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287
288

"The universe..." -xkcd (xpost) (imgur.com)

submitted ago by Entrarchy

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[–]bpwnz 15 points16 points ago

dat kerning.

[–]jcbahr 10 points11 points ago

keming

[–]bpwnz 2 points3 points ago

k e r n i n g

[–]seppo0010 5 points6 points ago

k e rn i n g

[–]couldbeglorious 1 point2 points ago

k e m i n g

[–]Entrarchy[S] -2 points-1 points ago

It's a fixed width font... I'm not sure what your point is.

[–]bpwnz 5 points6 points ago

The tracking is terrible. Most of the characters are closer to the lines above or below them than the adjacent characters. On top of that, look at lines like "to go into space" and look how inconstant the tracking/kerning is. Overall it's just a very difficult to read mess.

edit: check out this little game about kerning, it's good fun and highly informative http://type.method.ac/

[–]Jendall 0 points1 point ago

100%!

[–]Nintendork64 0 points1 point ago

There's a little bit of room for leniency, so 100% isn't technically perfection in this game.

[–]Entrarchy[S] 11 points12 points ago

65 years, alt-text

[–]phaedrusalt 4 points5 points ago

Is it a rational decision? Was the decision to explore and settle North America irrational? Because it's roughly the same decision, right? Only the scale is different.

[–]squirrelpocher 10 points11 points ago

actually the decision to explore and settle the american continents was pretty economically rational (given the whole Idea of colonies and mercantilism, exploitation of local slave labor and resources)... especially the Caribbean.

[–]phaedrusalt -3 points-2 points ago

Exactly my point. And the same reasoning applies to space exploration.

[–]lazydictionary 7 points8 points ago

Well, we don't really know yet. If we find a planet with a huge supply of a very precious material, then maybe.

But as of right now, it costs a crapload to send anything to space, let alone a far-reaching mining expedition or anything like that.

Eventually, when the technology gets there, you may be correct.

Then again, I don't see how we will be able to leave the solar system and come back any time soon. We just travel too slowly right now.

[–]TheFreeloader 2 points3 points ago

Well, but space exploration isn't as immediately profitable. Vasco de Gama made a profit already from his very first voyage to India. Only a couple of decades after Columbus arriving to America had Spain found enough silver over there to make it the richest nation in Europe.

On the other hand, with space exploration, despite it being over 5 decades since the launch of Sputnik, there still hasn't been found any profitable things to do in space. That is except sending up satellites, which I would say is pretty much the equivalent of Spain and Portugal going to Morocco and Majorca for all their commercial voyages.

[–]sumguysr -1 points0 points ago

So you're saying we should discover and enslave alien races? Haven't heard that argument before.

[–]phaedrusalt 0 points1 point ago

No, I'm saying that we will explore for rational reasons.

[–]beatles-in-space 5 points6 points ago

I don't see them as roughly the same decision.

The Americas were stumbled across by Europeans searching for an alternate sea route to the East Indies, and they were already settled. It just so happened that these lands were loaded with gold for the Spanish treasury, timber for English shipbuilding, etc.

Now, it is possible to see this applying to humans discovering more primitive alien worlds. But there's absolutely no economic imperative for space exploration in the near future. The only reason the Space Race occurred in the first place was military/technology competition during the height of the Cold War.

There is no reason to return to space at this moment except for the sake of scientific progress. And that's why we'll have to settle for the low-cost but still quite amazing stuff that NASA and others are doing right now. (the Mars rovers, the Voyager missions, the Kepler and James Webb telescopes, etc.)

[–]hogger84 1 point2 points ago

china currenty has the majority of certain precious metals. meaning we have to play nice to them, however we could get them from space.

in the silicon chip age (or possibly the fuel cell) these metals will be the new oil.

[–]JimmyDuce 0 points1 point ago

China "only" has 20% of the reserves but 80%ish of the production.

[–]phaedrusalt 1 point2 points ago

The North American settlements were created as a way to gain mineral and other trade items for Europe. Just as we will soon be mining asteroids, the moon, and other planets. Actually, considering our current (And projected) mineral and power needs, there's no rational alternative to space.

[–]Lanza21 0 points1 point ago

No not at all. Exploring North America was a terrifically good financial decision for anybody involved. Exploring space, so far, has been a catastrophic financial loss.

[–]phaedrusalt 1 point2 points ago

Actually, I doubt if it's that different. I wonder what the return on investment was for Sir Walter Raleigh?
Not a catastrophic loss, though. From the creation of velcro to the invention of GPS, there have been quite a number of lucrative spinoffs from the space program. Cellphones, the growth of the integrated circuit and computer markets all owe a big debt to the space program.

[–]avsa 1 point2 points ago

Hindsight. The Chinese had great exploring vessels in the 1400's and a monarch spent a fortune discovering distant lands like Australia an Africa. They never stumbled in gold, so the next guy decided to cut that crap.

[–]yangyangR 0 points1 point ago

See 1421: The Year China Discovered America

[–]holdenmode 0 points1 point ago

source?

[–]Goldenrule-er 1 point2 points ago

Randall Munroe, as far as I could find, author of the xkcd post. Sounded like something Carl Sagan would say.

[–]hive_worker -2 points-1 points ago

No central figure should be making sweeping economic decisions like this. We'll explore space when the time is right. When the technology and capital is ready we will go. Rushing it too soon will only result in failure and economic hardship. It's probably not going to happen in our lifetime.

[–]kurtu5 1 point2 points ago

You sound like NASA.

[–]hive_worker -1 points0 points ago

I thought NASA wanted as much money as possible?

[–]kurtu5 2 points3 points ago

Everyone wants as much money as possible. That being said, what you posted sounds just like how NASA talks about human spaceflight.

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