Let's see... On the US side, we have 10 dead (Apollo 1, Challenger) or so, and maybe 5 more or so if you include plane crashes and such, while the Soviets had around 170 total dead from such spectacular disasters as The Nedelin Catastrophe.
Even if you include the nuclear programs of both countries in the death toll, I'm still pretty sure the US would have a hard time matching the Soviet death toll.
"Yess.... the left == communists. That's right...."
IIRC, they've got it right. The extreme left of the political scale is communism, and the extreme right is facism. Which explains why the US was so concerned with "leftist guerillas" in the 1980's.
The irony, of course, is the way the extreme left and extreme right resemble each other...
They wouldn't need to. Unlike the USA or former USSR, the Chinese don't have observation stations all around the Earth to keep in contact with their taikonauts when they're not over China. In order to compensate, they have a few specialized frigates (or are they cruisers?) with communications gear that's only useful for talking with spacecraft. Whenever these ships leave port, you can bet foreign spy satellites (even the commercial ones) take note of it.
Even more damning is the way their launches fly right into NORAD territory.
"Or would they wait and see if it were successful first?"
I'm not sure when the People's Daily is allowed to publish information on Shenzhou launches, but the pattern seems to be that Chinese launches are all over the US press either right before or right after launch.
They could try denying that somebody was aboard, but anybody with a decent radio would be able to find out the truth.
"anyone know what the Chinese version of astronaut/cosmonaut would be?)"
The Chinese government refers to them as "yuhangyuan," but the Western press has taken to calling them "taikonauts."
"kick the USA into being more ambitious about the manned space program? "
Probably not until they do something that seems to intrude on US pride, like, say, that lunar landing they say they can achieve by 2005. Yeah, that 2005 deadline is probably too ambitious, but not as ambitious as you might think. The Encyclopedia Astronautica has this interesting article on their lunar plans.
In short, instead of building a super-heavy lifter (Saturn V, N1), they intend to launch the taikonauts and lunar landing equipment on two different rockets, to meet up together in orbit. Whether they can figure out docking in orbit is another question entirely...
"The US did all of its space work that they told you about in the open. Get it? Everything you know about is in the category of "things you know about", yeah, sure -- but so what?!"
Contrary to a certain old James Bond movie, it's a real bitch to hide a space launch. About the only man-made phenomena that's brighter or noisier than a launch is a nuclear blast (similar amount of energy involved for the larger rockets). Have you ever seen a man-made sunrise?
They're visible from most of Florida and good chunks of Georgia (including populous cities like Orlando and Savannah). They go right over international waters (giving interested parties like the Soviets the ability to sit and watch them up close). The ony option the USAF and NASA has to cover up the launches from Cape Canaveral is to neglect to tell the press what the payload was.
"Yahoo's decision not to sell porn is a victory for freedom: consumers' freedom to boycott businesses whose moralities they do not share and whose ethics they cannot abide. "
Um... they were selling for what, three days? That, coupled with how... ah... "verile" the porn industry is on the web seems to suggest that this wasn't a boycott, but more likely mafia-like pressure tactics by the Moral Minority.
Hell, I'm willing to bet they made several thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in the brief time they sold porn.
"Never forget what power the individual consumer has in charting the path that corporations must take."
Hey! Don't go blaming me for Microsoft!
"The Constitution left the power of regulating corporations not with the federal government"
United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8, third paragraph:
The Congress shall have the power... to regulate commerce... among the several states(.)
"nor with the state governments"
Louisiana State Senate Rules of Order, Rule 13.4, Section 2, Subsection e:
(The) Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee (shall handle)... all matters relating to corporations.
"It is that constitutional grant that allows us to oppose pornography with such fervent power."
United States Constitution, Amendment I:
Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech
Louisiana State Constitution, Article I, Section 7:
No law shall curtail or restrain the freedom of speech or of the press. Every person may speak, write, and publish his sentiments on any subject(.)
Sure, I was using the examples of the state I'm currently in, but I have the strong notion that this is typical throughout the US. At any rate, you were saying?
"Isn't this exactly what I'm saying, God is not confined to time, therefore He could do anything, and everything all at once?"
Rule #1: There is no such thing as simultaneous. If you show me two things that happen at the same time, I can accelerate to an appreciable fraction of the speed of light and show you that they didn't. And vice versa.
