It's the War on Terror now - keep up! God knows how a moonbase helps fight terrorists, but then how did Apollo help fight communism? It's just meant to sound good.
(Yes, I know China is not a terrorist organisation, but it's close enough for the US government to use it as an excuse when convenient - just look at Iraq.)
The thing I'm more interested in is the chance of a private company putting the next person on the Moon. At this point, the only feasible industry is space tourism - there are no fusion reactors for the He-3, after all - but that might be enough. Virgin Galactic are expecting to be doing regular sub-orbital flights within a year or two, soon after that, they or someone else will start of orbital flights. That could be done in 5-10 years, quite easily. Getting from LEO to the Moon is easy compared to getting from the ground to LEO, so I would expect more than a few years for that.
If a private company tries, they could get to the Moon in 10-15 years, by my estimate, which could easily beat the various government projects (even assuming they stay on schedule, which we all know won't happen). The big question is whether or not any company will see the point in trying. I hope they do...
You got lucky. While an online retailer might not to do that, there are plenty of brick and mortar shops that will - PC World isn't generally one of them.
I would never buy hardware from PC World after all the horror stories I've heard. I'll buy software there if it's significantly cheaper or more convenient than anywhere else, though (it rarely is, of course).
Actually, I'm British, but I didn't know that. Very interesting, thanks for pointing it out. After reading that Wikipedia page, it appears you can still sue if you get the permission of a judge, and the restriction lasts a limited time, so everyone can't mess them over *too* thoroughly.
Suing the person that's meant to be mediating the dispute is taking things a little far, even for him... If he keeps suing the judges and courts, who's going to finally judge the case, and where? If you want to use the legal system to your advantage, you can't sue it... I would have thought a lawyer would realise that.
The enemy of your enemy is someone, who, with any luck, will eliminate your enemy while getting killed themselves. However, he is most definitely still an arsehole.
If you don't keep your car in a roadworthy condition and it causes an accident, you can get in a lot of trouble. Why should computers be any different? People aren't expected to be expert car mechanics, but they are expected to take reasonable steps (check the oil and tire pressures - similar to running a virus scanner and getting updates - every month). If there is something you can't fix yourself, you take your car to the garage.
I had an ISP like that. Whenever someone sent you an email over a certain size (can't remember what size) it died and you had to go in via telnet and manually delete the email.
I'm not sure the Swiss Guard are really intended to defend against foreign invasion. I think Italy has an agreement with the Vatican to defend the Vatican if it's attacked. If the US attacked anywhere in Europe, I expect much of the world would attack them - many of them would attack now if only they could win, they just need enough allies, and the US attacking Europe would give them plenty of allies.
Would it surprise anyone if it turns out there's a nuke hidden at the top of St. Peter's Basilica? That could make any invasion a little more interesting...
You don't have to have any specific type of ID, but you need to be able to prove you are who you say you are. If you're involved in a car accident, say, and there is currently no reason to suspect you did anything wrong but there is a chance that after a detailed analysis of the scene some suspicion will fall on you, the police are going to want to know who you are. If you can't show them any ID, they will take you into custody (which is what "arrest" means) until they can identify you.
Which part of my claims are you suspicious off? You seem to have agreed with them all. I never said there was a requirement to carry ID, just that the police could arrest you if you didn't and detain you until they can reliably identify you.
In the UK, I believe you can be arrested for "failing to produce ID". I'm not sure if the police need a reason to request ID, and as far as I know, they just take you into custody until they can work out who you are, it's not a crime in itself (I may be wrong about that, though). As for the store manager - in the UK anyone is allowed to detain anyone if they have any cause to believe they've committed a crime ("citizen's arrest", although I'm not sure that's an official term). Whether refusing to show your receipt constitutes such a cause, I don't know, but I would think so - it's a pretty stupid thing to refuse to do.
If I can't take Star Trek seriously on slashdot, where can I?;)
And the various Star Trek races aren't totally disconnected in terms of evolution (see "The Chase", TNG) or culture (we're talking about a system only used in interstellar travel, so there isn't much (or in some cases any) gap between when they might first create such a system and when they would meet their neighbours).
Yes, but that brings it up to a 50% chance of them being the same way up. Higher if you consider that they may have come up with interstellar standards. Every nation on Earth uses the same longitude and latitude system, why can't different races use the same system?
I would guess they orientate their ships to the galactic plane. If memory serves the bearing system they use has the galactic plane as the zero for one of the angles, so it would make sense.
You make a good point. My A-level Physics course would have benefited enormously from being able to include calculus. However, I would say the solution is to make AS Maths a corequisite for any science A-level. You really can't do science without maths.
I was referring to the phrase "origin of the Big Bang". The Big Bang has no origin. The question shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Big Bang is. But yes, I think the answer they are looking for is A.
According to the article, the answer to question 34 is 'B'. What am I missing? The Earth is 6370km deep. Going from the surface to the centre and back at an average of 10km/s would take 1274s. 1274!=560... I really hope I'm being stupid here, I really do....
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Isn't specifying a political party at all redundant?
It's the War on Terror now - keep up! God knows how a moonbase helps fight terrorists, but then how did Apollo help fight communism? It's just meant to sound good.
