Is dueling legal?

Two people agree to meet at the OK coral. As the clock strikes 12 they both draw their guns. One has better aim, and the other lies dead. What happens in court?

Would extra-terrestrial life threaten god beliefs?

In particular (but not only), Christian god beliefs.

Don't have time to contribute right now but wanted to move this question from the JWST thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by ynot (Post 13693310) If JWST or subsequent technologies every find really good evidence of some forms of life on other planets, would that pose a problem/threat to current religious beliefs? I think it would have to, but when I asked a “DIY” Christian friend recently he quickly said “No, of course not”. When I bombarded him with a barrage of “what about” and “yeah but” examples of how and why it should, he just hand-waved them all away with silly “God works in mysterious ways” and “We can’t understand the mind and workings of God” type dodges.

2021 Firearm Mass Murders

Earlier this year, a few people on this board made the claim that the majority of mass-shooting murders were committed by white people, so I kept track.

Here's the breakdown.

27 total mass murders committed with firearms.

140 killed.

31 wounded.



Of the known shooters.

31 males.

2 females.


14 white.

12 black.*

4 Latino.

2 Asians.

1 Arab.

*There are still no suspect descriptions available for the June 15 Chicago shootings though family members describe the mass murder as "black on black violence," police suspect two shooters.


So whites do commit the most mass murder shootings in the country in outright numbers. Despite being 65% of the population, they only account for 42%.

Other races account for 58% of the mass murder with guns while making up 35% of the population.


January 9 – Evanston, Illinois – 6 killed, 2 injured
black male shooter
https://chicago.suntimes.com/crime/2...-taken-hostage


January 24 – Indianapolis, Indiana – 5 killed, 1 injured
black male shooter
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/crime...gs/ar-BB1dbajM


February 2 – Muskogee, Oklahoma – 6 killed, 1 injured
black male shooter
https://heavy.com/news/jarron-pridgeon/


March 13 – Indianapolis, Indiana – 4 killed, 1 injured
black male shooter
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news...ter-stimulus-/


March 16 – Acworth, Georgia – 8 killed, 1 injured
white male shooter
https://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-mu...ELWBZAA6GVSSA/


March 22 – Boulder, Colorado – 10 killed, 1 injured
Arab male shooter
https://www.foxnews.com/us/boulder-s...a-what-we-know


March 28 – Essex, Maryland – 5 killed, 1 injured
White male shooter
https://heavy.com/news/joshua-green/


March 31 – Orange California – 4 killed, 1 injured
Latino male shooter
https://www.foxnews.com/us/orange-sh...z-what-to-know


April 3 – Alan, Texas – 4 killed
Asian male shooters
https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crim...me-police-say/


April 7 – Rock Hill, South Carolina – 5 killed
black male shooter
https://heavy.com/news/phillip-adams/


April 15 – Indianapolis, Indiana – 8 killed, 7 injured
White male shooter
https://fox5sandiego.com/news/nation...edex-facility/


April 28 – Boone, North Carolina – 4 killed
White male shooter
https://www.wral.com/2-deputies-susp...oone/19650557/


May 9 – Colorado Springs, Colorado – 6 killed
Latino male shooter
https://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...vye-story.html


May 24 – West Jefferson, Ohio – 4 killed
White male shooter
https://www.nbc4i.com/news/local-new...druple-murder/


May 26 – San Jose, California – 9 killed
White male shooter
https://newsnationusa.com/news/enter...sh-of-weapons/

June 15 – Chicago, Illinois – 5 killed, 3 injured
"Systemic inequities" is at fault according to Mayor Beetlejuice Lightfoot.
https://www.fox32chicago.com/news/gr...g-in-englewood

July 20 – Jacksonville, Texas – 4 killed
White male shooters x3
https://tylerpaper.com/news/crime/3-...3770ac9f4.html


July 25 – Wasco, California – 4 killed
Latino male shooter
https://www.turnto23.com/news/local-...ers-identified


August 5 – Houston, Texas – 4 killed
Filipino/Latino male shooter
https://abc13.com/escano-family-murd...lled/11010584/


August 5 – Lakeland, Florida – 4 killed, 2 wounded
White male shooter
https://www.tampabay.com/news/crime/...-mass-killing/


September 12 – Wheeler, Wisconsin – 4 killed
2 black male shooters
https://kstp.com/news/arrest-made-in...large/6240293/


September 15 – Athens, Tennessee – 4 killed, 1 wounded
1 black male, 1 white female shooters
https://www.wrcbtv.com/story/4483086...rance-in-court


October 20 – Farwell, Michigan – 4 killed
White female shooter
https://www.mlive.com/news/saginaw-b...utor-says.html


October 21 – Tacoma, Washington – 4 killed
black male shooter
https://www.kiro7.com/news/south-sou...BIR4OQJYIJLQU/


November 28 – Lancaster, California – 5 killed
black male shooter
https://heavy.com/news/germarcus-david/


November 30 – Oxford, Michigan – 4 killed, 7 wounded.
White male shooter
https://heavy.com/news/ethan-crumbley/


December 27 – Denver, Colorado – 6 killed, 2 wounded.
White male shooter
https://heavy.com/news/lyndon-mcleod...l-media-books/

The Robots are Coming.

