"punishes Syria for using chemical weapons against its populace", not our problem how a foreign government puts down internal rebellion.
But, but, but...chemical weapons are WMDs!!!
And technically, the anti-proliferation Treaties and such DO make it our business when WMD's are being used....
Note, for the record, that I personally think adding chemical weapons to the WMD list was probably a serious mistake. But they did, which provided an excuse for an invasion or Iraq, SHOULD HAVE provided a justification for the invasion of Syria years ago, plus intervention in Ukraine and some other places.....
If he really gave a rat's ass about it, he wouldn't have waited till he was in a lame duck Senate to propose this.
This is all about getting some good press for himself and possibly the Dems in general, and bad press for the Reps coming in next month who'll actually have to vote on this bill. "See?!? WE wanted to fix this horrible thing, but those EEEEVVIIILLL Republicans stopped us!!!!!!"
Be a terrible shame if there were enough Tea Party types (or sympathizers, at least) in the Senate next year to actually approve this bill and make it law....
In the big picture, this flight is meant to test the heat shield in a somewhet rougher environment that return from LEO normally does.
By pushing the Orion up to 3600 miles (5750 km or so), it'll re-enter at a speed rather higher than a Soyuz or Dragon has done (higher than anything since Apollo).
Should be coming back in a bit over 9km/sec, in fact.
Note that this is not as high as it'll need for return from a Mars transition orbit (over 11km/s for that), but it's a good starting test.
Why in hell are they including people with no criminal records in a list of "chronic offenders"? Don't we have some sort of presumption of innocence in our legal system?
I don't hear the libertarians calling for liability for anybody who had money in a 401k that was partially invested in a mutual fund that had.5% of its shares in the company 5 years ago when the decisions were made that led to the problem.
Note that this is exactly the reason that corporations are Limited Liability Corporations. If a stockholder was liable for the decisions of the management of a company, noone would buy stock.
Which would leave us with a world even more divided between the haves and have-nots....
Yeah, using Surface to AIR Missiles on boats actually works really well. Because, y'know, the difference between a boat and a plane is pretty much nonexistant....
"murder them en masse" in no way implies "kill them all".
If, hypothetically, I were to crash a loaded 747 into a skyscraper, it would be a case of my "murdering them (the people in both skyscraper and 747) en masse", even though pretty much every other human on the planet survived....
Automation makes the owner of the machine richer. The man with no machine is stuffed. It is not just a law of economics, its the truth!
Which no doubt explains why we're all generally poorer now than in the 19th century - all that automation of farms (tractors, combines, that sort of thing) left most everyone unemployed (remember, once upon a time, 80% of the workforce was farm labour), except for the 2% of farmers who managed to scrape together the funds to buy those neat new farm-toys....
Alas for all of us that farming was automated! If only we lived in the good old days of horse/mule drawn plows (ploughs for you Brits in the audience) and harvesting by hand!!
As for me, I'll take the increased wealth and leisure that resulted from all that automation - 40 hour work weeks instead of 60 hour work weeks, enough wealth that even the middle class can afford an occasional trans-Atlantic vacation, that sort of thing....
The last few financial bubbles have been because people spent beyond their means and didn't save.
On the other hand, you occasionally have "respected" economists saying that the economy right now is as shaky as it is because people aren't spending enough of what they make.
Apparently, their take is that a strong economy is built on everyone spending every dime that comes to hand....
Your "profit" is the difference between the price you sell your labor for and the cost to produce your labor. Since it doesn't cost you $50, then your "profit" isn't zero.
Theoretically, the "standard deduction" (if you don't itemize) is supposed to approximate the cost of your labor. It hasn't for a very long time, but theoretically it did.
Do note that when the Income Tax was proposed and passed, the intention was to tax people who made tens of thousands of dollars per year (at the time, that kind of income was in one-percenter territory), and that virtually no normal worker would pay any of it.
Inflation, of course, put paid to that idea three generations back.
The more interesting thing, is that for such stars, should they have planetary systems, time will be much slower for them than for the rest of the universe, due to their high velocity relative to the universe.
Umm, no.
0.333c give you a time dilation factor of 0.943. So for every century that passes here, 94 years and a few months will pass there.
As seen from here, of course.
As seen from there, for every century that passes, 94 years and a few months will pass here. Ain't relativity grand?
Spacex could put 70,000 metric tons in an orbit that would eventually end up falling into the sun.
Unlikely in the extreme.
DeltaV required to reach the sun from Earth surface is about 31.7 km/s.
For reference, deltaV required to reach Earth orbit is about 9 km/s.
Note that fuel usage on a rocket varies exponentially with deltaV requirement. Assuming a Falcon 9 could put a 40T payload in Earth Orbit, it would be capable of putting about 60kg into the Sun.
And that 60kg would include the rocket housing the waste.
Even if a couple of rockets burn up in our atmosphere, we would pollute our planet less than any other failed solution we have tried so far.
