Once they tie it to "Global Warming" they are chasing grant dollars and their results will reflect that. My prediction on how this part plays out: After the initial grants and follow-up studies, it will turn into an enormous money sink to develop ways to keep pavement nicely pristine and white despite being driven on by very heavy machines with black rubber tires that drip oil and so forth. Then there will be the need to develop street cleaning systems that will keep the streets all shiny. Whenever this is questioned, we will be reminded about how many peta-tons of CO2 emissions the reflective surfaces will/are "preventing". The studies will continue. Eventually some homeowner's associations will permit folks to have white roofs - and perhaps mandate white driveways as well - with fines for failing to keep them shiny and bright.
There will be no solution to "Global Warming" and the motivations of the political folks pushing for an imposed solution vary from softminded mushheads trying to do good to those who are engaged in a massive power grab.
What are the characteristics of the problem that make it so appealing?
I see it portrayed as a global problem with catastrophic consequences in the next century and beyond - unless it happens a lot faster. It demands immediate and drastic action - which will just happen to best be accomplished by government fiat. There is no need for anyone to consider the details or just how little the US can actually do about controlling the global temperature given the growth of China and India's economies and their increased output of CO2.
Now consider another (slightly smaller issue). Social Security and Medicare both will have catastrophic impacts on many people when they ultimately fail. It demanded action 20+ years ago to fix it and that action has not been taken as yet. Every bad year for the economy brings the failure dates for the programs several years closer. This is not nearly as ambiguous a situation as "climate change" - I don't know of any SS failure "deniers" out there, but the same people who are going to take ever more control over everyone else's lives in the name of climate change are sure dragging their feet on something that is going to cause incredible harm much sooner.
Actually, I'm not bitter about the last US federal election - but having reached my current state of mind (somewhat curious observer) I do enjoy a bit of hyperbole mixed in with sarcastic cynicism. I was really aiming for "funny", but it wouldn't hold still long enough for me toget a good shot.
Unlike the folks who believe Bush/Obama (take your pick) is the worst thing to happen to the country since the Brits burned the White House in 1812, I feel an out-of-control Congress is the source of far more problems. Obama is no more going to control Congress than Bush did. Since I (like everyone else) can only affect 3 Congresscritters directly, I have adopted a simple approach:
Buy popcorn Enjoy the show or go play WoW (better drama from the whiners in WSG than from Ways & Means) Always vote against the incumbent - and that includes in primaries if they are opposed.
The idea has some merit, but Chu is yapping his face off about Global Warming in order to make sure his buddies get more dumptruckfulls of money to further "study" and "quantify" exactly how much this might help.
But yes, it does make some sense - if you want lower energy bills during the summer don't have a highly light absorptive roof heating up your building. This means your energy bill will be lower - because - you will use less energy (duh). But using less energy means (probably) a reduced carbon footprint - how much depends on how much of your electricity comes from burning carbon. But, I consider reducing energy bills a better reason for doing this than feeding more grant money to a bunch of paper-pushing prostitutes who only say what they are paid to say by the parasites who are busy looting the world economy for their own benefit.
Now as to why roofs and not pavement - who pays? Yes there is a lot more pavement, but recall that rather heavy machines move over it. Paint jobs won't last long at all. Heck, here in Texas, they build roads with light colored concrete, and then after a few years cover em up with nice black asphalt. Resurfacing with asphalt is a whole lot cheaper than trying to maintain concrete directly.
and not a one to give you any nookie? yup that would tend to make one bitter.
Of course, your problem might also be related to poor eyesight. According to a statistic I saw somewhere on the internet, approximately half of the world's population would be dicks. With a small enough sample size you could have just hit a string of mis-identifications. Remember, in real life, the RNG does not have a "streak compensator" built in.
Liberals who are not happy or content with their lives etc. are not bitter. You need to keep up with the times.
Bitter people are the ones who cling to their guns and religion - and if these folks are by definition mentally ill, then they can easily (in the legal sense) have their guns removed - for their own protection of course.
This "medical" definition of bitterness only applies if the religion being clung to is a Christian cult. If a person clings to a "religion" because their "holy man" promises them 72 virgins in paradise for bashing in a child's head with a rifle butt, or blowing themselves up in a crowded marketplace - well that person is not bitter or otherwise mentally ill.
