A quite important thing about space... if you're first going somewhere, it doesn't stop by itself. Yes, Mars is much longer but it doesn't take equivalently more energy.
I know.
I'm thinking about the distance more in terms of people sitting in a tin can frying in the solar wind for several years.
I don't concur with that. The Apollo program was implemented under chemical rockets.
Apollo was meaningful because it was new. Doing the same thing again with the same vastly expensive inefficient technology would be pointless, and the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Getting humans further than the moon, and back again (eg to Mars and back) with chemical rockets is a joke. Never going to happen.
There are loads of models of user created content working when there is an element of control exercised - open source software, wikis, and forums with user moderation (like this one).
I think a huge mmorpg world where everyone is on the same "server", and where most of the content is user created with strong user moderation could be really cool and work well.
The vast majority of infection and death happened after WW1, so you're wrong about that.
Another difference from those times to now is air travel, which can see infection spread vastly quicker.
Regarding the meaning of the word "pandemic", I'll take the technical description of people working in that field, thanks very much, and not yours.
The reason I stated that your definition of the word was wrong was not the mentioned of the Black Death, but the "REAL" (sic, in caps) qualifier, suggesting that in your head you have a cut-off death toll for your special definition of the word. This was sorta the point of your post.
But aside from the ad hominems, caps and lack of logic, keep it up, you're doing great.
No one is surprised that a pig specific flu strain can leap to humans. Absolutely no one who knows anything about viruses, so it's kinda odd that you even try to make that point.
This is a very infectious novel flu virus which is spreading during summer in America and Europe (unusually). A disease which mutates rapidly. A disease to which very few have any immunity from catching. Thus far, it's not looking too different from how the 1918 flu pandemic started. And that killed tens of millions of healthy young people in the end. Probably it won't be anywhere near that bad.
But there is a chance, and the WHO are totally right to be cautious.
Er, the 1918 flu pandemic started as a mild but very infectious disease. Then, come autumn, it killed more people than WW1. And mostly young people at that.
Furthermore, maybe you should look up what the word "pandemic" actually means. They're using it correctly. You're not.
It doesn't matter that bio-ethanol always was so utterly bone-headed from a thermo-dynamic and food-price point of view (and now this as well) - utterly wrong, right from the start, with back of the envelope calculations.
Some people can make vast amounts of money out of it under cover of doing the "right thing" morally (much like the war on drugs), and hence it gets government support.
The article never discusses whether he took actions to circumvent existing filtering or firewalls. If he did, they yes he is guilty of the crime.
"So there was in effect no policy and no protections on the computer -- no password protection or filtering of any kind -- so basically anybody could access anything on the internet through the city's computer." From TFA.
100 MT design, but they removed the U-238 shell when testing it. Ones this size aren't a good idea practically, because of the bulky size and wasting of energy in trying to push the atmosphere into space.
Outdated indeed. The new tactics of war are about guerrilla battles, and small nimble forces that can wear down the enemy overtime. Using a nuke on them is like trying to swat a fly with a grenade.
No. Destroy an entire people and there is no-one to draw these "small nimble forces" from.
The reason nukes aren't being used in places like Iraq and Afghanistan is a moral, and not a military one. They would be very, very effective militarily.
You're empirically wrong. The USSR/USA came close to a third world war several times. Only the severe implications of nuclear weapons held them back. Ditto India/Pakistan in 2004.
The main reason Western nations dislike other nations attaining nukes is because it dilutes their position in the balance of power of the World. Whether this is a good thing depends on whether you want to see more dictatorships throwing their weight around. Or not. International relations have never been about fairness.
IMHO the West really has no business telling the rest of the world that they can't have nukes while the West still has them - this doesn't mean that we should give everyone nukes, it means we should damned well disarm to put everyone on an equal footing.
Super idea. Lets all give up nukes, and go back to the days when war between major powers is again thinkable.
And slaughter millions upon millions in the process.
0.1 C as a peak velocity does not equal 40 years travel time to go 4 light years. Can you figure out why?
Short hops would be a pretty stupid way to travel for the same reason.
Additionally, antimatter is not a feasible fuel source given the immense cost, and the output (getting momentum out of hard gammas), and the storage difficulties. I'd like a source that shows antimatter can be contained using less energy then can actually be extracted from it - it's not clear that even this is possible. Also, any slight deviation in containment causes a runaway loss of containment, and boom - no more spaceship.
Anti-matter catalyzed nuclear propulsion is different (maybe).
RE FTL - I never said I know everything. On balance, given what I do know, it's never going to happen.
Slashdot Mirror
So yes the space race is long dead, but space exploration is booming like never before.
Space exploration isn't pissing around in low Earth orbit. Which is what humanity has done for the past 37 years.
I don't. Balloons can't make it into LEO. 20 miles up isn't space. Don't say it's space.
A quite important thing about space... if you're first going somewhere, it doesn't stop by itself. Yes, Mars is much longer but it doesn't take equivalently more energy.
I know.
I'm thinking about the distance more in terms of people sitting in a tin can frying in the solar wind for several years.
I don't concur with that. The Apollo program was implemented under chemical rockets.
Apollo was meaningful because it was new. Doing the same thing again with the same vastly expensive inefficient technology would be pointless, and the money could be better spent elsewhere.
Getting humans further than the moon, and back again (eg to Mars and back) with chemical rockets is a joke. Never going to happen.
