I have been writing one senator who sat on the Senate Arms Committee for the last 3 years suggesting that we do an X-Prize in America (or in the west) for 2 technologies.
The first is energy storage. It must have the ability to last for millions of cycles, have the ability to take an extremely fast charge with extreme energy and power densities. Basically, this is almost certainly a better ultra-cap, however, you do not want to limit it just to ultra-caps. If somebody can figure out a new better device that fits the bill, then you want to support it. After all, it is possible (not likely) that a battery would do the trick.
The second IS beaming power. This was to be in steps. The first was to be 1/2 km at 25% efficiency. THat would allow setting up local power. In particular, you can set up a power station and beam it to multiple points without wires. Think of a FOB or any place that needs to be set p quickly, but disassemble quickly as well. From a Civilian POV, it can be used to provide power to earth movers, diggers, etc At 25%, it has the same efficiency of a diesel. It can also be used to float a small balloon over a disaster area and provide local power QUICKLY. In any disaster, providing energy quickly makes the difference of life or death for many ppl. In addition, something like this will be a great deal lighter than loads of generators AND fuel.
Then create 2 X-prize to jump this from.5 to 5 km again at 25%, while the second is.5 Km at 50% efficiency. With a 5 km range, it enables a tank battalion to have electric weapons, with another tank in the rear that can provide lots more power (think a nuke reactor in a tank). In addition, it allows something like an Aircraft Carrier to provide power to other ships that would then have electric weapons. Again for civilian uses, the high efficiency not only improves current equipment, but it will be picked up by Ag tractors, and other new equipment. The 5 km also allows trains to pick this up. With such an approach, it makes it cheap to provide electric power to a train. Maintenance is a huge costs in a train. Likewise, it can provider energy at an airport for electric planes esp. for take-offs. We speak of wanting electric planes, but carrying all your energy is expensive. But the truly expensive portion is getting to altitude. After that time, you cut way back on power. For beaming on a disaster area, 5 kms allows floating the balloon much higher and covering a great deal more area.
Obviously, we need iterative prizes to continue jumping up efficiencies as well as distance. If it was possible to get 90% efficiency at.5 km, while only getting 30% efficiency at 200 miles, it is still major gains all over.
So, good to see that NASA has more brains than my senator. But I guess that was a given.
I really like this approach. If we can get hydrogen to expand via the electric heat, than we can make great strides in space travel. Now, if we can just get CONgress to kill the SLS and devote that money to private space launches as well as advanced R&D like this, we could get America back on track. Sadly, our CONgress is ran by a bunch of MBA/lawyer types esp. the house that are far more interested in helping themselves, rather than our nation.
How soon can we send it into FATA in pakistan? Time to just target the high level taliban/AQ. I am fine with using automation to do this. In fact, I think that we should send these ppl into Mexico as well once it is working decently. Lots of Cartel there.
Well, alot of that is caused because of the illegals here. Hospitals are required to treat EMERGENCY situations regardless of income. So, illegals come up here and then see ER for EVERYTHING. It is bankrupting America. Yet, the idiot DEMS AND PUBS do nothing. Basically, a simple change would take care of the hospitals, but both politicians fight it:
1) all true emergencies will be treated. However, if you do not have insurance, then ICE will be called. If you are not here legally, you will be sent home or imprisoned.
2) Ideally, we would require all businesses to e-verify(check legality to work here), and then deny all benefits except the above medical issue.
The problem is that our pols are just greedy bastards that are worried about their own jobs and do not care about our nation anymore.
http://www.indexmundi.com/mexico/unemployment_rate.html.
The big difference is that we have a lot of promised obligations. Mexico does not. They do not have SS, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. That is what makes them a 3rd world nation. OTH, what makes the west 1st world is that we DO have programs that costs us, but builds up infrastructure designed to help advance our nation. The problem is that if we pick up loads of new uneducated citizens, while at the same time, gutting the low end jobs, it will leave us with high unemployment and loads of financial issues.
