tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post2443936076753429049..comments2024-03-29T00:39:31.629-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: A look at some of the best Science Fiction WebcomicsDavid Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger44125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-70866495471429821472017-07-19T11:52:09.224-07:002017-07-19T11:52:09.224-07:00Try this one: http://waywardsons.keenspot.com/d/20...Try this one: http://waywardsons.keenspot.com/d/20100531.html<br /><br />It petered out in 2014, but while it was going strong it was a great combination of Science fiction and mythology.clasqmhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12812785541545674276noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-40741217989643670602016-06-17T01:26:36.368-07:002016-06-17T01:26:36.368-07:00Thanks for recommending Trekker and Inhuman.Thanks for recommending Trekker and Inhuman.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01363603466967510639noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-59520409041785842982016-06-14T22:05:33.000-07:002016-06-14T22:05:33.000-07:00May I recommend "Inhuman" by Icarus? It ...May I recommend "<a href="http://inhuman-comic.com" rel="nofollow">Inhuman</a>" by Icarus? It is, broadly, about a religious war in the 31st Century; but specifically, it's about the efforts of the two sides of the war to find a young man who may (or may not) be a genetically altered super-soldier. The story can be a bit confusing in the beginning (the protagonist, Grey, can be a rather unreliable narrator because he's on the edge of sanity -- as well as blind and horribly scarred. [He may or may not have been tortured while he was being experimented on.] Oh, and he's infected with a space plague that could endanger several species of the Good Guys...), but things start becoming clearer when he's put in the care of an alcoholic young alien charged with keeping him out of the hands of The Bad Guys.<br /><br />TV Tropes page: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Webcomic/Inhumanreynard61https://www.blogger.com/profile/17429406584381682051noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-84997746433602625152016-06-14T08:39:14.868-07:002016-06-14T08:39:14.868-07:00Check out Trekker at http://trekkercomic.com/
Fant...Check out Trekker at http://trekkercomic.com/<br />Fantastic artwork and great story. A bounty hunter tale, set in a gritty scifi universe. Covers everything from shady underworld characters and mob bosses to interplanetary intrigue.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01489466720081755015noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75983367341384986872016-06-14T07:30:16.594-07:002016-06-14T07:30:16.594-07:00Paul SB:
The narrative on both incidents is chaoti...Paul SB:<br />The narrative on both incidents is chaotic. Now it seems the guy in the Santa Monica case was gay himself, and not targeting the gay pride parade, although that doesn't exactly stop begging the question of why he was driving around town with an arsenal. <br />The Mareen case is even more baffling. Now it turns out he was a club regular, and apparently gay himself. If you combine this with his religious attitudes, and his history of violence and abuse, his record contracting to DHS and apparent diagnosis of bipolar disorder, you find this is a situation that is not going to have any simple answers at all.<br /><br />One RNC consultant, reacting to Trump's remarks about how Mareen was the son of an immigrant, pointed out that four of Trump's children were born to an immigrant parent--as was Donald himself.Zepp Jamiesonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16261339498383415026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-15947604612622909312016-06-14T07:15:19.977-07:002016-06-14T07:15:19.977-07:00Donzel, it looks like we came close to having two ...Donzel, it looks like we came close to having two loonies commit mass shootings on the same weekend.<br /><br />http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-gay-pride-la-weapons-20160612-snap-story.html<br /><br />The police seem to be walking back their statements. Of course, the one who pulled the trigger first was Muslim, which fits the narrative. Since this guy doesn't seem to have any Islamic ties, he will no doubt be labeled insane rather than religious or political. Still, it's good that the report mentioned the NRA bumper sticker.Paul SBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75187434155273239732016-06-14T02:39:53.402-07:002016-06-14T02:39:53.402-07:00On the Dark Matter/Dark Energy question
