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Congress Plans Space Tourism Regulation
ackthpt writes "No new venture seems to escape some regulation, as is the case with the budding space tourism industry.
As I piloted my personal groundcraft through pea-soup fog this morning
(observing about half the others driving with lights off) CNN News mentioned
impending regulation and legislation
is on the way to govern commercial space transportation. Among concerns are safety of uninvolved public (to ensure
boosters or other launch vehicle parts don't land on the unsuspecting public), assessing risk to passengers and level of fitness
necessary to withstand the forces and conditions of spaceflight. Addressing such concerns are the FAA's office of commercial space transportation and the Commerce Department's Office of Space Commercialization and of course the US Congress."
Seems to me a simple distillery would be the best, with a solar concentrator to raise the water above boiling point. Why bother with the intermediate stage of electricity when a flask at the focal point of a concave mirror with a collection device on top of it would do just as well?
Alternatively- I seem to remember that Israel uses a system like this to get fresh water from the Dead Sea- theirs were long channels of shallow water drawn from the ocean, with a mirrored surface underneath and a half-cylinder on top to capture and recondense the steap, with half pipes down each side to collect the water.
BTW- I thought God only spoke to George W. Bush....
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
No, Republican leadership has spent four years mopping up after a Democrat.
.. not at ALL the economy Bush inherited in 2001.
When Bill Clinton took office, unemployment nationally stood at 7.3 percent, and when he left, the rate had dropped to 4.0 percent. The Dow Jones Industrial Index was at 3754 at the end of Clinton's first year in office, and had climbed to 10,787 by the end of 2000. The NASDAQ rose from 777 at the end of 1993 to 2471 at the close of 2000.
The economy is growing at the fastest rate in nearly 20 years, unemployment is DOWN, job creation is UP, the stock market is still over 10,000
No, it's not. It's far worse. Stocks are down. Wages are down. Unemployment is up. In Bush's four years in office, we have seen the Dow go from 10,787 to 10,125(now). Over 900,000 jobs have been lost since Bush took office in 2001. Forty percent of those who go on unemployment exhaust their benefits before they can find work and the average time to find a job is 19 weeks. About 21% of those who are unemployed are now classified as "long-term unemployed," meaning that they have been unemployed for more than six months. In fact, Bush is likely to become the first president since the Great Depression to preside over a drop in employment.
The Republicans like to brag about adding jobs, but you need 150,000 additional jobs per month just to keep up with the influx of immigrants into the U.S. So next time you hear Bush bragging about adding 100,000 jobs in a month, think of that as 50,000 more unemployed people.
Then again you wouldn't know any of that, since you, or perhaps maybe just your intellect, are less than four years old.
I just smacked you down in a battle of intellect, so slither back to your hole and lick your wounds.
Please don't make the mistake of judging the economy by the stock market. Also the Dow is a poor (but well branded) index of 30 companies. If you are going to judge the economy by the stock market at least use the S&P 500 (or better yet the Wilshire. Jobs or other economic statistics are much better (but usually have a significant time lag). Also, Presidents shouldn't be judged by how the economy did. They have very little control over the economy. If anyone should get the blame it's the Fed, but Alan & co were also responsible for the boom so they get a pass. If anything they should be judged by the difference they made in the economy (ie how good or bad would it have been without them) but since that is impossible pundits settle for what direction is it moving.
I'm not giving Bush a free ride here (the deficit spending and Medicare drug vote grab were terrible in my book) but don't blame him that jobs aren't being created.
Hint, the same factors that lead to offshoring are just as big in other industries where we don't even control the figurehead positions and do not go away for several decades unless the dollar gets a whole lot cheaper (which is signficantly worse).
Degaussing scares the bad magnetism out of the monitor and fills it with good karma.
Also, Presidents shouldn't be judged by how the economy did. They have very little control over the economy.
I disagree. This President sent us to wars in two countries, which has lead to oil prices rising steeply. Every time his approval rating has sagged, he's started crying "Look! Terrorists! Get out your duct tape and plastic!" Rather than giving a big tax cut to the middle class, who would turn right around and spend the money, boosting the economy, he's given one to the people who are least likely to buy retail goods and services. As you mention, the deficit spending is horrific. He's robbed Social Security. He's crippled Medicare. Rather than encouraging Congress to take away tax incentives for outsourcing, he and his administration have praised outsourcing.
All of those things affect consumer confidence and that's what drives the economy. It's the Joe Averages deciding whether to have Hamburger Helper or take the family out to Olive Garden. It's the guy deciding to hold on to his old car for another year because he is afraid that he might lose his job. If you want the economy to grow, make people feel safe, secure, and confident. If you want it to struggle, make people feel threatened, insecure, and afraid.