Yes, that's right. As of now, it's cheaper to fly from NY to Boston thank to take the train.
There's a reason for that... airline fuel is not taxed, nor are ticket sales (at least in Europe), nor are airline purchases, airport construction is subsidised by government funding as are the links to connect them to the rest of the transport system.
If trains could get the same tax breaks as the airline industry has been pigging on for the last sixty years things might be different.
Hmmm - the other country to invest heavily in Maglev technology is Germany. Their economy is not brilliant (to say the least) either !
Growth in Germany has been lousy for the last few years but they are now the World's largest exporter. So some things are still going well over there.
As for their Maglev, the link to Berlin has been cancelled, but the technology was licensed to China. The Chinese have used it to create the new high speed link between Shanghai and its airport and are looking at the construction of a track between Shanghai and Beijing.
The UK government is so disorganised that if they tried to link up the databases they'd probably screw it up. Even the databases you'd think would naturally be linked (eg. unemployment benefit and housing benefit) are completely separate and largely on paper - requiring you to fill in *more* paper just to tell one department about what the other department is doing.
Oh I agree it would be a disaster, but the repercussions would be felt by those people who need government services. The recent fiasco with the Child Support Agency system only being able to process 5% of enquiries correctly meant that people who really needed money had to go without.
You can only imagine the chaos that would ensue when medical records got screwed up, when pensions were incorrectly calculated or immigration improperly processed.
All from a government led by a man who freely admitted he could order flowers on the Internet.
When Joe Bloggs goes along to have his eyeball digitised, presumably he has to take some supporting identification from an existing system - passport, national security number whatever.
Now we've been told that the reason for ID cards is that the existing databases are corrupt - full of dead people, fake records and so on.
Which means that we are putting garbarge into the system. Someone who already possesses a fake ID can simply go along with their false identification, get their eyes scanned and be given a brand new Blunkettcard.
WHICH IS GUARANTEED 100% GENUINE BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT!
So that person can now pass themself off with the full authority of the Home Secretary.
There is one significant difference: We have a reasonable expectation that in most cases that only limited information is kept about us. If the passport system contains detailed biometrics, there are no more technical barriers (such as lack of data with the current system) stopping the government of whatever country we're entering (including our own) from tracking our movements and in general invading our privacy in any way they see fit.
The UK government has already proposed linking all government databases (in contravention of the Date Protection Act), and is also proposing to create a trans-European database.
The problem with this proposal is that the ID card is not just going to be used for border control or for access to services (where you might expect to find biometric readers).
Blunkettcards will be used as a form of ID for almost all services (in much the same way as many American businesses rely on a driving licence or social security card for ID).
In those places, a simple visual inspection will be made of the card - so you could use a fake card safe in the knowledge that the biometrics will never be checked.
What makes them dangerous is the government failing to understand that an ID card backed by the government will lead people into a false sense of security. Instead of validating a person, they will be validating a card - which may or may not be fake.
Is it so difficult to just do a spacewalk and a visual inspection?
On the Shuttle yes. There aren't hand-holds across most of the Shuttle - so the astronauts can't climb on the fuselage.
Even if they could, the tiles are so fragile that the slightest brush against the hull risks further damage to the insulation.
The alternative of the jet pack isn't carried on every mission because of weight and stowage concerns. Additionally not every astronaut is trained in its use.
And that still wouldn't resolve the problem of the tiles being far too fragile.
And just think: The U.K. asked the U.S to work with them... jeez... the *US*. They seem to think the U.S. is some kind of democracy where the representatives work for the people rather than lining their own pockets. Fucking hell... how misinformed can you get.
:)
Thank goodness for the 'special relationship' - can you imagine what America would have said if we weren't friends?
That's the idea. IIRC the government has come to the conclusion that putting personal data on the card is not a good idea (well done), but that the key will unlock a corresponding record in a centralised government database.
Oh and how are we all going to be added to the database - well we go down to a police station with an existing form of ID, get our eyeballs scanned and then we get a CERTIFIED piece of ID - which the government GUARANTEES is 100% accurate.
