That's that EEEVIL Eurocentrism I've heard about, isn't it?
In any case, I agree completely. Primitive people are more than capable of screwing up the ecology without any help from the rest of us, and are generally too ignorant and poor to have any real chance of doing anything other than screwing things up....
Where the evidence of a crime already exists and only needs to be collected. It doesn't help with collecting data in anticipation of future wrongdoing.
Umm, we don't actually WANT the government "collecting data in anticipation of future wrongdoing".
Not now, not ever.
Whatever else happens, we do NOT need a Pre-Crime unit.
Nothing intrinsically wrong with the Airacobra other than that it was designed for a mission that the Army Air Corps had no interest in doing.
As we approached WW2, the AAC was filled with guys who thought that was could be won with nothing but big long-range bombers. The idea was to bomb the enemy into submission, and the bombers would be well-enough armed to defend themselves properly.
So, no need for long-range escort fighters, no need for tanks, no need for the Navy, none of that stuff.
The rest of the Army wanted, among other things, GROUND-SUPPORT aircraft. The P-39 was just fine for that purpose. Its performance envelope was optimized for low-altitude work, it carried that gawdawful big cannon in the nose, etc.
Alas, the bomber generals didn't have any use for the P-39, so they were mostly sent to the USSR, where they performed just fine in their design mission.
Also, alas, it turned out that bombers couldn't just fly on their own through swarms of enemy fighters, so we had to develop long-ranged escort fighters (P-38, P-47, P-51).
Even more alas, it turned out that you couldn't do it with bombs alone. Germany had to be invaded on the ground, and Japan had to be pushed back (on the ground) all the way to the Home Islands before they took the hint and gave up.
Australia seems to be full of dangerous animals. That don't appear anywhere else.
Which tends to suggest that they couldn't compete in any of the rest of the planet. Because if what they had going for them was competitive in general, there's be similar animals elsewhere....
1) it's easier to send it to alpha centauri than to the sun. It's even easier to drop it into Jupiter.
2) quick back-of-the-envelop guesstimate. Delta-V required to go from Earth surface to the Sun in a single impulse - 31.7 km/s. Correct that for a reasonably real rocket (one that has to actually accelerate, instead of the magic "single impulse" - 33 km/s.
Now imagine a rocket that massed (empty) 100 metric tons. Imagine that this rocket can carry 900 metric tons of radioactive waste. And imagine that it can hold enough LH2/LO2 to get that 33 km/s deltaV required to reach the Sun.
Do note that we can't actually build a rocket that light that can carry that much. And won't till we can build it out of structural materials with a density comparable to air.
In any case, given the rocket, the payload, and the deltaV, the fuel/reaction mass would be about 1,600,000 metric tons.
In other words, even with impossible materials to build the rocket, we couldn't get it to the Sun....
Note that the same magic rocket could get to Alpha Centauri with 50,000 metric tons of fuel.
Which is still pretty much impossible, but a couple orders of magnitude less impossible.
Which I carefully ignore. Doesn't bother me when someone swaps letters in a word because they were typing too fast.
On the other hand, there's the endemic problem of people not knowing the difference between "there", "they're", and "their". Or "its" and "it's". Or "where" and "wear". Or "your" and "you're"
Just because the wealthy have greater wealth now than they did in the past (shifting the mean income) doesn't mean two cars, a tv, and the means to feed your children is no longer middle class.
When I was a kid, two cars was upper middle class.
In the middle class,these days, it's increasingly normal to have one car per driver.
And we didn't have computers in the home. Much less cellphones. Now, a home without one or more computers is abnormal, and a cellphone per person is normal.
I always thought of the americas as comprising three sections - america, north america (i.e. canada), and south america (i.e. mexico and below). the description in the summary seems fine to me.
Where did you go to school? I've NEVER heard that particular set of definitions for America.
And I've gone to school in 14 States spread across the country...
In my school, we learned calculus in high school... this is a US public high school.
On the other hand, way back in the 70s when I went to High School, I spent a lot of time in the US Military's dependent school system.
Those schools taught Calculus.
My senior year in high school, though, was in a local public high school in Hawaii. That school did NOT teach Calculus.
Which meant I had taken Algebra I before high school, Geometry as a freshman, Algebra II as a sophomore, and Trig/Analytic Geometry as a Junior.
