ekyris's feed

  • 7 years ago
    Comment ekyris

    I was just condensing some of what I read into a quicker read... Everything I took from the several articles I read.

    The video at the beginning of the WaPo Article I linked has Trump saying, "we are going to renegotiate some of the terms." Though it's not explicitly in the executive order, Trump then said that, "We are, and I am, very insistent that if we're going to build pipelines in the United States, the pipes should be made in the United States." I'm sure there are plenty of other reasons, some laudable and others less so, but that's what's officially been presented.

    Here's a video of Sean Spicer, White House press secretary, saying that the areas of Dakota and the Keystone pipeline would "increase jobs, increase economic growth, and tap into America's energy supply more." Again, probably more going on that what's being said, but I didn't want to write anything past what's being said.

    In the main linked article from Financial Post, a spokesman with Greenpeace, Travis Nichols, said, "A powerful alliance of indigenous communities, ranchers, farmers, and climate activists stopped the Keystone pipeline the first time, and the same alliance will come together to stop Keystone again if Trump tries to raise it from the dead" (emphasis mine). My understanding was the physical protest had more or less disbanded after Obama's decision to delay the project, and so it would then be 'restarted' to counter Trump's new stance. I'm not sure what "way" I used the word in the first place, other than to indicate that it's starting up after ending, so I'm not sure how else to respond past that.

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  • 7 years ago
    Comment ekyris

    Trump is not simply undoing restrictions put on by Obama; he's green-lighting the project based on extra stipulations such as all the steel for the pipe must come from the U.S. Building will not commence immediately, because the companies TransCanada Corp. (for the Keystone KL) and Energy Transfer Partners (for the Dakota Access) would need to re-submit proposals to be approved. The goal of the approval is more American jobs, hoping to give employment to those needed to finish the project. However, the placement (through/near water reserves) and purpose (carrying tar sands crude oil) of the pipeline remains the same. The concerns of environmentalists and the Standing Rock Sioux tribe have not changed, and will most likely 'restart' their protest of the construction.

  • 7 years ago
    Related Link ekyris

    Donald Trump signs orders advancing construction of Keystone, Dakota pipelines

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  • 7 years ago
    Achievement ekyris

    Hat Trick

    Maintained a 3 day login streak 15/15 times! Congratulations ekyris on this achievement!

    +11580 XP
  • 7 years ago
    Level Up ekyris

    Level 13

    ekyris is now level 13 with 115,245 XP.

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  • 7 years ago
    Comment ekyris

    The one of the splashing water is just plain showing off.

  • 7 years ago
    Expression ekyris

    Gen Urobuchi and the Human Spirit

    In Urobuchi’s worlds, it is not enough to eat and breathe and sleep. That might count as being alive, but it does not count as living.

  • 7 years ago
    Achievement ekyris

    Red Eye Jedi

    Viewed 150/150 snaps! Congratulations ekyris on this achievement!

    +7115 XP
  • 7 years ago
    Comment ekyris

    Yes! Thanks for the keen eye!

  • 7 years ago
    Comment ekyris

    The big news about this recording of fast radio bursts (FRBs) is that it repeated several times, and in an isolated area (a dwarf galaxy about 1% the mass of the Milky Way). Therefore, it disproves several current theories that the FRBs are caused by one-off events such as a collision between two dense neutron stars; or at least, proves that it is not the only way they could be formed. This leaves three current theories:

    One possibility is that the black hole [near the dwarf galaxy] itself is the source. The extreme gravity in its vicinity creates powerful jets of matter traveling at nearly the speed of light. Blobs of ionized gas known as plasma might occasionally drip into these jets, vaporizing in a flash of energy.

    Another theory is that the fast radio burst is the gaseous remnant of a supernova with a highly energetic magnetar at its core. Blobs of plasma inside the gassy remnant might occasionally align in such a way that they create an electromagnetic lens that further intensifies the magnetar’s radio wave emissions.

    A third possibility is that an object such as a neutron star or magnetar is orbiting the galaxy’s supermassive black hole, creating an unknown type of interaction that is releasing the energy.

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  • 7 years ago
    Related Link ekyris

    Strange Radio Bursts Seen Coming From a Galaxy Far, Far Away

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  • 7 years ago
    Image ekyris

    Immature Stargazer Lily in Volunteer Park (Seattle)

    Lilium orientalis--thanks to AdelleChattre for the ID!

