"I found out that it was possible to download and even install RedHat
Linux from the Internet for free, through illegal so called "FTP
mirror" servers!"
blink
Is this guy for real?
Assuming the worst-case scenario that you really are completely dense (which is quite possible, sadly enough), let me assure you that it is 100% legal to download RedHat, as long as the people you're downloading from also allow you access to the source code. RedHat makes their money on providing support services. Try reading the liscense some time.
"The people behind Linux deserves to be
paid for their hard work! "
I agree, but that doesn't mean that the people behind Linux aren't offering the code for free. I like how you're trying to decide for them what is illegal and what is not. Are you one of those people who insists that open source is the death of intellectual property and capitalism in general?
"Why do you think Bill Gates of Microsoft (the creator of MS-DOS and
Windows) has become a wealthy man, when Linus Torvalds of RedHat (the
creator of Linux) hasn't? "
Um... well, aside from the fact that Gates created neither, and that Torvalds has jack to do with RedHat beyond being in charge of kernel development (for ALL Linux distributions), I'd say it's because Torvalds is a programmer while Gates is a businessman (who couldn't code his way out of a paper bag).
"Even though there must be millions of dollars lost because of this
murky business"
"I've notices one particular thing: the more naked the girl in the picture is, the higher the rating."
Now here's a vicious cycle for you. Who's to blame, the men for wanting to see skin, or the women who are willing to go that far to please the men?
The really surprising thing I'm finding out about this site is that my taste in women doesn't quite fit with the "norm."
"Women, in order to get higher ratings, send in the sleeziest picture of themselves they can find. Others, who care not for baring themselves to hundreds of hungry men, are slammed in the moderation system, their self esteem ruined. "
First off, your generalizing a bit too much. Of the ones I've seen, many of the higher-ranking pics have nothing below the neck.
Also, you're assuming that the women posting on here are actually staking their self-esteem on it. Sure, some probably are, but others probably post their pics "because it's there." And you're also assuming that the women that have 1's and 2's haven't already been emotionally beaten down by the world around them before posting the pic.
"Oogling over half naked women, and trashing the often more attractive, healthier, counterparts?"
As far as I can tell, all this page does is allow someone's looks to be rated, that's it. Those who are either voting or are being voted on that think that looks are the big thing in the equation are in for a rude surprise (unless they're utterly dense). I think looks are harped on mostly because they're the easiest (comparativley) feature to judge or change. You can't go to a plastic surgeon and get a new personality, be less stuck-up, more friendly...
Of course, I'm speaking from the point-of-view of the jaded cynic who's known enough attractive-yet-stuck-up women that it's hard for me to even consider the type physically attractive...:)
Seriously though, if you're talking about anything outside of LEO, the only branch of the military that has experience with sending groups of people out into the middle of nowhere, self-sufficient for weeks and months at at time is the Navy. While the X-33 fits fairly well into the realm of the Air Force in my eyes, going much beyond the Moon in the hands of the USAF is like sending the Coast Guard to the Persian Gulf or South China Sea.
Of course, the Air Force and Navy have been at each others throats over aerospace since the inception of the Air Force. Long range bombers vs. carrier-based fighter-bombers. Minutemans vs. Tridents. Both had to scrap their own space flight projects when Congress told them that they'll be using NASA's shuttle instead. The USN currently has the majority of fighters, but who knows how long that will last. So, figuring out this whole mess will probably take another 50 years.:)
"William Bourne, a British mathematician, drew plans for a submarine in 1578. "
But it took the CSS Hunley to be practical enough to sink an enemy ship. Though the Turtle did try in the American Revolution...
"As early as 1775, electricians had been experimenting with telecommunication... "
Then it's a real shame that nobody actually built one, then, until Samuel Morse set up the first telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore.
"As early as 1775, electricians had been experimenting with telecommunication. "
It's not my fault that they don't have two oceans that needed connecting and 3000-4000 miles of land to play with, not to mention all those hostile borders...
