You forgot to mention the hundred mile an hour winds and the 30 foot storm surge. The rain wasn't the problem. And it wasn't just New Orleans that had problems. Most of southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama got hit hard.
I think that the fact that Gibson had to completely bypass the Hollywood movie system to get that movie made kind of proves the parent poster's point.
I don't think it's some sort of evil plot to subvert the morals of the American people; they are really only interested in making money. The people running the studios, however, have no comprehension of how a lot people in the red states think, to the point where they couldn't even imagine how to duplicate the success of "Passion Of The Christ".
It's pretty obvious you don't have children. The tax break for having a kid doesn't come anywhere close to compensating you for the cost of a child.
If you have a problem with that (or with property taxes), keep in mind who's going to be paying for what little Social Security income you get when you retire. And who's going to be wiping the drool off your face.
The big deal about TNT (and nukes) is that they release their energy instantaneously as a shock wave. As noted above, the amount of energy per pound of TNT is a tenth that of an equal amount of propane. I guess it boils down to how the energy of a 100 kg rock hitting hard would be dissipated. How much would be shock wave and how much would be absorbed by the ground? It would probably be good for busting bunkers.
Engagement for authoritarian countries with capitalist economies. Isolation for authoritarian countries with communist economies. Give people the ability to vote with their money, eventually they'll demand to vote at a ballot box. As a middle class forms, there's more pressure for democracy. China will likely be a democracy in a generation.
Most places on this planet have had thousands of years of authoritarian government. Not really an excuse for not thinking they can be democracies. If the Chinese people believe democracy will make their lives better, they'll do it (that and a free press *are* the best way to deal with corruption and class divisions, you know).
BTW, Russia is an authoritarian *capitalist* country now, so engagement is the way to go with them.
It's likely that without trade with China, North Korea would collapse and it would be possible to start fixing their country. How much of Cuba's economy is propped up by European tourism? You don't seriously think Castro wants the US embargo to end because he's concerned about the welfare of his people, do you? He wants it to end so he can get money to prop up his regime.
Ingenious. Hopefully Iran and North Korea don't read this and start colonizing Mars instead of building nukes and ICBMs.
You're seriously overestimating the amount of kinetic energy "a few kilos of mass" would have dropping down from orbit at terminal velocity. Given Earth escape velocity of 11200 m/sec, the kinetic energy of 1 kg is 63 MJ (Mega Joules). Same energy as about 1.5 kg of TNT. Whoopy friggin' doo. A 12 year old Palestinian suicide bomber packs more punch.
Now, when you can change the orbit of an asteroid the size of Texas, then you're dangerous. Feel free to figure out how much energy/time this would take (hint: bigass nuclear power plant, decades). For extra points, figure out out to apply thrust to a tumbling asteroid. But seriously, dude, if you want to be a BIG ASS BOSS, it'd be cheaper to make a nuke, and a *lot* cheaper to make chemical weapons.
2) It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see China becoming a capitalist democracy. Harder to see Cuba or Iraq (pre-war) doing that. How many decades did South Korea have an authoritarian government? I'm pretty sure their current president at one time was a political prisoner. Engagement vs. isolation, carrot vs. the stick. Use the right tool for the job.
Given that oh, about 70% of the "oxidizer" that your internal combustion car or a hypothetical hydrogen powered fuel cell car would use is nitrogen, I don't see it being much of a problem.
Cool idea for deorbiting stuff in LEO that I saw was to just inflate a balloon. Fairly low mass and foolproof and greatly increases the speed that it drops out of orbit.
I think the main problem they had was electrical arcing (that may have caused the cable to break). The actual tension caused by the tidal effect aren't really that strong for that short of a cable.
The pain and devastation of the billions in the 3rd world is largely the result of having asswipes for leaders and for buying into communism/socialism for a large part of the 20th century. Do you honestly think they'd be better off if America, or western civilization, didn't exist? If anything, the greatest cause of environmental devastation in the third world is overpopulation. Can't really blame that on the West (unless you count Republicans not sending them free condoms and paying for their abortions).
I'd think that over the last 4.5 billion years everything got lined up.
I'd be willing to bet that the difference in rotational speeds is due to tidal drag. Tidal drag is slowing down Earth's rotation (it's what pretty much stopped the Moon's rotation relative to Earth) and would have more of an effect the further from the center of mass you are.