So all you need to do is go down to the police station with a FAKE piece of ID, go through the system and you have a GUARANTEED fake ID which has to be accepted.
But I think one of the reasons they are being deliberately vague (apart from trying to introduce surveillance by stealth) is that they haven't got the faintest idea how to do it. They've had the nice people round with the sharp suits, they got some brochures in the post - but as for the actual implementation I suspect the Home Office is thinking 'it can't be that hard can it?'
Our only hope is that this follows the recent run of UK government IT disasters (here, here and here for starters) and falls apart horribly. Either that or that when Blair finally takes a tumble, he'll take Blunkett and his cronies with him.
Oh sorry, I forgot - you have to pay for it as well.
My best guess is that there is no radiation that works well for it. you need something that is strong enough to pass through the planet, but is weak enough to be partially stopped by features you're interested in.
Bingo! Earthquake waves are the only things we know about that go through the planet. Even radio waves don't make it.
To assert categorically that the core is iron strikes me as foolish.
Actually its not, we have plenty of iron meteorites in our museums which are essentially an iron-nickel alloy. The crystallisation patterns (known as Widmanstatten patterns show that the metal cooled extremely slowly (ie. it was well insulated ie. it was at depth ie. it formed the core of a planetoid).
Uranium settling to the core would not form a reactor since natural uranium cannot sustain a chain reaction (the U238 gobbles up the neutrons) without a moderator. Even if there had been one long ago fuelled by relatively abundant U235, natural decay would have killed it by now. The 'reactor' in West Africa was moderated by ground water, which there isn't a lot of in the middle of the Earth.
And I'm sure a geochemist in the house will be able to tell me for sure. Isn't uranium partial to binding with silica - so the outer layers of the Earth are relatively enriched in uranium - it gets scarcer as you go down.
Can someone please send this to David Blunkett (UK's equivalent of John Ashcroft albeit without the same twinkling elfin charm)?
He's decided (not mentioned in election manifesto, no vote in Parliament, no primary legislation, public consultation gave a big thumbs down) that everyone in the UK is going to have to pay to have biometric ID cards and that they will be completely secure because they use computers and the Internet and stuff...
Somehow I think the government got the salespitch from one of the manufacturers, certainly they ignored the fact that the UK's bank and credit card issuers recently refused to implement biometrics because they considered them too unreliable.
Doubtless Slashdot will carry the story about the biggest IT fiasco in history just as soon as Blunkettcards become a reality.
Lets also be realistic here; the only place India would want to hit with an ICBM is Pakistan, and they already have more conventional rockets which are plenty capable of doing that.
Not quite. India and China have had an ongoing border dispute for many years now. The two countries view one another with suspicion and are engaged in an arms race.
US rockets - yes. Russian rockets - no. they developed them by themselves
The Americans got the vast majority of the V2 development team and hardware; they then demolished the production lines which fell inside the Soviet sector of Germany.
Sergei Korolev and his team were sent to Germany to review the wreckage, they retrieved plenty of information which they put to good use in the R1 which was a Soviet copy of the V2.
I really think it was a landmark in computer history, it was just too recent for people to note the effect.
Agree with that, and the Newton did show the way for a new type of computer - the hand-held that you could interact with in a more naturalistic manner - from it comes the Palm, the Pocket PC, the P800...
Whereas the Amiga's descendents are where? At the end of the day, the Amiga was a brilliant, quirky, fascinating dead end.
Maybe this is his newest book in the USA, over here the sequel is already out: The Sundering (got that link of WJW's page).
I'd say the two books are 'okay', but no better.
There is some great background here, some fascinating alien races (the ones who are perpetually rotting is a nicely gross idea), the fact that space battles aren't conducted like The Battle of Britain is a refreshing change.
But...
I couldn't care less about any of the characters - Martinez is a limp know-it-all who could do with a good lasering, Sula is plain slappable, the bad guys don't seem to be any worse than the good guys and I'm not sure where this series is heading.
