Windowcleaners, builders and undersea welders risk life and limb on a daily basis (and not just three weeks out of their entire career) and nobody blathers on pompously about their "effort and sacrifice" when they simply do their job.
Put a monkey in a uniform and suddenly everybody treats them as a hero.
I guess you're right. Even after years of operation and near continuuous occupation the mostly closed systems of Mir and ISS haven't given rise to nasty diseases as far as I'm aware so the technology of climate control is mature enough at this moment.
I agree that the risks are worth taking, but let's not kid ourselves, for all the technology we have today, the risks are still very real.
That's part of what makes this kind of exploration exciting.
they also won't die form bacterial infections that killed millions of people before antibiotics were discovered. that means a small cut or cavity won't turn into sepsis or bacteremia and kill you."
Unless a strain of bacteria turns up that is resistant to every antibiotic you have on board and you are several light minutes away from an alternative, in which case it's bye bye mr.astronaut. We really haven't evolved that much from 15th century explorers. Take away this vast safety blanket of civilization and we're just as resourceful, and equally helpless as any explorer in the past 50000 years.
Holy crap, what is so hard about making good star trek movies?
Boundless optimism and self confidence has left the building.
Where TOS still had Kirk who was a human with human faults, TNG had this air of smugness about it that seems rediculous in retrospect.
The whole idea of our culture being always in the right, what Star Trek has mostly been based on now simply seems rediculous. Any writer worth his salt would tell Picard where to stick his Prime Directive. Those that still write in that idiom either are deluded or disingenuous.
Perhaps it really is time to bury some old franchises before they become even more of a parody of themselves.
(I'm looking at you Broccoli. "The Quantum of Solace"? Have you got any idea how retarded that sounds?)
How else do you explain this post on the same day I get a mail from Thinkgeek on the opening of their little geek section (or whatever they call it)
So the geeks are growing up and reproducing now? Sheesh I remember when they couldn't get a date to save their lives. (I still can't but I shan't bore you with the details)
I used to have a book with type-in adventures where they obfuscated all the strings by shifting them one character precisely to counter that problem.
Oh and typing in five pages of numbers representing binary code was fun. There were actually checksums printed at the end of each line and a little program showed you the checksums in the corner of the screen after entering each line of code.
Man I feel old. You young whippersnappers don't know how good you have it with your iPhones and your WiFi.
"The administration has consistently been a lone cowboy (pun intended) in this area"
It's easy to blame those in power, but as a nation you voted the fuckers in (or at the very least you let them steal the election without massive Ukraine style protests in the streets), so you do bear part of the responsibility.
It's the old Evil-thrives-where-good-people-do-nothing deal.
Slashdot Mirror
Well yeah, have I told you about my involvement with the Eukaryote Power movement? We believe in Superkingdom Purity.
So "not animals" only applies to plant life.
And once again our fuzzy friend the fungus has been ignored.
Mushrooms have feelings too you insensitive clod.
I don't really get this argument.
Windowcleaners, builders and undersea welders risk life and limb on a daily basis (and not just three weeks out of their entire career) and nobody blathers on pompously about their "effort and sacrifice" when they simply do their job.
Put a monkey in a uniform and suddenly everybody treats them as a hero.
Have you tried Outside?
It really works like you describe. The only drawbacks are that it takes up most of your time, and when you die only once you get a permban.
I guess you're right. Even after years of operation and near continuuous occupation the mostly closed systems of Mir and ISS haven't given rise to nasty diseases as far as I'm aware so the technology of climate control is mature enough at this moment.
I agree that the risks are worth taking, but let's not kid ourselves, for all the technology we have today, the risks are still very real.
That's part of what makes this kind of exploration exciting.
they also won't die form bacterial infections that killed millions of people before antibiotics were discovered. that means a small cut or cavity won't turn into sepsis or bacteremia and kill you."
Unless a strain of bacteria turns up that is resistant to every antibiotic you have on board and you are several light minutes away from an alternative, in which case it's bye bye mr.astronaut. We really haven't evolved that much from 15th century explorers. Take away this vast safety blanket of civilization and we're just as resourceful, and equally helpless as any explorer in the past 50000 years.
I REALLY need to learn how to spell "ridiculous". *sigh*
Holy crap, what is so hard about making good star trek movies?
Boundless optimism and self confidence has left the building.
Where TOS still had Kirk who was a human with human faults, TNG had this air of smugness about it that seems rediculous in retrospect.
The whole idea of our culture being always in the right, what Star Trek has mostly been based on now simply seems rediculous. Any writer worth his salt would tell Picard where to stick his Prime Directive. Those that still write in that idiom either are deluded or disingenuous.
Perhaps it really is time to bury some old franchises before they become even more of a parody of themselves.
(I'm looking at you Broccoli. "The Quantum of Solace"? Have you got any idea how retarded that sounds?)
"All the water you drink was probably pee at some point anyway."
And some of it was Hitlers pee.
Yes even Godwin himself regularly drank dead nazi pee.
"Any manned moon-base, or long-duration trip to reach Mars, would absolutely require the recycling of urine."
They should just dig some latrines outside. Cheap and easy.
Damn you sans-serif font!
...has an institute devoted to hydrocloric acid? Talk about specialization gone mad.
How else do you explain this post on the same day I get a mail from Thinkgeek on the opening of their little geek section (or whatever they call it)
So the geeks are growing up and reproducing now? Sheesh I remember when they couldn't get a date to save their lives. (I still can't but I shan't bore you with the details)
Is there a schizophrenics-exploited-by-unscrupulous-lawyers.slashdot.org?
Because after reading that summary I think that this guy is benefitted more by daily medication and a good psychiatrist.
I used to have a book with type-in adventures where they obfuscated all the strings by shifting them one character precisely to counter that problem.
Oh and typing in five pages of numbers representing binary code was fun. There were actually checksums printed at the end of each line and a little program showed you the checksums in the corner of the screen after entering each line of code.
Man I feel old. You young whippersnappers don't know how good you have it with your iPhones and your WiFi.
My Swedish vibrator still doesn't have Linux drivers
"The administration has consistently been a lone cowboy (pun intended) in this area"
It's easy to blame those in power, but as a nation you voted the fuckers in (or at the very least you let them steal the election without massive Ukraine style protests in the streets), so you do bear part of the responsibility.
It's the old Evil-thrives-where-good-people-do-nothing deal.
the Homermobile?
The Who hate my privacy?
Come to think of it, they always want to know who I am so they must at least hate anonymity.
"The AC/DC version of Rock Band costs $40 for 18 songs, and you can't buy individual songs - it's all or nothing."
That's why I hated Quake II. You had to buy ALL THE LEVELS or none at all.
They've also licenced all of Mozart's works for their upcoming Harpsichord Hero.
I'm sure the kids are dying to pretend playing grandpa's music.
I remember the days when exporting a C64 to Eastern Europe was illegal.
It seemed silly even then. Seems even more stupid now.
Something similar happened to me. Upgrading VLC to the latest version seemed to fix it. Apparently, it wasn't a junk FLV, just a newer encoding.
I believe the correct term for people who act like that is "busybody" and nobody likes one of those.
Great! Hopefully he will get rescued and raised by Martians and return to Earth to start a sex cult.