The stuff was lost in a warehouse for 12 years....how "classified" can this stuff be? It sounds like a bunch of old radar equipment....big deal.
My understanding of past situations of this sort is that the military is concerned about the release of technology that might be obsolescent by our standards and those of our allies, but is still more advanced than what our enemies (or potential enemies) have access to. A 15-year-old communications circuit might not sound like such a big deal to us, but if you're the Chinese military and are typically working with technology that's 20 years behind what the Americans are using, it might be a very big deal indeed.
What is your feeling when Chinese send our spy planes to California? Or Washington?
Stay in international airspace and it won't bother us a bit. The Soviets used to do it all the time. We kept an eye on them, of course, but it's not like we ever tried forcing them down and creating an international incident.
How about calling "Republic of California"?
Again, it's no big deal to us. Texas-boosters commonly refer to their state as the Republic of Texas.
Re:In past ages the philosphers...
on
Homogenized Music
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· Score: 2
What was in the Soviet Union and is in China is not marxism, nor is it even communism.
Perhaps not in the classic sense of the word as Marx/Ingles defined it. But considering that every single nation which labelled itself "communist" during the 20th century turned into at best a police state and at worst a charnel house, I don't have a lot of confidence in any group that espouses communism as a desirable goal for a nation, nor do I believe that the final outcome will be different no matter who attempts it. The track record simply isn't very good, to say the least. Give me one good reason why any rational person should believe a communist organization that says, "Oh, but we'll get it right!"
And incidentally, when I clicked the link to the alleged no-registration-required article, it asked me to register. Cute.
Sorry. In theory replacing the "www" part of a N.Y. Times URL with "college" is supposed to bypass the registration. Guess it didn't work in this instance.
Could someone theoretically clone Abraham Lincoln from his remains?
Hard to say. It would depend a great deal on the techniques that were used to preserve his body. If I remember correctly, formaldehyde damages DNA, so if he was embalmed that way you might run into problems.
Still, it's kind of a moot point. You wouldn't end up getting Lincoln as history remembers him. You'd end up getting someone who looks like him, has his potential, and perhaps even some of the same personality quirks, but it wouldn't be him.
It's been suggested. DNA has been extracted from the few dodo body parts that are still known to exist in museums, but the DNA is damaged. You can read more about it here.
One appealing suggestion I heard a few years ago is that included in any crew should be a representative of the poorest nation on Earth and that this individual should make the first footfall on another world as a pledge to the poor of planet Earth.
The recording industry is complaining that the recording industry is paying to have certain songs played on the radio. They why don't they just stop paying?
Good question. For one thing, it looks an awful lot like collusion, which is illegal under U.S. anti-trust laws. For another thing, it's been tried before - about twenty years ago - when record labels actually banded together to put indie promoters out of business. It almost worked, too, but so many artists (whose careers depend on airplay and the sales the airplay generates) complained that the labels were forced to back off.
Kindly name a country that can field a force capable of taking on either the Air Force or the Navy. heck, we can limit it to just one Navy carrier group.
During a 1999 exercise in the Negev Desert, the Israeli Air Force (flying F-16s) pummelled an American force made up of US Navy F/A-18s and F-14s. You can find a short write-up on the exercise here.
Worth a read is this article in today's Washington Post. Nice to see that someone (Bret Lovejoy in this instance) has more guts to stand up to lawmakers than the guy running Six Flags.
Can they design a modern advanced rollercoaster that feels like an old wood rollercoaster?
It'd be tough, but maybe. The big difference, of course, is that wood coasters tend to give a bit. You can feel them move as the cars go around bends, hit the bottom of a hill, etc. As a result, they cushion the most brutal effects of the ride. Steel coasters can be assembled into a wider range of shapes and turns than wood coasters, but there's very little "give." They hold their shape, so a brutal ride is particularly unforgiving in a way that wood coasters aren't. In theory, though, I suppose one could design a steel ride that could incorporate joints and hydraulics and move similarly to a wood coaster within certain parameters.
Hey, that poor lady needed skin grafts, they shouldn't have been serving coffee that damn hot. If they just offered to pay for her medical bills they could have avoided the whole thing.
When I order coffee, I expect that it's going to be hot. Any rational person does. As a result, you try to avoid situations in which it'll get spilled on you (like placing it between your legs in a car), whether it's 120 degrees or 200 degrees. As far as I'm concerned the company has done their job as long as they serve the coffee in a container that can stand up to the heat and has sufficient insulation not to burn my hand while I'm holding the cup. I'm not much of a fan of fast food companies, but McDonald's got screwed in this instance.
I am amazed that a CEO of a conglomerate didn't whip out his lawyers.
