After many years in the US Navy, I've found any attempt to de-boxify and un-capitalize my handwritten script laborious and frustrating. This was interesting.

The children. They're mostly Cheeto anyway.

Thus far the narrative has been drama, genre wise, but I keep hoping the universe will inject a scifi adventure in before I croak. A la Close Encounters, preferably. Lol. Maybe Paul? Whatever. I'd be happy with Howard the Duck at this point.

Your bookshelf and my bookshelf are secret lovers.

You don't have to go hard scifi to find scientifically literate ship descriptions. While it is pretty fantasy-like in plot and many other aspects (lots of terraforming fails), Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos are pretty accurate ship-wise. The Consul's ship is a series of decks around a central ladder well, and down is down, ie the direction opposite the main rocket's thrust. The spin ships don't get a lot of deep decriptions, but the Archangel class courier ships in the third and fourth books, Endymion and Rise of Endymion, are also pretty gnarly. It travels at thrusts exceeding 100 gravities, which liquifies its occupants. Then they are ressurected with the help of a parasitic lifeform. Mas gnarles, homes.

I also enjoyed the slow progression of thrust technology in the Red Mars series by Kim Stanley Robinson. Starts at fuel rockets, where we are today, and eventually progresses to ion drives. Travel times are actually pretty accurate, depending on orbits.

Apparently, the hippocampus is located directly adjacent to the part of the brain that interprets tastes and smells. Hence those senses being universally associated with nostalgia, aka long term memory recall.

Naturally.

I've studied several broads in my life, confusing but beautiful. Always enjoyed the exams. And they smell nice.

The NCAA has a similar problem.

What do you say to an OU Sooner football player in a three piece suit?

Should have driven up to Trinidad and relaxed with a spliff and arguably some of the best beer in recorded history. Up where dogs are welcome in bars and nobody has Facebook because neighbors actually know each other. It's mostly fucked, California, but there's still a slice of heaven here and there. No jobs in heaven, of course, but lots of food and beer and cannabis.

Krav Maga, and before anyone groans let me explain. It's simple, it's not fantastical or requiring of peak physical condition, and it applies modern understandings of anatomy. It's about aggression and situational awareness, knowing when it's best to walk away and when it's best to attack first. Those are the scenarios in Krav, there really isn't a "duck first by design" aspect to it. It's also not about looking "Swayze-esque" in a bar fight. It's serious shit, with a good instructor you are talking about learning to inflict maximum damage, including permanent injury or death. It won't make you a badass, or a boxer, but it might give you the reflex muscle memory to save your life someday, which is why I'm guessing the IDF and Israeli SF teaches it. I took TKD as a kid and after I got back from the war I needed something... violent. Found an awesome Krav instructor in Virginia where I was living at the time. Took classes for about a year, I'd reccomend it. It might seem intimidating but... do you want your hand held by a people person or do you want to learn something useful from (likely) some Jar-Head with actual real world experience in applying these techniques on a human being?

Not to split hairs here, but gay people and black people might not see with you on this one eye to eye. Not sure anyone has ever been lynched to cries of "retard," and I'm positive that "retard bashing" is not a thing. I don't think the word retard belongs in the same category as "nigger" or "fag." Frankly implying such a thing is more offensive than the words themselves.

The comments section hurt my brain. Why do I do this to myself?

You're in my world now, Grandma. Can you believe that was Ben Stiller?

This reminded me of the film Belly. What an amazing (and disturbing) profile.

Aw, your fingers hurt? Well, now your back's going to hurt, because you just pulled landscaping duty. Anybody else's fingers hurt? I didn't think so.

By "social libertarian" they don't mean the Ron Paul kind of libertarian, that's economic. Social libertarian just means the opposite of social authoritarian.

Yeah I really started looking at job opportunities in other countries more seriously after these decisions. I have daughters, and it would be unfair to keep them in a place where their vaginas are public property. Seriously, if I can transfer why stay? Bad healthcare, bad retirement, super expensive housing, the Kardashians... 'Murica has really gone to shit in the 35 years I've lived in it.

We had about the same score. I'd have been on the far left border but I kind of agree that SOME criminals, regardless of fault, are too deeply fucked in the mind to rehabilitate. And inflation v. unemployment is tricky, even if you don't like the system we are in, it can still starve us all if we aren't careful.

Bravo.

Jello Biafra has been talking about this since 1992. Grow more pot!

Once the technology is routine, someone else might use it to explore. But if you think about it, "exploration" was just window dressing on the Apollo missions. Those were about the cold war in terms of funding and public support. Even "Apollo 13" the film admitted this. Once we had beaten the USSR, people didn't want their tax dollars spent to keep going back. Columbus found the Caribbean while trying to forge a shorter trade route to India on behalf of the Spanish crown. It's all about money and power. It's ALWAYS been about money and power.

I know. It's whack.

This is overly America-centric. Like reading an ancient Greek historian equate the dissolution of the triumvirate with an impending disuse of the Corinthian collum. How could he know that Rome would use it ad absurdum? Well, it's both decorative and retains the efficient load bearing function of the Ionic and Doric collum. Why wouldn't it last? Similarly, there are more solid elements like nickel in the asteroid belt than there are on 100 earths (based on what we've observed so far). The first company or country to exploit the resources in the asteroid belt will be richer than anyone or any country in history. It is literally a floating gold mine out there. And, like the Greeks, the fall of their empire triggered the rise of another, as niches get filled by rule of necessity. Similarly, there are plenty of obvious and probably plenty of obscure nations or collectives ready to fill the niche left behind when the US finally putters out as a world leader, however long that takes. I don't have to try hard to imagine India or China filling that niche rather quickly. They certainly have the muscle and the expendable resources (and people). So while I agree that the current state of human space exploration is dismal, I think the author is confusing a corner with a dead end. Somebody is going to get to those resources or that money (or bring it to them by "catching" an asteroid), it just probably won't be Russia or the US who pulls it off.

Tl;dr - there is way too much unclaimed wealth floating in space to believe that no one will find a way to get to it.

What did I just watch? I feel like I just huffed paint or an industrial cleaner. Braincells... dying... send... help.

I stand reprimanded and unremorseful. But I see your point. R/spaceclops is pretty special. :O

Does this mean I can go back to taking my cigarette breaks within 20 feet of the building's front door? Because that would be great. I'd say I won't hold my breath, but that's a given. I can't hold my breath, I smoke. {Sigh.}

This is what happens when National Geographic lets other people do things normally reserved for National Geographic. Good idea, execution fail.

Frankly I'm shocked that anyone using this website also watches television news. Aside from getting my oil changed and being subjected to the small TV in the waiting room which always has one 24-hour news outlet or another running, I haven't watched a TV news program since... wow. Probably 9/11/2001 and the following week. U haz internets, y u wach tee vee?

Hopefully Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars will turn out to have been prophetic, and a core group of scientists will be able to dig into the regolith before big business can claim it without a fight. If Musk is right, then Robinson was only off by a few years on the date of our initial arrival.