I've seen video of that pad explosion!!
You see the Soyuz light off, then flames race up and out from it. Suddenly, the escape rocket,the tiny rocket on top of the cosmonaut's capsule, bursts on, and the capsule tears off from the burning rocket. Impressive.
do you live anywhere near Cambridge? Here in Boston, it's jokingly refered to as "The People's Republic of Cambridge" because of the long history of socialist and commie activity there. Part of the beauty of all those pinkos, though, is that Cambridge actually has decent bike lanes, unlike Boston, which only has spots on the road where you MIGHT not get hit.
The Galleria is anything but upscale, IMHO. It's like any trashy mall, it just has a few stores with names not in English. The same disruptive teenagers and cheap electronics are there as in any other mall, any place in America.
Anyway, of the 5 "views", three of them are in Boston, not Cambridge.
And, as any *nux head should know, the reason the FSF started is that Stallman is an MIT person. Not sure if there offices are still there, but the FSF used to have part of the 9th (I think) floor of the big white building on the Mass Ave stretch of Campus.
It's funny that the fruitloop who claims to be able to 'trancendentally levitate' comes across as significantly more rational, thoughtful, and genuininely in touch with the realities of the situation than the Shrub.
My favorite is the frothing-at-the-mouth "DRUGS ARE BAD!" rant by Shrub's staffers. It's like these blind men trying to drive a runaway tractor trailer - they know the motions, and are trying to play it calm, while all the shit is cascading down around them. They are even trying to convince themselves (and us?) that they are correct. The Drug War is going to do the same to the US that the Cold War did to the USSR, snap it's collective spine, and Bush is only going to accelerate the process. Dare to keep politicians from drugs and violence, kids, it only feeds their ambition.
It's not an exageration. For the 'normal' user, the cops aren't a problem, as you say. This is partly due to sheer volume of users, as well. Something the political dialogue ignores about the whole "war" (are there POWs?) is that this is a war "against" about 20% of the US population.
It is, however, a terrible tool used by police snitchs and clerical errors, and some instances of political revenge. "Dynamic Entry" home invasions are causing increasingly more deaths of completely innocent people from wrong addresses and delibrate malice.
Been there, did that. 8)
My two former roommates filled out the long Census form like dutiful little sheep. I put that there was 1 other person there (all that the Constitution authorizes) and that the questions were a violation of my rights.
A month or so later, some tool showed up at our door wanting to clarify the census stats for "Mr. Constitution". Luckily, I was at work, and my roomie respects my privacy.
I've been holding my breath on this since about 1988. 8( Even with the Zarya-FGB-Unity assembly, there is still tons of potential problems, accidents and funding issues that could prevent the station from being useful in any way. This is aside from the "usefulness" issues that the baselined (current) ISS would have for science uses at assembly complete, like the less-than-exemplary microgravity environment it will have.
Cypher was always my favorite of the New Mutants, and one of my favorite "X" mutants. He was SO DAMN NORMAL, and yet had this incredible talent, and an alien robot for a friend. His attitude, and attempts at being peaceful/thinking instead of the normal fists+laserbeams (of the other X mutants) was really inspirational... Odd, but I stopped collecting anything but manga right after Cypher died, too. Marvel sure went downhill.
The sword that these predictive-materials geeks are building is actually a "long sword" or a "bastard sword", not a broadsword. A broadsword has one edge, and is straight or slightly curved, with a small basinet. Think of the swords in the US Marine ads - that's a broadsword. Aside from that little snafu in terminology, this seems like a great project. That sword reminds me of the "artifacts" from D+D, unique and very powerful. Using meteoric iron is cool, there have been blades throughout history made from it, and there is a scientific basis for it being a good material to work with: the metals in meteors tend to be very pure, of pure iron or alloyed iron and nickel. I wonder how much that beasty is going to go for at auction?
His ass is gonna hurt after 7 years in the lockdown.
But, then again, he is a spammer, so whatever happens to him, he probably deserves, just from a karma standpoint.
Bubblegum Crisis and Crash, Princess Mononoke, etc
on
Essential Anime
·
· Score: 1
Bubblegum Crisis and Crash: 4 grrrls in powered armor battle against psychotic Boomer robots in a rebuilt MegaTokyo. Essential.