A quick and dirty example would be the photon. For a particle traveling at the speed of light, everything is simultaneous. And I do mean everything, including the photon's creation and destruction. From the photon's perspective, it didn't really exist, since it was created and destroyed at exactly the same time. However, for us "tardyons" (things that move slower than light), photons really and truly exist, and have been known to have life spans measured in billions of years as they travel across the universe into our eyes.
Also, saying that a fifth-dimensional object (omnipotent being or otherwise) doesn't have to deal with the other four dimensions is like saying that we, as three-dimensional objects, don't have to deal with any of the other two. My waistband suggests otherwise.
"Quit trying to confine my definition of an infinite God to your own existence, for you cannot adequately explain something which is infinite with your finite being."
At best, we have a high probability of being finite, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Theorem being what it is... Perhaps you should stop trying to differentiate between the finite and the infinite so much.
"Explainable phenomena?" When was the last time you looked at quantum mechanics? By no stretch of the imagination is it explainable. Predictable? Yes. Explainable? Oh, hell no.
"If Burger King have offices/stores in the US (as they patently do), they should register the burgerking.co.us domain. "
That means that, if they operate in 47 countries, they need to host 47 sites (which means taking up 47 different IPs), each physically located in the country in question (which should make mirroring kinda fun), and make sure each of those sites comply with 47 different sets of national laws (which means hiring 47 law firms). Sure, this is just a drop in the bucket for Burger King, but what if I want to start my own on-line store that ships internationally? I sure as hell can't afford lawyers for each of the 200+ countries on the globe today.
Simplifying management alone should be enough reason to let some entities continue to operate in an international namespace.
"The bit about needing county and state is a little silly."
Why? The majority of the laws that affect websites are not at the federal level. Hate/obscene material is regulated by the states. Taxes are levied by the states. Corporations are goverened by state laws (why do you think almost every US bank is based out of Delaware?). If an entity needs to conform to zoning laws in order to publish a certain kind of website, then they have to worry about local (city, county, whatever) laws. All the federal government can do is regulate interstate commerce to some degree.
The Tenth Ammendment makes the problem of juggling interstate naming issues almost as complicated s juggling international ones.
"I have to say, it's a beautiful city. Certainly more architecturally beautiful than anything Canada has to offer"
Having been born and raised in Maryland, I'd have to say that you either didn't wander ten feet off of Pennsylvania Avenue, or (more likely) you're full of crap.
"often simply because it doesn't have the means to create them"
Then what does India have that Canada doesn't? A few more hundreds of millions of poor people? Two nuclear rivals across their borders?
I'm sorry, all Canada would need to build their own successful space launch facilities would be a little land further south, either from another Commonwealth country, or another NAFTA member.
Though they can probably do better, Canada is doing extremely well in the realm of space exploration, especially considering the fact that they don't have their own space launch facilities (like the ESA, Japan, China, India...).
If anybody should be ashamed of their space program, it should be the EU. I'm sorry, but any organization that has the GDPs of the UK, France, and Germany under their belt should be able to beat the Chinese to orbit. If they can afford to compete with the US in the defense industry (France being the #1 exporter of weapons and all, and also the only other country to operate nuclear supercarriers), then they should think about spending a little more on space exploration.
"I would like to keep it that way. Armstrong's lunar vacation didn't do anything for the human race "
Technology capable of allowing a human being to survive (if not thrive) in space or on a different world is as signifigant a technological advancement as fire or clothing. It is the ability to survive. It isn't a matter of money, but a matter of evolution.
"Hundreds of millions of dollars that could easily be saving the lives of"
And exploring and developing space doesn't save lives? One-half of every human being that has ever lived is alive today. There are 6 billion people living on the Earth today, and that number continues to grow exponentially. The size of the human population is the main cause of ecological damage to the Earth hands down. If we end the 21st century without permanent extraterrestrial settlements, there will be three (and only three) solutions to get the world's population down to a reasonable number:
1.) World War III
2.) Systematic genocide
3.) Worldwide disease/famine
Waiting until the problem is upon us before spending money on a solution is not a reasonable or realistic solution. Compare the global population of 1961 to today, and keep in mind that it has taken us that long to get around to the ISS.
