Don't recall anywhere in the Bible that asserts that God dictated the Bible. Moses wrote the Pentateuch, the rest of the Old Testament was written by various people, the New Testament was written by various people (you can usually tell who wrote it by the title - Gospel of Saint John, for instance)
Especially the dream where I was flying around at treetop level like superman. God I love those dreams
God, yes, the flying dreams are great!
Not so great are the "omygawd, I forgot to go to a class all semester, and the final is TOMORROW!!!", which I still have moderately regularly (usually around Christmas and late spring) in spite of being out of college for 30-odd years...;-)
But it's the gamma radiation which is the one we're most concerned about, no?
In a space-borne system? I would think that neutron-embrittlement of your spacecraft would be more a concern than a few more gammas.
Admittedly, the gammas might interfere with those excrutiatingly sensitive sensors you're using in your deep-space probe, but a patch of lead between the power source and the sensor would deal with that nicely - you don't need spherical coverage of the power source, unless it's the center of the probe.
The 25KYear halflife means you'd need 284 times as much Pu239 as you'd need Pu238.
So, for Voyager, we'd need about 3800 kg of Pu239. Which is enough to manufacture ~600 nuclear weapons (Fatman used only 6.2kg of Pu-239 - we've gotten better designs since).
there are alternative isotopes, with much longer half lives even if battery weight is three or five times what a pu-238 one would be.
Longer half-life = heavier battery. More or less in direct proportion. If you use something with a 1000 year halflife, the battery will mass 11+ times as much, for a given power output.
No matter how attached someone might be to his robot, he's going to be more attached to his men.
Until you find an EOD guy who says "Wish we'd never invented these robots, things were much better when *I* was the one being blown into next week rather than my little metal buddy here..." you don't have to worry about human attitudes to robots affecting their judgement in war.
That's because most people that use the term "Obamacare" are doing it to disparage the President.
No, most people use it because "ACA" is just another acronym, and Obamacare actually has some meaning (good, bad, indifferent, but some meaning) to most people.
If I were to mention the ACA to my parents, they'd just look blankly at me. I say "Obamacare", they know what I'm talking about (and really don't care what I think about it, since they're not going to be affected by it in any way).
Having said that, the Germans, French, and other European states have publicly denounced NSA spying. Yet, they all quietly continue to work as normal with the US. So... what gives? Are they politically motivated to put limits on NSA spying or is it all for public show?
I'm curious what you think Belgium could actually do to stop NSA spying? Pass a law against it, perhaps?
Alas, espionage (both sigint and humint) has been a part of every government in history, and it's not going to stop now. You can catch a spy and try him (if you're dumb enough to do that instead of feeding the intel YOU want him to have), but you can't really do much about the fact those guys on the far side of the border are listening to your transmissions (other than encrypt them properly, which you should have been doing already).
but for the most part they have an accurate enough guess to improve herd immunity to the point that a pandemic of the scale that happened in 1918 is significantly less likely.
True for the USA. Probably true for Western Europe.
Maybe true for China and Russia.
Alas, most of the rest of the world would be screwed.
Oh yeah, that approach sure worked out for Manning and Snowden. Thank god public outraged ensured that they are now sitting peacefully at home in the US, not in prison or exile.
And while you're thinking about them, keep in mind that NEITHER of them were charged with treason....
Ok, this WOMAN/GAL/GIRL/LADY (pick one) - I was trying to avoid use of the first two words that came to mind when I was writing the post, which were "idiot" and "moron"....
Treason is the act of sabotage, destruction, sedition, and suchlike.
No, it's not.
From the US Constitution: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."
This is not to suggest that sabotage, destruction, sedition and suchlike might not be crimes. But they're NOT treason in and of themselves.
Much as some people (both in and out of government) might like to convince you they are.
Slashdot Mirror
Bah!
DeltaV to deorbit ISS - ~180 m/s
DeltaV to move ISS to L4/L5 - ~3160 m/s.
Preview, you fool, always preview!
DeltaV to deorbit ISS - DeltaV to move ISS to L4/L5 - >3160 m/s.
One of those is MUCH easier than the other....
Why not?
More Chinese have been killed by their government in the last 100 years than Rwandans by their government over the same timespan.
