A Learning MomentHickock 45 is a popular GunTuber (one of the first ever IIRC). He does gun reviews, but focuses on Cowboy Action, and firearmssafety. Now, he's just counting the days until YouTube yeets him. Today he and his son get an unexpected visitor who tries to explain what a STTGU is...
1
Actually, I am going against the grain and say that the odds are that Kamala will get knifed in the back first in the internal wars before Joe does.
Posted by: cxt217 at Wed Jan 20 19:47:39 2021 (4i7w0)
2
Whichever of them gets kicked out first, it will be interesting to see who the next VP is. They can't pick someone from the Senate without at least briefly losing their majority, and the House is nearly as risky.
I still think Joe will go down first, so they can unlock the achievements.
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Thu Jan 21 00:20:40 2021 (ZlYZd)
3
I have a hypothesis on why I believe Kamala is likely to go down first, followed by Joe (Yes, I am thinking it is possible that both of them get goned in the internal fights to follow.), and the person(s) that follow will depend entirely on which faction manage to carry out their plan.
If even a fraction of what I think is possible occurs, the resulting party civil war might dwarf anything that the GOP is going through.
Posted by: cxt217 at Thu Jan 21 00:45:03 2021 (4i7w0)
4
We eagerly await a disquisition on your hypothesis.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thu Jan 21 05:45:16 2021 (5iiQK)
5
The very short version $.02 version is that Kamala is, even more than Joe, a pawn in the power struggle by the factions vying for control of the Democrats. From accounts, she was was pushed as veep by the Clinton faction. However, even disregarding Joe, the administration is stacked with Obama faction loyalists. Since even Democrats are pretty sure that Joe will not last a full term, the the situation leads to the following:
1) The Clintons want to be in the White House again, but a Kamala administration would not be a problem because Bill and Hillary have time to groom Chelsea for her run. Yes, I know it sounds dumb, but look at how politics have shaped up in the last 30 years and then consider that DC is 100 square miles surrounded by reality. They could have afford to have Joe and Kamala lose last November. They could afford to wait a Joe/Kamala administration. They can afford to wait;
2) The Obamas want Michelle to be president. That goal takes a major hit if Kamala becomes president under any circumstances. Michelle will not have nearly the amount of star power if she is trying to follow Kamala, than if it was nearly anything else. They probably agreed to Kamala as the veep because at the time, they were expecting Joe to lose and taking Kamala down would have taken down a potential rival. As it is right now, they do not want to see Kamala become the next president because that would cost star power AND time, which is not necessarily on their side;
3) Kamala herself draws most of her current power in the party from the fact she is the veep. Outside of that, she has never been able to sustain double digit support in her own party. The only way her aspirations for the top job will succeed is if she has the power of incumbency in her favor. Without it, she is vulnerable to be primaried by people with far less favorable odds at the White House. Unfortunately, everyone in the party knows this, which means they are definitely going to plan with that in mind;
4) Joe himself can not be written out. We may laugh or cry about his mental state, but whatever else, he has a keen survival instinct. He is not going to go down in a fight and whatever other weakness, his ability (When lucid.) for retail politics is not to be under-estimated. Even if it means jettison everything else (Which would lead to letting whoever the other party will nominate in 2024 to win.), he is not going to go quietly from the White House because someone in a back room said he should.
Note I expect everything and anything to happen, up to and including the possibility of a depressed trajectory shot at DC, so everything might and probably will be wrong. But depending on how the internal struggles will go will also decide on whether Joe or Kamala will go first.
Posted by: cxt217 at Thu Jan 21 22:21:37 2021 (4i7w0)
6
I don't think Obama wants Michelle to be president, even though it would be to his advantage. Nope, he theoretically wanted it; but when Michelle's book came out, he did his best to sink it and whine about it.
Apparently he threatened to call off their wedding and honeymoon because he (allegedly) had a head cold, then (miraculously) recovered totally and had no signs of a head cold. Michelle will never be president if he has anything to sabotage about it.
Posted by: Suburbanbanshee at Fri Jan 22 22:32:01 2021 (sF8WE)
7He might not want it, but she definitely does. Michelle is probably as ambitious as Hillary is, but she is much better at keeping herself from being grating.
It is anecdotal but Secret Service agents assigned to their protective details have recalled that she was always pressing him to be more aggressive and confrontational in politics, especially during the 2012 campaign. So whatever reservations Barack has, well, I doubt he is the more aggressive one of the pair.
