The people they want to "free" are the ones who are going to suffer from a biowar attack the most. (people living in poor conditions in poor countries). Those are the ones who are most at risk of catching an infection, and least likely to get expensive life-saving treatments.
However - Anthrax is a fairly likely biowar method, because it's pretty well-known (though it's difficult to weaponize and deploy) - reasonably easy to handle and treat accidental exposures, and while it is devastating and terrifying, it does not tend to spread like viral plagues. It behaves more like a persistent environmental contaminant.
If a large scale anthrax attack were ever staged, to the point where industrialized nations were strained to provide enough antibiotics, I think that could be a big terrorism tipping-point.
(IIRC: The Soviets had a plan to nuke Western cities, then spread Anthrax afterwards, so that the survivors who were struggling with radiation sickness, with weakened immune systems, and no medical infrastructure, would be quickly dispatched. The problem with this, of course, is you're not going to be able to settle or repopulate those areas with your own people - like - EVER. Radiation AND Anthrax spores? Worst than plowing salt into the earth.)
You guys; when there are 10 billion people who have all the food, energy, materials and information they desire, (and, they lack the imagination on what to do with it) - - - they'll just invent new religions and go and kill eachother over them. It's what we've always done, and it's what we do now, and it's what we'll do in the future. I wish it were otherwise.
Are metals found on asteroids likely to be bound up as oxides? Or in reduced (pure metallic) form?
If in the former case; well, it's simply a matter of focusing sunlight on it through a reflector, to melt it down in an anerobic environment. . . (gee, where would one find an anerobic environment in space - I wonder?) The only problem to worry about is dealing with the outgassing.
In the latter case - - then yay! no refining! But then, we'll probably have issues finding enough oxygen to survive in space long-term.
NASA actually DID make plans for eventual use of those tanks on-orbit.
It would have required a retrofit for a small booster to remain on the tank to get it to a higher orbit, then some rework, on-orbit. But there were plans for structures using these tanks. Space habitats, storage, vehicles, refuel stations, etc.
actually, here in California, we're currently seeing the effects of a weak El Nino since late 2012. But it was very brief, and seems to be fading. NOAA was talking about it in November. They seem to avoid using the politically charged term "El Nino" now. . .
some recent observations (since 2010) of massive arctic methane releases are very worrysome.
These will necessarily have to be validated by satellite lidar measurements when a german mission with the proper instrumentation flies in 2014. Until then, we are basically blind and speculating on the matter. But it does not look good.
If there are, indeed, massive methane releases going on, there is a pie-in-the-sky shot at geoengineering using 13.56 MHz transmitters to try to break-up the methane molecules before they rise higher than 50km in the atmosphere;
I think that a lot of people who are used to working on low-end devices or monitors, (common to smartphones, small portables, tablets, and most laptops) , we're talking 13", 15" tops . . . the people on the luxury-end of the laptop spectrum spring for the 17" monitor. . . but they're still mostly 1024x768 in the midrange. Only the top end systems have finer resolution capable graphics. And this is also true for most flatpanel monitors that are in standard offices too.
I understand that creative-types often are seen with 24" and larger screens. Livin' large. Must be nice.
But monitor resolution really sucks these days, and we used to have really great resolution during the last days of the CRT years. Not any more. I think that's why so many people now work fullscreen.
Well, yes. This is what they're trying to do. Becuase they spent buhzillions on developing the technologies for the surface. (remember that tabletop computer?). And along comes apple, and eats their lunch for the iPhoneiPad devices. So Microsoft figures; just like with GUI's, the Internet, and Music Players, (and phones), they've got to break into this tablet market too. Strike while the iron's hot? No. More like, after it's cooled-off.
Some companies know how to MAKE cool. For some reason, Microsoft is ALWAYS the company that knows how to make "used to be cool".
If it were true, wouldn't it be wonderful if there were some kind of documentation one could cite, as validation for the entirety of the argument in favor of, well, just about every labor-rights argument there is?
Then, one would think we would not be here, 100 years later, still arguing with the rightwing about this bullshit.
The chemical pathway followed by oxygen through carbon is much more easily recovered, and that is done naturally, through photosynthesis. (though - the rate of oxygen recovery is somewhat lower than our rate of production).
In this case, there simply is NO natural recovery pathway. Unless some fantastic genetic engineering process is able to create an organism capable of breaking down the silicon waste product into components, releasing the oxygen.
