10 ms·

You know I have some bad days some times, but seeing shit like this just makes me think "What a fucking time to be alive!" It's truly incredibly and is sometime

You know I have some bad days some times, but seeing shit like this just makes me think "What a fucking time to be alive!" It's truly incredibly and is sometimes that kick in the pants I need to keep on going. We are living in a golden age of humanity right now, at no point before in human history have so many people had such an incredible quality of life and never before has man been doing such incredible feats and have the ability to reach a worldwide audience almost instantaneously. The fact that just a few hours ago a human designed space craft landed on a comet, after decades of work and I can receive the images fresh from the great minds that brought us this feat, while laying in bed dicking about on my phone, it's just pure and simply astounding. For all our flaws I love humans and I am so excited to see what the future holds. Back to the comet, any word on what happened to the harpoons? I heard there was a misfire or they didn't fire or something? Any idea how that's affected the landing as of yet?

kissickas 12y ago
I don't think we've gotten any further details than the fact that they didn't fire when they should have. There's a press conference at 2 pm CET.
vital101 12y ago
I'm not sure about that status of the harpoons, but I generally use http://reddit.com/r/space http://reddit.com/r/space to keep up with all of my space related news. Article quality is generally very high and there are a lot nice folks over there who answer questions in the comments.
- Lrigikithumer 12y ago
  Thanks, I'll be sure to keep my eye on that sub
badname 12y ago
Yes it is golden age as long as you disregard percentages and trend. "Some 805 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life. That's about one in nine people on earth." http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats Economy seems like a boiler ready to explode, rich-poor chasm is widening like hell. Global peace doesn't look very rosy either. Not to mention what's happening on the environmental front. All in all, sorry but I cannot feel the joy of "us humans doing well". We don't. Some technical sectors are doing well - that's all. Socially, ethically, politically we're still at middle ages and speeding backwards. My 2 cents (which is most than millions of people can spare ;-) )
- Tepix 12y ago
  805 million means the number is down more than 100 million over the last decade, and 209 million lower than in 1990–92. In the same period, the prevalence of undernourishment has fallen from 18.7 to 11.3 percent globally and from 23.4 to 13.5 percent for developing countries. Source: http://www.fao.org/publications/sofi/en/ http://www.fao.org/publications/sofi/en/
  - viewer5 12y ago
    That's insane, I had no idea there was any improvement, let alone that much! I just casually assumed the number would be growing along with our total global population, but to know it's actually decreasing as population increases? Wow.
    - kaybe 12y ago
      Most of this has been accomplished by economic growth in the most populated areas, mainly China. The situation elsewhere didn't change that much.
    - lentil_soup 12y ago
      For these things the videos by Hans Rosling are a classic, all of them are great and shine a completely different and positive light on where we stand: http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_and_ola_rosling_how_not_to_be_ignorant_about_the_world http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_and_ola_rosling_how_not_to_be_... Look for the other videos as well, he has a few.
    - netcan 12y ago
      If you're in the mood for good news, 2012 was estimated to be the most peaceful year (percentage of humans to dies by violence) in human (and hominid) history. Slight regression in 2013 & 2014, but still. The world is big and there are lots of problems, especially when you think of suffering on the scale of millions, but a lot of things are getting better. If you visit some places that are behind on care for orphans, you'll be struck by how foreign it is to see small children begging, stealing and fending for themselves. It doesn't exist in many many places, but you don't have to look more than 2-3 generations before you'll find widows and orphans being a big, huge societal problem. Supporting widows and orphans was often synonymous with charity, "righteousness," and similar. That holds true from the early 20th century back to the beginning of written records. China is a big part of the high speed exodus from absolute poverty, for all that is wrong with it politically. The instinct to reject the notion that we are improving on the grounds that there is a lot left to do doesn't come from a bad place. Each life is an entire world of potential, suffering, happiness and love. That makes it hard to quantify. A million people hungry is an unfathomable amount of suffering. Empathy and solidarity are some of our most redeeming qualities. In my opinion, so is exploration. All that said, it's important to know the achievements that have been achieved. There's a bad way of knowing them, self congratulatory nationalism is a terrible one. There are also a good ways. If nothing else, we need to know if we should keep going.
weavie 12y ago
To get an idea of the scale of the thing, here is a picture of the comet relative to the size of London : http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/11/Comet_over_London http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/11/Comet_over_L... I had no idea the thing was so small. To get something to intercept an object that size traveling at 1000's mph is an amazing feat!
mapimopi 12y ago
Textbook comment right here.