"5.) The blast furance "
My bad. All I could remember was that there was a B word in there. What I was trying to remember was "Bessemer Converter"
"Alexander Graham Bell, who emmigrated from the US to Canada to live in Nova Scotia "
Well, there's no accounting for taste, but Elisha Gray suffered from no such mental illness.:)
"Impressive, but just engineering... "
I'm failing to see where you draw the line.
"Doubtful, as NitroGlycerine was used to power shell delivery in the late 19th Century"
Nitroglycerine does not a rocket make. You require an oxydizer, which Goddard made sure to include in his designs.
"I didn't believe that Leonardo Davinci was American. Hmmm, shows what I know."
Aside from the fact that DaVinci's sketches weren't aerodynamicly sound, they were just sketches. If ink-on-paper counts, then you'll have to credit Tesla with the radio.
"Ever wonder why on a map of the moon, many of the names are in Russian? "
Since the near side is all in Latin, I assume you mean the far side
Hrrmmm... Oppenheimer, Spencer Jones, Campbell, Robertson... yes, all very Russian names! How foolish of me to not have noticed before...
"Given Al Gore vs. Tim Berners Lee, I'll take the boys at CERN"
... we declare this "Yuri Gagarin Day?" We could all wear red to commemorate the occasion.
Humorous and useless fact of the day: The US has never done a manned space launch on the 4th of July. The Soviets, on the other hand, did that several times, even twice in one day.
"If they were truly rational at NASA, they would look at launch costs of $22,000 USD a kilo, and conclude that the lighter the astronaut they launch, the more scientific payloads they could carry, and the more consumables they could carry, thus allowing longer duration missions. "
NASA's astronaut corps maintains gender-independent height and weight requirements
"And who would the lightest astronauts be? Women and Asians, that's who."
1.) If you're a woman and you don't qualify, you don't get hired
2.) To qualify, you either need an engineering degree, or be a pilot with X-thousand hours of flight time in a jet with X-thousand pounds of thrust, depending on what you want to do
3.) The gender ratios in those fields are about 4:1 and 8:1, respectively. I don't know about the breakdown by race (though you're being a tad racist in thinking that all Asians are by definition small)
Therefore
You're blaming NASA for a problem caused by society as a whole. NASA desparately wants to hire more women to get rid of the "boys club" image that you and many others think of.
"As an American taxpayer, I am outraged at this inefficiency"
If you want to solve the problem, go out and convince more women to study math in high school and pursue technical degrees in college. There's not much your Congresscritter can do about that.
"This may be its hour in the sun, but it is not nearly as creative as other nations were at their peaks, like Britain, Spain, France and Greece. What has America done that compare?"
Just the technology? Let's see...
1.) The submarine
2.) The metal-hulled ship
3.) The telegraph
4.) The Trans-Continental Railroad
5.) The blast furance
6.) The skyscraper
7.) The radio
8.) The telephone
9.) The light bulb
10.) The suspension bridge
11.) The Panama Canal
12.) The airplane
13.) The moving assembly line
14.) The liquid-fueled rocket
15.) The nuclear reactor
16.) The helicopter
17.) The integrated circuit
18.) Lunar landings
19.) The internet
20.) The personal computer
Is that enough?
"As a woman, I am attacked because of my gender far more here than anywhere else I have been."
You can compare Mississippi to Denmark, and I can compare California to Afghanistan. I think you haven't traveled the country or the world as much as you imply.
"I would like to see america and the males of america adopt a position of humility"
If you're going to complain about stereotyping, you should first make sure you're not doing it yourself.
Re:Good little countries?? From an American?
on
Mir 2
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· Score: 1
Because, when all is said and done, the Soviets were reasonable about things. Reasonable enough that "mutually assured destruction" worked. MAD requires that neither leadership is willing to sacrifice large numbers of their population/economy/military in order to nuke the other guy. The best defense was still a good offense. No "kamikaze" mentality is allowed in this.
