First off, for the record I'm a presenting author at this year's 100YSS. I don't handle the tough stuff (quantum mechanics, warp drives, particle shielding) but I'm versed in it. In other words, I'm no rocket scientist. My focus is on encouraging pre-teens and students to pursue careers in astronautics and outreach.
That said, it's the very first thing you say that I have to take to task, "The scales you're talking about with interstellar travel are almost humanly unimaginable."
I do not speak for anyone besides myself when I say, bunk. The scales we are talking is the nearest star to earth, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light years away. That's traveling at approximately 186,000 per second for 4.2 years. That's imaginable. It's difficult (and arguably impossible) but it is not anywhere near unimaginable.
So maybe you meant that the means to achieve such speed over such a length of time is unimaginable. I'm here to say, again, no. There's a popular joke around theorists of interstellar travel, "Physicists have no problem with getting us to another star system. The hang-up is with the mechanical engineers." (Which is actually pretty funny.) The point is it's easy to conceive of ways to manage interstellar travel. The challenge is it's (presently) impossible to build them. But the ideas, plans, and models are there, for sure.
So with all that in mind, 100 Year Starship-as-a-program has set up to get something to another star system. We just don't know what or how. But the beauty of the concept is that Jules Verne wrote and published From Earth To The Moon in 1865; roughly 100 years later we went to the moon. Vis-à-vis this model, 100 Year Starship has begun as a thinking consortium or brain trust to engage some of the best minds in their respective fields with the challenge of reaching a nearby star 100 years from now.
(Incidentally, last year I believe Dave Neyland made a comment the "laughably slow" comment brought. Referencing the fact that technological breakthrough continues happening even after you set a plan in motion—ie old tech on spacecraft compared to what is currently available, it's what we had when said spacecraft's program was started and outlined—another joke, "If you leave on a starship and the starship that leaves after you passes you, you're on the wrong ship". Another techy joke. But an eyebrow-raiser also.)
Lastly, "barring someone radically overturning Einstein", heck, even I can imagine that. And we don't have to overturn Einstein, just pass him on the outside. I say this to kids I work with all the time, "You can never prepare to be surprised." We don't know how we are doing what we are talking about doing but not talking about it is sure to not get us anywhere.
Remember, a talent is someone who hits a target no one else can. A genius is someone who hits a target no one else sees.
Which naturally explains what I am doing being an astronaut teacher
Read to your kids. That's the secret. YOU reading to your kids. The reason I became the student of Ray Bradbury I was? Reading everything he wrote over and over even now as a fully-functioning adult author and writer? It is because my mom read Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes to me again and again over and over when I was a young kid.
At first, I just listened. Then I requested to have "those stories" read to me. Then I read them myself.
Bradbury led to Heinlein which led to Asimov which led to Clarke to Lewis and Tolkien, which led to Verne, Adams, Pohl, Foster, McCaffrey, Brooks, then Sterling, Gibson, Robinson, Sawyer, Stephenson, Gaiman......and so on.
It has been an amazing ride. It keeps getting better. But the ticket that got me on the rocket ship and through the looking glass at the back of the wardrobe was my mom reading to me. YMMV but I doubt it. You want a reader? Read and show the joy of reading.
This is about Steve Jobs isn't it? Can someone make a Hitler video about CmdrTaco resigning?
Because that's how I feel. CmdrTaco, you don't know me from Adam ('cept I use to sleep on the couch in Roblimo's office) but you have made me feel connected for a loooong time. So long and thanks for all the yaddayaddayadda. [actor-Hitler's ranting voice]"Daily Dot?! It's bunch of college kids circlejerking over news everybody knows and 4chan memes!"
How about another kind of species?
on
UFOs In the News
·
· Score: 1
Isn't it feasible that the UFOs nee UAPs are something other than spaceships? Perhaps even some sort of biological that us homo sapiens are unfamiliar with at this point?
Anyhow, here's an interesting link http://www.narcap.org/reports/TR8Bias1.htm relevant to the subject...
...oh whoops, I thought I was on metafilter. Oh. Then what I meant to say was...
In Russia, all your UFOS belong to us watching you.
I thought the 2006 bogeyman was an overly-wealthy, in-office US Republican, the endearingly personable one who is clearly best kept from playing around sharp objects or fire.
...i'd go naked everywhere. Fuck 'em. I'd be naked as soon as I realized I was invulnerable and can fly.
I'd be the nakest superhero alive.
Spandex? That's for aerobics. I have a planet to save, I look good, and everyone can kiss my bullet-proof ass if they have a problem with my bullet-proof balls.
