# Is a three body gravitating system doomed to collapse?

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Suppose we have two gravitating bodies, which are rotating around each other. They are bodies and are affected by deformation caused by tidal forces. Moving tidal waves suck energy from the axial rotation of these bodies. After some time their axial rotation will be synced with orbital rotation and tidal waves will be stopped. Like Moon orbital rotation around Earth is synced with its axial rotation. Maybe I missed some additional effects but it seems to be a quite accurate assumption.
Except for some special cases, if we have three orbiting bodies, their orbital rotation cannot be synced with axial rotation altogether. Tidal waves in such a system will exist and suck energy indefinitely. And the only source of energy is potential body energy. Will they fall?

I understand that such effects should be very small; it hardly can be measured in the solar system, because the variation of mass of planets and the Sun causes a much higher effect.

But anyway are there any measures that support the existence of such an effect for something? Or is there theoretical proof that this effect does not work for some reasons I missed?

Since you are talking about real bodies with some extent, yes. The case for point-particles is somewhat different.

Any dissipative system will (by definition) gradually lose energy, and that means that the positions and velocities of the constituent bodies will be confined to (hyper)surfaces in phase space with less and less energy, $$E=V(mathbf{x})+K(mathbf{v})$$. Potential energy $$V(mathbf{x})$$ decreases with distance between the bodies and there is a minimum possible separation giving a minimum potential energy, and kinetic energy is always positive $$K(mathbf{v})>0$$. So as $$E$$ declines the distances and velocities have to decline accordingly. Typically things getting close move faster, with kinetic energy increasing as potential energy decreases, but since there is a limit to how much potential energy can decrease before things collide there will eventually be a collision (or, in systems allowing it - not the case here - losing all kinetic energy and ending up in perpetual rest).

(Point particles can cheat in Newtonian gravity by performing weird and physically unrealistic collision or oscillating orbits since they can reduce their potential energy arbitrarily far, see the Painleve conjecture)

In practice dissipation effects are tiny in planetary systems, and for most planets their orbits will instead be disrupted by rare stellar encounters, chaotic resonances with other planets, or mass-loss from the star when it leaves the main sequence. Planets near stars may be dragged in because of tidal effects, but this matters most if one is a few stellar radii away. In the truly long run gravitational radiation will force any planet to spiral in, but the timescales are staggeringly long.

The number of bodies does not change things, but for many-body systems ($$Ngeq 3$$) some bodies can gain enough energy to permanently escape while the rest merge.

## Antarctic Pine Island Glacier is not doomed

A recent paper announcing Pine Island Glacier doom failed to consider other findings showing the glacier is in fact more stable than assumed.

A new paper by Rosier et al concludes – based on model simulations – that the Pine Island, West Antarctic glacier (pictured) may have already surpassed one of the three dangerous tipping points, prompting the media to issue warnings of doom, so reports Die kalte Sonne here in its latest information video.

The scientists fear that should the Amundsen Sea water temperature rise 1.2°C, the Pine Island Glacier would retreat and trigger the collapse of the entire West Antarctic Ice Shelf (WAIS), which in turn would mean a rapid global sea-level rise of over three meters.

Involved in the the Rosier et al study was Stefan Rahmstorf-mentored researcher Ricarda Winkelmann of the Potsdam Institute.

But other publications show no doomsday.

However, as Die kalte Sonne points out, the team of scientists ignored a vast body of science that contradicts their dire findings.

For example, a 2017 publication by Bingham et al explains how the researchers actually surveyed to mighty Pine Island glacier (PIG) and found that the terrain’s characteristics would in fact slow down the retreat even under a warming climate:

Also, a 2014 publication by Beem et al found that another glacier in the region had seen a deceleration in retreat over the previous 50 years.

#### Volcanoes, natural cycles at play

In 2018, a paper by Loose et al found that the Pine Island glacier was sitting over volcanic activity, which was providing heat for melting.

Also, another 2014 publication by Witus et al found that over the Holocene there have been repeated periods of rapid ice melt at Pine Island:

#### Collapse improbable

And again in 2018, a publication by Barletta et al found that “observed bedrock uplift” in fact would likely stabilize the Pine Island Glacier “and make a collapse improbable.

Die kalte Sonne brings up the question: Why were these earlier studies – many based on observations – ignored by Rosier et al?

Hard to believe they were,” says the Die kalte Sonne video report.

Surely they must have been aware of these publications?

#### Amundsen Sea cooling!

Also very peculiar is the fact that Rosier et al also seem to ignore the data from the ARGO measurement buoys in the area.

Recall that sea surface temperatures there (Amundsen Sea) rising 1.2°C would mean passing the third and final “dangerous” tipping point and lead to WAIS collapse.

The Amundsen Sea has been cooling over the past 15 years!

Die kalte Sonne summarzes:

The [Rosier et al] tipping point paper with the PIK penmanship on it doesn’t look so convincing and ignores everything that doesn’t fit their own idea.

PSI editor’s note: Judith Curry has previously said that if the entire West Antarctic Ice Sheet were to collapse into the sea, it would raise sea-levels by around 15-20 feet, but would take at least 300 years to fully melt.

More precisely, the externally measured mass of the system is reduced.

It isn't. The maximum mass limit for a gravitating body is not derived assuming a homogeneous mass distribution.

The Einstein-Hilbert action of a static system is essentially an integral over a slice of spacetime of the mass-energy L_M in the system plus the Ricci curvature R:

If the spacetime outside the system is asymptotically Minkowski, we can take the slice according to the global Minkowski time coordinate, and extend the slice in some natural way to the system.

Time flows slower in a low gravitational potential, and the integral over L_M is reduced, because in the slice we integrate over a shorter time interval (t_0, t_1) in such an area. But R is positive there and makes the integral bigger. The system settles in the state where the integral is at the minimum.

From where do we take the binding energy of the system? If we interpret the integral as some kind of energy, then each atom in a low potential will contribute less because time flows slower there (equivalently, there is a redshift if that atom sends a photon to distant space). Let us denote by E the energy freed. We can break down E to each atom in a natural way.

The integral over R we can interpret as the energy of spacetime deformation. Some of the energy freed from atoms goes to the deformation. The deformation is a collective process. We cannot say which atom is responsible for which part of R. Also, we cannot say where the energy of R is exactly located. Let us denote by D the energy of spacetime deformation.

The binding energy is E - D. We cannot locate D, and D is a collective phenomenon. We cannot say "from which part" did each joule of the binding energy come from.

An analogous system is a slippery rubber sheet on which we put coins as weights. The coins do not overlap. The coins tend to slide together, so that they can hang lower. From where do we take the "binding energy" in this system? E is the potential energy lost by coins. There is a natural way to locate E.

The energy D is the rubber deformation energy. In rubber, we CAN locate where the deformation energy is stored. We can cut the sheet in small pieces and measure the deformation energy of each piece. The deformation energy is spread under the coins and also in their neighborhood.

I am currently studying this discrepancy between the rubber model and general relativity. What are its implications?

## ​Oceanside Pier – Standing Strong or Doomed to Collapse?

The Oceanside Pier had a gloomy beginning, as if it were doomed to fail from the very onset. It&rsquos the only one left of the original six, and it&rsquos also the longest, wooden one of its kind on the West Coast. Unfortunately, the other five succumbed to the powers of Mother Nature.