Suddenly, polluting companies have a profit motive to be clean
Actually, polluting companies will have a profit motive to move their pollution (and the associated jobs - but not employees) to a location where their profits will not be threatened by the increased costs involved in complying with local laws. If they fail to do so, they will discover they have a competitor who undercuts them by moving their production facilities to the "pollution friendly" nation. While it is nice sounding idea from a purely emotional viewpoint, the fiat approach just does not work so well in reality. No one actually likes pollution, but there is a fundamental economic equation that must be respected:
Profit = Price - Costs
Wal-Mart very quietly dropped its "Buy American" campaign some years back. Even when they had it, they were upfront that the American product had to beat the imported product on costs. Wal-Mart would not raise it prices to sell an American made card table over one produced in China.
Not only pollution controls, but worker health and safety requirements, compliance with a multitude of other government regulations all add costs which must be either passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices or a company must find a way to reduce costs toensure they are not pricing theselves out of business.Or, to make it simple,"the economy" will figure out how to make a profit - that does not mean it will figure out how to reduce pollution/cure cancer/save the whales/etc.
So, until you have a world government that makes everything the same for everyone, your legeslative approach is not going to work. And note that a world govenrment by itself is not enough - it has to treat everyone the same.And that would require the utter and immediate suppression of any and all "special interests".
One of the many fatal flaws in Kyoto was that it made distinctions between nations. "Developing nations" were not subjected to the same requirements as would be imposed on "developed" nations. I'm not saying there were no good reasons for making this distinction, but it does demonstrate an inherent unfairness and inequality that would prevent a "feel good" approach such as you advocate.
But if you seriously want to see a reduction in carbon emissions, then do not support legeslative restrictions on them in democratic countries. Instead push for ways to reduce the costs of energy sources that do not burn carbon. Do not have the government fund "studies" on how to make wind/solar/nuclear competitive and do not provide subsidies for wind and solar to make them competitve. Offer some form of cash reward for the companies that demonstrate competence by producing what is wanted. If you want energy, guarantee you will buy so many megawatts of "carbon free" energy at a set price in constant dollars. Note that this approach does not require any religious conviction regarding global warming/evils of carbon, etc. It does not require massive government exopenditures. It just requires that there be an opportunity for an honest profit.
and if passed into law (and if it survives constitutional challenge) it looks almost certain to be misused."
Sorry Mike, but "certain to be misused" is a prime example of Cyberbullying. You are saying hurtful things about our dedicated and saintly government officials.
If you know in advance, there can be public debate. Knowledgeable people can make a case one way or the other. Then you can trust that you're spending money on the right things.
"Public debate" and "Knowledgeable people" in the same paragraph? What alternate universe Earth are you living on - and how can I get there? Here on this Earth things don't work that way.
Pick a topic - any topic of importance to anyone and have a "public debate" - the knowledgable people will be shouted down and threatened with death or imprisonment. And the mob that does this will be incited by those who have a vested interest in preventing the "knowledgeable people" from contributing to the debate.
Global Warming: How hot is it really getting? How can we find out? Does Kyoto make any sense at all when China is considered a "developing nation"? Kind of hard to debate when anyone who doesn't have their head stuck up Gore's bum is a "Global Warming Denier" and needs to be imprisoned.
Massive adoption of nuclear power in the US? breeder reactors? fuel reprocessing - oh wait, we still can not debate those last two points because King Coal is subsidizing the rabid anti-nuke morons - and preventing debate on nuke plants period. Being anti-nuke does not make you a moron, but being rabid about it does.
Does cigarette smoking cause cancer and other health issues? Ask the doctors who first published papers suggesting a link. Big Tobacco hired lots of PIs back in the day to perform character assasinations on those who said bad things about their fine products.
So, where is this United States of (Rational) America - and how do we get there from here? - Note that any methodology which involves either retroactive birth control or nonhuman overlords must be discarded.
I have a 15-year-old, and neither he nor any of his generation seem to have any concept of digital copyright. The content industry has entirely failed at educating the masses
Right, it is the fault of the "content industry" that you have been too busy dropping "F-bombs" to be bothered with teaching your misbegotten byblow to have respect for others.
