My bet is that these colonies can be the next Atlantis if someone finds a cheep way to use the local resources to make sturdy building material (something like nanites that turn the sand into quartz). However that is a LONG way off. Once upon a time, I read a book which addressed this issue, albeit for a different seafaring concept. It involved using manganese (I seem to recall) bars in a mesh, which, when electricity was run through it, would accrete calcium carbonate to it from seawater. Eventually, this would create a shell on which the colony would float, and from which further accretions could expand it.
The concept also involved leveraging temperature differentials in seawater to generate electricity, and using the immediate vicinity of colonies to farm algae, etc. Using these colonies as a hub of a hydrogen economy was also envisioned.
These ideas made it into a website for the Living Universe Foundation, but I don't recall if the book had any connection to them or not.
You assume that, in this day and age, the Congress has to convene physically at all.
With more seats, districts will be smaller.
In smaller districts, less money is needed for campaigns.
Stop sending representatives to DC, and have them serve from home, out of the clutches of PACs and special interests.
Cut the pay to something rational....
PROFIT! (sorry, had to throw that in).
Seriously, there is a lot on this at www.thirty-thousand.org. Check it out and see how we've been shafted since 1910, when Congress stopped adding seats with increases in population.
I had a TI-994/A, so I didn't get to thrill to the joy of PEEK and POKE. I had no idea what function they performed--I only knew that all the 'cool' games seemed to use them, and none of my TI games did.
BTW, you could fry an egg on the TI, it got so hot. It often seized up from it's own heat.
The focus of discussions on e-voting machines always seems to come down to the reliability and accuracy of the audits. What this ignores is the potential for the actual voting records to be altered prior to inclusion in the overall voting record.
The problem with e-voting (in my opinion) is not so much the audit trail, but the fact that e-voting adds unnecessary levels of complexity (and obfuscation and unaccountability) to the voting process. This is the result of government leaders attempting to perform vital civic services on the cheap: why pay poll workers and vote counters, when we can just use machines that do this fast and automagically?
What the use of e-voting machines invites is the ability/potential not only to count votes FASTER, but to do so behind a hardware/software interface, where much malfeasance can be conjured in code and executed on-the-fly, beyond the observational capacity of effectively the entire voting population.
Some things are better dealt with in the analog world. A true and accurate accounting of the will of the people is too important to a democracy for us to cut corners. I think it is worth the cost of paper ballots and carbon-based vote counters to effect the will of the people (however much one may or may not agree with the peoples' will).
That's my two cents on a Thursday before 11am (the time of the morning at which my brain always chugs to life).
"They bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash!"
Someone call the waaaambulance.
I mean, REALLY! What a bunch of simps! It isn't as if the lock-in was a big secret. And if their iPhone became a brick after they fucked around with it, well, them's the breaks, kid!
The article claims that the process saved $60 million. However, according to the satellite life cycle they describe, it isn't a savings that was realized, but an unanticipated revenue above expectations. They extended the service life of the satellite, rather than helping it achieve its full lifespan.
If I am wrong, I apologize, but this seems to be what they were describing.
Anyone who would spend several hundreds of dollars on an iGadget from any company WITHOUT FIRST confirming that it is supported on their OS, is simply naive.
Anyone who goes out of their way to get the 64-bit implementation of any Windows (in the first place), and THEN spends said fortune on a shiny iToy WITHOUT FIRST confirming support under their 64-bit Windows OS, is a chump.
Perhaps using Macs has gotten me used to checking system requirements religiously when making software and peripheral hardware purchases. However, even when I have owned/used Windows systems, I always checked to make sure those systems were supported before shelling out a fistfull of cash.
As humorous as this thread has been, it also makes as much sense as any home renovation advice seen elsewhere up and down the other comment threads.
Given the very real possibility that New Orleans will be washed out again--sooner, rather than later--I'd populate the first few items of my "To Do" list to include items related to redundant shock absorbtion, sea-worthiness, and life support (water, ventilation, heating, etc). Did I mention redundancy? Don't forget the redundant systems.
Once you are certain that your home will not float away (unless designed to do so), spring a leak, or act more as a roasting, oven-like trap than a shelter, you can start worrying about cat5 v. fiber. When it comes down to it, which one is more survivable in flood conditions?
