archer

https://futurism.com/the-byte/seti-team-increases-number-stars-might-host-life-200x
 
SETI TEAM INCREASES NUMBER OF STARS THAT MIGHT HOST LIFE BY 200X
That's a pretty powerful SETI team, eh?

A Trump supporter dies and goes to the pearly gates. There he sees St Peter and gets excited and walks towards the pearly gates.
 
St. Peter says, "I want you to know, on the whole you were a good person, that's why you're going in. But we almost had to send you to hell because you voted for Trump."
 
"What do you mean? Trump is the best president ever and a devout Christian!"
 
St. Peter snorts and says, "He's nothing of the sort. He's vain, greedy, an adulterer, racist, and corrupt. As soon as he dies we're sending him straight to hell."
 
The Trump supporter shakes his head, his eyes wide and mutters unhappily, "Oh my gosh. I didn't realize the deep state went this far!"

A Trump supporter dies and goes to the pearly gates. There he sees St Peter and gets excited and walks towards the pearly gates.
 
St. Peter says, "I want you to know, on the whole you were a good person, that's why you're going in. But we almost had to send you to hell because you voted for Trump."
 
"What do you mean? Trump is the best president ever and a devout Christian!"
 
St. Peter snorts and says, "He's nothing of the sort. He's vain, greedy, an adulterer, racist, and corrupt. As soon as he dies we're sending him straight to hell."
 
The Trump supporter shakes his head, his eyes wide and mutters unhappily, "Oh my gosh. I didn't realize the deep state went this far!"

A Trump supporter dies and goes to the pearly gates. There he sees St Peter and gets excited and walks towards the pearly gates.
 
St. Peter says, "I want you to know, on the whole you were a good person, that's why you're going in. But we almost had to send you to hell because you voted for Trump."
 
"What do you mean? Trump is the best president ever and a devout Christian!"
 
St. Peter snorts and says, "He's nothing of the sort. He's vain, greedy, an adulterer, racist, and corrupt. As soon as he dies we're sending him straight to hell."
 
The Trump supporter shakes his head, his eyes wide and mutters unhappily, "Oh my gosh. I didn't realize the deep state went this far!"

A Trump supporter dies and goes to the pearly gates. There he sees St Peter and gets excited and walks towards the pearly gates.
 
St. Peter says, "I want you to know, on the whole you were a good person, that's why you're going in. But we almost had to send you to hell because you voted for Trump."
 
"What do you mean? Trump is the best president ever and a devout Christian!"
 
St. Peter snorts and says, "He's nothing of the sort. He's vain, greedy, an adulterer, racist, and corrupt. As soon as he dies we're sending him straight to hell."
 
The Trump supporter shakes his head, his eyes wide and mutters unhappily, "Oh my gosh. I didn't realize the deep state went this far!"

A Trump supporter dies and goes to the pearly gates. There he sees St Peter and gets excited and walks towards the pearly gates.
 
St. Peter says, "I want you to know, on the whole you were a good person, that's why you're going in. But we almost had to send you to hell because you voted for Trump."
 
"What do you mean? Trump is the best president ever and a devout Christian!"
 
St. Peter snorts and says, "He's nothing of the sort. He's vain, greedy, an adulterer, racist, and corrupt. As soon as he dies we're sending him straight to hell."
 
The Trump supporter shakes his head, his eyes wide and mutters unhappily, "Oh my gosh. I didn't realize the deep state went this far!"

A Trump supporter dies and goes to the pearly gates. There he sees St Peter and gets excited and walks towards the pearly gates.
 
St. Peter says, "I want you to know, on the whole you were a good person, that's why you're going in. But we almost had to send you to hell because you voted for Trump."
 
"What do you mean? Trump is the best president ever and a devout Christian!"
 
St. Peter snorts and says, "He's nothing of the sort. He's vain, greedy, an adulterer, racist, and corrupt. As soon as he dies we're sending him straight to hell."
 
The Trump supporter shakes his head, his eyes wide and mutters unhappily, "Oh my gosh. I didn't realize the deep state went this far!"