I would suggest that instead of mining more silicon dioxide from beaches, you use the waste product as your feedstock for the silicon nanoparticle production. (in bulk) - since you're applying enough energy to get it up to 1500 C anyway, you're going to disassociate that oxygen, (and probably release it as a waste product). Thus, in NET, no oxygen is removed from the atmosphere.
(obviously, the process won't be perfect, so there will be small losses - likely oxygen being bound-up with other reactants during the silicon nanoparticle production process)
Eventually - I came to differentiate the subtle differences between my overall VERY negative outlook on life, (which are rational, with-basis, and constant) and my "depression symptoms"; (which are not rational, tend to come from, or manifest in, obsessing over problems that are beyond my power to solve, and the symptoms tend to come and go).
This was a huge step for me - and it only came after many years of treatment and therapy. Mostly - antidepressants did fuck-all. For a brief time, they did help dig me out of a pretty deep hole, so that I could take some time in therapy to talk-out my problems. But I got off them after about 6 months. The biggest help was sleep-meds to help with my horrible chronic insomnia. Not getting enough sleep was one of the big things that would throw me into a tailspin. Another thing was getting proper diet and exercise. (and that was; pushing ALL of the physical fitness buttons: blood pressure, blood sugar, cardiovascular health, getting enough daily protein, etc). Finally, count me among those who are believers in Vitamin D. At least November thru February.
Once I started to become aware of when I was "depressed" and when I was just my normal, terrible, nasty, self, and began to embrace, and accept myself for who I was; (someone who is simply observant and honest enough to see how fucked-up the world is, and what assholes most people are, and why they act the way they do), my next several "depression" episodes were like - - - epiphanies to me.
I would be driving to work, and thinking these dark thoughts; and I'm thinking in tight little circles, over and over again - and I'd realize - oh fuck - this isn't "normal me". There is something wrong. And then I'd realize - oh yeah, I am off my sleep meds, and the insomnia came back. Or; I have not really eaten a decent meal in two days, and I've been working my ass off, and my blood sugar is probably too low. (I have early insulin-resistance). Or; it's been 4 days since I've been out in the sun, and I'm not taking my D supplement, and it's the middle of winter, and it's dark when I get up to go to work in the morning, and dark when I leave to go home. All of those reasons contribute. I take corrective measures - and it makes a difference. And I feel better; often within a few hours.
I'm sure that there are other forms of depression that work differently. Some that are easier to treat, and I'm sure that there are some that are just so overwhelming that they are untreatable. but that's how treatment helped me. It didn't really CHANGE who I was. But it helped me to *know myself* better, and learn how to navigate that.
Oh yeah - I can relate - and this is EXACTLY why I dropped out of art school. I didn't see my self as being one of the gallery-walk schmoozers. I knew that it was something I could change, and I could "fake it" if I wanted to. I knew that I could work really hard at it. There was NEVER a class taught in how to do that, by the way. But I'm not dumb. I knew how to do it. It just made me so damn unhappy and uncomfortable to "fake it" like that. That was when I realized that that's not what I wanted to do for a living. 3.5 years through a BFA program.:P.
. . . and the other thing about "artists get this reputation of being lovers - " etc. again: EXACTLY. We don't have TIME for that shit! If you're an artist, you're fucking working your ass off either creating, or working some shit-job to pay for extremely expensive art supplies, and then spending all your free time creating. We don't have time to dote over needy wannabe muses, or to socialize.
Anyway, that was my experience with playing-at being an artist, before I dropped out and got into computer programming. Computers are needier than humans. But at least you can shut those fuckers off and take a break from the drama.
I mean - WTF; we've run a multi-billion $ deficit for the last decade. Gov Brown comes in, and in 1 term, turns things around. I can't see this tax as any kind of bad thing at all. The investors are going to go away? Where? are they going to relocate all the high-tech expertise and workers and their families that are located there and have put down roots since the end of WWII? Good luck with that. California's special for a reason, and it's California's workforce that attracts the money. Not the other way around.
Well, one tragic consequence is that, when Seoul gets blowed up, the collusion in the flat-panel display industry will evaporate. Prices in that market will definitely collapse!
Slashdot Mirror
No.
The people they want to "free" are the ones who are going to suffer from a biowar attack the most. (people living in poor conditions in poor countries). Those are the ones who are most at risk of catching an infection, and least likely to get expensive life-saving treatments.
However - Anthrax is a fairly likely biowar method, because it's pretty well-known (though it's difficult to weaponize and deploy) - reasonably easy to handle and treat accidental exposures, and while it is devastating and terrifying, it does not tend to spread like viral plagues. It behaves more like a persistent environmental contaminant.
