And considering that the major damage to any inhabited planets that may have been there would have been radiation effects, one has to wonder if there's any intelligent species over there digging up 1.4 billion year old, relatively undamaged artifacts on their planets surfaces right now;)
(Disclaimer: I'm not saying we've found any here on Earth, just that it's interesting to speculate about)
In other news, a clandestine Rebellion broadcast announced the deployment of a Super-Super-Super-Super-Super-Super Death Star in response to the Imperial deployment of the Super-Super-Super-Super-Super Death Star. Unfortunately, life thruout the galaxy was snuffed out before any official Imperial comment on the claim could be *NO CARRIER*
Well, considering that Burt Rutan has been designed aircraft and spacecraft "from scratch" from day one, I'd have to say Yes, that's exactly what they have to do.
Of course they are also relying on more than a half century of manned spaceflight; the data from those flights hasn't exactly been kept a secret.
Your link assumes the companies won't advance their designs, as is common in engineering endeavorers. The person who wrote this has what I'd call an extreme amount of ignorance when it comes to technological advancement. She seems to assume that actual orbital and beyond orbital spaceflight is beyond the capabilities of private corporations, ignoring the fact that it was private corporations who built all the spacecraft that have flown so far (at least in this country) and who in fact have produced many of the innovations that make it possible.
This is extremely foolish. The only real obstacle to private manned spaceflight right now is funding - and that's something one can't predict. It's certainly not engineering, as we've already been there, and done that. It's funding, and return on investment.
As the human race keeps growing and looking for new resources, it's likely that two things may happen - either we push ourselves into space, taking advantage of the near-infinite resources out there, or we don't. If we do, then this whole conversation will be moot. If we don't, we'll die off in our own waste, since we haven't demonstrated any real will towards taking care of those wastes.
The two simplest of all solutions. Which one shall it be?
I'll assume you are young and haven't followed the options we have to their logical conclusion.
The real irony there is that the richest society in the world - and the one with the loftiest self-inflated ideals - has been taken over by the very people the founders of that society warned against.
I suppose that was probably inevitable, given human history, but it still should give one pause, and make one think that maybe, just maybe, the human race needs an entirely different individual paradigm than religion and greed?
The only way this would have a significant impact is on a political basis. That would be, some idiot of a bureaucrat who gums up the whole thing by holding hearings and stopping anybody in any situation from using a rocket of any design to get into space.
The function of the bureaucrat is to justify the job they hold. So this surprises you how? Don't make the mistake of thinking that the people who make the decisions have any more than their own interests in mind. It's nice to think so, but it's not realistic.
While nobody, and I mean nobody, really wants to see somebody die in space, and I'll admit that I really am concerned about commercial spaceflight safety, even having a full spacecraft of passengers dying would not necessarily be "the end of the world". People die in amusement parks, and fairly often on roller coasters. A curious thing happens when people die in an amusement park, however: The number of customers actually goes up! I'm not kidding here. And the lines to get on the ride where people died actually get longer (once, of course, the ride is fixed and the park officials claim to have fixed the problem).
The flawed assumption you operating under here assumes tha that there is a majority of voters in this country who think that access to space is more important than roller coasters and the other entertainment that our society offers them. Oh, and that those majority have had the same sort of education, and think the same way that we do. That thinking is fundamentally flawed, in that it assumes that the "majority" (which in itself is a flawed concept) has any sort of singular goal when it comes to voting for government money to be spent on anything - or for that matter, any sort of rational thinking at all. I think it's pretty clear that most voters over the last few generations wouldn't be able distinguish between rational ojectives and irrational.
There's no law that says that the mass of humanity has to be rational. Unfortunately we as a country seem determined to prove that...
(the richest country in the world, *ever* and we put a man on the moon, then did... what?)
When I first read about the Australian turbine towers, I had the same sort of idea. Since then I've heard it elsewhere as well. Put the tower in, then build the rest of the home around it, paying careful attention to heat production and ventilation. I suspect one could be much more than self-sufficient with the right design, even in the cold northern climates I live in.
