Von Braun's 1950s design was only 250 feet wide, smaller than the ISS. It was also inflatable rather than constructed in segments. The Von Braun station was made of reinforced nylon that would be launched and then inflated like a large ballon. NASA actually launched some inflatable satelittes in the early days of space exploration. The Echo satellites were nothing more than huge Mylar coated ballons that were used as passive communication sattelites.
Microgravity creates a host of health problems for Astronauts, ones that impact thier ability to function in space. We knew that basic problem before the first module for the ISS was launched. Wheel type stations that produce artifical gravity aren't just the realm of Sci-Fi. An engineering study on one was published as early as 1928, Potocnik laid out detailed plans for a habitat wheel. In the early 1950s Von Braun had plans for a station with artifical gravity, and this was part of NASA's early planning. Von Braun's plans were for a station that would be the jumping off point for a Moon trip. That plan was set aside in favor of a direct shot because of the time constraints imposed by Kennedy's before the end of the decade deadline. We know that Microgravity is bad, but what we don't know is the long term effects of reduced gravity. We don't know what effects Lunar gravity will have in the long term. We don't know what the effects of Martian gravity will have on human health. This is something that needs to be found out before we make long term plans for manned missions to either. This could be done with a habitat wheel that was capable of rotating at a rate to test out different gravitational effects. That would be far more useful knowledge than the High School science fair crap that is being studied on the ISS.
How far would the Wright Brothers have gotten if the moment they flew that first flight a gang of scientists had turned up demanding to be flown? If they had to meet these demands instead of continuing to develop better models of thier invention?
You have to develop the basic technology of spaceflight before it will be of any real use to the scientists, and if anything science has interfered in that process by trying to jump in before the technology matured.
I also noted that the same people who favor unmanned probes over maned flight cried rivers when NASA talked about not sending up a manned flight to service the shuttle. Humans are far more adaptable than any unmanned probe can ever be. they can react to a problem that is beyond the design paramiters of a mission in ways that no unmanned probe ever will be capable of doing.
Both human flight and unmanned probes have strengths and weaknesses. The best course of action is to make use of both.
That is 250 Billion over several decades. If you take a look at the federal budget you will find that the department of Health and Human Services spent more than that in 6 months during the past year. Thier 2005 budget alone was over double the entire cost of the shuttle and ISS programs.
The Federal Department of Education has a budget several times the size of NASA's and the total spent by the states and local governments dwarfs the federal outlays.
NASA's budget isn't a drop in the bucket compared to what is already spent on Health and education and killing off NASA entirely wouldn't result in any major increase in funding for Health or Education.
Public Properity is no more subject to random acts of vandalism than private properity. Simply having a message does NOT equate to being able to use any means to distrubite it.
If this right to distrubite a message by any means did exist (which it dosen't) then wouldn't you be violating someone else's rights by hosing off the message in front of your house?
So I take it you would have no objection to someone painting a Pro-Bush message on your car, chalking it on the side of your house, or hacking your website to post it?
"I was reffereing to the fact that Paul Allen and Bill Gates started Microsoft porting Basic interpreters from a "borrowed" open source base."
Why stop at that? Where Micro-Soft's original corporate home was is very intresting. The Sundowner Motel in Albuquerque. The Sundowner was a seedy little Motel that was widely used by drug dealers and Hookers for their business.
Microsoft was born in a Whore House! Dosen't that explain their Business ethics?
It took Europe about 100 years of nothing but limited small wars to get over the dread of the Napoleonic wars and fall into General warfare again in World War I. They are almost 60 years past World War II and living memory of it's horrors is starting to die out. Give them another 40 years and they'll be back to where they were in 1914.
"i would assume that a capital investment company, especially one that invests in IP would do a complete and comprehensive evaluation of what they are investing in"
Why would you expect this after seeing investors pour money into dot.coms without checking them out just a few years ago? Many investors will throw money at whwtever they think the latest "Hot Thing" (TM) is without a second thought, and IP lawsiuts seem to be the latest "Hot Thing" (TM).
