Bang for the buck? It depends on how you define 'bang'.
If the only point of exploration is to collect various factoids about faraway places, then I would agree with you. Manned missions would be pointless.
If the point is to expand our horizons and travel to places to experience them firsthand, then I'd say robotic missions are very limiting.
I see the current bill under discussion as nothing more than a Democratic Congress attempting to make sure a Republican President is never seen as a visionary. It is a petty and pointless tactic. This President has done more than any Democrat ever could to insure he is never seen as anything more than a joke. The current bill just give Congress a chance to look like meddlers.
The other side of the coin is that the brain is a muscle that must be exercised. Removal of all labor intensive activities is one of the reasons that Americans are so fat. The analogy transfers well to education. I convert 1/16" increments to decimal in my head, to the amazement of my two boys. If I ask them to solve a simple mechanical problem they will break out the calculators and compute an answer down to 7 digits, because that is the resolution of the calculator they were able to find after a 15 minute search. Meanwhile, I've finished the cut after a little pencil scratching and rounding the numbers off to useful values.
Knowing how to drive a nail with a hammer is important, even if you have a pneumatic stapler.
Worse than that. She was told to STFU several times according to the article.
It's politics people. The board could have simply been keeping it on the down-low, waiting for the issue to go away. The administrator stands up and starts shooting her mouth off, stirring the hornet's nest. Sometimes, the best way to win an argument is to just smile and turn away. Saying, "We have no opinion" is the political equivalent.
You're saying that some that is "half-competent with science-y things" can sequence DNA?
I submit that the vast majority of the population would have difficulty find the bacteria under a microscope!! And you see there is the crux of the problem. You see the religious folks making a choice between science and religion. But this sort of science is so far above their heads that it is no more than a religion to them, ie...something handed down by an authority that must be taken on faith.
So, when they are making the choice between the nice comfy religion handed down by that nice pastor that succinctly sums up the entire universe into a digestible package, and the bothersome religion of "I don't know, let's study it" handed down by often abrasive social misfits that leaves them lonely and with no direction, is it any surprise that you don't come out on top?
Do you have a page comparing the cost of Irag to something that the US Federal Government is actually responsible for? Like the war in Afghanistan? Or maybe what we spent in Somalia or even Yugoslavia?
Hate to break the news to you, but the Federal Government is specifically tasked with running a military. Everything else listed on that web page is the responsibility of the various states. I'm not saying that the 'government' shouldn't spend money to build schools, just that the current fad of treating the President like a king and the entire US as his domain is counter-productive and contrary to our federalist system.
I didn't realize the US Constitution has been changed to allow the US President the power to declare war. In the past, that has be delegated to the Congress. Sheesh! Things change so fast in this modern age.
Clinton set up databases to spy on political enemies. How about that Watergate? Remember Edgar Hoover?
Bush corruption, if it can be termed as such, doesn't hold a candle to what his predecessors carried out. Hell, half of the things you're calling corruption had the stamp of approval from Congress. Most of the predecessors never bothered with such niceties.
What will happen to the economy and value of work once robotics really takes off would be interesting. Folks tried automating subway trains in NYC, which actually worked!, but the transit union killed that project. I'd imagine we'll see similar responses in other industries.
Thousands, if not millions, of people will be laid off. The will find jobs doing other work. The price of commodities will drop, so that the people can afford the good with their low paying service jobs (that they couldn't afford with their low paying factory job). Industrial health problems will drop (less black lung, white lung, etc).
For reference, consult the mining and fabric industries.
The current situation isn't unique, though. The Federal government pays tons of money to collect and correlate data used to make aeronautical maps. This includes things like the placement of tall towers, military air zones, traffic restricted areas and the locations of airports. THE PEOPLE pay to collect and correlate this data. Companies will obtain the data from the government and print maps or use it to program GPSs.
For a while, the data was available online. Some enterprising individuals obtained the data and started creating their own GPS databases and providing online maps. 9/11 was used as an excuse to remove the public availability of the data. "Security issue" was the official reason, which is just silly. You can still buy the paper sectional ($9 each, and they expire in 6 months), or the GPS database upgrades ($75 if your lucky).
It's the same issue of private industry making hay off the work paid for by the public. The NIH and NSF have paid for the research. They didn't pay for a scientist to work for several months and then go "Ooh! Neat!". They paid for a report of the work that was done and an interpretation of what it means. That report was bought with public money and should be considered public property.
