And how does anyone know whether it's reasonable and profitable to set up mining operations?
By going there and bringing back some rocks to analyze.
And how do we know *where* to set up the base and mining camp?
By going there a LOT, and bringing back a LOT of samples, from numerous locations. Just like here on earth. It's called a "Geological Survey."
It would be sheer folly, not to mention fiscally irresponsible, to simply pick a site at random.
And who is going to fund such a survey?
The same people who funded Columbus, Magellen, Lewis and Clark, the charting of the world's oceans, etc..
Some form of government, because they are the only ones with the wherewithal to risk, and if they succed their coffers will overflow from the advantage given to their private industries, who then pay taxes on the profits.
I wonder how many tax dollars have come back into various US government agencies through the sales of Nomex alone, (not to mention how many lives have been saved by its use). Throw in Gore-Tex as well which is an outgrowth of Nomex technology.
Heeeeeere it is, come and get it, but you better hurry 'cause it's going fast. If you want it, Heeeeeere it is, come and get it, but you better hurry 'cause it may not last.
Did I hear you say that there must be a catch, Would you walk away from a fool and his money?
The surreal satire of The Magic Christian is coming to life these days.
He's merely being accurate and discussing Fascism, not Nazism.
Fascism is Italian in origin. Literally. It refers to the 'fascia', which was the flag the Roman troops carried as identifiers, ( and now means form of 'facing').
Mussolini sought to recreate Rome as a modern industrial state with the workers bonded in allegience to a state owned 'employer', and thus Mussolini himself as "Emperor."
KFG
No, it is similar to owning a car. . .
on
More MS EULA Fun
·
· Score: 2
but under the condition that someone else can *reproduce* it at any time.
The difference is that in your analogy you could be denied the *use* of your car.
In mine you can't.
It's *copy*right people, *copy*right. Not *use*right.
I do feel compeled to point out that freedom of speach *is* a civil rights issue so fundamental that it is the first in the Bill of Rights, and the essential foundation of the Votes for Women movement.
In fact, the founding fathers considered protecting it, ( no taxation without representation), by armed insurection. I don't think 'curtious' was a word *ever* applied to Sam Adams, ( the orginizer of the 'Boston Tea Party).
All 'Intellectual Property' law is a very serious civil rights issue.
I switched my business to Linux some years ago because I got tired of MS breaking my mission critical apps, and forcing me to pay for the priviledge in the process.
At most any toy store you can buy a simple water rocket for about ten bucks. It will have a complex guidence control system commonly refered to as "fins."
If all you want of your rocket is for it to go up in a vaguely straight line this is all the guidence system you really need.
Anybody who has scratch built model rockets can demonstrate for you how simple empirical tests can be used to insure aerodynamic stability. Any arrow can demonstrate such stability in practice.
an entire third grade class, including the teacher, has been arrested for bringing newspaper clippings to class as part of a social studies assignment.
has little to do with anything outside of the software industry.
As it happens there is over two hundred years of copyright law defining the *limited* rights of the copyright holder and asserting, in explicit terms, that the copyright holder's "wants" have very distinct boundries.
You, as the purchaser, ( yes, outside the software industry items under copyright protection are still *purchased* by the 'consumer'), have very distinct *rights,* ( not priviledges, rights), to act with and upon such 'content' even against the copyright holders 'want.'
Have to abide by what the publisher wants? Where on EARTH did you get the idea that anyone is so constrained?
In the words of my dear, sweet, departed granny, " Fuck that shit!"
This is an English language history of the calculus that is simply supurb.
If you get stumped by some of the algebra, ( which you really shouldn't), then grab that textbook of your daughter's, if you've done math before you don't need a class, just to work some problems to bring you back up to speed.
By the time you're through with these two books you'll either have sated your current mathmatical bent or have a much better idea of what you want long term.
Be warned though, Berlinski's book is likely to set you off on a math 'jag' that you may never recover from.
Actually, that would be Switzerland, but the US, as a Republic, is an * improvement * on democracy, which, on the whole, does not result in a great deal of freedom.
Athens was, at least for those with suffrage, a true democracy, hence the English word 'ostracize.'
Such a thing is common under democracy, and forbiden under American Republicanism.
If the second or third laws result in an advanced ethical dilema the robot will stand still and repeat " That does not compute" over and over, faster and faster, at an ever rising pitch, until the magic smoke comes out of its ears, thus disabling the robot.
To be fair that house was a single room adobe with no electricity or running water half way up a cliff, so even the locals considered it a bit of an undesireable, but it *was* a proper structure, not just a shack.