The problem arises when governments that really don't give a damn get "The Bomb." We'll use Iraq as the perpetual example. First, any reasonable despot (if there is such a thing) should have realized that even the US alone would pretty much lay waste to his mility and his country. However, Hussien was more than willing to go to war with a UN coalition including most of the world powers, so long as he's safe and sound in his little underground bunker.
The sanctions against Iraq are all over the news, but they would have worked if Hussien actually cared about his population more than his own hold on power.
As long as he (and governments like him) can guarantee his own survival, I really don't see how MAD would work on someone with that kind of outlook.
If relying on the ability to destroy Baghdad/Pyongyang/whatever isn't enough to ensure the safety of our population, then we're forced to take steps that take away their ability to nuke New York/Los Angeles/whatever.
Re:Good little countries?? From an American?
on
Mir 2
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· Score: 1
It's for use against ballistic missiles. Missiles capable of hitting something within 100 miles is far from ballistic.
"And so nobody uses them! Whoever at MS thinks Joe User will stick to 56kbp is smoking crack. Everyone will simply use Winamp or one of the hundreds of other MP3 tools. If MS wants to make sure nobody uses its software, this is a great way to do it!"
You seem to have missed what you also posted:
"early testers of beta versions of Windows XP already complain that the most popular MP3 recording applications -- which compete with Microsoft's format -- don't seem to function properly"
Why should we build a space station?
on
Mir 2
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· Score: 1
"If anyone has a compelling reason why funds should be sunk into this legacy"
sigh
You mean other than to explore the affects of long-term exposure to the space environment on the human body, and as a platform for launching more complicated missions beyond lunar orbit?
When President Kennedy made that famous moon speech, there was no way short of a time machine he'd be able to say:
We choose to go to the moon not because it is easy, but because we need:
1.) Integrated circuits (it's amazing what happens to computer technology when you wake up one day and realize you NEED to squeeze a UNIVAC into a VW Bug. No Apollo, no internet, no PCs, no scientific calculators, and 4-function calculators still cost as much as a small car.)
2.) Cordless tools (by Craftsman, no less) and the batteries to power them (Need to power your laptop? Would you like NiCd or lead acid?)
3.) Duct tape (hmm... something to plug air leaks... where would this be useful?)
4.) Water Dispalcement formula number 40 (yes, NASA not only invented duct tape, but the anti-duct tape as well)
5.)... and a whole lot of other things
So there's your precious monetary return right there. Stuff we don't even know we need yet. There are just some things we won't invent until we actually "need" them, as opposed to "want" them.
But that's besides the point. Kennedy didn't try to present the whole thing as a sales pitch, nor did he even take the "So we can develop rocket technology to better protect ourselves from the Soviets" approach No, he took the Sir Hillary approach of "Because it's FUCKING THERE!"
There shouldn't need to be any other reason to do this beyond "because we haven't done it yet." I'm sorry, but there are just some things out there that we shouldn't let the accountants figure out for us. It is important for us as a nation and as a species to figure out how to better live and operate in space, and no number of robotic probes will ever be a substitute for a human body and a human mind in microgravity. It is important because, if for no other reason, it's the next step in our development as a species.
If we are unable to maintain a presence in space, if the Chinese show the rest of the world how space stations, lunar landings, and Mars explorations are done, then the US (and any other non-communist government) might as well give up as a nation and as a social experiment. If they are able to demonstrate that an oppressive, single-minded government is able to start out as a distant third and become the leading space-faring nation, thus able to ensure the continuation of its way of life (and life itself), then what good is our open and capitalistic society? We'll be able to watch it all with our precious internet?
If the next multi-gigaton asteroid or comet comes along and we haven't developed interplanetary space flight yet because "it's just not profitable" or because "there's no instant gratification," then we deserve to die off like the dinosaurs we are and let the cockroaches have a go at it.
