"Is there a place for an inexpensive ham/technogeek/FOSS solution that could bypass the antics of the for-pay providers?"
Of course, it's all so simple! We could all build little F/OSS rockets out of plywood, duck tape and bailing wire, putting libre communications satellites based on Pringle's can technology into geosynchronous orbit!
I mean, it's the Olympics. For at least half a century, it exists for exactly two things: selling consumer products and selling countries. Anything that might get in the way of that goes. So just consume your bread, watch your quadrennial circus (and make sure you pay for both with your Visa(TM) Card!) and stop asking silly questions you should have damn well figured out the answers to back in 1936.
You'd think the standards-happy folks around here, who don't take kindly to software publishers and the like that just make things up as they go along, would be aware of and comply with ISO 4217.
"a defined fraction of the temperature of the triple point of water above absolute zero."
Note the inclusion of absolute zero in the definition.
"It is not a scale referenced to Absolute Zero."
Yes, it is; it is a unit of thermodynamic temperature. Didn't you pay attention in your basic chemistry class?
"But the milli prefix is not capitalised, because capital M implies the Mega prefix"
If you spent more time reading my post rather than rushing off to be "right," you'd have noticed that I was arguing that the term "millikelvin" is not a proper noun, and that if it was, the first letter of the word "millikelvin" would be capitalized. And while the symbol for the prefix "mega-" is capitalized, when it is spelled out it follows the same rules of capitalization as the rest of English; you'd only capitalize "megakelivin" if it appeared at the beginning of the sentence, was used in a title, or the like.
"The correct, pedantic version is "10 mk above Absolute Zero", or "10 millikelvins above Absolute Zero"."
The symbol for kelvin needs to be capitalized, "above absolute zero" is redundant, and "absolute zero" (at least as thermodynamic temperatures go) is not a proper noun or title and should not be capitalized. The temperature was 10 mK.
First off, "kelvin" as a unit of measure is not a proper noun, any more than "meter" is (read me). But even if it was, it'd be "Millikelvin," you don't capitalize letters in the middle of words!
"They suck at 'getting out of the way.' They also wouldn't necessarily have to or want to land an interstellar craft planet-side. Why waste that kind of energy?"
Except we're talking about things that Boudreaux has seen zooming around the sky with his naked eye; even in general, if they don't come around to dance around in the atmosphere, nobody would have seen them and there'd be no conspiracy theories to begin with.
While what you're talking about wouldn't be able to get out of the way, they wouldn't be able to get in the way to begin with.
"Who's to say that a craft approaching our world is coming with the expectation of running into any life forms nearly as complex (socially, technologically, etc)."
Even if they didn't have a radio handy, a spectrometer looking at the artificial light on the night side of the planet should let the aliens discount natural sources for what they're seeing long before NORAD could spot them.
"If we can accelerate faster, it may be enough. If we can maintain a minimum thrust sooner and longer, that may be enough."
I was implying that any alien that got here via interstellar space had to deal with countless micro- and not-so-micrometeorites that would collide with the craft with relative velocities far greater than anything terrestrial rocket engines can manage. Either they'd have to be able to spot something coming at them with hella kinetic and be able to get out of the way, or they can take the hit and not care.
"Why not land in the middle of the superbowl? What if they deemed our civilization was not secure enough for open contact."
Why would they care?
"What are the odds that enough scared people with the means of launching a missle would be interested in doing so out of fear. Pre-emptive strike ring any bells?"
"Oh no, the natives are coming at us with their spears."
"Better man the Browning, then."
We're talking about beings that are capable of interstellar travel, at the very least. We have an incredibly difficult time getting out of our own gravity well, while they can apparently pull it off after getting here in the first place (round trips would not have happened if the moon had surface gravity similar to our own). Even if they evolved in such a way that they didn't develop whiz-bang weaponry, they're always capable of getting out of the way. Once they get back to LEO, there's nothing we can do beyond flip them off and insult their mothers.
What weapons do we have that don't involve slinging chunks of stuff at our target, or at least in a non-ballistic manner? How many more orders of magnitude slower would these weapons systems be compared to what they'd have to deal with one way or the other on the way here?
"Driving isn't always necessary, and is by far the more dangerous of the two activities,"
Millions of sober drivers are able to get to their destinations daily without getting bits of their passengers on them. Drunk pedestrians are more of a hazard than sober drivers.
Slashdot Mirror
Why would Bush bother to listen to somebody talk about life on Mars when there's clearly no mention of it in Genesis?
On the final version of the bill that came out of conference committee and went to the White House
House: 380-49
Senate: 83-8
Why do we need to link to the "open source!" info when the original source is also open to the public (and, in my opinion, more useful)?
"Is there a place for an inexpensive ham/technogeek/FOSS solution that could bypass the antics of the for-pay providers?"
Of course, it's all so simple! We could all build little F/OSS rockets out of plywood, duck tape and bailing wire, putting libre communications satellites based on Pringle's can technology into geosynchronous orbit!
I mean, it's the Olympics. For at least half a century, it exists for exactly two things: selling consumer products and selling countries. Anything that might get in the way of that goes. So just consume your bread, watch your quadrennial circus (and make sure you pay for both with your Visa(TM) Card!) and stop asking silly questions you should have damn well figured out the answers to back in 1936.
Members of Congress are more likely to be indicted than lose an election.
And, of course, unless he either gets convicted or goes the "spend more time with my family" route, he'll win re-election in spite of this.