The first thing that comes to mind is to not buy skills like conversation, charm, and such.

My biggest problem with Hawkeye being the leader of the Avengers is that he's played by Jeremy Renner. Dude drew the short straw among the original six when they were handing out personal charisma and the "It" factor, and barely spits his foot out of his mouth long enough to say his lines. The Clint Barton from the comics could step into the role no question, but not the live MCU version. They'd do better to have Rocket performing double duty with both the Guardians and the Avengers.

Problem is, I think they made her to much of a Mary Sue.
 I like the Rhodey idea, but not sure others would follow, maybe to military.
Perhaps if Ms. Portman actually decides to truly play the roll and not mail it in as she did in the 2nd Thor movie, Jane Foster as Thor could be it.
I think, as much as they were grooming him, now that he is unavailable, perhaps it will be someone who comes out of the next phase of movies.

The first thing that comes to mind is to not buy skills like conversation, charm, and such.

Or the Utterly Contemptuous Sneer, defined as Reflect Presence Attack.

I was reading one, give me a minute.
 
edit:
 
Ah, here we go:
 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-coronavirus-scott-atlas-herd-immunity/2020/08/30/925e68fe-e93b-11ea-970a-64c73a1c2392_story.html
 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/08/31/herd-immunity-covid-19/
 
cnews.com/msnbc/rachel-maddow-show/controversial-doctor-gives-trump-highly-dubious-advice-pandemic-ncna1238843
 
https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/covid19/88401
 
https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/514605-herd-immunity-explained-why-are-trump-officials
 
https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-adviser-is-pushing-white-house-to-adopt-herd-immunity-2020-8
 
https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/01/health/herd-immunity-coronavirus-pandemic-explainer-wellness/index.html
 
Here's videoScott Atlas on the Laura Ingraham Fox show promoting the idea of a herd immunity strategy before he was put on the Trump staff https://news.yahoo.com/dr-scott-atlas-breaks-down-030351725.html
 
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/stephaniemlee/coronavirus-t-cells-immunity-scott-atlas
 
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/08/trump-new-favorite-covid-adviser-scott-atlas-thinks-herd-immunity-is-a-good-idea
 
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/08/trumps-new-coronavirus-adviser-preaches-herd-immunity.html - this one has quotes from a Wall Street Journal op-ed written by former FDA commissioner Scott Gottlieb (the original op-ed is behind a paywall).
 
Here's Scott Atlas's opinion piece in The Hill from back in April promoting a herd immunity approach https://thehill.com/opinion/healthcare/492514-reentry-after-the-panic-paying-the-health-price-of-extreme-isolation
 
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8683511/White-House-taskforce-member-dubbed-anti-Fauci-pushing-controversial-herd-immunity-strategy.html?ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490&ito=1490
 
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/trump-makes-call-white-house-doctors-virus-advice-72404816
 
“In the absence of immunization, society needs circulation of the virus, assuming high-risk people can be isolated," he wrote.
In television appearances, Atlas has called on the nation to “get a grip" and argued that “there’s nothing wrong" with having low-risk people get infected, as long as the vulnerable are protected.
“It doesn't matter if younger, healthier people get infected. I don't know how often that has to be said. They have nearly zero risk of a problem from this," he said in one appearance. “When younger, healthier people get infected, that's a good thing," he went on to say, "because that's exactly the way that population immunity develops.”
 
 
https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook-pm - this one, and a host of other political websites and local media sites are discussing the Washington Post story if anyone wants links to those....
 
 

(AP) President Trump this morning in a Rose Garden ceremony announced what he called a "Sun Shot" comparable to the Moon Shot NASA efforts of the 1960's and 1970's.
 
