One Step Forward, Sprinting Backward

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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
that-twink-over-there
maxknightley

from what I've seen, there are exactly Three Jobs hiring at any given time. they are:

  • senior logistics strategist at Hewlett Packard. $140,000 / year. requirements: three separate MBAs, fifteen years of business experience, no "ethnic" grandparents, unearned sense of confidence
  • "customer success ambassador" at Glurp. $70,000 / year, give or take, since 90% of your pay is based on commission. requirements: associate's degree, no experience, has never heard the phrase "pyramid scheme," no sense of shame
  • part-time server at Le Bon Mot. $15-$16/hr depending on level of experience. must work weekends, overnight shifts, holidays, while asleep. requirements: you will let customers spit on you.
maxknightley

I feel like I make some variant on this post once every two weeks, which should tell you how well the job hunt's going.

adamsmasher
headspace-hotel

fucks me up that by total coincidence the sun and moon’s size difference is exactly matched to their difference in distance from us, thus making our beautiful total solar eclipses where you can see the silver threads of the sun’s corona possible because the moon just covers the sun completely

The stars (literally) aligned just right for this experience to be possible. It’s likely that aliens don’t have this

uncivilliberties

The moon is also absolutely gargantuan by moon standards. It isn’t the largest moon in the solar system, but it is BY FAR the largest in comparison with its planet. Ganymede is the largest satellite of Jupiter and the largest moon in the solar system. Its diameter is only about 3.8% of Jupiter’s. Titan’s radius is 4.4% of Saturn’s. Callisto and Io are the next largest in the neighborhood, with 3.4% and 2.6% the diameter of Jupiter respectively.

Our moon is number 5. It is smaller in direct comparison to the above moons. The diameter of the moon is 3475 km. That is a full 27% of the diameter of the Earth. More than a quarter. That’s ridiculous. It’s unheard of. The universe is large enough that the word unique probably doesn’t mean a lot, but this might be about as close as you get.

This has had a huge impact on our planet. Other things aliens might not have are significant tides. One of Mars’s dumpy little potatoes wouldn’t be able to move oceans the way our moon does.

Our moon has also stabilized our axis to a massive degree. Without her up there our axis would wobble all over the place and our climate would be far more chaotic. Aliens might not be quite so lucky.

I guess what I am really trying to say is that the moon is extremely cool. I like the moon.

willowdove

Just want to add that the reason we have such a large moon is because a whole planet crashed into proto-Earth. Theia (the planet) and Earth got so superheated by this collision that their component cores fused and the impact jettisoned a lot of material into space. That massive amount of jettisoned material became our moon. So Earth and the moon have very similar composition. This does not seem to be a common method of lunar formation.

gandalfsbignaturals

what if the answer to the fermi paradox is that life cant exist without a moon like luna

habbadax

I got a serious beef with the Fermi paradox. There is no Fermi paradox. There stopped being a Fermi paradox once the first radio telescopes went up, and we began to get a true sense of the sheer scale of the universe.

Space is big, empty, and loud. Sunspots can cause enough interference to affect global communications. We’re not even loud enough to talk over our own sun. On our own planet. We can barely communicate with Voyager, and we know exactly where it is and what its signal sounds like.

The Fermi paradox is like doubting the existence of Belfast, because you stood on a windy New York beach shouting towards it and didn’t get an answer.

headspace-hotel

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furtherawayy

@xkcd-for-that

xkcd-for-that

I am so excited about the Kepler mission. This is the second most important thing our species has ever done, right behind developing the concept of delivery pizza.
The Search
xkcd
that-twink-over-there
diaryofandnwoman

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tangent101

Welcome to the Protestant Work Ethic where if you are not working for 16 hours a day you are a Sinner that will Burn In Hell. Unless of course you are rich in which case you are Blessed by God and can go to Heaven without lifting a finger.

wongbal

heard a story on a podcast that some Christian missionaries showed these rural Cambodian farmers how to double their crop yields. the missionaries came back a year later and were surprised the Cambodians had grown basically the same amount of crops but the farmers were like “yeah this is great, we got everything we need for the year and only had to do half as much work”

and if that doesn't tell you everything you need to know about the current North American work environment I don't know what will