It was lack of the political will to allow spacefarers to undertake hazardous missions. Because private space ventures are not subject to political pressure (except when they contract with NASA!) the flat-earth lobby can't touch them.
And meanwhile, the same Navajo reservation that produces all the coal is also a major source of uranium. US politics being what it is, that gets sold to France while Four Corners gives us smog in the Grand Canyon.
There is a reason for that: although perfectly good digital signature schemes exist, the legal system recognizes "real" signatures only. Of course, a picture of a real signature is just fine if you drive across town to the Fedex office and use their fax machine to make it.
My leading unfavorite is the field validity check that starts out by preventing you from submitting a page because you're missing the "I have read the terms and conditions..." When you check the box and click Submit again, you find it has cleared several fill-in fields of vital info that you're now going to have to retype, including that credit card security code field that you have to dig into your wallet all over again for.
The central problem in our system is that because we treat IP as real estate, most of it ends up in the hands of middlemen who had no part in creating the work. Instead, I would eliminate the fungibility of intellectual property and recast it as a personal right of the creator. Any company exploiting a patent would have to maintain a contractual relationship with the creator for the life of the patent. This would mean no more buying up an artist's copyright for nothing and then cashing in on it with no participation when the artist achieved fame. On the technical side, no longer would an inventor get paid off and be replaced with an H-1B as soon as his patent proved profitable.
Small California cities like Morro Bay are doing this too, using reverse osmosis tech at about twice the cost of groundwater. Their hedge is the one you describe: if there is an ultimate drought and there just isn't any water, they at least have a minimal supply.
I'm proposing going beyond this by having Silicon Valley apply new technology like graphene, which in small-scale experiments at MIT has been shown to desalinate water at much lower pressures than R-O. We need to find out whether this will scale to plants of town size or larger. If it does, the lower energy requirement will substantially cut the cost. Desalination would become an ideal use for fluctuating renewable power, such as offshore wind.
Yes, a culture ripe for the next phase of disruption. Instead of the next social app that's slightly different from last week's social app, I hereby dare Silicon Valley to take on two challenges:
1. On a ship adjacent to SF in international waters, set up the first fully open-market hospital. Staff it with real doctors who prescribe conventional medicines, procedures and devices, but all of it operating in open competition instead of under the thumb of medical boards whose real purpose is to protect incumbents and keep prices high. Let's see what an open market can accomplish in this one specific area.
2. Develop innovative, lower-cost technologies for desalinating ocean water for California coastal cities. Can they come up with a technology that can be scaled to supply Los Angeles?
The researchers who wrote that letter have to compete for grant money, and impress academic committees with the ongoing character of their work. They HAD to write that letter.
There are certain things in science that, in a world in which politics arrogantly claims to the right to invade every facet of culture, you just can't say. Just try being skeptical about anthropogenic climate change.
The difference is that the space drive hypothesis is still falsifiable. NASA needs to adjust the hypothesis description so that both the presence or absence of any quantum thrust is proof of it.
Slashdot Mirror
It was lack of the political will to allow spacefarers to undertake hazardous missions. Because private space ventures are not subject to political pressure (except when they contract with NASA!) the flat-earth lobby can't touch them.
Developing a domestic PV panel industry, fueled by domestic rare earth minerals, would help a lot here.
And meanwhile, the same Navajo reservation that produces all the coal is also a major source of uranium. US politics being what it is, that gets sold to France while Four Corners gives us smog in the Grand Canyon.
The Project Gutenberg classics are available on Kindle, usually in a free edition.
Everything you wanted to know about hanko: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/ne...
Not in Japan it isn't, not even if you carry your cash in one hand in a Ziploc bag on the subway at night.
Good point. Where on Amazon can I get fleas from a homeless guy?
I've tried my library's e-book download service and I've tried Kindle Unlimited.
And guess what? Neither of them carry the books I actually want to read. Back to one-at-a-time Kindle purchases for me.
But how long will it be before we can make a real estate transaction without having to fax a hundred pages of signed paper forms?
There is a reason for that: although perfectly good digital signature schemes exist, the legal system recognizes "real" signatures only. Of course, a picture of a real signature is just fine if you drive across town to the Fedex office and use their fax machine to make it.
My leading unfavorite is the field validity check that starts out by preventing you from submitting a page because you're missing the "I have read the terms and conditions..." When you check the box and click Submit again, you find it has cleared several fill-in fields of vital info that you're now going to have to retype, including that credit card security code field that you have to dig into your wallet all over again for.
okay, what did the bartender say?
The central problem in our system is that because we treat IP as real estate, most of it ends up in the hands of middlemen who had no part in creating the work. Instead, I would eliminate the fungibility of intellectual property and recast it as a personal right of the creator. Any company exploiting a patent would have to maintain a contractual relationship with the creator for the life of the patent. This would mean no more buying up an artist's copyright for nothing and then cashing in on it with no participation when the artist achieved fame. On the technical side, no longer would an inventor get paid off and be replaced with an H-1B as soon as his patent proved profitable.
Small California cities like Morro Bay are doing this too, using reverse osmosis tech at about twice the cost of groundwater. Their hedge is the one you describe: if there is an ultimate drought and there just isn't any water, they at least have a minimal supply.
I'm proposing going beyond this by having Silicon Valley apply new technology like graphene, which in small-scale experiments at MIT has been shown to desalinate water at much lower pressures than R-O. We need to find out whether this will scale to plants of town size or larger. If it does, the lower energy requirement will substantially cut the cost. Desalination would become an ideal use for fluctuating renewable power, such as offshore wind.
Yes, a culture ripe for the next phase of disruption. Instead of the next social app that's slightly different from last week's social app, I hereby dare Silicon Valley to take on two challenges:
1. On a ship adjacent to SF in international waters, set up the first fully open-market hospital. Staff it with real doctors who prescribe conventional medicines, procedures and devices, but all of it operating in open competition instead of under the thumb of medical boards whose real purpose is to protect incumbents and keep prices high. Let's see what an open market can accomplish in this one specific area.
2. Develop innovative, lower-cost technologies for desalinating ocean water for California coastal cities. Can they come up with a technology that can be scaled to supply Los Angeles?
Any other challenges we can think of, folks?
No we're not. That's why we have guns and money.
Sounds to me as though you're just sore about no longer being in a position to stick Elon Musk's head in the toilet.
The dachshund (my family used to gave one) was bred for digging. Specifically, for rooting out badgers.
The researchers who wrote that letter have to compete for grant money, and impress academic committees with the ongoing character of their work. They HAD to write that letter.
Wolves got here by natural selection. Domestic dogs are the result of intelligent design.
There are certain things in science that, in a world in which politics arrogantly claims to the right to invade every facet of culture, you just can't say. Just try being skeptical about anthropogenic climate change.
The smartest mice even have their own theme parks.
Even then, they just assume the mine is owned by McDonalds.
The difference is that the space drive hypothesis is still falsifiable. NASA needs to adjust the hypothesis description so that both the presence or absence of any quantum thrust is proof of it.
And wouldn't spotting trends be part of a viable model?