Also, the Obama faction definitely wants to keep control of the Democrat party. That is not going to work if anyone else outside their group gets to be president.
Posted by: cxt217 at Sat Jan 23 00:19:52 2021 (4i7w0)
In the previous post about the Washington Post story about..."multiracial whiteness" Pete comments...
I don't see a contradiction, honestly. "Whiteness" is basically a compact term for "everything good, which liberals want to stamp out". It acquired its term because good things are historically associated with whites, in particular WASPs.
...and indeed the left does use the term that way.
However, I think it acquired this meaning because the left is racist in a weird Rousseauean* sort of way. First off, they buy Rousseau's silly notion of primitive savages being superior to the civilized, which is both destructive and patronizing. Second, by conflating "white" with the benefits of western civilization they are saying that other peoples don't have the mental ability to deal with this complex wonder. In essence they are espousing white supremacy.
This claim is easily falsifiable by simply invoking the names of accomplished Americans of Non-Caucasian extraction, Fredrick Douglass, G.W. Carver, Cochise, Sequoyah, Dr. King, Katherine Johnson, C.J. Walker and we'll stop there to keep the list from going on forever.
For a comparison between the West and the rest that's corrected for differences in culture, background, and opportunity one can look to the difference between Nelson Mandela and Robert Mugabe. Mandela was influenced by western ideals and was able to liberate his people and keep in check the worst primitive impulses for vengeance (until he died) whereas Mugabe turned his nation into an abattoir. He did this evil deed by simply behaving as all people usually did up till the enlightenment. Sadly Mandela's influence on the culture was not as long lasting as one might have hoped.
Nevertheless the above examples disprove the implication of the left's conflation of Western and "White" as the basically patronizing racism that it is. The weird thing is that many progressives don't see it this way because they despise much of western civilization's core concepts. Why this is is unclear. It's easy to assume that they are malevolent or simply throwback, troglodytic minds in rich, privileged bodies, but their malevolent politics aside, these are generally well educated people who think they are doing good. Trying to figure out lefty motivations is tiring and can lead to the dangerous shortcuts in the beginning of the last sentence....but by happy coincidence Sara Hoyt has, this very evening, posted thoughts on this very matter.
Democracy Dies in the Derpness
By now most of you are familiar with the running gag that is the intersection of current events with R.A. Heinlein's Future History, the period he called The Crazy Years.
He wasn't quite as prescient as it may seem. In his timeline, the era of looniness took place before the first moon landing and ended thereafter, whereas in ours, the first wave of Cray-Cray took place during and immediately after the Apollo program, which despite its success saw space development subsequently faceplant and suck its toes until recently when private industry began to take the lead and make real strides in space access .
Anyway, this was brought to mind by my encountering, just before I went to bed, this headline, which was so fractally crazy that it kept me up all night.
To understand Trump’s support, we must think in terms of multiracial Whiteness
Readers may also wish to ponder how a distaste for racial preoccupation is framed, rather boldly, as "a discriminatory worldview.â€
Multiracial whiteness promises Latino Trump supporters freedom from the politics of diversity and recognition. For voters who see the very act of acknowledging one’s racial identity as itself racist, the politics of multiracial whiteness reinforces their desired approach to colour-blind individualism.
That being bad, you see.
Racism is one of the most pernicious and vile evils in the annals of humankind, and the notion that treating people the same regardless of their skin color is bigoted is so far from reality as to be diseased thinking.
A.E. Van Vought had thoughts on what constitutes "crazy"...
"Craziness can be measured by maladaptive behavior. The behavior the society uses to solve one kind of problem, when applied to an incorrect category, disorients it. When this happens the whole society, even if some members are aware of the disorientation, cannot reach the correct conclusion, or react in a fashion that preserves society from harm. As if society were a dolphin that called itself a fish: when it suffered the sensation of drowning, it would dive. But a dolphin is a mammal, a member of a different category of being. When dolphins are low on air, they surface, rather than dive. Putting yourself in the wrong category leads to the wrong behavior.â€
It's hard to conceive of less correct categorizations than having "Judge people not by the color of their skin, but the content of their character" under the heading "Racist" and judging people by their ethnicity as virtuousness. Indeed, like Vought's deep diving drowning dolphin, it is the exact opposite of correct and can only lead to a grim end.
One indication that a current event might be crazy is when the best, and most succinct take is from the Babylon Bee.