I would also plan the network with redundancy in mind. Spread out and share the storage. See to it that data is as well-protected from environmental disaster as possible. If the kitchen floods, you still save grandma's recipes on the other networked devices.
Which paradigm (wire v. fibre, etc.) draws as little power as possible? How can it be used to better conserve household power?
A home is a huge investment (at least at my end of the pay scale), so I would want to make sure that any home I built in a disaster-prone area can survive the worst mother nature can throw at it in that particular region.
Already there are reports in Italy and Norway of an increase in non-native insects moving north into new territory. Sure, it might be nice to avoid frostbite due to global climate change, but at the expense of catching the plague or malaria, it ain't much of a bargain.
I was tempted to call complete bullshit on you, but tempered that reaction with the knowledge that you probably don't know anyone on Social Security.
Ah, screw it: I'm calling bullshit.
One shouldn't rush to blame the consumers of SS benefits for the few who abuse the system. The system was designed in such a way that it compelled people to stay 'in the system'. That has been smoothed over by legislation, but it will never be perfect. Ideally, people should be self-sufficient. In reality, though, this is fantasy.
As to whether Social Security teaches people to be lazy, I'd ask if you relied on SS to develop your mental prowess, for you seem too lazy to acknowledge that MANY people on SS are not, in fact, lazy, but are incapable of getting or keeping a job, due to physical or mental handicap. My older brother is on SS because of a handicap; there isn't a job for someone like him.
And don't think he lives the life of Riley. Social Security does NOT fully support him. He shares a place with mom. He can't look after himself, having the intellectual maturity of a child. Social Security allows him to eat and not live in a cardboard box.
I counter that some people rely on the Internet too much to vent their spleen. Computer technology has weakened their intellectual abilities, and the ability to develop cogent arguments. Perhaps your internet access should be taken away, so that you can work on that, and also develop a more compassionate and less simplistic view of your fellow passengers on Spaceship Earth, and the variety of lives they are leading.
Interesting, because towards the end of the video, the bell appears to begin glowing red in some areas. It could be the lighting, but Iswear it appeared to be heating radically.
Ths shuttle does indeed burn some propellant on the way in (i.e.: after deorbit burn), but only in the reaction control system, which operates until the aero surfaces become effective in the thicker atmosphere. In this case, the propellant isn't used so much to go faster in any particular direction, but to go less fast in any wrong direction(s).
Some might recall that, moments before Columbia's ultimate demise, the shuttle's reaction control system was struggling/fighting to maintain proper entry attitude against the growing drag forces being imparted on the deteriorating port (left) wing.
McCain never went into space. You are thinking of either Sen. John Glenn or Sen. Bill Nelson. Each is a Democrat. Glenn is retired from the Senate, and went into space AGAIN at the end of his political career (longest time between spaceflights for anyone). Nelson recently beat Katherine Harris to be reelected to the Senate.
Not entirely. Most refining is reduction of the metal. In space you have no O2 atmosphere to interfere with the redux reaction, so all you add is power. should be a push when all is said and done. Also, in the low G environment I'd think that you could make some pretty awesome alloys that normally would be self-separating due to gravity. Might easily pay for its self back here on earth, getting into the gravity well is cheap. -nB
I was thinking the same, or similar, thoughts. I am glad you presented them.
I often wonder, though, what's the use of making stuff up there? To get products back, you have to get them through the atmosphere, and at a very high speed. Wouldn't protective systems have a negative economic impact on the profits?
Just wondered if anyone else ever wondered about this.
When they discovered that Uranus had rings, like Saturn, I was so excited that I ran out the front door and announced it VERY loudly to my little brother, at the far end of the driveway, by saying something along these lines: "Hey, they discovered that Uranus has rings!"
It was a classic example of realizing, only too late, that something might have been phrased much differently, or, perhaps, privately...
Slashdot Mirror
The concept also involved leveraging temperature differentials in seawater to generate electricity, and using the immediate vicinity of colonies to farm algae, etc. Using these colonies as a hub of a hydrogen economy was also envisioned.
These ideas made it into a website for the Living Universe Foundation, but I don't recall if the book had any connection to them or not.
With its wings folded, it appears to have huge blind spots, so I can't see it as being considered fit for the road.
