Welcome to Thunderdome

GORDON wrote: ↑Thu Apr 17, 2025 5:22 pm Pretty much everyone thinks they're all a dumb waste of money.

And this one is only getting slammed harder because it is being advertised harder with GRRRRL POWER

This. All the other flights weren't a PR stunt like this one. For example: There were other flights? I'm seriously asking as I've never heard of any before.

When the left and right come together to judge you as an asshole, they're probably right.

If you look for "isms" everywhere, you'll find them. Doesn't mean they exist where you see them, but you'll find them.

People want to go to space for 3 minutes, why not? Hope they had fun.

TheCatt wrote: ↑Thu Apr 17, 2025 7:14 pm People want to go to space for 3 minutes, why not? Hope they had fun.

Ditto, but I don't need you to then run a PR campaign about it, particularly when most people can't afford it, AND how you claim this fun trip is you trying to change the world for the better.

Fuck you. You are rich and did something not available to most. Good for you, but it's not more than that.

One of them is basically saying people need to do it before judging them for doing it. Once you've done it, you'll understand why it's being done and how important it is. So we should all just try it before talking shit about it.

Fair point Cake.

Let's all book our trips.

The deposit is only $150K and the estimated cost is only $1M+ per ticket. Who can't afford that? It's basically free.

Leisher wrote: ↑Fri Apr 18, 2025 4:26 pm The deposit is only $150K and the estimated cost is only $1M+ per ticket. Who can't afford that? It's basically free.

I'm surrounded by poors!

(jk)

Thought about putting this in the MSM thread because the headline is so unprofessional and clickbaity, but ultimately, it's space news. The link is the headline, which clearly says "soon".

The Earth could be soon flung out of orbit or into the sun - all thanks to a passing star

FYI, it's 4 Billion years.

Today will be the shortest day in recorded history.

Side note: I added "recorded history" and I really wish all science articles would do the same.

Assume there are 100 other intelligent alien species out there. They are all single-planet, roughly where Earth's civilization is +/- 100 to 200 years.

Do you think all 100 will use timezones? Or like only some of them? Like are there advantages to not having time zones at all? Just having a coordinated universal time? I mean, in theory we have GMT, but people largely do not use it in person. Though, many technical systems do. Would similar systems happen elsewhere?

Now, imagine there are 100 space-faring alien species out there. They have multi-planet civilizations. Would they have like a universal time standard that is different/supercedes planetary time?

I thought about checking out Star Trek, and how they dealt with it. Well, for one thing, star dates largely were just made up and lacked logical consistency in TOS.

While the original method was inspired by the Modified Julian date[1][2][3] system currently used by astronomers, the writers and producers have selected numbers using different methods over the years, some more arbitrary than others. This makes it impossible to convert all stardates into equivalent calendar dates, especially since stardates were originally intended to avoid specifying exactly when Star Trek takes place

For time, in TNG they used decimal days:

the digit following the decimal point counts one-tenth of a day.

And then I guess there's all the ideas about how time-keeping works, especially at near relativistic speeds and such. I dunno. Just a random thought in the middle of some NFL games. Guess I can google and see how other people think of it.

I think most civilizations would develop similar ideas and technologies, including time zones. However, once we leave Earth, something new will have to be developed.

GMT makes sense in space where there is no day/night cycle. However, we 100% need time zones. You can go anywhere in the world and have a general idea of what time it is base on where the sun is in the sky and you are all on the same page. "Let's meet at the spot at 7pm" would mean the same everywhere. It would always be the later part of the day.
If you deal with other zones a lot, standardizing on GMT would makes sense since you probably aren't meeting in person.

But by far, most of our interactions are local, and them being in such all over the world makes sense. I think.

So each planet would need it's own time zones and then there would be a universal one in space?

Leisher wrote: ↑Mon Nov 17, 2025 1:53 pm So each planet would need it's own time zones and then there would be a universal one in space?

Feels reasonable. I guess distance between solar systems is large enough that you cannot have instant communications anyway, so you wouldn't need to worry too much about "Wait, can I call Earth right now?" stuff.