On the other hand, if a couple Falcon 9's full of radioactive waste were to burn up in atmosphere, they'd pollute our planet with less radioactivity than the coal plants on the planet do every day. Do remember that the largest source of radioactivity in the atmosphere today is coal smoke. By orders of magnitude....
1) You can't gerrymander a Senator, since (s)he's elected at large in a State.
2) The word "gerrymander" is based on the originator of the idea, Elbridge Gerry, who first did it. He was a member of the "Democrat-Republican Party", which eventually fissioned into the Democrat Party and the Whig Party (which disappeared later, to be replaced by the Republican Party at about the time of Lincoln).
So, yeah, the idea came out of the Democrat Party, and spread to the Republican Party after the Republican Party came into existence 50 years later.
Do note that some elements of the Republican Party and Democrat Party switched places later. Many of the things advocated by the modern Democratic Party were introduced by the Republican Party back in the day, and vice versa. As an example, Segregation was a Democratic idea for nearly a century before they change their minds. Likewise, to the extent that Desegregation was even an idea, it was a Republican idea for that same period, then they changed their minds a bit later (as far as I can tell, because the Dems came out in favour of Desegregation, so the Reps HAD to oppose it - stupid gits).
Oh, and the war machine takes 100 times the funding,
Hmm, NASA budget is ~$18B. Are you really suggesting the military budget is $1.8T???
If so, you might want to reread the budget sometime. Hint: it's actually about 1/3 that.
If you want to see where the real money is going, try looking to the mandatory outlays (SSA, Welfare, that sort of thing). Hint: Mandatory outlays are about 2/3 of the total budget (130x NASA's budget).
Start using a democratic system where every vote is equal, it's called Proportional Representation and works very well.
Alas, in the USA, we vote for a candidate, NOT A PARTY!
Yes, I'm aware that in Europe you just vote for the Party you want, and then the Party picks the candidate. Won't happen here without a change to the Constitution....
More maths: Scotland has a population density of 67 per sq km; England has 407.
Interestlingly, and almost completely unrelated, the USA has a population density of only 40 (CONUS only, since Alaska would severly distort that number, being almost completely unpopulated).
What we are talking here is Google leveraging their search engine monopoly to take away the consumer's right to choose services that compete with Google's
Oddly enough, the more I've come to realize that we're gradually drifting into a post-scarcity economy, the more I've come to believe that that your "universal basic income" (I've tended to think of it in terms of a "basic living stipend" but what's in a name?) is increasingly becoming necessary.
Along with a tax structure that'll make it work. Progressive and high, but the BLS isn't taxed at all, at any level (which means no more sales tax, gas tax, and of that POS tax crap - income tax only, at all levels of government).
And I'm one of those right-wing SOBs most of you are always bemoaning the existance of....
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But, but, but...chemical weapons are WMDs!!!
And technically, the anti-proliferation Treaties and such DO make it our business when WMD's are being used....
Note, for the record, that I personally think adding chemical weapons to the WMD list was probably a serious mistake. But they did, which provided an excuse for an invasion or Iraq, SHOULD HAVE provided a justification for the invasion of Syria years ago, plus intervention in Ukraine and some other places.....
It isn't intended to pass.
If he really gave a rat's ass about it, he wouldn't have waited till he was in a lame duck Senate to propose this.
This is all about getting some good press for himself and possibly the Dems in general, and bad press for the Reps coming in next month who'll actually have to vote on this bill. "See?!? WE wanted to fix this horrible thing, but those EEEEVVIIILLL Republicans stopped us!!!!!!"
Be a terrible shame if there were enough Tea Party types (or sympathizers, at least) in the Senate next year to actually approve this bill and make it law....
By pushing the Orion up to 3600 miles (5750 km or so), it'll re-enter at a speed rather higher than a Soyuz or Dragon has done (higher than anything since Apollo).
Should be coming back in a bit over 9km/sec, in fact.
Note that this is not as high as it'll need for return from a Mars transition orbit (over 11km/s for that), but it's a good starting test.
It must be noted that "tens of thousands of Africans" haven't died from ebola. Thousands, yes. Tens of thousands, no.
I noticed that they also included this:
Why in hell are they including people with no criminal records in a list of "chronic offenders"? Don't we have some sort of presumption of innocence in our legal system?
Note that this is exactly the reason that corporations are Limited Liability Corporations. If a stockholder was liable for the decisions of the management of a company, noone would buy stock.
Which would leave us with a world even more divided between the haves and have-nots....
Yeah, using Surface to AIR Missiles on boats actually works really well. Because, y'know, the difference between a boat and a plane is pretty much nonexistant....
*sighs*
"murder them en masse" in no way implies "kill them all".
If, hypothetically, I were to crash a loaded 747 into a skyscraper, it would be a case of my "murdering them (the people in both skyscraper and 747) en masse", even though pretty much every other human on the planet survived....
