Utterly pointless stuff

Fourier · 10-03-2019 08:26AM

Still waters wrote: »

Agreed, but I've no willingness to learn about something that can be proven with fairly good accuracy to have absolutely **** all going for it except the fact it's largely black, if it can be seen from a big telescope in offaly there's nothing in it so why bother.

So how many miles are we talking about ?

The closest black hole is V616 Monocerotis which is 19,399,463,731,505,905,512 miles away.

The reason from a scientific perspective they're looked at is that they are one of the few places where you can observe and measure what happens when time and space become severely distorted, it's not just because they're black.

From a practical perspective you have to consider how interlinked science is. Although one thing might seem useless pragmatically figuring out the technology needed to observe it often requires improving technology in ways that are useful to other areas. Also little known to most people is that large scientific projects make money.

For example LIGO which observes gravitational waves from black holes has been profitable to the local area, profitable in a larger sense to the US economy from the amount of programmers and engineers that have been trained to a very high level and went on to work in private companies. Also the companies that supplied LIGO had to improve their lasers, software, algorithms, optics technology, chemical bonding etc to an extent that does have practical benefits.

A list of patents and technological improvements from LIGO are here (menu on the left): https://www.advancedligo.mit.edu/tech_overview.html

Basically you can't just look purely at a very simplified view of the direct object of study itself for what the practical benefits of a scientific project are. Studying the extremes of the universe pushes our science in ways that are generally beneficial.

kneemos · 10-03-2019 09:26AM

The Swiss Navy.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 10-03-2019 09:31AM

wakka12 wrote: »

But they thought there was other land to find, resources to find

What is the point of space travel? We know for almost for certain that there are no useful resources, or any intelligent life or anywhere liveable for humans within reach with our current technology or any technology of the near future, so it is just going to look at rocks and darkness

Like its very interesting but Id have to agree its so wasteful when there are so many ways the money could be better spent here

The money isn’t being burnt as someone pointed out. It flows through the economy.

AndyBoBandy · 10-03-2019 09:43AM

prinzeugen wrote: »

Driverless vehicles is the biggest waste of cash. They are not going to happen.

But they already happen! There are countless examples of driverless vehicles in operation today from trains to busses to cars.

lbc2019 · 10-03-2019 09:46AM

a broken pencil

10-03-2019 09:48AM

AndyBoBandy wrote: »

But they already happen! There are countless examples of driverless vehicles in operation today from trains to busses to cars.

I think what that person means is that it won't catch on.

It does kinda seem like pretty boring technology, in the sense that it's a lot of effort for something that most of us enjoy. How many people here prefer to drive than to be a passenger? I know I do. If driverless cars became affordable, I'd probably (stupidly) buy one and then drive it myself anyway.

I appreciate there is a safety aspect to it. But I'd continue to drive because my instinct would be 'I'm a responsible driver', and so would most people. Which is silly, but here we are.

There are so many more exciting technologies to pursue. This ain't it.

Wanderer78 · 10-03-2019 09:49AM

Franz Von Peppercorn wrote:

The money isnâ€™t being burnt as someone pointed out. It flows through the economy.

Apparently it turns into water, and trickles down, or something

kneemos · 10-03-2019 09:56AM

Still waters wrote: »

Have you anything that really strikes you as being beyond useless, my big WTF is that all about has to be space exploration.
When I think of the huge amount of resources, energy and billions being spent on taking pictures of black hole hundreds of thousands of miles away it just strikes me as a big swinging dick contest, mostly between countries that can ill afford to spend billions on sending rockets to take pictures of Mars when the money they waste could be put into education or health, or in the case of India trying to improve the lives of the poorest people on the planet living in slums.
Is there any huge gains to be made for mankind by these missions or is it just the attitude of , we can, therefore we will.

(yes, utterly pointless thread)

The Moon is the current go to destination. Several Governments and private expeditions are planned,even Israel sent a rocket recently I think.

wexandproud · 10-03-2019 10:01AM

Guy:Incognito wrote: »

But sure you can see space. It cant be that far away

that reminds me of the yarn about two lads sitting on a hill in kerry one night ..
hey paa , says the first lad , which is further away , donegal or the moon . dont be so thick came the reply , shur ya cant even see donegal from here

Franz Von Peppercorn · 10-03-2019 10:26AM

Wanderer78 wrote: »

Apparently it turns into water, and trickles down, or something

Well pz was in favour of government spending.

kowloon · 10-03-2019 10:53AM

kneemos wrote: »

The Moon is the current go to destination. Several Governments and private expeditions are planned,even Israel sent a rocket recently I think.

Nice to see a rocket leaving, they usually land there.

looksee · 10-03-2019 12:03PM

The closest black hole is V616 Monocerotis which is 2,463,731,893,901,250,000,127 miles away.

Numbers like this. First of all how could a distance like that be measured to an accuracy of 7 miles.

Second, how do you say it? (We just spent about 5 minutes we will never get back figuring how you can express it in words).

the beer revolu · 10-03-2019 12:37PM

Those child proof electric socket covers.

If a child has the ability to open the socket with something in the earth opening and then get something conductive into each of the other openings, I think they probably have the ability to just pull out the pointless cover.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 10-03-2019 12:50PM

looksee wrote: »

The closest black hole is V616 Monocerotis which is 2,463,731,893,901,250,000,127 miles away.

Numbers like this. First of all how could a distance like that be measured to an accuracy of 7 miles.

Second, how do you say it? (We just spent about 5 minutes we will never get back figuring how you can express it in words).

Once you get past a billion the names are based on Latin roots for numbers. Trillion, Quadrillion, Quintillion, Sextillion, Septillion etc.

