. ..we're just between glaciations. The 1970's predictions were at least based in a historical climate pattern.
In the long run, the glaciers will return. Whether the mechanism is temporary heat-up, and resultant partial melting of icecaps cooling the oceans, or a more gradual cooldown, the geologic evidence says the current Ice Age ain't over yet.
When will the next glaciation start ? It may have already started, or may not start for another 50K years. But it will occur. . .
. . . all governments act out of their own national self-interest. So what's in it for NSA, et al, to uncloak their capabilities ???
The philosophy of openness is nice, but somehow I don't think the "Intelligence Community" will buy it, without something fairly spectacular in return. . . . .
The mind boggles. . . Can you see Detroit asking for a piece of Used Car Sales ? A Home-builder demanding a piece of home re-sales ? I've seen that authors and publishers have tried. ..but haven't had the sheer unmitigated gall to try to get their profits codified into law like the RIAA, and to a lesser extent, the MPAA. . ..
But, on the bright side, somehow, I don't think they'll get the Congress to fall for this one. . ..
Mind you, that's a lot of assumptions to start with. The process is correct, but we lack empirical data as to how common or uncommon the "assumed" conditions actually are. . .
One can posit larger planets than Earth, IF they're significantly less dense. But that only goes so far, as does the opposite: you COULD have a decent atmosphere on a Mars-sized world IF it was significantly denser than Earth. The latter case is less likely, as Iron tends to be the end-point of any type of nuclear reaction. And a less-dense world would have problems developing a civilization: lower density implies less metal available. . . .
Odds are, there's more than one Earthlike planet out there. The question we DON'T have an answer to, yet, is how likely ARE Earthlike planets. ..and the followup, how likely are Earthlike planets to evolve life-forms. . ..
Mind you, good answers to both questions are a long time coming, as we have the empirical evidence from only ONE solar system to base our estimates on. . .
Finding life, at least the class of things that we'd immediately identify as "life", requires several things: a chemical environment that is reactive, but not TOO reactive: a physical environment that is generally between the freezing and boiling point of the primary working fluid of the life-forms, an energy environment with sufficient energy influx to beat radiation losses, but not so much as to speed up most of the available chemical reactions.
That gives us two things to look for. It tells us how far from a star to look (for the temperature and energy variables), and THAT gives us the likely type of planet to find in that region. From what we know of the physics of planetary formation, those planets would tend to be small and rocky, with the likely working fluid being water.
With a planet with aqueous water, the likely atmosphere would include some oxygen, but too much or too little would tend to work itself out over time (too much, and you tend to support a LOT of combustion, which would take up the excess oxygen. Low oxygen environments are thought to be similar to that in which life developed here on Earth. . . )
In a long and possibly too-technical explanation, that's why we look for "Earth-like" planets when we look for life. . .
Mark me with the Scarlet C, or worse, the Flaming L, but. . . .
I've been around a great deal of the planet, between military time, and various jobs. **I**, as do more people than you realize, recognize propaganda, of ALL sorts, and file it accordingly in the nearest/dev/null equivalent. Is Bush evil ? Hardly ? Is he perfect ? Again, hardly. But compared with rulers who have been documented as implementing genocide, like Saddam, or brutally suppressing dissent, like China, or just starving people to death due to their delusions of grandeur and general incompetence (Kim Jong Il and North Korea), you realize that we Americans could do FAR worse. . .
When we get into ideological pissing contests, nobody wins, because everyone digs in to defend their entrenched position on a given issue. ..
Now, back to the issue of colonizing space. . . be it the Moon, Mars, or an O'Neill-type Space Colony, when the residents decide they want political independence, they'll likely make it a fait accompli. . . . After all, being at the top of a fairly deep gravity well has all sorts of economic and military advantages, when push comes to shove. . . .
I was wondering WHICH Davis you were talking about. There ARE two, the other one, Tom Davis (R-11-VA) is fairly well informed on tech issues. ..as he used to be General Counsel to one of the big DC-area tech consulting firms.
