The Factory Floor - 2020-01-22

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12:28 AM

@SecSE-clearMonica'sname Sure!

Universe Factory

12:55 AM

Universe Factory - Medium: A Slither of Hope

posted on January 22, 2020 by Secespitus

“Akamas” by Sergey KochkarevSlowly crossing the big room in the cave where she had been living for far too long already Hebi took a careful look around again. She knew exactly what little possessions were scattered through the small room carved from stone inside the mountain where they had to hide at first. Two chairs, barely recognizable anymore after not being used for so long, the wood left…

11 hours later…

Sec SE - clear Monica's name

11:41 AM

@HDE226868 Thank you very much!

4 hours later…

3:30 PM

Any new scandals lately? Like the Ds going at each others throats over trivialities and Trump being a fool, but unchallenged within the party?

I hear Gabbard is suing Clinton and the Warren/Sanders fight is still going on :)

At this point, my money is on Biden winning the nomination.

Which almost certainly means SS will almost certainly be cut back or shut down.

2 hours later…

5:55 PM

@Hosch250 Well, there was the very successful 2A rally in VA monday that brought democrats and republicans together, side by side, to protest the unconstitutional laws being pushed by governor blackface. It was several thousand very well armed and very polite people, and they even cleaned up the trash when they were done.

LOL, they triggered a state of emergency in VA.

Because "intelligence shows they plan to storm the Capitol."

Apparently "storm" means peacefully exercise constitutional rights, and not start any fights or anything.

And also support for impeachment is so low that major tv networks have decided to stop covering it, and switched back to the less political but more entertaining soap operas.

6:12 PM

Wow, that's saying something, considering we all know where they stand on it.

Unless they are hoping to keep it hush-hush until after the fact for some reason.

Meh, they just follow the money. If no one is watching their channel, then they don't get money

So if no one is watching impeachment, then put on programming people will watch

What else...

To your point about the Ds going after each other, that's mostly because they are essentially two parties with one name.

Like the Rs were in the Tea Party's hey-day.

I remember them going at each other's throats well enough then :)

6:29 PM

@Hosch250 Could be, but even then they didn't spread that far out. Kind of Republican and Republican fundamentalist.

One thing I really think the Ds should do is close the "Bernie loophole" as I call it.

I don't know what that means

Basically, if a candidate wins the primary, but refuses to run under the party name at that point, the runner-up gets the party support.

When did Bernie do that?

Bernie mostly uses the D party to prevent them from fielding a candidate against him while he runs as an independent.

I've read he does it regularly as a senator.

6:32 PM

Hmm, hadn't heard that, but interesting

Or maybe even pre-vet some candidates and tell them to go get their own party.

I mean, people would tantrum about it being undemocratic--but the parties aren't democratic.

They are for people to run under roughly the same platform and work together.

They aren't (or weren't...) meant to be pop contests.

Hmm, I guess I'm not aware of exactly how people start going for a certain party.

I guess they just pick the one they vote for and say "can I run on your platform".

Not a politician, though, so...

From what I gather, they usually get involved by campaigning for existing candidates, then volunteer to take a spot when it opens.

As in a local office or as a staffer. Then they move up from there.

There are probably dues and stuff too. I heard something about that, and how AOC refused to pay her dues because the DNC wouldn't let her use the money to fund people that would primary other democrats.

Probably, yes.

6:45 PM

That's what I mean about the Ds being two parties. One D party is actively running against the other D party. AOC said something like "Biden and I should not be in the same party." and she is doing her best to kick out the people like him.

Yep. So, why should she get to hijack an existing party instead of building hers from scratch?

Heck if I know. If I was a D I'd be mad about it.

That's my point. Someone needs to go, and the noisiest person shouldn't get all the existing resources just because they are noisy.

I agree

If I were a high-up in the Ds, I'd probably kick her out. I mean, I'm not a fan of Biden and Warren, but they aren't Sanders and AOC-level crazy.

They've got to have some sort of process for removing people.

6:48 PM

Sounds like they want to. I heard they might redraw the districts and just remove hers completely. It was just a rumor kind of thing

But the problem is that she's not the only one

Yeah.

I heard that the gnDs have someone ready to primary Pelosi... and while I don't want the socialists to get more power, I have a hard time rooting for Pelosi either... It's a tough one.

Again, that's a case where I don't like Pelosi's personal policies--yet I like how she's been handling Trump.

