4.22 light years if you're talking about Proxima, or 4.3 for Alpha Centari A and B. Probably the latter, because Proxima is very dim. I did a quick look, and couldn't find anything about planets around Alpha Centauri, but even if one has been discovered, it's almost certainly Jupiter sized or larger, which makes it unlikely to be inhabitable.
Any potential colony that we would try to establish outside the solar system would have to be self sufficient. It costs millions to get into orbit. It would cost billions, even trillions, to try to get even a single ship to Alpha Centauri, so a constant supply of ships with food and water sent after the colonists is simply not an option. On top of that, we'd have to send decades worth of supplies along with them. If any parts that they needed broke, it'd be decades more to get a replacement. No, for the forseeable future, no extrasolar colonies could be established that would require any kind of ongoing support from Earth. I'm sorry to have to contradict your point, but initiative or not, the technology is very, very far from being there.
You want the future of space exploration? See these guys, or any of a number of efforts like it. Their most recent newspost acknowledges the Columbia disaster with an image at the top of the page, and then doesn't even mention it again. How's that for balls? 7 people were just killed in one of the most expensive space vehicles on Earth, and they don't even question whether they ought to press forward.
As long as our space efforts are funded by the government, they will always be politicized. People on Slashdot always say "we should give NASA more money," or "we should let NASA be more independent," but you just can't alter the fundamentally political way in which they're run. It's one of the bugs in democracy. Actually, it's present in other political systems as well ("In Soviet Russia, politicians assasinate YOU!"), but that's not important, because I don't think anyone here thinks we should give up democracy for the sake of greater efficiency in NASA. But look at the government programs that surround you every day. Look at the bitter controversies over what age sex education ought to be taught in the public schools (if at all, and should the subject of condoms be raised?). Look at the way the post office raises the price of stamps a penny every year, instead of a nickel every 5. So long as the entire county has to live under only one government, governmental programs are always going to be inefficent, as they must satisfy at least 50% of the population, and a few rich interest groups. The essence of democracy is what they say about a good compromise: "everyone's a little bit upset."
NASA probably was useful in its day. They did get the ball rolling after all. But today, with corporations sending up satellites as part of routine business, expecting a govenrment program to do all of America's space exploration is just not a good idea. We need sustainable space efforts, we need people who have an interest in bringing the cost of getting into space down, and who can take risks without having to think about what it'll mean next November.
Well, this has been a bit of a rant, but that's alright.
How much of that was really invented by NASA? Of the stuff that was, how much would have been developed anyway? Example: they list improved aerodynamics for golf balls (it employs "NASA aerodynamics technology," whatever that means). Although they're vague about what NASA's involvement is, I'm sure that golf ball makers could figure out all that aerodynamic stuff today with computer simulations pretty easily. Just because NASA claims credit for it, doesn't mean NASA was the sole, or even a major, contributor. Nor does it mean that the same technology wouldn't have been developed two years later for less money by a company working in that field.
As for the Internet, we know what the Internet would have looked like without the government. Just look at the AOL/Compuserve/Prodigy services of the early 90's. We would have had dozens of incompatible formats, and all the content would have come from corporate advertisers. I'm a dyed in the wool libertarian, but I give the government a tremendous amount of credit for having created the open framework of the Internet.
Start researching new ways to travel in space, and make a colony in Alpha Century a priority.
Assuming you mean Alpha Centauri, I think someone's been playing a little too much Civilization. I don't think there's any reason to believe that Alpha Centauri even has habitable planets. Most likely, we'd get there and realize that Mars, aside from being closer, is an all around more hospitable environment. Seriously, I'm curious, where did your idea that we must get to Alpha Centauri come from?
At times they actually have a live local DJ (who can be assaulted by telephone at a local number) and once in a while the DJ is clearly playing what they damned well feel like, not what's on the menu.
Perhaps he plays Emmanuel Goldstein to Clear Channel's Big Brother? He's the visible renegade to make them seem less omnipresent... Okay, I guess I'm getting a little paranoid (it's only RADIO for Chrissake, I never listened to the stuff before the CC takeover), but it's fun to pretend that Corporate America is more organized than it really is.