I was amazed the first time I read the article, too; for the same reason. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized what's probably going on here. You'll note that no one's trying to whip up the public here. No "coasters are killing working families," "what about the children?," or other hot-topic buttons that pols usually press in order to catch the attention of the press like a red flag in front of a bull.
When I originally posted the piece, I went looking for stories in New Jersey newspapers about the regulation push there and couldn't find anything from the past week or two. Maybe there's something out there that I missed, but I certainly couldn't find anything. I never would have heard about it had it not been for the NBC article.
So, given the lack of press and Gary Story's acquiesence, my guess is that Story and local politicians are working together on legislation that will address safety concerns while also not wrecking the amusement park industry there. In other words, the industry is being allowed to collaborate on legislation that they can live with in return for not calling on coaster fans to flood their reps and senators with irate letters. That's just a guess on my part, admittedly, but given the evidence it's the most likely scenario.
Actually, the good 'ol US incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than red china.
I'll take a year in an American jail over a year in a Chinese jail any day of the week. And while we're comparing the U.S. and China to the rest of the world, let's mention the executions in China - according to the Washington Post, 1,769 people put to death in 2000, more than the rest of the world combined (yup, including the execution-happy U.S.A., which executed a total of 85 prisoners during the same year). And if you want to talk about drug sentences, it's frequently a capital offense in China.
Re:May now congress will spend some money on NASA
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China Plans Moonbase
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· Score: 2
If China's gonna do it, we have to, and before they do.
Ain't gonna happen. Both Congress and the Prez would throw a fit: "You're overbudget on the ISS by billions and you want to go back to the Moon anyway? What are you smoking?" As much as I wish it was us building a base on the Moon, we'll be going to Mars before we go back to the Moon.
the creation od nuclear silos. not only that but they will put a powerfull rciever up there and monitor communications.
Eh. It's probably a lot easier to monitor communications down here on Earth. As for the creation of missile silos, I'm not sure the Chinese could really count on even hitting the Earth from that distance, much less a city or an air force base. It'd be easier for them to just stick a few nukes in orbit and pass them off as communications satellites or some such thing.
According to World Facts and Figures, Russia currently has the 84th highest per capita GDP in the world, tying with Oman and the Seychelles at $7,700 per year. By contrast, the U.S. is #2 at $36,200 (Luxembourg, at #1, isn't far ahead at $36,400). The U.S. has 278 million people, compared to Russia's 145.5 million. In other words, Russia is trying to maintain a viable space program when it has about one-tenth the total annual GDP of the U.S. I think the fact that they've managed to do so in spite of their economic problems demonstrates that they actually have a great deal of pride, and are willing to do what it takes to keep the program moving along. The fact is that the Russians are probably not going to be in any financial shape to launch space shuttles for quite some time, if ever. On the other hand, the Soyuz is a solid, reliable design, and there's really no need for the Russians to drop it in favor of an alternative that still needs a lot of work and would be far more expensive to operate.
Not the "bread van that turns into a killer robot" again. I hate those toy tie-ins.
TV Announcer: The new, improved Kidz Newz...has been canceled! Stay tuned for the Mattel and Mars Bar Quick Energy Choc-O-Bot Hour!
(The program begins. The Choc-O-Bots are at their command center.)
Choc-O-Bot: You can count on us, Mr. President. Major Nougat! Gooey! Cocoa! Put down those entertaining Mattel products! Colonel Kataffy is up to his old tricks!
MY GOD! Don't tell me some people really think that!
Actually, as the guy who originally submitted this piece, I don't think for an instant that Transformers was a particularly great cartoon. But at 38 I'm probably about ten years older than most of the people on here who were big fans during its original run. What I meant by "ultimate '80s TV cartoon experience" had more to do with the sheer scope of the tie-in between the show and the toys. Certainly, there were other shows that did the same thing, but I don't think any of them had a product line of that size.
It's really interesting that they'll launch it from a submarine. I wonder if a submarine launch is in any way better than a regular one, or if they do it just because they have some spare ballistic missiles to use.
The Volnas (demilitarized SS-N-19s) are launched from late '80s/early '90s-vintage Delta IV subs, all of which operate with Russia's northern fleet. I suspect that they're using subs as a launch platform because they're very, very mobile and probably cheaper to use than land-based facilities.
Slashdot Mirror
The stuff was lost in a warehouse for 12 years....how "classified" can this stuff be? It sounds like a bunch of old radar equipment....big deal.
My understanding of past situations of this sort is that the military is concerned about the release of technology that might be obsolescent by our standards and those of our allies, but is still more advanced than what our enemies (or potential enemies) have access to. A 15-year-old communications circuit might not sound like such a big deal to us, but if you're the Chinese military and are typically working with technology that's 20 years behind what the Americans are using, it might be a very big deal indeed.
