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GameGuruGG Vampire Hunter from Castlevania (Before Recorded History)
Vampire Hunter
#120426: Apr 28th 2016 at 11:18:27 AM

Climate change won't wipe humans out... People forget just how adaptable humans actually are and that we have had extinction-level events in human history... For example, the Black Plague killed 1/5 to 1/4 of the world's human population and ravaged human society. The issue is that an extinction-level event will basically cause a New Dark Age, and that humanity won't reach the heights that we have gotten to as a society again. Instead, our current society will become the mythical Atlantis with towers that touched the sky, carriages that moved on their own with magic, and was even able to visit heaven itself.

Humanity will survive global climate change... as a permanent medieval feudal society. Fighteer's got the right idea on who will survive it, though.

edited 28th Apr '16 11:19:06 AM by GameGuruGG

Wizard Needs Food Badly
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#120427: Apr 28th 2016 at 11:26:54 AM

Uh, even in the unlikely event that we do end up regressing to a mideivalish society, I highly doubt it would be permanent. People would be smart enough to eventually reinvent the wheel, so to speak. Seriously, that kind of stasis isn't exactly a natural state for us.

At a certain point it seems like we're all speaking in hyperbole and it becomes white noise in this thread.

Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#120428: Apr 28th 2016 at 11:27:00 AM

[up] Nothing lasts forever; we'd build a new civilization sooner or later, and then probably wreck it again. It's been theorized by some that the reason our galaxy/universe isn't populated by sufficiently advanced aliens flitting around between their interstellar empires using FTL ships and wormholes is that the threshold for an intelligent species to grow mature enough to survive its own stupidity is too high.

The reason why the prepper survivalist nutballs will live is that their paranoia will have been correct.

edited 28th Apr '16 11:28:28 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
Greenmantle V from Greater Wessex, Britannia Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: Hiding
V
#120429: Apr 28th 2016 at 11:28:53 AM

If I remember correctly, the entire human population did got down to several thousand at one point, but we survived.

Keep Rolling On
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#120430: Apr 28th 2016 at 11:33:46 AM

[up][up]Which seems more like pessimism and taking absence of evidence as evidence of absence to me. I mean, literally everything is a blind guess until we actually find something.

TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#120431: Apr 28th 2016 at 11:36:43 AM

One of my neighboring counties passed an ordinance requiring trees and slatted fences to be placed around a solar farm's perimeter, which caused a great number of headaches since the intention behind it was to block sunlight from reaching the panels and later declare the farms to be "inefficient wastes of money" as a result.

Ah, the Ron Swanson school of politics. "X is inefficient and a waste of money, and I will prove it by de-funding it as much as possible."

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#120432: Apr 28th 2016 at 11:43:18 AM

The Dennis Hastert child molestation case, explained. Mostly for the sake of breaking from presidential campaign coverage. I find it somewhat ironic that this is the same politician who wanted to put away sex offenders for life.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#120433: Apr 28th 2016 at 11:45:00 AM

[up][up][up] You are correct that the hypothesis is fundamentally untestable until/unless we encounter another intelligent civilization, whether it's alive or extinct. Still, intelligent life has had billions of years to populate this galaxy, so its continued absence from our neighborhood is at the very least an anecdotal datum in favor of it being somewhat rare (or very good at hiding). The question of why it's rare is wide open.

[up] It goes back to the Armored Closet Gay mentality. In elementary school phrasing, "it takes one to know one".

edited 28th Apr '16 11:46:00 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#120434: Apr 28th 2016 at 11:45:29 AM

He's an Armoured Closet Pederast. Nothing special.

edited 28th Apr '16 11:46:03 AM by TheHandle

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#120435: Apr 28th 2016 at 11:47:12 AM

Not even the only one if the Foley case from a decade ago is any indication.

It is somewhat reminiscent of Britain's Elm Guest House case, but that was much worse.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#120436: Apr 28th 2016 at 11:49:35 AM

A trend I've noticed is that alien fiction tends to rely heavily on FTL technology to make interstellar civilization possible.

Maybe the reason for the absence of aliens in our backyard is that FTL just can't be done.

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#120437: Apr 28th 2016 at 11:52:38 AM

[up] That is a reasonable hypothesis, but it also means we humans are unlikely to ever venture more than a handful of light-years from our home-world, and thus we shall remain alone in the galaxy for all intents and purposes. It's also off-topic, unfortunately. sad

edited 28th Apr '16 11:53:04 AM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#120438: Apr 28th 2016 at 12:04:58 PM

It's interesting that what they appear to have gotten Hastert for was monetary shenanigans rather than the sexual assault. I guess it's a good way to keep him in one place until they can build a case, though. If the statute of limitations hasn't run out, anyway. It was thirty years ago.

