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[delphonso]

Which brings up a fascinating possibility not many folks are talking about -- Trump somehow wins, but Democrats take control of the Senate. Enter Impeachment 2: Electoral Boogaloo.

The Dems will stop at nothing to make Pence president.

[wierd]

Maybe it's a random antimatter asteroid.

No no, it's just gonna suddenly, and for no apparent reason, increase velocity to a significant fraction of C, and transform into a kinetic impactor.

[RedKing]

Well, broadcasts from the 2016 primaries and Trump's descent on the golden escalator should just now be reaching Alpha Centauri...just saying, they'd have a clear motive.

[wierd]

I had no idea Planet was so touchy--

Simply because we called Trump a "Semi-intelligent orange fungus", does not mean it was a slight against semi-intelligent orange fungi in general--

Somebody send a psi transmission right away, and let Planet know we did not mean to insult it, before it sends the mindworm boil to earth.

[scriver]

God I hate people joking about asteroids. It's really scary guys! D:

[Maximum Spin]

God I hate people joking about asteroids. It's really scary guys! D:

Don't worry, there's no such thing as asteroids.

[wierd]

Well no. Once they enter the atmosphere they become meteors.

Also, this one is low mass. It would have to have an epic fukton of kinetic energy to be an actual source of concern.

[Egan_BW]

Well no. Once they enter the atmosphere they become meteors.

Alao this one is low mass. It would have to have an epic fukton of kinetic energy to be an actual source of concern.

The one we haven't seen yet, on the other hand...

[wierd]

well of COURSE NOT-- (as in, we would not see it.) One with an epic fuckton of kinetic energy would be moving so fast that it might not register on our equipment before it is very very close to us.

(Because if it is moving, say, 50% of C, the distance it would close before the light that bounced off of it, that we can detect had actually reached us, would already be half the distance it appeared to be from us when we make the detection.  if it was moving 90% of C, it would have already crossed 90% of that distance. )

[RedKing]

God I hate people joking about asteroids. It's really scary guys! D:

Meh, for someone like me that grew up with the specter of "the Soviets could nuke us all within thirty minutes at anytime", it's kinda the same thing. Sure it's an existential Sword of Damocles perpetually dangling over your head, but since there's zero you can do about it, it becomes just "one of those things".

EDIT: Meanwhile, in more tangible dangers, some voters are reporting receiving threatening emails telling them to "Vote Trump, or we will come after you" and at least spoofed to look like it's from the Proud Boys, although point of origin appears to be a foreign server(s), most likely hijacked ones.

[Starver]

ETA: interesting story. True flag-waving on behalf of the alleged senders[1]? False-flag to set them up[2]? False-false-flag[3]? Flagception!


[1] The Proud Boys (or a spokesman) say not them....
[2] ...and says it must be someone who doesn't like them...
[3] ...but would they even admit it was them?

[sluissa]

One of the nice things is that things in space of significant size don't typically get accelerated to significant fractions of the speed of light. The events and phenomena capable of doing so don't usually do it smoothly enough to allow the things to remain of significant size. Random .5c bullet doesn't worry me nearly as much as the dark, non reflective rock just kind of riding in the lane next to us in our blindspot that drifts over and bumps our fender.

But thats a topic for another thread.

Had family member do early in-person voting the first day. Normally in this area that's a 10-15 minute ordeal. This year it took an hour. Some of that is probably due to extra sanitizing measures slowing things down a little, but it was still surprising. Was interesting to hear. Curious what election day will look like. It's usually only a LITTLE busier than early voting is.

[RedKing]

The need to sanitize voting stations is definitely adding to the wait time. Another interesting thing that is flying under the radar right now is the extra cost for pens. Dunno how they're doing it in every area, but here we still use pens and bubble sheet ballots, and they're having every voter keep the pen they used. Which doesn't sound like a big deal, but obtaining and paying for millions of pens is no small thing.

[sluissa]

The need to sanitize voting stations is definitely adding to the wait time. Another interesting thing that is flying under the radar right now is the extra cost for pens. Dunno how they're doing it in every area, but here we still use pens and bubble sheet ballots, and they're having every voter keep the pen they used. Which doesn't sound like a big deal, but obtaining and paying for millions of pens is no small thing.

Yeah, that was also surprising. But at the same time, pens in bulk quantities are stupidly cheap. Possibly as cheap as the paper ballot itself costs.(Especially given that some locations have multiple page ballots)

[Starver]

Don't buy (additional) "I voted!" badges, but instead get "I voted! With this!!!" pens... Offset the costs with the savings.

In fact, how about ones with one of those "disappearing bikini" floaty-things, featuring Trump on one side and Biden on the other. Make everyone happy!

(Is it too late to tender this suggestion, find a local pen-customising company, ship to all 50 states across the ocean (at least one, maybe 1.5), sell at just 1% above cost and still make a tidy profit? It is? Darn!)