Oceanside Pier in the distance

My wife and I were simply fascinated by the size, stature and history of the Oceanside Pier, and were eager to find out more on a trip to this Southern Californian city.

#### Brief History of the Piers

In 1888, the local wharf company constructed the first wooden pier at a length of 1200 feet. Sadly, a storm destroyed 900 feet of it in December 1890.

In 1891, South Pacific Hotel manager Melchior Pieper initiated the rebuilding and collected the lumber from the washed off pier, storing it at the back of the hotel. Mr. Pieper suggested that the new construction should be at 3 rd Street, which is now Pier View Way. In 1896, the latest pier earned the nickname &ldquoThe Little Iron Wharf,&rdquo due its iron piling at a length of 1400ft. Despite the high costs for its extension in 1900, heavy storms damaged it in 1902.

In 1903, the city&rsquos third pier, supported by steel rails from the Southern California Railway Co., wasn&rsquot enough to withstand the merciless ocean waves, which brought an end to this 1300-foot pier.

In 1926, voters approved the building of a fourth pier at a length of 1900 feet and a cost of $100,000. The city threw a three-day celebration upon its completion on July 4, 1927, but 385 feet of it later suffered severe damages by a storm. Surprisingly, the city issued a bond of$175,000 to build a fifth pier.

Completed in 1946, the fifth one became the longest on the West Coast, but it, too, fell into disrepair after decades of relentless beatings from powerful weather.