However, while it's easy to dismiss the WaPo writer's perspective as crazy, it should not be dismissed out of hand that they might actually be aware of the contradictions, and therefore are evil. Dividing the nation is useful, not only to our enemies(who in the case of China have deep pockets to pay for such services) but to a subset of civil rights non-profits which has become quite a lucrative profession for a certain swath of our upper middle class. Furthermore, note the horror expressed at "color blind individualism". Ruling individuals is like herding cats...a philosophy of rugged individualism and personal freedom is a good bit check on tyranny. Conversely, tribes, or other groups can be moved about and controlled much more efficiently, like sheep or cattle, even a dog can do it. As such a collection of competing, mutually suspicious groups are easier for a totalitarian to deal with. (In much the same way, regulators prefer a few large companies to thousands of small businesses, as they are easier to keep track of and pay off or punish.)
So it is possible that this is not so much insanity as pure malevolence.
However, "multi-racial white supremacy" is such a categorical contradiction that for now, I'll grant them the benefit of the doubt and assume they're just stark-raving-cuckoo-for-Coca-Puffs.
Note though, that craziness, especially that which is hard to distinguish from evil, is not benign, quite the contrary, so we should stay aware of this nonsense and observe this numbnuttery with a wary eye, because whether crazy or evil, this affront to reason has the potential to take us down a dark path indeed.
1
I don't see a contradiction, honestly. "Whiteness" is basically a compact term for "everything good, which liberals want to stamp out". It acquired its term because good things are historically associated with whites, in particular WASPs.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Tue Jan 19 15:00:22 2021 (LZ7Bg)
Posted by: Rick C at Mon Jan 18 11:09:26 2021 (eqaFC)
2
It's actually Rhotacism, a speech impediment. It used to be much worse but he's improved his diction vastly over the last two years.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Jan 18 12:01:21 2021 (5iiQK)
3
Huh--did not know that. To me it sounded more like a vowel shift, and I figured it was something like a regional Welsh accent or something I hadn't heard before.
Posted by: Rick C at Mon Jan 18 12:17:53 2021 (eqaFC)
Recently in Occidental V-Tubery
Ewica FINALLY passed her Voight-Kamph test. There had been some "talk" because this had gone on for 7 minutes and because her business plan seems....dubious.
IronMouse continues to have issues with her new 3-D rig, but using her old one was able to council a rogue AI and a Russian cat-thingie on American Civics.
Luna the MajiKarp is a V-Tuber with a mid-sized following who sings a little ditty every time someone subscribes or follows. At the beginning of the month she got raided by Nyanners who was leading 7,000 viewers...a fair percentage of whom subbed or followed. This went on for 27 minutes.
A Useful Life Hack
The Instant Vortex Air Fryer is attractively designed , its facade consisting of alternating stainless steel and a black bakelite like material.
Note however that its interior is ALL stainless steel.
That black bottom in the fry compartment is actually waxed or otherwise shiny cardboard.
1
Did you burn down your trailer?
Also, is yours as loud as ours? We have a more basic one and it's LOUD.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Sat Jan 16 11:23:31 2021 (LZ7Bg)
2
No, the house is still here....There is no visible damage to the kitchen either.
There is an aroma that is taking time to dissipate..
The vortex fryer is not as loud as I'd feared, being on par with the overhead fan above the stove.
Note though that I was expecting it to be very loud, having seen the models in some convenience stores.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Jan 16 11:30:17 2021 (5iiQK)
3
I can't count the number of times I've found protective plastic strips on appliances and electronics after using them for months or years, but fortunately none of them were in temperature-sensitive locations.
Well, except for the batch of 1U rackmount servers where all the vents were on top, covered by nearly-invisible plastic sheeting. We caught it before turning them on, but after most were already racked.
I've got a Philips air fryer, but after the initial novelty wore off, I went back to using my convection toaster oven for most things. The fans don't circulate the hot air as fast, but it's quieter, easier to clean, and more versatile. Also, a steady diet of chicken nuggets and french fries isn't good for my girlish figure. :-)
-j
Posted by: J Greely at Sat Jan 16 12:34:22 2021 (ZlYZd)
4Also, a steady diet of chicken nuggets and french fries isn't good for my girlish figure. :-)
Well, yeah, because what you need for a healthy life is a steady diet of fried chicken and steak, preferably each with a side dish of edamane soybeans as well.
Posted by: cxt217 at Sat Jan 16 20:13:40 2021 (4i7w0)
Hopefully Not Cassandra (Updated) (Bumped)
One of the commenters here posted the following three days ago.
