It could be that he has had an idea floating around in his head for years, that he thinks that he could code in 48 hours. While there is still a limit to what can be coded in that time period, he could still have an innovative and interesting game in mind.
I don't think quadrupeds are more agile than bipeds - in fact, I would argue it the other way around - just watch a dog or cat in action. Bipeds like humans are better designed to scale trees by grabbing branches, however, and bipeds like birds benefit from less weight for unneeded limbs.
I think you meant to say that you do think that quadrupeds are more agile.
1) in the billions of years of earth history, our radio window of time is trivial and even if the alien races developed as fast or faster than us, they could be too far away for that radio signal to get here yet. For all we know, the aliens moved to tachyon communications and closed the radio wave era before we even set up.
While I concur that it is not unlikely that advanced aliens might use a non-radio based method of communication, I wouldn't jump to something like tachyons (faster than light particles which probably don't exist). More likely they simply use a signal we don't recognize, a method that doesn't propagate through empty space (for example: fiber optics), or aim their communication beams so precisely that we wouldn't have a chance to receive them unless they were directed exactly at us.
2) we have the technology to grow children in vats and sustain the human race and are already doing it to sustain some species like rare sharks that eat the rest of the brood while still in the womb. Once we get over the religious and ethical issues (e.g. superrace), it seems like a natural progression, at least. If the "mom" wanted to breast feed, she could then take hormones for that.
What the heck does that have to do with the likelihood of anthropomorphic aliens?
3) We've been sending out radio signals for what, a little more than 110 years, and we didn't start listening until much later. At best you are probably talking about 20000 stars that could have heard us in that time (I recall 100 years being about 15000, so I guesstimated), and much less could respond if they were listening. And that is assuming they are using radio waves, not, say, microwaves. For all we know, radio waves are annoying noises to them and they wear tinfoil hats.
Microwaves ARE radio waves... *WE* use microwaves for transmitting data. (in addition to most of the other parts of the EM spectrum) Do you think that radio only means FM and AM?
4) The assumptions are based on aliens followed a "European" style technological progression, but the only reason most of the world followed that progression was because of European expansionism. If America had been left untouched by Europe and/or China, how much do you think Native Americans tech would have progressed by now? My guess is not much.
That might be true, but there were also rather advanced pre-industrial civilizations present in the Americas before Europeans showed up. The Maya, for example. Given another thousand years or so, the Maya could easily have become a civilization as technologically advanced (or more) as europe was in the 15th century. That is a fraction of the blink of an eye in the time of the universe.
5) Our galaxy is unpredictable, and that probably is true for the majority of galaxies. Just because a meteor struck us and ended the age of dinosaurs doesn't mean it happened there, and maybe having a tiny brain and giant teeth was more valuable for a lot longer there.
True, dinosaurs existed for a lot longer than mammals have, and didn't evolve a technological civilization in that time, but that doesn't prove that it couldn't happen. Most likely they would have had to be warm blooded in order to have the energy budget for a large brain, but there is evidence to suggest that at least a few dinosaurs were warm blooded. So there's no way to say that it was impossible.
It might be unusual for a planet to remain as stable as earth has (even with the dino-killing chicxulub impact),
Overall, industry provides about 60% of all R&D funds, and the federal government provides about 35%. Industry performs about 70% of the R&D, federal labs and universities each perform about 13%, and other nonprofits perform about 3%.
Are they just gonna launch a massive spool of "cable" into orbit and unroll it?
Yep. Except it would be more of a ribbon than a cable.
Cause until the earth end gets attached to the earth, it seems to me that any gust of wind or slight deflection in the cable will cause it to swing like the largest pendulum ever, possibly cutting a miles long swath of destruction in the process.
Nope. The cable/ribbon would be less than a meter wide, and only the thickness of a sheet of paper. It could cause no more damage than a piece of plastic blowing in the wind. But as you said, getting it to the spot you want it would be a little tricky if there is much of any wind at all.
Plus if the orbital station is only held in place by the tension of the cable holding it to earth, and the cable only remains taut by the inertia of the orbital station orbiting slightly faster than escape velocity, which one do you build first? Kind of a chicken or the egg problem IMHO.
You build both at the same time. The "station"/counterweight would just be the satellite that un-spooled the cable. Actually, the cable would likely be made of many ribbons, thus it would be many satellites that would make up the counterweight.
As the cable is lowered, the satellite itself will move higher, beyond geostationary orbit. Note that the center of gravity would remain at GSO.
You are presuming that the goal is to travel in a specific direction. I think the goal of the GP was to maintain flight as long as possible by spending as much time as possible in daylight, and as little time as possible in the dark.
The Russian Energia rocket (built to launch the Buran) is/was capable of launching 95 tons to LEO. Granted, that is still less than the Saturn 5, but a lot more than the 70 tons you speak of.
The fact that the Russians raised the price only makes it that much easier for our own private industry to compete. I think that they are just going for one last money grab while they have the opportunity to do so. They know that we will have our one manned launch capability again very soon, and we won't be buying any more launches from them.