I was going to moderate, but I have to respond to this.
All the "seminars" I've been to lead to me to understand that you can't separate the two. I quote "seminars", because they really don't provide information as much as they provide warnings.
-If you doink a subordinate, it can be view as sexual harassment, whether it was consenual or not, or whether quid pro quo was offered or not. -If another employee knows you're doinking another subordinate, it can be view as sexual harassment, whether it was consenual or not, or whether quid pro quo was offered or not. -If you make a sexual comment about another employee, it can be viewed as sexual harrassment. -If you are overheard making a sexual comment about another employee, it can be viewed as sexual harrassment. "Sexual" will be determined by the person hearing the comment at the time they hear it. -If someone feels "threatened" by your presence you can be canned. (I worked with a fellow who had this happen to him. He was black. She was white. Yay for the good ol' South). -If coorperations don't react to the situation with incredibly disproportionate measures, they expose themselves to ridiculous lawsuits.
This is only in corporate America, and I can only hope to GOD that the rest of the world is not this insane.
Agreed, Mr. Fleenblat. My pet solution is to lease small, single-occupant commuter vehicles with a 50-mile range. For the typical commute, you drive to a depot and onto a flatbed railway car. The train makes several stops in the city and suburbs. You drive off and to your destination. The day you have to work late (busses stop running at 9pm around here), you can push the range and drive yourself home at the top speed of 45mph. For the occasional long trip to an adjoining city, let the train take you there and not have the need to rent a car at the other end. The duty cycle would be so low, it could be powered by a solar panel.
Leasing the commuter car and train fare would cost about the same as my current fuel cost, allow me to enjoy the commute while someone else does the driving, and I wouldn't have maintenance cost. Cheaper, more convenient and I retain my autonomy.
that our schools are graduating enough competent scientists. The problem is that we're not graduating enough extraordinary scientists with an extensive patent portfolio willing to work for subsistence wages.
On a plane, my safety is entirely in the hands of other people, who have a "random" combination of awareness and reaction time.
You do realize that the FAA forces pilots to retire at 60 in order to keep the "random" reaction time on the fast side of the curve? How many simulator hourrs have you logged in the past year with an instructor critiquing your every move? How often do you practice emergency situations in your car? We call it a bi-annual in aviation. I'd much rather depend on the "random" pilot than the "random" driver.
They also have a "random" proficiency in checking the equipment (which is likely to be half-assed).
This is just silly. Would you trust a multimillion dollar vehicle to just any random Joe? Hell, you're anal about a $20,000 car!! Do you take your car apart once a year to check every bolt and connection? We call it annual in aviation. Makes the yearly emissions inspection look like a joke.
With my car, I am the one in control of the vehicle, and I am the one who selects which mechanics are trustworthy.
Barring experimental aviation, we entrust that to engineers. You know. People who actually KNOW what will work.
Not to mention that the car is a far simpler vehicle than a plane.
Compare apples to apples and you haven't a clue. The typical 4-passenger airplane that compares to the typical family sedan is a MUCH simpler mechanism. The light airplane compares well to maybe a 1960's vintage VW Bug. The automobile is complicated to handle well on 4 wheels, and accelerate and decelerate quickly. The main modifications I'm having to do to the firmware for the engine controller of the of airplane I'm building is remove code that modifies behavior of the engine for situations that cars see regularly but airplanes never do.
So when it comes to my INDIVIDUAL probability of being in a crash, my driving may actually be safer than flying, when you consider the likeliness of a fatal outcome.
The thing that you're missing is that when flying you have the air to yourself nearly the whole time. On the ground your constantly in close proximity to other solid objects. Many of those objects move. Some, unpredictably.
So, do you have an opinion on all those homebuilders that are building helicopters without "absolutely mandatory items, like X-ray and ultrasonic parts inspections".
Moderators, this isn't an informative post. It's a clueless one. Five minutes on Google would tell you that: http://www.prismz.com/helio/
When a wing approaches the ground, the air that it is pushing on bounces back at it (not technically correct, but the analogy is close enough to envision the effect). Ground effect becomes pronounced at about 1 wingspan's distance from the ground. He could be planning on a 15ft rotor.
Only one entity can control mp3.com. Very few people have/had the source code to RAV AntiVirus. There is no parking lot.
