"My personal theory is that we killed all mammoths because they were delicious. Can't wait to taste one!"
Actually, if memory serves, according to the paleontologists that is pretty damned close to the truth.
From what I understand, some Inuits ('Eskimos') have found mammoths frozen in glaciers, eaten them, and found them delicious. Only have anecdoctal evidence, though... They were pretty damned good sized, and one of them would feed a tribe for a couple weeks or so, so it was definitely worth Cro-Magnon's effots to hunt them.
The boat sailed on a Silicon Valley workalike about 25 years ago. What with all the tech patents, software patents, business model patents, and patent trolls sewing up innovation unless you're already IBM, Microsoft, or Apple, you won't be able to innovate and defend anything What are they thinking, incubate and develop the next Facebook? The next PayPal? TechLawyers.com?
No, the Great Convention has the proper solution. If a nation deploys atomics against another, every other nation on the planet instantly drops on the aggressor. Problem solved. Possibly permanently.
Well, the best way would be to get the spent fuel back, and check the amounts. U-238 could be put near the reacting material like with neutron activation testing, but I don't believe that any remotely usable P-239 could be recovered that way (hence why reactors that produce plutonium have to be specially designed). It might be possible (I'm not an expert) to produce dirty bombs by heavily neutron activating a ton of stuff, but a dirty bomb is a far cry from a nuke, and it would be a very slow process. The main problem would be finding a place to keep the spent fuel, as nobody wants to have to keep the stuff.
Dirty bombs don't work except to freak out a gullible uneducated populace. The US Army checked this out decades ago, found there was nothing there, and went on to other things. Doesn't stop the media in the US from hyping it up,though. Gotta sell those advertising slots in the evening news somehow ya know.
Seriously, though, there is no way this 'fuel bank' won't get politicized, and no way the US will stand still and let it be placed anywhere but the US. And if they get built in the US, what corporation is going to run them, for 'the good of mankind', of course, as long as it's profitable as hell. They want something viable, start getting into thorium reactors. At least stockpiling thorium has a chance of working. 'No pourmouthing, El Presidente For Life, how much uranium do you really have?' could become a thing of the past. And since thorium is non-weaponiseable, there'd be no problem for Iran to build thorium reactors for power plants. Win/win in my opinion.
Why deal with dust at all? Put your scope in space.
A radio telescope? Naw, put it on Farside. It'll have a small planet between it & all that radio noise from Earth to block it, should make for some sensitive scopes. As for an optical telescope, just put a barrel around the mirrors to keep out the daytime sun. The big problem is going to be thermal expansion of the optics. It'll seriously warp 'em.
Yep real good for launching grains and such from the lunar colonies, as long as you have a decent computer to run the whole thing.
Though if you use convict labor things could get interesting.
Mycroft
I would imagine so, I can't think of a "killer app" that isn't easier to do with an electromagnetic mass driver, and for exactly the same reasons (near vacuum, low gravity), except for possibly the power requirements.
The 'kicker' of course is that an elevator can't launch heavy rocks at high speeds the way a mass driver can. This protects the Earth from possible terrorrorrorrist takeover of any prospective catapult.
The story is about a UK site offering last week's TV shows, but yet here you are, shrieking like a high-pitched fattie about excessive US copyright length.
You do realise that the UK is bringing the last bits and bobs of its copyright laws into line with US copyright laws, don't you?
And the actions of FACT in this matter are a direct correllation to actions done by RIAA/MPAA/etc in their attempts to silence The Pirate Bay.
And besides, every redblooded American KNOWS all copyrights belong to the *AAs. It practically says so right in the legislation they paid cold hard cash for.
The whole point of copyright is to ensure the works are created for the good of the media companies and made available to the public over their dead bodies. If the works are not being made readily available at a reasonable price point then the media companies are doing the job they made for themselves. Copyright should never expire and the distributors (torrent site) is illegal. Anything short of this is unethical since it violates the media company's government-mandated profits, imaginary or not.
FTFY. Seriously, dude, anything other than eternal copyright is un-American, and we will shove this down your throats and up your ass until the only words you can ever say OR think again is "America!! FUCK YEAH!!"
