Predestination Foundation

We can’t even agree on the definition of life (within the context of the search for life). Largely we’ve settled on: whatever definition helps win grants!

Land whale. My new favourite phrase

It begins. Fascism requires enemies within and without.

A 32 but integer can store a number up to four billion. If measuring RAM size in integer bytes, 32GB would be 0 bytes, because that integer would wrap around four times.

Assuming windows, if you right click on the executable, you may be able to choose to run it in a compatibility mode of some sort (like XP mode or something) in which case it should report smaller memory to the game, probably.

This article is written as though it is targeting FOSS newbie or something – a weird mix of jargon and simple language designed to overawe someone.

Their VCS is at least as interesting as SQLite :)

Only games I’ve passed 100 hours on:

Pokemon (multiple versions)

No Man’s Sky

Many Paradox games: CK2, CK2, EU4, Stellaris

No Man’s Sky. Again. It keeps sucking me back in.

EU4 with Anbennar mod – update just released with a bunch of new stuff.

Oh hi, this is me too. Since 1.0alpha ;)

Windows tinted effectively black, giant wing, and a plate cover they think makes them immune to cameras. Total douche canoe.

Bought my 2006 Toyota Matrix during COVID form $7k (Canadian – approx $5k US). Damn, this thing will run forever.

Return of the K-car!

Good for gaming, good for linux, good for a lot of the other open source projects involved. It’s so close to being critical mass :)

Definitely absurd. But if you were a sci fi author trying to make a consistent world building thing, it would actually be a useful video.

… I see you Neal Stephenson, hiding behind the couch.

https://opennebula.io/

Their website speaks corporatese. Not immediately clear what their business model is.

Because no one does any actual engineering in space. At best you’re a technician running other people’s projects; at worst, you have to MacGyver something. But every ISS crew needs a medical specialist on it, and a backup specialist in case they need to work on their medical specialist. So it gives you the highest odds.

Now if you wanted to work at JPL designing probes, that’s a different story. But you’re not going to space.

The great red spot is so fascinating. It’s a vortex that has been spinning for hundreds of years. Like someone pushed a giant canoe paddle through Jupiter and the whorls, larger than the earth, just keep turning. You look at this and go: holy fuck there’s a lot of energy in this system.

Spain is part of the ESA. If you have citizenship there, there’s a nearly-zero (but not actually zero) possibility of getting into their astronaut selection class. But more likely SpaceX starts taking passengers and the whole question is moot.

I decided that my own path was also unlikely, but I chose a field of study that would take me to some pretty fun places on Earth. Can’t explore Mars, so might as well do the high arctic, the Atacama desert, etc. :)

Not true, really, presuming we’re talking about “working for a space agency” versus “becoming an astronaut”. There are at least 100x more opportunities if you’re willing to sit in a desk and review regulations for a living – but at a space agency.

Really, the minimum barrier is being good enough to get into a STEM focused undergrad program, and qualifying for student loans. Assuming you make it through and are smart enough, grad school is typically wholly funded by the universities (or their funding agencies). Which means the barrier of requiring wealth was already passed.

Source: I made it to grad school and I am from a farming family that went bankrupt when I was a teenager.

I don’t think melting is the issue here. I think it literally disintegrates at those speeds. Like, this is Mass Effect mass driver level of impact with the atmosphere.

For reference, RICK ROBINSON’S FIRST LAW OF SPACE COMBAT: “An object impacting at 3 km/sec delivers kinetic energy equal to its mass in TNT.”

Assuming the lid is travelling 55km/s, it’s well beyond that point. The atmosphere it’s travelling through is basically a solid at that speed. Even if it isn’t heating due to the friction (and waiting for heat flow), it is heating due to the compressive force of being slammed into the atmosphere. It’s very likely the whole thing vaporized.

But I could be wrong, and some alien SOB is going to have a bad day when the manhole cover slams into their ship in interstellar space.