ALERT: Someone is planning a false flag event this weekend. Either the 16th, 17th, or 19th at state capitols and DC (the date of the supposed patriot event varies). Poorly designed posters have been mailed out to conservatives and conservative groups....there's some unconfirmable conspiracy theorizing in the middle...The posters call for armed men to show up at the capitols for a march...
Note that while I have not encountered one of these posters myself, other people who I trust (Including our brilliant and wise web host...praise the lathe of the maker) have verified that these posters & memes are, in fact, circulating.
So, maybe, don't show up armed in D.C. or in front of state Capitol buildings in the next few weeks.
(Alternatively: you can lie down with dogs & get up with fleas.)
Also, if you are aware of an imminent threat of violent mischief, and have evidence, perhaps let the authorities know.
UPDATE:Styxhexenhammer has seen these fliers too and his thoughts on the matter are similar to mine.
I should note that I don't think that most of these protests are "false flags", but I do think that they are a very bad idea and that both the Boogaloo Blockheads and leftist provocateurs are intending to hijack these to foment various flavors of chaos.
UPDATIER: As of 15:10 (Jan. 13) Dr. Reynolds over at Instapundit has now noted this too and in the comments Rick C has turned up one of the posters...and boy howdy...
Yes, it looks like the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks are joining hands with the Tankies in doing a synchronized propeller dance to give all the oxygen they can to this impending dumpster fire.
That or these LARPers today have only ever seen commie agitprop before.
UPDATED AND BUMPED:
Don't go to these things, they will only end in tears. Also: Pixy has unearthed more evidence of derpitude
[/spoiler]
1
I haven't seen such flyers, and while I can easily believe that the Left is trying to set up more false flag operations, this sort of thing makes me wonder: at what point *do* we show up with our guns? What line will finally send up the balloon?
They keep salami-slicing away the Constitution, and I keep hearing "this is not the hill to die upon"...so when will we know we've finally gotten to that hill? If honest elections for the Presidency don't qualify, then does anything?
N.B. I'm not advocating anything at this point. I'm just wondering if *anything* will ever merit watering the Tree of Liberty again, or if we've already ceded our freedoms away for a mess of pottage.
Posted by: jabrwok at Wed Jan 13 09:29:38 2021 (BlRin)
2
@jabrwok, one of the posters is up on Ace's this morning; here's the direct link to the image: http://ace.mu.nu/archives/coup%2020210113%2002.jpg
Notice the red background with yellow stars.
Posted by: Rick C at Wed Jan 13 13:23:51 2021 (eqaFC)
3
At Instapundit they've found what is probably the original poster this one was cribbed from. I commented over there that I posted this one on FB & said "do not go to this event." FB deleted the post, claiming it could put people in harm, clearly ignoring my text.
Posted by: Rick C at Fri Jan 15 10:18:01 2021 (eqaFC)
Oh Wow. They're Going to Test This Thing Next Month
They've been best known until now for cool CGI animations of stuff they say they'll do eventually, but now The Gateway Foundation is announcing plans to do a 40% scale test of their fabrication robot 'D-Star'.
If this thing works, even the 40% version will have massive potential to assemble things in orbit and beyond. If Space-X gets their rockets working and produced in the quantities that Mr. Musk is promising, then we could have the solar system from Mercury to Pallas opened up in less than a decade.
Good Grief! It's Real.
We covered the rumors of the Kel-Tec P50 before. And expressed skepticism that anything this cool could exist. Commenters reported seeing magazine articles on it, but now there is confirmation from Kel-Tec themselves via The Gun Hipster Network.
Sadly, Kel-Tec will not be getting it to market before January 20th, so there is still some doubt as to whether it will ever be available.
Without handling the thing it's hard to make any judgements on handling, but the mag change looks flakier than it should be, not because its bad in concept, but because it opens SO wide that in the dark it looks like there's too big an area that the mag might go. It's certainly not "hand finds hand".
Still, that's what practice is for and a pistol shooting 50 rounds of 5.7x28 for under a grand is quite compelling and a potential budgetary hazard.
I'd been looking at an 1858 Remington, and then THIS goes and happens.
1
A pistol shooting 5.7 under a grand existed for a long time. In fact, I saw it at a local range's rental counter the other day. The difference is the magazine capacity. Ruger 57 only holds 20 rounds and P50 holds 50 rounds.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Wed Jan 13 12:54:49 2021 (LZ7Bg)
2
I must admit, I'm intrigued by the Ruger. It's the 50 rounds that's the selling point here. Also, the barrel length is comparable to the P-90, so it should wring most of the performance out of a cartridge that, as I understand it, is quite velocity dependent.