Microsoft can try to assimilate open-source projects and incorporate it into their culture, but they can't harm it by swatting at it any more than I can destroy a bee colony with a sword.
Sorry, your scheme won't work. In order to be a proper Slashdot business plan, you have to have a ??? step. This is just a clear and possibly workable business plan that could make real money. Microsoft still hasn't figured out that you can't rid a house of cockroaches by stomping/buying them one at a time. Their various fog bombs/fud campaigns didn't work, so they're back to pointy-toed shoes.
I think it is a hilarious show to watch. All that desperation (and chair tossing).
Except "Yahoo" doesn't have an answer. Can't have an answer. A company doesn't speak.
An executive chose to lie to Congress. Granted, they're a bunch of blowhards who are just trying to make a show for some constituency or another without actually doing anything, but blaming the digression on "Yahoo" is an attempt to diffuse the blame. There was exactly one person that lied to Congress (in this instance), and there is exactly one person that should be held in contempt.
It's high time that we stop letting white collar criminals maquerading as CEO's off the hook.
You do realize that they've set up little mirrors on the *MOON* which are used to measure distance by bouncing a laser off of it?
Can you believe I was able to find the DirectTV satellite, which just happens to be in geo-synchronous orbit *BY HAND*.
You're worry is simplistic and naive. It's a simple matter of having a safety interlock. A laser at the base station locks onto an enabling receiver that is at the bottom of a tube on the satellite. If the receiver loses the laser signal, the power to the transmitter is cut. The enabling circuitry must be engaged for the transmitter to work. It's easy to arrange and fail-safe.
Slashdot Mirror
Bang for the buck? It depends on how you define 'bang'.
If the only point of exploration is to collect various factoids about faraway places, then I would agree with you. Manned missions would be pointless.
If the point is to expand our horizons and travel to places to experience them firsthand, then I'd say robotic missions are very limiting.
I see the current bill under discussion as nothing more than a Democratic Congress attempting to make sure a Republican President is never seen as a visionary. It is a petty and pointless tactic. This President has done more than any Democrat ever could to insure he is never seen as anything more than a joke. The current bill just give Congress a chance to look like meddlers.
I'd rather have the warm body of my wife next to me
ME TOO!
Could you give her my address please?
The other side of the coin is that the brain is a muscle that must be exercised. Removal of all labor intensive activities is one of the reasons that Americans are so fat. The analogy transfers well to education. I convert 1/16" increments to decimal in my head, to the amazement of my two boys. If I ask them to solve a simple mechanical problem they will break out the calculators and compute an answer down to 7 digits, because that is the resolution of the calculator they were able to find after a 15 minute search. Meanwhile, I've finished the cut after a little pencil scratching and rounding the numbers off to useful values.
Knowing how to drive a nail with a hammer is important, even if you have a pneumatic stapler.
Worse than that. She was told to STFU several times according to the article.
It's politics people. The board could have simply been keeping it on the down-low, waiting for the issue to go away. The administrator stands up and starts shooting her mouth off, stirring the hornet's nest. Sometimes, the best way to win an argument is to just smile and turn away. Saying, "We have no opinion" is the political equivalent.
I believe the Texas Education Agency was just trying to keep the administrator from shooting her mouth off.
You're saying that some that is "half-competent with science-y things" can sequence DNA?
I submit that the vast majority of the population would have difficulty find the bacteria under a microscope!! And you see there is the crux of the problem. You see the religious folks making a choice between science and religion. But this sort of science is so far above their heads that it is no more than a religion to them, ie...something handed down by an authority that must be taken on faith.
So, when they are making the choice between the nice comfy religion handed down by that nice pastor that succinctly sums up the entire universe into a digestible package, and the bothersome religion of "I don't know, let's study it" handed down by often abrasive social misfits that leaves them lonely and with no direction, is it any surprise that you don't come out on top?
Do you have a page comparing the cost of Irag to something that the US Federal Government is actually responsible for? Like the war in Afghanistan? Or maybe what we spent in Somalia or even Yugoslavia?
Hate to break the news to you, but the Federal Government is specifically tasked with running a military. Everything else listed on that web page is the responsibility of the various states. I'm not saying that the 'government' shouldn't spend money to build schools, just that the current fad of treating the President like a king and the entire US as his domain is counter-productive and contrary to our federalist system.