Not to mention, Earth is due to get smacked again by Flaming Kinetic Death (TM) any time now, be it asteroid, comet, or that gigantic volcano under Yellowstone. Focusing the world's resources into trying to emulate Scandinavia won't stop that. SAAB planes, Volvo cars, Nokia cell phones... If we're susceptible to the same fate as the dinosaurs, how can we really claim to be more advanced? We won't even be a footnote in galactic history because there'll be nobody left to take note of us.
If "nationalistic nonsense" is what is required to save us as a species, then so be it. Those of you who would rather remain Earth-bound can take solace that you'll be remembered in the history books of those of us that have moved on. Or wake up in a cold sweat as you realize that our version of history will be all that survives, depending on your personal outlook...
You say George II, and I think King George II and think that you might have some interesting/humorous American Revolution jokes or Canada-bashing, but NOOOoooo...
1.) This will be the first time Canada has had an astronaut spacewalk. This will NOT be the first Canadian in space. Marc Garneau appears to be the first Canadian in space, having flown aboard Challenger in 1984.
2.) This is not the first time a non-American has flown aboard the shuttle. See above point.
3.) This is not the first time a non-American or non-Soviet/Russian has performed a spacewalk. I'm not sure about earlier examples, but Thomas Reiter (German/ESA) performed a spacewalk outside of Mir in late 1995.
3.) Canada is not the only country to hitch a ride on the shuttle. Cosmonauts have flown aboard the shuttle (Sergei Krikalev, 1994), ESA representatives (Ulf Merbold, 1983), and even Mexico has hitched a ride (Neri Vela, 1985).
4.) Canada is #3 as far as putting people into space (behind Russia/CIS and the USA, obviously). All this means is that their total of 8 astronauts edges out Japan's 5. France and Germany seem to be tied for fifth with 4 each (the ESA has 11 total). To put this into perspective, as of 31 October 2000, there have been 397 people in orbit.
So yes, this is the first time that there'll be a spacesuit with a Canadian flag on the shoulder, and yes, this will install the latest and greatest Canadarm (complete with Slinky-like motion), but that's where the historical signifigance ends. I'm not trying to downplay the moment for the Canadians, I'm just trying to set the record straight. Some of the posts here seem to suggest that Canada will beat out China as the third space-faring nation.
Re:Similarites don't mean the same thing
on
Robo Sapiens
·
· Score: 1
homo = man
robo = robot
sapien = thinking
So "robo sapien" is "thinking robot." Looks fine to me...
"I have come to memorize the sections I most often use "
... which is all well and good as long as you only visit those sections. The beauty of the generalized (".com") namespaces is that, when trying to find new information, you don't have to waste time with a search engine to try to find out what country (or state, province, county, etc.) the corporation/organization/person is based out of.
Let's say, for some reason, I wanted information about Burger King. Under the current system, I'd just type in "burgerking.com" and see what comes up. Odds are, it'd be what I was looking for. What your suggesting, though, requires a guess as to what country it's based in. Since Burger King is a fast food joint, and most fast food joints seem to be American, I'd be tempted to try "burgerking.us." I'd then find out the hard way that it's not an American company (even though they're all over the US), and then I'd have to go off to a search engine to find out what it is.
If I need to go to a search engine to find out where any new page is, then there is almost no reason for using DNS to begin with. Needing to know information about a company before finding information out about a company is circular. I fail to see how this would make more sense than just abandoning DNS for the raw IP.
What state would you guess/. is hosted out of? C'mon, you've got a good 1:50 chance of guessing right...
"Yes. Having to think is still a required part of life."
... he said from his computer...
The thinking your asking for, though, would be like getting rid of all the card catalogs in all the libraries and expect any and all library patrons to have the Dewy Decimal System memorized. It's redundant, time-consuming, and easily solved.
Um... no. Matter and energy is a bunch of waves. If everything were granular, Fourier analysis wouldn't be anywhere near as important (or as time-consuming) as it is.
"ICANN should get rid of.com,.net,.edu,.gov,.org, and.mil. They are dinosaurs of a bygone era just.arpa. "
But, like the dinosaurs, it will take nothing less than a comet to get rid of all those thousands of.coms.
"Only country codes should remain.uk,.au,.jp,.us (yes, you blokes have.us so why now use it?) "
Because, for some odd reason, we're not allowed to JUST use ".us" We also have to put in the state codes, and often even the county. For example, if we want the website for the government of Harford County, Maryland, we have to go to the URL http://www.co.ha.md.us/ If you want Baltimore County instead, replace the H with a B.
