You're just going to go right ahead and buy penis enlargement pills with the money? You're not going to parlay it into something bigger first? I got an email just this morning informing me that SuperRoyalCasinoOnline.com is offering a 200% bonus on all deposits. That means you can buy three times more penis pills, with the potential for even bigger winnings.
What about people wearing Baclava or some other sort of head covering?
Well let's be completely honest here, anybody wearing a delicious Greek pastry on their head while trying to fly under the radar has already blown it in a big way.
As far as other head coverings go, I still think you want to stick with the ones that aren't food-related... you know, the idea is to blend in.
Yes, it's completely idiotic. What these geniuses have done has nothing to do with security - they have created a bad, amateur acting detector that boasts ~80% accuracy.
Five trips to India. During four of them I suffered from some combination of:
- upset stomach with vomiting,
- flu-like symptoms including severe aches and fever,
- violent diarrhea.
That one is arguable, depending on personal preference and depending which Indian city we are talking about... four straight months of 38C with 90% humidity isn't everybody's idea of fun.
And there are other lifestyle challenges in India that are not to be entered into lightly by the average westerner.
Leaving aside - for now - the part where a human mission to Mars is almost certainly a suicide mission, if you want to make the case that other people are irrational your best bet is probably to present your own rational ideas for a fully-costed human mission, including all the associated life-support requirements both in transit and once on the surface.
Then we can compare your ideas against the cost of the Spirit and Opportunity missions
I like the idea of having music and video on a media server in the home, and I like the idea of having MP3s that I can load onto a player when I'm about to go on a long flight. But I want to rip (in the format of my choosing) that stuff from a shiny disc that I can physically hold in my hands and store in a box in my basement.
Actually, it would take a guy in the spacecraft a minimum of 4.3 years to arrive at Alpha Centauri. In Earth's reference frame it might take thousands of years. I'm saying that you're using the times in the wrong frames of reference.
How disappointing would that be? You get yourself all packed up and ready to go to Alpha Centauri. You're excited, the kids are excited, you're going to be the first humans to ever step foot outside the solar system. It's groundbreaking stuff, you are lauded as heroes as you step into your state-of-the art ship that travels at 60% of the speed of light.
After almost ten difficult years in a cramped interstellar ship, you and the other colonists can finally see your destination. You will forever own a place in the chronicles of human history. And then, you discover than the place was already colonized by humans centuries ago... the ones who waited until FTL travel was invented back on Earth. They made the trip in a couple weeks. They've been waiting for you ever since.
For stops "below" geostationary, you'd definitely want to circularize the orbit... presumably by firing some kind of chemical rocket (though doing so in close proximity to a nanotube ribbon might cause some concern) to overcome the fact you are below orbital velocity.
But for stops beyond geostationary, the fact you are already travelling faster than orbital velocity might come in handy if you're heading someplace further afield. But I wonder if there would be concerns that doing this "robs" the counterweight of angular momentum.
Absent any stunning advances in material sciences,
The TFA states that carbon nanotubes would require a 4x increase in strength compared to present-day materials, and that the past 5 years of research have already brought about a 100-fold improvement... sounds to me like many stunning advances have already happened and we're well on track to fully-stunned status.
This is just a Popular Science article, i.e. "hey wouldn't it be neat if but it ain't happening so we're really just jerking your chain."
"Japan is hosting an international conference in November to draw up a timetable for the machine."
I'm mostly basing my assertion on the fact that right now China is swimming in money, productive industrial capacity, and national ambition... while America is swimming in Fail.
Slashdot Mirror
Exploding capacitors
Quick straw poll for slashdotters:
How many years have you been using PC-based hardware and how many exploding capacitors have you encountered?
I'll start: ~20 years, 0 exploding caps.
Whoa ...
[/KeanuReeves]
Fuck Off Matter
You know, I've been wondering for a long time just exactly what is the secret ingredient in a tall, cool glass of Shut the Fuck Up.
You're just going to go right ahead and buy penis enlargement pills with the money? You're not going to parlay it into something bigger first? I got an email just this morning informing me that SuperRoyalCasinoOnline.com is offering a 200% bonus on all deposits. That means you can buy three times more penis pills, with the potential for even bigger winnings.
What about people wearing Baclava or some other sort of head covering?
Well let's be completely honest here, anybody wearing a delicious Greek pastry on their head while trying to fly under the radar has already blown it in a big way.
As far as other head coverings go, I still think you want to stick with the ones that aren't food-related ... you know, the idea is to blend in.
Does this sound idiotic to anyone else?
