I think those disappearing islands would be better off digging up the top layer of dirt and raising their island with imported garbage, then cover with top soil and plants. I would think you only need 2 meters to keep their island homes above water, and the first world nations would likely cover the full cost just to be rid of the junk. Having a floating home won't do any good without a job to pay for it, you may as well move to somewhere dry.
Don't shut them down during riots, monitor them and arrest those leading the riot. Knowledge is power, knowing who and where to arrest to stop a riot is great power. The police are fools not to use this to their advantage.
Has Assange verified this? With the code breaking computers available to the US it would be possible to figure out the key and impersonate Assange as a very effective smear campaign. It would also put americans and their spies at risk but that's not stopped them before.
You forgot the part about spending most of a decade looking for the right metal ore asteroid first. And then the shipping cost of bringing it here. Mining the asteroids is very doable, and very profitable- but only after you spend trillions on the infrastructure first.
The moon has plenty of silicon, should be easy to mine/smelt/construct it there and railgun it into earth orbit for final assembly. For all we know half the mass of any given rock out there might be water.
We've used solar power to split water into hydrogen for decades, what matters is cost. How does this compare with standard solar splitting based on surface area? Do you need a crystalline structure to work? Given that raw silicon is more common and more used I expect it's much cheaper. The article talks about semiconductors so it probably needs a crystal structure (drives up cost), so even with better efficiency (single step vs multi step splitting) it's still probably more costly.
The United States was founded by corporations. The declaration of independence was done because Britain wanted to eliminate (some) tax breaks for big corps. It's no wonder the corps chose a form of government that would champion their interests (and it has).
The battery charging issue is the wrong problem, you want power rails in/overhead the roadway so you draw from the grid while driving. Once you have that you only need a small battery to drive into/out of your driveway or parking lot, and it recharges while you drive.
Constellation is intrinsically unworkable due to thrust oscillation issues, it would have required a completely new design. The US won't be able to afford medicare in about five years let alone space flight so Obama's killing manned space flight is understandable. (Obama is a dealer not a leader but that's not relevant) The space shuttle is a bad compromise that should have been replaced decades ago, it's crazy to think about retaining it. Given current financial incompetence in the US it's unlikely they will continue working with the ISS let alone having any space flight (manned or unmanned).
The reason the gov asks isp's and telco's for your traffic is because tapping all those lines would involve passing legal hurdles. It's harder for the gov to directly stomp on your legal rights than for a corporation. It seems the people don't trust the gov so they watch them, but corporations get a free pass.
You get poor service/quotas/high prices because a profit oriented company will make more money by jacking up rates and lowering service than in competing. The lack of real competition in internet is because of the last mile problem. The only way around that is to already own right-of-ways to all the houses or spend massive amounts of money to make a new one. Existing: Power, gas, water, wireless, telephone, cable, roads. Either one of these must offer competition or a really big company must put money/leverage to work to beat a path to your door.
#1 It involves jobs during an recession,
#2 Alaska has oil money to pay for this.
#3 Greedy Americans can be shown pictures of all the valuable things they can buy/sell, and it's just down the road from here.
#4 You can offshore the remains of your economy to Russia.
#5 A rail line will make it cheaper to bring in Chinese than Mexicans.
You don't ship cargo by high speed rail (costs more), and shipping is cheaper than anything but pipelines. However rail can be electric meaning no oil needed. You can't run a cargo ship off solar. I expect the tourism from europe will be the biggest draw, with russia getting a nice cut of each ticket price.
Russia exports oil, US imports oil. Sky high oil prices (courtesy of peak oil) mean lots of money coming in to pay for this. As for selling the oil to china, that's the point. Selling Alaska oil to china will pay more once the US defaults.
Building a extraterrestrial/space based colony would work better, you've got nobody to bother you out there. The startup costs would be huge, but assuming you bring enough poor people along as a peasant class you'd basically rule as kings. I'd suggest a mars colony as a good place to start. You've got lots of resources, the gravity is close enough, you've got (low) air pressure, and enough sunlight to be useful.
Given limited funding they can either do manned missions or do science stuff, but not both. If you're looking for a reason to spread the pork around congressional districts then build a national (gov owned and operated, last mile monopoly) telecommunications network based on fibre to the home. That would be an investment in your future instead of just throwing money away. As for a manned mission to mars: You haven't done a full search for life yet. If it's got life you'll either kill it or contaminate it (so you'll never find it) or bring it back. (finding out that "harmless" martian microbe eats glass/oil/aluminum would suck)
The patent says silicon and/or aluminum. Doesn't sound very stone like to me. His patent also sounds much like an LP. I think this is yet another version of making a unique invention by adding "with a computer" to the description of something that already exists.
If they filter, then they should be responsible for all the bad stuff that gets through. Specifically spam. If I have a bandwidth capped service then spam is costing me money, and I want that back.
Slashdot Mirror
I'm still waiting for my pet velociraptor. How am I to defend myself against the zombie hordes without velociraptors?!
I think those disappearing islands would be better off digging up the top layer of dirt and raising their island with imported garbage, then cover with top soil and plants. I would think you only need 2 meters to keep their island homes above water, and the first world nations would likely cover the full cost just to be rid of the junk. Having a floating home won't do any good without a job to pay for it, you may as well move to somewhere dry.