Mind you, that didn't stop him from voting for the CDA (with the excuse of "I know it's unconstitutional, but the courts will stop it in a heartbeat." He wasn't so thrilled with my follow-up question: "If you KNOW it's unconstitutional, then isn't voting for it a direct violation of your Oath of Office, the "protect and defend the Constitution. .." part ????
Needless to say, that was my last conversation in public with Tom Davis. . .
The last major Judeo-Christian religious war was several centuries ago. I think it can be argued that the Judeo-Christian family of religions has matured sufficiently to allow co-existence, although I'll admit the re-appearance of anti-semitism in Europe is a troubling development.
But I'll note that the vast majority of present wars, worldwide, are Muslims vs. someone who isn't Muslim. Proselytation via armed force, or more traditionally, the sword, is a long tradition in Islam. I'm not sure Judiasm EVER had it, and Christianity dropped that 4-500 years ago. . .
"Surviving" staff gets 10% paycut, with proviso: Company makes it to given date, next paycheck, your old pay is restored AND you get double the amount of your paycut back as a lump sum. Plus X additional shares as a grant of stock. ..
Unfortunately, the place that did this didn't make it, but we tried, knowing that if we succeeded, we'd be rewarded. . .
Yes, Junior means you're still learning. For that matter, so does Senior.
What I expected to find was a mindset that showed capability of independent problem solving, not regurgitating the latest MS Press book.
If you need a pencil and paper to calculate a subnet, no problem. To be an MCSE and a CCNP, and need prompting as to what a subnet mask is, and why it's important, was a real problem. ..
I wasn't looking for people fresh off the street, I was looking for folks with a year or three's experience. . .
. ..I'm trying to find some COMPETENT Junior SEs right now. They seem to think that an MCSE and, maybe a CCNP entitles them to a high-paying job. (Funny, the same scam ran in the 1970's, except it was truck-driving schools, not IT schools. ..)
I remember one vegetable-that-walks-like-a-man in particular. When asked a fairly simple Cisco question, that involved a little TCP/IP subnetting as well, he told us he'd need web access to answer the question: he paid $120/mo to the IEEE for access to a website with all the answers.....
The problem isn't a lack of jobs, it's a surfeit of posers you have to fight through to fill those jobs. . ..as clueless as HR types are, there are way too many underqualified people out there as well. . ..and they generally have an MCSE card. . ..one suggested replacing our HP servers, Unix, and Oracle, with Wintel commodity boxes, MS Sql2K, and Win2K. . . to "improve operability". Didn't matter that our production HP-UX boxen have a 2 1/2 year uptime at the moment. . ..and the previous downtime was a system upgrade. . . .
Richard M Stallman
of the
Free Software Foundation
will give a speech entitled
Copyright vs Community in
the Age of the Computer Networks
at the Headquarters of
The Democratic National Committee
430 South Capitol Street, SE
Washington DC 20003
on Tuesday Night: April 9th 2002 at 7pm
THE PUBLIC IS INVITED
This event is co-organized by the DC Perl Mongers http://dc.pm.org &DC Sage http://www.dc-sage.org free & open community computer user organizations w/ magnanimous support from
the Democratic National Committee.
. ..after all, wood, oil, and coal are just stored solar energy. And you could argue that since all the heavier elements are the result of extended stellar fusion, so is nuclear power.
But in all seriousness, unless you cover a LOT of area with solar panels, even of the spray-on nanotech variety, it won't be enough for really heavy industry. OTOH, it WILL make roads and parking lots additionally useful as power sources. . . .
Supercharged shoes could release energy when soldiers jump, propelling them over a 20-foot wall. -What happens after the wall, is there also a parachute, or are you just supposed to land after your 20 foot fall.
A mini-parachute is a possibility, auto-deploying and auto-retracting. 20-foot falls aren't that bad, any paratrooper makes those all the time. Perhaps an auto-extending grapple-cord combo that quickly lowers you to the ground. ..
Micoreactors could detect bleeding and apply pressure. -So that the enemies crackers can cut off circulation in battle to help their side
Assuming they CAN crack each individual suit, which would likely have its' own highly encrypted control override code. . ..can you say megabit RSA keypairs ???
Light-deflecting material could make the suit blend in with surroundings. -So that the number of soilders hurt or killed by friendly fire increases.
