you tell me with a straight face al gore would have invaded iraq
you tell me with a straight face a republican legislative and executive domination won't slash taxes on rich, remove all social safety nets, and deny things like the right for gays to marry and the right to abortion
yes, the democrats are innocent angels, when compared to the douchebags we call the GOP, by a long shot
the topic under discussion is an AIRLINER. you know: hundreds of people, all their luggage. getting their fast. night flights. cloudy days. windy days
i think we will, eventually, make something strong and light enough to hold up enough solar panels and survive the weather. we aren't their yet. and then all theoretical limitations bow down to the simple fact of solar energy density. the size of the thing! and do we need to design airports with miles of flat runway, NEXT TO a major city destination ($$$), perfectly flat too ($$$), in order to get the giant thing off the ground? and then wait for the damn thing after coasting for miles to finally creak off the ground while people look mournfully out the window at the far far cheaper and faster rail service that would have gotten to their destination faster?
just think dude
such that if you want to fly an airplane on solar, you make BIOFUELS, and use them anytime, and use existing aircraft design (speedy, compact)
someone industrious: put that together and reap the traffic ranking such a resource obviously would represent
someone partisan who would stultify and imitate a mock website of such a resource to manipulate outcomes: no, not you. fuck off and die. earn your plutocrat cash by being the whore you are and sucking plutocrat cock, and stop destroying our democracy as the plutocrat's goon
even the best tech theoretically, if you consider the maximum power possible you can get from sunlight over a given area, would have to be supported by some sort of scaffolding that, again, with the best strength to weight ratio we think we could get, would still not be enough to get it off the ground
but you can still do solar powered aircraft: biofuel
that flooding ruins backup generators, pumps, fuel storage. I hope that disaster mitigation plans are reviewed.
I also hate people who judge negatively from hindsight, but disaster planning is about considering the most probable of the improbable. Flooding looms most threatening and probable of the improbable.
Perhaps putting all the backup infrastructure on a higher floor makes it harder to maintain, access, and/ or protect from mischief/ terrorism. However plain old flooding seems to be an issue time and time again in disaster scenarios and really needs highest priority in disaster plans.
so you are unable to see how all of your excellent engineering efforts are undermined by the corporate guy who changes the purchase orders to save a few bucks and give you substandard infrastructure, or replaces you because you are too expensive with cheaper substandard personnel who still are able to fuck things up
you can set the technological bar for failure as low as you want. it is still possible to fail, because organizationally the pressure is to save money, and therefore trend to go under that bar for failure, no matter how low
as soon as someone like you imagine themselves superior to the common man on an arbitrary measure: bank account balance (plutocracy), ethnicity (genocide), religious piety (theocracy), ancestry (aristocracy), military strength (authoritarianism), or, in your case, IQ (technocracy), then you have simply introduced real evil in this world and you have become a far worse problem than any stupidity by some commoner
as soon as you draw a line in the sand between an "us" versus a "them", based on any quality, you have dehumanized someone and started the ball rolling towards the kinds of atrocities on the evening news and in world history that we always wonder "how'd that happen"
how'd that happen?
The common man is a waste of space.
that's how it happened
democracy, rule by consensus, of everyone in a population, is the only valid way to lead on any issue, forever, in any human culture
everything else, like your attitude is simply the seed of evil and suffering in this world
you are not better than anyone else in terms of human worth. until you imagine you are because IQ or bank account balance or religious piety or whatever
at that point, you have actually made yourself less worthy, because you are causing suffering in the world
putting aside my disdain for the foolish arrogance and pride of the technophiles for the moment, the real problem is systematic above and beyond the domain of the engineers
perhaps you can say that enough intelligent engineers will properly manage a nuclear facility forever, including tsunamis and hurricanes and other natural disasters. but in reality, in one or two generations, the people in charge of hiring and paying the engineers will simply move to save money to the point where danger is introduced, in the form of substandard personnel or substandard infrastructure
the betrayal is by the leadership, the betrayal is not by mankind's mastery of technology
but those with an arrogant certainty in the "foolproof" safety of nuclear power see the "common ignorant man" seemingly attacking science and engineering fortitude and get angry at that
but perhaps those posting here shouldn't be so snide and sneering at the common man
perhaps that "common ignorant man" isn't even attacking science or good engineering, but is thinking about the politicians and corporate knuckleheads who simply look at costs on a spreadsheet and cut costs without thought or reason as to long term safety
so those who are so offended posting here, as the nations of the world and common opinion turn against nuclear power, maybe they shouldn't feel attacked or betrayed, in terms of the quality of the job the engineers do
those posting here so offended at those turning from nuclear power, you should not be angry at the common man. you should be angry at the politicians and corporate dicks who betrayed you and nuclear power by cutting the safety nets (long term savings) for a little short term savings
and perhaps you should take note of the WISDOM of the common man who sees that source of failure in nuclear technology, not in the science or engineering, but in the leadership. and you should have some humility and notice where your own "wisdom" on the issue has failed you, because you angry at the wrong target, the attitude of the common man. he is not your enemy, and never was, and never will be
the corporate shitstains and the politicians are your enemy, by undercutting your staffing and infrastructure to save a few bucks, the REAL reason people don't trust nuclear power
i myself am not religious, but obviously religions are major repositories of ancient wisdom and foolishness
you see it in all of these haughty posts. so self-certain, so blind to the effects of this wrong sense of superiority. it's a major cause of self-defeat throughout human history, in momentous ways and small, from family and romantic relationships, right up to international relations
blind foolish pride. a false sense of superiority. how much it has cost human civilization?
