Wouldn't a P-90 be a better choice in a small space like that? I mean, with an AR-15 you'd have both a limited area to swing the barrel and would be more likely to shoot your driver than the dudes shooting at you.

See, I'm Davey Crockett kinda guy. If you're gonna defend yourself, better to do it when your attacker is a few miles away and not well-shielded against gamma prompts. Also, everyone loves a good firework show, so win-win!

Lightning's been in the news lately, after a paper in Nature described how gamma rays from lightning result in matter-antimatter annihilation.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171122131353.htm

(or DOI: 10.1038/nature24630)

My long time issue with the "they would be too intelligent/evolved to have any interest in us" type scenario, such as he puts as number two here, is that we go through great lengths to try and research and understand very primitive life. There are efforts being made to talk to dolphins and apes. We're looking to build ships to crash or land ships onto Titan to see if there is microbial life on a moon orbiting a gas giant, not to mention work to see if Mars once upon had life. So the very fact we're able to get off our little rock (though not much off it), I think would warrant a stop and look, perhaps to help answer what was life like at such an early stage of evolution.

Not said stop and look doesn't imply any sort of communications. Indeed there may be a Prime Directive like thing with them where by they see and observe, but leave no evidence of such a visit (alien abductions being just mental illness coupled with abuse or other issues).

Now distance is a super valid point, but by far the most likely point is the survivability window, which he talks about in point three. We're still a level zero civilization (Kardashev scale) and decades until we reach a level one civilization (unfortunately it seems delayed even further due to some very anti-science moves being made by certain groups). Moving up that scale is only one thing, avoiding killing ourselves via war is another huge one. With CRISPR technology advancing, there is a very real danger of a Division/Stand/Utopia type disease coming to the foreground, especially if driven by a zealot (ala Division and Utopia). I highly doubt a man made black hole or something, but war or a CRISPR engineered disease... Not to mention the natural disasters he mentioned, and others, such as huge gamma ray bursts and others that we've managed to avoid. And we'd have to think that most civilizations go through somewhat similar phases, with a universe that is fairly hostile to life, even if many planets are capable of at least starting life. Generally I figure that most civilizations never make it past the stage we are at now, and those that do probably don't get to stage two and beyond (to be fair, I doubt any civilization can achieve stage two on Kardashev's scale as it goes beyond knowledge needed, but materials and more).

Back to the technology of communications point. I've generally figured if you are space faring, you gave up on radio communications and are using strange properties or something along those lines.

Thanks! this has been my jam today.

Gamma: [Slowly descending] I hate Squirrels!

I was expecting a blinding flash of gamma rays any second after I heard that; or perhaps a tornado taking the siren to air...

The only thing I would add is that the inverse gamma encoding has more to do with band width than disk space. It's about how many gray levels you can send to the monitor per draw frame.

People in the other thread were making notes about how we got to this place without having the eggs to begin with.

I figured it might be Jupiter or Saturn, but then I thought about it. They don't say the eggs are the ONLY source of the exotic matter, just that they are apparently an easier-to-harvest, plentiful source of the exotic matter. Humanity could have gotten out there with a truly massively expensive source, only to find the Space Whales(tm) and hey, it's only been 100 years, it's doubtful Greenpeace has made much headway on Beta Gamma Epsilon Major OU812...

Ok guys, Genetically Modified Organism refers to both "artificial selection" and "genetic engineering". But both are not the same. Artificial selection has gone on for millennia while genetic engineering has been going on for only a few decades. Genetic engineering comes in many forms: gamma ray bombardments for chaotic mutations, splicing and dicing genes, implanting and hormonal reproduction of clones can indeed create many monsters both visible and invisible. The invisible monsters and the toxins they can create with their genes are the threat here. The manufacture of biological warfare, virus engineering and playing with the elements that make up life without understanding the consequences is the threat here. The bullying of corporations playing God and patenting their spreading genes are the threat here. Not the fact that apples or cows are bred to be bigger and juicier. Give me a fucking naive simpleton break, gawd that was disappointing.

I don't mind if a certain amount of suspension of disbelief is required to enjoy a movie but when your writing is shitty or your basic premise is too silly that won't help. Some things just make people cringe, some tropes and clichees just become too stupid. Especially if you take yourself too seriously.
I don't have to watch "The Happening" to know it's a ridiculous movie that'll make me roll my eyes 'till I'm dizzy. Or make me laugh hysterically about it.
It's the same here. A really stupid and completely wrong pseudo-fact about brain is exploited to tell a superhero story. If the very first response you get is "Brains don't work this way. Good night!" you have a problem. And that's coming from someone who's perfectly willing to accept that gamma rays make you a green ragemonster.

Come back when he makes a TIE Defender.

Gamma 1 is the Emperor's stool pigeon!

The talk by Jacob Appelbaum and Julian Assange yesterday opened up with a surprise guest: Sarah Harrison, the WL lawyer/journalist/activist who got Snowden out of Hong Kong. I thought I saw her earlier in the day, but then again, there were at least three blokes who bear a striking resemblence to Snowden.

Also, a former MI5 analyst turned whistleblower gave a surprisingly harsh summary of the current state of affairs in western democracies. I'll submit that one later today, should be able to attract at least a couple of views.

I didn't make it in time for the talk by the ACLU's Chris Soghoian on government hacking and the next crypto wars. But I did get into the room for a marvelous talk about European companies (Gamma Group/HackingTeam) who provide the tools for dictatorships to control their population with regards to the internet, aka surveillance suits.

Actually, whether or not the dust was dangerous would depend on what sort of emitter it is (alpha particles, beta particles or gamma rays), how quickly it was emitting and whether the actress inhaled the dust or it was just on her skin. For example, alpha particles can only penetrate a few cells deep when attempting to pass through skin but if she inhaled something that was giving off alpha particles then she would be in some serious hot water. More info here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alpha_particle#Energy_and_absorption
and here: http://www.epa.gov/radiation/understand/alpha.html

Larry mentioned Palantir as a company that could provide technology to protect our privacy. Yet Palantir was involved in the campaign to take down WikiLeaks, so he might as well have named Gamma Group, the creators of FinFisher, your friendly Dictator's trojan of choice.

Scum, the lot of 'em.

Here's my suggestion on how to prevent abuse of (big) data: don't collect the fucking data; don't merge databases; don't store anything longer than absolutely neccessary. But demanding that sort of restraint strikes me as just as pointless as telling a 16 year old to stop wanking...

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