99StockGT

Generally speaking I think most people who can understand probability and math would agree with you, there are WAY too many places life could have taken hold out there in the cosmos. Statistically speaking it would be almost incredible if the universe WASN'T teeming with life of some sort or other. The big questions are 1) Are they in/from our neighborhood so that they would by chance notice the little blue dot emitting repeating radio waves? If so, do they have the technology/interest in visiting us but staying low key enough for our satellite/radar/monitoring systems to not readily notice them? 2) If life DID/DOES exist in the neighborhood, is it on the same time scale? The depth of time is CRAZY, we as upright thinking humans occupy such a small point in that line putting it into perspective is difficult. IF another civilization developed incredible technology but a million years ahead of us (still tiny on the scale) we would have no idea as most likely all signs of them will have disappeared by now. https://www.npr.org/2016/11/22/502920622/watch-earths-history-play-out-on-a-football-field

This was due to "Conflicts of Interest"... but yeah generally not a great sign when the inventor runs for the hills. Although, cashing out at +7,500% is a no brainer

Don't feel bad, Kerry and I often talk too much

Yes there are some things in this conversation you need to accept as being plausible or none of it makes sense. If a race or races are incapable of advancement and societal development there's little to no chance they end up space faring races. No matter how many more million years of development they get, sharks aren't likely to be building space ships. But assume instead of Dinosaur being the first, or early masters of our planet, we were. What would have changed in human kind over those hundreds of millions of years (assuming we don't blow ourselves up)? What would we look like? What adaptations and mutations would have flourished? Would we even still be a biological race?

To which part?

I had a bit of this conversation the other day in regards to our level of understanding and technology, which I think is relevant at this point. The scale of time in regards to our race of Human versus the cosmic scale of time is incredibly different. Generally accepting the age of our earth as habitable planet hosting complex life at the hundreds of millions of years the "Age of Man" is only just a tiny tiny bit of that. Modern man is only, according to fossil records and most accepted science only 20,000 years old plus or minus...and look what we have accomplished? We have a roaring industrial and technical society able to voyage into space at will, send technological probes to other world for exploration and science. Imagine a race from a similar planet who followed a similar developmental path to us, but didn't have the global resets Earth has had over its life due to impacts/volcanoes/etc causing extinctions. Where would that civilization be developmentally now?

I can't think of 1 instance where the "discovered" have had an even marginally positive experience. Caribbean Indians... nope definitely not. Native Americans... nope for SURE not. Africans as they were "discovered" and colonized, holy shit no and still dealing with that. The partition of the Arabian world... yep still a complete cluster fuck. The "Spice Islands" discovery of SE Asian by Europeans... hmm yeah that went terribly and is still in many places a absolute disaster including currently some very effective genocides. Personally, I imagine if some race of being has the ability to reach our planet they have considered/worked out the issues of cross contamination down to an "acceptable risk" IF they are even biological. Many threads of thought would have these beings be mechanical/robotic in nature similar to how we send probes/scouts/rovers. This could also make sense when factoring in the distances and stresses of space travel compounded with the maneuvers seen in many videos that biology as we know it would not survive.

I take that question one of two ways. 1) Ok good, he's not armed so he won't try to blow Mike and Tom out of the water in our new spiffy anti grav black ops vehicle 2) Well, if this becomes a shooting engagement you're fucked but we need you to drop in take a peek and see what the fuck it is

This is exactly my thought, and I imagine what most people have feared in the past from a position of power. "How will this new knowledge effect the status quo, and how will it strengthen or weaken our/my position?" As the late great George Carlin pointed out, more people have died in the name of "God" than for any other reason in human history. What happens when the concept or reality of "God" is changed/destroyed?

That worked out SO well for the natives Many MANY cultures around the world out side of our little jewel of christian world here in the US acknowledge there's a very likely link to being from beyond our known world. Or from unknown parts of our world (i.e. subterranean or deep ocean) all of which would still fall into that same line.

THIS is realistically one of the biggest reasons I think knowledge will be/has been held back, we humans do NOT like change or having our beliefs challenged! With numerous wars/slaughters/cleansings going on around the world currently what happens when the beliefs they are "fighting for" come crashing down in flames with a disc from the sky? You would like to think something like Independence Day would happen where all the cultures of humans band together for the greater good and advancement. However, when we can't even get 2 old white guys from the same country to agree on something simple without demonizing each other... I don't feel like it's going to go that way.