Was it time for the sixth pier? Apparently so, and it came with a hefty price tag of $5 million. The inauguration of the 1942-foot-long structure took place on September 29, 1987, and it became the longest made of wood on the West Coast. #### Life at the Pier Pelicans and seagulls swarm fishermen just below this famous California pier. These sea birds are quite used to people and flashing cameras, and I had the impression that they liked being the stars. For a scrumptious sandwich or a fresh seafood meal, take a seat at Ruby&rsquos, which even locals give a high rating. Though this is the only eatery on the pier, the best part of a day in Oceanside is simply enjoying its serene beauty. It&rsquos the perfect place to daydream and let the sea breeze carry your troubles away. A nice stroll down the pier Walk to the end of the pier for an amazing panorama of miles of coastline, a show of surfers and body borders riding waves, and seal lions swimming around with the hope of an easy meal. Due to Oceanside Pier&rsquos location and popularity, &ldquothe summer months are packed,&rdquo one local said. There is a myriad of activities, such as concerts in the amphitheater, which visitors and locals alike thoroughly enjoy, and the beach fills up quickly on a hot day. It also turns out that beach erosion is one Oceanside&rsquos biggest problems, and the city is taking expensive measures to ensure the future of this stretch of beautiful coastline. It&rsquos unknown whether this sixth pier will withstand the unrelenting waves and storms&mdashonly time will tell&mdashuntil then, go there and enjoy it! ## Why the Legion is Doomed to be Destroyed in a Total War with the NCR. Even if the Legion were to win the Second Battle of Hoover Dam and conquer the Mojave Wasteland, theyɽ merely be buying themselves a little extra time and simply stall their inevitable demise. Note that the following analysis assumes that the Legion won the Second Battle of Hoover Dam and that the Courier died in Goodsprings. To start off this analysis, let's begin with a run-down of the respective weapons, equipment and gear of the respective ranks of the NCR and the Legion going into the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. Beginning with the NCR garrison at Hoover Dam. The NCR Trooper comprises the core of the Republic's colossal armies and is the prime component of the NCR Army. A superb combination of volunteers and conscripts whose degrees of training, motivation, combat experience and access to equipment vary across the ranks, they're some of the most disciplined, most professional soldiers in all of the Wastes. They're outfitted with modern military-grade ballistic vests that offer excellent protection against small arms fire, shrapnel and melee weapons alongside steel helmets. The NCR Army battalion that's stationed at Hoover Dam in particular is fully comprised of battle-hardened, fully-trained volunteer veteran NCR Troopers that are armed with 5.56 × .45mm NATO Marksman Carbines, 5mm Assault Rifles, 12-gauge Riot Shotguns and .308 Sniper Rifles to supplement their standard-issued 5.56 × .45mm NATO Service Rifles. The NCR Patrol Ranger is one of the finest, most elite warriors in both the NCR military and the Wastelands, overall. Having survived a brutal training regimen that's so ludicrously difficult that 8-out-of-10 aspiring recruits wash-out, these purely volunteer harbingers of death have little to no equals in terms of skill, fighting prowess and strength. They're outfitted with a suit of hand-made First-Generation Combat sporting a knife sheath, a hydration pouch and spiked spurs for unarmed combat that is impervious to any and all small arms fire, shrapnel and melee attacks. They're armed with 5.56 × .45mm NATO Marksman Carbines, .308 Sniper Rifles and .44 Magnum Trail Carbines. The NCR Heavy Trooper is not only the elite heavy shock infantry of the NCR Army, but is also the proverbial sledgehammer through which the Republic may crush its enemies and obliterate all that may threaten its values. Having earned their distinctive armor through immense sacrifice in blood, sweat and most of their young lives, they're the absolute best-trained, best-equipped, most battle-hardened, most professional, most skilled, most fanatically-devoted warriors in the whole of the NCR Armed Forces (rivaled only by the legendary NCR Veteran Rangers). Warriors that are more than willing to fight to their absolute last breath in defense of the Republic and all that it represents. They're outfitted with NCR Salvaged Power Armor, suits of T-45d Power Armor that were captured from the Brotherhood of Steel during the Brotherhood War that have had their joint servomotors removed and their back-mounted power cylinders replaced with custom-built energy modules and built-in air-conditioning units so that Power Armor Training wouldn't be needed to wear them. And while they're no longer legitimate suits of Power Armor in that they're no longer powered, they're still some of the absolute best and most protective suits of armor within the Republic's entire mammoth arsenal. Completely invulnerable to all but the most powerful conventional firearms, highly-advanced energy weapons, specialized ammunition and high-powered explosives, they can truly absorb Hellish amounts of punishment. They're armed with 5.56 × .45mm NATO Light Machine Guns, 5mm Miniguns, Heavy Incinerators, Flamers and Missile Launchers (albeit rarely). The NCR Veteran Ranger is a living, breathing legend walking amongst the ruins and ashes of the Old World, drawing inspiration and hope from soldiers and citizens of the Republic as well as fear and terror from enemies and all those who dare to oppose the NCR. Fabled for their unmatched fighting prowess, envied for their flawlessly unequalled marksmanship technique, feared for their unrivaled warfighting skills, awe-inspiring for their unsurpassed pugilist talent and legendary for their innate mastery over hardcore survivalist skills, the NCR Veteran Rangers are the absolute finest, best-trained, most battle-hardened, most professional, most skilled, most-elite and all-around most bad-ass warriors in not only the entire history of the Republic military, but also the whole of the Western Wastes, as well. Centurions and Praetorian Guards of Caesar's Legion, Knights and Paladins of the Brotherhood of Steel and even the Republic's very own NCR Heavy Troopers have learned to shudder in terror and fear at the mere mention of the mythical phenoms of the Wastelands that are the NCR Veteran Rangers These fabled guardian angels of the Republic are outfitted with the equally legendary Black Armor, a hyper-advanced suit of Third-Generation Combat Armor consisting of a highly-flexible vest of incredibly-rigid high-impact armored plating with adjustable straps on both the sides and the shoulders and a built-in throat protector that's mounted on the vest. Combined with the state-of-the-art rounded-shell ballistic helmet sporting built-in lamps and infrared/visible light projectors as well as the complimentary highly-sophisticated armored mask with built-in low-light optics, an incorporated locking mechanism that joins the mask itself with the helmet shell, ear covers with built-in membranes that confer additional protection without inhibiting the wearer's hearing and built-in air filters, the mythical Black Armor is well-deserving of its stellar reputation. As you can see, the NCR's forces are extremely heavily-armed, well-equipped and armed to the teeth with the absolute latest in top-of-the-line, high-powered firearms and state-of-the-art, highly-sophisticated energy weapons as well as superbly well-protected with an abundance of different varieties of military-grade body armors with varying degrees of effectiveness and even Salvaged Power Armor. Now it's time for an evaluation of the Legion's weapons and technology. The Recruit Legionary is the primary foot soldier of Caesar's army and comprises the vast majority of the Legion's ranks. Trained and conditioned from before they could walk to become the perfect warriors, Recruit Legionaries are incredibly well-conditioned and in phenomenal physical shape, owing to a savagely intense training regimen that even the NCR Rangers would envy. Despite said conditioning, however, they're still the equivalent of literal cannon fodder with little-to-no actual skill in firearms usage and maintenance. They're outfitted with a suit of makeshift featherweight armor that consists of sports equipment with bits and pieces of scrap metal atop a cloth tunic that's all lashed together with leather straps. An armor that's so weak that it couldn't even protect its wearer against the likes of a straight razor. They're armed primarily with a "Machete" (what's really a lawnmower blade that's lashed to a stick) and "Throwing Spears" (what's really even bigger sticks with pieces of sharpened scrap metal fastened and jabbed into the tips), though they can rarely get their hands on firearms (albeit damn near broken ones) such as .357 Magnum Revolvers, .357 Magnum Cowboy Repeaters, 9mm Pistols, 20-gauge Single Shotguns, 20-gauge Caravan Shotguns, 5.56 × .45mm NATO Varmint Rifles and 10mm Pistols. The Prime Legionary is the centerpiece of the Legion's fighting force and the core component of any Legion formation. Having survived 5 years in Caesar's forces, a remarkable accomplishment in and of itself, Prime Legionaries are no longer mere cannon fodder but are now the main frontline fighting force of the Legion. With the accompanying improvement in weapons and equipment as well as adequate firearms skills to make the promotion that much sweeter. They're outfitted with the exact same armor as before, only with a slight improvement in protection. It still can't protect the wearer from shit, however. They're armed with the standard-issued "Machetes" and "Throwing Spears" though they also have much better access to more advanced weapons than before. Melee weapons, such as Machete Gladius', Power Fists and Chainsaws, and firearms (of decent quality), such as 10mm SMGs, 12-gauge Sawn-Off Shotguns .44 Magnum Revolvers and .308 Hunting Rifles are all available to them in significant quantities. The Veteran Legionary is the oldest, most experienced, most elite warrior within the lesser ranks of the Legion and is also the precise scalpel to the