If a large scale anthrax attack were ever staged, to the point where industrialized nations were strained to provide enough antibiotics, I think that could be a big terrorism tipping-point.
(IIRC: The Soviets had a plan to nuke Western cities, then spread Anthrax afterwards, so that the survivors who were struggling with radiation sickness, with weakened immune systems, and no medical infrastructure, would be quickly dispatched. The problem with this, of course, is you're not going to be able to settle or repopulate those areas with your own people - like - EVER. Radiation AND Anthrax spores? Worst than plowing salt into the earth.)
. . . did they name a pokemon after him?
You guys; when there are 10 billion people who have all the food, energy, materials and information they desire, (and, they lack the imagination on what to do with it) - - - they'll just invent new religions and go and kill eachother over them. It's what we've always done, and it's what we do now, and it's what we'll do in the future. I wish it were otherwise.
Relax. There will ALWAYS be a need for more adult, male, My Little Pony sex-fanfic writers.
Are metals found on asteroids likely to be bound up as oxides? Or in reduced (pure metallic) form?
If in the former case; well, it's simply a matter of focusing sunlight on it through a reflector, to melt it down in an anerobic environment. . . (gee, where would one find an anerobic environment in space - I wonder?) The only problem to worry about is dealing with the outgassing.
In the latter case - - then yay! no refining! But then, we'll probably have issues finding enough oxygen to survive in space long-term.
NASA actually DID make plans for eventual use of those tanks on-orbit.
It would have required a retrofit for a small booster to remain on the tank to get it to a higher orbit, then some rework, on-orbit. But there were plans for structures using these tanks. Space habitats, storage, vehicles, refuel stations, etc.
actually, here in California, we're currently seeing the effects of a weak El Nino since late 2012. But it was very brief, and seems to be fading. NOAA was talking about it in November. They seem to avoid using the politically charged term "El Nino" now. . .
some recent observations (since 2010) of massive arctic methane releases are very worrysome.
These will necessarily have to be validated by satellite lidar measurements when a german mission with the proper instrumentation flies in 2014. Until then, we are basically blind and speculating on the matter. But it does not look good.
If there are, indeed, massive methane releases going on, there is a pie-in-the-sky shot at geoengineering using 13.56 MHz transmitters to try to break-up the methane molecules before they rise higher than 50km in the atmosphere;
http://arctic-news.blogspot.com/2012/10/radio-and-laser-frequency-and-harmonic-test-ranges-for-the-lucy-and-haarp-experiments-and-their-application-to-atmospheric-methane-destruction.html
But if that doesn't work, I would expect things to go downhill fairly rapidly in the next 20 years.
I think that a lot of people who are used to working on low-end devices or monitors, (common to smartphones, small portables, tablets, and most laptops) , we're talking 13", 15" tops . . . the people on the luxury-end of the laptop spectrum spring for the 17" monitor. . . but they're still mostly 1024x768 in the midrange. Only the top end systems have finer resolution capable graphics. And this is also true for most flatpanel monitors that are in standard offices too.
I understand that creative-types often are seen with 24" and larger screens. Livin' large. Must be nice.
But monitor resolution really sucks these days, and we used to have really great resolution during the last days of the CRT years. Not any more. I think that's why so many people now work fullscreen.
nope.
Tablets are a fad.
In the business world, you simply blast your enterprise-licensed image of Win7 onto all new boxes, and: fuck the OEM.
God Damn You Microsoft! You made asicsolutions' little girl cry!
Well, yes. This is what they're trying to do. Becuase they spent buhzillions on developing the technologies for the surface. (remember that tabletop computer?). And along comes apple, and eats their lunch for the iPhoneiPad devices. So Microsoft figures; just like with GUI's, the Internet, and Music Players, (and phones), they've got to break into this tablet market too. Strike while the iron's hot? No. More like, after it's cooled-off.
Some companies know how to MAKE cool. For some reason, Microsoft is ALWAYS the company that knows how to make "used to be cool".
skip a generation or two of prosperity, they'll go back to scrubbing toilets and picking lettuce. I guarantee it.
I would TOTALLY pick fruit if it was the same hours, same security, same pay!
that sounds like a beautiful story.
If it were true, wouldn't it be wonderful if there were some kind of documentation one could cite, as validation for the entirety of the argument in favor of, well, just about every labor-rights argument there is?
Then, one would think we would not be here, 100 years later, still arguing with the rightwing about this bullshit.
I disagree with this. All with UID > 5000.
To the game-grid.
End of line_
The chemical pathway followed by oxygen through carbon is much more easily recovered, and that is done naturally, through photosynthesis. (though - the rate of oxygen recovery is somewhat lower than our rate of production).