It's kind of funny, I wrote this so long ago (8 years) that I didn't even particularly dislike Microsoft. I just was writing about a bioengineered lizard (the assignment was to write a story about an illustration we were given, which was of a giant lizard hanging an ornament on a Christmas tree), and so I figured I'd make it a prototype from the Microsoft of the future.
You know, the phone numbers in my story were also 13 numbers long. Looking back, it's almost prophetic:)
...I believe Penny-Arcade has the answer, under the entry for "Tribes 5."
Seriously, the most common complaint I heard was "enough with the Star Trek already." Maybe if Berman had kept the quality up all along, things would be different, but after Voyager (which shamelessly exploited the Borg, as well as the last refuge of the incompetent producer: tits and ass), Insurrection (where not even the actors believed the premise, see here), and Enterprise (which shatters existing history, as well as throwing in more T&A), is it any surprise that people are sick of the series?
I didn't see Nemesis, because quite frankly, I don't feel like seeing an average Star Trek movie anymore. Hell, I'm not even sure I'd want to see a good Star Trek movie. I'm soured on the franchise. Maybe I would see an excellent Star Trek movie, but all in all, you'd have an easier time selling me on an all new sci-fi movie.
I actually wrote a crappy short story for school back in Freshman year of high school that involved some bioengineered pet that Bill Gates IV brings home to his family going haywire and attacking him. In the struggle, Gates the Forth tries to call Microsoft for help, but because the pet kicked him in the crotch (it was a man-sized two legged lizard, like a small Godzilla or something), the voice recognition system wouldn't admit him as someone who was covered by their home security plan.
Whatever, it was a stupid story, but your comment reminded me of it.
I think it's a pretty safe bet that if he owns a Mac, he runs the Mac OS. So the second question need only be answered if the answer to the first question was "PC."
Well, I'm not sure about other extras, but I know that a fair number of them do make use of the multiple viewing angles feature. As far as I know, porn movies are the only ones that use the multiple viewing angles, in fact.
Don't be too down on Warner's cheap packaging, they also sell their DVDs cheap. WB's stated goal is to make DVDs an impulse counter purchase, which is pissing off the other studios that were hoping to ream people on $25 a disc, as the music industry did in the transition from tape to CD. Personally, I find most DVD extras interesting for about 10 seconds. I'd much rather have a $12 DVD with just the original, english version of the movie than a $25 DVD with interviews with the director, the actors, the makeup artists, the cameramen, and the grips.
I had no idea laptop batteries died this frequently. I've got a Dell Latitude with two LiIon batteries, and they've been going good for a little over 3 years now. I use this laptop quite frequently, for taking notes in class, and it spends a fair amount of time off of wall current. I guess I only use it about 15 hours a week, is that low? Are we talking only 1 year for people who use their laptops 40+ hours a week?
And the woman who wears provocative clothing is asking to get raped.
Not a fair comparison. A better one, I think, would be a store owner who always leaves the door open when he goes home at night. This doesn't mean the criminal is not a bad person, but certainly I would not feel a whole lot of sympathy for the store owner.
My grandmother smoked for over 50 years and kicked the habbit
Heh, that reminds me of the time they did the famous lung exhibit in an anti-smoking assembly back in high school. They showed us the healthy lung, and told us it came from a 20-year-old nonsmoker who lived in the country. Then they showed us another one that came from a 70-year-old smoker from the city. Two samples do not a study make, and I know we're dealing with averages and life expectancies and whatnot, but I found it hilarious that their "healthy" subject died 50 years before the "unhealthy" one.
Hell, in 5 years time I'll just have em whip me up a few new organs so that angles covered.
I'm all in favor of smoking (I smoke tobacco in a pipe about once a month), but be careful of relying on advances in medical technology. My high school biology teacher had a friend who said something similar ("by the time I'm old, they'll have cured cancer"), except he said it 50 years ago. Oops.
Additional warnings? They'll still carry the standard Surgeon General's warning. Sure, maybe there'll be some idiot who thinks the Surgeon General's warning is only still there because it's boilerplate, but we can't worry about all the idiots who choose to disregard warnings.
Define "forced." What if the civil service term were 2 years? 8 years? Please, tell me what is the dividing line at which point the longer civil service term changes from an "option" to a "punishment for avoiding military service."