Can you imagine how confusing that would be for nation-wide businesses? To find out information about a credit card or a bank, you have to remember what county in Delaware they're incorporated. Wal-Mart.com? Nope, you'll have to go figure out what county in Arkansas their central offices are. Boeing would have to change their URL when they move from Seattle. And these are just the lucky examples when I can guess what state they're in.
Not even the USPS requires you to know what county the other person is in.
"Even the UN is in New York City",
That's not enough. Each burrough is a different county. I don't know about you, but I can't remember which one the UN building is in. I'm pretty sure it's not Manhattan (New York County)... is it Brooklyn (King's County)?
Besides, what happens if you want to go to the one in Switzerland instead?
"And NATO is in Switzerland"
Um... no.
"No one is so important that they need to exist outside of national boundaries. No one."
And what about all the multi-national businesses? Are you saying that if I want to get information on my Panasonic DVD player, I'll need to remembe that they're really Matsushita and they're located in Japan?
And, what's even worse, what happens when the borders change? Countries change their names. Revolutions succeed. Neighbors invade neighbors. Do youy really think somebody like ICANN can keep track of all that?
Perusing the English version (not to be confused with "translation") of the Chinese People's Daily for the opinion from the other side of the fence, and decided to explore a link they had to some info on the USA. It looked awfully familiar to me, and I figured out why: It's copied word-for-word from the USA entry in the CIA's World Factbook. Even the map image is the same, minus the extreme east and west.
This is appearantly true for all the countries they have listed. The People's Daily entry on Japan is copied from the CIA's version.
The REAL clincher, though, is the entry for Taiwan. The People's Republic consider Taiwan to actually be a province of their country, but if you compare the entry in the People's Daily here, and compare the "Location" and "Climate" entries to the same entries in the World Factbook's version, you'll notice that they were practically cut-and-pasted. At least they didn't use the CIA's map...
It's nice to know that American tax dollars are being spent on China's intelligence-gathering efforts.:)
Hmmm... hardware and software companies trying to create a self-perpetuating cycle of planned obsolesence... This sounds an awful lot like what Detroit's Big Three were doing in the 60's and 70's when the Europeans and Japanese came along and ripped them a new one. Sure, it gets you a quick buck in the here and now, but it sets you up to be almost forced out of business in the future.
What happens when us tech-junkie Americans end up requiring a 10 GHz chip just to run the latest knock-off of WordPerfect, while the medium- to low-tech world (with coders using nothing but assembly to squeeze every last drop out of their lower-tech stuff) releases something that runs just fine on a 486? Who'll need a $2000 PC when you get better performance on a $200 PDA?
Heck, with computing becoming so important to, well, everything, letting this cycle perpetuate could open big holes to national security in the industrialized nations. Iraq buying up PlayStation 2's has gotten some attention, but what happens when even toasters end up having 600 MHz embedded processors?
Slashdot Mirror
Even if you include the nuclear programs of both countries in the death toll, I'm still pretty sure the US would have a hard time matching the Soviet death toll.
IIRC, they've got it right. The extreme left of the political scale is communism, and the extreme right is facism. Which explains why the US was so concerned with "leftist guerillas" in the 1980's.
The irony, of course, is the way the extreme left and extreme right resemble each other...
They wouldn't need to. Unlike the USA or former USSR, the Chinese don't have observation stations all around the Earth to keep in contact with their taikonauts when they're not over China. In order to compensate, they have a few specialized frigates (or are they cruisers?) with communications gear that's only useful for talking with spacecraft. Whenever these ships leave port, you can bet foreign spy satellites (even the commercial ones) take note of it.
Even more damning is the way their launches fly right into NORAD territory.
"Or would they wait and see if it were successful first?"
I'm not sure when the People's Daily is allowed to publish information on Shenzhou launches, but the pattern seems to be that Chinese launches are all over the US press either right before or right after launch.
They could try denying that somebody was aboard, but anybody with a decent radio would be able to find out the truth.
"anyone know what the Chinese version of astronaut/cosmonaut would be?)"
The Chinese government refers to them as "yuhangyuan," but the Western press has taken to calling them "taikonauts."
