Some parts of the escape system are unique to the selected launch pad, other parts are not. Nobody has the entire escape system 'man-rated' until well after the contract is let and the customer tells them what they want.
The Space Shuttle didn't even have an escape system until well after Challenger. Even that wasn't man-rated, it's just a big curved pole the astronauts stick out the hatch and slide out on. Whether they impact the wing or empennage on the way out (at Mach 3!) depends greatly on the attitude of the shuttle, which they may not have much control over in an emergency.
You have to understand, the procedure is a general one set up for large organizations where each step might be performed by different people in different places. I.e, it's not likely the IT group has a tank available for crushing the drive. Each step along the way is only to safe the drive for the next step.
Well instead of giving 700 BILLION (now likely more) to Wall Street so they can have more parties, bonuses and pay the people who got us into this mess obscene salaries, why don't they just give every US citizen (man, woman, child) $1 million apiece?
"
Methinks your calculator has a sticky key or two because $700,000,000,000 / 400,000,000 = $1750 per citizen. And, $1 million apiece adds up to $1,000,000 * 400,000,000 = $400,000,000,000,000. That's $400 TRILLION.
I think you're right, a verification digit associated with individual candidates wouldn't work. What would work is a one-way hash of your vote. Add salt and no one could ever find out who you voted for. When you vote you receive a slip of paper with the hash printed on it and nothing else. Then you can go online and check the hash string against the hash of your voting record in the public database. That way you have a rock-solid verification of your vote without revealing to anyone how you voted.
And with terabyte hard drives + bittorrent + broadband, every precinct server in the state could hold redundant copies of all other precincts in the state. You could then have each precinct report a state-wide tally and publish it's own state-wide public database. A voter could then check his hash against any number of redundant databases scattered all over the state.
For example you don't need to pressurise the cabin (thus saving weight of air), nor provide toilets, sound insulation, heating systems, safety equipment etc..
Pressurizing the cabin does not cost weight in an airframe, it saves weight by adding stiffness. Think of a partially inflated baloon compared to one fully inflated - the fully inflated baloon retains its shape under loads that would collapse a baloon with less pressure. The weight savings aren't entirely free of course, you have to have pumps and filters and wiring and a way to provide power, etc. The added weight of air due to pressurization is negligible, problably less than a pound in a large airliner.
Another item is aerodynamics - it takes a lot of room to house the pilot(s) and all that gear, plus he needs to sit way up front where it messes up the airflow. If you replace the pilot with a few small boxes then the shape can be smoother and the plane can be a bit smaller too.
Good grief people, they're only proposing a demonstration system for risk-reduction and proof-of-concept purposes. No one is going to commit the huge resources necessary to build a full-up system before finding out if the concept even works.
"As a PART of my job, I maintain a set of (Windows) servers that process approximately $25 trillion/year worth of payroll transactions for over a million individuals..."
Jeez, Who do you work for dude? Gross Domestic Product of the United States of America is barely half that amount ($13.2 trillion in 2006). $25 trillion / 1 million employees is $25 million a year average salary! Wow. Where do I send my resume?
"I've mostly seen numbers for plants in the 3-5% range, and maybe up to 8% for algae."
With 3.4 billion years of evolution behind photosynthesis, plants have managed to do a bit better than that. According to this wiki plants are very efficient:
Through photosynthesis, sunlight energy is transferred to molecular reaction centers for conversion into chemical energy with nearly 100-percent efficiency. The transfer of the solar energy takes place almost instantaneously, so little energy is wasted as heat.
It will take humans quite a while to improve on the efficiency of the houseplant. But then again, plants aren't turning sunlight into electricity.
"I don't see the point of a moon base at all. Launching Mars missions from orbit makes far more sense than any moon base does. (Robert Zubrin has explained all of this in excruciating detail.)"
We're doing a moonbase first because it allows us to build up beyond-LEO space infrastructure and gain experience maintaining a base on another world, with a base 2 to 3 days away. Mars is 4 to 6 months away, much harder to reach in case of problems. This is the big push to gain a permanent human presence beyond LEO, not a chest-pounding look-what-we-did excercise that Apollo was.
