"FACT: NASA entombed in chaf laden concrete the pieces of the Challenger and wants to do the same with Columbia. They claim it is out of respect but the result is the pieces can be used for research."
NOT a fact. First, Challenger is not "entombed in concrete." The remains are stored in a sealed missile silo
Second, NASA has made clear that this was A MISTAKE and that the remains of Columbia will NOT be similarly sealed.
Blah, blah, blah.
We'll NEVER get those things "fixed" because there is no end goal. Jesus, we're already spending something like 20 percent of GDP on health care...and we spend more per pupil for education than any other country.
"No matter how much some of us dislike Microsoft, would it make any sense for Google, whose earnings are only an inkling of Microsofts to have a stock price that soars far beyond Microsofts and through the roof to match the likes of what Intel and Amazon used to trade at (hundreds of dollars per share)?"
Insightful???? How is something insightful when it confuses the nominal price of shares with the VALUE of the company!
"Crime is lower in all of the places I've lived outside of the United states. It is lower in Europe and so much lower in Japan that the mind boggles (for example, you can leave your wallet on the bar in most parts of Tokyo... American sailor hangouts excepted!... go use the toilet, come back, and no one will have touched it)."
This is untrue. Rates of crimes other than murder are significantly higher in much of Europe than in the US. In addition, crime rates in the US have been dropping dramatically while those in Europe have been increasing.
I think Jerry Pournelle, of all people came up with this as Project Thor. The ide was that you could dup a rod on top of a Soviet tank, were the armor was very thin.
Not sure the applicability today with no Soviets, no Soviet tanks, and no conveinient Fulda Gap to rain down destruction upon.
What on Earth are you talking about? The article (you DID read the article, didn't you) clearly points out that the lack of effective prosecution of virus writers in Europe and elsewhere has led to them being far more active outside the US.
Do you really think the Indianapolis DA is going to be able to have a virus writer in the Czech Republic extradited because the writer posted on a website? We may be a global economy, but criminality is often quite well shielded by national borders.
"Most of the virus writers I visited live in Europe; there have been very few active in the United States since 9/11, because of fears of prosecution."
Hunt them down and throw them in jail.
Actually, it ought to be a bit faster than you are proposing since aerobraking in the Mars orbital insertion will allow a longer acceleration time and a shorted deceleration time.
You are factually incorrect. Once the US made the decision to bring the Russians into the ISS program, the original inclination of the station had to change.
"In the US, political speech is protected. If there is any system like this put in place, there will need to be an exception for political-party spammers, and the commercial spammers will certainly figure out a way to use that exception."
Nonsense. There's nothing in the First Amendment requiring FREE media for your political beliefs! Try taking a bunch of political flyers down to the post office and to mail them without postage...or tell a local TV ad exec that he needs to put you 30 second spot on for free!
Under Bush's plan, the US will remain in the ISS program until 2017 and shift the entire research focus to humans in space.
There, you should be happy!
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SOP for the ESA. I think they've only release a dozen images or so from Mars Express in MONTHS!
"FACT: NASA entombed in chaf laden concrete the pieces of the Challenger and wants to do the same with Columbia. They claim it is out of respect but the result is the pieces can be used for research." NOT a fact. First, Challenger is not "entombed in concrete." The remains are stored in a sealed missile silo Second, NASA has made clear that this was A MISTAKE and that the remains of Columbia will NOT be similarly sealed.
Blah, blah, blah. We'll NEVER get those things "fixed" because there is no end goal. Jesus, we're already spending something like 20 percent of GDP on health care...and we spend more per pupil for education than any other country.
"No matter how much some of us dislike Microsoft, would it make any sense for Google, whose earnings are only an inkling of Microsofts to have a stock price that soars far beyond Microsofts and through the roof to match the likes of what Intel and Amazon used to trade at (hundreds of dollars per share)?" Insightful???? How is something insightful when it confuses the nominal price of shares with the VALUE of the company!
Actually, Scaled has NOT built an engine...it is supplied by SpaceDev.
This implies that Neptune and Uranus actually possess a SURFACE that we could put a lander on. How crazy is that!
Some discussion of a Neptune/Triton orbiter. Nothing about a Uranus mission.
Who is modding these luddites with their ignorant belief RTGs are "dangerous" as insightful????
"Crime is lower in all of the places I've lived outside of the United states. It is lower in Europe and so much lower in Japan that the mind boggles (for example, you can leave your wallet on the bar in most parts of Tokyo ... American sailor hangouts excepted! ... go use the toilet, come back, and no one will have touched it)."
This is untrue. Rates of crimes other than murder are significantly higher in much of Europe than in the US. In addition, crime rates in the US have been dropping dramatically while those in Europe have been increasing.
I think Jerry Pournelle, of all people came up with this as Project Thor. The ide was that you could dup a rod on top of a Soviet tank, were the armor was very thin. Not sure the applicability today with no Soviets, no Soviet tanks, and no conveinient Fulda Gap to rain down destruction upon.
Actually, the Deep Impact comet mission is quite similar to this notion.
Perhaps because the Energia is not in production and the capacity to bring it up to production is very, very doubtful.
What on Earth are you talking about? The article (you DID read the article, didn't you) clearly points out that the lack of effective prosecution of virus writers in Europe and elsewhere has led to them being far more active outside the US. Do you really think the Indianapolis DA is going to be able to have a virus writer in the Czech Republic extradited because the writer posted on a website? We may be a global economy, but criminality is often quite well shielded by national borders.
The US solution to virus writers is clearly working better than the European solution. This is arrogance, simply a fact.
"Most of the virus writers I visited live in Europe; there have been very few active in the United States since 9/11, because of fears of prosecution." Hunt them down and throw them in jail.
Actually, it ought to be a bit faster than you are proposing since aerobraking in the Mars orbital insertion will allow a longer acceleration time and a shorted deceleration time.
You are factually incorrect. Once the US made the decision to bring the Russians into the ISS program, the original inclination of the station had to change.
"In the US, political speech is protected. If there is any system like this put in place, there will need to be an exception for political-party spammers, and the commercial spammers will certainly figure out a way to use that exception." Nonsense. There's nothing in the First Amendment requiring FREE media for your political beliefs! Try taking a bunch of political flyers down to the post office and to mail them without postage...or tell a local TV ad exec that he needs to put you 30 second spot on for free!
This was actually the plan. The Astronaut Corps (before Columbia) registered great disapproval at the idea of a simple catch and return mission.
The US requested permission to use on the DMZ in North Korea and at G'Bay. When this was not granted, the US walked.
Actually, they are hoping for considerably more than 5 minutes of surface time! Hopefully we'll get at least 30 minutes of surface data.
"Man, that little turd's done all kinds of damage by caving to them." Um, no. A settlement was agreed to. This has no bearing on case law.
Please point out an example of a 15 billion dollar airplane, please.
Under Bush's plan, the US will remain in the ISS program until 2017 and shift the entire research focus to humans in space. There, you should be happy!
The Russians? The Russians who have to sell seats on the Soyuz they are so short of cash???