Suspension of Disbelief

First and foremost, I will state that I am supposing that the creation of habitable environments on the large and small scale are achievable and that the human species will desire and succeed to achieve this.  That is, we currently are not able to spread our species out amongst the stars, primarily due to the fact that we are currently unable to meet the challenges of long-duration interstellar travel. There are three limiting factors to man's ability to extend out into the universe and they are:  time, technology, and physiology. In regards to time, human expansion into the universe is particularly limited currently.  Outer space is huge.  Colossally huge.  I'd suggest that it is indeed the biggest thing possible.  And in addition, space is for the most part completely empty.  And I don't mean that there isn't discernible matter, but that those quantities of matter over the microscopic level, are quite few and far between.  People don't even ...

This goes exponentially true about gay guys.  I don't even think gay guys know how to date anymore.  I think that they were robbed of this ability when they were shunned from society.  Many even believe that to date is to betray their gayness and enter into a "heteronormative" pattern of behavior.  I see this very frequently in the unattractive as well.  Straight or gay.  Those who are unattractive cling to the fringes of society and seek out increasingly risky and dangerous ways of finding sexual pleasure.  Both groups become needy and sex-crazed. Being shunned from society has a lot of negative effects on the ability of gay men to commit to relationships.  Even those most unaffected by these negative effects (ie, generally those who seem straight or else those who can stick up for themselves or have others to stick up for them very well) still seem to slip into these patterns as most of the people they look to date follow these patterns and it...

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Throughout history there have been hundreds if not thousands of predictions for the end of the world, yet it hasn't happened.  Everyone knows the silly 2012 Mayan doomsday assumption.  There are so many doomsday's throughout history, is it not surprising that people still fall for this stuff?  Perfectly (otherwise) sane people are looking to 2012 as some sort of end game.  This is truly ridiculous. I, for one, think that the world will not end in some blinding flash.  If man disappears it is vastly more likely to our own stupidity than anything else.  This itself though, I equally find very unlikely.  It is against our nature to kill ourselves.  Nuclear warfare?  It probably won't happen.  And if it does, it probably won't be on a level that will kill end the species.. I think that we will continue on in one form or another.  Considering how far we have come in the past hundred and fifty years, and considering the patter...

I took all the right paths.  Good grades in high school.  Very focused.  Went to college.  Graduated.  Went back and graduated with a Master's degree.  I always did well in school.  I just "got it".  I was fairly well liked.  I tried to be a good person.  And so on. That's taken me to a dead end.  No one wants to hire me.  No one.  There are no jobs.  None.  For all the preparation and hard work, there is nothing.  Sometimes I sit here and wonder what there actually IS for me.  What is there? What am I the best at?  We're always told that everyone has a talent.  We see them all the time.  Actors, athletes, musicians, etc.  People with undeniable talent in something.  Well what is my talent?  What in me will make me happy?   I sit on my ass all day, surfing the web and doing nothing.  I work sure, but it's a bullshit job.  Overworked, underpaid, d...

I suppose to some extent we should have surmised that this would happen.  That is, that the process of invention, by and large, becomes more cumbersome and more needing of resources as the inventions made become more complicated.  I could go home tonight and build a new model for a working toilet.  If I wanted to of course.  I don't.  Equally, if I went home tonight, and even if I needed to, never mind wanted to, I could NEVER build the next greatest computer chip.  It is physically impossible.  8, 10, 12 nanometers?  You lose me by a factor of a thousand at least.  You need to be a large corporation, with billions of dollars of equipment to be able to create then next big advances in computer chips. The same is true for most things today.  All?  Not quite.  But most.  Certainly more so than ever before.  There's really nothing of consequence to the world today that I can improve, alter, build off of, or be inspi...

US monthly propane Residential price (per gallon): January 2004: $1.496 January 2007: $1.992 January 2011: $2.782 Increase from January 2004-January 2011: 86% US monthly heating oil Residential price (per gallon): January 2004: $1.566 January 2007: $2.369 January 2011: $3.431 Last month: $3.913 Increase from January 2004-January 2011: 119% (Until present: 150%) US monthly natural gas Residential price (per thousand cubic feet): January 2004: $9.71 January 2007: $12.17 January 2011: $9.76 Increase from January 2004-January 2011: 0.2% US monthly electric Residential price (per kWh): January 2004: $8.24 January 2007: $10.06 January 2011: $10.99 Increase from January 2004-January 2011: 33.4% http://www.eia.gov/totalenergy/data/monthly/query/mer_data.asp?table=T09.09 -------------------------- Percent of LIHEAP Households Using Major Types of Heating Fuels, United States, April 2005 Natural gas 60.0% Electricity 19...