Your weed-addled brain has utterly failed under the weight of parenting. I will not "F" you sir or madam as that is how more uncivilized drugged up parasitical barbarians are brought into the world.
But the US government is currently "creeping" somewhat faster than your average rumour.
You assume that the TSA is concerned only with terrorist threats. It is a government agency first and foremost. Once federal funds are proposed to build high speed rail, then there will be a definite need (in the minds of TSA admins) for some additional "security" to be provided by them. And of course, once they handle the high speed trains, they will realize that anything that "transports" people should come under their purview.
"BTW the reason why it's wrong to bow to a king or queen is because it endorses the idea that some persons (nobility) are better than other people (commoners), "
Not quite.
The reason it is exceptionally bad (as in "crossing the streams" bad) for Obama to bow to a King or Queen is because he is (unfortuantely as these gaffes pile up) the Head of State for the US. The only time a Head of State makes obeisance to another Head of State is when they are recognizing they are the inferior in a hierarchical relationship.
So, if an individual wants to declare himself a bootlicking dog to be treated in whatever manner the person they make obeisance to wishes that is fine.
When the POTUS does so it is entirely inappropriate and can only be excused if it is done under duress. (If you need a movie example - consider Superman II).
"where air travel is wasteful (2 hours in the airport waiting for a one hour flight)"
And what is it about air travel that requires that two hour wait at the airport? Do not be so naive to think that the Theatrical Security Administration will not do to passenger rail service what they have done to passenger air service. And once they have their hooks in the high speed rail, how long will it take them to move into the local mass transit systems as well. After all, there will be subjects of the US government to be bullied and humiliated ("remove all body piercings before boarding the bus" - "no carryon beverages except those purchased in the station")
Nope, not a percentage, but a flat fee like an excise tax.
Personal Finance package (MS Money equiv): $25.00 Office Suite like Open Office: $200.00 Point-of-Sale package (MSFT RMS equiv): $180.00 per lane mid level ERP package (Great Plains equiv): $10,000.00 and up
After all slashdotters joke about having to pay the "Microsoft Tax", just give the legislators half a chance to think about it... Then give MSFT half a chance to "educate" said legislators via campaign contributions.
"This would put each artist into a kind of CEO role"
You mean, kind of like a "manager"? Maybe the artists could hire somone to do that for them and maybe pay them a percentage of the revenues this "manager" was able to bring in for them?
Actually, the OP is half right. The laucnh was sabotaged becasue the glbal warming nutjobs lead by NASA's most famous Klimate Kwack could not afford any mopre hard data points that might cnflict with scripture according to Gore.
"We stress, however, that this error in no way changes the scientific conclusions about the long-term decline of Arctic sea ice, which is based on the the consistent, quality-controlled data archive discussed above."
Hmm...
Algor: "Global warming is melting the arctic icecap. Our sensors show open Arctic Ocean. Duhfact: "Al, we have satellite imagery showing icecap where your sensors say there is open ocean" Algor: "Umm.. we have a little problem with sensor drift" Duhfact: "So, your statements about the melting of the icecap are incorrect?" Algor: "No, our 'sensor drift' just proves our point. Those sensors are drifting because of the ice cap melting" Duhfact: "Actually we have measurements showing increasing icecaps for the past five years" Algor: "Our drifting sensors have been drifting for at least 20 years so that just proves how much of the icecap has already melted" Duhfact: (head explodes) Algor: "And the science on this is in - no one disagrees with the conclusions".
Their conclusion is consistent with a need for increased funding to continue to conclude that the icecaps are really melting. But, their data is anything but consistent and their "quality control" is somewhat more dubious than the "accounting controls" of Bernie Madoff.
Hmm...So you have 3 data points from NASA (Apollo, STS, ISS), one from a French/British government consortium (Concorde) and one data point from a commercial aircraft (747) and want to see if you can plot a trend?
Unlike the government controlled systems which had more to do with national pride and then degenerated into simple bureaucratic self-preservation, only the 747 actually had to succeed in the marketplace. And if there were no room for improvement, then there would be no replacements for the 747 being developed. However, the amount of improvement is going to be incremental and approaching a point of diminishing returns (in terms of R&D costs) without the introduction of truly disruptive technology.