blunt, destructive warhammer of the Recruit and Prime Legionaries. Having survived a full decade in Caesar's service, a monumental achievement in its own right, Veteran Legionaries are the elite rapid reaction force of the Legion that's tasked with neutralizing particularly tough adversaries that their lesser counterparts can't defeat and typically remain in reserve until otherwise needed for tipping the scales of a pivotal battle or campaign in the Legion's favor. As they're the oldest Legionaries (a lot of whom have been with Caesar since day 1), they're also the most experienced, most capable Legionaries who are in their absolute prime in regards to martial prowess and physical resilience. They're second only to Centurions in terms of skill and experience, which is reflected in their improved access to superior weapons and equipment. They can also use and maintain firearms with frightening levels of efficiency. They're outfitted with the same armor as before, though with even better protection. Still couldn't protect you from anything meaningful, though. They're armed with the usual standard kit in addition to melee weapons such as Fire Axes and Power Fists as well as firearms (of mint condition and with virtually unlimited access to) such as .44 Magnum Revolvers, .308 Hunting Rifles, 5.56 × .45mm NATO Marksman Carbines and 12.7mm SMGs. The Decanus of the Legion is the lesser officer beneath the Centurion and is responsible for tactical small-unit operations and squad-level leadership. While not too different from ordinary Legionaries in terms of skill, equipment and even appearance, they still have slightly better access to weapons hence they deserve a separate segment. Recruit Decanii can get access to 9mm SMGs and 10mm SMGs unlike Recruit Legionaries, Prime Decanii aren't any different from Prime Legionaries and Veteran Decanii can get access to 12.7mm Pistols unlike Veteran Legionaries (not a real improvement, I know). Everything else is exactly the same. The Centurion is the absolute apex of the Legion's strength and the top field commanders of Caesar's armies, second in authority only to Legate Lanius and Caesar himself amongst a tiny select few of other superiors. Having survived 15-20 years of a long, arduous life of fighting in Caesar's name (a completely unimaginable phenomenon, indeed) before finally earning the treasured armor of the Centurion (which they can decorate with the trophies of their fallen enemies at their leisure), Centurions are the absolute most elite, most skilled, most battle-hardened and ultimately the most dangerous warriors in the entirety of the Legion. To even BEGIN to qualify for Centurion status, one must have fought in and survived numerous Legion campaigns as well as slain countless opponents in battle alongside the time requirement. All to ensure that only the finest of Caesar's warriors ever reach that level of authority in his Legion. As the oldest, most experienced warriors in Caesar's army, the Centurions comprise the old guard of Caesar's army, most of them having served their lord since the very beginning. Their status all but ensures that they're reserved for only the absolute deadliest, most lethal of assignments that even Veteran Legionaries can't handle. They're ultimately only deployed if absolutely necessary. In order to ensure that his Centurions can both accomplish their missions without even the slightest chance of failure and protect themselves without difficulty, Caesar has granted them unlimited access to the absolute finest weapons in his Legion's arsenal and has seen to it that they have acquired the absolute sharpest firearms skills that money can buy as a corresponding reward for their reaching Centurion status. They're outfitted with Centurion armor which, while legendary amongst the Legion, really isn't that special. It's actually just Veteran Legionary armor with some cool decorations on it at the end of day. Pieces of T-45d Power Armor on the right arm, the sleeve from a suit of NCR Ranger Patrol Armor and the pauldrons from an Armored Vault Suit on the left arm, the boots and shin guards from a suit of First-Generation Combat Armor on the lower legs, the crotch/thigh guards from a suit of NCR Ranger Patrol Armor on the upper legs, gloves from a suit of Leather Armor on the hands and a Super Mutant Brute chestplate on the torso, to be exact. Realistically speaking, Centurion armor would be just about useless against virtually any weapon in the NCR's arsenal. Even a single 5.56 × .45mm NATO round fired from a basic Service Rifle would most certainly do the job, flawlessly. They're armed with basic melee weapons such as Machete Gladius' and Chainsaws as well as high-tech melee weapons such as Thermic Lances (which are actually just repurposed metalworking tools) and Super Sledges in addition to powerful firearms such as .308 Hunting Rifles, 12-gauge Hunting Shotguns, 5.56 x .45mm NATO Marksman Carbines and even .50 BMG Anti-Materiel Rifles (albeit rarely). Now we must now examine what will inevitably be a huge problem for the Legion even if they were to win the Second Battle of Hoover Dam. The Legion, even though it does in fact have access to some top-of-the-line weapons, only has them in an extremely limited capacity and strictly reserves them for only the highest-ranking, most elite Legion forces and field commanders. The overwhelming bulk of the Legion's troops have little-to-no real firearms and what pitifully little that they can get their hands on are in extremely piss-poor condition. Not that it would matter, considering the fact that they don't have the proper training that's necessary to actually use them, much less maintain them. The vast majority of Caesar's troops rely almost entirely on primitive makeshift melee weapons and their own martial prowess to fight their battles, which inevitably means that the Legion has to avoid direct engagement with NCR forces, instead relying on subterfuge and guerilla warfare to combat the Republic. And it gets even worse for the Legion when one considers that the higher that its troops advance up the totem pole, the fewer Legionaries that it finds at the higher levels. A direct consequence of the Legion's overprioritization of quality and individual skill in combat is that it inevitably results in an extremely small cadre of elite warriors and field commanders surrounded by a sea of lesser soldiers and officers. Combined with the fact that the Legion is only 34 years-old by the events of F:NV (meaning that even if one were to ignore things like inevitable attrition all throughout the Legion's war-filled history of expansion and conquest, they still wouldn't have that many Veteran Legionaries/Decanii and Centurions) as well as the fact that attrition over the years must be taken into account (the First Battle of Hoover Dam and the Legion's invasion of Colorado alone absolutely devastated their elite ranks), it's only obvious that the Legion's elite forces are relatively puny. Furthermore, we know for a fact that there's enough Veteran Legionaries/Decanii for them to form a few of their own exclusive Centuria (a Century is 80-men-strong, I might add), with the Red Okie Centuria being a prime example of this. This definitely suggests that the Legion has at least a couple hundred Veteran Legionaries/Decanii at its disposal. As for Centurions, it's a little known fact that they're so incredibly rare in the Legion that they're actually explicitly ordered to not enter combat until absolutely necessary (i.e self-defense or if they're ordered into battle by a superior). This, along with the fact that they're never really seen in any meaningful numbers in-game until the Second Battle of Hoover Dam, strongly suggests that there might only be at most several dozen Centurions in the whole of the Legion (there definitely wouldn't be over 100 of them). Either way, however, the Legion's elite forces are so pathetically tiny that they couldn't possibly justify the Legion having any meaningful amount of high-end weaponry. The NCR, on other hand, doesn't have these problems as 1. the NCR prioritizes protection and firepower above all else for their forces and 2. even their most basic troops have exclusive access to essentially unlimited supplies of all manner of firearms and explosives as well as highly superb protection in the form of military-grade body armor. Meaning that the NCR not only has a hopelessly insurmountable edge in firepower, technology and protection over the Legion, but that soldiers of the NCR also have a far higher life expectancy than their Legion counterparts, as well. All but ensuring that the NCR has a vastly higher volume of surviving battle-hardened combat veterans relative to the Legion that enables for the Republic to easily distribute extremely invaluable, ultimately irreplaceable combat experience and lessons learned in battle across the entirety of their military to a far greater extent than the Legion. Scores of battle-hardened NCR Troopers that distinguish themselves on the battlefield go on to enlist with the NCR Rangers upon receiving an invitation to do so (fun fact: the vast majority of NCR Ranger recruits and even NCR Rangers themselves are/were NCR Troopers who earned their new status while serving in the NCR Army), earn the coveted Salvaged Power Armor and become NCR Heavy Troopers or earn promotions to positions of authority in the NCR Army (prime examples being Colonel Cassandra Moore and Colonel James Hsu). All of the above information will have colossal long-term consequences for the Legion, at the end of the day. With that out of the way, let's move on to the main argument itself. The most positive estimates of the Legion's total numbers and military strength would be at best 5,000-8,000 troops. Then we must take into account the fact that the Legion is going to suffer massive losses (easily numbering into the thousands) taking Hoover Dam from the NCR as the NCR garrison here is extremely well-defended, well-supplied and heavily-fortified by both an entire battalion of elite, battle-hardened NCR Troopers and God only knows how many NCR Patrol Rangers, NCR Heavy Troopers and NCR Veteran Rangers. Combined with the fact that General Oliver's Compound is extremely well-defended with force fields, a turret system, NCR Veteran Rangers, NCR Heavy Troopers, elite NCR Troopers and an