The President stated, "The Sun is a great big ball of plasma. It's a beautiful ball of plasma and the largest one in the entire solar system. And the United States will be bringing back enough plasma to treat all of our COVID-19 patients. I usually call it the China virus. Or the Wuhan virus. But I only call it that because that's what it is. If China had dealt with it, we wouldn't have to be dealing with it. But we're going to be bringing back enough sun plasma, you know the experts say that plasma is a great treatment and we're going to be giving it to Americans. We might even make money on this by selling sun plasma to other countries. Someone will have to run the numbers on that, but we can sell it to other countries as well. We're going to heal the whole world if we have to. And America will be the number one plasma country on the planet. Maybe before the election, maybe afterward but soon."
 
In an unrelated story, the heads of the CDC and NASA issued a joint statement this evening that they would no longer have both agencies doing presidential briefings on the same day.

Yep.  Same with how I look at the 1% fatality rate - that's 1% with access to modern medicines and hospitals, which would be among the first things you'd lose when you have 40-80 million seriousish cases.  Just the act of attempting to triage that to decide who really needs medicine (which would need to be taken for potentially a month, so access to perhaps 21-30 pills per person) would be a nightmare, let alone who gets an actual hospital room.
 
I should add, the interview I am referencing was in the last couple of days.  So this is a recent dialogue of his.

It seems like a lot of people are willing to say 'lets just say eff it and find out what happens'.
 
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/compare-flu-pandemic-1918-and-covid-19-caution-180975040/
 
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-53088354
 
Shared for the maps.  To give people an idea of what I'd expect to happen.
 
I already have at least one friend who insists its just the flu.  It's fortunate he works in an almost entirely empty office, and has no kids.
 
It's like people literally don't understand what doubling is, and how preventing doubling will make the situation look tiny in comparison.
 
There's a limit to how many times it'll straight double, but I already posted the math on how "herd immunity" would work.  And that 8 million dead is a conservative estimate (as pointed out by people literally on this thread).
 
My point in this rant is that if this continues, it could get really bad.  We can try to rely on people 'acting smart', but as I posted before... this is the exact thing that humanity is bad at.  We aren't evolved for this, and we'll get slack very quickly.  In an extremely Rural area, that doubling is slow (and that punishment for being slack is thus slower as well). 
 
But in any dense city, that doubling will result in another NYC event.

(AP) President Trump this morning in a Rose Garden ceremony announced what he called a "Sun Shot" comparable to the Moon Shot NASA efforts of the 1960's and 1970's.
 
The President stated, "The Sun is a great big ball of plasma. It's a beautiful ball of plasma and the largest one in the entire solar system. And the United States will be bringing back enough plasma to treat all of our COVID-19 patients. I usually call it the China virus. Or the Wuhan virus. But I only call it that because that's what it is. If China had dealt with it, we wouldn't have to be dealing with it. But we're going to be bringing back enough sun plasma, you know the experts say that plasma is a great treatment and we're going to be giving it to Americans. We might even make money on this by selling sun plasma to other countries. Someone will have to run the numbers on that, but we can sell it to other countries as well. We're going to heal the whole world if we have to. And America will be the number one plasma country on the planet. Maybe before the election, maybe afterward but soon."
 
In an unrelated story, the heads of the CDC and NASA issued a joint statement this evening that they would no longer have both agencies doing presidential briefings on the same day.

https://www.lmtonline.com/news/article/New-Trump-pandemic-adviser-pushes-controversial-15526711.php
 
Trump's pandemic advisor, the one who he allows to come to meetings, is pushing for a herd immunity strategy.
 
You know, let everyone get sick at once and let God sort it out...without all that pesky wondering about hospital space or keeping people alive through medical intervention.
 
The guy is a doctor but not with anything having to do with infectious diseases of any sort.
 
Leaving aside the medical issues, that sounds like a horrible campaign strategy.

That premise would massively change the existing world. If the general public becomes aware of the end of the universe there would be:
 
1) Death cults
 
2) Cults designed to "pray away the end" and probably fleece the flock of all their money. Multiple messiah figures.
 
3) HUGE uptick in people turning to legitimate religions. HUGE uptick in religious factions meddling in politics worldwide. 
 
4) Survivalist cults. Low end would bunker up thinking that enough concrete might protect them. High end might steal or have enough resources to build starships to fly toward still-existing star systems in order to stave off the end as long as possible. Lots of new businesses springing up hoping to fleece the survivalists out of as much money as possible.
 