I think we are past due for another Kondotteriev (sp?) cycle - of course, that cycle is a good for predicting future developments as blind faith in Moore's law is for continiung massive improvements in CPU power.
But you are only considering US soldiers killed in Iraq while you included non-astronauts in your total for the shuttle program. You should properly include non-soldiers killed in Iraq as well, then you would see that the Iraq war is far more efficient in terms of simple killing. But the shuttle is incredibly more efficient at killing people at altitudes in excess of 10,000 feet.
But to be fair you should also measure the efficiency of the Iraq war at delivering payloads to orbit compared to the shuttle.
More seriously, the government needs to get out of the way of the private space companies and just offer big rewards - like guaranteed contracts for so 5 thousand tons of cargo to LEO per year at a fixed price of say 500.00 per pound and 10 kiltons more at 250.00 per pound. That would put up enough stuff to make a whole lot of solar power satellites as well as a good start on asteroid capture and mining facilities.
Those things will happen even if it is done by taikonauts instead of astronauts.
They are programmed with a specific target (GPS co-ords?). They are then launched, and fly to their target where they detonate. The only things automated about a cruise missile are the guidance system and avionics - not the decision on going kaboom.
An automated killing machine would be released (launched? activated) perhaps go to a patrol area and then make it's own decision on when and against what to use its armaments.
Land mines are in a gray area - hence some countries refuse to sign a separate treaty banning them.
Well, although I see a certain amount of logic in your position, the problem is that it ain't happening (the needed breakup - not the bailout). Once the bailout is finished, the problem will be solved - and AIG will still be "too big to be allowed to fail". So, if no one disputes that AIG is to big to be allowed to exist, where are the proposals to break it up?
"AIG is, quite simply, too big and intertwined with the American financial system to be allowed to fail. Period"
What that statement really means is that AIG is, quite simply too big to be allowed to exist. It should be broken up into many smaller entities - each with their own *separate* management and board of directors so that one or more components can fail without devastating consequences to the overall economy.
volume - the cards are close to the wieght of water - they float, but not by much so assume a specific gravity of 1.0 1 GB would require 35.8 cubic meteres of space allowing no easy access.
Of course, if you are using it for archiving say DVD quality videos, you will want quite a few gigabytes of storage. Did you budget for a climate controlled room (fricken huge warehouse really) with airlocks and positive overpressure to keep paper eating insects out? The stuff I worked with was about 500 megabytes, stored in a non climate-controlled warehouse - this means the cards would expand with moisture and heat and then jam in the reader - destroying the card. And yes, there were also problems with insects eating the damn cards too. Google bookworm - or failing that just go talk to a person who buys books at a regular (not college)used bookstore.
So, a BLU-Ray quality movie (lets say 10 GB) would take 134 million cards, and would weigh about 360 tons (and require 360+ cubic meteres of storage space). Let's not even talk about read/write speed for the card reader/punch, nor the possibility of dropping the cards. There is also the matter of regular wear and tear on the hardware.
One other consideration might be the cost. IBM punch cards used to sell for 30-40 dollars per box. So that BLU-Ray backup would require about 70K boxes of punch cards and cost somewhere north of 2 million dollars.
I do not think that punch cards are looking like a viable backup medium. And the last time I checked, Egyptian tombs were in rather short supply.
Now metal punch cards made of a relatively non-reactive metal and stored in a vacuum might work a little better - especially if one posits that the use of vacuum storage would require a very heavy degree of automation. It might even be possible to automate the production of the blank cards - actually, I believe that a teletype ribbon might work, plus the "confetti" could be easily recycled. Hmm.. lots of aluminum, enormous amounts of vacuum, heavy automation - I think this is beginning to sound a lot like the Google Moonbase.
