Action and ideas are great. Having your own point explained to you as though you did it understand it, ad infinitum, has the opposite effect.

“We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art, the art of words.”

Ursula K. Le Guin

You're good. :)

I've never felt that you were a reply guy, ever! <3

Absolutely. I just don't need a bunch of replies assuming that I don't know anything about politics, capitalism, corporations, or history.

What is the question you are actually asking me?

You're good, friend! I didn't think you were being splainy.

Hey folks, friendly reminder that some questions are rhetorical, and that asking such questions has a purpose beyond the literal question itself.

I know why. I’m posing the question to point out that we should start holding these corporations accountable where it hurts them.

Oh, I am very much aware! But the moment we stop pointing out the hypocrisy is the moment we normalize this.

…okay?

I just did that for our JVS paper. :-/ We emailed the editor and they pulled the paper at our request.

Alternatives: 1) Measure the decay of DNA, 2) measure the amount of weathering or degradation of the hull due to debris or radiation, 3) measure some kind of on-board radiation dose calculator, 4) Identify where it came from and what its culture was (the archaeological approach).

The alien would also have to have died <50,000 years ago. And if the alien lived in synthetic air and ate synthetic food for most of its life, then it probably would not have a sufficient 14C signature to date it; radiocarbon works because it tells us when an organism stops incorporating 14C (dies).

If 1) the alien’s planet has the atmospheric chemistry that allows it to produce 14C (cosmic rays are everywhere), and 2) if the planet has a carbon-based ecosystem, then you could date an alien’s remains unless its planet had messed up the 14C ratio (like, say, nuclear weapons testing).