Whatever happened to WJW's take-no-prisoners, full-throttle prose and wonderful ideas?
How many more books are there to go before he can get back to writing one-off novels? Why is this a series when 'Hardwired' was a single book? Is there no justice in the World?
I think this is good as it is a step out of the 'Cradle' and probably requires nearly the same energy as a trip to the moon (TLI or whatever).
One big problem is that this sounds just like the ill-fated proposals that NASA had in the 1960s. Then it was go to Mars, but to do that they would build a space station in LEO, to get to that they would need a reusable spacecraft.
And what happened? Well reality intruded, manned space travel is horribly expensive and not terribly justifiable when government spending is already out of control. Mars was too expensive, so that was canned. Then the permanent space station became vulnerable - what was it for if it wasn't to send men to Mars. So that was ditched.
Which left the Shuttle. Pointless but buildable thanks to lots of pork barrelling. NASA scraped together a plan for the Shuttle which turned it into a space truck vastly more expensive than the ships it was replacing.
So what will change this time? NASA might get a new way into LEO, they might get a transfer vehicle, they might even get a tin-can at the L Point, but you can bet that any cost-cutters who get elected will see a Moon base and manned exploration of the Solar System as the easiest budget victims imaginable.
Sorry if this is typed fast - I am trying to config a Cisco Router at the same time!!
Very good, of course I would only have been impressed if you had also been juggling:)
The united states owes hundreds of billions of dollars(trillions?). To whom?
There is an external debt which is funded by the issue of Treasury Bonds. A good portion of these are held abroad by European, Japanese and increasingly Chinese central banks. Currently about $2 billion a day is being added to the American debt through Treasury Bonds.
Problem is, no one knows if there is a limit to the appetite for them, without a constant issue of debt, the American government will have to perform a massive correction in spending. Going to the Moon when the American economy is already badly-lopsided would not seem to be good economics.
Ah what a great game this is turning out to be! It's been far too long since the last game with a decent narrative. Hmmm was that 'Broken Sword 2'?
So okay the graphics engine is just 'adequate' and its not one for people with attention issues, but for a slice of good, old-fashioned fun it can't be beaten.
If only LucasArts would stop churning out sub-standard Star Wars tie-ins and fire up SCUMM again we could have more games which rely on character and story to drag you in.
Slashdot Mirror
I guess we narrowly avoided the horror of a cancer epidemic caused by inhaling second-hand golf ball fumes.
I love the idea though.
Particularly in the hot, dry summers...
Best wishes,
Mike.
There's a reason for that... airline fuel is not taxed, nor are ticket sales (at least in Europe), nor are airline purchases, airport construction is subsidised by government funding as are the links to connect them to the rest of the transport system.
If trains could get the same tax breaks as the airline industry has been pigging on for the last sixty years things might be different.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Growth in Germany has been lousy for the last few years but they are now the World's largest exporter. So some things are still going well over there.
As for their Maglev, the link to Berlin has been cancelled, but the technology was licensed to China. The Chinese have used it to create the new high speed link between Shanghai and its airport and are looking at the construction of a track between Shanghai and Beijing.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Oh I agree it would be a disaster, but the repercussions would be felt by those people who need government services. The recent fiasco with the Child Support Agency system only being able to process 5% of enquiries correctly meant that people who really needed money had to go without.
You can only imagine the chaos that would ensue when medical records got screwed up, when pensions were incorrectly calculated or immigration improperly processed.
All from a government led by a man who freely admitted he could order flowers on the Internet.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Now we've been told that the reason for ID cards is that the existing databases are corrupt - full of dead people, fake records and so on.
Which means that we are putting garbarge into the system. Someone who already possesses a fake ID can simply go along with their false identification, get their eyes scanned and be given a brand new Blunkettcard.
WHICH IS GUARANTEED 100% GENUINE BY THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT!
So that person can now pass themself off with the full authority of the Home Secretary.
Best wishes,
Mike.