And then had nothing to take as a senior.
Solution, after talking to math teacher: retake Trig/Analytic Geometry, and she'd give me her old calculus book and stick me out in the hall so I could learn Calculus on my own (with occasional help from her when she didn't have to be paying attention to the class).
At least she didn't make me take the trig/anal tests over again, she just gave me an A since I'd already gotten one in trig/anal....
Who says private schools want or need to be exclusive? Some do, but certainly not all.
Private schools are the very definition of "exclusive". If you are unwilling to pay their fees (however high or low they are, for whatever reason), then you are excluded.
My parents never read much to us children (I can't even remember them reading to us once), but we grew up reading huge amounts of books ourselves. On the other hand, my father was reading a book all the time
And that last sentence is the key! If your parents read, it's very likely you will read.
Likewise, if your parents despise learning, that's what they'll teach you.
Which no doubt accounts for at least some of the problem. I remember when the idea of an education was being derided as "acting white" in some circles.
With all due respect, Indian elephants don't seem to have the effect on their local ecosystem that African elephants do.
Mostly because they've been domesticated thoroughly, unlike the African elephant.
No, we're not going to be releasing Mammoths (even fake ones) into the wild. Because they'd essentially be an invasive species anywhere we dropped them, and screw up what ecosystem we released them into.
A $300 washer today is about $750 in mid-80's dollars.
If you're buying $300 washers today, then unless your 80's washer cost $120 or so, it cost considerably more than a modern washer.
Point is that the reason washers don't last so long is that they cost a lot less than they used to. If you want a modern washer that lasts just forever, start shopping with a price FLOOR of $700 for the washer, same for a dryer.
where buildings, cars, and all sorts of things could be turned into giant capacitors
Having been shocked by a large cap back when I was fiddling around with discrete electronics back in the Dark Ages, the notion of being inside a building-sized cap thrills me so much that I think I'll be sick that day.
Seriously, a building-sized cap failing spectacularly would not be a fun thing to be near.
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My God, someone's after the BOOZE?!
Well, scam or not, we can't have that sort of behaviour. It was bad enough when we ran out of vermouth, without this sort of nonsense....
That's that EEEVIL Eurocentrism I've heard about, isn't it?
In any case, I agree completely. Primitive people are more than capable of screwing up the ecology without any help from the rest of us, and are generally too ignorant and poor to have any real chance of doing anything other than screwing things up....
Well before human being showed up???
What were they hunted by? Giant cats?
Umm, we don't actually WANT the government "collecting data in anticipation of future wrongdoing".
Not now, not ever.
Whatever else happens, we do NOT need a Pre-Crime unit.
As we approached WW2, the AAC was filled with guys who thought that was could be won with nothing but big long-range bombers. The idea was to bomb the enemy into submission, and the bombers would be well-enough armed to defend themselves properly.
So, no need for long-range escort fighters, no need for tanks, no need for the Navy, none of that stuff.
The rest of the Army wanted, among other things, GROUND-SUPPORT aircraft. The P-39 was just fine for that purpose. Its performance envelope was optimized for low-altitude work, it carried that gawdawful big cannon in the nose, etc.
Alas, the bomber generals didn't have any use for the P-39, so they were mostly sent to the USSR, where they performed just fine in their design mission.
Also, alas, it turned out that bombers couldn't just fly on their own through swarms of enemy fighters, so we had to develop long-ranged escort fighters (P-38, P-47, P-51).
Even more alas, it turned out that you couldn't do it with bombs alone. Germany had to be invaded on the ground, and Japan had to be pushed back (on the ground) all the way to the Home Islands before they took the hint and gave up.
Australia seems to be full of dangerous animals. That don't appear anywhere else.
Which tends to suggest that they couldn't compete in any of the rest of the planet. Because if what they had going for them was competitive in general, there's be similar animals elsewhere....
Not again.
Two things:
1) it's easier to send it to alpha centauri than to the sun. It's even easier to drop it into Jupiter.
2) quick back-of-the-envelop guesstimate. Delta-V required to go from Earth surface to the Sun in a single impulse - 31.7 km/s. Correct that for a reasonably real rocket (one that has to actually accelerate, instead of the magic "single impulse" - 33 km/s.
