From what I've read, the lunar dust is incredibly hard on mechanical things (gears, seals, etc)...that would make maintenance of any lunar base very difficult, and prohibitively expensive. I know that Dyson's cost a bit much, but I think it's going a bit overboard to call them "prohibitively expensive," especially for NASA.
It all depends on which item in the Dyson product line we're talking about. Their geometric line can be quite price-y.
There are two main reasons that people are not fighting over land on the Moon:
1) there are no particularly great natural resources to be found there.
2) though it may represent an "ultimate high ground," it is tactically useless so far as intra-Earth movements go. A base on the Moon designed to effect enemies on the Earth would be the equivalent of a sniper's nest on Mount Everest: you're higher than everybody else, and you may be able to see everything, but your weapon is way out of range.
A third reason may also have some bearing(i.e. that there's so much of it), but that only holds so long as number one isn't altered by the discovery of a localized deposit of something-or-other.
I don't say this to bash any particular administration, it's just the way land gets appraised governmentally.(ANY government) The theoretical benefits, large as they might be, are too far off for governments to be too gung ho about. People take risks. Small groups do too. Governments, not so much.
It's a tough road to haul, but it's probably doable.
Consider Luke's transition from a New Hope through Return of the Jedi: idealistic(sub-whiny), to haughty (pretty whiny), to light-weight badass. He was pretty cold in Jedi(consider his entrance in Jabba's palace). Now, he was never the kind of ass-kicker that Vader was, but was none to shabby.
Anakin just never got over his whininess. Luke lost an arm and seemed to get somewhat sobered by the experience. Anakin just got even more whiny.
Vader's redemption follows the Faust principle: one decision for good at the end of a life is enough to make up for a life ill-spent.
So far as Luke's reaction: consider that Luke has no family, and has never known either of his parents(Beru and Lars had him call them aunt and uncle, implying a void in the mother and father slots). Consider also that since Anakin is Luke's father, and he went so far to the dark side, Luke might want to redeem him for a similar reason to Frodo's wish to redeem Gollum -- to show that there's hope for himself.(If Luke was born of a man of pure evil, then what's keeping Luke from inheriting it? It may not make for good genetics, but it is something people in the situation would tend to think about)
I think the big problem with the "NOOOOO!" scene is the difference in Vaders. In the original trilogy, Vader was a cold, calculating, determined, evil badass. In the prequel trilogy, Vader/Anakin is a whiny, annoying, petulent ass. There is no "bad" involved in his prequel ass of any kind other than the old, "not good," variety.
We don't see him become what he was in the original trilogy, we're left to assume that the intervening years actually made him an interesting character.
That "NOOOOOO!" bit worked with the prequel Anakin, but not with the original Vader. Whereas Lucas might have intended that disconnect to be striking, I think it came off more off-putting and irritating than anything else.
Does sarcasm exist in the Star Wars universe? Couldn't Jabba have said "mighty" sarcastically? (Not necessarily to imply weakness or cowardice in the Wookie, but to otherwise mock his prisoner)
Sheesh. Every damned throw-away line has to be so damned important. (My favorite to see explained is Han's line about making the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs)
Why am I getting Harry Potter flashbacks all of a sudden?
(Seriously, get like a tablet pc or a pda that can be voice activated, "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good" and bang, a map of the (prison) comes up, with little footsteps and scrolls showing where everybody is)
Don't forget the Project Gutenberg tool. Yeah, you can get the books online, but the sherlock tool gets you to the text faster(and doesn't suffer from the page-view hampering of google).
"It was a simple art decision made over and over in all fantasy across all genres."
Indeed, that decision is pretty ubiquitous, but Lucas has been more than willing to go in different directions with character designs in the past. Especially considering the amount of CG he's been using in the prequels, he didn't have to do it this way.
Then again, this isn't something I'm getting bent out of shape over. The specific decision for the inclusion of breasts on this background character doesn't really bother me. The overall design of the character might, but it is so far down the list of gripes I have about the prequels as to be insignificant.
I can mention "Chinese," "Walmart," "Halliburton," and "Fundamentalists" too.
Christian Fundamentalists and Creationism are not the biggest problems in American schools today. I'm not sure what the biggest problem is (I've begun to realize that my last hypothesis was rather narrowminded), however, I'm starting to think that a deep fear of controversy, and the lack of clear purpose are in a dead heat for it.
Schools seem unwilling to teach about ideas and issues people feel strongly about one way or another. Schools also can't seem to figure out if they exist strictly to do the bidding of the parents, or to have some measure of independence and personal destiny of their own. That ties in with the issue of controversy, though, I suppose. (Then there's also my pet issue with schools: the sink holes that are administrations)
On the issue of broadcast(and cable/satellite) standards, I have to agree with The Wilschon and wonder what this has to do with science, or the Moon. Nevertheless you're talking about one Representative(of 435) and one Senator(of 100). I don't know what kind of support they have for their ideas, but I'm not about to become panicked over the fact that they have them. Senators and Congressmen are allowed to have dumb ideas too... just so long as they don't get the votes to pass them into law.
