Re:bad for all the fundies and the atheists
on
Ancient Crash, Epic Wave
·
· Score: 2, Interesting
Zecharia Sitchin has some interesting things to say about this very subject. I don't agree with everything he concludes, but the evidence he's dug up is most intriguing.
To be honest, I don't have a definite opinion on the subject of alien visitations. I haven't seen any solid evidence with my own eyes, but I've also never seen any counterevidence. On a theoretical basis, the thought that this is the only inhabited planet in the universe is a flat impossibility.
As for the fundies, denying scientific evidence that runs counter to your beliefs is just burying your head in the sand. It encourages further breaks from reality and lays the foundation for erratic, even psychotic, behavior.
I do, however, agree with you that there have been older civilizations far more advanced than we currently consider. It's like a tip-of-the-iceberg situation, much like the oceanic crater issue. We get these subtle hints and clues, both from the archaeological record and from our own most ancient myths and legends. Never a whole and complete site or city, though, demonstrating precisely what level of understanding was available. It's rather frustrating not to know the legacy of those who came before us.
(offtopic)
Yeah, it's AC, but this is good info.
Dude, get an account... you've got nothing to lose, and it's free. Plus, if you read often and meta-moderate, you can get mod points and mod up those useful posts:)
This is somewhat troubling. Before these people went looking, we assumed we had somewhere between now and 10,000 AD or so before the next major impact. (mangling the fine art of statistics, I know) Now, they're saying it could be a thousand years or less between impacts. When was the last major impact? We could be due for a serious catastrophe in very short order, practically instantaneous in geological terms.
I'm certainly not reassured by the fact that we only monitor about 3% of the sky. Sure, we think we know about every significant object that approaches Earth, but that doesn't account for rogue objects (those with either highly elliptical or hyperbolic orbits, or extrasolar objects that can't currently be tracked or predicted). Since FEMA is basically shite and lunar exploration/colonization is basically all hype at this point, what the hell are we going to do if we find out tomorrow that the world as we know it will shortly end?
Tinfoil hats aside, there's some excellent insight into scanning technology presented in the article. The idea of precisely scanning sea surface height to identify local gravitational variations interests me greatly. Just think about that for a little bit; let the sheer coolness of such remarkable precision sink in. It's also interesting to note that miles-wide craters have escaped our notice for millenia. Props for taking the obvious route and playing connect-the-dots with geological formations.
Of course, the doubt is strong already amongst the established scientific community. I'd say that since they've already done sediment tests for several sites and identified tektites neatly fused with diatoms (meteor debris melted to fossil plants), it's pretty clear that their methods are valid and are producing reliable results.
The note at the end of TFA about using Flood myths to date and place a major impact is particularly intriguing. Some of the 'researchers' that have taken the route of aggregate myth analysis have come up with some pretty questionable results, but in other cases, surprising correlations stand out. Consider that virtually every culture, living or dead, has a flood myth in some form or another. I think it's good for us all to be reminded that myths and legends are based on real people and events, however obsured by the ravages of time and creative retelling.
That's all I've got...
He stated that his plane (or worldline, if you prefer) experienced a civil war in 2004. He also stated that this may or may not happen here, and that his even talking about it influenced it's probability. Do you really think a civil war was utterly out of the question after that sham (fine, disputed and suspicious) election?
On the topic of information transfer, it is thought that actually communicating information via entanglement is not possible. One can observe that something happened, but not whether that something represents a 1 or a 0. Whether or not that holds true remains to be seen.
On the topic of quantum uncertainty in the brain: there are proteins in the brain which enclose single electrons within an undisturbed volume of space sufficient to sustain quantum effects. Also, the structures that hold cells together (often referred to as the cellular skeleton) are hollow, with enough space for a single electron to pass through at a time. The same structures extend throughout the body, forming a network ('series of tubes'?) which could conceivably carry quantum information throughout the body. Some scientists have even theorized that this structure provides additional processing power to the brain, and that the loss of a portion of this network may be related to symptoms of phantom limb syndrome. As before, whether or not that holds true remains to be seen.
Have you been to the midwest lately?
We're being properly hosed by a decade-long drought. Water shortages have gotten so bad that states are suing each other over rights to river flows. Irrigation wells are controlled by central agencies that remotely cut off the pumps when you've had your hour of activity.
