Slashdot Mirror


User: AchilleTalon

AchilleTalon's activity in the archive.

Stories
0
Comments
1,772
First seen
Last seen
Profile
(view on slashdot.org)

Comments · 1,772

  1. Advertisment on Buying Goods To Make Nuclear Weapons On eBay, Alibaba, and Other Platforms · · Score: 1

    "Parts and Supplies for the next babies boomers' generation"

  2. Re:Centrifuge parts on Buying Goods To Make Nuclear Weapons On eBay, Alibaba, and Other Platforms · · Score: 1

    It's not like Homer Simpson can build an uranium centrifuge to military grade as a hobby week-end project.

  3. Re:Well on Space Tourism Isn't Worth Dying For · · Score: 1

    Anyway, the bullshittiest thing about Virgin Galactic, is the Galactic in the name. It is there just to let you think it is a great human enterprise to the infinity and beyond while it is just about a sophisticated rollercoaster.

  4. Re:Well on Space Tourism Isn't Worth Dying For · · Score: 0

    But you don't know that for sure. If they milk millionaires for funding to experiment with aerospace technologies, then as long as they're not being reckless in their risk-taking I see no problem.

    I don't know for sure God does not exist, but I know He does not exist.

    Milking millionaires and billionaires for funding is easy, many crooks are doing so in Wall Street since a long time. It just proves millionaires and billionaires don't know a clue about science, aerospace technologies and all that stuff.

  5. Re:Well on Space Tourism Isn't Worth Dying For · · Score: 2

    Why don' t you just admit you don't know what you are talking about?

  6. Re: Well on Space Tourism Isn't Worth Dying For · · Score: 2, Funny

    SpaceShipTwo is not able to reach orbit. It is still useful for other things.

    Yeah, sure, it makes nice fireworks.

  7. Re: Well on Space Tourism Isn't Worth Dying For · · Score: 1

    Whatever the way you put it, you analogy is still an analogy and it is a lame one. It is not because someone put together an analogy that makes the reality different. Someone will tell you about Columbus going to America, etc when talking about space colonization, it is just not comparable in every way. It is not an argument at all for space colonization that Columbus bravery should be taken as an example of the path to follow. Stop the analogies and talk about the reality and the physical world. Talk about the amount of resources needed to establish something that would look like a colony on the Moon. How many people are needed there to make sure the genetic pool is diverse enough to no produce degenerated humans, what would be needed to feed the daily, etc. This is the kind of problem Columbus didn't have to face once he arrived in America. Life was self-sustainable on day one and a genetic pool already exists. Only wind was required to go there, he didn't have to bring oxygen. So, Virgin Galactic is about space exploration what the bonobo is about relativity.

  8. Re:Branson Vows To 'Move Forward Together' on SpaceShipTwo Pilot Named; Branson Vows To 'Move Forward Together' · · Score: 1

    Don't confuse recklessness and bravery.

  9. Re:Not a good week... on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crashes · · Score: 1

    Are you capable to make a distinction between a screw and building a particle accelerator the size of the galaxy? I am pretty much sure, with a confidence level of 99%, we will not be able to build on such accelerator within the next two centuries. You just do not realize what experimental conditions are required to make a quantum leap into our understanding of the physics if there is something beyond the Standard Model. It is very unlikely we will be capable to create experimental conditions that will lead us to a model very different than the current one. That is what I am saying.

  10. Re:Not a good week... on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crashes · · Score: 1

    Neither this has anything to do with what I said.

  11. Re:Not a good week... on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crashes · · Score: 1

    Nothing to do with what I am saying.

  12. Re:Not a good week... on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crashes · · Score: 1

    I kept up. That's not the point. Despite huge effort and massive investment into big science, we are still have such a thing like the Standard Model in physics that still hold water and we are really struggling to imagine an experiment which could be conducted and enable us to discriminate between this model and all other proposals.

    You know, when the complexity of a problem is growing exponential, even if you could use all the energy in the universe you will not able to solve it. That is the point. Grabbing bits of knowledge are becoming always more and more expensive and complex. So far, and I believe it is safe to say for the next two centuries, we will not be able to build a particle accelerator the size of the galaxy.

  13. Re:Err - no. on World War II Tech eLoran Deployed As GPS Backup In the UK · · Score: 1

    Turning off the GPS signal would have consequences for USA citizen in a magnitude you can confidently discard this hypothesis. Jamming the signal in specific geographic areas using jamming signals is something else. But shutting down the service? No way.

  14. Re:Meanwhile, in the U.S. on World War II Tech eLoran Deployed As GPS Backup In the UK · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Operating yourself the GPS satellites does not prevent disruption of the GPS service due to solar storms, which I believe is the most likely case behind the UK decision to keep the eLoran system. I don't neither believe shutting down selectively the service is possible in time of war. Remember the GPS communication is one-way only for the positionning devices. The satellite receives nothing from the device.

