NASA's Perseverance rover sends stunning images

Post by BooneJS » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 5:07 AM UTC

Post by daave » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 5:08 AM UTC

0x003 wrote: post #63

moltar wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I admire your efforts to clean. But unfortunately it’s pointless. There are entire million and billion population countries that treat oceans as waste baskets, simply because they don’t know better. I’ve talked to fishermen in rural Thailand and they don’t have waste collection. So they take their trash every day and just dump it in the middle of the ocean somewhere. They didn’t understand why that was a problem when…

One person doing something in the face of billions of others is the entire opposite of pointless. Giving up because you're one person and you can't magically transform the entire world is cynical, a cop-out and completely misunderstands the nature of the problem. The world won't change overnight, it won't immediately flip from the actions of one individual, or two, or even 1 thousand or 1 million. But that doesn't me…

Post by matheusmoreira » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 5:08 AM UTC

khuey wrote: post #111

matheusmoreira wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> easily shielded by essentially any solid material If that shield fails for any reason, including tampering, you're looking at the radiological contamination and likely deaths of everyone nearby at the very least.

Alpha sources outside the human body are of little health concern. You'd have to break it open and eat the plutonium inside for it to be a serious risk.

Post by heavyset_go » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 5:14 AM UTC

moltar wrote: post #35

idiocrat wrote: post #17

All the extraterrestrial expansion, dream of Men to conquer Space, star track enterprise! I'm pessimistic that we will ever leave our solar system, and if so in 1000 years, I do not care. Hopefully people learn how tiny our bubble is and protect our environment more. The Martian environment looks so boring -- as a replacement for polluted Earth. (We will pollute Mars faster than Earth). I'm living at the ocean, tryin…

I admire your efforts to clean. But unfortunately it’s pointless. There are entire million and billion population countries that treat oceans as waste baskets, simply because they don’t know better. I’ve talked to fishermen in rural Thailand and they don’t have waste collection. So they take their trash every day and just dump it in the middle of the ocean somewhere. They didn’t understand why that was a problem when…

Post by 0x003 » Wed, Mar 03, 2021, 5:16 AM UTC

daave wrote: post #124

0x003 wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One person doing something in the face of billions of others is the entire opposite of pointless. Giving up because you're one person and you can't magically transform the entire world is cynical, a cop-out and completely misunderstands the nature of the problem. The world won't change overnight, it won't immediately flip from the actions of one individual, or two, or even 1 thousand or 1 million. But that doesn't me…

It's not pointless, but I do think it's reasonable to question whether this is the best thing one can do to have an impact. Could the time spent taking the neighbors trash away be spent doing something even more impactful? Is the interaction with these neighbors caring and educative, or antagonistic? In the latter case they're unlikely to emulate it or pass on the idea to others.