I say: shut it all down. Let them live in the dark for a few weeks and then see whether they're still saying 'nukelear is scary, ok'.
that's called rule by fear
which is the kind of thing the more intelligent evolve away form. except amongst those who believe they are superior, based on nothing but their own arrogance
so i use the word "asshole", and it is entirely appropriate for this arrogant asshole for not understanding his own failure to meeting the same standards he judges the common man against
you can't act superior to the knuckle draggers when the quality of your thoughts firmly identifies you as a knuckle dragger
that's right, keep belittling, dismissing, and mocking their concern
see how far you get with the attitude of the common man towards nuclear
see how much support politicians give nuclear with the common man poised against nuclear
do you see? your attitude helps the death of nuclear power
but go ahead, mod me down again
let's see if the slashdot ivory tower attitude preserves nuclear power, or if it just makes a silo where a bunch of assholes can laugh and mock the common man while nuclear fades away
the problem with a response like yours is that exactly the same words, with the same haughty attitude, came from people just like you, before fukushima
so no one is listening to you anymore
you might be right statistically, you might be right structurally. but you aren't right organizationally and politically. it's a matter of trust. fukushima has gutted the average person's trust in the experts and the government when they talk about the safety of nuclear
go ahead and issue all of the haughty ivory tower pronouncements of nuclear safety you want. no one trust you anymore. they trust the fear mongers
because the fear mongers were RIGHT in the case of fukushima
the irony of course is that if we used more nuclear and less fossil fuels, we wouldn't have the global warming that creates giant weather bombs like sandy
i'm not against nuclear. i am for nuclear power, but i am against haughty attitudes of certainty like yours. they simply mean the average person doesn't trust you anymore. because black swan events are real, as fukushima demonstrates, rendering your words undependable and your attitude atrocious
you need to understand that the average person's fear is real and that you have to cater to it and calmly explain to them why things are safe. because when you haughtily wave their concerns away and laugh at them, you harden their fear into distrust and action against you, and so YOU are putting the nail in the coffin of nuclear power, with your asshole attitude
Slashdot Mirror
you tell me with a straight face al gore would have invaded iraq
you tell me with a straight face a republican legislative and executive domination won't slash taxes on rich, remove all social safety nets, and deny things like the right for gays to marry and the right to abortion
yes, the democrats are innocent angels, when compared to the douchebags we call the GOP, by a long shot
the hindenburg blew up. the spruce goose barely got off the water. the first flight was baling wire and balsa wood. nice examples
i have no doubt, zero doubt that solar aircraft work. there are in fact many already existing, one going around the globe:
http://solarimpulse.com/
nice flimsy thing that picture
the topic under discussion is an AIRLINER. you know: hundreds of people, all their luggage. getting their fast. night flights. cloudy days. windy days
i think we will, eventually, make something strong and light enough to hold up enough solar panels and survive the weather. we aren't their yet. and then all theoretical limitations bow down to the simple fact of solar energy density. the size of the thing! and do we need to design airports with miles of flat runway, NEXT TO a major city destination ($$$), perfectly flat too ($$$), in order to get the giant thing off the ground? and then wait for the damn thing after coasting for miles to finally creak off the ground while people look mournfully out the window at the far far cheaper and faster rail service that would have gotten to their destination faster?
