Well the US has a large navy which is a reason why the US has been a large proponent of Freedom of Navigation, even if it causes conflict.
But you still don't understand that having vested interests in things makes a nation or entity interested in establishing and keeping those things working.
You asked "when does the US give a shit about international law?" Despite the obvious troll, well when the US owns half the stuff in space, thats when the US cares about international law.
Also the USAF is the only organization on Earth capable of tracking the garbage in space, and they do a good job of letting everyone know where the crap is so they can avoid it.
Express-AM11 was knocked out by space debris, Kosmos 2251 and Iridium 33 collided destroying both.
Challenger STS-7, Endeavor STS-59, Atlantis STS-115 and Endeavor STS-118 were all hit in widows or radiators while all the shuttles, ISS and MIR were regularly hit with smaller debris.
ISS has over 100 Whipple Shields installed to reduce the impacts of small objects.
About 25% of it is from a Chinese ICBM being crashed into a satellite, the rest is a mix of commercial, military, government collisions, wrecks, decay and accidents.
Even if there was a Yucatan or Sudbery sized strike today, without tunneling, humans would survive and in a few generations pick up the pieces that remained.
I'm in Alaska, if something hit the Yucatan or deep ocean and balled things up, we still have food sources, fuel. It'd get colder for a while, more snow, glaciers advance, they've come and gone before while humans lived here.
Best chances for survival are going to be at the fringes of the globe, Alaska, Iceland, Lapland, Siberia, tip of South America, Reunion Islands, Russian Far East, Manchuria, Hokkaido, etc.
Actually, MTBF for Earth life is 50-150 MY and the last one was 65-66 Ma.
Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event (End Cretaceous or K-T extinction) – 65.5 Ma Triassic–Jurassic extinction event (End Triassic) – 205 Ma Permian–Triassic extinction event (End Permian) – 251 Ma Late Devonian extinction – 360–375 Ma Ordovician–Silurian extinction event (End Ordovician or O-S) – 440–450 Ma End-Ediacaran extinction - 542 Ma
No, I don't think Humans have the ability to destroy the entire species, vertebrate life has evolved to be very resilient. Look at Crocodilia, they've survived massive climate change, mass extinction events and wild continental drifts, all without any technology.
Humans won't last forever, very few species have or do, but I don't have such hubris to think we will last forever or to think we can destroy ourselves.
I figure another 5-10,000 years before we've left this planet and 25-50,000 before humans are gone, for whatever reason.
The bite point started out like a pimple with two puncture holes.
I got a fever and just felt like crap, first Doctor didn't believe it was a spider bite dispite my having caught the stupid thing and having it in a plastic container.
Fast forward three days, an area the size of a quarter dollar is purple/red/black, changing colors and oozing puss. The doctors that looked at me that time believed it was a spider bite.
That was December 2001, the nerve pain is mostly gone now, but the scar and muscle there still aren't right.
I got bit in Portland Oregon, sounds like they've made it up to Vancouver/Victoria, over to Boise ID and down to Corvallis and Eugene OR.
It was a one in million/ten million bite, don't worry about 'em.
Except for taking the spider to the Oregon Poison Center at Oregon Health Sciences University, where it was shipped off to Oregon State and they said "It's a Hobo Spider" and Brown Recluse not being native to the area.
A spider that was identified as a Hobo Spider (Tegenaria agrestis), it bit my head, other Tegenaria agrestis and T.domestica were seen in my building and in my basement, I had tissue necrosis and nerve pain.
I've read the NIH report and all the drama on the Hobo vs Funnel Webs vs Brown Recluse, the scaring is more similar to Tegenaria duellica/T.agrestis/T.domestica but the spider chewing on my head was a T.agrestis.
Worked in a server room in a basement that was on a heavily wooded property, spiders, salamanders and moles weren't uncommon. I got bit in the head by a Hobo Spider, necrotic tissue and nerve damage ensued.
Hate his politics if you want, but Drudge often breaks news before other venues do and it's a quick and easy place for a bunch of headlines at once without a bunch of javascript and streaming video nonsense.
Slashdot Mirror
Well the US has a large navy which is a reason why the US has been a large proponent of Freedom of Navigation, even if it causes conflict.
But you still don't understand that having vested interests in things makes a nation or entity interested in establishing and keeping those things working.
Thats fine.
Fark goes this way now too, especially in the Politics and Showbiz tabs.
My pet peeve are the same headlines and links that go from Digg to Reddit to Fark, usually about 6-8 hours later.
You asked "when does the US give a shit about international law?" Despite the obvious troll, well when the US owns half the stuff in space, thats when the US cares about international law.
Also the USAF is the only organization on Earth capable of tracking the garbage in space, and they do a good job of letting everyone know where the crap is so they can avoid it.
Express-AM11 was knocked out by space debris, Kosmos 2251 and Iridium 33 collided destroying both.
Challenger STS-7, Endeavor STS-59, Atlantis STS-115 and Endeavor STS-118 were all hit in widows or radiators while all the shuttles, ISS and MIR were regularly hit with smaller debris.
ISS has over 100 Whipple Shields installed to reduce the impacts of small objects.
