Something that I've been thinking about lately is that maybe all of our sci-fi ideas on taking shortcuts to visit distant stars and galaxies is all just fiction. Maybe no matter how much effort and time we put in to developing new technologies, maybe we'll never be able to get anywhere much faster then we can right now.
Here's an interesting article on how long it would take to get to the closest star (Proxima Centauri), which happens to be 4.22 light years away.
One of the most optimistic theoretical methods, is nuclear pulse propulsion, which could possibly do it in 85 years. Granted, if you wanted to search for a planet that contains life, you would probably have to go much farther then that. Now, unless we figure out a way to freeze people for the duration of the trips, we would have to have a space ship so large that it's like it's own little planet. Some sort of self-sustaining craft that could recycle all the water and oxygen required to keep people alive. Depending on how fast we could realistically go, we would have to have generation after generation living on the craft.
If someone asked me if I wanted to go in to space, never see a planet again, only to raise a family so that future generations could make new discoveries, I would definitely say yes. As long as the spaceship was comfortable enough.
I know we're all kind of waiting until it's really necessary to do something like this, like if the planet is doomed or over-populated. We're also hoping that science can develop new technologies to do it in a faster way, but maybe we'll never come up with something that's any faster, and we should at least consider the idea of going with what we have right now. Is something was threatening human life, at least we could be somewhat ready if we started working on it. We can all see that we're filling up the planet quick, and we see our children as potential problems as over crowding is becoming a serious issue. Working on a project like this could shift that view, to one that's more optimistic.
Friday, October 16, 2009
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Sunday, October 11, 2009
crazy dream
So this morning I woke up from this dream. I was driving down the number one highway and there was a lot of snow on it in some areas. (Yesterday was our first snowfall that stayed on the ground). At one point, I started skidding in my truck and did a complete 360. I stayed on the road and was fine. (Yesterday, my brother and I were trekking through the boonies, and as I was driving down the dirt road to get there, I started skidding a bit and recovered.)
So, for some reason, I was driving my bike instead of my truck, and was heading under the Steinbach underpass when all of a sudden huge chunks of snow fell down from overhead, just barely missing me. Traffic had to stop, and my dad was one of the first to be there. We both grabbed a large chunk and moved it off the road. At that point my brother tried to hug me and I pushed him away. I remember hearing someone say something like "how rude to reject a hug like that" or something to that nature.
So, back on my bike, I remember traveling a fairly long ways when I noticed a train up ahead. Despite the fact I was on a bike and had all the time in the world to stop, I hit the brakes just within centimeters of the train. All of a sudden the train started to derail. With too much traffic behind me, I started climbing along the edge of the ditch, holding my bike while scaling it. There was a train along side the ditch as well and it seemed to be reacting to the train. So I ditched the bike and started running. I managed to get out of the area without getting hurt.
That's around the part where I woke up. The first thing I thought about when I woke up was making sure everyone was alright, while calling 911, and re-routing traffic until the authorities arrive.
I like to finish my dreams, even if I know they're not real. Especially an epic dream like that one.
My brother always likes to analyze dreams when I tell them to him. He's always looking for symbolism and things like that and I usually reply by saying a dream is just a trip in your imagination. There are messages and things, but to me, it's only saying how you view the world, or what you like to imagine.
For example, in other dreams like the ones I had last night, I never get hurt. Chaos all around me, but I'm just fine. I think I have confidence that no matter what happens, I'll usually make it through without a scratch.
I don't worry about a lot of things in life. I'm not careless, not really anyway, but I don't live my life in fear.
But if the dream taught me anything, it's that maybe I should watch where I tread because you never know when something crazy might happen.
So, for some reason, I was driving my bike instead of my truck, and was heading under the Steinbach underpass when all of a sudden huge chunks of snow fell down from overhead, just barely missing me. Traffic had to stop, and my dad was one of the first to be there. We both grabbed a large chunk and moved it off the road. At that point my brother tried to hug me and I pushed him away. I remember hearing someone say something like "how rude to reject a hug like that" or something to that nature.
So, back on my bike, I remember traveling a fairly long ways when I noticed a train up ahead. Despite the fact I was on a bike and had all the time in the world to stop, I hit the brakes just within centimeters of the train. All of a sudden the train started to derail. With too much traffic behind me, I started climbing along the edge of the ditch, holding my bike while scaling it. There was a train along side the ditch as well and it seemed to be reacting to the train. So I ditched the bike and started running. I managed to get out of the area without getting hurt.
That's around the part where I woke up. The first thing I thought about when I woke up was making sure everyone was alright, while calling 911, and re-routing traffic until the authorities arrive.