It may not look like a desert yet, but the rainfall is in that zone and our water reserves are being depleted much faster than we can recover them. So it's not all sand; that's because we saw it coming and have been working as hard as we can to keep it from happening. Thank global warming models for predicting this with enough time for us to take action.
A couple of things to remember:
It's powered by a hand crank. That's why they had to cut the power consumption by 90%.
Nobody in the so-called 'developed' world would buy one of these. Read the specs.
One of the concurrent avenues of program development was in open-source e-textbooks. The recipients of these machines will be getting an ebook reader with a whole scholastic curriculum and then some. It can hit the net, but most of these places won't have net access for quite a while.
Incidentally, packet radio is seeing an upswing in Africa. Since the machines are using Linux, they have kernel support for such devices. Thanks, Linus, for having the foresight to not throw out any useful bits of code.
As it happens, my title includes 'Engineer'. I don't create, design, or implement anything. I do, however, deal with actual engineers on the phone. Before the title change, we were treated like shit. After? Surprise, surprise, we got a little respect. Never mind that I'm responsible for ensuring the smooth transition of hundreds of thousands of dollars a day from the pockets of advertisers to the hands of radio beancounters. Never mind that in a given day, the person talking to me on the phone is at risk of losing 2-5 times his salary for his company over the next hour or two, yet still would rather bitch me out than listen and do what I tell them.
Yes, it's a huge stretch to call what I do (support, if you didn't catch that) 'engineering', but if it wasn't in the title, I would not be as effective at my job. This whole mess is perpetuated by the idea that a job title actually means something. Even the title of CEO can mean just about anything these days. I just don't bother to waste mental energy worrying about it all. Except, of course, to rant about it here.
If I had mod points, I'd use them on your post. Balance in all things... works out for the best, whether it be natural vs. technological, 'health' food vs. 'junk' food, posessions vs. experiences, or any other set of conflicting extremes. Extremes just aren't healthy, physically, psychologically, or spiritually. It's pretty sad that it takes acts of extremism and desperation to cause change in our society these days... In fact, it takes something pretty extreme for anyone to even notice that something is happening at all.
DNA on silicon has already been done. Why not use a virus as scaffolding for memory, while we're at it? Granted, the virus' surface proteins are a functional part of the transistor. Given that we can already attach complex proteins (well, acids such as DNA) to silicon, there shouldn't be much trouble finding a method for similar tricks here.
In other words, this is more practiceable than it sounds at first. I do wonder whether the virii or silicon traces are more resistant to heat, vibration, and radiation, though.
Excellent points all around. Apologies in advance for the extra-long post.
First, Martian soil (regolith, to be accurate) is composed of the following materials: iron-rich smectite clays, magnesium sulfate, iron oxides and reactive oxidizing agents, calcium carbonate, and hematite (also an iron oxide). IOW, plenty of iron, silicon, aluminum, and oxygen. Lesser amounts of magnesium, calcium, carbon, sulfur, and trace amounts of everything else. The atmosphere is roughly 1% as dense as Earth. That's 0.147 psi, roughly equalivent to the pressure in a low-pressure gas discharge lamp. It is about 95% CO2, 3% N2, and 2% argon. Traces of H2O, CO, O2, and various noble gasses are present.
To sum that up, Luna has a considerably more useful composition than Mars, excepting the lack of carbon. (lots of titanium and aluminum, traces of arsenic and germanium) That doesn't mean Mars is a lost cause. Assuming we can get there, we can plan on providing for chemical needs through asteroid mining, probably automated. Think along the lines of a Von Neumann machine (minus the self-replicating part) that runs through the asteroid belt baking volatiles out of asteroids and cometary nuclei. Spectrographic analysis would reveal likely targets for metals extraction. Granted, that's asking a lot, but so is putting a (semi)permanent habitation into space.