Princess Mononoke: Studio Ghibli's latest (and best) work. The Japanese version of environmentalism: if you mess with the forest, the spirits come out and kick your ass. Stars lots of big animals, a guy that rides a goat and a little wolf-girl with Claire Danes doing the voice. Intense, sublime, watch out for the Forest Spirits.
Otomo's Memories: I'm not sure if it's been released (officially) in the States. Saw a bootleg a few years ago, it's 3 short pieces by the director of Akira. The first is a salvage crew finding a space hulk, turns into Victorian space-ghost thing. Hard to describe without spoiling it, one of the most beautiful and amazing pieces of anime I have encountered. The other two stories are "Stinkbomb 2" (or 3?) and one about a country dedicated to war in the "steampunk" vein.
Ghost in the Shell: replaced Akira as my favorite anime. Excellent adaptation of Masamune's manga. The Major is one asskicking cyborg. Special Ops cyborgs battle 'Net-created AI that hops brains, definite spiritual "what is life" theme. Want... thermoptic... camo...
Others that are on my list of good anime: Akira (duh), Macross Plus, Appleseed (not a terrible adaptation).
Josh
Re:The problem of bullies
on
Virtual War
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· Score: 1
Overlooked is the fact that in war, there are no civilians or soldiers; in war, everyone is the enemy.
Typed like a true child of the late 20th Century. There is a term to describe this belief, it is called "Total War". It was pioneered in World War II, and you have summed it up with that sentence.
The doctrine of Total War treats civilians as viable targets, which violates both the Geneva Conventions, and at least 300 years of formal warfare. Civilians are, by our very nature, non-combatants. If you REALLY think that civilians are viable targets in combat, think about your friends and family. Would you want your sister getting cluster-bombed? Unless she is a soldier, every rule of war (and yes, there used to be rules, though Slick Willy and George Bush both didn't/don't give seem to give a shit) says that she should be safe from assault. The same goes for civilian infrastructure.
the internet is a universal medium so maybe it is time we face it as the whole of humanity not as the fragmented bunch of nationalistic political states. <P>Maybe the "we" should be "I and I" instead? If the Net is to stay free and unfettered by government meddling, it has to be viewed as the actions of millions of individuals, literally, building and using new worlds. To continue approaching Net access and regulation as some collective action betrays both the networks and the people using and building them. Only by recognizing the implicit individualism of the Net can it remain a free medium. Any form of regulation strangles the network, and the people, and must be resisted. 8)
I've been reading about some of the war crimes trials/kangaroo courts that the UN has set up, specifically the ICTY. They are not carrying out these trials in anything that resembles a fair manner, never mind one that respects common legal practices. Prisoners held for years without trial, witnesses giving secret testimony and admitting lying on the stand (yet the trials go on), etc. I wouldn't trust the UN any more than the US govt to "run" the Net. It's giving the fox the keys to the chicken coop. In fact, I wouldn't trust anyone (govt or corp or nonprof) to regulate the Net, it's to porous, and bureaucrats (since that's who'd "run" things) are notoriously corrupt in all their disgusting flavors. In short, fuck the UN and the one-worlders, especially as far as the Net goes. And, if they (UN/US/whoever) try to somehow assert authority over the Net, new, secure nets can be built...
Katz, you should take your anti-corporate blinders off sometime, and look around. Couple of questions, somewhat rhetorical: 1) Ever heard of a company that exterminated 60-120 million people? Neither have I, but Stalin's Soviet Union succeeded at it. The Sovs continued to kill people until Communism imploded, and the vile ideology of Communism STILL gets praise from western academics and political elites. Disgusting. 2) Ever heard of a corporation that destroyed an entire country? The US has killed 1.5 million Iraqis in the past ten years, by restricting trade (by those evil corporations!) that has kept food, medicine, and industrial equipment out of that now impoverished country. This is not an apology for that nation's totalitarian government, but a point toward the difference between the power of the Company versus the deadly force of the all-encompassing State.
The increasing control over the media by the State (whether nationalist or internationalist, it still kills PEOPLE), should have you much more scared than Time-Warner's childish action against Disney. Time-Warner did not precision-bomb Belgrad and Novi Sad's sewer treatment plants. M$ hasn't destroyed the lives of civilians from Vietnam to Panama to Mt. Carmel, Texas.