Since the car is a disposable "Bic Lighter" you don't bother with collison insurance. The deductable would be close to the cost of the car. If you wreck it you do the same thing you do if it breaks down, get another one. That means all you need is liability insurance so you save money on Insurance. Ad Volorum taxes are a hell of a lot cheaper on a 500 dollar car than on a 20,000 dollar car so you save on registration.
I Have bought cars like a Bic Lighter for years. Get a Cheap one in the 500 to 1000 dollar price range, drive it till it breaks down and go get another one.
With New Car payments in the 400 dollar plus range if an 800 dollar car lasts over two months (most do) you are ahead of the people driving new cars. The Champ junker I bought was a 200 dollar 1977 Caprice that lasted 3 years and still fetched 75 bucks from the scrap yard!
"Come not between the Nazgul and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shrivelled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye."
The little guys can win if they offer something that Wal-Mart dosen't offer, something that Wal-Mart can't compete with them in. It's called customer service. If thier business plan is to offer the same shoddy service as Wal-Mart and bitch about the lower prices, then they damn well deserve to go bankrupt.
The trigger price that screws SCO is 8.46 a share. If it stays below this for 20 consective days they get nailed with a conversion option that will cost them about 50 Million dollars. Yesterday was day two under the trigger price.
I Have been following SCO prices during the decline over the past two weeks. If you look at the Yahoo page you are quoting from you will notice a sharp rise started at 3 o'clock, one hour before closing where it went up 20 cents in the final hour. This rise at the last hour has been a consistant feature for the two week period that I have been watching them and it occurs every day even if just before the rise the high bid is considerably lower. On Friday just before the last hour spike the price was 8.51. The high bid was 8.43. The stock still rose 20 cents between 3 and market close at 4.
4 Minutes after close a buy went thrugh that was for 8.60, 11 cents under the offical close.
The pattern over the past two weeks looks like someone is attempting to pump the price in the final hour of trading to get a more favorable closing price.
As a Matter of fact yes, having the owners of Networks policing them from abuse that affects other people on the Network as well as third parties is a very good thing, even if they are Corporations. Much better than having a knee jerk reaction of "a business did it so it's evil".
If McDonalds Coffee is "so hot that, if spilled, it could cause third degree burns, which would burn through skin and down to the muscle in less than three seconds" then why dosen't it burn through the lining of the esophagus and into the muscle in the time that it's being swallowed?
If it can cause third degree burns in less than three seconds, then it should cause second degree burns in even less time than that, so why didn't Mickey Dee's have lots of people running around with blisters on their tounges?
"Above all, it will have to take the control of industry and of all branches of production out of the hands of mutually competing individuals, and instead institute a system in which all these branches of production are operated by society as a whole -- that is, for the common account, according to a common plan, and with the participation of all members of society.
It will, in other words, abolish competition and replace it with association.
Moreover, since the management of industry by individuals necessarily implies private property, and since competition is in reality merely the manner and form in which the control of industry by private property owners expresses itself, it follows that private property cannot be separated from competition and the individual management of industry. Private property must, therefore, be abolished and in its place must come the common utilization of all instruments of production and the distribution of all products according to common agreement -- in a word, what is called the communal ownership of goods.
In fact, the abolition of private property is, doubtless, the shortest and most significant way to characterize the revolution in the whole social order which has been made necessary by the development of industry -- and for this reason it is rightly advanced by communists as their main demand." The Principles of Communism Frederick Engels October-November 1847
Now maybe you have a clue about what Communism is, so tell me how you can have this kind of control without a totalitarian group backing it up.
If Free Software was Communist it would have central planning like Communist economies. The Central Software Comitee would decide which efforts were going to be persued and assign resources to meet those goals, and ban compeating and privately owned software.
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Von Braun's 1950s design was only 250 feet wide, smaller than the ISS. It was also inflatable rather than constructed in segments. The Von Braun station was made of reinforced nylon that would be launched and then inflated like a large ballon. NASA actually launched some inflatable satelittes in the early days of space exploration. The Echo satellites were nothing more than huge Mylar coated ballons that were used as passive communication sattelites.