The US owns nearly half of the total orbiting satellites.
http://www.ucsusa.org/nuclear_weapons_and_global_security/space_weapons/technical_issues/ucs-satellite-database.html
Total - 957
US - 436 - 10 Civil, 193 Commercial, 118 Government, 115 Military
Russia - 100
China - 69
49% of those are in LEO
About 25% of it is from a Chinese ICBM being crashed into a satellite, the rest is a mix of commercial, military, government collisions, wrecks, decay and accidents.
Space is big, Low Earth Orbit isn't.
This is like Columbus trying to make it out of port with wrecks littering the harbor mouth.
Read the article, their expertise is in understanding the dynamics of the problem and the threats the problems raise.
It's like saying an oncologist can't treat cancer because he didn't make up the chemotherapy drug, thus he isn't an expert.
One expert is - "orbital debris expert within the Space Department at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory in Laurel, Md."
The other is - Gen. William Shelton, commander of the U.S. Air Force Space Command, who has been assigned to USAF space posts since 1976.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_L._Shelton
And then the losers can appeal all the way to the USSC where it's anyones guess what'll happen.
You are trolling right?
Chiropractors, homeopaths, acupuncturists, etc are "health care professionals" while science is quackery "vaccine pushers, big pharma, etc".
Generally, nuclear power plants don't use fuel made from the nuclear weapon cycle nor are they the same type of reactor.
Nations without nuclear weapons (Japan and Germany stand out) have large nuclear power plant industries.
I moved up to Anchorage just to escape the Hobos ;)
We get some seriously giant furry monsters up here that have ridden the ferries and Alcan though.
Even if there was a Yucatan or Sudbery sized strike today, without tunneling, humans would survive and in a few generations pick up the pieces that remained.
I'm in Alaska, if something hit the Yucatan or deep ocean and balled things up, we still have food sources, fuel. It'd get colder for a while, more snow, glaciers advance, they've come and gone before while humans lived here.
Best chances for survival are going to be at the fringes of the globe, Alaska, Iceland, Lapland, Siberia, tip of South America, Reunion Islands, Russian Far East, Manchuria, Hokkaido, etc.
Actually, MTBF for Earth life is 50-150 MY and the last one was 65-66 Ma.
Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction event (End Cretaceous or K-T extinction) – 65.5 Ma
Triassic–Jurassic extinction event (End Triassic) – 205 Ma
Permian–Triassic extinction event (End Permian) – 251 Ma
Late Devonian extinction – 360–375 Ma
Ordovician–Silurian extinction event (End Ordovician or O-S) – 440–450 Ma
End-Ediacaran extinction - 542 Ma
No, I don't think Humans have the ability to destroy the entire species, vertebrate life has evolved to be very resilient. Look at Crocodilia, they've survived massive climate change, mass extinction events and wild continental drifts, all without any technology.
Humans won't last forever, very few species have or do, but I don't have such hubris to think we will last forever or to think we can destroy ourselves.
I figure another 5-10,000 years before we've left this planet and 25-50,000 before humans are gone, for whatever reason.
Human evolution has lasted about 3-4 million years, do you really think it's going to continue for 4-5 billion?
I won't be proper fucked by something that happens in 4-5 billion years, nor will anyone or their descendants 300 generations in the future.
Niven did it too huh?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyage_from_Yesteryear - theres Hogan's, it was a neat read back then.
Embryos in liquid nitrogen with a lot of radiation shielding, artificial wombs, robots to raise them when they get there.
Like Hogan's Voyage from Yesteryear
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embryo_space_colonization
The Sun running out of fuel in four billion years is not something to worry about.
The bite point started out like a pimple with two puncture holes.
I got a fever and just felt like crap, first Doctor didn't believe it was a spider bite dispite my having caught the stupid thing and having it in a plastic container.
Fast forward three days, an area the size of a quarter dollar is purple/red/black, changing colors and oozing puss. The doctors that looked at me that time believed it was a spider bite.
That was December 2001, the nerve pain is mostly gone now, but the scar and muscle there still aren't right.
I got bit in Portland Oregon, sounds like they've made it up to Vancouver/Victoria, over to Boise ID and down to Corvallis and Eugene OR.
It was a one in million/ten million bite, don't worry about 'em.
Except for taking the spider to the Oregon Poison Center at Oregon Health Sciences University, where it was shipped off to Oregon State and they said "It's a Hobo Spider" and Brown Recluse not being native to the area.
A spider that was identified as a Hobo Spider (Tegenaria agrestis), it bit my head, other Tegenaria agrestis and T.domestica were seen in my building and in my basement, I had tissue necrosis and nerve pain.
I've read the NIH report and all the drama on the Hobo vs Funnel Webs vs Brown Recluse, the scaring is more similar to Tegenaria duellica/T.agrestis/T.domestica but the spider chewing on my head was a T.agrestis.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00042059.htm
Worked in a server room in a basement that was on a heavily wooded property, spiders, salamanders and moles weren't uncommon. I got bit in the head by a Hobo Spider, necrotic tissue and nerve damage ensued.
Drudge is a one man operation with the occasional minion as well.
I heard he makes about 1.3-2 million dollars a year on the site.
Naw, Drudgereport has been the same since before mobile browsers. It really hasn't changed layout wise since 1996.
Hate his politics if you want, but Drudge often breaks news before other venues do and it's a quick and easy place for a bunch of headlines at once without a bunch of javascript and streaming video nonsense.