You should turn your keyboard on those that cause real, calculable harm on people, Jon Katz. The increasing power (and blind rage) of the modern State should have you much more scared than Napster, the MPAA, Time-Warner, or even Pinkerton. Corporate power can be controlled at the stockholder level, in the spectacle of the media, and on the level of direct action, if needed. The power of the Nanny State and the agenda of the left-centrist coalition in the industrial states crushes all opposition, violently. While claiming to "protect rights" and calling for "humanitarian" wars, the elite that "lead" this country are tearing it apart, and stuffing their own pockets with our labor. Man, am I in a foul mood all of a sudden. 8/ J05H
Avid makes some awesome gear, but it'll drain your budget faster than you can say "insert edit". For mid-range editting (price wise) the DPS, Newtek and Pinnacle systems are much more reasonable.
Gotta agree on the futility of insterstellar travel, and here's why: the Inner Solar System offers everything humanity (and decendents/offshoots) could develop through most of the 21st century. Mars, the NEOs, the Moon and Sun have enough materials and energy, readily available, to fuel an incredible industry in space. Just using the inner system, even ignoring Mercury and Venus (to longterm, development-wise), the Earth's first intelligent species 8) can begin both freeing the Earth of the burdensome parts of our existence (manufacturing, power generation [SPS], maybe agriculture) and freeing life from the Earth. We can build habitats in space that mimic any Earth ecosysytem, we can spread life to Mars, the asteroids, the Moon, creating a "safety net" in case of comet or meteor impact on Earth. The only way to do this is by commercial means, though. Governments have gathered enough science and intitial surveying for these bodies, that the next logical step is for industry, civil society and private individuals, to begin exploiting the inner solar system. J05H PS: Population growth is most definitely not growing exponentially. The rate of population growth is slowing, dramatically. Overall, population is still growing, and will continue for the near future, but (according to UN forecasts), will plateau between 9 and 11 billion, then drop to between 3 and 9 billion by 2100. However, due to various factors, mostly industrialization of the Third World, birth rates across the globe are plummetting. India's birthrate recently dropped to 3.75 kids/woman, still many kids per, but a dramatic decrease over 2 generations. Japan, Spain, Germany all have negative population growth, internally.
How exactly would a large satellite "clean up the junk?" Would it eat the dead satellites? You can't just clean them up. They have mass, they take up space. The only way you can get rid of them is to push them into the atmosphere. However, do you want to be the president of a company that starts pushing 17-ton satellites into the atmosphere hoping that they burn up on reentry or land in an ocean? <P>The best two methods for long-term cleanup of Earth orbit are Solar Thermal Rockets for large junk and an "Orion"-type pulse laser for the paint flecks and other small stuff. Instead of "getting rid of" the junk, it should be melted down, and either placed in commonly agreed-upon parking orbit, or smelted and solid as raw material directly. A well desinged STR should even be able to pick out the electronics and tankage for later reuse without melting it down. <P><i>Why does everyone insist that Nature exists only on Earth? </I> <P>"Nature" in the sense of a working ecosystem, does only exist on Earth, as far as anyone knows. Space is DEAD, there's nothing there except radiation and raw materials. We should use those materials (and energy) to improve the lives of people on Earth. The corollary of this is that, by improving standards of living on Earth, using space-based resources, we can radically reduce the impact of human existence on the biosphere. <P>J05H
If you look at the Newton2k, you've seen what an overpowered PDA can become.
umm... Underpowered? My Newton 2100 has a 163 mhz StrongArm in it. It's still, after two years of hard, daily use, performing better than any of my other computers. It still outperforms every handheld I've seen. It's handwriting recog is accurate (except for the way I right "a", it always thinks it's "u"), and doesn't require learning Grafitti or anything.
The Newton was just designed right. It isn't a desktop OS crammed into a handheld. It has the power of a desktop box, fits in the hand, runs for 24 hours on a charge, and handles any telecom or writing I need on the road, along with all of it's other features.
Thanx for killing it, Mr. Jobs.
