Things Noticeable this week

[trailmaster]

Originally Posted by Rogerbh

V'GER will come back.

There are four possibilities: Voyager will be hit by a stray piece of dust and since it's moving at such a great speed this collision will damage it beyond repair. Voyager will be picked up by evil aliens who will locate Earth and either rape our earth of it's resources and then destroy us as in "Independence Day" or they will enslave mankind and eat us as in episodes of "The Twilight Zone" or "Outer Limits". Voyager will be found by a benevolent alien like in the movie "Starman". and lastly Voyager will be accidently sucked in by a small black hole going through the plane of a distant solar system and be transported to the other side of the galaxy and be captured by a machine planet such as in the movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture

[Reclaimedwg]

Originally Posted by trailmaster

There are four possibilities: Voyager will be hit by a stray piece of dust and since it's moving at such a great speed this collision will damage it beyond repair. Voyager will be picked up by evil aliens who will locate Earth and either rape our earth of it's resources and then destroy us as in "Independence Day" or they will enslave mankind and eat us as in episodes of "The Twilight Zone" or "Outer Limits". Voyager will be found by a benevolent alien like in the movie "Starman". and lastly Voyager will be accidently sucked in by a small black hole going through the plane of a distant solar system and be transported to the other side of the galaxy and be captured by a machine planet such as in the movie Star Trek: The Motion Picture

You know those were all fantasies on celluloid, right?

They are not real.

[Brecht]

Originally Posted by Rogerbh

V'GER will come back.

This is my favorite Star Trek film. I love how they incorporated Voyager into the plot. It had only just been launched when this film was made. Most so-called Trekkies don't like this film but these are the same people who worship the Wrath of Khan, a picture that offers nothing except the same old clichés.

[trailmaster]

Originally Posted by wildtig2013

You know those were all fantasies on celluloid, right?

They are not real.

But the possibilities still exist. There are an infinite number of possibilities for the ultimate fate of Voyager. Voyager could travel through space forever without anything happening to it, or.................

[charliels531]

Originally Posted by trailmaster

But the possibilities still exist. There are an infinite number of possibilities for the ultimate fate of Voyager. Voyager could travel through space forever without anything happening to it, or.................

Thank you. I was about to point out that the most likely fate is that it will continue on and on and on and on, long after our species has gone extinct, and probably long after the sun has gone nova.

[vo1v0d]

Do you think if there is intelligent life out there it is obvious they will have their morons and scallies who would do the equivalent to a space object of nicking its wheels and leaving it on bricks?

[Devius]

Several people have been wounded in an ongoing shooting incident in the eastern French city of Strasbourg, police say.

Security official have cordoned off the area and trams have been stopped, according to reports.

The incident is said to have happened close to a Christmas market in one of the central squares, Place Kleber.

One report citing the French fire department said one person had been killed, but this was not confirmed.

The French Interior Ministry confirmed a "serious public security incident" in Strasbourg and urged residents to stay indoors.

Details:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-46530265

[wimbo77]

Originally Posted by trailmaster

Voyager could travel through space forever without anything happening to it, or.................

Cat '' Or what ? ''
Kryten '' It's too hideous to contemplate ''

[CARLTON BROWN]

Originally Posted by george anson

The police having once more to issue an statement regarding rubber neckers. This time the appalling individuals were taking pictures of a fatal RTC where a young pedestrian had been killed.

I cannot understand these people for one moment. Do they not have an iota of empathy or respect for others ? How would they feel if that had been a loved one of theirs and finding out that the pictures as they have been in the past found their way onto antisocial media ?

Unacceptable as it may be to some people, the act of rubbernecking is a very human response to unusual situations. Many people do it automatically and these days, you really can't expect reactions to be governed by respect or empathy which generally belong to more caring times when people had more value than today. On Monday, I was involved in a discussion about Brexit and someone said to me that as far as they were concerned they had no respect for our Prime Minister and this needs to be earned and is never simply handed out. We live in an increasingly unpleasant world where people can still be shocked by situations, but may have difficulty remembering the details 30 minutes later. Yes, a terrible event can create tragic results for the relatives and friends of those involved. But does Joe Bloggs ever think about this kind of thing when looking at horrific images of The Twin Towers or Grenfell? I doubt it. These are someone else's problem. Right?

That said, I would just want to make a few comments about objections to people taking pictures/video at unpleasant events.

From a journalistic perspective, I'd point out that it's perfectly legal for anyone to take whatever pictures/videos they want in public place in the UK. This includes images of the police and children. Likewise, the authorities have the same rights, which is why this country is awash with surveillance equipment. There are a few fairly insignificant exceptions to the rule and how you use these images/videos can be another issue. For example you could be breaching copyright if you used someone's trade mark or you took pictures of someone and used the images for misleading or commercial purposes. Editors of newspapers and the TV media are generally very well versed in knowing what can and can't be used. But they still have an important story to present to the public. Many major events are captured by people with phones today. Some are of immense historical, legal and technical importance (even if most phone users are clueless about taking pictures properly and can't even hold the phone in the right position). But if you try to put any kind of stop to this, it will be a serious infringement of democracy and absolutely stupid.

However, there is a world of difference between recording something important and simply posting videos of someone's misfortune on YouTube as a form of entertainment for low-life imbeciles. The recent video of police women being attacked has been described as disgusting by many members of the police, but actually, I'd suggest that it did them a vast amount of good, bringing this kind of thing to widespread and political attention and improving dwindling public support for the police who actually do a very difficult job.

It is also clear that some idiots with phone-cameras take stupid risks trying to get pictures of unusual things and this has been known to cause accidents and occasionally get them killed.

Certainly, some people see picture taking as intrusive and I can say from experience that pictures of something like the death of Diana in Paris are absolutely unsuitable for release to the public and serve no obvious purpose. However, perhaps in 50 or 100 years time when public opinion will have completely altered, there will be details in this material that need to be shown and perhaps new information will come to light about this strange accident? Attitudes to these things really do change with time. Anyone remember the days when any hint of sex was considered a disgusting assault on morality and decency?

Let me make another point about recorded material. How many VEF members would be comfortable about the things we look at on this site or openly discuss being shown to our entire family and them knowing our part in this? How many members enjoy looking at sexual material? I'd suggest that most of us want this activity kept secret and we would be seriously upset if details got out?

But suppose a friend said they had been handed a set of private high quality, extremely explicit photographs of someone like Carol Vorderman or a well known female TV news presenter having sex. For sake of argument, let's assume these pictures are absolutely genuine and you are asked if you want to have a look? I'd suggest that quite a few would (me included). But isn't there something wrong about doing this? Isn't it wrong just looking at material someone might be very offended to know was being privately circulated? How different is this to turning your head to see what happened in a terrible road accident?

And something most of us are guilty of, is wanting to immediately know what has gone on at a major terrorist incident. Everyone expects to see informative video footage of what's been happening on the TV news, do they not?

Clearly these things often need to be handled with sensitivity, but it's always rather disappointing to see so much hypocrisy in this modern age, when so much stuff is in your face and ordinary people will happily sit and watch endless, extreme untraviolence on TV, which is presented as exciting entertainment, but often shouldn't ever be shown as it's worse than the real thing and must have an effect on immature viewers?

[charliels531]

Originally Posted by wildtig2013

How has it not collided with anything during those 11 billion miles?

Is NASA still in contact with it and know it's still alive or do they just assume that by this time after all these years, it should be leaving the solar system now?

Wildtig2013, this may clarify things a bit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zR3Igc3Rhfg