Basically, you can not allow in 10% of your population with uneducated immigrants, legal or not. For example, the insane idea that we should do another regan-style amnesty is looney tunes in light of all the robotics coming soon. This is the only way for a nation to compete. However, they will have to have cheap energy. Oddly, it will not be coal or any fossil fuel that is going to be cheap energy. It will either be nukes, or combinations of AE namely geo-thermal, solar and wind.
IBM, HP, Dell, etc have quit innovating LONG ago. Now, they are busy either shifting operations offshore to make up for horrible management, or they simply sell the unit (again to make up for horrible management, marketing, sales, etc).
I have worked for both companies. Believe me, IBM's Palmisano is running IBM into the ground. He is as short sighted as HP's Apotheker, but has has a head start.
Seriously, HP, IBM, etc are simply gutting themselves because they have put idiotic MBAs in charge. No real engineers. They would be better off having engineers develop products and then hiring marketers who can sell things, rather than hiring worthless marketers who then grip that they can not sell what engineers produce.
the worst that things become. The Military should consider bringing back production to the states, or at least to NATO for all of their equipment. The idea that we are using equipment made in China is just plain twisted. Next, we will be picking up equipment made by AQ (if it is not already).
Actually, I think that if we use an FH to launch to there, then multiple sats can go. Instead, of building up GRAIL for handling all of the work to earth, instead, send up a revamped MTO (ideally, 1-2 backbone sats, combined with a small network of microsats for relaying). I will say that I was not aware that GRAIL did not have a duplicate bus. That is surprising to me.
I will say that if Grail can be made to work around Mars, it would point to interesting places to explore around Mars. Right now, we are basing the bulk of our exploration on what we see on the surface. However, by looking below the surface, we might find some interesting issues that make it worthwhile exploring deeper.
I will say that my experience was with MGS, so not really up on lunar sats.
We have now built these units once. How about building another set and sending them to mars? Surely we can repeat this for equal or less money. The core of mars is actually important to look at. If we do this, we could then find out what it will take to re-start the magnetsphere and grow the atmosphere.
Also, a slightly different idea is that we are looking at sending a SpaceX dragon to mars. How about sending it to one of the lunar poles? The moon should be easier to land at (1/6 Gs), and shorter to go to. If we can put down on the moon, then we can put down on mars. Simple as that.
that they are investing into clean energy. Other companies run around screaming that they want coal, while Google says AE. Personally, I wish that Google would make use of some of that money to help create demand for geo-thermal energy, rather than simply investing in it. Honestly, if they insisted on buying energy directly from some geo-thermal locations, they could still manage to keep their costs low, while creating enough demand to stimulate it.
Upon getting a job with a company, employee gets a set amount of employee stock.
Exactly what do you define as "employee stock"? How does it differ from common or preferred stock? How is it valued, what are the terms of holding, under what circumstances can it be sold or transferred, what is its liquidation preference, etc.
Employee Stock is not available on the stock market. Only Employees can own it and it is sold back to the company and no other places. All ESOPs have this. It is well known stock.
No bonus are given. Instead, dividends are paid to employees or (employees AND common stock).
A dividend paid to an employee is a bonus. Call it whatever you like but the result is the same.
No, a bonus is decided by a person, typically the manager, but it can also be higher. A dividend is paid to ALL stock of one or more classes.
With this approach, all have a common interest in seeing the company make the most money possible over a long term.
Hah! You think that cannot be gamed for short term interests? All it takes is for the board to declare a special dividend. You are talking about problems of agency and those are not easy problems to solve. I seriously doubt you can devise an incentive scheme that cannot be gamed by someone determined to do so.
That is why I wrote in there that dividends are paid to (employees || (employees && regular stock)). Can it be gamed? Probably.
With your approach, executives have a strong incentive to play the stock market game, instead of focusing on the company's long term gains.
The job of executives is to increase the value of the shareholders investment. If the shareholders desire short term gains then that is the failure of the shareholders, not the executive they hired to deliver those short term gains. If the shareholders (the owners of the company) desire longer term gains, they have the ability to direct the company officers to take a longer term perspective.