absolute labyrinth that's filled to the brim with all manner of booby traps ranging from rigged shotguns, bear traps and mines of all types to grenade bouquets and overhanging objects (and given that you see a pile of fresh Legionary and Centurion corpses at your feet whenever you enter the Compound during the "Veni, Vidi, Vici" quest it's more than safe to assume that Legion casualties will be extremely massive just securing this area alone), this only serves to bolster my claim that thousands of the Legion's troops will perish at Hoover Dam even if they were to take it. With only a mere fraction of their original number (that 5,000-8,000 will have been massively depleted after the Second Battle of Hoover Dam), now the Legion has to set out and secure the rest of the Mojave Wasteland, which will prove to be completely impossible over time. The Legion will find next to no tribes to assimilate as they exterminate the Powder Gangers, Fiends, Vipers, Jackals and the Kings in all of their endings. And while the Legion still has the Great Khans and the Boomers, they won't help much. The Great Khans are down to little more than a pitiful rag-tag band of holdouts after both their ass-whipping at the hands of Mr. House and their decimation at Bitter Springs by the NCR. A fact that only gets worse when we subtract the women and female children (breeding stock), the elderly, the sick and the disabled (killed off immediately) as well as mention the fact that the Frumentarius Karl does say in his journal that the Legion would have to decimate most of the tribe, anyways. Meaning that the Legion will at most get a couple paltry handful of warriors from them. As for the Boomers (assuming that the "Volare!" quest isn't completed) will prove to be more than a huge cost than a real benefit to the Legion. The Boomers' artillery alone would kill hundreds, if not thousands, of Legionaries with the Boomers themselves, armed to the teeth with Missile Launchers, Fat Mans, Grenade Machine Guns, Grenade Launchers, Grenade Rifles, 5.56 x 45mm. Marksman Carbines and 5mm Assault Carbines in addition to Mr. Gutsy combat robots and Sentry Bots, killing hundreds and even thousands more before the Legion finally conquer them. Also consider that the Boomers, who worship their artillery and weapons with a near religious reverence, will by no means let their weapons fall into the hands of savages. Thus we could easily see them sabotaging their artillery (how hard would it be to load an artillery shell and lob a frag grenade down the barrel, after all? and given that the Boomers only have 3-4 artillery pieces it wouldn't take long to do) and munitions stockpiles (just a few bricks of C4 could easily destroy all of the Boomers' weapons and ammunition supplies) to keep them out of Legion hands, which only adds insult to injury. Even worse for the Legion is that when we subtract those Boomers that died in battle (most likely all of the adult males), the women and female children, the elderly, sick and disabled the Legion will have only a handful of male children to their name (remember that the Boomers are a really puny tribe that depend entirely on their firepower to survive) which means that they will have achieved nothing despite their massive losses incurred from conquering Nellis Air Force Base. Then we also consider the fact that the Legion doesn't enslave civilized communities or Independent Towns unless under extraordinary circumstances (as evidenced by Siri over at the Fort who hailed from an Independent Town in New Mexico and was a medical student there prior to its destruction by the Legion). Of course, it wouldn't matter as even if they did, the entire New Vegas area is completely evacuated by the NCR in the event of a Legion victory at Hoover Dam as evidenced by Arcade Gannon's Legion ending where he's convinced to remain in Freeside (all of Freeside, North Vegas, Westside, East Vegas and the Strip, which is really just a resort for NCR tourists rather than an actual community, are evacuated with those few that don't make it out, Arcade included, being killed by the Legion). And when we consider that Nelson was butchered, Camp Searchlight irradiated and Nipton destroyed by the Legion with Goodsprings being left alone and Primm just falling under Legion authority (no point in enslaving the town anyways considering how it's just one big retirement home alongside Goodsprings which is also evacuated by all save a few old, stubborn folks) then it's blatantly clear that the Legion will have very few civilized people left to enslave. With an even smaller fraction of survivors thanks to their conquest of Nellis AFB (in addition to hundreds more casualties against the Mojave Chapter of the Brotherhood of Steel, the Kings and what's left of House's Securitron police force and the Chairmen) the Legion will soon realize its folly and discover that both holding the Mojave Wasteland and continuing their advance West is literally impossible. The Legion's logistical situation and acquisition of supplies will soon prove to be an insurmountable nightmare within mere weeks of their occupation of the Mojave. The loss of Nipton, Camp Searchlight and Nelson will serve to severely hamstring the Legion's logistics with the eventual deaths of New Vegas, Primm and Goodsprings only complicating the Legion's supply lines even further. As 99% of the Strip's revenue comes from NCR tourists and soldiers on leave and given how the Legion will most likely tear down the casinos and ban whores, booze, chems and gambling under Caesar's law, the Strip will eventually shrivel up and die due to loss of revenue. North Vegas, East Vegas, Westside, Freeside, Primm and Goodsprings, which are entirely dependent on Republic trade and commerce for survival, will eventually suffer the same fate as NCR trade and business abandon the region out of both fear and hatred for the Legion. Especially after the Legion's successful assassination of President Kimball which will see him martyred and ensure that the NCR will cut off all ties to the fallen Mojave Wasteland. With all of the Mojave's communities and towns dying off, the Legion's supply lines will crumble and face imminent collapse within only a few months time (Hoover Dam isn't a viable supply route as while it does allow the Legion to cross the Colorado River in force it's just too far to provide adequate, long-term support) which will only serve to doom the Legion's occupation of the Mojave Wasteland. We must also take into account that the Legion will need every last man, Denarius and resource at its disposal if it so much as hopes to hold the region and continue the advance West. Which will force Caesar to relinquish the Legion's entire empire East of the Colorado in order to do so. In Legate Lanius’ own words, the Legion's expansion campaigns in the East have been faltering badly as Caesar's obsession with Hoover Dam, New Vegas and the West has seen the Legion's full strength syphoned off towards Hoover Dam as part of Caesar's plan to overrun Hoover Dam, conquer New Vegas and eventually invade the West. Imagine the Hell that the Legion will have trying to secure the Mojave Wasteland, which will prove to be so bad that the Legion heartlands will have to be left defenseless, lawless and chaotic just to even begin to make such an ambitious feat even remotely feasible. Some would probably argue that Caesar would surely never abandon the East just for the tiniest, southernmost tip of Nevada and just one little city but Iɽ advise you to reconsider. Caesar explicitly states that while the Legion does have their own cities back East, NONE OF THEM are ANYTHING like New Vegas. Why is that such a big deal, one might ask? It's simple, really. While the Mojave Wasteland was relatively untouched by the nuclear holocaust that was the Great War, thanks to the quick and decisive actions of Robert Edwin House, New Vegas is at best a total dump and at worst an absolute shithole. Filled to the brim with disease, essentially overrun with Raiders, bandits and common criminals of all stripes, absolutely crushed beneath the iron heel of a colossal drug-addiction crisis, bursting at the seams with abject misery and poverty and rampant with starvation, New Vegas is without a doubt little more than a massive dumpster fire. Things are so bad in that cursed place that you actually have children chasing rats in the streets just to survive, locals constantly complaining about hunger pains and withdrawals and scum ranging from the Fiends to random little hooligan punks constantly ransacking the place. Westside, the South Vegas ruins, East Vegas, North Vegas and Freeside are all Hellish nightmares that are almost completely hopeless causes, at the end of the day. Even if one takes into account the diamond in the rock, the New Vegas Strip, you still wouldn't find many reasons to be impressed. What you have is a tiny wealthy resort community that still looks like a dump (though it's still a major improvement from the rest of New Vegas), has highly dilapidated infrastructure (the Tops Casino still has a giant hole on the side of the building) and is surrounded by a wall that's held together with spit, grit and a whole lotta' duct tape. And while the Strip is safe, orderly and prosperous by the standards of the Mojave Wasteland (a very shit standard, I might add), it's ultimately a very terrible place by the standards of the rest of the post-apocalyptic world (i.e. NCR territory and lands under Legion control). If Legion cities can't even match the standards of that shithole, what does that say about Caesar's willingness to hold them? Especially in light of what heɽ be gaining in return? Furthermore, Caesar often tends to view himself as a mere barbaric king of the Gauls, with his Legion being nothing but one big nomadic tribe of savages without a true home or purpose in his eyes, which is extremely depressing. Caesar sees New Vegas as a true city, a true capital, a true home for both himself and his Legion, a true Rome that he can rule over and could preside over a true empire in. And the West as that very true empire that he so desperately relishes. Do you honestly believe that Caesar wouldn't trade his current empire (which he clearly holds in very low esteem and almost regrets ever conquering it) for his new Rome and a stepping stone towards eventually conquering