The materials issue is far from decided, but let's move on to manufacturing. First off, nuclear power is essential, so let's take it as a given that we'll be bringing that along initially. To supplement that power, we'll be bringing catalysts (more precisely, reuseable solvents) for electrochemical extraction of aluminum, iron, and silicon from the soil. Oxygen released as a byproduct of these processes will supplement the initial supply. Heat from nuclear, electric, chemical, and/or solar sources can be used to melt silicon and form straight silicon solar cells. Aluminum makes an acceptable conductor for leads. Aluminum and iron oxide makes a quite acceptable means of casting iron while producing plenty of additional heat. Materials exist in the soil to manufacture glass. This, basically, covers everything needed to produce useable, if somewhat inefficient, solar power sources from locally available materials.
If electricity is still a problem, the Peltier effect can be used to recover some elctricity from heat-driven processes. If it's not, then the very same method can be used for active cooling without relying on the inefficient convection cooling of Mars. Since this is all being done in a sealed environment, the only solvents lost are those actually consumed in chemical processes. This means the vast majority of electrochemical processes relying on organic acids are sustainable. Iron, while not a spectacular structural metal, is adequate for many applications and is a perfect candidate for electroforming, which eliminates the need for complex, heavy, power-hungry metalworking equipment. Admittedly, electroforming requires electricity, but the amount is in direct proportion to the amount of material formed and is inherently more efficient than working ingots into shapes. Aluminum happens to be an ideal structural material for many applications. Glass has it's problems, especially in the Martian environment, but it can be formed into lenses for light amplification or powder-coated onto metals for corrosion resistance.
So far, we have suitable materials to make our power supply self-sustaining and self-growing, to provide structural reinforcement for subterranean dwellings, and to make much of the equipment needed. The excess energy is quite suitable for temperature control, additional light, air and water processing, etc. Given enough space and enough solar cells, anything needed to eat, clean the air, and even supply limited industrial feedstock can be grown hydroponically. It's a closed system. Nothing escapes. Fertilizers can be extracted from the fertilized plants after harvest. Anything else is an engineering problem waiting to be solved.
I did donate $10. Just figured it would be easier to get people to pitch in $1. You're absolutely right, though; the EFF is one of the very few groups that actually stands up to government and corporate intersts in US courts. I give them $10 a month and I use their political email system to 'inform' clueless representatives as to what technology is about.
There are arguments for and against shield laws, and some arguments from both points of view have merit. The problem is this: our political system is rooted in an informed populace. The media is basically our only source of inside information about our political, economic, and religious leaders. Journalists rely on sources that must remain anonymous. If there's a federal end-run that reveals those sources, that means the media's access to the truth (and by extension, our access to the truth) is subject to government interference. It may be a long set of steps to a federally controlled media, but this is a step along that path. We can't allow our access to the truth to be controlled, filtered, or influenced by political or governmental, religious or financial organizations.
This is a tricky situation, and IANAL. Journalists have a responsibility to report crimes to the appropriate authorities. They do NOT have a responsibility to reveal their sources or source materials, much less to disclose their knowledge of a person's political affiliation. Part of the shield law involves the understanding that journalists will act in a responsible manner in exchange for their generous protections under the law. If he says there's no criminal evidence on the tape, that's that. If there was evidence, he would have revealed it by now; otherwise, he would be complicit in the alleged act of destruction, should it ever be revealed that he had evidence. If the evidence the court is looking for could be found in the tape, it would have been in his own best interests to release that portion of the tape OF HIS OWN FREE WILL, not under threat of penalty.
It's a confusing and murky topic, for sure; the one thing that is certain is that a free and protected press is critical to our success as a nation. If a court can get away with this, they can get away with imprisoning big-name journalists for not revealing their 'un-named Capitol Hill sources' whenever the feds are shown to be doing something shady. Food for thought.
This is flatly outrageous. If every one of us gives a buck to this guy's legal fund, we could actually change federal policy. Even if the court rules that the feds acted properly, it's only a buck. Instead of a soda or a scratch ticket, try gambling on something important today.
Admittedly, Dell India sucks. They try, but... The company I work for fields a bunch of Dell servers; hardware being hardware, things break. We have a number that rings directly to their Austin call center;)
The overseas center rings me through four different levels as fast as I can say "poweredge server, dead raid", and I end up speaking to someone in Texas anyway. Those guys are alright. They really do try, but most of them have never even heard of Novell.
In theory, Dell's a great idea for businesses... cheap, warrantee, support (even if it costs). That actually works out pretty well most of the time, IMO. Would I buy a Dell? Not even if it came with a Juggie and a T3 for free.