That is right. And if the employees are a major part of that shareholders, then issue solved. In particular, it is normally in the employees best interest for long-term profits, rather than short-term payouts. Note that with the employees, they get little if the company gives up long-term assests for a short-term stock gain.
However, other than mutual funds, etc, AND EXECUTIVES THAT WANT TO JUMP, most stockholders do not want short-term gains. They are in it for the long haul.
A bonus is decided by a person that can reward themselves that bonus while simply ignoring you. With the employee stock approach, if ANY MONEY is given out, then all get some. In addition, if no bonus is given, then all share. In addition, with employee stock, and not allowing any employee to own regular stock, means that executives can not manipulate the stock for personal short-term gains.
Well, no. The 14th was about extending rights for ppl. SCOTUS HAS extended SOME rights to corporations, much to our detriments. In fact, SCOTUS purposely said that they can not vote, so, it means that they acknowledge that it is not a person. The nice thing is that allows further limits to be put in place on the pols via the 2nd suggested amendment by saying registered voters.
Getting the vast majority of citizens on-board with this would be EASY. That is a none issue. The very wealthy would object to this, as would many corrupt CEOs. However, the REAL problem would be congress. That is why it would have to come from the state levels and work upwards. Keep in mind that there are TWO ways to get an amendment on the books. Once an attempt is made at the state level, many pols will feel politically threatened if they do not go along with it. Just look at the influence that the tea* have had on neo-cons.
Uh, no.
The 20% is of the DEFICIT amount, not the whole budget. IOW, had something like this been in place under W, when he started running 100 b deficit, assume that CONgress would not pass a bill to allow deficits. Then 20% of the deficit amount is subtracted from the budget i.e. 20 billion cut in W's early deficits. After that, CONgress can make plans no how to adjust the budget as they see fit. The reason to make it weak is so that politics will not play games.
Each political party is already a PAC. Right now, they can contribute to pols as they see fit. I would rather stop it right away. I would prefer that each party run their own ads, but have to acknowledge the ads.
As to the 60 y.o. item, I will point out that shortly, I would qualify for it. And to be honest after seeing the damage that reagan did to our nation, I would almost argue that nobody OVER age 70. Finally, how will this hurt the nation?
yup. That is the major cause of America's short-term focus. However, better than their not being allowed to own stock, is to instead require the use of employee stock. If you work at the company, you get employee stock that can not be traded. With this approach, employees have a strong incentive to make the company successful.
Wrong approach. All employees and executives must NOT own any common stock. Instead, they should have employee stock. Upon getting a job with a company, employee gets a set amount of employee stock. No bonus are given. Instead, dividends are paid to employees or (employees AND common stock). With this approach, all have a common interest in seeing the company make the most money possible over a long term. With your approach, executives have a strong incentive to play the stock market game, instead of focusing on the company's long term gains.
Which is why I believe that we need 2 amendments:
1) a weak balanced budget amendment. One in which only 55% of congress AND the president can run a deficit. However, if we had a deficit the year before, and it was not approved for this year, then cuts come at 20% of the deficit amount ALL ACROSS THE BOARD.
2) a modified term limits amendment. As a representative, you can serve 12 years TOTAL. As a senator, you can serve 12 years TOTAL. In addition, all federal political positions will have public funding and absolutely NO MONEY ALLOWED FROM ANY PRIVATE SOURCES. Not one private penny is to go into their control. Registered voters can put up X amount of money into a PAC. NONE of the pacs may take any money in a private fashion. It must be publically reported as to amount and by whom. Each political party is a PAC. Finally, there is a max amount that any one person can put into PACs.
Slashdot Mirror
IIRC, The current approach is to heat hydrogen.