8(
I see the surge in PDAs and "net appliances" as the beginning of a breakout from the PC. On the other hand, there is always going to be a need for desktop computers, with nice big displays and room for expansion. I wouldn't want to edit a video or try making 3D using my Newt, or a Xybernaut. These new devices are extending the range of computing/telecomm uses, not killing off older variants.
The Net was supposed to kill television, PCs were supposed to kill Big Iron, and TV was supposed to kill both radio and print. It's all about filling niche markets, and finding new uses for old things. Sure, in ten years, maybe most 'leet geeks will do their telecomm from handheld/wearables, but they will still have a keyboard and monitor someplace for those long coding sessions. Twiddlers and speech recog just won't cut it for a lot of uses.
Sorry, but there isn't enough data to say what "G" level humans and other large mammals need to live healthily.
It's obvious that large-scale colonization in zero-G is unfeasible due to calcium loss and other side effects. however, the "threshold" point at which bone loss ceases is an unknown. It could be 1/6th (lunar) or 1/3rd (Mars!) of a G, it could be your stated.9, but no one knows. The best guesses, and they are guesses, is that humans could easily survive with minimal bone loss in Martian gravity (.38G), but it is only conjecture.
And the O'Niell Islands would be have been steel, but built along the lines of suspension bridges, so there would be a lot of structures designed to add strength to the Islands, not just welded steel panels.
Happy Friday!
No. Protect extend and rebuild the environment at the same time as raising all of humanity to a standard of living better than what we enjoy currently in America. This is using today's technology and free market mechanisms, not this authoritarian "Third Way".
Life is a gamble, get used to it. You HAVE to do something in life, might as well make it worthwhile, right? Think of what you are saying, basically, that the Third World, and poorer people in the developed world, should be kept down for the benefit of the international ruling caste? The "Third Way" leaders (Clinton, Blair, Schroedinger, etc) are not interested in any "common" people, they are only interested in their helping the corporations that have granted favors to them, and to the special interests and other lobbies that dictate policy to them. If you aren't "special", or Fortune 500, they consider you nothing more than a source of money and consumption.
On your fear of environmental degradation, in the US, it's alot better than people realize. Also, do a search on "bruce sterling viridian" on your favorite search engine. Here's a good Viridian starter:
Slashdot Mirror
I've seen video of that pad explosion!!
You see the Soyuz light off, then flames race up and out from it. Suddenly, the escape rocket,the tiny rocket on top of the cosmonaut's capsule, bursts on, and the capsule tears off from the burning rocket. Impressive.
do you live anywhere near Cambridge? Here in Boston, it's jokingly refered to as "The People's Republic of Cambridge" because of the long history of socialist and commie activity there. Part of the beauty of all those pinkos, though, is that Cambridge actually has decent bike lanes, unlike Boston, which only has spots on the road where you MIGHT not get hit.
The Galleria is anything but upscale, IMHO. It's like any trashy mall, it just has a few stores with names not in English. The same disruptive teenagers and cheap electronics are there as in any other mall, any place in America.
Anyway, of the 5 "views", three of them are in Boston, not Cambridge.
And, as any *nux head should know, the reason the FSF started is that Stallman is an MIT person. Not sure if there offices are still there, but the FSF used to have part of the 9th (I think) floor of the big white building on the Mass Ave stretch of Campus.
so there. 8P
It's funny that the fruitloop who claims to be able to 'trancendentally levitate' comes across as significantly more rational, thoughtful, and genuininely in touch with the realities of the situation than the Shrub.
My favorite is the frothing-at-the-mouth "DRUGS ARE BAD!" rant by Shrub's staffers. It's like these blind men trying to drive a runaway tractor trailer - they know the motions, and are trying to play it calm, while all the shit is cascading down around them. They are even trying to convince themselves (and us?) that they are correct. The Drug War is going to do the same to the US that the Cold War did to the USSR, snap it's collective spine, and Bush is only going to accelerate the process. Dare to keep politicians from drugs and violence, kids, it only feeds their ambition.
Where's my freedom FROM religion?
VOTE LIBERTARIAN
It is, however, a terrible tool used by police snitchs and clerical errors, and some instances of political revenge. "Dynamic Entry" home invasions are causing increasingly more deaths of completely innocent people from wrong addresses and delibrate malice.