I like to finish my dreams, even if I know they're not real. Especially an epic dream like that one.
My brother always likes to analyze dreams when I tell them to him. He's always looking for symbolism and things like that and I usually reply by saying a dream is just a trip in your imagination. There are messages and things, but to me, it's only saying how you view the world, or what you like to imagine.
For example, in other dreams like the ones I had last night, I never get hurt. Chaos all around me, but I'm just fine. I think I have confidence that no matter what happens, I'll usually make it through without a scratch.
I don't worry about a lot of things in life. I'm not careless, not really anyway, but I don't live my life in fear.
But if the dream taught me anything, it's that maybe I should watch where I tread because you never know when something crazy might happen.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
"Afghan Taliban say they pose no threat to the West"
Did they ever?
There are a lot of things that bother me about society. A big one is that I can't trust media outlets. One big offense is American media stating that Saddam Hussein never let the UN inspectors in, and that's why they invaded. Anyone that remembers the details at the time knows that UN inspectors had been let in and were searching but Bush still invaded anyway.
After finding out that media companies can and do change the facts to try and re-write history, I can never tell if a statement like this is really true or not:
"U.S.-led forces with the help of Afghan groups overthrew the Taliban government during a five week battle which started on October 7, 2001, after the militants refused to hand over al Qaeda leaders wanted by Washington for the September 11 attacks on America."
In many ways, the two motives seem similar, the US demanding something that the country can't provide, and they invade anyways. In one situation, it's Osama Bin Laden, and in the other, it's weapons of mass destruction.
8 years later, we're all still tied up in this mess with nothing to show for it.
The Taliban have never been a threat to the west. One disturbing fact is that these Afghanistan people were delivered weapons and assistance to fight off communism and then the very same people that helped them stay independent have now invaded and are forcing democracy on them. Isn't that entirely hypocritical?
The media would have us believe that Afghanistan is a terror breeding country, one where terror camps are producing more and more terrorists to inflict terror among the American people. Are you terrified yet?
It seems like the only people creating terror are the media outlets.
Did they ever?
There are a lot of things that bother me about society. A big one is that I can't trust media outlets. One big offense is American media stating that Saddam Hussein never let the UN inspectors in, and that's why they invaded. Anyone that remembers the details at the time knows that UN inspectors had been let in and were searching but Bush still invaded anyway.
After finding out that media companies can and do change the facts to try and re-write history, I can never tell if a statement like this is really true or not:
"U.S.-led forces with the help of Afghan groups overthrew the Taliban government during a five week battle which started on October 7, 2001, after the militants refused to hand over al Qaeda leaders wanted by Washington for the September 11 attacks on America."
In many ways, the two motives seem similar, the US demanding something that the country can't provide, and they invade anyways. In one situation, it's Osama Bin Laden, and in the other, it's weapons of mass destruction.
8 years later, we're all still tied up in this mess with nothing to show for it.
The Taliban have never been a threat to the west. One disturbing fact is that these Afghanistan people were delivered weapons and assistance to fight off communism and then the very same people that helped them stay independent have now invaded and are forcing democracy on them. Isn't that entirely hypocritical?
The media would have us believe that Afghanistan is a terror breeding country, one where terror camps are producing more and more terrorists to inflict terror among the American people. Are you terrified yet?
It seems like the only people creating terror are the media outlets.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Paying off debt
So I moved to my parents and finally have internet again. It sure is annoying to not have it around after being used to it for so long. My parent's call it "high speed" internet, (it's really slow). It's better then nothing.
I never thought I'd be 27 years old, single and living at home. Without having to pay for rent (/as much rent), I should be able to pay off my debt pretty soon. I should have done this a long time ago. Living by myself in an apartment was pretty expensive. I really wasn't sure what else to do.
It's nice to be out of the city, the drive in and out to work is long and tedious, but I like being able to see the stars at night.
I never thought I'd be 27 years old, single and living at home. Without having to pay for rent (/as much rent), I should be able to pay off my debt pretty soon. I should have done this a long time ago. Living by myself in an apartment was pretty expensive. I really wasn't sure what else to do.
It's nice to be out of the city, the drive in and out to work is long and tedious, but I like being able to see the stars at night.
Monday, August 24, 2009
meh, fuck the central topic idea. This has always been a blog for babbling about whatever. I'm not really out to gather a lot of readers anyway, just keeping an archive that might exist for a very long time.
I wonder, if everything written here on blogger could be saved for a millennium? Maybe longer? Sometimes I think about people reading my online journal from the far future to study their primitive ancestors.