Slashdot Mirror
Once they tie it to "Global Warming" they are chasing grant dollars and their results will reflect that. My prediction on how this part plays out:
After the initial grants and follow-up studies, it will turn into an enormous money sink to develop ways to keep pavement nicely pristine and white despite being driven on by very heavy machines with black rubber tires that drip oil and so forth. Then there will be the need to develop street cleaning systems that will keep the streets all shiny. Whenever this is questioned, we will be reminded about how many peta-tons of CO2 emissions the reflective surfaces will/are "preventing". The studies will continue. Eventually some homeowner's associations will permit folks to have white roofs - and perhaps mandate white driveways as well - with fines for failing to keep them shiny and bright.
There will be no solution to "Global Warming" and the motivations of the political folks pushing for an imposed solution vary from softminded mushheads trying to do good to those who are engaged in a massive power grab.
What are the characteristics of the problem that make it so appealing?
I see it portrayed as a global problem with catastrophic consequences in the next century and beyond - unless it happens a lot faster. It demands immediate and drastic action - which will just happen to best be accomplished by government fiat. There is no need for anyone to consider the details or just how little the US can actually do about controlling the global temperature given the growth of China and India's economies and their increased output of CO2.
Now consider another (slightly smaller issue). Social Security and Medicare both will have catastrophic impacts on many people when they ultimately fail. It demanded action 20+ years ago to fix it and that action has not been taken as yet. Every bad year for the economy brings the failure dates for the programs several years closer. This is not nearly as ambiguous a situation as "climate change" - I don't know of any SS failure "deniers" out there, but the same people who are going to take ever more control over everyone else's lives in the name of climate change are sure dragging their feet on something that is going to cause incredible harm much sooner.
Actually, I'm not bitter about the last US federal election - but having reached my current state of mind (somewhat curious observer) I do enjoy a bit of hyperbole mixed in with sarcastic cynicism. I was really aiming for "funny", but it wouldn't hold still long enough for me toget a good shot.
Unlike the folks who believe Bush/Obama (take your pick) is the worst thing to happen to the country since the Brits burned the White House in 1812, I feel an out-of-control Congress is the source of far more problems. Obama is no more going to control Congress than Bush did. Since I (like everyone else) can only affect 3 Congresscritters directly, I have adopted a simple approach:
Buy popcorn
Enjoy the show or go play WoW (better drama from the whiners in WSG than from Ways & Means)
Always vote against the incumbent - and that includes in primaries if they are opposed.
The idea has some merit, but Chu is yapping his face off about Global Warming in order to make sure his buddies get more dumptruckfulls of money to further "study" and "quantify" exactly how much this might help.
But yes, it does make some sense - if you want lower energy bills during the summer don't have a highly light absorptive roof heating up your building. This means your energy bill will be lower - because - you will use less energy (duh). But using less energy means (probably) a reduced carbon footprint - how much depends on how much of your electricity comes from burning carbon. But, I consider reducing energy bills a better reason for doing this than feeding more grant money to a bunch of paper-pushing prostitutes who only say what they are paid to say by the parasites who are busy looting the world economy for their own benefit.
Now as to why roofs and not pavement - who pays? Yes there is a lot more pavement, but recall that rather heavy machines move over it. Paint jobs won't last long at all. Heck, here in Texas, they build roads with light colored concrete, and then after a few years cover em up with nice black asphalt. Resurfacing with asphalt is a whole lot cheaper than trying to maintain concrete directly.
and not a one to give you any nookie?
yup that would tend to make one bitter.
Of course, your problem might also be related to poor eyesight. According to a statistic I saw somewhere on the internet, approximately half of the world's population would be dicks. With a small enough sample size you could have just hit a string of mis-identifications. Remember, in real life, the RNG does not have a "streak compensator" built in.
Liberals who are not happy or content with their lives etc. are not bitter. You need to keep up with the times.
Bitter people are the ones who cling to their guns and religion - and if these folks are by definition mentally ill, then they can easily (in the legal sense) have their guns removed - for their own protection of course.
This "medical" definition of bitterness only applies if the religion being clung to is a Christian cult. If a person clings to a "religion" because their "holy man" promises them 72 virgins in paradise for bashing in a child's head with a rifle butt, or blowing themselves up in a crowded marketplace - well that person is not bitter or otherwise mentally ill.