They started their own country inside territory already belonging to the British Empire. How would you like it if for instance Alabama suddenly said they were independent? You don't just "start your own country" and not harm the country you previously belonged to.
Outside of CBN training in boot camp? They don't. But ever hear of a place called My Lai? It was only after Rusty Calley was convicted of war crimes that the UCMJ was fixed to allow a soldier to refuse an illegal order. Yeah, tradition at the time was, you could refuse an illegal order, but the reality was, refuse it and face a court martial with limited defense options.
Er.. have you read a few history books ? Beria was a serial rapist and molester who used his position of power to entrap and assault hundreds and hundreds of girls, from ordinary women he spotted walking down the street, to major celebrities such as ballet dancers etc.The Politburo, including Khrushchev, all knew what was going on and how dangerous Beria was. They all made sure their wives and daughters were kept well away from Beria.
Maybe yes, maybe no. All we have to go on about him are the official Soviet reports. Nobody who was in position to know one way or another is still around these days. I first heard the story when I read that memoirs of Khruschev thing that got published back in the late 60s/early 70s. Course Nikki was trying to come off all lily-white and innocent about his part in the takedown, but that's a whole 'nuther issue. ('Pravda' means 'truth' in Russian, but the Russian people pretty much knew if it showed up on the front page of 'Pravda' it probably wasn't)
On top of that Beria killed a lot of people and from time to time threatened pretty much everyone in the Politburo. It stands to reason that as soon as Stalin was out of the way they'd figure out a way to get him.
You don't head up the fucking Cheka and expect to be nominated for sainthood. 'Killed a lotta people'? Yeah, that's one way to look at the big Party purges of the 30's. Back during WW2, the Soviets killed 30 million of their own people for various things, no telling what was real and who was shot out of hand because some low-level Soviet politician felt threatened by them, wanted them gone to eliminate their competition, and the Cheka was happy to get rid of the 'offender' for them. Were those 30 million innocents or monsters? Who knows? Probably a bit of both.
You didn't become premier of the Soviet Union back in those days without blood on your hands (Hi, Joe!). Same with the head of the Cheka. Same with Nikita. Meet the new improved boss, same as the old boss.
I really don't think you intended to compare Assange to Beria.
I wasn't. I was pointing out that if you wanna totally blow somebody's credibility, you accuse them of a sex crime. Is Assauge guilty of rape? Dunno, neither you or I was in that bedroom on the night in question, nor was anybody you or I know. But all the talk about the charges and their validity focuses attention away from why the US has such a hardon for Assauge over what got posted on Wikileaks and what they're willing to do to get their grubby hands on him. It's the PJ smear all over again to discredit Groklaw, only this time it's the US government pulling the strings instead of SCO's lawyers.
And expediency gives them the excuse to hire maybe 5% of the IT guys they really need? Yeah, it cuts down the overhead when everything is running smooth as butter, but you hire IT guys to fix things when they fuck up. That's the whole point of having them there to begin with, otherwise you'd just hire a contractor company to come in and do the servicing.
To be fair it did look strange that immediately after the release of the documents he was accused of rape. I don't know what he did or didn't do but my credibility alarmed pinged.
Not really surprising, no. He was full of himself at that moment. High on media. I don't find it particularly surprising that he would think more of himself and less of others at that time.
The whole thing reminds me of Beria after Stalin. Before Stalin died, Beria was head of the NKVD, the precursor of the KGusetaBe. He was the front runner to take over. Then he got hit with over 150 allegations of rape, molestation, child molestation, the at the time version of sexual harrassment, and mopery and dopery. Beria died in prison 'attempting to escape', the date unknown.
Point is, nail somebody with a sex crime charge, nobody listens to him anymore. True or not, Assauge's credibilty went down the shitter when the charges were announced. He'll never get past them.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, the upside is, if the dolphins do bring us back, we'll get to teach 'em why we'd kill Flipper for a tuna sandwich...
Except the Tea Party varian of Republicans has an aversion to scientific truth. They still claim Jesus rode a T-Rex. Definitely a lesser species.
Hmm... I wonder... If a cross is enough to turn a vampire, would a copy of Darwin work on a Tea Partyer?
"My personal theory is that we killed all mammoths because they were delicious. Can't wait to taste one!"