You assume that, in this day and age, the Congress has to convene physically at all.
...
With more seats, districts will be smaller.
In smaller districts, less money is needed for campaigns.
Stop sending representatives to DC, and have them serve from home, out of the clutches of PACs and special interests.
Cut the pay to something rational.
PROFIT! (sorry, had to throw that in).
Seriously, there is a lot on this at www.thirty-thousand.org. Check it out and see how we've been shafted since 1910, when Congress stopped adding seats with increases in population.
The customer is not always right.
Otherwise, it would be the other way around, and THEY would be serving YOU.
AS you might guess, I hated retail.
I had a TI-994/A, so I didn't get to thrill to the joy of PEEK and POKE. I had no idea what function they performed--I only knew that all the 'cool' games seemed to use them, and none of my TI games did.
BTW, you could fry an egg on the TI, it got so hot. It often seized up from it's own heat.
I believe the DMCA provides the legal framework for takedown requests.
It probably stings terribly to be spanked with a paddle of your own design and construction.
I had heard of this rich mexican dude, but I couldn't remember his name.
Carlos Slim sounds like some film noir character. Straight out of central casting.
...Wish I'd thought of that. I really wanted to shove it to my old boss.
Oh well.
If no one buys our buggy whips, what will we sell?!?!?!
All is lost! Lost, I say!
Apple has destroyed the honorable profession of making buggy-whips!
What a bunch of tight-assed wankers!
Hey, at least the e-paper revolution is only 5 years away. We've been going to Mars in twenty years for the past fifty years, you know...
Peronally, I prefer to say, "MicroShaft" when referring to the Redmond Company.
The focus of discussions on e-voting machines always seems to come down to the reliability and accuracy of the audits. What this ignores is the potential for the actual voting records to be altered prior to inclusion in the overall voting record.
The problem with e-voting (in my opinion) is not so much the audit trail, but the fact that e-voting adds unnecessary levels of complexity (and obfuscation and unaccountability) to the voting process. This is the result of government leaders attempting to perform vital civic services on the cheap: why pay poll workers and vote counters, when we can just use machines that do this fast and automagically?
What the use of e-voting machines invites is the ability/potential not only to count votes FASTER, but to do so behind a hardware/software interface, where much malfeasance can be conjured in code and executed on-the-fly, beyond the observational capacity of effectively the entire voting population.
Some things are better dealt with in the analog world. A true and accurate accounting of the will of the people is too important to a democracy for us to cut corners. I think it is worth the cost of paper ballots and carbon-based vote counters to effect the will of the people (however much one may or may not agree with the peoples' will).
That's my two cents on a Thursday before 11am (the time of the morning at which my brain always chugs to life).
To quote "Airplane":
"They bought their tickets. They knew what they were getting into. I say, let 'em crash!"
Someone call the waaaambulance.
I mean, REALLY! What a bunch of simps! It isn't as if the lock-in was a big secret. And if their iPhone became a brick after they fucked around with it, well, them's the breaks, kid!
Sheesh.
The article claims that the process saved $60 million. However, according to the satellite life cycle they describe, it isn't a savings that was realized, but an unanticipated revenue above expectations. They extended the service life of the satellite, rather than helping it achieve its full lifespan.
If I am wrong, I apologize, but this seems to be what they were describing.
Anyone who would spend several hundreds of dollars on an iGadget from any company WITHOUT FIRST confirming that it is supported on their OS, is simply naive.
Anyone who goes out of their way to get the 64-bit implementation of any Windows (in the first place), and THEN spends said fortune on a shiny iToy WITHOUT FIRST confirming support under their 64-bit Windows OS, is a chump.
Perhaps using Macs has gotten me used to checking system requirements religiously when making software and peripheral hardware purchases. However, even when I have owned/used Windows systems, I always checked to make sure those systems were supported before shelling out a fistfull of cash.
So, cry me a river. 'nuf said.
As humorous as this thread has been, it also makes as much sense as any home renovation advice seen elsewhere up and down the other comment threads.
Given the very real possibility that New Orleans will be washed out again--sooner, rather than later--I'd populate the first few items of my "To Do" list to include items related to redundant shock absorbtion, sea-worthiness, and life support (water, ventilation, heating, etc). Did I mention redundancy? Don't forget the redundant systems.
