"Holy crap, I think we've just discovered the alien pr0n channel!"

Good morning morons and moronettes and welcome to the the award-winning AoSHQ's Sunday Morning Book Thread.

Is There Anybody Out There?

It has become more or less axiomatic that, with the universe populated with billions of galaxies, and each galaxy filled with billions of stars, there are undoubtedly millions of advanced, tool-using, communicative extra-terrestrial civilizations out there, waiting for us to find. Does not the Drake Equation assure us of this? So one day, perhaps very soon, one of these millions of advanced civilizations is bound to contact us, or we will discover them.

Or, maybe not.

Last week, Mrs. Muse and I watched a DVD called The Privileged Planet, which, along with a hardback companion volume argues for the opposite view, that is, if advanced, intelligent life exists elsewhere at all, it's going to be extremely uncommon. There is nothing unique about this, others have argued for it as well, but The Privileged Planet takes it one step further by claiming that the necessary conditions that make Earth uniquely suitable for life also make it uniquely suitable for observing the universe and making scientific discoveries.

For example, you know those gas giant planets like Jupiter and Saturn in the outer solar system? Well, they absorb or deflect a lot of the miscellaneous interstellar crap that floats into Sol's planetary system, stray comets and the like, before it can get in close to the inner planets, i.e Earth. Without them, our planet would likely have been pounded into rubble. So you have to have gas giants in order for complex life to be able to live on Earth. Also, plate tectonics. I missed the explanation for this one, but I think it has something to do with the natural plate movement and scraping against each other resulting in earthquakes which recycles carbon and replenishes other elements necessary for life. Here's an article that talks about this.

Also, we take it for granted that we can get clear, unobstructed views of the stars. But there's not too many places in our galaxy where this is a given. Our solar system just so happens to be located pretty close to the outside of one of the Milky Way Galaxy's spiral arms, out in the clear. Inside, there's so much dust and gas and crap, we couldn't see a danged thing. Also, our atmosphere just so happens to be transparent, which, needless to say, is a necessary precondition to all of this.

Habitability strongly correlates with observability. That's the central argument of the book.

There are just so many conditions and fine-tunings and little tweaks that all go into making it possible for complex life to exist on the earth, I doubt that we've found them all. As time goes on, I'm sure more and more will be discovered. Don't know if this means we're the only ones around, but it does suggest there probably won't be very many others.

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:00 AM | Comments (159)
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Bourbon or Scotch or Rye?

Single malt or blend?

Kentucky or Tennessee?

The options are almost endless but, whatever your bent, there's a whisky (whiskey?) for you.

Not a fan of whisky? You will be. Check out these 20 reasons to drink more whisky and still deign to sip your pinot.

I dare ya.

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Posted by: Open Blogger at 01:57 PM | Comments (516)
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Big ass super-moon tonight morons.

Wow. Buzzfeed gets an education. Eight toxic foods: A little chemical education.

This piece really is an education. Not about food, or about chemistry - on the contrary, reading it for those purposes will make you noticeably less intelligent than you were before, and consider that a fair warning. The educational part is in the "What a fool believes" category. Make no mistake: on the evidence of this article, its author is indeed a fool, and has apparently never yet met a claim about chemicals or nutrition that was too idiotic to swallow. If BuzzFeed's statistics are to be believed (good question, there), a million views have already accumulated to this crap. Someone who knows some chemistry needs to make a start at pointing out the serial stupidities in it, and this time, I'm going to answer the call.

Posted by: CDR M at 06:00 PM | Comments (848)
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Ripped from today's sidebar!

So the question is, what's the best way to describe this sorry-ass collection of faux-pagan lackwits, addlepates, and dim bulbs? Here's a preemptive winner, from the 'en fuego' thread:

33 Anybody notice on the Stonehenge story that the guy wearing the 'Druids of the Dorest Grove' patch is wearing a top with a Christian cross? Kind of a junk-drawer spiritualist, I guess.
Posted by: zsasz at June 22, 2013 11:34 AM (MMC8r)

'Junk drawer spiritualist(s)'. Can you top that?

Oh, and speaking of lackwits: more...

Posted by: Open Blogger at 12:27 PM | Comments (225)
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Bacon, to most Morons, is a mystery, sort of like the female orgasm or why Obama is president.

But it's a good mystery, because it tastes so damned good, and now is so damned easy to make!

Posted by: Open Blogger at 10:46 AM | Comments (179)
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Howdy Morons and Moronettes, it's time for your (mostly) weekly gaming thread. It has been awhile since I have done one, because I have been on a long-term, deep-cover mission for the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy, and I couldn't break my cover. OK, the truth is I am a lazy bastard and since Zakn and Dude were doing so well, I let them take the brunt, but while they are away, I will do my meager part to keep things running. Go ahead and click through to find out the wild and wonderful goings-on in the world of games. more...

Posted by: Gang of Gaming Morons! at 09:00 AM | Comments (59)
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En Fuego!

This is what Alan Keyes used to sound like, in the old days, before the butter slipped off his noodles.

Exit question: Would this guy have a chance at the national level?

Posted by: Open Blogger at 07:02 AM | Comments (241)
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ICYMI, John E.'s Bloomberg find has been picked up by pretty much every major news outlet in the free world.

Posted by: andy at 04:16 AM | Comments (334)
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Whuh?

I'm a surprised as you are, or even those dogs in their snazzy sweaters.

"Well let me say this, hypothetically, I really do hope we have a woman president, in my lifetime, and uhhhh... you know, whether it's next time or the time after that..."

Gee I wonder if she's thinking about Claire McCaskill.

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Posted by: Ace at 04:39 PM | Comments (251)
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In China.

They didn't have any time to plan this attempt to break her fall but... if you watch the video, they seem to all do the exact right thing in coordination with each other. I suppose people, especially men, have a lot of practice at catching things, but it's still kind of neat they they essentially form a circle around the point to which she'll fall and extend their arms out full to slow her down.

I just think it's kind of neat that they all instinctively know How to Catch a Falling Child in a Group, though of course none of them has ever done it before or given it any thought at all. And this all happens in a second.*

They actually didn't catch her; her body blew through their improvised basket of arms. But they did slow her down enough that she immediately got up to stand after hitting the ground.

* There's a factoid that gets passed around sometimes that the actual math required to calculate the correct intercept point for a flying ball -- that is, where to put your hand to catch it -- is seriously ferocious and yet we figure that out in a split second with no math.

Posted by: Ace at 02:35 PM | Comments (341)
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