When I moved into "town" I picked up one of the nicer houses in the village, still a single room adobe, but with the ubiquitous bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling, a pipe sticking up out of the ground out on the veranda, ( which gave cold water only between the hours of 8 A.M. and 6 P.M. because those were the hours of the single "employee" of the village pump house), and an actual flush toilet in the government welfare office provided brick shithouse out in the back.
That one cost me $16/mo.
And bear in mind that these prices reflect the fact that the coast road hadn't pushed that far south yet so the local economy was still truely local.
KFG
Re:well that article is right
on
The Almighty Buck
·
· Score: 5, Insightful
Not to deny that these people are poor, but don't fall into the common trap of believing that a dollar number represents some objective thing.
A dollar isn't a dollar. A dollar is what you can *buy* with it.
When I lived in a Mexican fishing village I rented a house for $4/mo.
A lobster was less than a dime, as was a bushel basket of tomatoes or a 10 lb. watermelon.
Industrially manufactured goods are beyond the reach of many people, ( so they still have active communities instead of watching television), but the necessities of life are always inline with local incomes.
It's called the free market. Prices of locally produced items are local *variables,* and baring disaster and famine, food and shelter is often *cheaper,* ( in the real buying power), than it is in more "developed" countries.
I have never lived among more sociable and *happier* people than those with a self-sustaining local economy. True poverty is a lack of food, clothing, shelter and community, *not* lack of money.
While everybody else reams you out about your comment that most of SA is "encompassed by," (whatever you meant by that), people of the white pigment, I will take you to task the "white pigment" bit.
I thought everybody was reasonably aware these days that the only human skin pigment was the "black" one.
"White" people are simply deficient in pigment and are thus the color of human *flesh* rather than human "skin" color, much as blanched asparagus is the color of cellulose rather than green.
( Making the whole "flesh colored" crayon thingy kind of ironic really, it really was flesh colored, just not *skin* colored).
You are laboring under the misaprehension that I'm a punk kid who just posted a mindless anti Apple computer crack intending to imply that a Machintosh isn't a "real" computer.
Far from it, if I had been I couldn't have posted what I did in the manner that I did.
You see, I neglected to take into account that many of the more "youthful" of the/. audience wouldn't be aware of just what a Macintosh really IS and that if there were no such thing as a Macintosh computer I *still* would have made my orginal post, which would have still made sense.
Macintosh, as it happens, was a, ( some would say THE), premier manufacturer of tube amplifiers for commercial and audiophile customers, as much a household word in their day as Teac is now.
My orginal post was intended as a somewhat wry and yes, ironic, comment on the convergence of "media devices," hightened somewhat by the fact that there are audiophile tube amplifiers AND sophisticated home computers named Macintosh.
In my own home the "stereo" and "TV" sit in the corners acting mostly as dustcollectors, as I use my "computer" for nearly everything, including as a "radio" and "tape deck."
*Ironicly* I'm posting using Windows right now because my Mac isn't connected to the network at the moment and my Linux X-server has crashed and I'm not in the mood to reconfigure everything to make one post using Lynx.
So, anyway, if I'm guilty of anything it's of being too opaque in my reference and too dense to realize it.
Hell, as implied above I *use* a Mac, ( and used to use a Mac).
Very simply because in most applications simply plugging things into the wall is easier and cheaper overall. This does end up with the typical home situation where every DC appliance in the house has its own AC/DC power supply.
The ideal situation would be where there was a "household" powersupply put in with the normal wiring harness, but we don't do it that way for a variety of reasons.
I *some* applications your idea is actually ideal though, those places off the grid, such as mountain cabins and marine installations.
To make it work you'll need a deep cycle battery, ("car" batteries are actually damaged by being allowed to run down), and a voltage regulator circuit, ( both the bits and instructions on how to make one available at Radio Shack). You'll also need to run a 12v LCD monitor. The whole rig will cost you about $100 US, and a couple hours of your time if you already know how to do it, and maybe 12 hours if you have to do the research.
Once upon a time this sort of electronics hack was just as popular a hobby passtime as software hacking is now and it's a quite doable project, but maybe a bit silly for straight home use.
Slashdot Mirror
And how does anyone know whether it's reasonable and profitable to set up mining operations?
By going there and bringing back some rocks to analyze.
And how do we know *where* to set up the base and mining camp?
By going there a LOT, and bringing back a LOT of samples, from numerous locations. Just like here on earth. It's called a "Geological Survey."
It would be sheer folly, not to mention fiscally irresponsible, to simply pick a site at random.
And who is going to fund such a survey?
The same people who funded Columbus, Magellen, Lewis and Clark, the charting of the world's oceans, etc..
Some form of government, because they are the only ones with the wherewithal to risk, and if they succed their coffers will overflow from the advantage given to their private industries, who then pay taxes on the profits.