Here is a link from a recent FreeRepublic thread on the rising innocent body count. 8(
Been there, did that. 8)
My two former roommates filled out the long Census form like dutiful little sheep. I put that there was 1 other person there (all that the Constitution authorizes) and that the questions were a violation of my rights.
A month or so later, some tool showed up at our door wanting to clarify the census stats for "Mr. Constitution". Luckily, I was at work, and my roomie respects my privacy.
Holy crap! I think I know some of those people from campus! Swapfest is never going to be the same...
Whoops. In my haste, I misnamed the station components...
I've been holding my breath on this since about 1988. 8(
Even with the Zarya-FGB-Unity assembly, there is still tons of potential problems, accidents and funding issues that could prevent the station from being useful in any way. This is aside from the "usefulness" issues that the baselined (current) ISS would have for science uses at assembly complete, like the less-than-exemplary microgravity environment it will have.
Cypher was always my favorite of the New Mutants, and one of my favorite "X" mutants. He was SO DAMN NORMAL, and yet had this incredible talent, and an alien robot for a friend. His attitude, and attempts at being peaceful/thinking instead of the normal fists+laserbeams (of the other X mutants) was really inspirational...
Odd, but I stopped collecting anything but manga right after Cypher died, too. Marvel sure went downhill.
The sword that these predictive-materials geeks are building is actually a "long sword" or a "bastard sword", not a broadsword. A broadsword has one edge, and is straight or slightly curved, with a small basinet. Think of the swords in the US Marine ads - that's a broadsword.
Aside from that little snafu in terminology, this seems like a great project. That sword reminds me of the "artifacts" from D+D, unique and very powerful. Using meteoric iron is cool, there have been blades throughout history made from it, and there is a scientific basis for it being a good material to work with: the metals in meteors tend to be very pure, of pure iron or alloyed iron and nickel.
I wonder how much that beasty is going to go for at auction?
But, then again, he is a spammer, so whatever happens to him, he probably deserves, just from a karma standpoint.
Bubblegum Crisis and Crash: 4 grrrls in powered armor battle against psychotic Boomer robots in a rebuilt MegaTokyo. Essential.
Princess Mononoke: Studio Ghibli's latest (and best) work. The Japanese version of environmentalism: if you mess with the forest, the spirits come out and kick your ass. Stars lots of big animals, a guy that rides a goat and a little wolf-girl with Claire Danes doing the voice. Intense, sublime, watch out for the Forest Spirits.
Otomo's Memories: I'm not sure if it's been released (officially) in the States. Saw a bootleg a few years ago, it's 3 short pieces by the director of Akira. The first is a salvage crew finding a space hulk, turns into Victorian space-ghost thing. Hard to describe without spoiling it, one of the most beautiful and amazing pieces of anime I have encountered. The other two stories are "Stinkbomb 2" (or 3?) and one about a country dedicated to war in the "steampunk" vein.
Ghost in the Shell: replaced Akira as my favorite anime. Excellent adaptation of Masamune's manga. The Major is one asskicking cyborg. Special Ops cyborgs battle 'Net-created AI that hops brains, definite spiritual "what is life" theme. Want... thermoptic... camo...
Others that are on my list of good anime: Akira (duh), Macross Plus, Appleseed (not a terrible adaptation).
Josh
Typed like a true child of the late 20th Century. There is a term to describe this belief, it is called "Total War". It was pioneered in World War II, and you have summed it up with that sentence.
The doctrine of Total War treats civilians as viable targets, which violates both the Geneva Conventions, and at least 300 years of formal warfare. Civilians are, by our very nature, non-combatants. If you REALLY think that civilians are viable targets in combat, think about your friends and family. Would you want your sister getting cluster-bombed? Unless she is a soldier, every rule of war (and yes, there used to be rules, though Slick Willy and George Bush both didn't/don't give seem to give a shit) says that she should be safe from assault. The same goes for civilian infrastructure.
J
the internet is a universal medium so maybe it is time we face it as the whole of humanity not as the fragmented bunch of nationalistic political states.