Besides, with the technology we have now we have a ways to go to figure out how to land humans on Mars -- at the moment, nobody knows how to do it. Whatever approach we end up with there will need to be a lot testing and maybe a dry run or two before we put astronauts' safety at risk.
... and ten minutes later the kid is looking at porn when he notices a neighbor's open wifi.
And if you don't have a wifi network, the kid picks up one of these set to client mode and still finds the neighbor's open wifi. And you won't know about it because he keeps it hidden along with a USB key he stores the 'good stuff' on.
You can't stop it. What you're fighting against here isn't just the kid. You're fighting against the entire computer industry, pda industry and cell phone industry. These companies are highly motivated to connect their customers and make it easy because it sells.
"Smog has been dramatically reduced in California as the state got tough on emissions. Texas around the same time Bush became governor had no such restrictions and over the course of the 90's became the largest smog producer."
California is certainly ahead of the rest of the U.S. on pollution controls, but where did you get the idea that states like Texas had NO restrictions? The EPA enforces pollution laws for the entire country, and they have been doing that since the mid-60's. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPA
"Of course it's the CO2 in the air that has produced acid rain for the north east."
CO2 has little to do with acid rain. Acid rain is primarily caused by sulpher compounds and nitrous oxide -- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_rain. CO2 dissolved in water disassociates at a certain rate to form carbonic acid which is mildy acidic (pH ~5.6). Since there is already a large amount of natural CO2 in the atmosphere, human activity doesn't affect this much. In some industrial areas acid rain has been recorded as low as pH 2.6. You just can't get that low with CO2.
"All the federal regulations were lifted when Bush went into office..."
Good grief, Bush has certainly done his part to undermine environmental regulations, but the regulations are still in place. They just aren't enforced as well as they could be. New cars still have catalytic converters and other polution controls, factories still have to install and maintain stack scrubbers, etc.
Many cars and trucks sold in China (by Chinese companies) are copies of Hyundai, Toyota, or GM designs. When I say copies, I don't just mean visually; many times the parts for the Chinese model of a vehicle can be interchanged with those for the original design. It's disgusting how much the WTO has allowed China to get away with.
This goes on all over the world and it's not illegal. When a popular car line is replaced, car companies typically sell the old tooling to second- or third-world countries where production continues (albeit under a different name). For instance, the original VW Beetle was built from old tooling in Mexico for almost 2 decades after production in Germany was shut down. Since VW had more than one line I believe other sets were sold as well.
I can't find a link for you but I recall a Car & Driver story from the mid-80s with pictures of seemingly brand-new American cars from the '60s and '70s running around in Brazil. Some of those factories are foreign-owned (GM, VW, etc), so the transfer of tooling is sometimes a little more direct.
I've always wondered how the bicycle's efficiency would measure up if the energy to build the roads is taken into account. Sure, you can ride on unimproved trails in the wilderness but how efficient is that?
"The problem in this case is that unlike a few years back with Iraq, the Iranians have this time created such a well-timed diversion (Lebanon) that the Israelis aren't in much of a position for a repeat performance...
The Iranians created this "well-timed" diversion? They certainly played a role, but consider why Israel reacted the way they did.
If Israel and/or the US were planning to attack Iran's nuclear sites, wouldn't it be nice if Iran's "foreign legion" in southern Lebanon were under the watchful eyes of, say, a bunch of Western peacekeepers? Iran's ability to react to an attack by Israel would be much reduced. And you know, peacekeepers aren't invited into a country on a whim. There needs to be a war first.
Call me crazy, but this doesn't smell like something the Iranians would plan.
"...maybe because he can't HEAR it he doesn't know there is a problem?"
According to the products page, the purpose of the Mosquito is to drive teenagers away from an area by producing high frequency sound only they can hear. Older people cannot hear it. The device has no other purpose, and is certainly not a mosquito repellent device as some posters have assumed.