---
I realize I didn't do anything but promote your "prestige" argument, but there are just times when there are other things that are more valuable and have more meaning than the Almighty Buck (TM). If money should be first and foremost in the minds of those people who are about to try something new, then imagine how much less creativity and advancement there would be in the world. Microsoft wouldn't have to worry about Linux, for one...
If you think your Pentium 4 processor gets hot now, just wait until you shield it against hard radiation and cosmic rays, like all chips in space must be.
Re:Good little countries?? From an American?
on
Mir 2
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· Score: 1
"Which is all the more funny/absurd that China has the capability to send a submarine ~100 miles from US coast and use it to send a missile into the USA.. "
I wouldn't put my worst enemy on a Chinese nuclear submarine. The crew may be able to get as far as you say, and mayb e able to launch, but they won't survive much beyond that, radiation poisoning being what it is.
Besides, the missile shield isn't intended for countries that are capable of that.
"But the service can be a big business boost. For example, my company does a lot of business with Japanese aerospace companies. Be nice to travel to/from Tokyo more quickly!"
So long as they remember to put four engines on the thing. The 777 was another big aerospace "whoops!":)
Firewire, USB, XP can support whatever they want as far as I care, so long as they continue to support old-fashioned 9- and 25-pin serial ports, paralell ports, and MIDI/game ports. Needing to buy a whole new computer for the latest in Windows is expensive enough without having to buy new printers, joysticks, calculator-to-PC cable...
"Constitution: 17 September 1787, effective 4 March 1789"
Of course, if age of the borders is more important than the age of the government, then Japan has 'em beat by 440 years or so, and Ethiopia is so damned old nobody knows.
Anybody who's ever looked at Zophar's Domain (here) in the past two or three years or so knows that there are lots of re-writes and edits of old NES games, from Metroid to Super Mario.
"What most people dont realize is that at the speeds were talking about (mach 7-10) you can do a nice suborbital hop. This means you thrust to say mach 8 in the atmosphere "
There's the problem right there. There would still be booms (or at least lots of noise from the louder engines) near and around the airports. People living near airports won't want it anywhere near them, noise pollution being what it is. That's what killed Concorde.
"1: The P-3 Orion is a plane. Its mission is to spy on people, which is what it was doing at the time of the accident. How is this not a real "spy plane" Its a plane that spys isnt it? "
Using only passive equipment sounds more like "eavesdropping" than "spying" to me. No violation of Chinese airspace (at least before the collision), no active sensors, and, most importantly, no ultra-cool design like the SR-71.:)
"Either the US or China should declare war on the other, already. I'm sick of this crap"
So we should just nuke Los Angeles and Hong Kong and call it a day? Riiiiight...
"It used to be that countries would declare war on each other because of petty rivalries between dukes and princes. Now, it sometimes takes an act of god to get them to go at it."
It also used to require an act of God to wipe a city off the map in one fell swoop. We have the ability to turn China into the world's largest self-lighting parking lot in about an hour or so. China might not be able to answer in kind, they can at least nail Alaska, Hawaii, and parts of the west coast.
"We're spending billions of dollars (a big chunk of our GDP) on national defense. And we never even use it! "
They're used all the time. They're used to make people afraid of pissing us off. Sadam Hussien/Osama bin Laden would have gassed/plagued/nuked a US city by now if Iraq/Afghanistan wasn't just a little worried about becoming the next Carthage.
"Is it because we can't anymore? Bullshit. It's because we're afraid to. It's because we've let ourselves get castrated by the liberal media and their doomsday predictions about what might happen if one nation accidentally steps on the toes of the other. "
Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty conservative, and I'm a big fan of the US nuclear arsenal, but you really don't want a war. Getting into a war with a nuclear power (even if they don't have decent rocket technology) will mean the death of an appreciable percentage of the US civillian population, as well as all sorts economic problems for us and the rest of the world. Consider the fall-out (figuratively speaking) if the Chinese DID nule LA. There goes one of our really big cities, one of our really big ports, and a whole mess of vaporized people who have relatives who vote.
