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New Images From Mangalyaan
schwit1 writes Indian scientists have released a new set of color images taken by their Mars orbiter, Mangalyaan. Arsia Mons is one of the three giant volcanoes to the east of Mars' biggest volcano, Olympus Mons. Arsia Mons is important for future manned colonization, as there are known caves on its western flanks. In addition, those western flanks show solid evidence of past glaciers, which means that it is very likely that those caves will harbor significant quantities of water-ice, making settlement much easier.
Why don't we ever send the rovers to cool places like this???
the newspaper has terminated display of the images - does anyone have a mirror site or know an alternative location where they can be viewed?
http://www.nasa.gov/sites/defa...
"...we already have enough tech to feed a stable world population, so scientists should really be tasked with effective education and resource distribution before..."
Do you seriously believe that this is a *technical* problem?
Let me be blunt. The only reason the world is not fed, clothed, housed, etc. is because there is a significant percentage of the population that does not want that to happen.
This is a social/political problem, not a technical one.
A.
...bringing you cynical quips since 1998
"Humans are complex machines. Establishing how they work and fixing their faults is a technical problem."
That's one point of view. I prefer this one:
"If there is such a phenomenon as absolute evil, it consists in treating another human being as a thing."
-- John Brunner, The Shockwave Rider.
A.
...bringing you cynical quips since 1998
Present problem in supporting people with food, clothes, housing, education etc. is not a production problem, but a distribution problem. Therefore, the problem must be solved by politics and economics, and these domains are not doing their job. Tech is not the limiting factor. In Africa, hunger could be dealt with even without food supplies from outside, if all the fertile soil could be used. However, large parts cannot be used because of wars or are destroyed by war. In addition Western subventions and over production cause additional stress on market prices pushing farmers out of their business, and finally using their soil to produce soja for our animals reduces their productive capabilities further. All these problems and several others can all be fixed with different politics. So go and ask them to do their work.
So we shall all go into politics? Most technicians would not stand a chance in that rat cage. If you are really interesting in solving these problems, then look into the way how these areas are shaped by politics.
If you see humans in this way then you have to address the right technicians to solve the problem. Metal machine people are not the right ones to fix issues in communication and faulty data in the central thinking machine.
The truth is. Our present problems are not technical. They are organizational. To solve them people working in these areas must fix it.
Africa, hunger could be dealt with even without food supplies from outside, if all the fertile soil could be used
Africa's biggest problem is not a distribution problem. It's the Africans.
"...but a distribution problem"
I believe you mean well, but using a phrase like this implies we don't know how to distribute our resources, i.e. that is is a technical issue we do not know how to solve. That's not the case - we've been engaging in land wars since the beginning of time - we know how to get stuff where it is needed.
I believe the problem is multi-faceted, but it boils down to:
1) Not my problem
2) Not in my back yard
3) Not with any contribution from me
- all while sitting complacently on our piles of gold like Smaug.
A.
...bringing you cynical quips since 1998
"The truth is. Our present problems are not technical. They are organizational."
I'm sorry, but no. Our present problem is that as a community, people *suck*. There is no technical, organizational, or practical problem keeping us from feeding, housing, or caring for the unfortunate. We just don't *want* to. People suck.
A.
...bringing you cynical quips since 1998
I'll be happy to distribute some of my resources, but only in return for something of equal value.
Thank you for illustrating the problem so succinctly.
A.
...bringing you cynical quips since 1998
No, people don't suck - the truth is, that on a global scale, I don't give a shit what happens to somebody I've never met, will never meet, and don't even know exists, in southeast bumfuck, Vietnam, and likewise, I don't expect that person to give a juicy fart's worth of care to MY existence.
I know this will shock all you "Global Citizens" here on Slashdot, but it's human nature (and in fact, there's some research to support this - google Dunbar's Number sometime) that there's a fairly limited scope of people you "really care about" - and for most of us, people outside those circles of caring are simply not all that important.
Now that doesn't mean it's okay to actively wish others harm... and I dare say that most of us would be hard-pressed to refuse to help a single stranger (or small group of strangers) in obvious distress. However, trying to make "7 billion people are miserable" my personal, relatable problem, is a fool's errand. I honestly don't care about "7 billion people." The REAL trick is to get *everybody* to care about (and for) the small number of people they know, and actually care about - this distributes the problem handily and makes everybody responsible for pitching in to help out "the people they care about" - done on a wide scale... this would eliminate the problem.
Problems like this are solved by HUMANIZING them. Not by shouting at people and trying to "shame" them into caring. It's why images of disaster areas, war zones, and other places where people are suffering are so effective at triggering aid responses: when we see *actual people* suffering, we want to help. When you sit there talking shit about how "5 billion faceless hypothetical people are miserable, and you need to do something about that," the brain just shuts off.
"However, trying to make "7 billion people are miserable" my personal, relatable problem, is a fool's errand."
Sorry, my cowardly friend, but I never said anything about 7 billion people. That's your straw man, you can keep it.
A convenient small-town example of 'not in my backyard', this reads like a whole lot of suck to me:
http://www.bostonmagazine.com/...
The tl;dr summary quote (paraphrased) is "they [the homeless] really would be better served in the next town over.
A.
...bringing you cynical quips since 1998