World, Writing, Wealth discussion

Mexican Congress holds hearing on UFOs featuring purported 'alien' bodies
https://www.reuters.com/world/america...

🤦

Yep, seen these bodies on 📺 a few minutes ago. They look too cinematographic to be believable. But, who knows? Some say they need to prepare topics to follow corona and war in Ukraine for corporations to keep celebrating highest profits 😎👽🛸

It looks too much like ET. It must be a fraud.

My first thought was ET. I came to a somewhat more disturbing thought which I've spoiler tagged for the weak stomached among us.


(view spoiler)[It looks like someone wrapped their thumb and forefinger around the brow, cheeks, and chin of a fetus and then squeezed so that the face popped off of the skull by about a finger width. (hide spoiler)]

Wild Sharks Living in Golf Course Lake Show Animals Can Survive Low-Salinity Habitats, Study Finds
https://people.com/wild-sharks-lived-...

J. wrote: "Wild Sharks Living in Golf Course Lake Show Animals Can Survive Low-Salinity Habitats, Study Finds
https://people.com/wild-sharks-lived-..."

Just great! Now I have to worry about golf sharks let alone water hazards when I play.

Shelter Rescues Injured Animal—Turns Out To Be World's First Dog-Fox Hybrid
https://www.newsweek.com/shelter-resc...

Papaphilly wrote: "J. wrote: "Just great! Now I have to worry about golf sharks let alone water hazards when I play."

We've got crocodiles all over my favourite course in Far North Queensland. Big ones...

Adrian wrote: "Papaphilly wrote: "J. wrote: "Just great! Now I have to worry about golf sharks let alone water hazards when I play."

We've got crocodiles all over my favourite course in Far North Queensland. Big..."

If the ball lands next to a big croc, do you play the lay or take a drop?

We're Aussies.

Of course we play the lie.

And that aint a lie...

Adrian wrote: "We're Aussies.

Of course we play the lie.

And that aint a lie..."

Have you seen Happy Gilmore?

Herd of Sheep Eat 100kg of Cannabis in Greece
https://greekreporter.com/2023/09/21/...

Vast Neolithic Structure From Over 5,000 Years Ago Discovered
https://www.newsweek.com/neolithic-st...

US Border Patrol has dropped a bunch of UFO stuff.
https://youtu.be/2nSIKYlm2eE?si=VZZlx...

Neuralink’s First-in-Human Clinical Trial is Open for Recruitment
https://neuralink.com/blog/first-clin...

J., regarding the sheep high on weed, have you seen the movie Cocaine Bear? It's a trip.

Mysterious ‘fairy circles’ identified at hundreds of sites worldwide, new study says
https://www.cnn.com/2023/09/28/world/...

Scout wrote: "J., regarding the sheep high on weed, have you seen the movie Cocaine Bear? It's a trip."

I've seen the movie. It felt like the script wanted to be a comedic send up of 80s slasher films. But the director didn't understand how to film that. The ambulance team made me laugh.

One day, I would like to get a photo with the actual Pablo Escobear.
https://www.roadsideamerica.com/story...

Cool story, J. Post a pic if you get your wish :-)

How to enter $1 million competition for recording extraterrestrial activity on a Ring device
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/n...

Cats among mammals that can fluoresce, new study finds
https://abcnews.go.com/International/...

The jump from inanimate matter to life is a big one. Yet, on Earth it appears to have happened as soon as conditions allowed. There is one hang up, though. We would expect the simplest possible life to have an equally simple genome, perhaps only a few letters. However, the simplest DNA based life we know of already has a more complex genome than that.

Perhaps we are seeing a distorted picture in which the increased complexity is merely the result of the countless iterating generations that have occured since abiogenesis.

Or perhaps the leap didn't occur here. Maybe it occured somewhere else and was brought here by panspermia. Then as conditions allowed that early life awoke.

If it's the latter, where did abiogenesis occur? There is a hypothesis that several million years after the Big Bang conditions for life were ideal throughout most of the universe. If true, it's possible that this simple life from the primordial universe permeates the universe, merely waiting for the right conditions.

https://arxiv.org/abs/1312.0613

What do y'all think?

J. wrote: "The jump from inanimate matter to life is a big one. Yet, on Earth it appears to have happened as soon as conditions allowed. There is one hang up, though. We would expect the simplest possible lif..."

In one of my sci-fi books I state that life is common, advanced or civilised life is not. So, yes I think primitive life could be found in many systems, if not many planets within systems. It may never get beyond microscopic level. Of course we could all be wrong about that

J. your post was way beyond my understanding. Others here know much more than I. I looked up abiogenesis and found this:
"Abiogenesis remains a theoretical concept. The experiments of Louis Pasteur proved that life comes from life. That all life comes from cells and that cells come from other cells.