I thought...On the Dark Matter/Dark Energy question<br /><br />I thought that the gravitational "force" could be not exactly distance squared - maybe distance to the power 1.99999999???<br /><br />Also that time could be changing - so that a second now was not the same as a second 5 billion years ago<br /><br />But these are such obvious thoughts that the actual experts in trying to match the observed data to the theories are bound to have eliminated these possibilities before moving onto the weird idea of matter that only reacts with our matter by gravitation duncan cairncrosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14153725128216947145noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-20113694312284953942016-06-13T23:25:55.009-07:002016-06-13T23:25:55.009-07:00@RobH - "Dark matter and dark energy is magic...@RobH - "Dark matter and dark energy is magical thinking."<br /><br />Personally, I'm disappointed that the proponents didn't adopt the term, "ether" to describe these systems. Funny how if you give something you don't understand a name that has already been debunked, a new term for 'mystery' is proposed. At the very least, they could have offered a cool Latin name for the stuff. "Quintessence?" Ack, them durn Greeks (who was it who wanted Socrates and Aristotle to be flogged?).donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-47282982578413288452016-06-13T23:14:23.230-07:002016-06-13T23:14:23.230-07:00@Alfred - "If you want to make a viable plan ...@Alfred - <i>"If you want to make a viable plan to harm US dominance in orbit, a debris shield isn’t the best I know. Too passive. A better plan would be to place mines up there using a cover story." </i><br />Not exactly mutually exclusive plans. A 'debris shield' seems to be a plausible outcome of another strategy that gets disrupted, like space mines. Debris need not destroy satellites, merely wreck solar power arrays, and as I understand it, several orbits are getting pretty crowded. <br /><br />Used to be that battles were reviewed by relative casualty counts - I'd imagine in wars of the future, they'll be reviewed in terms of resource cost. In most warfare, one need not build an insurmountable redoubt that cannot be taken, but merely raise the cost of projecting power into any single spot such that others will hesitate to do so. Unless those others are Mongols or Huns...donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-83463809862566416642016-06-13T22:58:33.270-07:002016-06-13T22:58:33.270-07:00Have been curling up with some lovely webcomics th...Have been curling up with some lovely webcomics these last couple days. <br />Brewster Rockit strikes me as a Futurama conceit, well executed and fun (as that show so often was). <br />Mare Internum is a bit of a mind-frak so far, quite curious where it's heading, but wonderfully executed.<br />Outsider, so far, looks fairly standard anime plot so far...tough space elven lassies?<br />Trying Human also channels that oh-so-anime vibe, but as a rom-com sci fi romp, quite fun.<br /><br />Meanwhile, a corner of my brain explodes every time some bastard takes an AR-15 and...proves that Republicans are stupid. One of the draft bills Dianne Feinstein tried to bring to the floor in 2005 had provisions banning assault weapon sales to anyone suspected of terrorist connection (a lower standard than probable cause for an arrest) - which the Republicans greeted with crickets in 2005. I screamed quietly at the time, got on a plane and left the country for many years (though my version of escape was to go straight into some of the uglier spots in the world and try to do something...).<br />donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-49153593719737206442016-06-13T21:17:13.588-07:002016-06-13T21:17:13.588-07:00Why would the evaporation of subatomic black holes...Why would the evaporation of subatomic black holes on a wide scale NOT cause the rapid expansion of the universe? The energy resulting from the loss of those super-condensed sources of mass/gravitation would need to go somewhere. So it inflated the universe.<br /><br />The debate over whether or not dark matter is primordial black holes has been going on for a while. There are a multitude of claims about dark matter. None have been proven. The more that scientists search for the elusive dark matter, the fewer hiding spots are left... until finally it may become a disproved theory.<br /><br />Primordial black holes are an effective method of explaining dark matter. Their loss through Hawking Radiation is likewise an effective method of explaining dark energy rather than creating an exotic superparticle or effect that just happens to push everything apart to fit what scientists see.<br /><br />I used to believe in magic. In time I took a look at those beliefs and realized there is no proof. Instead, it was a desire to create order from chaos, to explain patterns and allow myself to believe the universe could be controlled on a fundamental level. <br /><br />Dark matter and dark energy is magical thinking. It is taking effects that we see and assigning an imaginary element to it. This is not a bad thing - the Higgs Boson was magical thinking that led scientists to use mathematics to determine what the Boson would be like, and then scientific research to verify it.<br /><br />But there are plenty of particles that don't exist. It seems increasingly likely that String Theory is a tangled mess of magical thought that may explain the universe, but is not how it actually works. Likewise, dark matter and dark energy are likely imaginary particles and aspects that can be explained by other methods. Instead of WIMPS and mystery energy pushing things apart faster and faster, more mundane explanations will likely be behind the universe and its mysteries.<br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-9107562748858631612016-06-13T21:06:22.849-07:002016-06-13T21:06:22.849-07:00In keeping with current thread, 'Red Dwarf'...<br />In keeping with current thread, 'Red Dwarf' refers to the graphic novel & the televised series.<br /><br />And, as conventional matter has been "ruled out" ( but only in a mostly visual, dark, unenlightened & non-empiric sense) from current mass estimates of the Universe, may I suggest a few alternative theories based on Archimedes' Principle ?