Anyone else feel like Branson's making headway on those dastardly ellipses?
A couple of spaceports would sure go a long way for MY world domination schemes...
Jesus prohibited divorce because:
A: Marriage vows state their binding force 'unto death'.
B: Engaging in sex with someone not your wife is adultery.
C: Adultery is a sin.
D: Simply stating that one is no longer held by vows sworn has no effect. Once an oath is given, it cannot be taken back.
Had the marriage rites of the time (or this time) included a divorce clause, or a time limit, divorce would not be a sin under the right circumstances.
Spot-on. You should have posted that under your own name. Clear, concise, and dogma-free. If more religious people thought like that, religion wouldn't have such a stigma in the logical community.
Energy is indeed the only consumed resource besides rock. The process requires temperatures of around 1000C; these temperatures can readily be achieved using reflectors.
More oxygen is produced by the titanium-rich mare soil than by the prolific silica; it's like the difference between regular and premium gasoline. Rates of about 3.3% (by weight) are achieved using ilmenite at around 1000C in hydrogen, and rates of up to 5.5% using iron-rich glass. (Ilmenite, btw, is composed of oxides of iron and titanium, and makes up anywhere from 3% to 10% of lunar material.) In addition, the result is water vapor, iron metal, and titanium oxides. I'll take iron and titanium as building materials over silicon any day.
The question of dust on reflectors seems fairly simple, actually. Assuming one is using polished metal, rather than glass, the dust can be forcibly removed by positively charging the reflectors. Kind of like those ion air purifiers, only in reverse.
Composition maps: http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Dec04/LunarCrust.html
Table: http://www.neiu.edu/~jmhemzac/mooncomp.htm
NASA's earlier work on oxygen extraction: http://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/HumanExplore/Exploration/ EXLibrary/DOCS/EIC048.HTML
Artemis project: http://www.asi.org/adb/04/03/10/04/oxygen-extracti on.html
Lunar simulant with composition tables: http://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/HumanExplore/Exploration/ EXLibrary/DOCS/EIC050.HTML
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Zecharia Sitchin has some interesting things to say about this very subject. I don't agree with everything he concludes, but the evidence he's dug up is most intriguing.
To be honest, I don't have a definite opinion on the subject of alien visitations. I haven't seen any solid evidence with my own eyes, but I've also never seen any counterevidence. On a theoretical basis, the thought that this is the only inhabited planet in the universe is a flat impossibility.
As for the fundies, denying scientific evidence that runs counter to your beliefs is just burying your head in the sand. It encourages further breaks from reality and lays the foundation for erratic, even psychotic, behavior.
I do, however, agree with you that there have been older civilizations far more advanced than we currently consider. It's like a tip-of-the-iceberg situation, much like the oceanic crater issue. We get these subtle hints and clues, both from the archaeological record and from our own most ancient myths and legends. Never a whole and complete site or city, though, demonstrating precisely what level of understanding was available. It's rather frustrating not to know the legacy of those who came before us.
(offtopic) Yeah, it's AC, but this is good info. :)
Dude, get an account... you've got nothing to lose, and it's free. Plus, if you read often and meta-moderate, you can get mod points and mod up those useful posts
This is somewhat troubling. Before these people went looking, we assumed we had somewhere between now and 10,000 AD or so before the next major impact. (mangling the fine art of statistics, I know) Now, they're saying it could be a thousand years or less between impacts. When was the last major impact? We could be due for a serious catastrophe in very short order, practically instantaneous in geological terms.
I'm certainly not reassured by the fact that we only monitor about 3% of the sky. Sure, we think we know about every significant object that approaches Earth, but that doesn't account for rogue objects (those with either highly elliptical or hyperbolic orbits, or extrasolar objects that can't currently be tracked or predicted). Since FEMA is basically shite and lunar exploration/colonization is basically all hype at this point, what the hell are we going to do if we find out tomorrow that the world as we know it will shortly end?
Tinfoil hats aside, there's some excellent insight into scanning technology presented in the article. The idea of precisely scanning sea surface height to identify local gravitational variations interests me greatly. Just think about that for a little bit; let the sheer coolness of such remarkable precision sink in. It's also interesting to note that miles-wide craters have escaped our notice for millenia. Props for taking the obvious route and playing connect-the-dots with geological formations.