just think dude
such that if you want to fly an airplane on solar, you make BIOFUELS, and use them anytime, and use existing aircraft design (speedy, compact)
it represents an opportunity
someone industrious: put that together and reap the traffic ranking such a resource obviously would represent
someone partisan who would stultify and imitate a mock website of such a resource to manipulate outcomes: no, not you. fuck off and die. earn your plutocrat cash by being the whore you are and sucking plutocrat cock, and stop destroying our democracy as the plutocrat's goon
if you can show me where google lies, then it raises many questions
if the information is accurate, then fuck you
because your "question" seems to imply that empowering citizens to exercise their basic rights is "influence"
republicans, when they aren't busy sucking plutocrat cock, are doing their darnedest to disenfranchise and discourage poor citizens from voting
so if you want to worry about influence, focus your "fair and balanced" attention on those antiamerican assholes
otherwise your "question" represents pretty much exactly what is wrong with politics in this country
submitter is a manipulative douchebag, shame on you slashdot editor for preserving the obvious plutocrat funded propaganda in the submission
well yeah, shoddy standards can screw up anything
but generally, that's from cut rate manufacturers, three or four manufacturing cycles down the line, when oversight lags
up front, manufacturing standards will be spectacular
How can a vaccine hurt you?
Is that you Jenny McCarthy?
http://winterson.com/2009/01/episode-iii-backstroke-of-west-redux.html
we have the material to build football field sized wings with no weight or structural integrity issues?
the slow speed doesn't mean a stall and dropping out of the sky?
i don't think you are correct
the topic is an airliner
i did say "but you can still do solar powered aircraft: biofuel"
apologies
i should have said "but you can still do a solar powered airliner: biofuel"
but the overall topic of this whole thread is airliners
even the best tech theoretically, if you consider the maximum power possible you can get from sunlight over a given area, would have to be supported by some sort of scaffolding that, again, with the best strength to weight ratio we think we could get, would still not be enough to get it off the ground
but you can still do solar powered aircraft: biofuel
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manhattan,_Kansas
that flooding ruins backup generators, pumps, fuel storage. I hope that disaster mitigation plans are reviewed.
I also hate people who judge negatively from hindsight, but disaster planning is about considering the most probable of the improbable. Flooding looms most threatening and probable of the improbable.
Perhaps putting all the backup infrastructure on a higher floor makes it harder to maintain, access, and/ or protect from mischief/ terrorism. However plain old flooding seems to be an issue time and time again in disaster scenarios and really needs highest priority in disaster plans.
every single great person you note has something you lack: humility. it is what makes them great, and you and your attitude not great
so you are unable to see how all of your excellent engineering efforts are undermined by the corporate guy who changes the purchase orders to save a few bucks and give you substandard infrastructure, or replaces you because you are too expensive with cheaper substandard personnel who still are able to fuck things up
you can set the technological bar for failure as low as you want. it is still possible to fail, because organizationally the pressure is to save money, and therefore trend to go under that bar for failure, no matter how low
the common man is all that matters
as soon as someone like you imagine themselves superior to the common man on an arbitrary measure: bank account balance (plutocracy), ethnicity (genocide), religious piety (theocracy), ancestry (aristocracy), military strength (authoritarianism), or, in your case, IQ (technocracy), then you have simply introduced real evil in this world and you have become a far worse problem than any stupidity by some commoner
as soon as you draw a line in the sand between an "us" versus a "them", based on any quality, you have dehumanized someone and started the ball rolling towards the kinds of atrocities on the evening news and in world history that we always wonder "how'd that happen"
how'd that happen?
The common man is a waste of space.