Microgravity creates a host of health problems for Astronauts, ones that impact thier ability to function in space. We knew that basic problem before the first module for the ISS was launched. Wheel type stations that produce artifical gravity aren't just the realm of Sci-Fi. An engineering study on one was published as early as 1928, Potocnik laid out detailed plans for a habitat wheel. In the early 1950s Von Braun had plans for a station with artifical gravity, and this was part of NASA's early planning. Von Braun's plans were for a station that would be the jumping off point for a Moon trip. That plan was set aside in favor of a direct shot because of the time constraints imposed by Kennedy's before the end of the decade deadline. We know that Microgravity is bad, but what we don't know is the long term effects of reduced gravity. We don't know what effects Lunar gravity will have in the long term. We don't know what the effects of Martian gravity will have on human health. This is something that needs to be found out before we make long term plans for manned missions to either. This could be done with a habitat wheel that was capable of rotating at a rate to test out different gravitational effects. That would be far more useful knowledge than the High School science fair crap that is being studied on the ISS.
How far would the Wright Brothers have gotten if the moment they flew that first flight a gang of scientists had turned up demanding to be flown? If they had to meet these demands instead of continuing to develop better models of thier invention?
You have to develop the basic technology of spaceflight before it will be of any real use to the scientists, and if anything science has interfered in that process by trying to jump in before the technology matured.
I also noted that the same people who favor unmanned probes over maned flight cried rivers when NASA talked about not sending up a manned flight to service the shuttle. Humans are far more adaptable than any unmanned probe can ever be. they can react to a problem that is beyond the design paramiters of a mission in ways that no unmanned probe ever will be capable of doing.
Both human flight and unmanned probes have strengths and weaknesses. The best course of action is to make use of both.
That is 250 Billion over several decades. If you take a look at the federal budget you will find that the department of Health and Human Services spent more than that in 6 months during the past year. Thier 2005 budget alone was over double the entire cost of the shuttle and ISS programs.
The Federal Department of Education has a budget several times the size of NASA's and the total spent by the states and local governments dwarfs the federal outlays.
NASA's budget isn't a drop in the bucket compared to what is already spent on Health and education and killing off NASA entirely wouldn't result in any major increase in funding for Health or Education.
Public Properity is no more subject to random acts of vandalism than private properity. Simply having a message does NOT equate to being able to use any means to distrubite it.
If this right to distrubite a message by any means did exist (which it dosen't) then wouldn't you be violating someone else's rights by hosing off the message in front of your house?
So I take it you would have no objection to someone painting a Pro-Bush message on your car, chalking it on the side of your house, or hacking your website to post it?
"I was reffereing to the fact that Paul Allen and Bill Gates started Microsoft porting Basic interpreters from a "borrowed" open source base."
Why stop at that? Where Micro-Soft's original corporate home was is very intresting. The Sundowner Motel in Albuquerque. The Sundowner was a seedy little Motel that was widely used by drug dealers and Hookers for their business.
Microsoft was born in a Whore House! Dosen't that explain their Business ethics?
It took Europe about 100 years of nothing but limited small wars to get over the dread of the Napoleonic wars and fall into General warfare again in World War I. They are almost 60 years past World War II and living memory of it's horrors is starting to die out. Give them another 40 years and they'll be back to where they were in 1914.
Question!
How many of those "loyal" employees will change jobs at the drop of a hat if they get a better offer?
If an employer is greedy for hiring someone at a lower wage, then the employee is also greedy if he leaves the company for a higher wage.
Maybe we could just declare employees to be serfs who can't be outsourced or change jobs. That ought to eliminate the greed.
It Would be Funnier than Hell if they found an Ark and proof that the version in the Epic of Gilgamesh was the true story instead of the Noah version.
"i would assume that a capital investment company, especially one that invests in IP would do a complete and comprehensive evaluation of what they are investing in"
Why would you expect this after seeing investors pour money into dot.coms without checking them out just a few years ago? Many investors will throw money at whwtever they think the latest "Hot Thing" (TM) is without a second thought, and IP lawsiuts seem to be the latest "Hot Thing" (TM).
Since the car is a disposable "Bic Lighter" you don't bother with collison insurance. The deductable would be close to the cost of the car. If you wreck it you do the same thing you do if it breaks down, get another one. That means all you need is liability insurance so you save money on Insurance. Ad Volorum taxes are a hell of a lot cheaper on a 500 dollar car than on a 20,000 dollar car so you save on registration.
