Ah yes, Indonesia, a country America famously knows about.

Well, the non-flash policy rarely makes any friends. Everyone in the region hates them, except North Korea, which is run by people who might actually spend more time in China. And when it comes to Taiwan I’d say it is flashy.

Isn’t that really bad news for the sustainability of our country, if so?

Yeah, people are dumb. All her ideas have little support, so you have to think her polls will collapse if she seriously starts doing things.

If she’s suggesting it I’m suspicious, but we will have to take a look at the electoral system and the notwithstanding clause eventually, at the very least.

Everyone get out your crab rave memes.

Well, exactly, in the context of OP’s question we’re doing “spherical cows in a vacuum”. In reality, no orbit is truly elliptical, either. Then again, if you use a practical measure for a practical situation, they’re close enough to elliptical for most space travel purposes, and definitely stable far away from an atmosphere.

General relativity can also cause noticeable departures even in our solar system, like the precession of Mercury’s orbit. In extreme situations it can get really different - gravitational waves remove energy, and around a black hole there’s a region where escape is possible but not any orbit.

If anyone has a specific example, I am pretty curious now.

They say the more purging a dictator does, the longer their stay in power.

So actual indentured servitude? Or is there some other kind of payment rules?

Thank you! I tried a couple on my own but neither worked.

Basically, it’s an ellipse on Earth too. Just one that’s nearly a parabola. Because of approximately constant gravity and an approximately (approximately!) flat Earth, like the current top commenter said.

I don’t think that’s true. Any of it, really.

A parabola has a constant second derivative, while a (half) ellipse has one that diverges to infinity in finite time (since it goes vertical). I can’t really prove that no ellipse section is parabolic, off the top of my head, but that’s strongly suggestive of it.

Every two-body Newtonian orbit in a vacuum is stable, or an escape trajectory. It was either Newton himself or a contemporary that established that.

Caesar had a tendency to read in silence (ie in his head) which was unusual in Roman society, being seen as furtive and secretive.

Now that’s fascinating, I’d never heard that. I suppose it might have derived from earlier times, when the nobility wasn’t necessarily literate itself (and so would have a scribe reading aloud)?

Anyway, the chicks sure loved that combover. (Or maybe it was the insane wealth)

So basically, you declare bankruptcy and sell everything you own?

I mean, I guess I kind of knew that’d be how it would work, unless there’s some kind of protected assets, but it’s crazy people put up with that kind of life-ruining.

I’m glad someone mentioned it’s possible and needs to be considered.

That said, if we come to rely on them it would be trading one authoritarian nationalist bully for another. Europe is equally powerful and actually shares our values.

Edit: Can someone repost this? It’s paywalled.

How do you manage the actual purchase and initial shipping from the supplier? Not everyone is going to have their own independent storefront, I assume.

If negotiation fails and he doesn’t put it back I’ll be pretty disappointed, yeah.

At the store it’s doable, assuming a fairly permissive definition of “non-American”. But, the digital giants are harder. Lemmy-type people can manage an approximation, but non-technical people would struggle. I myself am having trouble with online shopping, as mentioned elsewhere in the thread.

Happy cake day!