In this case, there simply is NO natural recovery pathway.
Unless some fantastic genetic engineering process is able to create an organism capable of breaking down the silicon waste product into components, releasing the oxygen.
I would suggest that instead of mining more silicon dioxide from beaches, you use the waste product as your feedstock for the silicon nanoparticle production. (in bulk) - since you're applying enough energy to get it up to 1500 C anyway, you're going to disassociate that oxygen, (and probably release it as a waste product). Thus, in NET, no oxygen is removed from the atmosphere.
(obviously, the process won't be perfect, so there will be small losses - likely oxygen being bound-up with other reactants during the silicon nanoparticle production process)
Eventually - I came to differentiate the subtle differences between my overall VERY negative outlook on life, (which are rational, with-basis, and constant) and my "depression symptoms"; (which are not rational, tend to come from, or manifest in, obsessing over problems that are beyond my power to solve, and the symptoms tend to come and go).
This was a huge step for me - and it only came after many years of treatment and therapy. Mostly - antidepressants did fuck-all. For a brief time, they did help dig me out of a pretty deep hole, so that I could take some time in therapy to talk-out my problems. But I got off them after about 6 months. The biggest help was sleep-meds to help with my horrible chronic insomnia. Not getting enough sleep was one of the big things that would throw me into a tailspin. Another thing was getting proper diet and exercise. (and that was; pushing ALL of the physical fitness buttons: blood pressure, blood sugar, cardiovascular health, getting enough daily protein, etc). Finally, count me among those who are believers in Vitamin D. At least November thru February.
Once I started to become aware of when I was "depressed" and when I was just my normal, terrible, nasty, self, and began to embrace, and accept myself for who I was; (someone who is simply observant and honest enough to see how fucked-up the world is, and what assholes most people are, and why they act the way they do), my next several "depression" episodes were like - - - epiphanies to me.
I would be driving to work, and thinking these dark thoughts; and I'm thinking in tight little circles, over and over again - and I'd realize - oh fuck - this isn't "normal me". There is something wrong. And then I'd realize - oh yeah, I am off my sleep meds, and the insomnia came back. Or; I have not really eaten a decent meal in two days, and I've been working my ass off, and my blood sugar is probably too low. (I have early insulin-resistance). Or; it's been 4 days since I've been out in the sun, and I'm not taking my D supplement, and it's the middle of winter, and it's dark when I get up to go to work in the morning, and dark when I leave to go home. All of those reasons contribute. I take corrective measures - and it makes a difference. And I feel better; often within a few hours.
I'm sure that there are other forms of depression that work differently. Some that are easier to treat, and I'm sure that there are some that are just so overwhelming that they are untreatable. but that's how treatment helped me. It didn't really CHANGE who I was. But it helped me to *know myself* better, and learn how to navigate that.
Oh yeah - I can relate - and this is EXACTLY why I dropped out of art school. :P.
I didn't see my self as being one of the gallery-walk schmoozers. I knew that it was something I could change, and I could "fake it" if I wanted to. I knew that I could work really hard at it. There was NEVER a class taught in how to do that, by the way. But I'm not dumb. I knew how to do it. It just made me so damn unhappy and uncomfortable to "fake it" like that. That was when I realized that that's not what I wanted to do for a living. 3.5 years through a BFA program.
. . . and the other thing about "artists get this reputation of being lovers - " etc. again: EXACTLY. We don't have TIME for that shit! If you're an artist, you're fucking working your ass off either creating, or working some shit-job to pay for extremely expensive art supplies, and then spending all your free time creating. We don't have time to dote over needy wannabe muses, or to socialize.
Anyway, that was my experience with playing-at being an artist, before I dropped out and got into computer programming. Computers are needier than humans. But at least you can shut those fuckers off and take a break from the drama.
If you can't enjoy life or be bothered to care for you family then what are you doing this for??
The drama.
I mean - WTF; we've run a multi-billion $ deficit for the last decade. Gov Brown comes in, and in 1 term, turns things around. I can't see this tax as any kind of bad thing at all. The investors are going to go away? Where? are they going to relocate all the high-tech expertise and workers and their families that are located there and have put down roots since the end of WWII? Good luck with that. California's special for a reason, and it's California's workforce that attracts the money. Not the other way around.
Well, one tragic consequence is that, when Seoul gets blowed up, the collusion in the flat-panel display industry will evaporate. Prices in that market will definitely collapse!
I think it might even take all of 5 minutes to restore that shit from backup.