I doubt that raising money for Nasa will be enough to change their minds on the Hubble issue. (Though if I thought it could, I'd be the first to donate!)
Nasa is basing its refusal of the Hubble mission on safety issues. And since it has already made this clear, it would be a huge PR error to change their minds now... I think cancelling the Hubble mission is Nasa's way of telling the public "yes, we care about safety". Whether or not the Hubble mission is significantly more dangerous than the ISS missions is debatable in my view, but to Nasa it's a moot point anyway. As long as they are seen to be doing something to improve safety, then they can get on with the rest of their agenda...
1. The large amount of oxygen on Earth is a result of the the presence of life, not a prerequisite for it.
2. Even if a particular element has a low universal abundance, there can still be a local concentration of it high enough to "kickstart life" (as might be the case with silicon and sulpher on Europa).
Re:Only so much carbon...
on
Space Burial
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· Score: 5, Informative
Considering the earth accumulates 30 million kg of space dust each year, I don't think this will be a problem. (http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news19.html)
Re:mis-diagnosis
on
Cyberchondria
·
· Score: 3, Interesting
I happen to think that being confined to my body 24/7 does in fact make me more qualified to identify problems than a doctor who askes two questions and takes my temperature. And yes, it is hard to find a doctor who has the time to do anything more than that. No doctor has ever told me something I didn't already know or even suggest originally suggest myself. If the internet makes information available to the "average Joe" I think it can only improve the quality of health care (not to mention the above-average Joe who is not a hypochondriac and doesn't necessarily believe something just because it was posted to the internet).
Sure, doctors have many years of training. But that's because they have to cover all possible diseases. I only have to research the ones that might apply to me, so the argument that I don't have 10 years of training doesn't really hold.
I doubt any translation gadget will be more useful in any context than a good old-fashioned dictionary. The reason is: when you want to communicate something, words are often the smallest part of the message. Would people listen to you if you shoved a tape player in their face, even if the pre-recorded message was in their language? I wouldn't! But if you can speak just a few words of a foriegn language, and are willing to try to use them (plus gestures) face-to-face, the response is a lot more likely to be positive. Many people in other countries now assume Americans won't bother to learn their language (with good reason, apparently), and showing that you are interested enough to try makes a good impression...
Then, (and only then), maybe you can pull out the PDA with some hope that the person will have the patience to wait while it translates the details...
Learning a language is compulsory for at least one year of high school.
This is laughable.
In Quebec, second-language classes are required from Kindergarten through grade 12. Everyone graduates high school fluently bilingual.
Slashdot Mirror
I doubt that raising money for Nasa will be enough to change their minds on the Hubble issue. (Though if I thought it could, I'd be the first to donate!)
Nasa is basing its refusal of the Hubble mission on safety issues. And since it has already made this clear, it would be a huge PR error to change their minds now... I think cancelling the Hubble mission is Nasa's way of telling the public "yes, we care about safety". Whether or not the Hubble mission is significantly more dangerous than the ISS missions is debatable in my view, but to Nasa it's a moot point anyway. As long as they are seen to be doing something to improve safety, then they can get on with the rest of their agenda...
Quite true... Mea culpa.
Two notes:
1. The large amount of oxygen on Earth is a result of the the presence of life, not a prerequisite for it.
2. Even if a particular element has a low universal abundance, there can still be a local concentration of it high enough to "kickstart life" (as might be the case with silicon and sulpher on Europa).
Considering the earth accumulates 30 million kg of space dust each year, I don't think this will be a problem. (http://stardust.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news19.html)
I happen to think that being confined to my body 24/7 does in fact make me more qualified to identify problems than a doctor who askes two questions and takes my temperature. And yes, it is hard to find a doctor who has the time to do anything more than that. No doctor has ever told me something I didn't already know or even suggest originally suggest myself. If the internet makes information available to the "average Joe" I think it can only improve the quality of health care (not to mention the above-average Joe who is not a hypochondriac and doesn't necessarily believe something just because it was posted to the internet). Sure, doctors have many years of training. But that's because they have to cover all possible diseases. I only have to research the ones that might apply to me, so the argument that I don't have 10 years of training doesn't really hold.
I doubt any translation gadget will be more useful in any context than a good old-fashioned dictionary. The reason is: when you want to communicate something, words are often the smallest part of the message. Would people listen to you if you shoved a tape player in their face, even if the pre-recorded message was in their language? I wouldn't! But if you can speak just a few words of a foriegn language, and are willing to try to use them (plus gestures) face-to-face, the response is a lot more likely to be positive. Many people in other countries now assume Americans won't bother to learn their language (with good reason, apparently), and showing that you are interested enough to try makes a good impression...
Then, (and only then), maybe you can pull out the PDA with some hope that the person will have the patience to wait while it translates the details...
Learning a language is compulsory for at least one year of high school. This is laughable. In Quebec, second-language classes are required from Kindergarten through grade 12. Everyone graduates high school fluently bilingual.