Ok, so let's use ALL of this info together, wire it into a finite-element MATRIX (ignore that word) and simulate the entire ecosystem. See which changes effect what. End the debate, engineer any solution that actually could WORK.
This concept was the basis "A Farewell To Kings", my manuscript for the Turner Tomorrow Award Contest in 1991. In an obligatory Rush allusion, the massive computer network (pre-www./pre-google) was called Synergistic Resource for Information Exchange -- SYRINX:-D And yes, I quoted Rush constantly.
--
"Time after time we lose sight of the way
Our causes can't see their effects"
Have them log into Monster.com, et al, and see what the salaries are for various fields, including jobs for those with a "mere diploma", and they will become more interested in College Prep and getting good grades.
Mac: Hi, I'm a Mac Bill Gates: And I'm a PC Mac: WHOA, Bill Gates! What are you doing on a Mac commercial? Bill: To remind people that Microsoft is more than Windows. We've been writing software for the Mac since before there was a Mac. The same Office suite that PC's use is available to Mac Users Mac: Actually, Bill, it's better. Bill: [blushes] Thanks. And with Boot Camp and virtualization, you can run Windows if you have to. Mac: Or want to. I think Vista ROCKS on a Mac. Bill: That's all. Microsoft makes software and operating systems... for PCs AND Macs. Mac: So, we can work together. Bill: Yes. Yes, we can. [shakes hands] Nice shoes...[Exit, Stage right]
[Mac stands stunned]
[Enter PC, eating a churro] PC: You're not going to believe this. I just met Jerry Seinfeld in the hallway.
[Mac stands stunned] PC: What? What'd I miss?
[Fade to iMac running Office 2008 and Parallels with Vista] and new 'Yes, WE can' logo
Umm, STOP and THINK about what choices they have, and get back with me. And go ahead, think the unthinkable.
NURK!!! Time's up. They have a choice. They can keep the keys. Constitutionally? Hellzno. but that was the whole reason for the question.
If Bush/Cheney are as evil as people think (and I'm not saying they are, or they are not)... WHY WOULD THEY LET THE ELECTION RUN ITS COURSE TO INAUGURATION OF OBAMA?
If they are, as some say, 9/10ths of the way to Fascism, why not take the next step? And if they don't, then the first 9 steps were a waste. Course, "the winner" could step in. They probably wouldn't want that to be O'Baughmagh. That infers a "McCain Miracle". By fair means, or foul. That means "fix" the election, or vacate the results. Which would you prefer?
--
I expect to have my 1st and 2nd Amendment rights to the day I die, but I can prolly kiss my karma goodbye.
I'm laughing because you are totally wrong about me (I may be an ass) but I'm not a leftist. I'm prolly just a step left of you, (idiot). AND I STILL SUPPORT ABOLITION OF EC.
If the EC is gone, then which state the voter lives in becomes irrelevant. If the EC is in place, then CA and NY are balanced out, but the election is decided by 12 old ladies on the I-4 corridor. And some dude named CHAD!
Has ANY of the candidates described the steps they would take to roll us back from the Constitutional abyss?
The inference has been that the current administration has been abusing its power in this area. It strikes me as "illogical" that they would take such steps toward setting up a surveillance society, only to hand the keys to the Bastille to "another" administration.
We'll help you. Just send us the link to the pages yer scraping, and we'll SlashDot them out of virtual existence. Then you can:
a) Demonstrate what will eventually happen when their scheme is found out
b) "Suggest" to your boss that you need a raise, because this isn't "extortion", just "power brokering". I'm sure he'd understand.
c) Tell him "Klaatu, berada nikto, muckerfother!"
d) Remind him that you only wield this power for good
SELECT FaceImage from tblFaces where FaceEx(FaceImage) LIKE FaceEx(@MINE)
SELECT FaceImage from tblFaces where FaceEx(FaceImage) LIKE FaceEx('salma.hayek.faceimage')
SELECT FaceImage from tblFaces where FaceEx(FaceImage) LIKE FaceEx(@YERMOM)
Tomorrow, Class, we will discuss the JOIN, INSERT INTO, and GROUP BY operators.