If so, then hello future people, I hope things are going well.
So I've always wanted to camping out in the wilderness. Even though I grew up in the woods, I can't remember actually going out and setting up a camp.
Since I had to bring my cat out to my parents (landlady asked me to get rid of her), I thought, might as well do it this weekend. Instead of dropping her off, I went out to where I was thinking of setting up (my dad's quarter section, off in the boonies.)
I wasn't sure exactly what would happen when I let her out, but I felt like I've been holding her in a box for the years I've been living in the city and thought that she should have the opportunity to be truly free.
At first, she stayed around the truck. I started looking around for a camp site, which was next to impossible in my dad's land. The place is normally a swamp, and with the rain we've been having, the water is pretty high.
I was going to drive further down the road to inspect for more places, but the road was getting pretty thin. I've gotten stuck on roads like that before, usually when trying to turn around, so I decided to turn around first, where it was more open, then back in. I opened my window to see where I was going and then all of a sudden the cat jumped out. This time, she took off.
"shit."
I thought to myself...
At the time, I wasn't totally sure I was going to camp at all, but after she didn't come back, I thought, "might as well just wait for her."
I eventually did find a suitable area in my dads land, but it was pretty far from where the cat took off, so, I set up on the road. (It's a dead end road, mostly over grown)
It wasn't too bad for camping in a ditch next to a swamp. I gathered a bunch of dead wood, made a fire, and made some hot dogs. The cat must have smelled the food, or maybe was just cold. By the time it got dark, she was back. She was a little scared of me, almost like the feral in her was coming out. Or she was scared I was going to take her away. Eventually, she warmed up to me, and chilled out by the fire.
It was a pretty cool experience. For the first time in a while, I got to see the stars in vivid detail.
In the morning, I let the cat out of the tent and boom, she was off having an adventure. I really want to find a tiny webcam that I can attach to her. She probably seen a lot of cool shit. She must have had fun avoiding the water by climbing things.
I ran out of water and tried a few survival methods to get clean water from the swamp. I tried distilling it with a pot and a plastic bag, but I couldn't get it quite right. I tried running it through cloth to filter it out, and I drank a little, didn't get sick, so I guess if I was ever really desperate, that method kinda works. I was really proud in the morning after I made my own coffee filter out of a piece of paper and a napkin. Best coffee ever.
Before I went out, I found an old tool kit that I wasn't using. I decided to label it "Macguyver Box", and put a whole bunch of random shit in there. A lot of stuff, like a broken light bulb, I put in there with the hope that I'll figure out what to do with it eventually. After camping, I think I want to get rid of a lot of the useless stuff and just have survival gear in there. I put the multi-tool and tape to the most use.
I think I'd like to go out to my Dad's land and build something. He got the land for a song, and while it is swamp, it could be a cool place to live. I picture putting up a bunch of board walks and having a very Caribbean swamp style home, like an old voodoo lady is going to jump out and scare ya, lol.
Anyways, the cat did come back during the day, she slid out from under the tent after she wanted to take a nap, I guess.
I put her in her cage, and although she probably would have liked it if we stayed out there, I brought her to my parents where she'll have all sorts of other animals to interact with and a lot of cool land to explore.
It's pretty lonely in this apartment without her, but it'll only be a month and a week.
I've got to clean this place up.
I wonder, if everything written here on blogger could be saved for a millennium? Maybe longer? Sometimes I think about people reading my online journal from the far future to study their primitive ancestors.
If so, then hello future people, I hope things are going well.
So I've always wanted to camping out in the wilderness. Even though I grew up in the woods, I can't remember actually going out and setting up a camp.
Since I had to bring my cat out to my parents (landlady asked me to get rid of her), I thought, might as well do it this weekend. Instead of dropping her off, I went out to where I was thinking of setting up (my dad's quarter section, off in the boonies.)
I wasn't sure exactly what would happen when I let her out, but I felt like I've been holding her in a box for the years I've been living in the city and thought that she should have the opportunity to be truly free.
At first, she stayed around the truck. I started looking around for a camp site, which was next to impossible in my dad's land. The place is normally a swamp, and with the rain we've been having, the water is pretty high.
I was going to drive further down the road to inspect for more places, but the road was getting pretty thin. I've gotten stuck on roads like that before, usually when trying to turn around, so I decided to turn around first, where it was more open, then back in. I opened my window to see where I was going and then all of a sudden the cat jumped out. This time, she took off.
"shit."
I thought to myself...