Actually, polluting companies will have a profit motive to move their pollution (and the associated jobs - but not employees) to a location where their profits will not be threatened by the increased costs involved in complying with local laws. If they fail to do so, they will discover they have a competitor who undercuts them by moving their production facilities to the "pollution friendly" nation. While it is nice sounding idea from a purely emotional viewpoint, the fiat approach just does not work so well in reality. No one actually likes pollution, but there is a fundamental economic equation that must be respected:
Profit = Price - Costs
Wal-Mart very quietly dropped its "Buy American" campaign some years back. Even when they had it, they were upfront that the American product had to beat the imported product on costs. Wal-Mart would not raise it prices to sell an American made card table over one produced in China.
Not only pollution controls, but worker health and safety requirements, compliance with a multitude of other government regulations all add costs which must be either passed along to consumers in the form of higher prices or a company must find a way to reduce costs toensure they are not pricing theselves out of business.Or, to make it simple,"the economy" will figure out how to make a profit - that does not mean it will figure out how to reduce pollution/cure cancer/save the whales/etc.
So, until you have a world government that makes everything the same for everyone, your legeslative approach is not going to work. And note that a world govenrment by itself is not enough - it has to treat everyone the same.And that would require the utter and immediate suppression of any and all "special interests".
One of the many fatal flaws in Kyoto was that it made distinctions between nations. "Developing nations" were not subjected to the same requirements as would be imposed on "developed" nations. I'm not saying there were no good reasons for making this distinction, but it does demonstrate an inherent unfairness and inequality that would prevent a "feel good" approach such as you advocate.
But if you seriously want to see a reduction in carbon emissions, then do not support legeslative restrictions on them in democratic countries. Instead push for ways to reduce the costs of energy sources that do not burn carbon. Do not have the government fund "studies" on how to make wind/solar/nuclear competitive and do not provide subsidies for wind and solar to make them competitve. Offer some form of cash reward for the companies that demonstrate competence by producing what is wanted. If you want energy, guarantee you will buy so many megawatts of "carbon free" energy at a set price in constant dollars. Note that this approach does not require any religious conviction regarding global warming/evils of carbon, etc. It does not require massive government exopenditures. It just requires that there be an opportunity for an honest profit.
Sorry Mike, but "certain to be misused" is a prime example of Cyberbullying. You are saying hurtful things about our dedicated and saintly government officials.
"Public debate" and "Knowledgeable people" in the same paragraph? What alternate universe Earth are you living on - and how can I get there? Here on this Earth things don't work that way. Pick a topic - any topic of importance to anyone and have a "public debate" - the knowledgable people will be shouted down and threatened with death or imprisonment. And the mob that does this will be incited by those who have a vested interest in preventing the "knowledgeable people" from contributing to the debate.
Global Warming: How hot is it really getting? How can we find out? Does Kyoto make any sense at all when China is considered a "developing nation"? Kind of hard to debate when anyone who doesn't have their head stuck up Gore's bum is a "Global Warming Denier" and needs to be imprisoned.
Massive adoption of nuclear power in the US? breeder reactors? fuel reprocessing - oh wait, we still can not debate those last two points because King Coal is subsidizing the rabid anti-nuke morons - and preventing debate on nuke plants period. Being anti-nuke does not make you a moron, but being rabid about it does.
Does cigarette smoking cause cancer and other health issues? Ask the doctors who first published papers suggesting a link. Big Tobacco hired lots of PIs back in the day to perform character assasinations on those who said bad things about their fine products.
So, where is this United States of (Rational) America - and how do we get there from here? - Note that any methodology which involves either retroactive birth control or nonhuman overlords must be discarded.
Right, it is the fault of the "content industry" that you have been too busy dropping "F-bombs" to be bothered with teaching your misbegotten byblow to have respect for others. Your weed-addled brain has utterly failed under the weight of parenting. I will not "F" you sir or madam as that is how more uncivilized drugged up parasitical barbarians are brought into the world.
But the US government is currently "creeping" somewhat faster than your average rumour.
You assume that the TSA is concerned only with terrorist threats. It is a government agency first and foremost. Once federal funds are proposed to build high speed rail, then there will be a definite need (in the minds of TSA admins) for some additional "security" to be provided by them. And of course, once they handle the high speed trains, they will realize that anything that "transports" people should come under their purview.