I Have bought cars like a Bic Lighter for years. Get a Cheap one in the 500 to 1000 dollar price range, drive it till it breaks down and go get another one.
With New Car payments in the 400 dollar plus range if an 800 dollar car lasts over two months (most do) you are ahead of the people driving new cars. The Champ junker I bought was a 200 dollar 1977 Caprice that lasted 3 years and still fetched 75 bucks from the scrap yard!
"Come not between the Nazgul and his prey! Or he will not slay thee in thy turn. He will bear thee away to the houses of lamentation, beyond all darkness, where thy flesh shall be devoured, and thy shrivelled mind be left naked to the Lidless Eye."
The Bastards! How dare they offer a better price!
The little guys can win if they offer something that Wal-Mart dosen't offer, something that Wal-Mart can't compete with them in. It's called customer service. If thier business plan is to offer the same shoddy service as Wal-Mart and bitch about the lower prices, then they damn well deserve to go bankrupt.
According to this Baystar Trigger it's 8.46 for 20 days. Yesterday was day two under the Bay Star Trigger price.
The trigger price that screws SCO is 8.46 a share. If it stays below this for 20 consective days they get nailed with a conversion option that will cost them about 50 Million dollars. Yesterday was day two under the trigger price.
I Have been following SCO prices during the decline over the past two weeks. If you look at the Yahoo page you are quoting from you will notice a sharp rise started at 3 o'clock, one hour before closing where it went up 20 cents in the final hour. This rise at the last hour has been a consistant feature for the two week period that I have been watching them and it occurs every day even if just before the rise the high bid is considerably lower. On Friday just before the last hour spike the price was 8.51. The high bid was 8.43. The stock still rose 20 cents between 3 and market close at 4.
4 Minutes after close a buy went thrugh that was for 8.60, 11 cents under the offical close.
The pattern over the past two weeks looks like someone is attempting to pump the price in the final hour of trading to get a more favorable closing price.
As a Matter of fact yes, having the owners of Networks policing them from abuse that affects other people on the Network as well as third parties is a very good thing, even if they are Corporations. Much better than having a knee jerk reaction of "a business did it so it's evil".
If McDonalds Coffee is "so hot that, if spilled, it could cause third degree burns, which would burn through skin and down to the muscle in less than three seconds" then why dosen't it burn through the lining of the esophagus and into the muscle in the time that it's being swallowed?
If it can cause third degree burns in less than three seconds, then it should cause second degree burns in even less time than that, so why didn't Mickey Dee's have lots of people running around with blisters on their tounges?
"Above all, it will have to take the control of industry and of all branches of production out of the hands of mutually competing individuals, and instead institute a system in which all these branches of production are operated by society as a whole -- that is, for the common account, according to a common plan, and with the participation of all members of society.
It will, in other words, abolish competition and replace it with association.
Moreover, since the management of industry by individuals necessarily implies private property, and since competition is in reality merely the manner and form in which the control of industry by private property owners expresses itself, it follows that private property cannot be separated from competition and the individual management of industry. Private property must, therefore, be abolished and in its place must come the common utilization of all instruments of production and the distribution of all products according to common agreement -- in a word, what is called the communal ownership of goods.
In fact, the abolition of private property is, doubtless, the shortest and most significant way to characterize the revolution in the whole social order which has been made necessary by the development of industry -- and for this reason it is rightly advanced by communists as their main demand."
The Principles of Communism
Frederick Engels
October-November 1847
Now maybe you have a clue about what Communism is, so tell me how you can have this kind of control without a totalitarian group backing it up.
Just How are you going to do this witjout power?
If Free Software was Communist it would have central planning like Communist economies. The Central Software Comitee would decide which efforts were going to be persued and assign resources to meet those goals, and ban compeating and privately owned software.
A Communist economy can't exist without a Totalitarin government to enforce it's economic decrees.
Ending the confusion.
Communism is a subset of totalitarism, just like Coca-Cola is a subset of soft drinks.
Sagan isn't the only person to perform Mars Jars experaments. The results have been consistant over the past 30 years.