In 1968 I attended the AFIPS Fall Joint Computing Conference in San Francisco. At some point I took the included tour to SRI where we were give a demonstration of an early version of what (I believe) became the Stanford Arm, which was "the first successful electrically-powered, computer-controlled robot arm". As I remember it, four or five small cubes (maybe 2 inches a side) were tossed on a table at random and then the robot arm somewhat shakily picked up each block in turn and stacked them one on top of each other. The demonstrator did mention that sometimes the computer did not get it quite right and the stack fell over. I thought, "I have seen the future".

Fast (?) forward to Stretch:

A Robot for the Worst Job in the Warehouse

https://spectrum.ieee.org/warehouse-robot

Quote:

All Stretch needs is to be shown the back of a trailer packed with boxes, and it’ll autonomously go to work, placing each box on a conveyor belt one by one until the trailer is empty. People are still there to make sure that everything goes smoothly, and they can step in if Stretch runs into something that it can’t handle, but their full-time job becomes robot supervision instead of lifting heavy boxes all day.

The robots are coming. The second age of automation is slowly transferring all human work to them. We'll soon have nothing left to do but live in our virtual reality worlds. Nirvana will have arrived. :jaw-dropp

Dark Matter Mystery Solved?

Dark Matter mystery solved? And the answer is . . . Ta Da . . . Black Holes!

We may finally be able to test one of Stephen Hawking's most far-out ideas

https://www.livescience.com/testable...k-holes-theory

Quote:

In the 1970s, Hawking proposed that dark matter, the invisible substance that makes up most matter in the cosmos, may be made of black holes formed in the earliest moments of the Big Bang. Now, three astronomers have developed a theory that explains not only the existence of dark matter, but also the appearance of the largest black holes in the universe.

OK. So maybe soon then. ;)

Did Octopuses Come From Outer Space?

No.

But A Weird Paper Tests The Limits of Science by Claiming Octopuses Came From Space

Quote:

A summary of decades of research on a rather 'out-there' idea involving viruses from space raises questions on just how scientific we can be when it comes to speculating on the history of life on Earth. It's easy to throw around words like crackpot, rogue, and maverick in describing the scientific fringe, but then papers like this one, from 2018, come along and leave us blinking owlishly, unsure of where to even begin.

And there's some big names on this paper:

Quote:

A total of 33 names were listed as authors on this review, which was published by Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology back in August 2018. The journal is peer reviewed and fairly well cited. So it's not exactly small, or a niche pay-for-publish source. Science writer Stephen Fleischfresser goes into depth on the background of two of the better known scientists involved: Edward Steele and Chandra Wickramasinghe. It's well worth a read. For a tl;dr version, Steele is an immunologist who has a fringe reputation for his views on evolution that relies on acquiring gene changes determined by the influence of the environment rather than random mutations, in what he calls meta-Lamarckism. Wickramasinghe, on the other hand, has had a somewhat less controversial career, recognized for empirically confirming Sir Fred Hoyle's hypothesis describing the production of complex carbon molecules on interstellar dust.

Quote:

The report, titled "Cause of Cambrian Explosion – Terrestrial or Cosmic?", pulls on existing research to conclude that a rain of extra-terrestrial retroviruses played a key role in the diversification of life in our oceans roughly half a billion years ago.

You can read the rest at the link and decide for yourselves. I'm ordering some calamari.

Where Is Ron DeathSantis?

He hasn't been seen publicly since Dec. 17. Maybe he's dead?

Where Is Ron DeSantis? Photos Fuel Speculation About Whereabouts of Florida Governor

Quote:

Photos circulating on social media have raised new questions about the whereabouts of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis as he faces criticism amid a surge in COVID-19 in his state. Critics of the Republican governor have accused him of being "Missing in Action (MIA)" as Florida has set new daily records for new COVID infections four times since December 23. DeSantis last held a press briefing about the pandemic on December 17 and photos of the governor shared to social media have raised questions. DeSantis' official Twitter account has recently shared photos of him that were apparently taken several days earlier without noting the fact. On Tuesday, DeSantis' account posted a photo that had been taken 12 days earlier—a fact later confirmed to MSNBC by the governor's office. On Thursday, DeSantis' Twitter account shared a photo of him at Bagelicious Deli & Bakery in Ocala, Florida. Grant Stern, executive director of Occupy Democrats, pointed to a December 17 Facebook post from Bagelicious Deli & Bakery featuring that same photo.

I hope he croaks.