"Anything to show that it was pollution you were looking at rather than just cloud?"
Clouds tend not to be brown.
"The reports of poor air quality are vastly exaggerated."
We've all seen pictures of the Beijing "sky." It's not bad compared to what, Dehli?
"The only folks who are going to sue are those American hating liberals that are against freedom!"
We should kill them all.
You'd think the standards-happy folks around here, who don't take kindly to software publishers and the like that just make things up as they go along, would be aware of and comply with ISO 4217.
Captive audience.
Seriously, what were you expecting?
"A kelvin is a unit of temperature difference,"
It is a unit of thermodynamic temperature.
"a defined fraction of the temperature of the triple point of water above absolute zero."
Note the inclusion of absolute zero in the definition.
"It is not a scale referenced to Absolute Zero."
Yes, it is; it is a unit of thermodynamic temperature. Didn't you pay attention in your basic chemistry class?
"But the milli prefix is not capitalised, because capital M implies the Mega prefix"
If you spent more time reading my post rather than rushing off to be "right," you'd have noticed that I was arguing that the term "millikelvin" is not a proper noun, and that if it was, the first letter of the word "millikelvin" would be capitalized. And while the symbol for the prefix "mega-" is capitalized, when it is spelled out it follows the same rules of capitalization as the rest of English; you'd only capitalize "megakelivin" if it appeared at the beginning of the sentence, was used in a title, or the like.
"The correct, pedantic version is "10 mk above Absolute Zero", or "10 millikelvins above Absolute Zero"."
The symbol for kelvin needs to be capitalized, "above absolute zero" is redundant, and "absolute zero" (at least as thermodynamic temperatures go) is not a proper noun or title and should not be capitalized. The temperature was 10 mK.
Let me try the HTML link again: here
"it operates at 10 milliKelvin"
First off, "kelvin" as a unit of measure is not a proper noun, any more than "meter" is (read me). But even if it was, it'd be "Millikelvin," you don't capitalize letters in the middle of words!
Don't taze me, bro!
"Going from "no one notices" to "everyone hates you" can't be bad -- it's worth a shot, anyway."
When was the last time you heard someone say "Wow, PETA's right! I'm going vegan!"?
"I still can't bring myself to believe that he's done anything worthy of terminating life."
He died as he lived: not giving a damn about what you think.
"They suck at 'getting out of the way.' They also wouldn't necessarily have to or want to land an interstellar craft planet-side. Why waste that kind of energy?"
Except we're talking about things that Boudreaux has seen zooming around the sky with his naked eye; even in general, if they don't come around to dance around in the atmosphere, nobody would have seen them and there'd be no conspiracy theories to begin with.
While what you're talking about wouldn't be able to get out of the way, they wouldn't be able to get in the way to begin with.
"Who's to say that a craft approaching our world is coming with the expectation of running into any life forms nearly as complex (socially, technologically, etc)."
Even if they didn't have a radio handy, a spectrometer looking at the artificial light on the night side of the planet should let the aliens discount natural sources for what they're seeing long before NORAD could spot them.
"If we can accelerate faster, it may be enough. If we can maintain a minimum thrust sooner and longer, that may be enough."
I was implying that any alien that got here via interstellar space had to deal with countless micro- and not-so-micrometeorites that would collide with the craft with relative velocities far greater than anything terrestrial rocket engines can manage. Either they'd have to be able to spot something coming at them with hella kinetic and be able to get out of the way, or they can take the hit and not care.
"In the era of pervasive digital imaging, someone must have that, somewhere."
Gimme a few minutes with PhotoShop and you'll have plenty of proof!
"Once a culture starts playing with atomics, a certain amount of oversight is required."
I'd be more concerned about the cultures with magnetic compasses and triangular sails than I would about the ones with gunpowder.
"Why not land in the middle of the superbowl? What if they deemed our civilization was not secure enough for open contact."
Why would they care?
"What are the odds that enough scared people with the means of launching a missle would be interested in doing so out of fear. Pre-emptive strike ring any bells?"
"Oh no, the natives are coming at us with their spears."
"Better man the Browning, then."
We're talking about beings that are capable of interstellar travel, at the very least. We have an incredibly difficult time getting out of our own gravity well, while they can apparently pull it off after getting here in the first place (round trips would not have happened if the moon had surface gravity similar to our own). Even if they evolved in such a way that they didn't develop whiz-bang weaponry, they're always capable of getting out of the way. Once they get back to LEO, there's nothing we can do beyond flip them off and insult their mothers.
What weapons do we have that don't involve slinging chunks of stuff at our target, or at least in a non-ballistic manner? How many more orders of magnitude slower would these weapons systems be compared to what they'd have to deal with one way or the other on the way here?
"Well, we'd need all that plus the floating cities."
Haven't read TFA, but I've already seen similar ones. Breathable air is buoyant in the venusian atmosphere.
"Call it the S.S. Botany Bay"
KHAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNNNNN!!!!!
(stupid slashdot caps nazis)
"Driving isn't always necessary, and is by far the more dangerous of the two activities,"
Millions of sober drivers are able to get to their destinations daily without getting bits of their passengers on them. Drunk pedestrians are more of a hazard than sober drivers.
"After all, how long does a general serve compared to a senator? And the general doesn't have to fight a war every 2 years and defeat his rivals."
The military will retire you after a specified age. Members of Congress only leave office by acts of God or grand juries.
In Pelosi's House, it results in a sternly-worded letter.