Anyone read Ender's Game?

I don't usually believe in things until I have proof of their existence. So I don't really have an opinion.
However, I think being a ghost and spelling out scary/possibly offensive things on somebodies Ouija Board would be fun ;)

This is veering way off-topic from the OP's intentions for this thread, which is against the guidelines. I suppose I'm partly to blame for that, bringing up extra-terrestrials and all. But it's still supernatural-esque stuff, right? I'm eating a carrot.

Too many smart people making me feel dumb here.

I can't say I blame you.

tl;dr

Interestingly enough, Kaede, while you're right to doubt ever travelling beyond the speed of light, there are two interesting loopholes:

1:
Although the universal speed limit can't be broken as far as we know, Einstein's theories on relativity state that time slows for someone as they move faster through space (that particular aspect of his theory has been proven, by such things as high-speed trains and atomic clocks). While a journey to Alpha Centauri will still take four and a half years if you manage to travel near the speed of light, it might seem a good deal shorter than that to the people making the trip.

That doesn't do much practically, but it does mean that huge colony ships that go through several generations during their trips won't be neccesary if we ever manage to devise a spacecraft capable of approaching the speed of light.

The one concern is the maximum amount of acceleration a person can take... even if a spacecraft accelerates from rest at 98 meters per second squared (10 gravities), it would take over a month for it to reach the speed of light. Obviously that sort of sustained acceleration would kill a normal human crew.

Assuming a spacecraft accelerates at a comfrotable 1 G (which, obviously, humans have no trouble with at all) it would take nearly a year to get up to speed. Still, that could potentially cut the travel time to Alpha Centauri in half, as it appears to a passenger.

2:
This one's in communications. One thing CAN travel faster than the speed of light: gravity. If gravity has a finite speed, it's much higher than anything we can measure. So far gravity appears to be instantaneous in all human observations.

Suppose someone were to construct a device that could measure gravity with extreme precision, to the point that it could focus on a single mass small enough for a human-made device to oscillate controllably. The mass could then be shifted back and forth to transmit in morse, binary, or any other simple transmission code. Three-dimensional shifts would add a lot of "bandwidth" potential. Such a communicator device would be hard to set up, but we'd really only need one per planet to provide fast interstellar communication.

</off-topic brain fart>

My mother said that she can believe that life is out there, but probably not as 'advanced' as us. Also, if there is, they're NOT going to cast an apocalyptic war on us. People just like to coat everything in salt.

I didn't say I didn't believe in extra-terrestrial life. Infact, I think it's downright impossible for it NOT to exist. Just saying I don't believe we've ever been visited by any of it.

Scientists seem to know what basic elements are needed for life to form on a planet, so what if these elemental "needs" are met somewhere else out in the universe? What if there is another planet with just the right amount of Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Carbon, etc. for life to thrive?

Life is overwhelmingly possible elsewhere in the universe. As a matter of fact, it isn't even a case of "just the right amount". Species evolve to their environment, not vice versa. So long as some chemical mechanism for reproduction is possible, life can possibly exist in ridiculously harsh environments and even outer space.

I don't think the "fabric" of space-time works like that.

Slipspace my friend: A theory based on dimension to our universe, space is wrinkled together and distance traveling by skipping space. For example: Think of our universe as a flat sheet of paper, and a copy of it: another piece of paper identical, yet crumpled up. Flying a ship would probably be ALOT quicker without going through real space, but what's far away is instead right next to you.

Besides, it's just a theory.

I don't believe in the supernatural.
I also don't believe we've been visited by extra-terrestrial life. (logically, the idea that there is a civilization out there that has the means to travel faster than light, which is physically impossible, is quite laughable, and the astronomical distances, even to the nearest star to our solar system, is massive. It would take 4 years traveling at the speed of light to reach our solar system from the nearest star. I don't think it's possible that any other civilizations have been to earth.)

I've heard some scary stuff about Ouija boards. I don't know whether or not to believe them, but I'm a Christian anyway. You could say that all this fortune-telling and psychic junk isn't my thing, I suppose.

tGM, is that you?

I've never played one, but I've heard some creepy stories...

I wanted to play with one when I was younger, but I never got around to it. Now, after all the shit that I've heard about them, I don't want to mess with one. I guess it depends on if you believe in all that "stuff" (ghosts, spirits, etc..), which I do.

I've heard lots of stories about one of my friends moms using a ouija board. Thing basically took over her life, she was obsessed with it. Then her mom thought she was possessed so she took her to a catholic church and they gave her an excorsism.

Also when my sister was really young (i forget how young) she was given a ouija board for her birthday. She used it, and then my mom and sister started seeing shit around my house like shadows ect..

Enlighten me.

I've never used one, have any of you? Stories please.