<br /><br />(1) Estimated Mass of Universe minus Witnessed Mass equals displacement due to Divine Density plus an infinite number of non-baryonic (as in 'imaginary') particles dancing on the head of pin; OR<br /><br />(2) Estimates of Universal Mass are erroneous, exaggerated & grossly 'inflated'.<br /><br /><br />Bestlocumranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-11914993126569747132016-06-13T19:43:00.584-07:002016-06-13T19:43:00.584-07:00@Rob H: Baryons doing mundane things have been rul...@Rob H: Baryons doing mundane things have been ruled out as Paul451 said. I think there is still room for them if they do weird things as well, but if you look for those behaviors, you might as well look for weird particles too.<br /><br />The universe is probably stranger than we imagine. <br />We've had to face this pretty much every time we get curious about anything.<br />Get used to it. 8)<br /><br /><br />The constraint to remember is we think the inflationary period was super-luminal or that the speed of light was 60 orders of magnitude larger. I don't know which is weirder.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-55154182534696681382016-06-13T18:10:16.103-07:002016-06-13T18:10:16.103-07:00Robert,
"Might not these extremely small blac...Robert,<br /><i>"Might not these extremely small black holes have decayed within microseconds, releasing a large amount of radiation but also <b>eliminating a large amount of gravitation</b> which in turn led to the massive inflation of the size of the universe?"</i><br /><br />E=MC² baby. Mass-energy equivalence. From gravity's point of view, there's no difference between inertial-matter and energy, except the speed. And light is too slow to have powered the early inflationary period.<br /><br />As for LR, conventional matter (whether red dwarfs, or brown, or black, or just dust and gas) has been ruled out but surveys of other galaxies. All baryonic matter produces secondary effects that can be measured. We're left with something-weird because all non-weird explanations have been looked for, and ruled out.Paul451https://www.blogger.com/profile/12119086761190994938noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-52688918507810926332016-06-13T18:04:09.899-07:002016-06-13T18:04:09.899-07:00Stand Still, Stay Silent -- Meema Sundberg
Unsound...Stand Still, Stay Silent -- Meema Sundberg<br />Unsounded -- Ashley Cole (not SF, but great fantasy)<br />The New Adventures of Queen Victoria - Pab Subgenus<br />Basic Instructions -- Scott Meyer -- the last two prove clip art comics can be a terrific read.Zepp Jamiesonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16261339498383415026noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-3415647293535350402016-06-13T17:39:29.518-07:002016-06-13T17:39:29.518-07:00Hyperbole is so easy to offer and so readily consu...Hyperbole is so easy to offer and so readily consumed. There is nothing unique about it in our politics, climate change discussions, or family squabbles. <br /><br />The recipe is simple. Confuse a tablespoon of 'impact' for a teaspoon of 'risk'. People do it all the time. 8)Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-28581603811903442782016-06-13T17:34:28.548-07:002016-06-13T17:34:28.548-07:00@occam’s comic: (from last thread)
Kessler syndrom...@occam’s comic: (from last thread)<br />Kessler syndrome is a more pressing issue for LOE. I don’t think it is likely that SBSP will be that low. In higher orbits there is more time to mount a defense against debris and if there is one thing SBSP should have in abundance for that defense is energy for lasers. Small orbit parameter chances turn hits into misses.<br /><br />If you want to make a viable plan to harm US dominance in orbit, a debris shield isn’t the best I know. Too passive. A better plan would be to place mines up there using a cover story. THAT would be annoying, but only for a while. We’d beat that by flying more stuff than they have mines and shoot down any replacements they send once the war turns hot.<br /><br />I’m not trying to be over-optimistic here. It’s just that this stuff has been considered and we’ve been working on beam weapons and ABM tech for some time now. No one is crowing about it yet and you probably won’t see much until it’s needed in a real war, but it is there and improving. There IS publically available info to be had.<br /><br />As for costs, I’m not overly worried. We get crazy-stupid in surprise attacks on us. The gold will flow like rivers.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-60564941131524728922016-06-13T17:00:57.524-07:002016-06-13T17:00:57.524-07:00If an undetermined number of Black Dwarfs can danc...<br /><br />If an undetermined number of Black Dwarfs can dance on the head of a pin, then the Universe may also contain a near infinite number of Red Dwarfs ... but that's not the worst of it:<br /><br />According to the BBC, European Council president Donald Tusk has warned that a UK vote in favour of Brexit "could be the beginning of the destruction of not only the EU but also Western political civilisation in its entirety".<br /><br />Then again, it sounds an awful lot like Climate Change hyperbole.<br /><br /><br />Bestlocumranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-40041010500790747262016-06-13T15:21:37.151-07:002016-06-13T15:21:37.151-07:00This seems like a good thread for an apology.