I didn't realize the US Constitution has been changed to allow the US President the power to declare war. In the past, that has be delegated to the Congress. Sheesh! Things change so fast in this modern age.
Sorry. Everyone claiming that "pay what you want" isn't a valid business model have no sense of history. Listen to a little CCR to get a clue.
Performers have been dancing a playing on the street corners ever since there were streets and corners. Throw out a hat and start playing.
You don't need a penny,
Just to hang around,
But if you've got a nickel,
Won't you lay your money down.
Now we have the internet. The corner just got really big and really busy, and those nickels start adding up really fast.
Why do you limit yourself to the last 7 years?
Clinton set up databases to spy on political enemies. How about that Watergate? Remember Edgar Hoover?
Bush corruption, if it can be termed as such, doesn't hold a candle to what his predecessors carried out. Hell, half of the things you're calling corruption had the stamp of approval from Congress. Most of the predecessors never bothered with such niceties.
What will happen to the economy and value of work once robotics really takes off would be interesting. Folks tried automating subway trains in NYC, which actually worked!, but the transit union killed that project. I'd imagine we'll see similar responses in other industries.
Thousands, if not millions, of people will be laid off. The will find jobs doing other work. The price of commodities will drop, so that the people can afford the good with their low paying service jobs (that they couldn't afford with their low paying factory job). Industrial health problems will drop (less black lung, white lung, etc).
For reference, consult the mining and fabric industries.
The current situation isn't unique, though. The Federal government pays tons of money to collect and correlate data used to make aeronautical maps. This includes things like the placement of tall towers, military air zones, traffic restricted areas and the locations of airports. THE PEOPLE pay to collect and correlate this data. Companies will obtain the data from the government and print maps or use it to program GPSs.
For a while, the data was available online. Some enterprising individuals obtained the data and started creating their own GPS databases and providing online maps. 9/11 was used as an excuse to remove the public availability of the data. "Security issue" was the official reason, which is just silly. You can still buy the paper sectional ($9 each, and they expire in 6 months), or the GPS database upgrades ($75 if your lucky).
It's the same issue of private industry making hay off the work paid for by the public. The NIH and NSF have paid for the research. They didn't pay for a scientist to work for several months and then go "Ooh! Neat!". They paid for a report of the work that was done and an interpretation of what it means. That report was bought with public money and should be considered public property.
Sue for what?
We wanted your services, so we pay you to stick around.
We no longer need/want your services, so we stop paying you to stick around.
As long as M$ doesn't slander/libel the guy out the door, what damage is done?
I was going to moderate, but I have to respond to this.
All the "seminars" I've been to lead to me to understand that you can't separate the two. I quote "seminars", because they really don't provide information as much as they provide warnings.
-If you doink a subordinate, it can be view as sexual harassment, whether it was consenual or not, or whether quid pro quo was offered or not.
-If another employee knows you're doinking another subordinate, it can be view as sexual harassment, whether it was consenual or not, or whether quid pro quo was offered or not.
-If you make a sexual comment about another employee, it can be viewed as sexual harrassment.
-If you are overheard making a sexual comment about another employee, it can be viewed as sexual harrassment. "Sexual" will be determined by the person hearing the comment at the time they hear it.
-If someone feels "threatened" by your presence you can be canned. (I worked with a fellow who had this happen to him. He was black. She was white. Yay for the good ol' South).
-If coorperations don't react to the situation with incredibly disproportionate measures, they expose themselves to ridiculous lawsuits.
This is only in corporate America, and I can only hope to GOD that the rest of the world is not this insane.
Agreed, Mr. Fleenblat. My pet solution is to lease small, single-occupant commuter vehicles with a 50-mile range. For the typical commute, you drive to a depot and onto a flatbed railway car. The train makes several stops in the city and suburbs. You drive off and to your destination. The day you have to work late (busses stop running at 9pm around here), you can push the range and drive yourself home at the top speed of 45mph. For the occasional long trip to an adjoining city, let the train take you there and not have the need to rent a car at the other end. The duty cycle would be so low, it could be powered by a solar panel.
Leasing the commuter car and train fare would cost about the same as my current fuel cost, allow me to enjoy the commute while someone else does the driving, and I wouldn't have maintenance cost. Cheaper, more convenient and I retain my autonomy.