Actually, if memory serves, according to the paleontologists that is pretty damned close to the truth.
From what I understand, some Inuits ('Eskimos') have found mammoths frozen in glaciers, eaten them, and found them delicious. Only have anecdoctal evidence, though... They were pretty damned good sized, and one of them would feed a tribe for a couple weeks or so, so it was definitely worth Cro-Magnon's effots to hunt them.
If we're talking about my Mother-in-law, I think we all agree the answer is 'no.'
Yes, I know you're joking, but your mother-in-law is (was?) not a species. She was an individual belonging to a species.
Have you met his mother in law? If she's like mine, she's a different species, too. So was my ex-wife. Definitely a psycho hose-beast.
And no thank you, let them stay safely extinct, please.
Best. AC. Comment. Ever.
I knew we kept that guy around for a reason. Too bad his consistency kinda sucks tho...
Cheap food is highly dependent on cheap energy to grow and manufacture it and to distribute it. When the enregy supplies go, so does your food supply.
The boat sailed on a Silicon Valley workalike about 25 years ago. What with all the tech patents, software patents, business model patents, and patent trolls sewing up innovation unless you're already IBM, Microsoft, or Apple, you won't be able to innovate and defend anything What are they thinking, incubate and develop the next Facebook? The next PayPal? TechLawyers.com?
The spice must flow...
Well, the best way would be to get the spent fuel back, and check the amounts. U-238 could be put near the reacting material like with neutron activation testing, but I don't believe that any remotely usable P-239 could be recovered that way (hence why reactors that produce plutonium have to be specially designed). It might be possible (I'm not an expert) to produce dirty bombs by heavily neutron activating a ton of stuff, but a dirty bomb is a far cry from a nuke, and it would be a very slow process. The main problem would be finding a place to keep the spent fuel, as nobody wants to have to keep the stuff.
Dirty bombs don't work except to freak out a gullible uneducated populace. The US Army checked this out decades ago, found there was nothing there, and went on to other things. Doesn't stop the media in the US from hyping it up,though. Gotta sell those advertising slots in the evening news somehow ya know.
Seriously, though, there is no way this 'fuel bank' won't get politicized, and no way the US will stand still and let it be placed anywhere but the US. And if they get built in the US, what corporation is going to run them, for 'the good of mankind', of course, as long as it's profitable as hell. They want something viable, start getting into thorium reactors. At least stockpiling thorium has a chance of working. 'No pourmouthing, El Presidente For Life, how much uranium do you really have?' could become a thing of the past. And since thorium is non-weaponiseable, there'd be no problem for Iran to build thorium reactors for power plants. Win/win in my opinion.
You get what you don't vote for. Choke on it.
You never get the chance to vote on what you want. The game is rigged, there are no choices.
How about using that elevator to dispose of toxic waste in space.
Sounds good. Let's start with Congress...
A radio telescope? Naw, put it on Farside. It'll have a small planet between it & all that radio noise from Earth to block it, should make for some sensitive scopes. As for an optical telescope, just put a barrel around the mirrors to keep out the daytime sun. The big problem is going to be thermal expansion of the optics. It'll seriously warp 'em.
Yep real good for launching grains and such from the lunar colonies, as long as you have a decent computer to run the whole thing. Though if you use convict labor things could get interesting. Mycroft
I see what you did there, tovarisch.
I would imagine so, I can't think of a "killer app" that isn't easier to do with an electromagnetic mass driver, and for exactly the same reasons (near vacuum, low gravity), except for possibly the power requirements.
The 'kicker' of course is that an elevator can't launch heavy rocks at high speeds the way a mass driver can. This protects the Earth from possible terrorrorrorrist takeover of any prospective catapult.
Except we're not talking about physical goods here. Fact is, we're talkin about unobtainable easily distributed 'goods' here.
Laws that are unenforceable make more criminals when they're selectively enforced. See 'The War On Drugs' for further information.
The story is about a UK site offering last week's TV shows, but yet here you are, shrieking like a high-pitched fattie about excessive US copyright length.
You do realise that the UK is bringing the last bits and bobs of its copyright laws into line with US copyright laws, don't you?