Yes, it's completely idiotic. What these geniuses have done has nothing to do with security - they have created a bad, amateur acting detector that boasts ~80% accuracy.
Five trips to India. During four of them I suffered from some combination of:
- upset stomach with vomiting,
- flu-like symptoms including severe aches and fever,
- violent diarrhea.
The weather is better
That one is arguable, depending on personal preference and depending which Indian city we are talking about ... four straight months of 38C with 90% humidity isn't everybody's idea of fun.
And there are other lifestyle challenges in India that are not to be entered into lightly by the average westerner.
Guess I better stop reading /. and get to work.
irrational animosity towards manned exploration
Leaving aside - for now - the part where a human mission to Mars is almost certainly a suicide mission, if you want to make the case that other people are irrational your best bet is probably to present your own rational ideas for a fully-costed human mission, including all the associated life-support requirements both in transit and once on the surface.
Then we can compare your ideas against the cost of the Spirit and Opportunity missions
Not quite. It's actually around 55 furlongs, or 2200 rods (give or take a fathom or two).
It's been done already
Agree
I like the idea of having music and video on a media server in the home, and I like the idea of having MP3s that I can load onto a player when I'm about to go on a long flight. But I want to rip (in the format of my choosing) that stuff from a shiny disc that I can physically hold in my hands and store in a box in my basement.
A queue is a line
Well, given the sheer number of slashdot nerds eagerly awaiting any opportunity to post a meme ...
Oh my, who's that burly, rugged, well-tanned guy with the rolled-up shirtsleeves?
Him? Oh he's our server admin
We may very well see AI before a space elevator
Not if it sees us first.
Actually, it would take a guy in the spacecraft a minimum of 4.3 years to arrive at Alpha Centauri. In Earth's reference frame it might take thousands of years. I'm saying that you're using the times in the wrong frames of reference.
How disappointing would that be? You get yourself all packed up and ready to go to Alpha Centauri. You're excited, the kids are excited, you're going to be the first humans to ever step foot outside the solar system. It's groundbreaking stuff, you are lauded as heroes as you step into your state-of-the art ship that travels at 60% of the speed of light.
After almost ten difficult years in a cramped interstellar ship, you and the other colonists can finally see your destination. You will forever own a place in the chronicles of human history. And then, you discover than the place was already colonized by humans centuries ago ... the ones who waited until FTL travel was invented back on Earth. They made the trip in a couple weeks. They've been waiting for you ever since.
For stops "below" geostationary, you'd definitely want to circularize the orbit ... presumably by firing some kind of chemical rocket (though doing so in close proximity to a nanotube ribbon might cause some concern) to overcome the fact you are below orbital velocity.
But for stops beyond geostationary, the fact you are already travelling faster than orbital velocity might come in handy if you're heading someplace further afield. But I wonder if there would be concerns that doing this "robs" the counterweight of angular momentum.
Absent any stunning advances in material sciences,
The TFA states that carbon nanotubes would require a 4x increase in strength compared to present-day materials, and that the past 5 years of research have already brought about a 100-fold improvement ... sounds to me like many stunning advances have already happened and we're well on track to fully-stunned status.
This is just a Popular Science article, i.e. "hey wouldn't it be neat if but it ain't happening so we're really just jerking your chain."
"Japan is hosting an international conference in November to draw up a timetable for the machine."
I took me until about halfway through before I realized this was a takeoff ... it adheres nicely to the original format of HWW.
There are 10 kinds of people in this world - those who understand binary and those who don't.
What I want to know is how much fuel does it take to travel from San Francisco to New York City by the following methods:
You're in luck! I can provide something kinda related (and arguably more nifty) from the latest issue of Worldwatch Magazine.
Estimataed carbon emissions per passenger-mile traveled (grams of CO2):
Automobile: 130-390
Commercial jetliner: 180-280
Bus: 110-190
Train: 100-180
Walking (if all calories came from top sirloin): 900-1600
(from ground beef): 500-1500
(from 2% milk): 200-400
(from typical U.S. diet: 160
(from vegan diet): 30
Cycling (all calories from top sirloin): 500-900
(from ground beef): 300-500
(from 2% milk): 100-200
(from typical U.S. diet: 100
(from vegan diet): 20
I guess if by "swimming in money" you mean "less than one quarter US GDP per capita", then yeah, they sure are!
I was thinking more along the lines of spare pocket change they could decide to throw at the project.
Do you know how diverse and unorganised India is?
I'm going to go with "super diverse" and "painfully disorganized"
I'm mostly basing my assertion on the fact that right now China is swimming in money, productive industrial capacity, and national ambition ... while America is swimming in Fail.