"Can you imagine FDR or Eisenhower letting the Chinese hold our American soldiers hostage like this?"
Gary Powers wasn't only held, but he was even tried by the Soviets.
FDR couldn't do a damnded thing until the Japanese were kind enough to convince Congress and his constituants that something needs to be done.
Even Lincoln let the Confederates get the first shot.
The US is a nation of pacifists. Deal with it. Why do you think we have a civilian government in charge of the military and not vice-versa?
"We must settle for no less than outright war. They think they have the upper hand now, but wait until we give it to them old-fashioned American style. "
As far as I know, "old-fashioned American style" has yet to go up against the ol' Chinese human wave tactic. Except in Korea. And that damned near cost us the penninsula.
"They probably don't even have all those nukes they keep whispering about. Have we ever seen them detonate one? Well have we? NO! They don't exist. "
You've never watched "Trinity and Beyond," have you?
"Once open war is declared, our economy will boom. "
According to witnesses in Hirshima and Nagasaki, there was no real "boom" to be heard. Shockwave travelling faster than sound and all that...
Slashdot Mirror
Yes, but because of Microsoft, more people are fustrated with Windows than with any other operating system. :)
Seriously, no matter your opinion on this fact, it was Windows that really put the PC on the map and in the majority of the households in America.
To butcer a certain Bruce Campbell movie, "Good, bad, I'm the guy with the OS."
Actually, according to the current budget proposal, space spending is going up... as long as it's Mars. No more Pluto-Kuiper Express. sob
Mmmm... kicking Vanilla Ice...
blink
Is this guy for real?
Assuming the worst-case scenario that you really are completely dense (which is quite possible, sadly enough), let me assure you that it is 100% legal to download RedHat, as long as the people you're downloading from also allow you access to the source code. RedHat makes their money on providing support services. Try reading the liscense some time.
"The people behind Linux deserves to be paid for their hard work! "
I agree, but that doesn't mean that the people behind Linux aren't offering the code for free. I like how you're trying to decide for them what is illegal and what is not. Are you one of those people who insists that open source is the death of intellectual property and capitalism in general?
"Why do you think Bill Gates of Microsoft (the creator of MS-DOS and Windows) has become a wealthy man, when Linus Torvalds of RedHat (the creator of Linux) hasn't? "
Um... well, aside from the fact that Gates created neither, and that Torvalds has jack to do with RedHat beyond being in charge of kernel development (for ALL Linux distributions), I'd say it's because Torvalds is a programmer while Gates is a businessman (who couldn't code his way out of a paper bag).
"Even though there must be millions of dollars lost because of this murky business"
It's a business?
Now here's a vicious cycle for you. Who's to blame, the men for wanting to see skin, or the women who are willing to go that far to please the men?
The really surprising thing I'm finding out about this site is that my taste in women doesn't quite fit with the "norm."
"Women, in order to get higher ratings, send in the sleeziest picture of themselves they can find. Others, who care not for baring themselves to hundreds of hungry men, are slammed in the moderation system, their self esteem ruined. "
First off, your generalizing a bit too much. Of the ones I've seen, many of the higher-ranking pics have nothing below the neck.
Also, you're assuming that the women posting on here are actually staking their self-esteem on it. Sure, some probably are, but others probably post their pics "because it's there." And you're also assuming that the women that have 1's and 2's haven't already been emotionally beaten down by the world around them before posting the pic.
"Oogling over half naked women, and trashing the often more attractive, healthier, counterparts?"
As far as I can tell, all this page does is allow someone's looks to be rated, that's it. Those who are either voting or are being voted on that think that looks are the big thing in the equation are in for a rude surprise (unless they're utterly dense). I think looks are harped on mostly because they're the easiest (comparativley) feature to judge or change. You can't go to a plastic surgeon and get a new personality, be less stuck-up, more friendly...