And the actions of FACT in this matter are a direct correllation to actions done by RIAA/MPAA/etc in their attempts to silence The Pirate Bay.
And besides, every redblooded American KNOWS all copyrights belong to the *AAs. It practically says so right in the legislation they paid cold hard cash for.
Instead of saying "pirate", let's say "eminent domain". Both do the same thing.
Eminent domain is practiced by governments. In this case, the governments are in support of the media companies. BAD pirate, NO torrents!!
The whole point of copyright is to ensure the works are created for the good of the media companies and made available to the public over their dead bodies. If the works are not being made readily available at a reasonable price point then the media companies are doing the job they made for themselves. Copyright should never expire and the distributors (torrent site) is illegal. Anything short of this is unethical since it violates the media company's government-mandated profits, imaginary or not.
FTFY. Seriously, dude, anything other than eternal copyright is un-American, and we will shove this down your throats and up your ass until the only words you can ever say OR think again is "America!! FUCK YEAH!!"
Been tried. Didn't work out so good.
Outside of CBN training in boot camp? They don't. But ever hear of a place called My Lai? It was only after Rusty Calley was convicted of war crimes that the UCMJ was fixed to allow a soldier to refuse an illegal order. Yeah, tradition at the time was, you could refuse an illegal order, but the reality was, refuse it and face a court martial with limited defense options.
Maybe yes, maybe no. All we have to go on about him are the official Soviet reports. Nobody who was in position to know one way or another is still around these days. I first heard the story when I read that memoirs of Khruschev thing that got published back in the late 60s/early 70s. Course Nikki was trying to come off all lily-white and innocent about his part in the takedown, but that's a whole 'nuther issue. ('Pravda' means 'truth' in Russian, but the Russian people pretty much knew if it showed up on the front page of 'Pravda' it probably wasn't)
You don't head up the fucking Cheka and expect to be nominated for sainthood. 'Killed a lotta people'? Yeah, that's one way to look at the big Party purges of the 30's. Back during WW2, the Soviets killed 30 million of their own people for various things, no telling what was real and who was shot out of hand because some low-level Soviet politician felt threatened by them, wanted them gone to eliminate their competition, and the Cheka was happy to get rid of the 'offender' for them. Were those 30 million innocents or monsters? Who knows? Probably a bit of both.
You didn't become premier of the Soviet Union back in those days without blood on your hands (Hi, Joe!). Same with the head of the Cheka. Same with Nikita. Meet the new improved boss, same as the old boss.
I wasn't. I was pointing out that if you wanna totally blow somebody's credibility, you accuse them of a sex crime. Is Assauge guilty of rape? Dunno, neither you or I was in that bedroom on the night in question, nor was anybody you or I know. But all the talk about the charges and their validity focuses attention away from why the US has such a hardon for Assauge over what got posted on Wikileaks and what they're willing to do to get their grubby hands on him. It's the PJ smear all over again to discredit Groklaw, only this time it's the US government pulling the strings instead of SCO's lawyers.
And expediency gives them the excuse to hire maybe 5% of the IT guys they really need? Yeah, it cuts down the overhead when everything is running smooth as butter, but you hire IT guys to fix things when they fuck up. That's the whole point of having them there to begin with, otherwise you'd just hire a contractor company to come in and do the servicing.
To be fair it did look strange that immediately after the release of the documents he was accused of rape. I don't know what he did or didn't do but my credibility alarmed pinged.
Not really surprising, no. He was full of himself at that moment. High on media. I don't find it particularly surprising that he would think more of himself and less of others at that time.
The whole thing reminds me of Beria after Stalin. Before Stalin died, Beria was head of the NKVD, the precursor of the KGusetaBe. He was the front runner to take over. Then he got hit with over 150 allegations of rape, molestation, child molestation, the at the time version of sexual harrassment, and mopery and dopery. Beria died in prison 'attempting to escape', the date unknown.
Point is, nail somebody with a sex crime charge, nobody listens to him anymore. True or not, Assauge's credibilty went down the shitter when the charges were announced. He'll never get past them.
What was the name of that CIA chick the Old Regime outted?
That's why whistleblowers are supposed to be protected by law, which is what Manning should have been.