4) An unprecedented amount of self-destructive behavior. Casual sex. Alcoholism. Drugs. Extreme sports. Quitting their jobs to travel the world. How do you expect someone to put up with being a garbageman or doing any other job which doesn't get a lot of respect if the end of the world is literally around the corner? 
 
5) An end of planning for the future. High schools would be deserted as would college classrooms (though showing up to live at fraternities might survive for the party factor). No savings. Economic boom then collapse as everyone simultaneously withdraws their 401k accounts from the stock market. The Great Depression would look like a cake walk in comparison. 
 
6) A lot of abandoned vehicles and properties as people preemptively kill themselves. Assisted suicide would probably be quickly legalized in order to keep people from destroying property or killing others as part of their own suicide attempts. A lot of scams around the new assisted suicide service industry (killing people then claiming they asked for suicide, changing wills, etc.).
 
7) Alien invasions as aliens raid soon-to-be-extinguished star systems for resources to fuel their own stave-off-the-end-of-the-universe schemes.
 
8  Huge amount of crime problems. People robbing banks in order to experience what it's like to have money at least once before they die. People tracking down their old bosses and ex-wives to settle scores. Vigilante justice against politicians and people who are publicly accused of crimes but still walking the streets. Since there literally is no future, there's no reason for ordinary people to hold back and abide by societal norms. If superheroes and supervillains emerge into public knowledge, I'd expect a lot of completely normal people to play dress-up as part of their misbehavior.
 
9) Accelerated introduction of robotics and automation to replace people who don't want to do menial jobs during the end of the world. 
 
10) War between countries over resources. Mass migration from poor countries to rich countries. Massive inflation in most countries. Civil wars. Famines. Breakdown in international trade except through robotic ships (piracy and privateering against those). Letters of marque issued for online and real world resources. Possible breakdown of worldwide internet. Realigning of international alliances and traditional rivalries to reflect the new reality. Reintroduction of slavery in many places in order to keep farms and factories working...and to stave off various problems that could lead to riots and revolution. Reintroduction of capital punishment in many countries and an increasing number of crimes to which it applies. 
 

I've messed with the scammers on some of those phone calls.
 
Told them I just looked out my windows and that they looked fine.
 
They'd explain that they're talking about my computer.
 
I tell them I've never owned a computer.
 
They say maybe it's on my phone.
 
I tell them they're calling a land line and that I'm picking up my phone to look for a window but I can't find one....

New ABC News-Ipsos poll just released.
 
No convention bounce at all for Trump. 32% favorability among the general public the previous week. 31% after the convention.
 
The president’s favorability among Republicans dropped 4 percentage points since last week. 
 
That's a big ouch to the Trumpsters.
 
https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/abc-republican-national-convention-2020

(AP) President Trump this morning in a Rose Garden ceremony announced what he called a "Sun Shot" comparable to the Moon Shot NASA efforts of the 1960's and 1970's.
 
The President stated, "The Sun is a great big ball of plasma. It's a beautiful ball of plasma and the largest one in the entire solar system. And the United States will be bringing back enough plasma to treat all of our COVID-19 patients. I usually call it the China virus. Or the Wuhan virus. But I only call it that because that's what it is. If China had dealt with it, we wouldn't have to be dealing with it. But we're going to be bringing back enough sun plasma, you know the experts say that plasma is a great treatment and we're going to be giving it to Americans. We might even make money on this by selling sun plasma to other countries. Someone will have to run the numbers on that, but we can sell it to other countries as well. We're going to heal the whole world if we have to. And America will be the number one plasma country on the planet. Maybe before the election, maybe afterward but soon."
 
In an unrelated story, the heads of the CDC and NASA issued a joint statement this evening that they would no longer have both agencies doing presidential briefings on the same day.

I’m a little confused by the premise. Wouldn’t the vanishing of a galaxy a billion light-years away have happened a billion years ago? We would only just now be seeing it.