However, to be clear, I'm a BAH, not an engineer and my firearms experience is neither broad nor deep, mostly consisting of qualifying to fire several weapons in the military that I never shot in anger and some casual civilian plinking and marksmanship practice back in the 'before time' (when there was ammunition).
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Wed Jan 13 15:02:57 2021 (5iiQK)
Signs and Portents
If you find yourself in a reality where one of the most nuanced and level headed takes on the Capital riot and subsequent Orwellian responses is coming to you from...BEARING...you are likely approaching some scary, crazy times.
UPDATE: To be clear, while his overview of the situation we are in post riot is as good as any, Bearing is way out in front of some people I used to read until last week in that he is emphatic that the assholes who stormed through the capitol windows and stole stuff were, in fact, assholes.
Responding to the Purging of Parler
I was saddened to learn that MeWe wasn't Pixy's social media outlet, but I've signed up for it anyway.
I do not like microblogging, but it's good to have some other alternatives to Twitter, now that Parler is gone and Gab is the junior Bostonian Baptist Anti-Fun League circa 1947.
I'm also on Pawoo, but honestly haven't posted there since Dec 7th. Maybe some of you can post Fediverse and other alternatives in the comments.
UPDATE: While I was typing on MeWe about my curry....I burned my curry.
Posted by: bouff at Mon Jan 11 03:12:39 2021 (pJ2Io)
3
Meanwhile, Fediverse is continuing on ticking.
Also, guys? Don't use your real name on Mewe unless it's real in your other identities. For one thing, I cannot tell who the heck you are!
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Jan 11 14:43:07 2021 (LZ7Bg)
4
Yeah, the Fediverse isn't entirely immune to this sort of crap, but it's a lot more resistant. We should never have abandoned Usenet.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Mon Jan 11 22:12:39 2021 (PiXy!)
5
ALERT: Someone is planning a false flag event this weekend. Either the 16th, 17th, or 19th at state capitols and DC (the date of the supposed patriot event varies). Poorly designed posters have been mailed out to conservatives and conservative groups. The FBI is in on it, since they are now making noises about "uncovering the plot". (Sources, the Blaze, ABC, etc..)
The president is being held incommunicado, and our normal modes of communication are recording the event are being shut down. This is (other than the sheer hell of it) so that we cannot shine a light on what really happens this weekend.
The posters call for armed men to show up at the capitols for a march. This is a TRAP. Unfortunately, with a few million pissed off people, it's almost inevitable that enough idiots will show to give them their set-piece Tienanmen square massacre. If by some miracle, everyone stays home, I'm sure antifa, or Hollywood CGI will fill in.
What is planned next is a brutal crackdown on America in "response" to inaugurate the new regime. The capitol hill protest didn't do what they want, so this is plan B. These liars will now make up reality to suit them, so that they have some bloody shirt to wave giving them moral authority for the rest of the evil they plan.
Hope I'm just paranoid, but we'll find out this weekend.
Posted by: anonymous at Tue Jan 12 07:43:24 2021 (LL2wD)
6
Yeah, I've seen the flyers being circulated. The communist iconography couldn't be any more blatant if they had photoshopped Che's face onto the Statue of Liberty.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tue Jan 12 09:40:18 2021 (PiXy!)
7
Do ya'll have any of these flyers? Has anyone contacted authorities to warn them?
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Tue Jan 12 14:07:49 2021 (5iiQK)
8
I've only seen them on Twitter. They're obviously fake, but I don't know what the level of fakery is. A real photo of a fake flyer? A fake photo of nonexistent flyer? A real photo of a real flyer for a fake protest?
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Tue Jan 12 23:03:07 2021 (PiXy!)
I worry about what might happen to Hololive with American Big Tech gone batshit insane. They're as apolitical as you can get, but that's probably not going to be enough.
ANSWER: It's Pixy obviously. He's generally right. Nostradamus by contrast, was full of crap.
1
I didn't expect to be proven right quite that quickly.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun Jan 10 02:47:37 2021 (PiXy!)
2
That said, Hero Hei is something of a drama queen.
That said, antis are antis. They're all commie bastards, it's just that some of them are doing it for free.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at Sun Jan 10 02:57:09 2021 (PiXy!)
3
No mention why she apparently ran afoul of the woke mob?