Superheroes have always been in worse positions than any of us, because superheroes are unable to live for themselves. They are unable to shit, to fuck, to hurt, to die. Not even imaginably.
Superpowers exist to alleviate misery. And right now, with even superheroes defending themselves from the exact same attacks all of us regular ol' non-heroes are defending ourselves against - cowardice, fighting, and rampantly betraying our own kinds - each of us is in the same boat as Wolverine, Spiderman, Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man, and even...Captain America!!!, it is time for the wheels to turn again.
Not back to September 10th, 2001 (a fine day!), but forward to a future where those of us who choose to live freely and happily can do so without detriment to any others.
But, sorry, having the good guys become bad guys who are after the good guys who are now the bad guys is only making matters worse.
I read comics because I believe in hope, and the possibilities, and power of having dreams. Marvel and DC make comics because they want us to sell out those dreams for expensive books, unimaginative storylines, and cheap headlines.
[In the gnome's cave]
Gnome 1: This is where all our work is done.
Kyle: So what are you gonna do with all these underpants you steal?
Gnome 1: Collecting underpants is just phase one. Phase one: collect underpants.
Kyle: So what's phase two?
[Silence]
Gnome 1: Hey, what's phase two?!
Gnome 2: Phase one: we collect underpants.
Gnome 1: Ya, ya, ya. But what about phase two?
[Silence]
Gnome 2: Well, phase three is profit. Get it?
Stan: I don't get it.
Gnome 2: (Goes over to a chart on the wall) You see, Phase one: collect underpants, phase two-
[Silence]
Gnome 2: Phase three: profit.
Cartman: Oh I get it.
Stan: No you don't.
Kyle: Do you guys know anything about corporations?
Gnome 2: You bet we do.
Gnome 1: Us gnomes are geniuses at corporations.
That's how I always start. And I have written two, including one for billion-dollar "start-up," The Ecko Unlimited Company.
Also, read thishttp://evhead.com/2005/11/ten-rules-for-web-st artups.asp and thishttp://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_zen_of _busi.html>.
What you may be talking about is the fact that Whedon did several semi-widespread, pre-screenings of the film, prior to FX even, partially to show his and crews appreciation for Firefly diehards, and partially to build buzz. He (and crew members) attended many of these. Unusual but dedicated, and in the end, it is this dedication which indicates that, indeed, there is some unique chemistry to the Firefly people.
That's what most commercial pet food is made of. And these dead animals are purchased from vets and SPCAs. (Ask a vet.) The process wherein pet corpses are turned into pet food is called "rendering." http://www.sniksnak.com/ac/petfood2.html
Spider Robinson is not a cyber-punk
on
The Escapist
·
· Score: 1
Is this why he is ignored by popular media, and embraced by adult sci-fi fans as the post-Heinlein Grand Poobah of speculative fiction?
And next year, for Heinlein's 100th birthday in June, SR comes out with the last Heinlein book,
Variable Star
, which is finishing from an extensive outline left By Heinlein.
Skip the new trendy post-cyber BS, and pick up Robinson's Telempath or Callahan's Key. Or better yet, the Stardancers trilogy, co-written with his wife Jeanne. These are true sci-fi novels that are enjoyable and inspiring. And no doubt influential for reasons that are less than obvious.
I thought the target on his chest was to distract criminals from noticing how fantasticly gay a grown man looks in a cape and latex face mask designed to look like a doberman and which brings emphasis to his lips.
Maybe deep in the heart of all comic book bad guys lurks a paralyzing case of Bat-gaynoia(TM).
There are no cartoonish supervillians.
Big crime happens all the time by power structures like governments, organized religions, corporations, etc. The tools for fighting these nasties don't involve tights.
Yep, they just don't make villains like they used to.
Slashdot Mirror
Stop with the hipster hate. It's the cool thing to do now, so hating on hipsters makes YOU a hipster.
Actually, no, hating on hipsters is no longer hip—so your hating on people for hating on hipsters ...makes you a hipster.
Sucks to be you.
First off, for the record I'm a presenting author at this year's 100YSS. I don't handle the tough stuff (quantum mechanics, warp drives, particle shielding) but I'm versed in it. In other words, I'm no rocket scientist. My focus is on encouraging pre-teens and students to pursue careers in astronautics and outreach.
That said, it's the very first thing you say that I have to take to task, "The scales you're talking about with interstellar travel are almost humanly unimaginable."