  • 7 years ago
    Text Post ekyris

    Did someone say, "verbal tomfoolery"?

    discuss in posted into

     
  • 7 years ago
    Related Link ekyris

    The largest space scope ever built is finished | Astronomy.com

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  • 7 years ago
    Comment ekyris

    Awesome! When I think about what the Hubble telescope did for our conception of the universe (the ultra-deep field comes to mind), I'm so excited to see what new horizons the JWST will be able to bring us. According to the Popular Mechanics article, the launch will be Oct 2018, then another 6 months before images are sent back to Earth (read: get hype for Apr 2019).

  • 7 years ago
    Comment ekyris

    Bezos, in his own words:

    "We need to go into space if we want grow as a species. Another route would be just to face stasis [i.e., a population equilibrium], but I don't think that's as interesting. I don't think we want to just survive on this planet, I think we want to thrive and do amazing things."

    “I predict that in the next few hundred years, all heavy industry will move off planet. It will be just way more convenient to do it in space, where you have better access to resources, better access to 24/7 solar power... In space, you get solar power all the time. So there’ll be a lot of advantages to doing heavy manufacturing there, and Earth will end up zoned residential and light industry.”

    "I don't like the Plan B idea that we want to go into space so we have a backup planet," he said, noting NASA's efforts to send probes throughout the solar system. "Believe me, this is the best planet. There is no doubt this is the one you want to protect. This is the jewel. We evolved here, we're kind of made for this planet. It's gorgeous, and we can use space to protect it."

    Some highlights:

    Bezos wants to use O'Neill cylinders, large rotating structures to give Earth-style gravity to inhabitants while in space.

    His goal is to build infrastructure in space, including transportation, allowing anyone with a good idea to get into the industry without necessarily a lot of money. Therefore, Blue Origin's current focus is getting payloads into orbit and increasingly low costs.

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  • 7 years ago
    Related Link ekyris

    Jeff Bezos dismisses idea of a backup plan, says we must protect Earth

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  • 7 years ago
    Current Event ekyris

    Parallels, ironies seen in protests of Dakota pipeline, Oregon refuge

    Observers are noting the contrasts between the protests and treatment of mostly Native American citizens near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation and heavily armed occupiers who held Malheur National Wildlife Refuge against the federal government.

  • 7 years ago
    Comment ekyris

    This is beautiful, thanks for sharing! I'm always a sucker for impressionist flowers...

    Posted in: Art

     
  • 7 years ago
    Comment ekyris

    So we'll see if this goes anywhere, but a (small) point of contention:

    "As “hip and cool” as the leadership of the new Pope is, don’t for a moment believe he can go against the literal interpretation of the Bible and undo all its contradictions and hypocrisies. Catholics—along with Christians and Muslims—have locked themselves and their religious rules into their sacred texts and its meanings."

    The Catholic Church has never held that a literal method is the only way to interpret the Bible; it considers no less than four levels of 'exegesis' (mode of interpretation): literal, allegorical/symbolic, moral, and eschatological (concerning heaven/the "end-times"). While (only a few recent) other Christian denominations have considered a literal interpretation the only viable analysis, Catholicism has never held such a viewpoint. I don't know enough about Islam to go further on that point, but I do know that how to interpret the Qur'an and the Hadith (collected saying of the Prophet) is a major scholarly debate and not quite so simple as it's made out to be.

    There's a great article by Tom O'Neill about Galileo that touches on this point. While you can be against an institution such at the Catholic Church, it's important to know what you're arguing against. As he says in his conclusion, "Fables make for nice, neat stories with cute morals at the end. But history is not neat and rarely fits into morality tales. True rationalists are interested in what actually happened and why, studied as objectively as possible, not cute stories."

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  • 7 years ago
    Comment ekyris

    Well sure, learning a distinct human language without an intermediary one has been done tons of times in human history... However, the big question with extraterrestrials is, "how do they communicate?". There's no reason they wouldn't use something other than forcing air through a flexible aperture in order to communicate with each other. As the article only briefly touches on, we have no idea how 'necessary' what we think of as language would be for other complex organisms/civilizations.

  • 7 years ago
    Related Link ekyris

    Spotify launches new portal dedicated to video game music

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  • 7 years ago
    Current Event ekyris

    Researchers orbit a muon around an atom, confirm physics is broken

    "…the result suggested that there might be something wrong with our understanding of some basic physics. Theorists, naturally, responded with enthusiasm…"

  • 8 years ago
    Comment ekyris

    Thanks for the heads-up! I keep forgetting to hit 'save' when editing a text box...

  • 8 years ago
    Current Event ekyris

    Republican Leaders Map a Strategy to Derail Donald Trump

    If aggressive efforts to deny Mr. Trump the presidential nomination fail, the party leaders say they will try to field an independent candidate for the general election.