I f...This seems like a good thread for an apology.<br /><br />I finally read your story, "Eloquent Elepents Pine Away for the Moon's Crystal Forests." Please forgive me for doubting that you're familiar with Miyazaki, if not being a fan. :oA.F. Reynoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-36034723599367499992016-06-13T12:31:50.176-07:002016-06-13T12:31:50.176-07:00"Star Power" is pretty good, too. http:/..."Star Power" is pretty good, too. http://www.starpowercomic.com/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-50769486419899572032016-06-13T12:03:57.124-07:002016-06-13T12:03:57.124-07:00Duncan Cairncross:
...
Pied Piper of Timelot
Not...Duncan Cairncross:<br /><i><br />...<br />Pied Piper of Timelot<br /><br />Not really hitting the mark<br /></i><br /><br />Wouldn't that be "Pied Piper of <b>Timelein</b>"?<br /><br />It's more of a pun that way, too.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-48231042619734140512016-06-13T11:50:50.762-07:002016-06-13T11:50:50.762-07:00Thanks for your suggestion, Rob H. Food for though...Thanks for your suggestion, Rob H. Food for thought. I've been trying to visualize the topology of the very early universe when time to transit the entire space was only microseconds before the "reentering" of energy, gravity waves, etc., on the "other side." In this very tight manifold, energy should not in itself cause space to expand. Yet your thought experiment is provocative. If light has mass, and mass turned into light, is the gravity preserved? Or does the mass of light not equal the mass of the hole? Is space (of the inflation) created by the difference?<br /><br />Every time nowadays a black hole finally evaporates, does a sudden though smaller inflation of space also occur?Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-32206854246007157792016-06-13T11:11:07.254-07:002016-06-13T11:11:07.254-07:00Robert, I had a similar thought a long time ago, t...Robert, I had a similar thought a long time ago, though I also considered that the Universe might have a whole lot more Black Dwarf remnants than previously thought. These would be even more difficult to detect than black holes, having no equivalent of an accretion disk or x-ray emissions to look for. I know I am a rank amateur where astrophysics is concerned, though, so I'll listen to what experts have to say. Even the best have turned down blind alleys before - which is why science always has to be seen as provisional, the proviso being that new data can lead to better models in the future. This is the colossal admission of human fallibility that makes science so much more believable than almost any other human endeavor, regardless of how the media chooses to portray science.Paul SBnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-12001221409425800762016-06-13T08:45:46.547-07:002016-06-13T08:45:46.547-07:00"could also be the basis behind dark energy&q..."could also be the basis behind dark energy" - sorry for the typo above in the first paragraph!<br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-23314254947949795842016-06-13T08:42:49.416-07:002016-06-13T08:42:49.416-07:00Going onto a slight science tangent here: there is...Going onto a slight science tangent here: <a href="http://www.space.com/33122-dark-matter-black-hole-connection.html" rel="nofollow">there is a theory out there that dark matter is in fact comprised of primordial black holes</a>, which got me to think. This could also be the basis behind dark matter. And it may even explain the sudden expansion of the universe soon after its creation.<br /><br />Consider for a moment: when the Big Bang occurred, it could have created a vast swath of primordial black holes. Well, what is the decay time for a black hole with the mass of a subatomic particle? <br /><br />Might not these extremely small black holes have decayed within microseconds, releasing a large amount of radiation but also eliminating a large amount of gravitation which in turn led to the massive inflation of the size of the universe?<br /><br />And thus might not other black holes, those the size of hydrogen atoms, be evaporating next, and thus reducing gravitation in the universe as they become energy as well... and thus allowing for an increasing acceleration of the expansion of the universe?<br /><br />The entire range of dark matter and dark energy may in fact be explainable through primordial black holes and Hawking radiation as these black holes with event horizons so small they cannot be detected at distance except through their gravitation slowly "pop" and release more and more energy into the universe... and in turn accelerate the expansion of the universe itself.<br /><br />All these efforts to use exotic physics to find mystery particles like WIMPS and the like may in fact be for naught as we look for giant ferns in a forest comprised only of trees. We seek something with magical thinking (because "ordinary physics" <i>can't</i> explain something so mysterious and magical as dark matter and dark energy!) rather than look for a more mundane solution.<br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.com