"I can only speak for my friends, family and myself, but we give these freedoms happily and in the knowledge that we know that the government that we elected works for the benefit of all in China.
I'm curious what you mean when you say you "give these freedoms". Your phrasing seems to imply that you had some kind of choice in the matter. Forgive my ignorance, but in the Western world the impression is that the "choice" is pretty stark: give up your freedoms, or land in jail or worse. Most people I know would give up their freedoms happily under those circumstances. But in truth, what were the alternatives when you made your choice?
I'd also like to know what choices you have when you vote. Again, your phrasing seems to imply you have some level of choice. Is there ever an alternative on the ballot? In the Western world the impression is there is never more than one candidate for an office, and they will get elected regardless of what the voters do. It seems to me that if the voters cannot affect the outcome then they are not the ones who "elect" the government. If that's not the case could you reply and tell us how it really works?
Slashdot Mirror
Some parts of the escape system are unique to the selected launch pad, other parts are not. Nobody has the entire escape system 'man-rated' until well after the contract is let and the customer tells them what they want.
The Space Shuttle didn't even have an escape system until well after Challenger. Even that wasn't man-rated, it's just a big curved pole the astronauts stick out the hatch and slide out on. Whether they impact the wing or empennage on the way out (at Mach 3!) depends greatly on the attitude of the shuttle, which they may not have much control over in an emergency.
This isn't the big deal you seem to think it is.
Legs on or off the couch?
Hey, it makes a difference!
We're not. The Air Force retired the F-117 on 22 April 2008.
Thought you'd like to know...
You have to understand, the procedure is a general one set up for large organizations where each step might be performed by different people in different places. I.e, it's not likely the IT group has a tank available for crushing the drive. Each step along the way is only to safe the drive for the next step.
"
"
Methinks your calculator has a sticky key or two because $700,000,000,000 / 400,000,000 = $1750 per citizen. And, $1 million apiece adds up to $1,000,000 * 400,000,000 = $400,000,000,000,000. That's $400 TRILLION.
Other than that, it's an excellent idea. :)
His mother, Ann Dunham, was a white woman born in Wichita, Kansas. You only need one parent to qualify as a U.S. citizen.
Just in case anyone is wondering...
$ whois 207.46.232.182
[Querying whois.arin.net]
[whois.arin.net]
OrgName: Microsoft Corp
OrgID: MSFT
Address: One Microsoft Way
City: Redmond
StateProv: WA
PostalCode: 98052
Country: US
NetRange: 207.46.0.0 - 207.46.255.255
CIDR: 207.46.0.0/16
NetName: MICROSOFT-GLOBAL-NET
NetHandle: NET-207-46-0-0-1
Parent: NET-207-0-0-0-0
NetType: Direct Assignment
NameServer: NS1.MSFT.NET
NameServer: NS5.MSFT.NET
NameServer: NS2.MSFT.NET
NameServer: NS3.MSFT.NET
NameServer: NS4.MSFT.NET
Comment:
RegDate: 1997-03-31
Updated: 2004-12-09
RTechHandle: ZM39-ARIN
RTechName: Microsoft
RTechPhone: +1-425-882-8080
RTechEmail: noc@microsoft.com
OrgAbuseHandle: ABUSE231-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Abuse
OrgAbusePhone: +1-425-882-8080
OrgAbuseEmail: abuse@microsoft.com
OrgAbuseHandle: HOTMA-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: Hotmail Abuse
OrgAbusePhone: +1-425-882-8080
OrgAbuseEmail: abuse@hotmail.com
OrgAbuseHandle: MSNAB-ARIN
OrgAbuseName: MSN ABUSE
OrgAbusePhone: +1-425-882-8080
OrgAbuseEmail: abuse@msn.com
OrgNOCHandle: ZM23-ARIN
OrgNOCName: Microsoft Corporation
OrgNOCPhone: +1-425-882-8080
OrgNOCEmail: noc@microsoft.com
OrgTechHandle: MSFTP-ARIN
OrgTechName: MSFT-POC
OrgTechPhone: +1-425-882-8080
OrgTechEmail: iprrms@microsoft.com
Humans are NOT alive. They're just bits of DNA/RNA in a protein envelope stuck to a bunch of other bits of DNA/RNA in protein envelopes. :)
I think you're right, a verification digit associated with individual candidates wouldn't work. What would work is a one-way hash of your vote. Add salt and no one could ever find out who you voted for. When you vote you receive a slip of paper with the hash printed on it and nothing else. Then you can go online and check the hash string against the hash of your voting record in the public database. That way you have a rock-solid verification of your vote without revealing to anyone how you voted.