I do not speak for anyone besides myself when I say, bunk. The scales we are talking is the nearest star to earth, Proxima Centauri, is 4.2 light years away. That's traveling at approximately 186,000 per second for 4.2 years. That's imaginable. It's difficult (and arguably impossible) but it is not anywhere near unimaginable.
So maybe you meant that the means to achieve such speed over such a length of time is unimaginable. I'm here to say, again, no. There's a popular joke around theorists of interstellar travel, "Physicists have no problem with getting us to another star system. The hang-up is with the mechanical engineers." (Which is actually pretty funny.) The point is it's easy to conceive of ways to manage interstellar travel. The challenge is it's (presently) impossible to build them. But the ideas, plans, and models are there, for sure.
So with all that in mind, 100 Year Starship-as-a-program has set up to get something to another star system. We just don't know what or how. But the beauty of the concept is that Jules Verne wrote and published From Earth To The Moon in 1865; roughly 100 years later we went to the moon. Vis-à-vis this model, 100 Year Starship has begun as a thinking consortium or brain trust to engage some of the best minds in their respective fields with the challenge of reaching a nearby star 100 years from now.
(Incidentally, last year I believe Dave Neyland made a comment the "laughably slow" comment brought. Referencing the fact that technological breakthrough continues happening even after you set a plan in motion—ie old tech on spacecraft compared to what is currently available, it's what we had when said spacecraft's program was started and outlined—another joke, "If you leave on a starship and the starship that leaves after you passes you, you're on the wrong ship". Another techy joke. But an eyebrow-raiser also.)
Lastly, "barring someone radically overturning Einstein", heck, even I can imagine that. And we don't have to overturn Einstein, just pass him on the outside. I say this to kids I work with all the time, "You can never prepare to be surprised." We don't know how we are doing what we are talking about doing but not talking about it is sure to not get us anywhere.
Remember, a talent is someone who hits a target no one else can. A genius is someone who hits a target no one else sees.
Which naturally explains what I am doing being an astronaut teacher
Oh yeah, that and comic books. ;D
Read to your kids. That's the secret. YOU reading to your kids. The reason I became the student of Ray Bradbury I was? Reading everything he wrote over and over even now as a fully-functioning adult author and writer? It is because my mom read Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes to me again and again over and over when I was a young kid. At first, I just listened. Then I requested to have "those stories" read to me. Then I read them myself. Bradbury led to Heinlein which led to Asimov which led to Clarke to Lewis and Tolkien, which led to Verne, Adams, Pohl, Foster, McCaffrey, Brooks, then Sterling, Gibson, Robinson, Sawyer, Stephenson, Gaiman... ...and so on.
It has been an amazing ride. It keeps getting better. But the ticket that got me on the rocket ship and through the looking glass at the back of the wardrobe was my mom reading to me. YMMV but I doubt it. You want a reader? Read and show the joy of reading.
This is about Steve Jobs isn't it? Can someone make a Hitler video about CmdrTaco resigning? Because that's how I feel. CmdrTaco, you don't know me from Adam ('cept I use to sleep on the couch in Roblimo's office) but you have made me feel connected for a loooong time. So long and thanks for all the yaddayaddayadda. [actor-Hitler's ranting voice]"Daily Dot?! It's bunch of college kids circlejerking over news everybody knows and 4chan memes!"
Richard Dawkins is a fundamentalist.
Isn't it feasible that the UFOs nee UAPs are something other than spaceships? Perhaps even some sort of biological that us homo sapiens are unfamiliar with at this point? Anyhow, here's an interesting link http://www.narcap.org/reports/TR8Bias1.htm relevant to the subject...
...oh whoops, I thought I was on metafilter. Oh. Then what I meant to say was...
In Russia, all your UFOS belong to us watching you.
On a plane.
Running a linux distro.
(Sorry, I really thought this was the Blue.)
I thought the 2006 bogeyman was an overly-wealthy, in-office US Republican, the endearingly personable one who is clearly best kept from playing around sharp objects or fire.
Whoops! That's only outside the US!
...i'd go naked everywhere. Fuck 'em. I'd be naked as soon as I realized I was invulnerable and can fly. I'd be the nakest superhero alive. Spandex? That's for aerobics. I have a planet to save, I look good, and everyone can kiss my bullet-proof ass if they have a problem with my bullet-proof balls.
if you don't know ABSOLUTELY EVEYRTHING about the subject.
Superheroes(TM) are brands.
Superheroes have always been in worse positions than any of us, because superheroes are unable to live for themselves. They are unable to shit, to fuck, to hurt, to die. Not even imaginably.