They put their money at risk and are entitled to *whatever return they can get*. There. No more contradiction. If you feel the people who made those investments don't "deserve" the money they make, you're perfectly free to buy those investments off them and make that money yourself. I'm sure if you offer enough money, they'll bite. Just like if you try to start a company and go to investors, hat in hand, asking for capital while telling them "oh by the way, we're going to limit your return to what we feel is reasonable", they'll tell you to take a long walk off a short pier and will invest their money in a venture that isn't been run by an idiot.
Money is a resource, just like labor, real estate, oil, lumber, whatever. It tends to be the *limiting* resource because most people are either idiotic spendthrifts, morons who made stupid life choices, or people that have had just plain bad luck. That's why it's called capitalism, not laborism.
So, who do you think should be deciding where people's money should go? The government? News flash, chief; it's been tried and the results, I'm sorry to say, weren't all that good. You can count the dead in the tens of millions.
BTW, the woman on the plane coming to America? Why is she coming to America? Think hard.
Now, I'll admit there are problems with capitalism. To paraphrase Churchill, capitalism is the worst economic system ever devised, except for all the others. But taming the beast that is capitalism is government's job, and they've done a piss poor job of it, mostly because elected officials are whores and most of the population are idiots (see above). But what *you* want to do (telling people what to do with their money) will only make things worse.
If you want to see an ecologically disastrous economy, I suggest you go visit the former Soviet Union (Chernobyl, Aral Sea, etc.) or, even better, China.
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Carries have multiple reactors.
You forgot to mention the hundred mile an hour winds and the 30 foot storm surge. The rain wasn't the problem. And it wasn't just New Orleans that had problems. Most of southern Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama got hit hard.
I think that the fact that Gibson had to completely bypass the Hollywood movie system to get that movie made kind of proves the parent poster's point.
I don't think it's some sort of evil plot to subvert the morals of the American people; they are really only interested in making money. The people running the studios, however, have no comprehension of how a lot people in the red states think, to the point where they couldn't even imagine how to duplicate the success of "Passion Of The Christ".
It's pretty obvious you don't have children. The tax break for having a kid doesn't come anywhere close to compensating you for the cost of a child.
If you have a problem with that (or with property taxes), keep in mind who's going to be paying for what little Social Security income you get when you retire. And who's going to be wiping the drool off your face.
It's also pretty much established that the older a man is when he fathers a child, the more likely that child is going to be schizophrenic.
The big deal about TNT (and nukes) is that they release their energy instantaneously as a shock wave. As noted above, the amount of energy per pound of TNT is a tenth that of an equal amount of propane. I guess it boils down to how the energy of a 100 kg rock hitting hard would be dissipated. How much would be shock wave and how much would be absorbed by the ground? It would probably be good for busting bunkers.
Engagement for authoritarian countries with capitalist economies. Isolation for authoritarian countries with communist economies. Give people the ability to vote with their money, eventually they'll demand to vote at a ballot box. As a middle class forms, there's more pressure for democracy. China will likely be a democracy in a generation.
Most places on this planet have had thousands of years of authoritarian government. Not really an excuse for not thinking they can be democracies. If the Chinese people believe democracy will make their lives better, they'll do it (that and a free press *are* the best way to deal with corruption and class divisions, you know).
BTW, Russia is an authoritarian *capitalist* country now, so engagement is the way to go with them.
It's likely that without trade with China, North Korea would collapse and it would be possible to start fixing their country. How much of Cuba's economy is propped up by European tourism? You don't seriously think Castro wants the US embargo to end because he's concerned about the welfare of his people, do you? He wants it to end so he can get money to prop up his regime.
Whoops, sorry, that's 1.5 kg of propane, not TNT. My bad.
Ingenious. Hopefully Iran and North Korea don't read this and start colonizing Mars instead of building nukes and ICBMs.
You're seriously overestimating the amount of kinetic energy "a few kilos of mass" would have dropping down from orbit at terminal velocity. Given Earth escape velocity of 11200 m/sec, the kinetic energy of 1 kg is 63 MJ (Mega Joules). Same energy as about 1.5 kg of TNT. Whoopy friggin' doo. A 12 year old Palestinian suicide bomber packs more punch.