I am amused that the VERY NEXT post on Slashdot is this "Geneticist Claims Human Evolution Is Over".
Imagine a brainwave LAN party where a guy and a girl rise above the gray matter mass, and after some tough head to head battle (ROFL) they fall in love, and have kids. Their son/daughter repeats on the latest technology... Repeat. Pretty soon, you're breeding, yea, EVOLVING BrainWavers.
By that time, the technology of the headsets will improve to where the better brainwavers work better, and the creme de la creme breed. Soon, they don't need the GameStation 20,000. They can do it with pickleballs in mid-air.
Of course, then the concentration camps and PsiCorp arise, but I digress...
I used to (yes, USED to) work at a place that put (big) spacecraft on GSO. I worked at CCAFS and KSC on the real stuff. Getting from Adobe PDF to "propellant on station" is NOT trivial. The Laws of Orbital Mechanics are not very forgiving. There is a balance to be struck between "easy to get a big enough counterweight" and "we need to be able to lift bigger payloads". I think this proposal leans on the light side. Flinging a mass to Mars is intriguing, but you have to fling the mass of the RCS to get it into orbit, plus lander. If you want to colonize Mars with this thing, you will need a bigger counterweight, if only for the Life Support for the colonists en route.
Though I confess that I was also intrigued with the method of building the counterweight, it is still not enough to handle the transients, the angular momentum causing a horizontal component on the cable, the swingdown as the mass crosses from climbing to rappelling up in negative G, the lumpiness of Earth gravity.
I didn't put any birds in LEO, but I loaded RCS propellant for the GSO's. Lifting a bird to GSO, lowering it to LEO via ion engine AND still have enough RCS propellant for a useful lifetime on orbit means lifting a heavier bird, and we are back to the counterweight. Using this thing only for GSO and beyond is a waste, since we have a LOT of LEO's to launch and replace over the next 50 years... those 50 years being the ones Clarke cited between success and the stopping laughing.
I'm not laughing after reading the proposal... but I am chuckling. Good luck with that.
But to short answer you. Correction: "All it has to do is be equal to the mass of the rest of the cable, PLUS the mass of the climber and payload. And that leaves you at neutral, like a balloon equal in bouyancy to it's payload. Add the force of lifting the payload and the balloon drops. So you need an excess.
And this talk of SLINGSHOT! You are missing something... Angular momentum of the climber. That will cause a strong horizontal component to the force vector on the cable. That will be like slowly plucking a string. Think "Integral Trees" by Larry Niven. Clarke assumed a massive counterweight, so that component would be negligible, but not so with the "cable is its own counterweight" approach.
Climbing to GSO, the mass tries to trail behind the cable, and the cable would have to use its excess tension to hold it, or get coiled around the earth. And then, when the mass reaches GSO, it would begin to fall up, and braking is needed. And then, it becomes the bottom of a pendulum. You will DEFINITELY need a massive counterweight, or you will not be able to stop the swinging. If all you have is "neutral tension" at GSO, you will end up WEARING that cable. Where WEARING = "clothed in silly string"
You DO realize that the phrase "lifted himself up by his own bootstraps" is a figure of speech, and doesn't work in real life.
I see what they are selling. Looks great. So does Vista. Let me make a simple statement and you can deduce the rest.
Simple statement: What you end with is a cable which is only a cable. No lifting capability. All of that is on the climber. Even given the "beam-the-power idea", you need something as big as a Prius to lift to LEO. When you get to LEO, you need to be able to accelerate the payload to Local Circular Velocity (Call it 18,000MPH ballpark.) That means to lift a usable satellite, you also have to lift the booster to take it from ~1000 (equatorial velocity) to 18,000MPH in about 10 minutes. (ignoring the "drop/fire sequence" to prevent fluttering the cable.) That's SRM-class thrust. You gonna lift that with a Prius? And if you do, the counterweight needs to be again bigger.
Getting a cable up? Maybe. Easy as it sounds? Not really. Do it for 10 Bills NO WAY.
You have to extend it AT LEAST as far a geosynch is high, plus the mass of what you lift in cable mass. And you add a whipping end. Stability drops, especially under stress of solar wind/flares, Coronal Mass ejections, etc.