So working backwards it’s

127 +
0 thousands +
250 million +
901 billion +
893 trillion +
731 Quadrillion +
463 Quintillion +
2 sextillion

Or in order

Two sextillion, four hundred and sixty three Quintillion, seven hundred and thirty one Quadrillion, eight hundred and ninety three trillion, nine hundred and one billion, two hundred and fifty million and one hundred and twenty seven miles away.

I am stuck on a bus, yes.

Fourier · 10-03-2019 12:53PM

Will Franz Von Peppercorn forgive me if I say I forgot to divide by 127 at the end!

Distance is actually 19,399,463,731,505,905,512 miles.

So it starts off with only quintillions, no sextillions.

Franz Von Peppercorn · 10-03-2019 01:00PM

Fourier wrote: »

Will Franz Von Peppercorn forgive me if I say I forgot to divide by 127 at the end!

Distance is actually 19,399,463,731,505,905,512 miles.

So it starts off with only quintillions, no sextillions.

Forgiven! It passed time on the bus either way :-)

dxhound2005 · 10-03-2019 01:00PM

That programme on BBC television. Utterly Pointless.

Paddy@CIRL · 10-03-2019 01:02PM

It's not really what we've found by exploring space, but what we've created by wanting to explore space. This is a pretty non-exhaustive list of things that were created because of the space program:

Cordless Tools
Baby Formula
Water Purification
Artiifical Limbs
CAT Scans
LEDs
The Computer Mouse
Jaws of Life
Foil Blankets
Athletic Shoes
Land Mine Removal
Camera Phones

And a considerable amount more which you can find on your nearest search engine.

Ger Roe · 10-03-2019 01:10PM

Schools and solar panels....

A current government policy is to upgrade as many school buildings as possible, to fit solar panels for electrical energy generation by 2030.

A report this week on a school in Sutton that has already done it, featured a young TY student pointing out some very obvious lack of co-ordinated planning... the high sun period in this country is june, july and august, the same time that schools are closed..... and we don't yet have a process in this country where private generators can sell unused energy back to the grid.

A spokesperson from Sustainable Energy Ireland said that the school solar energy programme is already way behind schedule... like every other environmental and energy saving policy..... so what exactly does SEAI do?

In it's current guise, the schools solar energy programme is a handy headline grabber and nothing more.... utterly pointless, just like the SEAI that continually tells us how far behind various environmental targets we are.

the_pen_turner · 10-03-2019 01:54PM

the beer revolu wrote: »

Those child proof electric socket covers.

If a child has the ability to open the socket with something in the earth opening and then get something conductive into each of the other openings, I think they probably have the ability to just pull out the pointless cover.

they are even worse than that.
they bypass the inbuilt safety system and allow objects to the put into the live conections.
how they are allowed to be made and sold is beyond me. literly the most stupid product even made

mfceiling · 10-03-2019 01:56PM

Anything celebrity related. Magazines and websites reporting celebrity"gossip"...An absolute load of bollox.

Church on Tuesday · 10-03-2019 05:08PM

Arghus wrote: »

I'm a sports fan, but I often find it amazing that it's covered and pored over to the extent that it is. Sports reporting must take up at least a third if not half of all "news" across all sorts of formats and media, when at the end of the day it's just games and doesn't really mean all that much.

Thank God it is. It's a nice and very welcome break from all the messed up things going on in this very fractured world and times we live in today.

ToddyDoody · 10-03-2019 05:15PM

The monarchy.

pavb2 · 10-03-2019 10:24PM

mfceiling wrote: »

Anything celebrity related. Magazines and websites reporting celebrity"gossip"...An absolute load of bollox.

dxhound2005 wrote: »

That programme on BBC television. Utterly Pointless.

That programme on BBC television Pointless Celebrities is even more pointless

Bio Mech · 10-03-2019 10:29PM

Still waters wrote: »

Have you anything that really strikes you as being beyond useless, my big WTF is that all about has to be space exploration.
When I think of the huge amount of resources, energy and billions being spent on taking pictures of black hole hundreds of thousands of miles away it just strikes me as a big swinging dick contest, mostly between countries that can ill afford to spend billions on sending rockets to take pictures of Mars when the money they waste could be put into education or health, or in the case of India trying to improve the lives of the poorest people on the planet living in slums.
Is there any huge gains to be made for mankind by these missions or is it just the attitude of , we can, therefore we will.

(yes, utterly pointless thread)

This post is so depressing. Do people really think like this? If so I really cant wait for the sun to go red giant and incinerate us all.

Then we will be glad we didn't waste money on that whole space exploration stuff.

Spending it on beer and smokes was a much wiser Investment

Still waters · 10-03-2019 10:40PM

Bio Mech wrote: »

Spending it on beer and smokes was a much wiser Investment

Of course it is, because that's the only other alternative to space exploration

kneemos · 10-03-2019 10:44PM

Bio Mech wrote: »

This post is so depressing. Do people really think like this? If so I really cant wait for the sun to go red giant and incinerate us all.

Then we will be glad we didn't waste money on that whole space exploration stuff.

Spending it on beer and smokes was a much wiser Investment

Most of the Mars expeditions end in failure,the couple that actually managed to land gave us nothing other than a few cute pictures afaik.

Gwynplaine · 10-03-2019 10:44PM

Quorn. If you don't eat meat, fair enough. But why eat stuff that looks like meat, but it's not?

Feisar · 10-03-2019 10:46PM

ToddyDoody wrote: »

The monarchy.

Which one?

Reverse edgy!

The One Doctor · 10-03-2019 10:52PM

McDermotX wrote: »

Honestly...........I sometimes think people actually think the money spent on space exploration and discovery is literally loaded onto a rocket and shot into space.

It sort of is, when you think about it.

But seriously... without the space race we would have no GPS and no accurate weather forecasting. Both important.

Utterly pointless stuff

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