The UK government has already proposed linking all government databases (in contravention of the Date Protection Act), and is also proposing to create a trans-European database.
And I was told that 1984 wouldn't be like '1984'.
Blunkettcards will be used as a form of ID for almost all services (in much the same way as many American businesses rely on a driving licence or social security card for ID).
In those places, a simple visual inspection will be made of the card - so you could use a fake card safe in the knowledge that the biometrics will never be checked.
What makes them dangerous is the government failing to understand that an ID card backed by the government will lead people into a false sense of security. Instead of validating a person, they will be validating a card - which may or may not be fake.
So the ID card is worthless.
Best wishes,
Mike.
One of the reasons we're being forced into this idea is because of the US insistence on foreign nationals carrying biometric-enabled passports...
Is the US proposing biometric passports for its own citizens?
I'd love to know the answer.
Thanks in advance
Mike.
On the Shuttle yes. There aren't hand-holds across most of the Shuttle - so the astronauts can't climb on the fuselage.
Even if they could, the tiles are so fragile that the slightest brush against the hull risks further damage to the insulation.
The alternative of the jet pack isn't carried on every mission because of weight and stowage concerns. Additionally not every astronaut is trained in its use.
And that still wouldn't resolve the problem of the tiles being far too fragile.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Thank goodness for the 'special relationship' - can you imagine what America would have said if we weren't friends?
Best wishes,
Mike.
Bye, bye Boca Raton, FL.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Dropping a hydrogen bomb on Boca Raton, FL. would cut my inbox by half.
I'm sure its a very nice place - warm, sunny and everything Britain isn't in early December, but first of all it gave us the IBM PC and now spam.
You don't think Buffy put the Hellmouth on the wrong coast do you?
Best wishes,
Mike.
That's the idea. IIRC the government has come to the conclusion that putting personal data on the card is not a good idea (well done), but that the key will unlock a corresponding record in a centralised government database.
Oh and how are we all going to be added to the database - well we go down to a police station with an existing form of ID, get our eyeballs scanned and then we get a CERTIFIED piece of ID - which the government GUARANTEES is 100% accurate.
So all you need to do is go down to the police station with a FAKE piece of ID, go through the system and you have a GUARANTEED fake ID which has to be accepted.
But I think one of the reasons they are being deliberately vague (apart from trying to introduce surveillance by stealth) is that they haven't got the faintest idea how to do it. They've had the nice people round with the sharp suits, they got some brochures in the post - but as for the actual implementation I suspect the Home Office is thinking 'it can't be that hard can it?'
Our only hope is that this follows the recent run of UK government IT disasters (here, here and here for starters) and falls apart horribly. Either that or that when Blair finally takes a tumble, he'll take Blunkett and his cronies with him.
Oh sorry, I forgot - you have to pay for it as well.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Bingo! Earthquake waves are the only things we know about that go through the planet. Even radio waves don't make it.
Best wishes,
Mike.
It has tidal quakes caused by the stresses and strains of orbiting the Earth, but their energy is minute.
The Apollo sensors also picked up a number of minor impacts, one of them estimated as being about 10 tonnes smashing into the far side.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Actually its not, we have plenty of iron meteorites in our museums which are essentially an iron-nickel alloy. The crystallisation patterns (known as Widmanstatten patterns show that the metal cooled extremely slowly (ie. it was well insulated ie. it was at depth ie. it formed the core of a planetoid).
Uranium settling to the core would not form a reactor since natural uranium cannot sustain a chain reaction (the U238 gobbles up the neutrons) without a moderator. Even if there had been one long ago fuelled by relatively abundant U235, natural decay would have killed it by now. The 'reactor' in West Africa was moderated by ground water, which there isn't a lot of in the middle of the Earth.
And I'm sure a geochemist in the house will be able to tell me for sure. Isn't uranium partial to binding with silica - so the outer layers of the Earth are relatively enriched in uranium - it gets scarcer as you go down.
Best wishes,
Mike.