I have been writing one senator who sat on the Senate Arms Committee for the last 3 years suggesting that we do an X-Prize in America (or in the west) for 2 technologies. .5 to 5 km again at 25%, while the second is .5 Km at 50% efficiency. With a 5 km range, it enables a tank battalion to have electric weapons, with another tank in the rear that can provide lots more power (think a nuke reactor in a tank). In addition, it allows something like an Aircraft Carrier to provide power to other ships that would then have electric weapons. Again for civilian uses, the high efficiency not only improves current equipment, but it will be picked up by Ag tractors, and other new equipment. The 5 km also allows trains to pick this up. With such an approach, it makes it cheap to provide electric power to a train. Maintenance is a huge costs in a train. Likewise, it can provider energy at an airport for electric planes esp. for take-offs. We speak of wanting electric planes, but carrying all your energy is expensive. But the truly expensive portion is getting to altitude. After that time, you cut way back on power. For beaming on a disaster area, 5 kms allows floating the balloon much higher and covering a great deal more area. .5 km, while only getting 30% efficiency at 200 miles, it is still major gains all over.
The first is energy storage. It must have the ability to last for millions of cycles, have the ability to take an extremely fast charge with extreme energy and power densities. Basically, this is almost certainly a better ultra-cap, however, you do not want to limit it just to ultra-caps. If somebody can figure out a new better device that fits the bill, then you want to support it. After all, it is possible (not likely) that a battery would do the trick.
The second IS beaming power. This was to be in steps. The first was to be 1/2 km at 25% efficiency. THat would allow setting up local power. In particular, you can set up a power station and beam it to multiple points without wires. Think of a FOB or any place that needs to be set p quickly, but disassemble quickly as well. From a Civilian POV, it can be used to provide power to earth movers, diggers, etc At 25%, it has the same efficiency of a diesel. It can also be used to float a small balloon over a disaster area and provide local power QUICKLY. In any disaster, providing energy quickly makes the difference of life or death for many ppl. In addition, something like this will be a great deal lighter than loads of generators AND fuel.
Then create 2 X-prize to jump this from
Obviously, we need iterative prizes to continue jumping up efficiencies as well as distance. If it was possible to get 90% efficiency at
So, good to see that NASA has more brains than my senator. But I guess that was a given.
I really like this approach. If we can get hydrogen to expand via the electric heat, than we can make great strides in space travel. Now, if we can just get CONgress to kill the SLS and devote that money to private space launches as well as advanced R&D like this, we could get America back on track. Sadly, our CONgress is ran by a bunch of MBA/lawyer types esp. the house that are far more interested in helping themselves, rather than our nation.
How soon can we send it into FATA in pakistan? Time to just target the high level taliban/AQ. I am fine with using automation to do this. In fact, I think that we should send these ppl into Mexico as well once it is working decently. Lots of Cartel there.
Well, alot of that is caused because of the illegals here. Hospitals are required to treat EMERGENCY situations regardless of income. So, illegals come up here and then see ER for EVERYTHING. It is bankrupting America. Yet, the idiot DEMS AND PUBS do nothing. Basically, a simple change would take care of the hospitals, but both politicians fight it:
1) all true emergencies will be treated. However, if you do not have insurance, then ICE will be called. If you are not here legally, you will be sent home or imprisoned.
2) Ideally, we would require all businesses to e-verify(check legality to work here), and then deny all benefits except the above medical issue.
The problem is that our pols are just greedy bastards that are worried about their own jobs and do not care about our nation anymore.
the same set of bastards that killed off stem cell R&D in America, are going to EU to make use of it. Yeah, that makes sense.
http://www.indexmundi.com/mexico/unemployment_rate.html.
The big difference is that we have a lot of promised obligations. Mexico does not. They do not have SS, Medicare, Medicaid, etc. That is what makes them a 3rd world nation. OTH, what makes the west 1st world is that we DO have programs that costs us, but builds up infrastructure designed to help advance our nation. The problem is that if we pick up loads of new uneducated citizens, while at the same time, gutting the low end jobs, it will leave us with high unemployment and loads of financial issues.