"kick the USA into being more ambitious about the manned space program? "
Probably not until they do something that seems to intrude on US pride, like, say, that lunar landing they say they can achieve by 2005. Yeah, that 2005 deadline is probably too ambitious, but not as ambitious as you might think. The Encyclopedia Astronautica has this interesting article on their lunar plans.
In short, instead of building a super-heavy lifter (Saturn V, N1), they intend to launch the taikonauts and lunar landing equipment on two different rockets, to meet up together in orbit. Whether they can figure out docking in orbit is another question entirely...
Contrary to a certain old James Bond movie, it's a real bitch to hide a space launch. About the only man-made phenomena that's brighter or noisier than a launch is a nuclear blast (similar amount of energy involved for the larger rockets). Have you ever seen a man-made sunrise?
They're visible from most of Florida and good chunks of Georgia (including populous cities like Orlando and Savannah). They go right over international waters (giving interested parties like the Soviets the ability to sit and watch them up close). The ony option the USAF and NASA has to cover up the launches from Cape Canaveral is to neglect to tell the press what the payload was.
Don't worry, you weren't the only one.
Um... they were selling for what, three days? That, coupled with how... ah... "verile" the porn industry is on the web seems to suggest that this wasn't a boycott, but more likely mafia-like pressure tactics by the Moral Minority.
Hell, I'm willing to bet they made several thousands or tens of thousands of dollars in the brief time they sold porn.
"Never forget what power the individual consumer has in charting the path that corporations must take."
Hey! Don't go blaming me for Microsoft!
"The Constitution left the power of regulating corporations not with the federal government"
United States Constitution, Article I, Section 8, third paragraph:
"nor with the state governments"
Louisiana State Senate Rules of Order, Rule 13.4, Section 2, Subsection e:
"It is that constitutional grant that allows us to oppose pornography with such fervent power."
United States Constitution, Amendment I:
Louisiana State Constitution, Article I, Section 7:
Sure, I was using the examples of the state I'm currently in, but I have the strong notion that this is typical throughout the US. At any rate, you were saying?
"as any good Christian girl should be..."
Ah, but abortion doesn't affect good Christian girls, because good Christian girls don't have sex outside of wedlock.
"I'm a teen mother. "
Ouch! Looks like you just shot your "good Christian girl" title right in the foot!
"I should know what kind of pressures can be on someone to have an abortion."
Like the desire to get your "good Christian girl" title back?
"Just think of what my wonderful Christian father would think of me! What would Jesus think of me?"
Um... the same ol' Christian love that's supposed to be a constant? Unless, of course, they're more of the Inquisition-style "Christians"...
"Besides, what DO you think Jesus would do?"
My guess would be the usual forgiveness bit. Or the eternal damnation bit. All depends on what psalm you're reading from.
Rule #1: There is no such thing as simultaneous. If you show me two things that happen at the same time, I can accelerate to an appreciable fraction of the speed of light and show you that they didn't. And vice versa.
A quick and dirty example would be the photon. For a particle traveling at the speed of light, everything is simultaneous. And I do mean everything, including the photon's creation and destruction. From the photon's perspective, it didn't really exist, since it was created and destroyed at exactly the same time. However, for us "tardyons" (things that move slower than light), photons really and truly exist, and have been known to have life spans measured in billions of years as they travel across the universe into our eyes.
Also, saying that a fifth-dimensional object (omnipotent being or otherwise) doesn't have to deal with the other four dimensions is like saying that we, as three-dimensional objects, don't have to deal with any of the other two. My waistband suggests otherwise.
"Quit trying to confine my definition of an infinite God to your own existence, for you cannot adequately explain something which is infinite with your finite being."
At best, we have a high probability of being finite, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Theorem being what it is... Perhaps you should stop trying to differentiate between the finite and the infinite so much.
"Explainable phenomena?" When was the last time you looked at quantum mechanics? By no stretch of the imagination is it explainable. Predictable? Yes. Explainable? Oh, hell no.
That means that, if they operate in 47 countries, they need to host 47 sites (which means taking up 47 different IPs), each physically located in the country in question (which should make mirroring kinda fun), and make sure each of those sites comply with 47 different sets of national laws (which means hiring 47 law firms). Sure, this is just a drop in the bucket for Burger King, but what if I want to start my own on-line store that ships internationally? I sure as hell can't afford lawyers for each of the 200+ countries on the globe today.
Simplifying management alone should be enough reason to let some entities continue to operate in an international namespace.
