nudge

I take it you've read Tao Te Ching?

Nice! What other books did you order?

Some more (sadly only renders):

Toro Rosso car launch! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=14FLAUOIbl4

He's not the Messiah, he's a very naughty boy!

Absolutely, there are tens of millions of displaced persons all around the world and only a few lucky ones ever get publicity leading to successful resolve of their cases. What media is doing is essentially just exploiting vulnerable people and their plight for someone else's political gains but I'm still happy for those few who happen to at least get help that way.

To be fair he also gets a lot of media attention here and Thai authorities have been pressured by their own people as well as Australia and the rest of international community. It's just been announced that Thailand has just dropped an extradition case against him and he is set to return back to Australia. The biggest difference between Hakeem's and Rafa's case was the fact that there was an Interpol warrant issued for him and Bahrain formally requested his extradition based on criminal charges.

Been closely following Robert Wickens' recovery after that horrific crash for a while and it's so amazing how remarkable his journey to rehabilitation has been so far... Going from multiple severe injuries (thoracic spinal facture, spinal cord injury, neck fracture, tibia and fibula fractures to both legs, fractures in both hands, fractured right forearm, fractured elbow, four fractured ribs and a pulmonary contusion) that left him paraplegic to walking with assistance and pedaling a stationary bike on his own So happy for him; hope it gets better and better every day.

We have a lot to learn though before we can even dream of reaching "Mars and beyond", and thus I think that Europe, China and Russia are making the next logical step by planning a permanent Moon base first. An operational lunar base can teach us so much about surviving in space and will unlock other avenues to easier solar system exploration and colonisation in the future. It can be a giant test bed for technology of an eventual Mars mission (long term habitats, equipment, resource mining, comms, in-situ propellant and fuel production, etc.) and being so close to Earth it means it's much easier to maintain and send critical supplies and personnel if need be in just a matter of days, not to mention the fact that communication is almost real-time and there's no need to wait for a launch window. We can also get the so important data of health effects of spending long time in low gravity conditions. In addition, if Moon industry takes off and we can mine resources, build depots, make propellant and build infrastructure there it means much easier and more efficient construction and future launches of satellites and other spacecraft due to no atmosphere and low gravity. In other words, whoever succeeds in building and operating a moon base/outpost will gain substantial advantage as it's a prime avenue for a jumping-off point to the rest of the planets.

The Moon race is definitely coming and we're in the early stages of it already. NASA has been talking a lot about it lately but it's all very vague and that article doesn't really give any new details either, unfortunately. The biggest problem of NASA is lack of budgetary independence leading to susceptibility to administration changes and government shutdowns and the likes. Also I think their biggest (only?) motivation for getting back to the moon at the moment is the fact that their politicians just don't want China to have it all for themselves... I mean competition promotes innovation so it should be a good thing but maybe for all the wrong reasons. I will actually believe it when I see it anyway as they've been making similar announcements for at least few decades already and at the moment it seems they have a lot of catching up to do. Anyway, in the meantime ESA has been actually making concrete plans for landing and eventually building a base on the Moon (first lunar base plans were already released back in 2016 with a concept of a so-called "Moon village"); new contracts for landers, ground control facilities, Lunar Surface Access Service for payloads etc have been signed with numerous private sector entities just a while ago. Missions for regolith mining are being planned and they are also working on the feasibility of a lunar orbital base as a starting point for astronautical missions to the Moon or Mars. In addition, ESA teamed up with Airbus and Blue Origin and are launching a new global competition called "The Moon Race" later this year in order to encourage private companies to develop technological prototypes for lunar manufacturing, energy production, resources and biology for upcoming lunar missions in the next few years. But probably the biggest advantage ESA has over NASA is the fact that ESA - unlike NASA - is working and collaborating with the Chinese CNSA who obviously have big ambitions and plenty of resources and are taking all the necessary steps with their Chang'e missions that are expected to lead to a joint lunar base shared by multiple countries. A permanent Moon base is also Russia's top priority.

