You might note that several of the cities on your list are suburbs of Chicago (Gary, Harvey, East Chicago). So while Chicago proper isn't in the top 30, the Chicago metro area is well represented.
Because putting people into space is pretty useless. It certainly doesn't accomplish any economic purpose. The only scientific purposes are related to answering "what happens when you put people in space?" which is a circular justification for the program.
The place to fight for your rights is not at the scene of the arrest. Comply with police, fight in the courts. That's the way a civil society is conducted.
The problem with that lifestyle isn't government regulation, it's population density. Estimates of the pre-columbian population of California put it somewhere around 300,000. 38 million Californians gathering acorns and shell-fish would quickly strip the land clean.
European king circa 700 AD: You live a glorified log cabin. You poop in a bucket. You wipe with your hand. Your food is mostly burnt slop. You will never eat chocolate, guacamole, pizza, or any style of cuisine that isn't native to your country. Almost all of your time is spent fighting wars on horseback. You sole entertainment is practicing for war. When you go to war, it almost always ends in a bloody, pointless stalemate. Enemies, friends and family are all scheming to kill you in horrific ways. Maybe you have a couple of homely concubines, but better not let any one in the Church find out.
Poverty absolutely is relative. In terms of quality of life, the American working class is far richer than any European king in 700AD
You are quoting the NIV translation which made the debatable translation choice of "give birth prematurely" instead of "so that her fruit depart from her". Since the NIV was published after Roe V Wade, it is hard to argue that it is a politically neutral translation choice.
"Sensor" is a very broad term. Which sensors are used NOAA satellites that have no other antecedent but those developed NASA? Something that was specifically and uniquely developed IN HOUSE at NASA that no other organization would have the expertise to develop.
Sure. Project management is hard and NASA has some domain expertise in satellites. But that's a long way from saying we should thank NASA for a 10-day forecast.
NASA doesn't really build anything. NOAA's satellite are designed, built and launched by contractors like Orbital Sciences or Lockheed Martin. You are right that NASA collaborates on oversight and support, but if you imagine a world without NASA, that would still get done.
Only three out of the ten commandments are codified into US law: thou shalt not kill (murder), thou shalt not steal(theft), thou shalt not bear false witness (perjury). Adultery laws might still be on the books in some states, but I doubt they'd hold up in court. Otherwise you are perfectly free to dishonor your parents, worship graven images, work on Sunday, take the Lord's name in vain, and covet your neighbor's wife.
As for abortion: an embryo or a fetus is not a person and it is not viable to live on its own. Even the Bible makes this clear since the punishment for striking a pregnant woman and causes her to miscarriage is not the same punishment as murder.
Seattle has that program, too, as you can see from your own link. Hasn't put a dent in the overall problem because of the constant in flux of new homeless to the city.
OTOH, I always read the Hugo and Nebula nominees. Even reading at a modest pace of a novel or two per week, I struggle to find enough books that fit my interests. Lists of award nominees give me at least 10 or so novels that are competently written in genres I enjoy.
Not science, economics is the problem. If there were some valuable resource that could only be obtained on the Moon or Mars or Venus or somewhere else off-world, then we'd actually see investment in space technology to obtain that resource. And this where hard SF has always fallen short, too. Exploration and colonization are presented as a given without ever given much justification beyond "human spirit" or some other handwaving.
You can complain about how "Mr. Hope and Change Yes-We-Can" has been a bit disappointing. But even in hindsight, he's been better than the alternatives would have been.
If the objective is to obliterate us, they don't even need to invade. A relativistic warhead fired from another star system would do the trick. Any invasion scenario implies that they would at least want to keep the biosphere in a habitable condition. Which presents some opportunity for guerrilla tactics.
The technology needed for space travel would not be the same for all worlds and all species. Imagine a species that evolved on a Titan-like moon. Low gravity means that they could put large payloads into orbit with less energy. If they had a longer lifespan than humans or a natural means of suspended animation, then interstellar distances are not so insurmountable.
In fact, a race of space-faring tardigrades from a low-gravity moon sounds like a good start for a novel.