Which no doubt explains why we're all generally poorer now than in the 19th century - all that automation of farms (tractors, combines, that sort of thing) left most everyone unemployed (remember, once upon a time, 80% of the workforce was farm labour), except for the 2% of farmers who managed to scrape together the funds to buy those neat new farm-toys....
Alas for all of us that farming was automated! If only we lived in the good old days of horse/mule drawn plows (ploughs for you Brits in the audience) and harvesting by hand!!
As for me, I'll take the increased wealth and leisure that resulted from all that automation - 40 hour work weeks instead of 60 hour work weeks, enough wealth that even the middle class can afford an occasional trans-Atlantic vacation, that sort of thing....
On the other hand, you occasionally have "respected" economists saying that the economy right now is as shaky as it is because people aren't spending enough of what they make.
Apparently, their take is that a strong economy is built on everyone spending every dime that comes to hand....
Umm, no.
Your "profit" is the difference between the price you sell your labor for and the cost to produce your labor. Since it doesn't cost you $50, then your "profit" isn't zero.
Theoretically, the "standard deduction" (if you don't itemize) is supposed to approximate the cost of your labor. It hasn't for a very long time, but theoretically it did.
Do note that when the Income Tax was proposed and passed, the intention was to tax people who made tens of thousands of dollars per year (at the time, that kind of income was in one-percenter territory), and that virtually no normal worker would pay any of it.
Inflation, of course, put paid to that idea three generations back.
Nonsense! Governments have the normal natural right to take money from anyone - the Army and Police.
Or do you really believe that there's any difference between modern governments and medieval ones, other than the method of picking the rulers?
Principal. I gather you had the bad teachers you're complaining about?
Umm, no.
0.333c give you a time dilation factor of 0.943. So for every century that passes here, 94 years and a few months will pass there.
As seen from here, of course.
As seen from there, for every century that passes, 94 years and a few months will pass here. Ain't relativity grand?
Unlikely in the extreme.
DeltaV required to reach the sun from Earth surface is about 31.7 km/s.
For reference, deltaV required to reach Earth orbit is about 9 km/s.
Note that fuel usage on a rocket varies exponentially with deltaV requirement. Assuming a Falcon 9 could put a 40T payload in Earth Orbit, it would be capable of putting about 60kg into the Sun.
And that 60kg would include the rocket housing the waste.
On the other hand, if a couple Falcon 9's full of radioactive waste were to burn up in atmosphere, they'd pollute our planet with less radioactivity than the coal plants on the planet do every day. Do remember that the largest source of radioactivity in the atmosphere today is coal smoke. By orders of magnitude....
Umm, looks like the guy you're responding to wasn't switching from old truck to new, but from new to old....
Two things:
1) You can't gerrymander a Senator, since (s)he's elected at large in a State.
2) The word "gerrymander" is based on the originator of the idea, Elbridge Gerry, who first did it. He was a member of the "Democrat-Republican Party", which eventually fissioned into the Democrat Party and the Whig Party (which disappeared later, to be replaced by the Republican Party at about the time of Lincoln).
So, yeah, the idea came out of the Democrat Party, and spread to the Republican Party after the Republican Party came into existence 50 years later.
Do note that some elements of the Republican Party and Democrat Party switched places later. Many of the things advocated by the modern Democratic Party were introduced by the Republican Party back in the day, and vice versa. As an example, Segregation was a Democratic idea for nearly a century before they change their minds. Likewise, to the extent that Desegregation was even an idea, it was a Republican idea for that same period, then they changed their minds a bit later (as far as I can tell, because the Dems came out in favour of Desegregation, so the Reps HAD to oppose it - stupid gits).
Hmm, NASA budget is ~$18B. Are you really suggesting the military budget is $1.8T???
If so, you might want to reread the budget sometime. Hint: it's actually about 1/3 that.
If you want to see where the real money is going, try looking to the mandatory outlays (SSA, Welfare, that sort of thing). Hint: Mandatory outlays are about 2/3 of the total budget (130x NASA's budget).
Alas, in the USA, we vote for a candidate, NOT A PARTY!
Yes, I'm aware that in Europe you just vote for the Party you want, and then the Party picks the candidate. Won't happen here without a change to the Constitution....
Interestlingly, and almost completely unrelated, the USA has a population density of only 40 (CONUS only, since Alaska would severly distort that number, being almost completely unpopulated).
So, how are they doing that?
Of course, if you have Adblock up, that doesn't seem to be an issue. I haven't seen an ad on Google for years.
Same way Roger Ramjet did - government subsidy....
Along with a tax structure that'll make it work. Progressive and high, but the BLS isn't taxed at all, at any level (which means no more sales tax, gas tax, and of that POS tax crap - income tax only, at all levels of government).
And I'm one of those right-wing SOBs most of you are always bemoaning the existance of....
Fine by me.