Yeah this sort of thing I would have ate up in high school, I loved anything weird. In Search Of, Unsolved Mysteries, cryptids, lost civilizations, etc. Now I realize nearly all of it is baloney. Sure there are still ancient mysteries, but their answers don’t have any more evidence for them than other wild theories.
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The same goes for cult mythologies. $cientology shows a particularly depressing example of laziness and lack of imagination, describing intergalactic overlord Xenu’s spaceships as looking like DC-8 planes. I expect better than that, even from a hack author of pulp SF.
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Just like Ashtar Sheran and his Galactic Confederation. It looks like a Star Trek rip-off.
https://www.blogs.unicamp.br/100nexos/2006/12/28/boneco-ashtar-sheran-comandante-da-frota-estelar/
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I wouldn’t worry about it. There are no global geological gaps past the PreCambrian, so whilst there are locally huge expanses of time without rocks, there are records elsewhere. Any civilisation half as advanced as our own would have left significant geological evidence, such as steep spikes in airborne metal pollution (similar to the lead spikes seen in ocean sediments since we have been smelting metals); soil run-off as land is cleared for cultivation; or stable carbon isotope anomalies from their addiction to burning fossil fuels which are the easiest way of getting moving.
So yay! We’re the first species to willingly go out and trash the planet!
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Maybe the last one…
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Oh, thank you.
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This is true and not a huge surprise given that the Bible – certainly the Bible outside the beginning of the Book of Genesis – is actually fairly light on cosmology. So the proper caveat would have been “of course we know that in reality the world works exactly as the Church says”. Mea culpa!
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And von Daniken’s grift inspired Alan Parsons to write Pyramania, one of the best prog-rock albums ever. So at least there was a thin silver lining.
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Meanwhile the geocentric-universe guys were putting epicycles on their epicycles because the measurements were getting better and their numbers didn’t add up anymore. What must have been especially frustrating is that the orbits of the planets are technically ellipses but their eccentricities are such that, seen from a distance, they might as well be circles.
Kepler used observational data by the Danish astronomer, Tycho Brahe, to figure out that the movement of the planet Mars was best explained by assuming an elliptical orbit, and from there concluded (without actual evidence) that all planets moved on elliptical orbits, His book, Astronomia nova, which contained his first two “laws” of planetary motion, came out in 1609. Kepler’s contemporary, Galileo, being a proponent of Copernicus’s theory, knew about Kepler’s work but wasn’t really enthusiastic about it (he really preferred circular orbits because, perfection); his observational work, however, was instrumental in popularising the idea of a heliocentric solar system.
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Well, here it’s the “I have eaten this and want you to agree that it’s good” take, which is extra special.
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… mainstream physicists are still suppressing Larry, Curly, and Moe’s solution to the Three Body Problem 
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Reminds me of…
Sir Thomas More, for instance, burned alive for refusing to recant his Catholicism, must have been kicking himself, as the flames licked higher, that it never occurred to him to say, “I recant my Catholicism.”
–Blackadder
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But which one? Pretty good arguments for both candidates.
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Honestly, I think only one fits the bill…
Don’t get me wrong… Dubya was really bad, but still like… normal bad, if that makes sense, I’d argue.
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It makes sense to me. Dubya was all in on some of the mortal sins but he didn’t embody all of them.
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I remember when I thought this wasn’t true, and believed he was ground-breaking bad. (sweet summer child.gif goes here)
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I agree with you. Dubya’s warmongering sure did a number, though. Whether that was more impactful than Trump’s war on facts, decency, etc…probably not, but time will tell.
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Dubya was like boy-band fascism
a superficial copy of a character previously played by Ronald Reagan and directed behind the scenes by other people
The GOP thought they could work Trump the same way but they FAFO
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Well, let’s remember that “normal bad” for the GOP was redefined arguably in part by Nixon, but certainly by Reagan…They were both pretty fucking bad, but Trump is full-on fascist bad…
Absolutely!
War on any sort of Democracy at home, too, which is what takes him to the next level. He’s just shrugged off all the dog whistling and nibbling away at the rights of voters, and gone full bore get rid of it…
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So, is Carrot Top the derivative of Larry?
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