Of course, the doubt is strong already amongst the established scientific community. I'd say that since they've already done sediment tests for several sites and identified tektites neatly fused with diatoms (meteor debris melted to fossil plants), it's pretty clear that their methods are valid and are producing reliable results.
The note at the end of TFA about using Flood myths to date and place a major impact is particularly intriguing. Some of the 'researchers' that have taken the route of aggregate myth analysis have come up with some pretty questionable results, but in other cases, surprising correlations stand out. Consider that virtually every culture, living or dead, has a flood myth in some form or another. I think it's good for us all to be reminded that myths and legends are based on real people and events, however obsured by the ravages of time and creative retelling.
That's all I've got...
He stated that his plane (or worldline, if you prefer) experienced a civil war in 2004. He also stated that this may or may not happen here, and that his even talking about it influenced it's probability. Do you really think a civil war was utterly out of the question after that sham (fine, disputed and suspicious) election?
On the topic of information transfer, it is thought that actually communicating information via entanglement is not possible. One can observe that something happened, but not whether that something represents a 1 or a 0. Whether or not that holds true remains to be seen.
On the topic of quantum uncertainty in the brain: there are proteins in the brain which enclose single electrons within an undisturbed volume of space sufficient to sustain quantum effects. Also, the structures that hold cells together (often referred to as the cellular skeleton) are hollow, with enough space for a single electron to pass through at a time. The same structures extend throughout the body, forming a network ('series of tubes'?) which could conceivably carry quantum information throughout the body. Some scientists have even theorized that this structure provides additional processing power to the brain, and that the loss of a portion of this network may be related to symptoms of phantom limb syndrome. As before, whether or not that holds true remains to be seen.
"Desertification of the US Midwest"
Have you been to the midwest lately?
We're being properly hosed by a decade-long drought. Water shortages have gotten so bad that states are suing each other over rights to river flows. Irrigation wells are controlled by central agencies that remotely cut off the pumps when you've had your hour of activity.
It may not look like a desert yet, but the rainfall is in that zone and our water reserves are being depleted much faster than we can recover them. So it's not all sand; that's because we saw it coming and have been working as hard as we can to keep it from happening. Thank global warming models for predicting this with enough time for us to take action.
A couple of things to remember:
It's powered by a hand crank. That's why they had to cut the power consumption by 90%.
Nobody in the so-called 'developed' world would buy one of these. Read the specs.
One of the concurrent avenues of program development was in open-source e-textbooks. The recipients of these machines will be getting an ebook reader with a whole scholastic curriculum and then some. It can hit the net, but most of these places won't have net access for quite a while.
Incidentally, packet radio is seeing an upswing in Africa. Since the machines are using Linux, they have kernel support for such devices. Thanks, Linus, for having the foresight to not throw out any useful bits of code.
As it happens, my title includes 'Engineer'. I don't create, design, or implement anything. I do, however, deal with actual engineers on the phone. Before the title change, we were treated like shit. After? Surprise, surprise, we got a little respect. Never mind that I'm responsible for ensuring the smooth transition of hundreds of thousands of dollars a day from the pockets of advertisers to the hands of radio beancounters. Never mind that in a given day, the person talking to me on the phone is at risk of losing 2-5 times his salary for his company over the next hour or two, yet still would rather bitch me out than listen and do what I tell them.
Yes, it's a huge stretch to call what I do (support, if you didn't catch that) 'engineering', but if it wasn't in the title, I would not be as effective at my job. This whole mess is perpetuated by the idea that a job title actually means something. Even the title of CEO can mean just about anything these days. I just don't bother to waste mental energy worrying about it all. Except, of course, to rant about it here.
If I had mod points, I'd use them on your post.
Balance in all things... works out for the best, whether it be natural vs. technological, 'health' food vs. 'junk' food, posessions vs. experiences, or any other set of conflicting extremes.
Extremes just aren't healthy, physically, psychologically, or spiritually. It's pretty sad that it takes acts of extremism and desperation to cause change in our society these days... In fact, it takes something pretty extreme for anyone to even notice that something is happening at all.