"The bit about needing county and state is a little silly."
Why? The majority of the laws that affect websites are not at the federal level. Hate/obscene material is regulated by the states. Taxes are levied by the states. Corporations are goverened by state laws (why do you think almost every US bank is based out of Delaware?). If an entity needs to conform to zoning laws in order to publish a certain kind of website, then they have to worry about local (city, county, whatever) laws. All the federal government can do is regulate interstate commerce to some degree.
The Tenth Ammendment makes the problem of juggling interstate naming issues almost as complicated s juggling international ones.
Having been born and raised in Maryland, I'd have to say that you either didn't wander ten feet off of Pennsylvania Avenue, or (more likely) you're full of crap.
"often simply because it doesn't have the means to create them"
Then what does India have that Canada doesn't? A few more hundreds of millions of poor people? Two nuclear rivals across their borders?
I'm sorry, all Canada would need to build their own successful space launch facilities would be a little land further south, either from another Commonwealth country, or another NAFTA member.
Though they can probably do better, Canada is doing extremely well in the realm of space exploration, especially considering the fact that they don't have their own space launch facilities (like the ESA, Japan, China, India...).
If anybody should be ashamed of their space program, it should be the EU. I'm sorry, but any organization that has the GDPs of the UK, France, and Germany under their belt should be able to beat the Chinese to orbit. If they can afford to compete with the US in the defense industry (France being the #1 exporter of weapons and all, and also the only other country to operate nuclear supercarriers), then they should think about spending a little more on space exploration.
"I would like to keep it that way. Armstrong's lunar vacation didn't do anything for the human race "
Technology capable of allowing a human being to survive (if not thrive) in space or on a different world is as signifigant a technological advancement as fire or clothing. It is the ability to survive. It isn't a matter of money, but a matter of evolution.
"Hundreds of millions of dollars that could easily be saving the lives of"
And exploring and developing space doesn't save lives? One-half of every human being that has ever lived is alive today. There are 6 billion people living on the Earth today, and that number continues to grow exponentially. The size of the human population is the main cause of ecological damage to the Earth hands down. If we end the 21st century without permanent extraterrestrial settlements, there will be three (and only three) solutions to get the world's population down to a reasonable number:
Waiting until the problem is upon us before spending money on a solution is not a reasonable or realistic solution. Compare the global population of 1961 to today, and keep in mind that it has taken us that long to get around to the ISS.Not to mention, Earth is due to get smacked again by Flaming Kinetic Death (TM) any time now, be it asteroid, comet, or that gigantic volcano under Yellowstone. Focusing the world's resources into trying to emulate Scandinavia won't stop that. SAAB planes, Volvo cars, Nokia cell phones... If we're susceptible to the same fate as the dinosaurs, how can we really claim to be more advanced? We won't even be a footnote in galactic history because there'll be nobody left to take note of us.
If "nationalistic nonsense" is what is required to save us as a species, then so be it. Those of you who would rather remain Earth-bound can take solace that you'll be remembered in the history books of those of us that have moved on. Or wake up in a cold sweat as you realize that our version of history will be all that survives, depending on your personal outlook...
You say George II, and I think King George II and think that you might have some interesting/humorous American Revolution jokes or Canada-bashing, but NOOOoooo...
You mean 1986.
2.) This is not the first time a non-American has flown aboard the shuttle. See above point.
3.) This is not the first time a non-American or non-Soviet/Russian has performed a spacewalk. I'm not sure about earlier examples, but Thomas Reiter (German/ESA) performed a spacewalk outside of Mir in late 1995.
3.) Canada is not the only country to hitch a ride on the shuttle. Cosmonauts have flown aboard the shuttle (Sergei Krikalev, 1994), ESA representatives (Ulf Merbold, 1983), and even Mexico has hitched a ride (Neri Vela, 1985).
4.) Canada is #3 as far as putting people into space (behind Russia/CIS and the USA, obviously). All this means is that their total of 8 astronauts edges out Japan's 5. France and Germany seem to be tied for fifth with 4 each (the ESA has 11 total). To put this into perspective, as of 31 October 2000, there have been 397 people in orbit.