I'm a big supporter of manned space exploration, but I also support the decision to axe the orion program. The direction that NASA was moving with regard to manned space was rather screwed up... If you take some time to read about it, you would probably agree.
You can even shoot c4 with a gun with little likelihood of it going off. It needs high heat and pressure at the same time in order to blow. Shooting it with a tracer round might do it.
Wisconsin had been a "Slower traffic keep right" state for a long long time. They took on the left lane is for passing only law only relatively recently... Couple of years ago maybe.
Similarly, you can get a patent for an isolated DNA molecule that nobody has isolated before.
But *not* on DNA in its naturally occuring state.
You can get a patent on a method to isolate said DNA molecule, but you did not invent that DNA, thus the DNA itself should not be patentable. The DNA existed already, you just discovered it.
If they have enough room to do that, then you sure as heck have enough room to move over and get out of the passing lane. If you do, then you can prevent them from feeling the need to make that dangerous maneuver in the first place, and everyone is safer.
In Wisconsin, on freeways, the left lane is explicitly for passing only. I don't know how many other states have a similar law, but I bet it is higher than you think.
The hypothetical situation you speak of doesn't occur in practice though, both lanes are always used in heavy traffic. It does mean however that if there is someone in the left lane crawling along with a huge gap in front of them and a long line of cars behind, that front car can be fined for impeding the flow of traffic. Without the passing lane law in place, that sort of enforcement would be difficult.
I got my license in WI, where they do require proper lane etiquette (ie: left lane is ONLY or passing) but now live in MN, and the drivers here annoy the living crap out of me. I don't care if you are going the speed limit... get the heck out of the fast lane. Do you really want to have a line of 15 annoyed drivers behind you??
The problem is that these people are not thinking rationally. They don't slam on the brakes to bring the car to a quick stop, they do exactly what you said... use light braking to keep the car the speed they want, overheating and destroying the brakes, such that they then panic when the brakes have failed and they are accelerating again.
They are working on developing a communication technology that would allow one absolute proof that nobody is listening in. (if anyone tried to listen in, it would always be detectable.) You don't think that there are vast applications for such a technology?
Slashdot Mirror
It could be that he has had an idea floating around in his head for years, that he thinks that he could code in 48 hours. While there is still a limit to what can be coded in that time period, he could still have an innovative and interesting game in mind.
I don't think quadrupeds are more agile than bipeds - in fact, I would argue it the other way around - just watch a dog or cat in action. Bipeds like humans are better designed to scale trees by grabbing branches, however, and bipeds like birds benefit from less weight for unneeded limbs.
I think you meant to say that you do think that quadrupeds are more agile.
1) in the billions of years of earth history, our radio window of time is trivial and even if the alien races developed as fast or faster than us, they could be too far away for that radio signal to get here yet. For all we know, the aliens moved to tachyon communications and closed the radio wave era before we even set up.
While I concur that it is not unlikely that advanced aliens might use a non-radio based method of communication, I wouldn't jump to something like tachyons (faster than light particles which probably don't exist). More likely they simply use a signal we don't recognize, a method that doesn't propagate through empty space (for example: fiber optics), or aim their communication beams so precisely that we wouldn't have a chance to receive them unless they were directed exactly at us.
2) we have the technology to grow children in vats and sustain the human race and are already doing it to sustain some species like rare sharks that eat the rest of the brood while still in the womb. Once we get over the religious and ethical issues (e.g. superrace), it seems like a natural progression, at least. If the "mom" wanted to breast feed, she could then take hormones for that.
What the heck does that have to do with the likelihood of anthropomorphic aliens?
3) We've been sending out radio signals for what, a little more than 110 years, and we didn't start listening until much later. At best you are probably talking about 20000 stars that could have heard us in that time (I recall 100 years being about 15000, so I guesstimated), and much less could respond if they were listening. And that is assuming they are using radio waves, not, say, microwaves. For all we know, radio waves are annoying noises to them and they wear tinfoil hats.
Microwaves ARE radio waves... *WE* use microwaves for transmitting data. (in addition to most of the other parts of the EM spectrum) Do you think that radio only means FM and AM?
4) The assumptions are based on aliens followed a "European" style technological progression, but the only reason most of the world followed that progression was because of European expansionism. If America had been left untouched by Europe and/or China, how much do you think Native Americans tech would have progressed by now? My guess is not much.
That might be true, but there were also rather advanced pre-industrial civilizations present in the Americas before Europeans showed up. The Maya, for example. Given another thousand years or so, the Maya could easily have become a civilization as technologically advanced (or more) as europe was in the 15th century. That is a fraction of the blink of an eye in the time of the universe.
5) Our galaxy is unpredictable, and that probably is true for the majority of galaxies. Just because a meteor struck us and ended the age of dinosaurs doesn't mean it happened there, and maybe having a tiny brain and giant teeth was more valuable for a lot longer there.
True, dinosaurs existed for a lot longer than mammals have, and didn't evolve a technological civilization in that time, but that doesn't prove that it couldn't happen. Most likely they would have had to be warm blooded in order to have the energy budget for a large brain, but there is evidence to suggest that at least a few dinosaurs were warm blooded. So there's no way to say that it was impossible.