Now, when you can change the orbit of an asteroid the size of Texas, then you're dangerous. Feel free to figure out how much energy/time this would take (hint: bigass nuclear power plant, decades). For extra points, figure out out to apply thrust to a tumbling asteroid. But seriously, dude, if you want to be a BIG ASS BOSS, it'd be cheaper to make a nuke, and a *lot* cheaper to make chemical weapons.
1) China has nukes and ICBMs. But you knew that.
2) It doesn't take a lot of imagination to see China becoming a capitalist democracy. Harder to see Cuba or Iraq (pre-war) doing that. How many decades did South Korea have an authoritarian government? I'm pretty sure their current president at one time was a political prisoner. Engagement vs. isolation, carrot vs. the stick. Use the right tool for the job.
Well, that's nice. The problem is the last time the Chinese tried to discard those laws, a bunch of them got run over by tanks.
It's safe to go faster than the posted speed limit on most US interstate highways. Go ahead and blow off any speeding ticket you get.
Feel free to join the rest of us here in the real world when you're ready.
Given that oh, about 70% of the "oxidizer" that your internal combustion car or a hypothetical hydrogen powered fuel cell car would use is nitrogen, I don't see it being much of a problem.
Maybe it's because the amount of water dumped onto the roads by cars is dwarfed by the natural phenomenon known as "rain" :)
Ever hear of French postcards? Guess what one of the first uses of photography was?
So, how hard is it to hide a 4 GB flash drive full of porn?
Yeah. A man is just a sperm's way of making another sperm.
Cool idea for deorbiting stuff in LEO that I saw was to just inflate a balloon. Fairly low mass and foolproof and greatly increases the speed that it drops out of orbit.
I think the main problem they had was electrical arcing (that may have caused the cable to break). The actual tension caused by the tidal effect aren't really that strong for that short of a cable.
I don't think Mardi Gras in a dry Texas panhandle county would be very fun. It should at least be a wet county :)
The pain and devastation of the billions in the 3rd world is largely the result of having asswipes for leaders and for buying into communism/socialism for a large part of the 20th century. Do you honestly think they'd be better off if America, or western civilization, didn't exist? If anything, the greatest cause of environmental devastation in the third world is overpopulation. Can't really blame that on the West (unless you count Republicans not sending them free condoms and paying for their abortions).
He's at the North pole, dammit. He'll just set the ice cap to spinning. Now, if he were at the *South* pole...
I'd think that over the last 4.5 billion years everything got lined up.
I'd be willing to bet that the difference in rotational speeds is due to tidal drag. Tidal drag is slowing down Earth's rotation (it's what pretty much stopped the Moon's rotation relative to Earth) and would have more of an effect the further from the center of mass you are.
I'll dumb it down for you.
They put their money at risk and are entitled to *whatever return they can get*. There. No more contradiction. If you feel the people who made those investments don't "deserve" the money they make, you're perfectly free to buy those investments off them and make that money yourself. I'm sure if you offer enough money, they'll bite. Just like if you try to start a company and go to investors, hat in hand, asking for capital while telling them "oh by the way, we're going to limit your return to what we feel is reasonable", they'll tell you to take a long walk off a short pier and will invest their money in a venture that isn't been run by an idiot.
Money is a resource, just like labor, real estate, oil, lumber, whatever. It tends to be the *limiting* resource because most people are either idiotic spendthrifts, morons who made stupid life choices, or people that have had just plain bad luck. That's why it's called capitalism, not laborism.
So, who do you think should be deciding where people's money should go? The government? News flash, chief; it's been tried and the results, I'm sorry to say, weren't all that good. You can count the dead in the tens of millions.
BTW, the woman on the plane coming to America? Why is she coming to America? Think hard.
Now, I'll admit there are problems with capitalism. To paraphrase Churchill, capitalism is the worst economic system ever devised, except for all the others. But taming the beast that is capitalism is government's job, and they've done a piss poor job of it, mostly because elected officials are whores and most of the population are idiots (see above). But what *you* want to do (telling people what to do with their money) will only make things worse.
If you want to see an ecologically disastrous economy, I suggest you go visit the former Soviet Union (Chernobyl, Aral Sea, etc.) or, even better, China.
I think you'd have to be fairly religious to burn people as witches too...