So yes, this is the first time that there'll be a spacesuit with a Canadian flag on the shoulder, and yes, this will install the latest and greatest Canadarm (complete with Slinky-like motion), but that's where the historical signifigance ends. I'm not trying to downplay the moment for the Canadians, I'm just trying to set the record straight. Some of the posts here seem to suggest that Canada will beat out China as the third space-faring nation.
robo = robot
sapien = thinking
So "robo sapien" is "thinking robot." Looks fine to me...
Let's compare the average train wreck to the average plane crash, shall we?
"I have come to memorize the sections I most often use "
Let's say, for some reason, I wanted information about Burger King. Under the current system, I'd just type in "burgerking.com" and see what comes up. Odds are, it'd be what I was looking for. What your suggesting, though, requires a guess as to what country it's based in. Since Burger King is a fast food joint, and most fast food joints seem to be American, I'd be tempted to try "burgerking.us." I'd then find out the hard way that it's not an American company (even though they're all over the US), and then I'd have to go off to a search engine to find out what it is.
If I need to go to a search engine to find out where any new page is, then there is almost no reason for using DNS to begin with. Needing to know information about a company before finding information out about a company is circular. I fail to see how this would make more sense than just abandoning DNS for the raw IP.
What state would you guess /. is hosted out of? C'mon, you've got a good 1:50 chance of guessing right...
... and yet you still come here...
The thinking your asking for, though, would be like getting rid of all the card catalogs in all the libraries and expect any and all library patrons to have the Dewy Decimal System memorized. It's redundant, time-consuming, and easily solved.
Think smart, not hard.
Nova. Enough said.
Um... no. Matter and energy is a bunch of waves. If everything were granular, Fourier analysis wouldn't be anywhere near as important (or as time-consuming) as it is.
If digital were the rule, it wouldn't be trying so hard to emulate analog.
But, like the dinosaurs, it will take nothing less than a comet to get rid of all those thousands of .coms.
"Only country codes should remain .uk, .au, .jp, .us (yes, you blokes have .us so why now use it?) "
Because, for some odd reason, we're not allowed to JUST use ".us" We also have to put in the state codes, and often even the county. For example, if we want the website for the government of Harford County, Maryland, we have to go to the URL http://www.co.ha.md.us/ If you want Baltimore County instead, replace the H with a B.
Can you imagine how confusing that would be for nation-wide businesses? To find out information about a credit card or a bank, you have to remember what county in Delaware they're incorporated. Wal-Mart.com? Nope, you'll have to go figure out what county in Arkansas their central offices are. Boeing would have to change their URL when they move from Seattle. And these are just the lucky examples when I can guess what state they're in.
Not even the USPS requires you to know what county the other person is in.
"Even the UN is in New York City", That's not enough. Each burrough is a different county. I don't know about you, but I can't remember which one the UN building is in. I'm pretty sure it's not Manhattan (New York County)... is it Brooklyn (King's County)?
Besides, what happens if you want to go to the one in Switzerland instead?
"And NATO is in Switzerland"
Um... no.
"No one is so important that they need to exist outside of national boundaries. No one."
And what about all the multi-national businesses? Are you saying that if I want to get information on my Panasonic DVD player, I'll need to remembe that they're really Matsushita and they're located in Japan?
And, what's even worse, what happens when the borders change? Countries change their names. Revolutions succeed. Neighbors invade neighbors. Do youy really think somebody like ICANN can keep track of all that?
This is appearantly true for all the countries they have listed. The People's Daily entry on Japan is copied from the CIA's version.
The REAL clincher, though, is the entry for Taiwan. The People's Republic consider Taiwan to actually be a province of their country, but if you compare the entry in the People's Daily here, and compare the "Location" and "Climate" entries to the same entries in the World Factbook's version, you'll notice that they were practically cut-and-pasted. At least they didn't use the CIA's map...
It's nice to know that American tax dollars are being spent on China's intelligence-gathering efforts. :)
What happens when us tech-junkie Americans end up requiring a 10 GHz chip just to run the latest knock-off of WordPerfect, while the medium- to low-tech world (with coders using nothing but assembly to squeeze every last drop out of their lower-tech stuff) releases something that runs just fine on a 486? Who'll need a $2000 PC when you get better performance on a $200 PDA?
Heck, with computing becoming so important to, well, everything, letting this cycle perpetuate could open big holes to national security in the industrialized nations. Iraq buying up PlayStation 2's has gotten some attention, but what happens when even toasters end up having 600 MHz embedded processors?