Incorrect. China does very little if any R&D for Western Companies. Rather, the big western companies outsource R&D, and the associated risk to small Western companies. If a breakthrough is made, they will buy out said companies. The problem with this is of course that the R&D results can go to ANYONE who is willing to write a check, so it is actually very dangerous for said big companies. They won't always (and in fact very rarely are) the first ones to write a check. Usually it is smaller, hungrier companies that are willing to invest in a promising but incomplete proof of concept that get the license in these types of situations.
Basically, by eliminating their R&D departments, they have destroyed their competitive advantage that served them so well in the past. This is the result of the rise of the MBA, who on the whole are a pack of fools who don't know anything about real business, as opposed to the earlier industrialists who worked their way up from nothing by rising through the ranks and learned how to run a business on the side, while keeping the "business" stuff secondary to the engineering and science.
But there is little need to fear. This system won't last much longer.
Depends on how strongly those natives affirm the concept of property rights. For example, nations of people like India, China, and Japan, which strongly affirmed property rights were conquered by force of arms, but survived as cultures. Native American tribes and civilizations that recognized property rights were much more likely to survive and remain intact than those that didn't (think Hopi and such), while even the savage Spanish occupation was unable to wipe out the cultures they dominated for so long. Those people survived because of their recognition of property rights, meaning they were less likely to attack innocents on the invading side, which triggered massive campaigns of vengeance seen in the US.
Similarly, in the event of alien settlement on Earth, it would more than likely be peaceful. They might take over our governance, but genocide is unlikely because on the whole humanity now does a fairly good job of recognizing property rights, and for the most part we don't kill large groups of people to get their stuff (at least not in the East or the West, outside of the occasional war over oil started by our dumbassed governments).
Why are you blaming corporations for government's dumb policies? Blame the people doing it!
If the government doesn't want to be in the helium business, they should have sold all their helium at once to a private company, rather than simply dumping it all on the open market. A private company would preserve what helium they had for a long time.
Re:Space elevators and personal fission generators
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The Post-Idea World
·
· Score: 1
Uhhh, those stories both had new ideas about how to make those things work. You don't think slashdot just reposts reposts for the sake of reposting reposts, do you?
Don't answer that...
But seriously, graphene is less than 6 years old, and stands to revolutionize the space elevator ribbon, in that it is easily mass produced at macro scales now, they just need to build a plant that is larger than lab scale (where they are already making 1mx1m squares, and the size was limited by the size of the bench they made it on in the lab). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene
Space elevators and personal fission generators
on
The Post-Idea World
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· Score: 1
Weren't we JUST discussing space elevator technologies and personal fission generators that never needed refueling just a couple of days ago?
End of ideas my ass. It's like those idiots in the late 1800's who thought they knew everything there was to know about the universe, and that all that was left was to "tie up the loose ends".
Take a physics class, kid. You've got centripetal and centrifugal mixed up. You ever swung a cat around by the tail? What happens if you let go? Does it fall down, or go flying? The force that sends it flying (the moment of rotation) is what will cause the ribbon to rise. The ribbon stretches such that it's center of mass is beyond geostationary, so the net force is "up". If you can't understand this, then you have no place in this conversation. Go educate yourself with some basic physics, then hit us back.
As to your "understanding" (ie ignorance) of the ribbon:
1. A graphene ribbon can't be damaged. It has the highest deformation modulus of any known material. This is basically stretchy diamond. You have to use a catalyst to cut the stuff.
2. You don't need power for the climbers under my scheme. Having the climbers climb is just a stupid idea--period.
3. Mechanical climbers can't move very fast, but the climber in my scheme can move as fast as you can unroll it.
Yes, you can't make very long nanotubes, but AS I POINTED OUT IN MY POST, there now exist methods to make graphene is sheets as long as you like. All you need is a catalyst on a large roller, a big oven, and a source of argon gas. BFD.
As I said above, graphene has rendered ALL of the questions about space elevators moot, and turned it into a PURELY materials science problem. But the community seems to be stuck in the 90's. It's just stupid.
Hence "not a problem". If it gets too crowded, then you have raw materials (actually refined materials) to build a geosynch space station all the way around the planet.
