ISSUE 0.21

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Space and Ponderous Science

This issue is about stuff that's happening out there, in the big black emptiness we call space, and strange science projects happening here on Earth. Potential aliens, parallel worlds, and robots galore!

Space

i wonder what the escape velocity on that is [blastr.com]

NASA just saw something come out of a black hole for the first time ever

Hint: it's the Geth. (Just kidding.) NASA scientists assure us that it won't have any effect on our part of the universe. Sure, NASA. Sure.

by taking every precaution [bbc.com]

How SpaceX and Boeing plan to keep Nasa astronauts safe

Name repetition, personality mirroring, and never breaking off a handshake. Wait, that's not right… is it?

my dreams are coming true [wired.co.uk]

Watch two Jetmen fly alongside a massive A380

A video of two people wearing jetpacks flying next to a plane.

Ponderous Science

do with less - so we'll have more [theatlantic.com]

Why Solving Climate Change Will Be Like Mobilizing for War

Interesting look at the actual logistics (and people) that will be involved in saving our sorry butts from premature heat death.

I'm not prepared to answer this question [qz.com]

Should driverless cars kill their own passengers to save a pedestrian?

I mostly want to not think about this problem and have smart people tell me the answer, so here's one I particularly liked: "Former UCLA philosophy professor Warren Quinn explicitly rejected the utilitarian idea that morality should maximize happiness. Instead, he argued that humans have a duty to respect other persons, and so an action that directly and intentionally causes harm is ethically worse than an indirect action that happens to lead to harm."

cross-universe quantum entanglement [mnn.com]

Parallel worlds exist and interact with our world, say physicists

Physicists propose that there is "a universal force of repulsion between ‘nearby’ (i.e. similar) worlds, which tends to make them more dissimilar", which explains quantum effects.

robots being bad [youtube.com]

The Breakfast Machine

Simone Giertz, robotics maker, makes a terrible(-y funny) robot that makes her breakfast. 30 second clip.