I'm actually impressed with how well she kept them in line as far as she did.

"In line" being "not rioting and keeping the semblence of government."

I mean, most of the fuss has been in the courts and stuff, not in the House.

For that matter, I wouldn't be sorry if the Rs kicked some people out too.

I heard a theory that the reason she waited so long to deliver the articles of impeachment was to either (A) wait so that Bernie wouldn't be able to campaign in Iowa, or (B) wait for her commemorative pens and silver platters to be delivered.

It wouldn't take 4 years for that.

It might well have been A though, LOL.

6:59 PM

@Hosch250 I'm talking about the weeks from when the house voted, til this last week when they finally delivered them

Oh.

user image

What up all?

@James Not much, actually. Just discussing politics politely as usual.

@AndyD273 I admit...I would love to have pens like this with my name on them.

@Hosch250 Vote Yang.

:D

I am going to be a precinct captain for the Iowa caucus.

7:10 PM

@James Sorry, buddy, I heard he's going to drop out next week :P

@James But, you're a Texan??

@Hosch250 Nebraska actually.

@Hosch250 Nah. He'll be around at the very least until super Tuesday.

How can you be an Iowa caucus person then?

"Actually, Jupiter already has a very impressive ring system!" --someone who knows Jupiter is within earshot

7:30 PM

Anyone want to take a nitroglycerin pill?

TIL it helps with some heart troubles.

Of course, it might literally blast its way out your backside :P

@Hosch250 I am just the precinct captain. I don't get a vote. I'm just there to organize the Yang voters that show up and manage the math shenanigans that happen at a caucus.

@James OK.

Oh, BTW, I hear they can't vote until everyone converges on one person.

Last year, a single Bernie voter managed to hold the place up for several hours.

@James They do look like nice pens...

Get your people to basically do a sit-in until everyone else backs down from exhaustion.

How does that work?

7:33 PM

No idea. Not an Iowian.

@Hosch250 Nah. They divvy up delegates based on how many people show up divided by the number of available delegates in the precinct. So they have to narrow it down to at least that many. So a small precinct may have 4 delegates. They set a viability threshold for the first round and then eliminate those candidates that don't make it.

OK.

Then you have 15 minutes or so to convince people whose candidate got knocked out to join you.

How do super delegates work?

Rinse and repeat until you have the right number.

@AndyD273 So far as I know that's just a general election thing...but honestly I have no idea.

7:35 PM

@AndyD273 IIRC, it's just an extra vote the party can cast to add weight against "undesirable" candidates.

Ah, the whole finger on the scales play

7:48 PM

Hey, what's up ya'll.

8:02 PM

@Gryphon Not much

Anyone have a world destruction idea?

8:22 PM

Huh, so according to this article, all the half-life games are free until March when the new one comes out.

In case you haven't managed to pick them all up in the last few decades since they came out...

8:33 PM

@Hosch250 I THINK (I'd want to go verify) that democrats did away with unaligned super delegates

@Hosch250 Can you narrow the scenario down, I have many.

@James Not really.

Magic. Aliens. Supervirus, nuclear war, zombies, climate change, asteroid, titan lazer tag mishap.

Something realistic.

And destruction of the world, not just people.

@Hosch250 you'll want to go with the lazer tag mishap then.

Looks like it.

Well, asteroid looks better.

8:36 PM

Rogue planet from outside the solar system.

What's wrong the rogue planets inside the solar systems?

Just mean a rogue planet coming from outside the solar system, BOOM.

otherwise its not a rogue and rogues are cool.

Why do we have to outsource the job?

Its cheaper.

STUPID FOREIGN ROGUE PLANETS. WE MUST MAKE THE SOLAR SYSTEM GREAT AGAIN!

4

:p

8:38 PM

Bwahahahahaha

That'd be a really really big wall.

It would be a Dyson Sphere.

Although... If we have a Dyson sphere, we won't be able to see it coming...

just throw some gopro's on the outside of the sphere, itll be fine.

One scenario I heard was to knock mercury into the sun so that the resulting super flare would reach out and consume the Earth. That's all a mater of orbital mechanics.

If we used a Mars-like planet then it would be a rogue rouge planet.

@Bellerophon This is devious.

8:41 PM

@AndyD273 The force to knock Mercury into the sun would either take too long or be enough to wipe out Earth anyway...

@HDE226868 You around?

@Hosch250 Yeah but it wouldn't be as pretty.