that's how it happened
democracy, rule by consensus, of everyone in a population, is the only valid way to lead on any issue, forever, in any human culture
everything else, like your attitude is simply the seed of evil and suffering in this world
you are not better than anyone else in terms of human worth. until you imagine you are because IQ or bank account balance or religious piety or whatever
at that point, you have actually made yourself less worthy, because you are causing suffering in the world
putting aside my disdain for the foolish arrogance and pride of the technophiles for the moment, the real problem is systematic above and beyond the domain of the engineers
perhaps you can say that enough intelligent engineers will properly manage a nuclear facility forever, including tsunamis and hurricanes and other natural disasters. but in reality, in one or two generations, the people in charge of hiring and paying the engineers will simply move to save money to the point where danger is introduced, in the form of substandard personnel or substandard infrastructure
the betrayal is by the leadership, the betrayal is not by mankind's mastery of technology
but those with an arrogant certainty in the "foolproof" safety of nuclear power see the "common ignorant man" seemingly attacking science and engineering fortitude and get angry at that
but perhaps those posting here shouldn't be so snide and sneering at the common man
perhaps that "common ignorant man" isn't even attacking science or good engineering, but is thinking about the politicians and corporate knuckleheads who simply look at costs on a spreadsheet and cut costs without thought or reason as to long term safety
so those who are so offended posting here, as the nations of the world and common opinion turn against nuclear power, maybe they shouldn't feel attacked or betrayed, in terms of the quality of the job the engineers do
those posting here so offended at those turning from nuclear power, you should not be angry at the common man. you should be angry at the politicians and corporate dicks who betrayed you and nuclear power by cutting the safety nets (long term savings) for a little short term savings
and perhaps you should take note of the WISDOM of the common man who sees that source of failure in nuclear technology, not in the science or engineering, but in the leadership. and you should have some humility and notice where your own "wisdom" on the issue has failed you, because you angry at the wrong target, the attitude of the common man. he is not your enemy, and never was, and never will be
the corporate shitstains and the politicians are your enemy, by undercutting your staffing and infrastructure to save a few bucks, the REAL reason people don't trust nuclear power
mod parent up
i can do better than examples, i can point to ancient themes
arrogance. hubris. pride
it is identified in all ancient human cultures as a weakness
judaism:
http://bible.cc/proverbs/16-18.htm
"pride goeth before the fall"
christianity:
one of the seven deadly sins:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pride
islam:
http://www.themodernreligion.com/basic/charac/pride.html
buddhism, one of the five major afflictions
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kleshas_(Buddhism)#Five_poisons
etc., etc.
i myself am not religious, but obviously religions are major repositories of ancient wisdom and foolishness
you see it in all of these haughty posts. so self-certain, so blind to the effects of this wrong sense of superiority. it's a major cause of self-defeat throughout human history, in momentous ways and small, from family and romantic relationships, right up to international relations
blind foolish pride. a false sense of superiority. how much it has cost human civilization?
I say: shut it all down. Let them live in the dark for a few weeks and then see whether they're still saying 'nukelear is scary, ok'.
that's called rule by fear
which is the kind of thing the more intelligent evolve away form. except amongst those who believe they are superior, based on nothing but their own arrogance
so i use the word "asshole", and it is entirely appropriate for this arrogant asshole for not understanding his own failure to meeting the same standards he judges the common man against
you can't act superior to the knuckle draggers when the quality of your thoughts firmly identifies you as a knuckle dragger
right
because why rule by consent when we can rule by fear
what an asshole
you consider yourself ahead of the curve?
you're 100% part of the problem and firmly in the camp of the idiots you sneer at and somehow imagine you are more intelligent than
thank you. but he's not listening to you. his arrogance blocks any logic and reason
now mod me into oblivion
you do realize that it is attitudes just like yours that is part of the problem, right?
no, of course you don't
why don't you try educating yourself on a little world history about the true value of arrogance towards the common man like yours
that's right, keep belittling, dismissing, and mocking their concern
see how far you get with the attitude of the common man towards nuclear
see how much support politicians give nuclear with the common man poised against nuclear
do you see? your attitude helps the death of nuclear power
but go ahead, mod me down again
let's see if the slashdot ivory tower attitude preserves nuclear power, or if it just makes a silo where a bunch of assholes can laugh and mock the common man while nuclear fades away
not after fukushima
the problem with a response like yours is that exactly the same words, with the same haughty attitude, came from people just like you, before fukushima
so no one is listening to you anymore
you might be right statistically, you might be right structurally. but you aren't right organizationally and politically. it's a matter of trust. fukushima has gutted the average person's trust in the experts and the government when they talk about the safety of nuclear
go ahead and issue all of the haughty ivory tower pronouncements of nuclear safety you want. no one trust you anymore. they trust the fear mongers
because the fear mongers were RIGHT in the case of fukushima
the irony of course is that if we used more nuclear and less fossil fuels, we wouldn't have the global warming that creates giant weather bombs like sandy
i'm not against nuclear. i am for nuclear power, but i am against haughty attitudes of certainty like yours. they simply mean the average person doesn't trust you anymore. because black swan events are real, as fukushima demonstrates, rendering your words undependable and your attitude atrocious
you need to understand that the average person's fear is real and that you have to cater to it and calmly explain to them why things are safe. because when you haughtily wave their concerns away and laugh at them, you harden their fear into distrust and action against you, and so YOU are putting the nail in the coffin of nuclear power, with your asshole attitude
don't worry maine, sandy will visit you friday after touring montreal:
http://google.org/crisismap/2012-sandy