  15. Re:same week... on China Completes Its First Lunar Return Mission · · Score: 0

    Are you aware a USA space module will land on a comet in few days from now?

  16. Re:Back to the future on China Completes Its First Lunar Return Mission · · Score: 1

    Well said!

  17. Re:same week... on China Completes Its First Lunar Return Mission · · Score: 2

    Are you awared India has sent a probe orbiting Mars successfully just few weeks ago? Only four nations did it: Russia, USA, European Space Agency and India. Only one succeeded on first trial, India.

  18. Re:To put into TIME perspective on China Completes Its First Lunar Return Mission · · Score: 2

    Clearly after going to the Moon, someone discovered there is no point anymore to go there. USA proved its superiority as intended when JFK launched the program. The only incentive was national superiority during the Cold War. The rest was pure waste of money and resources.

    Comparison with aviation does not hold water. The aviation industry has proven to be profitable and fast transportation valuable to human activity and economy. No such thing exists for manned missions to the Moon or even Mars. In short, there is no incentive to do it again or even go to Mars, Cold War is over.

  19. Re:Not a good week... on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crashes · · Score: 0

    On another hand, did you modded down people that used this tragedy to push their unrealistic dream? I am not trollish at all, you just refuse discussion and we are all supposed, in you mind, to drink the kool-aid without saying anything about it. I am answering people who are taking advantage of the tragedy to push the Hollywood, NASA and Stephen Hawking's bullshit about space colonization. Space colonization is a religious dogm and I am an infidel. Then you beheaded me.

  20. Re:Not a good week... on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crashes · · Score: 0

    I do not "attack" profits. I am just stating what this whole thing is about. Profits can also be made from doing actually useful things. Travel in suborbital space for the wealthiers accomplish nothing.

    BTW, what achievements are you talking about? We have already send people to the Moon and we are routinely sending people in low orbit of the Earth. There is nothing to see here.

  21. Re:Not a good week... on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crashes · · Score: 0

    You know what? This whole thing about universe colonization is nothing else than a religion, with its dogms and I am proud to be an infidel. There is no science to back anything like that. Travelling space, particularily interstellar travel is just unscientific in every aspect. It is like believing in angels and demons. Worst, everyone escape a serious discussion by always saying there is plenty new science to discover (like God has His way and He can do this and that, etc). But really, the science will not be that different in two centuries from what we know today. It will have to take into account for all the facts we have accumulated, in particular for those of the last century. It cannot drastically deviate from what we know today. Often, today's discoveries are just adding a significant digit to what we already know. It is not because you can model mathematically very sophisticated universes they actually exist.

    In the mean time Branson and ali will entertain wealthier people and waste tons of our planet resources into an illusion.

    Colonisation of space would require at least a community of tens of thousands individuals to live simultaneously on another planet or a giant spacecraft. A giant spacecraft in the interstellar void is out of question since no energy would be available to sustain life and going to Mars would have also a high price tag. Just calculate how much energy you need to send one kilogram of matter to Mars. We still suppose Mars is capable to sustain life, while recent results are showing it is losing the thin atmosphere it still have due to solar winds. You are asking those behind to be deprived from very important resources for their own survival to pursue an illusive dream with a religion faith.

  22. Re:Using NASA's dictionary on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crashes · · Score: 0

    I don't know if he qualifies yet as a brave pioneer. Nobody knows the cause yet, what if this happens because Branson wants some results to show to investors and pushed too much? Would you still say he was a brave pioneer or just an abused employee?

  23. Re:Not a good week... on Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo Crashes · · Score: 0, Troll

    Commercial manned spaceflights add nothing here. The ultimate goal being profit for shareholders and find a new way to waste money for the wealthier in exchange of something nobody else can buy, do. But at the end, it does not contribute anything to make this planet better. No, colonisation of space is not an option, neither a feasible at all anyway. The amount of resources needed to do colonisation on a scale large enough to make it viable provided the rest of the story is possible (I mean, autonomous life on Mars or travelling to other stellar systems), are just too large it would be unethical to deprive the humanity from it for the stake of a few. No, I am not ready to die for my neighbor to live in space or elsewhere.

  24. Re:Anti-Nuclear group looking for scare material? on France Investigating Mysterious Drone Activity Over 7 Nuclear Power Plant Sites · · Score: 1

    Fukushima wasn't scary at all. It is still surpassed by far by the Chernobyl accident. Chernobyl is already past and people are living there these days. Nobody was killed by Fukushima, however thousands died due to the tsunami. Anyone is scared at tsunamis?

  25. Re:Unless the plant is surrounded in a glass dome. on France Investigating Mysterious Drone Activity Over 7 Nuclear Power Plant Sites · · Score: 1

    Do you really believe such gaps exist? I mean, birds and other critters would have already infiltrated them.