Where the first cell came from remains a mystery. There are no experimental, observational or empirical evidence that life has ever come from non life. (abiogenesis ) There are also no reasonable explanations of how life could come from non life. The only reason to believe in the possibility of Abiogenesis is a belief in material realism." https://socratic.org/biology/origin-o....

I then looked up panspermia and found that it's "the hypothesis that life exists throughout the Universe, distributed by space dust,[1] meteoroids,[2] asteroids, comets,[3] and planetoids,[4] as well as by spacecraft carrying unintended contamination by microorganisms.[5][6][7] Panspermia is a fringe theory with little support amongst mainstream scientists.[8] Critics argue that it does not answer the question of the origin of life but merely places it on another celestial body. It is also criticized because it cannot be tested experimentally.[9]" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panspermia

Both of these theories don't seem popular, but if true, then your last paragraph is an interesting idea. It might mean we're not alone in the universe, or won't always be. What do you think of the idea that Earth was intentionally "spermed" by more advanced beings on other planets? I'm pretty sure you don't think a higher intelligence planned all of this. For me, it all comes back to the question of how something was created from nothing in the first place.

One of those fundamental questions that as long as we don't have a definitive answer begs theories and attempts of their proof. Britannica summarizes main hypothesis: https://www.britannica.com/science/li...
Endless chemical combinations enable almost improbable things to happen.
Not necessarily now, maybe in thousands years we should be able to witness non-life turning life or non-sapient beings - sapient or maybe even recreate the transitions elevating to god's level

Very interesting conversation but ultimately fruitless.

God created the Uiverse, the Earth, man and all living things in 6 days, leaving us free on the 7th day to pontificate how it all happened.

And then one has to ask who created the creator.

That is beyond our comprehension, J. Best not to ask the question.

I did.

Ha ha! I wondered when Adrian or Jim would pop up in this conversation.

I have added Asparagus Grass to my list, and am expecting to be horrified and delighted in equal measure.

Thanks Beau, feels like I'm picking up a little bit of steam on AG. Have now done several talks/signings and keep getting invited to more so... until it stops...

I'm certainly god in the universes my characters inhabit.

Nicely put, Adrian :)

Adrian wrote: "I'm certainly god in the universes my characters inhabit."

Imagine how your creations might react to discovering the motivations of their god. All of that blood and suffering was for a down payment on an Audi?

Even worse, envision the soul crushing emotions which 1980s Stephen King's creations would experience should they find out that they went through all of the death and horror so that their god could score some blow.

J. wrote: "Imagine how your creations might react to discovering the motivations of their god. All of that blood and suffering was for a down payment on an Audi?"

J... you have an amazing memory.

Hi Scout,

Either abiogenesis occured, or there is a god.

Abiogenesis means that the universe functions in such a way that given the time, energy, and matter life will arise from inanimate matter by mere chance.

A god presupposes a purpose and a higher moral perspective by which creation is judged. I have seen no evidence of a superior morality setting the universe in motion.

This conversation reminds me of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Funny but informative posts, J.

Adrian is God and Audi his chariot of fire 😐

True that, except my Audi is the outlier of a Vogon Constructor Fleet.

Where, oh where, is my Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster?

J. wrote: "Where, oh where, is my Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster?"

If you're still able to ask that question coherently, then you've never had one.

Adrian wrote: "If you're still able to ask that question coherently, then you've never had one."

That's why I've been wanting one since seeing Bill Clinton's deposition on the Lewinsky Affair.

I did not have gin in my Gargle Blaster!!!

Just waiting for poetry now...

There once was an author from England...

Bigfoot sighting near Silverton goes viral
https://www.durangoherald.com/article...

J. wrote: "There once was an author from England..."

Who played in a rock and roll band....

Hi, J. Is there more evidence that "Abiogenesis means that the universe functions in such a way that given the time, energy, and matter life will arise from inanimate matter by mere chance" than there is for the existence of a higher intelligence? My research says no.

Time energy and matter by themselves won't give rise to life (as we know it) but put the right matter in the right conditions and life is inevitable.

You guys should be watching Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV+. Or maybe you already are. It's mostly about Women's Lib, but the main character is researching abiogenesis. What is the opposing theory to this one? It's mentioned in the series but I can't remember.

Scout wrote: "You guys should be watching Lessons in Chemistry on Apple TV+. Or maybe you already are. It's mostly about Women's Lib, but the main character is researching abiogenesis. What is the opposing theor..."

On the watch list

He played a weird riff...