DNA on silicon has already been done. Why not use a virus as scaffolding for memory, while we're at it? Granted, the virus' surface proteins are a functional part of the transistor. Given that we can already attach complex proteins (well, acids such as DNA) to silicon, there shouldn't be much trouble finding a method for similar tricks here. In other words, this is more practiceable than it sounds at first. I do wonder whether the virii or silicon traces are more resistant to heat, vibration, and radiation, though.
Good to know you're on the job, Pope Palpatine. Now quit posting AC so we know who to bash in return.
Excellent points all around. Apologies in advance for the extra-long post.
First, Martian soil (regolith, to be accurate) is composed of the following materials: iron-rich smectite clays, magnesium sulfate, iron oxides and reactive oxidizing agents, calcium carbonate, and hematite (also an iron oxide). IOW, plenty of iron, silicon, aluminum, and oxygen. Lesser amounts of magnesium, calcium, carbon, sulfur, and trace amounts of everything else. The atmosphere is roughly 1% as dense as Earth. That's 0.147 psi, roughly equalivent to the pressure in a low-pressure gas discharge lamp. It is about 95% CO2, 3% N2, and 2% argon. Traces of H2O, CO, O2, and various noble gasses are present.
To sum that up, Luna has a considerably more useful composition than Mars, excepting the lack of carbon. (lots of titanium and aluminum, traces of arsenic and germanium) That doesn't mean Mars is a lost cause. Assuming we can get there, we can plan on providing for chemical needs through asteroid mining, probably automated. Think along the lines of a Von Neumann machine (minus the self-replicating part) that runs through the asteroid belt baking volatiles out of asteroids and cometary nuclei. Spectrographic analysis would reveal likely targets for metals extraction. Granted, that's asking a lot, but so is putting a (semi)permanent habitation into space.
The materials issue is far from decided, but let's move on to manufacturing. First off, nuclear power is essential, so let's take it as a given that we'll be bringing that along initially. To supplement that power, we'll be bringing catalysts (more precisely, reuseable solvents) for electrochemical extraction of aluminum, iron, and silicon from the soil. Oxygen released as a byproduct of these processes will supplement the initial supply. Heat from nuclear, electric, chemical, and/or solar sources can be used to melt silicon and form straight silicon solar cells. Aluminum makes an acceptable conductor for leads. Aluminum and iron oxide makes a quite acceptable means of casting iron while producing plenty of additional heat. Materials exist in the soil to manufacture glass. This, basically, covers everything needed to produce useable, if somewhat inefficient, solar power sources from locally available materials.
If electricity is still a problem, the Peltier effect can be used to recover some elctricity from heat-driven processes. If it's not, then the very same method can be used for active cooling without relying on the inefficient convection cooling of Mars. Since this is all being done in a sealed environment, the only solvents lost are those actually consumed in chemical processes. This means the vast majority of electrochemical processes relying on organic acids are sustainable. Iron, while not a spectacular structural metal, is adequate for many applications and is a perfect candidate for electroforming, which eliminates the need for complex, heavy, power-hungry metalworking equipment. Admittedly, electroforming requires electricity, but the amount is in direct proportion to the amount of material formed and is inherently more efficient than working ingots into shapes. Aluminum happens to be an ideal structural material for many applications. Glass has it's problems, especially in the Martian environment, but it can be formed into lenses for light amplification or powder-coated onto metals for corrosion resistance.
So far, we have suitable materials to make our power supply self-sustaining and self-growing, to provide structural reinforcement for subterranean dwellings, and to make much of the equipment needed. The excess energy is quite suitable for temperature control, additional light, air and water processing, etc. Given enough space and enough solar cells, anything needed to eat, clean the air, and even supply limited industrial feedstock can be grown hydroponically. It's a closed system. Nothing escapes. Fertilizers can be extracted from the fertilized plants after harvest. Anything else is an engineering problem waiting to be solved.
