1. Orbital solar platforms cannot be used as weapons unless you are trying to drop them on someone (which is true of anything in orbit). The energy they put out is the wrong frequency; it doesn't interact with human biology at all.
Well, does it interact with anything else? Communications, airplanes, missiles, buildings? Who says that a weapon needs to be able to kill people?
The keep-alive idea I originally posted doesn't hold up on closer inspection - there's over 100ms of latency in a radio link from the Earth's surface to geosynchronous orbit...
The problem is that a laser beam doesn't go any faster than light speed, either.
The satellite would have to determine on its own whether it's still pointing the right way.
Your argument does not follow. Laws against robbery and mugging are to protect all people, strong or weak. You don't avoid prosecution of a robber if he robs a strong man.
If you try to rob someone significantly stronger than you are, prosecution may not necessary... or even possible.
I take it you never heard of the concept of "failsafe" systems? For instance - the ground station is transmitting a "keep alive" signal to the satellite once every 100ms. The satellite hardware is designed so that if the keep-alive isn't received after 250ms, it automatically cuts off the transmitter.
Considering how far the beam might deviate in 250 ms, I think the reaction time should be made much, much short. Microseconds.
Nope. The amount of sunlight per m2 in space is several factors higher than on earth.
The solar constant is about 1.4 kW/m^2 in Earths orbit. I fail to see how they want to produce 200 MW with significantly less than 0.2 km^2 of collector area. Care to explain it to me?
Yes. But as the Russians found out - any energy source can be used as a weapon. The more people are dependent on it, the better. And such usage doesn't even involve violence - just mention that there might be some service disruptions, outages, etc, if you don't get your way.
Or are they really saying they're going to install roughly 200000 m^2 worth of solar collectors in space? That's a square of roughly 450x450m. And "some startup" is planning a feat like that?
If it's stagflation you hoard it as money is increasing in value.
Deflation is the term you're looking for. Stagflation just describes periods of economic stagnation coupled with inflation, and inflation is always a motivator to spend money instead of hoarding it.
In case you don't: In the first case, the alternative is physical pain.
Err, no? If you're stronger than the attacker, or better armed, or if the guy is just bluffing, physical pain isn't the alternative. Heck, lots of fun might be the alternative, if you enjoy beating up people or shooting them.
"Did you really...
It's a quote with several logical flaws that should be blindingly obvious to anyone with half a working brain. Maybe it makes for a nice work of fiction, but it's not how reality works.
I think my biggest question is: "How do I get in at the top of one of these schemes???"
If you have to ask, you shouldn't be trying it.
The answer is: You have to start it yourself. Of course, this requires a whole lot of sleaziness, excellent people manipulation skills, and a complete lack of any ethics whatsoever.
My workstation was a P3/800 MHz. We were due to receive a shipment of P4/2.8 desktops for all the teachers, and the principal EXPLICITLY told me that I was NOT to have a new computer on my desk.
Who in their right mind would swap a machine with one of Intels finest processors for one with a slow overpriced heating element anyway?
Let's be clear on something: You didn't *HAVE* to work there, you *CHOSE* to work there. Unless someone is holding a gun to your head you always have the freedom to walk away.
What's worse about a gun than about starvation? You *ALWAYS* have the freedom not to work if you don't like it. It might be painful, it might kill you, but hey, freedom doesn't come cheap.
In fact this might be a way to turn around the economy. Hydrogen bomb test in the middle of the pacific. Charge $5,000 a pop for the cruise and complimentary glasses and ear plugs. $2,000 to the cruise company and $3,000 to the government.
I think you found the one joke they forgot to include in Fallout 3.
Do you have any idea how the process of lethal injection works?
Yes. Do you have any idea on how easy it is to botch it?
The first drug given is a general anesthetic - sodium thiopental. Ever gone into the hospital for an operation? Its the same stuff the doctor gives you.
Emphasis mine. Lethal injections aren't performed by doctors.
This dose, all by itself, is lethal.
Yes, if the iv injection is performed properly, it'll put to sleep and kill quite quickly. Big if here.
You simply go to sleep. After the patient has been sedated,
Who checks for sufficient depth of the anesthesia, and how? At a hospital, that'll be an anesthesiologist.
How do I know this?
Duh, you can find it on wikipedia too. I'm a biomedical engineer, I know quite well how the process should work in theory, and how the drugs used in it act. However, try imagining having it performed by someone who doesn't give a few iv injections a week, and does not have to fear being slapped with a lawsuit if they botch them. Now can you imagine where and what problems will arise?
However, the US execution system repeatedly seems to fuck this up.
Yes. From the very beginning, too. I remember reading about one states execution manuals that were very much done in copy&paste fashion, i.e. the instructions for administering lethal injection contained passages copied verbatim from the manual of the electric chair, down to "Shave ISDPs (inmate subject to death penalty) head".
I suspect the system is *designed* to fuck up, however.
Yes. Having people set up iv injections that don't have sufficient training and practice will fuck this up. Oh, and don't forget that administering the barbiturates im instead of iv also interferes with their action. So, first you get a shot of barbiturates into one of your muscles which doesn't knock you out quickly and completely, then you get a shot of pancuronium bromide in the same muscle that doesn't paralyze you quickly, and then a shot of KCl that'll make that muscle feel like it's on fire.
In summary, executions in the US are designed to cause suffering. There are plenty of low-tech and painless ways to kill: why are they being used for lab rats not people?
Because the instructions for administering various forms of death penalty are written by bureaucrats.
Asphyxiation really doesn't hurt, as anyone can readily demonstrate to themselves by holding their breath.
Holding your breath doesn't get you anywhere near asphyxiation, unless you're a trained apnoea diver.