Of course, I'm speaking from the point-of-view of the jaded cynic who's known enough attractive-yet-stuck-up women that it's hard for me to even consider the type physically attractive... :)
Right, wrong, whatever. I see no reason to impose morals onto another person.
"The Fourth Commandment says, 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbours wife'."
As much as I'd like to take a good long look at my neighbor's wife, I'm seriously doubting she's on this site. So I should be in the green, right?
Of course, the Air Force and Navy have been at each others throats over aerospace since the inception of the Air Force. Long range bombers vs. carrier-based fighter-bombers. Minutemans vs. Tridents. Both had to scrap their own space flight projects when Congress told them that they'll be using NASA's shuttle instead. The USN currently has the majority of fighters, but who knows how long that will last. So, figuring out this whole mess will probably take another 50 years. :)
cough Navy cough
But it took the CSS Hunley to be practical enough to sink an enemy ship. Though the Turtle did try in the American Revolution...
"As early as 1775, electricians had been experimenting with telecommunication... "
Then it's a real shame that nobody actually built one, then, until Samuel Morse set up the first telegraph line between Washington and Baltimore.
"As early as 1775, electricians had been experimenting with telecommunication. "
It's not my fault that they don't have two oceans that needed connecting and 3000-4000 miles of land to play with, not to mention all those hostile borders...
"5.) The blast furance "
My bad. All I could remember was that there was a B word in there. What I was trying to remember was "Bessemer Converter"
"Alexander Graham Bell, who emmigrated from the US to Canada to live in Nova Scotia "
Well, there's no accounting for taste, but Elisha Gray suffered from no such mental illness. :)
"Impressive, but just engineering... "
I'm failing to see where you draw the line.
"Doubtful, as NitroGlycerine was used to power shell delivery in the late 19th Century"
Nitroglycerine does not a rocket make. You require an oxydizer, which Goddard made sure to include in his designs.
"I didn't believe that Leonardo Davinci was American. Hmmm, shows what I know."
Aside from the fact that DaVinci's sketches weren't aerodynamicly sound, they were just sketches. If ink-on-paper counts, then you'll have to credit Tesla with the radio.
"Ever wonder why on a map of the moon, many of the names are in Russian? "
Since the near side is all in Latin, I assume you mean the far side
Hrrmmm... Oppenheimer, Spencer Jones, Campbell, Robertson... yes, all very Russian names! How foolish of me to not have noticed before...
"Given Al Gore vs. Tim Berners Lee, I'll take the boys at CERN"
I'll take neither and take ARPANET instead.
Humorous and useless fact of the day: The US has never done a manned space launch on the 4th of July. The Soviets, on the other hand, did that several times, even twice in one day.
Oh, and one more thing: The ESA has never launched a manned mission (Arianne or otherwise), nor does it have any plans to.
NASA's astronaut corps maintains gender-independent height and weight requirements
"And who would the lightest astronauts be? Women and Asians, that's who."
1.) If you're a woman and you don't qualify, you don't get hired
2.) To qualify, you either need an engineering degree, or be a pilot with X-thousand hours of flight time in a jet with X-thousand pounds of thrust, depending on what you want to do
3.) The gender ratios in those fields are about 4:1 and 8:1, respectively. I don't know about the breakdown by race (though you're being a tad racist in thinking that all Asians are by definition small)
Therefore
You're blaming NASA for a problem caused by society as a whole. NASA desparately wants to hire more women to get rid of the "boys club" image that you and many others think of.
"As an American taxpayer, I am outraged at this inefficiency"
If you want to solve the problem, go out and convince more women to study math in high school and pursue technical degrees in college. There's not much your Congresscritter can do about that.
Just the technology? Let's see...
