Well it is sort of true that supercomputers are useless. This 4 week time span mentioned above is actually from 1960, when it was possible to forecast weather 2 days in advance but a month was thought possible. In 1974 this expectation was dropped to 10 days, and today, it is agreed (see Tennekes among others) that 7 days is the limit for accurate forecasting even as computing power increases without limit.
So really, this big toy should take us a little closer to the 7 day forecast actually being right, but not much further.
Passing a law like this is the equivalent of abolishing speed limits in exchange for forcing auto-makers to put anti-speeding technology in cars.
Not quite. Passing a law like this is the equivalent of raising speed limits and also raising the penalties for breaking the limit. Notice the article suggests strengthening legislative, not technological, copyright enforcement.
They sure did act like "insecure little capitalists" but "insecure little capitalists" are predictable, they whine (I prove it thus!) whereas who knew what the Soviets would do. I am sure the reverse it quite valid (the Soviets certainly didn't understand the "insecure little capitalists") but the fact remains that Eisenhower didn't launch.
You guys are all missing the point! The USSR got the first living creature in orbit. Laika, a dog, was put in orbit in the Sputnik 2 on 2 January 1959. Of course, with the state of Soviet human and animal rights they also got the first dead creature in orbit.
Also, this head start business re: the Soviets winning the race into space. The only reason the Soviets beat the Americans into space was because Einsenhower was reluctant to escalate the Cold War. The Americans has the capacity, but he felt that the Soviets, as insecure little commies, would be threatened by an American satellite that passed over them. Think U2 incident and you will see how right Einshower was.
Then again all the Americans did was outspend the Soviets. You can be as proud of this as you want.
Well it is sort of true that supercomputers are useless. This 4 week time span mentioned above is actually from 1960, when it was possible to forecast weather 2 days in advance but a month was thought possible. In 1974 this expectation was dropped to 10 days, and today, it is agreed (see Tennekes among others) that 7 days is the limit for accurate forecasting even as computing power increases without limit. So really, this big toy should take us a little closer to the 7 day forecast actually being right, but not much further.
Passing a law like this is the equivalent of abolishing speed limits in exchange for forcing auto-makers to put anti-speeding technology in cars.
Not quite. Passing a law like this is the equivalent of raising speed limits and also raising the penalties for breaking the limit. Notice the article suggests strengthening legislative, not technological, copyright enforcement.
They sure did act like "insecure little capitalists" but "insecure little capitalists" are predictable, they whine (I prove it thus!) whereas who knew what the Soviets would do. I am sure the reverse it quite valid (the Soviets certainly didn't understand the "insecure little capitalists") but the fact remains that Eisenhower didn't launch.
Also, this head start business re: the Soviets winning the race into space. The only reason the Soviets beat the Americans into space was because Einsenhower was reluctant to escalate the Cold War. The Americans has the capacity, but he felt that the Soviets, as insecure little commies, would be threatened by an American satellite that passed over them. Think U2 incident and you will see how right Einshower was.
Then again all the Americans did was outspend the Soviets. You can be as proud of this as you want.