Don't recall anywhere in the Bible that asserts that God dictated the Bible. Moses wrote the Pentateuch, the rest of the Old Testament was written by various people, the New Testament was written by various people (you can usually tell who wrote it by the title - Gospel of Saint John, for instance)
God, yes, the flying dreams are great!
Not so great are the "omygawd, I forgot to go to a class all semester, and the final is TOMORROW!!!", which I still have moderately regularly (usually around Christmas and late spring) in spite of being out of college for 30-odd years...;-)
It isn't.
What it is is unsafe to stand near, where "near" is any closer than several hundred yards.
In a space-borne system? I would think that neutron-embrittlement of your spacecraft would be more a concern than a few more gammas.
Admittedly, the gammas might interfere with those excrutiatingly sensitive sensors you're using in your deep-space probe, but a patch of lead between the power source and the sensor would deal with that nicely - you don't need spherical coverage of the power source, unless it's the center of the probe.
Pu-238 is NOT "weapons-grade", and Pu-239 (which is) is NOT a useful substitute for Pu-238.
That's Pu-239 they're talking about. Fissionable, 25KY halflife.
The 25KYear halflife means you'd need 284 times as much Pu239 as you'd need Pu238.
So, for Voyager, we'd need about 3800 kg of Pu239. Which is enough to manufacture ~600 nuclear weapons (Fatman used only 6.2kg of Pu-239 - we've gotten better designs since).
Longer half-life = heavier battery. More or less in direct proportion. If you use something with a 1000 year halflife, the battery will mass 11+ times as much, for a given power output.
Actually, water works quite well to block neutrons (better than lead, in fact), alpha and beta radiation. The lead is mostly for the gammas.
A very long time ago I was in the Navy, sailing about in a nuclear submarine.
The power plant of that submarine outmassed the ISS.
Yeah, we call them "sociopaths" or "psychopaths". And try not to let them into the military...
Before we had robots to do EOD, men had to do it.
No matter how attached someone might be to his robot, he's going to be more attached to his men.
Until you find an EOD guy who says "Wish we'd never invented these robots, things were much better when *I* was the one being blown into next week rather than my little metal buddy here..." you don't have to worry about human attitudes to robots affecting their judgement in war.
No, most people use it because "ACA" is just another acronym, and Obamacare actually has some meaning (good, bad, indifferent, but some meaning) to most people.
If I were to mention the ACA to my parents, they'd just look blankly at me. I say "Obamacare", they know what I'm talking about (and really don't care what I think about it, since they're not going to be affected by it in any way).
I'm curious what you think Belgium could actually do to stop NSA spying? Pass a law against it, perhaps?
Alas, espionage (both sigint and humint) has been a part of every government in history, and it's not going to stop now. You can catch a spy and try him (if you're dumb enough to do that instead of feeding the intel YOU want him to have), but you can't really do much about the fact those guys on the far side of the border are listening to your transmissions (other than encrypt them properly, which you should have been doing already).
True for the USA. Probably true for Western Europe.
Maybe true for China and Russia.
Alas, most of the rest of the world would be screwed.
Umm, no.
The 1918 pandemic killed 10-20% of the people infected.
Note that that particular flu infected ~25% of the world's population.
Depends on the particular chemicals.
VX can kill years after it's used if someone touches something that was exposed to VX and hasn't since had the residue washed away.
Sarin, not so much.
Mustard gas is just fertilizer after a few hours.
Note that Snowden hasn't been charged with treason, either.
There have been only six people convicted of treason in the USA post-Civil War. All of them as a result of WW2.
And while you're thinking about them, keep in mind that NEITHER of them were charged with treason....
We don't have to "define treason". The Constitution does that quite nicely in Article 3, Section 3.
Ok, this WOMAN/GAL/GIRL/LADY (pick one) - I was trying to avoid use of the first two words that came to mind when I was writing the post, which were "idiot" and "moron"....
No, it's not.
From the US Constitution: "Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort."
This is not to suggest that sabotage, destruction, sedition and suchlike might not be crimes. But they're NOT treason in and of themselves.
Much as some people (both in and out of government) might like to convince you they are.
Article 3, Section 3, US Constitution.
Learn it, love it, live it.
Doesn't this guy have a metric f*ckton of lawyers to explain these little legal niceties to him???