1 meter long graphene ribbons have been synthesized, and the length of those ribbons are only limited by the fact that it was a lab scale experiment. In a few years, graphene will be mass produced at rates that will make a space elevator tether trivial to produce. The tensile strength is above the required amount, and it is far FAR more reproducible than some dumb 90's tech like carbon nanotubes.
Unobtanium? Graphene is already known to exceed the tensile strength required for a space elevator. Get with the program. Nanotubes are 90's tech. Now all we have to do is get mass production methods running, at which point the ribbon becomes trivial, though the deployment and climbers remain troublesome. I personally like the idea of simply attaching the "climber" to the ribbon at the base station, and letting the centripetal force of the earth push the ribbon out into space along with the climber, brings all the moving parts onto the ground where they are easy to deal with (no getting stuck 900 miles above the Earth's surface due to mechanical failure).
FYI, the summary said that 1 gram of thorium contains the energy equivalent of 7500 gallons of gas. This means that 8 grams is enough fuel for the life of the car, not for the equivalent of a tank of gas.
Damn, dude. I wish I had a kiln. I want to make a graphene t-shirt. Then maybe find out if it's bulletproof (using a dummy, of course).
But yes, graphene is going to change everything. Imagine solar panels that are printed like newspaper, and at the same price. And that's just to start!
Congratulations, you just derived free market economic theory using predictions of integrated human action across large scale populations.
Now, using your newfound theory that you have heroically derived from first principles, contemplate the effects of various forms of government interaction with the markets. You will see many interesting things, and might just notice that we have a one party system in the USA.
NOT pointless. It shows that the impurities in the starting material are irrelevant to the process, meaning that this process is going to make graphene cheaper than paper before long.
This is equivalent to someone inventing a process for producing super-high quality silicon from sandy mud without purification steps. Currently, only the highest grade of silica can be used for manufacturing of that type.
The most exalted rulers of France used to dine on aluminum tableware, as aluminum was more valuable than gold. Then we discovered how to electrolytically extract it from sand. Now we package sugar water in it. The first time they made aluminum that way, they got super rich as they sold just under the amount it was going for, and the price just kept going down from there.
Uhhh, since the Angles, Saxons, Germanic tribes, and the Rus were physically and culturally separated for many centuries, and interbred with different populations (most notably, the Rus interbred with their Mongol overlords, while the Germanic tribes spent some time in North Africa, and North Africans spent some time in the former Visigothic kingdom of Hispania)?
But hey, let's all ignore history and heritage, unless the color of the history and heritage in question is something other than white.
Yeah, this wasn't some magical quest for understanding. This was basic calculation from accepted values that ANYONE could have done. I just knew to do it because I took physical chemistry in college. Not a big deal.
And no way am I going to a, publish something like that outside of my field, or b, endanger my ability to keep my lab running by having reviewers associating my name with heretical concepts. The totally religious animosity, as seen below, is/was so persistent, so prevalent, that no-one can question it, unless they are in a position that they don't have to rely on anyone else, something that practically no scientist in the world is in.
Uhhh, I didn't say anything about Fourier. You are just appealing to authority, which is the exact argument that created this AGW BS in the first place, and placed in in a position beyond questioning. You are anti-scientific. GTFO.
Also, that equation wasn't derived by Fourier, it was derived by Myhre in 1998. You dumb fuck.
Aww, so butthurt. Heat capacity is used in the exactly correct way. Don't blame the messenger if you don't speak his language.
The way that global warming has always been explained to me is that evil CO2 gas traps heat, stopping it from re-radiating into space. This effect is the same as heat capacity. Which is published and known by everyone. And is lower than the average heat capacity of all the other gasses in the atmosphere.
But hey, don't let that put a stop to your ancient primate programming to lash out at non-believers, and burn them at the stake when socially acceptable.