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#120439: Apr 28th 2016 at 12:12:54 PM

Proving sexual assault is much harder than proving illicit financial transactions, because there is usually a long paper trail of the latter.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#120440: Apr 28th 2016 at 12:18:27 PM

The statute of limitations seems to be the key here. As some wags pointed out, you can get arrested for a 30-year old parking ticket, but if you raped someone 30 years ago, you're free and clear. GG legal system.

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
TobiasDrake (•̀⤙•́) (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Arm chopping is not a love language!
(•̀⤙•́)
#120441: Apr 28th 2016 at 1:14:35 PM

Why is statute of limitations even a thing? What purpose does an expiration date for prosecution serve?

My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.
SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#120442: Apr 28th 2016 at 1:16:54 PM

To encourage timeliness and to discourage claims which are long stale (or their evidence).

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
sgamer82 Since: Jan, 2001
#120443: Apr 28th 2016 at 1:21:21 PM

Two Questions: the monetary shenanigans came about from trying to buy off one of the victims or other people involved, right? Isn't there some kind of loophole in the statute of limitations if there's an ongoing effort to conceal the crime or am I just remembering Hollywood Law?

edited 28th Apr '16 1:27:18 PM by sgamer82

SeptimusHeap from Switzerland (Edited uphill both ways) Relationship Status: Mu
#120444: Apr 28th 2016 at 1:24:23 PM

The concealment indeed continued past the point where limitations would apply, hence the jail time. And yes he was paying one of the victims to shut up.

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman
Fighteer Lost in Space from The Time Vortex (Time Abyss) Relationship Status: TV Tropes ruined my love life
Lost in Space
#120445: Apr 28th 2016 at 1:24:39 PM

I think you're right: if there is an ongoing component to the crime that would itself be prosecutable, it can exempt the original crime from the statute of limitations. However, the crime that got Hastert jailed was misuse of government funds; the fact that the misuse was to pay off a former victim is apparently not enough to get the original crime prosecuted.

The judge in this case gave Hastert a maximum sentence because of the rape, even though that wasn't what he was convicted of.

edited 28th Apr '16 1:25:58 PM by Fighteer

"It's Occam's Shuriken! If the answer is elusive, never rule out ninjas!"
TheHandle United Earth from Stockholm Since: Jan, 2012 Relationship Status: YOU'RE TEARING ME APART LISA
United Earth
#120446: Apr 28th 2016 at 1:37:16 PM

There has been speculation that below-FTL space-faring civilizations are feasible.

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
AceofSpades Since: Apr, 2009 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#120447: Apr 28th 2016 at 1:39:47 PM

The Space thread would probably love that post.

And yeah, the statute of limitations is to ensure that you can't be prosecuted for shit that happened thirty years ago, so long as you've not continued the crime. It's an attempt to ensure fairness. But, like all laws and rules, assholes can benefit from it. Which is probably why murder doesn't have a statute of limitations, as I understand it.

Demonic_Braeburn Yankee Doodle Dandy from Defective California Since: Jan, 2016
Yankee Doodle Dandy
#120448: Apr 28th 2016 at 1:43:05 PM

The office of Mayor Bill de Blasio has received subpoenas from federal and state prosecutors in connection with a series of overlapping investigations into his fund-raising activities.

Any group who acts like morons ironically will eventually find itself swamped by morons who think themselves to be in good company.
PotatoesRock Since: Oct, 2012
#120449: Apr 28th 2016 at 2:06:16 PM

(Vox, Ezra Klein) John Boehner has just confirmed and validated the major complaint and criticism made by most liberals about the Republican Party: It's gone so far right (and flat out extreme in its tactics) that not even Ronald Reagan could be a member of the party.

Though Klein also notes the party might not actually have gotten more conservative (as Boehner himself was a hardcore conservative), the issue is an increasing number of Republican legislators, despite being as conservative as Boehner, refuse to accept even temporary compromise on bills or politics (which Boehner was willing to do, and Ryan is, and this is what will screw Ryan's career)

Or: GOP's screwed as long as it values ideological purity at all costs over long term ideological victory.

ironballs16 Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Owner of a lonely heart
#120450: Apr 28th 2016 at 2:06:39 PM

In other rape-related news (A Rare Sentence if I've ever heard one), Oklahoma's Criminal Appeals Court ruled that oral sex isn't rape if the victim has passed out from drinking.

Worth noting is that it's a male perpetrator and female accuser - what do you think the odds would be of it getting cracked down on severely if it were male/male?

"Why would I inflict myself on somebody else?"

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