The News Thread

[Dak]

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2015/02/12/isis-on-doorstep-fighters-reportedly-seize-iraqi-town-near-base-holding-us/

Reuters, quoting local officials, reported Thursday that ISIS militants had overrun much of the town of al-Baghdadi. One local Iraqi official told Reuters that, "Ninety percent of al-Baghdadi district has fallen under the control of the insurgents."

A Defense Department spokeswoman confirmed to Fox News that “heavy fighting” took place in that area on Thursday, but referred questions about the status of the town to the Iraq government.

“There was no direct attack on the Al Asad air base,” the spokeswoman assured, while acknowledging reports of “ineffective indirect fire in the vicinity of the base.”

Reuters had reported that, according to unnamed officials, a group of insurgents did attack the well-fortified base but failed to break in.

That's where I was 9 years ago.

Edit: BTW, I don't know how much it changed in the last 9 years, but this is the perimeter in Feb 06:

"Well fortified"

 

[Dak]

http://www.cnn.com/2015/02/13/us/boston-blizzard/index.html

Boston be getting more snow.

 

[Einherjar86]

I have a friend getting in this evening from NYC, and he's supposed to fly to Chicago tomorrow. This weather is fucking with everyone's plans.

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

No Big Bang? Quantum equation predicts universe has no beginning
The universe may have existed forever, according to a new model that applies quantum correction terms to complement Einsteins theory of general relativity
http://phys.org/news/2015-02-big-quantum-equation-universe.html

Video kinda helps to explain it

 

[The Ozzman]

Take that creationists!

 

[Einherjar86]

It is very much a symptom of our cognition that we perceive time as something with a beginning, an end, and moments in between.

 

[Dak]

So Kantian of you

 

[rms]

It is very much a symptom of our cognition that we perceive time as something with a beginning, an end, and moments in between.

I can't comprehend how something doesn't have a beginning :Spin:

 

[Einherjar86]

Just think of time as a flat circle...

 

[Jimmy... Dead.]

 

[Einherjar86]

Mr Obama's politically compulsory declarations of America's exceptionalism have always struck me as rote, a little less than heartfelt, even a bit grudging. Mr Giuliani, I think, has come away with a similar impression, as have many millions of conservatives. The difference is that where Mr Giuliani sees a half-hearted allegiance to the fatherland, some of us see instead evidence of education, intelligence, emotional complexity and a basic moral decency—evidence of a man not actually in the grip of myths about his country. A politician capable of projecting an earnest, simple, unstinting love of a spotless and superior America is either a treacherous rabble-rouser or so out of touch that he is not qualified to govern.

http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2015/02/presidents-patriotism

 

[Summerian]

Using NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, astronomers have discovered the first Earth-size planet orbiting a star in the "habitable zone", about 1.1x Earth's size, in orbit around another star. Kepler 186f, the outermost world of a 5-planet system.

http://www.nasa.gov/ames/kepler/nas...-habitable-zone-of-another-star/#.VOnXDnwrd8E

http://www.space.com/25531-new-earth-size-planet-could-have-water-video.html

 

[rms]

I had to do an exercise in my Astronomy class last semester about understanding the mathematical possibilities of earth sized planets orbiting 1 star systems. The number was outrageous, in the millions if I remember.

But we'll never be able to get there. Astronomy is fucking depressing

 

[Dak]

Astronomy is fucking depressing

 

[rms]

It's a Blue Oyster Cult tune!

 

[Dak]

I know, but Metallica did it better *dons fire suit*

 

[Onder]

Czech shooting: Gunman kills eight in Uhersky Brod

Alright guys it's time for me to stop talking shit about the US shootings. Never thought this would happen.

 

[Onder]

Fuck it's like America here, apparently the guy had a license and could legally carry a gun around. *facepalm*

 

[Dak]

There have been shootings in several European cities recently, and all have stricter gun policies than the US afaik. The overwhelming majority of "gun crimes" here aren't by licensed CCW permit holders though.

 

[Onder]

There have been shootings in several European cities recently, and all have stricter gun policies than the US afaik.

He wasn't a terrorist.