<P>Maybe the "we" should be "I and I" instead? If the Net is to stay free and unfettered by government meddling, it has to be viewed as the actions of millions of individuals, literally, building and using new worlds. To continue approaching Net access and regulation as some collective action betrays both the networks and the people using and building them. Only by recognizing the implicit individualism of the Net can it remain a free medium. Any form of regulation strangles the network, and the people, and must be resisted. 8)
I've been reading about some of the war crimes trials/kangaroo courts that the UN has set up, specifically the ICTY. They are not carrying out these trials in anything that resembles a fair manner, never mind one that respects common legal practices. Prisoners held for years without trial, witnesses giving secret testimony and admitting lying on the stand (yet the trials go on), etc.
I wouldn't trust the UN any more than the US govt to "run" the Net. It's giving the fox the keys to the chicken coop. In fact, I wouldn't trust anyone (govt or corp or nonprof) to regulate the Net, it's to porous, and bureaucrats (since that's who'd "run" things) are notoriously corrupt in all their disgusting flavors.
In short, fuck the UN and the one-worlders, especially as far as the Net goes. And, if they (UN/US/whoever) try to somehow assert authority over the Net, new, secure nets can be built...
Katz, you should take your anti-corporate blinders off sometime, and look around.
Couple of questions, somewhat rhetorical:
1) Ever heard of a company that exterminated 60-120 million people? Neither have I, but Stalin's Soviet Union succeeded at it. The Sovs continued to kill people until Communism imploded, and the vile ideology of Communism STILL gets praise from western academics and political elites. Disgusting.
2) Ever heard of a corporation that destroyed an entire country? The US has killed 1.5 million Iraqis in the past ten years, by restricting trade (by those evil corporations!) that has kept food, medicine, and industrial equipment out of that now impoverished country. This is not an apology for that nation's totalitarian government, but a point toward the difference between the power of the Company versus the deadly force of the all-encompassing State.
The increasing control over the media by the State (whether nationalist or internationalist, it still kills PEOPLE), should have you much more scared than Time-Warner's childish action against Disney. Time-Warner did not precision-bomb Belgrad and Novi Sad's sewer treatment plants. M$ hasn't destroyed the lives of civilians from Vietnam to Panama to Mt. Carmel, Texas.
You should turn your keyboard on those that cause real, calculable harm on people, Jon Katz. The increasing power (and blind rage) of the modern State should have you much more scared than Napster, the MPAA, Time-Warner, or even Pinkerton.
Corporate power can be controlled at the stockholder level, in the spectacle of the media, and on the level of direct action, if needed. The power of the Nanny State and the agenda of the left-centrist coalition in the industrial states crushes all opposition, violently. While claiming to "protect rights" and calling for "humanitarian" wars, the elite that "lead" this country are tearing it apart, and stuffing their own pockets with our labor.
Man, am I in a foul mood all of a sudden. 8/
J05H
AC, Thanx for the links! I've been looking for Saanger info for a while, with little luck.
J05H
Avid makes some awesome gear, but it'll drain your budget faster than you can say "insert edit".
For mid-range editting (price wise) the DPS, Newtek and Pinnacle systems are much more reasonable.
Hail Discordia!
Gotta agree on the futility of insterstellar travel, and here's why: the Inner Solar System offers everything humanity (and decendents/offshoots) could develop through most of the 21st century. Mars, the NEOs, the Moon and Sun have enough materials and energy, readily available, to fuel an incredible industry in space. Just using the inner system, even ignoring Mercury and Venus (to longterm, development-wise), the Earth's first intelligent species 8) can begin both freeing the Earth of the burdensome parts of our existence (manufacturing, power generation [SPS], maybe agriculture) and freeing life from the Earth. We can build habitats in space that mimic any Earth ecosysytem, we can spread life to Mars, the asteroids, the Moon, creating a "safety net" in case of comet or meteor impact on Earth.
The only way to do this is by commercial means, though. Governments have gathered enough science and intitial surveying for these bodies, that the next logical step is for industry, civil society and private individuals, to begin exploiting the inner solar system.
J05H
PS: Population growth is most definitely not growing exponentially. The rate of population growth is slowing, dramatically. Overall, population is still growing, and will continue for the near future, but (according to UN forecasts), will plateau between 9 and 11 billion, then drop to between 3 and 9 billion by 2100. However, due to various factors, mostly industrialization of the Third World, birth rates across the globe are plummetting. India's birthrate recently dropped to 3.75 kids/woman, still many kids per, but a dramatic decrease over 2 generations. Japan, Spain, Germany all have negative population growth, internally.