Sure it would.

Fountains of magma bubbling up to space!

@Hosch250 Explosions are neat but a ginormous solar flare...no contest.

@Hosch250 They were going to mine into mercury and make it so that it broke up, IIRC... It's been a while

Rock splashing from pure pressure.

8:44 PM

I'm watching a town hall Yang did last week...mf'er strait up brought a power point presentation :')

It was basically a suicide pill so that aliens couldn't invade... No Earth left to invade. I don't know why super advanced aliens don't just go for Mars when they come looking for resources... no pesky humans to fight with.

@AndyD273 Sport hunting.

The most dangerous game.

great book from gradeschool

Damn right it's dangerous.

Maybe? Only reason that makes any sense.

Especially with humans.

8:47 PM

Need raw resources; mine the asteroids or mars or outer moons. Need water and gasses? Kupiter belt.

Hypothetically we could be food...

That'd be like us going into Africa to hunt tsetse flies 1-on-1 without pesticide.

@James But would they be able to process our proteins?

@AndyD273 Fair...they may have to turn us to goo first

Or maybe, they view us as self-replicating robots...

8:49 PM

Can an acid be airborne?

I mean, that's all the talk right now, isn't it? How to create self-replicating robots?

@Hosch250 Terrible idea.

It's like robot people have never seen Terminator.

Well, why create them when there are some already created!

How about this for the apocalypse...aliens release a mass amount of super acidic gasses into the atmosphere. It goo-ifies all life for consumption by the invaders, then they strip mine the planet.

Hmm, slaves might make sense too, though if you are a super advanced able to cross light years to get here, it seems like your robot tech might be good enough to make human slaves unnecessary.

8:54 PM

Andrew Yang's Powerpoint Presentation

@AndyD273 We tend to make terrible slaves.

@James If you don't believe in a god, then we basically are self-replicating robots.

@Hosch250 ...thats a fair point.

We even destroy anything that gets in our way of self-replication.

And destroy the environment to get more resources to help us self-replicate.

So a 'poorly designed' self replicating robot.

And we're busy trying to expand across the universe to have more space to self-replicate in.

Next time someone mentions self-replicating robots, I think I'll mention this :)

8:57 PM

Ok, so on the one hand, slavery was the standard for most of human history, right up until the last couple hundred years when western civilization decided it wasn't a good thing. It's still practiced in some places, and I saw a thing were it was starting to happen in Africa again.

@AndyD273 Whats the other hand?

So humans make good slaves when the idea of freedom doesn't exist

The other hand is that we're inefficient, if you have other solutions available like robots

Yeah but if you think about all the stories in history how many are about overthrowing oppressive leadership?

@James Not enough :P

@James Outside of semi modern European history?

9:00 PM

@AndyD273 Jews rebelling as one example outside your list.

@AndyD273 There were certainly lots of attempts under the Romans. Some quite successful (at least temporarily).

Three kingdoms era in China

That was a question, not a point :)

The maccabees are a good example

Yep. And the guys who camped out on Masada. And various stories in the Bible from Judges, which nobody disputes are old.

And those are just ones we know about--we lost or never had documents from a lot of other cultures.

I admit my knowledge of Asian history is limited I have a hunch there are a bunch of examples there.

9:03 PM

Been to Masada... It's impressive.

Agree, but basically useless now.

They can't defend it the way they used to. Air superiority will destroy them.

As an archaeology site

Yes, I meant militarily.

I hear they still have a fortress in it, though.

Would still be tough to take. Especially if they have anti-aircraft weaponry.

But if they couldn't get resupplied...

If I had to attack Masada I'd drop bunker busters at the base until it crumbled...

@James Even if you wanted to keep it, the only real trouble is climbing it.

They could drop in paratroopers to land at the top and fight their way down instead.

Especially if they did targeted bombing strikes to take out known gun emplacements first.

But yes, a MOAB would take it out.

Or, for that matter, there's biological, chemical, and radioactive warfare techniques they could use to neutralize it.

And then send specialists in to clean it up afterward.

I bet I'm on Mossad's list now :P

9:17 PM

@Hosch250 You know you were already on it...

:)

By you I of course mean all of us.

TTYL. Going to get a tetanus booster.

Because lockjaw is #fun.

@Hosch250 Awesome you can go step on rusty nails afterwards

@Hosch250 Not really? It's a ruin. No structures that I remember

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Jan '2022

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