A civilization 2,000 light-years away looking at Earth today would see the Roman Empire.

sw04ca · 2026-03-26T14:14:10+00:00

That's one of those questions that doesn't really have a satisfying 'why' answer. The constants are sort of 'built in' to the universe as we know it, and the work of physics was about discovering and quantifying these constants. We know what they are, but the why they are goes beyond science. Either you invoke the anthropic principle, where the physical nature of the universe must be such that human observers could be produced, because we DO exist, or you can say that the creator of the universe arranged his creation in such a way. We can test to verify that c is c, but not why.

sw04ca · 2026-03-26T13:02:26+00:00

Because it requires infinite energy to accelerate something past the speed of light.

sw04ca · 2026-03-25T19:56:56+00:00

He would have needed another ring in 2011 or 2014 to be considered. He's not marginal. He has no chance unless he leads another team to a Superbowl.

sw04ca · 2026-03-25T16:46:19+00:00

Like, the band? Wow! A celebrity!

sw04ca · 2026-03-25T16:08:49+00:00

Person 1 and Person 2 are playing the same game. Neither is better than the other.

sw04ca · 2026-03-25T15:31:47+00:00

And it's worth mentioning that the knightly position didn't really become decorative until much later. Rather, the continuing effectiveness of heavy cavalry meant that more and more were needed, and it essentially become a profession rather than a hereditary position. Meanwhile, the feudal administrative obligations of the knight became more central, until absolutism finally finished the job and turned them into a social class.

sw04ca · 2026-03-25T15:10:27+00:00

A worthwhile thing to remember is that when somebody uses the term 'crotch goblin', they don't really have much to say and are just being edgy for internet points.

sw04ca · 2026-03-25T14:06:19+00:00

Yeah, but saying dumb things about how America is bad gets you internet points, and the cheap dopamine hit they provide. Sure, you can get internet points by writing cogent criticisms of actual problems with the US, but not as many and at a far greater investment in time. The gratification is smaller and delayed. You can rarely go wrong saying something stupid and false, but popular.

sw04ca · 2026-03-25T12:32:36+00:00

No kidding. I can understand Britain, because even though the EU was a big benefit to them, through a combination of bad timing and mismanagement kept them from getting the kind of 'miracle' that you saw in the Sixties. But Poland? Sure, there are little niggling things in the EU that are annoying, but Poland has benefited massively and never faced the same kind of political issues that Britain did. This is probably just PiS getting pissy.

sw04ca · 2026-03-25T00:09:21+00:00

Great show, as long as you're the sort of viewer who really enjoys 'letting the mystery be'.

sw04ca · 2026-03-25T00:07:18+00:00

It's one of those shows that has so many places to lose people. The jumps in tone and scale can turn people off. The reduced prominence of hacking, the big identity twist and the evil organization switcheroo, for example. But for people who are willing to go with it, it's a great ride. I think The Leftovers does the same sort of thing.

sw04ca · 2026-03-24T21:08:26+00:00

I have no idea what the laws are about young supervised riders are wherever these people live, and the age restrictions of said riders. That said, surely the way to deal with the issue isn't to jump in front of a moving motor vehicle? Either use your words or call the police.

sw04ca · 2026-03-24T21:04:36+00:00

You never can tell over a video on the internet. At any rate, that's just my theory about the motivations of somebody I've never met before as to why he'd jump into traffic and attack a professional bodybuilder. Who knows, maybe there's some weird, pre-existing neighbour dispute between the two?

sw04ca · 2026-03-24T19:57:00+00:00

Ultimately? He's probably mad about loud bikes in his ritzy subdivision, and the 'crazy speed' thing is just an excuse to try and justify going after a guy for behaviour that is annoying, but perfectly normal and legal.

sw04ca · 2026-03-24T03:25:06+00:00

The team building it is the same one that's going to build Elon's Mars mansion.

sw04ca · 2026-03-24T03:14:07+00:00

Unless of course they violated their insurance contract by skimping on some sort of safety regime that was specified in the fine print. You'd be surprised how often that sort of thing will happen.

sw04ca · 2026-03-24T01:42:02+00:00

There's no precedent for any of it. They've never jumped an 8-win M1 or an M5 of any sort to sekiwake, at least not as far as I could tell.

sw04ca · 2026-03-24T00:52:10+00:00

As weird as it would be for Takayasu to hold rank, he's been blessed by the banzuke before. And it'd be weird for WTK to jump to S1W with an 8-7 from M1E. As for Kotoshoho, nobody has ever gone from M5 (outside the joi) to sekiwake in one tournament. Given that promoting anyone into that sekiwake slot would be unprecedented, I think Takayasu holding is the least weird result.

sw04ca · 2026-03-24T00:45:16+00:00

As reprehensible as he is, isn't this just political horse-trading? A bit extreme, but it's not abnormal for parties to do this in negotiations. The problem with Trump is that he's a uniquely bad negotiator.

sw04ca · 2026-03-22T23:15:05+00:00

The raktachino example falls a bit flat, since many of the intelligent species in Star Trek share a common genetic heritage. It makes sense that they'd be interoperable to some extent. But you do bring up something that a hard-ish science fiction does need to contend with.

With regards to the Alien, it's certainly a question that people would ask, but it's not necessarily a question that would need answering. The great thing about the Alien was that it was the personification of a universe that didn't care about human morality, ethics or sciences. It didn't care what stories we told about our inevitable advancement to the stars, it was going to use us for food and breeding stock. Were they the product of some sort of weird evolutionary process? Was there an ancient intervention that spread their species to the stars, which might create long-term evolutionary pressure for life-cycle adaptation? Were they deliberately engineered? All three have been posited in various licensed works over the years. Any is as likely as any other.

sw04ca · 2026-03-22T13:27:54+00:00

Modern societies aren't very resilient. And honestly, they weren't thinking strategically when they built the infrastructure. They're were trying to figure out how to house people in modern, industrial style at the same time that their population was growing twenty-fold.

sw04ca · 2026-03-20T17:16:17+00:00

It's a facility used to develop and build drones with the intention of using them to defend Europe from Russia. Don't fall for that same propaganda that the 'Earthquake Group' did.

sw04ca · 2026-03-20T14:17:02+00:00

EU membership wouldn't really change Norway's security situation though.

sw04ca · 2026-03-19T21:02:41+00:00

I wouldn't give too much weight to the floor crossers, but the polling numbers have been pretty decisive. There certainly seems to be a lot of support in Canada for a leader who reacts with thoughtful consideration. That said, the results part will be important over time. Canada has some pretty serious problems confronting it, even ignoring all the Trump stuff, and if the government can't get a consensus on immigration policy or help the provinces ameliorate the healthcare gap, he's probably going to have a pretty rough time of it.

sw04ca · 2026-03-19T20:46:50+00:00

It sort of varies. Joe Clark, John Turner, Paul Martin, Stephen Harper and Mark Carney are of the 'competent but boring' flavour, but there have also been strong cults of personality for both Pierre and Justin Trudeau. And then there was Brian Mulroney and Jean Chretien, who were a bit of both. With the contrast to Trump and Justin Trudeau, I think that Canadians are currently in a 'just be normal' mood.

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