It might be unusual for a planet to remain as stable as earth has (even with the dino-killing chicxulub impact),
You could always booby-trap your lunch... For example: Bacon, lettuce and dog poop sandwich. Dave would probably never touch your lunch again.
Overall, industry provides about 60% of all R&D funds, and the federal government provides about 35%. Industry performs about 70% of the R&D, federal labs and universities each perform about 13%, and other nonprofits perform about 3%.
It would be kind of cool to see artificial auroras over the receiver though.
Some of the crawlers attached to it might leave unpleasant carters but probably not much damage either.
Like Jimmy Carter? He was much before my time, but I guess a lot of people found him unpleasant.
It is counter intuitive, but the ribbon wouldn't fall straight down for the same reason that storm systems rotate... the Coriolis effect.
Are they just gonna launch a massive spool of "cable" into orbit and unroll it?
Yep. Except it would be more of a ribbon than a cable.
Cause until the earth end gets attached to the earth, it seems to me that any gust of wind or slight deflection in the cable will cause it to swing like the largest pendulum ever, possibly cutting a miles long swath of destruction in the process.
Nope. The cable/ribbon would be less than a meter wide, and only the thickness of a sheet of paper. It could cause no more damage than a piece of plastic blowing in the wind. But as you said, getting it to the spot you want it would be a little tricky if there is much of any wind at all.
Plus if the orbital station is only held in place by the tension of the cable holding it to earth, and the cable only remains taut by the inertia of the orbital station orbiting slightly faster than escape velocity, which one do you build first? Kind of a chicken or the egg problem IMHO.
You build both at the same time. The "station"/counterweight would just be the satellite that un-spooled the cable. Actually, the cable would likely be made of many ribbons, thus it would be many satellites that would make up the counterweight.
As the cable is lowered, the satellite itself will move higher, beyond geostationary orbit. Note that the center of gravity would remain at GSO.
Also, apparently the Helios aircraft managed to make it up to 96,863ft / 18.3 miles
You are presuming that the goal is to travel in a specific direction. I think the goal of the GP was to maintain flight as long as possible by spending as much time as possible in daylight, and as little time as possible in the dark.
The Russian Energia rocket (built to launch the Buran) is/was capable of launching 95 tons to LEO.
Granted, that is still less than the Saturn 5, but a lot more than the 70 tons you speak of.
Weather balloons can reach that altitude, so clearly it isn't vacuum. But I'll agree that the air is incredibly thin at that point.
Actually, in this case, the fall itself could rather easily kill you... entering the atmosphere at nearly mach 23 is a bitch.
The fact that the Russians raised the price only makes it that much easier for our own private industry to compete. I think that they are just going for one last money grab while they have the opportunity to do so. They know that we will have our one manned launch capability again very soon, and we won't be buying any more launches from them.
The ruble has actually been losing ground to the dollar for the last several months.
I'm a big supporter of manned space exploration, but I also support the decision to axe the orion program. The direction that NASA was moving with regard to manned space was rather screwed up... If you take some time to read about it, you would probably agree.
You can even shoot c4 with a gun with little likelihood of it going off. It needs high heat and pressure at the same time in order to blow. Shooting it with a tracer round might do it.
Wisconsin had been a "Slower traffic keep right" state for a long long time. They took on the left lane is for passing only law only relatively recently... Couple of years ago maybe.
Similarly, you can get a patent for an isolated DNA molecule that nobody has isolated before. But *not* on DNA in its naturally occuring state.
You can get a patent on a method to isolate said DNA molecule, but you did not invent that DNA, thus the DNA itself should not be patentable. The DNA existed already, you just discovered it.
If they have enough room to do that, then you sure as heck have enough room to move over and get out of the passing lane. If you do, then you can prevent them from feeling the need to make that dangerous maneuver in the first place, and everyone is safer.
In Wisconsin, on freeways, the left lane is explicitly for passing only. I don't know how many other states have a similar law, but I bet it is higher than you think.
The hypothetical situation you speak of doesn't occur in practice though, both lanes are always used in heavy traffic. It does mean however that if there is someone in the left lane crawling along with a huge gap in front of them and a long line of cars behind, that front car can be fined for impeding the flow of traffic. Without the passing lane law in place, that sort of enforcement would be difficult.
I got my license in WI, where they do require proper lane etiquette (ie: left lane is ONLY or passing) but now live in MN, and the drivers here annoy the living crap out of me. I don't care if you are going the speed limit... get the heck out of the fast lane. Do you really want to have a line of 15 annoyed drivers behind you??
The problem is that these people are not thinking rationally. They don't slam on the brakes to bring the car to a quick stop, they do exactly what you said... use light braking to keep the car the speed they want, overheating and destroying the brakes, such that they then panic when the brakes have failed and they are accelerating again.
Mustard gas only smells like mustard. It's actually a sulfur compound.
They are working on developing a communication technology that would allow one absolute proof that nobody is listening in. (if anyone tried to listen in, it would always be detectable.) You don't think that there are vast applications for such a technology?