And planets that can support us will more than likely have indigenous life forms. Are we to repeat what has been done on this planet with regards to indigenous populations?
Hell yes, and this time we don't have to worry about 'human rights'. No humans, no rights.
I kid, but seriously, I bet it ends up going that way should we ever develop interstellar capability.
"Upstate New York" surely doesn't extend farther west than, say, Utica. Then there's central NY then western NY.
Upstate New York encompasses all the regions of New York north of, say, Westchester County. Central, Western, Northern, Capital District, Hudson River Valley, Catskills, Adirondacks: all of them are Upstate.
Undoing the damage he did to civil liberties and the environment alone will take years.
I see President Obama is making great headway in undoing the damage President Bush did. Policies like this are sure-fire ways to improve the status of civil liberties in this country. Or not.
At least with Bush we could fall back on, "hey, the guy's a stooge for corporate interests, what did we expect?" Obama on the other hand is doing pretty much exactly what he promised not to do regarding liberties, transparency, and many other areas that made people want to vote for him.
Somehow we need to put a stop to this practice of appointing "Czars". Anyone who can't pass muster with the Senate shouldn't be calling shots in the Executive Branch.
In that case I propose a simple test to discern the intent of the extraterrestrials:
Hello Mr. Extraterrestrial. Can you tell me how you'd say the name of the element with the atomic number 13?
If they say aluminum, we're cool. If they say aluminium, target all firepower on the Super Star Destroyer.
...and I, for one, won't play Civ V in the foreseeable future. Why? Because none of my computers reaches the minimum hardware specs required by the game. I could spend some money to get up to speed with the newest PC gadgetry (plus some money for the game itself), but as a grad student supporting a family of three, I cannot easily afford that, just to play a game. I bought all the Civilization games, from the good-old DOS-based first Civ to Civ IV, and all expansion packs. But for the first time Civilization's HW specs overstepped my current setups.
What the fuck are you talking about? The Chinaman is not the issue here, Dude. I'm talking about drawing a line in the sand, Dude. Across this line, you DO NOT... Also, Dude, Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.
Given that US Navy carriers have a crew of around six thousand, I imagine that the US response to such an event would probably be very out of proportion to the actual event--on the order of turning the launch sites into glass, for example.
It would certainly end badly for any nation that even attempted an attack on a carrier battle group, and it would only be worse if they succeeded in sinking the carrier. I don't know if the US would start nuking, but I can imagine B-52's flying wingtip to wingtip dropping heavy ordinance would do the trick just as nicely. Or a cruise missile barrage that goes on for weeks. Or both. Let's just hope we never have to find out just what it will take for the US President to drop the big one again.
Nice. So, we don't have money for the unemployed, for the ill, or even for veterans benefits, but we can afford laser systems to shoot down planes for imaginary invasions.
Seventy percent of the defense industry is a private set of corporations whose economic incentive is to discover (or invent) threats, and then sell the government the contract to fight this imaginary enemy. Sounds like a nice recipe for solutions that exacerbate the underlying problems, and not by accident.
The whole reason it seems preposterous for the USA to have a gigantic military is because the US Navy is the unquestioned master of the seven seas. America hasn't been threatened with invasion since 1814 for good reason. Any nation with a serious chance at doing a fair amount of damage would have to come across one of two very wide oceans. It is incumbent upon the US Government to ensure that even the thought of this is considered sheer folly, as it rightfully is now. Any invasion force would be an artificial reef long before it got within visual distance of American shores. The USA has to maintain its advantage. That costs money.
The enemy is only imaginary because the result of any attempt at invasion is a foregone conclusion.
A laser would require energy, how much energy, I don't know how much but I doubt it is a pair of double AA are powering the thing so lets not pretend it has unlimited ammunition.
32 kW according to the fine article, and if the laser is mounted on a carrier it will be a pair of Westinghouse A4W nuclear reactors powering it. The number of shots one of these things could fire won't be limited by the power plant, that's for sure. On a cruiser or destroyer it will be powered by the ship's service diesel generators. Sure, the ship could run out of JP5, but at that point it's dead in the water anyway because that's what the gas turbines that turn the screws run on as well. Long story short the power source is the last thing we'd need to worry about.
Slashdot Mirror
And planets that can support us will more than likely have indigenous life forms. Are we to repeat what has been done on this planet with regards to indigenous populations?
Hell yes, and this time we don't have to worry about 'human rights'. No humans, no rights.
I kid, but seriously, I bet it ends up going that way should we ever develop interstellar capability.
To be fair, ALF could only be considered a terrorist by cats.
"Upstate New York" surely doesn't extend farther west than, say, Utica. Then there's central NY then western NY.
Upstate New York encompasses all the regions of New York north of, say, Westchester County. Central, Western, Northern, Capital District, Hudson River Valley, Catskills, Adirondacks: all of them are Upstate.
