So this is the future

Doctor Science

So when I got to the computer late this morning, I discovered that the European Space Agency spacecraft Rosetta had reached its target, the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (which really needs a snappier name, people), and had sent out its lander, Philae.

Which is the general kind of thing that people have been doing most of my life, so no longer really future-y. What makes me really feel like Yes, This Is the Future:

1. The Rosetta Mission has a livestream. And a twitter account.

2. Their second tweet after Philae's successful landing:

Fortunately for all, Philae does not wear a shirt.

3. Philae has its own Twitter account.

4. Rosetta sent back this picture of Philae making its descent to the comet:

What a brave little toaster!

5. Randall Munro is live-cartooning the mission. (If you start at the beginning, there are a bunch of blank images at first, don't worry.) My favorites so far:

6. When we say "live", we don't mean "actual live" -- Rosetta is half a billion km away right now, which means signals take 28 minutes each way. But it's still pretty exciting!

The future can be pretty cool, if we manage to avert the incoming climate apocalypse.

Comments

[wj]

It's a real pity xkcd doesn't make all the status report images available! Some of them are exceptionally cool.

[Countme-In]

I'm not a scientist, but ... European?!?%!

How could a bunch of Socialists manage to hit the broad side of a barn half a billion kilometers away?

What, they don't speak in imperial units?

Why, if they'd privatize like we do, maybe we'd get to watch much more entertaining fireworks right down on the launch pad when things go kablooey.

[Countme-In]

John Thune, the new head of the Senate Science Committee, just issued a statement accusing the European Space Agency of faking this entire thing.

He says the live cartoons don't look real to him and are probably being jigged-up in the basement of the United Nations, which if he had his way, would be hit by a comet.

Why waste hard-earned taxpayer money going to see a comet when it's headed for us anyway, Thune asked.

[wj]

Come on, Count, what's wrong with Europeans? After all, they aren't going to shut down funding half way thru a project, just because it might provide evidence that the universe is more than 6,000 years old.

[Countme-In]

THIS is the future:

http://dish.andrewsullivan.com/2014/11/12/mental-health-break-706/

The prequel has already been released.

[liberal japonicus]

Isn't this how the movie Andromeda strain starts?

[Snarki, child of Loki]

From reports this afternoon Philae didn't stick the landing. I expect some very harsh scores from the east european judges.

[Brett Bellmore]

"John Thune, the new head of the Senate Science Committee, just issued a statement accusing the European Space Agency of faking this entire thing."

In the spirit of the difference between parody and lies, I'm expecting either a link showing where he did that, or a "Ha, ha, just kidding."

But, yeah, it's remarkably easy to demonstrate somebody is an idiot, if you get to make sh*t up.

[wj]

What does it say about the man when you read a parody quote and can can't tell but what it might actually have happened?

[Brett Bellmore]

When you find some outrageous lie/parody about somebody plausible, it may say something about them, but it may, instead, say something about you. You might keep that in mind, WJ.

[wj]

I was. And you were, apparently, the one who thought the parody might be plausible. (Unless I somehow massively misunderstood your words, of course.)

[Countme-In]

Uhboy. So you thought OBWI was a news service?

Parodies are plausible, but what is implausible is that the most literal-minded of the non-linkers on this board wants a link from the top of the poppermost linkers.

Parodies are just premature reality.

The real deal will come around tomorrow. As tragedy.

No wonder burlesque died out. Pantsless reality wanted proof from pantsless comedians about where all of the pants went.

I've been meaning to use this quote, and now seems as good as any.

To the humorless, the pantsless, and the earnest non-linkers of linking, who discern meaning in feral commas:

“I hope you don’t have friends who recommend Ayn Rand to you. The fiction of Ayn Rand is as low as you can get re fiction. I hope you picked it up off the floor of the subway and threw it in the nearest garbage pail. She makes Mickey Spillane look like Dostoevsky"

Flannery O'Conner said that.

Spillane and Dostoevsky got the joke.

Guess who didn't?

The murderers now among us.

[Brett Bellmore]

"Unless I somehow massively misunderstood your words, of course."

Which, of course, you did. Deliberately, maybe, or just ingrained reflex.

WAY back in elementary school, (When dinosaurs ruled the Earth.) some of the stupider kids used to hang out in the corner, making up nasty stories about people they didn't like. "Hey, I bet he eats his own poop!" Stuff like that.

That's all the Count is doing. There's people you don't like, and you have fun validating your hate of them by slandering them. Didn't much like it then, don't much like it now.

I'd call the Count "juvenile", but that would be a libel, itself, of juveniles everywhere. Some of the time he spends in this juvenile nasty joker mode, other times he spews hatred and threats, and counts on his reputation as a joker to not have it taken seriously. He's by far the ugliest personality here, but you tolerate him because he aims his bile in the right direction.

Here we have a positive story, another of mankind's triumphs in the gradual conquest of space, (Coming way too slow for my taste; There's an asteroid with our name on it out there somewhere, and if it arrived tomorrow we'd be extinct.) and the Count has to make it an occasion to libel the other side, 'cause no celebration is complete without that, right?

Doesn't say much positive about you guys, that you don't shun his like. You don't like me much, because I disagree with you. But he's the one you ought to be offended by.

[liberal japonicus]

Doesn't say much positive about you guys, that you don't shun his like. You don't like me much, because I disagree with you.

Naw, I think we don't like you much because you have no sense of humor and always seem to have just lodged your atlatl in your nether regions. Of course, if you could spin that prissy voice ('shun his like') into an actual personality, you might have some comedy gold there, but as it stands, complaining about lights in your chicken coop and the fact that you can't flush your movements because of evil building codes doesn't really do it. Keep working on it, though, it may click someday.