In addition to that, you put much of the living space partly underground. This helps free up surface space for production infrastructure, and cuts the energy costs. I suspect there is myraid different designs that'd work.
I think concepts like this would probably be most efficient in larger "arcologies" but the technologies are already being experimented with all over on the small scale. I've been thinking of promoting the idea to cities which already have well-operated community gardens, they'd be most likely to have the funds and will to experiment. No time for that project tho:( I have thought about writing up a brief paper on it just outlining the ideas, but I wouldn't know who to send it to. MIT?;)
(I'm just a lowly building maintenance grunt these days, which keeps one busy enough...)
The sort of greenhouse systems your friend is working on are fairly common, but they can't be 100 percent efficient (trace nutrients and waste water problems mostly even if one lives in a moderately dry area). But they can make a big dent in one's food budget if one can or is willing to put the time into them - they are labor and knowledge intensive:)
That new thin-film solar sheeting I read about yesterday would be a wonderful gift to those of us who want to get beyond the sidewalks - if it's really available:)
Dang. I really haven't had time to pay proper attention to the developments this year. Is there a forum somewhere where the tower turbine concepts are being discussed? I'll look as well.
Nah, no air support needed. Just disassemble an existing grain silo, transport the pieces, reassemble and build your turbine structure inside, adding whatever bracing necessary. Put simply, structures like that are already mass-manufactured, why reinvent the wheel?;)
Some of us who go hiking in remote areas do pick up whatever litter we can transport. We don't consider it overzealous, we consider it garbage collection. Since the large majority of litter in public parks nowadays is cigarette butts, aluminum cans, or paper, one can carry an amazing amount of it.
That said, if he marked them clearly as a dig, he'd probably get people who'd take the markers anyway. But even in remote parts of the Badlands, there are soda cans laying around. Just go there once after a Sturgis rally.
So what you're saying is that all the assholes out there are just potheads experiencing withdrawal?
Whew. For a while I thought bad human behavior might be just, oh, human or something. Glad to know it's just withdrawals. Surely we can clean that little problem up in a generation or two.
The funny thing is, Holmes does have a short (and apparently stable) orbit. Which implies it's been close to the sun for quite a while, and should be relatively "geologically" stable as comets go.
The only other very apparent apparition of it was when it was undergoing another outburst.
Yet, I've heard very few people proposing impact as a cause for this one or the one more than a century ago.
Of course I've not had the time to look into it as much as I'd like, am I missing some serious discussions?
The overwhelming majority of English speakers call it the Sun and don't mean stars and wouldn't think to mean stars. Almost nobody calls it Sol. Why introduce confusion?
If you are arguing against the inclusion of new terms in the english language resulting from the discoveries about the reality we live in, your cause is already lost;)
Which is why anyone with any sense tests a pirate version in a VM or other locked-down environment first.*:)
What's that you say? Most people don't? Well, that explains the zombie counts...
* Which is the only way I *ever*, EVER let customer's machines on my internal web. Not like this is a new technique, hasbeard. Anything the least bit suspect should be locked away from the web until it can be determined it's safe.
Good job explaining what it was. People don't (well, shouldn't) click on random links these days.
Already that already doesn't know any better or who doesn't look into it before clicking on it is already screwed. The evidence is the 100k's or more of zombied PCs.
Slashdot Mirror
And considering that the major damage to any inhabited planets that may have been there would have been radiation effects, one has to wonder if there's any intelligent species over there digging up 1.4 billion year old, relatively undamaged artifacts on their planets surfaces right now ;)
(Disclaimer: I'm not saying we've found any here on Earth, just that it's interesting to speculate about)
We'll never know...
SB
The capabilities of our technology are leaping far ahead of our understanding. There, shortened that for you :)
Technology is fast, evolution is slow.
SB
In addition, some astronomers even write science fiction. :)
;-) )
(That begs a question: Do theoretical physicists write science fiction? Outside of work, I mean?
SB
And now that the next galaxy over is a whole lot closer, it's not like it's a long trip anymore. Lazy sentients.