Slashdot Mirror
Incorrect. China does very little if any R&D for Western Companies. Rather, the big western companies outsource R&D, and the associated risk to small Western companies. If a breakthrough is made, they will buy out said companies. The problem with this is of course that the R&D results can go to ANYONE who is willing to write a check, so it is actually very dangerous for said big companies. They won't always (and in fact very rarely are) the first ones to write a check. Usually it is smaller, hungrier companies that are willing to invest in a promising but incomplete proof of concept that get the license in these types of situations.
Basically, by eliminating their R&D departments, they have destroyed their competitive advantage that served them so well in the past. This is the result of the rise of the MBA, who on the whole are a pack of fools who don't know anything about real business, as opposed to the earlier industrialists who worked their way up from nothing by rising through the ranks and learned how to run a business on the side, while keeping the "business" stuff secondary to the engineering and science.
But there is little need to fear. This system won't last much longer.
Depends on how strongly those natives affirm the concept of property rights. For example, nations of people like India, China, and Japan, which strongly affirmed property rights were conquered by force of arms, but survived as cultures. Native American tribes and civilizations that recognized property rights were much more likely to survive and remain intact than those that didn't (think Hopi and such), while even the savage Spanish occupation was unable to wipe out the cultures they dominated for so long. Those people survived because of their recognition of property rights, meaning they were less likely to attack innocents on the invading side, which triggered massive campaigns of vengeance seen in the US.
Similarly, in the event of alien settlement on Earth, it would more than likely be peaceful. They might take over our governance, but genocide is unlikely because on the whole humanity now does a fairly good job of recognizing property rights, and for the most part we don't kill large groups of people to get their stuff (at least not in the East or the West, outside of the occasional war over oil started by our dumbassed governments).
Why are you blaming corporations for government's dumb policies? Blame the people doing it!
If the government doesn't want to be in the helium business, they should have sold all their helium at once to a private company, rather than simply dumping it all on the open market. A private company would preserve what helium they had for a long time.
Uhhh, those stories both had new ideas about how to make those things work. You don't think slashdot just reposts reposts for the sake of reposting reposts, do you?
Don't answer that...
But seriously, graphene is less than 6 years old, and stands to revolutionize the space elevator ribbon, in that it is easily mass produced at macro scales now, they just need to build a plant that is larger than lab scale (where they are already making 1mx1m squares, and the size was limited by the size of the bench they made it on in the lab). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphene
Weren't we JUST discussing space elevator technologies and personal fission generators that never needed refueling just a couple of days ago?
End of ideas my ass. It's like those idiots in the late 1800's who thought they knew everything there was to know about the universe, and that all that was left was to "tie up the loose ends".
Take a physics class, kid. You've got centripetal and centrifugal mixed up. You ever swung a cat around by the tail? What happens if you let go? Does it fall down, or go flying? The force that sends it flying (the moment of rotation) is what will cause the ribbon to rise. The ribbon stretches such that it's center of mass is beyond geostationary, so the net force is "up". If you can't understand this, then you have no place in this conversation. Go educate yourself with some basic physics, then hit us back.
As to your "understanding" (ie ignorance) of the ribbon:
1. A graphene ribbon can't be damaged. It has the highest deformation modulus of any known material. This is basically stretchy diamond. You have to use a catalyst to cut the stuff.
2. You don't need power for the climbers under my scheme. Having the climbers climb is just a stupid idea--period.
3. Mechanical climbers can't move very fast, but the climber in my scheme can move as fast as you can unroll it.
Yes, you can't make very long nanotubes, but AS I POINTED OUT IN MY POST, there now exist methods to make graphene is sheets as long as you like. All you need is a catalyst on a large roller, a big oven, and a source of argon gas. BFD.
As I said above, graphene has rendered ALL of the questions about space elevators moot, and turned it into a PURELY materials science problem. But the community seems to be stuck in the 90's. It's just stupid.
Hence "not a problem". If it gets too crowded, then you have raw materials (actually refined materials) to build a geosynch space station all the way around the planet.
1 meter long graphene ribbons have been synthesized, and the length of those ribbons are only limited by the fact that it was a lab scale experiment. In a few years, graphene will be mass produced at rates that will make a space elevator tether trivial to produce. The tensile strength is above the required amount, and it is far FAR more reproducible than some dumb 90's tech like carbon nanotubes.