Try it yourself. Hang a rope 20 feet/meters with a dense weight on the bottom. Measure the deflection under a breeze. Hang a 40 feet/meter rope and measure the deflection under a breeze at the 20 (unit) mark. Aside from more drag from the extra 20 cubits;-), you get a standing wave action, with harmonics.
THAT is my principal opposition to wasting effort on space elevators. By the time you've built it, you've spent the propellant you were trying to save.
Not for the counterbalance. But maybe for the CrapSweeper.
We all know what a Bussard Ram Jet is. What about using the ISS (Retired) to deploy a huge field of some electro-magnetic-gravitonic-strange-charmed-hip* quark cone to suck in space debris? The Bussard Hip Sucker? Ionize the mass and use as energy and propellant to perpetually sweep LEO for detritus... OMG, that sounds like...
*I predict the discovery by the LHC of the "hip" quark. I've made the suggestion often, but it's seldom leapt on.
Nothing the Japanese, the Protectors or the Puppeteers can do in materials will be able to succeed until they can counterbalance it. That involves mass. Clarke used an asteroid, "moved" into position.
I'm not saying it can't be done (in this post;-). I'm saying it can't be done for 10 Bills.
Ok, maybe if they devise a way to collect all of the space junk into a blob. Maybe launch a 100m blob of chewing gum against the orbital grain to absorb the detritus to get things started.
Slashdot Mirror
Just have a metric boatload of these circumambulating on the 22" rims, and have them move instead of the engine. In fact, you won't need an engine.
Why am I suddenly thinking of the crabs under the Black Pearl on POTC:AWE?
http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp
Ok, so let's use ALL of this info together, wire it into a finite-element MATRIX (ignore that word) and simulate the entire ecosystem. See which changes effect what. End the debate, engineer any solution that actually could WORK.
:-D And yes, I quoted Rush constantly.
This concept was the basis "A Farewell To Kings", my manuscript for the Turner Tomorrow Award Contest in 1991. In an obligatory Rush allusion, the massive computer network (pre-www./pre-google) was called Synergistic Resource for Information Exchange -- SYRINX
--
"Time after time we lose sight of the way
Our causes can't see their effects"
Have them log into Monster.com, et al, and see what the salaries are for various fields, including jobs for those with a "mere diploma", and they will become more interested in College Prep and getting good grades.
It is true for very large font sizes of '+'
But SLIGHTLY seriously folks, if they are far from each other, then the plus is irrelevant. Oh, wait, you must be an accountant for AIG.
1 Black Hole + 1 Black Hole != 2 Black Holes
Online Gambling
Mac: Hi, I'm a Mac
Bill Gates: And I'm a PC
Mac: WHOA, Bill Gates! What are you doing on a Mac commercial?
Bill: To remind people that Microsoft is more than Windows. We've been writing software for the Mac since before there was a Mac. The same Office suite that PC's use is available to Mac Users
Mac: Actually, Bill, it's better.
Bill: [blushes] Thanks. And with Boot Camp and virtualization, you can run Windows if you have to.
Mac: Or want to. I think Vista ROCKS on a Mac.
Bill: That's all. Microsoft makes software and operating systems... for PCs AND Macs.
Mac: So, we can work together.
Bill: Yes. Yes, we can. [shakes hands] Nice shoes...[Exit, Stage right]
[Mac stands stunned]
[Enter PC, eating a churro]
PC: You're not going to believe this. I just met Jerry Seinfeld in the hallway.
[Mac stands stunned]
PC: What? What'd I miss?
[Fade to iMac running Office 2008 and Parallels with Vista] and new 'Yes, WE can' logo
Do tell...
Umm, STOP and THINK about what choices they have, and get back with me. And go ahead, think the unthinkable.
NURK!!! Time's up. They have a choice. They can keep the keys. Constitutionally? Hellzno. but that was the whole reason for the question.
If Bush/Cheney are as evil as people think (and I'm not saying they are, or they are not)... WHY WOULD THEY LET THE ELECTION RUN ITS COURSE TO INAUGURATION OF OBAMA?
