401/p/102016.uts?refineByCategoryId=401 Honestly, anything that's tripod mounted is something I'd avoid unless it's a VERY nice model. The mount is the critical element there. It must be very solid and vibration resistant. All those junk telescopes you see in department stores have horrible mounts, and indeed many of the beginner scopes just have weak mounts. You're pretty much looking for something you could also mount a .50 cal machinegun on, and that's not cheap. Go here and find a good beginner's dobsonian. http://www.telescope.com/ They have great customer service. Amateur astronomy isn't for everybody. Being even more honest, you might want to even start off with just a nice pair of 15x or better magnification binoculars. http://www.telescope.com/Orion-Giant-View-15x70-Astronomy-Binoculars/p/9327.uts You'll actually have better control over your viewing experience with binoculars, and it's MUCH easier to just run out into the backyard and look at a few things with the aid of a small chart than to lug out your entire scope rig and all the other junk you need. There's very little that you're going to be able to see without needing a much bigger scope anyways. Once you've seen a few nebulae and galaxies and all that, there's not going to be much for you to do except repeat that experience over and over, sketch the moon, follow the moons of Jupiter, look around for various clusters, trace constellations etc. Beyond that, you COULD dig deeper and start making observations, but to do that practically, you'd want a very nice machine. Even an amateur with a $2,000 scope setup can contribute to research. If you're willing to spend that much on a bike....

I did not realize that film was invented by the 70's. How old are you people

So you won't fess up to the series of murders up that way around that time?

Well, the virus isn't spiraling out of control as much as some predictions attempted to paint it

Launch is a scrub. No go.

In less than 1billion years, probably even only about 200million years, life on this planet will cease to exist. Granted, this is a LONG time, but these are our first steps, akin to learning to invent the wheel. Our space program is only about 50 years old whereas mankind has gone through about a million years of evolution and technological progress to get where we are. We'll probably need a few thousand years of space exploration and technological innovation to figure out how to get off this rock permanently. That aside, estimates are high that mankind has only about 50,000 years of estimated life expectancy, as in, either we will destroy ourselves or external forces like a massive cometary or asteroid impact will force us into an early retirement. There's also the supervolcano threat (real when you're looking at long periods of time) that is already suggested to have nearly wiped us out about that same time ago, along with other internal forces that could arise. There's quite a few. Global warming most likely, even if it technically is survivable isn't the bigger problem were' facing...in fact, it's simple ecological collapse, a near reversal of the Cambrian explosion that resulted in all the life that exists today so long ago. The oceans will fail to support life on a basic level through the sheer amount of pollution in the waters, and the plankton will die off and then the fish, and then all the large sea life, and so on. Limited numbers of humans might survive after this, but one problem being, mankind won't have the manpower to do the things it needs to do to reverse the problem. Evenutally attrition will wear us down, we'll die off, and the only things left living on the planet are microbial and maybe, just maybe, the earth might reverse the course and heal itself, but by then, it will be too late. The Earth will start getting hot on its own accord from the increasing temperatures of the Sun as it runs through it's later cycles, and life even if conditions were good, simply wont have the same eden-like conditions enjoyed so long ago. We'll be gone and that'll be it. I'd wager, as have many scientists already, that it's already too late, and that extinction is inevitable. We aren't acting fast enough, and we've already done too much damage. We are following the same path as many species have where they'd run amok in reproduction, used up all the local resources, and have eliminated all competition, and in so doing, their origin food sources. Our time is coming it would seem. We are a virus that is killing its host, with no chance at spreading to another. If we don't figure out how to leave this planet and live and breed in multiple locations out there, we will go extinct. Everything we would have done or have already accomplished would be for naught. All of it. The only traces left of us will be the voyager and pioneer probes, forever lost in the interstellar void. It's a grim assessment, but you asked 'why'. There is no better answer.

Is an excellent balancer

I never had anyone to truly comfort me growing up. My mom was all but apathetic, she cared but was never warm. My dad wasn't around. My biggest memorable loss was my cat actually. Tigger. He was an outdoor cat, and died of feline leukemia. I'd carried this kitten home after school one day, on my shoulder, letting him down temporarily to drink water from puddles over 4 miles. Somebody had been using him as a football, so he was kinda scared of everything for a while. This was a lap cat, but he'd go out onto a tree nearby the house and spend most of the day perched up there, watching things. Would always come home in the early evening and hang out with me. I cried for days when he died. I got upset when another cat of ours passed. By the time our longtime dog had died, I had become somewhat cold about loss. It still affected me, but I just stopped having external reactions. Nobody cared that I was doing it. Yes its sad, but I know people suffer far worse.

Just terrible. Enjoyed arguing with him here and at the other place.

Hindsight and being a collection of ignorant 20something hackers with nothing else to do must be a blessing.

You just asked the magic question, and that is precisely why cops were called, and they had every reason to believe he was carrying a real weapon.

Center mass is what you have to train for. Headshots and just shooting the gun out of the kid's hands are only for the movies.

We do the normal thing, which is to decorate, have a tree, and family dinner and gathering and such. These are more enjoyable now that we are not dealing with elderly members of the family who so constrain matters so as to make the holidays a living hell.

Beethoven

Steal food from Whole Foods

I go in there every so often, but don't buy much. I've been next to people in the lines and such, and it's not unusual to hear $500 for some cartfuls of groceries. I do see people eating all the time without paying for it. They just scarf it down right there on the spot as they 'shop', and then leave.

I have to admit, I smile when I see the older crowd initiate posts that simply indicate that they are old.