his new Roman Empire (the stepping stone being the Mojave Wasteland)? Heɽ trade the whole of the East for New Vegas and the Mojave Wasteland in a heartbeat and in doing so will seal the Legion's fate and imminent doom. With the Legion having completely relinquished the East (and therefore cutting themselves off from their resource base, source of revenue/income and escape route, in the process) their supply lines and logistical network in chaos and having absolutely no source of replenishment and reinforcements for their ranks, the Legion will slowly but surely disintegrate, trapped in a permanent holding pattern in the Mojave that'll bleed them dry and drain them of all their resources. The NCR, meanwhile, will have simply dug in at the Mojave Outpost and fortified their defenses there. Theyɽ have most certainly brought in the 3 VB-02 Vertibirds (which are armed with Gatling Lasers, Missile Launcher racks and Mini Nuke Launchers and outfitted with heavy armor) that were conducting combat air patrols of the NCR military base just a few miles away from the Mojave Outpost. Far from stopping there, however, Colonel Royez (who's outfitted with the Scorched Sierra Power Armor which is a fully-operational suit of heavily-modified T-45d Power Armor upgraded with onboard medical systems capable of healing any injury and an improved back-mounted power pack from a suit of T-51b Power Armor that will be capable of resisting nearly all of the Legion's weapons and armed with a Plasma Caster chock full of overcharged Microfusion Cells so incredibly strong that it can kill a lvl. 50 Courier in Power Armor with just 2-3 hits!) and his men (NCR Heavy Troopers armed to the teeth with Gatling Lasers, Plasma Casters and Tesla Cannons as well as NCR Troopers armed with Tri-Beam Laser Rifles, Multiplas Rifles, Laser Rifles and Plasma Rifles) will also redeployed there from the same military camp, as well. Republic artillery pieces can also be deployed there to help bolster the outpost's defenses, as well. A massive network of bunkers, pillboxes and trenches all along the hill below the outpost as well as machine gun nests, sniper nests, minefields and razorwire can also be established to further enhance the impregnable defensive perimeter of the new frontline. Once all of this is done, the NCR will then proceed to flood the outpost with tens of thousands of NCR Troopers, NCR Heavy Troopers, NCR Veteran Rangers And when coupled with the fact that the Mojave Outpost is atop a high hill, is flanked by mountain ranges on both sides (which will completely prevent the Legion from attacking its flanks and rear), is right on the border with fully-controlled Republic territory (which will make it impossibly easy to keep well-supplied and will also ensure that Republic reinforcements are plentiful and easily available) and the fact that one could see everything up to Primm and Nipton from the Mojave Outpost (that particular area is also wide-open, completely exposed and lacks any real cover which means that any Legion force of any meaningful size would be spotted from miles away day or night which in turn will prevent Legion surprise attacks), the Mojave Outpost will truly become a 100% impregnable fortress. To make things even worse for the Legion, there's absolutely no bypassing the Mojave Outpost either as the only areas that can allow such a short cut around the Long 15 are completely and literally impassable. The Big Empty is often described as a wall to any living thing approaching it, the Divide is little more than a death trap and is completely avoided by the Legion for obvious reasons and Death Valley is so inhospitable that even the NCR, with its fleet of military cargo trucks and Vertibirds, flat out avoids that area out of habit. Any army stupid enough to try and cross through these areas will not return alive under any circumstances. Which in turn ensures that only through the Long 15 can the Legion hope to invade the West and given that the Mojave Outpost is purely impenetrable and that the Mojave Wasteland is completely entrapped with mountains and the Colorado River, the Legion will be completely trapped in the Mojave Wasteland and will never be freed from their holding pattern there. The NCR simply bides its time and let's the Legion wear itself out and tear itself apart trying to hold the Mojave Wasteland, occasionally fending off Legion assaults on the Mojave Outpost whilst inflicting heavy losses on the Legion, launching several limited-scale offensives here and there so as to deplete the Legion's ranks even further and deploying NCR Veteran Rangers into the Mojave Wasteland so as to ambush Legion supply caravans and patrols to worsen the Legion's logistical nightmare. After almost a year, the Legion will finally be vulnerable, it's forces stretched absolutely thin down to their absolute breaking point, their supply lines and logistics completely exhausted and expended alongside their supplies as a whole, the Legion's ranks reduced to little more than a tiny skeleton crew, the Legion completely scattered across the entire Mojave Wasteland unable to guard it or defend it any longer and the Colorado River at its back, with absolutely no way of escaping their inevitable demise. At this moment, the NCR finally attacks with a full-scale assault across the entirety of the Mojave, completely and utterly destroying the Legion in its entirety and killing/capturing Caesar himself as Republic forces swarm across New Vegas and wipe out his Legion all around him within mere hours, days if the Legion is lucky. And so the NCR-Legion War finally draws to a close, with the back of the Legion broken forever and ceasing to exist. Either way the Legion is fucked with a Legion defeat at the Second Battle of Hoover Dam being a mercy killing at best for the Legion. ## Is a three body gravitating system doomed to collapse? - Astronomy According to the theory of general relativity, a spherically symmetric self-gravitating body whose radius/mass ratio in Schwarzchild coordinates decreases to the critical value of 2 must collapse to a point singularity. Such an object is termed a black hole, since out to a characteristic radius known as the event horizon, not even photons can escape its strong gravitational field. It has been postulated that such a field could serve to compress and heat accreting gas, which would then emit soft X-rays, signalling the black hole's presence. One accretion model is that of a black hole in binary orbit with a normal luminous star which is ejecting part of its mass, some of which is captured by the companion black hole and emits X-rays before disappearing inside the event horizon. Objects consisting of degenerate nuclear matter known as neutron stars, and whose existence has been well established, could also serve as the X-ray companion in such a system. One way to distinguish between a neutron star and a black hole is to measure their mass, for if causality is to be preserved, a neutron star cannot exceed about 3 solar masses, while the mass of the black hole is arbitrary. A lower limit on the mass of X-ray emitter in a binary system can be determined if the orbital period, projected orbital velocity, and mass or radius of the luminous companion star can be measured via conventional astronomical methods. ## Is a three body gravitating system doomed to collapse? - Astronomy The gravitational N-body problem is to describe the evolution of an isolated system of N point masses interacting only through Newtonian gravitational forces. For N =2 the solution is due to Newton. For N =3 there is no general analytic solution, but the problem has occupied generations of illustrious physicists and mathematicians including Laplace, Lagrange, Gauss and Poincaré, and inspired the modern subjects of nonlinear dynamics and chaos theory. The general gravitational N-body problem remains one of the oldest unsolved problems in physics. Many-body problems can be simpler than few-body problems, and many physicists have attempted to apply the methods of classical equilibrium statistical mechanics to the gravitational N-body problem for N gg 1. These applications have had only limited success, partly because the gravitational force is too strong at both small scales (the interparticle potential energy diverges) and large scales (energy is not extensive). Nevertheless, we now understand a rich variety of behaviour in large-N gravitating systems. These include the negative heat capacity of isolated, gravitationally bound systems, which is the basic reason why nuclear burning in the Sun is stable Antonov's discovery that an isothermal, self-gravitating gas in a container is located at a saddle point, rather than a maximum, of the entropy when the gas is sufficiently dense and hence is unstable (the 'gravothermal catastrophe') the process of core collapse, in which relaxation induces a self-similar evolution of the central core of the system towards (formally) infinite density in a finite time and the remarkable phenomenon of gravothermal oscillations, in which the central density undergoes periodic oscillations by factors of a thousand or more on the relaxation timescale - but only if N gtrsim 10 4 . The Gravitational Million-Body Problem is a monograph that describes our current understanding of the gravitational N-body problem. The authors have chosen to focus on N = 10 6 for two main reasons: first, direct numerical integrations of N-body systems are beginning to approach this threshold, and second, globular star clusters provide remarkably accurate physical instantiations of the idealized N-body problem with N = 10 5 - 10 6 . The authors are distinguished contributors to the study of star-cluster dynamics and the gravitational N-body problem. The book contains lucid and concise descriptions of most of the important tools in the subject, with only a modest bias towards the authors' own interests. These tools include the two-body relaxation approximation, the Vlasov and Fokker-Planck equations, regularization of close encounters, conducting fluid models, Hill's approximation, Heggie's law for binary star evolution, symplectic integration algorithms, Liapunov exponents, and so on. The book also provides an up-to-date description of the principal processes that drive the evolution of idealized N-body systems - two-body relaxation, mass