I wonder how many tax dollars have come back into various US government agencies through the sales of Nomex alone, (not to mention how many lives have been saved by its use). Throw in Gore-Tex as well which is an outgrowth of Nomex technology.
KFG
The only monopoly "the government" has on space travel is the deep pockets, ( of your money), to pursue the goal with.
Anyone else with the funding is perfectly free to go.
For that matter, the only reason "the government" doesn't do more in space is that "you" won't give them more money.
KFG
Heeeeeere it is, come and get it,
but you better hurry 'cause it's going fast.
If you want it,
Heeeeeere it is, come and get it,
but you better hurry 'cause it may not last.
Did I hear you say that there must be a catch,
Would you walk away from a fool and his money?
The surreal satire of The Magic Christian is coming to life these days.
KFG
He's merely being accurate and discussing Fascism, not Nazism.
Fascism is Italian in origin. Literally. It refers to the 'fascia', which was the flag the Roman troops carried as identifiers, ( and now means form of 'facing').
Mussolini sought to recreate Rome as a modern industrial state with the workers bonded in allegience to a state owned 'employer', and thus Mussolini himself as "Emperor."
KFG
but under the condition that someone else can *reproduce* it at any time.
The difference is that in your analogy you could be denied the *use* of your car.
In mine you can't.
It's *copy*right people, *copy*right. Not *use*right.
KFG
sieze his right to make all the little snipes he wanted. Egregiously and with all the 'flount' you could want at that.
Can't you see the exposed mockery?
KFG
I do feel compeled to point out that freedom of speach *is* a civil rights issue so fundamental that it is the first in the Bill of Rights, and the essential foundation of the Votes for Women movement.
In fact, the founding fathers considered protecting it, ( no taxation without representation), by armed insurection. I don't think 'curtious' was a word *ever* applied to Sam Adams, ( the orginizer of the 'Boston Tea Party).
All 'Intellectual Property' law is a very serious civil rights issue.
KFG
I switched my business to Linux some years ago because I got tired of MS breaking my mission critical apps, and forcing me to pay for the priviledge in the process.
KFG
At most any toy store you can buy a simple water rocket for about ten bucks. It will have a complex guidence control system commonly refered to as "fins."
If all you want of your rocket is for it to go up in a vaguely straight line this is all the guidence system you really need.
Anybody who has scratch built model rockets can demonstrate for you how simple empirical tests can be used to insure aerodynamic stability. Any arrow can demonstrate such stability in practice.
KFG
an entire third grade class, including the teacher, has been arrested for bringing newspaper clippings to class as part of a social studies assignment.
KFG
my 1976 Ford was all metric.
KFG
has little to do with anything outside of the software industry.
As it happens there is over two hundred years of copyright law defining the *limited* rights of the copyright holder and asserting, in explicit terms, that the copyright holder's "wants" have very distinct boundries.
You, as the purchaser, ( yes, outside the software industry items under copyright protection are still *purchased* by the 'consumer'), have very distinct *rights,* ( not priviledges, rights), to act with and upon such 'content' even against the copyright holders 'want.'
Have to abide by what the publisher wants? Where on EARTH did you get the idea that anyone is so constrained?
In the words of my dear, sweet, departed granny, " Fuck that shit!"
KFG
Calculus Primer:
7 5/ qid=1025647279/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/002-8828002-34688 55
8 5/ qid=1025647399/sr=1-2/ref=sr_1_2/002-8828002-34688 55
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/09132324
Read it. Work the problems. Have fun.
While you're doing that also read David Berlinski's 'A Tour of the Calculus:'
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/06797478
This is an English language history of the calculus that is simply supurb.
If you get stumped by some of the algebra, ( which you really shouldn't), then grab that textbook of your daughter's, if you've done math before you don't need a class, just to work some problems to bring you back up to speed.
By the time you're through with these two books you'll either have sated your current mathmatical bent or have a much better idea of what you want long term.
Be warned though, Berlinski's book is likely to set you off on a math 'jag' that you may never recover from.
KFG
Actually, that would be Switzerland, but the US, as a Republic, is an * improvement * on democracy, which, on the whole, does not result in a great deal of freedom.
Athens was, at least for those with suffrage, a true democracy, hence the English word 'ostracize.'
Such a thing is common under democracy, and forbiden under American Republicanism.
KFG
That would be like a tyranical theocracy.
And authoritarian bureaucracy is like the EPA, the IRS or your local town planning board.
KFG
Johnny Five Alive!
Oops, sorry. I couldn't help myself and it slipped out. It's a Pavlovian thing.
