Comments by "Itinerant Patriot" (@itinerantpatriot1196) on "Cool Worlds" channel.

  1. That was cool. There are so many channels dealing with the inevitability of a universe teaming with civilizations, it is refreshing to find one that simply admits the truth, we don't know. I grew up during the space race, a child of Apollo if you will. We had this stuff pounded into our heads as we watched Gemini and Apollo launches from our classrooms. Space was the final frontier and we were on our way to conquer it. I just took it for granted that by this time we would have a colony on Mars and flying cars and jetpacks would be the norm. I knew we were not alone. How could we be alone? With all those stars out there? I figured that was simply human arrogance and when I learned a bit about SETI and was introduced to the Drake Equation I thought, there ya go. ET will be phoning home soon, probably in my lifetime. Then I started learning about just how precise the conditions have to be for intelligent life to develop. How our Moon is just the right size and distance away, how Jupiter is just big enough to act as our defender, how our magnetic field is strong enough to protect us from our host star. There is so much more but you get the point. The first time I was confronted with Fermi's Paradox I thought to myself, that's simple, we just aren't there yet, not quite ready to take that extraterrestrial collect call. But that answer didn't work. I had to face facts, we don't know. I disagree with the concept of other universes existing without life. What would be their purpose? See, that's what we bring to the table, purpose. Someone once postulated that perhaps we are a byproduct of the universe trying to understand itself. I am a person of faith so I come at it from a different angle. But the point about how precious and special we are does remain. That was the one common theme all of the astronauts who went to the Moon shared. When they looked back and saw our tiny blue dot, floating along in a sea of empty space, they realized just how special a place it really is. We ride on a razors edge. Any number of calamities could befall us in the blink of an eye. That is all the more reason to appreciate and love one another because at the end of the day, we may be all we have.
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  2. You forgot to mention plate tectonics. That might have a thing or three to say about who gets to stay and who gets voted off the island. Or maybe Skynet will become self-aware and figure out a way to get rid of all that pesky oxygen corroding up the circuit boards. I've always been partial to the Texas-size comet taking us out but then again I like Bruce Willis flicks. As a Detroit Lions fan I often wonder if they can win a Super Bowl before the Sun turns into Beetlejuice, The Sequel. But that's me.
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  3. Dude, I'm sure you're well-meaning and sincere, but you have some, well let's say, innocent thinking on how spending in the swamp works and how governments function in general (I'm being generous when I say innocent). Most of the budget, 55%, is devoted to entitlements. We could have a whole debate on the rights and wrongs of that but you wanna increase your spending in star gazing? Get ready for the "You'll kill grandma" argument from the bunch handing out those checks. Where does the rest of our trillions go? Well, as of April 2024 it costs $624 billion to maintain the debt, which is 16% of the total federal spending. That's just paying on the interest, even though no one will really call out the collection agency anyway. Tack on another $820.3 billion, or roughly 18.3% of the budget for military spending. Add up just those three pieces of the government pie and we are at roughly 89% of all spending. Wanna see how spending federal money at the state level works. Michigan's governor just announced she is going to spend $250 million they got for COVID relief on prettying up the state parks. I mean, those lakes and trees were certainly affected by that killer virus. Sorry, I'm not trying to be snarky, but it's not as easy at that gasbag degrasse tyson makes it out to be. In fact, damn near every opinion that narcissistic windbag burps into existence is so full of crap a heard of cows would have a hard time matching his production, but I digress. And calling NASA a fine example of good government at work, well, you gotta stretch that definition pretty thin to fit it into the conversation. Look, don't get me wrong, I'm a space guy, but the will isn't there. The people aren't pumped like they were during Apollo and stuff you find cool is lost on the average product of our stellar education system. They're so lost and confused they don't what bathroom to use. If I sound overly cynical, well it comes from years of heartache. As George Carlin put it, inside every cynic beats the heart of a disillusioned optimist. I was THE true believer once upon a time. Now? Now I worry if we'll even have a country in the timeframes NASA is laying out there. And no, it's not the climate that's going to end us, it's our own indifference to being good citizens and our desire for our own personal comfort above all else. But that's me. Live long and prosper my brother. 🖖
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  4. Cool stuff even if most of it is above my limited brain function. But here's the thing, and this channel has pointed it out, red dwarves are really crappy candidates for hosting habitable planets. I mean maybe some microbes and such because life does have a way of working things out but if you're looking for ET red dwarves are like that old song, looking for love in all the wrong places. When you get the sun-like problems sorted out and can work on those let me know. Not that we're going to have a conversation with our cosmic cousins in my lifetime, but as a child of Apollo I still have a bit of a soft spot in my heart for the federation. Live long and prosper kiddos.
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  5. Cool stuff, a bit mind blowing though. I'll just defer to that great philosopher Billy Bob Thornton: "Begging your pardon sir but it's a big-ass sky." 🚀
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  6. So I'll never get a chance to write Hey Jude or buy gold at one dollar an ounce? Oh well, we all live the hand we're dealt. Who knows, maybe we are already in a time loop and I'm typing these words for the 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, time. If that is the case, can I get a better heart on at least one of these journeys? It's a simple ask.