Posted by: Rick C at Sun Jan 10 12:35:53 2021 (eqaFC)
4
She was put on a list of "Problematic V-Tubers". For what I'm not sure, but the consensus amongst the wokeratti is that whatever she was doing was gross...so "fun".
@murrhearts has privated his/her account but looking at replies one thing that was mentioned was Ookami Mio's lore.
Reddit's Hololive page is saying she's been reinstated, but this screencap is from today at 15:35:05 EST.
Hero Hei is indeed a drama queen, but a Twitter ban is not ephemeral rumor and he's got his screencaps indicating that there is, indeed, a list.
People really like lists nowadays so this seemed worthy of mention.
This is where I make a dreadful confession to my audience:
I don't really follow Hololive.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Jan 10 15:42:22 2021 (5iiQK)
Meanwhile: At Alpha Centauri
This story actually transpired a couple of weeks ago but I have been waiting for the inevitable debunking. Now one of the Brickmuppet's Crack Team of Science Babes is here to inform us how that went...
"The debunking is not going quite as smoothly as expected".
Oh dear.
Allow me to explain...
A few weeks ago, radio astronomers detected an odd radio signal that seemed to come from from the nearby Alpha Centauri system, the 3 closest stars to Earth.
That's bloody coincidental, so while the press was being their usual calm selves, the scientists did what they always do when they hear an 'extraterrestrial signal', they set about trying to figure out what Earth radio signal they had mistakenly picked up.
Well, weeks later there have been some developments...sort of.
Basically all known terrestrial radio signals have been eliminated as being this.
As I understand it, the signal hasn't changed much in bearing (relative to the sun), which one would expect if it to do if it were being broadcast from inside the solar system. Moreover, this turns out not to be a particularly weak signal by the standards of radio astronomy, quite the opposite in fact, and after adjusting their readings and analyzing their parallax, they've narrowed it down to coming from the direction of Proxima Centauri, a red dwarf that is the closest of the three stars in Alpha Centauri and the closest star to Earth.
The chances of the first SETI success involving the closest star in the sky is....well, the odds of THAT seem dubious.
However, this signal is strange, and is stubbornly defying debunkery. An inability to, as of yet, debunk something that is vanishingly unlikely is NOT the same as confirmation. However, this has slipped out of the realm of press hype and into the realm of 'interesting'.
There's a good overview of this conundrum here:
Interestingly, the signal doesn't appear to be data...it's a monotone signal, like a dial tone...or a beacon.
Proxima is now known to have at least 2 planets and an asteroid/dust belt.
One of the planets, (Proxima Centauri B) is in the theoretical habitable zone from the star. However that habitable zone is very close to the star. Proxima's a small star, a tad bigger than Jupiter (though much more massive) and it's not a calm star like ours. It flares quite spectacularly. In fact it has flares that are bigger than those spewed out by our sun.
Any planet in the "habitable zone" of this dinky little star is going to get bombarded by star farts, and would require a massive atmosphere similar to Venus, and/or a terribly strong magnetic field to keep its atmosphere from being stripped away.
Note too that "habitable zone" is a bit of a provincial and vague term. Venus, Earth and Mars are in our sun's habitable zone, but only one of them is habitable by humans.
The planet in that system which has gotten the most attention is the aforementioned Proxima Centauri B, in part because it is in the habitable zone and in part because it was discovered first. It has a mass somewhere between 1.7 and 1.6 times that of Earth and an estimated surface gravity, according to Wikipedia of between .95 and 1.1 g. It's a bit bigger and somewhat more massive than Earth. Assuming it has an atmosphere, it's probably colder than Earth...but that's a big assumption, because it's so close to its star that its getting blasted by solar wind and radiation, that, in the absence of a strong magnetic field would have stripped away the atmosphere long ago and sterilized the husk.
We have some experience with the magnetic fields of roughly Earth-size rocky planets, having no less than four of them in the general vicinity. Only one of them, has a useful magnetic field. Mars has one that only extends above the planetary surface in the tropics. Venus has a weak magnetosphere caused by the impact of solar wind on its upper atmosphere, Mercury, which is about the size of the moon (but as massive as Mars) has a very weak field, and Earth has about the second strongest magnetic field in the solar system after Jupiter. Earth's anomalously strong field is actually on par with the other gas giants like Saturn. It is hypothesized that this is due to tidal forces coming from the moon and the fact that Earth still spins on its axis fairly quickly.