Basically, you can not allow in 10% of your population with uneducated immigrants, legal or not. For example, the insane idea that we should do another regan-style amnesty is looney tunes in light of all the robotics coming soon. This is the only way for a nation to compete. However, they will have to have cheap energy. Oddly, it will not be coal or any fossil fuel that is going to be cheap energy. It will either be nukes, or combinations of AE namely geo-thermal, solar and wind.
That is the important item. In addition, add storage. Once you have that, you can move in and out with energy generation.
IBM, HP, Dell, etc have quit innovating LONG ago. Now, they are busy either shifting operations offshore to make up for horrible management, or they simply sell the unit (again to make up for horrible management, marketing, sales, etc).
I have worked for both companies. Believe me, IBM's Palmisano is running IBM into the ground. He is as short sighted as HP's Apotheker, but has has a head start.
Seriously, HP, IBM, etc are simply gutting themselves because they have put idiotic MBAs in charge. No real engineers. They would be better off having engineers develop products and then hiring marketers who can sell things, rather than hiring worthless marketers who then grip that they can not sell what engineers produce.
the worst that things become. The Military should consider bringing back production to the states, or at least to NATO for all of their equipment. The idea that we are using equipment made in China is just plain twisted. Next, we will be picking up equipment made by AQ (if it is not already).
Actually, I think that if we use an FH to launch to there, then multiple sats can go. Instead, of building up GRAIL for handling all of the work to earth, instead, send up a revamped MTO (ideally, 1-2 backbone sats, combined with a small network of microsats for relaying). I will say that I was not aware that GRAIL did not have a duplicate bus. That is surprising to me.
I will say that if Grail can be made to work around Mars, it would point to interesting places to explore around Mars. Right now, we are basing the bulk of our exploration on what we see on the surface. However, by looking below the surface, we might find some interesting issues that make it worthwhile exploring deeper.
I will say that my experience was with MGS, so not really up on lunar sats.
We have now built these units once. How about building another set and sending them to mars? Surely we can repeat this for equal or less money. The core of mars is actually important to look at. If we do this, we could then find out what it will take to re-start the magnetsphere and grow the atmosphere.
Also, a slightly different idea is that we are looking at sending a SpaceX dragon to mars. How about sending it to one of the lunar poles? The moon should be easier to land at (1/6 Gs), and shorter to go to. If we can put down on the moon, then we can put down on mars. Simple as that.
that they are investing into clean energy. Other companies run around screaming that they want coal, while Google says AE. Personally, I wish that Google would make use of some of that money to help create demand for geo-thermal energy, rather than simply investing in it. Honestly, if they insisted on buying energy directly from some geo-thermal locations, they could still manage to keep their costs low, while creating enough demand to stimulate it.
Funny thing is, that I am registered Libertarian.
Upon getting a job with a company, employee gets a set amount of employee stock.
Exactly what do you define as "employee stock"? How does it differ from common or preferred stock? How is it valued, what are the terms of holding, under what circumstances can it be sold or transferred, what is its liquidation preference, etc.
Employee Stock is not available on the stock market. Only Employees can own it and it is sold back to the company and no other places. All ESOPs have this. It is well known stock.
No bonus are given. Instead, dividends are paid to employees or (employees AND common stock).
A dividend paid to an employee is a bonus. Call it whatever you like but the result is the same.
No, a bonus is decided by a person, typically the manager, but it can also be higher.
A dividend is paid to ALL stock of one or more classes.
With this approach, all have a common interest in seeing the company make the most money possible over a long term.
Hah! You think that cannot be gamed for short term interests? All it takes is for the board to declare a special dividend. You are talking about problems of agency and those are not easy problems to solve. I seriously doubt you can devise an incentive scheme that cannot be gamed by someone determined to do so.
That is why I wrote in there that dividends are paid to (employees || (employees && regular stock)). Can it be gamed? Probably.
With your approach, executives have a strong incentive to play the stock market game, instead of focusing on the company's long term gains.
The job of executives is to increase the value of the shareholders investment. If the shareholders desire short term gains then that is the failure of the shareholders, not the executive they hired to deliver those short term gains. If the shareholders (the owners of the company) desire longer term gains, they have the ability to direct the company officers to take a longer term perspective.