Without the usage of something other than chemical rockets, there will be no meaningful human space flight.
Every space agency should temporarily abandon manned space programs and pour the money they would have spent into propulsion research.
What would we have achieved if we'd given the same amount of tax payer's money to private companies instead of a creaking bureaucracy?
There are loads of models of user created content working when there is an element of control exercised - open source software, wikis, and forums with user moderation (like this one).
I think a huge mmorpg world where everyone is on the same "server", and where most of the content is user created with strong user moderation could be really cool and work well.
The vast majority of infection and death happened after WW1, so you're wrong about that.
Another difference from those times to now is air travel, which can see infection spread vastly quicker.
Regarding the meaning of the word "pandemic", I'll take the technical description of people working in that field, thanks very much, and not yours.
The reason I stated that your definition of the word was wrong was not the mentioned of the Black Death, but the "REAL" (sic, in caps) qualifier, suggesting that in your head you have a cut-off death toll for your special definition of the word. This was sorta the point of your post.
But aside from the ad hominems, caps and lack of logic, keep it up, you're doing great.
No one is surprised that a pig specific flu strain can leap to humans. Absolutely no one who knows anything about viruses, so it's kinda odd that you even try to make that point.
This is a very infectious novel flu virus which is spreading during summer in America and Europe (unusually). A disease which mutates rapidly. A disease to which very few have any immunity from catching. Thus far, it's not looking too different from how the 1918 flu pandemic started. And that killed tens of millions of healthy young people in the end. Probably it won't be anywhere near that bad.
But there is a chance, and the WHO are totally right to be cautious.
Er, the 1918 flu pandemic started as a mild but very infectious disease. Then, come autumn, it killed more people than WW1. And mostly young people at that.
Furthermore, maybe you should look up what the word "pandemic" actually means. They're using it correctly. You're not.
It doesn't matter that bio-ethanol always was so utterly bone-headed from a thermo-dynamic and food-price point of view (and now this as well) - utterly wrong, right from the start, with back of the envelope calculations.
Some people can make vast amounts of money out of it under cover of doing the "right thing" morally (much like the war on drugs), and hence it gets government support.
Trace amounts of cocaine were found in the German parliament toilets.
Ergo, German politicians should be banned from Germany.
Neanderthals are not the same species, eating them is on par with eating a great ape.
Er, no it's not - it's like eating human-looking conscious self-aware individuals who used tools and had language and art.
The article never discusses whether he took actions to circumvent existing filtering or firewalls. If he did, they yes he is guilty of the crime.
"So there was in effect no policy and no protections on the computer -- no password protection or filtering of any kind -- so basically anybody could access anything on the internet through the city's computer." From TFA.
Except: 1. The information wasn't gathered illegally 2. No-one was blackmailed. Other than that, great post.
Yes, they should legalize gambling!
100 MT design, but they removed the U-238 shell when testing it. Ones this size aren't a good idea practically, because of the bulky size and wasting of energy in trying to push the atmosphere into space.
I'm not forgetting anything. Compare and contrast the occupation of post-WW2 Japan with the occupation of Iraq.
Apply the points you're trying to make to the former case (which actually occurred, in reality).
I think you're flailing around because you don't like the idea, understandably.
Outdated indeed. The new tactics of war are about guerrilla battles, and small nimble forces that can wear down the enemy overtime. Using a nuke on them is like trying to swat a fly with a grenade.
No. Destroy an entire people and there is no-one to draw these "small nimble forces" from.
The reason nukes aren't being used in places like Iraq and Afghanistan is a moral, and not a military one. They would be very, very effective militarily.
You're empirically wrong. The USSR/USA came close to a third world war several times. Only the severe implications of nuclear weapons held them back. Ditto India/Pakistan in 2004.
The main reason Western nations dislike other nations attaining nukes is because it dilutes their position in the balance of power of the World. Whether this is a good thing depends on whether you want to see more dictatorships throwing their weight around. Or not. International relations have never been about fairness.
I would be amazed if North Korea doesn't have an (untested) ability to hit Western USA.
IMHO the West really has no business telling the rest of the world that they can't have nukes while the West still has them - this doesn't mean that we should give everyone nukes, it means we should damned well disarm to put everyone on an equal footing.
Super idea. Lets all give up nukes, and go back to the days when war between major powers is again thinkable.
And slaughter millions upon millions in the process.
I was sickened when Pandora blocked non-US IPs (used to really enjoy that service).
Now this. Oh well.
If you're traveling at a tiny fraction of c, time dilation is negligible.
The point is that traveling at a tiny fraction of c is probably the best we can hope for.
I'm afraid I call stupidity on you, sir.
0.1 C as a peak velocity does not equal 40 years travel time to go 4 light years. Can you figure out why?
Short hops would be a pretty stupid way to travel for the same reason.
Additionally, antimatter is not a feasible fuel source given the immense cost, and the output (getting momentum out of hard gammas), and the storage difficulties. I'd like a source that shows antimatter can be contained using less energy then can actually be extracted from it - it's not clear that even this is possible. Also, any slight deviation in containment causes a runaway loss of containment, and boom - no more spaceship.
Anti-matter catalyzed nuclear propulsion is different (maybe).
RE FTL - I never said I know everything. On balance, given what I do know, it's never going to happen.