Once you are certain that your home will not float away (unless designed to do so), spring a leak, or act more as a roasting, oven-like trap than a shelter, you can start worrying about cat5 v. fiber. When it comes down to it, which one is more survivable in flood conditions?
I would also plan the network with redundancy in mind. Spread out and share the storage. See to it that data is as well-protected from environmental disaster as possible. If the kitchen floods, you still save grandma's recipes on the other networked devices.
Which paradigm (wire v. fibre, etc.) draws as little power as possible? How can it be used to better conserve household power?
A home is a huge investment (at least at my end of the pay scale), so I would want to make sure that any home I built in a disaster-prone area can survive the worst mother nature can throw at it in that particular region.
Already there are reports in Italy and Norway of an increase in non-native insects moving north into new territory. Sure, it might be nice to avoid frostbite due to global climate change, but at the expense of catching the plague or malaria, it ain't much of a bargain.
I was tempted to call complete bullshit on you, but tempered that reaction with the knowledge that you probably don't know anyone on Social Security.
Ah, screw it: I'm calling bullshit.
One shouldn't rush to blame the consumers of SS benefits for the few who abuse the system. The system was designed in such a way that it compelled people to stay 'in the system'. That has been smoothed over by legislation, but it will never be perfect. Ideally, people should be self-sufficient. In reality, though, this is fantasy.
As to whether Social Security teaches people to be lazy, I'd ask if you relied on SS to develop your mental prowess, for you seem too lazy to acknowledge that MANY people on SS are not, in fact, lazy, but are incapable of getting or keeping a job, due to physical or mental handicap. My older brother is on SS because of a handicap; there isn't a job for someone like him.
And don't think he lives the life of Riley. Social Security does NOT fully support him. He shares a place with mom. He can't look after himself, having the intellectual maturity of a child. Social Security allows him to eat and not live in a cardboard box.
I counter that some people rely on the Internet too much to vent their spleen. Computer technology has weakened their intellectual abilities, and the ability to develop cogent arguments. Perhaps your internet access should be taken away, so that you can work on that, and also develop a more compassionate and less simplistic view of your fellow passengers on Spaceship Earth, and the variety of lives they are leading.
Insensitive clod.
Interesting, because towards the end of the video, the bell appears to begin glowing red in some areas. It could be the lighting, but Iswear it appeared to be heating radically.
Ths shuttle does indeed burn some propellant on the way in (i.e.: after deorbit burn), but only in the reaction control system, which operates until the aero surfaces become effective in the thicker atmosphere. In this case, the propellant isn't used so much to go faster in any particular direction, but to go less fast in any wrong direction(s).
Some might recall that, moments before Columbia's ultimate demise, the shuttle's reaction control system was struggling/fighting to maintain proper entry attitude against the growing drag forces being imparted on the deteriorating port (left) wing.
McCain never went into space. You are thinking of either Sen. John Glenn or Sen. Bill Nelson. Each is a Democrat. Glenn is retired from the Senate, and went into space AGAIN at the end of his political career (longest time between spaceflights for anyone). Nelson recently beat Katherine Harris to be reelected to the Senate.
Not entirely.
Most refining is reduction of the metal. In space you have no O2 atmosphere to interfere with the redux reaction, so all you add is power. should be a push when all is said and done. Also, in the low G environment I'd think that you could make some pretty awesome alloys that normally would be self-separating due to gravity. Might easily pay for its self back here on earth, getting into the gravity well is cheap.
-nB
I was thinking the same, or similar, thoughts. I am glad you presented them.
I often wonder, though, what's the use of making stuff up there? To get products back, you have to get them through the atmosphere, and at a very high speed. Wouldn't protective systems have a negative economic impact on the profits?
Just wondered if anyone else ever wondered about this.
When they discovered that Uranus had rings, like Saturn, I was so excited that I ran out the front door and announced it VERY loudly to my little brother, at the far end of the driveway, by saying something along these lines: "Hey, they discovered that Uranus has rings!"
It was a classic example of realizing, only too late, that something might have been phrased much differently, or, perhaps, privately...
HAH!
"Have yourself one Hell of a time, surfing the web at the Dam Site Inn!"