That is right. And if the employees are a major part of that shareholders, then issue solved. In particular, it is normally in the employees best interest for long-term profits, rather than short-term payouts. Note that with the employees, they get little if the company gives up long-term assests for a short-term stock gain.
However, other than mutual funds, etc, AND EXECUTIVES THAT WANT TO JUMP, most stockholders do not want short-term gains. They are in it for the long haul.
Great stuff. Hopefully, they will not be using Chinese parts. I would pay more to get Western parts.
A bonus is decided by a person that can reward themselves that bonus while simply ignoring you. With the employee stock approach, if ANY MONEY is given out, then all get some. In addition, if no bonus is given, then all share. In addition, with employee stock, and not allowing any employee to own regular stock, means that executives can not manipulate the stock for personal short-term gains.
Well, no. The 14th was about extending rights for ppl. SCOTUS HAS extended SOME rights to corporations, much to our detriments. In fact, SCOTUS purposely said that they can not vote, so, it means that they acknowledge that it is not a person. The nice thing is that allows further limits to be put in place on the pols via the 2nd suggested amendment by saying registered voters.
Getting the vast majority of citizens on-board with this would be EASY. That is a none issue. The very wealthy would object to this, as would many corrupt CEOs. However, the REAL problem would be congress. That is why it would have to come from the state levels and work upwards. Keep in mind that there are TWO ways to get an amendment on the books. Once an attempt is made at the state level, many pols will feel politically threatened if they do not go along with it. Just look at the influence that the tea* have had on neo-cons.
Uh, no.
The 20% is of the DEFICIT amount, not the whole budget. IOW, had something like this been in place under W, when he started running 100 b deficit, assume that CONgress would not pass a bill to allow deficits. Then 20% of the deficit amount is subtracted from the budget i.e. 20 billion cut in W's early deficits. After that, CONgress can make plans no how to adjust the budget as they see fit. The reason to make it weak is so that politics will not play games.
Each political party is already a PAC. Right now, they can contribute to pols as they see fit. I would rather stop it right away. I would prefer that each party run their own ads, but have to acknowledge the ads.
I would urge you to re-read the 14th. There is nothing wrong with what I put in both of these.
As to the 60 y.o. item, I will point out that shortly, I would qualify for it. And to be honest after seeing the damage that reagan did to our nation, I would almost argue that nobody OVER age 70.
Finally, how will this hurt the nation?
yup. That is the major cause of America's short-term focus. However, better than their not being allowed to own stock, is to instead require the use of employee stock. If you work at the company, you get employee stock that can not be traded. With this approach, employees have a strong incentive to make the company successful.
Wrong approach. All employees and executives must NOT own any common stock. Instead, they should have employee stock. Upon getting a job with a company, employee gets a set amount of employee stock. No bonus are given. Instead, dividends are paid to employees or (employees AND common stock). With this approach, all have a common interest in seeing the company make the most money possible over a long term. With your approach, executives have a strong incentive to play the stock market game, instead of focusing on the company's long term gains.
Which is why I believe that we need 2 amendments:
1) a weak balanced budget amendment. One in which only 55% of congress AND the president can run a deficit. However, if we had a deficit the year before, and it was not approved for this year, then cuts come at 20% of the deficit amount ALL ACROSS THE BOARD.
2) a modified term limits amendment. As a representative, you can serve 12 years TOTAL. As a senator, you can serve 12 years TOTAL. In addition, all federal political positions will have public funding and absolutely NO MONEY ALLOWED FROM ANY PRIVATE SOURCES. Not one private penny is to go into their control. Registered voters can put up X amount of money into a PAC. NONE of the pacs may take any money in a private fashion. It must be publically reported as to amount and by whom. Each political party is a PAC. Finally, there is a max amount that any one person can put into PACs.
This is the only way to stop this nightmare.
while bankers that have stolen BILLIONS, are friends? Hmmm. You crackers need to hire a lobbyist.