Space junk is a problem in NEO, not geostationary and above, which is where the space elevator goes.
Christ, it's like I'm in the 90's. Has no-one in this thread heard of graphene?
Unobtanium? Graphene is already known to exceed the tensile strength required for a space elevator. Get with the program. Nanotubes are 90's tech. Now all we have to do is get mass production methods running, at which point the ribbon becomes trivial, though the deployment and climbers remain troublesome. I personally like the idea of simply attaching the "climber" to the ribbon at the base station, and letting the centripetal force of the earth push the ribbon out into space along with the climber, brings all the moving parts onto the ground where they are easy to deal with (no getting stuck 900 miles above the Earth's surface due to mechanical failure).
FYI, the summary said that 1 gram of thorium contains the energy equivalent of 7500 gallons of gas. This means that 8 grams is enough fuel for the life of the car, not for the equivalent of a tank of gas.
Damn, dude. I wish I had a kiln. I want to make a graphene t-shirt. Then maybe find out if it's bulletproof (using a dummy, of course).
But yes, graphene is going to change everything. Imagine solar panels that are printed like newspaper, and at the same price. And that's just to start!
Congratulations, you just derived free market economic theory using predictions of integrated human action across large scale populations.
Now, using your newfound theory that you have heroically derived from first principles, contemplate the effects of various forms of government interaction with the markets. You will see many interesting things, and might just notice that we have a one party system in the USA.
NOT pointless. It shows that the impurities in the starting material are irrelevant to the process, meaning that this process is going to make graphene cheaper than paper before long.
This is equivalent to someone inventing a process for producing super-high quality silicon from sandy mud without purification steps. Currently, only the highest grade of silica can be used for manufacturing of that type.
The most exalted rulers of France used to dine on aluminum tableware, as aluminum was more valuable than gold. Then we discovered how to electrolytically extract it from sand. Now we package sugar water in it. The first time they made aluminum that way, they got super rich as they sold just under the amount it was going for, and the price just kept going down from there.
Victor Von Doom?
Nerdfail.
lol, minorities can be hardcore racists too.
Uhhh, since the Angles, Saxons, Germanic tribes, and the Rus were physically and culturally separated for many centuries, and interbred with different populations (most notably, the Rus interbred with their Mongol overlords, while the Germanic tribes spent some time in North Africa, and North Africans spent some time in the former Visigothic kingdom of Hispania)?
But hey, let's all ignore history and heritage, unless the color of the history and heritage in question is something other than white.
Really, then what are economists Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner doing all day, if not setting policy?
Ben Bernanke is the economist in charge of the economy.
Too bad his brand of economics is the equivalent of having a PhD in Voodoo and and MD in Witch Doctor Studies.
Yeah, this wasn't some magical quest for understanding. This was basic calculation from accepted values that ANYONE could have done. I just knew to do it because I took physical chemistry in college. Not a big deal.
And no way am I going to a, publish something like that outside of my field, or b, endanger my ability to keep my lab running by having reviewers associating my name with heretical concepts. The totally religious animosity, as seen below, is/was so persistent, so prevalent, that no-one can question it, unless they are in a position that they don't have to rely on anyone else, something that practically no scientist in the world is in.
Uhhh, I didn't say anything about Fourier. You are just appealing to authority, which is the exact argument that created this AGW BS in the first place, and placed in in a position beyond questioning. You are anti-scientific. GTFO.
Also, that equation wasn't derived by Fourier, it was derived by Myhre in 1998. You dumb fuck.
Aww, so butthurt. Heat capacity is used in the exactly correct way. Don't blame the messenger if you don't speak his language.
The way that global warming has always been explained to me is that evil CO2 gas traps heat, stopping it from re-radiating into space. This effect is the same as heat capacity. Which is published and known by everyone. And is lower than the average heat capacity of all the other gasses in the atmosphere.
But hey, don't let that put a stop to your ancient primate programming to lash out at non-believers, and burn them at the stake when socially acceptable.
Yeah, and what are the odds that humans would evolve from primordial ooze on this very planet, with all the other planets in our solar system?
Humans must have created the Earth!