And with terabyte hard drives + bittorrent + broadband, every precinct server in the state could hold redundant copies of all other precincts in the state. You could then have each precinct report a state-wide tally and publish it's own state-wide public database. A voter could then check his hash against any number of redundant databases scattered all over the state.
Pressurizing the cabin does not cost weight in an airframe, it saves weight by adding stiffness. Think of a partially inflated baloon compared to one fully inflated - the fully inflated baloon retains its shape under loads that would collapse a baloon with less pressure. The weight savings aren't entirely free of course, you have to have pumps and filters and wiring and a way to provide power, etc. The added weight of air due to pressurization is negligible, problably less than a pound in a large airliner.
Another item is aerodynamics - it takes a lot of room to house the pilot(s) and all that gear, plus he needs to sit way up front where it messes up the airflow. If you replace the pilot with a few small boxes then the shape can be smoother and the plane can be a bit smaller too.
Only a few minutes later it's already up to $2001.
All for a userid you can't even play uid-poker with. Not sure why I care, all I have is a full house.
Good grief people, they're only proposing a demonstration system for risk-reduction and proof-of-concept purposes. No one is going to commit the huge resources necessary to build a full-up system before finding out if the concept even works.
"But who is uid 0 around here?"
Be careful, you don't want THAT guy posting... he's a real zero.
'bout the same as it did back in 'Nam when Europe and the UN both had our backs. Funny how some things just don't seem to make any difference...
"As a PART of my job, I maintain a set of (Windows) servers that process approximately $25 trillion/year worth of payroll transactions for over a million individuals..."
Jeez, Who do you work for dude? Gross Domestic Product of the United States of America is barely half that amount ($13.2 trillion in 2006). $25 trillion / 1 million employees is $25 million a year average salary! Wow. Where do I send my resume?
With 3.4 billion years of evolution behind photosynthesis, plants have managed to do a bit better than that. According to this wiki plants are very efficient:It will take humans quite a while to improve on the efficiency of the houseplant. But then again, plants aren't turning sunlight into electricity.
"I don't see the point of a moon base at all. Launching Mars missions from orbit makes far more sense than any moon base does. (Robert Zubrin has explained all of this in excruciating detail.)"
We're doing a moonbase first because it allows us to build up beyond-LEO space infrastructure and gain experience maintaining a base on another world, with a base 2 to 3 days away. Mars is 4 to 6 months away, much harder to reach in case of problems. This is the big push to gain a permanent human presence beyond LEO, not a chest-pounding look-what-we-did excercise that Apollo was.
Besides, with the technology we have now we have a ways to go to figure out how to land humans on Mars -- at the moment, nobody knows how to do it. Whatever approach we end up with there will need to be a lot testing and maybe a dry run or two before we put astronauts' safety at risk.
... and ten minutes later the kid is looking at porn when he notices a neighbor's open wifi.
And if you don't have a wifi network, the kid picks up one of these set to client mode and still finds the neighbor's open wifi. And you won't know about it because he keeps it hidden along with a USB key he stores the 'good stuff' on.
You can't stop it. What you're fighting against here isn't just the kid. You're fighting against the entire computer industry, pda industry and cell phone industry. These companies are highly motivated to connect their customers and make it easy because it sells.
"I have sometimes earned my living as a professional writer, and I always demand to have an editor."
Fixed it.
- -- ed.
