Other than being a place to wave your flag, and maybe--and I mean maybe--a handy place to build a telescope and a base for scientific research, is it really economically viable to haul back minerals and other materials by the ton?
Probably not. On the other hand, it's cheaper to ship material from Luna to LEO than from earth to LEO. Given the infrastructure on the moon to produce the material in the first place.
Which means, among other things, that a manned Mars mission would be cheaper and easier if the majority of the spacecraft (say, everything but the electronics) were built on the moon from lunar material (yes, there's plenty of aluminium and titanium there to build large structures with).
Note that you could get much of the advantage by supplying LOX/LH2 from the moon rather than Earth, since rocket fuel will comprise the majority of the mass of a Mars mission....
The difference is that I still find it problematic, and so do most of my friends here.
So, you'd prefer a Pearl Harbor of your very own?
Countries spy on other countries for good reasons. Pearl Harbor was a good example of what happens when you don't do a good job of spying on other countries.
But feel free to object to your country spying. It'll just make it easier on your enemies, without any real gain for your country....
For some reason I have the feeling that most Americans didn't see much of a problem in the spying on other countries.
Nope. Not a bit. Any more than anyone else sees a problem with their country spying on other countries.
Or are you silly enough to believe that YOUR country doesn't spy on other countries?
the main perceived problem was not the spying, but that they didn't filter the domestic data out.
The NSA has a mandate to do FOREIGN signals intelligence gathering. Note that word "foreign", it's important. They do NOT have a legal mandate to violate the Fourth Amendment (it's actually impossible to have such a legal mandate) by doing signals intelligence gathering against American citizens.
And no, foreigners are not protected by the US Constitution when they're outside the USA. If you believe that you should be, I suggest you invoke the US Fourth Amendment (just to see how far it gets you) next time you are arrested in wherever you are.
So, the FDA is going to require manufacturers to prove their antibacterial soap does something worthwhile, eh?
And if the soaps fail to do anything worthwhile, the manufacturers will just have to remove the "kills bacteria" from the labels in order to continue selling them.
And everyone (including those who currently use anit-bacterial soaps) will continue to use the same brand they always have, because they're used to it.
It demonstrably is not a straw man. 50% of hospital admissions [beckershos...review.com] come through the Emergency Department.
I don't know how common this is, but an anecdote:
Back when my cancer first manifested itself, I was doing an office visit with my oncologist, and, as usual, bloodwork was done and I had to wait for the results (my kidneys were being attacked by my cancer at the time).
So, lab results come back, doctor looks at them, tells me "go across the street to the emergency room, while I call and tell them to admit you IMMEDIATELY, so we can begin administering chemo RIGHT NOW".
Didn't quite work out that way - they didn't start the chemo till the next evening, since they had to figure out how to dose me so as to not destroy my kidneys before the cancer could destroy my kidneys. Which meant, among other things, wiring me for dialysis just in case the cure was worse than the disease....
In any case, not all Emergency Room admissions are real emergencies. If I'd been told to check in normally the next morning (rather than via the ER), I'd have been no worse off.
Let the Fed fund the govt by expanding its balance sheet to buy govt bonds, and keep the loans rolling over forever while returning the interest to the Treasury. Zero-cost borrowing.
Can you say "hyperinflation"? Sure you can...
Note that if doing this were fiscally sound, we could dispense with taxes entirely, and have the Fed do this for ALL government spending.
Note also that that $1 trillion per year the Fed has been giving to the Government is essentially a 5% increase in the money supply every year.
And we haven't seen 5% growth to go along with the 5% increase in the money supply - sooner or later, prices are going to start rising to match that money supply (note that it looks like this is already happening in housing. We had a housing bubble, and the Fed's solution to the bubble bursting was to pump enough money into the economy that the peak of the bubble is the new "normal").
Obviously, the person providing the firearms should have known that something was wrong with purchasing a semi-auto pistol and a shotgun for two minors who had a questionable history.
Aside from the fact that selling firearms to minors is illegal, you mean?
Hey, if you are willing to extradite Assange, an Australian citizen, for us enough that he has to hide in a foreign embassy to avoid it,
So, Assange doesn't want to be extadited to be tried for rape, so he hides in a foreign embassy to avoid it.
Sounds more like a problem for Assange than for the UK.
Do note that if the UK wanted Assange sent to the USA, they could have just sent him along instead of putting the ankle bracelet on him last year - they don't have to send him to Sweden first....
I am not against the collection of data from an individual, targeted with reason, and with proper due process, such as a warrant.
And if you're paying attention, NOONE ELSE is against that either.
What we oppose is the warrantless wiretapping of basically everyone in the world, which is what the NSA is saying is absolutely mandatory to do its job....
Medical insurance isn't really that different: Most of the time, you pay in more than you pay out. That's to offset your expenses when you discover that you have leukemia (as a generally pretty healthy friend of mine did just last Sunday). Or do you really think you have the cash on hand to just pay a $450,000 hospital bill?
Of course, the plan he described would require you to pay (assuming costs were all in one year) ~$183000 for that leukemia treatment. Not really better from the point of view of the guy who can only afford a bronze plan in the first place.
If you look at the FBI Crime Reports, you will see that there are 37 criminal firearm based homicides [fbi.gov] for every self-defense homicide by a civilian [fbi.gov].
You don't necessarily have to kill someone to use a gun defensively. You don't even necessarily have to fire the weapon.
And pointing a gun at someone and telling him to go away doesn't make the FBI statistics, any more than pointing it at someone and telling him to lie down till the police arrive does....
Slashdot Mirror
Hate to say it, but are you suggesting that the USA shouldn't have gotten involved in WW2 because it was immoral and unethical?