kissickas 12y ago

I don't think we've gotten any further details than the fact that they didn't fire when they should have. There's a press conference at 2 pm CET.

vital101 12y ago

I'm not sure about that status of the harpoons, but I generally use http://reddit.com/r/space http://reddit.com/r/space to keep up with all of my space related news. Article quality is generally very high and there are a lot nice folks over there who answer questions in the comments.

Lrigikithumer 12y ago
Thanks, I'll be sure to keep my eye on that sub

badname 12y ago

Yes it is golden age as long as you disregard percentages and trend. "Some 805 million people in the world do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life. That's about one in nine people on earth." http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats Economy seems like a boiler ready to explode, rich-poor chasm is widening like hell. Global peace doesn't look very rosy either. Not to mention what's happening on the environmental front. All in all, sorry but I cannot feel the joy of "us humans doing well". We don't. Some technical sectors are doing well - that's all. Socially, ethically, politically we're still at middle ages and speeding backwards. My 2 cents (which is most than millions of people can spare ;-) )

Tepix 12y ago
805 million means the number is down more than 100 million over the last decade, and 209 million lower than in 1990–92. In the same period, the prevalence of undernourishment has fallen from 18.7 to 11.3 percent globally and from 23.4 to 13.5 percent for developing countries. Source: http://www.fao.org/publications/sofi/en/ http://www.fao.org/publications/sofi/en/
- viewer5 12y ago
  That's insane, I had no idea there was any improvement, let alone that much! I just casually assumed the number would be growing along with our total global population, but to know it's actually decreasing as population increases? Wow.
  - kaybe 12y ago
    Most of this has been accomplished by economic growth in the most populated areas, mainly China. The situation elsewhere didn't change that much.
  - lentil_soup 12y ago
    For these things the videos by Hans Rosling are a classic, all of them are great and shine a completely different and positive light on where we stand: http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_and_ola_rosling_how_not_to_be_ignorant_about_the_world http://www.ted.com/talks/hans_and_ola_rosling_how_not_to_be_... Look for the other videos as well, he has a few.
  - netcan 12y ago
    If you're in the mood for good news, 2012 was estimated to be the most peaceful year (percentage of humans to dies by violence) in human (and hominid) history. Slight regression in 2013 & 2014, but still. The world is big and there are lots of problems, especially when you think of suffering on the scale of millions, but a lot of things are getting better. If you visit some places that are behind on care for orphans, you'll be struck by how foreign it is to see small children begging, stealing and fending for themselves. It doesn't exist in many many places, but you don't have to look more than 2-3 generations before you'll find widows and orphans being a big, huge societal problem. Supporting widows and orphans was often synonymous with charity, "righteousness," and similar. That holds true from the early 20th century back to the beginning of written records. China is a big part of the high speed exodus from absolute poverty, for all that is wrong with it politically. The instinct to reject the notion that we are improving on the grounds that there is a lot left to do doesn't come from a bad place. Each life is an entire world of potential, suffering, happiness and love. That makes it hard to quantify. A million people hungry is an unfathomable amount of suffering. Empathy and solidarity are some of our most redeeming qualities. In my opinion, so is exploration. All that said, it's important to know the achievements that have been achieved. There's a bad way of knowing them, self congratulatory nationalism is a terrible one. There are also a good ways. If nothing else, we need to know if we should keep going.

weavie 12y ago

To get an idea of the scale of the thing, here is a picture of the comet relative to the size of London : http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/11/Comet_over_London http://www.esa.int/spaceinimages/Images/2014/11/Comet_over_L... I had no idea the thing was so small. To get something to intercept an object that size traveling at 1000's mph is an amazing feat!

mapimopi 12y ago

Textbook comment right here.