I did donate $10. Just figured it would be easier to get people to pitch in $1. You're absolutely right, though; the EFF is one of the very few groups that actually stands up to government and corporate intersts in US courts. I give them $10 a month and I use their political email system to 'inform' clueless representatives as to what technology is about. There are arguments for and against shield laws, and some arguments from both points of view have merit. The problem is this: our political system is rooted in an informed populace. The media is basically our only source of inside information about our political, economic, and religious leaders. Journalists rely on sources that must remain anonymous. If there's a federal end-run that reveals those sources, that means the media's access to the truth (and by extension, our access to the truth) is subject to government interference. It may be a long set of steps to a federally controlled media, but this is a step along that path. We can't allow our access to the truth to be controlled, filtered, or influenced by political or governmental, religious or financial organizations. This is a tricky situation, and IANAL. Journalists have a responsibility to report crimes to the appropriate authorities. They do NOT have a responsibility to reveal their sources or source materials, much less to disclose their knowledge of a person's political affiliation. Part of the shield law involves the understanding that journalists will act in a responsible manner in exchange for their generous protections under the law. If he says there's no criminal evidence on the tape, that's that. If there was evidence, he would have revealed it by now; otherwise, he would be complicit in the alleged act of destruction, should it ever be revealed that he had evidence. If the evidence the court is looking for could be found in the tape, it would have been in his own best interests to release that portion of the tape OF HIS OWN FREE WILL, not under threat of penalty. It's a confusing and murky topic, for sure; the one thing that is certain is that a free and protected press is critical to our success as a nation. If a court can get away with this, they can get away with imprisoning big-name journalists for not revealing their 'un-named Capitol Hill sources' whenever the feds are shown to be doing something shady. Food for thought.
This is flatly outrageous. If every one of us gives a buck to this guy's legal fund, we could actually change federal policy. Even if the court rules that the feds acted properly, it's only a buck. Instead of a soda or a scratch ticket, try gambling on something important today.
Admittedly, Dell India sucks. They try, but... The company I work for fields a bunch of Dell servers; hardware being hardware, things break. We have a number that rings directly to their Austin call center ;)
The overseas center rings me through four different levels as fast as I can say "poweredge server, dead raid", and I end up speaking to someone in Texas anyway. Those guys are alright. They really do try, but most of them have never even heard of Novell.
In theory, Dell's a great idea for businesses... cheap, warrantee, support (even if it costs). That actually works out pretty well most of the time, IMO. Would I buy a Dell? Not even if it came with a Juggie and a T3 for free.
Anyone else feel like Branson's making headway on those dastardly ellipses? A couple of spaceports would sure go a long way for MY world domination schemes...
Jesus prohibited divorce because: A: Marriage vows state their binding force 'unto death'. B: Engaging in sex with someone not your wife is adultery. C: Adultery is a sin. D: Simply stating that one is no longer held by vows sworn has no effect. Once an oath is given, it cannot be taken back. Had the marriage rites of the time (or this time) included a divorce clause, or a time limit, divorce would not be a sin under the right circumstances.
Spot-on. You should have posted that under your own name. Clear, concise, and dogma-free. If more religious people thought like that, religion wouldn't have such a stigma in the logical community.
Energy is indeed the only consumed resource besides rock. The process requires temperatures of around 1000C; these temperatures can readily be achieved using reflectors./ EXLibrary/DOCS/EIC048.HTML i on.html / EXLibrary/DOCS/EIC050.HTML
More oxygen is produced by the titanium-rich mare soil than by the prolific silica; it's like the difference between regular and premium gasoline. Rates of about 3.3% (by weight) are achieved using ilmenite at around 1000C in hydrogen, and rates of up to 5.5% using iron-rich glass. (Ilmenite, btw, is composed of oxides of iron and titanium, and makes up anywhere from 3% to 10% of lunar material.) In addition, the result is water vapor, iron metal, and titanium oxides. I'll take iron and titanium as building materials over silicon any day.
The question of dust on reflectors seems fairly simple, actually. Assuming one is using polished metal, rather than glass, the dust can be forcibly removed by positively charging the reflectors. Kind of like those ion air purifiers, only in reverse.
Composition maps: http://www.psrd.hawaii.edu/Dec04/LunarCrust.html
Table: http://www.neiu.edu/~jmhemzac/mooncomp.htm
NASA's earlier work on oxygen extraction: http://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/HumanExplore/Exploration
Artemis project: http://www.asi.org/adb/04/03/10/04/oxygen-extract
Lunar simulant with composition tables: http://ares.jsc.nasa.gov/HumanExplore/Exploration