Ever hear of IFF ??? Or perhaps beaconing on an obscure wavelength that is specially "watched" for and enhanced on the visor display ???
MIT's research centers had been working on nanotechnology ideas long before getting involved with the Army, but not with military applications in mind. -Isn't that how it always happens, soon the MIT reasercher will make a peace time achievment award.
Military research often drives initial technology development. Transistors and microchips were developed for military purposes, for military satellites and suchlike... this is no different from a common pattern in research. . . .
Slashdot Mirror
In the long run, the glaciers will return. Whether the mechanism is temporary heat-up, and resultant partial melting of icecaps cooling the oceans, or a more gradual cooldown, the geologic evidence says the current Ice Age ain't over yet.
When will the next glaciation start ? It may have already started, or may not start for another 50K years. But it will occur. . .
One: Cargo.
Two: That's now. In 2020 or so, when these start seeing service, things are likely to be different.
The philosophy of openness is nice, but somehow I don't think the "Intelligence Community" will buy it, without something fairly spectacular in return. . . . .
. . .he knows to bring a boot-disk, do an FDISK /MBR, and install Windoze (g)
Hint: most users I know have NEVER used Windows Update. . . .I'd guess 10-20% at most. So how would that really differ from Mandrake users ??
The mind boggles. . . Can you see Detroit asking for a piece of Used Car Sales ? A Home-builder demanding a piece of home re-sales ? I've seen that authors and publishers have tried. . .but haven't had the sheer unmitigated gall to try to get their profits codified into law like the RIAA, and to a lesser extent, the MPAA. . . .
But, on the bright side, somehow, I don't think they'll get the Congress to fall for this one. . . .
Mind you, that's a lot of assumptions to start with. The process is correct, but we lack empirical data as to how common or uncommon the "assumed" conditions actually are. . .
One can posit larger planets than Earth, IF they're significantly less dense. But that only goes so far, as does the opposite: you COULD have a decent atmosphere on a Mars-sized world IF it was significantly denser than Earth. The latter case is less likely, as Iron tends to be the end-point of any type of nuclear reaction. And a less-dense world would have problems developing a civilization: lower density implies less metal available. . . .
Mind you, good answers to both questions are a long time coming, as we have the empirical evidence from only ONE solar system to base our estimates on. . .
That gives us two things to look for. It tells us how far from a star to look (for the temperature and energy variables), and THAT gives us the likely type of planet to find in that region. From what we know of the physics of planetary formation, those planets would tend to be small and rocky, with the likely working fluid being water.
With a planet with aqueous water, the likely atmosphere would include some oxygen, but too much or too little would tend to work itself out over time (too much, and you tend to support a LOT of combustion, which would take up the excess oxygen. Low oxygen environments are thought to be similar to that in which life developed here on Earth. . . )
In a long and possibly too-technical explanation, that's why we look for "Earth-like" planets when we look for life. . .
I've been around a great deal of the planet, between military time, and various jobs. **I**, as do more people than you realize, recognize propaganda, of ALL sorts, and file it accordingly in the nearest /dev/null equivalent. Is Bush evil ? Hardly ? Is he perfect ? Again, hardly. But compared with rulers who have been documented as implementing genocide, like Saddam, or brutally suppressing dissent, like China, or just starving people to death due to their delusions of grandeur and general incompetence (Kim Jong Il and North Korea), you realize that we Americans could do FAR worse. . .
When we get into ideological pissing contests, nobody wins, because everyone digs in to defend their entrenched position on a given issue. . .
Now, back to the issue of colonizing space. . . be it the Moon, Mars, or an O'Neill-type Space Colony, when the residents decide they want political independence, they'll likely make it a fait accompli. . . . After all, being at the top of a fairly deep gravity well has all sorts of economic and military advantages, when push comes to shove. . . .
Now, all we need is a CGI Peter Cushing with a CGI Lucas beard and flannel shirt. . . .
Mind you, that didn't stop him from voting for the CDA (with the excuse of "I know it's unconstitutional, but the courts will stop it in a heartbeat." He wasn't so thrilled with my follow-up question: "If you KNOW it's unconstitutional, then isn't voting for it a direct violation of your Oath of Office, the "protect and defend the Constitution. . ." part ????
