Wednesday Miscellany!

[maxomai]

• The discussion in America isn't so much on whether to intervene in the Crimean crisis, or even how to intervene, but whether Obama is to blame. Take this as a signal of how myopic we have become as a nation.


• Anyone else find it interesting that China is staying out of the Crimean crisis?


• Obama nominee who defended Mumia Abu-Jamal loses Senate vote. I am utterly unsurprised by this; nobody in a close Senate election wants to be associated with a convicted[*] cop killer ([*]even if there's a lot of evidence he was railroaded).


• Abby Martin, an anchor for RT, the American subsidiary of Kremlin mouthpiece Russia Today, took a stand on the air opposing Putin's invasion of Crimea. RT management then sent her off to Crimea. Whatever else you think about the Crimea crisis, this is Putin exiling a reporter for not toeing the line. Even Ray Charles could see that.


• Justin Raimondo on Ukrainian fascism.


• So far every red dwarf that we've examined for planets has turned up at least one planet. Part of me wonders whether this is because we live in a particularly planet-rich neighborhood of the Milky Way for some reason, or whether, on the other hand, this is just what you get with red dwarves.

Comments

Not Special

[arkham4269.livejournal.com]

I think we need to get over our thinking of our solar system as special.

It seems to me that as I've gotten older, most of the science has been destroying the concept of our solar system being unique. Life is going to be created if you have a planet with X and X isn't all that uncommon.

Certainly life beyond the type of bacteria that live near undersea volcanos may be a bit rare but if anything evolution works so personally I believe the universe if filled with life. The question is how common is sentience and how often to sentient beings fuck up their planet before they can develop something like jump gates or hyperdrive (if they exist)

Indeed was watching something on the Science channel where this one famous scientist was pointing out that now that we know more about broadband, the more we see it's likely that's how other species may be broadcasting. Our SETI program could well be picking up bits of alien signals from Day One but not realizing what they were hearing. So the scientist was saying we need to figure out how to collect the signal entire broadband signal and decode it. So instead of us being alone in the universe, it may be we simply do not know enough of how 'smart' races might send information around.

[fengi.livejournal.com]

After seeing her segment on "America's False Flag Attacks" I wonder if Abby Martin is just a more telegenic Alex Jones.