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  7. Okay, I'll admit a lot of that was way over my miniscule head. But while I may not be an expert on neutrinos and such, I have been around the block a few times and I've got a pretty good handle on human nature. Some death ray that can't be stopped and may or may not cause a real big bang and at a minimum you end up with a situation like scene in Ghostbusters where the one guy says; "I thought crossing the beams was bad?" Nah, we can't be trusted with something like that. Sorry, the last thing we need are more designer weapons. That's the thing with eggheads, they get it in their minds that because something can be done it should be. Sometimes, simply because you can do it is the best case for not doing that thing. Things like this death ray. The scientists may get a hard-on over some 30-mile wide super collider to F-around with but for the rest if us? Too damned expensive, too damned risky, too damned likely to be used for evil purposes. Prometheus lives I guess.
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  8. Well there's always the "Billy Bob Thornton" solution for why we haven't had our "Jody Foster Moment" (always appreciate a good movie reference): "Our budget allows to track about 3% of the sky and begging your pardon sir but it's a big-ass sky." Lotsa open space out there still yet to be looked at. Personally, I think it's just a case where the conditions for intelligent life are a whole lot more rare than the scientists who bloviate on TV make them out to be and if there are smart folks who are able to talk and stuff out there they are no closer to figuring out how to break the laws of physics than we are. And at the end of the day, that's what you would have to do to boldly go where no man has gone before. Unless Einstein got it all wrong and Bill Nye is actually a scientist, but I digress. Trust me, nobody used to believe in E.T. more than me and nobody was more geeked about having him in for a cup of tea than I was but the more I learned about the universe as it is, not as we were told it was when I was a kid, the more I have come to to the conclusion that we are pretty damned special. Or is it just especially damned? 🤔 I get confused on that point from time-to-time. But there I go again. Anyway, it's late, and while this stuff is fun I'm gonna have to put it to bed for now. Let me know when Spock stops by for a chat. Until then, as always, "Live long and Prosper." 🖖
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  9. Cool stuff. A bit disappointing to the Bill Nye types who play scientist on TV and make claims of a galaxy chock-full-of life because that's what the script tells em to say. Or the Neil DeGrasse Tyson types who have a few more letters behind their name and make similar claims because it pays well. But none of this will stop either of them from living long and prospering. I imagine these findings might make it a bit tougher to pull funds out of NASA, especially if they get into a heated competition with Elon Musk and China over who can get to Mars and lay claim to the Moon. To borrow from the movies, they might use the Billy Bob Thornton argument and say they need a bigger telescope because: "Begging your pardon sir but it's a big-ass sky." Of course NASA, staying with the movie theme, could respond to the false findings and go all Jeff Specoli on them, responding: "We can be bogus too." Money always carries the day and while ROI isn't something any government agency is that concerned about, public perception is. What's more exciting? Finding a planet they may know more about in 50 years after building a few more new generations of telescopes that may or may not deliver or seeing old glory flying over a patch of dirt on the Martian surface. Can we do anything of real value with that patch of dirt? Not really. But it does look cool and the public does prefer cool to nerdy, and as the man from the press office told the astronauts in the Right Stuff when it came to public perception: "No bucks, no Buck Rogers." I'm gonna most likely be off this rock when either milestone gets reached but I'm betting on exploration beating out discovery because we are explorers by nature. Sorry planet hunters, that 24 billon dollar telescope ain't getting off the drawing board, not with a 30 trillion dollar national debt and a corrupt money laundering regime in Ukraine that needs propping up. Maybe if the Russians settle down some time soon. In the meantime, enjoy those Bausch & Lomb's.
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  10. We sure seem hell bent on finding proof we're not special. Maybe our desire to find that proof explains our bad habit of treating one another like we're not anything special? Just thinking out loud.
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  11. Well, first off, congress has no interest in cutting the national debt. We are already way over the tipping point and playing with monopoly money. Boomers have been an absolute disaster as stewards of the republic, and I say that as part of the clan. They care as much about the debt as I do about Rings of Power. Just sayin.
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  12. I believe it's possible because I have personally witnessed life exist in extreme, harsh conditions. I grew up in Detroit after all.
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  13. I guess ya have to be a child of Apollo to understand how disillusioned our generation is, how we feel we got robbed, like that band titled "They Promised us Jetpacks." We were told with basically 100% certainty that the galaxy was teeming with life, that by the time we reached adulthood, colonies on Mars and the Moon would be a reality, that we would continue to move up and out, that we would boldly go where... Then we find out that it is actually really tough to go to these places and that if NASA hadn't been so risk averse, and sent a man instead of a monkey up in 1961, Alan Shepard would have made it to space before Yuri Gagarin and the whole Moon shot might never have happened in the first place. I guess mostly we just grew up, and the more we learned about the real world the more science fiction became just that for us, fiction. Thanks Einstein! Thanks for breaking my heart! I've gone from believing we would have had several long-distance calls with ET by now to believing that will flat out just never happen. The distances are too great and the laws of physics are just too tough to overcome. I now believe if there is life out there, we are separated by design. We each have our own destiny to live out, distinct from one another. Maybe in the next life we get to meet our cosmic cousins, but for now, I guess I'll just have to settle for those old Star Trek reruns. Live long and prosper ET. Hope the weather is fine wherever you are.