And who send the spy plane to our country?
You did. You forced it to land.
What is your feeling when Chinese send our spy planes to California? Or Washington?
Stay in international airspace and it won't bother us a bit. The Soviets used to do it all the time. We kept an eye on them, of course, but it's not like we ever tried forcing them down and creating an international incident.
How about calling "Republic of California"?
Again, it's no big deal to us. Texas-boosters commonly refer to their state as the Republic of Texas.
What was in the Soviet Union and is in China is not marxism, nor is it even communism.
Perhaps not in the classic sense of the word as Marx/Ingles defined it. But considering that every single nation which labelled itself "communist" during the 20th century turned into at best a police state and at worst a charnel house, I don't have a lot of confidence in any group that espouses communism as a desirable goal for a nation, nor do I believe that the final outcome will be different no matter who attempts it. The track record simply isn't very good, to say the least. Give me one good reason why any rational person should believe a communist organization that says, "Oh, but we'll get it right!"
And incidentally, when I clicked the link to the alleged no-registration-required article, it asked me to register. Cute.
Sorry. In theory replacing the "www" part of a N.Y. Times URL with "college" is supposed to bypass the registration. Guess it didn't work in this instance.
Could someone theoretically clone Abraham Lincoln from his remains?
Hard to say. It would depend a great deal on the techniques that were used to preserve his body. If I remember correctly, formaldehyde damages DNA, so if he was embalmed that way you might run into problems.
Still, it's kind of a moot point. You wouldn't end up getting Lincoln as history remembers him. You'd end up getting someone who looks like him, has his potential, and perhaps even some of the same personality quirks, but it wouldn't be him.
While your at it, bring those dodo's back too!
It's been suggested. DNA has been extracted from the few dodo body parts that are still known to exist in museums, but the DNA is damaged. You can read more about it here.
Who should be the members of such a crew if it were to be launched?
A mathematician, a different kind of mathematician, and a statistician.
One appealing suggestion I heard a few years ago is that included in any crew should be a representative of the poorest nation on Earth and that this individual should make the first footfall on another world as a pledge to the poor of planet Earth.
Pfffffftttt - Yeah, that'll happen....
The recording industry is complaining that the recording industry is paying to have certain songs played on the radio. They why don't they just stop paying?
Good question. For one thing, it looks an awful lot like collusion, which is illegal under U.S. anti-trust laws. For another thing, it's been tried before - about twenty years ago - when record labels actually banded together to put indie promoters out of business. It almost worked, too, but so many artists (whose careers depend on airplay and the sales the airplay generates) complained that the labels were forced to back off.
Hmmmmm.... RIAA or Clear Channel? Sometimes there just isn't a white hat in sight.
Kindly name a country that can field a force capable of taking on either the Air Force or the Navy. heck, we can limit it to just one Navy carrier group.
During a 1999 exercise in the Negev Desert, the Israeli Air Force (flying F-16s) pummelled an American force made up of US Navy F/A-18s and F-14s. You can find a short write-up on the exercise here.
Worth a read is this article in today's Washington Post. Nice to see that someone (Bret Lovejoy in this instance) has more guts to stand up to lawmakers than the guy running Six Flags.
Can they design a modern advanced rollercoaster
that feels like an old wood rollercoaster?
It'd be tough, but maybe. The big difference, of course, is that wood coasters tend to give a bit. You can feel them move as the cars go around bends, hit the bottom of a hill, etc. As a result, they cushion the most brutal effects of the ride. Steel coasters can be assembled into a wider range of shapes and turns than wood coasters, but there's very little "give." They hold their shape, so a brutal ride is particularly unforgiving in a way that wood coasters aren't. In theory, though, I suppose one could design a steel ride that could incorporate joints and hydraulics and move similarly to a wood coaster within certain parameters.
Per-capita, the Chinese government executes approximately as many Chinese as Dubya executed Texans when he was governor.
Yeah, well, that's Texas. Spend a couple of weeks in a place like Beaumont sometime and you'll be ready to ice half the population too.
Hey, that poor lady needed skin grafts, they shouldn't have been serving coffee that damn hot. If they just offered to pay for her medical bills they could have avoided the whole thing.
When I order coffee, I expect that it's going to be hot. Any rational person does. As a result, you try to avoid situations in which it'll get spilled on you (like placing it between your legs in a car), whether it's 120 degrees or 200 degrees. As far as I'm concerned the company has done their job as long as they serve the coffee in a container that can stand up to the heat and has sufficient insulation not to burn my hand while I'm holding the cup. I'm not much of a fan of fast food companies, but McDonald's got screwed in this instance.