(Yes, I know China is not a terrorist organisation, but it's close enough for the US government to use it as an excuse when convenient - just look at Iraq.)
The thing I'm more interested in is the chance of a private company putting the next person on the Moon. At this point, the only feasible industry is space tourism - there are no fusion reactors for the He-3, after all - but that might be enough. Virgin Galactic are expecting to be doing regular sub-orbital flights within a year or two, soon after that, they or someone else will start of orbital flights. That could be done in 5-10 years, quite easily. Getting from LEO to the Moon is easy compared to getting from the ground to LEO, so I would expect more than a few years for that.
If a private company tries, they could get to the Moon in 10-15 years, by my estimate, which could easily beat the various government projects (even assuming they stay on schedule, which we all know won't happen). The big question is whether or not any company will see the point in trying. I hope they do...
You got lucky. While an online retailer might not to do that, there are plenty of brick and mortar shops that will - PC World isn't generally one of them.
I would never buy hardware from PC World after all the horror stories I've heard. I'll buy software there if it's significantly cheaper or more convenient than anywhere else, though (it rarely is, of course).
Actually, I'm British, but I didn't know that. Very interesting, thanks for pointing it out. After reading that Wikipedia page, it appears you can still sue if you get the permission of a judge, and the restriction lasts a limited time, so everyone can't mess them over *too* thoroughly.
Suing the person that's meant to be mediating the dispute is taking things a little far, even for him... If he keeps suing the judges and courts, who's going to finally judge the case, and where? If you want to use the legal system to your advantage, you can't sue it... I would have thought a lawyer would realise that.
The enemy of your enemy is someone, who, with any luck, will eliminate your enemy while getting killed themselves. However, he is most definitely still an arsehole.
"A computer is NOT a car."
Wow, thank you for that amazing insight. Look up "analogy" sometime...
If you don't keep your car in a roadworthy condition and it causes an accident, you can get in a lot of trouble. Why should computers be any different? People aren't expected to be expert car mechanics, but they are expected to take reasonable steps (check the oil and tire pressures - similar to running a virus scanner and getting updates - every month). If there is something you can't fix yourself, you take your car to the garage.
I had an ISP like that. Whenever someone sent you an email over a certain size (can't remember what size) it died and you had to go in via telnet and manually delete the email.
I'm not sure the Swiss Guard are really intended to defend against foreign invasion. I think Italy has an agreement with the Vatican to defend the Vatican if it's attacked. If the US attacked anywhere in Europe, I expect much of the world would attack them - many of them would attack now if only they could win, they just need enough allies, and the US attacking Europe would give them plenty of allies.
Would it surprise anyone if it turns out there's a nuke hidden at the top of St. Peter's Basilica? That could make any invasion a little more interesting...
You don't have to have any specific type of ID, but you need to be able to prove you are who you say you are. If you're involved in a car accident, say, and there is currently no reason to suspect you did anything wrong but there is a chance that after a detailed analysis of the scene some suspicion will fall on you, the police are going to want to know who you are. If you can't show them any ID, they will take you into custody (which is what "arrest" means) until they can identify you.
Which part of my claims are you suspicious off? You seem to have agreed with them all. I never said there was a requirement to carry ID, just that the police could arrest you if you didn't and detain you until they can reliably identify you.
In the UK, I believe you can be arrested for "failing to produce ID". I'm not sure if the police need a reason to request ID, and as far as I know, they just take you into custody until they can work out who you are, it's not a crime in itself (I may be wrong about that, though). As for the store manager - in the UK anyone is allowed to detain anyone if they have any cause to believe they've committed a crime ("citizen's arrest", although I'm not sure that's an official term). Whether refusing to show your receipt constitutes such a cause, I don't know, but I would think so - it's a pretty stupid thing to refuse to do.
Exactly, the Voyager probes are probes, they aren't satellites and never have been.
If I can't take Star Trek seriously on slashdot, where can I? ;)
And the various Star Trek races aren't totally disconnected in terms of evolution (see "The Chase", TNG) or culture (we're talking about a system only used in interstellar travel, so there isn't much (or in some cases any) gap between when they might first create such a system and when they would meet their neighbours).
I didn't say they must use the same system, I said why couldn't they.
Yes, but that brings it up to a 50% chance of them being the same way up. Higher if you consider that they may have come up with interstellar standards. Every nation on Earth uses the same longitude and latitude system, why can't different races use the same system?
I would guess they orientate their ships to the galactic plane. If memory serves the bearing system they use has the galactic plane as the zero for one of the angles, so it would make sense.
You make a good point. My A-level Physics course would have benefited enormously from being able to include calculus. However, I would say the solution is to make AS Maths a corequisite for any science A-level. You really can't do science without maths.
I was referring to the phrase "origin of the Big Bang". The Big Bang has no origin. The question shows a fundamental misunderstanding of what the Big Bang is. But yes, I think the answer they are looking for is A.
According to the article, the answer to question 34 is 'B'. What am I missing? The Earth is 6370km deep. Going from the surface to the centre and back at an average of 10km/s would take 1274s. 1274!=560... I really hope I'm being stupid here, I really do....
Somebody please look at Question 30 on the exam paper linked to in the article and tell me I'm imagining things. Please!
They managed it in the Simpsons...