They want them to move away from San Fran, so that the whole place will become a slum that they can afford to live in.
Either that or they want to force them all to buy cars, producing more gridlock, more pollution, and more wear & tear on the roads.
Spot what? That NoKaOi misspelled "rein in"?
Probably not. On the other hand, it's cheaper to ship material from Luna to LEO than from earth to LEO. Given the infrastructure on the moon to produce the material in the first place.
Which means, among other things, that a manned Mars mission would be cheaper and easier if the majority of the spacecraft (say, everything but the electronics) were built on the moon from lunar material (yes, there's plenty of aluminium and titanium there to build large structures with).
Note that you could get much of the advantage by supplying LOX/LH2 from the moon rather than Earth, since rocket fuel will comprise the majority of the mass of a Mars mission....
What drive train? It's an electric car - battery, wires from battery to electric motor, that's it.
The UN has just voted against "unlawful surveillance"...
Which, being unlawful, is already illegal everywhere (pretty much by definition, really).
So they've voted for the status quo to remain the status quo.
So, you'd prefer a Pearl Harbor of your very own?
Countries spy on other countries for good reasons. Pearl Harbor was a good example of what happens when you don't do a good job of spying on other countries.
But feel free to object to your country spying. It'll just make it easier on your enemies, without any real gain for your country....
Nope. Not a bit. Any more than anyone else sees a problem with their country spying on other countries.
Or are you silly enough to believe that YOUR country doesn't spy on other countries?
The NSA has a mandate to do FOREIGN signals intelligence gathering. Note that word "foreign", it's important. They do NOT have a legal mandate to violate the Fourth Amendment (it's actually impossible to have such a legal mandate) by doing signals intelligence gathering against American citizens.
And no, foreigners are not protected by the US Constitution when they're outside the USA. If you believe that you should be, I suggest you invoke the US Fourth Amendment (just to see how far it gets you) next time you are arrested in wherever you are.
Oddly, I've never been anywhere that I had to go more than a hundred miles without passing a few gas stations.
So I think it's unlikely I'll run out of gas at all....
Umm, no.
There are some laws we can all agree on.
There are some we disagree on.
The fact that I approve of SOME laws in no way implies that I approve of ALL laws.
By the same token, the fact that I disapprove of SOME laws in no way implies that I don't want ANY laws.
And if the soaps fail to do anything worthwhile, the manufacturers will just have to remove the "kills bacteria" from the labels in order to continue selling them.
And everyone (including those who currently use anit-bacterial soaps) will continue to use the same brand they always have, because they're used to it.
I find myself curious.
How does one go about PROVING a chemical to be safe?
I don't know how common this is, but an anecdote:
Back when my cancer first manifested itself, I was doing an office visit with my oncologist, and, as usual, bloodwork was done and I had to wait for the results (my kidneys were being attacked by my cancer at the time).
So, lab results come back, doctor looks at them, tells me "go across the street to the emergency room, while I call and tell them to admit you IMMEDIATELY, so we can begin administering chemo RIGHT NOW".
Didn't quite work out that way - they didn't start the chemo till the next evening, since they had to figure out how to dose me so as to not destroy my kidneys before the cancer could destroy my kidneys. Which meant, among other things, wiring me for dialysis just in case the cure was worse than the disease....
In any case, not all Emergency Room admissions are real emergencies. If I'd been told to check in normally the next morning (rather than via the ER), I'd have been no worse off.
Nigh. "Neigh" is the sound horses make.
Hmm, I spend that at least that much time pricing something like a washing machine, or new computer.
And I usually spend similar amounts of time pricing an automobile, or anything else that costs thousands of dollars.
Your point was?
Does not follow.
I trust a lot of people. Not trusting the government doesn't make me trust any particular individual less (or more).
Contrariwise, trusting the government doesn't make me trust any individual more (or less).
Can you say "hyperinflation"? Sure you can...
Note that if doing this were fiscally sound, we could dispense with taxes entirely, and have the Fed do this for ALL government spending.
Note also that that $1 trillion per year the Fed has been giving to the Government is essentially a 5% increase in the money supply every year.
And we haven't seen 5% growth to go along with the 5% increase in the money supply - sooner or later, prices are going to start rising to match that money supply (note that it looks like this is already happening in housing. We had a housing bubble, and the Fed's solution to the bubble bursting was to pump enough money into the economy that the peak of the bubble is the new "normal").
Aside from the fact that selling firearms to minors is illegal, you mean?
SpaceX put a satellite into geosynchronous orbit (~5.5 Earth radii up) earlier this month.
So, Assange doesn't want to be extadited to be tried for rape, so he hides in a foreign embassy to avoid it.
Sounds more like a problem for Assange than for the UK.
Do note that if the UK wanted Assange sent to the USA, they could have just sent him along instead of putting the ankle bracelet on him last year - they don't have to send him to Sweden first....
And if you're paying attention, NOONE ELSE is against that either.
What we oppose is the warrantless wiretapping of basically everyone in the world, which is what the NSA is saying is absolutely mandatory to do its job....
Such as?
Not that I doubt that there are some neutral issues, but I frankly can't think of any off the top of my head....
Of course, the plan he described would require you to pay (assuming costs were all in one year) ~$183000 for that leukemia treatment. Not really better from the point of view of the guy who can only afford a bronze plan in the first place.
The first clause in the sentence is hugely questionable - why should the Icelandic government not break laws like every other government?
Sounds like Prenda Law, but these guys are not asking as much, and so are more likely to get paid off than fought in court.
You don't necessarily have to kill someone to use a gun defensively. You don't even necessarily have to fire the weapon.
And pointing a gun at someone and telling him to go away doesn't make the FBI statistics, any more than pointing it at someone and telling him to lie down till the police arrive does....