(You might have a headache when you wake up after passing out, but that's not problem the average condemned will face.)
Unless you're either a freak of nature, a trained apnoea diver or know a fair bit of respiratory physiology, you can't hold your breath until you pass out. The brain has quite a few safeguards against stupid ideas.
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Well, does it interact with anything else? Communications, airplanes, missiles, buildings? Who says that a weapon needs to be able to kill people?
It's not in geosynchronous orbit. Duh.
The problem is that a laser beam doesn't go any faster than light speed, either.
The satellite would have to determine on its own whether it's still pointing the right way.
One good coronal mass ejection, and these things are toast, I would assume.
If you try to rob someone significantly stronger than you are, prosecution may not necessary ... or even possible.
Considering how far the beam might deviate in 250 ms, I think the reaction time should be made much, much short. Microseconds.
The solar constant is about 1.4 kW/m^2 in Earths orbit. I fail to see how they want to produce 200 MW with significantly less than 0.2 km^2 of collector area. Care to explain it to me?
Yes. But as the Russians found out - any energy source can be used as a weapon. The more people are dependent on it, the better. And such usage doesn't even involve violence - just mention that there might be some service disruptions, outages, etc, if you don't get your way.
Or are they really saying they're going to install roughly 200000 m^2 worth of solar collectors in space? That's a square of roughly 450x450m. And "some startup" is planning a feat like that?
Deflation is the term you're looking for. Stagflation just describes periods of economic stagnation coupled with inflation, and inflation is always a motivator to spend money instead of hoarding it.
The argument fails to take changes in productivity into account.
Err, no? If you're stronger than the attacker, or better armed, or if the guy is just bluffing, physical pain isn't the alternative. Heck, lots of fun might be the alternative, if you enjoy beating up people or shooting them.
"Did you really ...
It's a quote with several logical flaws that should be blindingly obvious to anyone with half a working brain. Maybe it makes for a nice work of fiction, but it's not how reality works.
I think my biggest question is: "How do I get in at the top of one of these schemes???"
If you have to ask, you shouldn't be trying it.
The answer is: You have to start it yourself. Of course, this requires a whole lot of sleaziness, excellent people manipulation skills, and a complete lack of any ethics whatsoever.
Who in their right mind would swap a machine with one of Intels finest processors for one with a slow overpriced heating element anyway?
Let's be clear on something: You didn't *HAVE* to work there, you *CHOSE* to work there. Unless someone is holding a gun to your head you always have the freedom to walk away.
What's worse about a gun than about starvation? You *ALWAYS* have the freedom not to work if you don't like it. It might be painful, it might kill you, but hey, freedom doesn't come cheap.
Because an occupied country is, by definition, not free.
It depends greatly on the intentions of the occupier.
That's kind of like saying that absolute monarchies can be democratic. It just depends greatly on the intentions of the monarch.
Screaming infant. Especially if it's not a looped recording, but the real thing. Try sleeping through that.
It happens all the time with people falling asleep while driving their cars, running heavy equipment and so on.
Yes, it's possible to ignore fairly monotonous noises, no one's denying that.
That's not difficult, just expensive.
The rest is trivial.p If you want to build a cumbersome gun-type bomb, maybe. Building an implosion nuke is far from trivial.
I think you found the one joke they forgot to include in Fallout 3.
The Hippocratic Oath? Maybe they should enlist the help of a veterinarian. Or do they swear some sort of Hippocratic oath, too?
Yes. Do you have any idea on how easy it is to botch it?
The first drug given is a general anesthetic - sodium thiopental. Ever gone into the hospital for an operation? Its the same stuff the doctor gives you.
Emphasis mine. Lethal injections aren't performed by doctors. This dose, all by itself, is lethal. Yes, if the iv injection is performed properly, it'll put to sleep and kill quite quickly. Big if here.
You simply go to sleep. After the patient has been sedated,
Who checks for sufficient depth of the anesthesia, and how? At a hospital, that'll be an anesthesiologist.
How do I know this?
Duh, you can find it on wikipedia too. I'm a biomedical engineer, I know quite well how the process should work in theory, and how the drugs used in it act. However, try imagining having it performed by someone who doesn't give a few iv injections a week, and does not have to fear being slapped with a lawsuit if they botch them. Now can you imagine where and what problems will arise?
Yes. From the very beginning, too. I remember reading about one states execution manuals that were very much done in copy&paste fashion, i.e. the instructions for administering lethal injection contained passages copied verbatim from the manual of the electric chair, down to "Shave ISDPs (inmate subject to death penalty) head". I suspect the system is *designed* to fuck up, however.
Yes. Having people set up iv injections that don't have sufficient training and practice will fuck this up. Oh, and don't forget that administering the barbiturates im instead of iv also interferes with their action. So, first you get a shot of barbiturates into one of your muscles which doesn't knock you out quickly and completely, then you get a shot of pancuronium bromide in the same muscle that doesn't paralyze you quickly, and then a shot of KCl that'll make that muscle feel like it's on fire. In summary, executions in the US are designed to cause suffering. There are plenty of low-tech and painless ways to kill: why are they being used for lab rats not people?
Because the instructions for administering various forms of death penalty are written by bureaucrats.
The only organ that takes permanent damage when deprived of oxygen for a few minutes is the brain. And you certainly don't want to transplant that.
Holding your breath doesn't get you anywhere near asphyxiation, unless you're a trained apnoea diver.
(You might have a headache when you wake up after passing out, but that's not problem the average condemned will face.)
Unless you're either a freak of nature, a trained apnoea diver or know a fair bit of respiratory physiology, you can't hold your breath until you pass out. The brain has quite a few safeguards against stupid ideas.