If they are, as some say, 9/10ths of the way to Fascism, why not take the next step? And if they don't, then the first 9 steps were a waste. Course, "the winner" could step in. They probably wouldn't want that to be O'Baughmagh. That infers a "McCain Miracle". By fair means, or foul. That means "fix" the election, or vacate the results. Which would you prefer?
--
I expect to have my 1st and 2nd Amendment rights to the day I die, but I can prolly kiss my karma goodbye.
I'm laughing because you are totally wrong about me (I may be an ass) but I'm not a leftist. I'm prolly just a step left of you, (idiot). AND I STILL SUPPORT ABOLITION OF EC.
If the EC is gone, then which state the voter lives in becomes irrelevant. If the EC is in place, then CA and NY are balanced out, but the election is decided by 12 old ladies on the I-4 corridor. And some dude named CHAD!
PS: Go hate somewhere else, AC.
The election has become a video game where the players (candidates) strategize on which states can be ignored.
The hearts and minds should be the battleground. NOT the states!
That should be enough to get the ball rolling.
The Constitution has been trodden upon these last 8 years (and more). Here is just one citation, for those who need one. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/04/13/1830202
Has ANY of the candidates described the steps they would take to roll us back from the Constitutional abyss?
The inference has been that the current administration has been abusing its power in this area. It strikes me as "illogical" that they would take such steps toward setting up a surveillance society, only to hand the keys to the Bastille to "another" administration.
Help me understand.
That was true of Decision 2000 also, except the "next day" part. It's called 'history'. We should look into it while we still have it.
We'll help you. Just send us the link to the pages yer scraping, and we'll SlashDot them out of virtual existence. Then you can:
a) Demonstrate what will eventually happen when their scheme is found out
b) "Suggest" to your boss that you need a raise, because this isn't "extortion", just "power brokering". I'm sure he'd understand.
c) Tell him "Klaatu, berada nikto, muckerfother!"
d) Remind him that you only wield this power for good
Samples of the new FaceEx function:
SELECT FaceImage from tblFaces where FaceEx(FaceImage) LIKE FaceEx(@MINE)
SELECT FaceImage from tblFaces where FaceEx(FaceImage) LIKE FaceEx('salma.hayek.faceimage')
SELECT FaceImage from tblFaces where FaceEx(FaceImage) LIKE FaceEx(@YERMOM)
Tomorrow, Class, we will discuss the JOIN, INSERT INTO, and GROUP BY operators.
I am amused that the VERY NEXT post on Slashdot is this "Geneticist Claims Human Evolution Is Over".
Imagine a brainwave LAN party where a guy and a girl rise above the gray matter mass, and after some tough head to head battle (ROFL) they fall in love, and have kids. Their son/daughter repeats on the latest technology... Repeat. Pretty soon, you're breeding, yea, EVOLVING BrainWavers.
By that time, the technology of the headsets will improve to where the better brainwavers work better, and the creme de la creme breed. Soon, they don't need the GameStation 20,000. They can do it with pickleballs in mid-air.
Of course, then the concentration camps and PsiCorp arise, but I digress...
Am I the only one who, when reading the judge/Subject conversation, 'heard' the answers in HAL's voice?
>>reality
I used to (yes, USED to) work at a place that put (big) spacecraft on GSO. I worked at CCAFS and KSC on the real stuff. Getting from Adobe PDF to "propellant on station" is NOT trivial. The Laws of Orbital Mechanics are not very forgiving. There is a balance to be struck between "easy to get a big enough counterweight" and "we need to be able to lift bigger payloads". I think this proposal leans on the light side. Flinging a mass to Mars is intriguing, but you have to fling the mass of the RCS to get it into orbit, plus lander. If you want to colonize Mars with this thing, you will need a bigger counterweight, if only for the Life Support for the colonists en route.
Though I confess that I was also intrigued with the method of building the counterweight, it is still not enough to handle the transients, the angular momentum causing a horizontal component on the cable, the swingdown as the mass crosses from climbing to rappelling up in negative G, the lumpiness of Earth gravity.