Superpowers exist to alleviate misery. And right now, with even superheroes defending themselves from the exact same attacks all of us regular ol' non-heroes are defending ourselves against - cowardice, fighting, and rampantly betraying our own kinds - each of us is in the same boat as Wolverine, Spiderman, Mr. Fantastic, Iron Man, and even...Captain America!!!, it is time for the wheels to turn again.
Not back to September 10th, 2001 (a fine day!), but forward to a future where those of us who choose to live freely and happily can do so without detriment to any others.
But, sorry, having the good guys become bad guys who are after the good guys who are now the bad guys is only making matters worse.
I read comics because I believe in hope, and the possibilities, and power of having dreams. Marvel and DC make comics because they want us to sell out those dreams for expensive books, unimaginative storylines, and cheap headlines.
Trademark the concept superhero? Impossible.
How so?
Because my soul is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.
Nuff said(TM)?
Now I feel dirty for uttering the b-word.
Then saying podcast must make you feel like you have Adam Curry's spam javelin doing the happy dance in your mouth.
[In the gnome's cave]
Gnome 1: This is where all our work is done.
Kyle: So what are you gonna do with all these underpants you steal?
Gnome 1: Collecting underpants is just phase one. Phase one: collect underpants.
Kyle: So what's phase two?
[Silence]
Gnome 1: Hey, what's phase two?!
Gnome 2: Phase one: we collect underpants.
Gnome 1: Ya, ya, ya. But what about phase two?
[Silence]
Gnome 2: Well, phase three is profit. Get it?
Stan: I don't get it.
Gnome 2: (Goes over to a chart on the wall) You see, Phase one: collect underpants, phase two-
[Silence]
Gnome 2: Phase three: profit.
Cartman: Oh I get it.
Stan: No you don't.
Kyle: Do you guys know anything about corporations?
Gnome 2: You bet we do.
Gnome 1: Us gnomes are geniuses at corporations.
"Did you say steak?"
That's how I always start.t artups.asp and thishttp://blog.guykawasaki.com/2006/01/the_zen_of _busi.html>.
And I have written two, including one for billion-dollar "start-up," The Ecko Unlimited Company. Also, read thishttp://evhead.com/2005/11/ten-rules-for-web-s
Ohmigod! That's why I stopped using AOL!
And what about his dancers? Must they be killed also? Can't something be done?
? album=11&pos=19
http://www.fungod.com/coppermine/displayimage.php
THIS WILL NOT STAND! THIS AGGRESSION WILL NOT STAND, MAN!
"Qrio Music Video Dancers, form of . . . VOLTRON! "
I for one welcome your guerrilla underwear.
What you may be talking about is the fact that Whedon did several semi-widespread, pre-screenings of the film, prior to FX even, partially to show his and crews appreciation for Firefly diehards, and partially to build buzz. He (and crew members) attended many of these. Unusual but dedicated, and in the end, it is this dedication which indicates that, indeed, there is some unique chemistry to the Firefly people.
That's what most commercial pet food is made of. And these dead animals are purchased from vets and SPCAs. (Ask a vet.) The process wherein pet corpses are turned into pet food is called "rendering." http://www.sniksnak.com/ac/petfood2.html
And next year, for Heinlein's 100th birthday in June, SR comes out with the last Heinlein book,
- Variable Star
, which is finishing from an extensive outline left By Heinlein.Skip the new trendy post-cyber BS, and pick up Robinson's Telempath or Callahan's Key. Or better yet, the Stardancers trilogy, co-written with his wife Jeanne. These are true sci-fi novels that are enjoyable and inspiring. And no doubt influential for reasons that are less than obvious.
Full disclosure: I am a fan.
You just know that right now there are some aliens up there watching and laughing their asses off.
We prefer to be called Little Green People.
There really are a lot of assholes online. People say and do things they never would in person.
Jeez, you make it sound like there are a lot of assholes online who say and do things they would never do in person.
Why don't you just go ahead and say what's on your mind: That there are a lot of assholes online who say and do things they would never do in person.
Stupid online! Things were so much better when we just had ponies.
I thought the target on his chest was to distract criminals from noticing how fantasticly gay a grown man looks in a cape and latex face mask designed to look like a doberman and which brings emphasis to his lips.
Maybe deep in the heart of all comic book bad guys lurks a paralyzing case of Bat-gaynoia(TM).
There are no cartoonish supervillians. Big crime happens all the time by power structures like governments, organized religions, corporations, etc. The tools for fighting these nasties don't involve tights.
Yep, they just don't make villains like they used to.