Don't shut them down during riots, monitor them and arrest those leading the riot. Knowledge is power, knowing who and where to arrest to stop a riot is great power. The police are fools not to use this to their advantage.
Has Assange verified this? With the code breaking computers available to the US it would be possible to figure out the key and impersonate Assange as a very effective smear campaign. It would also put americans and their spies at risk but that's not stopped them before.
You forgot the part about spending most of a decade looking for the right metal ore asteroid first. And then the shipping cost of bringing it here. Mining the asteroids is very doable, and very profitable- but only after you spend trillions on the infrastructure first.
The moon has plenty of silicon, should be easy to mine/smelt/construct it there and railgun it into earth orbit for final assembly. For all we know half the mass of any given rock out there might be water.
No, hydrogen is still a bad investment.
Having solar panels on your roof that can power your stuff -and- refuel your car is a better investment than a solar plant for each.
We've used solar power to split water into hydrogen for decades, what matters is cost. How does this compare with standard solar splitting based on surface area? Do you need a crystalline structure to work? Given that raw silicon is more common and more used I expect it's much cheaper. The article talks about semiconductors so it probably needs a crystal structure (drives up cost), so even with better efficiency (single step vs multi step splitting) it's still probably more costly.
The United States was founded by corporations. The declaration of independence was done because Britain wanted to eliminate (some) tax breaks for big corps. It's no wonder the corps chose a form of government that would champion their interests (and it has).
The battery charging issue is the wrong problem, you want power rails in/overhead the roadway so you draw from the grid while driving. Once you have that you only need a small battery to drive into/out of your driveway or parking lot, and it recharges while you drive.
Our grid is only at/near peak capacity during parts of the day. At night it's well below half capacity. If we charge at night we're fine.
Constellation is intrinsically unworkable due to thrust oscillation issues, it would have required a completely new design. The US won't be able to afford medicare in about five years let alone space flight so Obama's killing manned space flight is understandable. (Obama is a dealer not a leader but that's not relevant) The space shuttle is a bad compromise that should have been replaced decades ago, it's crazy to think about retaining it. Given current financial incompetence in the US it's unlikely they will continue working with the ISS let alone having any space flight (manned or unmanned).
The reason the gov asks isp's and telco's for your traffic is because tapping all those lines would involve passing legal hurdles. It's harder for the gov to directly stomp on your legal rights than for a corporation. It seems the people don't trust the gov so they watch them, but corporations get a free pass.
You get poor service/quotas/high prices because a profit oriented company will make more money by jacking up rates and lowering service than in competing. The lack of real competition in internet is because of the last mile problem. The only way around that is to already own right-of-ways to all the houses or spend massive amounts of money to make a new one. Existing: Power, gas, water, wireless, telephone, cable, roads. Either one of these must offer competition or a really big company must put money/leverage to work to beat a path to your door.
Either give the USPTO sufficient time/resources to determine if applications are valid, or assume they are invalid until proven in court.
#1 It involves jobs during an recession, #2 Alaska has oil money to pay for this. #3 Greedy Americans can be shown pictures of all the valuable things they can buy/sell, and it's just down the road from here. #4 You can offshore the remains of your economy to Russia. #5 A rail line will make it cheaper to bring in Chinese than Mexicans.
You don't ship cargo by high speed rail (costs more), and shipping is cheaper than anything but pipelines. However rail can be electric meaning no oil needed. You can't run a cargo ship off solar. I expect the tourism from europe will be the biggest draw, with russia getting a nice cut of each ticket price.
Russia exports oil, US imports oil. Sky high oil prices (courtesy of peak oil) mean lots of money coming in to pay for this. As for selling the oil to china, that's the point. Selling Alaska oil to china will pay more once the US defaults.
Building a extraterrestrial/space based colony would work better, you've got nobody to bother you out there. The startup costs would be huge, but assuming you bring enough poor people along as a peasant class you'd basically rule as kings. I'd suggest a mars colony as a good place to start. You've got lots of resources, the gravity is close enough, you've got (low) air pressure, and enough sunlight to be useful.
Given limited funding they can either do manned missions or do science stuff, but not both. If you're looking for a reason to spread the pork around congressional districts then build a national (gov owned and operated, last mile monopoly) telecommunications network based on fibre to the home. That would be an investment in your future instead of just throwing money away. As for a manned mission to mars: You haven't done a full search for life yet. If it's got life you'll either kill it or contaminate it (so you'll never find it) or bring it back. (finding out that "harmless" martian microbe eats glass/oil/aluminum would suck)
The patent says silicon and/or aluminum. Doesn't sound very stone like to me. His patent also sounds much like an LP. I think this is yet another version of making a unique invention by adding "with a computer" to the description of something that already exists.
We need publicly owned and highly regulated wires/network, with private content.
If they filter, then they should be responsible for all the bad stuff that gets through. Specifically spam. If I have a bandwidth capped service then spam is costing me money, and I want that back.
The VPN has to go open at some point. If that point is within an american ISP or in a country that the USA can bully into compliance then you lose.