How long do you think it will take our leaders to demand a system by which THEY can add sites or domains to the blacklist directly?
Not very long.
Undoing the damage he did to civil liberties and the environment alone will take years.
I see President Obama is making great headway in undoing the damage President Bush did. Policies like this are sure-fire ways to improve the status of civil liberties in this country. Or not.
At least with Bush we could fall back on, "hey, the guy's a stooge for corporate interests, what did we expect?" Obama on the other hand is doing pretty much exactly what he promised not to do regarding liberties, transparency, and many other areas that made people want to vote for him.
Somehow we need to put a stop to this practice of appointing "Czars". Anyone who can't pass muster with the Senate shouldn't be calling shots in the Executive Branch.
"The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human ambition." - Carl Sagan
December 2012.
man those Mayans sure were smart
That guy (Jeff Peckman) is a known hoax artist and crank, from what I gather.
Why would aliens intrinsiclly meet with humans?
Because their interactions with ant colonies would be disappointingly one-sided.
Hey, it made the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs.
In that case I propose a simple test to discern the intent of the extraterrestrials: Hello Mr. Extraterrestrial. Can you tell me how you'd say the name of the element with the atomic number 13? If they say aluminum, we're cool. If they say aluminium, target all firepower on the Super Star Destroyer.
They should appointed someone with some multi-language skills. What language we should assume the aliens will speak?
English, obviously. Just like in the movies. Aliens watch movies too I'd assume.
...and I, for one, won't play Civ V in the foreseeable future. Why? Because none of my computers reaches the minimum hardware specs required by the game. I could spend some money to get up to speed with the newest PC gadgetry (plus some money for the game itself), but as a grad student supporting a family of three, I cannot easily afford that, just to play a game. I bought all the Civilization games, from the good-old DOS-based first Civ to Civ IV, and all expansion packs. But for the first time Civilization's HW specs overstepped my current setups.
You need to get your priorities straight, man.
Mutations smell delicious
nt
When your arteries clog, the cholesterol is rainbow-colored.
I AM OUTRA...oh, okay. Nothing to see here, move along.
Let's hope the insurgents and other ne'er-do-wells get the message they're supposed to stop blowing people up on August 31.
American beer is pretty much piss.
Yeah because all we have here is Budweiser and Coors Light, right? You don't know what the fuck you're talking about, seriously.
It's not hardcore until he posts it on his Facebook page.
What the fuck are you talking about? The Chinaman is not the issue here, Dude. I'm talking about drawing a line in the sand, Dude. Across this line, you DO NOT... Also, Dude, Chinaman is not the preferred nomenclature. Asian-American, please.
Given that US Navy carriers have a crew of around six thousand, I imagine that the US response to such an event would probably be very out of proportion to the actual event--on the order of turning the launch sites into glass, for example.
It would certainly end badly for any nation that even attempted an attack on a carrier battle group, and it would only be worse if they succeeded in sinking the carrier. I don't know if the US would start nuking, but I can imagine B-52's flying wingtip to wingtip dropping heavy ordinance would do the trick just as nicely. Or a cruise missile barrage that goes on for weeks. Or both. Let's just hope we never have to find out just what it will take for the US President to drop the big one again.
It's sad that Comedy Central actually has one of the better sources for news analysis going. Sad, and hilarious.
Nice. So, we don't have money for the unemployed, for the ill, or even for veterans benefits, but we can afford laser systems to shoot down planes for imaginary invasions.
Seventy percent of the defense industry is a private set of corporations whose economic incentive is to discover (or invent) threats, and then sell the government the contract to fight this imaginary enemy. Sounds like a nice recipe for solutions that exacerbate the underlying problems, and not by accident.
The whole reason it seems preposterous for the USA to have a gigantic military is because the US Navy is the unquestioned master of the seven seas. America hasn't been threatened with invasion since 1814 for good reason. Any nation with a serious chance at doing a fair amount of damage would have to come across one of two very wide oceans. It is incumbent upon the US Government to ensure that even the thought of this is considered sheer folly, as it rightfully is now. Any invasion force would be an artificial reef long before it got within visual distance of American shores. The USA has to maintain its advantage. That costs money. The enemy is only imaginary because the result of any attempt at invasion is a foregone conclusion.
A laser would require energy, how much energy, I don't know how much but I doubt it is a pair of double AA are powering the thing so lets not pretend it has unlimited ammunition.
32 kW according to the fine article, and if the laser is mounted on a carrier it will be a pair of Westinghouse A4W nuclear reactors powering it. The number of shots one of these things could fire won't be limited by the power plant, that's for sure. On a cruiser or destroyer it will be powered by the ship's service diesel generators. Sure, the ship could run out of JP5, but at that point it's dead in the water anyway because that's what the gas turbines that turn the screws run on as well. Long story short the power source is the last thing we'd need to worry about.