As to stem cell research(which you can say), like one of the ACs said, he isn't outlawing it, just restricting Federal funding. We're funding it out here in California, though.
Yes, my headline is rather flamish(flemish?), but seriously man, the Dark Ages? If you're going to act as an alarmist, at least come up with some original thoughts.
I can't understand why the balance of your mods point to "funny" and not "insightful." If I had gotten here earlier, that's certainly what I would have modded your comment.:)
The first couple TNG movies kinda took a shotgun to some of the long-standing character bits from the series. Data got it the worst... but, then again, he probably got it the best, because he had the most development played out on screen. Considering Geordi went from VISOR to ocular implants to healed eyes in almost no screen time, I'd say Data got lucky.
Then there's the fact that Crusher had nothing to do, Troi got drunk, and in a separate movie, inexplicably got back together with Riker. Riker got to direct... I think that was his biggest piece of development. Worf wisely transferred over to another television crew, where his character got a bit more to play with.
And we didn't even see Wesley.
Really, as badly butchered as Data got at times, he and Picard were the only main crewmembers to get decent focuses.
I don't know where the beginning of this particular wave of anti-franco sentiment started, but I know that almost from its inception, the U.S. has had a rocky relationship with France. Right around 1800, less than twenty years after the Treaty of Paris, the U.S. and France almost went to war(I think the declaration was defeated in Congress by one vote... but I'm not sure. You can find more information by looking up the XYZ Affair. Wikipedia also has a pretty good article on Franco-American relations... but I don't have time right now to look it up and link it)
but in that last paragraph, you forgot the word "beleagured." Furthermore, I think you misspelled "Apple," as "America." Use the preview button next time, for crying out loud. >;)
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From what I've read, the lunar dust is incredibly hard on mechanical things (gears, seals, etc)...that would make maintenance of any lunar base very difficult, and prohibitively expensive.
I know that Dyson's cost a bit much, but I think it's going a bit overboard to call them "prohibitively expensive," especially for NASA.
It all depends on which item in the Dyson product line we're talking about. Their geometric line can be quite price-y.
There are two main reasons that people are not fighting over land on the Moon:
1) there are no particularly great natural resources to be found there.
2) though it may represent an "ultimate high ground," it is tactically useless so far as intra-Earth movements go. A base on the Moon designed to effect enemies on the Earth would be the equivalent of a sniper's nest on Mount Everest: you're higher than everybody else, and you may be able to see everything, but your weapon is way out of range.
A third reason may also have some bearing(i.e. that there's so much of it), but that only holds so long as number one isn't altered by the discovery of a localized deposit of something-or-other.
I don't say this to bash any particular administration, it's just the way land gets appraised governmentally.(ANY government) The theoretical benefits, large as they might be, are too far off for governments to be too gung ho about. People take risks. Small groups do too. Governments, not so much.
It's a tough road to haul, but it's probably doable.
Consider Luke's transition from a New Hope through Return of the Jedi: idealistic(sub-whiny), to haughty (pretty whiny), to light-weight badass. He was pretty cold in Jedi(consider his entrance in Jabba's palace). Now, he was never the kind of ass-kicker that Vader was, but was none to shabby.
Anakin just never got over his whininess. Luke lost an arm and seemed to get somewhat sobered by the experience. Anakin just got even more whiny.
Vader's redemption follows the Faust principle: one decision for good at the end of a life is enough to make up for a life ill-spent.
So far as Luke's reaction: consider that Luke has no family, and has never known either of his parents(Beru and Lars had him call them aunt and uncle, implying a void in the mother and father slots). Consider also that since Anakin is Luke's father, and he went so far to the dark side, Luke might want to redeem him for a similar reason to Frodo's wish to redeem Gollum -- to show that there's hope for himself.(If Luke was born of a man of pure evil, then what's keeping Luke from inheriting it? It may not make for good genetics, but it is something people in the situation would tend to think about)
A hearty "hear hear" from me, KFG.
I think the big problem with the "NOOOOO!" scene is the difference in Vaders. In the original trilogy, Vader was a cold, calculating, determined, evil badass. In the prequel trilogy, Vader/Anakin is a whiny, annoying, petulent ass. There is no "bad" involved in his prequel ass of any kind other than the old, "not good," variety.
We don't see him become what he was in the original trilogy, we're left to assume that the intervening years actually made him an interesting character.
That "NOOOOOO!" bit worked with the prequel Anakin, but not with the original Vader. Whereas Lucas might have intended that disconnect to be striking, I think it came off more off-putting and irritating than anything else.
You know: Left, down, rotate 62 degrees, engage rotor.
Jabba refers to him as "the mighty chewbacca".
...
[random theoretical explanations]
Does sarcasm exist in the Star Wars universe? Couldn't Jabba have said "mighty" sarcastically? (Not necessarily to imply weakness or cowardice in the Wookie, but to otherwise mock his prisoner)
Sheesh. Every damned throw-away line has to be so damned important. (My favorite to see explained is Han's line about making the Kessel run in less than twelve parsecs)
Why am I getting Harry Potter flashbacks all of a sudden?