SB
Yeah, but can you imagine trying to find something as small as a womprat in hidden somewhere in billions of cubic light years? ;)
SB
Dangit, this was supposed to be a reply to this post http://science.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=391860&cid=21732750
:(
That's the third time this month
SB
In other news, a clandestine Rebellion broadcast announced the deployment of a Super-Super-Super-Super-Super-Super Death Star in response to the Imperial deployment of the Super-Super-Super-Super-Super Death Star. Unfortunately, life thruout the galaxy was snuffed out before any official Imperial comment on the claim could be *NO CARRIER*
SB
Well, considering that Burt Rutan has been designed aircraft and spacecraft "from scratch" from day one, I'd have to say Yes, that's exactly what they have to do.
Of course they are also relying on more than a half century of manned spaceflight; the data from those flights hasn't exactly been kept a secret.
Your link assumes the companies won't advance their designs, as is common in engineering endeavorers. The person who wrote this has what I'd call an extreme amount of ignorance when it comes to technological advancement. She seems to assume that actual orbital and beyond orbital spaceflight is beyond the capabilities of private corporations, ignoring the fact that it was private corporations who built all the spacecraft that have flown so far (at least in this country) and who in fact have produced many of the innovations that make it possible.
This is extremely foolish. The only real obstacle to private manned spaceflight right now is funding - and that's something one can't predict. It's certainly not engineering, as we've already been there, and done that. It's funding, and return on investment.
As the human race keeps growing and looking for new resources, it's likely that two things may happen - either we push ourselves into space, taking advantage of the near-infinite resources out there, or we don't. If we do, then this whole conversation will be moot. If we don't, we'll die off in our own waste, since we haven't demonstrated any real will towards taking care of those wastes.
The two simplest of all solutions. Which one shall it be?
I'll assume you are young and haven't followed the options we have to their logical conclusion.
SB
The real irony there is that the richest society in the world - and the one with the loftiest self-inflated ideals - has been taken over by the very people the founders of that society warned against.
I suppose that was probably inevitable, given human history, but it still should give one pause, and make one think that maybe, just maybe, the human race needs an entirely different individual paradigm than religion and greed?
Maybe. But one can dream.
SB
The only way this would have a significant impact is on a political basis. That would be, some idiot of a bureaucrat who gums up the whole thing by holding hearings and stopping anybody in any situation from using a rocket of any design to get into space.
The function of the bureaucrat is to justify the job they hold. So this surprises you how? Don't make the mistake of thinking that the people who make the decisions have any more than their own interests in mind. It's nice to think so, but it's not realistic.
While nobody, and I mean nobody, really wants to see somebody die in space, and I'll admit that I really am concerned about commercial spaceflight safety, even having a full spacecraft of passengers dying would not necessarily be "the end of the world". People die in amusement parks, and fairly often on roller coasters. A curious thing happens when people die in an amusement park, however: The number of customers actually goes up! I'm not kidding here. And the lines to get on the ride where people died actually get longer (once, of course, the ride is fixed and the park officials claim to have fixed the problem).
The flawed assumption you operating under here assumes tha that there is a majority of voters in this country who think that access to space is more important than roller coasters and the other entertainment that our society offers them. Oh, and that those majority have had the same sort of education, and think the same way that we do. That thinking is fundamentally flawed, in that it assumes that the "majority" (which in itself is a flawed concept) has any sort of singular goal when it comes to voting for government money to be spent on anything - or for that matter, any sort of rational thinking at all. I think it's pretty clear that most voters over the last few generations wouldn't be able distinguish between rational ojectives and irrational.
There's no law that says that the mass of humanity has to be rational. Unfortunately we as a country seem determined to prove that...
(the richest country in the world, *ever* and we put a man on the moon, then did... what?)
SB
Too much cruft. Time to rewrite from scratch. Obviously this won't happen if it's assigned to a committee...
SB
**WACK WACK WACK**
*obligitory family guy joke*
Truly, we have sunk that low.
SB
Accusing nerds on Slashdot is like accusing cats of being herd animals - it flies in the face of observation.
;)
What a beautiful sig there be there.