"Smog has been dramatically reduced in California as the state got tough on emissions. Texas around the same time Bush became governor had no such restrictions and over the course of the 90's became the largest smog producer."
California is certainly ahead of the rest of the U.S. on pollution controls, but where did you get the idea that states like Texas had NO restrictions? The EPA enforces pollution laws for the entire country, and they have been doing that since the mid-60's. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EPA
"Of course it's the CO2 in the air that has produced acid rain for the north east."
CO2 has little to do with acid rain. Acid rain is primarily caused by sulpher compounds and nitrous oxide -- see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid_rain. CO2 dissolved in water disassociates at a certain rate to form carbonic acid which is mildy acidic (pH ~5.6). Since there is already a large amount of natural CO2 in the atmosphere, human activity doesn't affect this much. In some industrial areas acid rain has been recorded as low as pH 2.6. You just can't get that low with CO2.
"All the federal regulations were lifted when Bush went into office..."
Good grief, Bush has certainly done his part to undermine environmental regulations, but the regulations are still in place. They just aren't enforced as well as they could be. New cars still have catalytic converters and other polution controls, factories still have to install and maintain stack scrubbers, etc.
Many cars and trucks sold in China (by Chinese companies) are copies of Hyundai, Toyota, or GM designs. When I say copies, I don't just mean visually; many times the parts for the Chinese model of a vehicle can be interchanged with those for the original design. It's disgusting how much the WTO has allowed China to get away with.
This goes on all over the world and it's not illegal. When a popular car line is replaced, car companies typically sell the old tooling to second- or third-world countries where production continues (albeit under a different name). For instance, the original VW Beetle was built from old tooling in Mexico for almost 2 decades after production in Germany was shut down. Since VW had more than one line I believe other sets were sold as well.
I can't find a link for you but I recall a Car & Driver story from the mid-80s with pictures of seemingly brand-new American cars from the '60s and '70s running around in Brazil. Some of those factories are foreign-owned (GM, VW, etc), so the transfer of tooling is sometimes a little more direct.
I've always wondered how the bicycle's efficiency would measure up if the energy to build the roads is taken into account. Sure, you can ride on unimproved trails in the wilderness but how efficient is that?
"The problem in this case is that unlike a few years back with Iraq, the Iranians have this time created such a well-timed diversion (Lebanon) that the Israelis aren't in much of a position for a repeat performance...
The Iranians created this "well-timed" diversion? They certainly played a role, but consider why Israel reacted the way they did.
If Israel and/or the US were planning to attack Iran's nuclear sites, wouldn't it be nice if Iran's "foreign legion" in southern Lebanon were under the watchful eyes of, say, a bunch of Western peacekeepers? Iran's ability to react to an attack by Israel would be much reduced. And you know, peacekeepers aren't invited into a country on a whim. There needs to be a war first.
Call me crazy, but this doesn't smell like something the Iranians would plan.
"...maybe because he can't HEAR it he doesn't know there is a problem?"
According to the products page, the purpose of the Mosquito is to drive teenagers away from an area by producing high frequency sound only they can hear. Older people cannot hear it. The device has no other purpose, and is certainly not a mosquito repellent device as some posters have assumed.
"I can only speak for my friends, family and myself, but we give these freedoms happily and in the knowledge that we know that the government that we elected works for the benefit of all in China.
I'm curious what you mean when you say you "give these freedoms". Your phrasing seems to imply that you had some kind of choice in the matter. Forgive my ignorance, but in the Western world the impression is that the "choice" is pretty stark: give up your freedoms, or land in jail or worse. Most people I know would give up their freedoms happily under those circumstances. But in truth, what were the alternatives when you made your choice?
I'd also like to know what choices you have when you vote. Again, your phrasing seems to imply you have some level of choice. Is there ever an alternative on the ballot? In the Western world the impression is there is never more than one candidate for an office, and they will get elected regardless of what the voters do. It seems to me that if the voters cannot affect the outcome then they are not the ones who "elect" the government. If that's not the case could you reply and tell us how it really works?
Please reply, I'm interested in your answers.