"BTW the reason why it's wrong to bow to a king or queen is because it endorses the idea that some persons (nobility) are better than other people (commoners), "
Not quite.
The reason it is exceptionally bad (as in "crossing the streams" bad) for Obama to bow to a King or Queen is because he is (unfortuantely as these gaffes pile up) the Head of State for the US. The only time a Head of State makes obeisance to another Head of State is when they are recognizing they are the inferior in a hierarchical relationship.
So, if an individual wants to declare himself a bootlicking dog to be treated in whatever manner the person they make obeisance to wishes that is fine.
When the POTUS does so it is entirely inappropriate and can only be excused if it is done under duress. (If you need a movie example - consider Superman II).
"where air travel is wasteful (2 hours in the airport waiting for a one hour flight)"
And what is it about air travel that requires that two hour wait at the airport? Do not be so naive to think that the Theatrical Security Administration will not do to passenger rail service what they have done to passenger air service. And once they have their hooks in the high speed rail, how long will it take them to move into the local mass transit systems as well. After all, there will be subjects of the US government to be bullied and humiliated ("remove all body piercings before boarding the bus" - "no carryon beverages except those purchased in the station")
Damn Skippy!
Back in my day (mid 70s) our HS biology teacher was also the coach for the skeet team. The reloading press was in the greenhouse off the classroom.
Nope, not a percentage, but a flat fee like an excise tax.
Personal Finance package (MS Money equiv): $25.00
Office Suite like Open Office: $200.00
Point-of-Sale package (MSFT RMS equiv): $180.00 per lane
mid level ERP package (Great Plains equiv): $10,000.00 and up
After all slashdotters joke about having to pay the "Microsoft Tax", just give the legislators half a chance to think about it...
Then give MSFT half a chance to "educate" said legislators via campaign contributions.
"No one expects the .. Oh bugger"
Of course, that was all part of the joke but it was a darn good episode and it ended in mid sentence.
And if you are drawing a blank, it was Monty Python, and "Spanish Inquisition"
"This would put each artist into a kind of CEO role"
You mean, kind of like a "manager"?
Maybe the artists could hire somone to do that for them and maybe pay them a percentage of the revenues this "manager" was able to bring in for them?
Actually, the OP is half right. The laucnh was sabotaged becasue the glbal warming nutjobs lead by NASA's most famous Klimate Kwack could not afford any mopre hard data points that might cnflict with scripture according to Gore.
In Soviet America, government plays you! fixed that for ya
"We stress, however, that this error in no way changes the scientific conclusions about the long-term decline of Arctic sea ice, which is based on the the consistent, quality-controlled data archive discussed above."
Hmm...
Algor: "Global warming is melting the arctic icecap. Our sensors show open Arctic Ocean.
Duhfact: "Al, we have satellite imagery showing icecap where your sensors say there is open ocean"
Algor: "Umm.. we have a little problem with sensor drift"
Duhfact: "So, your statements about the melting of the icecap are incorrect?"
Algor: "No, our 'sensor drift' just proves our point. Those sensors are drifting because of the ice cap melting"
Duhfact: "Actually we have measurements showing increasing icecaps for the past five years"
Algor: "Our drifting sensors have been drifting for at least 20 years so that just proves how much of the icecap has already melted"
Duhfact: (head explodes)
Algor: "And the science on this is in - no one disagrees with the conclusions".
Their conclusion is consistent with a need for increased funding to continue to conclude that the icecaps are really melting. But, their data is anything but consistent and their "quality control" is somewhat more dubious than the "accounting controls" of Bernie Madoff.
Hmm...So you have 3 data points from NASA (Apollo, STS, ISS), one from a French/British government consortium (Concorde) and one data point from a commercial aircraft (747) and want to see if you can plot a trend?
Unlike the government controlled systems which had more to do with national pride and then degenerated into simple bureaucratic self-preservation, only the 747 actually had to succeed in the marketplace. And if there were no room for improvement, then there would be no replacements for the 747 being developed. However, the amount of improvement is going to be incremental and approaching a point of diminishing returns (in terms of R&D costs) without the introduction of truly disruptive technology.
