OT: Galactic sterilisation

Fyron · #1 January 9th, 2004, 02:52 AM

Those are rather crude and irrelevant definitions...

All I was saying was that your tactic of guilt-mongering was completely irrelevant to what was being discussed (as guilt-mongering tends to be). I have shaped no truths, created no surrealistic Versions, none of that bunk. Noone "reduced to that of a nameless and faceless organization for the sole purpose of preserving an argument," that is what "the military" has always been. "The military" does not equal "the men/women of the military." They are two separate entities. You are just confusing issues and do not want to accept the fact that one can mock the organizations that are the military without mocking random soldiers in them. You can certainly mock the soldiers themselves, but you do not have to do so to mock the military.

[ January 09, 2004, 00:52: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

oleg · #2 January 9th, 2004, 03:20 AM

Jura, yes, I made a mistake. I forgot to take a square root of 1000. That is 33 km you are so proud about.

Still, I think the whole idea of our incrediable luck while millions and millions of other civilizations dying around us is absurd. It is dangerously close to the christian doctrine that humanity is the chosen breed because Christ was born here and not on Epsilon Eridani (just an example) and only we will be saved in the whole Universe

narf poit chez BOOM · #3 January 9th, 2004, 03:25 AM

Quote:

You can certainly mock the soldiers themselves, but you do not have to do so to mock the military.

or, in other words, stupid systems can have smart people and smart systems can have stupid people.

um, that comment doesn't change my spectater status. i made no comment on the validity of any statements made here, not because i don't have an opinion, but simply because this thread is to 'hot'.

[ January 09, 2004, 01:27: Message edited by: narf poit chez BOOM ]

Fyron · #4 January 9th, 2004, 03:35 AM

You know what the best thing about the EU is? They love the US so much that they are trying to imitate it!

Think about it... lots of independant states that all fall under one "nation," lacking national borders, one currency, separation of powers between the state governments and the overal national "government." The EU is just in phase 1 of the transition right now.

[ January 09, 2004, 01:37: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

Fyron · #5 January 9th, 2004, 03:42 AM

You know what would be really bad for the UN? Kicking out the only world superpower. That is just a recipe for forcing a World War III down the road...

Phoenix-D · #6 January 9th, 2004, 04:10 AM

Backing up to the math bits, I found a slight problem. Mainly, you're underestimating the effect of the atmosphere, which blocks most radiation. For reference, a single solar flare produces several million megatons for energy. Not all of it is in gamma, but the other wavelengths can be equally nasty if enough gets through.

About all that actually happens when a flare hits is some more impressive auroa.

EDIT the sun itself, meanwhile, produces around 10^9 of your hypothetical h-bombs per second. With aproximately the same radiation, since this is also nuclear fusion. It is also, of course, far closer than any gamma ray burst.

[ January 09, 2004, 02:20: Message edited by: Phoenix-D ]

Baron Munchausen · #7 January 9th, 2004, 05:09 AM

As it turns out, this argument over radiation intensity is misplaced. The full theory is that the gamma radiation from a supernova destroyed the ozone layer and allowed hard ultraviolet from our own sun to reach the surface.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science....ap/index.html

So you were on the right track comparing to the radiation from the sun...