Needless to say, that was my last conversation in public with Tom Davis. . .
Yes, they have. But have they done it LATELY ?
The last major Judeo-Christian religious war was several centuries ago. I think it can be argued that the Judeo-Christian family of religions has matured sufficiently to allow co-existence, although I'll admit the re-appearance of anti-semitism in Europe is a troubling development.
But I'll note that the vast majority of present wars, worldwide, are Muslims vs. someone who isn't Muslim. Proselytation via armed force, or more traditionally, the sword, is a long tradition in Islam. I'm not sure Judiasm EVER had it, and Christianity dropped that 4-500 years ago. . .
Adobe only allows you to use their bricks IF you avoid products from Elcomsoft and Dmitri Skylyarov. . . (evil grin)
- Executives take 50-100% pay cuts
- Staff cuts get made
- "Surviving" staff gets 10% paycut, with proviso: Company makes it to given date, next paycheck, your old pay is restored AND you get double the amount of your paycut back as a lump sum. Plus X additional shares as a grant of stock. .
.
Unfortunately, the place that did this didn't make it, but we tried, knowing that if we succeeded, we'd be rewarded. . .ENGINEER comes before EXECUTIVE. . . .
What I expected to find was a mindset that showed capability of independent problem solving, not regurgitating the latest MS Press book. If you need a pencil and paper to calculate a subnet, no problem. To be an MCSE and a CCNP, and need prompting as to what a subnet mask is, and why it's important, was a real problem. . .
I wasn't looking for people fresh off the street, I was looking for folks with a year or three's experience. . .
I remember one vegetable-that-walks-like-a-man in particular. When asked a fairly simple Cisco question, that involved a little TCP/IP subnetting as well, he told us he'd need web access to answer the question: he paid $120/mo to the IEEE for access to a website with all the answers.....
The problem isn't a lack of jobs, it's a surfeit of posers you have to fight through to fill those jobs. . . .as clueless as HR types are, there are way too many underqualified people out there as well. . . .and they generally have an MCSE card. . . .one suggested replacing our HP servers, Unix, and Oracle, with Wintel commodity boxes, MS Sql2K, and Win2K. . . to "improve operability". Didn't matter that our production HP-UX boxen have a 2 1/2 year uptime at the moment. . . .and the previous downtime was a system upgrade. . . .
Marvin the Martian's been looking for it. . .
But in all seriousness, unless you cover a LOT of area with solar panels, even of the spray-on nanotech variety, it won't be enough for really heavy industry. OTOH, it WILL make roads and parking lots additionally useful as power sources. . . .
. . .that was Mr. Elizabeth Taylor, Senator John Warner of Virginia. . .who actually DOES sound like Foghorn Leghorn. . . .
Think about it. Copy-protection hardware puts the BSA out of the Extortion business. . .
Supercharged shoes could release energy when soldiers jump, propelling them over a 20-foot wall.
-What happens after the wall, is there also a parachute, or are you just supposed to land after your 20 foot fall.
A mini-parachute is a possibility, auto-deploying and auto-retracting. 20-foot falls aren't that bad, any paratrooper makes those all the time. Perhaps an auto-extending grapple-cord combo that quickly lowers you to the ground. . .
Micoreactors could detect bleeding and apply pressure.
-So that the enemies crackers can cut off circulation in battle to help their side
Assuming they CAN crack each individual suit, which would likely have its' own highly encrypted control override code. . . .can you say megabit RSA keypairs ???
Light-deflecting material could make the suit blend in with surroundings.
-So that the number of soilders hurt or killed by friendly fire increases.
Ever hear of IFF ??? Or perhaps beaconing on an obscure wavelength that is specially "watched" for and enhanced on the visor display ???
MIT's research centers had been working on nanotechnology ideas long before getting involved with the Army, but not with military applications in mind.
-Isn't that how it always happens, soon the MIT reasercher will make a peace time achievment award.
Military research often drives initial technology development. Transistors and microchips were developed for military purposes, for military satellites and suchlike... this is no different from a common pattern in research. . . .