I think we are past due for another Kondotteriev (sp?) cycle - of course, that cycle is a good for predicting future developments as blind faith in Moore's law is for continiung massive improvements in CPU power.
But you are only considering US soldiers killed in Iraq while you included non-astronauts in your total for the shuttle program. You should properly include non-soldiers killed in Iraq as well, then you would see that the Iraq war is far more efficient in terms of simple killing. But the shuttle is incredibly more efficient at killing people at altitudes in excess of 10,000 feet.
But to be fair you should also measure the efficiency of the Iraq war at delivering payloads to orbit compared to the shuttle.
More seriously, the government needs to get out of the way of the private space companies and just offer big rewards - like guaranteed contracts for so 5 thousand tons of cargo to LEO per year at a fixed price of say 500.00 per pound and 10 kiltons more at 250.00 per pound. That would put up enough stuff to make a whole lot of solar power satellites as well as a good start on asteroid capture and mining facilities.
Those things will happen even if it is done by taikonauts instead of astronauts.
Tomahawks are not exactly automated.
They are programmed with a specific target (GPS co-ords?). They are then launched, and fly to their target where they detonate. The only things automated about a cruise missile are the guidance system and avionics - not the decision on going kaboom.
An automated killing machine would be released (launched? activated) perhaps go to a patrol area and then make it's own decision on when and against what to use its armaments.
Land mines are in a gray area - hence some countries refuse to sign a separate treaty banning them.
Well, although I see a certain amount of logic in your position, the problem is that it ain't happening (the needed breakup - not the bailout). Once the bailout is finished, the problem will be solved - and AIG will still be "too big to be allowed to fail". So, if no one disputes that AIG is to big to be allowed to exist, where are the proposals to break it up?
"AIG is, quite simply, too big and intertwined with the American financial system to be allowed to fail. Period"
What that statement really means is that AIG is, quite simply too big to be allowed to exist. It should be broken up into many smaller entities - each with their own *separate* management and board of directors so that one or more components can fail without devastating consequences to the overall economy.
"How about bringing back punch cards?"
I was with you up till there, but punch cards bring back painful memories for me - causing an emergency shutdown of my humor processor.
Some interesting statistics(which I shamelessly stole from a quick search)
based on a weight per card of 2.42 grams per card. (cards are punched so the blank weight would "be slightly higher)
cards/Gb = 1024^3 / 80 = 13,421,772
tons/Gb = ( 13,421,772 * 2.42 ) / 453.59(grams/lbs) = 35.8 tons
volume - the cards are close to the wieght of water - they float, but not by much so assume a specific gravity of 1.0 1 GB would require 35.8 cubic meteres of space allowing no easy access.
Of course, if you are using it for archiving say DVD quality videos, you will want quite a few gigabytes of storage. Did you budget for a climate controlled room (fricken huge warehouse really) with airlocks and positive overpressure to keep paper eating insects out? The stuff I worked with was about 500 megabytes, stored in a non climate-controlled warehouse - this means the cards would expand with moisture and heat and then jam in the reader - destroying the card. And yes, there were also problems with insects eating the damn cards too. Google bookworm - or failing that just go talk to a person who buys books at a regular (not college)used bookstore.
So, a BLU-Ray quality movie (lets say 10 GB) would take 134 million cards, and would weigh about 360 tons (and require 360+ cubic meteres of storage space). Let's not even talk about read/write speed for the card reader/punch, nor the possibility of dropping the cards. There is also the matter of regular wear and tear on the hardware.
One other consideration might be the cost. IBM punch cards used to sell for 30-40 dollars per box. So that BLU-Ray backup would require about 70K boxes of punch cards and cost somewhere north of 2 million dollars.
I do not think that punch cards are looking like a viable backup medium. And the last time I checked, Egyptian tombs were in rather short supply.
Now metal punch cards made of a relatively non-reactive metal and stored in a vacuum might work a little better - especially if one posits that the use of vacuum storage would require a very heavy degree of automation. It might even be possible to automate the production of the blank cards - actually, I believe that a teletype ribbon might work, plus the "confetti" could be easily recycled.
Hmm.. lots of aluminum, enormous amounts of vacuum, heavy automation - I think this is beginning to sound a lot like the Google Moonbase.