I know this thread is 99% of silly "banter" but how so? I think it's well known that pretty much every driver is at least a bit of a jerk to other drivers on track and the most successful ones are usually the most ruthless and uncompromising; it just comes with the nature of motorsports. Off-track is a completely different thing though. Now I won't get into the whole silly Lewis & Seb fanboy fight but for me it sounds pretty normal that both on- and off-track impressions combined play a role in whether people find someone likeable or not. It's all a bit silly anyway as none of us actually knows the drivers and their true personalities either way.

Nice bike...

I can already see you having locked yourself in your room... munching on all the goodies before the kids and dogs can get to them

New data has been coming in and wow - this is highly unusual from what we'd expect from a celestial body Never seen anything like this...

Meh. Still sounds like a lawn mower.

This can't be real?...

Horrendous.

Our biology teacher used to have a turtle and let it walk around on the floor during the class. I don't know how old it was because my mother, my elder sister and me all went to the same school (obviously not at the same time haha) and that turtle was there from the very beginning Considering it survived three generations of stupid teenagers I reckon it would do just fine on a bear hunt as well

I find Tolstoy tedious and War and Peace is just torture haha. Didn't care for Anna Karenina either. Dostoyevsky is 'meh' for me; I appreciate the insights into the human psyche but his writing style is not great and for me it all feels too theatrical and too dramatic (for a lack of better word). Russian literature classics are usually just too dramatic and melancholic for my liking overall but that's just a part of the "Russian soul" hehe. Bulgakov is the only one I truly enjoy. Also liked Mikhail Sholokhov's And Quiet Flows the Don as well as Alexander Solzhenitsyn's novels. That said, outside of those "big books", soviet sci-fi and fantasy used to be really good as well as their action/adventure/spy/detective novels and travelogues.

10 days to go until winter testing starts!!!

Mikhail Bulgakov is by far the best Russian author and The Master and Margarita is the best Russian novel of all time.

Found a nice little text-based adventure game of interstellar exploration and settlement called Seedship and created by sci-fi writer John Ayliff . The player takes control of the Seedship AI, an interstellar vessel designed to find a new home for humanity. Apart from scanning planets to determine their suitability, the AI must make constant choices to ensure the survival of the human race - some of those choices not so easy. Would you rather continue traveling through the cosmos hopefully finding a suitable planet before random events happen and damages your ship? Or will you settle on this not so ideal planet with no atmosphere, extreme gravity, extreme temperatures and no water whatsoever? There are always tradeoffs: a world with breathable air and charming wildlife may guarantee comfort, but without resources will end in a genteel return to the stone age. A barren world rich in minerals and alien ruins means advancing human technology and culture, but at the cost of being enslaved to whoever owns the water generation plants. Some of you might also enjoy it! https://philome.la/johnayliff/seedship/play

He's fine... I should try to get him back on here hehe but he doesn't seem to have much interest in participating in the forum lately.

Tibetan Buddhism is quite different though as it's based on Vajrayana tradition; too esoteric and mystical for my liking personally. I appreciate Thich Nhat Hanh's writings for their accessibility to everyone and he certainly has a very unique, anti-dogmatic approach but his style just doesn't resonate with me much. All that said, my interest in Buddhism is purely academic. I definitely have a soft spot for it based on the philosophy at its core, the fact that originally it encourages the search for answers personally instead of mindlessly following the dogma, and its compatibility with science, but as every other religion, it turns away from what it preaches in many cases in practice when it's followed by the masses. That and also I'm just not made for religious/spiritual practices altogether haha.

You're into Eastern philosophy lately? We read The Bhagavad Gita as part of Mahabharata at school. Epic poems are really not my thing so meh... The Dhammapada is an important read in Pali Tipitaka but it failed to make a lasting impression on me - and that's coming from someone who has a soft spot for Buddhism... If you ever want to continue reading on it I would highly recommend The Path of the Elders: A Modern Exposition of Ancient Buddhism by Ernest Erle Power (if you can still get a copy - I gifted mine to Panflute a while ago and it's not that easy to come across another one anymore...). That was by far the best explanation and analysis of the core of the Theravada Buddhism that I ever read.