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  14.  @hanfucolorful9656  Thank you for the kind words.
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  15. Admitting you don't know is a reasonable position. I get annoyed when people, some of whom study the subject, others who are simply well-known, show up on TV and claim: "Oh yeah, there is life all over the Universe; how could there not be?" That's an absurd position, one I held as a child who was wrapped up in the space race and watched a lot of Star Trek. Personally, they could find microbes on some Jovian moon and it wouldn't move the needle for me one iota. Great, simple life exists somewhere else, bravo. Until I can have a conversation with someone from another world I'm sorry, I'm just not going to get that fired up. I can look out my window for proof life exists. Intelligent life is another matter entirely and the man is right, we only have one model to work with so everything is largely conjecture. I personally believe we will never meet our extraterrestrial cousins in this life because if they are out there, something tells me the rules of the game are set so we don't meet. It's why they are so far away and why space travel is such a bear. Einstein once famously said "God doesn't play dice with the Universe." I believe that, unless the dice are loaded of course. Yeah, I know he was referring to Quantum Mechanics but my point is, there is a philosophical component to all of this and as random as the Universe may seem, everything in it, from the largest star to the smallest particle serves a purpose. If it didn't, it would have no reason to exist. I think it's cool and all that we are able to look out deeper into the cosmos and ponder such questions about rare Earth's and the like, I just wish we would focus a bit more on how we as individuals fit into the scheme of things, how our relationship with our Creator is supposed to work. If we sorted that out a bit more fully perhaps we'd have a greater appreciation for each other and God's creation. But that's me. I know others will believe what they want, but that's my story and I'm sticking to it. It's as reasonable as a lot of the other theories floating around out there, certainly more grounded than the opinion's of pretend experts like bill nye the science guy (boy, does he annoy me, but I digress). Anyway, keep on postulating and I'll keep on listening. In the meantime, live long and prosper. 🖖
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  16. As I've noted before, one of the shared emotions every astronaut who went to the Moon seemed to experience as they gazed at the Earth on the Lunar horizon was a feeling of just how special our little blue planet is. We are special. It's too bad we don't always treat each other that way.
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  17. Peperoni pizza. Perhaps the universe, existence itself for that matter, is here to support peperoni pizza because well, peperoni pizza simply has to exist. There, problem solved. Don't mention it, glad I could help out.
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  18. And there, at the end of all things, like Frodo and Sam at the foot of Mt. Doom, we find Keith Richards and a cockroach, reminiscing about the good old days on the road as the Earth is consumed and the only force in nature capable of taking them down finally finishes them off.
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  19. Speaking of intelligent life, why do people keep referring to Bill Nye as a scientist and treating him like one, asking him questions about subjects he is no way qualified to give an answer? He has a degree in engineering and is a failed comedian who played a scientist on TV. His real title is Bill Nye the BS guy. To call him a scientist is like saying Leonard Nimoy was an actual Vulcan. And to be honest, I would trust Leonard more on scientific matters than Bill Nye.
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  20. $100,000,000,000,000,000? No problem, write a check. Shoot, stick around a few more years and there won't be a whole lot of difference between that figure and our national debt anyway. Then again, I suppose that is a pretty hefty price tag for a sticky floor. To borrow from Chris Rock, how about I give ya 1,000 bucks for a neat pair of magnetic boots, lace ups of course, with good arch support. Interesting video. Just more proof that long-term space travel is a lot harder than they told me it was when I was a kid and Kirk and Spock were warping around the galaxy and still managing to make it back to Earth occasionally to enjoy a home-cooked meal every now and again.
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  21. I see a lot of articles and videos about some new planet found in the habitable zone and most of them have a bias toward life existing on them. Even the art shows oceans and shorelines. All they need is a few palm trees and a high rise off the beach and they could be posters for Earth 2.0. A lot of them fail to mention they are tidally locked to red dwarfs that belch out cosmic rays like Bluto at a toga party. Looking at sun-like stars is a better use of time and resources but even then everything is speculation. I remember seeing some article where the headline read "10 Planets Better Suited for Life Than Earth," a rather silly statement since intelligent life you know, is actually present on Earth. There are so many other factors beyond location that go into a life-supporting planet, let alone one capable of intelligent life. And the thing is, they are so far away we will never meet them even if they are out there. I don't buy the science fiction tales of warp drives and wormholes. Unless everything we know about physics is wrong, or some interstellar cousins of ours have figured out how to cheat space and time contact between beings separated by hundreds of light years of space, chock full of its own perils, is the stuff of fantasy. Fun fantasy, cool fantasy, but fantasy nonetheless. Live long and prosper my distant kin, maybe I'll see ya in the next life. 🤟
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