As a further point, at least where I live, laws have been implemented that impose stiff fines for not returning books. It is a real issue.
that our schools are graduating enough competent scientists. The problem is that we're not graduating enough extraordinary scientists with an extensive patent portfolio willing to work for subsistence wages.
Sheesh! I thought everybody knew that.
You are clueless on so many points.
On a plane, my safety is entirely in the hands of other people, who have a "random" combination of awareness and reaction time.
You do realize that the FAA forces pilots to retire at 60 in order to keep the "random" reaction time on the fast side of the curve? How many simulator hourrs have you logged in the past year with an instructor critiquing your every move? How often do you practice emergency situations in your car? We call it a bi-annual in aviation. I'd much rather depend on the "random" pilot than the "random" driver.
They also have a "random" proficiency in checking the equipment (which is likely to be half-assed).
This is just silly. Would you trust a multimillion dollar vehicle to just any random Joe? Hell, you're anal about a $20,000 car!! Do you take your car apart once a year to check every bolt and connection? We call it annual in aviation. Makes the yearly emissions inspection look like a joke.
With my car, I am the one in control of the vehicle, and I am the one who selects which mechanics are trustworthy.
Barring experimental aviation, we entrust that to engineers. You know. People who actually KNOW what will work.
Not to mention that the car is a far simpler vehicle than a plane.
Compare apples to apples and you haven't a clue. The typical 4-passenger airplane that compares to the typical family sedan is a MUCH simpler mechanism. The light airplane compares well to maybe a 1960's vintage VW Bug. The automobile is complicated to handle well on 4 wheels, and accelerate and decelerate quickly. The main modifications I'm having to do to the firmware for the engine controller of the of airplane I'm building is remove code that modifies behavior of the engine for situations that cars see regularly but airplanes never do.
So when it comes to my INDIVIDUAL probability of being in a crash, my driving may actually be safer than flying, when you consider the likeliness of a fatal outcome.
The thing that you're missing is that when flying you have the air to yourself nearly the whole time. On the ground your constantly in close proximity to other solid objects. Many of those objects move. Some, unpredictably.
So, do you have an opinion on all those homebuilders that are building helicopters without "absolutely mandatory items, like X-ray and ultrasonic parts inspections".
Moderators, this isn't an informative post. It's a clueless one. Five minutes on Google would tell you that: http://www.prismz.com/helio/
Ground effect.
When a wing approaches the ground, the air that it is pushing on bounces back at it (not technically correct, but the analogy is close enough to envision the effect). Ground effect becomes pronounced at about 1 wingspan's distance from the ground. He could be planning on a 15ft rotor.
Thanks for trying, but you are completely and absolutely wrong.
http://www.contactmagazine.com/
I'm using a converted 13-B from a Mazda RX-7
Except...
Only one entity can control mp3.com. Very few people have/had the source code to RAV AntiVirus. There is no parking lot.
Microsoft can try to assimilate open-source projects and incorporate it into their culture, but they can't harm it by swatting at it any more than I can destroy a bee colony with a sword.
Sorry, your scheme won't work. In order to be a proper Slashdot business plan, you have to have a ??? step. This is just a clear and possibly workable business plan that could make real money. Microsoft still hasn't figured out that you can't rid a house of cockroaches by stomping/buying them one at a time. Their various fog bombs/fud campaigns didn't work, so they're back to pointy-toed shoes.
I think it is a hilarious show to watch. All that desperation (and chair tossing).
Except "Yahoo" doesn't have an answer. Can't have an answer. A company doesn't speak.
An executive chose to lie to Congress. Granted, they're a bunch of blowhards who are just trying to make a show for some constituency or another without actually doing anything, but blaming the digression on "Yahoo" is an attempt to diffuse the blame. There was exactly one person that lied to Congress (in this instance), and there is exactly one person that should be held in contempt.
It's high time that we stop letting white collar criminals maquerading as CEO's off the hook.
You do realize that they've set up little mirrors on the *MOON* which are used to measure distance by bouncing a laser off of it?
Can you believe I was able to find the DirectTV satellite, which just happens to be in geo-synchronous orbit *BY HAND*.
You're worry is simplistic and naive. It's a simple matter of having a safety interlock. A laser at the base station locks onto an enabling receiver that is at the bottom of a tube on the satellite. If the receiver loses the laser signal, the power to the transmitter is cut. The enabling circuitry must be engaged for the transmitter to work. It's easy to arrange and fail-safe.