SB
When I first read about the Australian turbine towers, I had the same sort of idea. Since then I've heard it elsewhere as well. Put the tower in, then build the rest of the home around it, paying careful attention to heat production and ventilation. I suspect one could be much more than self-sufficient with the right design, even in the cold northern climates I live in.
:( I have thought about writing up a brief paper on it just outlining the ideas, but I wouldn't know who to send it to. MIT? ;)
:)
:)
In addition to that, you put much of the living space partly underground. This helps free up surface space for production infrastructure, and cuts the energy costs. I suspect there is myraid different designs that'd work.
I think concepts like this would probably be most efficient in larger "arcologies" but the technologies are already being experimented with all over on the small scale. I've been thinking of promoting the idea to cities which already have well-operated community gardens, they'd be most likely to have the funds and will to experiment. No time for that project tho
(I'm just a lowly building maintenance grunt these days, which keeps one busy enough...)
The sort of greenhouse systems your friend is working on are fairly common, but they can't be 100 percent efficient (trace nutrients and waste water problems mostly even if one lives in a moderately dry area). But they can make a big dent in one's food budget if one can or is willing to put the time into them - they are labor and knowledge intensive
That new thin-film solar sheeting I read about yesterday would be a wonderful gift to those of us who want to get beyond the sidewalks - if it's really available
Dang. I really haven't had time to pay proper attention to the developments this year. Is there a forum somewhere where the tower turbine concepts are being discussed? I'll look as well.
Cheers!
SB
Nah, no air support needed. Just disassemble an existing grain silo, transport the pieces, reassemble and build your turbine structure inside, adding whatever bracing necessary. Put simply, structures like that are already mass-manufactured, why reinvent the wheel?
Paint it green and hang some ivy on it...
SB
Some of us who go hiking in remote areas do pick up whatever litter we can transport. We don't consider it overzealous, we consider it garbage collection. Since the large majority of litter in public parks nowadays is cigarette butts, aluminum cans, or paper, one can carry an amazing amount of it.
That said, if he marked them clearly as a dig, he'd probably get people who'd take the markers anyway. But even in remote parts of the Badlands, there are soda cans laying around. Just go there once after a Sturgis rally.
SB
So what you're saying is that all the assholes out there are just potheads experiencing withdrawal?
Whew. For a while I thought bad human behavior might be just, oh, human or something. Glad to know it's just withdrawals. Surely we can clean that little problem up in a generation or two.
SB
The funny thing is, Holmes does have a short (and apparently stable) orbit. Which implies it's been close to the sun for quite a while, and should be relatively "geologically" stable as comets go.
The only other very apparent apparition of it was when it was undergoing another outburst.
Yet, I've heard very few people proposing impact as a cause for this one or the one more than a century ago.
Of course I've not had the time to look into it as much as I'd like, am I missing some serious discussions?
SB
Up the Sagan RPMs. (quantum linked spin?)
The overwhelming majority of English speakers call it the Sun and don't mean stars and wouldn't think to mean stars. Almost nobody calls it Sol. Why introduce confusion?
If you are arguing against the inclusion of new terms in the english language resulting from the discoveries about the reality we live in, your cause is already lost
SB
I suspect the post you replied to was meant to be funny.
Not really sure, tho
SB
That was an EXCELLENT post, thank you.
SB
Which is why anyone with any sense tests a pirate version in a VM or other locked-down environment first.*
What's that you say? Most people don't? Well, that explains the zombie counts...
* Which is the only way I *ever*, EVER let customer's machines on my internal web. Not like this is a new technique, hasbeard. Anything the least bit suspect should be locked away from the web until it can be determined it's safe.
SB
Yup. Forging government documents falls under the purview of the SS since, well, forever, as far as I remember.
(too lazy/busy right now to look up specifics)
SB
Good job explaining what it was. People don't (well, shouldn't) click on random links these days.
Already that already doesn't know any better or who doesn't look into it before clicking on it is already screwed. The evidence is the 100k's or more of zombied PCs.
SB
Missouri Dept of Revenue computer. I believe the SS gets involved in all of these sorts of cases.
SB