Slashdot Mirror
You might note that several of the cities on your list are suburbs of Chicago (Gary, Harvey, East Chicago). So while Chicago proper isn't in the top 30, the Chicago metro area is well represented.
Because putting people into space is pretty useless. It certainly doesn't accomplish any economic purpose. The only scientific purposes are related to answering "what happens when you put people in space?" which is a circular justification for the program.
The place to fight for your rights is not at the scene of the arrest. Comply with police, fight in the courts. That's the way a civil society is conducted.
The problem with that lifestyle isn't government regulation, it's population density. Estimates of the pre-columbian population of California put it somewhere around 300,000. 38 million Californians gathering acorns and shell-fish would quickly strip the land clean.
People have been spending thousands of hours in make believe land since we sat around the fire telling stories every night.
SpaceX would be broke without NASA contracts. Musk is doing interesting stuff in space, but most of it is with other people's money.
Putting a tin can in Mars orbit is possible. Building a sustainable colony is the fools' errand. We've struggle to do that even on Earth.
As a permanent human settlement the International Space Station is NOT viable.
If it were that easy, why is he still holed up in the embassy instead on being taken to Ecuador and given proper accommodations?
Elon Musk is already a Martian. He's just trying to get back home.
Poverty absolutely is relative. In terms of quality of life, the American working class is far richer than any European king in 700AD
You are quoting the NIV translation which made the debatable translation choice of "give birth prematurely" instead of "so that her fruit depart from her". Since the NIV was published after Roe V Wade, it is hard to argue that it is a politically neutral translation choice.
"Sensor" is a very broad term. Which sensors are used NOAA satellites that have no other antecedent but those developed NASA? Something that was specifically and uniquely developed IN HOUSE at NASA that no other organization would have the expertise to develop.
Sure. Project management is hard and NASA has some domain expertise in satellites. But that's a long way from saying we should thank NASA for a 10-day forecast.
NASA doesn't really build anything. NOAA's satellite are designed, built and launched by contractors like Orbital Sciences or Lockheed Martin. You are right that NASA collaborates on oversight and support, but if you imagine a world without NASA, that would still get done.
Only three out of the ten commandments are codified into US law: thou shalt not kill (murder), thou shalt not steal(theft), thou shalt not bear false witness (perjury). Adultery laws might still be on the books in some states, but I doubt they'd hold up in court. Otherwise you are perfectly free to dishonor your parents, worship graven images, work on Sunday, take the Lord's name in vain, and covet your neighbor's wife. As for abortion: an embryo or a fetus is not a person and it is not viable to live on its own. Even the Bible makes this clear since the punishment for striking a pregnant woman and causes her to miscarriage is not the same punishment as murder.
Seattle has that program, too, as you can see from your own link. Hasn't put a dent in the overall problem because of the constant in flux of new homeless to the city.
WW2 was the bleakest era of human history. The concept of a similar conflict scaled up to interstellar levels is a pretty grim view of the future.
OTOH, I always read the Hugo and Nebula nominees. Even reading at a modest pace of a novel or two per week, I struggle to find enough books that fit my interests. Lists of award nominees give me at least 10 or so novels that are competently written in genres I enjoy.
Not science, economics is the problem. If there were some valuable resource that could only be obtained on the Moon or Mars or Venus or somewhere else off-world, then we'd actually see investment in space technology to obtain that resource. And this where hard SF has always fallen short, too. Exploration and colonization are presented as a given without ever given much justification beyond "human spirit" or some other handwaving.
How do you colonize low earth orbit or the Lagrange points?
Park an ion drive or solar sail on a near Earth asteroid, move it into a convenient orbit, and mine it for colony materials.
You can complain about how "Mr. Hope and Change Yes-We-Can" has been a bit disappointing. But even in hindsight, he's been better than the alternatives would have been.
If the objective is to obliterate us, they don't even need to invade. A relativistic warhead fired from another star system would do the trick. Any invasion scenario implies that they would at least want to keep the biosphere in a habitable condition. Which presents some opportunity for guerrilla tactics.
In fact, a race of space-faring tardigrades from a low-gravity moon sounds like a good start for a novel.
Bioinformatics has already standardized on open source tools (R, MySQL, Python). We weren't not buying anything that Wolfram might try to sell.