Both cases involved a shrink-wrapped license document provided by the online vendor of a computer system. The terms of the shrink-wrapped license were not provided at the time of purchase, but were rather included with the shipped product as a printed document. The license required the customer to return the product within a limited time frame if the license was not agreed to. In Brower, the Supreme Court of New York ruled that the terms of the shrink-wrapped license document were enforceable because the customer's assent was evident by its failure to return the merchandise within the 30 days specified by the document.
And not just one of them. Kepler has previously found 5 Earth-sized planets, in the habitable zones around their stars. And quite a few that are either Earth sized, or in the habitable zone, but not both. Including things like super-Earth sized ones in the habitable zone.:) http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepler_data_release.html
The findings increase the number of planet candidates identified by Kepler to-date to 1,235. Of these, 68 are approximately Earth-size; 288 are super-Earth-size; 662 are Neptune-size; 165 are the size of Jupiter and 19 are larger than Jupiter. Of the 54 new planet candidates found in the habitable zone, five are near Earth-sized. The remaining 49 habitable zone candidates range from super-Earth size -- up to twice the size of Earth -- to larger than Jupiter. The findings are based on the results of observations conducted May 12 to Sept. 17, 2009 of more than 156,000 stars in Kepler’s field of view, which covers approximately 1/400 of the sky.
You're assuming that they would use it on the Truth side..
Do you want to continue this conversation? "Yes" Do you want a lawyer present? "No" Do you wish to remain silent? "No" Did you commit this crime? "Yes"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launch_loop Launch loops are basically a big cable, supported magnetically in a vacuum sheath, and accelerated up to high speeds (14km/s+), it could be set up as a 2000km long track along the ground, about 80km up. Since it's moving faster than escape velocity, it would appear to move away from the ground, since the ground is curving away from it faster than it's moving. so it would just need to be tethered to put it into a nice flat path, and could be magnetically looped around and sent back the other way at the end stations. A craft to be launched could just produce a magnetic field, and it would be pulled along at 3g or so, and could let go when it got up to it's desired speed, with a small rocket to circularize it's orbit at higher than 80km, if it's not headed off at escape velocity.
It solves a number of issues that are problems for a space elevator, like how to get something to climb up a tether, or get power to it, which can be done relatively easily for a launch loop, since it could just pull power off the grid whenever it's convenient, and store it in the motion of the cable itself. And it doesn't need any new materials, or really strong ones or anything like that. Not to mention, being much faster to get to orbit, but still suitable for acceleration-sensitive cargo, such as humans. And it can launch quite a bit more material/time then a space elevator can, at a cheaper price. Mainly limited just by the amount of electrical power it has available, and at high power levels, by the need for the cable to cool down between launches.
Only major downside would be that it isn't statically stable, there would have to be dynamic control of the rotor at the end stations, given that it's all just supported and directed magnetically. And it would need to remain powered to keep it from eventually collapsing.
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Unless it's a EULA of course:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eula
Both cases involved a shrink-wrapped license document provided by the online vendor of a computer system. The terms of the shrink-wrapped license were not provided at the time of purchase, but were rather included with the shipped product as a printed document. The license required the customer to return the product within a limited time frame if the license was not agreed to. In Brower, the Supreme Court of New York ruled that the terms of the shrink-wrapped license document were enforceable because the customer's assent was evident by its failure to return the merchandise within the 30 days specified by the document.
And not just one of them. Kepler has previously found 5 Earth-sized planets, in the habitable zones around their stars. And quite a few that are either Earth sized, or in the habitable zone, but not both. Including things like super-Earth sized ones in the habitable zone. :) http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/kepler/news/kepler_data_release.html
The findings increase the number of planet candidates identified by Kepler to-date to 1,235. Of these, 68 are approximately Earth-size; 288 are super-Earth-size; 662 are Neptune-size; 165 are the size of Jupiter and 19 are larger than Jupiter. Of the 54 new planet candidates found in the habitable zone, five are near Earth-sized. The remaining 49 habitable zone candidates range from super-Earth size -- up to twice the size of Earth -- to larger than Jupiter. The findings are based on the results of observations conducted May 12 to Sept. 17, 2009 of more than 156,000 stars in Kepler’s field of view, which covers approximately 1/400 of the sky.
You're assuming that they would use it on the Truth side..
Do you want to continue this conversation? "Yes"
Do you want a lawyer present? "No"
Do you wish to remain silent? "No"
Did you commit this crime? "Yes"
They'll engineer super-soldiers to be so smart that they'll end up resolving conflicts through rational discussion rather than violence.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Launch_loop Launch loops are basically a big cable, supported magnetically in a vacuum sheath, and accelerated up to high speeds (14km/s+), it could be set up as a 2000km long track along the ground, about 80km up. Since it's moving faster than escape velocity, it would appear to move away from the ground, since the ground is curving away from it faster than it's moving. so it would just need to be tethered to put it into a nice flat path, and could be magnetically looped around and sent back the other way at the end stations. A craft to be launched could just produce a magnetic field, and it would be pulled along at 3g or so, and could let go when it got up to it's desired speed, with a small rocket to circularize it's orbit at higher than 80km, if it's not headed off at escape velocity.
It solves a number of issues that are problems for a space elevator, like how to get something to climb up a tether, or get power to it, which can be done relatively easily for a launch loop, since it could just pull power off the grid whenever it's convenient, and store it in the motion of the cable itself. And it doesn't need any new materials, or really strong ones or anything like that. Not to mention, being much faster to get to orbit, but still suitable for acceleration-sensitive cargo, such as humans. And it can launch quite a bit more material/time then a space elevator can, at a cheaper price. Mainly limited just by the amount of electrical power it has available, and at high power levels, by the need for the cable to cool down between launches.
Only major downside would be that it isn't statically stable, there would have to be dynamic control of the rotor at the end stations, given that it's all just supported and directed magnetically. And it would need to remain powered to keep it from eventually collapsing.