As we noted a while back, any planet orbiting as close to its star as Proxima b is likely to be tidally locked, that is, it's likely to orbit once per rotation (like the moon is to Earth). However, In the embedded video there is speculation that it might be in resonance, perhaps with the other, recently discovered, planet (Proxima Centauri C) much as Mercury is in resonance with Jupiter. It is unclear if this is based on models or wishful thinking, but this would at least mean that it would have a day/night cycle. However, even generously granting that possibility, it likely still does not rotate fast enough to generate a sufficient magnetic field to protect it. There is also a data artifact noted in passing on page 8 of this paper that opens the remote possibility that the planet might have a moon (how that could possibly work so close to the star is unclear). There is a video discussion of this planet and the solar system in general here.
The study confirming Proxima b also indicated there might be another, smaller planet with an orbital period of 5.15 days (Noted on page 7 of the previous paper) but Proxima d is, as yet, unconfirmed.
The only other planet confirmed to be in the system in the system, Proxima Centauri C is either a small ice giant (would that be an ice orc?) , or a big rocky world. It is quite frigid and fairly far from the star, being outboard of what appears to be a dust or asteroid belt. This is all based on inferences from the wobble and red-shift of the star, but, recently astronomers were actually able to take a direct picture of Proxima C. While this dark frigid world elicits little interest from those looking for life signs, the ability to directly take a picture of a planet in another solar system is cool indeed. So what does this boring thing look like?
Yes the bigger planet in the system we are "getting signals from" is 'glowy', way bigger than it should be, and appears to be vastly less dense than a planet.
Wow.
One possibility is that this planet has a massive ring system, that, like those of Saturn and Chariklo, is coated in highly reflective ice.
Uncredited NASA artist's conception of Proxima-C via
For reasons of propriety, we will, of course, dismiss out of hand the notion that Proxima C is an alien megastructure.
1
Damnit, I was hoping that it might be the real life equivalent of Ellis from 2300AD - a habitable planet orbiting around a red dwarf that is oddly not tide-locked, and where Americans can move to without being trapped in a high tech security state.
Posted by: cxt217 at Sat Jan 9 12:46:59 2021 (4i7w0)
2
So if they've been listening all this time, what happened 8.8 years ago that prompted their "head up" dial tone?
Posted by: Clayton Barnett at Sat Jan 9 13:30:53 2021 (QMNdN)
3
At the time, I suggested over at another website that the signal is a homing beacon from kids annoyed that Santa hasn't visited.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sat Jan 9 16:52:35 2021 (Bkp4m)
So if they've been listening all this time, what happened 8.8 years ago that prompted their "head up" dial tone?
Radio astronomers are generally looking for interesting astronomical phenomena (phenomenae?) They point their radio telescopes at interesting things and Alpha Centauri consists of basic bitch versions of G,K, and M class stars, which are themselves basic bitch versions of stars.
Also, SETI does not have a lot of funding in comparison to other aspects of astronomy which get billions of dollars to spend on space origamis. SETI is full of serious researchers, but I get the impression that it is mostly professional astronomers who are basically pursuing their hobby. Not a lot of grants come to those who find nothing year after year and I imagine that the research doesn't generate a lot of peer-reviewed research.
" Having reviewed Professor Skippy's analysis suggesting that he'd heard nothing, we have concluded that, in fact, he heard nothing."
Also, Radio Astronomy and SETI in particular listen to a small chunk of the sky at any given time and since Radio Astronomy was a thing there has always been a LOT of radio signals to filter out. A lot of the work with SETI and RA in general is just trying to eliminate all the Top 40 and CB broadcasts. That takes time.
Finally, I suspect it is a matter of geography. Most radio telescopes are in the northern hemisphere. The constellation Centarus, despite being named by the Greeks, is now only visible from the southern hemisphere year round and south of Florida in the Summer.
So there was a star system, that was not interesting except because of its location, that wasn't really viewable with the best equipment, and a signal that was hard to filter out from the background noise and sounds like a dial-tone or radio test.
It's still probably nothing, but given how odd the signal is, whatever it is should at least be amusing.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Jan 9 17:32:19 2021 (5iiQK)
Mars, some asteroid, or Callisto would be a better bet.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sat Jan 9 17:35:54 2021 (5iiQK)
6Mars, some asteroid, or Callisto would be a better bet.
Unless terraforming technology gets a LOT better, I rather a place that is both far away and whose residents will not be immediately vulnerable due to their life support systems being destroyed by planetary bombardment (a la what happened to Hochbaden in the 2300AD setting - yes, I have been reading old gaming modules.).
