The same basic principles involved in the phases of the moon are important in figuring out the albedo of other objects in the solar system. Or in other solar systems. Same with the seasons. These are basic concepts that apply throughout astronomy. I mean seriously, you do realize that, space telescopes aside, astronomy is done from Earth, looking out at the rest of the universe. Some basic understanding of how Earth moves is pretty critical to making any observations from the surface of our planet.

And, weirdly, you're back around to christian mythology again by referencing Evangelion. I don't think it will be a spoiler to anyone by now that the angsty teenagers from that series weren't actually piloting giant robots.

Most parents aren't also resonsible for causing the tumour that drained the bank account of the child, then forced them into debt.

Job could have wondered the same thing. Of course, if he had, God would have made him suffer for all eternity.

Those weren't physics questions. Those were astronomy questions.

Oxygen depletion actually seems like a perfect explanation for that.

What would constitute the "engine timing" on an all electric car?

Or, using the technology we have now, we could ship frozen sperm. Or even just preserved DNA along with heavily error-corrected sequenced files to compare it against. Heck, with current technology it's pretty much possible to recreate it from the data files. That's the problem with this whole article, the basic premise - that you need a certain population of living people to ensure genetic diversity - isn't valid any more and hasn't been valid for a long time now.

I think you're going to have to do a lot better than a paper about actual greenhouses that doesn't address the atmospheric greenhouse effect at all. Not to mention that cardboard box experiments, while great when you don't have anything else, don't really hold up against satellites with sensitive instruments that measure the radiation leaving and entering the atmosphere and similarly sensitive ground stations. Here is a much better experiment for the atmospheric greenhouse effect.

I've never understood why people seem to accept the premise that slavery actually ended in the US. Full on hereditary chattel slavery ended, but has anyone every actually read the amendment?

In other words people can still be enslaved for life as punishment for a crime. There's nothing in the text that seems to prevent old style slavery of anyone you can convict of something, although their offspring are safe (until their first conviction, which is pretty likely since they would probably become wards of the state) The only real additional constitutional protection is in the 8th amendment in the bit about "cruel and unusual punishment". Given that "compliance blows" in prisons don't seem to run afoul of the 8th, the circle seems to be pretty much complete. There's nothing in the constitution preventing the sale of human beings as defacto property, to be forced to work and beaten if they don't. The health and safety standards would just be a bit higher. This, after all, does actually pretty much go on in some US prisons.

Ah, time for an _Independance Day_ quote.

Dormant. The word is dormant. There are many, many volcanic cones in Auckland and it's extremely unlikely that there won't be more. Rangitoto last erupted only 550 years ago.

Not any better than a bomb simply driven to the destination. If you could somehow magically get a projectile from LEO to the ground (and in remotely the right place) with all of its velocity intact, it would have more energy per unit mass than TNT, but less than gasoline. It would probably also direct nearly all of its energy into the ground directly under it.

Project Thor was a bust. It really only takes about half an hour, a pen, and the back of a napkin to see that kinetic bombardment from space is pretty much only useful in some narrow military applications.

If only it actually were a socialist law. The big problem with the bill in question is that it's pretty much the exact same, essentially fascist, law originally proposed by the Republicans. If it were actually socialist it wouldn't shy away from the concept of a public option.

Which makes one wonder why you're posting AC here.