1.) The submarine
2.) The metal-hulled ship
3.) The telegraph
4.) The Trans-Continental Railroad
5.) The blast furance
6.) The skyscraper
7.) The radio
8.) The telephone
9.) The light bulb
10.) The suspension bridge
11.) The Panama Canal
12.) The airplane
13.) The moving assembly line
14.) The liquid-fueled rocket
15.) The nuclear reactor
16.) The helicopter
17.) The integrated circuit
18.) Lunar landings
19.) The internet
20.) The personal computer
Is that enough?
"As a woman, I am attacked because of my gender far more here than anywhere else I have been."
You can compare Mississippi to Denmark, and I can compare California to Afghanistan. I think you haven't traveled the country or the world as much as you imply.
"I would like to see america and the males of america adopt a position of humility"
If you're going to complain about stereotyping, you should first make sure you're not doing it yourself.
The problem arises when governments that really don't give a damn get "The Bomb." We'll use Iraq as the perpetual example. First, any reasonable despot (if there is such a thing) should have realized that even the US alone would pretty much lay waste to his mility and his country. However, Hussien was more than willing to go to war with a UN coalition including most of the world powers, so long as he's safe and sound in his little underground bunker.
The sanctions against Iraq are all over the news, but they would have worked if Hussien actually cared about his population more than his own hold on power.
As long as he (and governments like him) can guarantee his own survival, I really don't see how MAD would work on someone with that kind of outlook.
If relying on the ability to destroy Baghdad/Pyongyang/whatever isn't enough to ensure the safety of our population, then we're forced to take steps that take away their ability to nuke New York/Los Angeles/whatever.
It's for use against ballistic missiles. Missiles capable of hitting something within 100 miles is far from ballistic.
You seem to have missed what you also posted:
"early testers of beta versions of Windows XP already complain that the most popular MP3 recording applications -- which compete with Microsoft's format -- don't seem to function properly"
sigh
You mean other than to explore the affects of long-term exposure to the space environment on the human body, and as a platform for launching more complicated missions beyond lunar orbit?
When President Kennedy made that famous moon speech, there was no way short of a time machine he'd be able to say:
So there's your precious monetary return right there. Stuff we don't even know we need yet. There are just some things we won't invent until we actually "need" them, as opposed to "want" them.But that's besides the point. Kennedy didn't try to present the whole thing as a sales pitch, nor did he even take the "So we can develop rocket technology to better protect ourselves from the Soviets" approach No, he took the Sir Hillary approach of "Because it's FUCKING THERE!"
There shouldn't need to be any other reason to do this beyond "because we haven't done it yet." I'm sorry, but there are just some things out there that we shouldn't let the accountants figure out for us. It is important for us as a nation and as a species to figure out how to better live and operate in space, and no number of robotic probes will ever be a substitute for a human body and a human mind in microgravity. It is important because, if for no other reason, it's the next step in our development as a species.
If we are unable to maintain a presence in space, if the Chinese show the rest of the world how space stations, lunar landings, and Mars explorations are done, then the US (and any other non-communist government) might as well give up as a nation and as a social experiment. If they are able to demonstrate that an oppressive, single-minded government is able to start out as a distant third and become the leading space-faring nation, thus able to ensure the continuation of its way of life (and life itself), then what good is our open and capitalistic society? We'll be able to watch it all with our precious internet?
If the next multi-gigaton asteroid or comet comes along and we haven't developed interplanetary space flight yet because "it's just not profitable" or because "there's no instant gratification," then we deserve to die off like the dinosaurs we are and let the cockroaches have a go at it.
---
I realize I didn't do anything but promote your "prestige" argument, but there are just times when there are other things that are more valuable and have more meaning than the Almighty Buck (TM). If money should be first and foremost in the minds of those people who are about to try something new, then imagine how much less creativity and advancement there would be in the world. Microsoft wouldn't have to worry about Linux, for one...
OK, I'm done. For now.
If you think your Pentium 4 processor gets hot now, just wait until you shield it against hard radiation and cosmic rays, like all chips in space must be.