(Seriously, get like a tablet pc or a pda that can be voice activated, "I solemnly swear that I'm up to no good" and bang, a map of the (prison) comes up, with little footsteps and scrolls showing where everybody is)
let's not start this frame of reference argument again. :)
http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=143453&cid=120 22806
Don't forget the Project Gutenberg tool. Yeah, you can get the books online, but the sherlock tool gets you to the text faster(and doesn't suffer from the page-view hampering of google).
Wow! That's really cool. Any idea when they started doing it?
:)
Thanks for pointing it out... I think that's going to be my movie showtime tool now too.
"It was a simple art decision made over and over in all fantasy across all genres."
Indeed, that decision is pretty ubiquitous, but Lucas has been more than willing to go in different directions with character designs in the past. Especially considering the amount of CG he's been using in the prequels, he didn't have to do it this way.
Then again, this isn't something I'm getting bent out of shape over. The specific decision for the inclusion of breasts on this background character doesn't really bother me. The overall design of the character might, but it is so far down the list of gripes I have about the prequels as to be insignificant.
"Suppose they had an autonomous surveillance vehicle that was literally the size of a housefly. Do you think they'd tell us?"
I'll tell you after they tell us.
I can mention "Chinese," "Walmart," "Halliburton," and "Fundamentalists" too.
Christian Fundamentalists and Creationism are not the biggest problems in American schools today. I'm not sure what the biggest problem is (I've begun to realize that my last hypothesis was rather narrowminded), however, I'm starting to think that a deep fear of controversy, and the lack of clear purpose are in a dead heat for it.
Schools seem unwilling to teach about ideas and issues people feel strongly about one way or another. Schools also can't seem to figure out if they exist strictly to do the bidding of the parents, or to have some measure of independence and personal destiny of their own. That ties in with the issue of controversy, though, I suppose. (Then there's also my pet issue with schools: the sink holes that are administrations)
On the issue of broadcast(and cable/satellite) standards, I have to agree with The Wilschon and wonder what this has to do with science, or the Moon. Nevertheless you're talking about one Representative(of 435) and one Senator(of 100). I don't know what kind of support they have for their ideas, but I'm not about to become panicked over the fact that they have them. Senators and Congressmen are allowed to have dumb ideas too... just so long as they don't get the votes to pass them into law.
As to stem cell research(which you can say), like one of the ACs said, he isn't outlawing it, just restricting Federal funding. We're funding it out here in California, though.
Yes, my headline is rather flamish(flemish?), but seriously man, the Dark Ages? If you're going to act as an alarmist, at least come up with some original thoughts.
First comment to express that thought that I've seen, and it included an example.
It even has an equation.
I only hope this means I can deactivate my emotions chip in a quick manner while moving in to fight the Borg.
That's one of the most thinkgeek comments I've seen in a while. well thoughtgeek.
(maybe that should have been "thinkgeeked"... I never heard the Smurfs say "smarf.")
"and when the action is finished thinkgeek will say: Thinkgeek halts spoof ;)"
;)
Spooof is spelled with three "o"s.
Well, with that uid she doesn't have to worry about you getting a girlfriend, does she?
(at sub one thousand, perhaps hookers at a discount, but not a girlfriend)
I can't understand why the balance of your mods point to "funny" and not "insightful." If I had gotten here earlier, that's certainly what I would have modded your comment. :)
The first couple TNG movies kinda took a shotgun to some of the long-standing character bits from the series. Data got it the worst... but, then again, he probably got it the best, because he had the most development played out on screen. Considering Geordi went from VISOR to ocular implants to healed eyes in almost no screen time, I'd say Data got lucky.
Then there's the fact that Crusher had nothing to do, Troi got drunk, and in a separate movie, inexplicably got back together with Riker. Riker got to direct... I think that was his biggest piece of development. Worf wisely transferred over to another television crew, where his character got a bit more to play with.
And we didn't even see Wesley.
Really, as badly butchered as Data got at times, he and Picard were the only main crewmembers to get decent focuses.
I don't know where the beginning of this particular wave of anti-franco sentiment started, but I know that almost from its inception, the U.S. has had a rocky relationship with France. Right around 1800, less than twenty years after the Treaty of Paris, the U.S. and France almost went to war(I think the declaration was defeated in Congress by one vote... but I'm not sure. You can find more information by looking up the XYZ Affair. Wikipedia also has a pretty good article on Franco-American relations... but I don't have time right now to look it up and link it)
but in that last paragraph, you forgot the word "beleagured." Furthermore, I think you misspelled "Apple," as "America." Use the preview button next time, for crying out loud. >;)
"So, I'm not expecting to ride on a tethered T-rex at the state fair anytime soon."
Well, just in case they do get it working, and you want to give the T-rex a treat afterward, remember to keep your palms flat.