Now imagine a rocket that massed (empty) 100 metric tons. Imagine that this rocket can carry 900 metric tons of radioactive waste. And imagine that it can hold enough LH2/LO2 to get that 33 km/s deltaV required to reach the Sun.
Do note that we can't actually build a rocket that light that can carry that much. And won't till we can build it out of structural materials with a density comparable to air.
In any case, given the rocket, the payload, and the deltaV, the fuel/reaction mass would be about 1,600,000 metric tons.
In other words, even with impossible materials to build the rocket, we couldn't get it to the Sun....
Note that the same magic rocket could get to Alpha Centauri with 50,000 metric tons of fuel.
Which is still pretty much impossible, but a couple orders of magnitude less impossible.
There are a lot of obvious typos on /.
Which I carefully ignore. Doesn't bother me when someone swaps letters in a word because they were typing too fast.
On the other hand, there's the endemic problem of people not knowing the difference between "there", "they're", and "their". Or "its" and "it's". Or "where" and "wear". Or "your" and "you're"
That's not laziness, that's just ignorance.
And this movie would be entertaining to whom?
I mean, maybe as a comedy, possibly....
Well, it worked for Germany and Japan. Of course we dropped a lot more bombs on them....
When I was a kid, two cars was upper middle class.
In the middle class,these days, it's increasingly normal to have one car per driver.
And we didn't have computers in the home. Much less cellphones. Now, a home without one or more computers is abnormal, and a cellphone per person is normal.
Where did you go to school? I've NEVER heard that particular set of definitions for America.
And I've gone to school in 14 States spread across the country...
Yeah, someone might even want them to learn how to spell "devastated"....
On the other hand, way back in the 70s when I went to High School, I spent a lot of time in the US Military's dependent school system.
Those schools taught Calculus.
My senior year in high school, though, was in a local public high school in Hawaii. That school did NOT teach Calculus.
Which meant I had taken Algebra I before high school, Geometry as a freshman, Algebra II as a sophomore, and Trig/Analytic Geometry as a Junior.
And then had nothing to take as a senior.
Solution, after talking to math teacher: retake Trig/Analytic Geometry, and she'd give me her old calculus book and stick me out in the hall so I could learn Calculus on my own (with occasional help from her when she didn't have to be paying attention to the class).
At least she didn't make me take the trig/anal tests over again, she just gave me an A since I'd already gotten one in trig/anal....
Private schools are the very definition of "exclusive". If you are unwilling to pay their fees (however high or low they are, for whatever reason), then you are excluded.
And that last sentence is the key! If your parents read, it's very likely you will read.
Likewise, if your parents despise learning, that's what they'll teach you.
Which no doubt accounts for at least some of the problem. I remember when the idea of an education was being derided as "acting white" in some circles.
Wherever did you get that idea? It's not an American usage, that's for sure....
I have seen "the Americas" more often when referring to the combination of North & South America.
Mostly because they've been domesticated thoroughly, unlike the African elephant.
No, we're not going to be releasing Mammoths (even fake ones) into the wild. Because they'd essentially be an invasive species anywhere we dropped them, and screw up what ecosystem we released them into.
So would I. It would be kind of nice to be alive past 2200AD to see that.
Indian elephants..
You're describing African elephants.
So, I'm assuming you wouldn't mind me burning down your house/apartment, so long as I made sure there were no people endangered by the fire?
After all, it's just destruction of property, right?
Yes, actually he can.
He's the head of the Executive Branch, for God's sake! If he wants something unclassified, all he has to do is give the order, and it is so.
Do try to remember that last really good President we had, and the sign on his desk - "The Buck Stops Here"
A $300 washer today is about $750 in mid-80's dollars.
If you're buying $300 washers today, then unless your 80's washer cost $120 or so, it cost considerably more than a modern washer.
Point is that the reason washers don't last so long is that they cost a lot less than they used to. If you want a modern washer that lasts just forever, start shopping with a price FLOOR of $700 for the washer, same for a dryer.
Having been shocked by a large cap back when I was fiddling around with discrete electronics back in the Dark Ages, the notion of being inside a building-sized cap thrills me so much that I think I'll be sick that day.
Seriously, a building-sized cap failing spectacularly would not be a fun thing to be near.