I could care less what Robert Bigelow says, he was the tool and contractor for some of this investigation. The person I DO put stock in is the now retired senior member of military intelligence who ran this project. I put stock in the professional aviators who have reported these sorts of objects since the dawn of aviation. http://www.cnn.com/2017/12/18/politics/luis-elizondo-ufo-pentagon/index.html

It made it onto a 2 minute segment on CNN, currently 3/4th of the way down the front page. A few local news channels have run versions of this as a "puff piece" with very little seriousness. I don't blame this all on the media, a huge portion of the blame needs to sit squarely on the American people who no longer pay any attention to anything unless it's in the Facebook news feed or some half naked girl mentions it on Instagram. How we have reprogrammed ourselves to absorb facts and information is pitiful it has also HIGHLY damaged our ability to have intelligent civil conversations with each other on a wide range of topics.

I wanna come over and play!!

Only here in the wonderful United States of Distraction would something like this essentially not even make it in the news cycle. For those who haven't seen the NYT Articles ... https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/pentagon-program-ufo-harry-reid.html https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/16/us/politics/unidentified-flying-object-navy.html https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2017/12/16/technology/16reuters-usa-pentagon-ufos.html Looks like about as close to an official nod as possible, so, do you believe? The truth.. is out there!

Uhh... holy shit

*shivers* the Transfer case and Transmission issues I battled for a few years before upgrades took care of the reliability were EXPENSIVE. Since ironing out most of the issues it's been a very solid car that I've been able to beat the HELL out of with DD/AutoX/Mid Ohio and still going strong... even still you always have this thing in the back of your brain that sounds like an evil greedy giggle.

Ok as a 3S (3000GT and Stealth term) I've got to ask, what makes you miss this car? I've driven the wheels off my '92 RT/TT for more than a decade and a half but I still don't feel much of an "emotional" connection to it, possibly due to the terror I always know is coming when something snaps/spins/breaks.

"Mr Research" strikes again!

As a first car!? Dude... gotta see your hair style that went with this ride! Much love though, there was some terrible shit made in the 80s but they all had FLARE!

They are Rally II Pontiac 15s painted by someone with a blindfold and off their seizure meds. And yes, floors are toast all the way through, fortunately I can get an entire floor pan kit including trunk for cheap cheap cheap!

Sorry didn't mean to the the Debby Downer It's one of those things where they money doesn't matter, sure insurance paid me out fairly for what all was done to the car but none of that replaces a car I made my entire formative adult years in. He literally could have stolen anything else I have and it wouldn't have really mattered... that's just STUFF. The shit end of this story? I'm STILL going to court with this fucking guy and we are very nearly at the 2 year anniversary of it happening. I'll be there every damn court appearance to make sure he understands what he took from me. That was my car a lot of us car guys dream of, the one we drive to car shows (if they still exist) in our later years and talk about buying it new and every adventure it had been through with us.

Preach on Brotherman! It's unfortunate how few people in our world get this sort of love and attention as they are growing up. Definitely giving him some great memories and a huge boost of positivity in his development. :fuckyeah:

The silver '99 GT in my signature. Bought it right out of high school as a graduation present to myself, ordered exactly what I wanted and paid it outright when it showed up at the dealership 6 months later (drug money). Drove it through college and most of my adult days. Drop top in the summer, rumbly V8 under the hood and an absolutely wonderful involved driving experience. Did tons of upgrades over the years with friends on cold garage floors busting knuckles and cursing but building connections. Stolen from my driveway in February of 2015 when it was warming up before heading to a photoshoot. Found 2 days later in Westerville, guy tried to avoid the police when they followed him off Little Turtle. Took it offroad, and up a damn TREE. Went down to the Impound to pick it up, every panel on it was scratched and dented, tires were almost bald, exhaust was broken and leaking, turned the key and she roared to life. Drove it from the Impound to the shop up 270 with the top down in late Feb enjoying what I knew would be one last drive. Put it on the lift and everything was bent or broken. She was dead. Took my check from insurance and sent her off to be crushed, couldnt stand parting her out myself. Any nice sunny day I will ALWAYS miss that car no matter what else I have to drive.

Ok just gonna say as the "GFs son" thing, that's one HELL of a way to show a positive male influence! Most "Dads" wouldn't put in half that effort so SERIOUS kudos to you sir! Awesome experience ahead!