Even putting that aside, Germans are at least encouraged to join the military, so I think that my point still stands.
Why would the US care? It's a military recruitment tool, and I doubt the US Army is expecting to get many new recruits out of Germany. Of course, the Germans have their own answer to the cost of military recruitment, don't they? Yes, forced conscription. So they ban violent videogames, and draft people into the army. Utterly bizarre.
No, that's not better, because to get the average closer to where you think it ought to be, you should always either vote 1 or 5. So averaging the scores is absurd, the +/- moderation at slashdot is much more effective.
The parent was right, that's how it used to work. However, it appears that Taco is now experimenting with changing the description to the most popular mod. Note how now we're seeing percentages of moderation, instead of actual scores?
No, there's a border checkpoint. The main switches are the PRC to Pakistan, and Pakistan to Afganistan. Obviously, you can't just drive right through either one of those borders, you have to stop for inspection. So switching sides of the road when you pull out of the checkpoint is trivial.
However, there are individual roads within a given country where convention is reversed (apparently there's a highway in Canada with exits in the middle, and one in the US with a giant canyon in the middle), and for those there are overpasses.
Slashdot Mirror
Any potential colony that we would try to establish outside the solar system would have to be self sufficient. It costs millions to get into orbit. It would cost billions, even trillions, to try to get even a single ship to Alpha Centauri, so a constant supply of ships with food and water sent after the colonists is simply not an option. On top of that, we'd have to send decades worth of supplies along with them. If any parts that they needed broke, it'd be decades more to get a replacement. No, for the forseeable future, no extrasolar colonies could be established that would require any kind of ongoing support from Earth. I'm sorry to have to contradict your point, but initiative or not, the technology is very, very far from being there.
As long as our space efforts are funded by the government, they will always be politicized. People on Slashdot always say "we should give NASA more money," or "we should let NASA be more independent," but you just can't alter the fundamentally political way in which they're run. It's one of the bugs in democracy. Actually, it's present in other political systems as well ("In Soviet Russia, politicians assasinate YOU!"), but that's not important, because I don't think anyone here thinks we should give up democracy for the sake of greater efficiency in NASA. But look at the government programs that surround you every day. Look at the bitter controversies over what age sex education ought to be taught in the public schools (if at all, and should the subject of condoms be raised?). Look at the way the post office raises the price of stamps a penny every year, instead of a nickel every 5. So long as the entire county has to live under only one government, governmental programs are always going to be inefficent, as they must satisfy at least 50% of the population, and a few rich interest groups. The essence of democracy is what they say about a good compromise: "everyone's a little bit upset."
NASA probably was useful in its day. They did get the ball rolling after all. But today, with corporations sending up satellites as part of routine business, expecting a govenrment program to do all of America's space exploration is just not a good idea. We need sustainable space efforts, we need people who have an interest in bringing the cost of getting into space down, and who can take risks without having to think about what it'll mean next November.
Well, this has been a bit of a rant, but that's alright.
As for the Internet, we know what the Internet would have looked like without the government. Just look at the AOL/Compuserve/Prodigy services of the early 90's. We would have had dozens of incompatible formats, and all the content would have come from corporate advertisers. I'm a dyed in the wool libertarian, but I give the government a tremendous amount of credit for having created the open framework of the Internet.
Assuming you mean Alpha Centauri, I think someone's been playing a little too much Civilization. I don't think there's any reason to believe that Alpha Centauri even has habitable planets. Most likely, we'd get there and realize that Mars, aside from being closer, is an all around more hospitable environment. Seriously, I'm curious, where did your idea that we must get to Alpha Centauri come from?
Perhaps he plays Emmanuel Goldstein to Clear Channel's Big Brother? He's the visible renegade to make them seem less omnipresent... Okay, I guess I'm getting a little paranoid (it's only RADIO for Chrissake, I never listened to the stuff before the CC takeover), but it's fun to pretend that Corporate America is more organized than it really is.
