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March 29, 2021 Archives
Monday, March 29, 2021
THE HAPPENING WORLD: Boston Dynamics—“Introducing Stretch”
Here is more information about Stretch.
Posted at
18:05
TRACKING WITH CLOSEUPS: UFO Stylized Social Facts
The main block to believing in UFOs-as-aliens is lack of a plausible enough social theory that can integrate into our usual theories. To prepare to look for one, I here review the main "stylized facts" that such a social theory would need to explain. https://t.co/lsZBq81ift
— Robin Hanson (@robinhanson) March 28, 2021
From the post, “UFO Stylized Social Facts”:
So it isn’t crazy to think that aliens might have indirect obsessive lazy motives for UFO encounters, motives hidden perhaps even from themselves. But this case of overcoming the usual coordinated limits to fly to a distant star just to glow-buzz their treetops, seems spectacularly extravagant even by the standards of dreamtime humans today.
To do this, aliens need a sufficient level of “slack” resources available to spend on such symbolic activities. And even with hidden motives and lazy organizations, we humans usually at least make up vague stories about the practical ends served by our actions, even when such stories don’t stand up to close scrutiny. So we want an explanation of this level of alien slack, and we’d like to have some ideas of what stories aliens might tell about the ends they accomplished by UFO encounters.
Actually, my crackpot theory in “Flying Saucers Explained” is perfectly consistent with these observations.
Posted at
12:20
CONTEXT: An Empty Suit in Space
[RPT] SuitSat 1: A Spacesuit Floats Free: https://t.co/5wJpT2hZMd by ISS Expedition 12 Crew, @NASA pic.twitter.com/nK1N7jkbsk
— Astronomy Picture Of The Day (@apod) March 28, 2021
No, this is not about the new NASA administrator.
Posted at
12:12
THE HAPPENING WORLD: Suez Canal Update
Using Units Calculator, I worked out the kinetic energy of the ship as it struck the bank of the canal.
(220000 tons) * (1/2) * ((13 knots) ^ 2) = 4.463259 gigajoule
(220000 tons) * (1/2) * ((13 knots) ^ 2) = 1.0667445 ton tnt
No wonder it's difficult to drag back out.
Posted at
11:32