News Miscellany

[JoeP]

Oil prices dip below zero as producers forced to pay to dispose of excess | Business | The Guardian

Retail prices at the pump will obviously rise because of this

[Sock Puppet]

Great, maybe they can shutter a few of the wells they've been flaring the gas off to get the oil out faster? Would that be a lot to ask?

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Things not to worry about:

Forest fire in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
Firefighters tackle forest fires near Chernobyl that caused radiation levels to rise - ABC News

Increased earthquake activity in a volcanic region of Iceland.
Awakening volcanic region in Iceland 'could cause disruption for centuries' | World news | The Guardian

Perfectly normal activity in the Yellowstone caldera.
Unusual Uplift at Yellowstone Volcano Was Caused by Magma Rising up Deep Beneath the Surface, Study Finds

Other things not to worry about:

Sunspot activity is close to its 11-year-cycle minimum. So the chances of a coronal mass ejection hitting Earth and knocking out the internet and power grids is a bit lower than it could be.

And:
4 billion years from now, our galaxy, the Milky Way, will collide with our large spiraled neighbor, Andromeda



Lockdown will probably be over by then.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

UPDATE:
- Animal Control Officers from the City of Brampton have attended.
- Based on video from social media, they have determined that it was a beaver in the water and not an alligator.

— Peel Regional Police (@PeelPolice) May 2, 2020

[The Lone Ranger]

Originally Posted by JoeP

The really cool thing is that there will probably be no instances of stars colliding. Galaxies are almost entirely empty space.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by JoeP

Things not to worry about:

Forest fire in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone
Firefighters tackle forest fires near Chernobyl that caused radiation levels to rise - ABC News

Increased earthquake activity in a volcanic region of Iceland.
Awakening volcanic region in Iceland 'could cause disruption for centuries' | World news | The Guardian

Perfectly normal activity in the Yellowstone caldera.
Unusual Uplift at Yellowstone Volcano Was Caused by Magma Rising up Deep Beneath the Surface, Study Finds

Yet more things not to worry about:

There are still locusts in East Africa, and a second wave is on the way.
New generation of locusts in east Africa ‘extremely alarming’

And now:
Meet murder hornets, the pest killing off bees and invading our nightmares - CNET
‘Murder Hornets’ in the U.S.: The Rush to Stop the Asian Giant Hornet - The New York Times

[Ensign Steve]

Originally Posted by The Lone Ranger

The really cool thing is that there will probably be no instances of stars colliding. Galaxies are almost entirely empty space.

But the gravity of the stars will affect each other, right? Is that image of the galaxies "tearing each other apart" pretty realistic?

[ceptimus]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

But the gravity of the stars will affect each other, right? Is that image of the galaxies "tearing each other apart" pretty realistic?

Yes, most astronomers think so - though humans haven't been around for long enough to actually see it happen. We can, though, observe lots of galaxies undergoing different stages of collision, and the computer models seem to agree with what we see. Galaxies are, relative to their size, a lot closer together than stars are - so galactic collisions are quite common, while star collisions are very rare.

Also remember that there's a lot of gas and dust spread between the stars, plus the invisible 'dark halo' of dark matter that surrounds the galaxies. Without the dark halo, spiral galaxies wouldn't exist because the outer parts would rotate a lot slower than the inner parts and after a few revolutions the spiral arms would blur into each other - like stirring cream into your coffee.

I seem to remember reading that most existing 'spiral' galaxies - such as both Andromeda and our own Milky Way - are the result of former galactic "collisions" - galaxies that formed in isolation tend to be simple elliptical blobs. That seems the wrong way round to me, so perhaps I've misremembered.

"Merge" is probably a better word than "collide".

[Ari]

One of the odd things around orbital mechanics is that it can be rather hard to fall into small massive things thanks to conservation of angular momentum. Even a tiny amount of sideways motion can cause an in falling object to miss and zip around and escape or get captured in an orbit. So all that chaotic spiral dancing is very much expected, it’s also more likely (not sure by how much) for a star to get ejected from the galaxy than to collide with another.

[JoeP]

Yes.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

His story is that he left home after an argument with Mom, in which she told him she would not buy him a Lamborghini. He decided he'd take the car and go to California to buy one himself. He might have been short on the purchase amount, as he only had $3 dollars in his wallet.

— Utah Highway Patrol (@UTHighwayPatrol) May 4, 2020

[erimir]

There's some kind of alien parasite on that child's face.

[JoeP]

Hundreds exposed to gas after deadly leak at Indian chemical factory | World news | The Guardian

Not as bad as Bhopal, but not good.

[Stephen Maturin]

Originally Posted by erimir

There's some kind of alien parasite on that child's face.

Really? I thought the kid was a British royal who got caught in the act of shape shifting.

[JoeP]

Poland holds ghost election with 0% turnout | World news | The Guardian

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

See insurance policy:

The police investigation has only just begun, but a symbol used by some atheist groups was also spray-painted next to the church.

Church members had loudly protested the stay-at-home order, suing the city and holding a demonstration at Walmart. https://t.co/T0KABcPT2I

— Nicholas Bogel-Burroughs (@NickAtNews) May 22, 2020

[Ari]

How long till the pastor is found with matching spray paint cans.

“Bet you stay home now you hypokrites” is amazingly civil, like I’ve seen arguments on the bus in the last week way more angry and no one was set on fire. Such a kind arsonist, sure I’m mad enough to burn the place down, but lets not use any bad language here like uncivilized people!

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by Ari

How long till the pastor is found with matching spray paint cans.

“Bet you stay home now you hypokrites” is amazingly civil, like I’ve seen arguments on the bus in the last week way more angry and no one was set on fire. Such a kind arsonist, sure I’m mad enough to burn the place down, but lets not use any bad language here like uncivilized people!

"Symbols used by atheist groups" are what exactly? Images of herding cats?

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Chairman Meow?

[JoeP]

Evolvefish springs to mind.

But it was probably an inverted cross, and the NYT doesn't know the difference between satanism and atheism.

[Ari]

It was a stylized atom with an A in the center. Which is certainly a symbol all atheists use and not just one of the top images for “Atheist symbol” on google.

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by Ari

It was a stylized atom with an A in the center. Which is certainly a symbol all atheists use and not just one of the top images for “Atheist symbol” on google.

That was the first thing I found when I did a search as well.

I think it's a possibility that a confused person who identifies as atheist could have done this. It's also just as likely the atheist boogeyman was invented.

[Kyuss Apollo]

Cuz they couldn't figure out how to blame Antifa for this.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

65-year-old man dies from injuries from having sex with his 81-year-old male relative, police say | | news.meredithlmg.com

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Minneapolis tonight:

The 3rd precinct is being destroyed pic.twitter.com/ZuvhSJu8sW

— Karen Scullin FOX9 (@kscullinfox9) May 27, 2020