How exactly would a large satellite "clean up the junk?" Would it eat the dead satellites? You can't just clean them up. They have mass, they take up space. The only way you can get rid of them is to push them into the atmosphere. However, do you want to be the president of a company that starts pushing 17-ton satellites into the atmosphere hoping that they burn up on reentry or land in an ocean?
<P>The best two methods for long-term cleanup of Earth orbit are Solar Thermal Rockets for large junk and an "Orion"-type pulse laser for the paint flecks and other small stuff. Instead of "getting rid of" the junk, it should be melted down, and either placed in commonly agreed-upon parking orbit, or smelted and solid as raw material directly. A well desinged STR should even be able to pick out the electronics and tankage for later reuse without melting it down.
<P><i>Why does everyone insist that Nature exists only on Earth? </I>
<P>"Nature" in the sense of a working ecosystem, does only exist on Earth, as far as anyone knows. Space is DEAD, there's nothing there except radiation and raw materials. We should use those materials (and energy) to improve the lives of people on Earth. The corollary of this is that, by improving standards of living on Earth, using space-based resources, we can radically reduce the impact of human existence on the biosphere.
<P>J05H
umm... Underpowered? My Newton 2100 has a 163 mhz StrongArm in it. It's still, after two years of hard, daily use, performing better than any of my other computers. It still outperforms every handheld I've seen. It's handwriting recog is accurate (except for the way I right "a", it always thinks it's "u"), and doesn't require learning Grafitti or anything.
The Newton was just designed right. It isn't a desktop OS crammed into a handheld. It has the power of a desktop box, fits in the hand, runs for 24 hours on a charge, and handles any telecom or writing I need on the road, along with all of it's other features.
Thanx for killing it, Mr. Jobs.
8(
I see the surge in PDAs and "net appliances" as the beginning of a breakout from the PC. On the other hand, there is always going to be a need for desktop computers, with nice big displays and room for expansion. I wouldn't want to edit a video or try making 3D using my Newt, or a Xybernaut. These new devices are extending the range of computing/telecomm uses, not killing off older variants.
The Net was supposed to kill television, PCs were supposed to kill Big Iron, and TV was supposed to kill both radio and print. It's all about filling niche markets, and finding new uses for old things. Sure, in ten years, maybe most 'leet geeks will do their telecomm from handheld/wearables, but they will still have a keyboard and monitor someplace for those long coding sessions. Twiddlers and speech recog just won't cut it for a lot of uses.
J05h (feeling long winded)
Sorry, but there isn't enough data to say what "G" level humans and other large mammals need to live healthily. .9, but no one knows. The best guesses, and they are guesses, is that humans could easily survive with minimal bone loss in Martian gravity (.38G), but it is only conjecture.
It's obvious that large-scale colonization in zero-G is unfeasible due to calcium loss and other side effects. however, the "threshold" point at which bone loss ceases is an unknown. It could be 1/6th (lunar) or 1/3rd (Mars!) of a G, it could be your stated
And the O'Niell Islands would be have been steel, but built along the lines of suspension bridges, so there would be a lot of structures designed to add strength to the Islands, not just welded steel panels.
Happy Friday!
It only rains liquid diamond in the summer...
No. Protect extend and rebuild the environment at the same time as raising all of humanity to a standard of living better than what we enjoy currently in America. This is using today's technology and free market mechanisms, not this authoritarian "Third Way".
Life is a gamble, get used to it. You HAVE to do something in life, might as well make it worthwhile, right? Think of what you are saying, basically, that the Third World, and poorer people in the developed world, should be kept down for the benefit of the international ruling caste? The "Third Way" leaders (Clinton, Blair, Schroedinger, etc) are not interested in any "common" people, they are only interested in their helping the corporations that have granted favors to them, and to the special interests and other lobbies that dictate policy to them. If you aren't "special", or Fortune 500, they consider you nothing more than a source of money and consumption.
On your fear of environmental degradation, in the US, it's alot better than people realize. Also, do a search on "bruce sterling viridian" on your favorite search engine. Here's a good Viridian starter:
http://www.bespoke.org/viridian/
Man, do I have indigestion from this...
J05H