I didn't put any birds in LEO, but I loaded RCS propellant for the GSO's. Lifting a bird to GSO, lowering it to LEO via ion engine AND still have enough RCS propellant for a useful lifetime on orbit means lifting a heavier bird, and we are back to the counterweight. Using this thing only for GSO and beyond is a waste, since we have a LOT of LEO's to launch and replace over the next 50 years... those 50 years being the ones Clarke cited between success and the stopping laughing.
I'm not laughing after reading the proposal... but I am chuckling. Good luck with that.
I've already had this discussion, here: http://slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=971653&threshold=1&commentsort=0&mode=thread&pid=25115539#25122841
But to short answer you. Correction: "All it has to do is be equal to the mass of the rest of the cable, PLUS the mass of the climber and payload. And that leaves you at neutral, like a balloon equal in bouyancy to it's payload. Add the force of lifting the payload and the balloon drops. So you need an excess.
And this talk of SLINGSHOT! You are missing something... Angular momentum of the climber. That will cause a strong horizontal component to the force vector on the cable. That will be like slowly plucking a string. Think "Integral Trees" by Larry Niven. Clarke assumed a massive counterweight, so that component would be negligible, but not so with the "cable is its own counterweight" approach.
Climbing to GSO, the mass tries to trail behind the cable, and the cable would have to use its excess tension to hold it, or get coiled around the earth. And then, when the mass reaches GSO, it would begin to fall up, and braking is needed. And then, it becomes the bottom of a pendulum. You will DEFINITELY need a massive counterweight, or you will not be able to stop the swinging. If all you have is "neutral tension" at GSO, you will end up WEARING that cable. Where WEARING = "clothed in silly string"
You DO realize that the phrase "lifted himself up by his own bootstraps" is a figure of speech, and doesn't work in real life.
I see what they are selling. Looks great. So does Vista. Let me make a simple statement and you can deduce the rest.
Simple statement: What you end with is a cable which is only a cable. No lifting capability. All of that is on the climber. Even given the "beam-the-power idea", you need something as big as a Prius to lift to LEO. When you get to LEO, you need to be able to accelerate the payload to Local Circular Velocity (Call it 18,000MPH ballpark.) That means to lift a usable satellite, you also have to lift the booster to take it from ~1000 (equatorial velocity) to 18,000MPH in about 10 minutes. (ignoring the "drop/fire sequence" to prevent fluttering the cable.) That's SRM-class thrust. You gonna lift that with a Prius? And if you do, the counterweight needs to be again bigger.
Getting a cable up? Maybe. Easy as it sounds? Not really. Do it for 10 Bills NO WAY.
Anchored to what? A beowulf cluster of inflatable Natalie Portman Dolls?
Seriously. Show me this proposal.
You have to extend it AT LEAST as far a geosynch is high, plus the mass of what you lift in cable mass. And you add a whipping end. Stability drops, especially under stress of solar wind/flares, Coronal Mass ejections, etc.
;-), you get a standing wave action, with harmonics.
Try it yourself. Hang a rope 20 feet/meters with a dense weight on the bottom. Measure the deflection under a breeze. Hang a 40 feet/meter rope and measure the deflection under a breeze at the 20 (unit) mark. Aside from more drag from the extra 20 cubits
THAT is my principal opposition to wasting effort on space elevators. By the time you've built it, you've spent the propellant you were trying to save.
Not for the counterbalance. But maybe for the CrapSweeper.
We all know what a Bussard Ram Jet is. What about using the ISS (Retired) to deploy a huge field of some electro-magnetic-gravitonic-strange-charmed-hip* quark cone to suck in space debris? The Bussard Hip Sucker? Ionize the mass and use as energy and propellant to perpetually sweep LEO for detritus... OMG, that sounds like...
*I predict the discovery by the LHC of the "hip" quark. I've made the suggestion often, but it's seldom leapt on.
Nothing the Japanese, the Protectors or the Puppeteers can do in materials will be able to succeed until they can counterbalance it. That involves mass. Clarke used an asteroid, "moved" into position.
I'm not saying it can't be done (in this post;-). I'm saying it can't be done for 10 Bills.
Ok, maybe if they devise a way to collect all of the space junk into a blob. Maybe launch a 100m blob of chewing gum against the orbital grain to absorb the detritus to get things started.