You know, the phone numbers in my story were also 13 numbers long. Looking back, it's almost prophetic :)
Seriously, the most common complaint I heard was "enough with the Star Trek already." Maybe if Berman had kept the quality up all along, things would be different, but after Voyager (which shamelessly exploited the Borg, as well as the last refuge of the incompetent producer: tits and ass), Insurrection (where not even the actors believed the premise, see here), and Enterprise (which shatters existing history, as well as throwing in more T&A), is it any surprise that people are sick of the series?
I didn't see Nemesis, because quite frankly, I don't feel like seeing an average Star Trek movie anymore. Hell, I'm not even sure I'd want to see a good Star Trek movie. I'm soured on the franchise. Maybe I would see an excellent Star Trek movie, but all in all, you'd have an easier time selling me on an all new sci-fi movie.
Riker's been directing the movies, so he decided to take Troi back. Much of the plot of Nemesis involved them frolicking in a hot tub. Ugh, kill me.
Whatever, it was a stupid story, but your comment reminded me of it.
I believe that's "Open Sesame."
I think it's a pretty safe bet that if he owns a Mac, he runs the Mac OS. So the second question need only be answered if the answer to the first question was "PC."
I'm posting late, so I suppose no one will ever see this, but check out this SBC ad.
Is that bizarre or what?
Well, I'm not sure about other extras, but I know that a fair number of them do make use of the multiple viewing angles feature. As far as I know, porn movies are the only ones that use the multiple viewing angles, in fact.
Don't be too down on Warner's cheap packaging, they also sell their DVDs cheap. WB's stated goal is to make DVDs an impulse counter purchase, which is pissing off the other studios that were hoping to ream people on $25 a disc, as the music industry did in the transition from tape to CD. Personally, I find most DVD extras interesting for about 10 seconds. I'd much rather have a $12 DVD with just the original, english version of the movie than a $25 DVD with interviews with the director, the actors, the makeup artists, the cameramen, and the grips.
You can if you've passed the Statute of Limitations. What is the Statute of Limitations on copyright infringement?
I had no idea laptop batteries died this frequently. I've got a Dell Latitude with two LiIon batteries, and they've been going good for a little over 3 years now. I use this laptop quite frequently, for taking notes in class, and it spends a fair amount of time off of wall current. I guess I only use it about 15 hours a week, is that low? Are we talking only 1 year for people who use their laptops 40+ hours a week?
Not a fair comparison. A better one, I think, would be a store owner who always leaves the door open when he goes home at night. This doesn't mean the criminal is not a bad person, but certainly I would not feel a whole lot of sympathy for the store owner.
Heh, that reminds me of the time they did the famous lung exhibit in an anti-smoking assembly back in high school. They showed us the healthy lung, and told us it came from a 20-year-old nonsmoker who lived in the country. Then they showed us another one that came from a 70-year-old smoker from the city. Two samples do not a study make, and I know we're dealing with averages and life expectancies and whatnot, but I found it hilarious that their "healthy" subject died 50 years before the "unhealthy" one.
I'm all in favor of smoking (I smoke tobacco in a pipe about once a month), but be careful of relying on advances in medical technology. My high school biology teacher had a friend who said something similar ("by the time I'm old, they'll have cured cancer"), except he said it 50 years ago. Oops.
Additional warnings? They'll still carry the standard Surgeon General's warning. Sure, maybe there'll be some idiot who thinks the Surgeon General's warning is only still there because it's boilerplate, but we can't worry about all the idiots who choose to disregard warnings.
Even putting that aside, Germans are at least encouraged to join the military, so I think that my point still stands.
Why would the US care? It's a military recruitment tool, and I doubt the US Army is expecting to get many new recruits out of Germany. Of course, the Germans have their own answer to the cost of military recruitment, don't they? Yes, forced conscription. So they ban violent videogames, and draft people into the army. Utterly bizarre.
No, that's not better, because to get the average closer to where you think it ought to be, you should always either vote 1 or 5. So averaging the scores is absurd, the +/- moderation at slashdot is much more effective.
The parent was right, that's how it used to work. However, it appears that Taco is now experimenting with changing the description to the most popular mod. Note how now we're seeing percentages of moderation, instead of actual scores?
However, there are individual roads within a given country where convention is reversed (apparently there's a highway in Canada with exits in the middle, and one in the US with a giant canyon in the middle), and for those there are overpasses.