segregation, escape, core collapse and core bounce, binary star hardening, gravothermal oscillations - as well as additional processes such as stellar collisions and tidal shocks that affect real star clusters but not idealized N-body systems. In a relatively short (300 pages plus appendices) book such as this, many topics have to be omitted. The reader who is hoping to learn about the phenomenology of star clusters will be disappointed, as the description of their properties is limited to only a page of text there is also almost no discussion of other, equally interesting N-body systems such as galaxies(N approx 10 6 - 10 12 ), open clusters (N simeq 10 2 - 10 4 ), planetary systems, or the star clusters surrounding black holes that are found in the centres of most galaxies. All of these omissions are defensible decisions. Less defensible is the uneven set of references in the text for example, nowhere is the reader informed that the classic predecessor to this work was Spitzer's 1987 monograph, Dynamical Evolution of Globular Clusters, or that the standard reference on the observational properties of stellar systems is Binney and Merrifield's Galactic Astronomy. A minor irritation is that many concepts are discussed several times before they are defined, and the index provides no pointer to the primary discussion thus, for example, there are ten index entries for 'phase mixing' and no indication that the fourth of these refers to the actual definition. The book is intended as a graduate textbook but more likely it will be used mainly in other contexts: by theoretical researchers, as an indispensable reference on the dynamics of gravitational N-body systems by observational astronomers, as a readable summary of the theory of star cluster evolution and by physicists seeking a well-written and accessible introduction to a simple problem that remains fascinating and incompletely understood after three centuries. ## Heart-Wrenching Video Shows Crew Of Doomed Indonesian Submarine Singing A heart-wrenching video shows the crew of the doomed Indonesian submarine singing along together weeks before their tragic deaths. The footage, which has been shared by the Indonesian navy, shows the servicemen singing while a guitarist plays a song called Sampai Jumpa which translates as 'until we meet'. The video was filmed just weeks before all 53 men aboard the KRI Nanggala-402 died when the submarine broke into several parts in the Bali Sea. Indonesia's president Joko Widodo shared his condolences to the relatives of those who died. He said: "All of us Indonesians express our deep sorrow over this tragedy, especially to the families of the submarine crew." Navy spokesman First Admiral Julius Widjojono said it had been taking part in a torpedo drill, but failed to relay results from the exercise as expected. But the search came to a tragic end on 25 April when the 44-year old vessel was found cracked at the bottom on the ocean floor. Military chief Hadi Tjahjanto told reporters in Bali on Sunday (25 April): "We received underwater pictures that are confirmed as the parts of the submarine, including its rear vertical rudder, anchors, outer pressure body, embossed dive rudder and other ship parts." Tjahjanto added: "With this authentic evidence, we can declare that KRI Nanggala 402 has sunk and all the crew members are dead." Navy chief of staff Yudo Margono added: "The KRI Nanggala is divided into three parts, the hull of the ship, the stern of the ship, and the main parts are all separated, with the main part found cracked." The navy previously said it believes the submarine sank to a depth of 600-700 metres (2,000-2,300ft), much deeper than its collapse depth of 200 metres (655ft), at which point water pressure would be greater than the hull could withstand. Debris found from the missing submarine. Credit: PA The German-built diesel-powered KRI Nanggala-402 had been in service in Indonesia since 1981 and was carrying 49 crew members and three gunners as well as its commander, the Indonesian Defence Ministry said. The cause of the disappearance was still uncertain, but Margono said the crew were not to blame. The navy had previously said an electrical failure could have left the submarine unable to execute emergency procedures to resurface. ## Remembering murdered environmentalists Many people who are brave enough to bring attention to environmental problems are being murdered every year all over the world. Here is an updated list of murdered environmentalists organized by year and names with links to the sources. Whats depressing is how long it is, starts in the 1900s and continues into 2021. In second decade of the 21st century, these environmental murders have accelerated. 116 environmental activists were assassinated in 2014 alone. More than 200 environmental activists were assassinated worldwide between 2016 and 2018. Another study found that 1,558 people in 50 countries around the world were killed defending the environment between 2002 and 2017, which calculates the death toll to almost half that of the US troops killed in Iraq and Afghanistan since 2001. Homero Gomez Gonzales, a 50 year old who was a manager of the El Rosario Monarch Butterfly Preserve in Mexico. He was an advocate for preservation of the forests for monarch butterflies. He led efforts to keep loggers out of the reserve, organized marches, and anti-logging patrols. On January 13, 2020, he went missing. Weeks later, his body was found in a well. He was murdered. Sumbee (Lkhagvasumberel Tumursukh), a 27 year old who researched snow leopards in the mountains of Mongolia. In 2015, he left home to continue his studies on snow leopards in South Gobi for The Snow Leopard Conservation Foundation (SLCF). But he never arrived at his destination. His body was found in a lake a few days later. Despite, the suspicious circumstances the police ruled it a suicide while family and locals maintain that Sumbee would never have taken his own life. Prior to his death, he was attacked three times. Jairo Mora Sandoval, a 26 year old who dedicated his life to protecting leatherback sea turtle nests from poachers in Costa Rica. He was kidnapped and murdered in 2013. Dorothy Stang, a 73 year old nun who worked to protect the Amazon rainforest and help the rural poor in Brazil. In 2005, she was gunned down while she was on her way to a community meeting. Jane Tipson, a 53 year old, who devoted her life to helping animals (stray cats and dogs) and wildlife (whales and dolphins) on Saint Lucia in the Caribbean. She founded many animal organizations. In 2003, she was shot and killed in the driveway of her own home. Rumors say that she was a victim of a contract killing related to her campaign against the new dolphin park proposed by Dolphin Fantaseas. David "Gypsy" Chain, a 24 year old who protested against the logging of redwood trees in Humboldt County, California in 1998. An angry logger, threatened the protestors and intentionally cut down a tree in their direction. Chain wasn't able to get out of the way in time and the tree killed him. No charges. These are just a few of the many great people we have lost over the years. RIP people who cared enough to die. The corollary to that is that those who are left are the ones who do not care enough. violence will end the violence This is why I say that only ecoterrorism will get results. The warfare is way too asymmetric for anything else to be viable. Activism? At best, you're just a nuisance. At worst, a target is painted on to you. Union organizers in Latin America similarly get murdered all the time alongside environmentalists. Which is not to mention all the less than murder situations where NSO group technology is used to turn phones and computers into spyware that governments (working with business) spy on labor, environmentalist, and human rights activists, arrest them, etc. Which is why we need some new organizations, sort of citizen unions for one thing, and an online forum where we can crowdsource investigations and compile what we know about such companies/governments. Who the fuck hires a hitman over a Dolphin park? Or kill someone because you want to steal some turtle eggs? What the fuck do people even need turtle eggs for? Those who are disassociated from humanity by a globalized set of rationalizations called "neofeudalism" aka neoliberalism/neoconservatism aka neofeudal globalized industrial heat engine society. The days of moral scruples funded by plentiful energy/resources/environmental-stability are over the new paradigm is driven by relative scarcity (falling EROEI, diminishing returns on complexity, biosphere collapse, etc) and it relates to cannibalizing the peasantry/serf by means of turning them into numbers/statistics/other-dehumanized-metrics. There is a "feeling component" involved here too I think. This is just a theory, but I think that greater social systems (like the disassociated one I describe above) reorder the individual minds of those they serve: consider it sort-of like arm wrestling- "morals" are overpowered by the collective exergy of sociopathic social systems like neofeudalism crammed/funneled into the mind via systemic symbols. When this occurs it is NOT just that these sociopaths "feel wrong but do it anyways because self-interest" but instead that they feel entitled to these gains because self-interest is satisfied and thus use rationalizations to justify/respond-to/defend their feelings. IDK though- just a thought. Not sure it really matters either because you aren't going to reach these people (where "these people" = "they" = "disassociated greed") with facts or logic. They sell sea turtle eggs as aphrodisiacs on the black market. The egg trade has been linked to drug trafficking and organized crime. In Jane Tipson's case, that was just a rumor, and never proven. Dolphin Fantaseas denied any involvement, and her case still remains unsolved. The police were also accused of contaminating the crime scene and treating the investigation as a low priority. Jane's sister, Barbara Tipson, said that the police, "did a one-year follow-up after the murder and that was it.” She told a newspaper, “I gave them all the information I could at the time. The whole investigation seemed very unprofessional, starting from the moment they arrived on the crime scene." If it's for a$ someone in this world will do it.