I am amazed that a CEO of a conglomerate didn't whip out his lawyers.
I was amazed the first time I read the article, too; for the same reason. But the more I thought about it, the more I realized what's probably going on here. You'll note that no one's trying to whip up the public here. No "coasters are killing working families," "what about the children?," or other hot-topic buttons that pols usually press in order to catch the attention of the press like a red flag in front of a bull.
When I originally posted the piece, I went looking for stories in New Jersey newspapers about the regulation push there and couldn't find anything from the past week or two. Maybe there's something out there that I missed, but I certainly couldn't find anything. I never would have heard about it had it not been for the NBC article.
So, given the lack of press and Gary Story's acquiesence, my guess is that Story and local politicians are working together on legislation that will address safety concerns while also not wrecking the amusement park industry there. In other words, the industry is being allowed to collaborate on legislation that they can live with in return for not calling on coaster fans to flood their reps and senators with irate letters. That's just a guess on my part, admittedly, but given the evidence it's the most likely scenario.
Actually, the good 'ol US incarcerates a higher percentage of its population than red china.
I'll take a year in an American jail over a year in a Chinese jail any day of the week. And while we're comparing the U.S. and China to the rest of the world, let's mention the executions in China - according to the Washington Post, 1,769 people put to death in 2000, more than the rest of the world combined (yup, including the execution-happy U.S.A., which executed a total of 85 prisoners during the same year). And if you want to talk about drug sentences, it's frequently a capital offense in China.
If China's gonna do it, we have to, and before they do.
Ain't gonna happen. Both Congress and the Prez would throw a fit: "You're overbudget on the ISS by billions and you want to go back to the Moon anyway? What are you smoking?" As much as I wish it was us building a base on the Moon, we'll be going to Mars before we go back to the Moon.
the creation od nuclear silos. not only that but they will put a powerfull rciever up there and monitor communications.
Eh. It's probably a lot easier to monitor communications down here on Earth. As for the creation of missile silos, I'm not sure the Chinese could really count on even hitting the Earth from that distance, much less a city or an air force base. It'd be easier for them to just stick a few nukes in orbit and pass them off as communications satellites or some such thing.
Jeez, I guess they must have run out of room for their extensive chain of gulags and slave labor camps down here on Earth.
According to World Facts and Figures, Russia currently has the 84th highest per capita GDP in the world, tying with Oman and the Seychelles at $7,700 per year. By contrast, the U.S. is #2 at $36,200 (Luxembourg, at #1, isn't far ahead at $36,400). The U.S. has 278 million people, compared to Russia's 145.5 million. In other words, Russia is trying to maintain a viable space program when it has about one-tenth the total annual GDP of the U.S. I think the fact that they've managed to do so in spite of their economic problems demonstrates that they actually have a great deal of pride, and are willing to do what it takes to keep the program moving along. The fact is that the Russians are probably not going to be in any financial shape to launch space shuttles for quite some time, if ever. On the other hand, the Soyuz is a solid, reliable design, and there's really no need for the Russians to drop it in favor of an alternative that still needs a lot of work and would be far more expensive to operate.
i wish stations like maybe cartoon network would play more original 80's cartoons like transformers...
I'd be happy if someone would just have the guts to pick up Ralph Bakshi's "New Adventures of Mighty Mouse."
Not the "bread van that turns into a killer robot" again. I hate those toy tie-ins.
TV Announcer: The new, improved Kidz Newz...has been canceled! Stay tuned for the Mattel and Mars Bar Quick Energy Choc-O-Bot Hour!
(The program begins. The Choc-O-Bots are at their command center.)
Choc-O-Bot: You can count on us, Mr. President. Major Nougat! Gooey! Cocoa! Put down those entertaining Mattel products! Colonel Kataffy is up to his old tricks!
Cocoa: Let's power up!
Perhaps the ultimate '80s TV cartoon experience
MY GOD! Don't tell me some people really think that!
Actually, as the guy who originally submitted this piece, I don't think for an instant that Transformers was a particularly great cartoon. But at 38 I'm probably about ten years older than most of the people on here who were big fans during its original run. What I meant by "ultimate '80s TV cartoon experience" had more to do with the sheer scope of the tie-in between the show and the toys. Certainly, there were other shows that did the same thing, but I don't think any of them had a product line of that size.
It's really interesting that they'll launch it from a submarine. I wonder if a submarine launch is in any way better than a regular one, or if they do it just because they have some spare ballistic missiles to use.
The Volnas (demilitarized SS-N-19s) are launched from late '80s/early '90s-vintage Delta IV subs, all of which operate with Russia's northern fleet. I suspect that they're using subs as a launch platform because they're very, very mobile and probably cheaper to use than land-based facilities.