He's decided (not mentioned in election manifesto, no vote in Parliament, no primary legislation, public consultation gave a big thumbs down) that everyone in the UK is going to have to pay to have biometric ID cards and that they will be completely secure because they use computers and the Internet and stuff...
Somehow I think the government got the salespitch from one of the manufacturers, certainly they ignored the fact that the UK's bank and credit card issuers recently refused to implement biometrics because they considered them too unreliable.
Doubtless Slashdot will carry the story about the biggest IT fiasco in history just as soon as Blunkettcards become a reality.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Not quite. India and China have had an ongoing border dispute for many years now. The two countries view one another with suspicion and are engaged in an arms race.
Best wishes,
Mike.
The Americans got the vast majority of the V2 development team and hardware; they then demolished the production lines which fell inside the Soviet sector of Germany.
Sergei Korolev and his team were sent to Germany to review the wreckage, they retrieved plenty of information which they put to good use in the R1 which was a Soviet copy of the V2.
Best wishes,
Mike.
Agree with that, and the Newton did show the way for a new type of computer - the hand-held that you could interact with in a more naturalistic manner - from it comes the Palm, the Pocket PC, the P800...
Whereas the Amiga's descendents are where? At the end of the day, the Amiga was a brilliant, quirky, fascinating dead end.
Best wishes,
Mike.
I'd say the two books are 'okay', but no better.
There is some great background here, some fascinating alien races (the ones who are perpetually rotting is a nicely gross idea), the fact that space battles aren't conducted like The Battle of Britain is a refreshing change.
But...
I couldn't care less about any of the characters - Martinez is a limp know-it-all who could do with a good lasering, Sula is plain slappable, the bad guys don't seem to be any worse than the good guys and I'm not sure where this series is heading.
Whatever happened to WJW's take-no-prisoners, full-throttle prose and wonderful ideas?
Perhaps this is a clue?
ANDROMEDA?????
How many more books are there to go before he can get back to writing one-off novels? Why is this a series when 'Hardwired' was a single book? Is there no justice in the World?
Best wishes,
Mike.
One big problem is that this sounds just like the ill-fated proposals that NASA had in the 1960s. Then it was go to Mars, but to do that they would build a space station in LEO, to get to that they would need a reusable spacecraft.
And what happened? Well reality intruded, manned space travel is horribly expensive and not terribly justifiable when government spending is already out of control. Mars was too expensive, so that was canned. Then the permanent space station became vulnerable - what was it for if it wasn't to send men to Mars. So that was ditched.
Which left the Shuttle. Pointless but buildable thanks to lots of pork barrelling. NASA scraped together a plan for the Shuttle which turned it into a space truck vastly more expensive than the ships it was replacing.
So what will change this time? NASA might get a new way into LEO, they might get a transfer vehicle, they might even get a tin-can at the L Point, but you can bet that any cost-cutters who get elected will see a Moon base and manned exploration of the Solar System as the easiest budget victims imaginable.
Sorry if this is typed fast - I am trying to config a Cisco Router at the same time!!
Very good, of course I would only have been impressed if you had also been juggling :)
Best wishes,
Mike.
There is an external debt which is funded by the issue of Treasury Bonds. A good portion of these are held abroad by European, Japanese and increasingly Chinese central banks. Currently about $2 billion a day is being added to the American debt through Treasury Bonds.
Problem is, no one knows if there is a limit to the appetite for them, without a constant issue of debt, the American government will have to perform a massive correction in spending. Going to the Moon when the American economy is already badly-lopsided would not seem to be good economics.
Best wishes,
Mike.
N'ah, what you really need is a tidal wave :)
Best wishes,
Mike.
Ah what a great game this is turning out to be! It's been far too long since the last game with a decent narrative. Hmmm was that 'Broken Sword 2'?
So okay the graphics engine is just 'adequate' and its not one for people with attention issues, but for a slice of good, old-fashioned fun it can't be beaten.
If only LucasArts would stop churning out sub-standard Star Wars tie-ins and fire up SCUMM again we could have more games which rely on character and story to drag you in.
Best wishes,
Mike.