I don't know if you noticed, but the ⟬onomical conservative' is a very similar beast to the 'good nazi' in terms of empathy. And ideology ultimately.

Those stupid morons even have a saying for this: 'greed is the root of all evil'.

Judith Beatrice Bari (November 7, 1949 – March 2, 1997) was an American environmentalist and labor leader, a feminist, an anarchist and the principal organizer of Earth First! campaigns against logging in the ancient redwood forests of Northern California in the 1980s and 1990s. She also organized efforts through Earth First! – Industrial Workers of the World Local 1 to bring timber workers and environmentalists together in common cause.

On May 24, 1990, in Oakland, California, the vehicle used by Bari and Darryl Cherney was blown up by a pipe bomb.[26] Bari was severely injured by the blast, as the bomb was located under her seat Cherney suffered minor injuries. Bari was arrested for transporting explosives while she was still in critical condition with a fractured pelvis and other major injuries.

The rapid presence of FBI bomb investigators at the scene, virtually simultaneously with first responders from the Oakland Police Department, raised suspicion that the FBI knew about the bomb beforehand and might even have been responsible for the bomb. In Bari's words, it was as if the investigators were "waiting around the corner with their fingers in their ears." It was later revealed that there had been a tip to law enforcement, suspected to be from the person responsible for the bomb, that "some heavies" were carrying a bomb south for sabotage in the Santa Cruz area.[22][27] The rapid response of the FBI to the bombing and their immediate focus on Bari as a suspect rather than a victim are consistent with surveillance of Bari after receiving a tip about a bomb.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) took jurisdiction of the case away from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, alleging it was an eco-terrorism case.[11][28] The Oakland Police Department was the local agency on the case. Bari's wounds disabled her to the extent she had to curtail her activities. As Bari convalesced, Redwood Summer took place, turning into a series of demonstrations by thousands of environmental activists and counter-demonstrations by roughly equal numbers of timber workers and their families.

In late July 1990, the Alameda County District Attorney declined to press charges against Bari and Cherney, claiming insufficient evidence. The arrests and search warrants became the basis of Bari's civil rights suit, filed the following year but not decided until 2002, five years after her death.

## I Lived Through Collapse. America Is Already There.

I lived through the end of a civil war — I moved back to Sri Lanka in my twenties, just as the ceasefire fell apart. Do you know what it was like for me? Quite normal. I went to work, I went out, I dated. This is what Americans don’t understand. They’re waiting to get personally punched in the face while ash falls from the sky. That’s not how it happens.

This is how it happens. Preci s ely what you’re feeling now. The numbing litany of bad news. The ever rising outrages. People suffering, dying, and protesting all around you, while you think about dinner. If you’re trying to carry on while people around you die, your society is not collapsing. It’s already fallen down.

I was looking through some old photos for this article and the mix is shocking to me now. Almost offensive. There’s a burnt body in front of my office. Then I’m playing Scrabble with friends. There’s bomb smoke rising in front of the mall. Then I’m at a concert. There’s a long line for gas. Then I’m at a nightclub. This is all within two weeks.

Today I’m like, “Did we live like this?” But we did. I mean, I did. Was I a rich Colombo fuckboi while poorer people died, especially minorities? Well, yes. I wrote about it, but who cares.

The real question is, who are you? I mean, you’re reading this. You have the leisure to ponder American collapse like it’s even a question. The people really experiencing it already know.

As someone who’s already experienced societal breakdown, here’s the truth: America has already collapsed. What you’re feeling is exactly how it feels. It’s Saturday and you’re thinking about food while the world is on fire. This is normal. This is life during collapse.

Collapse does not mean you’re personally dying right now. It means y’all are dying right now. Death is sometimes close, sometimes far away, but always there. I used to judge those herds of gazelle when the lion eats one of them alive and everyone keeps going — but no, humans are just the same. That’s the real meaning of herd immunity. We’re fundamentally immune to giving a shit.

It honestly becomes mundane (for the privileged). As Colombo kids we used to go out, worry about money, fall in love — life went on. We’d pop the trunk for a bomb check. Turn off our lights for the air raids. I’m not saying that we were untouched. My friend’s dad was killed, suddenly, by a landmine. RIP Uncle Nihal. I know people who were beaten, arrested, and went into exile. But that’s not what my photostream looks like. It was mostly food and parties and normal stuff for a dumb twenty-something.

Collapse is just a series of ordinary days in between extraordinary bullshit, most of it happening to someone else. That’s all it is.

If you’re waiting for a moment where you’re like “this is it,” I’m telling you, it never comes. Nobody comes on TV and says “things are officially bad.” There’s no launch party for decay. It’s just a pileup of outrages and atrocities in between friendships and weddings and perhaps an unusual amount of alcohol.

Perhaps you’re waiting for some moment when the adrenaline kicks in and you’re fighting the virus or fascism all the time, but it’s not like that. Life is not a movie, and if it were, you’re certainly not the star. You’re just an extra. If something good or bad happens to you it’ll be random and no one will care. If you’re unlucky you’re a statistic. If you’re lucky, no one notices you at all.

Collapse is just a series of ordinary days in between extraordinary bullshit, most of it happening to someone else. That’s all it is.

O ne day, I was at work when someone left a bomb at the NOLIMIT clothing store. It exploded, killing 17 people. When these types of traumatic events take place, no two people experience the same thing. For me, it was seeing the phone lines getting clogged for an hour. For my wife, it was feeling the explosion a half-kilometer from her house. But for the families of the 17 victims, this was the end. And their grief goes on.

As you can see, this is not a uniform experience of chaos. For some people it destroys their bodies, others their hearts, but for most people it’s just a low-level hum at the back of their minds.

What’s that buzzing sound you hear now?

Today I assume you went to work. Bad news was everywhere, clogging up your social media, your conversations. Maybe it struck close to you. I’m sorry. Somewhere in your country, a thousand people died. I’m sorry for each of them. A thousand families are grieving tonight. A thousand more join them every day. The pain doesn’t go away, it just becomes a furniture of bones, in a thousand thousand homes.

As a nation you don’t seem to mourn your dead, but their families do. Their communities do. Jesus, also, weeps. But for most people it’s just another day. You’ve run out of coffee. There’s a funny meme. This can’t be collapse, because nothing’s collapsing for me.

But that’s exactly how collapse feels. This is how I felt. This is how millions of people have felt, including many immigrants in your midst. We’re trying to tell you as loud as we can. You can get out of it, but you have to understand where you are to even turn around. This, I fear, is one of many things Americans do not understand. You tell yourself American collapse is impossible. Meanwhile, look around.

In the last three months America has lost more people than Sri Lanka lost in 30 years of civil war. If this isn’t collapse, then the word has no meaning. You probably still think of Sri Lanka as a shithole, though the war ended over a decade ago and we’re (relatively) fine. Then what does that make you?

America has fallen. You need to look up, at the people you’re used to looking down on. We’re trying to tell you something. I have lived through collapse and you’re already there. Until you understand this, you only have further to fall.

I guess this is now a trilogy of collapse. It gets less depressing. Then moreso.