KFG
If the second or third laws result in an advanced ethical dilema the robot will stand still and repeat " That does not compute" over and over, faster and faster, at an ever rising pitch, until the magic smoke comes out of its ears, thus disabling the robot.
KFG
To be fair that house was a single room adobe with no electricity or running water half way up a cliff, so even the locals considered it a bit of an undesireable, but it *was* a proper structure, not just a shack.
When I moved into "town" I picked up one of the nicer houses in the village, still a single room adobe, but with the ubiquitous bare light bulb hanging from the ceiling, a pipe sticking up out of the ground out on the veranda, ( which gave cold water only between the hours of 8 A.M. and 6 P.M. because those were the hours of the single "employee" of the village pump house), and an actual flush toilet in the government welfare office provided brick shithouse out in the back.
That one cost me $16/mo.
And bear in mind that these prices reflect the fact that the coast road hadn't pushed that far south yet so the local economy was still truely local.
KFG
Not to deny that these people are poor, but don't fall into the common trap of believing that a dollar number represents some objective thing.
A dollar isn't a dollar. A dollar is what you can *buy* with it.
When I lived in a Mexican fishing village I rented a house for $4/mo.
A lobster was less than a dime, as was a bushel basket of tomatoes or a 10 lb. watermelon.
Industrially manufactured goods are beyond the reach of many people, ( so they still have active communities instead of watching television), but the necessities of life are always inline with local incomes.
It's called the free market. Prices of locally produced items are local *variables,* and baring disaster and famine, food and shelter is often *cheaper,* ( in the real buying power), than it is in more "developed" countries.
I have never lived among more sociable and *happier* people than those with a self-sustaining local economy. True poverty is a lack of food, clothing, shelter and community, *not* lack of money.
KFG
While everybody else reams you out about your comment that most of SA is "encompassed by," (whatever you meant by that), people of the white pigment, I will take you to task the "white pigment" bit.
I thought everybody was reasonably aware these days that the only human skin pigment was the "black" one.
"White" people are simply deficient in pigment and are thus the color of human *flesh* rather than human "skin" color, much as blanched asparagus is the color of cellulose rather than green.
( Making the whole "flesh colored" crayon thingy kind of ironic really, it really was flesh colored, just not *skin* colored).
KFG
I don't know about now, but at one time Andorra had guns, but no live ammo.
So I guess technically they had guns but not arms.
Interesting, no?
KFG
Forgive me for a momentary metal denseness.
/. audience wouldn't be aware of just what a Macintosh really IS and that if there were no such thing as a Macintosh computer I *still* would have made my orginal post, which would have still made sense.
You are laboring under the misaprehension that I'm a punk kid who just posted a mindless anti Apple computer crack intending to imply that a Machintosh isn't a "real" computer.
Far from it, if I had been I couldn't have posted what I did in the manner that I did.
You see, I neglected to take into account that many of the more "youthful" of the
Macintosh, as it happens, was a, ( some would say THE), premier manufacturer of tube amplifiers for commercial and audiophile customers, as much a household word in their day as Teac is now.
My orginal post was intended as a somewhat wry and yes, ironic, comment on the convergence of "media devices," hightened somewhat by the fact that there are audiophile tube amplifiers AND sophisticated home computers named Macintosh.
In my own home the "stereo" and "TV" sit in the corners acting mostly as dustcollectors, as I use my "computer" for nearly everything, including as a "radio" and "tape deck."
*Ironicly* I'm posting using Windows right now because my Mac isn't connected to the network at the moment and my Linux X-server has crashed and I'm not in the mood to reconfigure everything to make one post using Lynx.
So, anyway, if I'm guilty of anything it's of being too opaque in my reference and too dense to realize it.
Hell, as implied above I *use* a Mac, ( and used to use a Mac).
KFG
didn't take their "irony pills" this morning.
KFG
Macintosh will be a computer.
KFG
Very simply because in most applications simply plugging things into the wall is easier and cheaper overall. This does end up with the typical home situation where every DC appliance in the house has its own AC/DC power supply.
The ideal situation would be where there was a "household" powersupply put in with the normal wiring harness, but we don't do it that way for a variety of reasons.
I *some* applications your idea is actually ideal though, those places off the grid, such as mountain cabins and marine installations.
To make it work you'll need a deep cycle battery, ("car" batteries are actually damaged by being allowed to run down), and a voltage regulator circuit, ( both the bits and instructions on how to make one available at Radio Shack). You'll also need to run a 12v LCD monitor. The whole rig will cost you about $100 US, and a couple hours of your time if you already know how to do it, and maybe 12 hours if you have to do the research.
Once upon a time this sort of electronics hack was just as popular a hobby passtime as software hacking is now and it's a quite doable project, but maybe a bit silly for straight home use.
KFG