At the time, I wasn't totally sure I was going to camp at all, but after she didn't come back, I thought, "might as well just wait for her."
I eventually did find a suitable area in my dads land, but it was pretty far from where the cat took off, so, I set up on the road. (It's a dead end road, mostly over grown)
It wasn't too bad for camping in a ditch next to a swamp. I gathered a bunch of dead wood, made a fire, and made some hot dogs. The cat must have smelled the food, or maybe was just cold. By the time it got dark, she was back. She was a little scared of me, almost like the feral in her was coming out. Or she was scared I was going to take her away. Eventually, she warmed up to me, and chilled out by the fire.
It was a pretty cool experience. For the first time in a while, I got to see the stars in vivid detail.
In the morning, I let the cat out of the tent and boom, she was off having an adventure. I really want to find a tiny webcam that I can attach to her. She probably seen a lot of cool shit. She must have had fun avoiding the water by climbing things.
I ran out of water and tried a few survival methods to get clean water from the swamp. I tried distilling it with a pot and a plastic bag, but I couldn't get it quite right. I tried running it through cloth to filter it out, and I drank a little, didn't get sick, so I guess if I was ever really desperate, that method kinda works. I was really proud in the morning after I made my own coffee filter out of a piece of paper and a napkin. Best coffee ever.
Before I went out, I found an old tool kit that I wasn't using. I decided to label it "Macguyver Box", and put a whole bunch of random shit in there. A lot of stuff, like a broken light bulb, I put in there with the hope that I'll figure out what to do with it eventually. After camping, I think I want to get rid of a lot of the useless stuff and just have survival gear in there. I put the multi-tool and tape to the most use.
I think I'd like to go out to my Dad's land and build something. He got the land for a song, and while it is swamp, it could be a cool place to live. I picture putting up a bunch of board walks and having a very Caribbean swamp style home, like an old voodoo lady is going to jump out and scare ya, lol.
Anyways, the cat did come back during the day, she slid out from under the tent after she wanted to take a nap, I guess.
I put her in her cage, and although she probably would have liked it if we stayed out there, I brought her to my parents where she'll have all sorts of other animals to interact with and a lot of cool land to explore.
It's pretty lonely in this apartment without her, but it'll only be a month and a week.
I've got to clean this place up.
Saturday, August 22, 2009
evolution and games
I've been thinking about sticking to a central topic in this space.
Video games have always interested me more then anything in this life, and I think, like soccer, it's a global phenomenon that we all take part in. Some people spout off stats from the NFL, but an acronym that's a little more worldwide might be SC3, or, Starcraft 3.
What is it about video games and games in general that captivate us so much?
I'm a FPS gamer, lately, I've been getting back to my roots with Team Fortress 2, and I was thinking about how a group of scouts can sometimes act like a flock of birds, especially when they're all focused on the same target. There are a lot of aspects to the game that remind me of the wild, like hording health packs reminds me of animals protecting food. There are many "fight or flight" moments. While, respawning is always available and the game never really matters like dying in real life does, watching a match play out reminds me of evolution.
Especially on a new map. Sometimes I think about how each round is a generation, the players that failed, adapt, and do something else to try and survive, they learn from the other players that live on, and try again.
There's a game that came out for the Wii called Dangerous Creatures. I don't own a Wii, but it looked pretty interesting. It tried to make realistic settings in the wild, where you play as different critters. As we study animals more and more and profit from bio mimicry, it makes sense to me that modeling them on the computer in more and more detail is a really good idea.
Video games have always interested me more then anything in this life, and I think, like soccer, it's a global phenomenon that we all take part in. Some people spout off stats from the NFL, but an acronym that's a little more worldwide might be SC3, or, Starcraft 3.
What is it about video games and games in general that captivate us so much?
I'm a FPS gamer, lately, I've been getting back to my roots with Team Fortress 2, and I was thinking about how a group of scouts can sometimes act like a flock of birds, especially when they're all focused on the same target. There are a lot of aspects to the game that remind me of the wild, like hording health packs reminds me of animals protecting food. There are many "fight or flight" moments. While, respawning is always available and the game never really matters like dying in real life does, watching a match play out reminds me of evolution.
Especially on a new map. Sometimes I think about how each round is a generation, the players that failed, adapt, and do something else to try and survive, they learn from the other players that live on, and try again.
There's a game that came out for the Wii called Dangerous Creatures. I don't own a Wii, but it looked pretty interesting. It tried to make realistic settings in the wild, where you play as different critters. As we study animals more and more and profit from bio mimicry, it makes sense to me that modeling them on the computer in more and more detail is a really good idea.
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