I wouldn't put my worst enemy on a Chinese nuclear submarine. The crew may be able to get as far as you say, and mayb e able to launch, but they won't survive much beyond that, radiation poisoning being what it is.
Besides, the missile shield isn't intended for countries that are capable of that.
So long as they remember to put four engines on the thing. The 777 was another big aerospace "whoops!" :)
Anybody know if a 5.25" will work in XP?
"People's Republic established 1 October 1949"
to
"Constitution: 17 September 1787, effective 4 March 1789"
Of course, if age of the borders is more important than the age of the government, then Japan has 'em beat by 440 years or so, and Ethiopia is so damned old nobody knows.
Anybody who's ever looked at Zophar's Domain (here) in the past two or three years or so knows that there are lots of re-writes and edits of old NES games, from Metroid to Super Mario.
There's the problem right there. There would still be booms (or at least lots of noise from the louder engines) near and around the airports. People living near airports won't want it anywhere near them, noise pollution being what it is. That's what killed Concorde.
"1: The P-3 Orion is a plane. Its mission is to spy on people, which is what it was doing at the time of the accident. How is this not a real "spy plane" Its a plane that spys isnt it? "
Using only passive equipment sounds more like "eavesdropping" than "spying" to me. No violation of Chinese airspace (at least before the collision), no active sensors, and, most importantly, no ultra-cool design like the SR-71. :)
So we should just nuke Los Angeles and Hong Kong and call it a day? Riiiiight...
"It used to be that countries would declare war on each other because of petty rivalries between dukes and princes. Now, it sometimes takes an act of god to get them to go at it."
It also used to require an act of God to wipe a city off the map in one fell swoop. We have the ability to turn China into the world's largest self-lighting parking lot in about an hour or so. China might not be able to answer in kind, they can at least nail Alaska, Hawaii, and parts of the west coast.
"We're spending billions of dollars (a big chunk of our GDP) on national defense. And we never even use it! "
They're used all the time. They're used to make people afraid of pissing us off. Sadam Hussien/Osama bin Laden would have gassed/plagued/nuked a US city by now if Iraq/Afghanistan wasn't just a little worried about becoming the next Carthage.
"Is it because we can't anymore? Bullshit. It's because we're afraid to. It's because we've let ourselves get castrated by the liberal media and their doomsday predictions about what might happen if one nation accidentally steps on the toes of the other. "
Don't get me wrong, I'm pretty conservative, and I'm a big fan of the US nuclear arsenal, but you really don't want a war. Getting into a war with a nuclear power (even if they don't have decent rocket technology) will mean the death of an appreciable percentage of the US civillian population, as well as all sorts economic problems for us and the rest of the world. Consider the fall-out (figuratively speaking) if the Chinese DID nule LA. There goes one of our really big cities, one of our really big ports, and a whole mess of vaporized people who have relatives who vote.
"Can you imagine FDR or Eisenhower letting the Chinese hold our American soldiers hostage like this?"
Gary Powers wasn't only held, but he was even tried by the Soviets.
FDR couldn't do a damnded thing until the Japanese were kind enough to convince Congress and his constituants that something needs to be done.
Even Lincoln let the Confederates get the first shot.
The US is a nation of pacifists. Deal with it. Why do you think we have a civilian government in charge of the military and not vice-versa?
"We must settle for no less than outright war. They think they have the upper hand now, but wait until we give it to them old-fashioned American style. "
As far as I know, "old-fashioned American style" has yet to go up against the ol' Chinese human wave tactic. Except in Korea. And that damned near cost us the penninsula.
"They probably don't even have all those nukes they keep whispering about. Have we ever seen them detonate one? Well have we? NO! They don't exist. "
You've never watched "Trinity and Beyond," have you?
"Once open war is declared, our economy will boom. "
According to witnesses in Hirshima and Nagasaki, there was no real "boom" to be heard. Shockwave travelling faster than sound and all that...