[Countme-In]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dsw9jYU_rJI

[thompson]

lodged your atlatl in your nether regions

Thanks, now I'll never get rid of that image.

More seriously, a couple of things. I don't mind Count because sometimes he's funny, sometimes he's insightful, and sometimes he says things I find crude, tasteless, or violent. But that's true of many people who say worthwhile things.

As he's using words, and nobody is forced to listen to him, I'm perfectly content to consider the things I find interesting, and ignore what I don't.

On the OP: I find it vaguely sad that a livestream and twitter are what makes this the future.

Successfully targeting a probe for a 10 year, 3.8 billion mile journey is pretty damn impressive to me in its own right.

Even more impressive to me: the cost is coming down and more players are having success in the field. What started as a contest between two superpowers now involves the EU, China, India, private companies, etc.

In a few decades we've gone from test rockets reaching the edge of space to a probe crossing into interstellar space. And I'm hopeful the next few decades will bring advances in manned spaceflight and significant decreases in cost.

The great thing about the future is its always on the horizon.

[thompson]

Spamtrapped! I've always known it would happen to me someday.

[Countme-In]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9OUIk4Oaq4

[Ufficio]

Was that not a bleedingly obvious riff on Inhofe heading the Environmental committee?

[the once and future cleek]

What does it say about the man when you read a parody quote and can can't tell but what it might actually have happened?

it says that Nathan Poe is a genius.

[russell]

"Hey, I bet he eats his own poop!" Stuff like that.

That's all the Count is doing.

Hey, maybe Thune does eat his own poop.

Who knows?

It would be irresponsible not to speculate.

[Countme-In]

Tough to tell unless there are facial expressions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=soczkiJea0Y

Worse, when you can see the body language, which in this case is assault esperanto:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHWP7ZeBYS8

I want one of those, or both.

Wait, maybe I want one of these:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHT8IVCXE7I

If the lemonade salesman in the Marx Brothers (10:42 am) clip above had one of those, there wouldn't have been any monkey business from Chico and Harpo, believe you me:

Sometimes it's hard to tell, even when you can see the body language and the facial expressions:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfl6Lu3xQW0

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFNUdCtMXWE

I do hate it when they smile while goosestepping; all of the visual signals go awry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x54f_VyRANU

[Countme-In]

Inhofe might respond to Thune eating his own poop by saying: "I'm not a scientist, but the so-called evidence put forth by the EPA's Gestapo regulatory regime preventing my esteemed colleague from engaging in his God-given right to eat his own #2 is a hoax and a travesty of a job-killing mockery of two hoaxes mocking a travesty."

Personally, I doubt Thune eats his own poop.

He'll save it for us.

It's unfortunate that the American people will be eating Inhofe's sh*t for at least the next two years, too.

[Slartibartfast]

It's unfortunate that the American people will be eating Inhofe's sh*t for at least the next two years, too.

We could always chalk that up to the stupidity of the American voter.

[Brett Bellmore]

"We could always chalk that up to the stupidity of the American voter."

Please do, it seems to be a winning strategy for convincing them to give you their votes.

[Slartibartfast]

I can never understand what Brett is trying to say anymore. I think he's surpassed my historical record for obliqueness.

[the once and future cleek]

it seems to be a winning strategy for convincing them to give you their votes.

we could've voted for Slartibartfast ?!?!?interrobang?!?

[Countme-In]

O'Reilly (Dumb) versus O'Reilly (Dumber) on the subject of voter stupidity:

http://bluenationreview.com/americans-dumb-vote-republicans-bill-oreilly-seems-think/

http://insider.foxnews.com/2014/11/12/media-liberal-colossus-bill-oreilly-blasts-coverage-jonathan-grubers-obamacare-comments

Slart, you strained my obliques years ago, and thnak you.

What does it say about me that I know exactly what Brett is trying to say?

[thompson]

Let's see if this gets through the spam filter.

Some beautiful pictures from Rosetta:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/europeanspaceagency/sets/72157638315605535/

[Countme-In]

While I'm at it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N31CFtQHtew

Anyway, that's it for me today.

How about that landing on the comet and the tweeting?

[the once and future cleek]

the only country dumber than the US is Italy. it's been proved:

https://www.ipsos-mori.com/researchpublications/researcharchive/3466/Perceptions-are-not-reality-10-things-the-world-gets-wrong.aspx

[wj]

You get what you pay (or vote) for. Even if you say later that wasn't what you wanted/meant. It ought to be a lesson to pay more attention in the future. But probably won't be.

[liberal japonicus]

"What does it say about me that I know exactly what Brett is trying to say?"

That's why we don't shun you Count, you are ObWi's Speaker to the Splenetic, the only one with an insight to the angry little psyche that Brett displays. Could you ask Brett what color the sky is in his world as it is some place where 'libertarians' such as he are able to make cogent arguments to the populace and be elected by overwhelming majorities. And then ask how he finds the time to come back here and say 'nyah nyah, the Republicans won!' I fear that this strange amalgam of libertarian and Republican sees the world in such a different way than us, we really have no basis for communication.

[liberal japonicus]

Set the spam trapped comments free.

Given the evidence available to me, Typepad lulls the admin into thinking that there aren't going to be any more comments from regular commenters marked as spam, so the admin thinks 'Yeah, I don't need to keep that window open on my desk all the time'. Then, through the magic of the innnerwubs, it knows you have closed that window (perhaps by finding someway to have you restart your computer) and then it starts choosing random regulars to spam-trap. At least that is how I see it working. Feel free to note it so I can catch it, and my apologies.