Posted by: cxt217 at Sun Jan 10 14:47:29 2021 (4i7w0)
7
Terraforming is outre' tech to be sure, but FAR less so than traveling 4.6 light years. In contrast to the Hochbaden scenario you mention, most any space settlements aside from Spaceports are going to be buried, either in asteroids or underground, presenting any attackers with the thorny issues the Earth faced in Moon is a Harsh Mistress. Hochbaden was, IIRC, a Bavarian vanity project with the pressurized habitats all exposed for reasons of artistic whimsy, and big open windows the size of football fields to facilitate tourism. In 2300, most other closed-ecosystem colonies were much more sound architecturally.
Even assuming that orbital bombardment is not a consideration, and frankly its not high on the list of realistic design concerns, mitigation of radiation and meteors is going to require subterranean placement of most habitable areas, with periscopes bringing light in for farming.
Sunlight looses the bandwidths necessary for terrestrial photosynthesis past the Trojans, so, Jupiter is probably a hard limit on how far out we could go in the absence of fusion power. Jupiter is also the extreme limit of practical solar power (see Juno).
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Jan 10 17:48:09 2021 (5iiQK)
On The Importance of not Becoming the Monsters One is Fighting
First let me say that I condemn and disavow those who stupidly decided yesterday to get in touch with their inner Antifatard and charge the Capitol building.
This was stupid.
This was foul.
This was wrong.
The purpose of the exercise is to oppose the left, not BE the left.
These idiots are jus as bad as Antifa, BLM and all the other thugs we suffered from last year.
And that is an important component of trying to understand how we got here.
( Note to the linguistically impaired: Understanding is not endorsing, or defending. These actions are indefensible.)
For some time people have had the following explained to them in the most sanctimonious and arrogant way possible.
And anyone who disagreed was called everything but a child of God.
None of this excuses the vile shit that went down at the Capitol yesterday, but it does put it into context.
I and many other conservatives are denouncing these fuckwits in exactly the same way we denounced the riots of last summer... and while it's good to FINALLY have a bipartisan denunciation of political violence, in stark contrast to the previous situation, if AOC and her co-religionists can't disavow their previous statements in favor of insurrectionists, they only make the problem worse.
Because the message that the riots, and the election sent is that only those who violently protest will be taken seriously.
Trump is a carnival barker and a narcisist. But Trump did not do this. He sure as fuck could have chosen his words better, but he did not start this riot. The rioters are people, with agency, and they chose to be little shits.
Furthermore, the left has spent a year normalizing political violence.
This does not excuse the vile actions that took place yesterday. It makes them even more reprehensible, because those stupid actions served to malign the hundreds of thousands of protestors who were there to peacefully protest and it deprives the public at large of any hope that either side denounces violence.
I have seen it noted on other blogs that this wasn't any different from the many times that lefty loons broke into the Capitol during hearings, votes or state of the union speeches except that the capitol police did not shoot any of those protestors to death....
Outside the Supreme Court 2018
...which almost seems like a fair point until you realize that our side is the one that is supposed to stand against this darkness. Another fact frequently noted is that aside from the broken windows, this was a remarkably sedate riot, with little looting or burning, and while that is, indeed true, the riot was still a damned RIOT. Furthermore, the sacred nature of the venue rather negates that argument.
There is one big caveat however.
This is not a defense of this indefensible action but a fact and a warning.
If riots are the rules by which the political game is to be played going forward, both sides are eventually going to follow those rules. The only thing that had kept conservatives from responding in kind ( Instead famously leaving protest areas cleaner than when they showed up) was a faith that the system could work for them, the bourgeoisie values that were the key to their standard of living and a sense of civics. All of these have been under constant attack, especially in schools to the point that the younger generations are starting to see those cultural checks as indicators of gullibility.
This is a dangerous place we are in, and if the nation goes over the precipice, a fair amount of the blood spilled will be on the hands of those who acted so stupidly yesterday. And on those who have unimaginable cultural influence and have so normalized this sort of behavior when it was their allies doing it.
1
I think we might have reached the tipping point, not because of the riots, but because of the purges that have already begun that coincided with the riots.
I never thought I would live to see the day the Cultural Revolution came to the US. I had hope that it would stay as a bad memory for people I know who saw it.
It looks like I am wrong.
Posted by: cxt217 at Fri Jan 8 23:05:27 2021 (4i7w0)
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